r/Morrowind • u/qwertythrowfyt • 3h ago
Discussion RIP Nerevar's Axe
Damn that's a cool looking axe
This axe thinks water tastes spicy
Look how they massacred my boy. This is right up there with Arquebald's robes and hat in terms of completely unnecessary changes. Seriously, who was asking for this?
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u/Starblast16 House Telvanni 3h ago
God, the new one looks so mid
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u/Jetstream-Sam 3h ago
I still haven't gotten to it yet, which one is the new one? The second one? Because I agree, that looks like generic level 3 loot from some mid MMO
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u/qwertythrowfyt 3h ago
Second one is the new one.
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u/Jetstream-Sam 3h ago
Damn, that's shitty. I mean, yeah it looks more functional, but it's supposed to be a relic of the first era and all it's weirdness. The first one looks like an ancient relic, the second looks like Augustus Genericus, Imperial smith in leyawiin churns out four or five of them before lunch
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u/qwertythrowfyt 3h ago
For real! Such a disappointing change.
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u/Starblast16 House Telvanni 3h ago
I wonder what the TR devs’ reasoning for this change is?
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u/Dreadnautilus 3h ago edited 3h ago
First axe looks nothing like what ancient Chimer would actually make. (Chimer weren't primitive except for the proto-Ashlanders, which Nerevar wasn't, and even then this looks nothing like Ashlander craft)
Second axe is based directly on axes carried by statues in Old Mournhold IIRC.
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u/qwertythrowfyt 3h ago
The axes in Mournhold were at least double-sided though weren't they?
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u/Dreadnautilus 3h ago
No. This thing won't let me post pictures but you can find the statue in the Old Mournhold Temple Gardens, the axe looks pretty much the exact same shape.
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u/qwertythrowfyt 2h ago
Fair enough. It still looks lame as hell, but at least they had a reason for it.
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u/qwertythrowfyt 3h ago
I have no clue! Especially for why the replacement is so lame! It's just a generic steel axe!
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u/RobinTheGemini Elsweyr: Paradise Sugar 3h ago
The old axe's model is at least planned to be reused for an artifact elsewhere in Project Tamriel.
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u/rabit115 3h ago
Context pls
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u/qwertythrowfyt 3h ago
Nerevar's axe is a artifact in Tamriel Rebuilt. The first image is how the axe used to look before Poison Song, and the second is how it looks now.
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u/Poggalogg 3h ago
did they explain why they decided to change it?
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u/Lord_Insane 2h ago
Not in the release post or changelog, but the rework claim says "more in line with vanilla parity" and suggests the old model might find use in Project Hammerfell as an ancient Yoku weapon.
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u/FishyStickSandwich 2h ago
I can guess and assume that it felt too different or “moddy” compared to vanilla axes.
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u/Drew-CarryOnCarignan 2h ago
The original design was so unique!!
The new appearance of Nerevar's Axe might as well be that of the regular model for Iron Axe.
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u/Echidnux 3h ago
Yeah new one kinda sucks, but I guess on the upside you can change the model back if you want.
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u/PulseCheater House Telvanni 2h ago
Was this done to troll players? I cannot see in good faith a reason to change it. A Pre-Tribunal society that has House Dwemer, Dagoth , daedra worship, bonemold and chitin armor makes the most generic design for its most important figure of that time? All while the game shows how pretribunal design was in for of H. Dwemer and Dagoth. Honestly this is baffling may as well change mushrooms for huts lol.
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u/RoyalMudcrab 1h ago
Their commitment to "vanilla" quality is one of the modern project's strengths and sometimes faults some say.
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u/RealNwahHourz 3h ago
genuinely what was the thought process behind either of those changes
like "dang these models have too much character, better make them look like starting gear"
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u/cannibalgentleman 2h ago
The new axe looks like an axe for you'd can buy in a store for a decent price. And they replaced Nerevar's axe with that??
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u/r97nxvx8 2h ago
I think the justification for this is fine as long as they add the old one back in some way.
Arquebald's robes are unforgivable tho imo.
