Forest Nymphs - SSE 1.0.0

This mod started as the concept for my Wildlings race mod. But I could never get

it quite the way I really wanted it. So I stripped it down, and it ultimately

became the Wildlings race mod for Legenday Edition.

 

This race mod is what Wildlings was really supposed to be.

 

And that's where this little story begins.....

 

With a tree.....

 

 

But not just ANY tree. This, is a "Home Tree", as they are called by those

who dwell upon them. There are 4 Home Trees of various size scattered around

Tamriel. The one you see here is the easternmost tree, located in The Rift.

The others reside in The Reach, Eastmarch, and Hjaalmarch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, they're as much a home as they are a part

of the natural landscape. But how did they come to be?

Well, that's a question you'll need to answer for yourself.

And here is your chance:

 

Forest Nymphs

 

This, is a Forest Nymph. And she's as old as the tree she's sitting on.

And ONLY Forest Nymphs get 5 very special spells. 1 for each Home Tree

on Tamriel, and one for the last known Home Tree village, The Grove of the Fae.

 

If you think Wildlings was a challenging race to play, you

haven't seen anything yet. Because this race has fewer friends

than Wildlings do. And with the new conditioning on

certain aspects of the mod, it's exponentially more challenging.

 

Wildlings was mostly a sneaky fighter type race. Forest Nymphs

are more of a spellsword mixture, with a lot more magic focus

than Wildlings has. Don't get me wrong. You can still play

a sneaky fighter type character should you so choose.

 

However.....

 

This race can easily be played either way once your health

can take the punishment of a close combat style. Or, you

can play as somewhat of a druid styled character. By

somewhat I mean your list of nature bound friends is

very short. In fact, ONLY wolves, giants, and mammoths will

come to your aid in combat. EVERYTHING else will try to kill you.

 

I didn't simply add this race to the Werewolf faction either.

In fact, though wolves are friendly toward you, Werewolves

will try to eat you. As will bears. And sabercats. And pretty

much everything (and everyone) else. Wandering patrols

of civil war participants will attack you on sight.  Revelers will

look past your misgivings if you have a drink with them ?

 

So why does everyone want to kill you?

 

Well, it's a simple story really, as written by a long

since deceased Forest Nymph elder.....

 

Quote

 

By now you're wondering why everyone and nearly every thing wants to kill you. The answer is quite simple, really. It's your ears. As the eldest of all Elvenkind, Nymphs have always been regarded as the wisest and most beautiful of all elves. It is said that the Goddess Dibella restricted our kind to the female gender so she could more easily focus on our inner and outer beauty.

 

Deep woodland dwellers since the beginning of time, we witnessed much of this world's very creation. We took great joy as The Divines sent new creatures, plants, and insects for us to share this world with. We were especially delighted when they began growing the Home Trees we would dwell upon for eternity.

They taught us to place the platforms in just the right places at just the right times, and how long to wait until they would become permanent parts of each tree. Many years passed as each matured and became habitable. They taught us the words that would transport us into their safety, high above any potential harm.

If only we'd known what the other Divines were doing while we were so distracted....

 

Humans. Orcs. And even other elven races. Most were unphased by our existence. Except for the "High Elves". A pompous people, so full of themselves. They challenged our beauty from the moment they first encountered our kind. They challenged our skill with the various magics.

 

And then came the slaughter. Most of our kind were hunted and killed. The High Elves burned entire Home Tree villages to the ground. Killing all who dwelled upon them. Even the young that Dibella graced some of us with birthing into the world. Only 4 trees are known to yet survive in charted Tamriel. There are rumors of a single village grove hidden somewhere in the world. The High Elves hated the Fae so passionately, that they spread rumors of their own atrocities as being committed by our kind. Soon, the other folk began to fear and hate us as much as the High Elves. And our beautiful ears are now the prized trophies of all who would hunt us.

 

That's right. You won't be the only one of your kind.

Others have hidden throughout the world for centuries.

But every now and then, one still gets caught, and their

ears taken by hunters as trophies. Or alchemists as potion

ingredients. Or by others as simple bounties to the Thalmor.

 

Most remain within the relative safety of the hidden grove.

