MEME is the mod for all people that, like me, love the Bethesda RPGs but are particularly keen on playing other popular RPGs such as Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age Origins, Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga and the From Software masterpieces. What is especially immersive to me with these games is that even though the open worlds are not as huge and as "open" as the Bethesda ones, the ambience is feeling more intense and really stands out in each zone or cell you're visiting, notably thanks to the unique musical tracks that are playing in specific places, that are carefully composed to fit a general vibe.

And then I discovered MUSE, and I knew it was the tool I needed to change Morrowind to my liking. In a bid to mimic this way of setting up musical ambience in these specific RPGs, I spent hours in Notepad++ trying to improve my setup and I came up with a compilation of all my favorite tracks from my favorite RPGs (and a bunch of extras, some covers of the originals for example when I thought they didn't exactly fit my vision of a specific place), including the Bethesda ones and TESO.

The config files cover pretty much EVERYTHING, from region-specific tracks to culture-specific town music, from traders and smiths to magic shops and temples, and a myriad of very specific places that got their own little track to make them feel a bit more unique. Also there's a lot of new battle tracks, including some that play when fighting a specific boss. And new dungeon tracks also, Morrowind definitely needed some of these. You want me to explain how to install all of this ? Well even if you say no, it's a mod description, so I've got to do it. Jokes on you.

Sermon Zero : DisclaiMEMEr

First of all, I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE TRACKS UPLOADED HERE. I do not claim any rights to them and I do not claim to be some sort of underground music provider against the odds of whatever rule or legislation. If a moderator says it's not OK for these files to be here, I will remove them. If anybody that does own some of the tracks included in the pack asks me to remove them from the files, I will do so immediately without arguing. I'm just a modder and player trying to have fun with his Morrowind, and I don't want it to look like I stole anything from anybody. The fact is that there are only 8-10 tracks on 277 that technically are from other sources than the games I just mentioned. So yeah.

Aside from that, my tastes are what they are. I do like a game that gives you auditive habits, and intends to link in your head a place and a music. Humming the theme of a village or of a specific bossfight before even going back to it is one of my pleasures in the RPGs I play. Sooo... if you don't like that and much prefer the Bethesda way of handling things... why even use MUSE at all ? I provide this compilation to you after a long, careful and repetitive task of putting OSTs of sometimes completely different games right where I thought they needed to be to fit Morrowind's atmosphere.

But if you don't like my choices, just change the tracks. I will explain you how to do it if you are not familiar with MUSE, although it's pretty straightforward. Just don't flame me in the comments for having shitty tastes and altering Morrowind's musical ambience because, for example, I chose to put a sad piano song in the Akulakhan Chamber (yes, because I think it is a sad moment to behold when the fight is over).

Some effort has been put into the mix of audio to cut parts of tracks that didn't fit the atmosphere or to level the volume of uneven tracks compared to the medium track. This work, as of now, is still in progress and will be updated from time to time, so report any music that you think is too quiet or too loud so I can quickly take care of it in Audacity. Do note that I can't improve the quality of the audio, so just delete the ones that you think are too painful to hear, although honestly I don't think there is any. In my opinion though.

I am also not responsible for any brain damage caused to professionnal modders who think that I explain too much in the installation and compatibility sections, that everybody already knows that and that anybody should be able to do that without needing actual instructions. Sorry for the inconvenience but I try to think of everybody, including extremely new newcomers. Newestcomers in fact. So... skip. Or scroll, rather. Anyway.

Sermon One : You're finally awake. What's your MEME ?

First of all, you will need MUSE, that's kinda necessary here not gonna lie. If you don't know about it, check it out, but at this point it's unlikely. Install it through MO2 but if you want some features back and / or some out, check this mod's description, Necrolesian explained in details how to fix some bugs from the current version of MUSE. Simply unzip MUSE, modify its files and rezip it for your own use.

In the base game, there are two types of tracks : Battle, and Explore. MUSE is a useful tool that adds ways of triggering specific music tracks depending on the locations explored or the enemies encountered, but doesn't actually change this basic musical behavior. If you want to disable battle music, MUSE can do that, but you'll miss some pretty cool tracks.

