LE A whole new way to follower... Potentially...

[Vernaxis]

So, as I'm writing this I feel it important to state up front: THIS IS A LONG READ, AND THIS IDEA IS LIKELY MONUMENTAL IN TERMS OF IMPLEMENTATION. You were warned.
If you want a TLDR version:
Adrien is a badass dual-wielder, Scarlet's a humanoid phoenix, and both will help you f*** up your enemies, or you might help them potentially save the world (if this idea goes somewhere where that could be a possibility).

This took me hours to write btw, so please do be kind and not skim through it.

Hey everyone, I'm certainly not new to Skyrim or to playing Skyrim with Mods. However, what I am new to is the prospect of spearheading the idea for an entire Skyrim follower - or rather, a pair of followers, as it were. Allow me to explain. These two are a pair of characters that I love with all my heart because they were the first fleshed out characters I had ever created. Now before I go any further, I need to clarify that I do not have a powerful rig. In fact my rig is very, very mediocre and the only reason I get Skyrim to play as well as it does (which is meh but with pretty alright graphics) is because of the fact that I have performance-boosting mods installed. Therefore, if a mod maker or group of mod makers would like to take up the task of creating this mod with (with my guidance being prominent, as these are my characters and potentially my story if it were to go far enough for that to be a possibility) it would need to be optimized well, or have options to make it available and open to elitists and the average player alike. This is most likely going to be a tall order for any single mod maker if it goes far enough to have a quest (and potentially its own map?) let alone the characters themselves. (I mean this thread is called A whole new way to follower... Potentially...) So please don't toy with my hopes and dreams - and my heart - and take this request SERIOUSLY. These characters are like children to me (a seventeen year old with children LOLAMIRITE?) so please only tell me you're interested in working on this if you SERIOUSLY are going to do your damn best to help me make my dream become reality.

Before Skyrim I was very into TRP (Text-based Roleplaying) and even after playing Skyrim I still love the prospect of taking my own character that I've created from the ground up (maybe not in terms of appearance because I can't draw for s*** but hey they still look badass from my image edits) and putting them with someone else's character to see how the concoction mixes. Now with the little amount of confidence that I have in myself, I would like to pitch my idea for:

The Highlander Chronicles: Altamore's Last Legend

So, how about a few Q/As:

Q: Okay, so you've rambled on about how much you love your characters, but who and what are they?
A: I'm glad you asked, smartass! Allow me to explain:

Adrien: He's a human male, about 22 years old (and single... sort of?) who at a young age lived in a city (Unamed) in which he and his parents lived happy and prosperous lives. But of course as cliche as it is (and Adrien recognizes this) his parents were killed by bandits and that forced him to make like Aventus Arentino and get the f*** out of dodge. Thus Adrien's adventure began, and while he was only eleven years old at the time, managed to survive through quite a few interesting situations (which I won't go into detail about on this thread, save that for if the mod gets created) until the age of fifteen, where while trying to find odd jobs that he could do in order to scrape together even a small amount of coin, he ran into a Highlander. After talking to the warrior for quite some time, Adrien decided that he too wished to become one of these legendary heroes of whom tales were spun declaring their deeds. Long story short, Adrien eventually got his wish. Now he and Scarlet are the protectors of the entire land of Altamore, a land which more than likely exceeds Skyrim's Vanilla map. Trust me when I say that this place is f***ing huge, and quite diverse.

Scarlet: Scarlet is - wait for it - a phoenix. Yes, you heard me right, a phoenix. Her body is made of ashes but due to her supernatural properties can shapeshift into multiple forms, her tears heal any and all injuries, and she controls fire like a badass motherf***er. She has two main forms, a bird form that lets her rest on Adrien's shoulder and fly around like a majestic motherf***er, and a humanoid version where she either walks on two legs or floats around similarly to a flame Atronach (obviously the player would be allowed to choose which she does). Scarlet is completely and totally f***ing immortal, her body burns hot enough that ice magic can't even touch her, she turns water into steam, and she has a hot ass personality to match. However, this chick has a soft spot for Adrien, and that is where part of the fun in this mod comes in. Besides that, she's Adrien's pet, but more so his best friend, so if you hurt Adrien, she'll set your ass - and quite possibly the rest of you - on fire. Oh and she's got great ass and titties, duh.

Q: Okay, so these are your characters, how do you want me or my team to implement them?
A: Great question Jimmy, and damn do I ever watch too much MxR. Hold on, my immersion sensor is telling me there's no such thing and not watching MxR is not immersive.

