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About this mod
An appearance overhaul containing 320+ morphs that seek to give the game's ten-year-old characters a new look. Aims to provide an improved blend of aesthetics, lore, and diversity.
- Permissions and credits
Update Note 5/20/21: After some issues with mods disappearing which are required for this overhaul to work, they have reappeared and all is right in the world... at least for now. So yes, this mod is very old but if you enjoy it, I have updated the install instructions so people can continue to use it. Thanks for the support, I'm still working on a future overhaul that blows this one out of the water... so keep your eyes on the look out for that sometime!
- CawCrowche
For the 10th anniversary of Dragon Age: Origins, I really wanted to create something for the game to make it feel a bit more new again. Naturally, since the only thing I know how to do is make character morphs, I decided to go that route! So here are a bunch of morphs I made that replace the appearance of many of DAO's characters to now receive modded skins, tints, tattoos, eyes, hairs, and even eyelashes; made only possible by the talented mod authors of 20+ individual mods that this mod uses their assets to create! Beyond that, these morphs are constructed from the ground up to give characters a wholly new facial structure. There are also a few changes made that try to actively bridge the gap between other Dragon Age game, specifically Inquisition. So hopefully this mod will make the characters seem like they are a part of the same universe Inquisition is in, at least a little more than before.
FEATURES & CHANGES
For starters, characters that are not explicitly made to be old won't suffer from the extreme wrinkles or sagginess that plagued many vanilla characters. In general, you could say that everyone looks more youthful, with only a few characters truly getting the old n' ugly treatment. Not only will this improve immersion when playing a main character who before seemed to be leagues above the beauty standard of everyone else in Ferelden, but characters will also reflect a more expected life expectancy of a dangerous world without modern medicine. Those are just the reasons I made up to explain why they look younger anyhow.
SPECIFIC CHANGES
HUMANS:
Right off the bat, humans in the game have the most diverse appearances out of all the other races. This is really just due to the fact that they have the most options for hairs and facial expression presets, whereas the others (especially those dwarf males) have limited good options to choose from. You'll find that the males lack a little bit of hairstyle variety compared to the females, however I did try my very best to make each and very character look individual.
ELVES:
You've probably noticed from the pictures above, but the elves I made don't take inspiration from the DA2 ones unlike a lot of other elf mods out there. This is because I wanted them to look more like the ones in DAI which don't have those harsh, angular features but instead look softer and more ethereal. To be honest it's also a bit of personal preference also, I like my elves to be pretty :D. Elves in general have long faces and very soft, yet pronounced features. Also elves that are older show less signs outwards of human-like aging with wrinkles and all that jazz. I made this change because even though the elves lost their immortally forever ago, I didn't feel like they should raisin as much as other races haha It's a change you might not notice without me pointing it out, but I really think it makes the elves seem much more strong and magical than they were in vanilla.
DWARVES:
Dwarves are a fun one. And by fun one, I mean very not fun and very hard to make pretty-looking, especially the dwarven males. I really tried hard to make them look the best I could but I i'm still not completely happy with how they turned out to be honest. The dwarven females I think look pretty good, but the males are a bit rough and lack a whole lot of diversity. If you can get past that though, you do get used to them and that initial thought of "oh that doesn't look good at all" eventually fades over time. My goal with them was to try and make them seem more like Varric, who despite being a dwarf has very human-like, attractive appearance. Varric in my opinion doesn't look a whole lot like other dwarves so I thought, "Why not hit two birds with one stone and make dwarves in general look more like my handsome-boy Varric!" I don't think I was super successful to be honest and the only one you can kinda see the change in was Oghren. Still, i'll let you be the judge of how I did and if you happen to like it then i'm very happy.
DALISH TATTOOS:
So thanks to wonderful mods made by angels on Nexus, Dalish vallaslin tattoos can now be the same as ones in Inquisition! I feel like this really improves upon two things, as I think they look so much better than the Origin ones and they also add a bit more continuity to the Dragon Age games. If you don't like the this look however, there is an option in the mod required to simply revise the Origin tattoos so just download that instead.
TRANQUIL BRANDS RETURN!:
Another change that I felt that really helps to fix continuity is tranquils actually having brands on their foreheads just like in the future Dragon Age games. Thanks again to awesome mods on the nexus, I was able to implement this into my own morphs for your enjoyment!
