Welcome to my first ever board with a soundtrack!

This board is inspired by Balmora from The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind.

Balmora is one of the first places you likely visit in Morrowind. It’s relatively tame architecturally compared to the remainder of the world, yet it always stands out in my memory.

For one, I love the way the land of Vvardenfell has both regular trees and giant mushrooms everywhere. It feels both familiar and alien all at once.

I also love the architecture. Again, familiar but alien. It’s not as dramatic as the other cities in Vvardenfell, which feature floating houses, homes carved into giant mushrooms, and homes carved into the shells of dead massive bugs.

Balmora retains a charm–from the unique U shaped chairs (seen on the roof above) to the boxy houses often featuring rooftop sitting areas. It’s a fantasy village I’d choose to live in if I were forced to live in a land of racist Dunmer (dark elves).

It likely goes without saying but this board is for The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms. It was a quick project and honestly few projects I’ve worked on have given me so much joy for so little time invested.

I’m probably too happy about it. There’s a lot more that could be done. My emphasis was on time efficiency so I didn’t make my copses of mushroom bushes or work on have 4-5 varieties of mushrooms. I’m hoping The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms bothers to visit Morrowind someday, so I have an excuse to revisit this and expand.

For now I’m deeply satisfied to have finally carved out my own little slice of Vvardenfell on tabletop. This project was long overdue and will likely be seen in every game system I can shove it into.

It’s odd to say but Morrowind left a distinct impression on me, thanks to the work of one man: Greg Kasavin. He wrote reviews for GameSpot circa 2000 or so. His review of Morrowind was the very first thing to make a young Sandro think critically of a game. It made me process and understand how the components of a game can come together to immerse a player and how mechanics that may seem frustrating can in fact actually enhance an atmosphere (ask me about random movement in TooFatLardies games).

If you can bear with a shockingly dull video in retrospect, here’s 8 minutes of some of the most influential video I’ve ever had the joy of watching. It’s… Not impressive in retrospect, but for a pre-teen me, the article that went with this video did a lot to change how I looked at games.

Greg went on to develop hit video games, including Bastion and Hades. Brilliant man and I owe him a debt for getting me into critically analyzing games.

Now pardon me while I go roll up my own Swordsaint in Elder Scrolls in Greg’s honor.