LE Create a military faction/Take over Skyrim? War, Politics, and Governance mod.

[GeneralTroubles]

Most Dragonborn in The Elder Scrolls lore have frequently created some of the largest empires/nations in history. The reason for this, as it's implied numerous times in the game, is that those with the spirit of a dov crave conquest and domination or something along those lines. Yet despite being among the ranks of Tiber Septim, the In-Game character decides to... Be a wandering adventurer...

 

Really...?

 

Clavicus Vile summarized it perfectly in the quest "A Daedra's Best Friend".

"Really? Power? You're dragonborn. You already have more power than most people who aren't immense fire-breathing monsters."

 

Then why don't we feel like it?

 

 

I'm ashamed Bethesda never implemented a "conquest" option that would end the civil war neither in the Stormcloak or Imperial endings. An option that can say "F*ck you, I'm the dragonborn, I don't like either of these choices, I'm going to make some changes around here".

 

I saw this as a topic a while back from 2014. It's 2018, and there isn't a mod that nearly comes close to it's potential. The topic was mainly thrown off course by a mod that didn't exist.

 

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about "Become High King of Skyrim" because it doesn't really involve the whole conquest part.

I (and I'm sure a ton of other people) want to capture towns one by one, have the possibility of defeat, conscript soldiers, and have the option to place politics aside and become a warlord. Of course, there would be a political way to do it, but the aforementioned mod only delves into marriage, assassination, and petitioning. While it's the best we currently have, I still would prefer something far more memorable. (The mod is still good, I'm not dissing it and it's one of my favorites. In fact, the mod I'm recommending noticeably takes large swaths of inspiration from it.

 

While this mod request may be impossible and I may be an idiot for requesting it; I have to give the idea... Maybe ONE of you is or knows a guy who can do this. You would be the messiah of Skyrim modding (up in the pantheon of Beyond Skyrim). This mod isn't really a request, as much as it's me screaming for help in a back-alley in a bad part of town, hoping someone will hear my plea before I'm mugged or shot (or both). I can't make it myself; I can't mod for s*it, but I can be the annoying backseat driver and tell the Skyrim modding community what to do.

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The mod itself would provide multiple different endings to the civil war questline, endings that can be achieved based on your play-style and your decisions throughout the mod itself. It would involve very complicated systems in order to operate.

 

Yes, I am aware this mod is probably impossible. Again, this is me throwing the idea out there for a concise and modular war mod which works on your decisions throughout the mod's quest-line. As well as being lore-friendly and realistic. Do I think this exact mod will be created? As awesome as that would be, I doubt it. But if I can get a single mod creator to look at this and think about creating something like this, I would succeed.

 

 

 

War:

*A short quest in order to obtain your military. (potentially a hard quest, as being in command of an entire army may not be easy). The way you obtain your military would be varied by your race and previous factions (For example, if you're an orc you can go to a new stronghold and convince it's chief to provide soldiers to you). The war would adapt to your play-style, which could be warlord, dark lord, and liberator (Neutral, Evil, Good). Various scenarios may be able to occur (daedric interference, spreading vampirism among your military, etc)

 

*The Ability to Pause the war, allowing you to do some various adventures if you want and take a break before resuming; it would simply temporarily disable to mod why keeping it's memory in check for when it's paused, it can be started up again.

 

*Obtaining troops through purchase, conscription, followers, or recruitment. The best troops would be by purchase, as sell-swords would naturally have more experience with battle, as conscription would be suitable for last-resort, as you're forcibly conscripting those with little to no skill combat-wise. The farm boy might not be the new Master Chief, but he can wield a stick; and that's good enough. Recruitment would depend on both you and your army's reputation in that hold, as well as certain quest-lines you have completed. For example, being the dragonborn who defeat Alduin, and being the thane of Whiterun will add more people from Whiterun to be available for recruitment. The NPCs from one hold wouldn't fight for your army, however. Instead, nameless generic NPCs would be generated instead of taking NPCs from their spawn and placing them in your military. This would be to prevent important NPCs from dying on the battlefield. So named NPCs will continue to reside in their homes. Recruitment needs high reputation in order to recruit. In contrast, conscription needs Infamy to conscript, though conscription would be a harder path, conscripted soldiers are more motivated and can be trained to higher levels than recruited individuals. In addition, you can enslave P.O.Ws to produce materials on either mines or on farms as work-slaves.

 

*Gain support from factions: Gain support from the Dawnguard to ally themselves with your vampire army. Gaining support from specific factions in order to stay allied to your military will require tough-to-beat dialogue speech-checks. Politics in this mod requires high speechcraft. As an alternative, factions you control or have risen to leadership in will side with your military, providing some troops. For example, The Dark Brotherhood can perform assassinations and provide better spies. Of course, you will still need to pay for it.

 

 

*Military Reputation, should you raid farms and settlements for supplies/gold? Doing so would decrease the army's reputation in said hold, which decreases chance of recruitment, but also increase your gold income and conscription chances... In contrast, having your soldiers help around and repair the hold as well as defenses would not only defend said hold, but would also increase chances of recruitment and increases your reputation among certain noble families. This will give you the respect of the common folk and if your reputation is higher than that of the Enemy AI, any deserters of the Enemy AI's military could join yours. Starting off, some of these new soldiers would be enemy spies, but with more reputation gained you would have lower chances of having spies in your midst. The opposite of reputation is Infamy, in which you sacrifice lower levels of reputation for higher levels of fear and power, At low levels of infamy you're seen as just another brutish warlord, but at higher levels you're seen as a force to be reckoned with, if not a threat to most of Skyrim. The Vigilants of Stendarr, The Dawnguard, and even the Silver Hand will actively attack you if you delve into the dark stuff (daedra worship, sacrificing, necromancy, vampirism, lycanthropy, etc). These threats will at first seem minor pestilences, but over time will grow into a serious problem. Same goes with other groups for the path of high reputation (Daedra cults, Volkihar Vampires, and Werewolf packs). If your own factions are attacking your military, you will need to convince them to support you and your rise to power. While Infamy and Reputation are related, they are not on the same bar. Low reputation means you're likely bribing your way to power with little-to-no support for the common people of Skyrim, while high infamy means you're a Daedric-Loving necromancer vampire-creating commander which some factions will stop at nothing to stop and destroy. While it would be hard to gain high infamy and high reputation, you can do it. Summarized: Infamy means you have more power and influence on your own holds, while Reputation means you have higher stats among all holds and recruitment is easier. Reputation is also very easy to lose, quicker than it takes to gain (like in real life) and is harder to maintain than infamy.

 

*Influence: Influence would be required in order to properly maintain your leverage on a hold. Influence can be "bought" by helping out noble families, which will also produce financial investments and goods to your cause. Families could also be coerced into helping your cause. This works as the families buy the Jarls in which return grant you and your forces more power. Infamy will also cause your troops to be granted more liberties out of fear of your retaliation. Jarls are smart - they don't want their holds to be populated by the dead.

 

*A series of strategic choices, both tactical and political, which would be required in order to capture cities and holds. You would have to obtain wealth and influence for best results and worm your way into the good graces of noble families in order to quickly progress. Not doing so would have to be difficult, as obtaining an entire city or hold would be no small feat. (See; "War politics"). Depending on who you are friends with, you would be able to place a new Jarl in that hold (same dialogue though), who would eventually support your claim to High King of Skyrim, with very wealthy families backing you. Or, you could go against the families and the Jarls, and carve your empire from corpses. Most of the political choices are referenced in the next section. As for war, there would be tons of decisions to make that would negatively and positively affect your army in one sphere or another in either Influence, Morale, Reputation, or Alignment. Want your army to be an immensly powered war machine but you don't want to leave your home due to potential vigilants of stendarr trying to kill you? Try the evil side (later sections).

 

*Ranks: You start off with two captains and two dozen soldiers in your army, varying from Private to Lieutenant. These ranks will receive better weapons and stats the higher soldiers rank up. Soldiers rank up by kill count until they gain the position of commander. It won't be the exact same NPC, but your numbers shifts over time. Commanders will be on war-zones unless in forts or governing their holds, so commanders have the potential of dying, leading to rank mobility. Privates will rise through the ranks, and once promoted will only show as one less private and one more corporal. The higher ranks would have powerful enchanted weapons and armor (that can be replaced). Each hold has a maximum capacity of three commanders, one battlefield, one fort, and one keep-stationed commander. Rank names would be changed through MCM (Yes, most of us have not accepted our true SSE overlords) to suit the flavor of the player's army. Roman style? Use classical roman military names. After collecting your first few position your captains rank up to commanders.