GENETIC RESEMBLANCE:
This one was a big one for me personally. In vanilla, NPCs who are related sort of look familiar to one another, however they are really no big indicators which kinda bugged me. This mod actively makes NPCs related to each share similar attributes like skin color, eye color, or hair color depending on how distantly or closely they are related. For example, Eamon and Teagan are brothers so they share similar face structure and eye colors. However, due to Eamon being a bit older than his brother he also has a wider face and grey hair with a big 'ol beard. Isolde is Orlesian so I changed her appearance to suite that more, but also Connor is a bit darker as a result and sports some reddish-blond hair from Eamon's side of the family. Just little changes based on genetics are made all the way throughout the game's characters.
RACE-BASED CHANGES & DIVERSITY:
For starters, characters from distant lands like Orlais and Antiva now look that way instead of looking more like just another Fereldan. For example, Oriana, Taliesen, and Ignacio and his friend all have darker skin and relatively darker hair tones as well. I know that not everyone from there would look the same, however, it seemed like a missed opportunity to change up the monotony vanilla NPC appearances. Also in general, the default skin tones of NPCs exist on the range of olive tints. I really felt like this looked so much better with the other tints and it always bothered me how everyone was so blindly pale in the game. Of course there are still very deep and light skin tones used, however, I thought that the people of harsh environment of Ferleden would be better suited for a less saturated, olive appearance. There are also changes in general to characters to increase diversity, not just in race, but in general appearance. For example, if I saw that too many characters had blue eyes and black hair, then I would change that a bit to mix up everyone's kinda plain appearance. Of course I never really strayed far from the vanilla concept for almost all of the characters, just the ones I though could use a make-over. I'll talk a bit more about that in the next section.
CHARACTER DESIGN CHANGES:
So some main characters have very noticeably different designs. I guess you could say those are my own interpretations of the characters. For example: Oghren appearance is probably one of the biggest changes because I wanted him to seem more like the berserker-warrior he is, rather than just a nasty-ol-drunkard. Same with Loghain, I wanted to make him look like the highly respected general he was, but I felt that his vanilla appearance was rather sickly and Disney-villain esque. Don't get me wrong, I love the game's little designs like that, however I just wanted to take a different approach to the characters and hoped that people would like them. I know that there will be people who won't necessarily like the changes, so sorry about that. However, if you don't like something, you are totally able to change that yourself, which is a great segway into my next topic I need to talk about!
*REQUESTS FOR CHANGES & STUFF:
So this is an important section if you see some change you would like to make with the characters. We all have many different tastes and personal preferences when it comes to things like how a character should look, which is great! I really keep this in mind when morphs, however, I also don't want to limit myself on the changes I think would look cool in order to try and fit everyone's tastes. It can take some of the fun out of the whole idea of making your own creations and interpretations. This is one of the reasons I have include a full compilation of each individual morph in .mrh (toolset file) form. If you would like to make your own vision of the characters based off of the work I've already done, then you are 100% welcome to use my morphs as a base. Or if you would just like to change someone's hair color or add a beard, then simple change like that are really easy in the toolset. While I know not all of you know how to use the toolset (just like me until pretty recently), I really encourage you to learn how to. I avoided using it for years until I finally wanted to tweak something of my own and actually got hooked, and here I am now 320+ morphs later haha! So if you would like to change something about the morphs, then I really feel like the best thing I can do is encourage you to dip your toe in pool of modding a little, just to see if you like it or not. If you need any help however, or have any questions then I would be happy to help! Also I felt it was necessary to add that if you have any ideas you guys have about lore-based or general continuity changes, I would love to hear them! I may not have enough time to implement them into the game, but i'm always looking for ways my mod can make the game fit in a bit more with the other DA games. Or just general feedback, i'd love to hear what you guys think about the mod!
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE:
Right now I have yet to cover the DLC characters which is probably next on my list to do. This means that this mod will get a large update probably not later than a couple of month including many more DLC morphs! After I'm thinking of my moving up in the Dragon Age games, even though there might not be that much of need for new morphs. I'm excited to keep pushing out mods though, I hope yall like them!
INSTALLATION GUIDE
Before you freak out, I know the list of mods required looks intimidating but I assure you it does not take a long time to install and the mods are well worth it! All of these mods I have listed are (in my opinion) very high quality work and will undoubtedly make your characters look better. It is also worthwhile to note that almost all of these mods add new assets to the game, so you do not have to worry about them editing your game in ways you do not like. The only mods that will outright edit vanilla assets are separated for your convince, so you can choose whether you like those textures better. While mods in that section are not technically required, i'm sure you will find them to be an improvement from vanilla. Also: if you are very new to DAO modding, when I am referring to installing, I mean your 'override' folder, the one in your Dragon Age documents. This is located at C:\Users\yourname\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override.
