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Updated May 29, 2022
The Epilogue content for Maids II: Deception is cancelled
Thank you for your support throughout the years and for helping the core mod reach its original conclusion.
The Epilogue content for Maids II: Deception is cancelled
Thank you for your support throughout the years and for helping the core mod reach its original conclusion.
(Image contains spoilers for the ending of Maids II: Deception)
Spoiler:
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"The Warp in the North. That is what We would have called it had We been there with the Miracle Emperor. Immortal and eternal. A defiance of time. May we never grow weary of Our reign."
-- Ministry of Harmony recounting the Sky's Divide incident; unknown year, late Fifth Era. Days before evidence of the "Emperor Sanguinaire conspiracy" is leaked by Virtuous Company to the Aldmeri Dominion, igniting the Last War.
Development has begun for Maids II: Deception - Epilogue, a "sixth" episode for the quest mod that takes place after the events of Sky's Divide. Instead of one long questline, it will feature several smaller ones that are essential towards bridging the gap to the world changing events that are still to come.
The following sections will cover information on what the epilogue will contain along with how development will proceed.
Setting
The featured questline for the Epilogue is set primarily in a pocket realm of Oblivion known as Valhalla, a place that has adopted - sometimes stolen - its name and culture from countless sources and is inhabited by an immortal elven race known as the "holy matrons" and their human, mer, and daedric followers. It is also a realm in steady decline following the disappearance of its reigning goddess a hundred years ago.
Valhalla is a network of Ayleid strongholds in the sky that appeared in Maids I: Euphoria for TES4: Oblivion and has a backstory derived from the Claudia's Little Secret mod. With the permission of the Beyond Skyrim modding team, this new land will be created for the Epilogue using new, high quality assets based on the original Ayleid models and textures featured in TES4 recreated from scratch for TES5.
Story
The Observer keeps her word. She and the Dragonborn will meet again after Sky's Divide. Unfortunately, she, like all others, has her own ambitions. She wishes to steer the rightful inhabitants of Valhalla towards an ancient way of life rather than having them continue in aimless self-indulgence on the eve of the world's end. The Observer's efforts are resisted by Faustina, the true, last living member of the Pinder family in surname only and one of Valhalla's most influential officials. Faustina's approach is one of pragmatism backed by the knowledge of the pain that is destined to befall those who follow the Observer. Both of these characters seek the Dragonborn's loyalty in their cause, but neither is truly free from being manipulated by their very own servants.
Something is happening in Solstheim. Hundreds that were thought to have perished during the Red Year are suddenly turning up alive and well. It would have been deemed a miracle were it not for the fact they all now share an unbreakable bond that overrides old familial ties and friendships. At the center of this bittersweet phenomenon? A dead god's solitary apostle, cleansed in the flames of Red Mountain, and reborn as many. Her newfound idol also has many faces. Some call the idol the "Dragonborn."
The apostle is not the only one who has a keen interest in the Hero of Skyrim. Underground political forces loyal to the Empire are maneuvering quicker than ever before. Hope has been absent ever since the Great War sealed the Empire's fate as a puppet of the Aldmeri Dominion. Until now. Not since the Champion of Cyrodiil has one person gained so much influence in a single province, and with the mysterious death of Emperor Titus Mede II, the time has come for the unthinkable. If the Empire is to be reborn, a new emperor must be crowned. One that transcends mortality in the form of a symbol to unite the provinces of Man despite old rivalries and the machinations of the Dominion. But what price will have to be paid if this effort is undertaken?
The Dragonborn is not the same person that existed at the start of this journey. Something happened at Sky's Divide. "If that abomination had never existed, the Fifth Era would have come and gone as it should have, but now there is a hope for an age of eternal peace." At least, that is what the apostle believes.
