I've got something that I've been putting together in the last couple weeks you might enjoy reading!

It's a short story about Lady Kayellie and her Wood Nymph companion, Arborea.  Lady Kayellie, who is one of the NGoS followers, a Blended Nymph, and might also be a knight, but she may have just read one too many books.  This particular story is hinted at a little bit in her Kayellie's description, and is now re-imagined by her closest travelling companion.

I should warn you that there isn't any nudity or sexytime in this. 

The story is told through some of my very best 4k screenshots.  It has some suggestive dialog and some scantily clad ladies but it's fairly SFW.  It was orignally just a way to flex my creative muscles and maybe get in the habit of writing dialog for the next update I have in mind, but I enjoyed the result enough that I thought you might enjoy it too.

Foreword

Chapter I

Shortly after another successful adventure ridding the world of Tamriel of another cataclysmic threat, perhaps by rescuing a stray cow from a nearby stream, Lady Kayellie and her not-quite-squire are travelling south from solitude.

The story begins as they embark from dragonbridge.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Chapter II

Arborea, taking a short detour through the reach, manages to find herself closing in on the city of Markarth. 

She considers herself lucky to have only encountered a single war-band of the reachmen known as the forsworn along the way.  Arborea is a competent mage, but has never bothered mastering her art, and she wasn't sure if their strange weapons would be capable of injuring a Nymph, such as herself. 

Fortunately, her unique brand of magic proves so terrifying to the native reachmen that she only had to expend minor effort before the entire group began fleeing back to the hills while screaming about having their "brains eaten by a rainbow monster."

Three gate guards are stationed on duty, one on each side of the gate, and while another normally mans the tower, today a recently recruited trainee is instead learning about gate duty.

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Chapter III

Sometime later, the story of Lady Kayellie and the Water Dragon can now be told.  Witness now the epic saga that shook a city to it's very core!

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14 (image heavy)

Part 17

Part 18 (Image heavy)

Part 19

Part 20

Chapter IV - Epilogue

Part 21

Part 22

Part 23, Conclusion

Appedix with character descriptions for those unfamiliar with them or those who do not have the links handy

Lady Kayellie

Arborea

Since I'm just about ready to release the big update I have been working on, and I've finished the updates to the mod description on nexus, I felt it was time to post a blog entry about it here.  There are three major additions to mod with this update.  Nai'yari, the first part of the Nymph lore, and the placement of 23 different Nymphii across skyrim.

Version 1.9 Update Info

Version 1.9 has been published both here and on Nexus.  I hope you enjoy it!

For the Sake of Convenience, here is the link to the mod page.

Table of Contents

I.   Characters and books relevant to the lore

II.  Nai'Yari, Captain of the Black Opal Pirates, the Nymph Pirate Queen

III. The Black Opal Pirates

IV. Nymph Girls Across Skyrim

V.  FAQ updates and future plans

These books have become rather hard to find lately, and it's not very likely that you will find a merchant who has a copy.  However, in Winterhold, recently Urag gro-Shub has managed to secure several copies of each for the Arcanaeum's archives, and he has uncharacteristically placed his surplus copies on display, making them freely available to any student of the college who is interested in taking one.  

Books

A Scholar's Guide to Nymph

• Author: Vondham Barres
• Published: Unknown, presumed early 3E

Presumably, this was the first book written on the subject of the Nymph.  It is important as it represents the first genuine attempt by modern scholars to catalog and understand the Nymph, who until this point, had largely been viewed only as provocative creatures of fairy or fey mythos.  Barres describes the common perception of the Nymph as "beautiful, naked women who skip along tra-la-la and like to have indisciminate sex," and consequently, he was the first known scholar to presume they were anything more than this.  While it contains little actual detail of the species or any objective information, the "Scholar's Guide" provides vivid descriptions that captured the imaginations of future scholars.  

Ecology of the Nymph

• Author: Pavaldi Caglieri
• Published: Five books published Individually from 4E 113 to 114

Compiled as a series in 4E 153.  
Re-published as part of imperial archive in 4E 183.

The second book on the subject of the Nymph, "Ecology" was originally published as a series of separate volumes containing a wealth of information on a number of different aspects of the Nymph.  The volumes were published over the course of two years, and brought a great deal of fame and reputation to Caglieri, the author.  After his death, as part of the 40th anniversary of the first tome, these volumes were compiled into a single series "Ecology of the Nymph I-V".  

Going far beyond a simple description of the Nymph species, it contains information on topics like Nymph pregnancy, Nymph reproduction, Nymph/Mortal relationships, and the differences between Nymph and mortal women, to name a few.  Caglieri is also the first person to adopt the plural "Nymphii" in the manner of elves, as opposed to Nymphs, and the convention has become standard practice.

Nothing like this had ever been written before, and all of his writings were readily accepted as fact by the academic community.  

It would later be shown that several of the ideas he put forth in this series, particularly towards the last few tomes, were based on his own unsupported hypotheses.  These would later be dis-proven by subsequent authors.  To avoid confusion amongst readers, and to preserve the original tome unaltered, in 4E 183, the collection was re-published as part of the Imperial Archive including a disclaimer stating that the book has been superseded by the more comprehensive work, "Encyclopedia of the Nymph."  

In modern times, despite the provocative (yet somewhat inaccurate) depiction of a Nymph gracing the cover, it has become rare to find a copy of either of these books outside of a college library.

Encylopedia of the Nymph

• Author: Kastan Foebreaker, posthumous
• Published: 4E 157

The third, and most complete work on the subject, was published in 4E 157.  It was a monumental work that was compiled from the author's notes after his disappearance.  These notes were largely based on a correspondence between Kastan Foebreaker, a one-time student of Caglieri, and the unnamed expert who is referenced in the first several chapters of Ecology.  They contain a great deal of information, some of which elaborates on the topics which are presented in Ecology, some of which disproves theories put forth in Ecology, and much of which is entirely new.  It is a very complex text that is sometimes difficult for laypersons to understand. Thus, it is traditionally studied by scholars, or by Imperial University students pursuing a degree in naturalism or meta-physics.

The first three volumes in this series were published in 4E 157, while the fourth was published only a few years ago, by a current Imperial University author who renewed the correspondence with the until-now unnamed expert on the Nymph, in order to complete the work of Foebreaker.  

Characters

Vondham Barres

• Born: Unknown
• Died: Unknown

The author of a Scholar's Guide to Nymphs, Barres was an Imperial University scholar who lived sometime in the third era, early after the foundation of the Cyrodillic empire.  He sought to discover more about the subject of the Nymph.  The Nymph language had been translated into the common tongue well before the first era, but very little information was known about the Nymph aside from crude innuendo and conjecture.  Very little information is known about Barres or his life.  Supposedly, he wrote a scholarly treatise on the rituals and practices of the House of Dibellia, but no copies of this tome are known to exist.  Upon completion of the Scholar's Guide, he withdrew from his position at the Imperial University, and presumably lived out the rest of his life somewhere in hammerfell with, Ayalea, his Nymph companion.  It is suspected that Ayalea was either a High Nymph or a Desert Nymph, and lived in a secluded grotto in Hammerfell, but aside from Barres' descriptions, little else is known about her.

Pavaldi Caglieri

• Born: 4E 68
• Died: 4E 149

The first author to follow up on the work of Barres, Pavaldi was hailed as a landmark figure in the study of the Nymph, as he provided a significant amount of concrete and factual information on the Nymph.  Caglieri was a native of Cyrodiil, and by mid-life he was still a relatively unknown academic. While struggling to make a name for himself, he became fascinated by the story of Barres and how this seemingly devoted scholar abandoned his life's work after falling in love with a Nymph.  He then set out to meet a Nymph of his own in order to follow up on this work.  Initially, he did not meet with much success, but after being contacted by an anonymous "Nymph expert" who offered to provide him with information on the condition that he would compile it for publication, his fortunes changed.  

The more scandalous version of this story hints that he initially became interested in the subject of the Nymph after a drunken night in a tavern when he met a charming, golden-eyed, green-haired, pointy-eared woman adorned with leaves whom he believed was "certainly not human, and far too lovely a creature to be a mere elf."  Popular gossip amongst scholars goes on to say that he was so enamored by her that he spent the rest of his life pining after this green-haired woman.

Caglieri published two volumes in a few months on the subject of the Nymph, and gained instant recognition amongst academic circles, as these works contained brilliant deductions and a wealth of previously unknown information.  He was then after considered the premiere expert on all things "Nymph."  Three more volumes followed, which were eventually compiled into the seminal work "Ecology of the Nymph."  He continued teaching at the university for several decades, and held a number of influential positions within the Imperial University throughout his career, including a brief term of office as both Dean Non-Magicka and Imperial Provost, but he never published any further works on the subject of the Nymph.  

Many of his students went on to hold important Imperial positions in all facets of the Empire, including the legion and the political sphere, as well as both the academic and arcane fields of study.  Despite only publishing a single major work, he is still considered by many to be one of the greatest imperial scholars of the fourth era.

Kastan Foebreaker

• Born: 4E 127
• Died: Unknown, disappeared in late 4E 155

The author of Encyclopedia of the Nymph.  Not much is known about him.  He was a Nord student of Caglieri who took a renewed interest in his mentor's work, despite Caglieri's insistence that everything important about the Nymph was already known.  After his mentor's death, he discovered copies of the letters that were being exchanged between Caglieri and a person known as "Heironymus Anon."  Most of these letters contain very emotionally charged disagreements and debate on the subject that seem to intensify as Caglieri publishes more of the "Ecology" books.  

At some point it appears as though Caglieri and Hieronymus had a falling out over Caglieri's continued insistence on taking credit for Anon's contributions, as well as publishing his own ideas and theories which Anon described as "not just unsupported, but blatantly fictional."  Correctly concluding that this was the unnamed expert who is referenced in Caglieri's early work, and recognizing the level of genius this expert possessed from his/her writings, Kastan attempted to reach out to Anon and form a collaborative relationship.  

He is eventually successful in 4E 153, and the two of them maintain correspondence over the next two years, exchanging letters with clockwork precision every two weeks.  Their collaboration pushes the boundaries on practically everything known at the time about the Nymph species, including the origins and the meta-physics involved in such a unique creature.  

Some of the copies of the original letters still exist, and the correspondence between these two brilliant minds are said to go far beyond the study of a single species, discussing topics like the nature of disease, patterns of inheritance amongst familial bloodlines, and the tiny parts that make up all living things, parts too small to be seen without the aid of a special kind of divination magic.  Indeed, Foebreaker's work is so complex and peers so deeply into the nature of the physical world that most modern scholars still have difficulty understanding all of it.  

His disappearance has long been a source of speculation amongst scholars and his university colleagues.  Some believe that he was killed by Dark Brotherhood assassins hired by some unknown party in order to prevent his work from being published.  Some believe, like Barres, he met a Nymph with whom he became enamored, and unlike Barres, followed her into the wilderness before submitting his notes for publication.  

Still others whisper rumors that the arcane and sophisticated nature of the information he uncovered led him down the path to oblivion.  These rumors say that he had reached the limit of what he could discover even by magical means, and at some point he contacted, or was contacted by, Hermaeus Mora, and was gradually seduced by the Daedric Prince's promise of forbidden knowledge.  His disappearance, then, was the result of that dark pact reaching it's culmination when he traveled to Apocrypha, became trapped, and was never to be heard from again.

In truth, no one knows what happened to him.  After he had been missing for two years and was now presumed dead, a colleague discovered his notes amongst his belongings, and compiled most of them for publication as "Encyclopedia of the Nymph."  

Hieronymus Anon

• Born: Unknown
• Died: N/A, presumed still alive

The expert who originally aided in the research of Caglieri, Hieronymus Anon is a pseudonym used by an unknown person in correspondence with both Kastan and Caglieri.  Very little is known about who or what this "person" is.  What little is known suggests he/she/it is quite brilliant, quick to point out the mistakes of others, and though not interested in fame or recognition, he/she becomes greatly annoyed when others take credit for ideas that are not their own.

Due to his/her apparent longevity, having corresponded with multiple authors over nearly a hundred years, Anon is presumed by most to be a reclusive Dunmer or Altmer scholar.  However, given the apparent expertise Anon possesses on the subject of the Nymph, some actually believe that Anon *is* a Nymph.  

In general, those who wish to learn from a Nymph must possess some knowledge of the Nymph language, or some prior knowledge of the Nymph must be shared in order to demonstrate their worthiness and convince the Nymph to divulge more than basic information.  Thus, most scholars agree that this theory is unlikely, as Nymphii are reluctant to share so much detailed information about themselves with outsiders.  

Even more unlikely that that, there are even those who believe the whispered rumors surrounding Foebreaker's disappearance, stating that Hieronymus Anon is actually a servant of Hermaeus Mora, or... even more frighteningly... that the letters were actually written by the Daedric Prince himself!



Name: Nai’Yari
Race: Desert Nymph
Combat Style: Swashbuckling! Yarr!
Special Talent(s): 
The Opal Scar Cutlass

Absorbs health on hit and grows in power as she levels and increases her one handed melee skill.

• Starts at 2hp/hit
• Over 30 1 hand skill absorbs 4hp/hit
• Over 50 1 hand skill absorbs 7hp/hit
• Over 70 1 hand skill absorbs 11hp/hit
• Over 90 1 hand skill absorbs 16hp/hit
• At 100 1 hand skill absorbs 20hp/hit

Blood-Opal Bloodletting

• Not only is her cutlass exceptionally sharp, Nai'yari has inhuman dexterity, and has mastered swordcraft with her chosen weapon. While wielding it, she has the uncanny ability to cause minor injuries that continue to bleed long after they are inflicted. 
  • Those who have fought alongside her say that this is a latent instinct borne of her desire to savor combat: her swings are guided towards vulnerable locations, but she subconsciously avoids lethal strokes. It is also suggested that if she did not desire to prolong a fight, she could inflict grievous or even fatal wounds without much effort.

As long as she is wielding her cutlass, she causes a stacking bleed that grows in strength as she levels

• Initially it does 2hp/second and lasts 30 seconds
• Once she is over level 20, this increases to 5hp/second for 30 seconds
• Once she is over level 40, this increases again to 9hp/second for 30 seconds
• This bleed is applied for every swing, and there is no limit to how many bleeds she can apply to any given enemy.

Fire-Opal Frenzy

Reduces stagger based on how injured she is.

• Once below 60% health, all staggers are reduced to 50%.
• Below 30% health, all staggers are reduced to 25%.

Gains a burst of melee strength every time she is hit

• Every time she is attacked, she gains an effect that increases her melee damage is increased by 12.5%
• Each effect lasts for 16 seconds and she can have an unlimited number of these effects active.

Her cutlass has a rather low base damage, being somewhere between a sword and a dagger, but it becomes quite lethal once she builds
enough frenzy.

Supreme Swashbuckling

As long as she is wearing a shield in her left hand and a sword in her right hand she has the following ability

• 10% faster attack speed, blocks 5% more with her shield.

Her attack speed, movement speed and the amount of damage she can block with her shield increase based on her percent of current
health, so she moves/swings faster and blocks more as she gets
injured.
 

• Below 90% health, her attack speed increases by 80%, her movement speed increases 15%, and she can block 10% more damage with her shield.
• Below 60% health, attack speed increases 170%, movement speed increases 25%, and she can block 15% more damage with her shield.
• Below 30%, attack speed increases by 320%, movement speed increases 40%, and she can block 25% more damage with her shield.

General Combat Description

• Her combat prowess is heavily tied to her mastery of a particular fighting style.  She is extremely skilled at fighting with a traditional pirate's "swashbuckling" style: a longsword or cutlass along with a buckler or similar light shield.

• This fighting style has become second nature to her. Her ability to accelerate and move with inhuman speed depends on this "natural" feeling of pure, honed reflexes, so she cannot move nearly as fast if she fights with any other style.

• Nai'Yari, like all Nymphii, is a hedonist at heart. Unlike most other Nymphii, she is drawn to the thrill of danger and above all the excitement of battle. Quite often, her behavior suggests she has a death wish or cares little for her own life or safety. 

• This is not strictly the case; she simply finds herself drawn to the sheer joy of battle, and in order to experience this elation she will dive headlong into odds that look impossible. Still, were it not for her natural gift at arms, and ability to astutely evaluate any situation, she would probably have gotten herself killed dozens of times over. 

• Most creatures begin to feel a growing sense of dread as they are injured and experience intense fear as they threatened by a challenge that brings them close to death.  Nai'Yari has a very different response. Rather than feeling panic or dread, she becomes more excited, more focused, and feels more alive as she approaches death.

• While such a response could lead a normal person to a pattern of incredibly irrational risk taking in pursuit of this state of heightened arousal; a pattern that will inevitably lead to their premature demise, she is sensible enough not to let thrill-seeking control her.
• Fortunately, she thrives in these situations, and seems to grow in strength and speed to match the odds she faces. It takes some time for her excitement to approach its peak, but after her battle-lust fully infuses her, she moves with such speed and strikes with such force so as to completely defy rational explanation. 

• No one can say what the peak of her strength is since her power quickly goes dormant once the thrill of battle wears off, and few foes are powerful enough to stand against her once her combat frenzy begins to heat up. If she actually gets pushed the true limits of her strength, it is possible that no creature or force in all of Tamriel could stand against her.

• While often bold, and some would say reckless, she is neither foolish nor careless, and does not deliberately engage in actions that threaten her safety or the safety of her crew for the sole purpose of satisfying her lust for excitement.
• Indeed, most who have heard the stories before they meet her are shocked to discover that the "mad pirate queen" is actually quite prudent and level-headed.
• Her crew have learned to trust that, no matter how insane her plans seem to be, she won’t get them involved in any fight that they have no chance of winning.

• Personality Description
  
  
  
  
  
   

Known as the "New Pirate Queen," the "Beauty of the Bay," the "Gold-Coast Goddess," and by detractors as the "Mad Pirate Queen," Nai'Yari is surrounded by so many rumors and stories that she is rarely what people expect.

• Often she is described as having a volatile and dangerous temper, becoming violent at the slightest provocation, and being a lusty and saucy wench with a penchant for taking any handsome young men from among the prisoners captured by her crew for her personal use; jokingly referred to as a "divine death sentence," with the implication that she will quickly use them up as they are never heard from again.  

• These stories contain some truth to them, but become more elaborate and embellished with each telling.
• Another common tale is that while having her breakfast in the captain's quarters one morning she felt that the deckhands were swabbing a bit too loudly, and she ordered them all to be hung from the riggings by their bootlaces until she was able to finish her meal in peace.  She has never done anything like this, but the story is very persistent.

• Like the legend surrounding the Black Sea-Opal ring, she may have made it up herself to bolster her fearsome reputation!

