Be advised: In the newest file, the name of the mod was changed. According to the change log, it has all of the fixes incorporated. If you have the older version installed, it will need to be uninstalled before installing the new file. Otherwise, both mods would be active and it could cause a lot of weirdness. Your mod manager would ask which should win out as far as loading files of the same name, but both esps and bsas would still be there.
Edit: After installing the latest version, 1.1.5, I experienced the same "graphics" bug reported in the Bug section. I uploaded a FaceGen file that should correct the problem. I will continue playing through the mod and check for any other issues.
Edit: 17 July 2020 I finished playing through the latest version. I didn't run into anymore problems. If anyone else has issues, please post either here or in Bugs section. Thank you.
i have downloaded the latest version, 1 1 5; and am getting the black screen and random spazzing out character through a wall.
edit: downloaded the 1 1 3, updated it (using vortex). it had the issue so i uninstalled and removed both archives and installed new the 1 1 5 version. edit 2: i just saw the optional file, going to try that real fast. edit 3: the optional file works wonders and fixed my issue, thanks a lot. :)
Just started the mod, and so far it's pretty good! Took a while to find the wet corpse, it actually isn't near the river at all but up by the side of the road. There also should probably be a heads up that you should be the Dragonborn before starting this mod. Maybe disable the wet corpse until Dragon Rising is complete? Also, I was referred to as "he" several times during the beginning scene inside the inn - it's a little jarring since I'm playing a female character.
Otherwise, those a pretty minor nitpicks for what is a very interesting start to the mod! I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me!
I remember playing this several years ago and having a really bad time with it. I unwittingly played it again at the recommendation of some threads after putting it into a list of recommended quest mods. It seemed entirely unfamiliar at first, but a couple of moments stood out that made me think "This reminds me of that one mod I hated where the guy constantly yells 'DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGONBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORN! YOUR SOOOOOOOOUUUUL IS MIIIIIIIIIIINE!' over and over and over and the painting of Pelagius wailing about 'The equilibrium!' This surely can't be the same mod."
But it surely was, and I'm very relieved to say I had a much better experience with it this time around. I'm guessing there must have been updates to the quest stages that make it clearer where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do. The only mechanical issue I had was in starting the quest. The corpse was not where the description lists, and was actually by the fork in the road near Solitude. However, I still found it immensely difficult to locate, and ended up using the method of generating a list of NPC IDs and using the console to move my character to its location. I felt rather dumb when it turned out to be about 20 feet behind me, so perfectly blended with some local shrubbery.
Anyway, the first thing I'd like to say is that the voice acting is above average here. The actors are clearly making an attempt to sound like they aren't simply reading lines, convincingly losing their train of thought, trailing off, and stammering. They're still not quite there in emoting during the more dramatic moments, but it's never terrible.
The story seems fairly straightforward, but lacks depth. It's never effectively communicated what exactly is going on and what the stakes are, so I was never really sucked in. I ended up feeling like I was just going where the journal told me to, not really knowing why or having any investment. It's not to say these things aren't explicitly stated—more that there's simply nothing but standing around while NPCs converse. You never really feel involved.
The story is also very short, and as I reflect back on it I'm left wondering what even happened. I talked to some guys, I went to a small castle, talked to a painting for some reason, left, went back to a guy, then went to some ruin, went to some kind of cave dimension, found out one of the guys apparently died, and then walked through some heavenly area and that was it. I can sort of guess the identity of these places, but there was such a lack of context that it felt deeply hollow. Once the quest seemingly ended, I thought "That was it?"
In terms of raw gameplay, I have some significant issues. The inky bonemen that you fight the majority of the time are very tanky and not very interesting to fight. Granted, the latter is entirely Bethesda's fault since they're base game assets, but it would have been nice to have more interesting and/or varied enemies. The fact that they have tons of health and you often fight two or three at once made combat with them tedious.
The levels themselves are also not terribly interesting. I'm not sure if it was the mod's fault, as this happens to me in normal areas sometimes as well, but my lantern wasn't properly illuminating surfaces in the ship, causing everything to appear mostly pitch-dark with the occasional flicker of light. The ambience of creaking bones and groaning wood was way overdone. It was creepy and unsettling at first, even deceptive by using the same sounds as idling skeletons even when there were none, but I quickly realized it was fake and this made it annoying due to how frequent and loud the effects were. There was also at least one locked door that I never found a key for, and using tcl revealed there was seemingly nothing behind it. These kinds of things are aggravating because they tell a player they're potentially missing something and can lead them on a wild goose chase.
