The funny thing is, that once you know a bit more about the previous Elder Scrolls games, you can actually explain a few things that don’t make sense initially.
Let’s take an example.
Thanks to the Class Backgrounds in Daggerfall, you find out that it wasn’t just Jaegar Tharn that had been plotting the Emperor’s Downfall– but most of the Imperial Battlemages, who were envious of Tharn’s success.
And in Oblivion, who do you face, but Warrior Mages
… Guess this means that most of the Imperial Legion Battlemages were actually Mythic Dawn.
This would go a long way to explain why the what should be the most Secure and Protected (by both magic, arms and firepower, contracts that even the Dark Brotherhood respects, and even Narrative Causality given how Uriel has manipulated several Prophecies) Royal Family in Nirn’s Existence, were cut down in just a few short nights.
Agreed. I didn’t even consider the Battlespire– you make a fantastic point!
It would explain the debacle with the Battlespire, after all its Imperial Battlemage owned. As Skyrim and Morrowind clearly show in political and guild systems– one mage can’t do this stuff alone, it has to be a whole group. (Only the PC can do stuff by themselves, cos of TESLore metaphysic stuffs).
And if I might add on to it.
It’d also help explain why you can’t officially join the Imperial Legion in Oblivion, but you can in Morrowind and Skyrim. Not just because of the Emperor and Imperial Family’s deaths– but like because of an major internal struggle due to the fact that a whole wing of the Imperial Military were treacherous as all oblivion, and they couldn’t risk any more outside instability
EVEN THOUGH, with the Oblivion Crisis, they should be gathering as many numbers as possible– because it was an entire branch that went rogue. I imagine half of their internal-command was covering up the fact that they messed up Big Time.
This would also:
- Help explain why there weren’t decent magical protections over the Elder Scroll stolen in the Theives’ Guild quest.
- why the Dark Brotherhood can cause more trouble to and around the Legion, like they’ve never had before.
- And why the Mage’s Guild locked down so severely, and bottlenecked anyone getting in, as well as outlawing Necromancy. They were severe political steps taken to cover the fact that the next largest group of mages– Imperial Battlemages– suddenly became the biggest and most terrifying threat and enemy seen at the end of the 3rd Era.
And the best way to cover that, is to act like the Legion (Prevent as many possible signing up) and to “Have” (Cause) a major internal threat, to seem “distracted” from all the goings about. (Given how a lot of the Mage class backgrounds act in Daggerfall, there were definitely sympathizers in the Mage’s Guild– Mages are pretty cuthroat in the early games, akin to the Discworld’s Wizard’s Pointy Shoes Policy).
It didn’t quite work, obviously, because instead of blaming the Legion– the Mage’s Guild got thrown under the Daedric Wagon post-Crisis.
That could also explain the anti-mage rhetoric seen in Skyrim. If you bring up your status as Archmage to Tsun in Sovngarde he says that the Nord's distrust of magic is relatively recent.
Before the Great War and the outlawing of Talos worship a lot of Nords (including Ulfric Stormcloak) joined the Legion, perhaps the betrayal of the Battle Mages had an effect on Legion culture and that spread to Skyrim via returning veterans?
Adds women to factions without any women and men to factions without any men. The Alik'r coterie, Imperial Legion, Cidnha mine prisoners, Da
Neat little mod adds some more ladies to factions without any (and an option to add few gents to the Darklight Coven as well.) It's nice and small and works well with Diverse Skyrim.
Some mods in my load order that improve upon the cooking in Skyrim. It's one of the game's many features that didn't get to bake long enough in the oven.
*Ignore the low res on some textures in my screenshots, I am using downsized textures for mod testing/faster loading
Base
I use most of of SimonMagus' overhauls (everything except for Candlehearth, Blade and Blunt, and Starfrost specifically). Most of these are modular, and can be substituted with other mods with the appropriate patches.
Campfire - Complete Camping System (Supports Skyrim VR)
Survival Control Panel
Survival Mode Improved - SKSE
Stress and Fear - A Dynamic Sanity System
Simple Hunting Overhaul
Enabling Survival Mode is optional, since it only serves to create a natural break in Skyrim's dungeon-crawling to go eat and sleep. That could be annoying if all you want to do is dungeon-crawl, but I would still recommend grabbing Survival Mode Improved if only to disable it entirely in the mod's .ini file.