To begin, just start following the instructions by each section.
SIMPLE INSTALL ASSETS
These are mods that add new assets to the game that are do not require specific instructions to install. Simply drop these downloaded folders into your override folder.
Tint & Tattoo Mods:
1. Pineappletree's Vibrant Colors: Full or light version.
2. SJC's Tints and Textures: Main file.
3. Blush Collection: Main file.
Hair Mods:
1. KH's DA:O Hairs: Main file.
2. Tucked Hair: Main file.
3. Additional Hairs: Part 2.
4. More Hairstyles: Main file.
Eye Mods:
1. New Eyes for DAOT: AIO version.
COMPLICATED INSTALL ASSETS
These are mods that add new assets to the game that do require detailed instructions to install so the user isn't confused. Add these specified assets into your override.
Skin Mods:
1. Warden Complexions: This link takes you to a Google Drive of the files. Download and install two called 'Tabris Complexion' and 'Warden Complexion'.
2. Tranquil Brand: Install main file and only keep the four skin textures, uh_hed(name).dds not the .mors.
3. Unique Face Textures for Companions DAO Edition: Only need eyelash texture 'pf_ulm_elbas_0d' located in the main file of DAO's el_textures folder. Only install eyelash.
4. FataMorgana's Face and Tattoo Textures: Scroll down to the Miscellaneous files tab, then install 'Face and Eye Textures' and 'FM' files. For 'Face and Eye Textures' you only need the FataMorgana folder.
Hair Mods:
1. Jenya's Random Hairstyles: Only need the main file 'Random hairstyles', however you may download additional hairs and fixes if you wish.
2. Witcher Inspired Morphs: Install the 'Witcher inspired morphs WRT' file but only keep the hair, remove everything else. Next install the 'TW3 hairstyles' and the 'Witcher Hairstyles Elves and Dwarfs Edition' files. You may install other files if you want but these are required.
3. Iconic Hawke Presets: Install the 'Hair fix' main file and the 'Hawkes hairstyles for elves and dwarfs' optional file.
4. Risibisi's Inquisition Hairs & Risibisi's Children Hairs: Install these two mods, however, many other individual hairs are needed across the website.
5. Go download and install this hair as well: Skysims DF but change the file name from "df_har_sky195_0.mmh" to "df_har_Lliira01_0.mmh"
*6. Since the Elven Hairstyles mod has been unhidden, also download and install it. First file is the only required.
7. You will also need to install these individual hairs. I suggest keeping these in a folder called 'Risibisi's Hairs' to keep things organized: GUY HF and DF, Chain Reaction HM, Sky 205 HF, Nouk HM, BFly 128, Macho with earrings DF, Nightcrawler EM, Skysims 124 EF, Skysims 116 HF, Skysims HF (currently cannot find it :c ), Thunder EM, Trixie HF, & Dreads and more
Skin and Hair: (the most complicated one)
1. Inquisition inspired morphs: We need Alistair's hair and skin textures, Morrigan's skin textures, Isabella's hair and Cullen's hair for elves and dwarfs.
a. Download 'Alistair morph Original Colors Without Realistic Teeth' file. Delete everything except the hair folder and his skin texture.
b. Still in the Alistair folder, go into the hair folder and delete the two files that are named 'Josy'. These files bug the hair and new ones are given in Random Hairstyles.
c. Next download the 'Morphs Without Realistic Teeth' file. We only need Morrigan's skin textures, delete everything else.
d. Download the 'Cullen and Isabela without realistic teeth' file. We only need Isabella hair folder inside of the Hair 01 folder. Delete everything else.
e. Finally download and install the 'Cullen and Isabella hairstyles for elves and dwarfs' file. If you haven't already placed all your other folders in your override, do that.
VANILLA ASSETS REPLACERS
These mods replace vanilla assets and will make the characters appear like they do in the pictures above. It is important to check and make sure you do not have any other mods installed that will also replace these assets, otherwise they will not show up in-game. You can do this just with a search of the file name within your override folder.
