News Archive
All Cyrodiil Chronicles news that date from March 3 2006 and earlier can be found on this page. Includes Igiss Morrowind Pages news archive. Recent news available from our RSS feed and main page.
3/13/2006
New team diary and screenshots; Oblivion soundtrack available - discuss on the forums
Recent newsletter from Bethesda contained an interesting team diary by Noah Berry explaining how terrain and flora of Cyrodiil were created, including details about new TES Construction Set capabilities. Read full version of team diary on this page, it also contains numerous screenshots. Additionally, two hi-res screenshots with panoramic sights of beautiful Cyrodiil forests were released, you may view them on our official PC screenshots page. And - Oblivion soundtrack is now available for download via DirectSong.
Less than a week remains until Oblivion release. On March 21 the game will ship to stores.
3/6/2006
Oblivion will ship without Construction Set - discuss on the forums
More surprising news from Bethesda: contrary to expectations of most modders, PC version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will ship without TES Construction Set included. Exact reasons for this decision remain unknown, though many suggest that there was not enough space for CS on Oblivion DVD disk. Instead, Bethesda promised to release Construction Set for free download on the official elderscrolls.com website. CS will become available shortly before the game itself, which is scheduled to ship on March 20.
Countless interviews and previews about Oblivion were recently posted on different gaming websites. Full list of those interviews is available on elderscrolls.com pages. Don't forget that only two weeks remain until the release date... and don't forget to visit Cyrodiil Chronicles often!
3/3/2006
Oblivion gone Gold! - discuss on the forums
On March 2, Oblivion has gone to gold and will be available in stores in North America and Europe during the week of March 20. Both PC and Xbox 360 versions will be available in both regular and collector's editions. No need to doubt anymore: Bethesda has completed the game, and release date is officially very soon! Read complete version of press release here. We will keep you up to date as more information on Oblivion release will be available.
2/23/2006
More The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion interviews; site updates - discuss on the forums
New interview with Pete Hines was recently posted on HardGamers, with more information about shadows, system requirements, and more. Read full version of the interview here. Neowin.net has released a Podcast interview with Pete Hines. In addition to that, Boomtown.net has posted an interesting interview with Gavin Carter, full version available here.
There are a few Cyrodiil Chronicles updates worth mentioning: Links page was reorganized to make navigation through numerous Oblivion fansites easier. Dead links were removed, and all remaining distributed among several divisions; new Oblivion Forums category was added.
As our own Oblivion forums on Discovery don't get much traffic lately, I was thinking about creating a separate message board dedicated entirely to The Elder Scrolls. If you wish to participate in the discussion about how the new board should look like, you are welcome to our current TES forums.
And don't forget that only a month remains until Oblivion estimated release date - March 24!
2/18/2006
New screenshots and team diary - discuss on the forums
Third issue of Bethesda's newsletter included 3 new screenshots that were posted in Xbox 360 screenshots section. I'm not absolutely sure if they are Xbox 360, seen different opinions on forums, still posted them to Xbox 360 official screenshots page of Cyrodiil Chronicles. Newsletter also included a comprehensive team diary about sound design in Oblivion, written by Mark Lampert.
2/10/2006
Website updates, new Oblivion interview - discuss on the forums
Official system requirements for Oblivion were added to FAQ section of Cyrodiil Chronicles, as well as Encyclopaedia Oblivionicus FAQ. Official FAQ page was updated to reflect latest changes posted on official TES website. More links related to Oblivion and Elder Scrolls were added to Links page.
New interview with Gavin Carter was published today on IGN.com, read full version here.
2/4/2006
Oblivion system requirements released, more interviews - discuss on the forums
Long-awaited official system requirements for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion were published recently on Elderscrolls.com website. Most of our expectations proved to be true; see more details about system requirements in a special thread on our forums.
Several Oblivion interviews appeared on the web lately. Xbox.com posted a new interview with Todd Howard, and ComputerandVideogames.com posted interview with Gavin Carter.
1/27/2006
Details about Oblivion release revealed, more news from Bethesda - discuss on the forums
Recent week was surprisingly rich with Oblivion-related news. Release of Elder Scrolls IV is coming closer, so it's definitely time to get prepared - upgrade your PCs, buy Xbox 360 and pre-order the game itself! Oblivion is already available for pre-order in many online stores, including www.take2store.com, official store of Take-Two (2K Games, co-publisher of Oblivion, is Take-Two subsidiary). According to information present there, Oblivion will be rated Teen for "Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence". Price of PC regular edition is $49.99, Xbox 360 regular and PC Collector's Edition both cost $59.99, Xbox 360 Collector's Edition costs $69.99. Latest dev diary by Pete Hines describes contents of each version in detail. Release date, however, still remains a mystery.
