OpenMW Exclusive

Learn from thy Ancestors

This mod changes the way to level up so that is thematic and immersive.

The character has a "focus" a special amulet where his or her umbilical cord has been embedded in tough Alit teeth.

Using the focus and burning incense the character goes in a deep meditative state and meet wise spirits, custodians of knowledge, and learn from them.


How it works

While using this mod, the only way to increase the skills is via trainers and skills books. But, if you are in possession of few sticks of incense you can also use your focus to meet special trainers: the ancestors.

To use the focus just drag its icon on the player doll on the left of the inventory.


More details

To start the meditation you need two incense sticks, incense sticks are sold by ingredients merchants and can be found in the random loot.

One stick gets burned to start the meditation, all others are converted in gold. This gold can be spent to train with the spirits.

When you leave the meditation state: by waking up using the shield on top or by breaking the concentration forcefully you get back your real gold and the
unused sticks.

The mod does not really stops you from using the room of the Spirits as storage. It makes little sense, but I could not avoid it without draconian scripted acts like force closing the inventory.  So, it is up to you.


No incense version

llroomni.esp is an alternate version without incense sticks. Just use your meditation focus and meet the spirit paying with normal drakes. Use the esp llroom.esp or llroomni.esp, NOT BOTH.


Incense

Incense.esp is an optional esp file that adds incense sticks in some of the temple ashpits. Few sticks are also burning.
The addition is purely thematic, but it pushes the theme of men and mer praying nearby the ashpit of ancestors using the incense, just like your character.


How to install

As normal esp files the mod has no unusual install requirements, but it changes NPC and Leveled Lists, so you may want to merge. If you use the No Incense version, you have nothing to worry about.

If you decide to uninstall. Be sure of not being in the room with the spirits, drop the focus, drop the incense sticks, save, leave the game and delete the files:

llroom.esp
llroomni.esp
incense.esp
llroom.txt
icons/etb_incense_ico.dds
meshes/in_treehouse_01.nif
meshes/etb_incense.nif
textures/tx_ex_treerings_01.dds
textures/etb_incense.dds

disable the esp(s) and load again.


Conflicts

If you are using the incense esp you may get the sticks outside the ashpits if some other mods moved them.

In addition, if you are using some rules mod that changes the price of training you may find the incense sticks too powerful or too weak.

If it is the case, you can edit the price of the sticks with ease. Seek for the ingredient item `etb_incense,' and change its price. Or search the global variable etb_conv, and change its value. The former will makes the sticks more or less expensive on the real world; the latter will makes each stick more or less powerful to get training from the spirits.


Why this mod

The Level up system in Morrowind is a mess; since it rewards all successes at the same way it pushes the player doing simple actions repeatedly.  Many mods try to improve it, for example the classic Galsiah's Character Development, but MWScript is so broken and weak that it requires enormous effort to have
something barely usable.
To put stuff in prospective: in the base game scripts are up a hundred lines in the most extreme cases; GCD has more than 15,000.

In this mod I then tried another approach, the mod respects the game level up system.  But since actions do not help learning skills, there is no need to stay in front a rat getting hit, look for weak creatures to fight, jump all the time, or do other strange behaviors.

Trainers become more important, but to find high level trainers without reading The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages or other guides is often very difficult. It may be even plain impossible for certain characters or mod combination.

For example a fairly strong Conjuration trainer is locked up in an anonymous Storage Shack, and the master trainer gives his services only to Temple members.

This mod then gives you a way to contact master trainers for any skill, but in exchange you need to find a different resource outside gold: the incense sticks.

While incense sticks are not difficult to find they still pose a barrier to simply use drakes, that in the late game tend to be abundant.

The point is to keep the mundane trainers a good choice, but to add the possibility of meeting the spirits of the ancestors as an alternative.

In addition, I find thematically stronger the idea of using incense sticks instead of gold to learn from the ghosts.


Versions

3. Add a version with no incense at all. Just use normal gold.
2. The incense is not a misc item anymore, now is an ingredient. So it is sold as expected.
1. Made the incense more powerful, to change the conversion between the number of incense sticks and is now easier.
0. Initial version.


Acknowledgments

The incense models come from Archeopterix:
https://web.archive.org/web/20161103125604/https://mw.modhistory.com/download-56-14719

The spirits exist in dongle tree house interior:
https://web.archive.org/web/20161103131731/http://mw.modhistory.com/download-55-2962
XeroFoxx improved the only extra texture of the tree house: the wood rings.




LEGAL

The author disclaims copyright to his work. In place of a legal notice, here is a blessing:

May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.