---To get a more detailed version of my idea, reference the first page---

MY IDEA IS STILL A (WIP)

Make it a paradise for traders, craftsmen and capitalists, with no Law involved.

How about doing trade quests (deliver sealed trade agreements etc) to bring more merchants to Blackreach like in Thieves Guild Radiant Quests?

Rise, Rapture Blackreach Rise!

That is possible; I shall ponder upon that; though, there has to be some form of security?

I really like to see this idea realized. Its a bit of a waste for such a beautiful area to only be a glorified dungeon.
Here are a few other idea's:

* How about using Dwemer bots as security?

* A scholar/scientist who sells Dwemer bots as companions

* A special Dwemer bike mount reward if you helped one side achieve victory/helped both sides make peace.

* Multiple ending states:

** When both races make peace, their scholars will reactivate the Dwemer bots, turning them into the security/law enforcement. The architecture in this state is mainly Dwemeri. All merchants are honest and do not deal in stolen goods.
Radiant quests are peaceful in nature and involve things like deliveries, protecting the people by slaying attacking monsters or helping both races build up their peaceful new city state.

** When one of the races becomes the victor, their architecture will dominate and guards will be of that race. And since the guards are busy suppressing the loser race, attacks from outside (by Falmer, trolls or sometimes bandits) are more frequent. In this state, merchants of the losing race will accept stolen goods but do not have much money.
Radiant quests are more warlike in nature and involve helping the victors suppress the losers, or help the losers with shady activities.

I hope my Ideas are of some use.

This sounds like it could be amazing. It would be a massive undertaking though. I wish you luck with it!

--Dark_Lord-- I really like your ideas; I am still working on the idea; Once perfected, [to the best it can be], I hope someone takes this up, otherwise it may have to wait till Spring. [I will have a computer that will be able to play Skyrim and mod it in Spring].

I have another idea: Since Dunmer and Argonian architecture is not featured in the game itself, you (or someone else) have to start from a scratch, using 3d modeling software. After that, you must build 2 or 3 different routes of building placing in the CK. Thats one massive undertaking.
Dwemer architecture is already present in the game (Markarth, the multiple other Dwemer Ruins). So to save time, you can just use the Dwemer architecture but make subtle differences. Like using different interiors depending on if there is peace or a victor, and place flags around Blackreach to show who is the victor/if both races made their piece (like the forts do during the Imperials VS Stormcloaks quests).
Story wise, it would make sense, since the Dwemer left the city practically intact. A bit of renovation and its inhabitable again. Markarth is an example of that. If Dunmer or Argonians want to make buildings in their own way, they need massive amounts of resources. Which means they need massive amounts of money, something racial minorities like Dunmer and Argonians probably do not have available.

Possible and might not be very lore-breaking. There's a research in Markarth about controlling the Dwemer automaton.

Now I wonder if we can grow our own cave ingredients like that farmhouse in the cave. And it might be possible to set up mining camps as well as Chaurus farm, too.

You have a VERY good point. Although, If you side with Argonians, the HIST tree will still be an option.

Economy wise, mining alone would definitely be a draw. As far as I've seen, Blackreach is the only place where soul gems can be mined. Since these are used by all the enchanters/court wizards, I would imagine that this would be a lucrative opportunity. Also, this would be a convenient tie in, if you wanted to incorporate the Mage's College faction into this mod.

Fun idea, with lots of possibilities.

Agreed:

Mining Possibilities: [Definitely unique and valuable] Soul Gems. [eh] Silver ore. [I can't remember the rest but i think there was a couple others]
Produce: [eh] Mushrooms. [very eh] spring water. [even more eh] Fish. [Alright] Dwemer Artifacts.

Possibilities for NPC's too move to Blackreach Construction:
--Chance for freedom from the outside world.
--Escape racial treatment
--Great for studies
--Great for Artifact Hunting
--Ideal location for mining
--Has rare Soul Gem ore
--Great place for mages and their work
--Great for starting new life
--[still working on others]

+{NOTE}+: I am currently working on multiple maps to layer out the city, and street formations, and working on names. [That's about all I can do right now].

