The Lore-Accurate Scale of the Imperial City | A Portrait of Tamriel in UNREAL ENGINE 5 [4K]

Long requested and awaited… the Imperial City! Part of an ongoing project to visualise a more realistic and lore accurate scale to Tamriel’s cities - here we have the Imperial City, capital of the Tamrielic Empire - now with sixteen times the detail!
Pretty much the biggest Elder Scrolls project I’ve done so far in terms of scale. The purpose of this was to get a large-scale concept of what a city of this size would really be like in real life, removed from gameplay and technical limitations. References included Ancient Rome and Tenochtitlan, and of course, the original depiction from Oblivion and its concept art.
If you enjoy my content and want to help support the channel, you can buy me a coffee! ko-fi.com/lion...
From a playability standpoint, I’m not sure that you’d actually want something this big - it’s a lot of work for the artists and you run the risks of making a big, empty world with not much to do. But for lore visualisations like this - not really an issue!
Rendered out in Unreal Engine 5.4 on a 3090. Using a mix of third-party models and custom assets modelled in Blender, textured in Mixer. Nanite was used for all models and foliage; Lumen for global illumination and reflections.
Please NOTE: This is a FANMADE cinematic lore visualisation for the Elder Scrolls. It is NOT a mod!
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
Soundtrack: ‘Uncharted Lands' - Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen.
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#UE5 #Skyrim #ElderScrolls

[@lion_towers3d]

Long requested and pretty much the biggest Elder Scrolls project I’ve done so far in terms of scale... The purpose of this was to get a large-scale concept of what a city of this size would really be like in real life, removed from gameplay and technical limitations ArtStation: www.artstation.com/artwork/xDa4gY Soundtrack: ‘Uncharted Lands' - Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen

[@olavops1000]

My brother in Christ, you can't leave us hanging with a 90 seconds video. This masterpiece deserves more attention! Give us a zoom in or smt!

[@aaronrivas7977]

@@olavops1000right?! I’d watch a whole series dedicated to showcasing every part of the city

[@Kingedwardiii2003]

So like GTA?

[@Halo_Legend]

What's the radius?

[@ca_kay]

Shouldn't the tower be taller?

[@kakemot]

you mean to say the emperor does not only rule over seventeen people

[@TreacGags]

give some respect! Almost twenty

[@janog.5170]

@@TreacGags There are literally not more than 20 people in single district

[@pwnsh4rk6]

@@janog.5170 phew, good thing there are more than one district

[@agresorxf]

Epic and true comment xD

[@hrodvithit]

It's what drove me nuts about cities in Skyrim. Before you notice you can kinda suspend the disbelief, but as soon as you notice it's impossible to shake how bleeding tiny it is. Like there are more guards than townsfolk in most cities. The bandits outside a city generally outnumber the entire city. Especially seems egregious with the Forsworn and Markarth, with how they are trying to infiltrate, when they could seemingly just walk in the front door. They are more organised than the bandit groups to boot.

[@eleven99]

That's a lot of buildings for the 50 inhabitants that dwell within the Imperial City in Oblivion

[@miguelpereira9859]

@@vonfaustien3957 TES urban centers basically didnt grow in scale since Morrowind lol

[@jonathanpilcher337]

​@@miguelpereira9859they got smaller actually, hence the imperial city having less people than vivec city

[@TheKolboShow]

Irc the Imperial City is the most important urban center in Tamriel by far. About 110.000 people live in Daggerfall, so it'd make sense for the defacto capital of the continent to have as many people as ancient Rome, or one million residents, give or take. So in Oblivion, those 50 residents represent 20000 people each.

[@TheKolboShow]

Of course, that "one million" number is just me speculating, buuut, the population of Daggerfall being 110.000 people IS canon. And we can safely assume that a random city in High Rock probably does not have more people than the literal capital of the continent.

[@Wolfknight1992]

@@TheKolboShow Bro, Daggerfall is not a "random city" it's the capital city of High Rock and thus the biggest city in the province. But I do agree with your speculation of the Imperial city's population numbers.

[@tiagomakosch5813]

Now this gives you the feels of an *Imperial City*

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you!

[@tiagomakosch5813]

@@lion_towers3d Bethesda should call you

[@FreelancerFreak]

Some day computers will be able to do this. Give it 30 years

[@HA-gu1qk]

Yeah oblivion was disappointing as fuck! Even the capital of vvardenfel felt much larger and complex!

[@SalvationIsInChristAlone]

@@HA-gu1qkSkyrim, even more so.

[@DigitalApex]

Now THIS feels like the capital of the Empire, embedded in the heart of Cyrodiil. A huge, sprawling city built by the Ayleids at the very height of their power. A white stone fortress with titanic walls that are strategically incapable of being scaled, wrapping around the entire city, dotted with sentinel bastilles, reinforced doors, and lined with nearly endless streets. The harbor being a nexus of trade, commerce, and travel, the beating heart of the city. The White-Gold Tower visible for miles and miles, from almost every corner of the province, an unmistakable landmark that shows the very size and might of the Empire. A symbol of the emperor and a reminder of man's humble beginnings and just how far St. Alessia's prayers have come. I know we will never see a fully-sized and to-scale Tamriel, but this helps paint that picture.

[@user-ss4sp1mk5w]

Is there galvanized steel though?

[@Fusion05]

I hope they stick with Fallout 4 sized cities. Starfield actually had decent scale it was just extremely time consuming to travel in said cities.

