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About this mod
Uses carefully spliced and re-purposed dialogue to allow the citizens of Morthal to interact with each another. Along with giving more immersive schedules to the inhabitants, it also expands the skills and backstories of Benor, Eisa Blackthorn, Valdimar and Erandur.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Denizens of Morthal is a dialogue and character expansion for the residents of the hold capital Morthal. It changes the schedules of the characters and allows them to converse with each other. It also acts as an overhaul for characters with ties to the area, namely Benor, Erandur, Valdimar, Eisa Blackthorn and Meeko.
This mod adds around 173 carefully spliced and synth-free NPC-to-NPC conversations. Most of these take place in Morthal, but some conversations are for specific characters to converse with each other (usually involving Benor, Eisa, Valdimar and Erandur), and their connections to other people in different locations, so be sure to take those four on your travels!
To learn the exact status of Denizens of Morthal or any of my other mods, please check my Nexus forum profile page.
Some of the dialogue in action:
A testimonial courtesy of SoftGaming--it starts around 3 minutes in:
A testimonial courtesy of Bards College Graduate--it starts around 8 minutes & 11 seconds in:
Deeper Details:
If you are curious about anything in particular, the Articles section contains information about the following topics:
Edited Locations List
Skill Changes
Story Enhancements
Schedule Alterations
Dialogue Particulars
For Best Results:
I urge you to install Denizens before you begin a new game. Since it edits NPCs (especially their schedules), includes a couple of Start Game Enabled quests, and adds a few objects here and
there (be sure to peruse the Edited Locations List linked to under the Deeper Details section), Denizens is not a mod to be installed if you are already in the process of playing a game.
In addition, use the EZ2c Dialogue Menu, or if you cannot find it, get the Minimal Oblivion Dialogue Menu instead.
Why?
Denizens' dialogue is uncapped. This means that many of the dialogue responses exceed the default letter limit put in place by Bethesda for both the Player and NPC responses (meaning that the responses tend to be longer and more detailed). The latter (for NPC responses) should not cause trouble, but depending on what other dialogue mods you have installed (and the length of their own responses) some of the Player's dialogue may only show up sporadically. Using one of the mods listed above should help mitigate the issue.
Make sense? If not, that's okay! Click the spoiler below if you want an example.
- - - - - - -
This is some of Valdimar's new dialogue about the Dawnguard questline in DoH. It takes place in the middle of a deeper conversation, so it is not a starter topic. (You'll see what I mean by that in a bit.)
Uncapped Player Response: You can't keep blaming yourself for what happened to the Vigilants. You honor them best by keeping your focus and staying in the fight.
Letter Limit Player Response: Look, it's over. Stop blaming yourself.
See what I mean?
Uncapped responses shouldn't cause any real problems per say, but when they are the starting topic of a dialogue tree, there's a chance that other dialogue options won't show up on the screen. Usually you can get away with one uncapped starter response, but if there are other uncapped responses (be they from dialogue re-write mods or just other mods that add their own dialogue options to NPCs), then they will war with each other for the right to be seen in the dialogue options sector.
That's why you get a mod like the Minimal Oblivion Dialogue Menu; it can help make all the responses show up.
Required Mods:
Denizens requires no master files at this time. However, if you wish to be able to recruit Eisa as a follower, you will need a mod like Relationship Dialogue Overhaul to affect this.
If you use RDO, make sure to load Denizens below it. I am slowly crafting my own personal dialogue overhaul mod, but I dare not speculate on when--or even if--it will be made available.
Denizens was originally created using the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch (USLEP). Though it no longer requires it as a master file, it incorporates several changes from the patch for similarly edited sections in the Creation Kit. It also includes a few scripts and NPC packages to keep it compatible and to avoid breaking any fixes. For this, I thank the Unofficial Patch Team for the understanding clauses in their permissions that allow this to take place.
Please note that though Meeko has two conversations with Benor, that this mod does not make any changes to how often Meeko barks. You can still use other mods to reduce barking.If you use a mod that changes how dogs sound when barking, just remember that Meeko's custom conversations were made with the vanilla-game dog sounds.
Patches, Load-Order & Known Issues:
It is inevitable that Denizens will edit characters and locations touched on by other mods. If you wish to make a compatibility patch for the characters or any areas that I have edited that present conflicts, then please feel free to do so. Please take a look at the Permissions tab for further details. I would hope the fact that I am very pro-patch is quite clear by now. If you prefer another creator's interpretation of any of the characters that I have edited or expanded, then you are more than welcome to create a patch to block out my dialogue additions.
