Rkung-Zel - The Lore.
On the cusp of the disappearance of the Dwemer the fortress city home of General Rkungtunch stood firm against the Nords and their ever-expanding conquest of the lands of Skyrim. Nestled high above the land overlooking the reach and the vast lands of Skyrim it was not only a strategic fortress city home and lookout but, also built in secret thousands of years ago at the behest of a Council Meet. Their order, to build a fortress to supply arms for the Dwemer wars utilising the power of the Dragons and to hold some of the great treasures of the Dwemer. Most notably it was built in a climate not suited to and made of material that was impenetrable by their cavernous, blind dwelling and rebelling slaves.

As time pressed on and the Dwemer began their pursuit of creating their own God, the vast treasures and resources that were held within Rkung-Zel’s treasury and Great Library were gradually removed to support this effort. Left angered by this and the risk it posed on these treasures and the fortress itself, General Rkungtunch’s descendants sealed themselves within their fortress along with all of the other races that attended the family and city at the time. Foreseeing a possible cataclysmic event these Dwemer engaged their great tonal architect Bthuvin to create a device that would freeze time within. Doing just this, Bthuvin triggered his device on the orders of his Lord once the city fortress entrance had been sealed with stone. The last word to come out of the fortress was a prophecy sent to the remaining Dwemer City States:

When once again the dragon flies,
The mountain will then cry,
Only then will the white veil lift,
And time being to shift.
With Masters gone, those trapped within,
Will then age like present kin.
And then will the fortress of Rkung-Zel time lost,
See a new ruler traverse the outside frost.

Now with the return of the Dragon’s, the Great City Fortress of Rkung-Zel has revealed itself to the world once more. Whilst its lower city with factories, treasures and the impressive, yet mysterious tonal devices of Rkung-Zel’s great tonal architect Bthuvin lay sealed below, its upper halls lay pristine ready for its next ruler to sit on its throne.

The Fortress Offers:

• Large fortress in a pristine dwemer state
• Exterior working stable
• Exterior drop off chute for quick drop off and run. This drop off chute is linked to a void storage system inside the fortress
• Grand entrance cavern with alchemy station, storage, alchemist vendor npc, alchemy garden and fish hatchery
• Great hall and living quarters including servants wing and kitchen, followers sleeping area and tavern, dining room, master bedroom suite with bathing grotto, children's bedroom for 4 kids (multiple adoption mod only) and cellar with working mead spigot. Also includes barkeep, 2 working bards and additional npc's
• Exterior balcony overlooking almost all of skyrim
• Forge area with storage for all materials and a blacksmith vendor npc
• Arcanex area with enchanting and staff enchanting stations and storage for all enchanting needs. Also has a Enchanting vendor npc
• Library with display storage for every book in Skyrim, display cases with working book display (please only add one book per placement in display cases), Black Book display and Elder Scroll display
• Armory with weapon and armor displays, training area, npc's and Faction Hold display
• Treasury with storage for paragon stones, dragon masks and claws and numerous weapon and armor displays (Light beams are weapon displays in halls)
• Trophy displays throughout the fortress as well as bug jar display to living area.
• Many linked storage chests throughout in addition to the before mentioned void storage
• Torture/Vampire themed room with vampire coffin.
  

This mod was a mod originally made for the original Skyrim game and has been extensively updated to bring the mod in line with SSE and now includes many inclusions from all expansions. Original mod link (not updated): https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68331

Xbox and PS4 versions available on Bethesda.net.

For those wondering, it is pronounced 'Ray-Kun-Gay' Zel. Rkung is a shortened version of the founding General who was in charge of the Aetherium Forge and Zel means City.

F.A.Q
Why does the furniture look to small?

• Contrary to belief and rumours that this was intentional and a literal interpretation on dwarves, this is not the case. The furniture is the same size as all other furniture in Skyrim and Dwemer ruins. It is an optical illusion created by the pillared and high nature of the walls in the Dwemer buildings and is generally unavoidable and, is also due to the skinnier nature of the furniture to timber variants. The added trees, clutter and banners should help reduce this effect. The default Dwemer tables are also slightly smaller than the Nord timber variants however are still fine as far as player and npc height goes.
  

