Gamers release first fan film based on Morrowind about young Caius Cosades

Some games don't age, they become religions. There's no other way to explain why, almost 25 years later, people are still crossing the globe with cameras, costumes, and makeup to tell a story about ashstorms and a mad god beneath Red Mountain.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind came out in 2002, and it now has its first full-length fan film, "The Sleeper: A Morrowind Story". The premiere took place on YouTube, and the film serves as a prequel to the events of the game. It follows the first signs of Sixth House influence on Vvardenfell and the heroics of a young Caius Cosades.

The choice of protagonist works well. In the original, Cosades, the head of the Blades in Balmora, greets the player as an aging spy with a taste for moon sugar. Morrowind reveals almost nothing about his past, which gave the creators room to experiment without breaking canon. One viewer compared the approach to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power from Amazon, which also fills in gaps between known events. The actors playing Almalexia and Dagoth Ur earned special praise, and viewers said the Dunmer hairstyles turned out impressively accurate.

Filming ran from 2025 to 2026 and took place in three locations:

• Hong Kong

• South Shields in northeast England

• Cumbria

The original score comes from Daniel Morrison Neil, who worked on Fallout London, the massive fan-made mod released in 2024. A post-credits song, "The Sleeper", performed by fantasy singer Rachel Hardy, adds the finishing touch and will be released as a separate single. The team is realistic about what it has made:

While we cannot promise you a cinematic masterpiece, given the limitations of our resources, we can promise you an entertaining and sincere depiction of this cult game.

Fan films based on games seem to be having a small renaissance. Some commenters recalled the days when Ultima Online fans made their own videos en masse. Others pointed out that a Silent Hill 2 fan film is in the works right now, though it isn't an adaptation of the game but a story about Angela. The unexpected 18+ rating on "The Sleeper" puzzled some viewers too, although for a world with ash zombies wandering caves and skooma sold under the counter, it's hardly out of character.

Bethesda moved on to other games long ago, but Vvardenfell is still dreaming.