Bonus DVD from Collector's Edition will feature a documentary on the making of Oblivion. Bethesda has released a trailer of the documentary that is available for download here: Quicktime Movie (33.8 MB MOV) or the Windows Media File (17.6 MB WMV).
On official The Elder Scrolls forums, Fan Interview #3 was published - this interview is the longest of all, and definitely one of the most interesting and informative Oblivion interviews we've seen in months. Questions submitted by fans were answered by Gavin Carter, Todd Howard and Pete Hines.
1/15/2006
Links page updated, new Oblivion interview & previews - discuss on the forums
Links page of Cyrodiil Chronicles was updated with several dozens of new links, number of fansites and forums dedicated to Oblivion is growing every week! Note that websites posted on top of the list in each section are usually the most popular and high-quality resources on the subject. Those sites should help most users to find information they need, however, those who need something specific should look through other websites listed in our links collection. If you wish to submit your site or change site's description, send me an e-mail. On Links page you will also find the information about link exchange and affiliation with Cyrodiil Chronicles.
During the recent two weeks, many gaming resources posted new previews of Oblivion - you may find them on GameSpy, Mygamer, 1UP.com, Gamespot and IGN. Beyond3D, a well-known 3D technology website, posted a technical Q&A interview with producer Gavin Carter available from here.
12/23/2005
Interview with Natalia Smirnova posted on ElderScrolls.Net - discuss on the forums
Exclusive interview with Natalia Smirnova, Bethesda Softworks' interface artist, was recently posted on Russian TES website ElderScrolls.Net. The interview features interesting information on Oblivion's user interface, on how TES IV art was created and many other things. You can read English version of the interview on this page.
More news from official The Elder Scrolls site: Team Xbox has posted a new Oblivion preview several days ago. Preview is available from here.
12/18/2005
New Oblivion screenshots - discuss on the forums
3 new Xbox 360 screenshots were released by Bethesda recently. Two of them were never leaked before and are quite interesting. See the last row of Official Xbox 360 screenshots page for details.
12/16/2005
New developer diary, official site updates - discuss on the forums
On December 15, a newsletter with Brendan Anthony's exclusive developer diary was sent out by Bethesda. The diary contains detailed information about spellcasting in Oblivion, and features screenshots showing spell effects in action. Be sure that you don't miss it, read full version on this page.
Official Elder Scrolls site was updated with 3 Xbox 360 screenshots and new Skills and Birthsigns sections of Codex.
12/6/2005
Encyclopaedia Oblivionicus updated; more news from Bethesda - discuss on the forums
I apologize for lack of updates, but as long as nothing really exciting happened about Oblivion during the recent month, my silence is excusable. In future the site will be updated more frequently.
Today I'm presenting an updated website version of Encyclopaedia Oblivionicus by Astarsis. With new information from recent interviews and IGN videos, Encyclopaedia remains the most comprehensive source of facts for the upcoming Elder Scrolls IV.
There were also some official news from Bethesda during the recent weeks. New Oblivion interview with Pete Hines is now available from DailyGame. Pete talks about Oblivion's environments, stealth gameplay, magic and more; full version of the interview available here. The Elder Scrolls official website was updated with a new book called "The Mysterium Xarxes - Book One". If you understand everything written in it, you definitely deserve a Nu-mantia! One more update of the official site is the renewed Races section of the Codex.
11/14/2005
Encyclopaedia Oblivionicus online; new artwork from Bethesda - discuss on the forums
Encyclopaedia Oblivionicus, originally compiled by Astarsis on Elderscrolls.com forums, is now available from Cyrodiil Chronicles. Encyclopaedia includes 25 pages of the most complete and up-to-date information about different aspects of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and new Construction Set. Don't look any further, Encyclopaedia contains literally everything known about Oblivion to this day! Published with permission of the author.
Oblivion Art page was updated with twelve excellent artwork pieces published last week by Bethesda.
11/1/2005
Oblivion delayed at least until February 2006 - discuss on the forums
Take-Two Interactive has recently announced revised revenue and earnings guidance for the next year. According to the document, release date of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (that Take-Two will publish under 2K Games brand) will be moved to second quarter of 2006 fiscal year, between February 1 and April 31, which is much later than "Holidays 2005" release period that was previously announced by Bethesda. This period is still stated in Oblivion FAQ on official The Elder Scrolls website.
