Are you a proud Dragonborn who refuses to become a slobbering animal under any circumstance?

A devout follower of the Nine Divines who would never sell their soul to Hircine?

A fastidious mage who shudders in horror at the thought of turning in a flea-bitten mongrel?

A Khajiit who'll have to say no to becoming a mangy mutt, thank you very much?

Or just a perv who hates the idea that the waifu you probably spent way too much time customizing would have to spend a significant amount of time in-game with fur growing out of her ears and smelling like wet dog?

Then this mod is for you!


Coming back to Skyrim after a few years, I've decided to finally get around to finishing The Companions' quest line. In the past, because of role-playing reasons, I could never bring myself to progress past the Silver Hand quest. Years later, I still hate being forced to turn into a werewolf with a fiery passion, and none of the existing mods fit what I wanted, so I had to make one myself. :)


How My Mod Works:

I believe that sometimes, less is more. By taking advantage of existing "open to interpretation" lines in the game, I managed to skip the entire Silver Hand quest in a way that makes sense by adding one single new line.

When Skjor offers to turn you into a werewolf, you now have the option to tell him: "I'm not interested". He'll reply with "Very well." (Fully Voiced) and the Silver Hand quest simply ends. That's it. Your abilities are acknowledged as being on the same level as the Circle's but you don't join the Circle at this time, and Skjor and Aela go back to their daily lives. Personally, I think this makes way more sense than what happens if you don't want to become a werewolf without this mod: You walk away and leave Skjor and Aela waiting in the Underforge indefinitely; Aela never turns back into a human after that. Like, wtf lol?

Blood's Honor will immediately start and you get a quest prompt to go talk to Kodlak about "recent events". (Makes sense, I think. Skjor and Aela just tried to turn you into a werewolf behind his back. If you really hate the thought of turning into a werewolf, going to talk to him after this would be the sensible thing to do.)

Everything would then progress almost exactly like it would in an unmodded game: He'll open with "I hear you've been busy of late." and you have the option of replying with "I work for the honor of The Companions." which is ambiguous and open ended enough to mean anything really. He'll then complain that all this sneaking around is not worthy of warriors of your stature and that you and Aela should know better (In an unmodded game, this would refer to you and Aela's secret campaign against the Silver Hand. Here, this would refer to you sneaking around and having secret meetings in the middle of the night.) After that, he'll make you go after the Glenmoril Witches, and you can now continue The Companions' quest line without having to become a werewolf.

As and added bonus, since you don't become a werewolf and join the Circle, Skjor and Aela do not "celebrate" by attacking the Silver Hand fort. Skjor doesn't die and will continue to hang around Jorrvaskr as part of the background scenery (He'll properly show up besides Kodlak's body along with Farkas and Njada later on, and will also properly attend the funeral, but he'll no longer give out radiant quests and won't have much to say or do.) Aela does not have to avenge him, and you never get roped into a personal vendetta that doesn't have much to do with you as a pure-blooded human being. (I mean, in the vanilla game, the Silver Hand were minding their own business, but those two idiots just decided to attack a fortress full of werewolf hunters for shit and giggles. Am I supposed to feel outraged when one of them Leroy Jenkins his way in and dies or something? Bonus points if I happen to be a vampire hunter and part of the Dawnguard when it goes down.)


Various Additional Tweaks:

I've added conditions to all lines that mention Skjor's death so that they would check for his death before showing up in the game.

All comments related to the player's status as a werewolf will check to see if the player has the "Beast Form" spell.

The player will be able to properly rest and gain the "Rested" bonus after "The Silver Hand" quest if you reject becoming a werewolf.

If you change your mind about becoming a werewolf, you can talk to Aela after "The Silver Hand" quest. I've also tweaked the script so that if you become a werewolf in this manner, you can still cure yourself after "Glory of the Dead" with a Glenmoril Witch's head.


Compatibility:


This is a relatively light mod that should be compatible with everything that does not touch The Companions' quest line, and you can install it at any point before talking to Skjor in the Underforge.

Do not use my mod alongside mods that make major changes to The Companions' quest line.

If you use mods that only make superficial changes to The Companions' quest line (like "Better Quest Objectives" for example), my mod will probably still work if it comes after in the load order, but I make no guarantees.

I've already tested the mod quite thoroughly and it worked fine in my current playthrough. If you have problems, first load all your mods in TES5Edit and check to see if my edited quests are being overridden by another mod.