[@musicaltarrasque]

Unless humanity goes extinct someone will make full-scaled Tamriel playable in the next century or so

[@IR-kb1qs]

@@user-ss4sp1mk5w Dragon fire does not crumble white stone. Wake up!

[@R_o_o_k_i_n_g_t_o_n]

@@Fusion05 i hope bethesda crumbles and microsoft dumps em before having a new studio that actually cares about making good games take the fallout and TES ips....

[@SebastianWeinberg]

I still remember that moment as I was walking along the road from Chorrol to Bruma, halfway up the mountains, when the trees on my right fell away and I had an unobstructed view over the game's landscape. Seeing the White-Gold Tower jutting up out of the landscape - not a painted skybox, but an actual 3D object I could see from a distance of several in-game miles away - was a _revelation_ at that time. Bethesda didn't _invent_ the use of low-LOD impostors, but they used it to _such_ great effect in Oblivion. That's why the tower has a special place in my heart.

[@AT-9777]

Yeah it's so cool to see it randomly when walking around Cyrodiil

[@saladinbob]

You could set an entire TES game in the Imperial city accurately scaled to Lore and it would still be the largest TES we've had since Daggerfall.

[@vulkanofnocturne]

I'd love to see that. Alas people are keen on their "open worlds" - so called.

[@rosesareredbutzerglingssti9290]

Maybe one day we can be able to play a TES game set in a more realistic and real-life scaled world of Nirn.

[@fungunsun1]

Sounds like Assassin Creed type of game

[@DMIwriter]

It certainly won't be to this scale, but there's a Morrowind mod project I love called Province: Cyrodiil that adds Cyrodiil into Morrowind according to older and weirder 2002-era lore. The Imperial City hasn't been added in and likely won't for a while, but the scale will be noticably larger than TESIV. According to their development map, the Imperial City will be very large

[@DrAhzek]

@@rosesareredbutzerglingssti9290 Not on Gamebryo you're not :D As long as Bethesda is stuck using that engine as a base for their own engines, it will always be the same story - save bloating compact worlds with very artificial lifeforms.

[@arcannvalerious8022]

A capital worthy of a continent.

[@Legionary-4]

The greatest jewel of Tamriel.

[@HA-gu1qk]

Yeah oblivion was disappointing as f

[@husky3g]

@@HA-gu1qk It was because they were limited by the technology of the time. Skyrim would have made more sense to come first with Oblivion afterwards but seeing how Bethesda really scaled down the world in every game, it only makes sense that they would do the same thing again.

[@ramirocha7576]

ex

[@The_sargent23]

​@@HA-gu1qkno its old thats all the lore is what matters

[@AlshainFR]

The waterfront is probably my favourite part. It feels so alive with all the ships

[@aa306911]

The two bridges over to the port is my favorite part. The scale of travel is so cool. Which the camera would have went to the streets.

[@Diabolictoaster]

I think this is underestimating a Rome like sized city. Rome was feed by massive grain fleets. The IC was equal or larger to Rome. So it would have a larger amount of ships in the water. A quick Google search has one site estimating Portus Romes port got something like 16 or so incoming ships daily. Larger than Rome at it's peak by some estimates.

[@puppergump4117]

@@Diabolictoaster did you mean 160 cause i feel like 16 is average for a population of lik 30k

[@serarthurdayne4259]

​@@puppergump4117 NO AT BETHESDA ITS ALWAYS 16😅

[@ChristianGarcia-yg7pp]

The side quest "Finding the cat for the old lady" would be hard here!

[@Marckus87]

Let's say that without help it would become the most difficult mission in the game😂

[@maxthibodeau3627]

first day on a Minecraft lets play: dirt house second day after a "little bit" of off screen grinding:

[@Toaster_Weevil]

Seeing it at this scale puts into context how horrifying the sacking of the Imperial City during Great War with the Dominion must’ve been

[@commissarkordoshky219]

it's the dominion. Anything they do is horrifying. - I wouldnt even be surprised if they did human sacrifice.

[@BBRocker75]

@@commissarkordoshky219 For the Queen!

[@alexiel4406]

@@commissarkordoshky219they did summon deadra so it is likely that they used sacrifices

[@SizzleCorndog]

Forget that, think about Pelinal tearing through it by himself. The sheer distance alone is staggering

[@imperialinquisition6006]

@@BBRocker75 I think the dominion at the time of Skyrim is a lot worse than the ESO dominion under Ayrenn.

[@XOPOIIIO]

Searching for Armand Christophe will be difficult.

[@davisbowe8668]

Don’t worry, we’ll get him

[@BeefSuprim]

The journey is more important than the destination.

[@alifakbar4232]

Metredhel spending days just to find you on the other side of Imperial City

[@mussicanttakegreece7296]

​@@alifakbar4232 Only for us to fast travel to the gates.

[@ላንካ]

Indeed

[@boreanknight]

Reminds me of Rome, Constantinople and Tenochtitlan, 3 in 1.

[@lion_towers3d]

I did in fact use Ancient Rome and Tenochtitlan as more real-world reference for this!

[@TheLordboki]

Tenochtitlan, Rome of the West

[@dylanplumley280]

Don’t forget atlantis

[@SplendidFactor]

Not too far off, considering that Cyrodiil used to be more tropical, before Tiber Septim used CHIM to make it more temperate (it's complicated and convoluted).

