Morrowind Daedric shrine quests

This address once held the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages’ “Morrowind Daedra Shrine Quests” guide. UESP is still active at uesp.net, and the same subject now has a full wiki article there. Below is the current version for today’s players: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has seven Daedric shrine quests, each rewards an artifact, and several of the old notes about them needed correcting.

The seven Daedric shrine quests at a glance

Each Prince speaks to you through a statue at one of their shrines, gives you a task and pays you with an artifact. You can do all seven in the base game with no expansion. Two of them, Boethiah and Mephala, have shrines that are hard to find without directions.

How to play the shrine quests today

To play today, buy the Game of the Year Edition on Steam or GOG. Then choose between the original 2002 engine with community patches or the open-source OpenMW engine. All seven quests work on both, and OpenMW is the easier choice for a new install on a modern PC.

Which edition to buy

The Game of the Year Edition includes the base game plus the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions. It’s sold on Steam (app 22320) and on GOG. On Steam in the US the list price has been $14.99, and the game is often discounted in seasonal sales. The GOG release is DRM-free, which makes it a simple choice if you plan to run OpenMW, because OpenMW only needs the game’s data files. The shrine quests themselves are all part of the base game, so the expansions don’t change them.

Original engine or OpenMW

OpenMW 0.51.0 added the option for modders to create new magic effects through Lua and fixed many Lua crashes. A release candidate for 0.52.0 came out in November 2026, and its headline change is clustered lighting, which removes the old per-object light limit. 0.52.0 is still a release candidate as of mid-November 2026, so stay on 0.51.0 if you want a stable game.

Quest by quest

All seven quests start the same way: activate the statue to talk to the Prince. The sections below give you each route, the traps to avoid and what the reward is good for. Boethiah gets the most detail because it’s the quest people most often break.

Azura: Azura’s Star

Azura’s shrine sits on the southeastern tip of Vvardenfell, marked by a tall statue that you can see from the coast. She tells you that Sheogorath has sent Daedra to harass her priestess, who lives alone on an island in the Sheogorad region far to the north.

1. Travel north to the chain of small islands along the top edge of the map. The priestess’s island lies west of Dagon Fel, even though the dialogue makes it sound like it’s to the north.
2. Kill the Golden Saint named Staada. The other Daedra on the island (Ogrims, Atronachs, Hungers) are optional.
3. Leave the priestess alone, and loot Sheogorath’s Signet Ring from Staada as proof.
4. Return to the shrine for Azura’s Star.

Azura’s Star is a soul gem that you can use again and again, but it starts empty. For an enchanter it’s one of the most valuable items in the game, because you can refill and reuse it without buying new gems.

Boethiah: Goldbrand

This is the quest with the best payoff for the least risk. Boethiah’s ruined shrine lies on the seabed northwest of Hla Oad, and the quest starts when you activate the statue’s broken head, which rests a short distance from the body.

How it plays out:

1. Boethiah wants a new shrine and sends you to Caldera to find a sculptor.
2. Ask around in Caldera until you’re pointed to the Orc Duma gro-Lag in Ghorak Manor.
3. Give Duma 2,000 gold and a copy of the book Boethiah’s Glory, which Jobasha sells in Vivec’s Foreign Quarter.
4. Let game days pass while he works. When the statue is done, it stands at Khartag Point, northwest of Gnaar Mok on the west coast.
5. Activate the new statue to receive Goldbrand.

No fighting is needed, so a new character with the money can earn the reward early. Goldbrand is a one-handed long blade (its item ID is a katana) with a fire-damage enchantment that triggers on strikes. Older guides were confused here: some called it two-handed even though their own stat blocks said one-handed. It isn’t the strongest blade in Morrowind, but it outclasses almost anything a low-level character can buy. Duma stays at Khartag Point for good after the job is done.

What breaks it:

• Duma dying. If Duma gro-Lag dies at any point, you can’t start or finish the quest. Don’t pick fights in Ghorak Manor.
• Turning Duma down. UESP records that telling Duma you aren’t interested in his work leaves the quest unfinishable.
• M’Aiq the Liar. In the unpatched 2002 release, talking to M’Aiq about the shrine before you found it broke the quest. Bethesda’s official patch 1.1.0605 fixed this, and the Steam and GOG Game of the Year copies already include later patches. Only very old disc installs are still affected.

