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About this mod
Sons of Akatosh is an overhaul of the dragon's magical arsenal. With the focus being on bringing out what makes Elder Scrolls dragons distinct from their contemporaries.
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
It would be remiss of me not to mention that, though I have tested this mod thoroughly, it was never in the context of a regular playthrough. I'm just too busy to test my mods in this way. Dragons are important to Skyrim's plot and as a result my edits to these actors may have unintended side effects on some story quests. I have tried to keep my edits to the dragon NPCs sensible, but I won't know for sure without any feedback. This was a big project of mine, so I will be on hand to address any issues should they arise.
Introduction
I can remember enjoying fighting dragons back when I first played this game on console, but I didn't really think on it too much until I became a modder for the PC version years later. It would seem to me that the developers had more plans than what made it in to the game, furthermore design decisions were made that seemed counterintuitive to how the developers were trying to present dragons in their narrative. It would seem to me that these decisions removed more of the 'Elder Scrolls" identity from these creatures to fit slightly more with our collective preconceptions of fantasy dragons. This is just how it looks to me, I don't know the truth, maybe they had good reason to make these decisions, and this is all a coincidence. In any case, from fighting them you would not think these creatures were the sons of the divine Akatosh.
It's my goal with this mod to restore as much of this lost identity as possible, and as a result make them more compelling threats.
To be brief, Sons of Akatosh does the following...
It would also be remiss of me not to say that mods before have implemented similar features.
'Dragon Real Shout' by blacksupernova - This mod was the first on the Nexus I believe to reintegrate the lost voicework. Both our mods then distribute these shouts among dragons for their use in combat.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12053
'The Need of Voice' by Skyboy999x - This mod for Special Edition focuses on shouts and features voicing the previously silent lines of the dragons and distributes the respective shouts. The mod also comes with other shout related gameplay changes.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20215
When I heard these mods existed I stopped work on this mod and worked on some other projects instead, because I didn't think I did enough to distinguish my project at the time. Now I feel like the project has done enough differently to justify being published.
Originally Sons of Akatosh was to just modify the projectiles and the magic effects attached to them. The most stark change introduced in this mod as you can see in the images, are the dragon's new projectile based shouts. It is based on the player's own "Bend Will" shout projectile mesh, so it is now faster and expands out like a net. This changes how you will need to fight dragons at a fundamental level, as now the dragon is at its most dangerous from a distance. It was also important to me that the player's and dragons shouts have more in common, at least visually. Now they invite comparison.
Elder Scrolls Dragons
The rest of my changes may seem eccentric if I don't justify them.
Shouts
The AI will choose between dragon shouts in the same way a mage in Skyrim chooses spells. From my time modding NPCs, I contend that a dragon has room in its loadout for the use of at least 6 different kinds of shout ability that it will get full use of. That 6th ability is mostly an Alduin exclusive for the time being, so most will just have 5.
Basic Strategy
Within the spoiler tags I will discuss the shouts and the changes I made to them, but if that does not interest you then here is how my changes have changed the strategy of battle. The basic gist is that the dragon will cycle between these 5 archetypal shout abilities. From my testing experience, it is in your best interest to remain close to the dragon to encourage it to use its concentration based shouts, as straying too far will encourage it to use the projectile based ones which are much more dangerous due to the guaranteed collateral damage.
It is more important now to protect the NPCs that are helping you fight the dragon, as the creature is outfitted with abilities that can disable them("Disarm"/"Dismay"), or replace them with even more hostiles (fire wyrms/Ice wraiths/thralls).
Dragons will likely use "Phantom Form" to create a ghostly copy, which can autonomously shout. These illusions always spawn as level 5 with 10HP, but will only actually take damage from shouts, as alluded by the Greybeard's target practice training. If a dragon does not summon a phantom form, then it is an aspiring necromancer, and you should prioritise protecting the NPCs from getting killed and reanimated by them.
The new tools will more than likely distract your NPC allies from attacking the dragon directly, or at worst distract you long enough for the dragon to land a devastating thu'um attack upon you. The dragons have a more destructive thu'um than the player, so getting hit once can at times be decisive.
As the dragonborn, your thu'um is your greatest tool for fighting dragons. The story hinges upon this notion. It is why I have made it your only tool to fight the dragon's phantoms, moreover it is the only magic that ignores their high magic resistance. If you must rely on enchantments and spells, then you must follow the example of the blades and weaponize lightning. All dragons have a 33% weakness against shock damage; furthermore, dealing enough shock damage to a dragon will prevent it from shouting until it begins to regenerate it's magicka reserves back.
"Doom Driven" Mode
1.1 now includes these dragons in the regular dragon levelled lists, so there is no longer a need for the patch, unless you wish to completely remove dragons from using concentration shouts.
The dragon will naturally prioritise using the concentration shout, this was true for the base game as well. Numbers wise it is the strongest attack in the dragon's arsenal, it was also the most visually impressive one, but it is also the one puts it most at risk. In order to get in position to use it properly, the dragon must hover or ground itself to land most of the attack. Worse still, if you remain close (as is sensible to do with this mod active) it may never need seek to use the new long range shouts.
This is why included the patch modification for 'Sons of Akatosh' that I've taken to calling "Doom Driven" mode. All this esp does is remove concentration based shouts from the dragon's arsenal. Ordinarily this sounds like a terrible idea, that I'd be reluctant to implement in to one of my mods. Since when does removing an option make fights more compelling?
It does in some instances though, as I discovered in my testing. When you strip the dragon of it's flashiest and riskiest offense, it is left with its most defensive one. Without concentration shouts, Dragons lose the ability to mow down NPCs and create wyrms of them, but they begin to take full advantage of their aerial superiority by launching powerful thu'um attacks that blanket the battlefield from the safety of the sky. They spend less time in situations that put them at risk of counterattack and are much less vulnerable when they are on the offensive. If the dragon can see you, then it can land a thu'um on you. These careful dragons do much better fighting a war of attrition against the player, but struggle more when more NPCs are involved.
With this 'Doom Driven' modification landing hits on the dragon become much harder, and you are forced to confront the vast differences between your grasp of the thu'um and theirs, now there is no variation in the expression of your voice powers. I'm not entirely sure how this would play out in a regular playthrough, so to be on the safe side this patch doesn't touch the shouts of the main story dragons. Check out the video for a demonstration of it in action.