Getting back on topic, Adrien and Scarlet will have their own unique voice acting. I am a voice actor myself and I would love to voice Adrien myself, but there is always the possibility that I might decide to let someone else voice the character. If you're interested and this mod idea takes off, I can give you an idea of what I'd be looking for. Scarlet on the other hand will need her own voice acting. The way I've always imagined her voice is sounding similar to Lilith from the Borderlands games (Ironic that she's called the firehawk) crossed with Cortana from the Halo series. Scarlet knows she's a badass, so she needs a voice actress who can embody badass while at the same time keeping a femininity that makes her fun and sometimes flirtatious (but not overly so, seriously a lot of the female followers who are flirty disgust me with how over the top and obvious they are. Ergo, a powerful and seductive charm is needed, but nothing over the top. Like with Adrien though, if something fits and it's pleasing to my ears then that will work as well.

- Both of these characters will have thousands of lines of dialogue, even more so if they have their own world/quests brought into the game.
- They will converse with each other during idle adventuring and exploration, as well as in cities and different shops. (There will be lots of these, they have to be immersive as hell and feel like actual characters rather than the usual dialogue that gets so damn repetitive after a while.) This will mean thousands of lines of dialogue, so VAs who are interested beware.
- ALL decisions made during conversations with the characters will affect their relationship with the player, no matter how big or small they may seem, and each one will affect the relationship to varying degrees, be it positive or negative, a little or a lot.
- Both characters will be marriageable to either sex, so if you're a guy who wants to get with Adrien or a girl with Scarlet, those options will be available to you. (Their canon selves are straight though, in case their lore matters to you - thanks by the way, you make me feel special. :happy: )
- As the player progresses in their relationship with Adrien, they can unlock dialogue to switch out weapons, armor, and spells though UI menus. The player will be able to set an outfit for him to wear when in cities or at home, which he can be set to automatically change out of when leaving. Scarlet will not have options to switch out weapons or armor, but the player will be able to give her fire spell tomes through dialogue and UI. Adrien's spell strength will only be in healing himself and the player, as he is primarily a sword-fighter.

Q: Sword fighter? You still haven't gotten to how they handle combat yet. How the hell do they make themselves useful?
A: Well Jimmy, if you'd kindly shut the f*** up, I was getting to that.

Obviously Adrien is a warrior, Scarlet is a fire-controlling phoenix. But, the reason I haven't gotten to their combat yet is because they're going to be using THEIR abilities, weapons, magic, etc. Not the stuff that Nirn is used to. Does it break from the lore? Yes. Do I give a s***? Not really, because I still think they'll be immersive as f***. Either way, this means they need their own custom-made textures, armor, spells, and basically everything else.

Adrien: Adrien's primary weapons are the Polaris Blades: Polaris Fire and Polaris Frost - Adrien's Highlander swords. These swords could potentially be given to the player by Adrien if their relationship with him is high enough. They have their own lore and, if a quest/world was to be implemented, these would later be upgraded to more powerful, more badass looking, differently named versions:

Polaris Fire and Frost: These twin swords are Adrien's starting weapons which do Dragonbone levels of damage and deal fire and frost damage respectively. That's it, no other effects. These will be pre-built into the swords however, allowing for further enhancing and enchantments. For balancing purposes, (So they're still OP but you have to earn that s***) these swords would not be able to be obtained from Adrien until the player is level 60 - that's right, 60. Especially considering that if any sort of storyline quest or world was implemented, the player would need to be at least level 50 to survive. Any attempts to get the swords from Adrien before then would result in him telling the player that he doesn't see them as ready/worthy to be entrusted with the blades yet. NOTE: These swords will need to be Dual-wielded to get the full effect of either, and only Adrien will be capable of bringing out their true power. Attempting to sell the swords would cause Adrien to immediately take them back from the player, and severely damage the relationship between the two, potentially even leaving the player permanently.

Volcanic Heart: A sword that's wielded in Adrien's right hand, does more fire damage than its lesser counterpart and heals the wielder half of the burn damage it's producing per second. So the more targets the wielder burns with the sword, the more healing they receive. NOTE: This does not work like the "Steal Life" spells, as it does not drain health to heal the player, but heals according to how much burn damage the wielder has caused. What's more, upon death an enemy could turn into a charred corpse, or a pile of burned ashes.

Glacial Soul: Wielded with Volcanic Heart, Frozen soul can freeze an opponent solid, letting them break like china as they hit the ground at low health. Besides doing more frost damage than its weaker counterpart however, this sword will be renewing the player's stamina in accordance to how much frost damage is being done per second like its firey brethren. Like with its predecessors though, both blades are required to get the full effects of either. Wielding either one alone will result in reduced effect as well as no freezing/turning enemies to ash.

