-Introduction-
Hullo! I’ve always had an interest in the Reachmen and when I started my recent character I decided I was going to play as a Reachman. I searched the Nexus for a race mod that could help my character stand out a bit more from the standard Breton. While I found several that were certainly well put together, I couldn’t find one that I fully agreed with. Some tried to portray the Reachmen as half-Breton half-Nord when in fact the modern Reachmen has very little nordic blood in them. Other mods focused on the Reachmen and the Forsworn being one and the same. However, the Forsworn are only a single political entity within the Reachmen culture. Not everyone subscribes to the Forsworn beliefs and hates the Nords with every fiber of their body, plotting to one day reclaim Markarth. The Reachmen are a very diverse group with influences from many races. So, I decided to make my own mod that I felt better reflected the diverse Reachman race, and share it with the Nexus.
 
Please note that I am very new to modding and not the best at balancing, so criticism and suggestions are encouraged and appreciated :)
 
Also, I’m aware that Reachmen and Bretons are often considered to be the same race, however there is also a lot of in game evidence to suggest that they are separate races altogether. Some texts and characters even claim they can no longer be considered the same race. This mod is meant to reflect these differences, as one raised as a Reachman would be very different than one raised as a Breton.
 


-Racial Summary-
Hailing from the Reach located in High Rock and Skyrim, the tribal Reachmen are a mongrel race, even by Breton standards, and have inherited a variety of resistances. As supposed "Madmen" and "Witchmen" they are known to be savage warriors and hunters capable of strange hedge magic, which they can use to empower themselves with an unnatural fury. More peaceful Reachmen are often sought out for their potent alchemical concoctions.
 
Mongrel Blood (Ability)
A Reachman's mongrel blood grants them 25% magic resistance, 15% disease resistance, 15% poison resistance, and 5% frost resistance.
 
Fury of the Reach (Power)
The Reachman empowers themselves with ancient hedge-magic, granting faster stamina and magicka regeneration as well as doubling physical damage for 60 seconds.

I am Forsworn (This is ONLY available in the Forsworn Reachman file)
Player is added to the Forsworn faction, making Forsworn NPCs friendly and allowing full access to their camps.
 
Skills:
Alchemy (10)
Restoration (5)
Destruction (5)
Light Armor (5)
One-Handed (5)
Archery (5)
 
Starting Spells:
Healing
Flames
Lesser Ward
 
Reachmen have access to all forsworn and Breton warpaint as well as a few others from the Nord, Redguard, and Altmer races to reflect their influences on Reachmen tribes.
 

-My Thought Process-
Suggestions/Criticisms Welcome
 
The Reachmen have been confirmed to have interbred quite a bit with the other races. I decided to focus on the impact of the races that would have been living around the Reach. The magic resistance has been kept the same because at the end of the day, Breton and Altmer blood plays the biggest role in their biology. They also have been known to have interbred with orcs, who have a natural magical resistance. I included the poison and disease resistance to reflect their Redguard ancestry as well as the general resistances they would have built up over time due to heir culture and interbreeding with other races. Lastly, I added a small frost resistance. Skyrim confirms that there isn’t much Nord blood running through them, however it is still present and many Reachmen live have lived in Skyrim for generations now.
 
Fury of the Reach is meant to reflect their savage nature as well as their use of poorly understood magic. The idea being that the Reachmen is empowering themselves with such magic to go into a sort of berserker rage.
 
I chose skills that I thought best reflected the overall tribal nature of the Reachmen. All of the Forsworn’s weapons are one-handed and all of their armor is light. The Reachmen would be natural hunters and gatherers, and have make extensive use of alchemy. Restoration and Destruction are the two schools of spells we regularly see Forsworn use in game. I wanted to give them an extra spell to reflect their Breton and Altmer ancestry, and Lesser Ward is used by all Forsworn spell-casters.



-Install-
Make sure you only choose ONE file to download. You can install with Vortex, or install it manually.

In the case of a manual install, simply unpack the .7z and drop its contents into your Skyrim directory, usually (but not always) located located in:
Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/Common/Skyrim
Then make sure to enable the mod in your selected Mod Manager and enjoy!

-Lore-
I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading about the Reachmen and their history, especially while making this mod. The following is a general overview of the Reachman race and culture.
 
Reachmen are the ancient inhabitants of the Western Reach of High Rock and the Reach of Skyrim. The Reach is located on the between Hammerfell, Skyrim, High Rock, and Orsinium, and all of these nations have had their influence on the Reachmen. They are primarily Breton in ancestry and share many physical characteristics with their Breton cousins. However, after centuries of interbreeding with the many races located in and around the Reach, as well as possessing a very distinctive culture, many have come to consider the Reachmen to be an entirely separate race of their own, especially the Reachmen and Bretons themselves. Breton, Altmer, Redguard, Orc, Nord, even daedra blood and more is known to flow through a Reachman’s veins, creating a truly mongrel race.
 
The Reachman culture is very tribal, to the point of being considered primitive by the other races. They live in caves, abandoned ruins, and camps made of animal hides. Their weapons and clothing are also made from primitive materials such as animal hides, furs, bones, and stone. They are viewed as barbaric savages and act with cruelty towards outsiders. Little better than a common bandit. They worship their own pantheon known as the Old Gods, which appears to be a mixture of daedra and aedra worship. Exact customs and deities vary from tribe to tribe, but these gods are often viewed as savage counterparts to modern deities. The Reachmen are perhaps most infamous for their practice of primitive beast magic and even darker hedge magic capable of corrupting nature and bending it to their will. For these reasons, the Reachmen are known by many names, such as the “Witchmen of High Rock” and the “Madmen of the Reach”.
 
However, such names are not entirely an accurate portrayal of the Reachmen. While many Reach tribes are cruel and bloodthirsty raiders, consorting with daedra and wielding dark magic, others have managed to peacefully coexist with outsiders. Given their tribal and overall disorganized nature, the Reachmen lack any sort of political unity. This leads to a diverse array customs and practices between tribes. The practices of stereotypical Reachmen are referred to as “The Old Ways,” and not every tribe subscribes to such practices. Attempts have been made by many tribes to “modernize” their culture to be more acceptable by the rest of Tamriel. Camps became villages, war-parties turned to sellswords, slavery and human sacrifice were outlawed, furs were replaced with proper clothing, and more the benevolent Old Gods were venerated, or the faith abandoned altogether in favor of the Nine Divines. While such tribes usually prefer to keep to themselves, there are those that have formed positive relations with their neighbors and opened up trade. Friendly Reach tribes are often sought out by rural Bretons or Nords seeking alchemical remedies. Reachman rule over Markarth during the Great War was said to be relatively peaceful and fair for all the races living under their domain. Even after the Nords reclaimed Markarth, many Reachmen chose to live peacefully under Nordic rule instead of joining the Forsworn.