Link to Special Edition version



At the end of the first Great War, the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion reached a stalemate. This lead to The White-Gold Concordat being signed, its terms heavily favoring the Dominion.

Per the terms of the treaty, the Empire was to secede a large portion of Hammerfell to the Dominion. The Redguards of Hammerfell objected to this, and so the Emperor renounced Hammerfell as an Imperial province. This would lead to lasting bitterness between Hammerfell and the Empire.
The Redguards continued to wage war against the Dominion for another 5 years before they finally succeeded in pushing them out of Hammerfell. The Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai was signed and the war was finally over.

The end of the Civil War is approaching. The Empire is as weak as it has ever been. The Aldmeri Dominion, never ones to miss an opportunity, declare war once again. With the Empire in ruins and the people of Skyrim already beaten and bloody from war, can anyone stand up to the might of the Dominion?

The fate of Tamriel will soon be decided, which side will you be on?

Starting

It appears to work fine with a save-game installation, a new game is recommended though.
If you have any problems with it from installing during a play-through, let me know.

You will receive a letter soon after the civil war has ended.
If Solitude/Windhelm is controlled by the Stormcloaks/Imperials, or once Tullius/Ulfric has died.

The Imperials and Stormcloaks will no longer be hostile once the war starts.

Your only chance to join the Aldmeri Dominion is during the first quest.
That is the only time.


If you don't know what to do next, make sure you don't have any objectives. If you have no objectives, wait for a letter.


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: The courier came to me but I didn't get a letter.
There is an issue with siege letters already appearing as read, as far as I know there is nothing I can do about this.
If you already have some letters, read through them or remove them until you find one you can't remove and that's the letter.

Q: I'm sided with Skyrim and I can't win the defense of Riften or the defense of Markarth.
The defense of Riften and first defense of Markarth are meant to be lost on the Skyrim side.
This way the Dominion can control some territory and you can have a proper war.
If you haven't lost after about 10 minutes, it will automatically end.



For an "Immersive Playthrough" of Skyrim
The main quest-line should be past the 'A Cornered Rat' quest.
The Dark Brotherhood quest-line should be finished.
You should have finished the College of Winterhold quest-line as well.
The 'Missing In Action' quest should be done if you want to do it.
All this should be done before the civil war ends.

(It is not necessary to do these quest-lines, if you do not plan to do them in a playthrough with this mod, then there will be no issue.)
(No mention to any of these quest-lines is ever made. I only put this here because the Thalmor are involved in these quest-lines.)

If you want to complete 'The Forsworn Conspiracy' quest you need to do it when Markarth isn't controlled by the Dominion.

You may keep your allegiance to the Imperials or Stormcloaks and defend Skyrim, or betray them and join the Aldmeri Dominion. 
It is possible to lose the war, giving a total of 4 endings.

There are 7 missions per side, the ones you get depend on how the war progresses, but you will always get at least 4.
There are also 3 side-quests per side, they become available later on during the war.

There are a few new characters for each side that show up once the war starts, they move to different cities depending on what territory their side controls.

If you do not show up to a siege in time, or if you run away, it will automatically end.
There is the option for retaliation sieges, if a defender loses a hold, they have a chance to try to take it back.
Succeeding in taking the hold back will not trigger retaliation.

Wearing the armor of your faction(Imperial, Stormcloak, or Thalmor), will make the enemy hostile to you.

Wearing a Talos amulet is illegal in Dominion controlled territory and will add to your bounty.
If you are sided with Skyrim, it will also make the Thalmor hostile to you.
Talos shrines in Dominion controlled cities are replaced with Akatosh shrines.

Each side has patrols on the roads and there are quite a few new world encounters.

You can rescue prisoners from enemy controlled forts.

There are some new armors which you can buy from Beirand in Solitude or the Dominion blacksmiths in Riften, or just loot them off of NPCs.
(The only new armor Beirand sells is Imperial Mage armor)

(Some extra things I consider spoilers are listed in the Readme, if you want to discover these on your own in-game then avoid the Readme.)
(The locations of the side-characters and side-quests are also listed in the Readme.)
(The Readme is in the 'Docs' tab.)



Configuration Menu

Siege Size is a multiplier of the regular reinforcement sizes.
You can set sieges to be as low as half the regular size, or up to five times the regular size.
(Setting it to a high number will make sieges last a long time, I recommend keeping it between 0.5 and 2)

Retaliation Chance controls the percentage for how often a defender can retaliate if they lose a hold.

Letter Delay sets the amount of hours before a letter is sent. You can also set it to 0 to remove the delay.

Auto Siege End Time sets the amount of hours before a siege automatically ends if you don't show up.

Delay War prevents the war from starting once the civil war ends.
Once the civil war has ended, Start War will be enabled, and you can start the war when you are ready.

Extra Dominion/Skyrim Reinforcements let's you add extra soldiers to either side. The number will be multiplied by the Siege Size option.
For reference, a normal siege with the default settings may have around 80-110 reinforcements for each side.

Allow Summon Spells let's you decide whether NPCs during sieges can use summon spells or not.
(NPCs using summon spells during sieges may cause crashing)

Much Lower Chance of Mages will make mages much less likely to spawn during sieges.
(Best done early on if you need/want this on.)

