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THE MAGIC REALM OF ARAENYA v 3.0

Author: Leodoidao
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Another adventure quest in a brand new world by Leodoidao



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WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!W
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THIS MOD REQUIRES SHIVERING ISLES EXPANSION!!!!!!


THIS MOD REQUIRES ARAENYA PRE-RELEASE INSTALLED

Link: pre-release

Link to french traduction: Link:

But if you have been playing the pre-release, READ THIS:


The original Araenya Everfall somehow became corrupted, causing the game to crash, so I had to replace it with a smaller, simpler landmass. All savegames in this area will be lost. Moreover, I´ve change a lot of other things. You´ll need to make a clean savegame to start the quest, or else the mod will not work. To make a clean save game:

1- De-activate Araenyarealm.esp

2- Start the game. Make a new save game, with the mod de-activated

3- Exit game and Activate the updated mod. Start the game from this clean save. Allright, you may play now.



NOTE: if you were NOT playing the pre-release, there is no need to do that.

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CHANGELOG
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V 1.2: CHANGED THE PLOT A BIT TO FIX THE LANDSCAPE BUGS; FIXED SOME MINOR GLITCHES

V 2.0: Added more clutter to some cells

V 3.0: Fixed minor glitches, added a new mesh: Exanimis´Funeral Urns.They´re at the catacombs. Credits go to Exanimis.

NO DURZOGS: This plugin is update 3.0 for the Araenya mod, with 1 difference: I excluded the Durzogs, which have been causing the game to crash in some cases, near Sandy Cave in araenya Eversummer. (no more than 1% of people who dl it).


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Features
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- 5 new landmasses
- 6 sequences of challenging, puzzling dungeon- crawls
- 2 new powerful swords LEVELLED ACCORDING TO THE PLAYER
- 9 New creatures
- An epic adventure quest
- A new book telling the history of Araenya
- New meshes everywhere. I assembled more than 10 different modders´resources in order to make this mod, so wherever you go you´ll find some new stuff.
- A nice reward at the end of the quest, if you like to enchant your weapons and armor.



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Installation/ Playing the mod
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- You MUST have Araenya Pre-release installed BEFORE you install this.(NOT AFTER!!!)

- Unzip the "Data" folder to your "Oblivion" folder (c:/program files/Bethesda Softworks/Oblivion). You´ll be asked to overwrite Araenyarealm.esp. Click OK/yes.

- Add a check to "AraenyaRealm.esp" in your game start screen to activate the mod---and play.



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BEFORE YOU START THE QUEST:
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1- Bring a torch, you´ll need it. Most dungeons are darker than the Vanilla game´s. It is not a fault, they were supposed to be that way. And:

2- Yes, they ARE puzzling. Quest arrow points to the direction, but there will be locked doors and secret passages at the walls, so you´ll have to search for buttons placed at tricky places. I´ll upload a walkthrough as soon as I can, but you will not need it if you follow my advice: EXPLORE THE DUNGEONS THOROUGHLY, WATCH CAREFULLY THE AREA AROUND, PRESS ALL ACTIVATORS!!!

3- COMPANIONS GET LOST IN ARAENYA. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A COMPANION SUMMON SPELL, YOU BETTER LEAVE HIM/HER HOME THIS TIME.

4- Sometimes, running or sneaking may be wiser than fighting.

5- There will be no quest arrow during the battle with the final boss. You´ll have to find out what to do by yourself, baby...


Well, are you ready??

Then, here we go!!!


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TO START THE QUEST
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1- Go to "Books of Bliss" (the bookstore at Bliss, Mania, Shivering Isles). The quest will start automatically a few seconds after you get into the cell.

2- When the quest gets activated, you´ll see the new book on the balcony. YOU MUST STEAL IT, AND YOU MUST NOT BE CAUGHT!!!!

wHY???

-If you don´t steal the book the quest will not reach stage 2.

-If you get busted, quest arrow will point permanently to the palace of New Sheoth, and you´ll be unable to find the magic gate to Araenya Everfall (see "known bugs and issues" for details about this).

I suggest you come back at night and break into the bookstore stealthly.


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KNOWN BUGS/ISSUES
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-If you steal the book and get arrested by the guards, the arrow quest will point at New Sheoth palace. I have not marked the book as "Quest Item", so your char can leave it at his home to clutter it (You´ll probably like its cover). I guess this is the reason, the book is confiscated. Anyway,if you are not good in lockpicking and decide to steal it in daytime, I recommend this: DO NOT SURRENDER TO THE GUARDS,CHOOSE TO FIGHT AND RUN LIKE HELL!!! After you finish the quest you may pay your dues to the Golden Saints.

- Sometimes,in the outdoors, player arrow may not show up in your local area map


PLEASE REPORT ME OF ANY PROBLEMS YOU MAY FIND--- FEEDBACK REQUIRED!!! FEEL FREE TO SAY WHAT YOU LIKED AND WHAT YOU DETESTED, SO I CAN IMPROVE MY MODS


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CREDITS (Other Modders´ Stuff)
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ALEX STOIANS- The new weapons

ALIENSLOF- The black clannfear texture (her Alien clannfear)

CONIFER- The torture devices

DAVID WHITEFANG- For the pools

GHOGIEL- The animated book cover

GROWLF- The pyramid mesh (well, I re-textured it)

HELBORNE- The imp and mermaid statues (I re-textured the mermaids)

KINGEVIL- His ash golems

LIQUIDGRAPH- The new mushroom meshes

MEGAMANNEOX- The female lich mesh

MR. SIKA- For his amazing creatures: the bat, the spider, the shadow, the durzog and the mammoth

OLDWOLF58- His female xivilai mesh

SAHARDOOM- The magic gate

SPOONS74- The gallows




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BACKGROUND
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Among all the old tales from the Shivering Isles, one of the most outstanding was the tale of the Magic Realm of Araenya, the invisible city of a thousand towers.

