Right, so. There’s Oblivion Remastered, the official Oblivion remaster which released earlier this year. There’s Skyblivion, the fan-made Oblivion remake mod which still currently looks due out relatively soonish, despite its release window having been a source of drama a few months ago. There’s also Beyond Skyrim: Cyrodiil, another massive Skyrim modding project, but this time seeking to re-create the province in which Oblivion’s set as it might be at the time The Elder Scrolls five takes place. Simple. The last one of those has just released a fresh teaser.
Despite having already released one of its regions as a very well-received and popular forerunner – that’d be Skyrim map expansion Beyond Skyrim: Bruma – the same team’s full version of Cyrodiil doesn’t look as far along in the development process as Skyblivion. That said, is devs have still been sharing regular progress updates over the past couple of years. Their latest is a teaser of the mod’s questline surrounding Anvil, with getting the gold coast city up and running having been a key focus of their work this year.
What’s afoot in the picturesque southern port town? Well, two important-sounding dudes are having a chat about birds in front of Anvil’s count. One of them is called Ramon and the other’s Anvil’s viscount. The former’s concerned about a mysterious idealist/criminal dubbed The Wren, who’s threatening to throw a spanner into the works of the trade which keeps Anvil running. There’s also some courtly bickering going on about succession, with debate over whether a lad named Corvinus, seemingly the viscount’s son, is fit to rule the city and deal with its fowl predicament.
As that chat plays out, the modders show off a bunch of shots in and around their version of Anvil. It looks lovely, if suffering from the unavoidable limitation of looking more like Skyrim in a new hat than a game built from scratch would. The Discord post accompanying the teaser also offers an intro to one of the side quests Anvil’ll offer. It’s about you becoming an entrepreneurial child’s minion.
“The city of Anvil is home to many up-and-coming business dealers, though some fall further outside the norms than others,” the modders’ blurb for this quest reads. “Meet the future saltwater business owner; Jinol! He has plans for creating a business run and owned by the children of Anvil and he is looking for any would-be business partners passing through Anvil to help him in this innovative endeavour.” God, imagine what the Elder Scrolls equivalent of those terrible CEO grind-themed podcasts would be.
The Beyond Skyrim lot plan to show off more during an Anvil stream set to take place on their YouTube channel on December 6th, and they’re keen to recruit folks for the following roles: “Animators, writers, editors, navmeshers, concept artists, 3D artists, experienced exterior landscapers, dungeon designers, creation kit implementers, sound effects artists, and quality assurance”.
By the looks of their last update, the areas which include Leyawiin, Bravil, Cheydinhal, and the Imperial City all have plenty of work that needs doing once Anvil’s sorted. I’m intrigued by the idea of returning to Cyrodiil down the line for something that isn’t trying to repackage TES IV and have really dug the time I’ve spent with their Bruma mod, so I’ll be keeping an eye on the Beyond Skyrim folks’ progress.