Skyrim Special Edition

About this mod

Includes Chapters I and II. Continue Daumbra's story, and obtain new gameplay mechanics (sword throwing, sword riding, mind control, teleportation, etc.) through a DLC-sized questline, professionally voiced. The story has many possible endings -your choices really do matter.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Translations
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Polish
  • Mandarin
  • Italian
Changelogs
Donations
Includes Chapters I and II. Continue Daumbra's story, and obtain new gameplay mechanics (sword throwing, sword riding, mind control, teleportation, etc.) through a DLC-sized questline, professionally voiced. The story has many possible endings -your choices really do matter.

(Did you like the trailer? You may like the Chapter I and Chapter II trailers, too. Chapters I and II are already included in this mod.)

Honored to be Mod of the Month for April 2023! (Chapter II was also Mod of the Month at the time, also in April but 2021).


Hey, we're in the gaming news! 

Also available in Spanish, Portuguese, RussianChinese, Polish and Italian.

SUMMARY
 
This is not a short story: 11 Quests, around 5 thousand lines of fully-voiced dialogue, new locations, mechanics, animations -it took two years and a small army of amazingly talented people like Kerstyn Unger, SkeeverCaleb Hackler, Venjhammet, and many others contributing directly, while Mihail, PraedythT Kuku and many others kindly allowed me to reuse their work.

The story is focused entirely on Daumbra: the newest incarnation of the cursed sword Umbra, whom you may have heard of. She can be your follower, but she can also be your weapon, and comes with several mechanics which I think are somewhat novel -such as riding on her like a hoverboard, or throwing her like a javelin (and then she fights the baddies at the spot where she lands), mind-control, teleportation, telekinetically using the enemies' own weapons against them, and so on.

But the focus, at least for me, is the story. I believe the more real choices we get to make in a story, the more we care for it. And by that standard...  yeah, you're probably going to care a lot. There are many big choices in this mod, and many endings to make them matter. No two people will experience this story in the exact same way.

Everything is lore-friendly.


NEW MECHANICS

CHAPTER I
By the end of Quest 1:

  • Summoning her to your side: Simply use the summon spell.

By the end of Quest 2:

  • Wielding her as a long-range sword: Try the standing attacks for extra range.
  • Riding on her at high speed like a hoverboard (she rides on water, too): Simply sprint while wielding her.
  • Summoning her directly to your hand to wield her: Simply use the summon spell with one hand free.

CHAPTER II
At the start of Quest 3:

  • Throwing her like a javelin: Hold the "Activate" key for a second, while wielding her, then release. 
  • Summon to Hand: A Lesser Power that will equip her if she's in inventory, summon to your hand if she's not, and fire her like a javelin if she's unsheathed -all in one button.

At the middle point of Quest 3:

  • Mind-controlling enemies: If you permit her to, whenever an enemy temporarily defeats her, she will take over their mind when they pick her up off the ground. You can also ask her to "play dead" for the next fight, to increase the chances of this happening.

Three quarters into Quest 3:

  • Possessing bodies: Daumbra can look like anyone you want, if you're willing to pay the price.

Near the end of Quest 3:

  • Fiery Power Attack: At the cost of some stamina, your power attacks will basically act like fireballs going off on your enemies' faces.

CHAPTER III
After Quest 4:

  • Body management: Up to ten different bodies can be summoned and 'worn' on command.

During Quest 5:

  • Teleport enemies away: And then teleport them back off a tall cliff, for comedic effect.
  • Teleport yourself for short distances: No need for mountain-climbing horses anymore.

After Quest 6:

  • Vanilla Player House: Just a tiny display of appreciation from a friendly Jarl.

After Quest 7:

  • Daumbra can steal weapons from her enemies: And then hit them over the head with them, telekinetically.
  • You can also steal weapons from your enemies: Or just any weapon lying around, if you're not in a hurry.

After Quest 11:

  • You can remove fears from anyone: Or everyone. Forever.