[@concept5631]

​@@TheLordboki Spain: *_helo_*

[@Anchor-Supreme]

A game set inside of the Imperial City where you’re a detective trying to solve a murder or take down a group of thieves would be awesome. Clearly a lore-accurate Imperial City would be big enough for something like that.

[@michaelrosenstock9187]

Morrowind tribunal....

[@salwellingood1689]

I can still hear the dark elves saying : "City of Light, the city of magic!"

[@Qureas]

Or a new "Thief" game set in the imperial city. Working your way up to rob the white gold tower of some important artifact for the thieves guild.

[@Practitioner_of_Diogenes]

The sheer size of each district is the size of a middle size town, hot damn. Now THAT, *THAT* is the seat of an Empire worthy of Tiber Septim's' rule.

[@caffiend81]

Now THAT'S the seat of an Empire.

[@ricrosa5250]

Imagine being a Thief's Guild and the number of houses, chests, locks that you can open >:D

[@redwitch12]

You'd barely get down one whole street before you started persistently hallucinating "You are over encumbered" in the upper left corner of your visual field :D

[@hosenOne1]

@@redwitch12 no u'd get Vampire's disease from the sewers and burn to death before you got the cure. but on the other hand ur agility and acrobatics would be 100 100 if this were the scale of the game lol

[@user-pc5qj2ix2c]

100 lockpicking speedrun here we go!

[@paleface171]

@@redwitch12 "Have you seen Armand Christophe?" EVERYWHERE

[@ThieflyChap]

Oh yes indeed!

[@bigfluff73]

amazing, but there should be some town squares, forums and open spaces.

[@writershard5065]

The more detail you start to add into the city, the bigger the scope becomes of this project. This was definitely made with the idea of giving a bird's eye view, rather than going into greater detail.

[@OneTrueVikingbard]

That was one of the parts of the Imperial City that I liked the least. How are people going to mock Skyrim’s towns for being “empty villages” when there’s a whole lot of empty space in the Imperial City in Oblivion?

[@FrederikoCMR]

Check at 0:29, there are

[@Watchmanskey]

I always imagined that in-canon, the Imperial Arboretum is just a giant expanse of idyllic farms, fields, and orchards, which are used to feed the entire city

[@xyreniaofcthrayn1195]

@@Watchmanskey The imperial foodstuff ingredients are surrounding imperial island but never actually displayed in game because of hardware issues that for the most part limited the software issues.

[@prodicalking]

I still remember playing Morrowind and imagining the Empire far off, living in the ruins of an ancient Elvish city, imagining it still swallowed by jungle... but millions of people living there.

[@GhANeC]

I remember Michael kirkbride commenting on his satisfaction regarding the final result and release of Oblivion, EXCEPT for its rendering of the City, which he felt that, as much effort and time had been put into, was quite shy of the epicness and grandiosity that the Empire’s capital deserved. More than any other city that could be depicted. I wonder if he would smile watching this video.

[@tutes0133]

I'm blown away by this. This truly looks and feels like the throne of an Empire that spanned a continent. The center of civilization.

[@lion_towers3d]

Cheers!

[@clozmo2171]

Baghdad

[@jamesswanson4085]

After seeing this.. I would VERY much love to see Vivec City Real Scale!

[@Tristyn_Waterman]

Yes!

[@jesterssketchbook]

yes plez

[@Watchmanskey]

Vivec City, Mournhold, Sadrith Mora, and Blacklight would be breathtaking

[@enviritas9498]

@@Watchmanskey Daggerfall, Direnni Tower and Orsinium

[@calciumman5545]

Yes!

[@stevej71393]

I prefer to think that a realistic Imperial City would be to have a small ringed Ayleid core, similar to what you see in Oblivion, but outside the walls is a massive disorganized metropolis, similar to ancient Rome. Inside the walls would be the wealthiest and highest ranking in the Empire, with the wide streets and advanced sewer system. But outside the walls would be all the peasants living in ramshackle flats with few amenities. The neatly organized wheel of the original Ayleid city would contrast with the spaghetti mess of the rest of the city outside.

[@FooeyTurtle]

That’s what I always thought too

[@Watchmanskey]

Exactly what I thought. The Imperial City we saw in Oblivion is just the city's inner ring, where all the nobles and rich merchants live. I imagined the outer rings to look like Shiganshina or Trost from Attack on Titan

[@kb-ww1uw]

I agree. the scale of this seems like it is the city in the current era, but obviously thousands of years ago when the walls were being built there were less inhabitants, so the main ring should be smaller.

[@bitchshowmazafaka]

Это по сути представление Жителя Империи об окружающих его варварах, хотя нет никаких доказательств, что в Риме было именно так. Любые античные города очень большие и цельно-развитые. Это в современную эру почти везде появились гетто, но в древнем мире никаких следов гетто не наблюдается.

[@rogeriopenna9014]

@@Watchmanskey Still too small. Only 150 people in all of the Imperial City in Oblivion.

[@dannyn.6933]

Now this is a city worthy of being the seat of a continental-sized empire.

[@larryjohnson4906]

I remember when I first played Oblivion, I was absolutely shocked at how tiny the imperial city was. Even within the technical limitations of the time it was just astonishing that this mini golf course was unironically intended to feel like a big city

[@ladygrey7425]

Definitely reminds me of Rome, with a bit of influence from Tenochtitlan.

[@lion_towers3d]

As it turns out - I used both of those as real-world references for this!

