The mod teams behind Skywind and Skyblivion, the two massive projects remaking Morrowind and Oblivion within Skyrim, have been at work for a long, long time, and it's finally starting to look like that work will pay off. Both projects shared some extensive developer updates this week, complete with some absolutely gorgeous-looking in-game footage.
For Skyblivion, we get some lovely flythroughs of the rebuilt locations with some lore breakdowns, alongside a look at some new and improved features over the original. I'm particularly impressed with the more varied Ayleid ruins, which will now feature unique assets depending on what region you find the dungeon in. There's also some very neat tweaks to class creation and leveling up, as well a full-on rebuild of the lockpicking minigame that stays true to the way it worked in Oblivion.
Skyblivion is actually pretty close to launch. The devs are still recruiting volunteers, but they're committing to a 2025 release date, which is certainly a lot closer than The Elder Scrolls 6. It's been in earnest development since 2016 - with early forms of the project dating back to 2012 - but it looks like launch is finally in sight.
- After 12 years, the modders merging Morrowind and Skyrim say their project would "come out faster" if "we were all working with Bethesda," but it would be "much worse"
- Ambitious Skyblivion project is nearing completion, with only one region of Oblivion left to remake with Skyrim's engine, but it still needs volunteers to help
Skywind, a similar project remaking Morrowind, has also been in development for the better part of a decade, but its developers still haven't committed to a firm release target. (They're also still looking for volunteers, as you might expect.) But they do note in their update video that the mod is "closer than ever before" alongside a look at the team's progress.
This video is a lot more technical in nature, but even if you're not interested in the development details, there's a lot of very impressive footage and some interesting gameplay details. Particularly notable is the fact that Skywind revives the old Morrowind armor system with 14 distinct armor slots. Yes, that means separate left and right pauldrons. For a particularly staggering idea of the scope of this project, the video notes that Skyrim had 1,100 NPCs voiced by 70 actors. Skywind has 3,000 NPCs voiced by 300 actors.
I've been eagerly awaiting both these mods for years now, and while it's easy to cynically suggest they might never get finished after all this time, the progress these volunteer developers have managed to make so far is genuinely astounding. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be playing Skyblivion next year with Skywind not too far behind.
The best Skyrim mods are only getting better.
