Thieves Oasis and Gardens

Northwold

I've seen a few examples of people using the houses in Thieves Oasis, but never really the ruins, which were what I fell in love with, so wanted to share.

I did this in spurts over a couple of years and just finished. My style is, I guess, more "realistic" than magical items everywhere. Albeit realistic if you're a billionaire who has an accommodating relationship with the Egyptian government... And I'm kind of addicted to foliage, as you'll gather.

In lore terms let's say the Bangkorai authorities evicted thieves who'd established a squat on the premises and transferred ownership to a more historically-minded proprietor.

Sorry for the contrast / light levels I'm not very good at getting good images out of ESO!


Entering the premises via the western walkway we pass beneath one of the celebrated monuments of the oasis into the personal quarters, which feature a sitting room, library and the bed chamber, complete with functional shower.


















Both bedroom and library lead into the lower garden, which benefits from cooling shade for much of the day and a terrace looking directly out onto the central pool of the oasis and its statuary.








Exiting the lower garden via the original staircase we enter the kitchen, catching our first glimpse of the terraced upper garden on the way.








We exit the kitchen onto another view of the statues, which have been floodlit thanks to a generous donation from Lord Culanda of Alinor. Minimal deaths occurred during the project.




The upper garden has been constructed on three levels and planted according to the conditions. The first level features a cactus garden including fine specimens from Anequina, while the second benefits from a relative abundance of shade on one side -- allowing the use of plants not commonly seen in the region -- and a terrace space on the other for evening entertaining.










The top level has been divided into a wild planted area, featuring a number of unusual species, and a formal planting area that directly overlooks the lower garden and features a small water feature.














The formal entertaining space is accessed from the upper garden via a staircase added to the ruins following their repossession (again, acceptably few casualties were incurred among the workforce) which, en route, passes the restoration's greatest innovation -- a cooling chamber for the preservation of food that employs the latest innovations of the Clockwork style.








The formal space itself has been furnished with a number of rare carpets from across Tamriel, all of which have benefited from a sand repellence ritual rumoured to have been discovered by the great mage Shalidor himself.










The eastern exit from the premises is via a terrace planted with an attractive Somerset cherryblossom tree and such parts of the squatters' constructions as would have been damaging to the site to remove.

Kadzra

Just wow. Love the pics, it looks amazing. May i visit your place?

Northwold

Kadzra wrote: »

Just wow. Love the pics, it looks amazing. May i visit your place?

Thanks i want to live in it for real!! Very welcome to but I'm totally solo to the point i don't even know how to use chat!

What do I need to do and what settings do I need to set to make sure things don't get rearranged by accident (I'd cry!)?

On the EU server.

kaisernick

amazing.
honestly the only reason i didnt get the place myself is much like the aldmeri grotto is its impossible to both the ruins and hutts well enough for 700

i may have to hop onto the eu and check this out though

Kadzra

Ok... when you are standing in your home, you can press f5 and you find there a setting for visitors rights. My english is not perfect, but i try to discribe it.
Decorateur permission is the one you are afraid off. I wouldnt use it, too.
The other two are slightly different. Point 1 doesnt allows visitors to interact with anything. They cant open doors you placed yourself, but can open standard doors from the premade houses. Setting 2 allows visitors to interact, they can open placed doors. And they are able to mess around with your lights. Most people dont do that, but some people seem to have some fun with it. Doesnt hurt, you just should visit your home from time to time to make sure that everything is ok.

And of course, there can be bugs. I heard one or twice that there seems to be the possibilty that somebody gets decorateurs rights who shouldnt have them. And sometimes there is a systembug which messes around with the light. But these are very rare occasions.

Your in game name is northwold, too?

Northwold

Kadzra wrote: »

Ok... when you are standing in your home, you can press f5 and you find there a setting for visitors rights. My english is not perfect, but i try to discribe it.

Thanks. Yes Northwold. Let me know your user name and I think I understand how to add you to permissions list. You're very welcome to switch lights / fountains / whatever on and off, that's what they're there for!

Kadzra

Accountname is mashia

Northwold

kaisernick wrote: »

amazing.
honestly the only reason i didnt get the place myself is much like the aldmeri grotto is its impossible to both the ruins and hutts well enough for 700

i may have to hop onto the eu and check this out though

I'm not a fan of interior houses because I don't like not being able to see through the windows and how dark the interiors are. It makes me feel a bit claustrophobic (the chapel in Pantherfang might be the only exception because the windows are massive and bright). So I get excited when I see houses with huge semi-outdoor ruins that I feel I can work with and ignore the rest! Pariah's Pinnacle is essentially my dream home the moment they add sheet glass as a furnishing...

That said, I did find Thieves really quite difficult and it took a LONG time to furnish, mainly because it's difficult to match the rock colours with most structures in the game and only Elsweyr or the super bright marble items from Summerset really work (even the desert boulders available are not the same colour as the reddish rock here), the vast majority of plants that look nice and are right for the climate are crown store only, and it took a lot of thinking to make the plantings look right when placed on solid rock (I ended up stealing the rubble piles from the hall of the lunar champion to make parts look like a rockery because in most places faking soil textures just looked very naff).

Northwold

Kadzra wrote: »

Accountname is mashia

I *think* you're on the list!!

Kadzra

Thank you very much for letting me in. You really used the best parts of the house and the views are amazing - this is the best version of this house i have seen this far. i love it to explore a home and had a lot of fun.
I can see how much work you put inside and it turned out really beautiful and natural. I would like to live there

Northwold

Bless you you're very welcome! There are three houses I really fell in love with in this game -- Earthtear, Pariah's and Thieves. But I think with Thieves they built a really amazing foundation with the ruins for people to just let rip!

katanagirl1

This is a very interesting build and looks great!

I can’t visit so I’m curious - did you have any slots left to decorate the existing buildings or did you block them off in some way?

It looks like all of the snapshots show the upper levels for the most part but some of them are dark and I might have missed something.

Northwold

katanagirl1 wrote: »

This is a very interesting build and looks great!

I can’t visit so I’m curious - did you have any slots left to decorate the existing buildings or did you block them off in some way?

It looks like all of the snapshots show the upper levels for the most part but some of them are dark and I might have missed something.

No slots to do anything with the existing houses (once I started putting plants in the slots evaporated quickly) but I wasn't really interested in them anyway. So you just walk over them to get to the ruins. In Thieves Oasis that feels natural because they're separate, enclosed spaces and it didn't feel necessary to block them off. Just take out the window awnings, which are included in the unfurnished version, and they could be offices for staff or whatever. But there are a lot of houses where you'd have to pass through empty rooms to get to the outdoors where I think it would feel more weird!

katanagirl1

Ha, I did the opposite and very unoriginal thing and decorated the house and left the upper section mostly untouched. I am still very intimidated by the thought of custom builds, but I might try something with Doomchar.

I’m still very happy with the house, though.

Thanks for sharing your build!

Northwold

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Ha, I did the opposite and very unoriginal thing and decorated the house and left the upper section mostly untouched. I am still very intimidated by the thought of custom builds, but I might try something with Doomchar.

I think custom builds are getting easier now that they are bringing out more big structures. Certainly before Elsweyr I doubt converting the ruins would have been possible -- the Elsweyr floor made the floors possible, and the Elsweyr platform made the ceilings possible. Without them you'd have to use the Summerset ballroom floor, which would look really wrong with the architecture, and so many smaller platforms to make the ceilings that you'd be seriously eating into the slots.

There's also an absolutely huge carpet, i think it's this one -- https://eso.mmo-fashion.com/breton-carpet-bordered/ -- that helps humanise the really big spaces.