For the same reasons, Stress and Fear is also optional. If you leave it enabled, be sure to make a KID patch so that eating modded foods will reduce stress too. Refer to the KID .ini file in Stress and Fear for reference.
The Food
On to the meat of things.
The Main Dishes
The below all have recipes and perks patched to use Gourmet's system.
Diverse Foods - Base Object Swapper and Diverse Foods - Better Integration and Gourmet Extension (Model Swapper - SkyPatcher) -- adds new ingredients and new recipes, in addition to diversifying the appearance of vanilla ingredients.
Meats Meals and More - Food Additions -- adds new recipes based on existing vanilla meats.
Mealtime - a Food and Recipe Mod and Mealtime - Gourmet Patch -- the variety of desserts alone implemented here is amazing. Probably one of the most well known mods that adds new food.
Medieval Norwegian Food Additions -- smaller mod that adds historical meals from Norway to Skyrim.
Tundra Berries -- recommended to install Medieval Norwegian Food Additions' patch for this mod.
Sometimes diverse foods knocks over items, because Skyrim's collisions are handled by pixies. If you hear something being flung in the distance, that's probably why.
I have nothing but respect for players who take their time placing these things down neatly ;u;.
The Appetizers
This section has singular items that don't have dedicated Gourmet recipes or Gourmet patches. They can be skipped if you don't like one or the other. (Some will require manual patching in SSEEdit).
Actual Sweet Roll Variants (Base Object Swapper - New Flavours - High Poly Sweetroll) -- cute mod that adds some new colors to Skyrim's dead horse of a joke.
Berries jam -- requires Mari's Tundra Berries. I suggest removing Moon Sugar from the recipe requirements in SSE Edit since Moon Sugar is a spice, like salt.
Battlehorn Beverages - Hearthfire Wine Expanded -- adds the rest of the wines from the Oblivion DLC to Skyrim
CHOCOLATE -- from the same author of Mealtime. Adds chocolate to Skyrim.
Croissants of Skyrim
Missing Food - Carlotta's Fresh Pumpernickel
Missing Food - Hillevi's Mince Pies
Missing Food - Orgnar's Famous Skeever Liver
Missing Food - Valga's Potage le Magnifique
Pasties of Skyrim
Sandwiches of Skyrim
Simple Bosmer Harvesting -- cannibalism mod for Bosmers that comes with new recipes :).
Varietea - Yet Another Tea Drinking Mod -- another great mod from aviform.
Yet Another Coffee Mod (For Apothecary and Gourmet)
Zerofrost's Tamriel Alchemy - New Drinks -- adds water, milk, tea, juice, and new potions based on models from other games. Might look out of place in vanilla.
Honorable Mentions
Alchemical Cooking Recipes - SSE Port -- looks cool, but I haven't tried it.
Anna Soups and Stews
Baked In Mud Crabs - clay baking recipes for campfire cooking -- adds variants of vanilla recipes that require clay to imply the food is cooking in clay cookware.
Be a Milk Drinker - SPECIAL EDITION and the edited version Be a Milk Drinker espfe and some patches -- adds non-alcoholic options and fondue to Skyrim.
Bosmeri Cuisine - SSE -- neat mod that adds more meat based recipes, soups, and teas for Bosmer or Cannibal characters.
Brewer - An Alcohol Brewing Mod -- adds brewing stations and more alcohol to Skyrim
Chicken and Ramen Noodle Soups SSE
Elsweyr Imports - SSE
Mushroom Soups SSE
Noodles
Reb's Season Of The Carrot- Carrot Carrot Carrot Carrot Tomato -- might be one of the cutest mods on the nexus.
Skyrim Food Expansion -- similar to (and compatible with) Diverse Foods. Unfortunately, it is not optimized. (Almonds have 2K textures ;u;).
Sweets and Such - Baking Expanded SE
Warm Drinks SSE - Simple Tea And Coffee Recipes - for Campfire
Tangentially Related Honorable Mentions
Beyond Skyrim - Bruma SE -- it adds some new foods and recipes to the province, in addition to everything else.