Compatibility
The mod is not particularly compatible in it's current state, furthermore there are so many dragon mods on the Nexus that I wouldn't even know where to start. Even if I took advantage of SPID to distribute my shouts, I would still need to edit actors to remove the frost breath shout from half the dragons in the game. I'm certain that I can make patches for most of the in demand mods with time.
There are mods that will never be compatible, like ones that also modify the dragon's shouts.
Future
I will be on hand to make changes based on feedback on potential imbalances
As stated, I would really like to learn to make better beam based projectiles before I feel comfortable implementing my new concentration shouts. I can re-use frost breath for the concentrated form of ice form, but different visuals would be appropriate for "Unrelenting Force", "Dismay" and "Drain Life".
I may finally get Paarthurnax's elemental fury to act like Dragonborn's Battle Fury shout, so that he can buff the player the Alduin fight midway in to the story.
Introduction
I can remember enjoying fighting dragons back when I first played this game on console, but I didn't really think on it too much until I became a modder for the PC version years later. It would seem to me that the developers had more plans than what made it in to the game, furthermore design decisions were made that seemed counterintuitive to how the developers were trying to present dragons in their narrative. It would seem to me that these decisions removed more of the 'Elder Scrolls" identity from these creatures to fit slightly more with our collective preconceptions of fantasy dragons. This is just how it looks to me, I don't know the truth, maybe they had good reason to make these decisions, and this is all a coincidence. In any case, from fighting them you would not think these creatures were the sons of the divine Akatosh.
It's my goal with this mod to restore as much of this lost identity as possible, and as a result make them more compelling threats.
To be brief, Sons of Akatosh does the following...
- Changes the properties of the dragon's long range projectile based shout attack to better resemble the player's own shout abilities.
- All the shouts featured in the mod are voiced using both variations of cut lines by the original voice actors.
- Changes the loadouts of dragons so they have a significantly wider arsenal of lore-friendly magical tools for battle.
- I reimplemented the dragon's ability to invoke the "Phantom Form" shout. Theses summons behaves according to canonical precedent.
- Adds new dragons to levelled lists with different shout loadouts to better reflect the variety of shouts they possess.
- Alters the abilities/weaknesses of the dragons to reflect their status as the divine dragons from the Elder Scrolls universe.
It would also be remiss of me not to say that mods before have implemented similar features.
'Dragon Real Shout' by blacksupernova - This mod was the first on the Nexus I believe to reintegrate the lost voicework. Both our mods then distribute these shouts among dragons for their use in combat.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12053
'The Need of Voice' by Skyboy999x - This mod for Special Edition focuses on shouts and features voicing the previously silent lines of the dragons and distributes the respective shouts. The mod also comes with other shout related gameplay changes.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20215
When I heard these mods existed I stopped work on this mod and worked on some other projects instead, because I didn't think I did enough to distinguish my project at the time. Now I feel like the project has done enough differently to justify being published.
Originally Sons of Akatosh was to just modify the projectiles and the magic effects attached to them. The most stark change introduced in this mod as you can see in the images, are the dragon's new projectile based shouts. It is based on the player's own "Bend Will" shout projectile mesh, so it is now faster and expands out like a net. This changes how you will need to fight dragons at a fundamental level, as now the dragon is at its most dangerous from a distance. It was also important to me that the player's and dragons shouts have more in common, at least visually. Now they invite comparison.
Elder Scrolls Dragons
The rest of my changes may seem eccentric if I don't justify them.
There is no longer a distinction between fire and frost dragons...
Originally, dragons that used "fire breath" were weak to frost, and conversely dragons that used "frost breath" took extra damage from fire. This is innocuous, but it doesn't make sense for dragons in Elder Scrolls, as it infers that these creatures are biologically different somehow. A dragon's choice of shout ought to reflect the dragon's choices, philosophies or personality. It's like a mathematician being literally hurt by reading prose. I instead unified their abilities.
All dragons have 50% resistance to magic, but shouts bypass these defences entirely...
There are few beings in Tamriel with an affinity for magic greater than the dragons do. For their breath and language is a power itself. This is the reason why I decided to give them formidable passive magic resistance like the Bretons used to possess. That said, the game wants to push the idea that the thu'um is special, that the fire created by a pyromancer is different to the fire generated by the voice. After all, it was the grasp of the thu'um is what historically allowed to the ancient Nords to prevail over the dragons. So in order to encourage use of voice powers against dragons, shouts are capable of ignoring these resistances.
The lore would also suggest that dragons should also possess a high level of innate armour, but it falls outside the scope of this mod to make such changes.
All dragons have a 33% weakness to shock damage...
This is admittedly a theory of mine based on certain observations. Dragonbane a weapon designed to fight dragons has a lightning enchantment and a prominent one as well with electricity rippling along the surface. The "Storm call" shout was clearly designed to help the player fight them, Todd Howard even used it in that E3 showcase. Then there is the fact that draining a dragon's magicka supply prevents it from shouting, which can be achieved by using shock damage.
A dragon's mastery of the thu'um allows them to express a shout in the form of a projectile or a concentrated jet of magic...
Even in the base game a dragon can use fire and frost breath in those 2 ways, but maybe this could also be the same for all shouts potentially? The only new concentration effect the mod adds as of release is exclusive to Paarthurnax. Nevertheless, It is a future goal of mine to create concentrated versions of most of the dragon's voiced shouts.
A dragon's thu'um is powerful enough to deal damage with shouts that were not intended to do so...
A contentious change I have made is that all targeted dragon shouts deal damage. This is based on how the Greybeards rarely speak outside of whispers, as their mastery of the thu'um has caused their voices to possess dragon-like power, therefore they are careful when they express themselves. I wanted to reflect the difference between the shouts of mortals and the shouts of dragons by having them all deal extra force damage. As a result, fire resistance alone will not prevent all the damage from a dragon's "Fire Breath" shout, for example.
Draconic phantoms only take damage from shouts...
