Spoiler:  

Show

Morrow Wind - the wind of tomorrow, heartening with anticipation of great deeds, fascinating discoveries and incredible journeys; bringing forth images of fantastic days which lead by myriad of trails to the crimson red stormy sky of the majestically calm Red Mountain.
Oh unbelievable, enigmatic Morrowind, he who connects contradictions, adjoins what cannot be united, charming, mysterious and taking us away from this fleeting world to the land of accomplished dreams and fulfilled aspirations. You strike us with awe, entrance with your charms, infecting our mind and pervading our existence. May you live to your name, be praised for your beauty and be honored duly! You are the province of a strange world, a game for PC, mental amusement, phenomenon that was naturally determined but opposed to commonplaceness, a precious fruit produced by legion of stacked events.
Morrowind the Great, for more than decade already you amuse multitude of users throughout the globe, continue to live and collect rich harvest of plug-ins, compositions of lore adepts, fan art creations, new sites and forums. With perfect calm you gaze at two huge and highly advertised sequels, tons of un-lore fan fiction and an upcoming shocking appearance of massively multiplayer online disgrace. Unwilling to lose any ground, you continue to stand out against a background of flaws and weaknesses of your surrogates with your inspirational uniqueness. We honor you for this!
So how do you manage this? What is your secret and the source of such persistent vitality? And what are you at the end of 2012? Perhaps we would understand this, if we imagined you as an odd prism which strangely refracts the history of the real world and interweaves with it the fantasies and myths that came true? Or maybe we should think of an unfinished mysterious painting, which invites you to add something into it? Yes! This is what gives you durability, makes you eternally new and interesting; thanks to this you are growing ever more complex and magnificent! And from this derives the fame of plugin-makers - world-builders and program-creators - inspiring the young and solacing those who are tired of feats of arms, as well as:
- Possibility of mastering the skills of composing, rendition and typing quickly.
- The benefit of logical exercises: the search for errors in texts - the thinking failures that distorted them.
- An upgrade for 3D-modeling novice and amusement for guru in a mood to limber up fingers against a mouse.
- A source of overwhelming forum flood, but also of sensible questions that give an opportunity to display the love of your fellow men.
- A way to create a whole new world, complete with history and mysteries, in case there would be a desire that ambitious.

