How to Enter Southrealm before Main Quest Takes You There

[badgesareus]

I like to explore everywhere I can for treasure, armor sets, magic symbols, and better weapons, before continuing the main quest. Normally, you cannot enter Southrealm until the main quest takes you there. However, I found 2 ways to enter.

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(1) From the Sanctum, take the road east to East Pass, where there are some kobolds roasting a rat. Defeat the kobolds. Next, you will need acrobatic skill of 25+ (at least I did it at that level). Save. Behind the roasting rat is a boulder; jump on it. Behind that is a small ledge; jump on it. You will see a higher ledge with a flat green top. Back up a step or 2, and run/jump at the green ledge. You will not land on top of it, but you can cling to the side of it. Slowly move to the right and try to go up. Around the right side, you can reach a place to climb up on the ledge. If you fall down, reload and try again. From there, it is standard Oblivion-style mountain climbing. Hard-save often. You can follow the mountains running NE to SW along the border and descend into Southrealm on the south side of the mountains, or follow the north side, high up, to reach the pass between Middlerealm & Southrealm.
(2) When doing the side quest where you ride the glider to Treomar South Tower (also called the West Tower), enter the tower and obtain the quest item, but DON'T GO FURTHER DOWN. Go back out the way you entered and face the door, back a few steps. Save. Run/jump into the bushes to the left of the door. If you find the right spot, you can climb/jump up to the statue, then behind it, up the ridge going east, and then along the ridge going south, where you can descend into Southrealm or continue all the way to the Sea Gate.