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Frost in Morrowind

Serial fiction based on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
(Story writing)


Page contents

- Summary
- Screenshots
- Links


Summary

Unlike most of the other things detailed here in my portfolio, this is not a mod (or professional content) for a computer game - although that might depend on how broadly one defines "mod". It is game related, however. I'm including it here mainly as another demonstration of my capability for extreme dedication to a project.

Frost in Morrowind is a piece of fan fiction (set in the world created by The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind) that I wrote over the course of almost exactly one year. It is extremely dorky, I know; but yet... it exists. I created a character and played through a large part of Morrowind and its expansions, with the events that took place - and a personal story I had in mind for this character - being told in the form of serial fiction that I released online, using Blogger as a vehicle.

I wrote and released three chapters per week, with each chapter being around two thousand words in length. I never missed a deadline for releasing a chapter (the schedule I set myself called for a new chapter every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday), and all this was done in my spare time while I worked full-time. Frost in Morrowind had a dedicated following, which even spawned fan art - based on my fan fiction. :-) I completed the story with one hundred and fifty chapters, plus an epilogue. Along with being written over almost exactly a year, as I said, there were some nice round numbers in there to wrap up with.

From my point of view, it was an interesting project. I began writing it with only the most basic ideas of the story arc the main character - Edward Frost - would experience. Since I was playing through Morrowind - a notably free-form, non-linear, open-world game - with Frost at the same time as I was writing the story, the story and character I had in mind influenced how I played the character, and the occasionally unexpected things that happened in the game influenced events as I wrote them in the story. This was especially true in the early days of the project, and this melding and 'cross-pollination' of the interactive game experience with my own ideas led to a realisation and a crystallisation of the overall story I wanted to tell with the character.

This happened relatively early in the project, and from that point on I knew the main plot points I wanted to hit, and exactly how the story would end. How the character and the story would reach those points was still open to some variation depending on the 'cross-pollination' process above, however, so it remained an interesting project throughout. The story certainly went in some directions I had not expected when embarking on the project.

I created a custom site template for Frost in Morrowind to give it a unique look that (I hoped) meshed comfortably with the story's atmosphere. (At the time of writing, this online portfolio uses the same template, in fact - with a few modifications.) As the story progressed, I changed the title image used on the site to reflect significant changes the main character experienced. These title images can be seen below, in the screenshots section.

I also created some custom face textures for important characters in Frost in Morrowind; and these can be seen in the screenshots that illustrate the story (the link to the story is below). They are certainly of their time (comprising diffuse and glow maps, but no normal or specular maps), but I believe they suited the story - and the game's aesthetic - quite well.

Though it may primarily be fan-fiction, I am very proud of what I achieved with Frost in Morrowind. My writing ability certainly improved over the course of the project (though I do believe it is of consistently high quality throughout).

... I am such a dork.


Screenshots

Title graphic used in the story's early days

Title graphic featuring a custom face texture I made

Title graphic featuring another custom face texture

Title graphic used once the story reached its conclusion


Links

Frost in Morrowind can be read in its entirety here: www.frostinmorrowind.blogspot.com

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