More Hostility the enemy side should always be hostile regardless of your armor.
If your head is covered this will disguise you and they shouldn't be hostile then.

End Civil War allows you to skip or end the civil war with whoever you set as the winner.
I recommend that if you're going to use this, do it before starting the civil war, for less possible issues.

Allow Objective Ended Sieges set whether sieges can be ended by an objective instead of losing all reinforcements.
(Only Whiterun and Markarth are ended by objectives)

Allow Nord Rebel Attacks set whether Nord Rebels can raid Dominion controlled cities.

Sieges Bosses
Siege Bosses are special NPCs that may spawn during sieges. They may support their side in some way and are also quite dangerous.
 (Their abilities are listed in the readme.)
Imperial Master-Wizards, Stormcloak Elite Warriors, and Thalmor Officers.
You can set the chance for each side to have one or turn them off.
(If the Stormcloaks won the civil war it's a 50% chance to be either an Imperial or a Stormcloak.)
The Thalmor Officer has a spell to create thunderstorms which strike the enemy with lightning, but it's recommended to keep this off if you already have lag or issues with sieges.


Difficulty
Normal: Things are balanced and the enemy retaliation chance is the same as the retaliation chance slider.

Hard: The enemy has extra reinforcements, if you don't show up to a siege in time you have a 70% chance of losing,
and the enemy has a 60% chance of retaliating if they lose a hold.

Insane: The enemy has even more reinforcements, if you don't show up to a siege in time you have a 90% chance of losing,
and the enemy will always retaliate.

There is an option to turn off retaliation sieges.

The boss in the Skyrim win ending is affected by the difficulty setting.


There are also options in the Debug page to reset siege NPCs, set a siege winner if you have issues with sieges, and also set the owner for each hold. 



Requirements

SKSE is required.

SkyUI is required for the configuration menu.



Compatibility

May not be compatible with mods that edit forts or the cities.

Should be compatible with most other mods.

I recommend loading it late in your load order.

If you're using a mod that modifies 'Blood on the Ice', load it after this one and do the quest before you finish the civil war.


Mods that are compatible

Civil War Overhaul

JK's Skyrim

Warzones 
(Is compatible but will spawn Imperials and Stormcloaks that won't fight and may interfere with the mod at times.)


Mods that aren't compatible

Dead NPC Body Cleaner Remover(Mainly during sieges)

Open Cities Skyrim

Legate Tyroni Calleius - Alex White

Savild - Alyxel

Ancotaur, Clagius, and Vertius - Brett "Pyractus" Bencze

Nord Courier, Vallion, and Bosmer Renegade in 'Renegade Removal' - Brian Henken

Ortheme and Panthius Vanin - Bryson Burnette

Female Dominion Guards - Caitlin Buckley

Anarenen and Olquaran - Charlie Buscombe

Grisveld - Danny (rainpapadakis)

Hlofgahr the Brave, Rodyval, Saveld, and Synniu Ceno - DarthDementous

Armion and Mithlian - David Sylvester 

Vingokar - "Dirty Harry .44 Magnum"

Baraan, Eanilian, Forond, Malpen, and Stenar Sialius. The Outros. - G. Dustin Sanborn a.k.a. Starrkk

Thalmor Justiciar chasing fugitive(Random Encounter) - Isaiah Salas

Balfhe Hard-Heart - Jake Everett

Corrimir, Dominion Whiterun Bounty Agent, and Justiciar looking for someone(Random Encounter) - Kieran (Discharge)

Astien, Debent, Haaki The Strong, Kalort, and Velfrid - Lez Fontaine (DerHeimataerde)

Dominion Riften Bounty Agent and Sjard the Bloody - Martin Wain

Aldarilar - MeekVoice

Heceril, Male Dominion Guards, Tunenre - Michael Rivers

Captain Vinicia Matius - Naoree

Nord Fugitive(Random Encounter) - RangerDelk

Alfhed and Valamor - Saenokda

Galis Romoren, Lunmaer the Righteous, Rinnor, Rissha, Wuunvid the Confident, Imperial Renegade in 'Renegade Removal' and Thalmor Agent in 2nd Synod quest - SevVocal

Ariellia - SkyRaeVoicing

Hodlin the brave, Jartod, and Malen - Sonic101

Aberius Lentinus, Thalmor Courier, Imperial Captain in Dominion lose ending and Synod Mage in 2nd Synod quest - StevenFromTexas

Viranir - Storm "GigaRat" Watters

Dar'Zahn - SyrianAws

Tauriel and Volanare - TehBigD97

Saldryn - TheNamesMoose

Aldari and Tarcilius Horatinius - TullyMonstrosity

Meshes and Textures

Redguard Knight Armor - hothtrooper44
Morrowind looking Glass Armor - JESSETIN3
Divine Metaphysics and other Dwemer items - LorSakyamuni
Aldmeri Tents - meo3000
Daedric Mage Armor, Glass Mage Armor, Imperial Mage Armor - Natterforme
Heroic Imperial Armor - rahman530
Aldmeri Dominion Banner - Okiir - Shinkoku

Outro Music

"Death of Kings", "Hero Down", "Private Reflection", "String Impromptu Number 1"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/