For some reason the developers cut this shout before the final release, despite most of the necessary infrastructure already being in place. It is a shout voiced by both dragon and NPC voice actors and has a role in the main story albeit a very minor one. The phantom dragons I have reimplemented share some key similarities with the greybeard ones, they are immune to most forms of damage, but are dispelled easily by the player's voice powers.
A dragon must speak the words of power to invoke shouts...
Dragons from the Elder Scrolls need to be able to speak in order to use their abilities, so it was important for me that all the shouts had voice acting. In Skyrim's voices BSA, there were actually two distinct sets of recorded voice lines for dragons invoking words of power: one where the dragons used their regular, whereas the other set were these heavily distorted bestial ones. To take advantage of both sets of lines, I gave the normal sounding lines to the regular dragons and the distorted ones to the undead and skeletal dragons.
... Which is why I have decided to remove frost breath from the loadouts of the living dragons.
For whatever reason, there were no normal lines for expressing the "Frost Breath" shout, despite half the dragons in the levelled list invoking its power. I made the difficult decision to remove "Frost Breath" out of the arsenal of the main dragon encounters. There were lines for Frost Breath among the distorted variants, though, so now "frost breath" is used exclusively by those aforementioned phantom and skeletal dragons.
Originally, dragons that used "fire breath" were weak to frost, and conversely dragons that used "frost breath" took extra damage from fire. This is innocuous, but it doesn't make sense for dragons in Elder Scrolls, as it infers that these creatures are biologically different somehow. A dragon's choice of shout ought to reflect the dragon's choices, philosophies or personality. It's like a mathematician being literally hurt by reading prose. I instead unified their abilities.
All dragons have 50% resistance to magic, but shouts bypass these defences entirely...
There are few beings in Tamriel with an affinity for magic greater than the dragons do. For their breath and language is a power itself. This is the reason why I decided to give them formidable passive magic resistance like the Bretons used to possess. That said, the game wants to push the idea that the thu'um is special, that the fire created by a pyromancer is different to the fire generated by the voice. After all, it was the grasp of the thu'um is what historically allowed to the ancient Nords to prevail over the dragons. So in order to encourage use of voice powers against dragons, shouts are capable of ignoring these resistances.
The lore would also suggest that dragons should also possess a high level of innate armour, but it falls outside the scope of this mod to make such changes.
All dragons have a 33% weakness to shock damage...
This is admittedly a theory of mine based on certain observations. Dragonbane a weapon designed to fight dragons has a lightning enchantment and a prominent one as well with electricity rippling along the surface. The "Storm call" shout was clearly designed to help the player fight them, Todd Howard even used it in that E3 showcase. Then there is the fact that draining a dragon's magicka supply prevents it from shouting, which can be achieved by using shock damage.
A dragon's mastery of the thu'um allows them to express a shout in the form of a projectile or a concentrated jet of magic...
Even in the base game a dragon can use fire and frost breath in those 2 ways, but maybe this could also be the same for all shouts potentially? The only new concentration effect the mod adds as of release is exclusive to Paarthurnax. Nevertheless, It is a future goal of mine to create concentrated versions of most of the dragon's voiced shouts.
A dragon's thu'um is powerful enough to deal damage with shouts that were not intended to do so...
A contentious change I have made is that all targeted dragon shouts deal damage. This is based on how the Greybeards rarely speak outside of whispers, as their mastery of the thu'um has caused their voices to possess dragon-like power, therefore they are careful when they express themselves. I wanted to reflect the difference between the shouts of mortals and the shouts of dragons by having them all deal extra force damage. As a result, fire resistance alone will not prevent all the damage from a dragon's "Fire Breath" shout, for example.
Draconic phantoms only take damage from shouts...
For some reason the developers cut this shout before the final release, despite most of the necessary infrastructure already being in place. It is a shout voiced by both dragon and NPC voice actors and has a role in the main story albeit a very minor one. The phantom dragons I have reimplemented share some key similarities with the greybeard ones, they are immune to most forms of damage, but are dispelled easily by the player's voice powers.
A dragon must speak the words of power to invoke shouts...
Dragons from the Elder Scrolls need to be able to speak in order to use their abilities, so it was important for me that all the shouts had voice acting. In Skyrim's voices BSA, there were actually two distinct sets of recorded voice lines for dragons invoking words of power: one where the dragons used their regular, whereas the other set were these heavily distorted bestial ones. To take advantage of both sets of lines, I gave the normal sounding lines to the regular dragons and the distorted ones to the undead and skeletal dragons.
... Which is why I have decided to remove frost breath from the loadouts of the living dragons.
For whatever reason, there were no normal lines for expressing the "Frost Breath" shout, despite half the dragons in the levelled list invoking its power. I made the difficult decision to remove "Frost Breath" out of the arsenal of the main dragon encounters. There were lines for Frost Breath among the distorted variants, though, so now "frost breath" is used exclusively by those aforementioned phantom and skeletal dragons.
Shouts
The AI will choose between dragon shouts in the same way a mage in Skyrim chooses spells. From my time modding NPCs, I contend that a dragon has room in its loadout for the use of at least 6 different kinds of shout ability that it will get full use of. That 6th ability is mostly an Alduin exclusive for the time being, so most will just have 5.
- Short-range Concentrated: Dragonfire
- Long-range Projectiles: "Unrelenting Force", "Fire Breath", "Dismay", "Ice Form" or "Drain Life"
- Disarm: "Disarm"
- Armor Buff: "Become Ethereal"
- Summon: "Phantom Form", "Soul Cairn Summon" or " Reanimate"
- Scripted AoE: "Dragon Storm Call
Basic Strategy
Within the spoiler tags I will discuss the shouts and the changes I made to them, but if that does not interest you then here is how my changes have changed the strategy of battle. The basic gist is that the dragon will cycle between these 5 archetypal shout abilities. From my testing experience, it is in your best interest to remain close to the dragon to encourage it to use its concentration based shouts, as straying too far will encourage it to use the projectile based ones which are much more dangerous due to the guaranteed collateral damage.
It is more important now to protect the NPCs that are helping you fight the dragon, as the creature is outfitted with abilities that can disable them("Disarm"/"Dismay"), or replace them with even more hostiles (fire wyrms/Ice wraiths/thralls).
