A functional religion mechanic similar to Skyrim's "Religion" mod

[GeorgeCorbul]

Skyrim (both LE and SE) has several mods that make religions into a thing:

• 'Religion' - lets you choose a patron from among the Nine Divines or the sixteen Daedra Princes. You can then pray to your patron to improve relations with them and receive boons.
• 'Patron gods of Skyrim' - adds a new dungeon with altars of the Nine Divines and sixteen Daedra Princes, and you can choose one to be your patron. You then get a permanent bonus (and sometimes a curse) from the deity's patronage. No prayer mechanics, if I'm not mistaking.
• 'Daedric shrines' - adds a few missing Daedric Princes' shrines, adds themed decorations to existing ones, and adds blessings from Daedric Princes, similar to those you'd get from the Divines, but with a twist. No praying mechanics either, if I remember correctly.
• 'Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim' - adds a prayer mechanic similar to the one in 'Religions', lets you choose a patron from among the Divines, the Daedric Princes (including Jyggalag), but also some race-specific (lore) deities. Adds new shrines, slightly decorates the existing ones (again, if I remember correctly), and the boons you get from the deities? Absolutely grand! Did I mention that there are ways of improving relations with your patron other than prayer?

Now, I'm not asking for anything as epic as 'Wintersuns' (though that'd be great), but something like 'Religion' would be just enough. I mean, deities play such a big role in the TES universe, it's really strange that Bethesda and Zenimax don't make religions into a full-fledged, player-engaging thing.

 

And I know that there are some Oblivion mods that touch upon religions, but they either are mostly visual, or specialize only on specific deities. Examples include:

• 'Oblivifall - Losing My Religion' - overhauls the Nine Divines cult, bringing it closer to what it was in Daggerfall, as in, each Divine has an individual cult, each cult offering specific services. The problem? Well, for one, it still ignores the Daedra. For another, it adds a lot of stuff to the chapels making them feel cluttered, and you still can't pray (plus, I could never get it to work properly for some reason).
• 'Who am I' - an alternate start mod that lets you select your character's background (including faith). Don't get me wrong, it's good for what it is, but I'm using a different alternate start mod that gives you actual game-start options, as opposed to just expanding the character creation segment and still starting you in the imperial prison. Plus, the bonuses provided by the various faiths feel somewhat unbalanced, and you still can't pray.
• 'Finding my religion' - a now-deleted mod that added new shrines to the game world. It was pretty cool, but still didn't add a functional prayer mechanic, and the new shrines were dedicated to non-lore deities. A mod that adds carryable statuettes of Divines and Daedric Princes to their dedicated places of worship. They offer bonuses and sometimes new powers.
• 'KotN Revelations' - it's a quest mod revolving around the Knights of the Nine. No religious mechanics here, as far as I can tell.
• 'Worship in Cyrodiil' - an immersion mod that adds statuettes of various deities to npcs' homes. They can't be interacted with and are just for show, though some give hints as to the npcs' affiliation. Still no prayer mechanics, and no amulets.
• 'Holy amulets of the Divines' - a small mod adding wearable enchanted and unenchanted amulets of the Divines, purchasable from chapel priests. Good, but still ignores Daedra, and still no prayer mechanics.
• 'Paladin mod - The hand of Arkay' - lets you become Arkay's champion, granting you new spells to deal with npcs and undead creatures. This is good, but since it only specializes on the Divines (on Arkay in particular), it's, again, not what I want.
• 'Druid mod remade' - a similar mod focusing on either Hircine or Kynareth, and their respective domains.
• 'Vows and Covenants' - another good mod, and probably the closest to what I'm looking for, but it's unfinished and abandoned. Not sure if you can pray, but you can apparently make sacrifices.
• 'Integration - The stranded light' - a quest mod where you have (or can?) help a group of daedra stranded on Nirn to establish a Nirn-friendly guild and live a "normal" life. Have yet to try it out, as the description looks promising, but I'm pretty sure it's not what I'm looking for with this request.

Edit: Thanks @mixxa77 for the link to Finding my Religion.

Edited November 6, 2021 by GeorgeCorbul

[Pellape]

My reflection about what you ask require that the modder sure knows the lore behind the religion they will get involved with and to get nice immersion, also will be able to record dialogues and know how to make quests.

To make something useful, would require a lot of work, not only with the CS but a lot of planning and reading to start with.