• Often regarded among the “taller” tales of the “Mad Pirate Queen” are those that say the Black Opal's Captain, upon encountering a hostile ship with orders not to surrender has been known to board by herself, giving her crew instructions to drop anchor and watch the show, casually remarking that she will return once she has given it a new coat of red paint.

• In reality, she is fairly even tempered, quite friendly, and even good natured.  Those who know her describe her as being in "perpetually high spirits," never one to frown or grumble at any misfortune. She might be accurately described as the "Jolly Nymph of the sea," and treats life as one grand adventure.  

• This cheerfulness is a big part of what inspires loyalty in her followers.  No matter how grim the situation or misfortune, the Captain always has a good laugh at what a thrilling adventure they are on, and thus far, she has always managed to see them through it.
• Her other major trait that inspires loyalty and devotion is her extraordinary gift for foresight and long-term planning.  While most Nymphii tend to look at things in terms of the "Big Picture," Nai'Yari takes that aptitude to a whole new level.  Not merely planning a week, a month, or even a year in advance, Nai'Yari somehow thinks and plans decades in advance.  Her plans don't always go as expected, but she's quick to adapt to the unexpected.  
• While she presents herself as having the schooling and intellect of a humble pirate, most are quick to realize she is far more clever than she lets on.  A popular rumor on the ship is that every once in a while, she will quietly and discreetly challenge a famous scholar, arch-mage, or general to a game of chess, and in nearly fifty years, she has never lost a single game.  

• In the years before the great war, Nai'Yari and the Black Opal pirates were known to periodically lead lightning raids on Anvil every few years. On several occasions the Barge would appear with no warning moored close to the city docks with a large fleet trailing behind that would rapidly encircle the port. The crew would then disembark and fight their way from the docks along the exterior walls up the bridge to the governor's island and would breach the castle before anyone could sound an alarm or enact any kind of defense.

• Upon reaching the castle, they would locate the current count and countess, take them hostage, and Nai'Yari would demand a ransom. Living up to her reputation as the "Mad Pirate Queen", her ransom demands were often trivial and totally nonsensical. On one occasion she demanded that the count surrender a barrel of his finest rum, as well as new eight mops for her deckhands to swab with. On another, she demanded the both count's boots and countesses' shoes, plus whatever the count happened to be carrying in his pockets. 

• The first time she conducted a raid in this manner, the Black Opals did so without a fleet, and the response she got was one of utterly stunned disbelief. After all, the pirates had docked the ship with full pirate sails on display, fought their way past the city guard, and invaded the governor's stronghold, apparently all to acquire something that would cost less than a hundred septims from a local merchant. When her demands were not immediately met, she made a hasty escape, but warned that she would be back, bringing with her an entire fleet, and that next time the ransom must be paid without question or she would sack the town.

 

• When she actually showed up nearly a year later with a fleet large enough to blockade the entire port, the Count took her much more seriously, though he was as surprised as anyone that upon receiving this somewhat-silly ransom she bid him farewell and the entire pirate fleet withdrew from the city.
• After a few repeat raids, it became something of a strange local tradition, and the town guard were even given orders not to attempt to halt the pirate's advance into the castle.
• During the great war Anvil was badly devastated by the Aldmerii Dominion siege, and it took many years for the city to recover.  At some point it is even claimed that monsters took up residence inside Anvil Keep!

• So when Nai'Yari finally launched another raid on the city in 4E 188, the same year that Wayrest was captured by Corsairs, the city was in no position to resist the pirate attack, and quickly surrendered with the promise to pay whatever ransom the Black Opals decided to demand.  Unphased, Nai'Yari issued her demands to the acting-governor stating that, "We have too many boxes taking up space on the ship and we need to store some of them here.  You lot here can take whatever is inside and do what you wish with it. I say again; I have little need of the contents. But when I return, every last one of my boxes had best be intact and accounted for, with naught so much as a scratch 'pon it, or else this town will know the wrath of the Black Opal Pirates."

• Nervously accepting the heavy crates, it took a while before anyone actually took a look inside of any of them to discover the contents. Each box was filled with coins and jewels, altogether adding up to several hundred thousand septims worth of treasure. The governor was unsure what to make of this until he remembered how specifically she had mentioned she had no interest in the contents, and finally realized her intent: she had actually just given them a considerable amount of money as a relief fund.

• True to her word, she came back almost exactly one year later and demanded that her boxes be returned. The governor, grateful for her charity but still quite wary about how serious she was known to be in her nonsensical behavior, promptly returned all of her boxes.  Every last box was in near perfect condition.

• When asked about it later, she denied any notions of charity or aiding the town, insisting that "no pirate would ever part with plundered coin for the sake of a bunch of bilge-sucking townsfolk!"  She also added that she was deadly serious about her terms, and that she fully intended to sack the town had they broken any of her boxes.

• Nai'Yari has a very particular idea of what a pirate is supposed to be, and she rarely tolerates anyone suggesting she or her crew should behave in an "un-piratelike way."  Her idea of a pirate is also a very romantic one, viewing pirates as an idealized sort of adventurous rogue, and she fully expects her crew to adhere to this. While the gritty reality of a pirate's life at sea may be gruesome and cruel, the Black Opal pirates are anything but a typical crew of bloodthirsty villains. She has very little, if any, tolerance for the typical raping, pillaging, or torturing that most expect is commonplace behavior aboard a pirate ship, and new recruits quickly learn to adapt to her expectations or are punished severely, with repeat offenders eventually being dismissed in a dramatic fashion.
• It is not uncommon for ships sailing the Iliac Bay to find desert islands inhabited by one or more ex-opal recruits who have been marooned after being foolish enough to cross the Queen more than thrice.

• Despite the fact that she is one of the more infamous pirate captains in one of the most heavily trafficked seas in all of Tamriel, her true nature has remained a secret to all but her closest companions.  
• Sailors tell stories of a legendary ring lost long ago on some forgotten island far to the west of the Abecean Sea, a dark ring cursed by some unknown Daedric Prince.  Any who slip this ring upon their finger will be protected from blade or arrow, and will be granted youth, beauty, and life everlasting, for as long as they wear it. But whosoever puts this ring on, for even a moment, may never take it off!  For if they do, they, and all their kin borne whilst wearing it, will die a most horrible death, rotting from the inside out and then evaporating, as their body returns to the sea.  This powerful artifact is known as the “Black Sea-Opal” ring.

• • Nai'Yari's rise to fame and fortune supposedly coincide with her unearthing of this “lost artifact” as a young sailor's apprentice.  The earliest known appearances of her as a pirate are stories that mention a beautiful young pirate woman wearing little to cover herself, and indeed, wearing very little clothing at all aside from a pair of fine boots and a ring set with a malevolent looking black opal.  
   
  • This was nearly fifty years ago, and the consensus amongst all those familiar with the “New Pirate Queen” is that she is a Redguard woman of approximately 68 or 70 years of age who owes her youth, beauty, and durability to the cursed ring that she wears.
    
     
  • The truth is somewhat less mythical, though still fantastic. Nai'Yari owes her eternal youth, beauty, and resistance to common weaponry not to a magic ring, but to the fact that she is an immortal Nymph, and more specifically, a Desert Nymph.   The ring is in fact an ordinary ring set with a Black Opal gemstone that is enchanted to be impervious to understanding by divination magic and to inspire a deep sense of dread and foreboding in all who examine it closely. These are properties shared by most Daedric artifacts, so to the average scholar, this is more than sufficient to conclude the validity of the ring's origins as a cursed relic.
  • Showing a great deal of foresight, Nai'Yari had the ring enchanted as a favor from an elderly master enchanter, long since dead, in exchange for some of her Nymph Essence; the waxy oil coating the skin of all Desert Nymphii.
  • She then quietly and carefully spread the legend of an ancient ring lost on an island far to the west of the Abecean Sea, cursed by some unknown Daedric Prince forgotten by both time and history. After the story seemed to have gained acceptance amongst the bards and innkeepers of the Gold-Coast, she emerged as the new owner of this ring, became a pirate, and eventually took the legend as inspiration in the naming of her crew, the “Black Opal Pirates.”
  • Simply, Nai'Yari wanted to achieve fame and fortune by adventuring as a Pirate, and she knew that if she was famous for long enough, eventually people would begin to question why she did not seem to be growing old, how she could take a thrust from an iron dagger without injury or bleeding, or why she had never borne any children.
  • As a Desert Nymph, she has always felt the adventurous spirit that is more common amongst Nymphii of that subtype, but represents something of an extreme: She lives for excitement, thrills, challenges, and danger.  While most Nymphii tend to avoid danger at all costs, Nai'Yari embraces it on a level that even an orc would consider reckless.

• • Often those who cross blades with her drastically underestimate her strength.  At the start of any fight she is somewhat slow and does not seem particularly skillful.  Indeed, many a fool has concluded after only a few swings that her legendary combat prowess must be naught but fiction!  Those who have seen her in action know better: she thrives on challenge, and is only at her best when the odds look hopeless.
  • As she fights, she begins to truly come alive, with every blow struck against her fueling her to strike back that much harder!  A heavily armored knight who finds little difficulty blocking her fiercest swings initially can soon find himself struggling to stay on his feet from her lightest feints.
  • As she is wounded, the thrill and elation of combat actually heightens her senses.  A normal person (even a nymph!) will gradually get tired and fight more sluggishly as they pile up injuries. But for Nai’Yari every cut, every stab, every arrow-shot, drives her to move faster and faster.  Once on the brink of death she will be moving so fast that it is impossible for the eyes of men to follow her movements.
   
  • There may be no limit to her “real” strength.  As long as she can fight and stay alive, she will keep striking more swiftly and more violently.  Her crew have often remarked that their Captain could fight an entire army by herself, so long as she survived long enough to begin enjoying the battle.
  • She often attacks ships purely for the fun of it.  Once capturing or boarding a ship, she tends to rapidly assess the defenses and defenders, not in terms of potential risk, but in terms of how much excitement the battle will offer.  Contrary to popular belief, she does not tend to let ships that offer no resistance or surrender easily escape out of mercy, but because of how boring it is!  
  • Her crew will then taken a small token tribute to maintain the crew's reputation, and possibly one or two prisoners (usually young men, just as the rumors suggest), and then let the rest of the crew of the captured vessel escape with cargo intact.  While this does fuel the infamy of the Black Opals, it also has the frustrating consequence (from Nai'Yari's perspective) of making future vessels much more likely to surrender without resistance.  How dull!  How tedious!  Where's the thrill in that?

• •  
  • When this happens too often, the Black Opal pirates tend to disappear, often for months at a time, without any sign or sighting of the Barge along the coasts of either High Rock or Hammerfell.  During these instances they pursue other sorts of adventures, ones that rarely reach the ears of the public, and tend to take the form of exploration or investigation of any particularly dangerous or exciting places they encounter.  
  • The maps kept aboard the Black Opal Barge actually chart an extensive archipelago far off the western coast of High Rock that is not found on any map of Tamriel, and is marked with by a series of nondescript labels that include fantastical titles like "island with skeleton army," "island with troll kingdom," or even "floating island with winged elves."  Whether or not any of these places actually exist to fit this description is anyone's guess, since the ship's logbook detailing visits to these places never has more than one line of description and always follows the pattern "visited 'island with troll kingdom'. Fought battle, won battle. Sailed south-southeast from 'island with troll kingdom'."
   
  • Incidentally, a significant portion of the riches accumulated by the Black Opal seem to come from these "side adventures." Make no mistake about it, no matter the tendency of their whimsical captain in letting merchant ships loaded with plunder escape unscathed, the Black Opal pirates are a phenomenally wealthy crew.  
  • Nai'Yari herself is not known to hoard riches, but members of her ship's council are rumored to be wealthy enough that they could hire all of the mercenaries of Hammerfell, many times over, to build their own private army, if they so desired.  Some drunken former crew-members have even hinted that this is part of a long term defense plan enacted in secret between the Ship’s Council and the Crown Princes of the now independent state of Hammerfell, intended as a failsafe strategy in case of future Aldmerii Dominion aggression.  
  • Others suggest, rather than secret collaboration, there is instead some connection with the pirate group to the wealthy "Iliac Bay Lending Company," a powerful bank in the region that is known to lend vast sums of money to aristocrats and statesmen all over the empire.  Consequently, the bank is rumored to use the influence behind these outstanding debts to apply pressure and pull strings, presumably in favor of the pirates, and to do so at the highest levels of government...
  • Merchantmen with bold tongues and bruised egos may even suggest this is why none in power seem too keen to capture the Black Opal's Captain nor her crew!     
    
     

Best heave to with that talk of conspiracy matey, lest ye wish to hang the jib and feed the fishes! Any sailor worth his tack knows that the New-Queen is just too wily an old salt for those landlubbers in Sentinel to Hornswaggle, bucko!

• •  
  • When the Black Opals return to piracy in the Bay, the Captain herself makes the rounds through the Iliac Bay's taverns to announce it.  She travels from tavern to tavern and will buy drinks and a feast for everyone within earshot, letting the Bay know that the Black Opals are back, so let all ye who ply trade in these waters be wary!  
  • Some crusty old retired sailors even keep an ear out for rumors of her re-emergence at the taverns on the western shores of High Rock and plan their travels for the next month to follow along her traditional tavern-hopping route, getting themselves a few weeks worth of raucous entertainment, not to mention free food and drinks for their trouble!

• Nai'Yari is currently travelling Skyrim as the first step in a very big expedition she has planned.  She and two of her officers are scouting out other pirate crews and making contact with other pirate organizations in the Skyrim area.  What purpose this serves is anyone's guess, but given her knack for grand plans, and her normal reluctance to work with other pirates, it is probably for something massive. 
• 
• Local couriers mention they saw three women fitting the description of Nai'Yari and her officers camped out on a small island not far from where the "Dainty Sload" was anchored.

Black Opal Nymph Officers

•  Cassiopeii, "First-Mate Cassi" first mate/cargomaster (blended nymph preset)

First Mate of the "Black-Opal Barge" and overall second in command of the Black Opal Pirate Organization.

            Former Captain of the Black-Opal Fleet ship "Unexpected"

• Cassiopeii is a Blended Nymph who has been sailing with Captain Nai'Yari for nearly as long as she has been a pirate.
• Compared to her Captain, she is almost the polar opposite in many ways.  Where Nai'Yari is carefree and optimistic, first mate Cassi always expects the worst, both from circumstances and from people.  She tends to worry about what might go wrong, and she is very slow to trust people.  
• Although most pirate ships do not nominally have a first mate, the Black Opals are an exception.  Owing to her considerable cleverness, Nai'Yari is a strong believer in the value of consensus reached through opposing viewpoints. 
  • The Captain of the Black Opals has no use for a second in command who agrees with every decision she makes!
• Consequently, Cassi may be one of the only people who can talk the Captain out of anything after she has made her mind up.
• She has a lot of pride in being a Nymph, and like many Nymphii, she considers herself superior to "mere mortals."
  • She is, however, discrete about her real nature.  If it were well known that she were a Nymph, it wouldn't take long for people to notice the similar properties shared between Captain and First Mate, and start to question the legend of the Black-Sea Opal ring.
  • Standing in the shadow of her legendary Captain, she's simply not famous enough to be the subject of rumor.  Which is probably how she prefers it.
• Serves as Cargo-master as well as second in command. 
  • Generally pirate ships did not have Cargo-masters, this is an officer position usually only held on Merchant Vessels. 
  • The considerable wealth held by the Black Opal pirates has, until recently, been stored entirely aboard the Barge.  With the high turnover rate amongst the junior crew members, at some point it became prudent to ensure that all of it was accounted for.  It would be very tempting for a thief to pose as a potential recruit in order to gain access to the ship.
  • When the Black Opal pirates recruited Nostra, the ship's treasurer some time after the Great War, this became a shared responsibility, but Cassi still likes to keep an eye on their treasure, just to be sure it's all there...

• Fights at long range with a powerful reinforced crossbow.  She likes to keep her distance, and she is an expert marksman.  She has a knack for landing shots in spots that slow down the movement of her targets.
  • She usually uses bolts made out of a special metal found only on the islands of the Forgotten Archipelago as a kind of jelly. 
    • When heated this jelly hardens into a metal resembling steel, and becomes almost unbreakable.  It also acquires unique properties that defy explanation. 
    • Despite having weight and density comparable to steel, objects made out of this metal will fly farther, straighter, and faster when thrown as a projectile, almost as though the metal is resisting gravity and friction.
    • As you can imagine, it was a natural conclusion to make arrows or bolts out of this metal.  
• Her ability to outrange almost any opponent, combined with her natural near-invulnerability to return fire from any archer using iron or steel arrows makes her a deadly long-range threat. 
  • She usually fights from one of the ship's crows nest where she can calmly and carefully fire lethal shots, one after another.
  • Quite often she can match the range of any shipboard artillery like ballistae or scorpions.  Crews manning these weapons are her favorite targets, since they never expect to be picked off by crossbow bolts.

•  Shalice, the "Iron Maiden" Quartermaster (desert nymph preset)

Quartermaster of the "Black-Opal Barge" and nominally third in command of the Black Opal Pirate Organization.

• Shalice lives something of a dual life.  To her friends and fellow officers, she is cheerful, carefree, and a little bit scatterbrained.  To her underlings in her role as Quartermaster, she is the stonefaced unforgiving disciplinarian, nicknamed the "Iron maiden" for her particular preference for Iron weapons.
• Besides both being Desert Nymphii, Shalice and Captain Nai'Yari are very similar in many ways.  They share an optimistic outlook and a love of adventure.  Neither one is afraid of danger, though Shalice does not embrace it quite the same way as her venerable Captain.
• She is tasked with maintaining discipline and order on a Pirate ship, which is no easy task by itself, but the Black Opal's Captain has certain expectations that naturally run contrary to the attitudes of your average would-be pirate. 
  • Captain Nai'Yari expects a high level of discipline, probably equal to or greater than would be found on a ship in the Imperial Navy, which rubs many who first join the wrong way.  She also expects her crew to follow her often nonsensical orders promptly and without question.
  • Even more strenuous is the Captain's expectations for what most would call "ethical behavior" amongst her crew.  She has very little tolerance for what she personally terms "Pirate's Indiscretions," the usual range of raping, murdering, thieving, torturing, and other forms of villainy.  Those found to have committed such acts against townsfolk while on shore leave, or even against prisonsers on a captured ship, are severely punished.
    • This is very difficult for a lot of new recruits to accept, as most associate the Pirate's life with a freedom from laws or rules.
• Shalice, through a combination of empathy, skill as an actress, and decades of experience, is extremely skilled at a job that very few other people would be capable of doing at all, let alone doing so masterfully.
• Her nickname came about as a result of her use of an Iron club she calls "Discipline" and an iron dagger called "Punishment".  She uses these in case any disgruntled underling manages to disarm her and tries to use her weapons against her, since as a Nymph, she is nearly invulnerable to her own weapons.
  • Most of her underlings are genuinely terrified of her.  The accepted wisdom aboard ship is that she's simply so mean that iron is afraid to hurt her.
• Despite the fear she cultivates in order to keep things running smoothly, she actually spends a lot of time in ship's council meetings advocating for the crew.
  • A perpetual argument exists between her and Nostra, the ship's treasurer, regarding the budget for provisions and accommodations.  Shalice is all too aware of just how far she can push the crew without fermenting desertion or revolt, and is always trying to buy more high-quality rum, food, and clothing to make things a little bit nicer aboard ship. 
    • Pirates are naturally short-sighted folks concerned with immediate pleasures, so a pirate with a belly full of good stew, a bottle of nice rum, and a comfy hammock can put up with a lot more than one forced to eat only potato soup and drink cheap rum.