Lastly, she gains new Perks as you level up -mostly from the Two-Handed Skill Tree, but there are a few pleasant surprises -read the article for more details.


CHOICES MATTER

The mod has multiple paths and multiple endings to suit your values and point of view. You may find some decisions harder than others. Characters who always try to do "good" will hopefully test how flexible those principles are... or not! I suggest saving before important decisions. Chapter III has four final endings, and they're not "good" nor "bad", but simply reflections of what you believe. In addition to those four, Chapters I and II include fourteen other early endings to reflect choices you can make as you roleplay your character.

The story works best when you let it breathe. Don't always rush to the next objective, don't always look up what the next step in the guide is, don't always fast-travel. In fact, you will straight up miss out on some content if you fast-travel all the time. The mod is designed for roleplay, with developments happening organically as you go along in your Skyrim life.

Join us at https://discord.gg/52qUTXu and go to the spoilers channel to chat about these things -the moral dilemmas in this mod are by far my favorite topic :)


HOW TO START

  • If you've never played this series before (don't worry, Chapters I and II are already included here with Chapter III) then look for the "There Is No Umbra" book which appears in common loot. There's also a copy on Farengar's desk, in Whiterun's Dragonsreach.
  • If you've already played Chapter I, then simply talk to Daumbra: "May I ask you a question?" then "May I wield you with my own hands". Nothing will happen that exact instant, but events will be set in motion and the quest will come to you after 24 in-game hours. This will also give you the new sword-hoverboard-riding feature.
  • If you've already played Chapter II and got that chapter's best ending at Arcwind Point then eventually you will receive an unusual but familiar letter (there's a one in twenty chance to trigger this letter every time you summon Daumbra). It's possible you got this letter already, as it was part of Chapter II. Discuss the letter with Daumbra. Then, next time you're in a major city, she'll have some news to share with you. Then walk into Solitude with her wearing a body that's not Naenra's, and Quest 4 will find you there.


HARD REQUIREMENTS

  • Dynamic Animation Replacer - (or Open Animation Replacer). 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 not the case for DAR or OAR. Either DAR or OAR can be said to be one of the most plug-and-play gems I've ever seen, safe as can be, and totally required to see this mod's many custom animations. Make sure the version you install matches the version of your game's engine.
  • SKSE - You probably already have this -it's a must for PC modding since many years ago. This is also the reason why this mod can never be in consoles.


SOFT REQUIREMENTS

  • Spell Perk Item Distributor (SPID) - Did you know there's no way to add a Perk to an NPC other than through the Creation Kit? That used to be true until this mod came along. I use it to pass Perks from Daumbra to the NPCs she controls. More and more mods are using it; I highly recommend it. 


NOT REQUIRED BUT STRONGLY SUGGESTED

  • Skeever - Mod of the Month for April 2021, the follower with the most lines ever made (15 thousand and counting) adds a thousand lines more to comment and advice every step of the way for "There Is No Umbra" Chapters I and II (and Kerstyn herself recorded over a hundred new lines as well). It was an honor collaborating together for the patch. You can download it from the optional files section. See the video at: https://youtu.be/GkZQBq_3pcw
  • High Poly Overhauls for both Naenra, as well as Chapter III characters. These were created by one of our voice actors, the multi-talented Daddydubstep13!
  • Vibrant Weapons - Combined with a patch already included in the FOMOD, this will make her produce real light. Very cool. Don't forget to use the Power from that mod to enable effects on NPCs (note: if the light from Vibrant Weapons is too strong for you, there is now an alternative ENB Light patch from PraedythXVI also in the FOMOD installer. ENB Light is not as bright and works whether the sword is sheathed or not).
  • Disable Follower Collision - 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!
  • Equipment Enchantment Fix - This may help you if sometimes her flames don't turn on.
  • Iconic's Azura's Star Dungeon Retexture - This will make your visuals match the Chapter II trailer. It's so gorgeous.
  • Praedy's Soul Cairn - SE - Speaking of gorgeous, this makes Umbriel look amazing.
  • Combat Gameplay Overhaul - or any other similar mod that makes you lean in the direction in which you are moving. This will make the hoverboard riding look and feel gorgeous -and you can wield her one-handed.
  • Better Jumping SE - This will allow you to jump while in 'hoverboard' mode. Combined with CGO it makes for smooooth shock-absorption motion -see the video.
  • Your favorite camera mod - The combat custom animations are all 3rd person, but with some of these mods they can be 1st person too! 
  • There is no (CC) Umbra - A kind soul made a patch that resolves the lore conflict between this mod and the Creation Club's version. 
  • Lucina Player Voice - has unique, custom lines for Daumbra.
  • WIDeadBodyCleanupScript Crash Fix - Depending on your choices some vanilla NPCs may or may not die, and this mod addresses a vanilla bug that sometimes produced crashes when that happened.
  • Dragonactorscript infinite loop fix - Similar to above, this will probably save you some headaches with script lag and Papyrus.


