LE Dovahkiin's siblings.

[SleepyLanya]

My life as dovahkiin always feels lonely. I fill my skyrim with NPC's to the brim and still it's lonely. I add mods that make me have a hundred followers and still it feels lonely. And that's because the only family dovahkiin has is 2 (6 with hearthfire multiple adoptions mod) adopted street urchins that stare at you creepily and who you can order like you would a dog to go sleep, go outside, go clean up. A random pet those street urchins pick up from somewhere, who takes this opportunity to block your way no matter where you want to go inside your home. A spouse, who after being away from home for so long, you ask to hand over money from the shop they supposedly run. There are a lot of mods that add funny followers that scream MARRY ME and even more mods that add hours of mindless sex with the already exisiting npc's. But it's all so shallow and stupid. I feel like an orphan who suddenly got rich and powerful and has a trophy husband, admirers who go into battle with you, people hired to protect you and all you own (housecarls), two kids just to fit in, and they are all there for the money and/or sex. Some mods literally let you make yourself a slave or make someone else your slave. Yet when it comes to some type of meaninful relationships there is almost nada, Zero. Zilch.

So I finally realized that what I wanted was a sibling or two for the dovahkiin. You can of course overhaul the whole family system, marriage and adoptions to be more interactive. But let's face it. That project is unnecessarily huge. There is a simpler way I think. Follower npc's who are custom voiced and are not there to fulfill your need for skimpy outfits and be a trophy husband or wife you don't really interact with besides letting them carry all your heavy stuff while wearing nothing but a loincloth. So here is my idea which should significantly add to the interaction but considering the number of unique npcs out there should not be too hard to make. What i want instead is a funny follower or two which you meet during your travels who turn out to be your long lost brother and/or sister. They interact with you and each other if you get them both. Instead of blindly downloading you could choose a race they will be. You meet one of them and then the other. You three (or two if you want just one sibling) were separated when very little and finally tracked you down in Skyrim after hearing about you crossing the border into skyrim from someone who guards borders of cyrodiil. They would have funny quips, sometimes argue with you (especially about going into that dark cave for no apparent reason, why do they have to deal with an insane dovahkiin sister or brother who just loves to put themselves in danger *sigh*) They would comment on your cute (or very ugly, or sometimes creepy kids), your annoying pets that slothers their nice clothes in saliva and is always right there under your feet, would comment that your spouse has an interesting sense of humor or none at all (they totally should have found the ridiculously tall pyramid from sweet rolls and taffy that they left on your housecarl's bed funny). Once you find them, they never leave, but you can convince them to stay at home since your next adventure will be very dangerous. Once they followed you even once they will automatically move into your house.

 

I am not a moder. I wish to learn but I wouldn't even know where to begin. I would really like to have this done though so what I am asking is if there is someone out there interested in this please help me make this. I can do voice acting for the sister. And I am a writer so I can write the dialog for both brother and sister. I am also someone who draws so if anyone out there shows me how, I can maybe create textures for anything that needs them. But that's where my abilities stop. I see a lot of mods with npcs with advanced AI so I know it is possible and definitely easier than overhauling the whole current system. Yet it will make the lonely dovahkiins out there feel like they came from somewhere. To add to the experience of as many RPers out there as possible this can also be written in a way that suggests that all 3 siblings grew up in very different ways. The choice of who dovahkiin is behind the player. But the other 2 will have their own life stories that wouldn't interfere with dovahkiins that way, since anything could have happened to 3 sibling that were separated when young. Even better is maybe they had different father's or mother's so a player can choose say a breton and a redguard sibling (or a khajiit and a high elf sibling) while they themselves are nord or imperial.

 

P.S. I am in fact going to get started and write out the story of both siblings. I decided that they had same father as dovahkiin, who was a promiscuous traveler or adventurer of some sort, this part will be vague so as not to break immersion for RPers. Very different mothers.

 

The brother is older. His mom was a prostitute or courtesan of some sort. She was in love with the father but he couldn't stay. She however had his son and when the boy was older told him where he came from. He decided to track down his father but instead stumbled on the fact that he had a sibling or two. Curious and with nothing to lose he decided to find them. He grew up in a very bad environment and had to learn to lie very well. Also learned how to steal and be sneaky. He is basically a very good thief. In fact he kind of had to leave his homeland because he stole from too many rich people everywhere and the bounty on his head grew. But since he was an amazing thief and never got caught, no one has any idea what he looks like so he was safely able leave that life behind (or did he?). He is not a fighter though. He could probably learn but he really was so amazing as a thief that he never had to. He could always make quick and easy getaways afterall. His mother though was full of love for her son so he is a pretty gentle soul who knows what family is. He misses his mother sometimes and wonders if she is healthy/fine.

