{Procrastination Post} Modding Skyrim: Custom Male Followers Mod and a Possible Quest

The last time I did one of these procrastination posts, I made a book cover for a friend. Before I started to procrastinate professionally again on my current project, I hit 75+ K words on part 1 until I sailed into dead waters and I’m still not in the mood to finish the job. I like doing so with a bang, anything else is just underwhelming. It’s not like I have any hard deadlines with the book–I may spend years on it. I began working on it years before I wrote my previous works, after all. I have the story outlined until the very end, even the final scene planned, but my brain is not ready to see in pretty pictures yet. So what a girl to do for months? Create other things until everything works as she envisions it.

So, Skyrim. Before I set out to try the Creation Kit myself, I played hundreds of hours in vanilla, then I modded the hell out of my game (as much as my machine allowed this) during the last few months. Now, I don’t have a very powerful rig. I have a Dell Inspiron 15 3542 notebook which is rather mediocre at best (I get to run Skyrim Special Edition at Very Low quality and it sucks, so I won’t be modding this one). Currently my stats say I have 85 active mods and those do not include any graphics mods (better lighting, water, etc.), because I have no interest in them. I’m more items-quests-NPCs-oriented in this regard. I collect things and I like good stories, even if they are short.

So, Skyrim mods. My favorite mods so far are Konahriik’s Accouterments (and everything that comes along with it) and Eager NPCs (for sex lab, duh) because there is so much to do with it. 😀 Amorous Adventures gets a special mention, because more quests is always good. And suddenly Skyrim is more rounded and full of life that is missing from vanilla game due to nature of content. All that is left is to bring more fun characters into game. There wasn’t a good choice of marriage partners in vanilla game, so naturally people would start making some. But I never marry in-game anyway. I have a wonderful hub IRL and Skyrim is my outlet for having a reverse harem. Besides killing dragons, that is. 😀

And castles. Don’t forget castles. This is my regular player home. Big thanks to the creator of this mod.

So, finally I decided to make something of my own as well. Whether I’ll share it with the masses, I don’t know yet. But I’m working to make something good out of it.

My mod so far includes two male followers, but I really want to learn how to make quests, so I can write one for them. (Writer’s habit, I guess.) I like vanilla Skyrim character faces and the only mod I use to design them is RaceMenu. Because I totally loathe beautification of Skyrim. These are supposed to be sturdy people, not supermodels. My mod will use whatever body replacer you use (I have SoS + its body, so it works with Shchlongs too) and totally works in vanilla Skyrim. WYSIWYG. That was the goal.

followers
I’m not the only one who makes ugly characters, so deal with it. Personally, I think they are cute. Because.

So, a little background for these two.

Drennan and Verod Silver-Eye are Nord half-brothers sharing the same father and direct descendants of a Dragon Priest.

So, the quest I’m thinking about will involve the dragon cult and all that lore.

Both are set at level 150 regardless of when you meet them. They can be found sandboxing in High Hrothgar, studying the Way of the Voice. Both know a few Dragon Shouts; Drennan already mastered four – Unrelenting Force, Ice Form, Fire Breath and Disarm. His brother Verod knows Unrelenting Force, Ice Form, and Disarm.

Drennan, the older and bigger of the two, is also skilled in Conjuration and can summon a Dragon Priest or a Dremora Lord, but his main strength is in his sword arm; he is a double wielder and prefers to fight with two swords.

drennansilvereye
Drennan Silver-Eye

His brother Verod is skilled in Destruction and can easily bring a Legendary Dragon down to the ground with his shock spells. If the situation demands it, he will also double wield his swords and slash his enemies good.

verodsilvereye
Verod Silver-Eye

Both brothers are experienced archers and have high sneak skills. Their preference is light armor. Both also have perks that benefit weapons with fire, frost or shock enchantments. Their morality allows any crime.

Both Drennan and Verod are fiercely protective of their friends and allies and will not run away from any battle. Both are marriageable.

To take them both on an adventure you’d need a mod like Amazing Follower Tweaks or something. Otherwise one at a time.

I admit I need to make Verod more balanced and I’m still tweaking his abilities. He just tries to kill everything with his Lightning Storm spell… Drennan is awesome in combat (he has his own style, just like his little brother). Both obliterate everything they get their hands on and it’s nice to see a battlemage follower who doesn’t scream “help!”. 😀

I might switch to leveling with the character mode, but I tested them on a high level character (I’m currently level 265), so I skipped that part.

Now all is left is to write the quest to get them as followers, or maybe I’ll have something else for them in store. 🙂

Jeno Marz
JENO MARZ is a science fiction writer from Latvia, Northern Europe, with background in electronics engineering and computer science. She is the author of two serial novels, Falaha’s Journey: A Spacegirl’s Account in Three Movements and Falaha’s Journey into Pleasure. Marz is current at work on a new SF trilogy. All her fiction is aimed at an adult audience.

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