Feelings of numerous fans on Oblivion official forum can be largely described as disappointment. And although Take-Two officials already confirmed the delay, there were no comments from Bethesda yet. More quotes and links to news articles on this topic are available from our forums.
10/30/2005
Cyrodiil Chronicles site updates; RSS feed available - discuss on the forums
The Elder Scrolls page now includes information on the history of Elder Scrolls games since Arena, released in 1994, until The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and expansion packs released in 2002-2003. Many new links to Oblivion fan sites were added to our Links page, including links to international websites. It seems that the number of fan sites on Oblivion is increasing every week! The Oblivion Facts List by ixidorsbane was also updated with new information on the forthcoming game.
Cyrodiil Chronicles now has its own RSS feed, allowing to browse site updates and news easier than ever. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary; it is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Link to our RSS feed is http://cyrodiil.net/news.xml, use any up-to-date web browser or RSS reader to view it.
10/28/2005
Oblivion E3 demo videos released - discuss on the forums
This time it's official Bethesda release, and this time it's legal. The video is broken into 6 chapters, all of them can be downloaded from TES official site Download section. Summary size of all 6 is 180 Mb.
10/24/2005
The Oblivion Facts List - discuss on the forums
The Oblivion Facts List posted by ixidorsbane on The Elder Scrolls official forums (original post here) is now availalble from Cyrodiil Chronicles. The List published with permission of the author and will be regularly updated along with the forum version; updates will be listed in a special thread on our forums.
This list contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date index of facts that are known about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, as well as list of things that will not be in the game, links to Oblivion-related articles, screenshots and videos, and miscellaneous information.
10/22/2005
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion soundtrack announced - discuss on the forums
Bethesda Game Studios announced yesterday that Jeremy Soule, the award-winning composer who has been called "gaming's greatest musician," will create the soundtrack for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You may read the full press release here (link to Elder Scrolls official site). Bethesda also released Oblivion Title music that you may download.
Interview with Oblivion producer Gavin Carter was posted on Elite Bastards, read the full version here. Unlike many other interviews and previews posted in the recent two weeks, this interview contains some previously unknown facts, like a 1500+ NPC number for Oblivion (unlike 1000-1200 announced before).
Elder Scrolls Cartography page updated with several new maps.
10/19/2005
Elder Scrolls Cartography - discuss on the forums
The new Cartography page contains different The Elder Scrolls maps, including official maps and maps created by fans. With those you'll never get lost in Tamriel!
10/16/2005
40 new screenshots that you've never seen before - discuss on the forums
Cyrodiil Chronicles presents a collection of newest Oblivion screenshots that were published recently on ag.ru and other websites. 35 high-quality screenshots are available from the New Oblivion screenshots page. Xbox 360 official screenshot gallery was also updated with new screenshots.
Following X05 event, dozens of previews and hands-on articles were posted on gaming websites along the web during the last week. Now we know much more about the upcoming game then before; look for more information on our forums and don't miss upcoming site updates!
10/4/2005
Oblivion gameplay video on the Web; site updates - discuss on the forums
Leaked Oblivion gameplay video spread through the Internet during the recent several days. Now most major game sites with file download section have different versions of this file. Bethesda promised to release a DVD quality version of the video, but it's not yet available. Read our forums for details where to find the video.
Links page of Cyrodiil Chronicles now contains International Websites section with Elder Scrolls sites in different languages. Also, several TES IV CS screenshots are now available.
9/30/2005
Bethesda announces voice cast for Oblivion - discuss on the forums
As Gavin Cater promised in one of his interviews, there will be many recognizable names among Oblivion voice actors. However, until today most of those names remained unknown.
Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: TNG, also appeared in X-Men) will be voicing the Emperor himself. Sean Bean (Boromir from Lord of the Rings, also starred in Equilibrium, National Treasure, GoldenEye, and Patriot Games) will provide voice for the Emperor's lost son and heir to the throne. Finally, Terence Stamp (Supreme Chancellor Valorum from Star Wars: Phantom Menace) will voice the unknown sinister force bent on the destruction of Tamriel.
Read complete version of Bethesda's press release here.
9/30/2005
Oblivion FAQ added; new screenshots and artwork available - discuss on the forums
Detailed Oblivion FAQ is now available from Cyrodiil Chronicles. It contains the most recent information about TES IV: Oblivion in general, about game world, and gameplay mechanics. Oblivion Articles section was updated with Bethesda's Clues - an article about the eight initial TES IV clues revealed in September 2004.
Several new screenshots were added to Different Oblivion screenshots, and Art page was updated with new artwork.
