Daedric Ruin Guide

What are Daedric Ruins?

The word Daedra originates from Aldmeri, and translates to “Not our ancestors”, contrasting the word Aedra which means “Our ancestors” (This primarily includes the nine divines). Unlike Skyrim’s pantheon, where the divines are all considered to be good and are worshiped openly, Morrowind’s views on the daedra are more split, with some being considered good, and some not.

The Daedric ruins in Morrowind/Skywind are (mostly) focused on the bad ones. Daedra worship is considered a crime on Vvardenfell, so in general, Daedric ruins should appear somewhat secretive or cult-like to help make them feel more natural in terms of their position in lore. (Though exceptions can always be interesting!)

Types of Daedric Ruins

All Daedric Ruins are dedicated to a specific Daedra. While there are many Daedric Princes, the ancient and forbidden ruins found in Skywind are only dedicated to these specific ones. Your design should incorporate and reflect each Daedric Lord’s ideals with specific visuals, traps, puzzles, and enemy placements. Below is a brief overview of the Daedric Princes along with a spreadsheet of ideas to implement in each type of shrine. Feel free to add to it!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hIxzxdj4Xs2AuZVwpFAqAYDFsQeaJXs6tyJUTE0AyTI/edit?usp=sharing

Malacath (Strength, curses, combat, tribalism)
- Malacath (Formerly known as Trinimac) is the god of curses, evil, murder, and generally bad things. Malacath is worshiped primarily by orcs, though he does have followers of other races. Being one of the gods who refused to play nice with the Tribunal, he is considered one of the “bad Daedra”.
Mehrunes Dagon (change, revolution, energy, ambition, destruction, blood, flames)
- Mehrunes Dagon is the daedric prince of destruction, and debatable the most evil one. Being the main villain of Oblivion, you should have a pretty good idea already of what he’s about. He likes murder, and hates people. Being convinced that Tamriel is part of his domain, he has tried to invade and conquer it, not once, not twice, but, well… a lot. He’s done it a lot. Dremora were created to be his soldiers so you’ll likely find a lot of them in his shrines!
Molag Bal (Domination, power, enslavement, conquest)
- Molag Bal is similar to Mehrunes Dagon in the fact that he’s basically just an evil god. In Morrowind, he is the god of domination and power. Vampires are his creation and Coldharbour his domain. You’ll probably find all sorts of torture chambers, slave pens, and other manical machinations in his ruins.
Sheogorath (Madness)
- Sheogorath is the god of madness, and is the main focus of the Shivering Isles DLC in Oblivion. To give you an idea of how wacky he is, have a look at his quest. These ruins are relatively open to different definitions of madness. Try to have them reflect different things like mania and dementia.

Azura
- Despite Azura being one of the good daedra in the eyes of the dunmer, there are a couple examples of her having her own daedric ruins. In the base game, this only applies to Ald Daedroth and her own Shrine, but it’s still important to keep her influence in mind when building her shrine.

Using the set

Have a look at the cell “DushariranShrine” for an example of how the Daedric set can be used. “Almurbalarammi” also has some rough tests you can use as inspiration.
Most Daedric assets can be found under the search term “0Archi_Daedric_In”
Ceiling can be tricky, check test cells
Asymmetry and claustrophobic areas encouraged

Designing your ruin

Remember, daedra worship is illegal, and thus daedric ruins should not (usually) seem very inviting to outsiders.
Daedric shrines are meant to be higher leveled dungeons, so make sure to make things difficult. .
Make your dungeon make sense geographically! Daedric ruins have large sections above ground, and if the door to the ruin is at the top of the tower, don’t have the ruin start by going up vertically! If it’s level with the ground and there’s no other structures nearby, make it go down a bit before going in other directions to accommodate the high vaulted ceilings.

Clutter usage

Clutter is currently in the works but plan your areas to include tables, altars, shrines, benches, braziers, and more.