Dragons will likely use "Phantom Form" to create a ghostly copy, which can autonomously shout. These illusions always spawn as level 5 with 10HP, but will only actually take damage from shouts, as alluded by the Greybeard's target practice training. If a dragon does not summon a phantom form, then it is an aspiring necromancer, and you should prioritise protecting the NPCs from getting killed and reanimated by them.
The new tools will more than likely distract your NPC allies from attacking the dragon directly, or at worst distract you long enough for the dragon to land a devastating thu'um attack upon you. The dragons have a more destructive thu'um than the player, so getting hit once can at times be decisive.
As the dragonborn, your thu'um is your greatest tool for fighting dragons. The story hinges upon this notion. It is why I have made it your only tool to fight the dragon's phantoms, moreover it is the only magic that ignores their high magic resistance. If you must rely on enchantments and spells, then you must follow the example of the blades and weaponize lightning. All dragons have a 33% weakness against shock damage; furthermore, dealing enough shock damage to a dragon will prevent it from shouting until it begins to regenerate it's magicka reserves back.
Spoiler:
If dragon shouts are phrases that produce powerful effects, by communicating concepts, then it is actually fitting then that the dragon's mastery allows them to produce different effects for different situations. For example, a dragon can communicate the concept of "Fire Breath" as a projectile at long range or a concentrated focused beam at close range. For this section, I will refer to these as "expressions".
Utility Shouts
Expression: Become Ethereal
Dragon "Become Ethereal" works similarly to the player's own. Paarthurnax says in game that dragons have more difficulty grasping the concepts associated with this shout as their immortality is in this case an obstacle, so I decided that dragons would not receive the passive health regeneration that the player can achieve.
Without some extra motivation from dummy effects or script prompts, then NPCs would not know to invoke spells like "Become Ethereal". In this instance, I have tricked the AI in to thinking it produces an armour effect, so dragons will use it like it would achieve an effect like "Oakflesh". A dragon will call upon "Become Ethereal" every once in a while. You will not be able to damage them in this state until they attack or 15 seconds passes.
Expression: Disarm
The ancient nords were supposed to be mighty warriors and if might was all that was necessary to overthrow the dragons, then they would have been more than capable of doing so. The mere existence of this shout is proof that their warrior prowess alone wasn't enough, the dragons knew well how powerless men were without their weapons. The fact that all the voice actors voiced this shout and the AI actively uses its effects proves this was once supposed to be a tool that dragons were supposed to have at their disposal.
With my modifications, you too can experience the humiliation of the ancient nords when you hear the dragon call out the words of power and your entire party is rendered toothless, then cast in to the dirt by the force. As stated, the force inherent to a dragon shouting will cause damage, so sometimes the disarmed won't be getting back up. NPCs will not pick back up their weapons mid combat, so guards and other archers will not be as dependable in securing the win as they were before.
Destructive Shouts
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfire
In the current state of the mod, all living dragons breath a concentrated stream of flame as their main weapon against their opponents. I have modified this to keep it interesting, while I seek to create better special effects for the forthcoming concentration shouts.
The most striking thing is that it behaves like the "Wall of Flames" in that the dragonfire creates flames hazards on contact. You won't have much luck dodging this, as you probably know full well how quickly the dragon adjusts its aim. You will always be standing in a bonfire when under attack, so thankfully they last half as long as those generated by mages. Regardless, this extra damage makes standing in front of the dragon as it breathes its flame particularly foolhardy. Fire resistance alone won't be enough to protect from this damage, as a percentage of damage of this shout is now dealt as pure force, so you and other NPCs will also stagger when struck by dragonfire. This is particularly bad for NPCs who are rendered helpless in this state as they are cooked alive. Should an NPC survive with 20% of their health as a result, they will flee from the flame, but if they are killed then a fire wyrm is spawned from their corpse. This emulates the bonuses the player may inherit in their playthrough.
The power of dragonfire as you can expect only gets stronger as the dragons do. It is imperative to avoid this attack and helpful to keep others from getting struck with it too.
Projectile Expression: Fire Breath
Previously, when a "fire dragon" would attempt to use the fire breath shout to attack an opponent out of reach of it's concentration attack, it would express it as a cloud of gases. Instead it will now project the blastwave seen in the images. If you happen to be without any cover when a dragon expresses a shout in this manner, then there is precious little you can do beside invoking "Become Ethereal". Like its concentration counterpart, those killed with this attack will also spawn fire wyrms and a portion of the damage is dealt as pure force. This attack gets much more dangerous from stronger dragons, as all this damage is dealt at once, unlike with dragonfire.
Utility Expression: Dragon Storm Call
Originally, this shout was not voiced, but it is scripted to use the same words Alduin would have used for the "Fire Breath" shout. I'd rather it'd be voiced, than not at all. In ESO, they gave this effect a separate trio of words in "Jiid So Daan". I have not modified this shout other than adding the voiced lines they were associated with by default.
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfear
The data for a concentrated dragon breath attack based on "Dismay" exists in 'Sons of Akatosh', but it is not implemented currently. This will be true of most of the concentration based expressions apart from dragonfire. I was particularly unsatisfied with what I came up with for dragonfear.
Once I get something passable. It will be able to push NPCs past fear in to full blown frenzy that is if they survive the damage to their minds and from the force of the effect.
Projectile Expression: Dismay
When a dragon uses Dismay it will do damage over the period of 30 seconds, thankfully this damage is small, so you will be able to manage it using potions or magic. Maybe you will have the ability to dispel the effect entirely. Untended to however, this shout will reliably deal more damage than "Drain Vitality" would have done previously. As always this effect will utterly disable your AI companions or any helpful bystanders. Not even being an undead or an automaton will stop the mental pain, as dragon have mastery of the mind via mastery of the thu'um.
Concentrated Expression: "Dragondrain"
An as of yet unimplemented concentration based shout. I have modified the projectile version to absorb attributes, so being caught in a concentrated version of this effect would be even worse.
Projectile Expression: "Drain Vitality"
Dismay occupies the niche that "Drain Vitality" once had, but now that this shout also absorbs health, magicka and stamina, it can turn the tide of battle catastrophically. Having a large posse of support would instantly become a hindrance should they be struck with this shout, as the dragon can and would drink the life force of the entire group.
