Forgotten Dungeons [EN]

[Mattanja]

A while ago I started a series in the german forum that showcases some Locations and Dungeons that were never finished and thus are not accessible in the game, but can still be found in the files and accessed via console. And as I thought it might be interesting for the english fans as well, I will try to translate my thread and post it here, so that you can have a look at some of the interesting stuff I stumbled upon: e.g. Some interesting unfinished dungeons, a dream sequence of the mainquest, that was discarded at some point, the old city of the starlings and even a tank
Please forgive me if my english sounds a little bit strange from time to time, but I haven't had too much practice at translating text from german to english in the recent past^^ I don't know how regularly I will post here, but I will try to go through the whole german series (which isn't finished btw) if you are interested.

Don't worry this will not contain any spoilers regarding Forgotten Stories, as the cells I'm going to show were agreed by the devs
If someone wants to take a look at the location for themselves, I am going to post the Cell-IDs so you can access them by console. But as I cannot guarantee you that visiting those locations per console won't have any effect on your savegame, I would advise you to do that directly from the main menu. Furthermore it is possible, that some cells might get removed from the game with a future update (I tested everything with 1.2.4.1)


Part 1: "It starts with the startcell"

One of the first rooms I discovered is an old startcell, that was once either used for testing or meant to be a part of the prologue.
You start in a cave in front of a door that doesn't lead anywhere and you get immediately thrown into character creation.

[+] Character

You then walk through some passages, where you meet a small child called "Hurala".

[+] Hurala

I was not sure if the kid and the whole cell were just meant for testing at first, but later I discovered something Hoxyd wrote at Discord:

[+] Spoiler for the Mainquest

(roughly translated from german) "Those were children from the civilisation after the Cleansing. They were playing in the ruin and found the notes of the prophet. Then the story of Enderal began and at the end of the game, you would see them again. The kids would leave the cave and you could see the civilisation that had developed."

The only thing that is visually remarkable in the cave is a bigger cavern with a waterfall and some kind of sanctuary.

[+] cavern

While the startcell is not the most exciting thing on my list, I thought it would be a nice way to start

[Mattanja]

Part 2: "Hidden in the temple"

Part 2 is probably the reason, why I'm doing this series at all. During my second playthrough of Enderal, I was a bit irritated by the fact that the two locked doors in the temple in Riverville actually seemed to lead somewhere, as they were not just called doors, but referred to the cell they were leading to. So I unlocked both doors and was a little surprised about what was hiding behind...

The right door leads to a small room that looks like the chamber of the priest.

[+] The priests room

At first nothing special, but it turns out you can actually examine many of the items in the room.

[+] Traces

Probably not too interesting as those are the german popups

Apparently you are after some kind of burglar. I suspect those are the remains of the quest 'Rampant Greed' that was used for the cutscene demonstration that was sadly cut.

The left door leads to some kind of storage room, filled with crates and shelves and a door leading to a crypt beneath Riverville. The crypt seems to be completely designed and is even populated with loot, aggressive undead and a small boss.

[+] Minor Spoiler for the quest Secrets from the can

First of all you push through some crypt corridors, before finding the greatsword "Cold Night", which is now the reward for that quest. So it was either placed simply as loot or the scavenger hunt was supposed to continue into the crypt. But as there are no further clues supporting that theory, I suppose it was just meant as loot before the quest was finished.

You then get to a larger hall, where 'Gugosh' is already waiting for you.

[+] Gugosh

He does have a few enchanted items, but nothing special like a set-item. Continuing through some narrow passages, you end up in the lower parts of the crypt, that seem to be from some kind of nightmare.

[+] Piles of skulls

[+] Bloodbaths

[+] Demonic bone constructions

Do the people of Riverville know what is happening beneath their feet? For my part I was really surprised and intrigued by that find, so I started digging through the Creation Kit to find more stuff like that, which I definitely did.

I'm not entirely sure why the crypt didn't make it into the game, as it seems to be rather close to being completed. My first idea was that the buried people didn't fit into the lore, as only cremation is legal on Enderal, but 1. the crypt in Ark wouldn't make sense in that regard either and 2. it could just be a relic from before the ban. I guess the design of the crypt was just a little too extreme for Enderal, as most of the dungeons are rather realistic regarding the lore and that cult-like stuff didn't really fit in.

[+] Cell-ID

FlusshaimTomb_UnusedCell

[Buccaneer]

That was fascinating, thank you for posting these.

There was another hidden/incomplete place that I have always wondered about. In a lower section of Grave Caves in Soul Bed, there is a circular room with a tent and a large Olmec-type head. There are two overlooks, one easily accessible but the other is not (the one with a down gate). If you tcl through that gate, there are several corridors (and I think some items in there). One of the corridors lead outside to a void but another corridor leads to the back of the Olmec-type head! Was this supposed to be an extension of Grave Caves? The unnamed Olmec-type head made me curious.