 

*A wide variety of flags and colors to chose from for your army. No more needs to be said. Both lore friendly and not lore friendly, for nearly all races and backgrounds, some evil some good, some from other media and games.

 

*The ability to train and outfit your army. Training would require large amounts of gold, which would come from the noble families and the holds you have captured. Weapons and Armor would also require gold in order to smith and maintain. The more you progress, the more gold and resources you would need. This will give the impression of a war machine needing fuel in order to survive. Without sufficient gold, your troops may become mutinous and either become deserters or spies. As for weapons and armor, it would be preferred to add the ability to customize your troops unilaterally and individually. For example, talking to the commander could bring up the option of "Equip the troops with this" for it to open up an inventory to place the preferred armor and weapons, while also being able to walk up to them to outfit them with a similar mechanic. You would also be able to make soldiers your followers and have the option for them to follow you to attack/raid a nearby position, at the same time you could command them to do the same thing.

 

*Commander/Warmaster simulator: Activating a tablemap in one of your camps or holds would activate something like the player map. Instead of fast travel, you would have the option to "Attack" or "Defend". The nearest troop will move to secure that position. Ultimately, you would be notified on if a position is being attacked. You would only be able to command if you have taken at least three positions (camps, forts, etc). One of your positions will move out to meet the enemy defense, in which a battle would rage. Similar to the Civil War Overhaul, you would have a difficulty option. Through the map you would be able to see all obtainable positions, enemy and friendly controlled. You could control units sent to the position. The battle would take up to two hours (in game) to complete. I don't know if a system like this is possible, but I assume it is as the resources are already there. When not commanding, you can be joining the fight yourself, while commanding would be done by one of your appointed commanders. Said commander can be trained using gold and specific books. Commanders are important to train to increase the chances of winning a battle.

 

*Battles you can win or lose, Depending on various factors, including tactical Intel, morale, and the skill/weapons/spells/race of your troops, you can win or lose battles. Some of these battles would be minor, mainly to get a foothold only to progress into a major battle. You would either have the option to be there to either participate or command, or you could be somewhere else. You being at the battle, however, would increase the troops morale. Losing a battle will push you back, and winning a battle would push you forward. Battles would be in certain fixed places, and would be a few dozen or so. Winning all of them would grant you access to becoming the High King, but losing them would decrease your stats and if you lose them all your faction would be destroyed which would cause you to become an outcast. These battles should be hard, with a difficulty setting being in an MCM menu (because we in the stone age still use oldrim). Winning wars should never be easy.

 

*Losing the War result in you becoming an outcast and having a high bounty in every hold. In order to enter society again, you would need to get your appearance changed through the face-sculptor (or if the mod creator doesn't want to add Dawnguard as a requirement, there could be a custom NPC that does the same thing). Once your face is chanced, you can return to civilized life and hide your identity. Ideally, you would want to complete the major quest-lines, as it would be lore-wise confusing to have everyone pretend that you (the dragonborn, fairly recognizable) who just lost the war is now just running around up to the same old shenanigans with a new face and no bounty.

 

*Morale, which would boost stats and defense, could be obtained with being in the battle as commander or warrior, or you as a commander giving a "battle speech". which would bring up a dialogue option with a few lines of speech-checks. For example: "We will take this city! Together! (Persuade)", "I will have skins if that city isn't mine! (Intimidate)", or "A thousand septims to the soldier with more kills! (Bribe)". A flawed system, but it would work. Commanders giving the speech would not be as effective as you giving it yourself. While listening to the speech you (and your soldiers) would be granted with a few damage/armor buffs depending on how many speech checks you pass during the speech. If the speech absolutely failed, you would receive a few negative drawbacks.

 

*Intel, which would increase commander efficiency during the battle. Intel would be obtained via Spies (which would cost quite a bit of gold) or actually obtaining the Intel notes from enemy soldiers yourself (Which would be difficult). Spies have the potential to rat on your army and defect if not paid efficiently, yet are crucial as commanders carrying the precious Intel would be rare and spies are in the position to intercept orders. With more soldiers that defect from your cause, the greater the enemy Intel is increased. If spies are found in your troop, you have the option to punish them as seen fit, either by killing them, interrogating them, Brutalizing them, or pardoning them. Pardoning them increases your reputation but decreases your Morale, while brutalizing them means you leave their bodies out in the open for other spies to see. This decreases the number of spies in the future and means more spies will break under interrogation, while decreasing your reputation. Interrogation would be an effective way to gain Intel, but has the option to fail. If you're the one commanding the battle, the stats of your soldiers would be slightly up. Intel (as in commander mode) means your troops attack objective targets that will win the battle quickly, as well as slightly adding to their damage and defense output. Intel (as in fighter mode) means you can actively see quest objective targets during the battle. Without intel, you will not be able to see the objectives and will be forced to kill every soldier on the battlefield (later levels this can be daunting and difficult).

 

*Enemy AI and Alliances, which would have much of the same power as you do. The AI would make similar choices that you do and will react to attacks, defenses, or spies appropriately. The two enemies would be the Stormcloaks and Imperials. You could have the option to make a temporary alliance with one of the AI to focus mainly on the opposing force. Allying yourself with a specific war faction will decrease your army's reputation in holds that were controlled by the opposite war faction. The best course of action would be to ally yourself with a faction in order to obtain more land until you decide to turn against the allied faction. Again, strategy is crucial. Alliances will break if you obtain too much land, as the AI will consider you as a threat. You would be able to prolong Alliances by getting in good with specific wealthy families of that war faction. Enemy AI would start off the same level as you, while the civil war is still occurring. You and your troop will be attacked on the roads and in other places as well. The enemy AI will begin to evolve once you have completed the mini-quest to gain your military and take your first position, which means you have declared war. The AI will start off as curious, not knowing your threat level or intentions, but will eventually grow to be an enemy. Unlike the player, the AI will be limited in it's pick of soldiers due to lore-friendliness, which means Imperials are more likely to use battle-mages than stormcloaks, and only if forced will they delve into the evil side of the mod. Both factions have their specific buffs (Stormcloaks are better with warriors, Imperials are better with city/economic/logistical management) and would both be formidable opponents, leveling up as you do. Some battles will be lost, others will be won. In addition to this, the Imperials and Stormcloaks might just band together to face you (if you have an extremely high infamy and strong army). In reality, having Skyrim divided and the war still raging gives you more options, as you would not start off hopelessly outnumbered. I'm not sure if an AI to this extent is even possible within Skyrim's engine. If you're the type of person that delves into AI and loves that stuff, please, tell me if this part is possible as it's an essential part of the mod.

 

*Economy: War increases prices as roads are more dangerous, causing trade to stop and prices to skyrocket. You can increase the local economy in your hold by having hold guards patrol the roads, though this will take time. If you control a hold and your economy is doing horrible, your people will begin to grow miserable. If your people become too miserable they riot and revolt. Increasing the amount of liquor and ales in economic circulation will cause people to be happy. You would be able to tell what happens in your hold economically-wise due to obvious signs (riots, crime, etc), as well as asking your local commanders for status checks, along with monthly status-reports delivered by courier.

 

*Neutral Cities: This means that entering an important city will leave the guards neutral. However, if you kill any civilians in the city (Detected) you will gain a 10,000 gold fine as the local government believes you're attempting to raid it. This is done in Skyrim because of the Nord code of Honor, in which if you enter a city in good-will, you will not be slaughtered in return while there. The cities, you could say, are more like embassies. When you take a city during official battle, your previous bounties are cleared and your fame (or infamy) increases.