1. HD Eyebrow and Stubble Presets: Main file.
2. KH's Softer Hair & Beard: DAO version.
3. Origins Vallaslin Changes: Inquisition Vallaslin to Origins file.
4. SJC's Patchy Skin Fix: Install main file. Don't install the updates; for some reason they break the Dalish Tattoos.
5. KH's Vanilla Face Texture: Main File.
THIS MOD!
Go to the Files tab of this mod and download the main file. Place the folder into your override. Now you're done!
One Last Thing: If you come across any issues or bugs with the characters in your game, please check out the posts section! There is a stickied FAQ and fixes post that will hopefully help you solve some of your issues! If you try all those things talked about and are still having issues with the characters - then please feel free to post about it and I'll try to help as best as I can!
OPTIONAL MODS
Completely up to preference but these are some of the mods I also use.
ARMOR MODS: Loincloth Fashion, Kirkwall Exports, RL's Swan Song, The Circle Reforged, & Crow Armor
COMPANIONS MODS: Shale Retextured HD, Sten of the Beresaad & Mabari to Wolf
AESTHETIC MODS: The Children's Closet, Theta HD, Retexturing DAO, NPC Portrait Changer & My Reshade preset
INCOMPATIBLE MODS
Realistic Teeth, while looking great, will unfortunately not work with these morphs or any that are not made with that mod in mind. Its a bummer but using White Teeth instead offers modified teeth without the incompatibilities. While 'Reimagined Characters of DAO' is technically incompatible with other .mor (morph) mods, if there are other morphs that you would rather use for certain NPCs than you simply have to replace my files with theirs for them to work.
Dragon Age Redesigned by Dracomies is a mod that actually works well in combination with Reimagined Characters. Although it is also a large NPC morph mod, his work about doubles mine in size. This means that even if you install my mod, there will still be a lot of ambient or very inconsequential characters who look REAL bad. I honestly don't have the time to make a new morph for each one because frankly i'm exhausted making the ones I already have. However, if you would like to use my morphs but would also like to fix the more neglected population, you can install Dragon Age Redesigned first, then from each folder of my mod, drop and replace my morphs with his. Keep in mind though, uninstalling his morphs though the uninstall programs will also uninstall my mods since they have the same name.
MY OTHER NPC MODS
So I have recently decided to hide my other three head morph mods I made previous to this. The reason behind this is really because I feel that those mods were made when I was still learning the ropes, since then I have learned much and this mod is their successor and so much more. I feel as though it is a bit redundant and confusing for the viewer who may not understand which mod is the 'correct' one so to speak. In the case that you would still like to download these mods anyways, I will upload them in the misc. section of the mod. Thank you so much for all the love and encouragement you gave me, even when I was still really new to the modding! Much love <3
CREDITS & THANK YOUS
- I used three skin mods by lizardaggerx and Jenya66 to give each character wonderful skin all made by them. Arguably the most vital part of making a character gorgeous, thank you so much for your time and effort spent on these.
- I included DAI forehead brand for tranquils that were missing in Origins, made possible by Dalishious's wonderful mod. Thank you for making these really cool textures and for your help and advice!
- I was able to give Origin's dalish DAI vallaslin which was made possible by MaryseDynasty! These are perfect, thank you so very much for making them!
- I also gave many characters quality freckle textures made by FataMorgana awesome textures. No freckles is a big sad, so thank you so much for these.
- Eyelashes for all characters were made by the very talented Ellise. Same deal with freckles, I would be able to survive with these thank you.
- All tints used are by Pineappletree, SammyJC, and Exarielle from their quality mods.Thank you for taking the time to add more color to the game's characters.
- Hairs used (which were a lot of them) are by these extremely talented authors: KH, Risibisi, Jenya66, Themiscyra, Tmp, Boodrl, and Kzelsama. Thank you, the reason these characters are not bald is because of you.
- Vanilla textures that are replaced are all by ViLiSSa, KH, MaryseDynasty, and SJC respectively. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication!
- Lastly, all eyes are made by ViLiSSa. A big thank you to them for making such ridiculously awesome eyes for everyone to use!
One last big thank you to all the modders who release their wonderful creations, none of the work making mods like this would have been possible without people like you!
PERMISSIONS
I have provided .mrh files and all open Nexus permissions because I personally believe all our modding work would be collaborative and shared with everyone. If you would like to make edits to my morphs and re-upload them here or on a different website, then i'm perfectly fine with that. I simply ask that you credit any mod author who's work you use, simply because it is good etiquette. While I have provided these permissions, this does not apply to any other authors who may have different ones, so I ask you respect the permissions of any mods I have required for mine to work.