Malacath: Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw

Malacath’s shrine is Assurdirapal, on a long island in Sheogorad west of Dagon Fel. He tells you the story of Oreyn Bearclaw, an elven “hero” who got the credit for deeds done by his Orc companion, Kharag gro-Khar. To destroy the false legend, Malacath wants the last of Bearclaw’s line dead.

His hints send you toward Vivec, and the trail ends with Farvyn Oreyn near Gnaar Mok on the west coast. Farvyn himself is weak. His two bodyguards are the real fight, so arrive at full health or pull them apart. Go back to the shrine for the Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw, a heavy helmet enchanted with constant Fortify Agility and Fortify Endurance. That’s a strong pairing for any warrior who wants more health per level.

Mehrunes Dagon: Mehrunes’ Razor

Dagon’s shrine is Yasammidan, a Daedric ruin partly on an island at the far northwestern tip of Vvardenfell, west of Ald Velothi and the Dwemer ruin of Arkngthunch-Sturdumz. He sends you to Alas Ancestral Tomb in the middle of the Molag Amur mountains, north of Molag Mar and south of the Erabenimsun Ashlander camp.

The twist is that the tomb has no Razor in it. You find only a rusty dagger on the body of Varner Hleras at the altar. Take it back anyway, and Dagon turns it into Mehrunes’ Razor. The Razor is a light short blade whose on-strike enchantment damages armor and poisons the target. It’s a very good fit for fast short-blade characters.

Mephala: Ring of Khajiit

Mephala’s shrine is the hardest to find because it’s hidden inside the secret Morag Tong headquarters, off the canalworks storage area of the Arena Canton in Vivec. Speak to Taros Dral there. He passes on Mephala’s wish that Balyn Omarel, a Morag Tong member carrying out unsanctioned killings, be removed quietly.

1. Take the Treated Bittergreen Petals that Taros Dral gives you.
2. Go to Omarel’s house in Balmora, on the east side of the river. He often stands outside, and the quest fails if he sees you go in.
3. Get in through the roof door rather than the front door.
4. Use the cauldron inside to poison his food, then leave the same way without being seen.
5. Report to Taros Dral, then speak to the shrine for the Ring of Khajiit.

The Ring of Khajiit casts Invisibility and Fortify Speed when used. It’s a dependable escape tool, and strong for thief and assassin builds.

Molag Bal: Mace of Molag Bal

Molag Bal’s shrine is in Yansirramus, an island ruin west of Tel Aruhn. The statue room is safe, but the side chambers hold hostile cultists and Daedra. Molag Bal complains about a Daedroth named Menta Na who now hides in the Kora-Dur caves instead of spreading terror, and he gives you the key.

Kora-Dur lies east of the Kogoruhn stronghold, in the Ashlands north of Red Mountain. Menta Na waits in the innermost chamber, and a Daedric staff is among the loot there. The reward is the Mace of Molag Bal, a heavy one-handed blunt weapon that absorbs Strength and Magicka on each hit. Spellswords like it because every swing tops up their magicka.

Sheogorath: Spear of Bitter Mercy

Sheogorath’s shrine, Ihinipalit, lies in the underworks beneath Vivec, so it’s easy to reach. You may need to clear out the people already there first. Sheogorath wants you to fetch the Fork of Horripilation from a mad hermit and use it to kill a Giant Bull Netch.

• The hermit lives in Big Head’s Shack, on the island just north of Ald Redaynia in the far northwest.
• He’s harmless, and he lets you take the fork. It’s on a table and looks like a large barbecue fork.
• The fork is a terrible weapon. Bring the netch’s health down with your own weapon, then switch to the fork for the killing blow, because only the final hit counts.

The Spear of Bitter Mercy is a two-handed spear with a long reach. When used, it casts Reflect and summons a Storm Atronach.

The Masque of Clavicus Vile is not a shrine quest

Many old lists put the Masque of Clavicus Vile among the shrine quests, but Morrowind has no Clavicus Vile shrine quest at all. The Masque comes from the Imperial Legion quest “Sorkvild the Raven”, given by Radd Hard-Heart at Moonmoth Legion Fort.

