Skyrim Special Edition

About this mod

Travel to Midwood Isle, a small island home to the Sonmer, filled with quests and adventures in this DLC sized New Lands mod.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Translations
  • Turkish
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Mandarin
  • German
  • French
Changelogs
Donations


-----

"One day, Zahkris will rise again, built on the souls of fallen Mer, and he with the soul from Akatosh is the only one who can vanquish Zahkris forever. Should they fall, so will the land of Midwood Isle."

-----



Travel to the home of the Sonmer, Midwood Isle, an island to the north-west, far outside of Tamriels border.

Discover about the Sonmer, their history and beliefs, as you face off against new enemies, solve puzzles, explore dungeons and more.


If you enjoy my mod, please consider endorsing! It would really help the mod develop.


For the Classic Skyrim version, click here

For the official wiki page, click here





What is Midwood Isle?

Midwood Isle is a new lands mod, which means it adds an entire new world to Skyrim, similar to the Dragonborn DLC. 

Some features include:
  • A beautiful new island, roughly the size of 2 Skyrim holds, and a "spirit world" version of the same size
  • All NPCs fully voiced to a very high standard by a team of over 30 voice actors, with thousands of unique dialogue lines
  • An 11 quest long main storyline
  • 27 unique side quests, with some linking together in small storylines, and 2 miscellaneous quests
  • An expansive Hearthfire-style house to purchase and build, with different room options and over 250 different building objects
- If you would like to move your spouse and children to the house, you will require Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions, by TMPhoenix
  • Two new unique shouts, nine new spells and a new enchantment
  • New items, including eleven new custom weapons, three new custom armor sets, new jewellery models and hand written books

Midwood Isle has been extensively tested to ensure as smooth a playthrough as possible, and was designed to seamlessly fit in with the rest of the game.
Many compatibility patches exist for Midwood Isle, and they can be found in the patches subsection below. 
If you are experiencing crashes, try swapping between the light/heavy versions. Some users have reported this fixes the issue.

Midwood Isle can be installed mid-playthrough - it does not need a new save game to play.
- However, if you are updating to version 3.0 from a version prior to 3.0, unfortunately you will require a new save game.




Background Lore

Midwood Isle focuses on the Sonmer and their homeland, Zahkris, and Erkaloth.

  • The Sonmer are a relatively unknown race of Elves who live on Midwood Isle. Although the original meaning of the term "Sonmer" remains unknown, they are also referred to as Sun Elves, a name given to them by the races of Man due to their light skin and golden hair.
  • Zahkris is a powerful Daedra who fancies himself the rightful god of the Sonmer people, but was banished to Oblivion a thousand years ago by a Sonmer hero.
  • Erkaloth is the god-ancestor of the Sonmer, an Aedra who taught them their culture and created the spirit realm "Lastendell" as an afterlife for the Sonmer.

The lore around the Sonmer and Midwood Isle has been explained in detail through the use of loading screens and handwritten books, so to seamlessly integrate it into the world of Skyrim.




Requirements

Midwood Isle requires Dawnguard, Dragonborn and Hearthfire.

If you would like to move your spouse and children to the custom house in Midwood Isle, you will require Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions, by TMPhoenix.

A number of patches can be found in the "optional files" section. The details of each patch can be found below, under "Patches".

If you would like the option to play as a Sonmer, please check out my other mod, Playable Sun Elves.
- A compatibility patch for this exists in the files section (see below)
If you would like the custom armor separately, or the ability to craft it, check out Plated Leather Armor.





How to start

Upon completing "The Way of the Voice", a courier will deliver a letter to you the next time you travel to an appropriate location. 
Alternatively, if you do not wish to wait for the courier, you can head straight to the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold to start the main quest. This still requires completion of "The Way of the Voice".
- If you would like to remove this requirement, please see below for a patch

This mod does not have a level requirement, so can be played either immediately after completing "the way of the voice", or well into the high level endgame. However, a few of the main quest bosses have minimum levels, and so very low levelled players may struggle. Therefore I personally recommend playing at at least around level 20.






This mod was designed to be as compatible as possible. Due to almost everything taking place in another worldspace, the mod has little effect on Skyrim or any of the base game.

It is also fully navmeshed, and so should work fine with followers.

However, proper integration with the rest of Skyrim should be managed through the various patches available, found in the subsection below.