[@skip0]

Looks like Asgard to me, lol.

[@harrytabb328]

I DREAM of the day when our computers can handle settings like this. Can you imagine playing in this city, first person, walking it's streets?

[@flameguy3416]

Well with very efficient Culling methods this is possible, but you'd first have to design, model and populate that entire city which is bigger than New York which by then would be such a long time that Brain Computer Interfaces would probably already exist.

[@bacc3088]

It wouldn't be a good game. Sheer scale can only do so much. It is not at all feasible to pack so many streets and neighborhoods with meaningful content. To say nothing of the fact that this would NEED to be procedurally generated (which is infinitely more difficult to pull off with cities than it is with wilderness). You'd end up with a Starfield situation all over again. The hard cap has to do with human resources and we've hit that a long time ago.

[@herbertnatanael]

On Vr with a haptic suite

[@pianoman9421]

@@bacc3088 Except one day processing may be able to handle it. And you could have 13,500 game designer AI, each with a unique approach, and 25,000 writer AI complete amazing volume after volume of simulated work. It now strikes me as unethical so people--let's not do that. But we're probably going to. Sigh.

[@French408]

@@pianoman9421 Assuming the commonfolk survive this next decade or two IRL-- I think gaming will have another golden age. One day.

[@ishmamahmed9306]

For more realism, one would have to imagine that there should be lots of farms on City Isle, and along the shores of Lake Rumare. Though it is possible to imagine that there are a lot of productive food gardens within the walls of the city.

[@olha2]

Yeah, big agriculture areas should surround the IC. Skyblivion has fixed this in their mod.

[@le_marc]

Leo mentioned Tenōchtitlān so there may be a lot of floating gardens-like structures (chināmitl) around the lake, feeding the city with food year round.

[@Watchmanskey]

I always imagined they put all the farms and orchards and fields on the Arboretum District. It's a giant expanse of idyllic pastoral lands

[@Daniel-nf1gq]

It's an empire, they import things

[@le_marc]

@@Daniel-nf1gq Not always. The Empire that relies hugely on imported goods can't be strong. They need solid base (at the very least, solid supply lines) before they can even think about expansion

[@manelcolomer9044]

1:18 Can you imagine walking for 30min to go from the Arboretum to the Arcane University? 🤣

[@Craz3t0wn]

Id like to see "elder scrolls legends: thief" set in a lore accurate imperial city, also bring back the climbing skill for it!

[@FirewallMightyHero]

Prior to oblivion, this was the original concept of the Imperial city. One dev mentioned that it was supposed to be so big that parts of the city were abandoned and the jungle began to grow back in the ruins. Then LOTR came out and Bethesda decided they wanted discount Minas Tirith for oblivion

[@concept5631]

Classic Bethesda. Ruining the good things they have going for them.

[@IrateGamingZealot]

It's not as though they would have done it justice even if they hadn't decided it should look like LOTR.

[@gaulicwarlord]

Todd and Emil don’t manage to fuck up their games challenge: impossible. That being said I loved oblivion.

[@SirMattomaton]

It's still iconic. Your caustic personality isn't going to change the fact Bethesda wasn't always a conveyor belt of poor decisions. They were at one time extremely and reliably successful.

[@concept5631]

@@SirMattomaton *_were_*

[@69mihail96]

Holy crap, looks amazing, but can you imagine how much farming must go into feeding all these mouths?

[@ZacharyBelli]

If you played oblivion vanilla or modded, you can see how much farming goes on there. Basically the entire middle is farmable, except swamp in the south and mountains in the far north.

[@jaygupta1477]

Homie’s talking like they don’t feed an entire country

[@tedwink6652]

seems like they using Scroll dupe exploit to get lot of food to feed so much folks

[@MealsBeast]

another breathtaking recreation, I love the small details of the lights outside of walls at night, of coarse some people would live there, and the ships and boats make it feel so much more alive. your interpretations of the elder scrolls world is captivating

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you so much!

[@Frank-fg4jx]

Very good work, but I think there's too many trees in the city that it looks like a forest mixed with buildings.

[@Makrangoncias]

If you take a few notes as constructive criticism: There is a distinct lack of public spaces: There should be markets, agorae, huge public and private buildings breaking up the monotony of the city. There should be a lot more smaller temples, resembling in shape of the bigger ones but more scattered around the city. There should be a lot more arenas or amphitheaters, universities, schools, all kinds of public buildisng which we know are present in the imperial cities. There should be public parks, intersections with a lot more open space and such. These are for added realism, you did a great job at bringing the City to scale!

[@horstherbert35]

The place should also be surrounded by lots of farmland, or they wont have a way to feed all those people living there

[@leonesytigresyosos2695]

And why there is a forest-like tree density within the city????

[@Qureas]

And ports. There are a lot of ships there but no docks.

[@RealTallestSkil]

@@leonesytigresyosos2695 That can be explained, at least, in two ways. One, human psychology. We love seeing nature. It’s healthy for us, subconsciously. Two, imagine they’re all fruit-bearing. They would HAVE to be, given that the city is surrounded by mountains unsuitable for growing crops. The ONE TWO-LANE ROADWAY into the entire city is already going to have 24/7/365 snout to cart traffic in both directions. Every moment of every day. An entire profession will have to be created and given imperial-level rank of “We can do whatever we want” in order to keep it flowing. If it stops, the city starves. If it slows, the city starves slowly. Having your own fruit trees in your yard would help mitigate the unfathomable costs of food. But if you can afford to live in the city, you can probably afford the food, anyway.