Sorkvild is a level 12 Nord battlemage and necromancer. He lives in Sorkvild’s Tower just east of Dagon Fel. Kill him and loot the Masque from his body. He carries it but doesn’t wear it, because he prefers medium armor. UESP lists the Masque as a heavy helmet with an armor rating of 80 and a constant +30 Personality, which is a big help for persuasion and bartering. The quest earns +5 Legion reputation. Almar’s Guides notes that if you kill Sorkvild before taking the quest, Radd still thanks you, so you can get the Masque without joining the Legion.

Which order to do them in

For most characters the best order runs from cheapest to most dangerous. That means weighing combat risk at low level, travel time and how much the reward helps early on, in roughly that order of importance.

The counter-argument applies to enchanters. Azura’s Star is worth more to a magic character than every weapon on this list, so a mage who can handle a Golden Saint should go for it first.

Mods that touch the shrine quests

Most quest mods leave the seven shrine quests as they are, so the useful mods here fall into three groups: engine fixes, bug-fix plugins and expansions that add new shrine content around them.

Engine and bug fixes

• OpenMW fixes many original engine bugs without extra plugins. It’s the cleanest base for a new playthrough of these quests.
• Morrowind Code Patch (Hrnchamd) is the standard fix for the original executable. It patches engine-level bugs and adds quality-of-life options, and it’s often installed alongside MWSE.
• Patch for Purists, published on Nexus Mods, fixes vanilla dialogue, item and quest-script errors without changing the game’s design. It’s a plugin, so it works on both engines.

Tamriel Rebuilt

Tamriel Rebuilt adds mainland Morrowind beyond Vvardenfell, and its newest release, 26.08 “Poison Song” (23 August 2026), was the first one also offered on GOG. It adds over 1,000 quests in total, including new Tribunal Temple and Morag Tong content, which ties in naturally after Mephala’s quest. The 24.12 release put the Ebony Blade in the Daedric shrine of Shambalu for the Narsis Morag Tong questline. That’s a good next step for anyone who wants more Daedric artifacts once the seven vanilla quests are done. Tamriel Rebuilt needs Tribunal and Bloodmoon, so the Game of the Year Edition covers it.

Common problems and fixes

Most shrine quest failures come from an important NPC dying, being spotted or the wrong dialogue choice. The engine is rarely at fault. The table covers the common cases and the clean, official way to recover from each.

Where to go next

Start with Boethiah. It costs nothing but gold and patience, and the wait passes while you travel north for Azura and Malacath. After that, the Masque from Sorkvild’s Tower is a short trip from the Sheogorad islands, and Tamriel Rebuilt’s Shambalu shrine continues the Daedric artifact hunt once Vvardenfell is done.

FAQ

How many Daedric shrine quests are in Morrowind?

Seven. The quest-giving Princes are Azura, Boethiah, Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Mephala, Molag Bal and Sheogorath, and each gives you an artifact.

Do I need Tribunal or Bloodmoon for the shrine quests?

No. All seven are part of the base game. Bloodmoon has its own Daedric story involving Hircine, but that’s the expansion’s main quest, not a shrine quest.

Is there a Clavicus Vile shrine in Morrowind?

No. The Masque of Clavicus Vile comes from killing Sorkvild the Raven, a quest that Radd Hard-Heart gives at Moonmoth Legion Fort.

Which shrine artifact is the best?

For enchanters it’s Azura’s Star, a soul gem you can reuse forever. For fighters, Goldbrand is the best early prize because you can get it without any combat.

Can a low-level character do Boethiah’s quest?

Yes. All you need is 2,000 gold and a copy of Boethiah’s Glory. Just keep Duma gro-Lag alive and accept his offer.

Do the shrine quests work in OpenMW?

Yes. They run on OpenMW 0.51.0 as they do in the original engine, and OpenMW also fixes many engine bugs from the 2002 executable.

Does Tamriel Rebuilt change the seven vanilla shrine quests?

The releases covered here add new Daedric content on the mainland, such as the Ebony Blade at the Shambalu shrine. They don’t rework the seven Vvardenfell quests.

Where can I find the original UESP guide?

UESP still runs at uesp.net. Its Morrowind Daedric Quests wiki article has replaced the old 2002 page, and it’s kept up to date.

What changed

• Nov 13, 2026 First published.

About the article

NA

Written by Nico Albrecht

Nico covers RPG and action game mods, Bethesda games and the weekly trending mod roundups. He pays close attention to requirements and load order, so a mod list is something you can install without breaking your save.

• Fact-checked by Hollis Tremaine before publication.
• Published November 13, 2026

Spotted an error? Tell us