The Internet Vagabond

Hey You… You’re Finally Playing Skyrim Again

It’s been probably a decade since I’ve played Skyrim. Possibly longer. I have very fond memories of my first play-through. I played a nord, “sword-and-board” style (though it was mostly axe and board); dabbling in alteration and restoration magic; creating all my own equipment with smithing and enchanting. I didn’t sneak, I used a bow generally only while fighting dragons. I also didn’t do most of the guild quests. I think I only did the mage’s guild.

I remember playing the Dragonborn DLC, which now that I look it up means I had the other two DLC, Dawnguard and Hearthfire. I think I might have bought the Legendary Edition to get them. In any case, I don’t remember playing through the Dawnguard story at all, nor do I remember doing much of anything with Hearthfire, but I do remember the Dragonborn story. Also, it’s funny now having played Morrowind looking back at Solstheim and understanding why it was so significant that they included it.

In any case, as my campaign to revisit and complete the Bethesda open-world games continues, next on my list was Skyrim. I was especially interested to dive-in since I learned about a Linux-native mod manager called Amethyst.

Setup and Modding

I have Skyrim from both Steam and GOG, and I initially assumed using GOG would be easiest for working with Amethyst. This likely isn’t the case, or rather it doesn’t really matter. In any case, I’ve got the offline installers for a reason, and so I installed it through Lutris.

I opted for the AppImage of Amethyst, and started trying it out. I’m generally one who likes to “micro-manage” my setups a bit, and Amethyst tends to frown at this. Instead of me configuring various short-cuts, Amethyst would rather handle everything itself, and so I followed its desires. After some initial small challenges, I got Skyrim running, installed the SKSE, and a bunch of the usual (or so I’ve been told) fixes and patches.

I’m generally fine with the appearance of vanilla Skyrim. I like a shiny stone as much as the next skritt, but for this play-through my focus was clear: try to keep it “vanilla-plus.” That totals 84 mods, according to Amethyst. 20 of those are patches, fixes, and SKSE libraries for functionality. The remaining mods are split primarily between two types: the overhauls, and the quests/content.

Overhaul Mods

Trying to keep this relatively tame, though quite obviously violating the “vanilla” of “vanilla-plus”, I installed basically every overhaul from EnaiSiaion, selecting for a few of the minimalistic options. This list is not only the overhaul mods from them, but also some of the addition mods of theirs. There are a few patches that should be included, and they are mentioned on the appropriate mod pages.

With this setup, I find things feel mostly as I remember them, except that the perks feel a bit more impactful. I’m not too far into the game yet, so I can’t speak to how impactful the different shouts or vampire and werebeast changes are. The only non-EnaiSiaion overhaul I installed is Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul.

Quest/Content Mods

Legacy of the Dragonborn was essentially the prime motivator for this play-through. I remember seeing Tomato play it, and thinking that seemed super rad, and so I used it as the keystone of the mod-list. I basically followed their full installation guide, then added in my own mods to suppliment what they recommended. Beyond the content mods I’ve already listed above from EnaiSiaion, I included the following:

I have yet to, but plan to, add the following:

Miscellaneous Mentions

I’ve also got an alternate start mod with some additional options for LotD and Bruma. I added Campfire and Frostfall, plus the special edition fix for each, mostly out of habit. I like the immersion it adds, though I did disable Frostfall for DAc0da, and may leave it off. And wrapping it up, some graphics stuff:

Naturally, I leave the most essential for last: lanterns. Both in the world and worn. Love me some lanterns.

The Start

I opted for the Legacy of the Dragonborn alternate start, as the Relic Hunters Guildmaster. Neat little intro part, that gets me right into the LotD content. I played around with that for a bit, explored around Solitude a bit, and made my way to Winterhold to start that guild and explore the new, immersive college. After finishing the Saarthal exploration, I decided to go to Helgen and start the main quest, getting through the first dragon fight. Thus far, all is good. The various overhaul mods feel good, graphically things look nice, and no crashes or bugs. At this time, I also learn about, and install, a few of the Vicn mods mentioned above: DAc0da and Unslaad. I had heard about VIGILANT, but I was unaware of the others.

DAc0da starts in Solitude, after what I thought was the completion of the whole Greybeards quest, but what is actually just after that first dragon fight quest. Imagine my surprise, as the mod author may have hoped, when I walked out of the Dragonborn museum, down the street, to the lovely Bard’s College vista overlooking the Sea of Ghosts, and see the Brass Tower standing there, menacing reality.