COMPATIBILITY


The FOMOD already includes some patches for minor things, like book covers, or other quests which also touch certain vanilla points -nothing huge. 
  • PCEA: PCEA is fine, but make sure it doesn't overwrite 2hm_sprintforwardsword.hkx so that the DAR version wins over and you can sword-surf.
  • SkySA: I don't use it, but people in my discord say it works fine as long as you delete the SkySA 2-handed attacks and 2-handed sprint animations so you can use the ones from this mod.
  • MCO: I don't use it either, but a very friendly ape in the discord (he asked me to refer to him that way!) made an MCO patch which is included in the FOMOD, that uses Black's animation from mods Sswaye commissioned and gave permissions for. Apologies I can't give technical support on it, since, again, I don't use MCO myself.
  • AFT, NFF, etc.: DO NOT import her into any follower management system. She has her own. Of course, you can have your other followers in your favorite follower management system; that's just fine for them -but not her. The NFF patch is no longer required -uninstall it if you were using it before.
  • The T'Skyrim patch is also no longer required -uninstall it if you were using it before. As of Chapter III, the mod no longer touches the Atronach Forge formlists, so it no longer needs that kind of patches. 
  • Immersive Citizens or similar mods which change the AI packages of vanilla NPCs: make sure my mod loads last in the load order. I can't stress this enough.
  • Synthesis Patcher, Wyre Bash, Merges, etc: Do not include this mod. This mod doesn't merge well, it needs to be by itself.
  • Immersive Equipment Displays -Make sure to use the "Daumbra Exclude" json settings, included in the FOMOD (thanks Waddles!).


INSTALLATION

Just use your favorite mod manager (such as MO2 or Vortex) to handle the FOMOD.

It's safe to add to an on-going game, and as safe to remove as any other mod -your mileage may vary.

Do not pack the loose files (using Cathedral Assets Optimizer or similar) as players report this has resulted in the DAR folders going missing. Do not merge with other mods (it's too big, it won't work).

If you were using the NFF patch for Chapter II, uninstall it, it's no longer needed. Always sort this mod to the bottom of the load order (followed by patches, of course) regardless of what LOOT says or Vortex suggests. Can't stress this enough.


TROUBLESHOOTING

Check the Troubleshooting and Walkthrough article, or any Let's Play in Youtube.

In general, make sure you have the latest version, make sure to never spawn anything from AddItemMenu Mod nor similar, and make sure to never import her into a Follower Management System. Put the mod at the bottom of your load order, and if you played Chapters I or II, clean your savegame with Fallrim Tools (always a healthy practice to do this periodically, anyway).

If none of that helps, join us at https://discord.gg/52qUTXu and come to the help channel -we'll try our best to help you (but we'll also ask you first if you've done all of the above!).


WHAT COMES NEXT

We had 18 people with a QA role in our discord, and everything they found I fixed. But I'm expecting to find out about bugs no one found, so the first few updates are likely to be about that.

The next set of updates will add a low-stakes, feel-good quest after the heavy ending of Chapter III. This chill update which will feature a wedding, an upgradable player house and a few nice moments (let's give the characters some well-earned R&R!).