9/27/2005
Two new Oblivion interviews - discuss on the forums
Interview with Gavin Carter, producer of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, was posted yesterday on RPGamer. The same day, Gamecloud has posted interview with Pete Hines, Bethesda's Vice President of PR and Marketing. Both interviews are quite remarkable and contain valuable pieces of new Oblivion information, though many important details about the upcoming game are still concealed.
9/26/2005
Cyrodiil Chronicles first update - discuss on the forums
A new Oblivion screenshot gallery is now available at Screenshots page; it contains 20 PC and Xbox 360 screenshots from different sources. There is also a new Art & Wallpapers page that will host The Elder Scrolls IV art and wallpapers. In addition to that, Cyrodiil Chronicles is now a member of Oblivion Topsite by Oblivion Portal.
New updates will follow soon.
9/21/2005
Cyrodiil Chronicles Launched - discuss on the forums
Welcome to Cyrodiil Chronicles!
The predecessor of this website was first published on 10/22/2003. Named Igiss Morrowind Pages, the old site contained information about Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and expansions, as well as several mods of my own. Most of the site's visitors were from the IlluminatingDarkness forums and Arwen's message board. IlluminatingDarkness was gone in the beginning of 2005, and in June several former ID members and I founded Discovery Gaming Community (www.discoverygc.com). This new forum focuses on Elder Scrolls games and roleplay gaming in general.
Cyrodiil Chronicles will be dedicated to the new title from Bethesda Softworks - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. This promising game is scheduled for release in November 2005, along with Microsoft's new console, the Xbox 360. Cyrodiil is the name for the central Imperial province of Tamriel, where Oblivion is set. Old Morrowind content will still be available.
In addition to detailed information on various aspects of the game, Cyrodiil Chronicles will contain special content - mods, modding tutorials and possibly fan fiction. If you are planning to make high-quality Oblivion mods yourself, we will be offering an opportunity to host your mod, a detailed description, and screenshots.
Creating a friendly and helpful community is one of our main goals while starting Cyrodiil Chronicles, and we've got a good start. Discovery Gaming forums will serve as the forum for this website. An Oblivion forum already exists on Discovery, and in the future there will be several more Oblivion-specific categories. The forums are already quite active, with almost 100 registered members, and you are welcome to join us.
Content that's already available includes Oblivion screenshots and Oblivion links; more will follow soon. This site will be regularly updated, so don't forget to come back often or you might miss something interesting!
Best wishes,
Igiss
From here, Igiss Morrowind Pages news archive starts. Igiss Morrowind Pages is Cyrodiil Chronicles predecessor, another website that had different address but similar origin.
All old news since 2003 to 2005 can be found here (as well as Igiss Morrowind Pages introduction).
06/18/2005
IMP is back, Discovery forums opened
The site is back online. New URL is www.discoverygc.com/imp, you may also use www.igiss.uni.cc.
Now the site focus changes to TES IV: Oblivion, however, the old name will remain. Expect new content when Oblivion is released, modding-related content in particular.
We've also got new message board - Discovery Gaming Community. It is not 100% Elder Scrolls forum, still there's a separate category for TES games, including forums for Morrowind and Oblivion. Discovery is an attempt to reunite IlluminatingDarkness community and create a new friendly RPG gaming forum. Address of Discovery is www.discoverygc.com.
08/22/2004
Terundcastle 1.0 finally released, download link: Terundcastle 1.0
This is the complete version of the mod, with all features enabled and all cells available. Enjoy!
07/21/2004
Morrowind Screenshot Contest that took place on Arwen's Forums is over, visit this page for results and winning screenshots.
07/10/2004
The new version of Terundcastle beta is available, download link: Terundcastle beta 0.7
07/03/2004
I had a busy month and could not update, but now I've got some good news. As FastCounter shows, during the last two months there were more visitors than anytime before. I'm grateful to everyone who pays attention to this project.
I'm now working on the last Terundcastle beta which will be available in several days. Also expect content updates.
And last - as I occasionally got to know, Igiss Morrowind Pages was added to DMOZ Open Directory in Morrowind: Fan Works section (follow this link for details).
05/31/2004
Hosting of Igiss Morrowind Pages will not be changed, and primary address (http://imp.50free.org) remains the same, at least for the next few months. Domain igiss.uni.cc will redirect visitors to this page, like before. I was unable to find any free host better than 50free.
Also note that my primary e-mail address is now igiss@msn.com, not igiss@mail.ru, as before. Links on the site were already changed.