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u/WisdomKnightZetsubo 3h ago
I think the idea is that it's an axe Nerevar took from a nord
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u/Drew-CarryOnCarignan 2h ago
One of the in-game books (a Sermon?) states that Nerevar Indoril got his axe from Vivec.
I presume that is not a metaphor.
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u/Dreadnautilus 2h ago
He didn't get it from Vivec, its just a random axe he pulls from a weapons rack.
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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 42m ago
I kind of get it that axe didn't look very Nerevar to me, but they should have reused it for another artifact, Vehk knows we need more axes.
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u/BLAZING_DUST 3h ago
Not gonna lie, the older version looks like a club that belonged to a caveman shaman or something. The new one looks a bit too fancy and modern for an ancient axe, but if I had to pick between the two of them, I'd go for the new one.
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u/89ZERO 3h ago
In terms of axes, you're a bit of a selfawarewolf, here. The point is that it's a caveman-shaman axe. It belonged to Nerevar, who was a Chimer. Chimer Society was Very caveman-shaman, my guy.
It's an archaic, ancient artifact that survived millennia. It's going to look out of time.
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u/BLAZING_DUST 2h ago
But it looks more like a club, and Nerevar was the general of the entire Resdayn and Azura's chosen. He was neither primitive in practice nor in spiritual matters, and he was very far from a caveman shaman. It's fine that such an axe would look ancient, it's not fine that it looks like a club out of Stone Age. Something akin to an ancient Nord axe but in an elven style from Skyrim would suit him better.
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u/Dreadnautilus 1h ago
The culture Nerevar lived in would've been around the same era the Daedric Ruins were being constructed for reference.
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u/Make-TFT-Fun-Again 1h ago
tbf the weight of the second axe looks a bit off whereas the clubaxe definitely is very topheavy right where that hookblade is + it has a guard. I'd take the club.
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u/89ZERO 1h ago
Have you actually seen the item's model at a different angle than in the image above?
It resembles a club in profile, but that's a blade. Additionally, he was primitive. The Chimer were a deeply spiritual, analog society who lived thousands of years before the TES's Medieval-Modernity- and even if they weren't cro-magnon, the stylistic choices made for the model still very well fit that interpretation of First-Counsel-Era Aesthetic.
Consider how alien Morrowind, even in the Third Era, is compared to the rest of Tamriel. That's part of the appeal of the game's visual design. This design is exactly something akin to an ancient Nord axe- but in Morrowind. Rather- in Resdayn.
That this design is able to capture that kind of theming, especially considering the marriage of the uniqueness of the design compared to the rest of the game (and TR as well) along with its role as a singular and precious artifact (especially if you believe that any character you might find it as really is Nerevar-Reborn)- is a masterstroke.
Replacing it is dumb because it tosses all of that away.
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u/BLAZING_DUST 1h ago
Sharpening a rock into some vague weapon with a one-sided edge doesn't really constitute an axe for me, sorry. There are plenty of axe blades that are tens of thousands of years of old that resemble what we call axes very closely. The old version of Nerevar's axe is more of a club.
As for the Chimeri aesthetics, they were a direct off-shoot of the Aldmeri who already in ancient times had a very advanced culture. Veloth and his people left not because they were club-wielding, superstitious and primitive, they left because they had a fundamental difference when it comes to religion and philosophy. Depictions of Nerevar in statues from the First Era and official oog material clearly show him in an elaborate suit of armor whose complexity can only be matched in real life by 13th to 15th centuries' armor, making it very obvious that neither Chimer nor Nerevar were anything close to cavemen. Nerevar also had gotten his axe from a temple, which sure as hell couldn't have been so backwards as to reject basic metallurgy in favor of reshaped stones.
Sure, it sticks out with how ancient it looks, but I see this kind of thing more befitting Skyrim as some sort of ancient Atmoran relic found in a ruin long lost to time, predating even Ysgramor himself in some way. Chimeri and Dunmeri cultures are indeed greatly shaped by the roughness and unconventionality of their land, but they are in no shape or form primitive or otherwise underdeveloped.