Numidium overlooking Solitude

That was all I needed to see, so I began what I can only describe as a masterpiece of a mod. A lot of lore in this mod comes from “C0DA”, a series of stories from Michael Kirkbride. The UESP has an article on it, and there’s also an entire site dedicated to it: c0da.es. At the time of me writing this, and therefore just after the time of me playing the mod, I have not had the pleasure of reading through this source material, and so I’m sure I’m missing references.

I’ll say up-front: the next section will include spoilers. There’s nothing else after this section, and so if you do not want anything spoiled with regards to this mod, then thanks for reading! I’m excited to continue exploring these amazing mods. The Elder Scrolls modding communities are some of the greatest storytellers and world-builders there are, and I’m continually floored with what they create. Most of the time. Sometimes it’s just more tiddies, and, I mean, yeah I guess but not every game needs big anime tiddies - I know, I KNOW I CAN’T BELIEVE IT EITHER I KNOW. Gosh.

DAc0da

If you choose to stay, then please pardon my praise, as I must.

Actually, pardon my complaints first. They are minor: this is a combat mod, with incredible lore and jumping-puzzles (a la Guild Wars 2). The character I made was not very prepared for nor capable at combat, and some of the boss fights were very challenging. I hadn’t considered trying to find a full combat overhaul, with timed blocks and parrying and combo systems and all that, but after playing this mod I am now considering that.

I have seen many a complaint about the jumping and acrobatics required, especially in the Numidium parts, but I rather enjoyed all of that, quite a bit actually. Throughout the mod there are often hidden treasures that require some clever acrobatics or backtracking to get, and getting to them always felt very rewarding. I never felt that I was incapable or frustrated with the jumping parts, despite Skyrim’s best attempts to thwart me.

Those rewards come in two flavors: gear/treasure, and Mnemolichite. The former comes in much variety, and includes great armor for all characters (heavy, light, and unarmored), great weapons for all characters, incredible spells (I would say rather overpowered summoning spells), and a fine assortment of potions, treasures, and trinkets. The Mnemolichite is a collectable world-item. Gathering three rewards the player with a point which can be spent to increase health, stamina, magicka, or carrying capacity by 10, or grant 1 perk point. By the end of my play-through, I had I think 82 Mnemolichite, meaning 27 points to spend accordingly. There are also consumables that work the same way, “Brain-Billies,” of which I probably used to get another 10 or so points.

I walked into this mod with basically crappy gear, and walked out like a god. I earned 8 levels, plus all the Mnemolichite/Brain-Billy points. I got top-tier armor, absolutely overpowered summoning spells, plus some other nice less overpowered spells.

One small snag, which might resolve itself or is otherwise easy enough to get around: when I finished the mod, the “shared chest” I was storing all my loot in became inaccessible. I’m not too attached to the loot, especially considering the direction of my build (trying to focus on Bound weapons, specifically Bound Mace, and Illusion, for a change from Ye Olde Axe), but in anticipation of a Legacy of the Dragonborn patch, I want the collectables. I want my shinies in the shiny-boxen.

The first half of the mod is a lot of combat, with some very neat lore. There are two “side quests”, which contribute to the ending: the first I pursued involves Yngol (UESP). I fought my way through Atmorans and Snow Elves, time and again finding Yngol in trouble. First, he was freezing to death, and abandoned by one of the 500 Companions. I found a sufficient fire source for the incredible cold, and saved him. Next, after much more combat with Snow Elves, I found Yngol confronting the companion which abandoned him, Hgelhelm, and I helped Yngol defeat him.

Oh, quick break here: the big theme (heh) of this entire mod is the Numidium, and the time-warping effects it has. The gist is that all of the space we explore, all of the events, are being pulled into our timeline because of the Numidium and what is dubbed the “Numidium Effect.” Basically, every time the Numidium gets activated, time and space get all bent out of shape, and Bad Stuff (TM) happens. So this entire landmass that we explore in the mod is all world spaces dragged into this reality around the Numidium, warped and out of place.

Right, so back to Yngol: we help him fight dudes, we explore Atmoran cities and frozen landscapes. Yngol is chasing a golden dragon, and another dude we run into, a Dragonguard of Reman named Akashiya-Samon, is hunting the golden dragon. There’s a lot of fighting, and a lot of boss battles, all of which are challenging but also rather fun. I think they’re ruined a bit with the summoning spells I got, which may in part be due to the changes the perk overhaul makes. Not certain, all I know is that without those summoning spells, it would’ve been very hard due to the changes the combat overhaul makes. Bit funny.

Throughout this entire quest there’s the option to abandon Yngol, in which case he dies. I’m not sure what happens in this case, since I opted to support the bro all the way. Bros before Snow(Elve)s, man. And after supporting him so much, I had to side with him at the finale. Then I told him to become a star. Apparently it’s a reference to a Japanese folktale, which makes sense since Vicn is Japanese.