--Oh, and to throw out some more ideas; logically, and to be Lore friendly, once you become the Lord of Blackreach, and the communal watch around it, there will be plenty of political ordeals that might even start before you become lord. For instance, eventually other Holds will get wind of this and probably wish to investigate the build of this community. This could be a bad thing or good thing. It would also begin political relationships with the Jarls of Skyrim, though I imagine the Jarl who owns the land Blackreach is located on wouldn't be so pleased.

Besides that, I also imagine the Thalmer forces would be less-then-pleased to learn about the community, which means they would investigate. If so this mod would provide you with the chance to work along with the Thalmer and other Jarls, and let [mainly the Thalmer] them instigate a base to make sure that Talos worship isn't being performed or anything they dislike. While on the other hand, you could choose to defy the Thalmer or at some-points [dependant on the case], the Jarls, causing a small war between them?

Just a thought.

You could make one special building for each state.
Ideas:

Dunmer Victors: Shrines to Azura, Mephala and Boethiah, which give bonuses to Mage, Thief and Warrior skills respectively. Only one shrine may be active at a time.

Argonian Victors: A Hist tree, which gives you a potion that raises all combat skills to insane heights, but you start to see enemies that aren't real. This is done by spawning mobs around the player with the 'ghost effect'

Peace: The statue of eternal peace (I know that sounds lame, I just needed a name). Gives you a scroll once a day that allows you to summon a Dunmer and Argonian warrior. These warriors stay for 3 minutes before returning to Blackreach. (That is, just disappearing like normal summons)

Well, I never had a general idea of what to do when it came to this specific subject; However, I always liked the idea of something.

Dunmer Victors: Shrine to Azura, Mephala, and Boethiah: This will give a blessing to the player. [The blessing would work like a power and only once a day you could call upon that power and you may only have one blessing on at a time] The blessing would give you the power to summon a physical aspect of that specific Daedric Prince.

Argonian Victors: Three Hist trees: [If I remember reading correctly, the hist can form their sap into various ways] Three functions would come from this. The usage of growing whatever plants chosen for alchemy. Materials for a unique armor. Or, the potion for combat prowess that you mentioned; [For Argonian's the delusions would not exist]. However, only one of those may be chosen; [And it takes a while for the Hist to make the materials or grow the plants]

If you chose the Peaceful Solution: I like the idea of having a Dunmer and Argonian warrior. However, it'd be kinda of weird to summon NPCs by magic. At least to me. I think it'd make more sense to just have a Argonian and Dunmer warrior that will follow you simultaneously. [They can be replaced, but you must wait something around a week or so before you can]

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1292627-there-is-another-hold-we-could-use-to-make-a-jarl-mod/page__p__19485313__hl__jarl+blackreach__fromsearch__1#entry19485313

These sound like good idea's. I still have a question about the 'combat prowess potion' the Hist is able to produce. What if you are someone of another race and you side with the Argonians. You know, if you are a Bosmer and help the Argonians win, would you not get delusions when consuming the Hist potion?

Another point is the size of the mod: Not to be rude, but isn't it a good idea to first create a main mod focusing on creating the Blackreach community? And after that release some 'expansions' dealing with things like the politics with the jarls and Thalmor? Taking on too much at a time can cause people to stop working on such projects.

If the Creation kit is easy to use and if you like it , I will consider being part of this project. Maybe I can design some interiors or write some dialogues. I haven't created a mod before, but maybe I'll be of some use.

hahahaha; As for your question involving the HIST, it can be simply decided it won't cause delusions. I mean that is a minor detail and simply changed.

Well, I would only be able to write everything down; Quests, dialogue, e.c.t. I won't be able to model or anything until this Spring, and probably mid-late spring.

[Jhondidfool] --- Indeed, as I've seen. But, my idea is pushing to be the top one. So, as I can try, I would like this idea in specific to be done.