• Shalice has total faith in her captain and trusts her implicitly.  She even has a little bit of hero-worship when it comes to Captain Nai'yari, believing her to be invincible and infallible.
  • Shalice might actually come close to her captain's strength, though she would never believe such a thing is possible.  
  • She is so imposing in battle that her foes find their resistance weakening with every strike, their wills and resolve soon break.
    • None can stand against the Iron Maiden indefinitely!
  • Her combat prowess is a big part of why her underlings are afraid of her.  It is unlikely that they would be able to defeat her in the event of a mutiny, even if every member of the junior crew joined together to ambush her.

• Despite her no-nonsense, humorless persona, she's a very different person outside of her official duties.  She's easygoing, quick to laugh, and never one to worry about what might go wrong.
• She's actually a little scatterbrained, has a bit of a problem with impulse control when she goes shopping, and frequently misplaces things. 
  • She keeps a regular personal journal, but she always forgets to write the date.
• Though several other members of the Senior Crew or Ship's council were at one point Captains of other vessels in the Black-Opal fleet, Shalice has never been interested in more responsibility than she has now.
  • Truth be told, she is more than a little disorganized, and probably not well suited for more responsibility either.
  • She is and has always been, the Barge's Quartermaster.  She excels at this particular job, and perfectly happy to follow Captain Nai'Yari on her grand adventures while keeping the riffraff in line.

• The Black Opal pirates are a small band of independent pirates operating in the iliac bay, formerly along the gold coast. They have a reputation for daring and brazenness that some would say borders on insanity. Led by the infamous captain Nai'yari, known as the "New Pirate Queen" (or disparagingly as the "Mad Pirate Queen"), the crew of the Black Opal pirates operate almost entirely at her whims. She has been known to attack and board a richly loaded ship only to let it go largely unharmed in exchange for a paltry tribute. She has also been known lead her crew to attack armed vessels that offer no real prize or reward; ships carrying soldiers or mercenaries that are heavily defended but carry nothing of value.

• The "Black Opal Barge," as it has sometimes been called, is relatively small, and carries a crew of only about 40 or 50 pirates at any given time.  It is said that there is a steadfastly loyal "core crew," made up almost entirely of women, numbering about 10 or 15, and the rest of the ranks are filled by sailors who sign on as temporary junior members.  These junior crew typically have a very short membership, as the Black Opals frequently engage in very dangerous assaults that many would-be pirates would rather avoid.  A certain amount of these inexperienced or temporary crewmen may become casualties, however, it is far more common for them to resign out of frustration at the nonsensical whims of the Captain, or out of fear of losing their lives in violent and unnecessary skirmishes.

• Despite this, many other pirate bands consider these "former black opal mates" to be highly regarded and esteemed pirates, and a practice has developed where a novice pirate seeking to make a name for him or herself will sign on with the Opals for a short duration in order to bolster their "pirate resumes"; pirate bands seeking to expand or recruit will consider anyone with a period of service aboard the Black Opal Barge to be a prized recruit, and often immediately make such recruits full share members without the typical period of half-share junior membership imposed on most recruits.

If ye sailed with the Mad Queen and lived to tell tales of it, surely ye must have veins filled to the brim with saltwater, my lad!

• Her core crew includes a small number of Nymph crew-mates, most of whom are senior mates or members of the ship's council and have sailed with her for more than a decade.  This adds substantially to the fame (or infamy) of the crew!  Even in the world of Tamriel it is less common to find female pirates, so for a ship to be crewed by a bevvy of beautiful ladies who are as comely as the fairest Breton castle-maiden and as salty as the most barnacled Redguard seadog is something that is always a favorite topic of drunken gossip in taverns frequented by sailors. Any merchant crewman who is lucky or unlucky enough to cross paths with the "New Pirate Queen" and the "Black Opals" and lived to tell the tale is sure to be a local celebrity upon reaching port.

• The ship itself is a square-rigged two mast ship with front and aft lanteen sails that give it both excellent coastal maneuverability as well as making it a very fast ocean-faring vessel. It is something of a cross between a sloop and a brig. At considerable expense, the captain has also paid to have many pieces of the ship enchanted. 
• These pieces include the hull (which resists friction from water and prevents the deck from being splashed at high speed), both masts (making them practically unbreakable), the mast-sails (which deflect headwinds), the lanteen sails (which circulate winds off the sides back into the mast-sails), as well as much of the riggings (making them very easy to handle). The end result is that the ship is incredibly fast, even in a headwind, and can actually begin to accelerate in a strong tail wind, ensuring they will always overtake any ship they are attacking, and they can outrun any pursuing ship.

• Since most pirates and pirate hunters employ battlemages to summon favorable winds, (the Black Opals are no exception), it is often difficult for the navigator of a small ship to outmaneuver a large enemy ship, particularly one large enough to have enough sails that it benefits from a coordinated effort by a group of battlemages. One of the most ingenious additions to the Barge is the enchantment on the rudder, which causes the ship to leak pockets or bubbles of a very specific kind of counter-magic that alters air temperature and pressure unpredictably. Once leaked from the ship, these bubbles float along the surface of the water, similar to rune magic, but they don't last very long, and will generally dissipate harmlessly unless a ship happens to be following the Barge within half of a nautical mile. 

• Any ship that is pursuing the barge and sails into one of these pockets will find that wind magic cast within a 20 to 30 meter radius suddenly becomes totally unpredictable, useless, or even dangerous. It will change the direction and speed at random, and if powerful enough wind-magic is being employed by enough battlemages at once, it can actually cause a tornado to form on the deck of this ship.

• All of this combined gives the Black Opal pirates the freedom to choose their engagements, and in almost fifty years sailing the bay, the Barge has never once been captured by an enemy ship.

• Though it is not public knowledge, the Black Opal pirates are largely financed by a system that could be described as a "professional adventuring company," since most of the real wealth garnered by the crew comes from an organized form of adventuring in regions of the world that are still almost entirely untouched by career adventurers.

• By leading teams of 10 to 15 highly experienced and incredibly capable warriors and mages, Nai'Yari delves the depths of lost ruins, temples, and dungeons that the rest of the Tamriel has never even heard of, emerging with piles of treasure and ancient artifacts that they dispose of through their traditional black market pirate-fence contacts.

• The Opals are also rumored to have drastically expanded their power, wealth, and influence in the last ten years, through unknown means. The more conspiracy minded are quick to note that this directly coincides with the rise of the Iliac Bay Lending Company.

Surely, this is just naught but a coincidence lad. What sort of pirate would lend out their hard plundered coin?

Iliac Bay Lending Company

• The Iliac Bay Lending company is a recent addition to the financial world of Tamriel, having been established in the last decade. While most previous banking institutions were localized and relied on inter-bank arrangements to share assets, the IBLC is one of the first to offer its services empire-wide. Most local banking institutions have negotiated a deal to house a representative of the IBLC within their walls, and the convenience of being able to deposit money locally and withdraw it in any imperial province with an IBLC representative for no extra fees or taxes has helped the bank become very popular amongst adventurers, whose career demands they travel frequently.

• Further, by offering low rates and generous repayment schemes, the IBLC has attained a trusted reputation amongst the aristocracy of Tamriel, and their ability to service multi-million septim loans has allowed them to hold title to loans all over the empire. Their more prominent clients include a considerable number of Imperial Councilors, the Crown Princes of Hammerfell, the kings of Daggerfell and Sentinel, as well as princes, barons, and lords, from the Iliac bay all the way to the Black Marsh.

One of the fastest growing banks on Mundus, the IBLC is also rapidly becoming the most trusted name in banking.  Whether you need to raise an army, replant your crops, or just need that little bit extra to afford a high-quality enchanted blade, the IBLC can offer you a loan that will fit your lifestyle.

Any rumors that the bank is associated with or wholly owned and operated by any pirate organization is entirely unproven. The IBLC has a stated policy that it does not finance any acts of piracy, pillaging, political upheaval, daedric ritual, or treason.
 

• In short, despite the fact that the Black Opal pirates steal very little from actual acts of piracy, members of the Black Opal pirates are among the richest and most successful sailors in all of the Iliac Bay, and the crew may have accumulated enough wealth to gain significant influence empire-wide... 

IV. Nymph Girls Across Skyrim

Skyrim is now populated by Nymphii!  

 

• There are 23 unique Nymph girls that can be found all over Skyrim.  Quickly entranced by the essence of the dragonborn, they will all be eager to join you on your adventures once you find them.  They are divided into two categories roughly based on where you will encounter them and whether they are hiding their Nymph nature; either civilized or wild Nymphii.  All of them can handle themselves in a fight, and they all have a unique individual fighting style.  A couple of them even have unique powers, but these girls will be a bit harder to find!

• For some general tips on where to find them

Civilized Nymphii dress themselves and try to pass as one of the locals.  Your best bet of finding one of them is to check the local taverns.
 

• Blended Nymphii are known to prefer smaller towns like falkreath or ivarstead, and can often be found in rural inns. 

•  Some of them might be adventurers, and a particularly lovely guardswoman working at the nightgate inn is rumored to be a Nymph

• Night Nymphii like big city life, and would normally be rather difficult to spot in a crowd.  Fortunately for you, the perception altering magic of the Night Nymph doesn't work on the dragonborn, so you should be able to tell them apart from the local tavern-goers rather easily.  

• At least one may be a member of the thieve's guild, and another dresses like a member of the dark brotherhood!  Maybe she followed rumors of someone in Windhelm performing a certain ritual?  

• It is even rumored that the famous playwright, the "Unknown Bard", is a Night Nymph recluse who is hiding somewhere in the Bard's College.

Wild Nymphii embrace life the natural Nymph way, and most live out in the wilderness
 

• As you might expect, the best place to find a Wood Nymph is by a pond or grove, someplace that is also frequently the habitat of spriggans.  Some Wood Nymphii get along with spriggans, though not all of them do.

• There have been rumors going around in Ivarstead about a beautiful naked woman with pointed ears who has been seen around the abandoned alchemist's shack.  Could she also be a Wood Nymph?

• Desert Nymphii are known to favor grotto type caves - the best place to find one is in a cavern with running water. 

• One traveler visiting the bee and barb in Riften recently told a story about an unusual redguard adventurer who stopped him on the road and asked for directions.  He admits that he was a little drunk, but he insists she was completely naked except for a scarf and a pair of boots.  She was also one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He claims that she was trying to find Crystaldrift caverns.  Based on the name of the cave, perhaps she was a Desert Nymph looking for a home, and had mistaken the cave for a grotto?

Beast Nymphii are a little trickier to find.  Normally, a Beast Nymph likes jungles, marshes, and swamps.  Unfortunately, there aren't any jungles in Skyrim, and the only swamps, found around Morthal, are far too shallow to suit a Beast Nymph.  If there are any Beast Nymphii that have settled in Skyrim, they may have had to find a nice cave to live in, or they may be more adventurous than your average Nymph.

• Khajiit Nymphii are often known to be rather curious, and some may have been lured by something irresistible inside an local house.  Upon discovering that the house was abandoned, it would not be unusual for such a Nymph to make herself right at home.  What would trigger her curiosity, though?  Perhaps her appetite, or maybe her hunter's instincts? 

• Perhaps a hungry Beast Nymph found an empty shack full of fish...

• Maybe another was looking for some prey when she found a house overrun with mice...

Argonian Nymphii are known to be restless when they can't find a good swamp to settle in, so you may have more luck looking for adventurous Nymphii.

• A local of winterhold mentions a story about a woman who inquired in the local tavern if the innkeeper knew any nearby caves where she could hunt trolls.  This local says that from what he could see of her face she was a very attractive human woman and looked like a very seasoned adventurer.   He didn't see much else of her, as she was covered from head to toe in thick furs, which is not particularly unusual in Winterhold.  This man says the only reason that he paid much attention to this encounter is that as she was leaving he was certain he spied what looked like a lizard tail sticking out from under her cloak; except he was sure by what little of her face he could see that she wasn't an argonian.  After thinking a bit, he remembered that she also had unusually shaped blue eyes.  None of the other tavern-regulars remembers her, and are quick to suggest the man was probably drunk.
  
   
• Temba, the owner of the mill in ivarstead, remembers a strange adventurer she met recently who offered to help her with her bear problem.  When asked where she could find these bears Temba suggested this woman investigate the local caves.  The woman thanked her and began heading towards the nearest cave.  Temba, hoping this one might actually solve her problem, returned to her work and shortly thereafter resumed grumbling about bears under her breath. Shooting one last glance towards the cave, she saw something strange that didn't strike her until a moment later.  It looked as though the woman had completely undressed herself before entering the cave.  Doing a quick double take, the woman was no where to be seen, and Temba would have dismissed it as her eyes playing tricks on her if she hadn't seen the woman's cloak lying on the ground. 
• "Strange girl... Adventurers come in all sorts, I guess," she muttered, then returned to her work.  Thinking back on it, there was something else a little strange about her... scales?

V. FAQ updates and future plans

FAQ updates

I've only had a few questions come up a lot since I published the mod, but since two of them have come up repeatedly, I want to take the time to address them both.

Q: Why do the Nymph races have such large bonuses to starting skills?  Don't you think this is unbalanced?
A: This is the result of my attempt to reconcile the superior mental and physical abilities possessed by the Nymph.  In daggerfall, the Nymph is an approximately level 5 enemy and had stats that are far greater than most player characters could get at that level without taking on a massive experience penalty.  Due to the low level of Nymph enemies encountered, my conclusion is that these are "natural" abilities.  This can be better explained by comparing the Nymph to the starting stats of a few playable races

                     Altmer               Khajiit                   Breton             Nord      Orc (from morrowind)     Nymph
Strength          30                      40                         40                    50                   45                            40
Intelligence     50                      40                         50                    30                   30                            70
Willpower       40                      30                          50                    40                   50                           60
Agility             40                      50                          30                    30                   35                           80
Speed              30                     40                          30                    40                   30                           70
Endurance       40                     30                          30                    50                   50                           55
Personality       40                     40                         40                    30                   30                            60
Luck                 40                     40                         40                    40                   40                            50

As you can see, not only does the Nymph have considerably better overall stats than any of the mortal races, she actually surpasses EVERY race in EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY except for strength.  In the case of agility and intelligence, she has twice what most races get.  The elder scrolls Nymph is very tough, inhumanly clever, and extremely acrobatic.  Don't tell me you thought she was just a pretty face!

This is also a part of why every Nymph follower is supposed to be extraordinary in some way - I think the major limiting factor for the Nymph is motivation more than anything else.  There are probably tens of thousands of Nymphii in Tamriel, but only a handful of them ever do more than spend centuries prancing naked through a forest or swamp.  By the time she decides to become an adventurer, she has already overcome her biggest limitation.

Now, if you think the current experience penalty still doesn't offset how powerful a Nymph can be, I'm willing to consider that, but I haven't seen all that many people who still feel that way after seeing the canon racial stats.

Q: I have an idea XXX for a Nymph race.  Will you make it for me?

A: Unfortunately, I barely have time for my own mod, so I have to say no to this question a lot.  Don't get me wrong!  I have had some people suggest some really great ideas for Nymph races.  I definitely encourage you to try and invent your own Nymph race!  Believe me, there are so many possibilities left unexplored, you're bound to come up with something nobody has thought of before.

So if you need help with making your own mod, I will be glad to help you when I get the chance.  But ultimately, it will have to be your own mod, I can't agree to add anybody else's ideas to my mod at this point.

Future plans

The Black Opals land in skyrim!

Two of the Black Opal's officers, Quartermaster Shalice and First-mate Cassiopeii, have been known to keep regular journals, and if you're curious about what the Opals are doing in Skyrim, or are interested in learning more about the Black Opal pirates, I suggest you give them a read.  

• I plan on doing more with the Black Opal Pirates in the future, and at least one of the other characters mentioned by both officer's logs will eventually be added as the 8th unique Nymph follower.  I won't give away too much detail about her right now, but there is a Nymph mercenary who sails with the crew and has a rather unusual background.  
• This mercenary is employed by the Black Opals for her unique skillset - she is supposedly a former member of the Devilrock-Witch coven, a coven famous for their commitment to a single Daedric prince, much like the Glenmoril witches.  Rather than Hircine, favored by the Glenmoril Coven, witches of the Devilrock coven dedicate themselves to Meridia.  Devilrock witches train their entire lives to serve Meridia's crusade against the darkness and are renowned for their fanatical dedication to the eradication of the undead. Like most witch-covens, the Devilrock witches pass down secret knowledge and ancient Daedric magic unknown to outsiders, and sisters of this coven have a well-deserved reputation as some of the most elite vampire hunters found anywhere in Nirn.  She was supposed to be sailing south with the rest of the crew as part of an important mission, but rumors of the rising threat of vampires in Skyrim may have changed her plans...
• Besides that, I also want to come up with a way at some point where you can recruit random generic members of the Black Opal's crew as disposable followers, similar to how the dark brotherhood lets you recruit generic assassins.  They would probably be human or elves instead of Nymph, and might be either male or female.
• I may also want to expand the details of the Iliac Bay Lending Company at some point.  Maybe a few quests, but definitely some kind of presence in skyrim, since the bank has a lot to gain from a civil war...

The High Nymph Race!

I am planning on creating at least one more Nymph race.  She is going to be done in the style of the original daggerfall nymph, and she is a Pure Breton-Nymph. 

At the moment this is all tentative and likely to change before I actually create the playable race.

But if you're curious what I have in mind, the basic idea is that using the stamina draining powers of the Nymph you find in game in daggerfall, I wanted to come up with a way to make that interesting. 