Also, for obvious reasons, I did have to alter some cells slightly, but did not remove any references and only added them in. The altered cells are:
  • Winterhold Frozen Hearth interior
  • Pinepeak cavern interior
  • (-16, 22), the southern most dock of the Solitude docks
  • (-32, 34), which I believe is out of the border anyway, where I added a map marker

Additionally, you should not generate LOD for any of the worldspaces with DynDOLOD. Thanks to WiZkid, the LOD for both Midwood Isle and Lastendell worldspaces does not require DynDOLOD as it has been created specifically to allow perfect, detailed LOD, whereas the others are too small to really use LOD anyway.
I should mention that the custom house does not have LOD, like the Hearthfire houses. This is because of the different options to choose from. DynDOLOD may provide this feature.

Some users have mentioned that DynDOLOD and xEdit may flag some errors with the mod, due to 'missing script properties' and 'wild edits'. These are not anything to be concerned about - the 'wild edits' are intentionally placed and the script properties are also made that way for different objects to function properly.







All the below patches can be found under the "optional" section of the files page. They are all flagged as ESL.

As well as this, there are some patches created by other for Midwood Isle for the following mods:
  • A patch for Missives can be found here. Credits to AndrealphusVIII for creating the patch!
  • A patch for Lanterns of Skyrim II can be found on that mods page. Credits to WizKid for creating the patch!
  • Some miscellaneous patches (such as drinking fountains, cats, etc) can be found here, with credits to Xtudo
  • A patch for the "Fishing" creation club content exists here, with credits to wSkeever

The current list of patches includes:
- Fixes the bug Beyond Reach causes which turns the vanilla sigil stones green.- Replaces the enemies in the Ayleid ruins to be the same as the Ayleid enemies found in BS: B
- Adds Ayleid items within the ruins
- Also replaces the Scamp skin with the BS: B version.
- Alters the ingredients and food included in Midwood Isle to match the design of CACO.
- Alters Valdil's helmet to use the same meshes as ICH
- Adds a display in the Dragonborn Hall, including weapon racks for items acquired during the main questline.
- Please note, this patch is not officially supported by the Legacy team, meaning that the area for my display may be reassigned
- The space is currently occupied for a display for Arthmoor's ESO Skyshards, so this patch will be incompatible if using that patch
- Thanks to Spacedroner for kindly relocating the display, as it was is occupied by The Brotherhood of Old
- I give credits to icecreamassassin and SirJesto for their work on Legacy and helping me create the patch.
- Allows for Sythin and Haknil to recognise you as a Sonmer at the start of the main questline
- Guards will also refer to you as "kinsman".
  • Rare Curios
- For use with the "Rare Curios" Creation Club Content
- Adds in the Ayleid Welkynd Stones and Flawed Varla Stones from Rare Curios into the Ayleid Ruins
- Also renames the Aryrru Strange Crystal to Flawless Varla Stone
- Resizes several of the trees to a smaller size, to reduce clipping. Only affects the worst offenders.
- Due to the density of the forest, there will be some clipping of the upper branches throughout Midwood Isle.
  • Survival Mode
- For use with the "Survival Mode" Creation Club Content
- Adds Midwood Isle to the warm locations, and all Oblivion realms to the Oblivion locations, and adds the new keywords
  • Grass mods
- Patch for any grass replacer mods, such as Verdant.
- Replaces the grass in Midwood Isle with a vanilla grass, which will allow the changes from grass mods to apply.
- Also fixes the issue of grass clipping - due to some grass mods adding grass to previous textures which had none.
  • No Quest Requirements
- Removes the quest requirement for "The Way of the Voice" to be completed
- The courier will now be sent when you reach level 10 and travel to a new location
- Please note that the mod will still reference you being the dragonborn through dialogue, so this may be immersion breaking
  • CBBE Curvy Plated Leather Robes
- Converts the custom "Plated Leather Robes" to CBBE Curvy
- Although it should fit most CBBE body types, it was designed and only tested for CBBE Curvy, so cannot guarantee it will fit exactly
  • Alternative Ship Locations
- Two different options:
- Option 1 moves Haknil's ship in Solitude closer to the East Empire Company warehouse (-16, 23)
- Option 2 moves Haknil's ship in Solitude to the other side of the bridge, and constructs a small dock there.
  • Lights Control
- Small plugin to cause the lights around Midwood Isle to switch on/off depending on the time of day
- Credits to Tarlazo for creating this plugin and sending it to me so that others can use it.
  • Dangerous NPCs
- A patch to add very dangerous NPCs to the island, designed for use in a hard mode, survival play-through (untested by myself).
- Credits to WizKid for suggesting the idea and coming up with the main design of the patch.
- Adds three nocturnal and three diurnal patrols around the island
- Also adds three groups of very dangerous enemies at different points on the island. These stay in their location, sandboxing.
- Credits to Mihail for his work and allowing me to use the enemies for this patch.
  • ESP Version (non-master)
- File containing the main mod as an esp (that is not flagged as a master), as well as scripts to prevent grass being duplicated
- Use if you are experiencing lag with the main file, and are not worried about the reference cap
- Still requires the main file. The loose scripts from this will take priority over the BSA.