- CawCrowche
For the 10th anniversary of Dragon Age: Origins, I really wanted to create something for the game to make it feel a bit more new again. Naturally, since the only thing I know how to do is make character morphs, I decided to go that route! So here are a bunch of morphs I made that replace the appearance of many of DAO's characters to now receive modded skins, tints, tattoos, eyes, hairs, and even eyelashes; made only possible by the talented mod authors of 20+ individual mods that this mod uses their assets to create! Beyond that, these morphs are constructed from the ground up to give characters a wholly new facial structure. There are also a few changes made that try to actively bridge the gap between other Dragon Age game, specifically Inquisition. So hopefully this mod will make the characters seem like they are a part of the same universe Inquisition is in, at least a little more than before.
FEATURES & CHANGES
For starters, characters that are not explicitly made to be old won't suffer from the extreme wrinkles or sagginess that plagued many vanilla characters. In general, you could say that everyone looks more youthful, with only a few characters truly getting the old n' ugly treatment. Not only will this improve immersion when playing a main character who before seemed to be leagues above the beauty standard of everyone else in Ferelden, but characters will also reflect a more expected life expectancy of a dangerous world without modern medicine. Those are just the reasons I made up to explain why they look younger anyhow.
SPECIFIC CHANGES
HUMANS:
Right off the bat, humans in the game have the most diverse appearances out of all the other races. This is really just due to the fact that they have the most options for hairs and facial expression presets, whereas the others (especially those dwarf males) have limited good options to choose from. You'll find that the males lack a little bit of hairstyle variety compared to the females, however I did try my very best to make each and very character look individual.
ELVES:
You've probably noticed from the pictures above, but the elves I made don't take inspiration from the DA2 ones unlike a lot of other elf mods out there. This is because I wanted them to look more like the ones in DAI which don't have those harsh, angular features but instead look softer and more ethereal. To be honest it's also a bit of personal preference also, I like my elves to be pretty :D. Elves in general have long faces and very soft, yet pronounced features. Also elves that are older show less signs outwards of human-like aging with wrinkles and all that jazz. I made this change because even though the elves lost their immortally forever ago, I didn't feel like they should raisin as much as other races haha It's a change you might not notice without me pointing it out, but I really think it makes the elves seem much more strong and magical than they were in vanilla.
DWARVES:
Dwarves are a fun one. And by fun one, I mean very not fun and very hard to make pretty-looking, especially the dwarven males. I really tried hard to make them look the best I could but I i'm still not completely happy with how they turned out to be honest. The dwarven females I think look pretty good, but the males are a bit rough and lack a whole lot of diversity. If you can get past that though, you do get used to them and that initial thought of "oh that doesn't look good at all" eventually fades over time. My goal with them was to try and make them seem more like Varric, who despite being a dwarf has very human-like, attractive appearance. Varric in my opinion doesn't look a whole lot like other dwarves so I thought, "Why not hit two birds with one stone and make dwarves in general look more like my handsome-boy Varric!" I don't think I was super successful to be honest and the only one you can kinda see the change in was Oghren. Still, i'll let you be the judge of how I did and if you happen to like it then i'm very happy.
DALISH TATTOOS:
So thanks to wonderful mods made by angels on Nexus, Dalish vallaslin tattoos can now be the same as ones in Inquisition! I feel like this really improves upon two things, as I think they look so much better than the Origin ones and they also add a bit more continuity to the Dragon Age games. If you don't like the this look however, there is an option in the mod required to simply revise the Origin tattoos so just download that instead.
TRANQUIL BRANDS RETURN!:
Another change that I felt that really helps to fix continuity is tranquils actually having brands on their foreheads just like in the future Dragon Age games. Thanks again to awesome mods on the nexus, I was able to implement this into my own morphs for your enjoyment!
GENETIC RESEMBLANCE:
This one was a big one for me personally. In vanilla, NPCs who are related sort of look familiar to one another, however they are really no big indicators which kinda bugged me. This mod actively makes NPCs related to each share similar attributes like skin color, eye color, or hair color depending on how distantly or closely they are related. For example, Eamon and Teagan are brothers so they share similar face structure and eye colors. However, due to Eamon being a bit older than his brother he also has a wider face and grey hair with a big 'ol beard. Isolde is Orlesian so I changed her appearance to suite that more, but also Connor is a bit darker as a result and sports some reddish-blond hair from Eamon's side of the family. Just little changes based on genetics are made all the way throughout the game's characters.