Her planned abilities are
1. She gets a little bit of magic resist. 
2. She drains stamina on hit.  This value increases as she levels.
3. Her power attacks cost more than normal (150%), but if her stamina bar is at least 70% full, she gets a bonus to her power attack damage that uses her current stamina value as a multiplier.
4. Her naked power is my way of making her more like the Daggerfall Nymph.  As long as she is naked, she gets an extra layer of mundane resistance that makes her all but invulnerable to iron, steel, and also protects her against silver weapons.  Consider it an extra 15-20% to her protection.  The downside is that while it is extremely strong, like the normal Nymph protection it stops helping that much after level 25 or so.

The overall concept is to make her more of a pure warrior-nymph race that builds up stamina from a lot of little hits in order to land one massive power attack.

In terms of personality, they are far more friendly and outgoing than your average Nymph.  They usually live outside civilized places like the Wood Nymph or Beast Nymph, but they are naturally curious and most of them greatly enjoy meeting new mortals.  They can also be a bit more violent and aggressive than other Nymphii too, especially if these friendly overtures are rebuffed. 

The High Nymph population is one of the largest of all Nymph subtypes due to this fascination with mortals, counter-balanced by the fact that they are also one of the most likely to die a violent death.  High Rock is among the few places where travelers report being attacked by Wild Nymphii, and this may have something to do with it.  Those who speak even a little bit of the Nymph language say that speaking to a High Nymph in her own tongue goes a long way towards expressing friendship.

More Nymph lore!

I've got a lot more lore content to add to what is already included in this update, so if you still want to know more about the Nymph, you're in luck!  For the next update following this one I hope to finish "Ecology of the Nymph" and possibly also include the first two or three tomes of "Encyclopedia of the Nymph".

Additional ideas and plans

• Besides the High Nymph, I have at least one more Nymph race that I plan to make at some point.
• I'm still toying with the idea of "Nymph Hunters" as well as "Anti-Nymph" enchantments.
• At some point, I want to write journals for all of the unique followers similar to the Black Opal officers, so you can relate to them a bit better.
• After the enormous amount of time and care I put into Nai'yari, in terms of appearance, equipment, backstory, and gameplay, she has become a pretty detailed character.  I also know some people are probably going to be disappointed that she doesn't have her own voicelines.  While I've said that it may be unrealistic to add a unique voice for all of the followers, I'm seriously considering how feasible it would be to do this at least for her.  I think I would really enjoy working with a voice actress at some point to bring Nai'Yari to life.  Who knows?

"The Nymph Girls of Skyrim" is a Custom Race and Follower Mod for Skyrim Legendary edition.  It is composed of two parts.


1. First is a series of five custom races, the Nymph Races, each possessing a variety of powerful abilities along with a set of one or more serious drawbacks.  Each race has 4-6 hand built presets based on a carefully sculpted racial .trishape morph that allows the player to easily customize a character that resembles a beautiful Nymph, with a total of 24 presets.  These Nymph Races are all unique and distinct from each other, but share a couple things in common.
 

• The first thing they have in common is a special power that hearkens back to the days of Daggerfall where magical creatures could only be hurt with magical weapons.  This power, Magical Body, makes the Nymph nearly invulnerable to weapons that are made of iron or steel.  While this may sound over-powered at first, you might be surprised to find out what happens when you expect to face enemies who cannot hurt you only to ignore the one enemy carrying an elven sword!  Additionally, this power does not apply to any creature attacks, such as wolves, trolls, or dragons, and it does not apply to the weapons used by either Draugr or Falmer.  

• It has been carefully mathematically modeled using Skyrim’s armor/damage resistance formula and it is essentially balanced to give you an incredible amount of strength early in the game that weakens and eventually disappears as your foes will not only grow past its protection, but will also start to use weapons that you are no longer protected from.

• The second thing all Nymph races share in common is a drawback, which comes in the form of an experience penalty, Whimsical Mind.  Just like the early elder scrolls games when one could design a character with great starting advantages in exchange for an extra amount of experience required per level, the Nymph Races are much stronger than vanilla races, but they will take a lot more time to level-up their skills.

• Additionally, four of these races possess a unique extra power that is only active when they remain unclothed, a “Naked Power”, or Nymph Power.  This is a flavor ability for the most part, it is a way to justify the compulsion towards nudity of the Nymph beyond the fact that they have no need for clothing, and a means to help this playstyle remain viable through all stages of the game.  
• Quite simply, the magical essence of the Nymph is at its strongest when they do not have their bodies covered by any fabrics, metals, or animal skins.  The races have been balanced so that this special power is not a significant factor in their relative strengths.  
• Any Nymph will be quite effective even without this power, so if you do not like the idea of playing a naked female character, you certainly do not have to.  Let me be very clear about this - you can easily play through the game without these "Naked Powers", and you should find the Nymph Races to be a powerful and unique racial choice no matter how you dress them.  
• However, if you are interested in playing an authentic Nymph and willing to stay true to your Nymph nature, you will get a little something extra that will make this choice viable for most of the game.

• The fifth race, the Blended Nymph, does not have such a power, because they represent the race closest to a mortal human whilst still being a magical Nymph, and in return they are blessed with a talent for using and improving armor that no other Nymph race has.

• Every Nymph Race uses a different set of textures and every race has a different base headshape, derived from her blender-sculpted racial .trishape morph.  Thus, a Wood Nymph looks quite different from either a Night Nymph or a Desert Nymph.

2. The second aspect of this mod is a set of six very carefully designed, sculpted, and otherwise unique followers who are all representatives of one of the Nymph Races.  
 

• Each follower possesses one or more special spells or abilities that is entirely unique, with hand crafted effects, gradients, and shaders, and a personality-driven approach that these powers were designed around.  

• They also possess a series of perks that allow them to level with the player, functioning as though they have taken the same series of perks the player can as they level up and their skill becomes sufficient for it, and they are all designed to scale the power of their special abilities based on level without the use of outside mods.  

• All of this is in addition to carefully designed custom classes and highly tuned combat styles that ensure each girl fights quite differently from the others and that her behavior reflects her personality.

• Three of these followers, along with the races they represent, utilize custom texture sets that were built using a variety of image compositing methods and are unique to this mod.

• All six followers, and the races they represent, have a unique body normal map that gives them different levels of muscle tone and appearance.  

• All six possess a uniquely built mesh-mapped face normal generated specifically for that girl’s head mesh.  These normals are then layered with a transparent detail map of the underlying diffuse skin texture to allow light and shadow based on the texture and gives them a very lifelike appearance in almost any lighting.

• If you don’t know what any of the texture jargon means, that’s ok. Just know that a considerable amount of time, care, and effort went into customizing their personal appearances as well as their play-style, and they should stand up as unique individuals both by looks and by function.

• Each of the 24 total unique presets also has an NPC version that is fully functional as a vanilla-style follower, though they do not possess the overall depth and design put into the six unique Nymph followers, and are not pre-placed into the world, but through the use of console commands and an in-game reference guide, you can, if you wish, build yourself an army of up to thirty Nymph Girls.  

Though this mod is built for Skyrim Legendary edition, one of the key design points has been not to change any vanilla assets in any way, while also avoiding any sort of heavy script load, both to spare papyrus power in heavy mod environments and make it easy to port to different versions, and the entire mod has been built with only a single lightweight script to manage the racial assets.  Thus, it should be relatively easy to port to Special Edition, or Skyrim VR, should the interest arise.

 

Requirements

1. LegendaryEdition or Dragonborn, Dawnguard, and Hearthfires
2. Racecompatibility
3. XP32 Physics enabled Skeleton
4. HDT-Highheels
5. Some kind of HDT-Physics: Either HDT-PE or HDT-SMP
   
    

Recommendations

1. Any Follower management mod (EFF, AFT, etc.) I would highly recommend using a follower management mod that does not overwrite combat styles as I have tuned each follower with a unique combat style.
2. A combat overhaul mod (Combat evolved, Ultimate combat, deadly combat)
3. Relationship Dialogue Overhaul (required for unique NPC-voice version, highly recommended for both)
4. AlternateStart – Live another Life
5. USLEEP

KNOWN INCOMPATIBILITIES

• Any mod that changes the shape or texture of the default mouth mesh may result in an improperly sized mouth when switching to a nymph race during character creation.

A note on Installation options

There is an option for both HDT-PE or HDT-SMP, as well as bodyslide files for each.  The SMP option uses a slightly modified version of the double-breast boned body made by pRz that is part of the "all in one skinned mesh physics pack."  If you use SMP and have different configs than are included with this pack, you may need to change the mesh strings to get it to work with your configs, or you may need to add new configs.  The body uses the string "Baseshape" rather than "UUNP" or "7BO", and the bones are named according to the "Baseshape" convention. 

If you don't know what this means, you probably haven't edited your configs, so you don't need to worry about it.

The Unique Voice option is strongly recommended as the best reflection on each girl's personality.  I can understand that some might be reluctant to have another follower duplicate Serana's voice, but considering how many NPC's re-use voice actors/actresses already, it is not nearly as disruptive as you might think.  To my knowledge, Yulia has never mentioned anything about vampires/vampirism that might break immersion.

So what exactly is a Nymph in Elder Scrolls lore?
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Nymph_(Creature)

A Nymph is a magical creature that looks like a beautiful naked female, and is essentially just a monster type in Daggerfall, much like Orcs were. They can't be hurt by mundane weapons (iron or steel), and can drain fatigue. They have their own language, and if you know how to communicate with them, they are less likely to be hostile.
 

• A side-note and my explanation why I have not given any similar stamina draining powers to the Nymph Races: Fatigue is similar to stamina, but if you run out, you collapse. I can't help but wonder whether this was deliberate innuendo on the part of the developers: the other creature that drains fatigue on touch with the same spell is the Daedra seducer (equivalent to a succubus and also appearing as a naked woman). Think for a moment, what activity with a naked woman would cause someone to use up a great deal of energy and then pass out? 

Nevertheless, I have been quite surprised that in all the time Skyrim has been out and people have been modding it, no one has touched on this part of the lore that is so definitely full of potential, both for flavor and depth, and, let’s be honest, also for sexiness.So here's where I come in. I have built up a foundation for "fleshing out" the Nymph as a playable race, and deliberately left some aspects unexplored in the hopes that other modders will eventually be interested in adding their own kinds of Nymph. Hopefully it will seem reasonable, both as a rational argument, and as a framework that fits with the overall Elder Scrolls Lore.

If you have no interest in the background lore or maintaining the cohesiveness of a "lore-friendly" world, feel free to skip over this section.  There are no in-game details in this part.

What follows is a rational attempt to expand upon a part of the Elder Scrolls Canon to introduce new possibilities relating to one particular creature only briefly appearing in Daggerfall, the Nymph 
 

• (sidenote: for the purposes of this mod we are defining the plural of Nymph as “Nymphii” similar to elven races, Aldmer-> Aldmeri, despite the real world plural being either the English “Nymphs” or Greek “Nymphoi”, to designate this specifically as an Elder Scrolls Race instead of the Greek mythological creature)

The argument is quite simple, but the supposition that follows can seem somewhat convoluted. 

Based on the following four canon elder scrolls facts

1. Nymphii are naturally existing creatures rather than supernatural creatures created or controlled by some Divine or Daedric force
2. Nymphii are all female
3. Nymphii are very sexual creatures
4. Nymphii can be killed

It is then logical and reasonable to conclude: that since as a species Nymphii were not willed into existence by oblivion, have a distinct female gender but no males, are sexual creatures, and can die; They must reproduce somehow, since there would be no reason for sexual behavior in a mono-gender species, and without reproduction or spontaneous generation through Daedric-Will, there eventually will be none left.

a. Therefore, the theory this discussion is based upon presupposes that a Nymph will mate with a male of another species to produce offspring, though just like with any other species, this may not always be the explicit purpose for mating.

b. Since there are no recorded instances of Nymph/Mortal half breeds of other races, and the fact that they possess a different material composition than mortal races, it is reasonable to assume that all resulting offspring of this mating must exclusively be Nymphii, given that the concept of “Demi-Gods” or half-immortals, is not present in the Elder Scrolls lore.

c. Since Nymphii apparently mate with males of any sentient species and maintain long term relationships with these males, are highly selective in choosing mates, and ultimately exhibit the social concept of courtship behavior, they must have some purpose or reason for selective mating. 

d. Thus, it seems logical and reasonable to conclude that since there must be a reason to distinguish between mates, this reason would come in the form of traits or properties inherited, else selective mating is meaningless. Stated another way: If every Nymph that results from a mortal/Nymph pairing is an identical Nymph who does not inherit any traits or properties from the male, it does not matter who or what that mortal is, and the documented examples of courtship behavior and pair-bonding make very little sense.

e. Finally, despite every resulting offspring being a Nymph, they must differ from each other in relatively small ways based on the traits inherited from the male parent, and if these traits are consistent amongst specific groups of mortals, there will eventually emerge distinct categories of Nymph relative to the group of males she is descended from.

First, a couple disclaimers

1. I admit, this is an attempt to apply scientific reasoning to the fantastical and fictional, which is a concept some people naturally resist, so please keep an open mind and do not read this as any kind of gender/sexuality bias, purely as a rational conclusion driven by the principles underlying biology in our own world.
2. Additionally, while it is possible to propose alternative non-biology explanations to this conclusion, none of those allow for a similar expansion of the lore, which sort of defeats the purpose of exploring the subject at all. Stated another way: if any given Nymph can magically wish a new fully grown Nymph into existence, there's nothing new to add to the topic in this regard, so please keep that in mind.

Therefore we are presenting our "unofficial Nymphii lore" as follows:

1. Similar to the Asari from the Mass Effect series (another all female fictional species), Nymph/mortal pairings will produce a new Nymph that is phenotypically a Nymph but integrates some characteristic, trait, or essence, of the mortal race.

• This characteristic may not be any kind of inherent property of the mortal race itself (ie it is not genetic inheritance), but is a trait that the Nymph acquires when integrating some part of that race into her magical being.  Therefore, a Nymph with a Nord father may not necessarily inherit her father’s racial resistance to cold and frost.
• This characteristic may even be seemingly totally unrelated to the male in question, but comes from some racial magical essence that influences the composition of the new Nymph. Therefore, a Nymph may inherit properties seemingly unrelated to her father, and a Nymph could in theory, inherit a property of “heat tolerance” or fire resistance from a male parent who possesses no such property.
• Whatever it is or wherever the trait comes from, it is universally consistent amongst all Nymphii that result from this pairing of Nymph + Race of Male, thus, any given member of a race that produces “Heat tolerant” Nymphii should produce a similar Nymph. 
• Most, if not all, variations of this inheritance will be the result of mixing of different kinds of magical essences. So a Nymph who is composed of 50% of one race and 50% of another may have completely unique traits as a result of this mixing, but all Nymphii that are within a range of 80-90% of one race will inherit identical traits.

2. Unlike the Asari from Mass Effect, there is no such thing as a “pure-blooded” Nymph, as they presumably cannot reproduce with each other, nor have they developed in isolation from other species, thus all Nymphii MUST be the result of Nymph + non-Nymph mating

• The sole canon scholar writing on this subject does mention the lack of any other writers reporting a Nymph seeking out "him or her," at the very least suggesting that Nymphii may form relationships with female mortals, and we are not implying that this be ruled out as it may manifest through social behavior.
• Simply, if they could reproduce with each other through conventional anatomical sexual intercourse (in whatever way that may occur), as opposed to a direct genetic exchange, it would make very little sense for Nymphii, as a mono-gendered species, to mate with males at all.

3. Given the centralized distribution of indigenous racial populations in Tamriel, distinct subtypes will exist based upon the region they live in and what race or species of males they have access to

• For example, after mating with males from hammerfall for many generations eventually there will be few Nymphii in this area that are not essentially Redguard-Nymphii
• the proposal elaborates on this distinction by declaring this a full subtype of Nymph, the Desert Nymph
• comparatively, Nymphii that have many generations of Nymph-bosmer pairings become the Wood Nymph
• given the typical "fey" description of both mer and Nymph, we suggest the possibility that some fey traits (pointed ears, dainty features) are actually mer inherited traits, not specific to the Nymph herself
• In terms of appearance, the ratio proposed for this sub-typing would be something like 90-95% Nymph, 5-10% subtype race, although some traits may be highly exaggerated (long pointy fae ears on a Nymph vs. pointed humanoid ears on the wood-elf source)
• It is likely that the more “mono-racial” subtype of Nymph will display some sort of mild to moderate preference for males of her dominant race, and a Wood Nymph will accordingly prefer Bosmer males over others. This is not to suggest she will ONLY be interested in Bosmer males, merely that she would view a Bosmer man as being more her “preferred type” than an Orsimer male would be.

Sidenote: it also seems reasonable to assume that there may be a distinct difference in Dunmer-Nymphii (dark Nymph?) and the rarer first-era Chimer-Nymphii (elder Nymph?), although as we have described under the Night Nymph race details, it does not make much sense for a Nymph to directly inherit Azura’s curse in terms of appearance.

4. Additionally, in the transition between one major subtype and another, there will exist hybrid Nymphii

• These hybrids represent the blending of two major racial sub-types through successive generations of mating with males of different races or species
• The phenotypic ratio proposed here is then 95% Nymph, 2.5% subtype A, 2.5% subtype B, making both subtypes very subtle individually, and she may favor one over the other in appearance, or even have a completely unique appearance as the result of this hybridization.

• Consider - in Skyrim, both Bretons and Nords have co-existed for a long time. Nymphii in this region will have established a medium between the Nordic Nymphii (for now, let's call her a tundra Nymph) and the Bretonic Nymphii (high rock is the only region with established in-game Nymph appearances so for now we will call her a "common" Nymph) the result will be what may be termed the "Sky Nymph."

• other examples may be Cyrodillic/Dunmeric Nymphii in Morrowind (which we term the Night Nymph, rather than using the awkward sounding "Morrow" Nymph)

• These hybrid Nymphii will essentially be indigenous to these multiple race regions, unlikely to exist elsewhere except as migrating individuals.

• Sky Nymphii would thus not be commonly found outside Skyrim since each successive generation that is not a Nord or Breton pairing alters the evenly split balance 

• thus, they should only exist in regions that have maintained multiple population bases for hundreds of generations, long enough to produce precise 50/50 traits

A. so while skyrim has had both bretons and nords since before the first era and would have Nymphii hybrids
B. The Summerset isles has only had any significant non-Altmer presence living there for a few hundred years, brief in the lifespan of a Mer, let
alone a Nymph, and would likely not have hybrids.
C. One must keep in mind that given the unlimited lifespan of the Nymph, and the tendency for solitary habitation (ie although they have a shared
language, they don’t form Nymph societies or build Nymph cities), it is entirely possible to encounter an individual Nymph in a region that
would not support her, but encounters should be limited to these unique individuals.