Enemies

Morrowind is packed with unique types of Daedra all with unique lore and abilities, so make sure to read over what enemies will suit your tomb best before placing them around! Here’s some information on what we’ve got:

Atronachs

Flame, frost, and storm atronachs all are themed around their respectives attributes, and are proficient in casting their type of spell. They have no affiliation with any particular Daedra, so feel free to use them anywhere.

Clannfear

Clannfears are raptor-like creatures with low speed but high strength and are found relatively frequently around Vvardenfell. They are mostly commonly associated with Mehrunes Dagon, however they are also found in other planes of Oblivion.

Daedroth

Daedroths are anthropomorphic crocodilian creatures which serve Molag Bal. Wielding sharp claws, poison spit, and the ability to breath fire, they are incredibly powerful and can serve as good boss enemies. Daedroths are actually found in the wild, and can vary massively in size, so feel free to scale them up or down a little bit.

Dremora

Dremora are some of the most powerful daedric summons found on Vvardenfell and primarily serve Mehrunes Dagon, though there are a few examples of some going rogue and forming their own armies. They were the grunts who stormed Tamriel during the oblivion crisis and armed with their wide array of spells and high strength, will be able to take down an unprepared player very quickly.

Golden Saint

Golden Saints are another very powerful daedric summon and primarily serve Sheogorath. They are found frequently in the Shivering Isles DLC in Oblivion and thus are recognizable to many players. They should be used sparingly, as they carry very high level gear and can take down even a high level character quickly.

Hunger

Hungers are another powerful daedra, and serve Boethiah (One of the good Daedra actually, according to the Dunmer). Hungers are immune to nearly all forms of magical and physical damage, and have high powered attacks. They are found somewhat commonly in the wild, so despite them serving Boethiah they can be used in a wide array of ruins.

Ogrim

Ogrims are exactly what they look like, big doofuses who can smash things. Ogrims slowly regenerate health meaning encounters are usually most interesting with enemies accompanying the Ogrim, letting the player strategize about how to get around the healing. They serve Malacath and are intended to resemble grotesque, powerful orcs. Our Ogrims are rigged to the skeleton of Skyrim’s Giants, so keep the size of your room in mind before placing one of these.

Scamp

Scamps are the weakest summoned daedra found on Tamriel, and serve Mehrunes Dagon. They are found everywhere and thus work well if you’re looking to build a small encounter. Despite their low stats they do have resistances to unenchanted non-silver weapons, so warriors might have a bit of trouble taking one down.

Winged Twilight

Winged Twilights are another powerful daedric summon, serving the daedric lord Azura as messengers. Thus, while Winged Twilights can be placed anywhere, they’d most likely be found alone or away from major city centers. Potentially in a private nest free from cultists.

It is nice to keep your enemies in fitting locations, but it’s not required, remember:

“... But don’t judge a summoning by its patron. The Summoner commands a summoning, and, good or bad, nice or nasty, they must do the summoner’s bidding.”

- Literally every NPC in the game, Circa 3E

Traps

Daedra worshippers are likely under frequent attack from religious mobs and the temple’s ordinators, so having a couple traps is reasonable, some of our base traps include:

- Flame/Frost/Shock throwers
- Dart throwers
- Wall/Floor spikes
- Trapped chests/doors
- Swinging axes and maces
- Health draining crystals
- Health damaging red mist
- Soul gem turrets
- Loot enchanted to summon daedra when taken
- False door/spike trap
- Floor tiles that shoot fire or spikes

Talk to Coding if you’ve got a unique trap idea that you want to try implementing.

Puzzles

Daedric ruins are high level areas and should seem mysterious, so it can be nice to throw some sort of puzzle into a ruin. Whether it be a simple activator, or an entire theme, Daedric ruins should include interactables. If you can theme the puzzle around the specific prince, give it a shot (Coding should also be able to help with puzzle creation).

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