Launch the game with just MUSE installed to initialize some parameters and to set the "region music queued" boolean to "Off". Honestly, I think it's the best way to play with MUSE, otherwise any cell-specific music will keep playing until you reach another cell covered by a config file or until it ends by itself, even though you left that cave for what feels like ages ago.

You'll have some funky music switches while walking strictly on the region borders since region-specific tracks will try to override each other, but it's less unpleasant and less frequent to me than just leaving a tomb or a cave and hearing creepy ambience out in the fields while sniffing flowers. Although I didn't tested it extensively, so see for yourself and try both. You do you.

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Then, I thoroughly recommend that you download and endorse the work of Joetechno on the musical ambience of the game : almost all of his mods are completely compatible with MEME, since it was developed with the use of these mods together in mind anyway, so I left blanks in the music folders for the magic of Joetechno to take effect without casting shadows on it. Get those first before anything else :

MUSE Music Expansion - Sixth House
MUSE Music Expansion - Dwemer
MUSE Music Expansion - Ashlander
MUSE Music Expansion - Tomb
MUSE Music Expansion - Daedric

At the moment, I'm not planning to make MEME compatible with MUSE Music Expansion - Empire, since its config files don't separate Imperial towns from Legion forts and don't make the Ebonhearts stand out as capitals. But check it out too, you can download it, endorse it, and unzip the music to add in your own personal config ! Install all of the other mods from Joetechno through MO2.

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Now, I want to talk a bit about Better Music System Redone by tewlwolow (whose work I thoroughly recommend too, check it out if you don't have already stumbled upon everything for some reason). It is sadly completely incompatible with MEME, since it basically has the same purpose, although on a much smaller scale in terms of actual config file shenanigans.

But the fun thing with tewlwolow is that he's both nice and talented, so all of the tracks included in his compilation are his work ! Go see for yourselves : download and endorse his mod and see if it fits your vision of the game ! You can mix things up later if you want, and for those who are not familiar with MUSE, I will explain how.

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Now, last but not least, let's talk about the Tamriel Rebuilt - Original Soundtrack from Rytelier (yup, the very breathtaking author of MUSE itself) and ASKII. The trick with MEME is that it is destined in the long term to cover most of the popular Morrowind mods on Nexus, since config files of MUSE are that easy to update once the general layout is finished. And so far, that includes Tamriel Rebuilt.

Therefore, and sadly again, this above-mentioned musical overhaul is completely incompatible with MEME, its config files don't work the same way and make the mainland stand out as a completely different universe, which I think doesn't fit at all the purpose of Tamriel Rebuilt that intends to make the mainland feel like it belongs to the original game.

But because I actually really like the work of Rytelier and ASKII, I left some blanks in the music folders of MEME, so you can fill them up with their tremendous tracks ! Again, explanations will be given in due time, so just download and endorse this mod and unzip it right now to save some time.

Sermon Two : The ending of the words is MEME

Now that everything is set up properly, I can introduce you extensively to the actual MEME mod, and go into the details of what it actually covers.

There are two versions of the mod. The first one only contains the very light config files that nevertheless needed a lot of work. It basically is the core of the mod, put aside for experienced modders so they can have fun with it and incorporate it in their MUSE shenanigans for personal use. It also is interesting for those of you that like to play with MUSE but don't have the same tastes than me AT ALL, and don't want to waste time downloading 1GB of music they won't listen to. Interior config files are included as a resource, since I didn't add any tracks for them anyway, but they are updated to work with Tamriel_Data and OAAB_Data which is always interesting if you want to automatically cover some mod locations. More on that later on.

The other version is the complete version, which is the same as the first but this time with the music folders and the tracks.

The important thing with MEME is that most of its config files are cell-dependent, which means you don't have to worry about mods using interior tilesets in creative ways, leading to unfitting automatic ambient tracks. The downside is that it needs updates, but that's kinda the point of the mod to avoid unconsistencies and allow easy compatibility with popular mods.