Cheesemod for EVERYONE -- more of a treasure hunt than a cooking mod, but notable for the incredible amount of cheese it adds.
Lively Farms -- adds more the crops to farms (apple trees, pears, carrots, and tomatoes).
Food Size Scaling - Base Object Swapper -- fixes the silly video game proportions.
True Homecooked Meals -- changes the model for the Homecooked Meals your spouse gives you to something more reasonable than an entire apple pie.
Here’s the thing about most Bethesda open world games. They’re big. Stupidly big. Big in a specific way where most game studios don’t want to bother with that specific type of open world game. They’re packed with stuff, handcrafted, and mostly non linear. The point of them is to do whatever the hell you want. And Bethesda insists upon doing all of this with a much smaller team than most major game studios have.
Why do bugs get left in these games? Why is there only one skull model? Why are there only like three voice actors? Because the world is so big and populated. It’s designed to distract you.
Most open world games have linear storylines inside of a giant box with some side quests. In Bethesda games the side quests are the whole point. You’re not a specific guy on a specific mission like in assassins creed games or breath of the wild or the Witcher 3 for example. Sure you could be. There’s a main story there for you if you wanna do that.
But you can also ignore the main story completely and still have a full experience. You don’t want to be the Dragonborn? You don’t want to find your kidnapped son? You don’t want to kill Dagoth Ur? Okay. You can climb the ranks of a faction, or do odd mercinary jobs, or just wander around, or hunt deathclaws, or just chop wood. The game is equally interested in all of these things.
Even rockstar games don’t really do this. They have specific missions you need to fill in a specific way. Sure you can dick around in between those missions but they’re still a mostly linear game inside of an open world.
This is why starfield disappointed so many Bethesda fans. People play Bethesda games for the gameplay loop of doing like whatever you want and being rewarded for that. Starfield has very few rewarding things to just find out in the world while still being gigantic so it’s just boring.
So anyways why does every child in Skyrim have the exact same face?
Well if you had to make something the size of Skyrim you’d probably also give every child the same face.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS FUNDRAISER IS UK BASED AS THIS IS WHERE I WAS FORMERLY BASED, AND M… Natalia Lee needs your support for Please help me
Simply put, it has become impossible for me to remain here in Bali. Not only financially, but in terms of my physical safety and survivial. Even though most people think of Bali as some idyllic “paradise”, for those who live here, reality is different, and my case is worse than most.
Back in June, a friend of mine from the UK sent me a care package of UK snacks. What was also in the care package was a THC vape pen: fine in the UK, but what my friend did not know is that this is super illegal in Indonesia. Even though I didn’t ask for or buy the pen, because it was sent to my address and my name, my home was raided. I, my father, and my driver were taken in for questioning. Due to administrative delays and a long weekend I spent 6 days in Polda Bali, the central police compound on the island, in the narcotics division. Living with no privacy on a small cot surrounded by police who would spend all day smoking while I was trying to quit nicotine, eating foods I could not stand, and watching TikTok on full volume. They would also regularly harass me, inappropriately probing into my private life, my relationships, demanding to know why I don’t have children, making insinuations about my sex, and displaying an absolute lack of regard for mental health. At one point it got so bad I suffered a psychotic break. I was eventually released but the ordeal has not only given me PTSD, but has brought up past trauma as well. Since then I’ve been constantly struggling just to stay alive.
My mental health is in full-blown crisis, but Indonesia has limited mental health services, and even those that exist often come with long wait times and high fees. My family and Indonesian society in general have a very tenuous grasp of mental health and will actively make my bipolar worse while also forcing me to mask and pretend to be coping which in turn exacerbates my state even more. Every day I am slipping further and further down the rabbit hole and I’m not sure how much longer I can keep going.
On top of this, being Indonesia, my family had to pay some £10,000 to get me out out Polda Bali. Money I am now expected to pay back without any job or stable income. In truth, this debt isn’t about the money, rather it is being used by my father to keep me here in his house where I, and the rest of my family, have to suffer his narcissistic and psychopathic outbursts. Every day it seems to get worse as his mood becomes more erratic and he is more and more prone to sudden aggression, coercive control, and displays of violence. We all live in fear that one day soon he will kill one, if not all of us.