RACE-BASED CHANGES & DIVERSITY:
For starters, characters from distant lands like Orlais and Antiva now look that way instead of looking more like just another Fereldan. For example, Oriana, Taliesen, and Ignacio and his friend all have darker skin and relatively darker hair tones as well. I know that not everyone from there would look the same, however, it seemed like a missed opportunity to change up the monotony vanilla NPC appearances. Also in general, the default skin tones of NPCs exist on the range of olive tints. I really felt like this looked so much better with the other tints and it always bothered me how everyone was so blindly pale in the game. Of course there are still very deep and light skin tones used, however, I thought that the people of harsh environment of Ferleden would be better suited for a less saturated, olive appearance. There are also changes in general to characters to increase diversity, not just in race, but in general appearance. For example, if I saw that too many characters had blue eyes and black hair, then I would change that a bit to mix up everyone's kinda plain appearance. Of course I never really strayed far from the vanilla concept for almost all of the characters, just the ones I though could use a make-over. I'll talk a bit more about that in the next section.
CHARACTER DESIGN CHANGES:
So some main characters have very noticeably different designs. I guess you could say those are my own interpretations of the characters. For example: Oghren appearance is probably one of the biggest changes because I wanted him to seem more like the berserker-warrior he is, rather than just a nasty-ol-drunkard. Same with Loghain, I wanted to make him look like the highly respected general he was, but I felt that his vanilla appearance was rather sickly and Disney-villain esque. Don't get me wrong, I love the game's little designs like that, however I just wanted to take a different approach to the characters and hoped that people would like them. I know that there will be people who won't necessarily like the changes, so sorry about that. However, if you don't like something, you are totally able to change that yourself, which is a great segway into my next topic I need to talk about!
*REQUESTS FOR CHANGES & STUFF:
So this is an important section if you see some change you would like to make with the characters. We all have many different tastes and personal preferences when it comes to things like how a character should look, which is great! I really keep this in mind when morphs, however, I also don't want to limit myself on the changes I think would look cool in order to try and fit everyone's tastes. It can take some of the fun out of the whole idea of making your own creations and interpretations. This is one of the reasons I have include a full compilation of each individual morph in .mrh (toolset file) form. If you would like to make your own vision of the characters based off of the work I've already done, then you are 100% welcome to use my morphs as a base. Or if you would just like to change someone's hair color or add a beard, then simple change like that are really easy in the toolset. While I know not all of you know how to use the toolset (just like me until pretty recently), I really encourage you to learn how to. I avoided using it for years until I finally wanted to tweak something of my own and actually got hooked, and here I am now 320+ morphs later haha! So if you would like to change something about the morphs, then I really feel like the best thing I can do is encourage you to dip your toe in pool of modding a little, just to see if you like it or not. If you need any help however, or have any questions then I would be happy to help! Also I felt it was necessary to add that if you have any ideas you guys have about lore-based or general continuity changes, I would love to hear them! I may not have enough time to implement them into the game, but i'm always looking for ways my mod can make the game fit in a bit more with the other DA games. Or just general feedback, i'd love to hear what you guys think about the mod!
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE:
Right now I have yet to cover the DLC characters which is probably next on my list to do. This means that this mod will get a large update probably not later than a couple of month including many more DLC morphs! After I'm thinking of my moving up in the Dragon Age games, even though there might not be that much of need for new morphs. I'm excited to keep pushing out mods though, I hope yall like them!
INSTALLATION GUIDE
Before you freak out, I know the list of mods required looks intimidating but I assure you it does not take a long time to install and the mods are well worth it! All of these mods I have listed are (in my opinion) very high quality work and will undoubtedly make your characters look better. It is also worthwhile to note that almost all of these mods add new assets to the game, so you do not have to worry about them editing your game in ways you do not like. The only mods that will outright edit vanilla assets are separated for your convince, so you can choose whether you like those textures better. While mods in that section are not technically required, i'm sure you will find them to be an improvement from vanilla. Also: if you are very new to DAO modding, when I am referring to installing, I mean your 'override' folder, the one in your Dragon Age documents. This is located at C:\Users\yourname\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override.
To begin, just start following the instructions by each section.
