Devs behind 24-year-old Morrowind mod rebuilding Tamriel expect it to outlast The Elder Scrolls 6: "They worried that Skyrim would kill the mod. They saw it not do that"

For some 24 years, a rotating cast of modders have been working on expanding The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind's map to include the entire continent of Morrowind, and after enduring through the launch of Oblivion, Skyrim, and now Oblivion Remastered, the developers are confident the mod will outlast The Elder Scrolls 6.

I sat down with Tamriel Rebuilt senior developer Jackimoff Wackimoff (I'm going with Jack), and I learned that virtually no one from the original crew that kickstarted Tamriel Rebuilt in 2001 is still working on the mod. Jack has only been around since 2021, and they describe themselves as "one of the most senior developers" on TamrielRebuiltTeam.

Jack tells me the biggest change in direction over the decades since the mod's conception is the vastly expanded scope and ambition of the project, which now encompasses Project Tamriel and Project Cyrodiil, distinct but TR-compatible Morrowind mods bringing "several provinces" of Tamriel and Cyrodiil's Imperial Province, respectively, to Morrowind.

In the wake of Oblivion: Remastered, TamrielRebuiltTeam serendipitously capitalized on the revitalized energy around the Elder Scrolls world by dropping the biggest Tamriel Rebuilt update ever, Grasping Fortune, which added the Hlaalu capital of Narsis as well as over 140 new dungeons and more than 270 new quests.

With a playable landmass larger in size than Oblivion that lets you explore previously non-playable locations like Old Ebonheart, Port Telvannis, Firewatch, and Necrom, it's natural to wonder when the Tamriel Rebuilt modders plan to wrap a bow around the whole thing and move on to something else. Jack's answer gave me an existential crisis knowing they and I will probably be dead when that happens.

"The joke amongst the devs is that it will definitely be done by 2090," they tell me.

Making the bold assumption that The Elder Scrolls 6 is out by then, I ask if there's any concern Bethesda's next RPG will take the wind out of Tamriel Rebuilt's sails, and they say the battle-tested mod team isn't the slightest bit worried.

"It survived Skyrim, which was one of, if not the most popular game ever made, if you can survive an impact like that... We've got developers that are still around, who are from before Oblivion came out," says Jack. "They saw people worried that Oblivion would kill the mod. And they saw it not do that. They saw people worried that Skyrim would kill the mod. They saw it not do that. Oblivion Remastered [too.]

"It seems, honestly, subsequent releases just bolstered the people. There's a certain section of people that will play the new one and go, 'this isn't the RPG experience that I was looking for. Where can I find that?'"

Although Jack's confidence in Tamriel Rebuilt borders bravado, they've got a good point. The people playing a modded version of a 23-year-old game aren't exactly The Elder Scrolls 6's target audience. There will be some crossover in player bases, for sure, but there's no denying the Tamriel Rebuilt community is entirely distinct from the broader Elder Scrolls community, so it's fair to point to the mod's historical resilience to new entries as proof of its staying power.

But Jack's not just saying that. They're also predicting there will be people who play The Elder Scrolls 6 and abandon it for Tamriel Rebuilt.

"We recognize that Bethesda as it was is not the same as Bethesda as it is, for better or for worse," they say. "And in that, what we're trying to do is we're trying to recapture what exactly they would have been intending [with Morrowind] at the time."

Using publicly available lore books like the Pocket Guide to the Empire, the lore masters at TamrielRebuiltTeam have been filling in the Morrowind world's blank spaces under the watchful eye of "resident project historian" Sultan of Rum, and the process has been dutifully recorded over the project's own 120-plus page online history book.

My point being, if anyone's put in the work to say with some confidence that a Morrowind mod will outlive The Elder Scrolls 6, it's these people.

With The Elder Scrolls 6 still MIA, Oblivion Remastered proves why remakes and remasters are the greatest tricks in the game developer handbook.