* Region-specific music : Each region of Vvardenfell, sometimes teamed up with some regions of Tamriel Rebuilt that in my opinion had a similar vibe, has a specific and unique folder of 8 brand new Explore tracks, with the exception of Solstheim and its 10 tracks. Most of them are from Oblivion, Skyrim and TESO since there are a lot of material in theses games and because their OSTs are very atmospheric, but there are also some extras from other games.

Honestly, this allows you to expect tracks from a specific region but also to not hear the same ones over and over again too often. I actually kept the original Morrowind Explore tracks in the Ascadian Isles region, I thought it fitted the atmosphere.

There is a total of 8 region types for Vvardenfell (Ascadian, Ashlands (with Molag Amur), Coastal, Lush, Marsh, Nordic, Rocky and Red Mountain), also Solstheim, and 5 region types specifically designed for Tamriel Rebuilt regions only (Aanthirin, Heartlands, Sacred Lands, Telvanni Isles and Sea). For the latters (ladders ?), the folders are actually empty (except for the oceans), but we'll fill them later with the help of some zipping shenanigans.

* Culture-specific town music : Each culture of Vvardenfell (namely Hlaalu, Redoran, Telvanni, Indoril, Dres, fishing villages and the Empire) has received a unique folder of 6 new Explore tracks. Ashlander camps are covered by the Joetechno mod. The Dres folder is actually empty since so far Tamriel Rebuilt didn't add any Dres settlement. Again, this allows to wander cities while feeling different depending on the culture represented. Even the troglodyte habitations and the mainland villages of Tamriel Rebuilt are covered with a handful of tracks ! Plantations are implemented too, although Vvardenfell only has two of honourable size.

* City-specific music : Some cities stand out as different, and unique : therefore, we need unique tracks ! So far, Seyda Neen, Ebonheart and Old Ebonheart together, Vivec, Mournhold, Almas Thirr, Molag Mar and Necrom are covered. A total of 8 tracks for Vivec, and between 3 and 6 for the others. The Ghostgate itself got some love with 6 new epic tracks.

* Shop-specific music : Now that the general ambience is laid out in these beautiful cities, we need some fresh air into the actual stores ! I've decided to separate them into five main groups : Taverns of course (with 8 fitting new tracks), but also Traders, Smiths, Magics and Scholars. The latter also includes some specific places of knowledge such as Great Libraries.

* Guild-specific music : Does what it says. Covers the Imperial Guilds (Fighters, Mages and Thieves), the Legion (through Forts tracks), the Morag Tong, the Camonna Tong, both religions (the Temple and the Imperial Cult through the unified Temple tracks) and the Imperial Administrations (Census and Excise, East Empire Company and a bunch of other imperial seats of formal power). Even Dunmer nobles could get a Manor track (only the music for now).

* Memorable places : Some locations aren't like the others, and deserve a special treatment. Covers High Temples (Vivec, Mournhold and Necrom), the Clockwork City, God Rooms (Vivec, Sotha Sil, Almalexia, Dagoth Ur and Akulakhan, to each their own track), Shrines of Azura (the peaceful ones, the Cavern of the Incarnate being covered by the Joetechno Ashlander mod), Holamayan, Temple Shrines (Kummu, Koal and such), the Skaal Village, Ravenrock, Thirsk, the Fane of the Ancestors, the Ministry of Truth, Desele's House of Earthly Delights, Castle Karstaag, the Mortrag Glacier, Tel Fyr and the Corprusarium (and a little surprise for modders =p). Maybe more on the works.

* Other stuff : Boats, Oblivion Planes, Player Homes, Sewers, Throne Rooms. Maybe more on the works.

* Dungeon-specific music : MEME adds 20 Dungeon General tracks, but also adds some spice to specific types of dungeons not already covered by Joetechno's mods (namely Daedric, Dwemer, Sixth House and Tombs). Covers Mines, Kwama caves and eggmines, Chimer strongholds and Indoril ruins, underwater Grottos, the Old Mournhold, mainland Tribal camps, hostile Ashlander camps and Vampire clanslairs.