 

*Key positions, like mines and farms, would be essential to target. Mines produce materials which produce tons of gold. Farms produce food which keeps the local people of a hold happy. If the people run out of food, you run out of reputation. This leads to specific types of game-play. You could send soldiers to burn enemy farms and capture mines, which would lower their recruitment sources. Meanwhile, enemies will attempt to do the same to you. Holds could also be key positions. Taking Markarth, for example, would greatly increase your military wealth due to the silver mine, and yet at the same time your military camps would have to worry about Forsworn raids. If you completed "The Forsworn Conspiracy" and sided with the Forsworn leader, your armies will be attacked more frequently. While Riften will increase your logistical and economic input in the Rift (through the lakes/rivers) you would have said logistics shipments raided more by thieves. You can talk to leaders of these certain factions to cease attacking your envoys and even attack the opposing force if your speechcraft is high enough. In addition, you can send enslaved P.O.Ws to work on farms or mines, both of which would be under military supervision. This will drastically increase production and economy while drastically increasing reputation through your own holds and decreasing reputation through enemy holds. This is a small chance that slaves would rebel, causing in the slowing of production during this time.

 

*Trading: Your military can also trade goods throughout your holds that it obtained via the items obtained in raids. Over time, the storage of your forts will decrease and your gold will increase depending on if your fort has any traders stationed there. This will also increase the local economy and lead to your hold being more beneficial and increasing your reputation (slightly)

 

*Taking Holds: Taking holds would require more than five tactical positions taken in said hold, which would give you the option to take it's city. Once a city is taken, reconstruction would cost a lot of gold and increase hold defense. While you can take a city through combat only, you can also slowly buy more and more influence through corrupt stewards/advisers and wealthy families, until you can outright get the Jarl to give you the city, though this is harder; but reaps more goodies and stats for the guards there.

You can also restore previously destroyed areas (Western Watchtower in Whiterun, for example) to their former glory. Once a hold is taken, you can replace the Jarl with a puppet governor (same dialogue as previous Jarl) which will support your inevitable claim to the Throne, but will decrease your reputation. The old leader would be found wandering around the keep. Wealthy families would also help provide a financial backbone for your holds and would approach you with "business propositions" which could greatly benefit your armies, but at the same time decrease your reputation. Uprisings may also happen during and after the war, which only happens if the people are not satisfied and your infamy/reputation level is low. Infamy/reputation is somewhat required to keep your people in line. You could also change the laws within a hold to suit your military (allow daedra worship, ban aedra worship, vice-versa, as well as other laws. Also raising taxes and etc. However, beware when delving in restricting religion, because Nords don't take kindly to it, just ask the imperial legion.)

You can also use holds to interrogate prisoners of war, as well as determine punishments for crimes, like enslaving petty thieves. Being an all-out dark lord with an iron fist will greatly increase your infamy and influence, as well as your gold production, it will also drastically decrease your reputation and alignment with other factions, as it can also make you seem too evil for wealthy families to do business with.

Increasing your infamy too much in a hold will send assassins and making the people too miserable will, again, start riots and uprisings. These uprisings will stop most trade/logistics in your hold, as well as halt it's economy and add to foreign enemy influence, which means it could be taken back by your enemy at any time. Uprisings also increases crime within the hold and can lead to the collapse of your local government. The new government after this collapse will be strictly opposed to you and can only be taken back with brute force instead of cunning and influence. The uprisings would start through cities and settlements, and work it's way throughout the rest of the hold. Your commanders would automatically address this threat, but if not properly trained it can get out of hand. If a hold is completely lost to these groups, other holds under your command would be more likely to revolt as well, using the recent successful revolt as inspiration.

When a hold is taken, one of your well-trained commanders could be sent to represent you. This commander would be able to give you status updates at any time when spoken to, and would send notes describing the political and economic situation of the hold. Hold management would be easy if your economy is stable and the hold is well defended, but is harder if you rule more like a dictator.

 

*Forts and renovations; vanilla forts would be subject to capture by your army, as you can send in a team to clear it or do it yourself. Taking a fort would give you the option to increase it's functionality and defenses in exchange for a large sum of gold. Renovating the fort makes it into a functional military outpost. These forts are used for storage, logistical purposes, controlling and regulating travel, as well as increasing your influence in said hold. Once renovated, wooden spike walls would be replaced with stone walls, etc. Rubble would be cleaned up, and corpses removed (optional). Forts would be governed by a Captain which would function much like a steward with home decorations ("I would like to restore the western wall (3500 gold)"). To capture a fort, you would have to clear it and then walk outside to it's flag (either stormcloak, imperial, or plain green) and change it to wave your banner. The soldiers and captain would arrive shortly after. Enemies will also clear and take forts.

 

*Raids, your military would be able to raid other camps, settlements, and cities (and enemies can do so vice-versa), but armies are also vulnerable from bandit and forsworn raids, as well as thieves and so on. Depending on if you cleared out local bandit camps and joined specific guilds, these raids could be rendered rare or non-existent. For example, becoming a Thieves Guild Nightingale would mean that your logistical operations are not targeted by thieves, but rather those thieves would attack your enemies. Same with other guilds. Raiding towns, farms, and cities outside of official battle decreases reputation and increases infamy. Raids aren't considered official battles, where each side is evenly matched and deadlocked. Raiding is getting your buddies to follow you to pillage a farm. To conduct a raid, you would simply walk up to a commander and tell them that you're taking some men to go raid an area. You would then get some soldiers to follow you with a new dialogue "We're going on a raid" for them to become your raiding partners. The following area you attack would have the soldiers attacking nearby people once you attack the nearest non-aggro-ed mortal, with the raid ending once you have cleared the area.

Essential NPCs wouldn't die during the raid, but would rather fall to the ground and be counted among the dead, while no longer being in combat towards you or your soldiers. Once the raid is over, combat would cease and your troops would search the area, looting corpses, and gathering loot and supplies before addressing to you that they are returning back to base. Once you're gone, the entire area you raided will reset NPC and loot-wise, and will no longer be available for raiding by your faction. All dead will return to their positions. Commanding raids would be similar but you wouldn't actually take place in the battle, you would simply order it. Depending on what you raid, the defenses may be formidable and could even cause your soldiers to go back in defeat. Commanders can also be ordered to command occasional raids if you prefer for them to go on Autopilot. Again, I don't know if this part is possible, but I'm fairly certain it is.

 

*Logistics would take the form of caravans, which would move one place to the next. These caravans would carry armor, weapons, troops, or alchemy potions. Some caravans would deliver strictly gold and other supplies. When these supplies reach your forts and camps, the defenses and offenses of your troops will drastically improve for a limited time. These caravans would also be targeted by thieves and bandits. You would have to hire security for these caravans. Recruiting soldiers also depends on these logistics; as your army's size depends on the amount of armor and weaponry it's soldiers have. You would have the option to have your army strip the armor and weapons from the dead, but it's stats are weaker than if you simply gained more armor and weaponry instead. Logistics are the backbone of armies in real life, and no matter your play-style would would need to take into account logistics. The difference between a bandit team and a legion is how effectively they can move it's resources.

 

*Influence would be essential for your military to function in/out of a hold that is slowly being claimed by your armies. Influence allies the local guards with your soldiers, and allows you more leverage with what you can do in a hold. Crimes are forgotten, and your military can get away with certain things that would aggro the hold against you. For example, you can raid small settlements and if you have enough influence the local government wouldn't care. The local government can also be bought to slowly push back enemies. This would be subtle (Increased taxes on enemies stationed in the hold). You could potentionally win an entire city through gold alone, but enemies will still be camped and stationed in the hold. Taking a city will officially make it part of your territory, so once the city falls to you, it would be hostile to the enemy AI.

 

*War-zones and battles: There would be around 60-70 areas that can be fought upon, if not more. Battles would begin once the player or commander has ordered the battle to commence. The player has the option not to be there and allow the commander to go on auto-pilot during this time.

Before the battle officially starts, various tents, trenches, and blockades would be added to the map's terrain. After the battle is over, you can leave and come back to find it different and more desolate, with a small garrison occupying the area and the terrain rugged, with freshly-dug graves with bodies inside, weapons sticking out of the ground, etc... Most of the dead will be cleaned up, and if you have Necromantic battlemages (See; War Politics) all dead would be gone off of the battlefield. Flags of the victorious party would by hung. After an in-game week, all changes are removed and your soldiers patrol the area. War-Zones would vary between battles, with some being bigger than others. Taking cities adds catapults, siege devices, and proper defenses on both ends. The War-Zones themselves during battle would be configurable. A certain amount of soldiers would be spawned at once in various spawns to prevent camping, and can range to potentially 130 soldiers per battle.

The maximum amount of soldiers would be configurable through an MCM menu (Yes, peasants still use MCM). The aim of the battle would vary between eliminating key targets (siege engines for defense, guard towers or gates for offense) and killing all combatants. Depending on your influence and reputation, local hold guards will side with or against you when fighting against enemy AI.