If you want to help make more patches a reality, then Endorse the mod and spread the word. Trust me on this--once the Denizens of Hjaalmarch hits, patch creators will definitely be needed.
The following spoiler will direct you to the patches I actually know about:
The following spoiler will explain why this mod edits NPC Appearances:
The following spoiler will talk about Known Issues:
Future Plans:
As of late January 2024, all of my attention is focused on Denizens of Hjaalmarch, which started off as a simple update to Denizens of Morthal, but grew so much that it will in fact be a new release. Stay tuned for news about it, because DoH is a bit more ambitious than DoM--which is why I will keep DoM available even after DoH releases.
There is also a sibling mod in the works called Kindred Spirits, which will (to save esp slots) cover the other eight holds of Skyrim (including the island where Castle Volkihar is located), and Solstheim.
Mod Credits:
Lollia - Thalassophobic Pisces on a mission--and also the mod author.
Aesthetics Credits:
Cover Picture: Inferna-assassin also known as Victor Harrington. The whole of the Morthal logo and background is his, I only added the words. You can find more of his work right here.
Raw File Credits:
Eisa's hair is from KS Hairdos - Renewal by Kalilies, Shocky & Stealthic Khaos
Erandur's eyes are from Improved Eyes Skyrim by MissJennabee & Nazenn
The eyes of Benor, Valdimar and Eisa are from The Eyes of Beauty by Gabriel Mailhot, also known as LogRaam
The Environment Map used for all eyes is from Improved Eye Reflections and Cube Map by FadingSignal
The Normal Map used for all eyes is from Eye Normal Map Fix by MrDave
Head Mesh and Facetint Credits:
Enhanced Female Head Mesh by DomainWolf
Eisa's Warpaint is from Xenius Character Enhancement Complete by Xenius
Upper Eyeshadow (Eisa) is from Kai's Makeup and Warpaints by XarathosHawke
Lips (Eisa) are from Stoja's Warpaints by Veeblix
Age/Rough Complexions for the Men are from Vitruvia by Mandragorasprouts
All Other Face-Related Tints are from Vanilla Makeup HD by DomainWolf
Special Thanks to:
Notovny, whose kind deed many years ago led me to learn about audio extraction.
Tasheni, who was the savior of my sanity on more than one occasion.
Rallyeator, who listened to my impassioned rambling with commendable fortitude.
Pandorable, who generously shared her knowledge and answered my many questions.
SirJesto, who is so knowledgeable about esps that he is surely a disciple of Hermaeus Mora.
Cuyima, for delving fearlessly into into the craziness of SSE and saving Eisa's face. Literally.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before Anyone Asks - AI/Machine Learning/Synth audio related:
Yes.
Are you going to use it in your mods?
No.
Why not?
Various reasons.
But WHY!?
Trying to explain something over the internet always tends to be a pointless endeavor, but I will leave you with a fitting quote by Rachel Field:
"The sight of the cage is only frightening to the bird that has once been caught."
I will throw money at you.
That's very generous, but even if I ever get the stones to accept some form of donation, any money earned would go to either maintaining or replacing my ancient computer. Its age is in the double-digits, and it is very dear to me.
I will generate the audio you need and send it to you.
No, you most certainly will not. I happen to love working with audio, splicing or otherwise. You doing that would remove the only thing I actually enjoy in my mods' creation process. Thanks, but no thanks.
But spliced dialogue has limitations.
I prefer to call them challenges.
This mod adds around 173 carefully spliced and synth-free NPC-to-NPC conversations. Most of these take place in Morthal, but some conversations are for specific characters to converse with each other (usually involving Benor, Eisa, Valdimar and Erandur), and their connections to other people in different locations, so be sure to take those four on your travels!
To learn the exact status of Denizens of Morthal or any of my other mods, please check my Nexus forum profile page.
Some of the dialogue in action:
A testimonial courtesy of SoftGaming--it starts around 3 minutes in:
A testimonial courtesy of Bards College Graduate--it starts around 8 minutes & 11 seconds in:
Deeper Details:
If you are curious about anything in particular, the Articles section contains information about the following topics:
Edited Locations List
Skill Changes
Story Enhancements
Schedule Alterations
Dialogue Particulars
For Best Results:
I urge you to install Denizens before you begin a new game. Since it edits NPCs (especially their schedules), includes a couple of Start Game Enabled quests, and adds a few objects here and
there (be sure to peruse the Edited Locations List linked to under the Deeper Details section), Denizens is not a mod to be installed if you are already in the process of playing a game.