Compounding this, as many will have seen on social media, tensions in Indonesia are at breaking point and Bali is no exception. There are protests regularly and government buildings, including the police compound where I was held, are being targeted. While I have nothing to do with these protests and do not attend, we live very near to the military police HQ (Brimob) on the island and are afraid that martial law will soon be imposed. Worse yet, I am ethnically part Chinese-Indonesian. While this would not be significant information in the West, here in Indonesia the Chinese population are regularly targeted for racial violence. This is partly due to long standing inter-ethnic distrust, but moreso because in times of crisis the government will try to save themselves by driving the peoples’ anger towards ethnic minorities. And we are one of the most visible and most othered minorities in the country. Many of my Chinese friends around the country are living in fear that they could be targeted next.
Ultimately, I just cannot stay in Indonesia. Every day is already a struggle just to stay alive and to be blunt, I won’t survive an other year here. This envornment is not only toxic, it is going to kill me. I have tried to find a way out of this situation but there’s nothing here in Indonesia that I can do. It’s all dead ends. My only hope is to go to Europe, find work, and start to build up a life that I can actually live. The irony of course is that to find a job, you need to be in Europe, but to go to Europe you already need to have a job offer. Catch 22. So, my best chance is the Chancenkarte, a job seeking visa in Germany. Unfortunately in order to even qualify to apply, I need to have just over €13,000 show money to prove that I am a legitimate job seeker. Money which I do not currently have.
I have tried every resource and connection I have at my disposal to get out of this pit but nothing has worked and despite my skills and capacities, and dozens of wonderful people in Europe who would happily vouch for and help support me, my passport and myopic migration laws are holding me back. This is my last ditch effort to save myself. If I can raise enough money to apply for a job seeking visa, I can finally escape this nightmare I’ve being held in, move to a stable country, get the help I need, find work, pay off my family, and be free to live my own life.
Any help, no matter how little, is a step in the right direction for me. I am not expecting money for free; as a Social Anthropologist with an MA in Humanitarian and Environmental Crises from the UK, I have been offering editing, proofreading, and university-level academic coaching services for over four years. I am a hard worker and do not expect handouts. If you find yourself in need of my services, any donation above ÂŁ100 will come with editing assistance for any 2500 word essay.
I also ran the popular Elder Scrolls recipe and worldbuilding blog, @tastesoftamriel/Talviel's Kitchen between 2017-2024. If you would like a custom stylised fantasy tavern menu (please bear in mind I'm an Elder Scrolls expert but can attempt other franchises) of 4-6 courses, donations above ÂŁ25 are eligible for one!
Hi all, it's been a while since I posted anything about this, but it's coming up to almost a year since I was detained at Polda Bali (the main police HQ) and donations have stalled entirely. My plan for moving to Berlin by the end of August is a hope that has been dashed and honestly, I am doubtful I will be out of here by the end of the year.
I will be going on holiday to Norway and the UK from next month until the start of August, and please rest assured that I have not touched any of the money I have thus far received from the very generous donations I have gotten for my trip. I just really need to get out of here for a while for my own sanity. I have also been throwing into my savings as much as I possibly can from the odd jobs I do here and there, but I'm still a long way off from my goal.
I would be eternally thankful for any donations or reblogs of this post to get things moving again. You can also donate directly to my P*yp*l here (please select Family and Friends Payment or else I get slapped with a fee as I have a business account). If you're after any of my skills and services, here is what I can offer; my rates are reasonable and negotiable:
Tutoring and proofreading services for university level Social Anthropology and Sociology (BA and MA level)
Custom fantasy menus and recipes for RP and personal use (not only Elder Scrolls)
Proofreading and editing for fiction and nonfiction (5+ years of professional experience)
Do you play with mod collections? Are there any you prefer?
nah, curating my own modlist and making things work together is a huge part of the draw for me (also MO2 is my beloved mod organizer of choice, you could not pay me to use Vortex lol)
discoholicmusic
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
snowghoul
