Dunmer Stronghold Design Guide

Current Inhabitants

Though abandoned by their original builders, none of the Strongholds in the modern day are empty,  instead all are occupied by various flavors of ne'er-do-wells and monsters. These include:

1. Bandits - Oftentimes slavers or just general /smugglers and criminals. These strongholds are effectively home to squatters temporarily living in them as they move their illicit goods or hide from the law. These are unlikely to show signs of long-term habitation by the bandits.

2. Daedra and Daedra worshippers - Daedra and their worshippers are also likely short-term inhabitants of the strongholds, either hiding from the law, or pursuing their own strange goals within the stronghold.

3. Sixth House - These cultists have taken over a few strongholds, most notably their ancestral stronghold of Kogoruhn. These strongholds serve as bases and focal points of Sixth house cult activity and dream-sending, and are therefore meant to be inhabited indefinitely. The Sixth House may even have ambitions of restoring the strongholds given part of their motivation is to restore Morrowind to what they considered to be its golden era. They are of course hamstrung by their insanity.

4. House Redoran - One Stronghold in particular has been taken over by "Rogue Redoran soldiers" aiming to expand their influence in the ashlands. 

Designing Your Stronghold Layout

• Strongholds, unlike most dungeons in Morrowind are primarily above ground. This means that the exterior dimensions and design need to be factored in, more so than for other dungeon types. Other than those strongholds with sewers, everything that can be seen above ground (the base platform and the structures atop it) are the limits of what can be built inside. Additionally, except for certain strongholds in which the inhabitants have started tunneling for various reasons, none of the strongholds go very deep underground, so please do not send any strongholds down into the core of the earth.

• Strongholds have a slanted base, and as a result actually have dedicated hallways around the perimeter of the structure. Use normal hallways throughout the structure, but along the edges be sure to use PerimeterHall pieces instead.

• The original strongholds were primarily military structures, and as a result every room would have had an original purpose in the design, all of which likely would be utilitarian. For example storage rooms, prisoner cells, barracks, troop mustering, meeting rooms, etc. Those rooms' purposes will likely have shifted over the millennia as new occupants take over the rooms, but keep it in mind when designing the layouts. Design with Chimer defensive military structure in mind first, and then decide what later occupiers would repurpose rooms into.

Clutter Usage

All Strongholds will have some original clutter from the ancient Chimer builders, such as chairs, tables, braziers, etc. As well as some rubble or destroyed assets. The original clutter would have been spartan and simple given that these strongholds were primarily military structures for a people at war. However, each of the aforementioned groups currently squatting in the structures would likely have brought their own material either to fix up the stronghold to make it defensible or livable, or even just what they're carrying with them when they came across the stronghold. 

1. Bandits - The myriad reasons bandits might make a temporary home out of the stronghold means there are a myriad configurations of clutter they may have brought with them. Carts and general purpose crates and barrels for smugglers, cages and shackles for slavers. And all of them might employ cheap wooden structures to fortify destroyed sections of the stronghold.

2. Daedra and Daedra Worshippers - Daedra worshippers wouldn't be able to bring their entire ruins with them, but some decor is not unreasonable if limited to boss rooms or ritual chambers and the like. Things such as Daedric chests or offering plates; anything that could be carried by a single person. If the worshippers are specifically devoted to a certain prince some banners may help as well. Otherwise the daedric worshippers would utilize similar clutter and storage as the bandits (old wooden barrels and wooden furniture) As for the daedra themselves, their goals and plans are often alien to us, and their weird sense of decor or plans for a stronghold open you up to a lot of possibilities. However, in the absense of worshippers, they would not have brought any daedric clutter in by themselves. Get with your lead(s) to decide what is most fitting for a Daedric inhabited stronghold.

3. Sixth House - The Sixth House very much intends to use the strongholds as long-term bases, and as a result would have renovated various rooms into ritual chambers, prisoner cells, and general living areas for their cultists. They would have brought or built typical Sixth House structures such as altars, corprus troughs, bells, etc. Another group that would benefit from having their banners posted in key spots in the interior, but likely not the exterior given they are trying to keep hidden.

4. House Redoran - Given that they are trying to take over a stronghold to expand their influence, they are likely looking to make the stronghold habitable for themselves. How far along they've gotten is up to the designer, but Redoran clutter such as candles/lamps, banners, perhaps even some of their potted plants may not go amiss.

Trapping Your Stronghold

Strongholds have three different categories of trap to reflect the sheer age of these structures' existence and occupation.

Original Traps

These traps are the traps designed by the original Chimer architects to defend their citadels. These traps are simple, mostly mechanical in nature, and most important, self-resetting. Any trap that would require resetting or reloading would have long since been fired or activated over over the millennia by whatever intruders and treasure seekers may have stumbled in. The only things logically that could hit the player at this point would be traps that reset themselves. This can include:

• Battering Rams

• Wall spikes

• Bladed, swinging walls

• Gas spouts that can fill a room or hallway with choking gas

• Trap doors

Imported Traps

These are traps that the current inhabitants would have brought with them, and can be divided into sub-sub-categories based on which faction controls the stronghold.

1. Bandits and Slavers

• Bear traps

• Ceiling mace traps

• Heavy stones to be dropped

2. Daedra and Worshippers

• Health draining crystals

• Health damaging red mist

3. Sixth House

• Life Draining shields

• Strings of bells to alert enemies

4. House Redoran

• Similar to bandit traps at most, but more likely would compensate for a lack of traps with extensive patrols

Deteriorating Traps

This last category of traps are not "traps" in the literal sense of the word, these are the results of wear and tear on the stronghold that has not been repaired or maintained in centuries at best. 

• Collapsing ceiling or floor

• Collapsing wall

• Exploding gas leaking into a room

Puzzle Usage

Puzzles in strongholds are a bit trickier in a military installation, and currently we do not have anything in mind. As always, feel free to have locked doors, and in strongholds taken over by daedra, sorcerers, and Sixth House cultists magic might likely be in play allowing for complex puzzles as long as they are not implied to be part of the original structure. This may be a case-by-case basis to be discussed among Level Design, Writing, and Coding.