Yngol's Finale Arena

In any case, I rather enjoyed this half. I thought the characters were all very well written, with some great dialog and intriguing stories. A fun, and frustrating, part of this mod is how many of these stories we only ever, and will only ever, get a small part of. As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of hidden treasure and rewards around, with some clever acrobatics required to get to them.

The other half of the first half (other quarter?) is helping Vanus Galerion, of Mage’s Guild fame. Vanus is in turtle form, and he wants to un-turtle. This brings us down a road with Sload and necromantic forces, plus Dreugh. We join up with a Templar of Hahd named Yu’qbar (relevant detail); Hahd is like an underwater empire. They hate the Sload, we hate Sload, all is good, there’s murder aplenty. Again, the set pieces are all really well done, and the environments are impressively laid out. The summons from this side aren’t nearly as overpowered, but the finale of this side far outshines the finale from the first side: a battle with Mannimarco, reincarnated through Sload and necromantic forces. Familiar and significant name-drop aside, just look at this arena.

Mannimarco's Finale Arena

I didn’t need to do both side, but I did, and turns out that means I get the better ending. Though, the good ending is still incredibly bittersweet, and I guess that’s a theme with Vicn’s mods. A comment on a YouTube video for some of the music at the end-end of the mod said,

“This right here is why I like Vicns approach with how to handle the Dragonborn. The base game and DLCs treat the Dragonborn as this nigh unstoppable Demi god after overcoming the literal Dragon God Alduin, A powerful Vampire, and the First Dragonborn and it’s like this guy can’t be stopped and it seemed like being the Dragonborn is like the best thing ever. Then here comes Vicns mods to wheee you status as Dragonborn is in a way the cause of a lot of shit that happens, why a lot of good people suffer, and even if you win you feel like you lost a part of yourself in the process. Vicns approach shows a different take, that being the hero, the prisoner, the Dragonborn, can be a burden and a curse as much as it’s a blessing.” @barrydalton4743

In any case, from here we return to the feet of the Numidium and meet up with an old friend, the friggin’ Underking, and have a pretty rad fight against him using light sabres, apparently. I think in the lore they’re something else, but no need to mince words here. Another awesome boss arena.

Underking Arena

You can see, in the fog, the massive feet of Numidium there. It is intimidatingly large throughout the mod. From the finale arenas on either side you can see it, and it still looks massive. (And caked up. More like Numidi-aaaaamn girl!)

Numidium from Mannimarco's Arena Numidium from Yngol's Arena

From here, we go inside Numidium for multiple levels of combat, but also a significant amount of jumping puzzles and challenges. A few of the review videos I’ve watched all disliked this, but I really enjoyed this part. The cramped corridors, navigating through ruined machinery and dwemer architecture. Jumping from cog to strut, activating platforms, disabling search lights. It all felt very solid. Overcoming death pits, zero-sum anti-particle beams, and a literal cyborg ninja assassin from another dimension named Ghost Choir 9. Remember the name for later. Anyway, you find a lift, and taking it up you arrive here.

Welcome to Dwemereth

And this music plays.

And suddenly you’re in a completely different state of mind. Until now you’ve fought, struggled, scraped by, and suffered. Then, you emerge into this zone of melancholy.

I’ve neglected to mention until now that there’s an NPC who joins you through this entire mod, not as a companion but as a character you run into along the way. Throughout Numidium they act basically as a guide, providing insight into the next challenge, and allowing you to have this witty/pithy banter with them. Honestly, it feels like you develop a friendship with this member of the Psijic Order named Rolls-On-Roads, like you get to know him. You get to this place, and he is as stunned as you are. Throughout everything else, this guy’s a know-it-all, going just short of flaunting his future-knowledge in your face. Then, it’s somewhere he has never been, could never have been.

Exploring this zone, you find memories of discussions between Dumac, the King of the Dwemer, and presumably Nerevar. The entire place feels serene and sorrowful. The zone is called “Dwemereth”, which is what Morrowind was known as. You navigate this realm by more jumping puzzles, from floating box to floating box to platform. Finally, you reach the central tower, and the Mantella, the gem powering Numidium. It’s a bit surreal seeing this Mantella chamber compared to the Daggerfall Mantella chamber, which is also within a dungeon set inside Numidium. Obviously graphics have changed a lot, and development restrictions are very different for a mod author than for a game development company. There’s an optional fight here with Dumac’s shadow-form, but I stealth’d my way past, and arrived finally at the operation’s chamber. Within, we learn why Numidium is here. And this is bonkers. This Numidium is from the 2nd Era. It seiged Alinor from the 2nd Era until the 5th era, when it fought Akulakhan, which was being piloted by the Nereverine. Let that statement sink in, and consider how absolutely fucking crazy that is: Numidium and Akulakhan take part in a giant mech battle (which basically captures the original struggle of Dwemer versus Chimer…). Also, look at how badass the Nereverine looks in his… mech suit?