--Is going to presume that Alfthand, Mzinchaleft, and Raldbthar will be not included in the other Blackreach Construction mods. While on the other hand, I intend to include them. ---

I plan to make Darkreach, Alfthand, Mzinchaleft, and Raldbthar a mighty, majestic Quad-City. [As Dark_Lord said, I will focus mainly on the construction of it all, before working on the Political and Guild Expansions. Even so, the Construction of this Quad-City, will indeed be quite an undertaking.

first off; fully support the concept.
some ideas to kick around;
I am planning on doing a mod like this, so heres where I would be coming from with it. I intensely dislike the notion of building up some kind of metropol. I think part of the absolute splendor of blackreach is how perfectly balanced the areas are. I think that lore-wise, it was probably somewhat more extensive in ages past, but I would say keep burrowing, dont build up. I havent been down there in a while but I would "repair" broken or collapsed buildings and any construction done should be in true dwemer stylings; dig deeper! open up collapsed tunnels inside the existing buildings, add new tunnel openings etc etc. Current races simply dont have the know-how to build new dwemer structures, but cleaning up existing ones? well look at markarth, of course thats doable. Also I wouldnt necessarily branch into the connecting dwemer ruins. maybe make them static so once they are cleared they stay cleared but no sense biting off more than you can chew, blackreach all on its own is HUGE.

content wise, i like some of the ideas floating around. I think the dunmer city is the best one, and frankly skyrim has WAY too many this side or that side going on, morrowind had the great houses and they didnt get along but it wasnt this constant picking of sides and being reminded of it, it was just oh, youre hlaalu, go away i dont like you if you ran into the chance telvanni mage. The dunmer need a city since their homeland got scorched, also while i dont have anything against the argonians, im a telvanni at heart so no lizards ~_^
trying to replicate dunmer architecture could be interesting and there lore is actually in-game already to give it a head start. Brand-shei in Riften! the last known surviving member of house telvanni! also im sure ive seen some hlaalu's running around and we could probably dig up a few other houses from the dispossessed dunmer. Giant crab-shells are probly hard to come by in skyrim, but perhaps some clever redoran survivor could do something with the chaurus chitin that im sure will be in abundance as we merrily encourage the falmer to go elsewhere.
I would love to see a Baladas Demnevanni character to start lookin ginto the animunculi, perhaps Calcelmo could be convinced to move into blackreach and get his nephew to continue his research into controlling them. I wouldnt want a "summon centurion sphere" spell, thats boring and easy, I would love a control rod for several different classes of animunculi and you have to keep using it to keep it following you. makes it fun but tedious if youre in a hurry, so not game-breaking.

I think rebuilding and researching should be the focus. Political quarrels already abound, an archeological mystery/town builder sounds a lot more appealing to me. The characters are already there in-game so its just a matter of finding someone to script it, a couple people to voice-act it and perhaps some modelers/texture artists for any new meshes. Ive really just touched briefly on my ideas ive been storing for what to do with blackreach, so be sure that if the OP doesnt end up pursuing this in favor of the psijic order, once ive gotten my own personal mods taken care of ill be putting my brain on the task of making blackreach a habitable and inhabited city.
cheers!
~Star Boi

--Star-Boi-- I really liked what you had to say. As I did see some good points in there, I still hold on to my belief on a few things. For one, you are right about how huge Blackreach is. It's enormous. However, what I have also noticed, is it still looks just like mere ruins, there is way too much bareness to Darkreach, not counting the occasional building here and there. [A bit too spread-out]. Traditionally, now this is very important, cities, or at least the larger ones are closer built together. And there were some specific pieces of Alfthand, Mzinchaleft, and Raldbthar that I really loved. --For instance, while digging deeper into Alfthand, {the first Centurion you have to fight, where it opens up into a decent-sized cavern, walls, and I believe it was once a theater or something--.