1. Get to know the lore, well read about each divinity
2. Plan a story involving the lore or a specific divinity
3. Get the story into a quest with help of suitable software (I did put a link somewhere a couple of month back and I can find it again if needed (Flow control))
4. Record dialogue for the quests, maybe with more then one voice actor even
5. Make dungeons if the quest requires it
6. Make all NPC involved
7. Well. place everything needed in CS

 

I really think you should try to make something your self - Did you peek at the quest tutorials at the CS WIKI?

Category:A beginner's guide - The Elder Scrolls Construction Set Wiki

Edited November 6, 2021 by Pellape

[mixxa77]

• 'Finding my religion' - a now-deleted mod that added new shrines to the game world. It was pretty cool, but still didn't add a functional prayer mechanic, and the new shrines were dedicated to non-lore deities.

Glittergear has moved: https://glittergearplays.wordpress.com/glittergears-oblivion-mods/

The author speaks of adding them for daedra and nine divines, no mention of non-lore deities.

Edited November 6, 2021 by mixxa77

[GeorgeCorbul]

My reflection about what you ask require that the modder sure knows the lore behind the religion they will get involved with and to get nice immersion, also will be able to record dialogues and know how to make quests.

To make something useful, would require a lot of work, not only with the CS but a lot of planning and reading to start with.

1. Get to know the lore, well read about each divinity
2. Plan a story involving the lore or a specific divinity
3. Get the story into a quest with help of suitable software (I did put a link somewhere a couple of month back and I can find it again if needed (Flow control))
4. Record dialogue for the quests, maybe with more then one voice actor even
5. Make dungeons if the quest requires it
6. Make all NPC involved
7. Well. place everything needed in CS

 

I really think you should try to make something your self - Did you peek at the quest tutorials at the CS WIKI?

Category:A beginner's guide - The Elder Scrolls Construction Set Wiki

Technically, only about half of what you wrote is necessary. I was not talking about a script-heavy mod with deep dialogues, special events like religious holidays, etc., but something simple: choose patron-deity -> pray -> get boons\ curses. Skyrim's "Religions" and "Wintersun" do just this.

How to choose a patron?

1. Get a menu to run during the character-creation sequence, prompting you to choose a deity;
2. Talk to a priest of said deity (this doesn't need to have VO, the Universal Silent Voice mod will be enough);
3. Read a book associated with said deity (there are plenty in the game), prompting a window to pop-up asking you if you want to accept the deity as your patron.

As to what boons and curses to expect, that's where you need to know the lore. In general though, it's fairly simple:

• Azura - Magic Reflection (based on Skyrim's Dragonborn dlc that added shrines to Azura, Boethiah and Mephala), or bonus to Mysticism (magic school responsible for soul magic - Azura's Star is a glorified soul gem);
• Boethiah - bonus to Blades (based on Skyrim's Dragonborn dlc that added shrines to Azura, Boethiah and Mephala), or bonus to Blades and Sneak (Boethiah is described as a backstabber in the lore, despite the fact that in Khajiit lore, it was Mephala that did the backstabbing on Trinimac (future Malacath), and Boethiah just fought him like normal, plus, in the lore Boethiah, Mephala, and Azura (maybe even Namira) were on Lorkhan's side, and Lorkhan wanted to free the denizens of Mundus from the permanent cycle of death and reincarnation, so you have to wonder who the bad guys really are);
• Clavicus Vile - not really sure, since in the lore he just gives you the stuff that you ask for, but it ultimately backfires on you. Maybe improve Mercantile or Personality in general (though that'd ruin the whole point of his Masque), and as a curse, he could decrease your Luck.
• Herma-Mora - Intelligence (he is the Lord of Knowledge after all), but decrease personality (because nobody like a wiseguy, and Herma-Mora is described as physically hideous anyway);
• Hircine - Archery (Lord of the Hunt, could also improve Sneaking, though I feel that should go to either Mephala or Nocturnal), or Speed (covers Acrobatics, Athletics, Light Armor, all important for hunters);
• Jyggalag - may be passed, since he was rather obscure prior to the events of SI, and even after that;
• Malacath - Endurance (covers Armorer, Block and Heavy Armor - all three have importance to Orcs), but as a curse, decreased damage to Orcs, Goblins and Ogres (if that's programmable at all), or decrease personality (because he's the Lord of Pariahs), alternatively, no curse at all;
• Mehrunes Dagon - Destruction (Lord of Destruction), but as a curse, increased damage to fire (because his realm is full of flames);
• Mephala - better sneak attacks (if that's even programmable), otherwise Sneaking, Persuation, or Illusion (Mephala, to the Dunmer at least, represents the 'sneak' archetype, she taught the Chimer to survive by using stealth and subterfuge to deal with enemies) (in Skyrim's Dragonborn, her shrine gives bonus to Mercantile, which doesn't make much sense; in the 'Wintersuns' mod praying to her makes your brewed poisons stronger);
• Meridia - bonus against undead (hates the undead in any form), but as a curse, increased damage to lighting (lightning is a manifestation of light, Meridia is the Lady of Light), otherwise, no curse;
• Molag Bal - Illusion or Personality (Lord of Domination; Illusion magic lets you twist the target's mind, causing them to fear you, or go into a frenzy, so domination it is), but as a curse, increased damaged to frost (because his realm is cold), or decrease of Willpower (because he dominates you);
• Namira - better disease and poison resistance, but decreased Personality (she is Lady of Darkness and all things vile, originating from the primordial darkness (probably the first child of Padomai, AKA Sithis). Her worshipers deal with a lot of dirty, poisonous\ venomous stuff that's prone to make them sick, and they prefer to hide in darkness, so the world doesn't seem them doing the vile stuff that they do; and as lady of vile things, her worshipers also learn to love them, which the rest of the world will see as disgusting or disturbing, hence the Personality decrease);
• Nocturnal - better Security and\ or Sneak (in Khajiit lore she is described as Namira's shadow that came to life, believing herself to be the true Namira, and it was only after - if I'm not mistaking - Boethiah beat her, and Azura trialed her, that she accepted the fact that she was not Namira and started doing her own thing, becoming the Lady of Shadows, patron to all thieves);
• Peryite - better physical resistance or more health points, but increased susceptibility to disease (increased Endurance could work, because of increased HP and Stamina, though the Skill bonuses associated don't). Otherwise, diseases are to have less effect on you, but it's easier to catch and transmit them (Lord of Disease);
• Sanguine - all potion effects are twice as strong and last twice as much (or something, he's the lord of debauchery, but the game itself doesn't offer much in that regard), but you get a random bounty (for drunk and disorderly behaviour, or public indecency). Alternatively improved Alchemy (because brewing booze and drugs, y'all!). I'd also offer Endurance, since it is necessary for debauchery, and it affects your HP and Stamina, but the skill bonuses associated with it work better for Malacath;
• Sheogorath - get a increase or decrease of a random skill or attribute (or all of them); alternatively - fortify Luck but drain Intelligence, or something like that (Lord of Madness, unpredictable, can help or hinder anyone on a whim; crazy and foolish people are described as very lucky);
• Vaermina - become weaker against magic effects (magic starting with the mind, and Vaermina's the Lady of Dreams, and nightmares in particular, so it affects your mind) or creatures (the slumber of the mind creates monsters, after all), or never get "Well rested" bonus, but improve Alteration (because life just is a glorified dream, and in a dream you can do whatever).

The Divines could offer boons based on what we had in Daggerfall. Alternatively, a twist based on them could work too.

 

And the more you pray, the better the bonus (0-30% - 5 point bonus; 30-60% - 10 point; 60-100% - 15 point; or whatever). Now, I don't remember about Skyrim's "Religions", but in "Wintersuns", once you reach 100% favour with your patron, you also get a special magic power, using which decreased your favour, requiring you to start praying again. This much is not really necessary, though it'd be nice to have.

 

As to making the mod myself, I've tried, but I wouldn't be able code my way out of a paper sack if my life depended on it. :pinch:

Edited November 6, 2021 by GeorgeCorbul

[GeorgeCorbul]

 

• 'Finding my religion' - a now-deleted mod that added new shrines to the game world. It was pretty cool, but still didn't add a functional prayer mechanic, and the new shrines were dedicated to non-lore deities.

Glittergear has moved: https://glittergearplays.wordpress.com/glittergears-oblivion-mods/

The author speaks of adding them for daedra and nine divines, no mention of non-lore deities.

 

Thanks for the link.

Guess I confused it with another mod. Checked now, and I could have sworn it was this mod, but I guess it's not. Strange. Anyway.

[GeorgeCorbul]

Bump?