Armun Ashlands
Armun Ashlands (soon to be called Armun Wastes) is a great lowland dust-bowl encircled by various mountain chains in Mournhold District. It is controlled mostly by House Hlaalu, with House Redoran hanging on by a thread.
Together with the post-overhaul Sundered Scar and, eventually, the northern-central Telvannis, it is one of the major regions on the mainland of Morrowind to sport ash, owing to active volcanic activity in the western part of the region. Ash from this region is also largely responsible for the alien nature of the Othreleth Woods to its south.
It has three sections to it: the west is very mountainous, transitioning into the Velothi mountains, the center is a bit more open and hilly, and the east is pretty flat and barren.
This is an extremely dangerous region host to the fearmsome Armun Kagouti and Baluath vampires. It is also home to the beetle-and-shalk-herding Ishanuran ashlanders, although the Hlaalu have been expanding their economic activity. This comes in two forms – (ebony) mines and caravans, the latter increasing due to the Hlaalu-Indoril tensions on the Thirr are discouraging some traders from taking that easier route. A few smugglers also operate in this region. Dwemer ruins of old dot the region, although this wasn't a particular center of their action.
The true "Path of Veloth," the route taken by the Chimer during their exodus to the east, runs through the Armun Ashlands (this is not common knowledge among the Dunmer). The eruption of Red Mountain and all the ash in there make it infeasible for that role in pilgrimages, so the current Veloth's Path is routed south of them.
The region was conceptualized in 2009 by Sload, created largely by Nemon and a few others in the same year, and released as part of Dominions of Dust in 2022.
Plan
Overall, the region turned out to be one of the nicest looking ones in Tamriel Rebuilt. However, it is still hobbled by lack of unique assets, which makes it merely a rip-off of vanilla Ashlands. Some unique assets and other tweaks will need to be done eventually.
Exteriors
- Replace textures:
- Vanilla Ashlands textures swapped to unique ones with a warm, reddish hue (needs discussion; some voices calling for bluish instead to reduce red factor in TR lands).
- Red Mountain rocks swapped to new, reddish texture.
- Update flora:
- Replace vanilla Ashlands dead trees with some ash-o-philic flora – live trees but with sparse red-orange leaves.
- Add generally more and more unique flora – termite towers?, reddish grass, etc.
- Add some landmark volcanoes like Sarunnabi in Dagon Urul, especially since we have those volcano plateau rocks now.
- Rename to "Armun Wastes" to further differentiate from vanilla.
- Increase ash storm probability to at least 15% (if not already done).
Interiors
- Redo some old standard-breaking interiors (similar to Roth Roryn).
- Add more dungeons.
Creatures
- Add Ash Fowl as a second unique regional creature.
- Increase enemy density/difficulty. From Evil Eye:
Technically the numbers show it's within bounds for an Ashlands region, but it doesn't feel suitably high level at present. The only real dangers are vampires and Armun Kagouti, which are fairly rare. I also noticed we don't have
RLvlleveled lists for the region in Data and I'd say it shows in the level of variation encountered. So basically I'd like to have some leveled lists containingscrib, kwama forager, brown beetle, black rat, wild guar, cliff racer, armun kagouti(possibly with a-2version that doesn't contain the kagouti for placement near roads) with maybe a 40% chance of not showing up. We could probably add 2-3 of those lists to every wilderness cell in the region without even reaching Sheogorath levels of density
Settlements
- Arvud – a Hlaalu caravanserai in the central-eastern part of the region. It is the largest settlement in the region, with merchants and accommodations for travellers (by Silt Strider or on foot).
- Armun Pass – a Hlaalu border post in the southeast that connects the region with the Othreleth Woods to the south.
- Ishanuran Camp – the main camp of the Ishanuran ashlanders, one of the major tribes of the Mainland. In the southern-central area of the region.
- Volenfaryon – a stronghold taken over by semi-hostile mabrigashes. Host to a small miscellaneous questline.
Assets Needed
Environmental
- Unique ash and rock textures – warm colored or reddish as opposed to the purplish Vanilla ones. There may be some cut vanilla textures to test out. The rocks should blend in better with red Othreleth Woods and tan Roth Roryn rocks.
- Ash-o-philic Armun trees with sparse brown-to-red leaves
- Termite towers
- Brown-to-reddish grass
- Thorny and nasty red flowers that aren't Fire Ferns
- Ambient sounds without the chimes
Creatures
- Ash Fowl creature – still needs to be rigged and animated
- Ash Fowl sounds
Other Resources
(2023) Meeting that discussed unique Armun Ashlands assets that are still needed