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfrost
Tragically, the developers for whatever reason did not record the lines I needed for this shout to be used alongside "Fire Breath". The guttural voicelines exist for it however, and so I decided that phantoms and skeletal dragons would instead use this. Otherwise it possesses similar properties to "fire Breath" in that it can spawn hazards, create ice wraiths and has the ability to inflict a bonus paralyze effect on the critically wounded. As a concession to players, phantoms cannot use concentration expressions, only projectiles which do not produce ice hazards, but do still birth ice wraiths on kills. Only the skeletal dragon of Labrynthian possesses the true shout at the moment.
Projectile Expression: Frost Breath
With this mod, frost breath will be most often expressed by phantom dragons. They are the frost equivalent of fire breath in everyway. It is a shame that there was no appropriate recorded voicelines, as it should have been the second most prominent thu'um ability.
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfreeze
I was tempted to replace the regular frost breath with a version that would freeze on contact, then push the victim a levelled distance away. While it would keep the frost dragon idea from the base game, I thought it would be too cruel as the only other concentration effect. Should I ever revisit this idea, it would be after I have implemented the other concentration shouts, thus this particular expression of shout would not be quite so common.
Projectile Expression: Ice Form
The dragon's own ice form works more like a regular paralyze effect, in that a strike won't be enough to break the effect. Victims are only paralyzed for 3 seconds, but during that time they are suffering from frost damage. By far the most devastating side effect of being paralyzed is losing sight of the dragon. If you have mods for potions or enchantments that ward against or cure paralysis, then it would be ideal for this instance.
Concentrated Expression: Dragonforce
Like with Dragonfear, Dragonforce is a fully functioning shout with subpar special effects that I have not added to the dragon loadouts. Unrelenting Force is an iconic shout for the Dragonborn, so I wanted the true draconic expression to eclipse it.
As you can imagine, the actual effects of the shout will be to launch the target a levelled distance, with most of the damage being as a result of fall damage. Force can be vicious when applied to a concentration effect though. Even the lowest level dragon can send the player quite the distance, but at least the actual damage of the shout will be minor and you will be away from further harm. At the highest levels being struck with Dragonforce is practically a death sentence, as it will propel the target an incredible lateral distance. If you have enchantments or spells to help inoculate yourself against fall damage, then this would be the time to use it. Targets that resist the knockdown effect are actually worse off, as they will be exposed to the full brunt of the pure force damage that the shout deals and may completely disintegrate as a result.
Projectile Expression: Unrelenting Force
"Unrelenting Force" when used by a dragon will shout down every NPC and item in the vicinity. If the rest of the projectile expressions were a dragon's poison arrows, then this shout would be their crossbow bolt. "Unrelenting Force" has no damage over time effects in play this time, instead you will feel the full force of the shout on impact. This may be enough to turn any wounded NPC on the battlefield in to dust. If it was that easy for Ulfric Stormcloak, then for a dragon the feat would be effortless. Stay close to the dragon to discourage them from using it at all costs.
Expression: Soul Rend
This should have been Durnehviir's signature shout. This iteration of soul rend is similar in effect to the player's own with an additional portion of pure force damage to supplement the original magic damage. What makes this so much more dangerous though, is that unlike the player equivalent, this shout has the potential to strike all participants in the battle, thus also has the potential to turn all of these beings in to Durnehviir's undead thralls. The player is exempt from this effect though. I discovered first hand that reanimating the player has consequences upon reloading earlier saves.
While dragons can have up to 10 thralls bound to their service, if a dragon summons/reanimates another kind of thrall, then the first ones will die. This is why a dragon can only have one summoning ability. This trouble can still befall Durnehviir unfortunately, as resummoning the soul guard, will automatically kill all the NPCs he has reanimated through "Soul Rend". It was either this or choosing between giving him "Soul Rend" or "Soul Cairn Summon", and I could not choose.
Expression01: Dragonwhirlwind
The developers had Charles Martinet voice lines for both "Whirlwind Sprint" and "Elemental Fury" words of power. These are very strange choices from the perspective of someone not privy to the developer's plans, but they allude to the mentor character of Paarthurnax. In the future I want to integrate Elemental Fury as a periodical buff Paarthurnax places on the Dragonborn during the Alduin fight midway through the story. I have taken massive liberties in expressing "Whirlwind Sprint" as a kind of whirlwind breath when used by Paarthurnax. There really wasn't much more I could do with it.
I repurposed the original "Frost Breath" visuals to look enough like a sort of cloudy wind breath for me to feel satisfied including in the release. Dragonwhirlwind works a bit like Dragonforce, only there is less pure force damage and instead of launching targets laterally, it propels them vertically. In my testing, Paarthurnax would use Dragonwhirlwind to literally juggle targets in to the sky. A clever, merciful, but lethal use of the thu'um by a wise dragon living on the tallest mountain in Tamriel. Check the video for some footage.
Summoning Shouts
The developers had plans for the "Phantom Form" shout, as they had all the dragon voice actors record lines for it. It seemed like a weird waste when in the final release, that it was only used to create menial targets for the Dragonborn's training at High Hrothgar. Phantom Dragons are a fully fledged mechanic in 'Sons of Akatosh', and the training session at High Hrothgar has now been retroactively turned in to a stealth tutorial on how to fight them.
Phantom Dragons are summoned when the dragon calls the relevant words of power. They always spawn at level 5 with 10HP in total. Like it's usage in my mod Heritage 2, the phantom is also able to use shouts, however they differ in their lifespan. In Sons of Akatosh, these phantoms persist on the battlefield for 60 seconds like most summons. They spawn with a single levelled random projectile shout chosen between : "Disarm", "Dismay", "Fire Breath", "Frost Breath", "Unrelenting Force" and "Ice Form".
As a side note all of the main quest dragons have the ability to invoke phantoms, furthermore each of these phantoms have a unique voiceset when invoking shouts. This is because the developers recorded a second set of voicelines for Dragon shouts, these sound more ghastly and guttural, and I decided to repurpose them as the unique voices of the phantom and skeletal dragons. The regular phantom dragons copy the voicelines from Phantom Odahviing, because their voices sounded the most similar.
