Skyrim Special Edition
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SomethingObscure

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About this mod

This mod is for role-players and book lovers. It allows you to peruse the collection in the Arcanaeum, select books to borrow, curl up by the hearth, and be harassed by the college guard for forgetting to return them before the due date. If you wish, you may also study to add temporary buffs to your skill increase rate.

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You've heard tell of the legendary Arcanaeum of Winterhold, with its wealth of knowledge, collected over centuries, stewarded by the greatest scholars in Tamriel. Finally, you've journeyed to the northern edge of the continent, to cliff-peaks overlooking the sea of ghosts, and through skill, or wit, or a twist of fate, gained entry to the exclusive College which acts as vanguard to this coveted bastion of knowledge. At long last, the rows of dusty tomes are at your fingertips. Only indecision can hold you back now.

This mod has been created for role-players and book lovers. It allows you to peruse the collection in the Arcanaeum, select books to borrow, take them home, curl up by the hearth, and eventually be harassed by the college guard for forgetting to return them before the due date and haggling with Urag gro-Shub over the late fee.



▪ As a member of the College, you may browse the Circulating Collection in the Arcanaeum. This includes the bookshelves and any loose books laying around.
▪ Once taken, this book will become a quest item with a due date.
▪ When you are finished with the book, you may drop it in the return box in the Arcanaeum or at the College gate. A quest marker will indicate their locations.
▪ Your rank within the College determines how many books you may borrow at once, and how long you have before they're due back.
▪ If you fail to return the books on time then a fee will be due as well. The fee is one hundred gold per late book.
▪ Once the books are a day late, a College guard will be dispatched to recover them and the late fee from you. This guard is susceptible to speechcraft checks. If you are Arch-Mage you may also try intimidation.
▪ You may haggle with Urag gro-Shub over your late fee. He might appreciate an offer to do some chores for him.
▪ If you can't choose, you may select a random book from the collection. This will cause one hour to pass.
▪ You may also elect to study in the Arcanaeum. If you are rested, several hours will pass, and once you are finished, you will have a temporary learning rate increase for the stat category you've chosen. You must then practice that skill to benefit.



This mod may be installed at any time during your playthrough. It comes packaged with an installer to help you choose the correct plugins for your load order. Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex are recommended to install. All plugins are in the ESP-FE format. While technically possible to uninstall while no books have been borrowed, uninstalling a mod is never recommended after you've saved your game with it installed. If you're running a very big load order, Bibliophile's Arcanaeum may be flagged as a master file.

Recommendations:
▪ This mod was designed to be used with Obscure's College of Winterhold (v1.5 and higher).  No patch is needed.
▪ The books of Lost Library integrate into this mod via a provided additional plugin. Other mods which include the Lost Library books are also supported in this way.
▪ The Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch for all of the fixes it provides. (USSEP is referenced by sorting plugins only.)

Patches Offered For:
▪ Apepi's Better College of Winterhold
▪ College of Winterhold Upgraded
▪ Immersive College of Winterhold
▪ Juniper's College of Winterhold
▪ Legacy of the Dragonborn
▪ Magical College of Winterhold

Not Compatible With:
▪ The core mod has no known unresolved incompatibilities.
▪ The included optional sorting plugins will conflict with other sorting mods.  These are offered "as-is".

Load Order:
▪ The main plugin may be loaded anywhere you'd like.
▪ Place patches directly below its lowest master plugin.
▪ Sorting plugins should be loaded last.  Conflicts are intentional.





Which books are in the collection?
The collection is based on Skyrim's leveled lists for books that can spawn randomly in any container, with the exception of rare books, which are omitted. I took a similar approach with the books added by Lost Library, with advice from its author. If you're using Obscure's College of Winterhold (v1.5 and higher) you may find the rare books in the Arcanaeum's private collection. These may not be borrowed.

Books can be read without being taken, so technically I could read every book without checking them out, right?
Yes, just like you could in a real library.

If you've included skill books in the circulating collection, what's to stop me from just reading every skill book one after another to rapidly level up my character?
Nothing, if that's how you want to play the game!

Is there a limit on the number of times the player can study?
No. Studying itself won't do anything for your progression. You have to apply what you've learned in order to get the benefits of the study buff. Because of this, the game's diminishing-returns skill progression works naturally with the study system. It didn't seem fair to limit the number of times you can study, because there's no guarantee that you will have ample opportunity to practice the skill before the buff wears off. If you do not, just have a nap to get Rested again, and study again.

Why don't you allow the player to drop books they've borrowed?
It lets me focus on more interesting features of the mod rather than trying to create a bug-free setup for the player to somehow be able to remember which books they've checked out, keep track of them no matter what container or cell they're in, and deal with lost books. I admit it feels less fun to have them abstracted in your inventory rather than piling them up on your bedside desk, but this seems like a good compromise.




▪ Making this mod wouldn't have been feasible without Creation Kit Fixes.
▪ A Skyrim modder's best friend, xEdit.
Notepad++ with Papyrus Integration is my preferred way to script.
▪ I would not want to mod without Mod Organizer 2's virtual file system to keep my workspace organized, and backup/restore features to let me experiment wildly.
Baretail allows for real-time papyrus logging for "trace" comments, so you can quickly test and debug your scripts.
▪ The Voice Reference Tool makes it possible to find any spoken word or phrase anywhere in Skyrim instantly, and then export the line in various formats.
▪ I use Audacity to edit existing dialogue lines into new ones.
Yakitori Audio Converter gets the new lines ready to use after they've been edited and lip files generated.
▪ The video was created using DaVinci Resolve.


Everyone who's contributed to the Complete Example Scripts.
Daniel Coffey, Egocarib & XJDHD, Icecreamassassin, artsensi.
Everyone who's ever spent hours or years remodeling the Arcanaeum.


Book Covers Skyrim with Lost LibraryObscure's College of Winterhold with Faces of Winterhold, Skyrim HD SE, Skyrim Re-Engaged ENB, SkyUI with SkyHUD and Immersive HUD, SMIM,  Ultimate HD Fire Effects, WACCF with Armor and Clothing Extension