Skyrim Special Edition

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Simon Magus

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SimonMagus

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About this mod

Aetherius is a complete overhaul of Skyrim’s races designed to balance the game’s racial passives and add powerful new gameplay options.

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Aetherius - A Race Overhaul

Aetherius is a complete overhaul of Skyrim’s human, elf, and beast races designed to balance the game’s races and add powerful new gameplay options. Greater powers have been removed in favor of stronger, more desirable passives. Although each race has been designed to fill a specific role, the nature of these bonuses allow for a broad range of builds to benefit from them. In addition, all starting skills have been reduced, to place more emphasis on the player’s choice of race. 

Aetherius is designed to complement my mod Mundus - A Standing Stone Overhaul, but it does not require it. 

Races

Argonian

Major Skill: Alchemy
Minor Skills: Alteration, Illusion, Lockpicking (Hand to Hand), Restoration, Sneak
Histskin: Your Poison Resistance and Disease Resistance are increased by 50%, and your potions last 50% longer. You can also breathe underwater.


Breton 

Major Skill:
Alteration
Minor Skills: Alchemy, Conjuration, Illusion, Restoration, Speech
Spell Warding: Your Magic Resistance is increased by 25%, and you have a 15% chance to absorb the Magicka from incoming spells.


Dark Elf

Major Skill: Destruction
Minor Skill: Conjuration, Enchanting, Illusion, One-handed, Sneak
Red Mountain’s Wisdom: Your Fire Resistance is increased by 50%, and your spells and enchantments cost 10% less.

High Elf

Major Skill: 
Enchanting
Minor Skills: Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Restoration
Highborn: Your Magicka is increased by 50, and your Magicka Regeneration is increased by 50%. 


Imperial

Major Skill: Speech
Minor Skills: Block, Heavy Armor, One-handed, Restoration, Smithing
Red Diamond: Your Health, Magicka, and Stamina are increased by 25. You receive 10% better prices, and you find extra gold in your travels. 


Khajiit 

Major Skill: Lockpicking (Hand to Hand)
Minor Skill: Alchemy, Archery, Light Armor, Pickpocketing (Security), Sneak
Lunar Blessing: You spend 20% less Stamina while power attacking or drawing a bow, and 50% less Stamina while sprinting (or sneaking).
Night Eye: Improves the caster’s night vision for 60 seconds.

Nord

Major Skill: Two-handed
Minor Skills: Block, Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Smithing, Speech
Nordic Heritage: Your Frost Resistance is increased by 50%, and you take 25% less damage while power attacking, drawing a bow, or casting a spell.

Orc

Major Skill: Smithing 
Minor Skills: Alchemy, Block, Heavy Armor, One-handed, Two-handed 
Orsinium's Heir: Your Health is increased by 50, and your Health Regeneration is increased by 50%. 

Redguard 

Major Skill: One-handed 
Minor Skill: Archery, Block, Light Armor, Smithing, Two-handed
Martial Training: Your Stamina is increased by 50, and your Stamina Regeneration is increased by 50%. 


Wood Elf

Major Skill:
Archery 
Minor Skills: Light Armor, Lockpicking, One-handed, Pickpocket (Security), Sneak
Green Pact: Your Movement Speed is increased by 10%, and you take 50% less damage from falling. You deal 25% extra damage with sneak attacks.

Notes

  • Human and elf races start with 5 base unarmed damage.
  • Beast races (Argonians and Khajiit) start with 10 base unarmed damage.
  • Human and elf races gain an addition 5 base unarmed damage when they become Werewolves, if Manbeast is installed. 
  • The Argonian's bonus to Potion Duration stacks additively with other (non-perk) sources of Fortify Potion Duration in Simonrim, if Thaumaturgy is installed.
  • The Khajiit's 50% reduction to Stamina costs while sprinting extends to Stamina costs while sneaking, if Blade & Blunt 3.0 is installed. If Blade & Blunt is loaded after Aetherius, the tooltip will be updated to reflect this change, as well.
  • The Imperial's bonus to buying and selling prices stacks additively with other (non-perk) sources of Fortify Barter, if Thaumaturgy is installed.
  • The Wood Elf's bonus to Sneak Attack Damage stacks additively with other (non-perk) sources of Fortify Sneak Attack Damage in Simonrim, if Thaumaturgy is installed. 
  • If Hand to Hand is installed, races with a major or minor skill in Lockpicking will have a major or minor skill in Hand to Hand.
  • If Hand to Hand is installed, races with a major or minor skill in Pickpocketing will have a major or minor skill in Security.

Aetherius - NPC Spell Absorption Addon


By default, NPC Bretons do not benefit from Spell Absorption. This is because many mods add abilities that distribute incorrectly made cloak spells, which causes Breton NPCs to appear to absorb these spells, causing them to "glow blue." Users will then blame Aetherius for this problem, which forces me to remove Spell Absorption from NPCs. However, Spell Absorption is a pretty cool stat, and I don't want to avoid using it just because other mods are made badly, so this addon re-adds Spell Absorption to Breton NPCs. It may require a new game to work properly, but there will be no harm in installing it mid-playthrough.

Aetherius - Racial Spells Addon

This addon distributes a small number of spells to five of the ten playable races. The other five races no longer start with spells at all. Only affects the player, not NPCs. This addon requires Mysticism.

  • Argonians - Poison Spray, Healing 
  • Breton - Oakflesh, Healing, Conjure Spectral Wolf 
  • High Elves - Sparks, Lesser Ward, Soul Trap 
  • Dark Elves - Flames, Frenzy, Bound Dagger
  • Imperial - Calm, Healing

Aetherius - Lower Starting Skills Addon 


This addon reduces the level of all starting skills by 5 additional points. Major skills will still start at 20; Minor skills will start at 15; all other skills will start at 5. This addon is not recommended for general use; you will need to make some edits to your uncapper preset if you want to use this mod without leveling up the first time you hit someone with a Greatsword. (Alternatively, a mod like Experience or Static Skill Leveling should work as well). Note that in Adamant, you cannot take the first perk in a skill until that skill is level 10.

Compatibility 

Aetherius is lightweight and compatible, and will not interfere with any mod (except for other mods that change race records). If you have Spell Perk Item Distributor installed, Aetherius will automatically distribute perks to NPCs that need them.

The Simonrim Team 

Simon Magus (Nexus / Patreon) 
DeltaRider (Nexus / Patreon)
Oreo (Nexus / Patreon)
Colinswrath (Nexus / Patreon)

The Simonrim Suite

Aetherius - A Race Overhaul
Mundus - A Standing Stone Overhaul
Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul
Adamant - A Perk Overhaul
Hand to Hand - An Adamant Addon
Blade and Blunt - A Combat Overhaul
Arena - An Encounter Zone Overhaul
Scion - A Vampire Overhaul
Manbeast - A Werewolf Overhaul
Stormcrown - A Shout Overhaul
Pilgrim - A Religion Overhaul
Thaumaturgy - An Enchanting Overhaul
Artificer - An Artifact Overhaul
Sorcerer - A Staff and Scroll Overhaul
Apothecary - An Alchemy Overhaul
Gourmet - A Cooking Overhaul
Journeyman - A Fast Travel Overhaul
Candlehearth - An Inn Overhaul
Starfrost - A Survival Overhaul