SIMPLE INSTALL ASSETS
These are mods that add new assets to the game that are do not require specific instructions to install. Simply drop these downloaded folders into your override folder.
Tint & Tattoo Mods:
1. Pineappletree's Vibrant Colors: Full or light version.
2. SJC's Tints and Textures: Main file.
3. Blush Collection: Main file.
Hair Mods:
1. KH's DA:O Hairs: Main file.
2. Tucked Hair: Main file.
3. Additional Hairs: Part 2.
4. More Hairstyles: Main file.
Eye Mods:
1. New Eyes for DAOT: AIO version.
COMPLICATED INSTALL ASSETS
These are mods that add new assets to the game that do require detailed instructions to install so the user isn't confused. Add these specified assets into your override.
Skin Mods:
1. Warden Complexions: This link takes you to a Google Drive of the files. Download and install two called 'Tabris Complexion' and 'Warden Complexion'.
2. Tranquil Brand: Install main file and only keep the four skin textures, uh_hed(name).dds not the .mors.
3. Unique Face Textures for Companions DAO Edition: Only need eyelash texture 'pf_ulm_elbas_0d' located in the main file of DAO's el_textures folder. Only install eyelash.
4. FataMorgana's Face and Tattoo Textures: Scroll down to the Miscellaneous files tab, then install 'Face and Eye Textures' and 'FM' files. For 'Face and Eye Textures' you only need the FataMorgana folder.
Hair Mods:
1. Jenya's Random Hairstyles: Only need the main file 'Random hairstyles', however you may download additional hairs and fixes if you wish.
2. Witcher Inspired Morphs: Install the 'Witcher inspired morphs WRT' file but only keep the hair, remove everything else. Next install the 'TW3 hairstyles' and the 'Witcher Hairstyles Elves and Dwarfs Edition' files. You may install other files if you want but these are required.
3. Iconic Hawke Presets: Install the 'Hair fix' main file and the 'Hawkes hairstyles for elves and dwarfs' optional file.
4. Risibisi's Inquisition Hairs & Risibisi's Children Hairs: Install these two mods, however, many other individual hairs are needed across the website.
5. Go download and install this hair as well: Skysims DF but change the file name from "df_har_sky195_0.mmh" to "df_har_Lliira01_0.mmh"
*6. Since the Elven Hairstyles mod has been unhidden, also download and install it. First file is the only required.
7. You will also need to install these individual hairs. I suggest keeping these in a folder called 'Risibisi's Hairs' to keep things organized: GUY HF and DF, Chain Reaction HM, Sky 205 HF, Nouk HM, BFly 128, Macho with earrings DF, Nightcrawler EM, Skysims 124 EF, Skysims 116 HF, Skysims HF (currently cannot find it :c ), Thunder EM, Trixie HF, & Dreads and more
Skin and Hair: (the most complicated one)
1. Inquisition inspired morphs: We need Alistair's hair and skin textures, Morrigan's skin textures, Isabella's hair and Cullen's hair for elves and dwarfs.
a. Download 'Alistair morph Original Colors Without Realistic Teeth' file. Delete everything except the hair folder and his skin texture.
b. Still in the Alistair folder, go into the hair folder and delete the two files that are named 'Josy'. These files bug the hair and new ones are given in Random Hairstyles.
c. Next download the 'Morphs Without Realistic Teeth' file. We only need Morrigan's skin textures, delete everything else.
d. Download the 'Cullen and Isabela without realistic teeth' file. We only need Isabella hair folder inside of the Hair 01 folder. Delete everything else.
e. Finally download and install the 'Cullen and Isabella hairstyles for elves and dwarfs' file. If you haven't already placed all your other folders in your override, do that.
VANILLA ASSETS REPLACERS
These mods replace vanilla assets and will make the characters appear like they do in the pictures above. It is important to check and make sure you do not have any other mods installed that will also replace these assets, otherwise they will not show up in-game. You can do this just with a search of the file name within your override folder.
1. HD Eyebrow and Stubble Presets: Main file.
2. KH's Softer Hair & Beard: DAO version.
3. Origins Vallaslin Changes: Inquisition Vallaslin to Origins file.
4. SJC's Patchy Skin Fix: Install main file. Don't install the updates; for some reason they break the Dalish Tattoos.
5. KH's Vanilla Face Texture: Main File.
THIS MOD!
Go to the Files tab of this mod and download the main file. Place the folder into your override. Now you're done!
