The Social Stigma of Necromancy...

[Kieve]

A recent conversation with my girlfriend highlighted one of the weird inconsistencies of Skyrim - nobody gives a damn if you raise the dead in public.

Now I do understand that technically, necromancy isn't illegal in Skyrim, simply frowned upon. All the same, I went looking for a mod that at least attempts to put the practice in a negative light and... to my surprise, I couldn't find a single one.

 

Oh sure, there's plenty of mods to choose from if you want to be a necromancer and have thralls and zombies at your command. But where are the mods to make the public shun, villify, and spurn you for doing it?

 

So here I am, pondering how to create said mod. Now I should note, I've been out of the modding scene for an awfully long time, gave Oblivion's editor a pass entirely, and only barely know my way around the CK. I've no complaints about doing the grunt-work to make such a plugin myself, but right now I'm not even sure how to go about it. Advice, tips, tutorials, and anything else you can throw my way are all highly appreciated.

 

Goals:

• Negative reactions from citizens with conjured zombies in tow.
• Negative reactions on casting a raise-dead spell, possibly fear response in "cowardly" NPCs
• Raising the dead in public causes nearby Guards to force dialogue (first time a warning, second time bounty / crime).
• Repeated offenses will "ban" you from a Hold city - guards at the gate will stop you and state they "don't want your kind here"
  • That won't actually stop you from entering the city, but doing so would provoke a hostile response.

 

Hopefully that's not too ambitious for a first effort. Right now I'm not really concerned about compatibility with existing necro-mods, as long as I'm able to get it working more or less correctly - however, since I don't know how to go about designing it (and know nothing about scripting for either SKSE or Papyrus), making the framework extensible enough to accomodate compatibilities in the future is something I'd like to shoot for.

[Kieve]

If anyone's walking away from this thinking "Oh boy, another newb in over their head," I should point out that while I haven't produced anything notable for Skyrim, I'm hardly new to modding. Some of you folks might even remember me from my Morrowind days (Void Assassin Armor, anyone?). Also managed to get an Associate's degree in programming - which isn't spectacular on a resume exactly, but for hobby work it'll suffice.

The point is, I may need help getting the ball rolling here, particularly in terms of design architecture, but I hope no one's looked at this topic and decided to just write me off. :\

 

... or the other possibility I suppose, no one actually wants to see necromancy treated as a criminal act. But that'd surprise me a bit.

[Guest Mogie56]

It is rather odd that the Dovahkiin's shout in general are looked down upon if done in city or anywhere for that matter.

I have no experience with this sort of thing but could that mechanism be used for your purpose? it's not quite a shun by the locals but they will tell you to stop and the guards will downright attack you if you do it too many times. there seem to be a lot of things that should be seen in a bad light but seem to be ignored in general.

sorry I can't be of help tho, it is a cool idea.

[Zentelioth]

It definitely would be an interesting feature to see in game. It would have fit perfectly in Oblivion due to the stigma at that time. I suppose in Skyrim the Vigilants of Stendar would be the most hostile to you?

[miketheratguy]

Lack of concern over necromancy is just another thing that, in my opinion, makes Skyrim a game that has less character and uniqueness than Morrowind.

[Kieve]

It is rather odd that the Dovahkiin's shout in general are looked down upon if done in city or anywhere for that matter.

I have no experience with this sort of thing but could that mechanism be used for your purpose? it's not quite a shun by the locals but they will tell you to stop and the guards will downright attack you if you do it too many times. there seem to be a lot of things that should be seen in a bad light but seem to be ignored in general.

sorry I can't be of help tho, it is a cool idea.

 

Hm... people do react (particularly guards) to shouts, don't they? Seems like a good direction to start looking in...

Gonna dig around a bit over the weekend, see if I can track down which bits of the game are responsible for that.

(Unless someone already knows and can save me the trouble?)

Maybe it can be expanded on for the purpose here.

[Rayblue]

Lack of concern over necromancy is just another thing that, in my opinion, makes Skyrim a game that has less character and uniqueness than Morrowind.

 

Apples and oranges.

[Sabo]

You could look for mods that stop guards telling you to stop shouting. Then through that you could look for what things were changed in said mod, therefor identify some of the scripts needed?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/13737/?

That's the first one I found.

[paladuin]

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/19890-vigilant-of-stendarr-005-outfit/

 

try this one

[bitterne]

Corpse preparation has a basic form of that mechanic. People will refuse to talk to you when you're carrying corpses around, when you're followed by undead stuff etc and they might attack you.

[Kieve]

You could look for mods that stop guards telling you to stop shouting. Then through that you could look for what things were changed in said mod, therefor identify some of the scripts needed?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/13737/?

That's the first one I found.

 

Had a look - seems like all the author did was delete a Quest entry from the game. Something tells me my plans won't be quite so straightforward, but it's as good a place to start as any. Let's tug on that thread and see what unravels.

[erlkonnig1]

I'd love to see this mod come to life.  The reactions of the people of Skyrim to magic are underwhelming across the board.  If you listen to the NPCs in the College, you'd expect a lot more from the locals than just an uneasy glance.

 

NPCs will already react to magic when you have a spell cast on yourself.  These reactions are either amazement ("Oooh, such colors!") or trepidation ("Keep that magic away from me!"), so perhaps there's something there that can be expanded to have a bigger range of reactions based on each particular effect.  I don't know anything about modding, though, so I'm just kind of spitballing here.

 

Keep up the good work!  I look forward to seeing my conjurer shunned from civilization for practicing her dark arts.

[nooblet123]

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/19890-vigilant-of-stendarr-005-outfit/

 

try this one

 

That mod just plain sucks...

[Terakhan]

As a possibility, since the necromancy spells add an effect to the player, so that you can keep tabs on how long your corpses will be moving, could you alter that to add the player to the necromancer faction, and tweak the faction itself to have a relationship penalty to it?