[@papalaz4444244]

@@horstherbert35 They would trade for massive amounts of food using the massive harbour. No city that size is EVER self sufficient

[@Andrews_Sandy]

Imagine a city this large besieged by the Aldmeri Dominion during the great war, must be a sight to see

[@Galimeer5]

Gotta do Lore Accurate Alinor with its "impossibly high towers" and spires that look like they're made of glass or insect wings that cast rainbows across the city. Not the store-brand Rivendell we got in ESO.

[@angryvaultguy]

Everything in ESO feels like the dollar version of the lore accurate version

[@Sphendrana]

@@angryvaultguy You are SO right about that lmao

[@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty]

Y'all have bad opinions on Alinor. Alinor and the whole of Summerset is gorgeous in ESO. Best architecture in the series hands down. You can't say it's not beautiful in game because it is. Fits the high elves very well.

[@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082]

​@@ThunderTheBlackShadowKittynot even close to good

[@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty]

@@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082 Yes it is. It's incredibly good. Y'all have bad opinions of Alinor in ESO. It's gorgeous. The architecture has so much life and detail in it. Feels like an actual paradise. Actual heaven. That's what the Summerset Isles effectively are - heaven. There's no better place in Tamriel to live a peaceful life.

[@ravinosaurus]

now THAT is a city. Long waited for this rendition, and you didn't disappoint. Really what I imagined the IC to look like. Though I lowkey hoped for a street view 🥲 Anyways, it still looks incredible. Fantastic work 💯

[@lion_towers3d]

Thanks so much!

[@Stefan_Iho]

A city 16 times the size of the whole map of Fallout 4. ~ Todd Howard chugging a Pint of Scoma

[@musthaf9]

The historical equivalent of Imperial City would the capital of the Abbasid Empire, the Round City of Baghdad. The ancient city was surrounded by perfectly circular 3 layer of walls, penetrated by 4 gates, with the palace and gardens in the centre

[@sussurus]

If you look at the Pocket Guide to the Empire, v1 that was shipped with Redguard back in the '90s, you'll see that the lore-accurate Imperial City is actually a collection of disparate islands heavily urbanised and built up in almost Venetian fashion, with a lot of waterways. Imo it's a lot cooler than the generic fantasy circle-city we see in Oblivion and later. You can see how this would have looked if you search for Project Tamriel's interpretation. I really love how the Waterfront district looks in this video, though.

[@MarsAnonymous]

Yeah, this. The video is disappointing. it's just a scaled-up Oblivion version, not the one that was described in the lore.

[@fretzil]

yeah unfortunately with oblivion Bethesda decided to just turn the imperial city into Rome Light, and imperials into the Romans. Early lore basically didn't actually have a proper Imperial race, in Arena and Daggerfall it was just a melting pot city, Morrowind onwards it did start having them as their own race, but they were still a lot more interesting. even funnier, the original race to be roman and greek inspired was the Argonians.

[@SrChr778]

When you think back to the Great War of the 4th Era, this is the expanse that the Legion and Thalmor fought upon. Just imagine the sheer amount of urban combat... must be overwhelming on all fronts.

[@VeritasEt]

i imagined the exact same, brutal

[@christianfreedom-seeker934]

That city has "our space saucer landed here and as it sank into the mud, we built a huge city on it" vibe.

[@lawrencelawsen6824]

I love the visuals

[@lgjm5562]

Then we built another city, and that sank into the mud.

[@shekharbanerjee9738]

@@lgjm5562 dwemer origin story

[@Nightdreamr]

You're kind of on point with that. The Adamantine Tower, the oldest structure in Tamriel, is actually a spaceship used and abandoned by the Aedra. And the tower shown here, the White-Gold Tower, is built as an imitation of the Adamantine Tower by the Ayleids.

[@512TheWolf512]

the white-gold tower is too small. it's established in Arena, that all the major towers on Tamriel are absolutely COLOSSAL.

[@keithadams7619]

The enormity of the Imperial City as depicted here, if it's more true to scale than its game equivalent, makes me wonder how the Aldmeri Dominion encircled and captured it in the Great War. You'd need inconceivable numbers and an even more inconceivable logistical machine to besiege it.

[@Tasorius]

Those fascist elves very much rely on magic in their evil conquests...

[@mane42]

I *LOVE* your lore-accurate Elder Scrolls cities series! They're always breathtakingly beautiful and are always really fun to look at for hours on end. Keep it up!

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you so much!

[@jamiegilleece9394]

Why have we never had an actual series or film made in this universe? There's so much content rich stories to be had from the lore its gotta be done soon!

[@jesterssketchbook]

exactly - looking at stuff like this really makes you wish for a TES show or film. These scenes look like "establishing shots" before the camera cuts to a scene of people living their life in these environs

[@rudde7918]

Why would you want them to ruin another great videogame with a film or show about it?

[@BloodwyrmWildheart]

@@rudde7918 Exactly this. When I was young and naive, I wanted this for every game I liked and would play it out in my head, to great effect. But now that I'm older, I know how corrupt the industry is and see exactly what "film adaptation" does to IPs.

[@stargate525]

Because the lore is impenetrable; half of it reads like the ramblings borne from a 60s drug trip.

[@dinoblacklane1640]

You want to give the elder scrolls the same treatment that they gave fallout?

