If you need any proof that Morrowind is the best Elder Scrolls game, consider how many times modders have spent years trying to recreate it in other game engines. As one group of modders is currently working to convert Skyrim into its older sibling Morrowind, another is ramping up work on recreating the RPG into a vastly different game, and the results already look compelling.
You could make the case (and many have) for both Morrowind and Elden Ring being among the best open-world RPGs of all time. Aside from genre, though, the two games have very little in common, which makes their crossover all the more exciting. Modder InfernoPlus recently revealed his latest creation mixing the two games in a video that shows that, while the project is still in its early days, it’s one fans of either game might want to keep an eye on.
Tentatively called Elden Scrolls, the new mod already looks remarkably interesting despite not being functional yet. In two YouTube videos, InfernoPlus provides a short summary of the state of the project and a longer dive into how it all works and what needs to be done to turn it into a playable game.
The short version is that, at least visually, the entire region of Vvardenfell, where Morrowind takes place, has already been ported into Elden Ring’s engine. You can run across the entire map from end to end, including walking into complete building interiors. Lighting has even been implemented across the map, along with bespoke weather and skies depending on where in the world you are. So far, it looks fantastic, already capturing the vibe of areas from the ashy Red Mountain to the swampy settlement of Seyda Neen.
What’s still left to do is pretty much everything else. Every friendly NPC is currently using a single model from Elden Ring as a stand-in, and every enemy is a goat. You can talk to them, but individual NPC dialogue hasn’t been assigned to them yet, meaning you can have every possible conversation in Morrowind with any character. Quests and crucial gameplay systems still have to be implemented as well, and items need to be placed individually. That means that while Elden Scrolls already looks extremely impressive, it’s not a functional game yet by any means.
Unlike the Skywind mod, InfernoPlus’ latest release isn’t rebuilding Morrowind from the ground up in the new engine. Instead, it uses the game files from Morrowind and converts them into Elden Ring files so they can be loaded directly in the new engine through a process that I’m frankly not equipped to understand. That means that the mod doesn’t include any of Morrowind’s files, so you’ll need a copy of the game to use the mod when it’s eventually available — which InfernoPlus says should keep him out of legal trouble, which he’s faced for mods in the past.
While Skywind has been under development for years now, Elden Scrolls is brand new. InfernoPlus lays out what’s left to be done, which includes plenty of behind-the-scenes code work, as well as new 3D art for assets like equipment and enemies, which can’t be directly ported over from Morrowind due to the difference in fidelity and art style between the two games.
As InfernoPlus says, there’s still a lot of work left to do on the mod, and though it may be time-consuming and difficult, none of it is impossible. According to the modder, the idea for Elden Scrolls came about because while Morrowind is an indisputable classic, it obviously feels quite dated today. In some ways, the clunkiness of Morrowind is part of its charm, and of course a replica could never replace the original, but I’d still be thrilled to play a version of it with Elden Ring’s considerably better combat. If nothing else, the in-development mod is an oddity that’s impressive through the sheer scope of ambition it represents, and yet another reminder that Morrowind deserves its place as one of the most revered RPGs of all time.
