So some of you may know this already, but there's a lot of land included beyond the edges of the map of Skyrim. Some have said that the entirety of Tamriel is out there, beyond the edge of the playable map. There's a lot of talk about the extra land Bethesda included on the fringes of Skyrim's map and why it's there. Well, there's a "lot" of talk in some circles, I guess.

Anyway, the point is that I was really curious to see for myself what everyone was talking about, instead of just going on reports of what is supposedly there and trying to guess what it's for. So I did. Now I'm back. And I took pictures!


http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143243563940/8607D79AFB9AEDBBDC3CC0624F51E534C6715456/
So here we are floating in sky beyond the edge of the map, east of Riften. I figured this was a view that most people would recognize. This is the southwestern corner of Vvardenfell. Hla Oad would be at the left of the screen on that peninsula, Seyda Neen would be just off the bottom of the screen, and Balmora would be right at the end(ish) of that "river" thing.


http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143243541772/47481C8DAA62FF8CB3C4054E685235A87CFEC5B4/
This is the view, from the same spot, looking towards Red Mountain. Ok, so we can agree now that we are definitely in Morrowind, right? A lot of people have expressed amazement that all of this is even here, and some say that a future DLC or somesuch might take place in Morrowind since this area was included. I don't think that's going to be the case. Here's my reasoning:


http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143243548375/705A81146898BD3B1C7B745EA8FF756A03B26388/
In this picture, I zoomed down to ground level. How close to the ground? Very close. In fact, my camera is closer to the ground than if my character had been standing on it.

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143243560818/AF95217B042DE8F76141ED8593938DF7ED515A8D/
Here's the view from the exact same spot, looking towards Balmora. There are a few things to notice about this picture that I think tell a lot of story:

• My crosshair is pretty much exactly where Balmora would be. I'm standing more or less where Seyda Neen would be. The distance between these two points, though, is tiny. If you were to walk it with your character, it would be about as far as the distance from the main gate of Windhelm to the stables (that long bridge).
  
• If I was near Vivec (the first picture) I would be able to see right over the top of the Cantons. My character would be taller than they are.

So as far as size goes, the land that Bethesda put into Skyrim to represent Morrowind is much smaller than it would be if the player was ever going to go visit it. In the Lore, Vvardenfell is about the same size as Skyrim. This little version of it, however, would probably fit almost entirely between Riverwood and Whiterun.

To me, it seems like Bethesda was never intending to use this space. Of course they might add something here later, but that doesn't mean anything at all. They could add something anywhere later, whenever they want. So while some people think this might be something of a "placeholder" for future content, I disagree with that. Bethesda doesn't need a placeholder.


Some also ask, though, "Why did they include that entire landmass, even parts you could never see from Skyrim?" Well, they didn't. Sadly, this picture tells the story:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143243569428/8194A21B9FA0E52954187E67669EFE2C458D1072/
That's the far side of Red Mountain. You see they cut Vvardenfell in half right there, and didn't include the whole landmass at all. So as for the theory that they put in way more than the player could see from Skyrim, I don't think that's true. I think they stopped at a point that they knew we couldn't see beyond.

So why is this stuff here then?
From my opinion, it's entirely for looks. It's there just in case the player manages to get to a mountain top or somewhere strange, with a very clear day, and look out over the border. They did this with Oblivion too, including huge chunks of land around Cyrodiil that we couldn't play on (Even parts of Skyrim). They never put any DLC out there.

I don't think they are going to put any out here, either.

Note to Moderators:
This thread was closed yesterday by CCNA due to excessive flames and spam. He has, however, given me permission to re-open it in the hopes that things stay civil this time.

Someone asked me to to go do the same in the South. They wanted to see if I could find Cyrodiil and the Imperial City, and take pictures. I tried to find it, but I can't. I've gone to several locations on the southern border and continued south from there, but all I ever see is this:

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143244855020/BAE62F787DB3501E3B8848A7ED0F14DF95738FCB/
Nothing, just the end of the map. This is a view in the direction that should be the Imperial City, from a spot south of Falkreath.


I did the same at Helgen and got this:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/542925143244856629/A64E0998A1BB0A82E196036B357FEA543470540F/
The edge just like before, but snowier.