Oh Morrowind, we love you for the long strolls under the two moons, mystic views of Ashland and calm waters beyond Vivec. We love you for repose from everyday bustle, for the fairy-tale story we read from your books and hear from the creatures that populate you - the story that we run through ourselves. You are unique for everybody, because everyone can find something personal in you and leave a lasting mark in your history.
Oh Morrowind, you embrace only the very best while patiently enduring childish pranks of newbies who only begin to discover you. You were forged by decade-long tests on various hardware, and cultivated by efforts of many modders, whose work is carefully preserved along with your copies. There is multitude of works written in your honor; the artists, inspired by your scenery, create pictures of incredible beauty. You can rouse even the lazy to creativity, and leave no one indifferent.
Your durability is tested by your offspring well enough, yet you are steady on your legs and don't demand animating patches and reviving addons. Remembering your origins and revering the memory of past modders, you mourn over bygone fame of your creators and remind them of former dignity and creative might, which they now can only imitate, producing new clones - your pathetic shadows. Alas, your fathers are now listening to the false oracles of financial success and forgot their first love and her inspirations.
Morrowind. The Great. The Legendary. The Ancient. The True.
Almost twelve years have passed!
What a long life it really is for a computer game, which usually lasts from a year to three and after that remains only in archives of sites or even completely sinks into oblivion. Only selected few, carefully preserved, occupy places of honor on shelves and hard drives. But even they, gradually loosing novelty and attractiveness, eventually become squeezed dry, and looking at them now you feel only good memories of first PC, youth and gamer's fervor.
Almost twelve years! A lot of time.
So much hardware was broken, so many games were completed. During this period tiny brook of first Pentiums poured out as a mighty waterfall of pocket gadgets. It is terrible to think, how many generations of processors, chip sets, graphics cards and hard drives passed after all these years. And how many companies, which at times had very creative approaches and interesting ideas, were trampled or devoured by gigantic corporations.
Do you remember epic VooDoo with its Glide, Ati Radeon, which so remarkably applied Truforms and n-patches and early TI-titaniums 4200, which allowed us to experience Morrowind with first shaders? And what about legendary Matrox which brought wonderful depth of color and perfect fonts?
First shaders, second, third... DirectX number 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11! Pleasant modem singing was superseded by silent Wi-Fi wind of gigabit networks. Mailboxes grew wings and flew up to the great stormy cloud storages. And hard drives, having completed all stages of growth, have reborn and took an opposite direction, replacing sturdy steel covered ten-gigabyte Maxtors with sad little boxes of flash drives. Forty gigabytes of unreliability equaled them in size with diskettes from hoary antiquity.
Ancient little floppy disk drives vanished together with their ports, along with glorious IDE with its wide ribbon cables of parallel PATA interface, making space for multitude of USB and Serial ATA ports on the sides of motherboards. Then even they started to decay, gradually merging with processors and graphics cards. The advance of RAM just passed the mark "DDR3"...
So many things changed during these ten or twelve feverish years of desperate growth of computer industry! PC successfully jumped from wide back of open architecture onto slippery path of mobility with its Java-script, exchanging thorough quality of work tool for a smirk mask of total entertainment that is constantly chasing for tyrannical "novelty".
Indeed, once you think about Morrowind's history for a little while, you get the complete picture of its antiquity. Really, there are not many games, which stood the same test of time meanwhile preserving wide audience of admirers, like Morrowind. Among other things, it saw many ореrаting systems: 
- The epic "Windows 98", for which it was actually made for. Now how surprising is that?
- The unforgettable "Windows ME", which superseded its ancestor in distant 2000.
- The formally outdated, but stubbornly rejecting this notion, "Windows XP", veteran and long-liver of the computer world.
- "Windows 2000", which actually firmly held its niche for some time.
"Vista" and "Windows 7", which was recently updated to "Windows 8" and characterized by fanciful, grotesque and pleasantly disorienting interface.
Meanwhile, "apples" changed their PPC for little lions and leopards; odd cyborgs and other strange creatures also made their appearance, considerably decreasing the number of opened windows.
The air grows thicker, the clouds turn black, the sun of small studios waned and greenish shadows fell onto the world. Can it be a sign of a coming storm which will break the steady pace of time with a mighty hurricane of total change?
During these years noisy, grumpily rumbling computers crawled away from their places of honor on the desks into drawers and coat pockets, and transformed into silent LED netbooks and tablets, thin and lightweight, just like their contents. Complex program packages, sets of selected games and heaps of obscure, but really important software, carefully collected from various suspicious web-sites, were replaced with something single, something that combines everything that is possible, which name is "browser"!
Just browser, which allows you to do any kind of tasks, starting from editing texts and photographs and finishing with innocent killing of time and intellect by way of playing the so called "games". Also, with this wondrous tool you can sluggishly post flood on forums while watching "high-quality" movies and broadcasts on-line.
Yes, almost everything boiled down to the Internet, and only a handful of faulty sectors liven up the dead, empty landscape inside modern disc storages.
It seems that everything turned still in grayish glory of aluminium and dazzling silence of rounded cubes design of the future that actually happened, future which brought quiet on-line night to deserted yards of residential areas.
But Morrowind is still around! Ancient, epic and glorious, he sets an example of quality for computer games, and we inevitably return to him whenever we get fed up again with worthless stuff that giants of industry treat us. Despite everything, he continues to exist in hundreds of thousands of copies, getting with time only more interesting and attractive, increasing in size, absorbing wealth of epic quests, wonderful models and textures made by plugin-makers, who become fairly skilled in the course of this decade.
Morrowind, a blazing fire fern sprout on the bare, ashy slopes of sleeping volcano of Life, which was fiercely erupting in early 00's, did not evaporated nor disappeared, and didn't even hide under the dust that covered shelves with old discs. On the contrary, it occupies a prominent place among the folders with downloaded plug-ins, screenshots, related software and old concept art of developers. And he is not going to vacate it at all!
Having secured a place in history thanks to its thrilling story, mystic atmosphere and unique feeling of freedom, he still rivets gamers' attention and amazes them so much, that they don't even think to break off with this imperious Master, who slyly winks at them with low-size textured eye on low-polygonal head of unforgettable Jiub The Cabin Dweller.
And what is the most surprising; it never foists itself, never brags about new technologies, never forcibly drags people's attention, offering various preordered hats, and does not compel them with flashy posters and bonus achievements! Morrowind never disappointed us, and we love it for this, and for recollections of first days in Seyda Neen, memories of unforgettable moaning singing of a silt strider in the hazy distance, as well as the comfort of spotless Balmora houses, intricate labyrinth of Vivec channels, grayish wastes of Ashland and pristine valleys of Sheogoarath isles.
It is impossible to deny Vvardenfell's rich gifts, and once one accepts them, he will never forget this miraculous island, and will be returning to it again and again, if only in dreams.
While trudging through the marshes of Bitter Coast, clambering up the rocks of unwelcoming Molag Mar and strolling along the roads of magic Ascadian Isles, one is often amazed by hugeness of Morrowind, wealth of its colors and diversity of its exotic landscape. The architecture of its great cities is no less astonishing. The images of massive Mournhold, stately Vivec, unbelievable Sadrith-Mora, fantastic Ald-Ruhn and festive Balmora are forever imprinted in the imagination of any true fan.
Only you are the master of this world, and you are its creator. Even though it doesn't owe to you its original making, it is you now who governs its destiny, rewrites its history, and alters the landscape, life and laws of creatures that inhabit it.
Modern games are no match to Morrowind. Its saves are located in the parent folder, it is stable, and its engine is simple and undemanding. Its uniqueness, diversity and depth of plot allow endless flight of fancy and induce thoughts about enigmas of lore and mysteries of the Dwemer. Only you can choose how to play, which rules will your avatar follow and how he will behave, being limited only by your conscience and common sense.
Alas, this kind of entertainment is so rare in our troubled time...
Ours is the time of cold statistics of online boards with lists of "results". Ours is the time of "joy", measured by quantity of bonuses and visits, and curt, thoughtless reactions of an unnamed crowd. Ours is the time of imaginary fame and questionable accomplishments, hardcoded in the system of achievements which are limited in quantity and silly, uninteresting and useless in essence.
Well, "Wonderful" achievements for "wonderful" games! In our time, you can win fame of a Grand Blacksmith after "forging" the first sword. You can become a Legendary Explorer just having a peek into the first quest dungeon and Great Assassin - after murdering a host of peaceful NPC's for a tick in game journal.
No, in our Morrowind you will never encounter anything like this. There is no loosing of progress due to vicious schoolboy hackers. There is no need to anxiously and feverishly survey the screen while waiting for badass gear left after online battles. There are no admins who are intently watching over adherence to strict rules. There are no checkpoints, when you fear that the downtime will happen at the most inconvenient moment.
Morrowind is free from extraneous nonsense which hinders perception. Indeed, it has no use for it, since it was made to last long and doesn't have to lie, concealing defects. Its developers were people with ideas and vivid imagination, and they were clearly enthusiastic about their work and didn't mean to make quick money of it. The best part of it is that anybody can take over their creation and expand, improve or even completely change it!
One should only make a first step and not be afraid of seemingly old and simple engine, absence of modern shaders, "complex" AI and limited, at the first glance, capabilities of the editor. Once you begin, nothing would be able to stop your flight of fancy, and your work will find its place in this wonderful world. You would be amazed how harmoniously it blends with the existing pieces, but you really shouldn't be, since Morrowind have become your world already, so you know what exactly it needs.
Morrowind is an experienced mentor, a source of ideas and inspiration.
Morrowind is an attentive guardian who calms the mind with its peaceful atmosphere. Its warm graphics give comfort to the soul and joy to the eye.
Morrowind is home to which you wish to return and from where you start your incredible journeys. It is a place of solitude, bulwark and cozy dwelling, the doors of which are always opened for you.
Morrowind is an aged wine, which pleasantly warms you and makes you slightly drunk when you achieve success in your undertaking, be it a good script or a working model.
Morrowind is a training ground, where you learn how to attain your goals, modest at first but great later, because you will know how to finish plugins despite any challenges!
Morrowind is the beginning and the horizon, the event that is frozen in time, the morning star of 00's, the light and aid for the following years.
Morrowind is a thing in itself, a Dwemeri puzzle, an amusement for the mind.
Morrowind is the rarest diamond, showing new sides with passing years, which refract the light of acquired knowledge into new perspectives.
Morrowind is an artifact which exists in spite of everything.
Morrowind is like the heart that rests in the bowels of the Red Mountain, shrouded with mystery and consigned to oblivion. It is the conflux of powers and knowledge. It is the true heart of the Nirn.
Morrowind fascinates with its air of mystery and unworldly beauty, dispersed over the game universe into thousands pieces that could be found in dialogue texts, models, in the depths of Dwemeri mines and simplicity of Velothian buildings.