5. Finally, there should exist points of diffuse characteristics such that the Nymph resembles none specifically, or all of them blended together (the following contains the largest logical jump of this "lore", so pardon my suppositions)

• These "blended" Nymphii are probably indigenous to metropolitan regions such as Cyrodiil that has many races/species living together 
• We are also suggesting the idea that due to the very similar appearance and behavior these Blended Nymphii would have to mortal races, it is therefore conceivable that some of these “Blended” Nymph girls may not know that they are a Nymph
• These Nymphii ignorant of their own backgrounds may have been separated from child rearing mothers, but given the great lengths the Nymph species goes through to select a mate, it is highly unlikely that these mothers would ever abandon their offspring in normal situations.

• Additionally, given the “supernatural” properties of the Nymph species, this ignorance seems unlikely unless the Nymph believes herself to be a member of a particularly long lived race and/or is still young enough that she would not be aware of her immortality. Put another way: although the Mer have far longer lifespans relative to Humans, they still go through visible stages of aging, whereas the Nymph does not, and once fully matured she will stay youthful in appearance indefinitely.

• These unaware Nymphii would also require some way to explain the magical nature of their background. Possibly as divine favor, or Daedric Curse, or simply a belief that they are "special" or "different" in some way. The longer they live the more difficult this belief may be to maintain, so it seems reasonable to conclude that this state of being unaware of what they are will not exist perpetually.

To conclude, we are attempting to establish with a "lore-friendly" background the concept of types of Nymphii that are not heretofore known in elder scrolls canon as well as the possibility of both "secret" Nymphii living amongst mortals, and of women who are Nymphii but do not know it. The extent of this mod's exploration of this topic is to introduce the framework and define the subtypes relevant to the characters present in the mod itself, not to produce a comprehensive list of everything related to the Nymph, this includes

the Wood Nymph (Bosmer-Nymph)
the Night Nymph (Imperial/Dunmer Nymph Hybrid)
the Desert Nymph (Redguard-Nymph)
the Beast Nymph (Beast Race Nymph)
and the Blended Nymph (the mixed or all-race Nymph)
 

***The exploration of the Elder Scrolls Nymph, was never meant to be a project of which I am the Sole Author, nor do I intend to be the Authority on all things Nymph, I am only interested in creating a starting point to inspire the modding community to explore the topic more fully using the groundwork that has been laid out.***

We will invite other members of the modding community to eventually take it upon themselves to flesh out other unexplored subtypes of Nymph so long as it makes sense within the argument presented here and the overall elder scrolls lore. 

Truly, I hope you find this concept and the framework described here to be engaging enough that you might want to design your own Nymph Race, and I will encourage you to do so! 

This, to me, is the most important part of this project.
 

The discussion was fairly lengthy, but hopefully it seemed reasonable.  Ultimately what this boils down to is a way that lets you add Nymphii of all sorts to your game that still fits within the game.  

If you're like me, you may have a hard time adding supposedly "lore-friendly" content to a cohesive world that takes an idea based in lore but then turns it into something that requires a Deific/"extreme magical" explanation (you are the chosen of Dibella or Mara or Sanguine or Molag Bal, ad naseum), excessive suspension of disbelief (it’s magic so it just happens), or simply makes no sense.
 

All Nymph Races have the following two abilities:

Magical Body

The Nymph is a creature of magical being, she is composed of magic just as much as flesh and blood. As a consequence, weapons whose materials do not contain some magical essence will have little ability to harm her flesh.

• This grants a very large resistance to any damage caused by weapons that are made of iron or steel. This will completely negate the damage caused by weaker enemies with smaller weapons, such as iron arrows or daggers. A very strong enemy with an iron two-handed weapon will still be able to make a dent in the Nymph, but this damage will be greatly reduced, even without armor.
• This includes Riekling weapons, Imperial weapons, and Forsworn weapons.
• It does not provide any protection whatsoever against draugr, falmer, elven, dwarven, orcish, nord-steel, glass, dragonbone, daedric, stahlrim, or ebony weapons.
• It also does not provide any protection against attacks from animals such as wolves, trolls, or dragons.
• This does offer a significant benefit during the Civil War part of the story, since all soldiers use some type of steel, iron, or imperial weaponry. However, depending on your level, these soldiers already get a very large damage bonus as part of the vanilla game, and your Nymph protection alone will likely not be enough to prevent them from injuring you.

Whimsical Mind

The Nymph is a flighty and carefree creature that, once fully grown, will never grow old nor ever die of natural causes. She has all the time in the world to do whatever strikes her fancy, and there is little pressure to grow and learn new things. She thus has a harder time focusing her mind in order to improve her skills. 

• This results in a 25% penalty on all experience gained.
• Which technically means she requires 33% more experience to increase her skills than normal, since all experience is multiplied by 0.75, and this is how the in-game description reads.
• Keep this in mind when spending money on trainers, as they will not grant a full skill level per session.
• It will also keep skill-books from providing a full level, though you will still get the experience.
• Even with the relevant Guardian stone, you will still have a 10% penalty (0.75 * 1.2 = 0.9) and require 11.1% more experience to increase your skills. If you are also well rested, you will gain experience at 99% of normal for the skills boosted by the Guardian stone (0.75 * 1.2 *1.1 = 0.99). Lover’s comfort instead of well rested, results in a net 3% bonus (0.75 * 1.2 * 1.15 = 1.035).
• Thus, this number was both mathematically and thematically chosen to enhance the flavor of the Nymph and her desire to find a mate, by ensuring that Lover’s Comfort combined with a Guardian stone is the only way to negate the penalty using vanilla modifiers.
• This might sound like a fairly small penalty in exchange for the great power the Nymph races have to offer, but it will slow down leveling far more than it would seem at first glance, and should have quite a noticeable impact on gameplay.

“Naked Abilities” also known as Nymph Powers

Four of the subtype-races possess one or more powers that is only active active while they qualify as naked, according to the game definition and the criteria the game uses to determine if NPCs will comment “You’re naked!” upon seeing you. This means no equipment in the main torso slot, whether armor or clothing. 
 

• The relative strength and diversity of this “naked power” depends on the Nymph subtype-race, and it relates to the background and behavior of that subtype. 
• You can think of it as a hierarchy, with the Wood Nymph having the strongest predisposition towards the “natural state,” followed by the Beast Nymph, then the Desert Nymph, and lastly the Night Nymph, who almost always lives discreetly within city environments, as it is rather difficult to conceal your true nature if you regularly stroll naked through a city.

*Due to how the game scales damage by difficulty level, it is strongly recommended that you do not attempt to play a Nymph on any difficulty setting below Adept, unless you are also using another mod which changes combat damage calculations.* 

I personally do not like legendary difficulty as I feel the reduction in player damage dealt makes combat significantly slower, rather than more difficult, and my personal recommendation is to play on either adept or preferably master difficulty along with a well-balanced combat damage overhaul mod.  

 

Wood Nymphii are a predominantly Bosmer-blood subtype of Nymph and are the stereotypical subtype that most imagine when they think of a Nymph.  They tend not to conceal their magical heritage, and are normally reclusive, shunning society and living in forested areas.  Wood Nymphii almost never wear clothing, and have a powerful connection to nature and magic.  They are almost totally resistant to poison or disease, the dangers of the natural world. 

The Wood Nymph is a creature of nature.  She loves forests,woodlands, streams and meadows, and is most at home in places lush with greenery or flowers.   She does not typically feel at home in caves, and most Wood Nymphii will find any deep underground chasm, such as a mineshaft, to cause them to feel quite distressed or out of sorts.  She will rarely, if ever, venture into the mortal world, instead preferring to seduce those Bosmer men that stray near her chosen home grove.  She will often adorn herself with plants on her limbs or flowers in her hair but is otherwise a rather strict naturist, and will strongly prefer to keep her body in its most beautiful natural state.  They are equally adverse to clothing as they are tattooing, along with any other sorts of body manipulation, like piercing.

The Wood Nymph has a somewhat unusual understanding of death and the passage of time. She does not often attempt to keep track of things that happened more than a year ago, and before reaching maturity she rarely understands the concept of non-existence. This is not uncommon for most Nymphii to struggle with at first: they view themselves as existing, care little for what existed before, and, unlike mortals with deeply ingrained survival instincts, young Nymphii have a hard time even comprehending the possibility of no longer existing, which goes doubly for the disease-immune Wood Nymph subtype. 

Because of this, Wood Nymph mothers tend to universally over-emphasize the concept of death in order to protect their offspring.  In a strange twist, the one humanoid creature in all of Nirn who may have the least to fear from death thus tends to fear death the most.  She will view the rest of existence as transient and changing, flowing like a river from life and growth to death and decay, and she will try very hard not to get swept up and become a part of that flow.  It is also very common for the Wood Nymph to have a strong superstition against telling anyone how long she has lived. 

A rather common misconception amongst scholars is that the Wood Nymph, as a lover of nature, with her strong connection to nature, is therefore a protector of nature, and that she will risk her life to defend her forest or her home grove.  The truth is that the average Wood Nymph does not give a brass-septim about deforestation as a concept, and will most definitely not risk her own immortal life to save a few trees from being chopped down.  She is not a Spriggan, and is far closer to a “tourist” of nature than a protector or defender.  The Wood Nymph will obviously be quite upset if her own home is threatened, and encroaching civilization will certainly concern her, but she can always find someplace else to live. 

Like most Nymphii, she views her own life as irreplaceable, and takes a very “big picture” or “long term” view of worldly events; As a consequence, she tends not to get too emotionally invested in what is happening in the here and now.   Given enough time, she is quite sure that forests will eventually grow back and if she lives long enough, she will get to see it happen, too.

On rare occasions when a Wood Nymph becomes particularly adventurous and wishes to know more about the Mortal World, she will reluctantly cover her body, but will do so primarily with plant materials or very thin plant-based fabrics.  Often, the curious and naive Wood Nymph will initially be unaware of how disruptive and shocking her nudity is to mortals. 

She may even make several unsuccessful attempts of entering mortal settlements without clothing before she discovers why they keep getting upset.  When she does finally figure it out, she will almost always find these reactions amusing, and some may persist in nakedness despite the trouble it causes.  Even when she does cover herself, it is almost unheard of for a Wood Nymph to wear metal armor for any reason. 

The Wood Nymph is a natural when it comes to alchemy, and possesses a great deal of knowledge about plants and animals, as well as an instinctual understanding of how to weave magic into an object.  They get strong racial bonuses to alchemy, enchanting, speech, and restoration, which reflects the non-aggressive nature of your average Wood Nymph. 

Wood Nymphii have the highest base skill bonuses of any Nymph Race, primarily because they get no direct combat skill bonuses, and have the largest portion of their skill-set derived from "naked powers", which can make initial play more challenging.

Wood Nymphii have the following skill bonuses

Enchanting 15
Alchemy 15
Restoration 10
Speech 10
Alteration 5
Sneak 5

For a total of 60

The Wood Nymph has the following racial ability in addition to Magical Body and Whimsical Mind

Natural Immunity

• 90% resistance to poison
• 90% resistance to disease

Natural Vitality
 

• all potions and poisons created are 15% stronger
• all beneficial potions consumed last 50% longer

Wood Nymphii, true to their background, are significantly rewarded for remaining naked, possessing the largest set of bonuses of any Nymph Race. 

While unclothed, the Wood Nymph receives the following extra abilities

Full Immunity
 

• 90% resistance to poison and disease becomes a full 100% immunity

Naturism
 

• +65 improved carry weight
• all enchantments she makes are +15% stronger
• she gathers two additional alchemy ingredient from plants and other sources; this is twice as powerful as the "green thumb" alchemy perk and will stack.

As a pure Redguard-Nymph subtype, the Desert Nymph is a creature built for survival in extremes.  She possesses a unique physiology adapted to a climate with both extreme heat by day and extreme cold by night.  As she circulates blood, her arteries will reabsorb heat from veins, preventing heat loss, even in freezing water.  She also does not sweat, cooled by a thin film of oily wax, which melts at high temperatures and vaporizes.  As a consequence, if she does not leave sufficient skin exposed to air she has much more difficulty regulating body temperature.   An added benefit of this waxy film coating is that she is impervious to ultraviolet radiation, and she will never get sunburned. 

The wax that coats her skin also has what nearly all mortals would describe as a “very pleasing aroma,” a scent that has a different odor depending on who is smelling it, but which typically smells of equal parts cinnamon, incense, and sandalwood.  It is normally too faint to be perceptible except when very close to her, but when her coating sublimes after absorbing heat, it affords her a kind of natural perfume.  Without going into too much detail, any intense “indoor activity” that would require a lot of “physical exertion” will inevitably result in this fragrance filling the entire room. 

Visiting the local merchant’s bazaar in the towns of Hammerfell one can often find those claiming to sell vials with “Essence of Nymph” (rather than “Desert Nymph”, since most mortals are generally unaware that there are many kinds of Nymph) as a fragrant oil perfume or an aphrodisiac.  Whether or not these vials actually contain the aroma of a Desert Nymph depends on the reputation of the individual merchant and the price being charged, but it is not unheard of for a Nymph to trade a small amount of her wax as a favor, or for those who wish to procure it to do so without her consent. 

Even a few drops of her wax melted within a glass vial to contain the vapor will imbue any other oils within the vial with a long lasting fragrance, and the genuine perfume commands a very hefty price.  There are even rumors that some of the wealthy female perfume merchants of Abah’s landing and Rihad are actually enterprising Desert Nymphii posing as aristocratic Redguard women and profiting immensely from their own natural products.  However, these may just be tavern stories, or, more likely, rumors started by jealous male competitors.

The Desert Nymph has extremely powerful protection to cold, and would be well suited to adventuring in Skyrim.  She also possesses incredible resistance to fire, but this depends on her keeping her skin exposed.  She can easily withstand temperatures such as those found submerged deep within glacial waters and as long as enough skin is exposed to the air so that the film coating her body is continually produced, absorbs heat, and sublimes into a vapor, she can also remain comfortable immersed in the intense heat of a volcanic crater.

Desert Nymphii, besides being inhumanly beautiful, do not look particularly supernatural when compared to many other subtypes, appearing to most observers simply as beautiful human women, and thus are able to blend in with society and conceal their true nature, if they so desire.  Many choose to either live amongst Redguard society in secret, or live openly in the desert wastelands of Alik'r.  Consider her the compromise between the Wood or Beast Nymph, both of whom almost always live far from civilization and rarely conceal their nature, and the Night Nymph, who almost always lives discreetly within mortal society. 

The Desert Nymph will pick one of these lifestyles and then tends to stick with that behavior until a generation of mortals has come and gone, at which point she may choose to try something different.  Though it is rare for any Nymph to take up the life of the adventurer, inevitably some do, out of boredom, curiosity, or any number of reasons, and the Desert Nymph, due to the transitional nature of her lifestyle (a pattern quite unusual for a Nymph) thus tends to be somewhat more adventurous than other Nymphii.

Like the Reguard whose essence they derive, Desert Nymphii also tend to have a strong martial background.  Many times a young Desert Nymph will begin practicing with a chosen weapon at an early age, purely as instinct.  By the time she reaches maturity, it will often be treated like an extension of her own body, and the Desert Nymph is a gifted natural when it comes to parrying or using weapons for defense.  This is fortunate, since she does not have any innate skill for using armor, and tends to rely on this parrying defense.

This is not to say that the Desert Nymph prefers to stay completely nude, or does not wear armor.  She will often adorn her body with jewelry fashioned from metals and precious stones and some will even get piercings, but rarely will she have tattoos.   Nearly all will tend to wear sandals of some sort, since walking barefoot on scorching hot sand can be uncomfortable, and it is impossible for this part of her body to cool itself as effectively as the rest: One cannot keep the bottom of one’s feet exposed to air while standing!

Additionally, the more adventurous sorts of Desert Nymph have the tendency to wear armor on her limbs, particularly heavy greaves or boots, while keeping her torso bare.


Desert Nymphii have the following skill bonuses

Block 15
Two-Handed 10
One-Handed 5
Restoration 5
Smithing 5
Speech 5
Sneak 5

For a Total of 50

In addition to Magical Body and Whimsical Mind, Desert Nymphii have the following racial ability

Thermal Protection

• 70% Frost Resistance
• 15% Fire Resistance

If the Desert Nymph leaves her skin exposed, she gains the following abilities 

Thermal Regulation
 

• Fire resistance increases from 15% to 80%

Perfect Balance
 

• +20 natural Armor
• A percentage of your block skill is added to your critical hit chance with every weapon.  This adds 0.15% per 1 block skill, so the minimum Desert Nymph skill of 30 will add 4.5% crit chance, up to 15% at 100 skill.  This will stack with the vanilla sword/greatsword perks.
• Bashing an enemy will briefly make them more vulnerable, reducing armor by 250 and magic resist by 50, but only for one second.  Against unarmored enemies, this will result in the equivalent of a 30% increase in damage.

Beast Nymphii are of beast-race blood,commonly Khajiit or Argonian, but there exist others such as Tsaesci, Dreugh, or possibly even a vulpine Lilmothiit blooded Nymph, although such a creature would be rare.  Beast Nymphii are extremely resilient and appear only slightly beast-like, inheriting minor traits such as ears, tails, patches of fur or scales.   Imperial Scholars speculate that rather than magical creatures all Nymphii are a part of the beast-races. Nymphii generally take offense at this.

Beast Nymphii are a fairly rare subtype of Nymph, and as you might expect with their unusual hybrid appearance they do not fit in well into civilized places.  Unlike Night Nymphii, who have an inherent form of magic that allows their supernatural traits to be remain unnoticed, Beast Nymphii have nothing like this, and they only vaguely resemble any known mortal race, even the very rare beast/human hybrids.  Thus, they rarely, if ever, attempt to live near civilized settlements.  Likewise, there is little reason for them to conceal their Nymph heritage.

One of the reasons they are rare is that while most pure subtype Nymphii mothers who no longer have pure-subtype offspring (i.e. a wood nymph mating with a non-bosmer) generally retain whatever appearance they have that becomes gradually less distinct over subsequent generations, Beast Nymphii will immediately lose their beast characteristics as soon as their magical makeup no longer favors the Beast races. 

Interestingly, if the offspring remains a pure sub-type it does not seem to matter which Beast race the father was, an Argonian Nymph mating with a Khajiit will still produce an Argonian trait Nymph, until enough subsequent generations alter the magical essence enough that her offspring begin to add Khajiit traits to their appearance, and eventually those offspring lose their Argonian traits. 

Thus, it is entirely possible for a Beast Nymph to have everything from fur, scales, a lizard tail, and cat ears, all at the same time, but if such a creature exists, no one has yet reported it.