Some way, some how, there's a spot you can stand in that will load up Cyrodiil. If anyone knows where that spot is, I will go on a similar adventure of it, and post the screenshots right here.

This is ancient news, and no, the whole of tamriel is not out there.

It is not uncommon for developers to generate more landscape then they actually need as a way to judge scale and reference locations. If you look, Morrowind's island, Vvarfinfel is too far north.

Just to let everyone know, this thread was closed yesterday because some people started bickering in it. Please keep your discussion civil and flame free. If you want to disagree on a point, then state that and why and don't belabor it.

Debate and discussion is fun, insults are not, is the rule you need to remember.

Well u have answered the queation of weither or not morrowind is still buried under molten rock lol.

I kid I kid, pretty awesome. Would be great if modders used the land for duture mods or even a redone morrowind. Im fairly certain this wasnt done in morrowind but chance was it done in oblivion?

Well standing on one of the tallest northern mountains I looked east over the shorter mountains and glaciers and saw Red mountain. Note this was on a 360 so I was well within the borders of Skyrim when I saw it.

Aww, thats kinda svcks. All well, heres to hoping the DLC rocks

I was watching someones weekly mod videos and someones been working on the "Morrowind Badlands." Its pretty cool so far, but its far from done.

You wouldn't need to visit the island to be in morrowind. The DLC could be placed along the coast, with Vvardenfell blocked by invisible walls and acting as distant scenery.

i quoted this on the last thread that was shuit down


Your probably right that they wont do anything, but i wanted to comment on the whole "its too small thing"

Skyrim's Skyrim and Oblivion's Cyrodil are pretty much in proportion to eachother if you were to compare them to a Tamriel map. However Morrowind's Vvardenfel (in ESIII) is alot bigger tahn it should be (if you were to scale against the other two provinces.)

Thats why projects (mods) for Morrowind that are Tamreil Rebuilt, Province:Cyrodil, and Skyrim (the morrowind mod) are so huge.

Basically, what im saying is, if VVardenfell (the place you went to) was in Skyrim (ES:5) it would be the correct size. Also take note Red Mountain exploding F-ed things up


also love how you re made it...

I'm inclined to agree with you. These things were either placed here for:

1) Boredom. Filling out some areas for the sake of polish.
2) The possibility that the player might be able to get to some vantage point where these things should be visible.
3) As an easter egg for people to find if they went outside the map towards these areas.
4) With modders in mind, putting it there to sort of acknowledge/encourage them.
5) Foreshadowing (but not preparing) some future DLC.

It was said that they are planning for bigger "expansion packs" but no I don't think well see Cyrodiil and Hammerfell and Morrowind. Maybe parts of them or maybe one of them. But we arent getting all, that's just foolish to expect. If Bethesda can get it in the game by all means they should, but I just don't see it happening.

The stuff is in there mostly because people can see it from high altitudes in Skyrim. it's there primarily for scenery, not for actual use

I agree with you on everything up to this point:
"Basically, what im saying is, if VVardenfell (the place you went to) was in Skyrim (ES:5) it would be the correct size."

If Vvardenfell was in Skyrim, it would (should be) about the same size as Skyrim. If you look at maps of Tamriel, you will see that Vvardenfell is about the same size as Skyrim, and that Morrowind as a province is almost twice the size of Skyrim.

So I still think that the Vvardenfell that they did make in TES 5 is way too small. Even though you are right that it would be smaller than it was in TES 3, it shouldn't be as small as they have made it in TES 5. The TES 5 Vvardenfell would fit entirely in the land surrounding Whiterun. If it were the proper size, it would fit sideways from Markarth to Riften. It's not that big.
I would say it's about 25% as big as it should be.

So I just finished the Stormcloaks quest line and Ulfric said something along the lines of, "Soon, we'll have to go abroad...yada yada." Maybe some evidence of these things foreshadowing some expansions (perhaps partially) into other provinces. Still, best case scenario is that what's in there now is simply foreshadowing. I really doubt we're just going to see those areas "filled in" as they are and be ready to explore.

This is the answer. It's LOD terrain, and it's a lot less detailed LOD than we had in Oblivion, too. Any modders recreating adjoining provinces will have to scrap that LOD and make new land.