[@dcghoul101]

Another great video. Looking at these large-scale concepts in UE5, I try to imagine what the Capital Wasteland [Fallout 3] would look like.

[@lion_towers3d]

Thanks!

[@attentionlabel]

An Assassin's Creed type Elder Scrolls game in this map would be INSANE

[@salemsarni-gg7md]

Clicked so fast I didn't even know what it's about. I'm sure it's epic though.

[@wij2012Gaming]

The night shots are gorgeous. Imagine if one day, we got an Elder Scrolls game that was sized accurately to the lore for the whole of Tamriel?

[@nicholasrandall3507]

That sounds cool until you consider what such a game would entail. It would take decades to make and cost thousands of dollars for each copy. The computer needed to run it would cost at least $10k. Even the shortest quest would take hours. Content would be spread so thin 99% of game time would just be walking. Most of the game would never be seen since fast travel would be used for any distance larger than a few city blocks. No one would beat it, few would buy it, and even Amazon would hesitate to take such a financial risk. The closest game nowadays to that scale would be Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode, and even that isn't much larger than a US State.

[@Macielos1]

I think the best balance between gameplay, realism and epicness would be simply to feature fragments of the world and have the player travel between them. Dragon Age: Origins did it well in my opinion. Denerim felt like a huge city and devs didn't have to design any districts irrelevant to the plot.

[@funkydozer]

This is exactly how it looked - and still looks - in Todd’s brain

[@InheritorToll]

Lol no. That cuck never had any vision. Kirkbride and others were the people who had that. Toddler has always been a glorified snake oil salesman and grifter.

[@donaldpetersen2382]

Would love a cinematic featuring the radiant ai crowds gossiping in the background. We all love the big stones but we cant forget the chaos within

[@anthonyrinaldi1331]

The beating heart of a continental empire

[@terterar1610]

"I was born 87 years ago. For 65 years I've ruled as Tamriel's Emperor. But for all these years I have never been the ruler of my own dreams. I have seen the Gates of Oblivion, beyond which no waking eye may see. Behold, in Darkness a Doom sweeps the land. This is the 27th of Last Seed; the Year of Akatosh 433. These are the closing days of the 3rd Era, and the final hours of my life" And "Reign of Septims" starts playing. Fourteen years have passed irrevocably, but this game still brings me to a childish delight.

[@Avroveks]

I hope "The Wayward Realms" will give us something close to such cities

[@Hrimstal]

Yeah, I sure hope it can deliver. I'd say the Daggerfall cities were big, but not massive. However, there were an absurd amount of them.

[@johnbrady4380]

I’m obsessed with this and can’t stop watching! You do such a great job of bringing these cities to life! Your work is really inspiring! 🙌🏻❤️

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you so much!

[@rosskerr1439]

Oh, that is beautiful! Now imagine a Dark Anchor directly above it.

[@abhishek.rathore]

Now some madlad is gonna build this, to scale, in Minecraft.

[@atdynax]

There is a reason why videogame cities aren't this big anymore. You would get overwhelmed by the scale and the lack of things to do.

[@Native_Creation]

I'm definitely seeing the Tenochtitlan vibes, as a fellow Torres, much appreciated.

[@RedTheMagician]

The night time shot really sells it for me it's the Imperial capital city it should be a light polluted city at night

[@WinterDominus]

That's super cool. Loved the nighttime shots!

[@lion_towers3d]

Thanks!

[@liam-im1dy]

"Their fires lit up the night. All across Lake Rumare, like stars come to earth."

[@icedtease1973]

I would have loved to see a single district in a walk-through - the palace, the market or the waterfront. But I suppose the project's scope was already so huge that modeling the interior would have been a whole other treck. Maybe in the future we could get one?

[@morbius109]

Now this is how the seat of an Empire should look. Awesome video!

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you!

[@Davidofthelost]

God that’s amazing. Even the rings are just smaller cities meant to support the capital. Wish we could see levels of cities like this and get lost in them to find numerous side quests scattered throughout them.

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you!

[@SKRRTCOBAIN00]

Bro this is crazy work 💯💯 Keep it up 🆙💯

[@lion_towers3d]

Thanks!

[@theduke9292]

I so desperately want a ES tv series that is a grand scale fantasy epic Episode 1 begins with a trio of adventures being hired to do some seemingly simple task unknowingly setting a crisis in motion. At the very end as they emerge they are ambushed by the Imperial Legion and held at arrow point Episode 2 begins with them being taken to the Imperial City as prisoners and we can have a scene like this play to show its breathtaking scale and stature.

[@darkowl9]

I really enjoy watching this for its visuals. It's a beautifully realised vision. I can't say I'd enjoy trying to play it as a _game,_ because I don't think it'd be terribly fun to walk for two hours to get over the other side of the city for whatever random fetch-quest I'd been sent on.

[@constantinbarbu.]

that night time shot just took the cake, amazing, i think it would take a few days just to get out of the tutorial sewers with a city this big, we can only dream of a day when this might be possible ingame, keep up the good work tho

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you!

[@aliasfakename3159]

I hope there's reliable public transportation in this place cuz woah

[@lemon8577]

Holy guacamole this is incredible, I think you've outdid yourself! Its stunning!

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you so much!