In addition, use the EZ2c Dialogue Menu, or if you cannot find it, get the Minimal Oblivion Dialogue Menu instead.
Why?
Denizens' dialogue is uncapped. This means that many of the dialogue responses exceed the default letter limit put in place by Bethesda for both the Player and NPC responses (meaning that the responses tend to be longer and more detailed). The latter (for NPC responses) should not cause trouble, but depending on what other dialogue mods you have installed (and the length of their own responses) some of the Player's dialogue may only show up sporadically. Using one of the mods listed above should help mitigate the issue.
Make sense? If not, that's okay! Click the spoiler below if you want an example.
Spoiler:
* The example provided above is NOT part of Denizens; it is from a mod of mine, but it is not a published one.Show
In Skyrim, the player's dialogue is capped to a certain character (typed letter) limit. That's why the player's dialogue responses often sounds uninformed, very blunt, bored, not very effusive or detailed.
*Here's an example: Context - Erandur has just finished sending the Skull of Corruption to the depths of Oblivion.
Vanilla Player Response: Are you going to be all right?
Edited Player Response: I hate to leave you in this dark place. Do you think you will fare well?
The difference is that the dialogue option is longer. Now, that particular example isn't actually against the letter limit, so I'll load up Denizens of Hjaalmarch (DoH)--NOT Denizens of Morthal (DoM)--and give you an example of one that probably is.
*Here's an example: Context - Erandur has just finished sending the Skull of Corruption to the depths of Oblivion.
Vanilla Player Response: Are you going to be all right?
Edited Player Response: I hate to leave you in this dark place. Do you think you will fare well?
The difference is that the dialogue option is longer. Now, that particular example isn't actually against the letter limit, so I'll load up Denizens of Hjaalmarch (DoH)--NOT Denizens of Morthal (DoM)--and give you an example of one that probably is.
- - - - - - -
This is some of Valdimar's new dialogue about the Dawnguard questline in DoH. It takes place in the middle of a deeper conversation, so it is not a starter topic. (You'll see what I mean by that in a bit.)
Uncapped Player Response: You can't keep blaming yourself for what happened to the Vigilants. You honor them best by keeping your focus and staying in the fight.
Letter Limit Player Response: Look, it's over. Stop blaming yourself.
See what I mean?
Uncapped responses shouldn't cause any real problems per say, but when they are the starting topic of a dialogue tree, there's a chance that other dialogue options won't show up on the screen. Usually you can get away with one uncapped starter response, but if there are other uncapped responses (be they from dialogue re-write mods or just other mods that add their own dialogue options to NPCs), then they will war with each other for the right to be seen in the dialogue options sector.
That's why you get a mod like the Minimal Oblivion Dialogue Menu; it can help make all the responses show up.
Required Mods:
Denizens requires no master files at this time. However, if you wish to be able to recruit Eisa as a follower, you will need a mod like Relationship Dialogue Overhaul to affect this.
If you use RDO, make sure to load Denizens below it. I am slowly crafting my own personal dialogue overhaul mod, but I dare not speculate on when--or even if--it will be made available.
Denizens was originally created using the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch (USLEP). Though it no longer requires it as a master file, it incorporates several changes from the patch for similarly edited sections in the Creation Kit. It also includes a few scripts and NPC packages to keep it compatible and to avoid breaking any fixes. For this, I thank the Unofficial Patch Team for the understanding clauses in their permissions that allow this to take place.
Please note that though Meeko has two conversations with Benor, that this mod does not make any changes to how often Meeko barks. You can still use other mods to reduce barking.If you use a mod that changes how dogs sound when barking, just remember that Meeko's custom conversations were made with the vanilla-game dog sounds.
Patches, Load-Order & Known Issues:
It is inevitable that Denizens will edit characters and locations touched on by other mods. If you wish to make a compatibility patch for the characters or any areas that I have edited that present conflicts, then please feel free to do so. Please take a look at the Permissions tab for further details. I would hope the fact that I am very pro-patch is quite clear by now. If you prefer another creator's interpretation of any of the characters that I have edited or expanded, then you are more than welcome to create a patch to block out my dialogue additions.