[badgesareus]

Mattanja, thanks, very interesting. I don't know how I missed the door to the crypt. It seems well-developed, I don't know why it wasn't used in the game. I think the round room at the lowest level is really curious; you would think something that unusual was designed for some specific reason.

[badgesareus]

Buccaneer, I'm not following you. When you are in the room with the tent there are 2 overlooks. As you face the head and look right up, that overlook leads to void, and I see no other corridors there. As you face the head and look left up, there is an overlook where there are 2 chests behind the gate. This is accessed when you enter the Grave Cave and go straight ahead to a gate with a pull chain to open it.
A - tent B - Head C - overlook gate to void D - overlook with 2 chests behind gate, reached by going straight from Grave Cave entrance E - 2 gates to enter the room with the tent & head.
Where are the corridors you mention with loot? and to the back of the head?

[Mattanja]

Yeah I'm not sure either, as badgesaurus said there is nothing behind that gate. But maybe there was at some point and it got removed in a patch.
Patch 1.2.3.0 seems to have made a few changes to the soul bed and the grave caves including "increased performance", which could mean removing unused assets like corridors...

[stuemper]

Patch 1.2.3.0 seems to have made a few changes to the soul bed and the grave caves including "increased performance", which could mean removing unused assets like corridors...

Yes, both dungeons look pretty but were poorly optimized. I did my best to increase the performance by removing assets that can't be seen (e.g. the corridor behind the head that Buccaneer mentioned) and adding in rooms and portals.

[Buccaneer]

Ah, that explains it, my apologies. My experience was from a pre-1.2.x version, which was the last time I was in there. I just now checked again and there's only a short corridor leading to a void from both the gate and behind the head. There used be a corridor from the top leading to the bottom.

[badgesareus]

It's too bad that crypt under the Riverville temple isn't accessible without using the console to unlock the door. Seems like a lot of work went into designing it. Even if it was made for a quest that was never implemented, it would be nice to have it available just for exploration; no great loot for a high-level player but some useful stuff for a player at a low level just reaching Riverville. Is there some reason the left temple door to the storeroom (& to the crypt) can't be made to open normally or to be lockpicked?

[Mattanja]

Part 3: "Red fragments of the past"

Today we are looking at three large dungeon-complexes, that are presumably from an earlier stage of development and that share a small detail, distinguishing them from dungeons in the game. How do you know they are from early in the development? On the one hand they mainly consist of Skyrim-assets and are a little more reminiscent of Skyrim than of Enderal and on the other hand they all contain many strange red crystals, that cannot be found in the game anymore (afaik).
Note: The names and IDs of the cells were in german, so I tried translating them more or less literally which is why they probably sound a little strange. (Thx @badgesareus for some of the correct translations)

The Deep
The deep consists of 5 cells, all connected to each other: The 'Shadowbreathdeep' where you start, the 'Bat-shelter', a 'Tunnel' trough which you get into the 'Decayed Temple' and the 'Chamber of Ceremonies'.
What I found particularly interesting is the fact that you already meet vatyrs, who are not called 'Vatyr' but instead 'Lost Keeper'.
So maybe the vatyrs were meant to be some kind of predecessor of the Oorbaya or some kind of Keeper-version of the ordinary Lost Ones. But I'm not sure what would turn a group of keepers into pathless ones.
You also meet some kind of small boss called 'Glemrand the Preacher', who is a vatyr as well. Besides that there are just some Lost Ones attacking you or just standing around.

[+] Pictures of the Deep

[+] The Decayed Temple

[+] Lost Keepers

The Undergreen Vault
The Undergreen Vault is a dungeon that reminded me a lot of the draugr-ruins of skyrim. At first you walk through some halls, before entering the 'Undergreen Front' that are dominated by a large cavern with some kind of temple. The entrance to the temple leads into the 'Underground', that abruptly ends without really having some kind of end.

[+] Undergreen Vault

[+] Undergreen Front

[+] Underground

The Rock Mist Mine
A large convoluted mining complex including a tavern and a loading dock:

[+] Mine and loading dock

[+] Tavern The Thirsty Miner

The interesting thing about the Rock Mist Mine ist that the entrance to the mine is actually still in the game: The Miner Cabin at the Scout Tower you visit with Jespar on your way to Ark was meant to be the entrance to the mine and the minute book you can find there inside reports of the mine and its collapse. Entering the mine is impossible as the door leading down is blocked by rubble, though it seems you were once supposed to be able to enter and explore it.

As you can see on the pictures, all three dungeons share these red crystals and I was wondering if there was a meaning to them. Maybe there was a connection to the red madness or they are just assets that were discarded early in the development and I'm reading a little too much into them

[+] Cell-IDs

• Tiefe01_UnusedCell
  
• Untergruengewoelbe
  
• Felsennebelmine