That is why I like the idea of including Alfthand, Mzinchaleft, and Raldbthar. However, your mentioning of the Dunmer houses really caught my interest, as Dunmer are my favorite race and culture. Ah, I miss morrowind. However, once again, Lore-wise, and reality wise {based off of the personality of the Thalmer and Aldmeri Dominion, it's safe to assume that if Blackreach became a full-city, they would get their pants in a bundle and try and either investigate, or initiate authority over it, just to make sure Talos Worship isn't being performed and to keep an eye on the city.} +It's a Lore-logic thing, I am very loyal to lore. XD+

I went to Raldbthar today. My opinion about it:

The first area is an enormous death trap with ground helicopters, flames and robots coming out of holes. It could be used as such to keep uninvited guests out of the community. 'Invited guests' must buy entrance papers and are allowed to use the direct elevator.

The second area, named Deep Market, just screams "MARKET!" to me. If you look at the image, ignore the Falmer stuff, add some restoration and light, you might see Blackreach people using it as market district, talking to eachother, sharing the latest gossips.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d93/Dark_Lord_/mall.jpg

I have to say this is an amazing idea. If you need help with concept art, modeling and textures I would be glad to help. I am graduating college with a ba in game art this week so the experience would be good plus I just really would like to see this happen. Send me a message if you need my help.

From my previous post, I really think Raldbthar can be a nice "HQ" like place with some extensive interior remodeling. Tower of Mzark could be a mage's tower. In fact, let's assign roles to all the major ruins:

Mzinchaleft
Raldbthar
Alftand
Tower of Mzark

As far as trade:

Imports:

Food
Wood
Clothing
Furs
Weapons
Armor

Exports:

Soul gems
Ores (corundum, ebony)
Nuclear fission (seriously, according to http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Blackreach )
Crimson Nirnroot
Falmar weapons/armor
Dwemer weapons/armor
Dwemer constructs

You should incorporate some of the things already in Blackreach to make the mod somewhat believable and fun, such as a resident unknowingly activating a centurion (prompting someone to send you out for materials required to rebuilt it, and other Dwemer constructs -- mentioned below) or Falmer raids. You could even check to see if the dragon in Blackreach has already been killed, and possibly add that as an event. Get some smart NPC (preferably a member of the Telvanni or researcher) to offer quests in which the player collects the required pieces to make centurions, spheres, and spiders work again, and for the people now inhabiting Blackreach (guards, if you will, to defend the settlement from Falmer and bandits) as well.

I also second the idea of it being some sort of Dunmer refuge/city. The Dwemer had mostly occupied Morrowind, and with all their ruins scattered around, the Dunmer were likely the most knowledgeable on how to inhabit them and use Dwemer technology for their own purposes (mainly the Telvanni -- Master Aryon and Baladas Demnevanni come to mind, with Divayth Fyr living with the last known Dwemer). I would imagine that, after the meteor hit Vivec and Red Mountain erupted, many of the Dunmer took cover in nearby Dwemer ruins.

I could also see it playing a role in the civil war, with the Empire wanting possession of any Dwemer technology (unless they don't do that anymore, with people in-game selling Dwemer armor and weapons) and authority over Blackreach, and nearby locations, and the Stormcloaks demanding aid in exchange for allowing the refugees to stay in Windhelm.


Oh, and one small catch with the Dunmer/Argonian love you guys have got going on -- the Dunmer didn't flee Morrowind because of the eruption or meteor (not entirely, anyway), they fled because the Argonians came in and wiped most of them out. While it's possible for two small factions to get along, I doubt you could create an entire city with the two races cohabiting. The Redoran likely wouldn't forgive the Argonians, while the Telvanni still prefer them to be slaves. The Hlaalu would most likely try to turn the place into another Solitude as well. I really don't see how it would work.

The Dunmer also refuse to believe in the Eight/Nine Divines, preferring to worship the Daedric princes. That could be a fairly big theme, with Justicars, and maybe even Vigilants, trying to raid the place (and also a reason for not adding shrines to the Aedra).

--Good news peoples, I can actually work on this more deeply then before, Seeing I just got a brand-new laptop that can run Skyrim! [unexpectedly] O_O