[@irishspartanstudios]

"And then I saw it, as I was coming down from the northern mountains and hills that cradled Lake Rumare. Even before my eyes fell upon it, Inspotted the tower. 'There is White-Gold!' one of my aids shouted at me over the rain that was pouring several miles ago. That tower, where the Great War had ended, was visable whole hours before any of us spotted a single city block. It reminded me of home, as no matter where you went in the province of Skyrim, you could always see the Throat of the World stabbing out of the ground like an inmense dagger, the clouds embracing it's sumit even on a clear day. By Shor! I wondered if I had stumhled upon another such monument. As we rolled along in our carts, the tower peak became our northern star, and we were never lost on our trail again for the last two dozen miles. I recalled what I had heard about the Imperial City, and recall jesting with my guide about it's size. 'I have seen Solitude, the bastion of Cyrodil in our homeland. A gem equal to Cyrodil's own heart, I hear. No city could be so impossibly large!' He laughed, and accused me of mockery. Then we crossed over, into the Heartland, and I saw it. Wood. Steel. Stone. All neatly stacked side by side. I was right to think most of these daellings could be no larger than those I'd seem in Solitude. But these stretched on over tens of thousands of miles-I never learned how many. I could see trails of smoke billowing like locks of a woman's raven hair caught in the breeze. From where? From the innumerable chimneys that warmed homes at night, or from the countless smithies pounding out all manner of metallic trinkets. I thought of Whiterun, and it's Skyforge. The Gray Manes had undoubtedly the best steel in all the realms of men or mer, but I thought of each one of these smiths in this one place stacked against them. I recall anger infusing my limbs then, for reasons I still don't understand. Understanding was scarce as I took in it's full size, a great ring impossibly large. It was cut into wedges by thick roads whose great web would make a spider envious. And they all converged at that nine-damned tower." _- Sam Gleipnir_

[@Ugapiku]

The Coruscant of Elder Scrolls... One day we will be playing such a game!

[@hfar_in_the_sky]

Now see this? THIS looks like the capital of a continent spanning empire

[@JoseHernandez-xf9oh]

To administer, feed and gover a city such like this one must be a logistical nightmare

[@anthonyt1t5]

Can you imagine the thalmor trying to invade it? Yikes that's a big city.

[@pariwesh]

Oblivion would've been crazy if the Imperial City was this big! I would just get lost in there for hours and have fun wandering around. Thank you kind sir for this amazing portrayal of the city well love!

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you so much!

[@Connor-fj5rc]

At this scale even the bridge leading to the city would be so large it would be like a whole town in itself. I’m imagining huts, shops, brothels, and inns set up along the way.

[@arramon777]

Fan-made cinematic. Blows away Hollywood by 1 million fold. Its like Hollywood aint even trying. Billions spent on weak product no one is buying and here we have a dedicated fan slamming down visuals how they should be. These are beautiful........................ makes me want to make a movie

[@austinguthrie5528]

Would be fine just playing an entire elder scrolls inside this city! Also, can we get a lore accurate Impeiral Palace from Warhammer 40k? Want to see if it'll break the universe creating that monstrosity lol

[@AkiyamaKatsuko]

How the Aldmeri Dominion were able to seize this colossal moated city for a time is beyond me.

[@Mejustme101]

They had help from the khajiit and bosmer after taking their land.

[@anthonymorris1360]

Great stuff thanks for this! Such an inspiring video.

[@lion_towers3d]

Thank you!

[@hometownboy6537]

The Imperials have 10g high speed internet and TV with that huge disc they're using. lol

[@Zerevar]

The shots of the city at night... WOW!

[@DerBomster]

When I first played Oblivion I actually quit the game after entering the imperial city, because I couldn't handle the disconnect of what felt like fifty houses fronting as an empire's capital (I actually only finished the game last year). This on the other hand is a place that feels real, the central hub of a continent and a place where a thousand different stories are taking place at the same time, not just your character's. That stunning nighttime shot was great for giving the city a lived-in feel. Do you plan to do another one where you get a bit closer to selected streets?

[@jakubkowalski7575]

Love your works bro

[@lion_towers3d]

Cheers!

[@p.gin3955]

This feels like an actual medieval fantasy Kingdom*, not just a town or a city... literally what you imagine while reading a fantasy book, crazy.

[@Karhayym]

How I would like to see this part of the saga in such quality... It’s a pity that these are dreams. Alas.

[@IwinMahWay]

Maybe with ai, one day ..

[@tubyduby2816]

The sewage dungeon is going to be one hell of a stanky area.

[@Soreshy]

Glad to see you branching out to other games in the Elder Scrolls series, I'd love to see some Morrowind in the future. The Vivec City would make an amazing video, it was supposed to be so much more than what ended up in the game due to technical limitations. The capital city of Morrowind - Mournhold would also make a great video.

[@gaz4553]

hope I live long enough to see lore accurate cities in games

[@Furyhound]

I can see why they made it smaller. Imagine getting lost in there for the entire game

[@anelrielylhelmessn7461]

luv this ! seems lore spot-on ! please do Chorrol and Shimmerene or Alinor next !

[@element_lena0]

the love we have for this series...

[@AlanGChenery]

Well that looks like a ridiculously massive logistical nightmare. Imagine the amount of food and fresh water that city must get through. And its all coming in along that bridge, or the port.

[@jostv.2726]

These scenes look so good! The night renders are my absolutely favourite. It looks so real and detailed :D Man I wish there would be games like this. At this point it would probably be a life simulation where people flee from reality ^^

[@lion_towers3d]

Thanks!