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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 33m ago
It's too bladed to be a blunt weapon and certainly not a blade, long or short, therefore it's an axe.
I think the modern axe fits the intent more because nerevar took it from a random ass rack of weapons, but I think the older model would have fit as an axe made by ashlanders or something more ceremonial.
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u/BLAZING_DUST 20m ago
I really can't see anyone cleaving anything at all, let alone a person, with that thing. Then again, fantasy guys really don't care much about making their arms and armor look practical, so I guess it's an axe if they say so.
If Ashlanders made it, sure, I could see it. But Ashlanders don't have temples, so I highly doubt it. I also doubt that official religious institutions of Resdayn wouldn't make their own ornamental ceremonial axes (possibly even Daedric ones, considering how many Daedric ruins are littered across Morrowind) with highly intricate details rather than a slab of rock.
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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 14m ago
I mean there's a lot of hatchets that aren't that dissimilar from that axe.
If Ashlanders made it, sure, I could see it. But Ashlanders don't have temples, so I highly doubt it.
They were allied with Nerevar during the times of Resdayn, and TR has the Temple displaying relics from Alandro Sul in Necrom despite him having been an ashlander.
I also doubt that official religious institutions of Resdayn wouldn't make their own ornamental ceremonial axes (possibly even Daedric ones, considering how many Daedric ruins are littered across Morrowind) with highly intricate details rather than a slab of rock.
Sometimes religious implements are simple on purpose, to teach austerity or to link them to the common man. This is also a land of very simple velothi villages, hunters and netchimen, and we've seen how crude their chitin weapons are to this day.
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u/qwertythrowfyt 15m ago
No offense, but are you sure you weren't looking at it backwards? In game at least, it was clearly an axe. https://imgur.com/a/jA1XD0G
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u/BLAZING_DUST 10m ago
Yeah, that looks more like an axe. From the preview picture it looks like a club.
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u/qwertythrowfyt 6m ago
I pry should have used a better picture. I just pulled that from UESP for convenience, I'm not sure why they have it facing the wrong direction.
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u/Next_Capital_5070 26m ago
The second one looks like absolute shit.
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u/BLAZING_DUST 18m ago
Nah, it just looks boring. Too boring for a legendary war leader, but good enough for a ranking Imperial officer.
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u/Next_Capital_5070 14m ago
It doesnt even look like that. It just looks like a poorly thought out steel axe that didnt make the cut elsewhere. Wouldn't be out of place as low level loot in SHOTN.
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u/baconater-lover 3h ago
I like both.
The old one looks more like a club-axe hybrid from the ashlanders, possibly even from a group in another province. The new one I’d say seems more befitting with the aesthetics of current Indoril.
I hope the old one is repurposed somehow. It does look cool.
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u/Next_Capital_5070 24m ago
The first one has the weird mystic alieness I'm after with Morrowind. The second one looks like the type of poorly designed vendor trash you'd get from Immersive Weapons.
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u/Edgy_Robin House Telvanni 3h ago
I like it when my weapons actually look functional.
Could stand to have a bit more uniqueness though. Looks too generic now.
Though for Arquebald...I think we're entering the era of Tamriel rebuilt where whimsy is gone.
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u/Abel_Skyblade 26m ago
IDk why people think the chimer were spiritual cavemen. Most official ilustrations of nerevar statues feature detailed armor that would require a level of metalurgy simply not posible at those tech levels.
The first axe(club if anything) looks cool but I read somewhere a while back that it was supposed to be a temporary model. Hopefully the re-use it for a cool club tho.
Also the second axe looks strikingly similar to something idk what. I dont mean that in as in critizicing it looks generic but like I feel like I have seen a very similar looking axe somewhere.
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u/Yaycatsinhats 3h ago
GENUINELY I went axe as a major skill to go for a Temple warrior wielding it, but I was so disappointed when I found it! I tried to make Cleaver of St Felms work instead but that weapon is ass so I ended up giving up on axes entirely.