Installation
This mod was designed for easy installation.
Two versions exist, one with "heavier" textures (which are larger in file size), and one with "lighter textures" (so smaller in file size). The difference is minimal, and the esp is exactly the same in both versions so it is up to you.
For those who use a mod manager, simply download and install the mod.
For those installing the mod manually, simply place the contents of this mod into your Skyrim Data folder.
Also install the 3.07 update. This is an ESL file to fix a small inventory object bug.
Afterwards, download the patches installer from the "optional files" and install as above, choosing which patches you require.
Midwood Isle can be installed mid-playthrough - it does not need a new save game to play.
- However, if you are updating from a previous version to version 3.0, unfortunately you will require a new save game.



Uninstallation
Note: Uninstalling this mod on a saved game is not recommended! Only uninstall if you are starting a new game or if you have a saved game to roll back on before you installed this mod.
To uninstall using Vortex, uninstall as normal.
To manually uninstall, simply delete Midwood Isle.esp and Midwood Isle.bsa from your Skyrim Data folder.






I'm stuck on a quest! Help! / How do I start certain quests?

The wiki page here should have enough information on all the quests. I've also included stages and the quest ID in the very rare case that you may need to advance them.

Is this mod lore friendly?
I would say so, yes. I've included a full history on the Sonmer, and their culture, and provided what reasons I could as to why they have never showed up in any in-games books. However, it is important to know this mod is not cannon, as the Sonmer and their land was made up by me for the purpose of my mods. 

I'm experiencing a bug!
First, check that the issue is not due to any other mod you have downloaded. Although this shouldn't have any compatibility issues, some mods are not as clean as this and so may interact in ways I did not expect. You should not experience any major bugs, as I have fully tested everything and found it very smooth running, but if you do then please let me know and I will try to fix it.






I give my full permission, and encourage you to upload your own screenshots, record footage and produce videos about my mod, but if uploading to another site I ask that you please be clear that I am the author. 
Midwood Isle may be translated into another language without my permission, but please let me know once you have done so.
Midwood Isle may not be uploaded to any other site by anyone other than myself without permission (with the exceptions being translations).
Feel free to mod Midwood Isle, but be perfectly clear that I am the author.






First I want to thank Bethesda for allowing us to mod Skyrim (I know, I know). I got a lot of inspiration from the vanilla game and their DLCs and feel I should mention this.

I also want to give a special thank you to WiZkid, the author of Lanterns of Skyrim II and WIZKID Signs, for his huge work on update 2.40 and other later versions of the mod - including new improved textures and meshes, LOD, bobbing boats, floating tree/plants fixes and more! Also a big thank you to him for creating the headings used in this description!

Voice Acting Team
I would also like to thank my fantastic voice acting team, for their extremely hard and skilled work in voicing the mod:
Females
  • Aryassa – Taylor Pritchard
  • Elysia – Emilie Crow
  • Erissa – Olivia Raven
  • Julianne – Nelnardis/Sharon Jane
  • Liethl – Caitlyn Montgomery
  • Nasmara – Caitlin Buckley
  • Nesianna – Charlie Rowan
  • Orisys – Caitlin Buckley
Males
  • Algal – Josh Niccum
  • Amring – John Badgley
  • Ancare – TGVoice
  • Arniyn – Jacob Andrianos
  • Assassin – Eric Jackson
  • Bandit – Alex Martin Kay
  • Camas – Eammon Leighton
  • Captain Haknil – Johannes Envall
  • Cirsar – Ryan Booth
  • Clengo – Ryan Ivy
  • Daelar – Ryan Booth
  • Dangoth – Deveraux Polvorosa
  • Daylas – Jacob Andrianos
  • Dirdin – Nicholas Boisvert
  • Drakus – Nicholas Boisvert
  • Erkaloth – Heckle
  • Falas – John Badgley
  • Faldir – Ryan Booth
  • Falith – Stephano Reijnders
  • Gerradra – Rick Gjemso
  • Godras – Dillon Christmas
  • Gunmir – Heckle
  • Isidro – SeriousVA
  • Istlaf – Pedro Silva
  • Lokan – David Young
  • Lukas – Kyle Krespan
  • Nedhel – Alex Martin Kay
  • Niron – Ryen DeMark
  • Raendir – John Badgley
  • Renly – Dillon Christmas
  • Rhaegar – Heckle
  • Rithin – Brendan Knowles
  • Rokav – Brendan Knowles
  • Sythin – Josh Jaramillo
  • Tamron – Stephano Reijnders
  • Tavian – Rafael Del Valle Jr
  • Thaneim – Voice of Voicers/Drethun Goettel
  • The Tradesman -  CBVoiceovers
  • Thorond – Eric Jackson
  • Tyrek – Ryan Ivy
  • Untath – Scott Hawkins
  • Velkir – David Young
  • Vorir – Joseph Dilger
  • Worshipper – Eric Jackson
  • Zahkris – Voice of Voices/Drethun Goettel