[@mahendrakrisnamurti9599]

And imagine this lost to a bunch of elves and reduced to their puppet state

[@Justin-ui5ti]

More like they are biding their time to fight back. They lost the Imperial city, then the Emperor retook it and destroyed the Dominion’s main forces. But he knew that they won’t have enough to keep on going. Heck, the emperor’s council advised him to accept the Thalmor’s initial proposal before the war began because they won’t be able to win. Keep in mind some Nords were probably on that council as well. But the emperor still fought despite that. Keep in mind that by the time the battle was done, most of the Empire was willing to get peace no matter what. The Jarls of Skyrim would be singing a different tune if it were their land that the Thalmor ravaged and laid to waste. Imagine if Skyrim were situated between Cyrodil and the Thalmor’s territory? They would accuse Cyrodil of using their land and people like a meat grinder while Cyrodil remained untouched. It’s easy to say you want to keep on fighting while your homeland and your people are still alive right? They only see the effects of the Treaty and not the absolute carnage that the civilians and cities of Cyrodil had to suffer.

[@sheogorath6834]

@@Justin-ui5ti Hammerfell sufferred too, and they still fought because the Empire was ready to sold them.

[@Justin-ui5ti]

@@sheogorath6834 Hammerfell’s primary battleground was in the south. The region as a whole didn’t come close to suffering the devastation Cyrodil faced. There’s a huge desert in the southern area that was used to halt the Dominion. Hammerfell’s Imperial Legion was eventually able to beat the Dominion to a standstill. After the Empire renounced Hammerfell as a province, the desert acted as a natural barrier to keep the war in the south. With the Dominion already severely weakened by the Battle in the Inperial City which had it lose its primary forces, Hammerfell was able to push the Dominion out. But the entire southern region of Hammerfell was in absolute ruins. But the region as a whole was not ravaged. Cyrodil on the other hand? In complete and utter ruins. So once again, I don’t blame the Empire for making that deal. By the time they took back the Imperial City, the army literally was not motivated to keep fighting. Before they took the city, they were facing desertions and near mutiny. The Emperor was warned that they wouldn’t be able to beat the Dominion in the long term. Which is why he took a peace deal after they retook the Imperial City. People really like to rag on Mede, but he really did do the best he could. He could have immediately rolled over from the very beginning like what his advisors told him. But he still gave it a shot.

[@sheogorath6834]

@@Justin-ui5ti "The region as a whole didn’t come close to suffering the devastation Cyrodil faced. " It still suffered a lot. And it still show that the Empire is ready to sell his own people to survive. "With the Dominion already severely weakened by the Battle in the Inperial City which had it lose its primary forces, Hammerfell was able to push the Dominion out." The army they lost in the imperial city has nothing to do with their forces in hammerfell. They had two armies, one in Cyrodiil (which has completly lost) and one in Hammerfell (which was there since the beginning of the war). "So once again, I don’t blame the Empire for making that deal. " I do. Because they sacrificed everything else for "just" Cyrodiil. "He could have immediately rolled over from the very beginning like what his advisors told him. But he still gave it a shot." That's true. Unfortunalely for him, history will only remember that he lost.

[@Justin-ui5ti]

@@sheogorath6834 Seems like you seem unfamiliar with “live to fight another day”? “Ready to sell to survive”? The Empire did the most it could do. They didn’t immediately roll over for them. It was after a huge war and it was too costly. I still stand by the argument regarding Hammerfell’s scale of devastation. If Hammerfell or Skyrim were the one that was standing between the Dominion and Cyrodil, I can image them singing a different tune when their entire region is turned into the definition of death. Or should they go and turn the people of an entire region into a sacrificial pawn for the sake of the rest of the Empire? An entire province for a portion of another province? As for the army in Hammerfell? No, they moved split the army and moved from Hammerfell to help in the retaking of the Imperial City. Those forces that remained behind, were the ones that stayed beyond the war and formed the core of the the forces that were able to drive the Thalmor out after years of vicious fighting in the South. The local red guard forces themselves were too disunited in the beginning of the war and were not effective in holding the Thalmor at bay. Their disunity was costly and allow the Thalmor to make significant gains. The Legion forces were the ones that were able to even make a chance at a resistance. The part of the Legion forces that stayed behind, rallied the redguards to form an effective resistance. But they sacrificed the entirety of the southern region of their province for that victory. It was in ruins. So yeah, the only reason why Hammerfell was able to keep their south was due to the sacrifices made by Imperial forces. But at the end of the day, they didn’t have enough forces to keep fighting. Taking the war to Alinor? Yeah no. With the Imperial City sacked along with the entire area below Cyrodil, that’s impossible to do. They also came to the realization that they don’t have enough forces to definitely keep the Thalmor at bay. Maybe they could have if they something like a huge massive desert to help keep the Thalmor from advancing too easily through Cyrodil. But they didn’t. If they kept on fighting, they would have lost again and had Cyrodil lost to them. So they took the chance they got to force a peace. I’m sure they would have been able to repel the Thalmor from Hammerfell. But once again, at the cost of the entirety of the people of Cyrodil. Many people like to rag on Titus Mede, but I would say he did the best he could with the terrible hand he got.

[@Bach_Treebane]

I always despised the way scale was portrayed in oblivion... there were certain things that just didnt work. Namely the boats and how every lake/river wasnt deep enough for them to actually travel, or the height of bridges where clearly the ships could not pass under. It felt incredibly Un-immersive.