Later on, in the ancient ruins, there are some strange design choices involving drops. There are several pits filled with water that don't have any means of escape. They all have entirely opaque water layers, so there's no way to judge that going into them is a one-way trip. I can't speak to others, but I always investigate these sorts of things to see if there's anything hidden, but the first time I tried I found nothing and was trapped there, requiring tcl to escape. To be fair, you do need to go out of your way to jump over the short wall into it. However, the next group that appear have no wall and you're expected to fight two enemies in here. At one point I very nearly backed up into it. I decided not to explore this one after the fact, having noted there was no staircase back up. The final instance was in the puzzle room. After solving it, I decided to finally see what was in that pool of water, only to be unceremoniously instantaneously killed and forced to solve the puzzle again. Speaking of which...
It was a poor decision to only display the instructions when it's nighttime. I arrived in this room in the middle of the day and spent several minutes running around just trying to figure out what was even expected of me, desperate for any context at all. The scattered papers around the skeleton don't convey anything meaningful at all, and it wasn't until I gave up and found a video where someone finds text on the wall that I had any semblance of direction. Once I had that crucial information, solving it was easy. The idea is cool in theory, and could work in a film where characters are standing around trying to figure out what to do and it isn't until enough time passes that they find the clue they need, but in a game it just doesn't work. The messages should either always be visible or there should be a note telling you to wait for night. But even then, there's nothing mechanically interesting about simply pressing T and manually advancing time.
After all this, there is then an absolutely baffling decision to put another invisible killbox over the one spot in the room that you're literally directed to go up to. The rest of the quest is pretty much a walking simulator.
In conclusion, I thankfully didn't find this mod painful or offensive, but it's unfortunately bland. There isn't anything properly compelling about it, no new items to find, or interesting story to follow. It's entirely possible that there is a deeper narrative here that I missed or otherwise didn't resonate with me, but my experience was rather underwhelming. It's not a bad or badly made mod at all, but I can't say it's worth playing through unless you're really hungry for new quests.
Lastly, I just want to mention that the stone statues still spray blood when you cut off their heads.
Pretty great quest. I love the story and atmosphere, but I really loved the dungeon at the end in particular. Really unique visuals and aesthetic and a great puzzle.
I have to say I loved this. I had no bugs (despite a heavy load order) and no crashes, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I'll keep this for subsequent playthroughs as well. Thanks!
The only minor glitches were, as the poster below pointed out, the assumption that the PC is male and Dragonborn (though the male pronouns only occur in a couple of places, it didn't bother me terribly, and I am the Dragonborn in this playthrough); and a small visual glitch in the cave leading to the city.
Canonically the Dragonborn is male though, and I'd say majority of players do a male playthrough. The LDB is a make in the trailers and OG box art. So, it makes sense to default the dialogue to male.
There still should not be moments where a female dragonborn is called male just because it is the default. It's very immersion breaking and feels non-inclusive.
All interactable NPCs should be reasonably built with player agency in mind. The game gives you an option to make a female Dragonborn, meaning NPC's AI should account for the possibility you aren't male. There is a reason that the dialogue in vanilla Skyrim changes based on race and sex. It breaks immersion otherwise and renders player agency to choose different pointless. If the game didn't want you to have the option, they would only give you the option to be a male Nord.
Respectfully, the Dragonborn isn't canonically male. Bethesda has created merch of both male and female Dragonborns, and Legends has a female Dragonborn card. As @judasmfox says, they wouldn't let you play anything other than a male Nord if that was the case. This topic is covered in many forums. If it was canonical, we wouldn't be discussing it. The assumption that the majority of players do a male playthrough is a baseless claim, anecdotal evidence at best. Statistics for 2023 are saying that there are approx. 1.7 billion male gamers and 1.39 billion female gamers worldwide. That is almost a 50/50 split. Additionally, we have to take into account that players also like to play as the opposite sex. Whether or not people prefer a male or female Dragonborn is completely up in the air. Overall, it's just a lame excuse to make for a modder to not be inclusive. If Bethesda can code he/him and she/her pronouns into their game, so can modders, and they should. There is no excuse for it in 2020's.
@Whiskymaniac When did bethesda ever say that? There is no such thing as a canon gender for the dragonborn. Hell, him being necessarily a nord isn't even canon, either. Oh and no, what "other gamers" say don't really make your case any better.
The starter race you begin in each game dictates what race and gender you are canonically, not that difficult. You as a player can choose whatever race you want but DB is still a male nord, as well as the hero of kvatch is a male imperial.
Absolutely false, you're pulling that out of your ass @Whiskymaniac. Bethesda has gone through quite considerable efforts to make absolutely sure that there is no such a thing as a canon hero outside of Cyrus in Redguard. From the Eternal Champion all the way down to the Dragonborn there is never a single mention of either sex or race for any of the previous heroes, that's kind of the whole point of the canon.