Can you add x room or zone?

• Probably not as the place is already big and includes everything needed to function. I would love to add many things such as animoculotries, orreries, more city space (including the lower level which has been partially built but not included) and a quest system etc however, this will just make it even bigger and I also don’t have the time anymore to mod Skyrim to such an extent. Also please be aware that no room will be added that is not Dwemer law friendly. This includes furniture, divine’s room (shrines), standing stones etc. This is to keep it lore friendly and all of these are located in their proper places in Skyrim. This mod is not, nor ever will be, a cheat house or a do everything in the house mod. This also includes Thieves Guild item storage which has its own world location for them. I have made an exception for the dragon priest masks (even though they have their own inworld storage area), dragon claws and paragon stones given their popularity to display (PC and XBOX version only).
  

I am getting lag, weird textures or item placements.

• The mod is working fine in my game (has been tested thoroughly on PC with 370+mods) and may be due to other mods conflicting or console issues. Lag wise is purely dependant on the computer system/console and not possible to test all configurations (due to not having the game on all platforms) and all methods provided by Bethesda to limit this have been done. It is also why 3 of the main lag producing areas are behind load doors and will remain so (Library, Armory and the Hall), however once filled I cannot guarantee there won’t be lag. Some rooms may be laggy due to no custom assets being used.
• The mod has had all areas optimised using occlusion plans and bounding boxes/portals where necessary so lag should hopefully be minimal. Please be aware that such lag reducing methods can sometime glitch resulting in minor flicking or glitch the sound though these should be minimal and disappear in a few seconds.
  

Is this mod multiple adoptions and follower friendly?

• Have tried to make it so using guides and only for PC and XBOX. If it isn’t let me know and will attempt to fix though, will need to know the exact issue. It is complicated when it is such big a place and scripting things is something I know nothing about. Also I don’t personally use the mod for multiple adoptions. Followers should be compatible with follower mods etc as was version 1 for oldrim pre expansions.
  

Is this mod Compatible with….?

• Whilst not tested fully with all mods, the mod should be compatible with everything. No new mesh or texture assets have been added and all is done with the default assets within Skyrim apart from the scripts for unique storage. Obviously, any mod that directly affects the same exterior area or possibly these existing assets/unique storage scripts will/may conflict. PS4 has separate compatibility issues therefore has its own .esp on Bethesda.net.
  

Why are there so many load doors?

• I have tried to reduce the amount of load doors however, due to the amount of assets (objects) in some rooms (and once filled) the potential impact if they were all in one room there would be too much lag especially for console and lower end PC users. This is generally the same for other large home mods and is unavoidable if you want a smooth experience. Many popular mods have more load doors than this mod.
  

Can you tell me how to open the locked door in the Living area?

• Look around the living area nearby the door and you should find it. That said seeing as it seems to be what everyone asks for, it is located behind the statue right next to the door.
  

I cant open the door in the Grand Cavern.

• This is by design. There is nothing there and it doesn't open. It is part of the lore of the mod to the 'sealed lower city'.
  

I can’t find this place, where is it?

• Its an Open World RPG, you are meant to EXPLORE. That said pictures have been uploaded in the gallery and a video showing the path to the place. So explore a little and you may find other places up in the mountains you never knew about. For example the troll and camp outside the entrance to this home was placed by Bethesda and not this mod!
  

Recommended Mods
Simply Bigger Trees. (makes the grand cavern… grander)
Placeable statics. (Who doesn’t like home decorating)
Multiple floors sandboxing (this allows followers to move around on multiple levels)
Nether’s Follower Framework
Honed Metal (NPC vendors in this mod made to use this if you have it installed)
CC's HD Dwemer Automatons – Remastered
Mighty Markarth and Dwemer Ruins
Comfy Dwemer Beds
My Aching Back - Mattresses for Dwemer Beds
JS Dwemer Artefacts SE

Credits
Displays - Dragon Claw and others by skyrimlazz https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59596?tab=description