Only all this combined manifest it. Not lore, not texts, models or textures, but everything, gathered together, shows its real magic.
One can whether accept Morrowind and become the true Nerevar, the slayer of false gods and exposer of daedra's lies; or do not understand it, turning into another false incarnation, which passed through the ashlands during storm and failed to leave any tracks.
So that is Morrowind, mysterious and beautiful gray prince in worn bonemold armor, astride a white guar.
Very much alive and kicking, having burned flab of early plugins, covered in glorious armor of worthy replacers, daringly gazing at modern resolutions and laughing in face of new engines with their poor attempts at perfection, he is laying on his renewed face shadows and shaders and crowning with hyper-polygonal meshes and megatextures. He amuses himself with elegant scripts and new animations, reads charters from countless quests, speaks on many languages through multitude of his dwellers; contentedly bears on his mighty arms his foster offspring, naming them gloriously: OpenMW, SkyWind and, lastly, MorrOblivion, who suffered greatly from his grandparents, but is still alive. Boldly looking into future; confidentially relying on his true children and admirers; firm and handsome; a rear jewel made of gold and ivory; a spark of diamond among glimmering treasures in the dark, Morrowind the Great!
Be praised all users-Nerevarines, modders, lore adepts and artists of all peoples and times, who were carefully preserving his light during all these years! May his wonders never be depleted for us, and the secrets of the Dwemer never run out, illuminating us with new revelations and restoring the creators on the right path, which they forgot in Oblivion Time! May Skyrim chicken never peck his legacy, and may upcoming online battles spare him!
And may he, and all of us, live long and prosper!

The "Ode" was collectively composed by a group of oldfags, whose names are not known, on the 10-year anniversary of Morrowind.
Edited and translated by Onyx in 2013.