Development
Schedule
A lot has changed in terms of schedule and modding availability since M2 concluded. Plans for an epilogue were made from the beginning in 2012 with this in mind, but it must be disclosed now in order to avoid disappointment that development is going to proceed slowly and will be handled more casually. Everything was devoted towards completing M2 from 2012 - 2016 and it cannot be done again. There's even a chance that development will continue on into the next TES game's release cycle - assuming 2019 at the earliest. However, given the direction Bethesda has taken since the release of TES5, the setting of any post-M2 story, and even less time available for largescale modding, a "Maids III" mod for TES6 wouldn't have been possible anyway.
The Epilogue will be a side project whereas M2 demanded work every day for five years. Updates on progress will be few, but the aim is to create a tightly focused mod on more relaxed terms.
Release
The Epilogue will be released exclusively for the standard editions of the mod (Nexus Mods, ModDB, etc.) and not for Abridged editions (Steam, Bethesda.NET). This is due to the content that will be included that would require large sections to be censored under Steam and Bethesda's Terms of Service. Abridged editions of the mod will continue to receive v5.x updates as needed when the epilogue is released whereas the full versions of the mod will continue on under v6.x releases.
Content
The following are the content goals for the Epilogue. While not final, they help provide a rough outline of what needs to be completed before release:
- Trolhetta Cave: a dungeon from The Elder Scrolls: Online. It happened to be placed in the same location as where Euphoria Palace would be constructed hundreds of years later. It will be added in the Epilogue as an optional dungeon in the same vein as Heartland Cave in the current M2 release. It will be accessible only after completing the final quest "Odyssey". This will be the first work to be done for the Epilogue as a means of getting back into modding after a break from the CK.
- Two new worldspaces: Valhalla and Saahel. Combined, they may end up being the size of Sky's Divide, but because of their nature as sky and lava areas, they will mostly consist of unnavigable empty space with some safe havens and non-quest specific interiors dotting the worldspaces.
- At least three questlines. Minor additional quests might be added, but no plans for now.
- Whereas M2 avoided placing quest objectives in Solstheim aside from possibly spawning captains at Raven Rock for the final quest, the Epilogue will have a questline take place there.
- Diverging quest layouts based on the decision at the end of Ep. 5.
- Lilith and Freya will be enabled as followers post-Epilogue. May or may not be "canon" in relation to story events that take place and will mostly serve as a special bonus reward.
Other News
Some more important news that coincides with the announcement of the Epilogue:
- As of this article, the Bethesda.NET PC release of M2 for TES5: Special Edition has been rendered permanently broken due to a Creation Kit update. Without the ability to rollback to both an earlier version of TES5 and the CK, it cannot be updated unless Bethesda issues a patch.
- Google and Dropbox file storage mirrors for the mod have been removed. MEGA will remain the sole file storage site for the mod and will only host split archives for large packages that exceed 100MB, including the main mod and texture packs.
- A wiki to document Maids I and II has been opened and is updated occasionally. A timeline for the series that was previously available only for download as a Word document can now be viewed here.
19 comments
You need to protest against the garbage Bethesda, who does useless updates every day and destroys the hard work of modders
I thankfully found a revival for Kasia mod, but I'm hoping someday someone will make a patch to have Lilith and Freya as followers.
I sorta forced them to be followers with the AFT mod, just they lack voices. I hope the project comes back someday. I know Bethesda will quit with their silent updates someday...
plus that special bonus sounds great
Despite many people not taking a liking to the mod due to it not being lore friendly, I gotta say personally it has become one of my favorites, everything about it from story flow, world building and setting all the way to the tiniest details of Sky's Divide have made the mod an absolute joy to play through, other than the occasional minor bugs, it was an experience I'll be happy to repeat throughout every Skyrim playthrough
Lastly, but also most importantly, I want to thank the modder for putting literal years in the development of the mod, for putting the time and effort into making this mod as great as it is, no matter what direction you take in life, whether you continue creating mods or move away from it completely, you will always have my thanks for everything you've done within this community, and I wish you only the best in life, near and distant future
oh and if you plan on putting in another romance/friendship path, please for the love of the divines, dont pull another last of us 2 scene and kill off the characters we care about. Id rather not be gut-punched again by losing the friend/love interest.