The easier way to win a battle is to complete certain objectives while there (similar to King of the Hill) using intel from torture or espionage.

When the battle is won, you have the option (if you're there) to decide what is done with the surviving enemy soldiers. In which you would spare, enslave, torture, kill, brutalize, soul trap, or sacrifice the enemies. Each comes with buffs and drawbacks. Sparing your enemies adds to your reputation and the enemy soldiers will no longer fight in the war. Enslaving your enemies will increase your logistical and resource production. Killing simply kills them, soul trapping them requires your battle mages to know necromancy, and your enemies will be individually soul trapped by your mage which provides soul gems but also causes your reputation to plummet and infamy to rise... Sacrificing your enemy also requires the Battle Mage, but instead of soul trapping they kill the enemy with a dagger, which would cause some special affects to happen and in return would greatly boost your military's stats but makes your reputation decrease beyond all hope and infamy increase significantly, (as you are now an army of Daedra worshipers). The stats gained could depend on the Daedric ritual itself and the prince appeased.

Brutalizing them will simply leave their burnt or mangled carcasses around the holds you have captured, either hanging outside of cities/towns, pinned to walls, or on spikes burned alive. This will (again) decease your reputation but increase your levels of infamy. Torturing them would increase Intel as well as decrease your reputation.

The surviving enemies during battles would be in the bound position, all in a line for you to potentially watch their punishment. The number of survivors would vary on the scale of the battle. Any/all remaining enemies left over from the battle are placed in the line.

If your numbers fall below ten, your commander or army will automatically surrender and be subjugated to punishment from the enemy. If you're captured during this, you will be sent to the nearest enemy fort jail cell where you would need to escape and reobtain your items.

 

*Wounded: After each battle, a good portion of enemy and friendly troops will be wounded. While they can fight in other battles, their health is automatically locked at a lower state, which means after a few battles their odds of death goes up significantly. Healers (See; "War Politics") can negate these effects completely, they refuse to work with Necromancers (See; "War Politics"), as restoration somewhat involves Arkay (The god of Life and Death) and Necromancers claim their patron god as Mannimarco, King of Worms, of which both beings are subsequently at odds with each other. Now, I know that Arkay is mainly involved in embalming and stuff, I feel like it's an appropriate lore-friendly contrast between good and evil play-styles.

 

*Pay: Your soldiers will work for a pay. The higher they rank up, the greater their pay. You can buy soldiers at a starting rank or see them rank up naturally. If you cannot afford your soldiers they will either desert or remain in your camp as spies.

 

*(Potential) Diseases: Some of forts and camps may be overwhelmed by disease, which if they don't get sufficient potions through logistics, they may experience falling numbers. You could also use your spies to infect enemy camps with diseases. Diseases kill soldiers and decrease stats, moral, and increase desertion. Unlike the other mechanics, which would be near essential for this mod, you don't have to do this (or any of the mod), but rather it's just me throwing the idea around. It would make the game more lifelike, but would increase the work needed.

 

*(Potential) Food/Water: Some areas may need to be positioned near woods for hunting, or farms for agriculture. Perhaps to save time you could just render food sources into "provisions" which would greatly decrease time it takes for the soldiers to gather and make food, but would expire quickly. Your orcs might get stuck with maggoty bread. Same goes with water. Again, it would add realism but may be unrealistic as the goals of this mod are fairly unrealistic on their own.

 

 

 

 

War-Politics:

 

War comes with politics. Depending on choices you make, your army would be granted with perks and defects. You would probably be able to check your political stats through a spell or through the MCM menu (Yes, a lot of people still use such primitive things such as the MCM menu.) The politics are to suit certain play-styles, and comes with an undertone of morality involved. While it may seem simplistic at first glance, the political stance you take during the war will affect the outcome form of government and overall society you shape Skyrim to be in the end, and you could leave it even more divided than when you found it.

 

*Wealthy Families: You can befriend wealthy families by promising to increase their social status once you're in charge, or by proving your worth on the battlefield or your own personal strength. Nord, Orc, and Redguard families would look for personal strength (kills, level, etc) in order to follow you, as other races would look more for battle-skill. Doing this will greatly increase your gold input and your influence in the local government, but decrease your reputation. You also have the additional option to pay these families to increase your influence. Wealthy families wouldn't exist, instead they would be bridged between middle-men you could find in inns or in the Jarl palaces. These middle-men would provide communication between your army and the family (they are committing treason, after all, and need to remain anonymous.). Of course you could take it up a level and add the family estates and the NPCs themselves, but that's only if you want me to bake you cookies (not legally obligated to send you cookies). Families would constantly attempt to increase their power and would offer various deals that will greatly impact the war, for example, some families will require assassination or espionage in order to gain favor. Some families are wealthier than others and you really want to pick your friends. There is also the chance that families will betray you if given the opportunity, and are somewhat essential for certain holds, with the Silverbloods in Markarth and the Black-Briars in Riften. If you're already allied to one of these families in a way (Thieves Guild, etc) you would find interactions with them easier... If you refuse to acknowledge them or their business deals, they will fund insurgencies or your enemies, if not both. Forces like these in real life affect us to the point where not adding this system would be game-breaking in my opinion. That, and allying yourself "too" much with these families can add two different post-war political climates (See; Post War Politics).

 

*Commoners: You can promise more rights and freedoms to the common folk of Skyrim's holds. They will look for a high reputation and stable logistics, as well as your military strength. The commoners will greatly increase your unit count. Commoners would be found on the roads, working on farms, doing various tasks, or begging on the streets. Practicing in the dark arts will greatly decrease their trust in you. In order to mass-recruit, you need to give them a cause to fight for. While being a dark lord can still allow you to recruit some people, they would be few and far between.

 

*Necromancy: You might be able to train your battle-mages in necromancy, which would greatly increase your troop numbers, but at the same time cause your infamy to skyrocket. Necromancy would be for the dark lord who doesn't care about politics and wants everyone to die to join his/her army. This is one of the lighter evil decisions you can make in this mod. Necromancer battle-mages would have access to ranked necromancer spells as well as the Ritual Stone power. After the battle, you would be given the option for the necromancers to collect most of he dead. In which you have access to an immense supply of potential soldiers, as these dead will be awaiting the opponents on the battlefield in the next battle. This is part of a greater part of a moral spectrum you can play. Doing this and other evil choices will give your living troops a significant morale boost (as they're sharing meals with dead enemies and friends) and will increase deserters. But who cares about your "living" troops, right? The more necromancers level up, the higher percentage of dead they can bring between battlefields. Necromancers in patrols will have lines of dead/decaying soldiers of both sides following in their wake.

 

*Raids: Raiding enemy camps and towns will increase your local reputation, but raiding local towns will decrease local and enemy reputation. Sure, raiding towns will yield rewards; it also gives you the reputation of being a warmongering savage. Town Raids are for last-resorts and when you really need to get stuff done with gold. Raiding too much makes you seem unprofessional and can make dealing with wealthy families harder. While wealthy families would be essential to properly secure a hold, they are not needed and you could just leave a trail of bodies to show how "professional" you really are.

 

*Poor financial handling: While it's technically the gold for your military, you can take gold out of your military and use it yourself. That house you always wanted? The gold is there, why not buy it? While you would have to take gold out to pay wealthy families, you could also just empty all of your gold reserves and run off. This is for the player who doesn't like military life, but loves the gold it offers. Instead of uninstalling the mod, you could drain your vaults and run, only to have your faction defeated within maybe an in-game week. Sort of a fun potential feature.

 

*Dynamic city appearance: Taking over or losing a city drastically changes it's appearance. Banners would be flung, moral changes (more crime/less crime) and rubble removed (or kept). You can have the option to publicly showcase corpses and skulls around cities almost as art, which while greatly decreasing your reputation could also make the inhabitants less-likely to revolt. But doing so would also decrease support from wealthy families, who want clean cities. The appearance of a city would matter.