Odahviing is the only summonable dragon equipped with "Phantom Form", which technically gives him access to greater variety of shouts when compared to Durnehviir.
The Greybeards taught you to target the phantoms with your shouts and I have tried to recontextualize this moment in to them teaching you that these phantoms can only be dispelled with the thu'um. Regular magic and weapons do nothing to them. They have so little HP that you are likely able to vanquish them in one breath. This still plays in to the dragon's hand however, as a shout aimed at a phantom is a shout not aimed at them. Unless the battle involves a friendly dragon or a tongue, then ordinary NPCs are completely helpless to fight these phantoms without your involvement.
Expression 01: "Soul Cairn Summon"
In life this was the power that Durnehviir sought out from the Ideal Masters, the ability to summon the army of the Soul Guard. I wanted to modify more of this shout like being able to randomly spawn in keepers too, but I instead just guaranteed that all 3 base enemies were summoned each time. Durnehviir is able to reliably conjure 3 undead minions without needing to reanimate the fallen.
Expression 02: "Reanimate Slave"
Regular dragons can now be deviant practitioners of the Alok-dilon just like Durnehviir used to. If a dragon does not summon a phantom early in the fight, then you can guarantee that it is a secret necromancer. They will call the words of power toward a corpse on the battlefield and all the valid dead bodies that the massive projectile touches will be brought back to life. Up to 10 thralls can be active at once this way, although only if they are all resurrected at once. Having dead bodies around a dragon necromancer is a terrible situation, as these zombies won't turn to dust when defeated and can be reanimated again at the dragon's discretion.
Show
If dragon shouts are phrases that produce powerful effects, by communicating concepts, then it is actually fitting then that the dragon's mastery allows them to produce different effects for different situations. For example, a dragon can communicate the concept of "Fire Breath" as a projectile at long range or a concentrated focused beam at close range. For this section, I will refer to these as "expressions".
Utility Shouts
"FEIM": Fade
"ZII": Spirit
"GRON": Bind
"ZII": Spirit
"GRON": Bind
Expression: Become Ethereal
Dragon "Become Ethereal" works similarly to the player's own. Paarthurnax says in game that dragons have more difficulty grasping the concepts associated with this shout as their immortality is in this case an obstacle, so I decided that dragons would not receive the passive health regeneration that the player can achieve.
Without some extra motivation from dummy effects or script prompts, then NPCs would not know to invoke spells like "Become Ethereal". In this instance, I have tricked the AI in to thinking it produces an armour effect, so dragons will use it like it would achieve an effect like "Oakflesh". A dragon will call upon "Become Ethereal" every once in a while. You will not be able to damage them in this state until they attack or 15 seconds passes.
"ZUN": Weapon
"HAAL": Hand
"VIIK": Defeat
"HAAL": Hand
"VIIK": Defeat
Expression: Disarm
The ancient nords were supposed to be mighty warriors and if might was all that was necessary to overthrow the dragons, then they would have been more than capable of doing so. The mere existence of this shout is proof that their warrior prowess alone wasn't enough, the dragons knew well how powerless men were without their weapons. The fact that all the voice actors voiced this shout and the AI actively uses its effects proves this was once supposed to be a tool that dragons were supposed to have at their disposal.
With my modifications, you too can experience the humiliation of the ancient nords when you hear the dragon call out the words of power and your entire party is rendered toothless, then cast in to the dirt by the force. As stated, the force inherent to a dragon shouting will cause damage, so sometimes the disarmed won't be getting back up. NPCs will not pick back up their weapons mid combat, so guards and other archers will not be as dependable in securing the win as they were before.
Destructive Shouts
"YOL": Fire
TOOR": Inferno
"SHUL": Sun
TOOR": Inferno
"SHUL": Sun
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfire
In the current state of the mod, all living dragons breath a concentrated stream of flame as their main weapon against their opponents. I have modified this to keep it interesting, while I seek to create better special effects for the forthcoming concentration shouts.
The most striking thing is that it behaves like the "Wall of Flames" in that the dragonfire creates flames hazards on contact. You won't have much luck dodging this, as you probably know full well how quickly the dragon adjusts its aim. You will always be standing in a bonfire when under attack, so thankfully they last half as long as those generated by mages. Regardless, this extra damage makes standing in front of the dragon as it breathes its flame particularly foolhardy. Fire resistance alone won't be enough to protect from this damage, as a percentage of damage of this shout is now dealt as pure force, so you and other NPCs will also stagger when struck by dragonfire. This is particularly bad for NPCs who are rendered helpless in this state as they are cooked alive. Should an NPC survive with 20% of their health as a result, they will flee from the flame, but if they are killed then a fire wyrm is spawned from their corpse. This emulates the bonuses the player may inherit in their playthrough.
The power of dragonfire as you can expect only gets stronger as the dragons do. It is imperative to avoid this attack and helpful to keep others from getting struck with it too.
Projectile Expression: Fire Breath
Previously, when a "fire dragon" would attempt to use the fire breath shout to attack an opponent out of reach of it's concentration attack, it would express it as a cloud of gases. Instead it will now project the blastwave seen in the images. If you happen to be without any cover when a dragon expresses a shout in this manner, then there is precious little you can do beside invoking "Become Ethereal". Like its concentration counterpart, those killed with this attack will also spawn fire wyrms and a portion of the damage is dealt as pure force. This attack gets much more dangerous from stronger dragons, as all this damage is dealt at once, unlike with dragonfire.
Utility Expression: Dragon Storm Call
Originally, this shout was not voiced, but it is scripted to use the same words Alduin would have used for the "Fire Breath" shout. I'd rather it'd be voiced, than not at all. In ESO, they gave this effect a separate trio of words in "Jiid So Daan". I have not modified this shout other than adding the voiced lines they were associated with by default.
"FAAS": Fear
"RU": Run
"MAAR": Terror
"RU": Run
"MAAR": Terror
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfear
The data for a concentrated dragon breath attack based on "Dismay" exists in 'Sons of Akatosh', but it is not implemented currently. This will be true of most of the concentration based expressions apart from dragonfire. I was particularly unsatisfied with what I came up with for dragonfear.
Once I get something passable. It will be able to push NPCs past fear in to full blown frenzy that is if they survive the damage to their minds and from the force of the effect.