New Outlook
05/16/2004
I've improved design of the site, mainly background colors and decorative pictures, as well as page layout. Text on most pages, except ones with large tables, has fixed width now (684 pix), adopted for 1024x768 screen resolution. Of course, the site can be viewed without difficulties in larger resolutions; 800x600 should also work fine. Fixed width text looks better and is displayed correctly in all browsers, including Netscape Navigator. Gray text background is more eye-friendly.
There are no content updates today, except that the site has a News History now. I introduced it because there were too many news articles to keep them all on home page.
I hope you'll enjoy the new Igiss Morrowind Pages outlook.
05/02/2004
Kiranann Beta 0.2 is available for download (see Mods page for details). Bloodmoon creatures table added to Morrowind Creatures page.
04/28/2004
I've joined Lady Moiraine's Morrowind web ring (see bottom of this page), there's a link to IMP at Morrowind Corner now. And, as always, I've added more sites to my own Links section.
04/27/2004
First update after a long pause, with lots of changes. New Morrowind Creatures page and renewed Faction Ranks table in Morrowind section, many new links and several minor improvements. Terundcastle Beta is available for download. Also note that there's another way to access my site now: http://igiss.uni.cc.
Arwen's Morrowind Forums are back after a month's downtime that happened due to server problems. The board has a new host now and we are looking forward to seeing new people join our friendly community.
01/29/2004
I've been too busy during the last month to update, but now - at last - I've got something new. Second part of Morrowind Screenshots and an article about landscape editing in TES CS are now available. Terundcastle mod preview added.
I've added Site Search and it works! Hope that finding information will become much easier now. Thanks to FusionBot.com :)
11/26/2003
Russian part of Igiss Morrowind Pages available now.
Site structure changed, Projects page no longer exists, but there is new Morrowind section dealing with general game information. Navigation was also improved, I'll try to add Site Search feature soon. Morrowind Guilds and Factions page updated, now including information on Tribunal and Bloodmoon factions. Faction Ranks table added.
First Update
11/8/2003
First content update, not the most significant, but there are things worth seeing. First of all, Morrowind screenshots gallery was updated; now all images are 512x384. You can also view first screenshots from Kiranann mod that I'm working on now. Guilds and factions information added to Elder Scrolls section, more new links available, minor changes everywhere else. Russian pages not ready yet, those who are interested will have to wait, sorry.
My forums will be offline for some time, that's not forever so I don't remove the link. Just waiting for the site to become somewhat more popular. Good news is that now I'm a moderator on Arwen's Morrowind Forums so you can always find me there if you wish.
10/24/2003
Minor update today - some mistakes corrected, several new entries in the Links section, date format changed to English.
First News
10/22/2003
Hello.
My site finally published! And this is the first time you visit me. Or almost the first time. Perfect moment for a small introduction.
Igiss Morrowind Pages (or IMP) title suggests that it's all about Morrowind. True, but my site is not intended to be some kind of comprehensive information source about the game. I guess it's quite enjoyable to do that before the release or a few months later, but not when 1,5 years have passed. There are thousands of Elder Scrolls resources all over the Web (many of them are mentioned in Links section) and it's almost impossible to find a single piece of information not already published by someone. My aim is just to create an interesting site about Morrowind with versatile content. Maybe I'll even publish things not related to TES in any way, for example about other games.
Just a few words about me. I'm from Moscow, Russia, and English is not the native language for me. So remember that if you cannot understand something written here that's my fault, not yours:) I'll do my best, however. My nickname is Igiss, that's obvious, and should be pronounced like ['igis]. No one remembers nowadays what does this word mean, if it ever meant anything, but I'm used to it, and so let it be. I was born on a gloomy day of 25 January 1985. That's enough about myself for now (surely enough for CIA guys to find out who I am).
You may have noticed "RU" button on the top, meaning that this site is bilingual. Writing in my native language is logically easier for me, but I don't expect much attention from non-English-speaking visitors yet. Therefore Russian pages are almost empty at present.
Well, in fact English pages are also almost empty, but I promise to improve the situation soon. You can find out what has already been done in the Projects section. And - if you've got something interesting to publish here or have suggestions about contents or design of this site, your help will be highly appreciated. Feel free to contact me, e-mail address is igiss@mail.ru. The future of Igiss Morrowind Pages depends on your support (and on the amount of my laziness;). Forums are another way to communicate, work on them is still not finished but you can still look what I've got, maybe register and try if you wish.
Here, on the Main page, I'll publish different news and links to fresh articles. Without long boring Introductions like this one. That's all, enjoy your stay!
And be sure to come back.
Best wishes,
Igiss