The Beast Nymph almost exclusively lives in jungles, marshes,caverns, or other places far from civilization.  They typically do not wear clothes, but they also do not share the Wood Nymph’s desire to remain perpetually nude.  They will often adorn themselves with bones, teeth, vines, or animal skins, though these things rarely cover much of her body. 

She is naturally very stealthy, and her approach towards males is comparable to the Wood Nymph with one key difference; Rather than seduction, she will instead tend to stalk her male of choice like a predator until finally “attacking” and claiming him.  If any male finding himself “attacked” in such a way actually objects to this treatment, it is unheard of.   Beast Nymphii can be very possessive of their chosen mates, and those fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be claimed by a Beast Nymph often disappear into the wilds, never to be seen or heard from again.  They will spend the rest of their lives being lavished with attention and cared for by an affectionate and energetic Nymph.   It is even rumored that Beast Nymphii occasionally live clustered in small groups and they will sometimes capture a single male to be shared amongst all members of this group.

The greatest strength of the Beast Nymph lies with her recovery.  She heals extremely quickly both in terms of wounds and fatigue. She is a natural fighter, but would also make a reasonably strong mage, since she also recovers Magicka quickly.  However, despite this talent for battle, like most Nymphii, she tends to avoid conflict and danger, and would make an excellent thief. 


Beast Nymphii have the following skill bonuses

Sneak 15
One-Handed 10
Conjuration 8
Illusion 7
Lockpicking 5
Pickpocket 5
Archery 5

For a total of 55

They possess the following racial ability, in addition to Magical Body and Whimsical Mind

Blood Healing

• Increased base health regen 0.7% -> 1.5%

this also causes her to heal exponentially faster as she becomes more wounded.

• 1.5% +1% base rate when above 60% health (2.5%/s total)
• 1.5% + 2% base rate when under 60% health (3.5%/s total)
• 1.5% + 4% base rate when under 30% health (5.5%/s total)
• 1.5% +8% base rate when under 15% health (9.5%/s total)

These percentages mean % of total health healed per second, and they are multiplied by whatever increased health regen potions or enchantments you have, so with the right equipment a Beast Nymph can heal extraordinarily fast and any blow which brings her near to death without killing her will likely be fully recovered in a few seconds.  It also allows her to utilize the equilibrium spell to generate huge amounts of Magicka unlike any other race. 

As long as they remain unclothed, Beast Nymphii get the following special abilities

Combat Healing 
 

• she recovers health just as fast in combat

Rapid Recovery
 

• Increased bonus health regen rate +100% (200% of base rate)
• Increased bonus stamina regen rate +75% (175% of base rate)
• Increased bonus magicka regen rate +50% (150% of base rate)

The Beast Nymph requires the mentioning of one other feature.



When creating a Beast Nymph, you can choose from a number of Beast Traits to customize your appearance, which you can find in the Hair Tab under “Hair Additional”.  These traits are fully integrated and function identically to their representative race, so a Khajiit tail will move and animate the same as it does on a Khajiit, likewise as will an Argonian tail.  There are a number of combinations that include tints based on your skin or hair color, and offer a range of customization for your Nymph.  Currently this is limited to Khajiit or Argonian parts, but I may expand this at some point after release.

 

Night Nymphii are a Cyrodilic/Dunmer hybrid Nymph race. Though they have Dunmerii essence as part of their magical being, they did not inherit Azura’s curse along with it, so they rarely have ashen skin or red eyes.  Your average Night Nymph will appear more like Chimer or Human than Dunmer, and thus have a range of pale, lightly tinted skin tones, ranging from golden, slightly purple, slightly orange, to more fair skinned human colors.  Hair color like most Nymphii includes a floral palette of many colors, but Night Nymphii typically favor blue or red tones (purple pink etc), almost never blonde. 

This subtype used to live exclusively in Morrowind, but many have migrated after "Red Mountain" and the events of the "Red Year". Night Nymphii are unusual in that they strongly prefer to live in the civilized world and most conceal their true nature. You can think of the Night Nymph as a “City Nymph."

Night Nymphii look quite distinct, far more "supernatural” than some types of Nymph, which begs the question as to how they manage to blend in to society.  It is a perceptual trick unique to this subtype and part of what lets them favor urban environments, those who observe her simply do not actively process these unusual characteristics, they see and are aware of them, the odd shaped ears, hair the color of deathbell or lavender, but are compelled to disregard them. 

While this might seem like illusion magic; manipulation of the senses, or mind control, it is a form of alteration magic intrinsic to her magical flesh that causes it her appearance to be processed differently by the brains of sentients.  Think of it like a unique color that is within our visual spectrum which our eyes can see but the mind can’t translate.  Don’t think for a second this lets her pass unnoticed or unseen!  Indeed, a quirk of this magic, combined with inhuman Nymph beauty, makes her stand out all the more and quite memorable, seen either as a heart-stoppingly beautiful Dunmer or Imperial woman, depending which side her appearance favors.

Synne, who is a Night Nymph herself, may have earned her infamous reputation in no small part thanks to this trait. It is much easier to offend and upset people when they are compelled to pay attention to you!

Another part of what allows the Night Nymph to blend in to seemingly different cultures so easily is a strong subtype instinct for empathy or “reading” others.  Like most Nymphii, the Night Nymph finds many aspects of mortal behavior, and mortals in general, to be confusing and silly.  Unlike most Nymphii, she has an instinctual talent for mimicking these behaviors, even if she doesn't really understand why she is doing something.  She can effortlessly interact with mortals of different backgrounds and cultures as though she was one of them and had spent her entire life immersed in that culture. 

This doesn't necessarily mean she is more persuasive than your average Nymph; A large part of persuasion is intentional or deliberate, whereas the talents of the Night Nymph are more automatic, functioning primarily to help her blend in to whatever society she is a part of.  Compare this to the Wood Nymph, who often has a great deal of difficulty “fitting in” and often has to learn some rather obvious rules of mortal behavior like “don’t walk naked through the middle of town” through trial and error.  Although as a hybrid subtype they have, until recently, primarily resided in Morrowind, this empathic ability makes it quite easy for the Night Nymph to travel abroad, and made it easier for them to migrate alongside their Dunmer neighbors fleeing from the eruption of Red Mountain and the “Red Year.”

As with the other trait, this ability may play a part in the strange personality of the Night Nymph Synne.   Like most Night Nymphii, Synne instinctively knows how to act or speak to blend in with mortals, and thus has a good understanding of how to avoid upsetting people.  Unlike most Night Nymphii, she compulsively chooses to do the opposite, and instead she draws upon her instincts to pinpoint the exact way in which to offend just about anybody.

While the Night Nymph tends to follow the rules of civilized society for the most part, and does not regularly wander through cityscapes completely nude, she still has the Nymph instinct for keeping her body uncovered.  This will usually manifest through a preference for revealing outfits, what mortals would view as “provocative” or "skimpy.”  Fortunately for the Nymph, young Dunmer women tend to be almost as “hyper-sexual” in their behavior (by human standards), and revealing attire rarely draws undue attention to the Nymph. 

Compared to many other Nymph subtypes, the Night Nymph also has a greater willingness for “body modification,” and it is not unusual for her to have tattoos or piercings.  Lastly, it is very rare for a Night Nymph to not wear jewelry; even the humblest Night Nymphii will have some kind of silver or gold bracelets, necklaces, or rings, though they will not wear these things in excess for fear of drawing too much attention.

As a hybrid nymph subtype, they have lower powered but wider scope subtype abilities.   Think of it as a dilution of the magical properties of whatever magic essence they integrate from the male parent into the offspring.  The Night Nymph has a mild resistance to both thermal elements, along with good magic resistance, but she has a weakness to shock, so watch out for those storm mages!

Night Nymphii have a powerful connection to the Arcane forms of magic, with strong bonuses to destruction, conjuration, and most of all alteration.  She regenerates magicka faster than other races, and if she keeps her body exposed, she has a larger pool, too.  Lastly, she has a unique talent for spellcasting that causes her spells to have considerably more power after she has depleted most of her Magicka.


Night Nymphii have the following skill bonuses

Alteration 15
Destruction 10
Conjuration 5
Enchanting 5
Illusion 5
Speech 5
Lockpicking 5

For a total of 50


Her Racial abilities include the following, in addition to Magical Body and Whimsical Mind

Night Nymph Chromatic Resistance

• 20% resistance to fire
• 20% resistance to frost
• 15% resistance to magic

Arcane Polarity

• Increased base magicka regen (5%, instead of 3%)

Low Polarity (Active while you have more than 22% magicka)

• Increased base magicka regen +1% (6% base)

High Polarity (Active while you have 22% or less magicka) 

• Increased base magicka regen +3% (8% base)
• All spell magnitudes are multiplied by your magicka-regen rate 
• this is different than the base rate, it is what you find on enchantments or potions that have a +x% to magicka regen

Basically what this ability does is give the Night Nymph an incentive for burning through her Magicka. It gives a slight benefit that is always active, which triples as she drops below 22%.  The base rate means % of magicka recovered per second, so 6% normally, and 8% while below 22% remaining magicka. 

More importantly, as soon as she drops below 22%, her spellpower is greatly increased, since all spells she casts have a magnitude multiplied by her magicka regen rate. Without any bonuses from equipment or from her naked power, this part doesn’t do anything yet (it will be multiplied by 1).  However, any improvement adds linearly to this effect. Therefore, if you have a total of +100% in bonuses to your magicka regen rate, you will get +100% to the magnitudes of all spells you cast while you are in the High Polar state.

As you can imagine, it is possible to massively improve her high-polar power by wearing equipment that increases her magicka regen rate, such as a robe or enchanted jewelry.  The obvious counterbalance to this is that as you increase your regen rate, it becomes considerably harder to keep her magicka below 22%, and this provides a unique cost/benefit relationship that both discourages anything that reduces spell costs and rewards aggressive spellcasting. 

If she keeps her body uncovered she gains the following ability
(the weakness is always active, however)

Arcane Flow

• Increased magicka regen rate +50% (150% of normal, amplifying her high polar state)
• Bonus +50 starting Magicka
• 25% shock weakness
• Once above 75 alteration skill, both the regen rate and bonus magicka improve from +50/+50% to +100/+100%

A blended Nymph is a Nymph whose ancestors have mated with enough different species of males that they lack particular distinct characteristics of any nymph subtype, being blessed with a mixture of minor magical traits. Besides possessing inhuman Nymph beauty, Blend Nymphii are virtually identical to mortal races in appearance, and many live secretly in mortal society. Some may even be unaware of their true nature and simply believe themselves mortals that are “special” or “gifted” in some way. They have as their racial trait a mild protection to just about everything: a small resistance to every form of damage, along with a special ability that reduces all damage of every kind, and of course the universal Nymph protection from iron and steel.  

The overall theme here is that they represent the most complete dilution of magical essence that Nymphii obtain from mortal males, looking and acting for the most part just like mortal women. It is hard to define this subtype as having any particular background or tendencies. They run the full range of behavior of any of the mortal races, and very often they behave just like the mortal race they most closely resemble. They are the only Nymph race that has an armor skill as a racial bonus, and unlike just about every other kind of Nymph imaginable, they don’t have an instinctual tendency to go prancing around naked wherever they travel.

That’s not to suggest they are less sexual creatures than other Nymphii however. Nearly all Nymph subtypes would be considered “hyper-sexual” by human standards, with the caveat being that they are extremely selective in choosing mates, in order to ensure the most potent magical essences will pass to their offspring.  Blended Nymphii share this same powerful drive, but they do not possess nearly as much selective instinct. A quirk of the Blended Nymph pedigree means that just about any male she chooses will contribute positively to the magical energy of her offspring and the offspring will not be weakened by any racial or individual essence, there are no wrong choices! 

Add this to the fact that these “Highly Motivated” Nymphii will very often live within human or mer society, sometimes believing they are a human or mer woman, and the results are best left to your imagination. 

Though it might sound like the Blended Nymph is an overly-diluted and thus weaker form of Nymph, they possess a unique property borne of variety. In the Blended Nymph’s case, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts, for in her being all of these different types of magical essences become woven together like threads in an intricate tapestry, or perhaps like an unbreakable mesh-work layered from thousands of individually fragile fibers.  This property makes her significantly more durable than any other kind of Nymph, and she takes less damage from everything, no matter whether blade or magic.  

As mentioned above, they are one of the only Nymph Race sub-types that does not have a strong instinctual preference for nudity. Think of it as a mental reflection of the intertwining of their many magical essences. They tend to look at things in terms of layering of different components, armor over skin, metal over cloth, plates, chain-links, and padding, and thus they get more benefit out of armor than almost any Nymph subtype or even mortal race. They also have a greater proficiency for working materials into weapons or armor, and have a slight bonus to smithing improvements.  

The Blended Nymph has a natural aptitude for both the path of theWarrior or the Mage, though she might be slightly more suited for Combat. The followers Mystra and Kayellie are both examples of the Blended Nymph, and are a good representation of how diverse this subtype can be. 


The Blended Nymph has the following skill bonuses 

One-Handed 10
Smithing 10 
Light Armor 5
Heavy Armor 5
Alteration 5
Destruction 5
Restoration 5

For a total of 45, the lowest of any Nymph Race, due to the significant number of combat-related skills she starts with.

The Blended Nymph has the following as her racial abilties, in addition to Magical Body and Whimsical Mind

Blend Nymph Poly-Resist
 

• 10% resistance to fire
• 10% resistance to frost
• 10% resistance to magic
• 10% resistance to disease
• 10% resistance to poison
• 10% resistance to shock

Equipment Mastery
 

• All weapons and armor can be improved 10% more with smithing

• All armor provides 15% more armor rating

Woven Magical Threads
 

• a 7% reduction in all damage taken from melee or magic
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Name: Lykaea 
Race: Beast Nymph
Voice: Condescending
Combat Style: Unarmed combat, highly aggressive and reckless
Special Talent(s): Fists of Lykaea: summons two level-scaled wolves named “Lykaea’s Right Fist” and “Lykaea’s Left Fist”, respectively.  

These wolves do respectable damage, but only last for around 30 seconds.

Lykaea’s Left Fist wolf attacks very quickly, but weakly; her lightning left jab
Lykaea’s Right Fist wolf hits much harder, but slowly; her strong right hook


She also regenerates in combat similar to a troll (in addition to the Beast Nymph Nymph Power, combat-healing), and she has a number of perks that greatly enhance her unarmed damage, such as

Greatly increased unarmed Attack Speed
Unarmed Attacks ignore a large percentage of enemy armor
Increased Unarmed damage that scales with level




• Lykaea is the closest equivalent to a Tamrielic Darwinist who believes in her own strength above all else. Her most important personality trait is an obsessive desire to become stronger, and a compulsive need to challenge anyone who might be stronger than her to combat.

• Beast Nymphii heal very fast to begin with, and Lykaea heals even faster than most. She won’t regrow lost limbs in a single day, but she can recover from borderline mortal wounds at a rate that would put a troll to shame.
• As a result of this combination of obsession with dueling and extremely rapid recovery, anyone who can beat her should probably expect to have to defeat the same crazy wolf girl a half dozen times or more in a single day.


 

• Quite often she has to postpone her challenges to allow her opponents time to recover when they get exhausted after fighting her over and over.  She has no interest in defeating someone who isn’t at their best, that proves nothing.

• Is willing to fight to the death if necessary, but strongly prefers not to.  Her explanation is that the predator who kills off all but the weakest prey is doomed to become weak herself.

• Snarky and sarcastic towards those she believes weak.  Feels that respect is something that one must claim, it is never given freely.


 

• Strongly opposes rule of the strong by the weak, she is probably a Stormcloak sympathizer at heart, though she would disapprove of Ulfric’s reliance on diplomacy and military maneuvering over fighting and leading in person.

• She bases a lot of her philosophy on her understanding of wolves, with concepts like pack dominance, bravery in the face of a stronger opponent opponent, and so on being central to her identity.

• Hates any kind of deception, which she views as weakness.  Can be extremely stealthy, but is more likely to sneak up right behind someone and loudly shout TURN AND FACE ME COWARD! before she actually attacks.

• She knows she is a Nymph, but believes she is a werewolf subtype of Nymph. Since werewolves are not actually a race, this is impossible. In reality she is a Beast Nymph with the blood of a Lilmothiit, a fox-like beastman.  She would be very upset to learn the truth, as she views the fox as a weak prey creature.

• 

• She hangs around near refugee’s post and regularly mocks followers of Boethiah on their way to the Saecullum.  Despite the fact that she spends most of her time challenging opponents to duels or otherwise engaged in forms of ritual combat, endeavors favored by Boethiah, she holds only contempt for Daedric cultists as being hopeless weaklings desperate to win favor with a being far stronger than themselves.  

• Likewise,she views the Daedric princes as cowards who can only amuse themselves by toying with those weaker than they are.  Given how vocal she is about these opinions, it’s a wonder she has lived as long as she has.

• Yulia was the first person she had ever met who was able to defeat her again and again without tiring, for three entire days and nights. At the end of the third night Yulia simply refused to fight her any more, saying “if you wish to gain strength you must go and train.  Though we both might have eternal lives, I will waste no more of mine on your pride”  Lykaea has considered the two of them to be rivals ever since.

• She and Yulia rarely see eye to eye on anything, but they both agree that most Nymphii live foolishly and squander the true potential that their gift of eternal youth offers them.  Lykaea will eagerly demonstrate her considerable strength as a way to persuade naive young Nymphii of what they could become if they attempt to have more than just an eternity of leisure.

V-b. Yulia, the Sword-Saint, The Wandering Nymph

Name: Yulia
Race: Desert Nymph
Voice: Serana (Unique Voice RDO Option) or Commander (Generic Follower option)
Combat Style: Two handed sword
Special Talent(s): Desert wind, a short duration powerful buff to her attack and move speed that also slightly buffs the player.  
Extreme endurance.  
Extreme carry weight.
Finality, which causes bonus unresistable damage on critical hits with her sword, along with a spray of blood.  If you choose the Unique voice option, she will also yell "Too slow!" when she lands a critical hit.


 

• A desert nymph who could be described as a wandering ronin or swordmaster.  She rarely stays in one place for long and tends to be very aloof and disinterested in worldly affairs.

• She is fully aware of her Nymph nature, and much of her views on the world are shaped by the fact that her attitude is so unusual for a Nymph.  She believes that the immortality, eternal youth, and above all the phenomenal potential for growth of the Nymphii is perhaps the greatest gift given to any species on Nirn.  Yet most Nymphii use these gifts to spend centuries upon centuries living idle and unproductive lives, pursuing pleasure and convenience, avoiding effort and danger whenever possible.