* Combat-specific music : Yeah, 20 more general Battle tracks. But also adds more combat-specific music for the enemies that aren't already covered by Joetechno's mods (namely Ashlander, Daedric, Dwemer, Sixth House and Tombs). Covers Almalexia, Vivec, Hircine, Divayth Fyr, Fabricants, Guards (only generic ones so far) and Vampires. Do note that if you want to get rid of the vanilla battle tracks, you need to delete them manually.

* Air and Underwater tracks : For those who reactivated the feature by following Necro's tutorial, two tracks for swimming underwater and flying high in the air. Honestly, I've added an underwater track but don't recommend you to use it. It just pops up anywhere, no difference between a little swim in a pool next to your Vivec estate and almost drowning deep into a dark and forgotten grotto. If you don't want that, disable the function by directly editing the MUSE file or simply unzip my mod and get rid of the track in the music/MS/General/Underwater folder, then rezip it. More on that in the next part.

* No Explore music : Yup, no Explore music. The mod is already pretty big and you aren't supposed to hear anything from your Explore track since every region of the game is covered. So if you do, that's a bug, and you need to tell me in the comment section.

That's it. Now that you know everything you just added to your game, let's find a way to put the final touch by filling the blanks I left, and learning to replace tracks you don't like if you aren't familiar with MUSE.

Sermon Three : Turns out MEME wasn't the ending of words

What we want to do now is to use the excellent TR soundtrack from Rytelier and ASKII mentioned above without using the incompatible config files that would inevitably break everything now that MEME is installed. I will suggest a way of reorganising the tracks, but again, you do you.

- If you haven't already, unzip the mod and roam its files to collect the tracks and put them in a general folder.
- Prepare a folder of your own with a music/MS subfolder path.
- Copy paste the "Aanthirin 1-2", "Thirr", "Thirr 1-2" and "Through The Mountains" tracks right into a music/MS/region/Aanthirin Region subfolder path.
- Copy paste the "Mournhold Atmospheres 1-2", "Mournhold explore", "Mournhold fields", "Road to Mournhold" and "Lan Orethan" tracks right into a music/MS/region/Heartlands pack subfolder path.
- Copy paste the "sacred lands 1-4" tracks right into a music/MS/region/Sacred Lands Region subfolder path.
- Copy paste the "Telvannis 1-2", "Telvannis fields", "Port Telvannis" and "Dreamy atmospheres 1-2" tracks right into a music/MS/region/Telvanni Isles Region subfolder path.
- Copy paste the "Indoril settlement" track right into a music/MS/cell/Indoril subfolder path.
- Copy paste the "Beacon of Cyrodiil" track right into a music/MS/cell/Ebonheart subfolder path.

The rest of the tracks are meant for dungeon ambience, which is already covered, but again, put those files wherever you'd like them to be.

Rezip your music folder and give it a name that suits you before installing it through MO2. Since it doesn't contain any config files, you can place it wherever you want. Now, you should hear those tracks in game while roaming the mainland !

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Now if this wasn't enough of a tutorial, the general idea is the following : first, you can unzip MEME to analyse its files.

You'll see that in the MWSE/config/MS subfolder path lie the config files : unless you know exactly what you're doing, don't touch that. Experienced modders will have lots of fun changing the priorities and adding new cells to them, but refrain from that (especially touching priorities) if you're not versed in the ways of MUSE to avoid breaking everything.

The folders that you want to modify are the ones in the music/MS path, which contains five subfolders : cell, combat, General, interior and region. Each of them are pretty self-explanatory and you can easily verify that the cell and region folders are the most important, although some combat tracks are present.

If you want to change a music played when entering the Akulakhan Chamber, for example, go to music/MS/cell/Akulakhan and replace my track by whatever you'd like to hear in game, and you can add as much as you want. Or if you'd like to add more variety to Vampire combat music, go to music/MS/combat/Vampire and add some new ones. Don't change the names of the folders or, again, you'll break everything.

If you want to simply destroy a specific music folder because you don't want those places, regions or enemies to play specific tracks, just get rid of the music but not of the config files or of the actual folder itself. This way, if you change your mind, it'll be easy to backpedal. By default, MUSE will always go into your Explore track to play music if there is absolutely zero config file, or no tracks linked to a config file for the place you are in.