Araenya was created by Sheogorath during a trance induced by the psychotrophic substances the Madgod used to share with the duke of Mania every now and then. To build it, however, he counted on the help of Lady Ayradax, who at the time was the Duchess of Dementia. Ayradax was a high Elf with an unusual knowledge in Daedric magic, and a beautiful female with a mysterious aura. People who knew her used to say despite her intelligence and unique magic skills she had a troubled personality, a soul in constant unease.

The new creation was supposed to be his masterpiece, a metropolis surrounded by a complex of temples with huge pyramids and magnificent sky-scrapping towers, with outstanding mystic flames at their top.Oddly, the city was not visible at the distance: a traveller would look and see nothing but wilderness. But as he approached its gates, the majestic towers would show up like a mirage. The original concept was about a city divided in two districts: one that would fit the Dementia patterns, and other that would fit the mania one. The first attempt to create a divided, and yet united capital, was to split the two districts in two distinct planes, linked by unique magic gates. Nevertheless, with his twisted sense of reality worsened by the narcotic substances and Lady Ayradax´s seductive charm , Sheogorath`s altered mind ventured into a more chaotic design.

The outcome was a city composed of five different districts, four of them related to the four seasons: winter, summer, fall and spring--- all of them linked to the Temple of the Seasons, located at Araenya Everfall, the realm which represented the fall, Lady Ayradax’s favorite season. Located at a magic continent, it was the place where the Duchess was crowned Queen of the Realm. Travellers should head for the temple of Seasons to access three other landscapes: Araenya Everwinter, araenya Eversummer and araenya everspring.

Araenya Everwinter was basically a polar island surrounded by an Ice Cap which linked it to the magic continent. The weather was harsh, with freezing cold and constant snowfall. However, the underground blessed the population with freshwater warmed by the fires from the entrails of the earth, which poured into some unique hot springs. These springs were channeled and turned into the thermae, public baths that made araenya Everwinter a pleasing paradox: pools of hot water at a frozen land. The baths were a big attraction to all the dwellers, mainly the nobility, who enjoyed the privilege of having their own private pools.

Araenya Eversummer was built at a tropical island, with a constantly hot and rainy season. The sandy beaches attracted visitors from all other districts, but Its main attraction was the Fighting Pit, where fierce fights between gladiators and beasts usually took place. Watching the fierce female golden saints dressed in amber armors kill each other was the favorite amusement of Lady Ayradax, who was also known to have a sadistic personality, and a clear infatuation with sorrow and death.

Araenya Everspring was the district with the biggest resemblance to the Shivering Isles’ landscape, an island covered with mushroom trees and an incredible diversity of flowers, butterflies and grasshoppers. The scent of spring in the air was inspiration for poets and lovers from many generations. Ironically, it was the place in which the catacombs were built. The reason why? Lady Ayradax would refer to death as “the spring of a new existence”…

But among all districts, Araenya Prison was the most controversial. Built in the Planes of oblivion, it was the first big Shivering isles’ jail, and a prison by its own nature: a small isle surrounded by an ocean of lava and dwelled by the black clannfears, the fiercest of their kind. This place was not reached by a magic door at the temple of the Four Seasons, and no one but Lady Ayradax and her Dremora guards really knew the location of its entrance . It was a place of imprisonment, torture and execution, but some people claim that it was indeed much more: a true concentration camp, where thousands of victims, guilty or not, were submitted to all imaginable abuses. The legend says Lady Ayradax performed experiments to reach immortality, using the blood and the vital energy of the tortured ones for magic purposes. Some say she had a private pool within the prison, where she would bathe on the blood of the prisoners, surrounded by hanging corpses. Nobody ever knew where the Queen hid the key to the prison. It is well known that she hid the key of the Fighting Pit somewhere near the nobility’s pools at the thermae, and the key to this lair in the Fight pits. No one would try to steal it, they knew that would mean a tragic end at the planes of Oblivion! But the prison was her private haven, and the legends don’t tell much more about it.

Time has brought changes to the realm of Araenya, and it ended up being destroyed by its own creator. There are two versions about the reason for the destruction of the city : one says that the population started worshiping pagan idols, which enraged Sheogorath. The other says that the Madgod was displeased by the obsession Of Lady Ayradax in becoming a Goddess by her own means. The undisputed truth is that he inflicted a series of natural disasters in each of the districts, wiping out the population, with the exception of Araenya Prison, which was already the purest disgrace. Lady Ayradax eventually died--- some say she committed suicide, others say she was killed by the cataclysmic events. In fact, her body lies in a tomb at the catacombs. Her minions have locked it with her treasures and stored the key in a hideout at the depths of a burrow tunnel nearby the city. May she find in the spring of her existence the peace she never had during her life.