The next update after that will add a miscellaneous quest for Clavicus... fun stuff for the Prince of Bargains.

The next update after that will start to add Daumbra commentary to vanilla quests, and possibly collaborations with other mod followers.


QUICK Q&A

Content:
  • Is this a love story? A romance mod?
    A: I guess it is, yeah. Technically you can keep her as a friend and opt out of the romance if you want to, but if you do that then you will miss out on all the Chapter III content, and about half of the Chapter II content. It would be an entirely different story than the one I made. 
  • I don't see her flames! 
    A: Did you also install the Vibrant Weapons patch in the Fomod? You also have to turn on the Vibrant Weapons effects for NPCs, using a spell power from that mod.  
  • I see her flames... I just don't like them... 
    A: The flames come from data\meshes\vibrant weapons\magic\FireGreatsword.nif -feel free to edit or delete it, it won't cause problems either way.  
  • Can I turn off NPC's initial reactions to Daumbra in sword form? 
    A: Yes, by keeping her in inventory, or later in the story by giving her a human body. People who react to the floating, talking sword literally covered in flames that just waltzed in the tavern will not have that same reaction a second time. Amazing the kind of stuff people can get used to, living in Skyrim :)  
  • What level should I be before starting the quest? 
    A: (courtesy of 777sage): That varies, if you are playing mostly vanilla - as long as you are strong enough to get a lot of dragon souls you should be fine. But you don't have to be a Dragonborn to start it. If you are playing with Requiem, wait until you are between levels 45 to 65. But you can awaken Daumbra starting any time. This is because in order for you to complete it favorably, you'd have to be strong enough to face even the weakest dragon which is at level 80 (Requiem is hard, kids). Obviously, this is assuming you won't use console commands. 
  • Any tricks or tips to enhance the hoverboarding/hoverswording experience?
    A: (courtesy of actiontheory): If you use Smooth Jump Attack, you can perform this jump attack without breaking your flow while surfing. Just keep holding the sprint button while you perform the jump attack, and when it finishes, you'll hop right back on Daumbra without any jarring animation breaks.


Technical, installation, compatibility:
  • Can this be installed/updated mid playthrough?
    A: Yup, I expect you to. Every update will fix bugs, so please do. As for removing it mid playthrough -in theory it should be fine as long as you clean your save file with Fallrim Tools afterwards. 
  • I have Chapter II. Do I just overwrite or uninstall Chapter II first, then install Chapter III, or what?
    A: It shouldn't matter much, honestly, as long as Chapter III loads last. I guess it's cleaner if you uninstall Chapter II first, since Chapter II has patches that Chapter III doesn't need anymore (like the NFF patch -that should be uninstalled). But don't save without either II or III installed, or you will lose your progress! 
  • Can this be ported to Xbox, Playstation, Wii or anything else Todd stuffs Skyrim on? 
    A: Not without SKSE. This mod needs SKSE to function, and SKSE touches the binaries, so it's unlikely consoles will ever allow it. 
  • Will this work with MCO? SkySA? 
    A: Yes, but I can't give you technical support on those mods, since I don't use them. Chapter III includes an MCO patch.  
  • I'm using the MCO patch, and I don't like the idle animation (or any particular animation). 
    A: Go inside meshes\actors\character\animations\DynamicAnimationReplacer\_CustomConditions and look for folders labelled "Live Daumbra". Replace or delete the 2H idle animation hkx files inside those folders.  
  • Will this work with [insert mod here]? 
    A: Most likely yes, try it. If things go wonky let us know in discord. 
  • Can this be an ESL? 
    A: Nope. Way too big.  
  • Wait, how many scripts?  
    A: Relax, most of the files in the scripts folder are just fragments to advance the quests through dialogues, and the few that aren't don't do anything crazy like cloak spells or permanent onUpdate papyrus loads. Everything is as safe as can be.  
  • Do I need to run Dyndolod after installing this? 
    A: Only if you are a Dyndolod user in the first place. If you're not, the mod will still play perfectly fine. For questions and support on Dyndolod, go to Sheson's place.  
  • I asked her to pick up a stack of 10 lockpicks, and she just kicked it, then it became 1 lockpick!  
    A: Yeah, I can't get around the way the engine handles stacks of items when picked up by a follower. Best if you never ask her to pick up anything off the floor anyway -furthermore, that 'kicking' process will break unique items by spawning a copy of them with a different REF ID. So yeah, it's totally safe to ask her to empty any container, or to harvest any plant, but it's not safe to ask her to pick up items off the floor. She has no pockets anyway.