 

*Evil decisions: You could be blatantly evil, having your military enforce Daedra worship, or turning most of your military into undead/supernatural creatures. (See: Evil Warfare), doing these would drastically decrease any/all support or reputation for your military. Sacrificing your townspeople alive may be overdoing it. Wealthy families will also avoid doing direct business with you, only doing discreet deals (like assassination or bribery). You could recruit vampires and werewolves to fight for you, as well as necromancers/warlocks. Of course, you would need infamy to be higher than reputation in order to really milk this feature. Meanwhile, you can recruit a single vampire/werewolf and tell them to turn their fellow soldiers. While werewolves would be harder to create, vampires would be able to change whole camps at a time. However, doing so would require them to feed on blood, either on your mortal camps or cities. Doing so would greatly increase the amount of vampires and werewolves encountered in the wild. Vampires would gain stronger buffs and stats if you're a vampire lord yourself. If you change into a VL during battle and your force is a majority vampire, your troop moral would be increased greatly, same goes with WW. You can also have the option to turn the heads of wealthy families into vampires (Strong chance of failing, depends on skills of the vampire) or even a thrall (Again, strong chance of getting past security). Once that happens, they would give you unwavering support. If failed, though, the family would be hostile to you and increase funding for revolts and your enemy's funds, while decreasing influence and reputation greatly. This option is a gamble. To obtain vampires, you would need to have completed the Dawnguard Castle Volkihar questline. Evil allies also have the potential to turn against you if you begin to dabble to much into good. There will be evil Wealthy Families that benefit from the fear, disorder, and chaos of others. These families are often times the richest.

 

*Assassination: Somewhat on the darker spectrum, you can assassinate the heads of some wealthy families of an enemy hold, or in one of your own holds in order to gain favor of an even wealthier family. You could also assassinate commanders as well. Of course, there is a chance that assassinations may fail, and the assassins in question depend on their training. In addition, if in the good-graces of the Dark Brotherhood, you could employ them for a large sum to successfully assassinate targets. This system is good for discreetly gaining favor without any of the defects and will most likely be used quite a bit during your quest of domination. Meanwhile, enemy AI will do the same towards your families and your commanders. Of course, the families will rise again over time, but it temporarily impacts the said military's income. You will also have assassination attempts on your own life, which we become more frequent with each hold you obtain. While you can assassinate people yourself, it's easier to have it done while you're doing something else.

 

*Righteous decisions: You could be an honorable paladin lord who vows to vanquish all evil from Skyrim. This is one of the easier play-styles as you get large sources of gold and troops, in exchange for power and influence. You can negotiate with wealthy families for fairer deals or no deals at all. You can also seek assistance from the Dawnguard, Vigilants of Stendarr, and the Companions for troops and support. The Companions, despite being werewolves, are one of the good factions in the game and are not evil. Where as the Neutral and Evil paths of warfare grant you power in the form of might and brutality, you operate through negotiation and fair chance at the battle. You can spare most of your enemies and depending on the choices you make you are left with great or really poor outcomes for the war. The Dawnguard can offer you better archers and war-trolls and war-dogs, while the Vigilants of Stendarr can offer you greater wizards. The Companions can offer you the occasional werewolf. Your troop morale is also greatly increased.

 

*Healers: Instead of necromancers, this allows all wounded on the battle to be healed for later use. While necromancers can do this to an extent, the healers allow all damaged friends to be fully healed, where as necromancers and battle-mages can only partially heal fallen combatants. Healers can also revive a small portion of your troops who were killed during combat. Having healers greatly increases your reputation and means that more people would want to join your army. You can train battle-mages and hire healers over time. Healers refuse to work with Necromancers, which in turn means that you cannot have both at the same time (Which would be overpowered). You have the option of resurrecting a portion of enemies to use in the next battle, while resurrecting some of dead during battle, or having the option of healing all injured troops after and during battle. Similar effects, but with their own strengths/drawbacks...

 

*The Economy: The Economy of Skyrim depends on roads. If you control these roads, you control the entire economy, which means road-side forts are a must-have for breaking enemy logistics and disrupting the local economy, causing their prices to rise and their quality of their weapons and armor to temporarily go down. At the same time, your troops can tax wanderers on the roads passing through. Obtaining these road-side forts will be extremely difficult, as if they are controlled by either faction they would be overstocked with well-geared soldiers and defenses. However, the benefit pays off. Political action in holds also increases/decreases the economy of a faction. For example, being in charge of Markarth you can cut off trade to rival holds, increasing the supplies your own holds carry, while the enemy would have less gold and materials.

 

*Hold Politics: After you successfully capture a hold, you would be able to change the entire political climate of that hold to great benefit you and your military, the local people, or the wealthy families. Managing these three parties would be hard, as if you only focus on your own military and the families that fund it, you would be labeled as a corrupt military dictator with revolt looming around the corner. Meanwhile, if you focus too much on the people and your own military, the wealthy families will feel cheated and will fund your competitor. There are also some side-factions that would benefit you to support (Thieves Guild to decrease the power of rival wealthy families, as well as to keep lookout on the streets) (Dark Brotherhood to spy on and assassinate specific common civilians who are secretly participating or leading insurgent groups) (Companions to make the hold safer or deadlier).

 

The Wealthy Families will request that you chance various laws for them, as well as remove tariffs and taxes on their businesses and investments. In exchange, they will temporarily remain loyal to you while you get things done. Some families would be eviler or more righteous than others, with some demanding justice for slain travelers by local bandits, and others demanding you assassinate their competition. Some will feign loyalty to you simply to betray you later and so forth. Most Wealthy Families will operate sort of like a mafia, employing the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood to maintain their interests. These families will call on independent assassination attempts on your life if you do not comply and prove to be compatible with aforementioned interests.

 

Common Folk will only request that you represent them and voice their concerns, while showing strength and a righteous cause. While you can ignore them and punish insurgencies as they rise, they will only form more and more complex resistance groups that will affect the economy and logistics of your military. Playing the Galactic Empire will result in the formation of the Rebel Alliance. The rebels will grow more advanced and if left unchecked can merge to form new enemy AI. Yes, that's right. The war doesn't end if you chose to be evil and ignore the common folk. While they don't add that many bonuses to your faction if you keep them entertained, you will maintain peace in your little empire.

 

Changing laws will work like in Fable 3 (sorry), in which each law affects the everyday life of the peoples in a hold. For example, you can tell your puppet governor to raise the taxes, in which they would ask "To which party?" in which you can chose Commoners, Wealthy, or both, and then select the percentage taxes are raised by. Doing this will affect your disposition with the two groups. You can also do things that increase/decrease the quality of life for the people or the wealthy. For example, the Puppet Governor will tell you "Pollution from the local brewery has gotten out of hand. The people want something done about it, what must I do?" and you can tell the wealthy party that owns the brewery (but funds the local guard and provides drink to the people, which stops revolt) or you can help the wealthy and tell the people that nothing will be done (go against the people). Both affect the city and it's appearance. There are three effects on the city: Evil, Good, and Corrupt. Corrupt will result in things being dingy and infested, with the occasional skeever found on the street, with rampant crime and dirty water. Evil means that skulls and flayed bodies adorn some parts of the city with some of the elements of Corrupt, and Good means that the city is as vanilla-like as possible, but cleaner streets with greener grass.

The hold-politics would be filled with choices, which would be accessed by talking to the Puppet Governor. You could also put him on "Autopilot" which allows him/her to make their own decisions, in which if they are despised the local government is overthrown or the Puppet Governor is assassinated. You would also be able to add options such as "Do good by the people", "Appease our benefactors", or "Help Everyone" which would disable this part of the mod.

 

*Crime: As for the crime/imprisonment system, you would need to talk with the local captain of the guard. This would allow dialogue such as hanging bodies outside of the cities to warn against crime, or the enslavement/sacrifice/brutalization/torture of the criminals involved. The Captain of the Guard would also be able to change guard outfits and outlaw/legalize plenty of certain acts (Drinking, partying, necromancy, reading, magic, weapons, skooma, etc) . You would also be able to send guards in after local bandit groups to flush them out and either capture or kill them.