But someone must sneak into the civilized places to steal

supplies. Will it be you? Will your ears become story props

in some hunter's trophy satchel? Or a highly sought after

ingredient in an aspiring alchemists latest potion?

Or perhaps as objects to trade to the Thalmor

for some gold pieces? Or maybe you'll be

different. Maybe you'll be the champion they

tirelessly pray to Dibella to send forth.

 

 

"Three gems Dibella gifted you,

three gems for which to care,

taken when they came for you,

taken you know not where....."

 

This is where your journey begins.

 

It's a rather small quest. But if started at too low of a level, can take a REALLY long time.

 

In testing, I breezed through the first objective at level 5.

Though getting TO the objective is another story entirely

 

Completing this quest is REQUIRED to forge the crown which disguises you.

And therein lies the challenge. The first objective is easy because of the location

of the first diamond. The other two? Well, lets just say that they're deep into territory

you WILL NOT be welcome in. And no, they're not in dungeons.

 

Worry not, you get quite a few spells and abilities to aide in your quest

to craft the ultimate disguise.

 

The diamonds are marked as quest items. So SexLab mods "should" leave them alone.

However, the crown they are used to make is not. For this reason, I set the gems to respawn

to keep them available should you somehow lose the crown, so it can be reforged again.

So expect to wait for the areas they are located in to respawn before you can get them again.

Or to need the console to obtain them sooner.

 

I haven't tested too far into other areas, but I don't expect this mod will have

any effect on the MQ if you use an alternative start, since it doesn't interact with

the Greybeards Faction. I use Skyrim: Unbound myself, so I can start somewhere

isolated and uninhabited.

 

This mod CANNOT be used on a vanilla game. This mod DOES interact

with MANY other factions. Mostly in very negative ways, by setting your

starting faction as an enemy to nearly everyone (and every thing) else.

Guards, most creatures, the Civil War factions, etc..

 

You could try. But it will be a rather "short" play through.

 

The race itself is quite challenging to master. With a decent mix of

magic and non-magic abilities...

 

On the magic side, they get about a dozen spells which are quite powerful.

Some are for healing, and others are for combat, and some are what I call

"utility" spells. An armor spell, and a "meditation" ability to regen magicka.

 

Wait.... I didn't tell you? Oh... sorry. They DO NOT regenerate magicka normally.

And they get NO utility spell to absorb it from others. They HAVE to

meditate to replenish it (complete with it's own animation and effects).

 

--->Focus of the Grove meditation ability<---

 

Their health and stamina are greatly reduced, as are their respective regen rates.

But they have a significant amount of magicka. If combat depletes magicka, and

meditation (which takes about 90 seconds from 1/3 magicka) needs to be delayed until

after the fight, then you'll need to rely on your non-magic combat skills to survive.

 

Which brings me to:

 

On the non-magic side of the race, you get enhanced

sneak, one-handed, and archery skills. And one more utility

"lesser power" called "Cloak of the forest". A 90 second invisibility

that can be used to escape certain death in many instances.

 

Night vision, an armor buff spell, and a soul detection utility

are other pieces of your survival arsenal.

 

So there it is.....

 

What Wildlings was always meant to be. On steroids ?

 

Here are just a few of the mods I run to keep my game

challenging, and I HIGHLY recommend them all:

 

An alternate start mod, such as Skyrim Unbound or

Live Another Life

 

Sands of Time - Ultimate Deadly Encounters (Spartan Difficulty)

Dungeons and Dovahs

Adventurers and Travelers (for the added Robbers)

Travelers of Skyrim (for their vanilla faction interactions - enemies to this race)

More Bandit camps

Populated Civil War

Warzones - Civil Unrest

Natureborn

Ordinator

Scoped Bows - (a soft requirement for the included bow to work properly)

Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim

Experience (to tailor the leveling rate)

 

and MOST importantly:

 

Death is Highly Overrated - allows you to respawn at the Dibella shrines on the Home Trees.

It also lets you customize many other options, such as inventory/coin loss, skill decrease penalties,

respawn stat levels, etc..

 

I hope you enjoy playing this as much as I do.

 

Be sure to download and install Aanya's FaceGenData as well so you don't get the black face bug.

 

Trykz