• As Yulia explains, "Most living creatures exist in a balance between growth and decline.  They learn, but they also forget.  Their muscles grow, but they also atrophy.  If they do not constantly hone their skills, they will lose mastery over them.  A Nymph has no such decline to counter-balance growth.  We who are Nymph will never age, and we will never grow old nor feeble.  We may grow our muscles slower, master our skills more gradually, or take more time to learn new things, but we do not forget.  We do not atrophy.  The skills we hone become mastered forever.  We can become stronger, but we will never become weaker.  This, not superficial beauty, not eternal youth, is the true power of the Nymph."

• Similar to Lykaea, Yulia has a core personality trait of self-improvement. She is on an endless journey to gain strength and perfect her sword arts. Yulia, unlike Lykaea, has relatively no interest in the strengths of those around her.  She pursues a path of inner focus, discipline, and personal mastery, not a path of glory or triumph over the strength of her rivals.


 

• Despite her disapproval, Yulia does not feel scorn or contempt for the frivolous lifestyle of her fellow Nymphii, only a great deal of pity and remorse. Again, compared to Lykaea’s rather Darwinist philosophy of the strong ruling the weak and might making right, Yulia is far more Confucian, believing that the strong have a duty to protect and guide the weak, to help the weak and downtrodden to become strong themselves, or simply to use that strength to do what the weak cannot.

• She is deeply compassionate and caring, but has very high standards for people, and they usually disappoint her.  Over the long spans of time afforded by her ageless life, these disappointments have led to her becoming very world-weary, somewhat emotionally guarded, and she has a very dim view of most living creatures.  She often comes across as harsh, and a bit melancholy or listless. 

• 

• She can often seem very judgmental, but that is only because she truly does care about people, though she has given up on trying to change things or do good, having experienced many mortal lifetimes worth of observing no real difference resulting from her actions.  Yulia greatly admires those who try to do good or make things better, but ultimately believes their efforts in vain.  She might shake her head with disapproval at Kayellie’s larger-than-life hero persona, and she would never admit it, but she is probably a secret admirer of Kayellie and her unending quest to save Tamriel.

• Yulia has an unusual way of dressing and one of her personality traits is that she finds it annoying to have to explain this to everyone she meets. She wants to protect herself with armor but her Desert Nymph physiology means she needs to keep most of her skin exposed to the air in order to regulate her body temperature.  Her fighting style has developed around this compromise between skin exposure and protection.  She is very heavily armored, but only on a small percentage of her body, and so she has learned to defend with and guide blows toward the protected portion.   

• Yulia dedicates most of her life to mastering her fighting style.  She moves with inhuman speed and grace all while wielding a very large and extremely heavy iron blade which she seems to swing effortlessly.  Her fighting style is one of total discipline, martial skill, and lighting reflexes.  Yulia has an almost endless reserve of energy and she cannot remember the last time she became tired during a fight.

• Yulia’s superhuman endurance is due in no small part to the dozens of years she has trained using heavily weighted armor.  That is, heavy steel armor that has been modified with additional non-protective weighted plates. Despite the way it looks, her armor is actually so heavy that most mortal men would be nearly unable to move while carrying it, let alone while wearing it.  Though some might suggest this is an old fashioned training method, it is hard to argue with the results it can produce after decades of commitment.  Even if Yulia is the only person who has the discipline to wear such ridiculously heavy armor day after day, year after year, and even if such results are really only possible for a Nymph.

• She can be found near the top of the Seven Thousand Steps, usually meditating, practicing, and most recently, contemplating the Way of the Voice. Though she would make an excellent disciple, she seems to believe that the Greybeards would not allow a Nymph to train in the way of the voice, and will only share the gift of Kyne with other mortals. Whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess, but as a consequence she has not yet ventured all the way to High Hrothgar.

Name: Arborea
Race: Wood Nymph
Voice: Sultry
Combat Style: Dual-Cast Magic
Special Talent(s): Rainbow Beam, a flashy and somewhat over-the-top spell that combines destruction, restoration, and alteration magic into a single prismatic ray.  The Rainbow Beam burns health, exhausts stamina, slows movement speed, gradually erodes magic resistance, and last but not least, absorbs magicka from those it shines on.  It is extremely powerful against those with no elemental or magic resistances, and devastating against enemy spell casters, as she can cast it almost indefinitely when draining magicka from an enemy mage, but the effects are reduced by almost every type of resistance.  

Once achieving sufficiently high level she can also use her personal variation of Ebony-Flesh - the Prism-Flesh spell,which provides slightly more armor than Ebony-Flesh, and provides magic resistance plus a high level of shock resistance.



 

• Arborea is the quintessential stereotypical Nymph, she is a natural hedonist who is always looking for something new and entertaining, and she tries to avoid danger or exerting herself whenever possible.

• She never seems to lose her composure, she is always witty, charming and slightly amused.  She loves to tell stories, and is a natural performer and entertainer.  This is more of a desire to show-off or dazzle an audience than it is a need to be the center of attention.  She will happily let someone else be in the spotlight, so long as they can entertain her.

• She knows that she is a Wood Nymph and is not shy about telling people.  Most Wood Nymphii learn at an early age to avoid human and mer settlements. Though she has a very typical Epicurean Nymph personality, she is highly unusual relative to other Wood Nymph subtypes in that she prefers civilization along with all it has to offer to the forest, and is neither shy nor reclusive.
  
   


 

• Arborea may be one of the oldest creatures on Tamriel based on the stories she tells, as she will often recount events from earlier eras as a first-hand experience, but she refuses to even hint at her true age. Most Nymphii, and Wood Nymphii in particular, have a superstition against telling anyone their age.  Since a Nymph does not age or die naturally and a Wood Nymph does not get disease and is immune to all manner of toxins or poisons, they typically only die of violence or accident.  So to a Wood Nymph telling someone how long you have lived is tantamount to declaring to Death how long you have eluded his grasp.

• She can often come across as self-centered or even borderline narcissistic and she clearly has a very lofty impression of herself.  She also has a habit of introducing herself as “the most interesting person you will ever meet.”  This can be quite off-putting at first, but consider that she is at least hundreds if not thousands of years old, and to her all living mortals are a bit like foolish, naive children; She often treats mortals as silly children, though she is old and wise enough that she no longer condescends or looks down on them the way that most young Nymphii do; who, similar to vampires, generally view all mortals as less important creatures.

• Arborea only reluctantly wears clothing since dealing with gawkers, would-be suitors, and squeamish city guards is in her words “a dreadful bore."  Despite her stated preference for nudity, she does enjoy dressing up and adding accessories to her outfit, a concept she considers to be one of the great innovations of otherwise prudish human women.


 

• Her life is generally spent in pursuit of the next good time, whether that is drinking, partying, or performing, and she avoids training, studying, and hard work in general like the plague.  She might make a great artist, if it wasn’t so much work.

• Loves wine and mead.  She doesn’t get drunk the same as mortals, since her Wood Nymph background makes her immune to all forms of toxins, but she often pretends she is, just for fun.  

• Arborea is essentially the embodiment of everything that Yulia finds frivolous and wasteful about Nymph behavior.  Yulia likely recognizes just how much more powerful Arborea would be if she hadn’t devoted her entire existence to the pursuit of pleasure, and the two of them likely do not get along very well.  
• By comparison, Lykaea has more of a grudging respect for Arborea, as she recognizes Arborea’s great wisdom and experience concealed behind an Oscar WIlde-esque persona of wit, innuendo, and detachment.

• Arborea can be found tagging along on Kayellie’s adventures for the sake of her own amusement.  Kayellie’s personality, the problems she causes, and how people inevitably treat her in spite of the fact that they are usually worse off as a result of meeting her, is a never-ending source of entertainment.  Very few things in her exceedingly long existence have ever provided as much reliable entertainment as Kayellie’s never-ending quest to save Tamriel.

• As Arborea explains, “meeting Kayellie is like meeting a fictional character come to life, a character who inevitably manages to turn the world around her into her own personal novel, and all of the people she meets into her supporting cast.”  This last part is something Arborea has to actively resist and she will insist most emphatically that she is NOT Kayellie’s squire.


 

• She fights with her personally designed "Rainbow Magic" which is just as flashy and showy as it is effective.  It is likely that she designed it on a whim and she almost certainly cares far more about how her magic looks than how well it actually works.  Don’t let the somewhat silly style of the magic fool you though, it is the result of centuries upon centuries of refinement and honing, and it is an onslaught of magical power that few can withstand.


 

• The two of them can be found relaxing in the Frostfruit Inn of Rorikstead, where Arborea has run up quite a tab.
  
  
   

V-d. Kayellie, Stendarr's Most Favored Servant, The Nymph Paladin

Name:Kayellie
Race: Blended Nymph
Voice: Even-toned
Combat Style: Two Handed Sword, and a rather large one at that
Special Talent(s): Stendarr’s Shield, an armor type spell that affects her, the player, and any other followers.  The Shield stacks with other armor spells and gives the player a 7% chance to avoid any incoming damage as long as it is active. This percentage chance is built so that it will stack with others like it (with the light armor perk you will have a 17% chance).  Kayellie will protect you!

Collateral Damage; Kayellie has the inexplicable ability to cause a great deal of damage to her surroundings with every swing of her sword. She manages to do this as long as she is using any kind of great-sword, but If she is wielding her own “Holy Blade” she will also cause a much larger impact on critical hits; an impact strong enough to knock many enemies off their feet.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  It works to her advantage because it allows her to effectively fight several enemies at once.  The downside is that, as you can imagine, she tends to break and kill things somewhat indiscriminately.  She has enough sense to avoid hurting innocent bystanders but the same cannot be said for any chickens or goats unfortunate enough to be nearby.


 

• Kayellie is extremely good natured and friendly.  She is very tall, almost half a head taller than your average nord woman, and, owing to her Nymph heritage, she is stunningly beautiful, the combination of which makes for a powerful first impression, and she is generally liked immediately by everyone who meets her.  She is always willing to help out with any task great or small that is asked of her, nothing is too difficult or insignificant for those in need!  Her central personality trait is that she is kind and
• generous to a fault, and almost excessively nice.

• She believes herself to be a noble knight of Stendarr, a paladin, and generally expects others to treat her as such by showing respect and referring to her as your ladyship, milady, and so on.  She doesn’t get upset when those she speaks to forget or ignore this, but she will feel the need to politely remind them of her station, repeatedly, over and over, as many times as necessary.  Whether or not she is actually knight or a noblewoman is a matter of debate.

• Kayellie is, for lack of a better explanation, somewhat out of touch with reality.  She has what you might call a strong “Don Quixote” complex and will tend to turn any mundane chore into a noble quest undertaken for the sake of all Tamriel.  Kayellie is more or less on a perpetual quest to save Tamriel from whatever happens to be her task at any given moment.  If she is fighting a few skeletons, she believes she is saving Tamriel from an incursion by hordes of the undead, if she is collecting apples for a local farmer, she is actually saving Tamriel from the threat of impending famine and alleviating a crippling fruit shortage. This can get somewhat silly, and she seems to be totally unaware of any silliness.


 

• Kayellie has a habit of causing a great deal of collateral damage when fighting.  She doesn’t do it deliberately, but she seems to be absolutely incapable of fighting without smashing everything around her, and has accidentally destroyed several villages.  She primarily fights with her “Holy Blade,” an enormous and almost impractically over-sized sword capable of cleaving a farmhouse in half with a single swing (as the unfortunate farmers will attest).

• Despite the fact that she is a menace to livestock and infrastructure everywhere, nobody ever seems to get mad at her for any of the things she does, her extreme niceness and genuine sincerity tends to make people put up with whatever she does.  It goes deeper than this actually, and very often people will go out of their way to make excuses for her and eventually find themselves becoming a part of her narrative.  

• Kayellie also doesn’t seem to be aware of her own powers of demolition and mayhem, nor does she seem to realize that she is the reason the poor villagers need to rebuild over and over.  In the most bizarre twist of all, the townsfolk who are essentially the victims of her indiscriminate destruction will be the first ones to defend her to anyone who tries to explain to Kayellie that she is the sole origin of all the devastation. It definitely helps that she donates a considerable portion of the gold she finds while adventuring to help the poor villagers in their endless reconstruction efforts, but she sees this as charity, not at all as payment for the damage she has caused.

• The exception to this is Markarth.  Kayellie was not welcome in Markarth for quite a while due to an incident she claims involved the slaying of a “Water Dragon” laying siege to the city center.  This was long before dragons returned to Skyrim and there are still no such things as “Water Dragons”.  Nobody in town will go into detail except to say the watermill by the smithy was broken for a while after this incident.


 

• Kayellie, as a blended Nymph, is one of the best examples of Nymphii who is wholly unaware of her true nature: she does not know she is a Nymph, and her Nymph hyper-sexuality conflicts strongly with her self-perception of being a proper noblewoman.  As a result she has a Victorian-esque relationship with anything naughty: an almost obsessive interest, a refusal to admit or acknowledge her interest, and thus a rather strong tendency towards repression.  

• Even the way she dresses is not exactly something she can be honest  with herself about.  She will either claim that she is taking  advantage of the lack of protection in order to train her reflexes or that Stendarr has blessed her with his protection and covering herself would be an insult to His Mercy.  In truth she simply gets excited by having a lot of skin exposed, but it would be utterly impossible to get her to admit it.


 

• Indeed, any supernatural abilities she has inherited from her Nymph heritage are believed by her to be blessings granted as one of Stendarr’s favored servants.  She is certainly looked upon favorably by Stendarr as she is faultless in her defense of those in need, but even a high-priest of the Divines would be unable to convince her that eternal youth, invulnerability to non-magical weapons, and inhuman beauty are not blessings that Stendarr regularly (or ever) grants to his faithful. 

• Kayellie frequently adventures with Arborea, who she claims is her squire.  Arborea, who is not her squire, finds this irritating.



• The two of them can usually be found relaxing in-between adventures at the Frostfruit Inn of Rorikstead. 

Name: Synne
Race: Night Nymph
Voice: Vex (Unique Voice RDO Option) or Elf-Haughty (Generic Follower option)
Combat Style: Spellsword
Special Talent(s): Flames of Sin, an unresistable green/purple flame that also absorbs stamina, and grows much stronger as Synne levels: Flames of Sin will do more than six times the initial damage once Synne has achieved 100 destruction skill.

Once achieving sufficiently high level Synne can cast her own personal variation of Ebony-Flesh, the Sin Flesh spell,which provides slightly more armor than Ebony-Flesh and also enchants her sword with the Flames of Sin, igniting it to cause bonus unresistable damage that scales similarly to Flames of Sin.



 

• Synne is a natural rebel and a compulsive troublemaker.  She will often say or do things to deliberately anger or offend people.  She has a real talent for this: she always knows exactly what to say to grossly offend someone, and often can’t help blurting it out.

• Synne will typically describe herself as a villain or nefarious character, but in reality she is probably closer to Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races, a caricature of an over-the-top cartoon mustache-twirling-villain than actually evil.  

• Synne has a tendency to tell ridiculous stories, many of which involve her, one of the divines (usually Mara, but it depends on the audience), and the business end of a belt-mounted soul-gem.  And yes, that means exactly what it sounds like. She will generally mime the “thrusting” motion when she gets to that part of the story, too.  

• It doesn’t take long for most people to figure out none of these stories are true.  She’s not a very good liar.  In truth, she’s an extremely bad liar, and probably the least persuasive person you could ever meet.  If you catch her in a lie and call her on it she will laugh it off and admit that she made the whole thing up.  She’s not a sociopath, or out of touch with reality by any means.  Strangely, her admission that she made the whole thing up never stops her from telling essentially the same story to the same person at some later date and expecting them to believe it.

• As Mystra (sort of) explains, "You may have heard of the Nymph who crudely refers to herself as 'Synne,' purely by reputation. There is a significant chance that like many others, you imagine a constant stream of profanity erupts from her mouth in every conversation.  This hypothesis would be incorrect, your limited cognition being the probable cause.  Any subject exposed to regular and voluminous interjections of 'shocking words' within speech patterns rapidly become de-sensitized to this stimulus and habituates.  For the simple, this means you would cease to be offended after only a short interval of exposure.  This 'Synne' utilizes the far more effective pattern of speaking quite normally in most conversations before casually inserting some gross obscenity into an otherwise tame verbal exchange."  

• As Mystra (rudely) continues, "In one instance, I recall her engaged in a tedious but civil discussion regarding the merits of fermented honey with a group of inebriated simpletons for several hours while we were traveling on the road to Riften.  When one of these dunces remarked about his uncle's farm, this prompted "Synne" to blurt out that 'it finally made sense'.  Upon receiving confused looks, 'Synne' explained that 'In her experience, most inbred Bretons who preferred Black-Briar mead tended to be descended from goat-fornicating dirt farmers.'  I am, of course, paraphrasing.  When the now enraged dolt began to glare at her, she attempted to pacify him by proposing that 'it was no big deal' claiming that 'she once considered buying a goat' therefore she 'was not judging your uncle's preferences.'  This provoked the trio to reach for their weapons, triggering 'Synne' to cackle maniacally before fleeing in the opposite direction, and forcing me to do the same in order to avoid murdering three ignorant drunksards in self-defense.  There were several similar interactions all day."

• Despite her tendency to brag about the outrageous things she has done, she is almost all talk. Most of her behavior is rooted in a kind of paradoxical-shame response.  The same things that would cause a normal person to feel ashamed or embarrassed in a social situation seem to bring her enjoyment and delight.  It’s not entirely a compulsion she can’t control, but it's pretty close.  Deep down she’s really just a lonely girl who can’t seem to stay out of trouble and can’t keep herself from alienating people, so she has invented her “evil” persona as a defense.


 

• It is unclear if Synne is her actual name, she just has habit of introducing herself as “I am sin!” and probably wrote it this way originally before gradually changing it, possibly out of sheer rebellion against proper spelling.  It is also unclear if she knows that she is a Nymph, if asked she will respond with a similar answer using more emphasis, “a nymph?!  FOOL! I *AM* SIN!!!!!”

• Fights with a curved silver Akaviri blade and magic.  True to her pseudo-villainous persona, she tries to fight dirty whenever possible, and would prefer to win a fight by underhanded tactics even if she could win honorably.  Sometimes she even claims that she was fighting dirty regardless of whether she was or not, and will often insist that she only won by cheating, even if this makes no sense.

• She claims the silver sword is a deterrent against werewolves, then transitions into an obviously made up story about how she once
• volunteered to be the concubine for a whole tribe of werewolves until they discovered they couldn’t turn her into one of them, at which point she accused them of having both fleas and erectile dysfunction simultaneously, suggested that these two things were related somehow, and was finally chased out of their den.  Most of her stories that don’t end with something obscene end with her having to make a hasty and comedic exit to avoid the wrath of an angry mob.
  