 

*Religion: As for the religion system, you would need to talk with the local priest and fire them, and then hire a new priest from the Jarl's Steward with an Aedric or Daedric following. And yes, you would be able to ban Talos worship (I never liked that guy anyway). Aedric worship increases moral and reputation, while Daedric worship increases infamy and the strength of your military and government. Daedric worship would require frequent sacrifices (preferably of prisoners). The shrines would be replaced with shrines of the Daedric princes (miniature form of their giant statues). Daedric worship would be essential for an evil/corrupt ruler to maintain power, but would also come with some defects and curses (other shrines and amulets don't offer buffs in a Daedric hold. On the upside, you can recruit Daedric soldiers with enough sacrifices made). Types of rituals and sacrifices would be specific for each Daedric prince, and even though it might as well be a mod by itself, various princes would offer various effects throughout your hold. For example, Molag Bal would grant you thirty high-ranked Daedric soldiers for sixty sacrifices, Sanguine could turn most of your population to alcoholism which would decrease chances of revolt. The Daedric princes available depend on whose champion you are, as only those quests would unlock the Daedric princes to give you any sort of beneficial effects. However, delving too much into religion can cause another potential ending for the war.

 

*Culture: Culture is determined by the leading factions in the mod, and drastically changes the majority population as well as weapons/armor, with some buildings and textures taking on a different look. Dunmeri culture will add the iconic mushrooms into the landscape as well as more huts based off the bonemold-walls of Morrowind. The same would go with orcs, khajiit, aragonians, etc. You can change and even eradicate cultures as High King by banning books and establishing a racial supremacy which drastically changes Skyrim's appearance.

 

*Country-side Effects: Depending on certain economic effects, most people will be found wandering roads between areas. Based on affiliation with factions and infamy, theft and banditry may be common. The more infamous a player is, the more corpses can be found adorning various positions in the countryside. For example, various spikes with burnt corpses impaled on them may adorn some parts of the Reach when you decide to turn your local guards against the forsworn camps and decide that they all must die. Also the affects of various aftermaths of the war.

 

*Becoming the High King: Once you have defeated the opposing faction, gained enough influence within the holds, and your military is supreme (as well as you kill Ulfric and Tullius) you can get all of your newly found puppet governors to form a moot to place you in the position of High King. You would start the Jagged Crown quest because it will help you mark your legitimacy to the common folk (your factions version) in which you just go in with a small group and go back out, killing bandits. Once you have the Jagged Crown (or picked it up from the body of Tullius or Ulfric) your claim would be recognized as legitimate, and all of your governors will vote you as the new High King of Skyrim. In which you'll get a range of new abilities, potential endings, and the ability to give up your throne to your commander, general, war-hero, or dissolve your faction outright. (See; Being High King).

 

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Post-War politics/Life as High King.

As High King you can:

 

â*Have access to a newly constructed playerhome near Solitude. Said player-home can be chosen by the player to be an evil mage tower, a grand palace, or a military citadel. and would be massive and fully stockeded/stocked with goods at the end. Customizing the rooms of said player home would be similar to Vanilla decorating system (I would like to furnish the East Wing's High Council Meeting Room (4000 gold)) Some rooms big, some rooms small. It will start off with basic rudimentary essentials (A large old wooden table for the high council meeting room, haystacks for beds, etc) yet would end up magnificent-looking (Large circular table in High Council meeting room, grand bedrooms, magic lighting, etc). There will also be problems (easy breaches for assassins). The place will contain everything from meeting rooms to museums to treasuries to rooms to libraries (for you to fill), alchemy labs, enchanting rooms, bedrooms, baths, etc and ect.

 

*Determine punishment for simple crimes.

*Ban/allow activities throughout the province of Skyrim (Reading, magic, weapons, skooma, etc).

*Call an emergency council of Jarls/Puppet Governors.

*Attack cities for the sake of it.

*Be addressed as High King.

 

*Promote Commanders into Generals, and Generals into kings if you wish to step down.

*Send anyone off to execution.

*Order the imprisonment, enslavement, torture, brutalization, or Soul Trap on anyone.

*Set chief deities in Skyrim, being able to chose from Daedra or Aedra.

*Send out notices for specific reformsto be sent out to Jarls.

*Destroy your own faction.

 

*Kill anyone and get away with it (decreases happiness and reputation, though)

*As a vampire, decide to turn all Jarls/puppet governors or most Wealthy Families into Vampires/Thralls to serve your bidding.

*Sedate the water with Skooma, decreasing chances of Revolt.

*Sedate the food with Skooma, decreasing chances of Revolt.

*Infect any city/town with disease because why not.

 

*Name any hold in Skyrim as the new capital.

*Rename any hold in Skyrim (won't be addressed by NPCs as named hold)

*Change the culture and establish supremacy decisions, greatly increasing certain race populations and their morale/stats, while visibly changing the world to be more like said culture.

*Ban specific teachings/books (Events of any of the other Elder Scrolls Games, Philosphy, Politics, Fiction, Non Fiction, Magic, Etc*

*Ban specific weapons/armors.

*Raise taxes province-wide.

 

*Deal with key issues that are brought up with time and based on other decisions you made. For example, infecting towns with diseases because they support local resistance movements can cause the disease to spread and enter your hold capital.

*Allow full practice of Vampirism, Necromancy, Lycanthropy, Daedric Worship, etc.

*Declare a War-Hero, who can take your place as king. War Heroes must survive multiple battles and have a large number of kills.

*Optional war with the Thalmor (with new harder enemy AI)

*Ban imports with certain nations which negatively effects races of said nation (banning Moon Sugar from Elswyer negatively impacts Khajiit, and also stops skooma manufacturing in Skyrim.)

 

*Arrest and behead wealthy families leaders, appointing new leaders to said clan.

*Open new shipping lanes to increase economy greatly, but leaves Skyrim vulnerable to drug/slavery operations.

*Send out expedition parties to gather important quest items for you with a chance of failing. For example, send out a party to scout out Bleak Falls Barrow to return with the dungeon empty and the Golden Claw and Dragonstone with the quest complete. Will cost money.

*Have the option to make any place in Skyrim into a "royal estate" and add royal guards.

 

*Elect heads of Wealthy Families to the high council.

*When retired, the highest-leveled/skilled NPC on the High Council will assume mantle of High King if military still exists. The player can call back the military at any point they wish for a Coup to overthrow the regent and regain control.

*Auto-AI, in which two AI will fight each other when the player isn't around leading battle or military.

 

*You will be able to make speeches to your people (Similar to battle speeches, will increase reputation and morale)

*You can be invited to parties by wealthy families (This can be a trap)

*You can befriend local business owners or destroy their company and replace them.

 

*You will be requested at time to visit military strongholds and key positions for an update or in needing of your direct assistance.

*You will be encouraged to give speeches.

*You can visit other holds to secure your influence in that hold if it's wavering. Simply being there will increase influence, even if only for a short while.

 

...

 

 

The Royal Family:

*High King/Queen (see stated above). When not the player and dies, will be replaced via moot based on skill and level.

*Husband/Wife: Guarded by the Royal Guard, produces moral and reputation.

*Prince: Can be trained in various skills. Once the king retires and many in-game days have passed, the Prince will grow up to be a generic nord male/female adult and will take the mantle of high king or queen. Can die from assassination attempts or in battle.

 

 

The High Council:

*Jarls of Skyrim: Elected by you after defeating their holds and are puppet governors. Will support you unless you refuse to pay them and can serve one of the wealthy families if you don't give them a sufficient cut.

*The Wealthiest Families: Great influential nobles who secretly vie for power to increase their organizations. Organizations you need in order to operate your empire.

*Advisers: Trains the king and can voice what should be done for a specific outcome. For example, "How would a right/strong/dark king react to this?" and they will give what would be done. Advisers can also whisper lies to you to do something horrible and could be on the payroll of a wealthy family.

*Representatives: Officials elected by locals to voice their concerns and opinions. Will give the player plenty of short quests that will affect the your empire. In these quests, you can A: Help the commoners, B: Help the Rich, or C, Help Yourself. (Or D, help other parties/factions.). You will need to think politically, as some decisions you make may be outside your circle of influence.

*The Treasurer: Keeps and maintains all gold necessary for maintaining your faction. When gold runs out, your government loses influence and reputation. You can destroy your entire faction buy ordering the treasurer to spend the gold on useless things. When gold runs out, you have three options: A, increase productivity in mines to increase gold, B, increase taxes

 

 

The Servants:

*The Royal Guard Captain: Can be spoken to to outfit and arm the entire guard, as well as order them to patrol more/less frequently or to increase security. Increasing security will decrease assassination attempts or other threats to your well-being, as well as the ability to intercept spies. Needs Guard Barraks.