At this point I think it is pretty clear, even for newbies, on how this should work. If you are a more experienced MUSEr, feel free to play with the folders and change things to your liking, the aim of this mod is also to let people experiment with this sort of big builging base that MEME was supposed to be when I first got the idea of the mod.

Sermon Four : MEMEnstallation ? (doesn't make any sense, sorry xD)

The easiest way to install is through MO2. Just install as a regular mod and let it overwrite Joetechno's mods to get rid of their less extensive config files.

Apart from that and the aforementioned overhauls that have the same purpose, MEME should be compatible with almost anything that isn't a MUSE mod.

If you intend to do a manual installation, just drop the files of the unzipped mod into your Data Files folder. But don't do that. Use MO2.

Sermon Five-Minus-A-Quarter-Maybe : But what about MEMEs ? I mean, mods ?

As I said, all mods should be compatible. But what interests us is what mods are covered by MEME. Because you see, since MEME is mainly a cell-based MUSE mod, it needs updates to keep the consistency between enemies, dungeons and such to avoid general dungeon music in a modded dwemer ruin, for example, or general battle music against a new Daedra added by a mod. That's why I am making here a list of mods that are covered so far, and a list of the ones that are officially planned to be covered at some point.

Covered mods so far : Tamriel_Data, OAAB_Data, Tamriel Rebuilt (22.11)

Mods to be covered : TOTSP, BCOM, The Doors of Oblivion, Sotha Sil Expanded, Vanilla-friendly creatures and undeads expansion, Kogoruhn Expanded, New Ilunibi, Mamaea Awakened

Don't hesitate to let me know what mods you would like to see covered by the config files. For the smallest mods, it will honestly be a piece of cake to update, and even though anybody could that, the magic of MUSE allows me to keep updating in the same config file even for hundreds of mods, with very minimal chances of conflicts, so I won't pass the chance to do that so you don't have to.

NB : I am not really interested in other Project Tamriel mods such as Skyrim - Home Of The Nords and Province Cyrodiil. It would need another level of implication to keep MEME updated for those mods and another hundred tracks to properly set up a musical ambience, and I'm just not interested enough to waste time on this. And the fact that those mods are constantly updated doesn't help either.

Sermon Seven-And-A-Bit-More : MEME has answers if it has questions

Q : Why are the music of the dungeons still playing out in the open ?
A : As I said earlier in the description, you need to check if you deactivated the queueing of regional tracks in MUSE parameters. Otherwise, regions aren't a priority for the game and it won't launch their music even if you left a very specific cell such as daedric shrine or a dwemer ruin. You can play without this parameter off, but I recommend you to do that.

Q : Why is the music acting weird on the frontier between two regions ?
A : That is the direct consequence of what you did above. There is no solution to that, besides avoiding to stay for too long right on the separation line.

Q : Why is the combat music not always activating when entering combat ?
A : That is a MUSE feature, allowing high level characters to avoid entering formal 'combat' with epic music and all while fighting a cave rat or a scrib, because that is painfully disruptive when you love to explore with a steady musical background. You can adjust that in the MUSE parameters if you want to.

Q : Why is this specific music too loud / too silent ?
A : Because even though I did my best to even the odds by reworking the volume of the tracks, I clearly forgot some stuff. Although it sometimes is a matter of taste depending on the height of pitch and people's sensibility to that. Please report any track that has a definitely different volume than the others.

Q : Why do I have a different music than expected in this particular place ?
A : This might have four explanations.
- First, another mod has scripted through other means than MUSE a music that plays in the aforementioned place, for example Atmospheric Delights or Animated Morrowind. In that case, you have to choose between keeping the mod and its tracks as they are, or updating it to remove only the music script or replace the tracks it adds.
- It can also be the fact that I personally integrated a cell to a specific 'family' of places. For example, the Great Library of Vivec stands in the middle of the High Temple that has a specific track, but is part of the Scholars family so might feel a bit disruptive. You can adjust that directly in the config files if you are an experienced MUSEr or just explain in the comment section why you think I should change something.
- It can be an oversight. So please report anything that is definitely weird compared to what you hear most of the time, it might simply be that I forgot a cell.
- Finally, do note that lots of mods add cells that aren't covered yet, so in that case it's perfectly normal that it doesn't work. For the smallest mods, as I said, it is pretty easy for me to update the mod so tell me about them in the comments and I shall swiftly modify the config files.