  
  
   


 

• Don’t ask about where her magic came from either, this will prompt her to start laughing maniacally and begin rambling energetically about the "Doom of Tamriel" and the “alignment of the stars” and "that which sleeps beneath the waves" and “things that mortals should not know” and it will be very hard to get her to stop.

• She can usually be found outside the shrine to Mehrunes Dagon, mockingly paying homage to the Daedric Prince of rebels.  If Mehrunes Dagon ever manifested on the material plane to confront her about this insultingly fake worship, or even to reward her for her rebellious persona, her response would be identical:  she would likely tell him to shove his grievance/blessing somewhere scandalous, make an obscene gesture, and laugh hysterically while she got blasted into oblivion.  She’s nothing if not committed.


 

• She sometimes teams up with Mystra, who Synne feels is too serious and who Synne tells to “lighten up, shortstuff."  This usually ends their temporary alliance. Mystra HATES being called short.

Name: Mystra
Race :Blended Nymph
Voice: Young-Eager
Combat Style: Staff and Magic
Special Talent(s): Frost Venom spike, an ice spike laced with a highly potent form of frostbite spider venom
Chill Toxin Staff, which has nearly unlimited charges of a flames-type concentration spell that deals poison damage and reduces frost resistance.


The Pox Golem, Mystra’s Marble-skinned familiar who has these abilities
 

1. Extremely Durable, possessing strong natural damage resistance, immunity to both disease and poison, and is also almost impervious to all elements.
2. Plague Aura that prevents stamina regeneration of all enemies in range
3. Contagion Aura which causes any enemy nearby to slowly rot from disease damage
4. Golem Fang Daggers, two permanently poisoned daggers that inflict two kinds of poisons, Golem-Venom which causes moderate steady poison damage and Golem-Toxin which causes low poison damage that amplifies greatly towards the end of its duration; Golem-Toxin typically only reaches the end of its duration if it is not re-applied, so it functions to effectively punish enemies who are hit and then evade subsequent strikes, or those who flee.

Once achieving a sufficiently high level Mystra is capable of using the following extra spell

Sterilize, a spell borne of Mystra's germ-phobia that twists Restoration magic towards a more Necromantic (and neurotic) purpose. Sterilize is extremely potent against "squishy" undead, the kind that are just CRAWLING with icky germs, dealing huge unresistable damage, but it does nothing against non-fleshy undead like ghosts or skeletons, nor does it do anything against the living (unwashed though they may be).

 

• Mystra is an awkward girl that has never fit in very well anywhere, and who is something of an outcast; though according to her, this is by choice.  

• She is a scholar and an academic, and she has always enjoyed books more than people.  As a Blended Nymph her remarkable beauty means that from an early age she has had no shortage of potential suitors, but she finds romantic advances confusing, has limited social skills, and over time has turned into something of a recluse.  

• As something of a defense, she has a very withdrawn personality, and is more than just a little arrogant. One could go farther and describe her as ego-centric, since other people often don’t make sense to Mystra, and as she would say, they are mostly slow-witted and ignorant.  She typically responds to personal questions by giving a grumpy stare to whoever is asking the question until they change the subject or go away.

• It is wholly unclear whether Mystra knows she is a Nymph. Any attempt to inquire about the subject will result in Mystra launching into a lengthy and somewhat rambling lecture about her comprehensive research on Nymph subtypes, eventually progressing into a thorough examination regarding the inadequacies of imperial scholars on the subject, and ultimately going completely off topic into an angry rant about what fools the imperial college are to ignore her genius.  By this point she will have completely forgotten the original question, so it is impossible to tell if she is aware of her nature.

• Mystra’s central personality trait is that she has a thoroughly scientific way of looking at the world which is not well received by most of Tamriel’s population and the overall medieval mindset.  She is undoubtedly brilliant, and with her immortal life affording her an unlimited amount of time to conduct meticulous research, she has ideas that are so far ahead of her time as to make it very difficult for her to be taken seriously, even by other scholars.  She is also quite neurotic about germs, disease, and cleanliness, which as you might expect, the medieval minded people neither accept nor understand.  


 

• For some reason that makes very little sense if one considers her neat-freak personality, she has studied necromancy extensively.  It was perhaps the allure of the “forbidden” nature of necromancy as it related to the now defunct Mage’s Guild that initially drove her to study the necromantic arts.  Unfortunately, the obvious consequence of her germ phobia is that she is greatly limited in the kind of necromancy she is willing to actually practice, since for someone obsessed with cleanliness a reanimated corpse is about the worst thing you can possibly imagine to have following you around everywhere you go.

• Her solution is to focus on the stone golem as a necromantic familiar, and she has painstakingly sculpted a golem out of smooth marble that serves as her companion, research assistant, and the focal point of all her necromantic arts. The golem is extremely durable, as you might expect from a creature of solid stone, and is also layered with Ward Spells that make it nearly impervious to all forms of magic.  Strangely enough, this golem looks almost identical to Mystra, and she has even used her magic to weave strands of her own hair into the golem’s head that are attached and will grow just like real hair.  


 

• This golem is also completely naked, anatomically correct down to the smallest detail, and much taller and more amply proportioned than Mystra.   It also possesses the characteristic pointed ears of a Wood Nymph, though Mystra herself is not a Wood Nymph.  When asked why she would construct a naked golem that looks just like her, she will get visibly annoyed and act as though it is a stupid question.  If pressed, she will become increasingly frustrated, eventually saying something like “What else should it look like? YOU?"  She does not seem to find anything strange about having a giant naked marble statue of herself following her around, and she is more than a little bit defensive about her greatest creation.

• More than just her familiar, Mystra has a childlike relationship with this golem that could be seen as quite similar to how a little girl gets attached to her favorite doll.  She has lovingly given it the nickname Poxy (the Pox Golem) and the two are inseparable.  Poxy, owing to her incredibly sophisticated construction, even has a limited degree of sentience, and although she cannot talk, she is equally devoted to Mystra.  Mystra would never admit it, but she considers Poxy to be her only friend.

• Mystra is somewhat short, especially for a Nymph, and she secretly has some unresolved insecurities regarding her height.  She is not very honest with herself about this insecurity, since a trivial matter such as a few centimeters is a wholly irrational thing for a great and logical mind to preoccupy itself with.

• With her abrasive personality and inability to get along with almost everyone, combined with being a Necromancer, it is easy for those who meet Mystra to see her as a villain, but she’s not really evil, she just doesn't like dealing with relationships or people and has ideas that are not well accepted by even the most scholarly members of society.  Deep down she probably feels like no one in entire world understands her, and she desperately wishes she could find someone she could relate to.



• As Synne describes, "so.. ya' wanna know about Shorty, huh?  Not much fun to her, sadly.  Kind of a stuffy sort, loves to use big words and talk about her made-up-ideas what got her thrown outta tha' college way back when.  I don't remember much of 'em cause it's a bunch of boring book-talk and who knows what she's sayin' half tha' time!  Tha' one I do recollect was tha' thing where she thinks all the tables and chairs and what-not is covered with these tiny invisible critters, badger-tear-yums, or bat-teary somethings.  She says that's what makes ya' sick, ya' get attacked by these little badger guys and ya' gets all red and puffy.  Pretty nutty, right?  Always wiping stuff off, she's afraid ta' get dirty.  Some dirt might do her good, bet she'd look lovely wrestlin' yours-truely in some mud.  A show like that needs some 'prim n' proper' types just a bit too close to the 'splash zone' if'n you catch my meaning.  Not unlike tha' time when I had an audience with Queen Mynisera and I..."

• After getting Synne back on topic, she adds "What else... She's got her big naked butler that's never got much ta' say and follows her like a puppy.  Me and Butler-babe are good friends, real fine listener that one, makes the funniest faces when Shrimpy ain't looking.  Oh yeah, Shortstuff likes ta' tell folks how dumb they are.  Can't imagine that goes over well, can ya?  Ha!  The way she can draw the ire of a whole crowd by declarin' em all ta' be "profoundly ignorant dullards" always gets me ta' gigglin'.  She might be a regular laugh if'n she read less and drank more.  Ah well!  For an uptight sort, at least she's got a real thick skin.  Oh! That reminds me, did I ever tell ya about the time I met this Khajiit Bard with the dancing troll?  I paid near ta' 50 septims in tips before I found out that yowling sourpuss ain't trained his frumpy old troll how ta' give a lady a proper lap dance.  Can ya imagine?  If'n I trained a troll ta' dance believe you me that'd be the first thing I'd do. So then I says to him, look here whiskers..."

• That story will probably keep going for a while, so let's just move on.

• One of the few people she manages to get along with for short stretches of time is Synne, mostly because Synne isn’t bothered by how rude or impersonal Mystra tends to be and Mystra for her part rarely listens to any of Synne’s stories and tends to completely ignore the outrageous things Synne is prone to say. 

• So Mystra sometimes teams up with Synne as a means of achieving some goal that she would have trouble accomplishing alone, an alliance that inevitably falls apart when Synne manages to get them into trouble that could have easily been avoided. Again.


 

• Mystra is currently doing research on the magical nature of the doomstones that are scattered across Skyrim, and can be found near the Shadowstone south of Riften.

Q: Do you have any plans to make a CBBE version?
A: Sorry, not at the moment, no.  The main issue with a CBBE is that 75-80% of the file size comes from textures, five races plus a unique follower texture (lady kayellie) plus the golem-girl means that I would have to double the filesize just to include CBBE as an option.  Add that to the fact that I have three unique texture sets (lady kayellie, yulia/desert nymph race, and synne/night nymph race) that I would have to completely rebuild for CBBE compatibility, which I'm not even sure I could do.

Now, if someone else wants to build a CBBE conversion, I'm all for it, and will gladly give me permission for you to do so, but you'll have to figure out the texture sets yourself.

Q: I noticed the Nymph Followers seem to be using the "Nymph Powers" while wearing their standard outfits (ie they are not naked), is this a bug?
A: Nope, not a bug!  The Nymph Followers are balanced around having their Nymph Powers active.  This is really only relevant for Lykaea, Synne, and Yulia, since Arborea's Wood Nymph powers don't really have much use on a follower.  Their outfits have a special keyword that allows Nymph Powers to function despite the fact that they aren't technically naked.

Q: I'm a modder and I make skimpy outfits that would be perfect for a Nymph.  I would like for Nymph Powers to work even while a Nymph is wearing my outfit.  Is this possible? How can I make it compatible?
A: Yep!  By adding a special keyword to the outfit, you can ensure that Nymph powers will function even while wearing it.  The keyword is rather intuitively named, but the spelling may be tricky.  It is "_close_enough_to_naked"  You can see an example of it here

I would caution against using this keyword too recklessly, since the Nymph Powers are fairly strong, and are designed to function in the absence of the armor or enchantments offered by a chest slot item, but really, it's your call.  

Q: You mentioned Special Edition, do you have any plans to make a SSE conversion?
A: I don't have any plans to do that myself, but anyone that wants to make this conversion has my permission to do so.

Q: I thought this mod was supposed to be lore-friendly. What's with all the skimpy outfits?
A: If you've only ever played oblivion or skyrim, you might be surprised to know that early Elder Scrolls was not shy about including or emphasizing sexuality. For example, in daggerfall nearly 90% of inventory sold by clothing stores was either skimpy clothing or underwear. Additionally, many human enemies had some variation of skimpy armor (male and female). A number of the in-game books were also a little “racy” at times. 

 Some of the more “racy” books were, like much of the original content, bleached for a mass market audience, but most of the book series in skyrim have been in since the beginning and still have passages that read like a romance novel. It always amazes me how many people spend hundreds of hours playing this game but have never actually read any of the books they keep picking up and finding on shelves.

I can understand that some people take issue with this sort of sexualization, and while I don't agree that sexualization is the same thing as objectification (which I will readily agree is a bad thing), nor do I agree that pushing the de-sexualization of video games is even remotely “progressive” (quite the opposite in fact), I can appreciate that it might be something not everyone is comfortable with. However, suggesting that it is not in the theme or spirit of traditional Elder Scrolls lore is simply not true. 

Q: But don't you think it's unrealistic for armor that doesn't cover anything to provide protection? You are ruining my immersion!
A: I don't mind the previous argument quite so much, but I find this kind of arbitrary demand for realism annoying.  Setting aside the fact that you can use your magical voice to make flames appear out of thin air in order to fight the walking dead, do you have ANY idea the physics involved in order for a creature with the size and mass of a dragon to take flight and stay airborne?  Do you have ANY idea what kind of metabolic energy requirement that introduces?  It is equivalent to a flying whale, which, by the way, spends 70% of it's time resting, is powered by a far more efficient system of locomotion, and still consumes an equivalent of energy roughly equal to 85 bags of potato chips per day.  (Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/mms.12091)

Why does THAT unrealistic part of the game not even register, but strong female heroes (yes, heroes) in revealing armor ruins your immersion?

Let's be honest with ourselves here -  you REALLY don't care about "realism," you are just trying to make a pseudo-logical argument against something that you personally dislike.  I personally dislike any armor (male or female) that looks like a walking refrigerator with 15cm thick steel-plates on the joints since something like that would be absolutely impractical for anything but blocking a doorway, but I don't feel that it breaks my immersion whatsoever.  Real armor is rarely more than a centimeter or two thick, and definitely did not have solid plates around the joints.  If you're going to play the "realism card" then you don't get to pick and choose which things need to be "realistic" and which things don't.

Also, and this may be the response I should have started with, but all of the characters within this mod are super-natural creatures that are impervious to traditional weapons, not to mention highly trained warriors with years of combat experience.  Why would a creature like that care about protecting vital portions of it's body?  If anything is even capable of hurting a Nymph, her first response is not going to be "oops, I guess I should have covered my femoral artery instead of showing off my legs after all."

For the rest of you reading, I apologize for my grumpy rant in response to an argument that nobody really takes seriously anyway.

Q: Why do the Nymph Races use copies of eyebrows or eyes that have different texture paths and are re-named.  Couldn't you have just used the original assets?
A: One of the things I had to do while working with the Nymph Races involved creating racial trishape morphs to ensure that everything fits correctly on the modified Nymph Head racial trishape.  There were two options here - I could modify the base racial trishape list to add nymph races at the end of the list, which is big no-no for compatibility since any other mod which altered this list would now overwrite or be overwritten by my version.  Plus, modifying vanilla assets in general is something I tried very hard to avoid.  

The second option was to build a separate file and have it accessed only by parts used by the Nymph races.  This introduced a little bulk in terms of duplicate meshes, and it was a lot of work to copy one record after another, but I felt it was the better way to do this since it allows the mod to be totally compatible with any other custom races.  

I should mention that I had to build a racial morph shape for both eyes and mouths to ensure perfect alignment, something that does not exist for vanilla assets (only head and eyebrows have these in vanilla).

For the asset files I did this to make all of the Nymph-used parts self-contained, so if you download a mod that alters the texture color or mesh flags slightly, it won't mess up the way the Nymph hairs look, and my version won't overwrite the other mod's assets.

Q: It looks like you have a lot of extra versions of gradients/effects for the Nymph Powers, does your mod really use all of them?
A: Truthfully, I made lots of little variations before working on a spell shader so I could quickly tweak it until it looked how I wanted, and I ended up using nearly all of them at least once amongst all the different nymph-magic meshes, but there are probably a few that I didn't use.  Since they don't take up much filespace, I included all of them as a resource for any modder who might find them useful.

Q: How come a lot of the Nymph races use pink/purple/blue hair?  I thought your mod was lore-friendly, but this looks like anime/punk hair.
A: Though such a hair color might not be lore-friendly on a human, the Nymph, at least according to classical mythology and role-playing convention, is the physical embodiment of nature's beauty.  This wasn't an attempt to add "anime" elements to Skyrim, I  simply decided that it was plausible for "Nature's Beauty" to be represented by the color of a flower or by colors that are within the spectrum of a rainbow.  If you don't like it, by all means, don't make a Nymph with purple hair.  

In daggerfall, by the way, every Nymph is blonde.  That would have made for very boring presets.

Q: I found one of the mod's easter eggs and I was wondering if you can give me any hints on where to find the others, or at least tell me how many there are?
A: There are a lot of "little easter eggs" strewn about, and a few you will only find in creation kit (hint: the descriptions for many of the perks is rather silly), but currently only about 4 major in-game ones. Two of them can be found near or under bridges. One of them can be found in the house of a sarcastic and overly talkative merchant.  One of them is a secret that I doubt anyone will ever find without snooping in creation kit; it's a book by the "unknown bard" containing an act from an unpublished play that was based on a conversation he overheard between two of the Nymph Followers.  That's all the hint you get!  I suppose you could just use additemmenu like everyone else, but where's the fun in that?

Q: Are you ever planning to create more Nymph Races or Nymph Followers?
A: I've got a few ideas for another Nymph race and some character designs for a couple more followers; but I had to set those ideas aside for now so I could finally publish the mod.  I probably won't make more than one more Nymph Race, however!  The rest will be up to you guys.

Q: I read your background on the Nymph Races and I liked it, but I was wondering how [INSERT SOMETHING FROM NYMPH LORE] works?  Can you explain it?
A: That's the very next thing on the list actually.  I have written pages of notes that go into pretty extensive detail about things like reproduction/pregnancy, social/family relationships, Nymph "mates" and "mate selection", and more.  I plan to add all of this information in game in a lore-friendly form: books written as a correspondence between a series of Imperial University scholars over several generations and a certain "Nymph Expert."

Q: I like your followers!  Have you ever considered writing dialog and working with someone to voice them?
A: It would be very cool, but it's a little unrealistic.  Dialog isn't the problem, I have written plenty of notes with possible player dialogue interactions, random or situational chatter, even follower-follower conversations.  I wrote a bunch of stuff like that for fun while I was fleshing out their psych profiles (always helps me get a feel for a character better than a backstory).  One of the easter-egg books even has a scene with some back and forth dialog between Arborea and Kayellie.  It's a little silly, more "Abbott and Costello" than serious, but if you can find it, it should give you a feel for how they talk.  

The problem is I wouldn't want to voice one of them unless I can voice all of them, and unlike Bethesda, I'm not interested in having one actress play six different characters.  Just teasing, Bethesda!

Seriously though, even the tamest Nymph is going to have a fairly provocative or suggestive personality compared to your average human female (except for Mystra, she's kind of a Nymph-nerd), so it would take at least three actresses with the range to portray two very different roles and who wouldn't feel awkward voicing confident, complicated, and somewhat sexually-charged female characters.  Plus, in the case of Synne, it would also take the ability to say absolutely outrageous filth with total deadpan seriousness.

Worse still, they'd have to put up with my relentless perfectionism.  That's probably the toughest challenge of all.