If you want to help make more patches a reality, then Endorse the mod and spread the word. Trust me on this--once the Denizens of Hjaalmarch hits, patch creators will definitely be needed.
The following spoiler will direct you to the patches I actually know about:
Spoiler:
Show
There is a patch for Cities of the North - Morthal. It was created by Allonsywisegirl and can be found right here.
The following spoiler will explain why this mod edits NPC Appearances:
Spoiler:
Show
For the most part, that is just a side effect of how the Creation Kit works. Editing one little thing on an NPC counts as a whole character edit, unfortunately. However, as with most passion projects, Denizens started off (and remains to this day) a personal mod. So the appearence changes you see in Benor, Eisa, Valdimar and Erandur are very much deliberate. For Eisa especially, I wanted to make sure that she looked related to a certain pair of sisters as they appear in my favourite child overhaul mod: Simple Children by Tetchystar.
I also went on a lengthy and somewhat nerve-racking permission gathering spree for Denizens (and even its sibling mod, because I like to plan far ahead and do not appreciate being blind-sighted when creators vanish without a trace), so availing myself to those hard-won permissions is very much on my priority list.
I intend to keep my deliberate appearance changes limited strictly to Anchor Characters as much as possible, though, which is a role that Benor and the other three fill with aplomb. If you decide to keep Denizens' deliberate appearance changes, they will use whatever skin you have installed, so there is no need to worry about anything funky happening in that direction. For the skin shown in the screenshots, the men use Vitruvia and the women use Bejin, albeit with a customized face texture (every lady having the exact same configuration of moles on their faces really started to weird me out.)
I also went on a lengthy and somewhat nerve-racking permission gathering spree for Denizens (and even its sibling mod, because I like to plan far ahead and do not appreciate being blind-sighted when creators vanish without a trace), so availing myself to those hard-won permissions is very much on my priority list.
I intend to keep my deliberate appearance changes limited strictly to Anchor Characters as much as possible, though, which is a role that Benor and the other three fill with aplomb. If you decide to keep Denizens' deliberate appearance changes, they will use whatever skin you have installed, so there is no need to worry about anything funky happening in that direction. For the skin shown in the screenshots, the men use Vitruvia and the women use Bejin, albeit with a customized face texture (every lady having the exact same configuration of moles on their faces really started to weird me out.)
The following spoiler will talk about Known Issues:
Spoiler:
Show
Eisa, despite having a heated conversation that can occur with Delphine, can still be made a Blade. The bane of my existence, this is. Nothing I've tried works to remove her from becoming a Blade. I will keep trying.
Eisa may become stuck in Sibbi's jail cell in Riften. I really have no idea why she sometimes teleports in there. She should catch up with you once you leave the prison, though.
Conversations involving more than two NPCs behave differently. The first two actors who interact with each other seem to do just fine, but the other actors involved in the same conversation make take part in it from afar, or be moving about while interacting with the others at some distance. This is also visible in vanilla dialogue scenes, such as the one in the Blue Palace that involves Falk Firebeard, Bryling and Sybille Stentor, where the first two will speak in the main chamber of the palace, but Sybille will chime in while sleeping on her bed--her replies hardly audible. I am still looking into ways to prevent this from happening.
No one is talking. This is a vanilla game issue. NPCs simply won't speak to each other. It may have something to do with the growing size of a save file or just due to Skyrim being Skyrim. It can start up again without any warning. My advice is to just lose yourself in the game and let it come back naturally, though sometimes Waiting or relaunching the game to re-load a save file can kick it back into gear. (I had such a glorious time trying to test new dialogue with this. Yes, that was sarcasm.)
Lore notice: I had to make an educated guess as to when the news of Torygg's death reached Morthal.
Role-play notice: The player mentions escaping Helgen during the introduction to Valdimar. This will no longer be an issue once the Hjaalmarch Edition releases.
If you are running Immersive Citizens, you might wish to disable the weather modules for the Hjaalmarch and Pale areas. Otherwise, you might be wondering why no one ever seems to leave their homes.
Eisa may become stuck in Sibbi's jail cell in Riften. I really have no idea why she sometimes teleports in there. She should catch up with you once you leave the prison, though.