THIS IS ALMSIVI COMMAND

In any case, this Numidium appears at the “here and now” of our game presumably to begin repairing itself. Because the fight against Akulakhan destroys Nirn. Small little detail. After learning all this, you get an ending.

I interacted with Rolls-On-Roads throughout Numidium and Dwemereth, I hit most of the weird little particle/display fragments, and did both the side-quests (which are time distortions; this whole thing is about fixing a time distortion that causes more time distortions) which means I got the “”"”good”””” ending. The bad ending is explicitly called out, because it ends the game: you die. You try to interact with the Mantella, you get thrown to the ground, and Rolls-On-Roads gets corrupted by the Hist, kills you, and takes Numidium for his/itself. BTW, a (the?) Hist is here, and it’s real angry. Apparently if you don’t interact with Rolls-On-Roads enough, or you miss too many of the particle/display fragments, and you don’t do both side-quests, (or some combination of the aforementioned) you get the neutral ending. The neutral and good endings both get to a similar place, but the neutral ending sees Rolls-On-Roads completely erased from time. In the “”"”good”””” ending, you keep your bro. The force fixing time are female dragons known as Jills. There’s a small plot throughout the mod of the Hist and the Jills fighting, presumably because the Hist sees Numidium as an opportunity to retake Nirn and remove all these pesky mer and men. With our intervention and success, the Jills can correct time, helping us survive this dragon break, and return to our proper place in space and time.

Remember Ghost Choir 9, that super cool other dimension cyborg? They say something as they die which is very important: The Jills are not on your side.

So yeah, what actually happens is that the Jills are not our friends, and they try to erase everything related to this event, including everyone, that hasn’t already been fixed. The important part about that is that the player-character is part of that everyone, and so is Rolls-On-Roads. And this is where the “”"”good”””” ending happens. In the neutral ending, you pop-up in front of the lighthouse, Numidium is gone, and so is Rolls-On-Roads, replaced by some random Altmer. Presumably, because you’re “The Prisoner” (a fate-bound archetype, like “The Agent” from Daggerfall or “The Nereverine” from Morrowind) you cannot simply be erased. Numidium is gone, the events explained away as training exercises gone wrong, and the world is none-the-wiser of any event. In the “”"”good”””” ending, before popping back up in the proper timeline, you get yoinked into Mozzarella Space and chat with Sheogorath. He intervenes in the Jills’ work (as made evident by the several dead Jills around with Wabbajacks stabbed through their skulls), giving you the opportunity to escape with all your memories in-tact. Rolls-On-Roads is not so lucky, and you see him laying next to Uncle Sheo, partially removed. You speak with him, he echos the warning from Ghost Choir 9: the Jills on not on our side.

Defragged-On-Cheese more like...

You leave, he dissolves, and you find yourself at the lighthouse. As you ascend, you find Rolls-On-Roads, but he doesn’t remember you. Doesn’t recognize you. You tell him that you and he returned Numidium to it’s proper time, and saved the world, and he asks how much skooma you’ve had. Then he asks you, what brings you to the lighthouse? And you have two options, one of which really hit me hard: I thought I’d see an old friend here. Rolls-On-Roice mentions he, too, felt nostalgic about an old friend here, and then mentions an old Altmer he knows. To him, you don’t exist, not even as a whisper of a thought.

And that’s the end. There’s apparently some more interactions, but I haven’t gotten to them yet. Of course, this is only the first of 4 mods by Vicn. But like was said earlier: how bittersweet is that ending? After literally hours of interacting with this NPC, getting to know them a bit, starting to feel buddy-buddy with them. Hell, planning to rest and tell each other stories at the Winking Skeever! All gone. Poof. Eaten by dragons. You remember a past that no one else ever can, because it doesn’t exist anymore.

“Your status as Dragonborn is in a way the cause of a lot of shit that happens, why a lot of good people suffer, and even if you win you feel like you lost a part of yourself in the process.” - Master Poet barrydalton4743

Fuckin’ A, man. 10/10 mod. Game of the Year.

Thanks for reading the ramble. I’m incredibly excited to continue my voyage through Vicn’s mods, and to delve into the others on my list. I had written off Skyrim modding, mostly because every time I’m logged in to the Nexus and look through Skyrim mods it’s all NSFW stuff. This mod has restored my interest, and left me hungry for more.

Bill Niblock 2026-07-30
[ gaming ]