Adrien will also have other useful abilities, such as creating Highlander medica (medicine which is different from alchemy) through dialogue using commonly found herbs in Skyrim and potentially Altamore if it's implemented. However, unlike most dialogue crafting, it will take Adrien time to create the medica, which will take his full attention. If the player is of a high enough relationship with Adrien, he can teach the player how to create said medica at a cooking pot.

Scarlet: Scarlet has her own unique set of abilities that can make her quite an interesting follower, and the player can choose which abilities she uses primarily, or leave the decision to Scarlet. Given that she has complete and total control over the element of fire, she can set people on fire and put them out instantly, increase or decrease fire's effect within a certain radius of her, and even change the color of fire entirely. This means that she has her own fire-based magic that would fit into different schools of Skyrim magic. Instances of this include:

Phoenix Shift - Since Scarlet's body is comprised of ash, she is capable of changing form and turning herself into firey versions of different animals either to scare (werewolf), distract (deer), or calm (a swarm of colorful butterflies. Or, she could create these imposters as separate entities from herself.

Flame Boost - A circular area of effect around Scarlet that would boost fire's effects on all within the circle - friend and foe alike.

Ash Storm - When cast this would create a field of disorienting ash that would last for a limited period of time around Scarlet, blinding enemies and forcing them to search for a target with 0 visibility. Meanwhile, the player would receive a see aura effect, allowing them to see through the ash and perform takedowns on enemies effected.

Phoenix Strike - Activated by the player, Scarlet would gravely injure an enemy, killing any one person and gravely injuring dragons or boss enemies by 60%. This would have the usual cooldown of one in-game day before being able to be used again.

Shielding Inferno - This would work similarly to a ward, however rather than simply negating magic and being exclusive to Scarlet, it would protect against projectiles like arrows and crossbow bolts, incinerating them on contact with the firey wall that would be put in front of her or around her. Enemies passing through the wall would suffer burn damage.

All of these magics and the pheonix strike would be available to the player at certain relationship levels with Scarlet, and would require certain levels in different schools of magic to learn, not just enough magicka.

Q: Okay, that's a lot, is there anything else?
A: Yes, unique to these followers and something no other follower mod has ever implemented (at least as far as I've ever seen) is follower perk trees. Honestly, I have no idea whether anyone has tried to do this and failed or if it's just not possible to implement this due to Skyrim's engine or the way things are coded, but both Adrien and Scarlet would have their own perk trees, and both would level up according to either the player's level or what they've done with the player, and would receive as many perk points as the player does per level. These perks would be unlockable through their own skill menus (accessed through dialogue) and some specific skills would be relationship-based. Trust me when I say that I have ideas for these, and they're completely badass. The player themselves could even potentially get these skill trees themselves and become either a Highlander or a Phoenix.

OH YEAH AND I PROBABLY SHOULD MENTION THAT CANONICALLY THESE TWO HAVE AFFECTIONS FOR EACH OTHER AND THAT WILL MEAN GREAT LOVE TRIANGLE POTENTIAL. :DDDDDD

Q: Don't you think you're asking a bit much?
A: Probably, but like I said, I'm not a mod creator, and I have no idea how to implement any of this s***. If I did, I wouldn't be here seeking the help of people who do.

Q: I LOVE THIS IDEA AND I TOTALLY WANT TO HELP YOU WITH THIS! But I have no idea how to mod either...
A: Well if you have money that you'd care to give me to help me get a new rig, that would be awesome! No but seriously give me your money. (JKJK Jeez chill the f*** out.)

Q: I think I can voice act what you are looking for and have great audio quality.
A: Great! If you want to leave your name or a sample of your previous work in the thread, go ahead. But this is still just an idea right now and while I have these characters fleshed out to where scripts could be written and they could be implemented into the game as standalone characters, I still would need someone who knows how to create the characters, let alone others who would know how to and be able to create the world and program quests, build dungeons, make NPCs, etc.

Q: I am a modder or am part of a team of modders and I/we would love to take up this task to its fullest extent and make everything you dreamed it would be and more!
A: THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU ARE AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY DREAM INTO A REALITY!!!

Q: I'm MxR, Elianora, FavouredSouls, or another really well known member of the Skyrim mods community and I would love to help you with this project somehow!
A: OH MY MOTHER f***ing GOD... *faints*

SO, are you still with me? GREAT! And if you skimmed through this, well thanks for nothing. So, if anyone would like to tell me whether or not any of the above and if so how much of it is doable or is interested in working on a project like this, firstly, bless you beautiful banging person (no homo intended) or think that this idea would be amazing and...
Immersive as FUCK
Then if you would be so kind as to tell me your thoughts, suggestions, opinions, or your desire to aid me in this quest below, I will give you an imaginary cookie as a reward.

THANK YOU! :D