*The Royal Guard: Has the option to hold certain positions, follow you, and attempt to disperse riots. Slightly stronger than most of your soldiers. You can fire them and hire them. Some, however, may be bought by wealthy families. To obtain them, you need to have the Royal Guard Barracks.

*The Cooks: The Cooks will make you your food, which will be needed if you're using a survival mod. Cooks can sometimes be bought by the Wealthy Families and attempt to poison you with strong poisons that will nearly kill you if you're not over 700 health. To obtain, you need to purchase the kitchens.

*The Smiths: The Royal Blacksmiths will craft your weapons and armor. To obtain them, you would need to purchase the smithing area.

*The Court Wizard: Will deal in alchemy and magical supplies in which will sell to you cheaper than other magic vendors. If magic/alchemy is banned, the wizard will not appear. To obtain them, you would need to purchase The Arcane Lab.

*The Court Priest, which would reinforce either daedric or aedric worship and add perks/drawbacks to the castle. To obtain them, you would need to purchase the chapel.

*The Librarian, which will periodically have the option to stock your library with books of varying Genres from across Skyrim (both Level-Up, fiction, non fiction, suspense, action, history, etc.). Will only be obtained if the library is purchased.

*The Taste-Tester: Hired to eat food by the chef, this highly-celebrated chef is renowned for his knowledge of poisons. They will identify if your meal is poisoned or not. Will not be bought.

*The Body-Double: Hired to stump assassins at events and parties, you will not be there but if you would have been attacked, your body guard would have taken the blow.

*The Court Spy: Will stick around chosen Jarls or Family leaders to discover who is against you. Once you find this out, you can accuse them of the crime and send them to trial, in which you can chose the appropriate punishment.

 

 

The Drawbacks to being High King:

 

Political positioning: Having to either constantly deal with appeasing the people and facing spies, or helping the rich and facing public backlash. Doing this enough will result in revolts or assassination attempts (or both if you're lucky). You can't benefit every person at the table or every party at once.

Assassins: Unlike the ones in the war, these ones will use invisibility and will attempt to sneak attack you, as well as do various tricky things (like poison food, place strong runes, etc). These assassins would be of similar level with the player and royal guard would be essential .

 

Social expectations: You are constantly expected to arrive to parties, give speeches, visit strongholds and holds, etc and etc. Most of these events will decrease your reputation and influence in not attended, but you could also be attacked while there by sneaky assassins.

 

Spies: While you can have a wide assortment of spies on various Jarls and familes, you can also have the same done unto you. Spies on you will collect plans which will be given to assassins. For example, say you have an upcoming (you don't know yet) party invitation. It will seem cool but an opposing force has probably already caught window these plans and have dispatched assassins. While somewhat varied in chances of assassination attempts, they would happen frequently enough to keep you on your toes in your early days as High King. After enough political influence and maneuvering, with some Machiavellian politics thrown in there, you could stop the assassination attempts permanently, which leaves you to better your peoples lives.

 

Legitimate Jarls: When one of your puppet governors is assassinated (which again is rare) you will find yourself in a bad position as in the old legitimate Jarl is now elected. You now have the choice of blackmailing them, persuading them, or bribing them. Failing all of these will result in a serious loss in influence in a specific hold, as it's culture and laws slowly begin to return to normal. You can, of course, invade them again or you can send assassins of your own.

 

Machiavellian Politics: Spies and Assassinations are rare for the normal political war endings, but occurs more frequently and unchecked in "The Rise of the Great Houses" ending, which really turns up the amplifications on these things. If you chose that ending, you are either going for a challenge or you made a grave mistake and you need to kill everyone. Before they kill you. Politics under this ending turns into life or death, and civil life turns into a jungle of plutocracy.

 

Alliances against you: Specific groups either resistance or splinter groups of the Stormcloaks or Imperials could merge into slightly bigger groups over time. These AIs will be weakened on the battlefield so they would pick up the pace in the political arena. They would seek wealthy families (small at first) and evolve over time. While you're governing Skyrim and trying to survive Assassination attempts and thwarting spies, you have bigger problems brewing on the horizon. As they would slowly begin to take holds. This group will operate underground, however, using a different type of guerrilla-style AI. The end result if it wins the game is that it creates an evil oppressive government that fails due to economic reasons over time and is replaced with Vanilla Skyrim the way you left it before taking your first hold.

 

Courts: Sometimes operating within your own laws can be hard. For example, I could ban all magic in Skyrim, but if my follower uses a spell because it's the only thing they know, it can be challenging. You would have the option to pardon them, though it will lower your reputation depending on how severe the punishment for the crime originally was. Additionally, you can pardon yourself, but this requires a great deal of influence in order to use.

 

Antagonist Foreign Governments: The Thalmor and the Empire would really hate it if you decided to take over Skyrim independently and remove it from the grasps of both parties. Raids can occur on borders and over time small legions of imperials, groups of Thalmor, or Morrowind ashraiders can land in the realm, creating new Enemy AI that result in new cultures. If the Imperials win, it would be counted as an Imperial victory in the Civil War. If the Thalmor win, they eradicate most human culture from Skyrim. If the Ashraiders win, they enforce Dark Elven supremacy.

 

 

 

 

The Court System: You will have the ability to legalize/illegalize most activities in Skyrim, which means if NPCs are caught doing it, they will be respectively punished with the severity you added. They will receive either fair trial or a witch trial, which translate to law or no law. You can set the bounty for it and if it's punishable by death... You can step in to pardon NPCs in exchange for reputation, or you can send in the Thieves Guild to jailbreak them before they're executed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of these come from heavy inspiration of High King of Skyrim, though others are original ideas.

 

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Endings for Poltics and War.

 

The Rise of the Great Houses: Skyrim's wealthy families gain significant political power thanks to positioning and newfound influence to which they appeal to (Bribe) the new High King to form a Great-House system, similar to that in Morrowind or potentially Game of Thrones, with a council of great houses in which all are vying to attempt to overpower each other to gain complete domination. The holds would remain the same, but would be labeled differently on your map and on road markers, as certain capitals for territories of houses, and new banners. These houses may be at war with each other at times, and depending on your status in one house may affect your status in another. This divides Skyrim in plutocratic city-states all vying for the Throne, in which some will be successful and obtain it. If you don't give up the throne, you will have houses attempting to sabotage each other in the High Council and you could also be plotted against, forcing you to take draconian methods and force your hand (Read the In-Game book; "A game at dinner"). Causing political paranoia.

 

The Great Dividing: Due to many houses in many holds having different cultures thanks to your meddling, they now have opposing views on many issues and topics with the local governments still enforcing your old orders. Even though you stepped down as you decided king wasn't for you, Aedra and Daedra worship, laws and regulations, are all clashing to form independent city-states perpetually at war with each other. This makes Skyrim weaker than it has ever been, with crime and banditry skyrocketing and the entire system being on the verge of collapse, with economic doom slowly poisoning the once-great society of nords. Depending on if the potential modders want to take the extra leap, they can add War-AI independent to give each hold the ability to capture territory and each other. Somewhat like the hundreds of kingdoms of old High Rock.

This ending would require that you go out of your way to make the holds as different as each other as possible, making good decisions in one hold and making evil decisions in another, as well as drastically change the laws and culture. After these changes are implemented, you give up the title of High King and completely dissolve your government yet still have your laws enforced. Like in real life, this would cause devastation.

 

The Reunification of Skyrim: Simply become High King and restore order and balance to Skyrim. For purely neutral players, and fans of plain vanilla ice cream, and whose favorite animal is a goldfish... No good or evil choices made, and purely out of military strategy. No raids, no business deals, simply hack and slash action.

 

The Savior of Skyrim: Defeat the factions, resist the evils, and side with the good guys. Be known as a just king and a righteous ruler, creating a wholesome and civilized society in Skyrim which is inclusive to all with goodness in their hearts. Yeah, most of us won't pick this one. We have been the savior of Skyrim too many times. Using the aforementioned ice cream reference, this one is like the same Mint-Chip ice cream that you've had every day with supper for the past two months. It was cool before, now it has lost it's appeal and you just want a tub of Rocky Road or Neapolitan or anything with flare. As a hero king you would have the power to spare the lives of your enemies, rally townsfolk into warriors at will, and enforce the laws of the land yourself or with small "justiciar" groups to route out evil and bring you back powerful artifacts.

