I love the Imperious races of Skyrim mod. It is by far my favorite race overhaul since it makes the races have a high impact on your gameplay, but doesn't do so in a way that locks you into specific playstyles (except maybe Altmer). And the ability to do a quest for more racial benefits is a very nice touch. But there is one race that I would never enjoy playing with it, the nords. Because one of the nords major passive benefits is racism! At levels 10/20/30 you pick a non nord race to do extra damage to and have spells be extra effective against. in theory I guess you can pick the race of one of your followers to boost your support spells but generally this bonus is just racism. 

I reject the idea that nords = good at fighting non nords. Nor'ds don't have a history of fighting all other races only about half of them, not all nords are racist, I don't like playing characters who are racist, this feature doesn't meaningfully improve your gameplay unless your character is racist, and this logic isn't even applied consistently. The Altmer's home country started a war motivated by nothing but racism that puts Ulfric to shame, but they don't get a 'racism' feature.

Why?

Because other features are more interesting to give to the Altmer.

And other features are more interesting for Nords

there are simply more interesting, inspiring, and culturally universal things to give Nords than doing extra damage to other races.

Like their heros, stories and songs

With this mod when you level up, to 10/20/30 instead of picking a race to do more damage to you get a feature more befitting the name "History of War". You select from 1 of 9 Nord heroes from history and get a buff appropriate to them. 

The Heroes are 

Eyldi The Bear: stagger enemies 15% more, and get staggered 15% less

Eyldi the Bear appears in guard dialogue and also a song in interesting NPCs, she's wrestled a storm from the sky to carry Ysgramor to Skyrim. Her buff appropriately follows a wrestling theme with staggering


Fjori and Holgeir: 10% extra damage to the opposite sex

Fjori and Holgeir are a tragic couple of lovers who fought and fell in love on the battlefield then died for one another. For a story about a man and a woman fighting each other and being equally matched. Doing extra damage to the opposite sex seems fitting.

Hromir: 10% magic resistance 

Hromir from Hromir's song is a powerful mage who tricked a hag into giving up the mind control of his friend by taking his friend's place and opposing the hag despite his Geas until she released him. A bonus to magic resistance is very appropriate 


Jurgen Windcaller: 10% shout cooldown

Jurgen Windcaller is the founder of the greybeards. His boon gives a bonus to shouting. It felt appropriate that at least one of the Nord's boons improved shouting since Nords are so linked to the magic

Olaf One-Eye: 20% damage and spell efficiency vs dragons 

Olaf One-Eye is most famed for the defeat of the dragon Numinex. The most well known dragon slaying Nord hero gets a benefit to dragon slaying.

Shalidor: 30% Magicka Regeneration

Shalidor is the a Nord who is one of the most powerful mages that ever lived. I wanted to include him since the character that inspired me to make this mod is also a Mage. 

Ulfgar The Unending: 20 points of health

Ulfgar The Unending is a Nord who somehow lived 500 years until he met the Nerevarine and asked them to send him to Sovengard. A bonus to health is useful for any character

Yngol: 10% better tempering

Yngol is a son of Ysgramor, and the original smith who made his legendary axe. Nords are known for their excellent blacksmithing so it made sense to get a boon to that

Ysgramor: 30% more damage to elves with Weapons

I'm not removing the racism entirely, but Ysgramor became one of skyrim's greatest hero for killing all the elves in Skyrim with his legendary Axe. But this boon applies to all elves, including the Falmer that were the Nords original enemy. If you want to be a racist Nord, you get one option that gives you all the racism towards all the nords enemies 

FAQ that nobody asked i'm just anticipating them:

What happens if I pick the same option twice?
If you pick the same option twice, you will forfeit the benefit. None of the effects stack with themselves. But the popup message doesn't remove previously selected options like a properly designed UI would. This is exactly how imperious worked, and I do not know how to change it, nor do I feel the need to since that's exactly how imperious worked. 

Can I install this mid playthrough?
You can, but, if you've already reached level 10, you will keep the old boons and have to remove them and add the new ones from the console 

These seem weaker than the original features?
A bit, but honestly 90% or more of enemies are either nords or not one of the other 9 playable races, so I had to nerf them a bit. If you have an opinion about the game balance i'm welcome to hear it

Ysgramor's seems way stronger than the original features.

Despite the original tooltip saying 25%, it was 30% for weapons, and 40% for spells, it also improved the effectiveness of enchantments by 40%. Removing the impact of spells and enchantments being stronger is a bigger difference than you think. 

Im still getting the old features. 

The mod is not installed correctly, or is placed above something that modifies these features. Move it lower in the load order.

Does this work in x edition of skyrim 

probably. It should

I want Frogi and Holgeir but my character is LGBT or nonbinary

I respect that, but the mod works by replacing the spell effects of the original 9 options so Frogi and Holgeir only have one possible function. Try to think of it as doing extra damage to the opposite sex because of emulating the story of Frogi and Holgeir, and not because of your characters sexuality. Or just pick a different hero.

What about...

Maybe, talk me into it. 

Can I use this mod for...

As a modification of Enai's mod, Enai's upload rules apply to anything you do with this file.

I don't think the original mod was racist! You're just a snow flake!

I made this mod not because Enai's original mod offends me, but because I was inspired to play a nord character by things other than their animosity or allegiance towards the other races, which honestly doesn't even fit that well cause Nords don't have a history of war with all other races only imperials and the elves.
There are simply more interesting, inspiring, and universal elements of being a Nord that you could make an ability for them out of, than 'being good at fighting specific races' even if you can justify it in a way that isn't racist by your own definition of racism I still find buffs based off famous Nord stories to be more inspiring and more fitting to most Nord characters.
I also felt like the world building of Nords implied that they were better with shouts, fighting mages, and blacksmithing than other races but that went unrepresented too! And if the title offends you, you haven't been on the nexus very long titles are facetious and just designed to convince people to click them.

The mod is optional, it's not culture war BS, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't insult me in the comments because I wanted to publish a mod I made for myself so I could play play a nord inspired by specific Nord legends. The old abilities don't meaningfully contribute to your playstyle unless you are racist. These abilities are just better designed. 




This is my first mod, I plan to make more in the future, a little bit of adjustments to other peoples mods to start off with since i'm just learning and am quite the nitpicker, but i'm working on a larger perk overhaul