Which river is the Xylo? And other river questions

Enodoc

The Xylo: Traditional Border between Valenwood and Elsweyr
At face value, this is easy to work out. There's a south-to-north flowing river in Reaper's March, to the west of which lie Bosmeri settlements (Vinedusk, Grimwatch, Greenhill), and to the east of which lie Khajiiti settlements (Dune, S'ren-ja, Rawl'kha). Arenthia is in Valenwood but since that's right at the end of the river then we can let that one off. What's more, A Dance in Fire states that Falinesti spans the Xylo, and A Dance in Fire is set in Frost Fall - Sun's Dusk, which is Autumn, and the Falinesti Autumn Site is right next to this river.

HOWEVER, the southeastern part of Malabal Tor is called Xylo River Basin, and this sits on a north-south flowing river which passes down the east side of the region and disappears into the hills on the Grahtwood border. A Dance in Fire also says Silvenar is on the Xylo, and Silvenar is right next to this river. It should be noted that there is no way to get from the Malabal Tor river to the Reaper's March river as there's a range of hills in the way.

So which is the Xylo? The one where it should be, in Reaper's March on the traditional border between Valenwood and Elsweyr; or the one with the eponymous River Basin, which is in the middle of Valenwood and never likely to be on the border line? Or is it actually neither of these, and the Xylo River does not appear in game and flows north to south to empty into Topal Bay to the east of Grahtwood?

The Strid: The river that flows uphill
The Strid is well known as the body of water separating Colovia from Valenwood and Elsweyr, an east-west flowing river that empties into the Abecean Sea. Just northeast of Arenthia, there's a great waterfall that drops down from the Weald, and the Reaper's March candidate for the Xylo meets it just outside the city. The river then flows steadily westward along the northern edge of the region until.... it gets to the northeast corner of Reaper's March, where it has to go up a waterfall to get into Malabal Tor.

This was probably a design decision to act as a natural boundary to the region, but considering the river is supposed to flow westwards, some alternative feature would be more logical (eg, a waterfall downwards that's blocked off by a big boulder).

The Niben: 800 Years too Narrow
The Niben as it appears in ESO is much narrower than it is in Oblivion, particularly at the Lake Rumare end. In 800 years it could widen, but the height of the surrounding countryside would render that unlikely.



The only one of these that I would really like to see addressed is the Xylo, as that creates a lore discrepancy that is not easily reconciled by a decision that is due to gameplay.
Found any other rivers that make no sense? Add them below!

Nestor

There are 4 Falenesti Sites, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, so perhaps the "Span the Xylo" is referring to their lands surrounding the river. Also, the geo-political lines on the map could have been drawn differently back in their day. What was one city-state to them could have been 3 or 4 to the present populations.

The River ending at some rocks could just be a game world mechanism to keep people from going to one region to another unless they go through the established "gates" between zones. Same with the river that has to go uphill at the falls. Or, if you wanted to, you could RP that the river dives underground at this place into an Aquifer, rivers do this from time to time in our world.

I wonder if the Daggerfall Map had these same rivers in the same places, and more importantly had the same physical barriers between areas. But, that was a map that no one spent much time walking across (it took forever and there was not much to see along the way) I also don't remember if the Daggerfall map had all of Tamriel depicted.

Speaking of which, have you looked at the Tamriel Rebuilt mod for Morrowind (which I think is being re-made for the newer engines) as that was supposed to recreate Tamriel. I tried that mod out years ago when it was in early development, but not since.

Enodoc

Falinesti spread across the horizon before him. Sprawling across both banks of the river stood the mighty graht-oak city, with groves and orchards of lesser trees crowding it like supplicants before their king.
This is definitely referring to Falinesti at that exact time, that time being autumn.

The geopolitical lines will definitely have moved around (Moonmont and S'ren-ja are in Valenwood during Arena, but their architecture suggests they were originally within Elsweyr); the Xylo is just that which the border keeps falling back to, meaning the architecture will differ most on either side of it, as it does with the river in Reaper's March.

Disappearing into an aquifer makes the most sense indeed, I just would prefer that the Strid did so as obviously as the river on the Malabal/Grahtwood border does.

There are hardly any rivers at all on the Arena map

(Daggerfall's map only covered Iliac Bay)

I know of Tamriel Rebuilt although I've never played it. As far as I am aware, they only got as far as making the rest of Morrowind, and are working on expanding that rather than covering the rest of the continent now.