One Last Thing: If you come across any issues or bugs with the characters in your game, please check out the posts section! There is a stickied FAQ and fixes post that will hopefully help you solve some of your issues! If you try all those things talked about and are still having issues with the characters - then please feel free to post about it and I'll try to help as best as I can!
OPTIONAL MODS
Completely up to preference but these are some of the mods I also use.
ARMOR MODS: Loincloth Fashion, Kirkwall Exports, RL's Swan Song, The Circle Reforged, & Crow Armor
COMPANIONS MODS: Shale Retextured HD, Sten of the Beresaad & Mabari to Wolf
AESTHETIC MODS: The Children's Closet, Theta HD, Retexturing DAO, NPC Portrait Changer & My Reshade preset
INCOMPATIBLE MODS
Realistic Teeth, while looking great, will unfortunately not work with these morphs or any that are not made with that mod in mind. Its a bummer but using White Teeth instead offers modified teeth without the incompatibilities. While 'Reimagined Characters of DAO' is technically incompatible with other .mor (morph) mods, if there are other morphs that you would rather use for certain NPCs than you simply have to replace my files with theirs for them to work.
Dragon Age Redesigned by Dracomies is a mod that actually works well in combination with Reimagined Characters. Although it is also a large NPC morph mod, his work about doubles mine in size. This means that even if you install my mod, there will still be a lot of ambient or very inconsequential characters who look REAL bad. I honestly don't have the time to make a new morph for each one because frankly i'm exhausted making the ones I already have. However, if you would like to use my morphs but would also like to fix the more neglected population, you can install Dragon Age Redesigned first, then from each folder of my mod, drop and replace my morphs with his. Keep in mind though, uninstalling his morphs though the uninstall programs will also uninstall my mods since they have the same name.
MY OTHER NPC MODS
So I have recently decided to hide my other three head morph mods I made previous to this. The reason behind this is really because I feel that those mods were made when I was still learning the ropes, since then I have learned much and this mod is their successor and so much more. I feel as though it is a bit redundant and confusing for the viewer who may not understand which mod is the 'correct' one so to speak. In the case that you would still like to download these mods anyways, I will upload them in the misc. section of the mod. Thank you so much for all the love and encouragement you gave me, even when I was still really new to the modding! Much love <3
CREDITS & THANK YOUS
- I used three skin mods by lizardaggerx and Jenya66 to give each character wonderful skin all made by them. Arguably the most vital part of making a character gorgeous, thank you so much for your time and effort spent on these.
- I included DAI forehead brand for tranquils that were missing in Origins, made possible by Dalishious's wonderful mod. Thank you for making these really cool textures and for your help and advice!
- I was able to give Origin's dalish DAI vallaslin which was made possible by MaryseDynasty! These are perfect, thank you so very much for making them!
- I also gave many characters quality freckle textures made by FataMorgana awesome textures. No freckles is a big sad, so thank you so much for these.
- Eyelashes for all characters were made by the very talented Ellise. Same deal with freckles, I would be able to survive with these thank you.
- All tints used are by Pineappletree, SammyJC, and Exarielle from their quality mods.Thank you for taking the time to add more color to the game's characters.
- Hairs used (which were a lot of them) are by these extremely talented authors: KH, Risibisi, Jenya66, Themiscyra, Tmp, Boodrl, and Kzelsama. Thank you, the reason these characters are not bald is because of you.
- Vanilla textures that are replaced are all by ViLiSSa, KH, MaryseDynasty, and SJC respectively. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication!
- Lastly, all eyes are made by ViLiSSa. A big thank you to them for making such ridiculously awesome eyes for everyone to use!
One last big thank you to all the modders who release their wonderful creations, none of the work making mods like this would have been possible without people like you!
PERMISSIONS
I have provided .mrh files and all open Nexus permissions because I personally believe all our modding work would be collaborative and shared with everyone. If you would like to make edits to my morphs and re-upload them here or on a different website, then i'm perfectly fine with that. I simply ask that you credit any mod author who's work you use, simply because it is good etiquette. While I have provided these permissions, this does not apply to any other authors who may have different ones, so I ask you respect the permissions of any mods I have required for mine to work.
~ Hey, let me know how I did and if there's any way I can make the mod better! If you see any bug then please report it! Reporting them makes it so I can make the mod better for you and others! Also if there are any problems or concerns I should know about, feel free contact me. I really hope you enjoy my mod! ~