So no, the dragonborn was not a male nord, the Nerevarine was not a dark elf and the Hero of Kvatch was not an imperial. But hey, maybe you know more than Bethesda. Is this Todd Howard secret account? Is that what you're trying to tell us?
Yes the dragonborn is a male nord, yes the CoC is also a male imperial that got to be the new sheogorath and the nerevarine was indeed a male dark elf, heck in the dragonborn dlc, if you ask that wizard in those big mushroom houses, he will mention that "he(nerevarine) defeated dagoth ur" and what starting race does the game start as? Dark elf. We can choose whatever race we want but the starting race in each game is indeed the supposed canon. Say what ya want but thats the implication of it and it is indeed its implied canon.
Very frustrating. New game, checking to see if the wet corpse is there. It's not. Tried with both old BSA version and new loose files version. Saw recommendation below to change SSEEdit entry to 'respawn', but mod author has already done that. Still doesn't work for me.
This needs to be fixed. Close to uninstalling.
EDIT: I think it would be solved by adding a 'persistence flag' to the corpse in xEdit. Because I think that other mods are somehow causing the corpse to despawn. Trying to figure it out.
If you can't find the wet corpse, type 'help "wet corpse"' into the console. If you don't see it the mod isn't installed and activated correctly. If you get an Id, you can use "player.moveto <ID>" and that will place you at the wet corpse.
I had the same problem, I used save funclist 1 command and moved to the wet corpse, it was totally in different position than the described one. Aside from this problem, even after few minutes into the mod I already feel how much well is done. Very promising!
After finishing it, I was extremely satisfied, and surprised of the quality of this mod! Very nice story, excellent dungeons with unconventional challenges and using some of the most unused textures, also mixing well different area ones. Excellent entertainment!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The quest starts at on the road towards Solitude (south of Katla's Farm) where you will find a corpse near a fork in the road. This is the English translation of the German Mod "Der Schatten von Meresis".
The quest starts at the Solitude Sawmill (south of Katla's Farm) where you will find a corpse on a little sandbank in the middle of the river. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two pictures also on view in Images and two separate bodies.. Which place is supposed to have the quest start body ?
I been looking at both locations, and I just can not find anything.
SkyrimVR level 15 new game not had this mod installed before.
Give Feedback
192 comments
Edit: After installing the latest version, 1.1.5, I experienced the same "graphics" bug reported in the Bug section. I uploaded a FaceGen file that should correct the problem. I will continue playing through the mod and check for any other issues.
Edit: 17 July 2020 I finished playing through the latest version. I didn't run into anymore problems. If anyone else has issues, please post either here or in Bugs section. Thank you.
edit:
downloaded the 1 1 3, updated it (using vortex). it had the issue so i uninstalled and removed both archives and installed new the 1 1 5 version.
edit 2:
i just saw the optional file, going to try that real fast.
edit 3:
the optional file works wonders and fixed my issue, thanks a lot. :)
Otherwise, those a pretty minor nitpicks for what is a very interesting start to the mod! I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me!
But it surely was, and I'm very relieved to say I had a much better experience with it this time around. I'm guessing there must have been updates to the quest stages that make it clearer where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do. The only mechanical issue I had was in starting the quest. The corpse was not where the description lists, and was actually by the fork in the road near Solitude. However, I still found it immensely difficult to locate, and ended up using the method of generating a list of NPC IDs and using the console to move my character to its location. I felt rather dumb when it turned out to be about 20 feet behind me, so perfectly blended with some local shrubbery.
Anyway, the first thing I'd like to say is that the voice acting is above average here. The actors are clearly making an attempt to sound like they aren't simply reading lines, convincingly losing their train of thought, trailing off, and stammering. They're still not quite there in emoting during the more dramatic moments, but it's never terrible.
The story seems fairly straightforward, but lacks depth. It's never effectively communicated what exactly is going on and what the stakes are, so I was never really sucked in. I ended up feeling like I was just going where the journal told me to, not really knowing why or having any investment. It's not to say these things aren't explicitly stated—more that there's simply nothing but standing around while NPCs converse. You never really feel involved.
The story is also very short, and as I reflect back on it I'm left wondering what even happened. I talked to some guys, I went to a small castle, talked to a painting for some reason, left, went back to a guy, then went to some ruin, went to some kind of cave dimension, found out one of the guys apparently died, and then walked through some heavenly area and that was it. I can sort of guess the identity of these places, but there was such a lack of context that it felt deeply hollow. Once the quest seemingly ended, I thought "That was it?"