Modders Resources
This mod uses a lot of modders resources. I would like to take the time to properly thank each one, and provide a link for the mod I have used.

Music
Finally, I would like to provide proper credits for the two music tracks I used for the mod:
Oblivion Exploration Music by The Fiechters.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPMgysxtBS8
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/DerekBrandonFiechter

Lastendell Exploration Music by Whitesand - Legend of the King.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntGWv8F_ccM
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe96JG5gdgSRtmqStx0isXA 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martynlaur
Twitter: https://goo.gl/otEqJC 
Instagram: https://goo.gl/JN3LUb (@martynas_lau)
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/martynaslau
Website: http://martynlaur.com/





Donations

do not charge or expect to be paid or receive donations for my mods. However, I am putting my paypal on here anyway in case anyone wishes to send a donation to thank me for my work. It would also encourage me greatly to improve the mod and add new content.



About me

Hi, thought I'd stick this as the end, partly to vent about how annoying making this mod was, and what it started off as.
So, I made my first mod, Playable Sun Elves, way back in 2013, when I was 14 years old (yeah, I know). I immediately loved the creation kit, and set my eyes on creating a New lands mod for them to live, Midwood Isle. I was actually somewhat frustrated with current new lands mods, and arrogant me thought I could do a better job (I definitely couldn't), or at least a mod that I wouldn't have any major problems with. I wanted a mod that felt like it belonged in Skyrim, with quests that weren't too different to the style I had grown to love. I wanted everything to be tied up nicely, and not players block players from certain areas or doing certain things.
I was obviously a huge beginner to the creation kit, and my patience wasn't my strong suit, so I worked on it for a few months and then sort of abandoned it in the documents folder for a long time.
I kept coming back to it for a short time, then after a while getting bored and leaving it again, often for months at a time (with the breaks being significantly longer than the actual work period). 
I had to basically restart the mod multiple times, when I realised how bad my previous work was, and kept having to redo bits, or deciding to further add content or change things up.
Basically, it took a very long while, and in all honestly I didn't think I'd ever get it finished. 
At the age of 20 (whilst studying medicine at university), I didn't have a lot of time on my hands. However, I always wanted to finish this mod, and so over 2019 decided to knuckle down and finally finish it. It actually didn't take very long at all, but I was working on it most of the hours in the day (as I've got nothing better to do), and all I really had to finish was a bit of landscaping and the main quests.
That said, I still ran into a lot of trouble and it took longer than anticipated, especially towards the end where I had to try and fix bugs. 
I was extremely proud that I managed to complete the mod, and shelved this as a completed project.
Fast forward to now, a couple years later, I'm 22 years old, I was brought back because there was always a few things bugging me about the 2.70 version. It took a long few months, but I came up with a big update (3.0) which I can now say I am so proud of. This was always something of a life goal for me and so it feels incredible to say I have done it. 
In all honesty, I don't think I'll complete any more work on this mod. I do not plan on adding any new content, partly because there's quite a lot already, and so all I have planned is bug fixes. The mod is considered complete by me, so all that's left to do is play it!
I know this mod is not the best out there, but I like to think that I've done a good job. I have no prior experience in coding or anything like this, and worked on it all by myself, having to teach myself as I went using video tutorials and the creation kit wiki.
But anyway, If you've read this far, thanks, and I hope you enjoy the mod! If at least one person on here enjoys it then I'll be pleased, as my time wouldn't have been a total waste. Please keep it cool in the co.mments, if you have any problems just let me know and I can do what I can to try and sort them.