[VIDEO PLACEHOLDER]

Continue the legend of Umbra -now as a living, floating sword that will follow you in your travels and fight for you using custom animations. Includes two quests with good and bad endings, professionally voice-acted, and well-integrated with the lore. See the trailer!

The sword has her own follower system, with features to wait, dismiss and do favors, as well a lot of voice-acted commentary for various situations. It's a joy to see her fight for you with her custom animations, and I based the story on official lore as much as possible, including, loosely, some of the events in the "[url=https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Infernal-City/dp/0345508017]The Infernal City[/url]" novel. I'm intrigued by the philosophical dilemma of a living sword that committed all kinds of atrocities in the past, but has now been re-forged. Should it still pay for its past sins even if she has no memory of them?

There are multiple endings depending on what is your answer to that question. You will have opportunities through both quests to make your decision one way or another. All the lore you need to know is already included in various materials within the mod, but you can always [url=https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Umbra]get a refresher[/url].

[b]Compatibility[/b]

Compatible with everything as far as I can tell, including mods such as:
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[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41502]Followers as Companions II[/url]? -so that she will hover by your side instead of behind you�
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7096]My Home is Your Home[/url]? -so that you can assign her a permanent dwelling place eventually, although she will not sandbox for obvious reasons
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/6656]Amazing Follower Tweaks[/url]? -in the sense that AFT ignores her and she ignores AFT, which is the way things should be for her.
[*]Likely every other Follower framework out there, too -they should all ignore her and she should ignore them all.
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That said, the following is law for every mod that integrates into vanilla Skyrim: [i]as a modder you always have to touch a few things[/i]. For example: since I edited the text of a vanilla book slightly, then mods like [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/901]Book Covers[/url]?�may lose their changes for [i]just [/i]that one unique book. Could it be patched? Sure. Is it worth it? I personally don't think so -but I'll be happy to accept any patch submitted by anyone for tiny things like this (and please try to make them ESL to save people a slot in their load order).

Other examples include vanilla cells which are frequently edited by all the popular light, shadows, or even music mods -the changes are so tiny and/or are done in cells so rarely-ever visited that I really don't think a patch is warranted. Spoiler: if you use 'T'Skyrim' this mod does overwrite its new Atronach Forge recipes -see the patch in optional files.�

Lastly, to start the quest you need to read a certain book which is found in common loot -this means touching two leveled lists: "LItemBook0All" and "LItemBookClutter". Again -it's not going to break anything and it doesn't really bother me, but merging leveled lists is a well-studied subject in nine years of Skyrim modding :)�

[b]Requirements[/b]

You MUST have these two:

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[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20988]CVR Follower Voices[/url]? - although the voice actress graciously supplied many brand-new lines, the mod still uses her work as the "Rose Deep" voice in CVR. My mod makes some changes to "Rose Deep", so I don't recommend you share that voice type with other NPCs.

[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/33746]Dynamic Animation Replacer[/url]? - this is a gem, everybody. I've met people who are leery of it -perhaps they fear it's like FNIS or Nemesis which requires doing special tasks with every install/uninstall: that's absolutely [i]not[/i] the case. DAR is one of the most plug-and-play gems I've ever seen, safe as can be, and totally required to see the sword's unique, custom animations.
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I strongly recommend you also use this:

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[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/35925]Disable Follower Collision[/url]? - it's a beautiful piece of SKSE witchcraft so that you will never again be blocked by your own housecarl while backing out of a small room!
[*]Your favorite ENB, since the flames of the sword do emit particle light. Looks [i]very[/i] cool.
[/list][b]Installation[/b]

Copy everything to your Data folder and check the checkbox, or even better, use a modern mod manager. Safe to add to an on-going game, and safe to remove too: it would probably leave little traces behind but you can always clean your save file with tools such as [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5031]Fallrim's[/url]?.�

[b]Getting started[/b]

Read the "There Is No Umbra" book which appears in common loot, or find a copy of it -where else?- on Farengar's desk. Then it's all quest markers from there! If you get stumped at the part which requires you to operate a certain piece of arcane machinery, my sincere recommendation to you is to read its manual! :)

[b]Credits[/b]

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[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/6051998]Netwalker123[/url]?: without his [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/40052]flying sword animations[/url]? this simply wouldn't be possible. And they're so beautiful! He was very supportive of my project, and I'm proud that he helped. Also, he took the beautiful screenshots you see in the media section. What a guy.
[*][b][url=https://linktr.ee/KerstynUngerVA]Kerstyn Unger[/url]?[/b]: she is the best voice actress many of us have worked with. Her work in the original CVR Follower Voices inspired me to shape the sword's personality, and then she very graciously contributed even more custom lines just for this mod. If you enjoy her amazing performance as the haughty, mellifluous living daedric artifact please buy her a coffee at�[url=https://ko-fi.com/kerstynungerva]https://ko-fi.com/kerstynungerva[/url]�and [url=https://linktr.ee/KerstynUngerVA]visit her site[/url]? to see more of her work.�
[*][url=https://sketchfab.com/Lord.Cinn]Cinnamine[/url]? for the sword model, [url=http://www.nexusmods.com/users/18968109]Trion77[/url]? for the beautiful pulsing textures, and�[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/15641579]PraedythXVI�[/url]for not just making the weapon available as the stunning [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/36781]Abyssal Greatsword[/url]?,�?but also making its permissions so generous that modders like me could use it. I searched for and found many, many beautiful unique swords in the Nexus, but the fact that [i]this one[/i] had such open permissions is what made me choose it. Creative Commons, people!
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/6520144]jg1[/url]?: for being equally generous with the permissions for his flaming effects in the stunning [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/40087]Vibrant Weapons[/url]?. When you see the sword light up a dark cave is because of this guy.
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/53463526]Ckord[/url]?: she helped me test this and gave me the motivation to add new stuff (like the entire Dragonborn portion of the second quest!). Don't miss her underrated [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/40767]Thalmor Dialogue and Quests[/url]?!
[*]Bethesda. I don't always agree with them, but this game has stood the test of time. Going nine years strong.
[*]This community, and the Nexus. I know saying this sounds as cliche as '[i]the real treasure was the friends we made along the way[/i]' but frankly, the people in various Skyrim discords who helped me in various ways all made a huge difference. I don't feel I'm coding in a vacuum -instead I'm part of something. This feels good.
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