Q : I would use your mod, but music changes too often for my taste. Can you do a lite version ?
A : I don't really plan on doing that, since it kinda destroys the purpose of the mod, which is to cover more places and mods than the already existing atmospheric/explore track additions. However, as I said earlier, if you don't like a specific family having specific tracks, just nuke the corresponding tracks. The music will go back to the previous priority setting, for example, the culture instead of the shop. Or the region instead of the city. Don't hesitate to play with what I've provided to find your own preferred configuration.

Q : What about other mods that add music ?
A : As stated above, other MUSE mods are likely to be incompatible for obvious reasons. Otherwise, numerous mods add scripted music to a bunch of cells (Animated Morrowind, Atmospheric Delights, Firemoth Reclaimed, etc.) that will override the one scripted through MUSE. You'll always hear the music of these mods over the one I chose for those cells.

Sermon Thirty-Eight-and-a-Half : End-of-readMEME stuff

Report any bugs in the comment section of the mod page, and I will fix them for the next update. Again, this is still a work in progress, some pretty big mistakes might have slipped in and even though it's not my first mod, it is my first one on the Nexus and my first one on the English version of the game. I will do my best to maintain this mod so you can all enjoy the soundtrack of my favorite RPGs in peace without having to worry about this cell not having the right music or this guy not triggering the battle music. Although if you want to only download the config files and have fun with them, please be my guest.

The only thing I'm going to ask is to not reupload a part or the entirety of my work (meaning, the config files, since I do not own the music) without direct consent, because I do really intend to regularly update this mod to cover more and more of my fellow modders' work, even though it might not be once a week. You can reach me whenever you want, and don't panic if I don't answer even after one or two weeks. I will eventually.

Many many thanks to :

- Joetechno (or Scipio219) for giving me the idea and the will to work on MUSE myself with his mods.
- The French Morrowind modders and translators who raised me in the Morrolove for all those years. Big big câlins to Redonde and Daichi and to all the members of La Confrérie des Traducteurs.
- The Morrowind Modding Community for keeping this game alive for so long, and especially for MWSE and MGE XE.
- All of the musicians and composers who worked hard to give us such beautiful soundtracks for all these beautiful games.
- Bethesda for the game and the TESCS !

Credits for the music to :

* Eric Heberling - Arena, Daggerfall
* Jeremy Soule - Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls Online, Knights of The Old Republic
* Brad Derrick, Rick Chaffer - The Elder Scrolls Online
* Stuart Chatwood - Darkest Dungeon
* Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke, Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford - Warcraft III Reign of Chaos
* Peter McConnell - Hearthstone
* John Debney - The Sims Medieval
* Kirill Pokrovsky (RIP) - Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga
* Inon Zur - Dragon Age Origins
* Jamie Christopherson - The Lord of the Rings Battle For Middle-Earth 2
* Motoi Sakuraba - Dark Souls
* Yuka Kitamura - Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring, Sekiro
* Shoi Miyazawa, Yoshimi Kudo, Tsukasa Saitoh - Elden Ring
* Ryan Amon - Bloodborne
* Paweł Błaszczak, Adam Skorupa - The Witcher
* Marcin Przybyłowicz - The Witcher 3
* Toshio Masuda - Naruto
* Shinji Miyazaki - Pokemon
* Artem Kucherov - Orchestral version of Arena Main Theme
* Pieces of 8-bit - Daggerfall OST HQ Remake
* Alina Gingertail - Covers of Witcher 3 Kaer Morhen Theme and Skyrim Dragonborn Comes
* Patrik Pietschmann - Cover of Naruto Sadness and Sorrow
* Liz Katrin, Fredrik Jonasson, Tim Grabowski - Skywind music
* The Chalkeaters - little surprise