Projectile Expression: Dismay
When a dragon uses Dismay it will do damage over the period of 30 seconds, thankfully this damage is small, so you will be able to manage it using potions or magic. Maybe you will have the ability to dispel the effect entirely. Untended to however, this shout will reliably deal more damage than "Drain Vitality" would have done previously. As always this effect will utterly disable your AI companions or any helpful bystanders. Not even being an undead or an automaton will stop the mental pain, as dragon have mastery of the mind via mastery of the thu'um.
"GAAN": Stamina
"LAH": Magicka
"HAAS": Health
"LAH": Magicka
"HAAS": Health
Concentrated Expression: "Dragondrain"
An as of yet unimplemented concentration based shout. I have modified the projectile version to absorb attributes, so being caught in a concentrated version of this effect would be even worse.
Projectile Expression: "Drain Vitality"
Dismay occupies the niche that "Drain Vitality" once had, but now that this shout also absorbs health, magicka and stamina, it can turn the tide of battle catastrophically. Having a large posse of support would instantly become a hindrance should they be struck with this shout, as the dragon can and would drink the life force of the entire group.
"FO": Frost
"KRAH": Cold
"DIIN": Freeze
"KRAH": Cold
"DIIN": Freeze
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfrost
Tragically, the developers for whatever reason did not record the lines I needed for this shout to be used alongside "Fire Breath". The guttural voicelines exist for it however, and so I decided that phantoms and skeletal dragons would instead use this. Otherwise it possesses similar properties to "fire Breath" in that it can spawn hazards, create ice wraiths and has the ability to inflict a bonus paralyze effect on the critically wounded. As a concession to players, phantoms cannot use concentration expressions, only projectiles which do not produce ice hazards, but do still birth ice wraiths on kills. Only the skeletal dragon of Labrynthian possesses the true shout at the moment.
Projectile Expression: Frost Breath
With this mod, frost breath will be most often expressed by phantom dragons. They are the frost equivalent of fire breath in everyway. It is a shame that there was no appropriate recorded voicelines, as it should have been the second most prominent thu'um ability.
"IIZ": Ice
"SLEN": Flesh
"NUS": Statue
"SLEN": Flesh
"NUS": Statue
Concentrated Expression: Dragonfreeze
I was tempted to replace the regular frost breath with a version that would freeze on contact, then push the victim a levelled distance away. While it would keep the frost dragon idea from the base game, I thought it would be too cruel as the only other concentration effect. Should I ever revisit this idea, it would be after I have implemented the other concentration shouts, thus this particular expression of shout would not be quite so common.
Projectile Expression: Ice Form
The dragon's own ice form works more like a regular paralyze effect, in that a strike won't be enough to break the effect. Victims are only paralyzed for 3 seconds, but during that time they are suffering from frost damage. By far the most devastating side effect of being paralyzed is losing sight of the dragon. If you have mods for potions or enchantments that ward against or cure paralysis, then it would be ideal for this instance.
"FUS": Force
"RO": Balance
"DAH": Push
"RO": Balance
"DAH": Push
Concentrated Expression: Dragonforce
Like with Dragonfear, Dragonforce is a fully functioning shout with subpar special effects that I have not added to the dragon loadouts. Unrelenting Force is an iconic shout for the Dragonborn, so I wanted the true draconic expression to eclipse it.
As you can imagine, the actual effects of the shout will be to launch the target a levelled distance, with most of the damage being as a result of fall damage. Force can be vicious when applied to a concentration effect though. Even the lowest level dragon can send the player quite the distance, but at least the actual damage of the shout will be minor and you will be away from further harm. At the highest levels being struck with Dragonforce is practically a death sentence, as it will propel the target an incredible lateral distance. If you have enchantments or spells to help inoculate yourself against fall damage, then this would be the time to use it. Targets that resist the knockdown effect are actually worse off, as they will be exposed to the full brunt of the pure force damage that the shout deals and may completely disintegrate as a result.
Projectile Expression: Unrelenting Force
"Unrelenting Force" when used by a dragon will shout down every NPC and item in the vicinity. If the rest of the projectile expressions were a dragon's poison arrows, then this shout would be their crossbow bolt. "Unrelenting Force" has no damage over time effects in play this time, instead you will feel the full force of the shout on impact. This may be enough to turn any wounded NPC on the battlefield in to dust. If it was that easy for Ulfric Stormcloak, then for a dragon the feat would be effortless. Stay close to the dragon to discourage them from using it at all costs.
"RII": Essence
"VAH": Tear
"ZOL": Zombie
"VAH": Tear
"ZOL": Zombie
Expression: Soul Rend
This should have been Durnehviir's signature shout. This iteration of soul rend is similar in effect to the player's own with an additional portion of pure force damage to supplement the original magic damage. What makes this so much more dangerous though, is that unlike the player equivalent, this shout has the potential to strike all participants in the battle, thus also has the potential to turn all of these beings in to Durnehviir's undead thralls. The player is exempt from this effect though. I discovered first hand that reanimating the player has consequences upon reloading earlier saves.
While dragons can have up to 10 thralls bound to their service, if a dragon summons/reanimates another kind of thrall, then the first ones will die. This is why a dragon can only have one summoning ability. This trouble can still befall Durnehviir unfortunately, as resummoning the soul guard, will automatically kill all the NPCs he has reanimated through "Soul Rend". It was either this or choosing between giving him "Soul Rend" or "Soul Cairn Summon", and I could not choose.
"WULD": Whirlwind
"NAH": Fury
"KEST": Tempest
"NAH": Fury
"KEST": Tempest
Expression01: Dragonwhirlwind
The developers had Charles Martinet voice lines for both "Whirlwind Sprint" and "Elemental Fury" words of power. These are very strange choices from the perspective of someone not privy to the developer's plans, but they allude to the mentor character of Paarthurnax. In the future I want to integrate Elemental Fury as a periodical buff Paarthurnax places on the Dragonborn during the Alduin fight midway through the story. I have taken massive liberties in expressing "Whirlwind Sprint" as a kind of whirlwind breath when used by Paarthurnax. There really wasn't much more I could do with it.
