TESNC: Nix-Hound Creatures

Nix-Hounds are a large predatory insect native to Morrowind.

The nix-hound can be tamed and trained to serve similar roles as dogs, but require a lot of food, exercise, and maintenance by comparison.[1] Aside from their adaptations to Morrowind's ashlands, nix-hounds have a big advantage compared to dogs: their proboscis is designed to pierce even chitinous plates, and nixes are uncannily good at finding angles that let them slip their proboscis between plates of stronger materials, even supposedly impenetrable daedric armor.

Please note the use of tamed rather than domesticated. Nix-hounds will always be wild, no matter how affectionate they are toward their owner, and will only submit to strict and vigilant masters. Expecting them to behave like domesticated dogs is the surest way to a grievous injury. If you want a domesticated insect that can assist in hunting and guarding, kwama warriors raised from hand-reared foragers and workers are a far more obedient and forgiving pet.

— Essayist Idreth Dralvu


Cooking & Alchemy

The flesh of nix-hounds, called "hound meat" by Morrowind natives, is a tender and sweet white meat. It tastes like a mixture of cod and chicken when raw, and similar to creamy fried chicken when cooked. It is often ground and used in meatpies and chilies, and is favored by ashlanders and Redoran cooks.

Raw nix-hound meat also has modest magical properties, and can be used to contribute to stamina-bolstering, spell-turning and enchantment-sensitivity potions.

Velothi Nix-Hound

Nix-Hound


The Dunmer of Morrowind's Bal Foyen region breed and train the common nix-hound, also known as the Velothi nix-hound and mainland nix-hound, as their watchdogs, trackers, and netch-deflators, making them popular with both House Dres' plantation owners and slavemasters, and settled and Velothi Netchimans. Mainland nix-hounds can be identified by their ruddy red bodies and copper-brown chitin plates and scutes. They are just as aggressive as their Vvardenfell counterparts, but are less interested in pursuing Dreugh, and instead hunt down Daedra.

Nix-Hound Prowler

Tarra-Suj


The nix-hound prowler is a wild species of nix-hound native to Vvardenfell's Bitter Coast, closely related to the common nix-hound of the mainland. Their bodies are a ruddy red color, and they have slate-grey chitin plates and scutes that give them slightly better camouflage in ashlands and rocky areas. They are aggressive, and can often grow to larger-than-average sizes and become lethal threats, leading swarms of smaller nixes and attacking humans. The Erabenimsun Tribe name these deadly greater nix-hound prowlers Tarra-Suj, or "powerful hunter" in Velothis, and only send their most capable warriors to hunt them down.

Verdant Nix-Hound

Verdant-Nix-Hound


Legend says that the verdant nix-hound, also known as the Vvardenfell nix-hound and Vivecian nix-hound, was magically created by Saint Vivec to assist in his vengeful crusade against the Dreugh, and their hunting instincts certainly support that theory, as they chase singlemindedly after the aquatic humanoids unless restrained. The verdant nix-hounds are known for shaking off disasters and rapidly adapting to new living conditions, such as their introduction to Solstheim's Ashlands, and the drastic change of Vvardenfell's environment after the Red Year.

The Elder Scrolls & all related material are © Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media, Microsoft Inc. Any mentioned TES mods & fan projects are © their respective creators. All New C0DA material can be used freely within other Elder Scrolls projects.