Conversations involving more than two NPCs behave differently. The first two actors who interact with each other seem to do just fine, but the other actors involved in the same conversation make take part in it from afar, or be moving about while interacting with the others at some distance. This is also visible in vanilla dialogue scenes, such as the one in the Blue Palace that involves Falk Firebeard, Bryling and Sybille Stentor, where the first two will speak in the main chamber of the palace, but Sybille will chime in while sleeping on her bed--her replies hardly audible. I am still looking into ways to prevent this from happening.
No one is talking. This is a vanilla game issue. NPCs simply won't speak to each other. It may have something to do with the growing size of a save file or just due to Skyrim being Skyrim. It can start up again without any warning. My advice is to just lose yourself in the game and let it come back naturally, though sometimes Waiting or relaunching the game to re-load a save file can kick it back into gear. (I had such a glorious time trying to test new dialogue with this. Yes, that was sarcasm.)
Lore notice: I had to make an educated guess as to when the news of Torygg's death reached Morthal.
Role-play notice: The player mentions escaping Helgen during the introduction to Valdimar. This will no longer be an issue once the Hjaalmarch Edition releases.
If you are running Immersive Citizens, you might wish to disable the weather modules for the Hjaalmarch and Pale areas. Otherwise, you might be wondering why no one ever seems to leave their homes.
Future Plans:
As of late January 2024, all of my attention is focused on Denizens of Hjaalmarch, which started off as a simple update to Denizens of Morthal, but grew so much that it will in fact be a new release. Stay tuned for news about it, because DoH is a bit more ambitious than DoM--which is why I will keep DoM available even after DoH releases.
There is also a sibling mod in the works called Kindred Spirits, which will (to save esp slots) cover the other eight holds of Skyrim (including the island where Castle Volkihar is located), and Solstheim.
Mod Credits:
Lollia - Thalassophobic Pisces on a mission--and also the mod author.
Aesthetics Credits:
Cover Picture: Inferna-assassin also known as Victor Harrington. The whole of the Morthal logo and background is his, I only added the words. You can find more of his work right here.
Raw File Credits:
Eisa's hair is from KS Hairdos - Renewal by Kalilies, Shocky & Stealthic Khaos
Erandur's eyes are from Improved Eyes Skyrim by MissJennabee & Nazenn
The eyes of Benor, Valdimar and Eisa are from The Eyes of Beauty by Gabriel Mailhot, also known as LogRaam
The Environment Map used for all eyes is from Improved Eye Reflections and Cube Map by FadingSignal
The Normal Map used for all eyes is from Eye Normal Map Fix by MrDave
Head Mesh and Facetint Credits:
Enhanced Female Head Mesh by DomainWolf
Eisa's Warpaint is from Xenius Character Enhancement Complete by Xenius
Upper Eyeshadow (Eisa) is from Kai's Makeup and Warpaints by XarathosHawke
Lips (Eisa) are from Stoja's Warpaints by Veeblix
Age/Rough Complexions for the Men are from Vitruvia by Mandragorasprouts
All Other Face-Related Tints are from Vanilla Makeup HD by DomainWolf
Special Thanks to:
Notovny, whose kind deed many years ago led me to learn about audio extraction.
Tasheni, who was the savior of my sanity on more than one occasion.
Rallyeator, who listened to my impassioned rambling with commendable fortitude.
Pandorable, who generously shared her knowledge and answered my many questions.
SirJesto, who is so knowledgeable about esps that he is surely a disciple of Hermaeus Mora.
Cuyima, for delving fearlessly into into the craziness of SSE and saving Eisa's face. Literally.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before Anyone Asks - AI/Machine Learning/Synth audio related:
Spoiler:
Show
Do you know about the latest AI for voice technology?
Yes.
Are you going to use it in your mods?
No.
Why not?
Various reasons.
But WHY!?
Trying to explain something over the internet always tends to be a pointless endeavor, but I will leave you with a fitting quote by Rachel Field:
"The sight of the cage is only frightening to the bird that has once been caught."
I will throw money at you.
That's very generous, but even if I ever get the stones to accept some form of donation, any money earned would go to either maintaining or replacing my ancient computer. Its age is in the double-digits, and it is very dear to me.
I will generate the audio you need and send it to you.
No, you most certainly will not. I happen to love working with audio, splicing or otherwise. You doing that would remove the only thing I actually enjoy in my mods' creation process. Thanks, but no thanks.
But spliced dialogue has limitations.
I prefer to call them challenges.