I am still gathering impressions and trying to find out where to start. Have some vague ideas that could give me a direction and add early results not overencumbering my skills.

What about this:

There are mammoths to add and NPCs. By default they are wild animals living in small tribes wandering around but they can be used as mounts and (maybe) like some kinda strong workhorses.

Under normal circumstances a mammoth is way too big and strong to be hunted or even caught for one single human. Imagine some kind of horse whisperers living as hermits in small and simple huts out there where wild mammoths are to be found. Like druids or shamans with special knowledge of wildlife, some alchemistry and maybe special magical skills.

They could be objects to quests, sell special equipment for alchemistry purposes, maybe give hints for special locations. If a mountable mammoth is needed for something that can't be done without, the player would have to find such a mammoth whisperer, gain his trust, maybe do a quest and pay for his service.

The mammoth whisperer would assist the player in finding a mammoth tribe, selecting one of them and keep the animal from fleeing or attacking with some kind of summoning so the player could mount it.

For the mammoth whispering a deep kinda singing like a gregorian choral or something like that and a special anim for the whisperer would be impressive.

I think (hope) i could do that.

That sounds brilliant. Definately do that if you can. Do you want me to source some sounds?

Sure. I wasn't quite sure wether you'd like this idea. I have found some huts, and downloaded everything i need. So i take this task and put my teeth in it

I'll put up screens ASAP.

Great, looking forward to it. Where do you intend to set the quests, which region?

In first stage i want to get the hermits set up and the process of finding and catching working. Question is: in which area shall those be located? I see them as a kind of subculture hat shouldn't be present everywhere. In the northeastern region maybe?

Second stage will add quests to fulfil before a hermit agrees. Easy to add in the dialogues but depend on locations, objects and NPCs i have to create. Some bandits, maybe nomads that have stolen something or disturb the mammoth routes by hunting, special materials to find for bows/arrows (a rare type of wood from a special tree) or something needed for alchemistry. Different hermits with different quests.

Third stage connects the mammoth-thing to other locations to get the player involved. Something like a beast market in a fort where mammoths are to be trained (maybe traded) for military purposes which would add political issues and rumours/dialogue options. Such rumours could be added in wherever it makes sense.

Do we have an overview where which types of animal populations reside? And what about political borders and military tensions in which such could play a role? Mammoths in the northeast mostly?

Ok, Northeast takes you to Larandor forest (top centre of the map). To the right (east) are the Volgar mountains. These are the abode of the Skayan people, cannibalistic, shaman led tribes. A rough lot, very much like a human version of the uruk hai. They would use mammoth for war and work. The Skaya form the military of the Vandur, they are extremely numerous and subterranean people.

Perfect context for this. Is there any concept art? Have you already assigned their preferred clothing, weapons, housing type or such?

Not yet. I always imagined them to be a cross between Uruk Hai and vikings. They began as orc types in my mind but certainly not the green skinned oblivion orcs, they dont look right.

I imagined them to look grey skinned, fairly strong, preferably nocturnal but fully able to fight during the day, just better at night. Wooden shields, basic swords, rusted basic armour, shaman and chieftain led.

http://pospovic.sweb.cz/Dunbers.jpg

maybe is the closest picture I can get. Does that makes sense?

Clothing would be very basic, furs, rags, cobbled together mail stolen from others. If you can source anything that is suitable then that would help.