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About this mod
An alternate start mod that allows you to start in any province of Tamriel or in the Shivering Isles, bypassing all main quests. Choose your starting date, level, race, class and birthsign and get outfitted accordingly. Start owning a dwelling in the wilderness. Play the Oblivion main quest if and when you want to. Be free. Be anybody.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
This alternate start mod is not as elaborate in the choice of your background as some of the other alternate start mods out there. You start as a nobody. Well, you start as a typical citizen with your chosen class and level. You get some initial gear, spells, equipment and money based on that. It's up to you to get more of everything.
You start in your cottage somewhere in the wilderness. It has two doors: one leads to Tamriel, the other to the Shivering Isles. Which do you choose? Or perhaps you'll descend into the basement and find even more doors, depending on which province mods you have loaded:
Choose something. Each door leads to a dwelling in the corresponding province. They are all different.
Once you make up your mind, all other doors become barred from the other side. You will need to find those dwellings in the world in order to unlock the doors. And then? Well, what do you reckon? You'll need to have your wits about you if you are to solve the riddles and find those dwellings, you know. Oh, do look around for clues in the basement.
As you look around your cottage, you find a certain amulet with a large ruby tucked away in a sack. Take that, and the Oblivion main quest begins. Leave it alone, and the Oblivion Crisis may never happen. The Oblivion gate at Kvatch does not appear until you deliver the amulet to Jauffre. So you can visit Kvatch as it was before the Oblivion Crisis, although admittedly there isn't much to see there because it seems they've had a huge fire and the whole city was burned to the ground. Smoking in bed started it, I believe. Nothing to do with daedra.
If you choose to start in the Shivering Isles, you start on the mainland, not in the Fringe. There is no Gatekeeper to kill, either. You're in. You're one of the citizens. If you wish to bring on the Greymarch and get embroiled in it, go see the Prince. Otherwise stay away from the Palace.
The Strange Door in the Niben Bay is active. If you are coming from the Shivering Isles, you can simply go through it and back again. If you are approaching it for the first time from Tamriel, the usual introduction follows. The DLC does not start until you come close to the door. Note that even with that introduction, you are still not obliged to play the Greymarch as long as you do not come to visit the Prince.
If you choose to start in Morrowind, the game is prepared for you to start the Morrowind main quest. Look around for a certain package, take it and receive orders to deliver it to one Caius Cosades in Balmora. This starts the main quest. You do skip the Census Office scene because that's the part where you create your character which this mod replaces. Developed for Morroblivion v66.
You can also completely ignore that package. Stay out of politics. Azura will just have to look for another Nerevarine.
If you wish to play as a witcher, load Witcher in Cyrodiil and get outfitted according to your chosen starting level. Use v2.7 with Witcher in Cyrodiil v1.3 or lower, and v2.8 with Witcher in Cyrodiil v2.0 or higher.
This mod can now also be used with an existing game. Naturally, it doesn't start a new game for you, you don't get any new equipment, money or spells. But the houses exist in the world and you can discover them one by one and build your hub. Of course you don't know where they are because the book of hints is inside... Ah. So here's your hint: look at the first screenshot. Think you can find that cottage?
Load this mod after all the province mods, otherwise strange things might happen with path grids. Note that because none of the province mods are actual masters of this Alternative Start mod, your automated tools will not be able to place it in the load order and will likely mess it up. Try using your own brain for a change.
Changes to the Oblivion gate at Kvatch are fully compatible with Kvatch Rebuilt.
This mod requires OBSE version 22.6 or later.
Many thanks to PsymonPrime for the help with testing!
And now, once again, the choice is yours. The tension is almost palpable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morroblivion troubleshooting
There may be a potential problem if you have Morroblivion in your load order. Your saves may fail to load.
This is a difficult problem that doesn't occur every time. I have attempted to solve it. Read the sticky in the Posts section for the latest details.
Starting with v2.10 you get a special Morroblivion add-on on top of the main ESP. This add-on gives you physical exits to Vvardenfell and Solstheim - doors back to the Wolf Cavern. It was dynamic placing of these doors that introduced corruption into the saves, so now this should be solved with a separate fixed ESP mastered on Morrowind_ob.esm.
You can still use Wolf Alternate Start main ESP without the add-on. This allows you to exit to Vvardenfell or Solstheim, but you won't be able to re-enter the cottage and hub from there. Make sure you pick up anything you want to keep before exiting (including a certain package for Caius in Balmora).
If you still find that your save fails to load, you can disable this mod and it should load then. Please leave a comment if you are still experiencing problems, it has been very difficult to debug this issue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Future plans
This mod is meant to give you a starting point in each province, just one starting point, just one dwelling. They are all somewhere in the wilderness, although never too far from civilisation, and it is by design. So I won't be adding vanilla houses, or cities of Cyrodiil, or DLC, or, or, or. Neither will I provide different backgrounds or back stories to your character - if you want that, use one of the other alternate start mods, there are plenty to choose from. The only thing that I might do in the future, is let you start as a member of a guild. However, I need to think it through first.
