Morrowind is a computer RPG, the third and, according to many, the best in the cult series The Elder Scrolls. It was developed and released by Bethesda Softworks, with the PC version released on May 5, 2002, and the Xbox version on June 6 of the same year. It was separated from the previous installment, Daggerfall, by six years of development and two games that are not part of the main series.
There are eight official mods and two major expansions – Bloodmoon and Tribunal. The first transports players to the snowy northern island of Solstheim, while the second plunges them into the heart of the intrigues of the capital of Morrowind – Mournhold – where a mad god and a new king will do anything for power.
The events of the original game take place on Vvardenfell, a huge island located in the center of the eastern imperial province of Morrowind. For millennia, this land had been cut off from the other lands of the continent of Tamriel by high mountains, which, combined with the ash storms spewing from the volcanic heart of Vvardenfell – Red Mountain – formed a completely unique world capable of astonishing any outsider.
The main character is one such outsider, brought to this land by no blind fate or Emperor in the year 427 of the Third Era. He finds himself on the doorstep not only of the imperial office but also of a world where he is free to go anywhere. And everywhere he will be pursued by blight storms carrying dreadful dreams to the island's inhabitants; everywhere he will see the marks of corpus disease that completely alters those afflicted, turning them into monsters. All of this is the doing of Dagoth Ur, once betrayed by his comrades who desired divine power. Those who are now the Tribunal, three living gods of Morrowind, are weakening year by year and cannot protect their own people. Each has something to say in their defense and something to accuse another of – and soon they will have to answer (long live the whims of gods and ancient curses) to a former prisoner recently thrust headlong from the imperial office into adulthood.
Since Morrowind is the only province that joined the Empire on an autonomous basis, players will encounter not only imperial factions but also local ones that hold real weight in this world. In total, there are eleven guilds available for joining, with many quest lines overlapping, and joining one faction often completely excludes the possibility of joining others. To progress, beyond completing quests, players will need to develop skills and attributes specific to each guild – for example, the Mages Guild will be undoubtedly pleased with your high agility and ability to run fast, but will still require a high intelligence score and knowledge of magical schools.
A peculiar faction can also be considered the vampire clans. There are three, and a member of one becomes a mortal enemy of the other two. Each, depending on their specialization (the Berne clan – thieves; Aunda – mages; Quarra – warriors), receives corresponding bonuses to characteristics and skills, but in any case, vampirism provides significant boosts to several parameters. Just as it brings significant inconveniences – vampires are very much disliked in Morrowind. After completing a quest to cure vampirism, it cannot be contracted again.
Continuing the discussion of other forms of life - the Bloodmoon expansion introduced the ability to contract lycanthropy and run around under the moon as a furry werewolf.
If desired, players can locate characters in the game capable of providing elaborate descriptions of every detail in the game – from the description of diseases to the origin of various types of weapons.
The role-playing system is presented with twenty-seven skills depending on eight attributes. The skills are divided into three groups – magical, combat, and stealth – the three standard paths of RPGs. But in Morrowind specifically and the TES series in general, the concept of 'class' is conditional, more so than anywhere else. No one will prohibit a warrior from using magic – the issue is that due to poor growth in the corresponding skills, it will be very ineffective for them. Skills can be improved independently, through paying for training from the right people, or by finding special books, the reading of which grants a point in a particular skill.
In addition, players are given a choice of ten races, each of which has its own base values for attributes and additional points in specific skills. They also possess special abilities – resistance or vulnerability to certain types of damage, increased mana reserve, etc. Equally interesting abilities are granted by one of the thirteen constellations under which the character is 'born.'