AG97

But why would the Thalmor do this? By invading Skyrim the Thalmor are throwing away one of their main advantages. It's much better for them to sit back and wait whilst the Empire weakens itself fighting the Stormcloaks in a prolonged war. Even if they invaded they would risk forcing the Stormcloaks and Imperials into an alliance. Even if they did attack it would make more sense to strike at Cyrodiil because at least one legion is busy fighting to the north in Skyrim,

There are certainly some great ideas on here. The High King mod is great, but I always felt that it lacked the conquest to become king and the politics and diplomacy weren't all that exiting afterwards. The main problem with making a lore friendly and immersive mod where the Dragonborn becomes High King is the access to the vanilla voice actors. For it to be really good you need to be able to interact with Ulfric, Tulius, Elisif and Jarls of the holds. Sure, you could use subtitles, but that kills any sense of immersion. I'm currently working on a mod with simtam that adds a third faction, although it might not be exactly what you're looking for. The story is still a WIP, so details are vague at the moment but the player basically joins a faction of outlaws made up of citizens caught up in the war, ex- Imperials, ex-Stormcloaks etc. The faction exists to safeguard civilians from both sides of the civil war and other threats that have been ignored due to the ongoing fighting, along with Thalmor agents involved in some kind of sneaky plot. Vankrill, your mod sounds very interesting so please keep us posted.

Fair enough. It definitely won't be for everyone's tastes.

I actually intend to make a Thalmor mod at some point, but not at this current time. I came up with this idea after seeing that a lot of people picked a side they deemed to be the lesser evil. For example, many people sympathize with the Stormcloak cause, but Ulfric has questionable motives. Similarly, the Imperials have a better chance of beating the Thalmor, but they tried to lop your head off at the beginning etc. I didn't really explain the current idea for the faction very well (it's still very vague anyway). Recruits will include both ex-Imperial and ex-Stormcloaks who have left their armies or been kicked out for whatever reason. There will also be recruits from the civilian population. The Brotherhood Without Banners are a good source of inspiration because they're also stuck in the middle of a civil war, and target soldiers from both sides and bandits who threaten the peasants or common folk. A Skyrim equivalent could target soldiers from both sides as previously mentioned, but also threats like the Falmer who have been ignored because of the war. That said, I would welcome ideas for a faction that does something completely different.

SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR QUEST-LINE I'm currently working on a mod with another person that aims to add a faction that you can join in the civil war as an alternative to the Stormcloaks and Imperials. I'm writing the story and doing some simple modding, whilst the other person is doing the majority of the actual modding. Before I go ahead and write the story, I want to see what the community would want from a third faction in the civil war. The current plan is for this faction to operate in a similar way to the Brotherhood Without Banners from Game of Thrones/ASoIaF with a more Nordic feel about them. Basically the third faction would target Stormcloaks and Imperials making life hell for civilians (and the Thalmor agents too of course!). However, this is all subject to change, depending on ideas. Feel free to contribute your ideas for the story, gameplay etc in this mod. If you would like to work on the mod itself, just comment or send me a message. A larger team can accomplish more after all.

As much as I like this idea, I don't see how it's possible without the voice actors for Ulfric or Elisif and the other Jarls who make up the Moot.

I'm afraid I can't help you as my modding skills are also poor and I'm working on another project at the moment. However this mod does some of what you want: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23390/? Basically the guards will treat you with more respect depending on your progress in-game.

Youtube is your best friend for guides and tutorials:

It might be worth messaging a mod author who's already made good armour in the past. They'd probably be busy with their own projects or other stuff, but there's no harm in asking.

You can open up the CK and change the stats for armour. For example, Aela uses the Ancient Nord armour I think. So make a new armour in the CK using that skin, but give it higher stats, make it craft-able and upgrade-able etc. Then make it at a forge and give the armour to the follower. There are plenty of videos on youtube that will show you how to do this. Or search the nexus and see if you can find a mod that changes the stats.

I did a very quick search and didn't find any horse racing which is surprising. Hopefully someone takes this on board, I reckon the cart racing would be a fun mod.

From just surfing the web and looking around forums, I get the impression that not everyone is a great fan of either the Stormcloaks or the Imperials when picking sides in the civil war questline. At the moment I have a basic idea of an alternate faction similar to the Brotherhood Without Banners from Game of Thrones and the Companions guild in Skyrim (somewhere in the middle). Basically you join this faction that has a mead hall (or something else) hidden somewhere. The faction targets Thalmor agents and corrupt Stormcloaks and Imperials who are sacking villages and generally making life miserable. As the quest progresses refugees seek out the Hall and a village grows around it or the faction expands etc. If I was an experienced modder I would already be working on something like this. However, I thought I'd put this idea out in case anyone is interested in taking this up. I would write the questline, dialogue and work on simple things like creating the characters, which I can do well enough and any modders willing to take this on would do the complicated stuff! Obviously I'd do my best to get voice actors and other people involved as well. I understand this is a very big ask, especially since there is a great community of modders working on a massive range of very impressive mods of their own. But I reckon I can come up with a good story line that someone could put in game and if anyone else does something similar to this that would be equally great. I'll post some info on characters etc if there is any interest in this. Only a rough sketch at the moment, but I can easily add to it.

Awesome idea! Might as well have horse racing as well. You could have an arena like the Roman Circus Maximus, but with a more Nordic theme. http://84d1f3.medialib.glogster.com/media/06/0683e27b214b611e25038f1d15764f62d8210a73a1beadfd43b982cf5f84379f/circus-maximus-jpg.jpg

Just a suggestion; personally I think it would be better if you could enter it into an ingame book. That way it would be like an actual biography or diary etc.

You can't go wrong with more mudcrabs and less of Nazeem.

The concept armours shown here would be awesome in game. It looks like the guy working on them has disappeared though which is a shame. There are a lot of good viking sword mods around: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12449/? http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54744/? http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51417/? http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54205/? There are a load of shield packs I'll link when I get a chance, but I can't think of many more armours that haven't already been mentioned. Skyrim could do with more Norse themed mods. EDIT: or Anglo-Saxon, Germanic or Celtic for that matter.

This is probably one of the more imaginative mod requests on the Nexus.