I repurposed the original "Frost Breath" visuals to look enough like a sort of cloudy wind breath for me to feel satisfied including in the release. Dragonwhirlwind works a bit like Dragonforce, only there is less pure force damage and instead of launching targets laterally, it propels them vertically. In my testing, Paarthurnax would use Dragonwhirlwind to literally juggle targets in to the sky. A clever, merciful, but lethal use of the thu'um by a wise dragon living on the tallest mountain in Tamriel. Check the video for some footage.
Summoning Shouts
"FIIK": Mirror
"LO": Deceive
"SAH": Phantom
Expression: "Phantom Form""LO": Deceive
"SAH": Phantom
The developers had plans for the "Phantom Form" shout, as they had all the dragon voice actors record lines for it. It seemed like a weird waste when in the final release, that it was only used to create menial targets for the Dragonborn's training at High Hrothgar. Phantom Dragons are a fully fledged mechanic in 'Sons of Akatosh', and the training session at High Hrothgar has now been retroactively turned in to a stealth tutorial on how to fight them.
Phantom Dragons are summoned when the dragon calls the relevant words of power. They always spawn at level 5 with 10HP in total. Like it's usage in my mod Heritage 2, the phantom is also able to use shouts, however they differ in their lifespan. In Sons of Akatosh, these phantoms persist on the battlefield for 60 seconds like most summons. They spawn with a single levelled random projectile shout chosen between : "Disarm", "Dismay", "Fire Breath", "Frost Breath", "Unrelenting Force" and "Ice Form".
As a side note all of the main quest dragons have the ability to invoke phantoms, furthermore each of these phantoms have a unique voiceset when invoking shouts. This is because the developers recorded a second set of voicelines for Dragon shouts, these sound more ghastly and guttural, and I decided to repurpose them as the unique voices of the phantom and skeletal dragons. The regular phantom dragons copy the voicelines from Phantom Odahviing, because their voices sounded the most similar.
Odahviing is the only summonable dragon equipped with "Phantom Form", which technically gives him access to greater variety of shouts when compared to Durnehviir.
The Greybeards taught you to target the phantoms with your shouts and I have tried to recontextualize this moment in to them teaching you that these phantoms can only be dispelled with the thu'um. Regular magic and weapons do nothing to them. They have so little HP that you are likely able to vanquish them in one breath. This still plays in to the dragon's hand however, as a shout aimed at a phantom is a shout not aimed at them. Unless the battle involves a friendly dragon or a tongue, then ordinary NPCs are completely helpless to fight these phantoms without your involvement.
"DIIL": Undead
"QOTH": Tomb
"ZAAM": Slave
"QOTH": Tomb
"ZAAM": Slave
Expression 01: "Soul Cairn Summon"
In life this was the power that Durnehviir sought out from the Ideal Masters, the ability to summon the army of the Soul Guard. I wanted to modify more of this shout like being able to randomly spawn in keepers too, but I instead just guaranteed that all 3 base enemies were summoned each time. Durnehviir is able to reliably conjure 3 undead minions without needing to reanimate the fallen.
Expression 02: "Reanimate Slave"
Regular dragons can now be deviant practitioners of the Alok-dilon just like Durnehviir used to. If a dragon does not summon a phantom early in the fight, then you can guarantee that it is a secret necromancer. They will call the words of power toward a corpse on the battlefield and all the valid dead bodies that the massive projectile touches will be brought back to life. Up to 10 thralls can be active at once this way, although only if they are all resurrected at once. Having dead bodies around a dragon necromancer is a terrible situation, as these zombies won't turn to dust when defeated and can be reanimated again at the dragon's discretion.
"Doom Driven" Mode
1.1 now includes these dragons in the regular dragon levelled lists, so there is no longer a need for the patch, unless you wish to completely remove dragons from using concentration shouts.
The dragon will naturally prioritise using the concentration shout, this was true for the base game as well. Numbers wise it is the strongest attack in the dragon's arsenal, it was also the most visually impressive one, but it is also the one puts it most at risk. In order to get in position to use it properly, the dragon must hover or ground itself to land most of the attack. Worse still, if you remain close (as is sensible to do with this mod active) it may never need seek to use the new long range shouts.
This is why included the patch modification for 'Sons of Akatosh' that I've taken to calling "Doom Driven" mode. All this esp does is remove concentration based shouts from the dragon's arsenal. Ordinarily this sounds like a terrible idea, that I'd be reluctant to implement in to one of my mods. Since when does removing an option make fights more compelling?
It does in some instances though, as I discovered in my testing. When you strip the dragon of it's flashiest and riskiest offense, it is left with its most defensive one. Without concentration shouts, Dragons lose the ability to mow down NPCs and create wyrms of them, but they begin to take full advantage of their aerial superiority by launching powerful thu'um attacks that blanket the battlefield from the safety of the sky. They spend less time in situations that put them at risk of counterattack and are much less vulnerable when they are on the offensive. If the dragon can see you, then it can land a thu'um on you. These careful dragons do much better fighting a war of attrition against the player, but struggle more when more NPCs are involved.
With this 'Doom Driven' modification landing hits on the dragon become much harder, and you are forced to confront the vast differences between your grasp of the thu'um and theirs, now there is no variation in the expression of your voice powers. I'm not entirely sure how this would play out in a regular playthrough, so to be on the safe side this patch doesn't touch the shouts of the main story dragons. Check out the video for a demonstration of it in action.
Compatibility
The mod is not particularly compatible in it's current state, furthermore there are so many dragon mods on the Nexus that I wouldn't even know where to start. Even if I took advantage of SPID to distribute my shouts, I would still need to edit actors to remove the frost breath shout from half the dragons in the game. I'm certain that I can make patches for most of the in demand mods with time.
There are mods that will never be compatible, like ones that also modify the dragon's shouts.
Future
I will be on hand to make changes based on feedback on potential imbalances
As stated, I would really like to learn to make better beam based projectiles before I feel comfortable implementing my new concentration shouts. I can re-use frost breath for the concentrated form of ice form, but different visuals would be appropriate for "Unrelenting Force", "Dismay" and "Drain Life".
I may finally get Paarthurnax's elemental fury to act like Dragonborn's Battle Fury shout, so that he can buff the player the Alduin fight midway in to the story.