 

The Dark Lord of Skyrim: At every turn you mocked the Aedra, sacrificing your enemies to either use their souls to enchant armor and weapons for your war machine, or to use them in profane rituals to increase the effectiveness of your military. You gathered the corpses of the fallen, friend and foe alike, and desecrated them to be more meat for your collection raised by your necromancers. Your war-hoard tore through Skyrim like a hot knight through butter. Jarls surrendered in fear, and darker families with a taste for blood enjoyed the spectacle you provided. In turn, you eventually conquered the land and finally sat at your rightful place in Solitude. Vampires, Werewolves, Liches, and Warlocks eventually became the brunt of your army, as you can't remember the last pure heart you had in your faction.

The Evil part of the mod would give you more powers and buffs, but stronger drawbacks and defects.

 

 

Daedric Invasion: Your faction has meddled in the Daedra too much, and has made Skyrim vulnerable to outside forces beyond Nirn. The Daedra have invaded, and it's up to you to repel them back. Or, you can lose and watch the Daedra butcher and carve the land. Master-level AI.

 

-------As with racial endings; I wish I could write them all down, but there are too many. I have a lot of ideas of what those could be. for example, as a dark elf you can recreate the Tribunal (Really three of your commanders in robes with expert-level illusion spells to make them seem like the tribunal) and you could give up power to this group, despite controlling it from the shadows and assassinating everyone who doesn't agree. That, or the Orc rising by devoting Skyrim to the worship of Malacth and the old ways. This would all need to be expanded, however. ----------

 

 

Final Notes:

Sorry if there were typos, I started to fall asleep mid-writing this. Again, as said before, this is just me floating the idea of a mod like this. I haven't seen that many, though, and never that actually dynamically changed the world around you with multiple paths and endings. It's flawed, but the mod I have described in this Mod Request isn't the actual mod, but rather a template that a potential modder can build upon. Skyrim modding can never run out of fun yet challenging and creative mods to take over the world. Hell, maybe add an Undeath patch where your necromancy/lich form affects the war. Maybe tons of more endings that aren't so milktoast and generic. Maybe once all of Beyond Skyrim is released by our lords and saviors we could all create a mod like this to take over all of tamriel (Now I know that is technically impossible. That was a joke)

 

So yeah. This isn't me giving the exact mod description, though something along these lines would be great to see in the modding community. But seriously, if you know a person who knows a person who knows crazy mod skills... Almost like a superpower, show them this topic; they'll probably spit out their coffee in laughter as it really is probably impossible. A massive, fleshed out, with customization features and fully operational mod that allows you to kill, conquer, and pillage your way to the highest office in Skyrim? With multiple endings? I know I'm probably being gullible, but this mod is long overdue for Skyrim. I don't want to simply marry my way into becoming supreme chancellor and emperor, I want to fight entire armies, starting from nothing, to storming Solitude and Windhelm with a full army at my back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pauzhiflora]

You seem invested in this idea of yours. Sorry Skyrim didn't meet your expectations in regards to a domination type victory in game, but, by god, just by scrolling through an essay-length piece you've written, you're serious about this. While I don't have the means to help create a mod of this complexity and scale, I'd be interested to see where this goes and help out in any small way possible.

[agge92x]

dragonborn's war http://www.moddb.com/mods/dragonborns-war

is a WIP if i remember correctly, should be interesting.

[GeneralTroubles]

You seem invested in this idea of yours. Sorry Skyrim didn't meet your expectations in regards to a domination type victory in game, but, by god, just by scrolling through an essay-length piece you've written, you're serious about this. While I don't have the means to help create a mod of this complexity and scale, I'd be interested to see where this goes and help out in any small way possible.

Yeah, I have no way to actually make the mod myself as I suck at what would be required to make this and I don't have the time. Sorry for the length of the post, as I was trying to list as many potential additions a mod on this scale could improve.

 

The goal behind posting this was never to make the actual mod that I described in the topic itself; I don't even think Skyrim can even attempt to run something on that scale. I was simply providing a template for a potential mod-creator could use to possibly brainstorm a mod similar to it. Though it would be awesome to see this specific mod, even I can see that the expectations are unrealistic and would take years of development.

 

While it wouldn't have to be a complete Total War conversion for Skyrim, it would simply be a challenging lore-friendly way to position oneself to the throne, with various ways to get there and various changes that you could make to the world while it allowing full customization and adjusts to your play-style... It's probably impossible and is insane to suggest, but it's just me throwing the idea around.

 

While I can't provide the technical aspect of the mod, or the actual modding itself, I could provide help with the writing if anyone is interested in taking this on and wants to go all the way with it. While that seems like the lazy-aspect of mod-making, it's what I'm confined to with my horrible PC and experience in modding.

 

But really, I can't say I was serious about it as much as I'm trying to make someone think about it and potentially create it, that or contact someone who can. It's really just a though experiment.

[GeneralTroubles]

dragonborn's war http://www.moddb.com/mods/dragonborns-war

is a WIP if i remember correctly, should be interesting.

Looks like it has potential to be something pretty cool. I'll keep an eye on it, it seems pretty cool. Thanks.

[simtam]

.

[agge92x]

simtam i will keep an eye on you, your civil war mod is the best here at the moment in my opinion.

[GeneralTroubles]

Don't tell that anyone, but if it were not for these folks from Dragonborn's War mod announcing, I would add a third faction to the list of future potential improvements of the Open Civil War.

 

Changing the armies in civil war battles to something else is actually quite doable. And Open Civil War underlying wargame is easy to change into a multi-factional clash.

 

And if the player were to start with one fort or hold, not half the map, it would be sufficiently harder to not fall into some "pandering to the crowd" trap that I think you are aware of.

 

So the mechanics would be quite easy. All that's left is the story to fill. And if you want to help me with writing lore-friendly, drop me a PM.

 

Next month I'll be finalizing the design of a quest mod that changes Message To Whiterun flow and outcome, part of one quest is introducing a group of brigands that may spin off this third faction story.

Sorry that I couldn't read this quick enough.

 

Like I replied to in a previous post, I am willing to help with writing in any way I can. I'm pretty good on TES lore and *somewhat* knowledgeable of military tactics. I'm not Alexander the Great, but I can help create a somewhat plot with some endings.

 

What I can't do is any of the scripting, coding, filing, modeling etc. (AKA I can't do anything useful). Modding games as in creating mod is my bane, as in every time I've tried it it has nearly killed me.

 

If you're truly interested in the mod idea but lack a direction in terms of writing, story, or how to conduct it; I would be glad to help in any way I can to see that this mod can be created.

 

 

 

 

[DavisLink1]

 

Don't tell that anyone, but if it were not for these folks from Dragonborn's War mod announcing, I would add a third faction to the list of future potential improvements of the Open Civil War.

Â

Changing the armies in civil war battles to something else is actually quite doable. And Open Civil War underlying wargame is easy to change into a multi-factional clash.

Â

And if the player were to start with one fort or hold, not half the map, it would be sufficiently harder to not fall into some "pandering to the crowd" trap that I think you are aware of.

Â

So the mechanics would be quite easy. All that's left is the story to fill. And if you want to help me with writing lore-friendly, drop me a PM.

Â

Next month I'll be finalizing the design of a quest mod that changes Message To Whiterun flow and outcome, part of one quest is introducing a group of brigands that may spin off this third faction story.

Sorry that I couldn't read this quick enough.

Â

Like I replied to in a previous post, I am willing to help with writing in any way I can. I'm pretty good on TES lore and *somewhat* knowledgeable of military tactics. I'm not Alexander the Great, but I can help create a somewhat plot with some endings.

Â

What I can't do is any of the scripting, coding, filing, modeling etc. (AKA I can't do anything useful). Modding games as in creating mod is my bane, as in every time I've tried it it has nearly killed me.Â

Â

If you're truly interested in the mod idea but lack a direction in terms of writing, story, or how to conduct it; I would be glad to help in any way I can to see that this mod can be created.Â

Â

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Is there any update on this happening, or whether dragonbornes war has being worked on still?

[simtam]

UPDATE 2019-12-30

 

Seems the Dragonborn's War is not worked on, guest comments from last two months are awaiting approval, and the site has a message "The mod you are trying to view has ceased development and consequently been archived."

 

On the plus side, I'm going to tackle kicking asses both imperials and stormcloaks next year.

Edited December 31, 2019 by simtam