(WIP) Falmer Fae

[Trykz]

Originally intended to be a new race capable of

transforming into a custom werewolf race, these elves

were simply too invasive to other established mods to

implement. So I spent much of the weekend pondering

various aspects of the game, and a number of burning

questions surrounding the Falmer.

 

Questions like:

 

Why did they ALL devolve into a hideous race

of underground dwellers?

 

or:

 

How could they ALL have been rendered 

blind by the Dwemeri toxin?

 

or:

 

Why would they ALL seemingly "forget" their

origins and heritage?

 

And then it hit me:

 

They couldn't.

 

While "most" of the race may have devolved, it

simply makes NO sense that they would ALL devolve.

 

Why?

 

Because...... Dawnguard

 

AND:

 

Because according to ES's own lore, vampires existed

during the period when the Falmer dwelled upon the

surface of Tamriel. Also according to ES's own

lore, "some" Snow Elves went into hiding, and were

therefore absent from being "corrupted" by the Dwemer.

 

Considering all this available information, I began asking

some questions of my own:

 

If a Snow Elf were infected by a vampire, what

would their appearance be after their transformation

had become complete? I mean, they're already

white as a sheet, right?

 

If these "corrupted" Snow Elves were to one day

return to the ancient, underground Dwemer cities

from which they fled, what would they do? How

would they be received by their devolved brethren?

 

These, and many other questions, are what I hope to

answer with this new custom race.

 

So here is the answer to my first question:

 

 

And given the surroundings, I may have answered 

my second question as well ?:

 

 

They currently have no special abilities or talents

to speak of. Other than a few spells to teleport into

and out of Blackreach, and their racial resistances

if you want to count those, and the abilities they

acquire as vampires.

 

Given that they CAN access Blackreach right from

the start of the game, I want to implement an add-on

plugin that adds new NPCs of the race throughout

Blackreach itself. So I'm thinking I'll give them some

additional spells/abilities through that.

 

Looking at Blackreach and a few of it's

connected interior cells, I'll be adding a

player home somewhere that cannot

interfere with any quests, idle markers, or

existing NPC pathing routes.

 

So consider this fair warning:

 

if you stray too far into any of Blackreach's

connected cells, you CAN and likely WILL break

parts of some quests, or trigger activators that

can advance you past quests that you may not

have even started yet.

 

Hence, the teleport spells.

 

So that's where I'm at right now. With the race

nearly as complete as I need it to be, I'll be starting

on the add-on plugin, after which I'll add more info

as things progress.

 

Trykz

 

[Trykz]

It would appear that those you left behind

a thousand years ago, were paying very close

attention to the oppressors that made them

the way they are. So when some of your people

decide to return to their home after a

thousand years, the last thing they expect

is to find that the oppressed have become.....

 

the oppressors:

 

 

But it gets worse:

 

they make you do things in "service" to them:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

whenever, and wherever they choose.

 

So get used to it. Because here, you are NOT

at the top of the food chain. In fact, even their

"pets" (both human and insect) are

treated with more respect than you.

 

But hey, at least you're not alone, right?

And you no longer need to remain hidden

from the entire world.

 

You just need to know your place,

and stay in line.....

 

Stay tuned!

 

Trykz

[Trykz]

So it appears that there's a hugely helpful

vanilla asset, right in Blackreach, that I had

forgotten all about. The Farm Overseer's House:

 

 

So after checking it out thoroughly to be sure

it wasn't connected to any quests or NPCs, I made

a few changes to make it a little more livable. There's

a full suite of crafting workbenches I added around

the exterior after I took this screenshot.

 

The interior is quite small, but more than adequate

for hanging out after a long day of dungeon running

in or out of Blackreach:

 

 

I'll be adding a bit more clutter and lighting

to add to it's quaint atmosphere. There's a new

cooking spit over the fireplace to round out

all the crafting assets any adventurer could

ever want or need.

 

More to come......

 

Trykz

[Trykz]

So I managed to make a few minor

upgrades to the Farm Overseer's house

to make it a bit more livable:

 

 

 The interior has a little way to

go yet. I want to add a few displays

and a couple of mannequins, but

not so much as to make it seem

overly cramped. I need to change

the fireplace lighting as well, because

it does this weird flashing on and

off thing depending on the angle

you approach it from. Drives

me nuts really.

 

The exterior, as noted earlier, is

fully equipped with the full suite

of crafting workstations:

 

 

The smelter (not pictured) is between

the Overseer's House, and the other ruined

house that's collapsed into the ground.

 

As also noted earlier, this house, and the entire

area surrounding it, is pretty inconsequential.

There are no quests or NPCs connected to it in

any way. If fact, no NPCs even path anywhere

near it. It's like Bethesda had an intended purpose

for it, but never followed through on the content

to support it. So here I am at one of those

rare instances where I find myself actually thankful

that they didn't ?

 

I also had an opportunity to observe the

"interaction" between the vanilla NPCs and

the ones I added from the race. To start

off, I duplicated the vanilla leveled Falmer

Servant template actor (which are ALL

male for some reason), switched it's race

and made it female, but left the rest of

the template unchanged. And that's why

everything I saw during my play testing

seemed a little "odd" for typical interactions

between NPCs.

 

First, the vanilla Falmer Servants DO NOT

interact with the ones I created. At all.

However, the Falmer DO. Big time. In

fact, on more than one occasion, I actually

witnessed a Falmer chasing down one of

the new Servants for a little "personal service"

(thanks to SL Aroused Creatures no doubt).

 

It's like the vanilla Servants "know better"

than to touch them. It's eerily immersive LOL

 

Anyway, it's always better in context:

 

 

Spoiler

 

But again, if you're playing a character of

this race, they'll chase and grab you just as

readily. I actually had to use the free camera

to get this shot while I was hiding on the

ground below this ledge. So make sure you

set up your mods right, or you won't get very

far very fast, as I found out trying to cross

a bridge just getting to this spot to take this shot ?

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Like I said.....

whenever, and wherever they want.

 

?

 

Trykz