You start in your cottage somewhere in the wilderness. It has two doors: one leads to Tamriel, the other to the Shivering Isles. Which do you choose? Or perhaps you'll descend into the basement and find even more doors, depending on which province mods you have loaded:
- Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina
- Valenwood Improved or TWMP Valenwood Improved
- Morroblivion v66 (exits on Vvardenfell and Solstheim) - READ TROUBLESHOOTING BELOW
- Hammerfell or TWMP Hammerfell
- TWMP High Rock
- TWMP Skyrim Alive
- TWMP Summerset Isles from Under the sign of the dragon - Tamriel Landscapes -
- TWMP Black Marsh from Under the sign of the dragon - Tamriel Landscapes - (not strictly required)
Choose something. Each door leads to a dwelling in the corresponding province. They are all different.
Once you make up your mind, all other doors become barred from the other side. You will need to find those dwellings in the world in order to unlock the doors. And then? Well, what do you reckon? You'll need to have your wits about you if you are to solve the riddles and find those dwellings, you know. Oh, do look around for clues in the basement.
As you look around your cottage, you find a certain amulet with a large ruby tucked away in a sack. Take that, and the Oblivion main quest begins. Leave it alone, and the Oblivion Crisis may never happen. The Oblivion gate at Kvatch does not appear until you deliver the amulet to Jauffre. So you can visit Kvatch as it was before the Oblivion Crisis, although admittedly there isn't much to see there because it seems they've had a huge fire and the whole city was burned to the ground. Smoking in bed started it, I believe. Nothing to do with daedra.
If you choose to start in the Shivering Isles, you start on the mainland, not in the Fringe. There is no Gatekeeper to kill, either. You're in. You're one of the citizens. If you wish to bring on the Greymarch and get embroiled in it, go see the Prince. Otherwise stay away from the Palace.
The Strange Door in the Niben Bay is active. If you are coming from the Shivering Isles, you can simply go through it and back again. If you are approaching it for the first time from Tamriel, the usual introduction follows. The DLC does not start until you come close to the door. Note that even with that introduction, you are still not obliged to play the Greymarch as long as you do not come to visit the Prince.
If you choose to start in Morrowind, the game is prepared for you to start the Morrowind main quest. Look around for a certain package, take it and receive orders to deliver it to one Caius Cosades in Balmora. This starts the main quest. You do skip the Census Office scene because that's the part where you create your character which this mod replaces. Developed for Morroblivion v66.
You can also completely ignore that package. Stay out of politics. Azura will just have to look for another Nerevarine.
If you wish to play as a witcher, load Witcher in Cyrodiil and get outfitted according to your chosen starting level. Use v2.7 with Witcher in Cyrodiil v1.3 or lower, and v2.8 with Witcher in Cyrodiil v2.0 or higher.
This mod can now also be used with an existing game. Naturally, it doesn't start a new game for you, you don't get any new equipment, money or spells. But the houses exist in the world and you can discover them one by one and build your hub. Of course you don't know where they are because the book of hints is inside... Ah. So here's your hint: look at the first screenshot. Think you can find that cottage?
Load this mod after all the province mods, otherwise strange things might happen with path grids. Note that because none of the province mods are actual masters of this Alternative Start mod, your automated tools will not be able to place it in the load order and will likely mess it up. Try using your own brain for a change.
Changes to the Oblivion gate at Kvatch are fully compatible with Kvatch Rebuilt.
This mod requires OBSE version 22.6 or later.
Many thanks to PsymonPrime for the help with testing!
And now, once again, the choice is yours. The tension is almost palpable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morroblivion troubleshooting
There may be a potential problem if you have Morroblivion in your load order. Your saves may fail to load.
This is a difficult problem that doesn't occur every time. I have attempted to solve it. Read the sticky in the Posts section for the latest details.
Starting with v2.10 you get a special Morroblivion add-on on top of the main ESP. This add-on gives you physical exits to Vvardenfell and Solstheim - doors back to the Wolf Cavern. It was dynamic placing of these doors that introduced corruption into the saves, so now this should be solved with a separate fixed ESP mastered on Morrowind_ob.esm.
You can still use Wolf Alternate Start main ESP without the add-on. This allows you to exit to Vvardenfell or Solstheim, but you won't be able to re-enter the cottage and hub from there. Make sure you pick up anything you want to keep before exiting (including a certain package for Caius in Balmora).
If you still find that your save fails to load, you can disable this mod and it should load then. Please leave a comment if you are still experiencing problems, it has been very difficult to debug this issue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Future plans
This mod is meant to give you a starting point in each province, just one starting point, just one dwelling. They are all somewhere in the wilderness, although never too far from civilisation, and it is by design. So I won't be adding vanilla houses, or cities of Cyrodiil, or DLC, or, or, or. Neither will I provide different backgrounds or back stories to your character - if you want that, use one of the other alternate start mods, there are plenty to choose from. The only thing that I might do in the future, is let you start as a member of a guild. However, I need to think it through first.