For how large and detailed the world of Morrowind is it’s hard to imagine that anything was cut from the final product. But data miners over the years have found a number of interesting things buried in the game’s files.
There were items that were built and never used, voices that were dropped, unused character skins, and more. A comprehensive list of all the unused content would be far too large for this article so here are some of the more interesting things missing from the final game.
10 Wings Of The Queen Of Bats
One of the more well-known cut items is the Wings of The Queen of Bats. It’s a two-handed axe that has a Drain Health enchantment built-in, allowing the wielder to recover health as they attack. The object is usable, but never makes an appearance in the game without using command codes.
Theories abound as to who it belongs to with some thinking it could be the artifact of a Daedric Prince like Namira or Vaermina. More likely it would have belonged to Volrina Quarra, the matriarch of the warlike Quarra vampire clan, and as a Rogue she would be primarily suited to wield Axes in battle.
9 Ash Storms Cause Blight
One interesting feature the developers considered but ultimately abandoned was the idea of Ash Storms causing Blight. It’s a concept explored in the lore and evidence in the game files suggests it was supposed to be a feature in the game.
This was likely dropped to avoid frustrating players who would become infected any time they visit the Red Mountain or were caught unawares in places like Ald’ruhn where storms happen frequently. Though this could have been countered by making the Bonemold armor in the game prevent players from getting the Blight this way, as it is in the lore.
8 Ring Of Namira
The Ring Of Namira is an item that had the texture and model created, but was never implemented in the game. Namira was the Daedric Prince of Darkness, who was known to associate with disgusting imagery like insects, rot, and disease.
Other games in the Elder Scrolls series give the ring the ability to reflect damage back on attackers or allow the wearer to recover health when cannibalizing a corpse. It’s unclear why this was dropped from the game.
7 Secret Master Alchemy Apparatus
Considering how powerful Alchemy is in Morrowind it might be interesting for players to realize that the Grandmaster Apparatus set is actually the second-best that was intended to be in the game. It turns out in the game’s files there is a Secret Master set.
These would have weighed less than the Grandmaster set and had a .5 quality improvement rating. For reference this the difference in quality between the Journeyman’s set and the Grandmaster set which is quite a jump.
6 Voices For Major Characters
While there is a bit of audible dialogue in the game it’s few and far between. It seems the developers had intended to include more voiced dialogue as evidenced by unused voice files.
These particular files are attached to dialogue spoken by Dagoth Ur, Genda Relvel, Yagrum Bagarn, and Vivec. In all honesty, they wouldn’t have added much to the game as they were mostly greetings or single lines of dialogue. Though why they weren’t included is largely a mystery.
5 Red Headed Dremora
The developers had plans to include red-headed Dremora in the game, but either didn’t finish or abandoned the project. As a result, you will only encounter black haired Dremora in the game.
Interestingly, due to a developer oversight when the game was ported to Xbox, one of the loading screen splash pages showed a red-headed dremora despite them not existing in any versions of the game. It’s unclear why this was dropped as some fans really liked the look.
4 Iron Fork
The Iron Fork is a largely unremarkable item that exists in the game’s files but is not obtainable in the game without using console commands. Interestingly, a unique version of this item does exist and plays an important role in the game.
It’s the Fork of Horripilation and is found in the shack of Big Head, a mad hermit living in Sheogorad. It’s considered a weapon that does very little damage and drains the player of 200 Magicka, effectively preventing the use of spells. The player uses it to kill a Giant Bull Netch as part of Sheogorath’s Quest.
3 Stalhrim Shortsword
The Bloodmoon expansion of Morrowind introduced a number of interesting Stalhrim weapons such as the Mace and Longsword, but for whatever reason, the Shortsword variant was cut from the game.
Even stranger is that though it is in the game it’s just never used. With a more unique weapon it’s understandable that they might not want to include a broken item or one that requires a quest to obtain. But this is a generic Stalhrim weapon that just wasn’t made obtainable.
2 Black Bonewolf
Speaking of Bloodmoon, there is a creature that was cut from the game called a Black Bonewolf. It bears a similar appearance to the standard Bonewolves encountered but has a black texturing instead of the typical skeleton with patches of flesh.
It’s possible this was dropped as it was too hard to see inside of dark caves or the fact that it still had fur on it was an aesthetic they weren’t going for. The texture doesn’t fit the standard Bonewolf model meaning it would have had a different size and shape.
1 Devourer
The Devourer is most likely a book that had only the model and textures created, and therefore is not spawnable in the game like other items mentioned above. There is no lore, description, or effect attached to the book.
According to The Cutting Room Floor, players questioned Bethesda employees about the strange item and no one remembered creating or implementing the item into the game. Many weren’t even sure whether it was supposed to be a book or shield. Fans have speculated that it’s meant to be something similar to a Necronomicon and likely tied to the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora, a being in later games who gifts players the mysterious Black Books and the Oghma Infinium.