I can't help but get excited every time I see something new come out of Beyond Skyrim, the massively ambitious mod that aims to recreate the whole of Cyrodil—all nine provinces—in the Fourth Era, when Skyrim is set. The idea is that you'll be able to load up the base game and wander wherever you want, crossing between borders at your leisure. Whether it'll all come to fruition remains to be seen, but the development team have already recreated Bruma, the city in Cyrodil, which at least shows that they're making progress. In the latest trailer, the team show off their plans for the provinces of Hammerfell and Highrock, the homelands of the Redguard and Bretons respectively.
Beyond Skyrim is split into a number of separate projects, and this region comes under the Iliac Bay: Tower of Dawn portion. The first areas to come out of it will be the eastern Breton kingdoms of Farrun and Jehanna, as well as the Abecean Isles off the western coast of Hammerfell, and they'll all arrive in a mod called Beyond Skyrim: Three Kingdoms.
The trailer for Three Kingdoms, above, looks impressive, and I can't wait to explore some of its landscapes. I especially like the look of the Hammerfell portion, which will mix arid deserts with lush grasslands and stony hills. I mean, just look at that town at 1:55, built precariously into the side of a rocky cliff, with waterfalls running either side. Gorgeous.
The region is being torn apart by ethnic, religious, cultural, and political divides, which seems like a good opportunity for an adventurer—that's you—to come in and have some fun. It'll have fully-voiced NPCs (the Bruma section had 24,000 lines of dialogue), lots of quests and new items.
The team say they're "not yet in a position to give a firm release date", but that we should expect more information soon. If you want to find out more about Beyond Skyrim, check out its website.
Thanks, RPS.
