The irony of decision to make Redbelly not an ebony mine is the choice was that it was not lore accurate because ebony should be rare but it actually is lore accurate. Ebony is the result of the heart of lorkan exploding during Morrowind and raining down everywhere around it. It's lore accurate for Redbelly to have ebony because it borders Morrowind.
The reason USSEP changed it to iron isn't because it wasn't lore accurate for there to be an ebony mine there, it's because multiple disconnected sources, from the prima guide to dialogue and quests, clearly indicate that Redbelly is supposed to be an iron mine. Not to mention the red dust that gave it its name, which is pretty obviously airborne rust. As for Northwind becoming an ebony mine, they said it was because they knew people would complain if the only non-quest-locked source of ebony were taken away, and it was clear that the devs intended for there to be a non-quest-locked source of ebony somewhere, but they couldn't figure out where.
Just wanna throw out there it's probably not wise using Prima guides as a source for anything as they're notorious for providing bad info. No fault of their own if I had to guess they're probably made when games are still very much a WIP.
4 comments