Forested Morrowind

Set in alternate Vvardenfell where the Blight, carried by the noxious volcano ashes affects plants and vegetable much less than humanoids and animals.

No more bleak wastelands, lava-rocks, and ash covered terrain. Now there are ancient forests and trees as far as the eye can see.

However, the Blight torment the land and its noxious ashes stain the island making life hard everywhere, but in the hospitable west and south.

Dozen of dialogue lines and books has been altered to reflect the new history.

“Why the northeastern forests are called ‘The Ashlands?’
I guess for an outlander like you it may sounds very confusing. The area got its name during the Second Era. A gigantic eruption leveled the area, killed almost everything, and covered it by ash. It happened centuries ago, but the Ashlanders remember the devastation like it happened yesterday; they still call the ravines ‘fire-rivers.’ It is not craziness we all know that the mountain can awake any moment.”

There are alternate versions, one that does not touch the barren regions of the island and makes no lore changes and one “lite” with fewer trees. The lite version is less taxing on the hardware and may be preferred if you find the normal one excessive.


More details

The following regions in Vvardenfell were altered (the regions with the star ★ are untouched in the lore-friendly version):

• The Ashlands★: an enormous dense forest with a dense underbrush was added to the northern Ashlands, north of the Red Mountain. Other areas of the Ashlands were also forested or had a considerable number of trees added to them.
• The Molag Amur★: hundreds of very tall and large trees were added to the Molag Amur, some in groups and others in spots here and there. The underbush and the tree model selection gives the area an ancient but dry feeling.
• The Grazelands: many magical-looking and weird trees were added all across the area. The trees have been kept distant so the area does not feel like a forest, but more like a magical wood.
• The Western Gash: several hundred trees were placed in this region as well, although an attempt was made to not overly forest this area.
• The Red Mountain★: hundreds of heavy-looking trees with red leaves were added in the tight passages of the Red Mountain. Powerful and ancient trees capable to survive the blight.
• The Sheogorad and the Azura Coast: the area was left 'as is' because most of the giant toadstools were eliminated from other areas of Vvardenfell. This makes the Sheogorad appear to be that much more alien and magical in comparison to the rest of the island, which is appropriate given that the Telvanni, and their giant mushroom towers, are located in those regions.
• Ascadian Isles: the giant toadstools were replaced with trees and the tree models are now leafier and larger than vanilla. The area is greener and feels more complete. However, no forests were constructed in the Ascadian Isles because this is the 'settled' part of Vvardenfell. Foresting this region would make little sense given that much of it is cultivated or urbanized.
• The Bitter Coast: several large trees were added in the Bitter Coast making it much more swampy and overgrown, even if now the whole island is plenty of trees the Bitter Coast keeps its unique feeling. The Bitter Coast mod is from Vality and Connary and are two options: one uses Vality original trees, the other uses Vurt's trees. Vality trees are bigger, darker, and you can almost feel the wetness. Vurt trees are taller, let more light pass, and are of higher quality. If you like a more verisimilar approach I'd suggest to use the Vality mod by itself, instead if you like a more overgrown and fantasy-like region use Vurt trees and you can put Melchior trees on top: Graht Morrowind Swamp Trees.
  

Compatibility

The mod changes a large number of cells to add trees, but it does not change the shape of the land. The worse incompatibility you can get is to get a tree growing out of an object or a floating tree.

If it happens, open the console (pressing the ~ key) click on the offending tree and type disable.


How to use

The contents are put in different directory for ease of organization.

00 Core
01 Vality Bitter Coast
01 Vurt Bitter Coast
02 Groundcover

You should use 00 and one of the two Bitter Coast modification. 02 contains groundcover for the Ashland and Molag Amur regions that, being very different from the normal Morrowind, need specific groundcovers. For the rest of the island you can use the groundcover you prefer Forested Morrowind does not alter the land in any way. There is no 02 in the lore friendly version.

About groundcovers esp files: with MGE XE you need generate distant land with the esp files activated, but DO NOT activate the esps in the main game; with OpenMW instead ensure the groundcover function is enabled in the setting.cfg file and add the esp file as "groundcover" instead of "content" in the openmw.cfg file.


Extra suggested mods

Better trees for the areas not covered by Forested Morrowind:
Vurts Solstheim Tree Replacer.
Vurt's Mournhold Trees (part one) and part two.
Solstheim has already a pine forest, and Mournhold being a city has no space for new trees.

Humongous trees for the Bitter Coast, you may want this mod if are using Vurt trees in the region and like fantasy overgrown forests:
Graht Morrowind Swamp Trees
You need only the 00 Core directory for this mod, because the included Vality mod has no land edits.

More colorful wood:
Swiveller's Structures: Cabins and Docks.

Mods to reimagine some of Morrowind architecture in wood:
Redoran and Vivec from Pekka.
Imperial Castles.

Extra mods for immersion:
Cait's Critters Unleashed.
Colorful Toadstools.
Different Sky Colors for Morrowind.


Acknowledgments

Max for doing a great deal of the work placing thousands of trees in the original Forested Morrowind mod.

The tree models are from (in alphabetical order) Dongle, Dracus, Jdooby, Malik of Kaih, Melchior, N'dib, Remiros, and Vurt. The eucalyptus deglupta bark texture has been made by XeroFoxx especially for this mod. XeroFoxx also helped to tweak textures. See: dongle treehouse, Dracus (FZ), Jdooby (JW), and N'dib (ndib) trees, Malik of Kaih, Melchior, Remiros, and Vurt.

The Treant creature is from Demon Xen.

XeroFoxx made the eucalyptus deglupta bark texture and the rings textures for the Molag Amur unique tree.

The Wood Imperial Castles are from breton187.

Brash Endeavours did the forest sounds that are now played in the Molag Amur and Ashland regions. The sounds are available in the Morrowind4Kids exotic trees resource.

Ozzy, Remiros, and Vurt also did most of the ground cover textures and models.

Mr. Swiveller made some of the high resolution textures. See: Ashlands (Green Version) and Swiveller's Allsorts.

The missing textures come from the The Morrowind Visual Pack and from a specialized website.

The Connary-Vality Bitter Coast Addon is from Connary and Vality. Connary made most of the textures, Vality did the trees, few textures, and placed the huge trees all around the Bitter Coast. RandomPal took Vality work and adapted it to use Vurt trees.

Greatness7 authored tes3conv a tool that makes editing so much easier.