 

The sister is younger. Her mother was a daughter to a very powerful and rich merchant family. Her mother had a fling with their father. As she became pregnant she was forced to marry another man in order not to shame the family name with a child from who knows where. The mother grew resentful of her child for constantly being reminded of her mistake and didn't spend much time home. Instead she threw herself into work and into being a social butterfly. Mother's husband who she did not love anyway, was there just for the money. As soon as he inherited the company (and even earlier) he pretty much was never home. Servants who took care of her would whisper about the child behind her back. Sick of it she sold some jewelry and hired a man to find out who her real father was. He did. He couldn't find or reach the father, but he also found out about some of her siblings. She grew up alone in a large manor and was not allowed to talk to the poor kids so she never had friends either. Finding out she had siblings out there she decided to be rebellious for once in her life and seek her own fortune. She sold the rest of her things that she couldn't take with her and could sell fast, also emptied the home safe, hired a mercenary to take her to where dovahkiin was last heard from. She had a lot of time to do nothing so she spent that time studying. She read hundreds of books so she has a lot of knowledge about anything and everything. She knows a lot about alchemy and how to use ingredients but little experience of actually doing so. She also knows all magic spells since she read all about them but has never had the chance to practice so she will have to start at the beginning using only novice spells. As she was forced to learn ballroom dancing she fell in love with music and picked up how to play a flute and the lute. But sadly she is tone deaf so she doesn't like to sing. Someone once told her that her singing sounds like someone is drowning and swallowing water in-between words. She never agreed to sing publicly after that but she sometimes hums tunes as her mind is wondering. She also had a chance to practice archery a little bit when a child of another rich family that they had dealings with was visiting and requested that she join him in his practice. As she crossed border into skyrim, her hired mercenary got killed and she is a)ran away and still panicked runs into dovahkiin or b)gets rescued by dovahkiin. She has never had a loving home. Family is new to her and she is still a bit unsure of what is normal. She doesn't know what to expect and she is flighty, shy and clumsy with other people since she never had much chance to interact with anyone. She has the air of cold indifference when speaking to random strangers because that's how she was taught to interact with others. But to her siblings she is just adorable. There is only one thing she is great in. Sneaking. Afterall she sometimes got really depressed so she learned how to sneak away from her guards and maids so she could be alone without the judgy eyes of others on her.

 

These are both pretty cliche. But honestly that would fit better and easier with a world like skyrim and dovahkiin rather than some very fantastical backstories. Also notice that in concept for mod: the brother is an OP thief while the sister is a total noob mage/bard/archer. This way if you install just one you get a choice between a weaker but more customizable sister or OP strong but less customizable brother. The brother could learn how to use a dagger to quickly dispatch the enemies but the sister could learn a multitude of techniques. This also hopefully means that if you get them both the game wouldn't be too easy. And also this leaves dovahkiin with a choice of being a fighter or mage or archer or having the ability to sneak past all enemies without combat. And if you play some custom set-up where you are never a fighter or use some kind of alternative to combat, they can still fit to your world and gameplay. It can be even better if it is compatible with multiple followers mod of some sort and EFF. Even better if it could also be compatible with all DLCs. As in you could move them into a home anywhere (even solstheim)

 

Anyway this is my idea and I hope someone out there can help me make it a reality. It would add so much in my opinion but hopefully wouldn't be as hard to make and as heavy on performance as say a complete overhaul of marriage and children. It would also probably be easier to remove the mod if you get tired of it, without breaking saves. Even if I don't keep them as followers and leave them at home it would give me a reason to want to go back to my player home, which i visit once in two or 3 months gametime usually, which is sad. This plus a good house mod that fits the backstory of your dovahkiin would make for a much better feeling of having a home then what Hearthfires DLC provided us with. I think it would be nice to interact with someone. I can write and voice as many lines as it takes to make it less repetitive. And I can also write russian lines for both siblings and russian voice acting for the sister (if anyone is interested in doing more than one language). Also probably a good idea to use vanilla bodies for characters so they are more compatible with everything. And allow bodymods and facemods to overwrite them in case someone is changing the looks of ALL npcs. But would also work with people who like the vanilla style. Also maybe use original Serana hair for the sister if you choose one of the human races for her, which is one of the few hair that doesn't look horrid (IMO). And think of something else for the brother to use. Probably not over the top like Apachii but also not anything from original skyrim. I mean I am playing a guy atm. The male hair is severely lacking in choices that don't suck... And if using Apachii hair then probably http://cs2.gamemodding.net/posts/2014-11/1417239914_10168-1-1365903132.jpg the hair number 17 from this image. It wouldn't look too out of place.

 

I am really hoping that someone out there will pick this up.

Edited May 10, 2016 by SleepyLanya

[Fenryr3001]

Just two things I want to say:

 

1) Please don't make them call you "Dovahkiin".A lot of Roleplayers (like me) don't play Dragonborns,so it would be 'murshion Breaking if they called you that

 

2) Only thing possible is having siblings of other races having a different mother.Children always assume the race of the mother in TES lore (though retaining some traits of the race of their father.A breton whose father was a nord would probably have a few traits that nords have,being a bit taller for example).

[SleepyLanya]

I just kept referring to dovahkiin because I almost always play as Dovahkiin. But obviously if I am going to write the lines they will refer to the player as sister/brother or by some pet nickname like siblings often like to make up. If anyone knows how or if it's possible maybe even refer to your character by his/her name.