In terms of raw gameplay, I have some significant issues. The inky bonemen that you fight the majority of the time are very tanky and not very interesting to fight. Granted, the latter is entirely Bethesda's fault since they're base game assets, but it would have been nice to have more interesting and/or varied enemies. The fact that they have tons of health and you often fight two or three at once made combat with them tedious.
The levels themselves are also not terribly interesting. I'm not sure if it was the mod's fault, as this happens to me in normal areas sometimes as well, but my lantern wasn't properly illuminating surfaces in the ship, causing everything to appear mostly pitch-dark with the occasional flicker of light. The ambience of creaking bones and groaning wood was way overdone. It was creepy and unsettling at first, even deceptive by using the same sounds as idling skeletons even when there were none, but I quickly realized it was fake and this made it annoying due to how frequent and loud the effects were. There was also at least one locked door that I never found a key for, and using tcl revealed there was seemingly nothing behind it. These kinds of things are aggravating because they tell a player they're potentially missing something and can lead them on a wild goose chase.
Later on, in the ancient ruins, there are some strange design choices involving drops. There are several pits filled with water that don't have any means of escape. They all have entirely opaque water layers, so there's no way to judge that going into them is a one-way trip. I can't speak to others, but I always investigate these sorts of things to see if there's anything hidden, but the first time I tried I found nothing and was trapped there, requiring tcl to escape. To be fair, you do need to go out of your way to jump over the short wall into it. However, the next group that appear have no wall and you're expected to fight two enemies in here. At one point I very nearly backed up into it. I decided not to explore this one after the fact, having noted there was no staircase back up. The final instance was in the puzzle room. After solving it, I decided to finally see what was in that pool of water, only to be unceremoniously instantaneously killed and forced to solve the puzzle again. Speaking of which...
It was a poor decision to only display the instructions when it's nighttime. I arrived in this room in the middle of the day and spent several minutes running around just trying to figure out what was even expected of me, desperate for any context at all. The scattered papers around the skeleton don't convey anything meaningful at all, and it wasn't until I gave up and found a video where someone finds text on the wall that I had any semblance of direction. Once I had that crucial information, solving it was easy. The idea is cool in theory, and could work in a film where characters are standing around trying to figure out what to do and it isn't until enough time passes that they find the clue they need, but in a game it just doesn't work. The messages should either always be visible or there should be a note telling you to wait for night. But even then, there's nothing mechanically interesting about simply pressing T and manually advancing time.
After all this, there is then an absolutely baffling decision to put another invisible killbox over the one spot in the room that you're literally directed to go up to. The rest of the quest is pretty much a walking simulator.
In conclusion, I thankfully didn't find this mod painful or offensive, but it's unfortunately bland. There isn't anything properly compelling about it, no new items to find, or interesting story to follow. It's entirely possible that there is a deeper narrative here that I missed or otherwise didn't resonate with me, but my experience was rather underwhelming. It's not a bad or badly made mod at all, but I can't say it's worth playing through unless you're really hungry for new quests.
Lastly, I just want to mention that the stone statues still spray blood when you cut off their heads.
Deepest lore???
The only minor glitches were, as the poster below pointed out, the assumption that the PC is male and Dragonborn (though the male pronouns only occur in a couple of places, it didn't bother me terribly, and I am the Dragonborn in this playthrough); and a small visual glitch in the cave leading to the city.
If the game didn't want you to have the option, they would only give you the option to be a male Nord.
So no, the dragonborn was not a male nord, the Nerevarine was not a dark elf and the Hero of Kvatch was not an imperial. But hey, maybe you know more than Bethesda. Is this Todd Howard secret account? Is that what you're trying to tell us?
This is like... basic lore stuff, man.
This needs to be fixed. Close to uninstalling.
EDIT: I think it would be solved by adding a 'persistence flag' to the corpse in xEdit. Because I think that other mods are somehow causing the corpse to despawn. Trying to figure it out.
Maybe you've not updated in awhile?
Aside from this problem, even after few minutes into the mod I already feel how much well is done. Very promising!
I loved the voice acting and overall gameplay this mod gave you.
def. endorsed!
Anyone looking for dark, atmospheric stuff will enjoy this.
Trying this mod out for the first time..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The quest starts at on the road towards Solitude (south of Katla's Farm) where you will find a corpse near a fork in the road.
This is the English translation of the German Mod "Der Schatten von Meresis".
The quest starts at the Solitude Sawmill (south of Katla's Farm) where you will find a corpse on a little sandbank in the middle of the river.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two pictures also on view in Images and two separate bodies.. Which place is supposed to have the quest start body ?
I been looking at both locations, and I just can not find anything.
SkyrimVR level 15 new game not had this mod installed before.
Thanks.. :)