CREDITS

VOICE ACTING:
  • Kerstyn Unger: she is the best voice actress many of us have worked with. I kid you not when I say I had to take little breaks while editing when the intensity of the emotions she poured into her voice lines got to me. 
  • Caleb Hackler aka Daddydubstep13: mod authors: if you get to work with Caleb, you've hit the jackpot of professionalism, quality and range. No one else did as many characters as he did. I really can't recommend him enough, plus, he became a good friend along the way. Also a mod author!
  • Shawn L. Koch: whatever else you believe, his Clavicus was spot on, and Naenra became iconic in part because of his performance. His range is that good. Whoever hires him next will be lucky. Also a book author!
  • Daniel Hodge: There's a reason he's the go-to person for any serious modder doing professional work with MaleDunmer, MaleKhajiit and other Bethesda voices.
  • Nancy O'Fallon: The best FemaleOrc voice out there -but her range is so vast she could just as easily voice any dainty little fairy! A true professional.
  • Thea Solone: Another consummate professional and Skyrim veteran of many mods. Her FemaleDunmer voice has no equal, save perhaps the original Bethesda actress.
  • Jenni Penn: She voiced a range of characters, from a male child, to a deranged female ghost, and every line had just the right amount of emotion. A true pro!
  • Special shoutout to the Skyrim Voice Alliance -Severage in particular helped me clean up audio, and hooked me up with great resources that are all just there waiting for modders to leverage. Join up!

ANIMATION:

MODELS:
  • Cinnamine for the sword model, Trion77 for the beautiful pulsing textures, and PraedythXVI for not just making the weapon available as the stunning Abyssal Greatsword and staves, but also making their permissions so generous that modders like me could use them. I searched for and found many, many beautiful unique swords in the Nexus, but the fact that this one had such open permissions is what made me choose it. Creative Commons, people!
  • jg1 for being equally generous with the permissions for his flaming effects in the stunning Vibrant Weapons. When you see the sword light up a dark cave is because of this guy.
  • raging29 for being so generous with the amazing Ebony Valkyrie Armor, which allowed me to re-purpose the model for this mod.
  • Vilidran-liemertha for the generous permissions for their Ebody Edge sword, which allowed me to offer an optional replacer in case you prefer a more traditional aesthetic. 
  • TotalInsanity for his generous permission to TDN Equipable Horns -which included the ones Clavicus uses.

LOCATIONS:
  • Skeever: He created Umbriel for this mod. Yeah, every stone. Rest in peace my friend. The world is now poorer without you in it.
  • Venjhammet: He created two locations for this mod -one of them a very cool dungeon.

ENEMIES:
  • Mihail: He generously gave me permission to use his Bone Colossi and other creatures to spice up Umbriel.

MUSIC:
  • Grebjac -what an amazingly talented musician -great ideas too and a wonderful artist to collaborate with. I feel his music really captured the emotional moments of the story.
  • Snowflake for the amazing "Orc March" which was used in the trailer.

PATCHES:

QA:
The entire team of people who helped me test this. They endured bugs so you wouldn't, and beyond that, they gave me amazing ideas that got implemented in the mod:
  • vint: As an author, it's hard to explain just how powerfully motivating it can be to have a reader who is thorough, thoughtful, and really tries to get into the minds of the characters as much as you do. Thank you, vint!
  • Silver: massive amount of effort to fix one of the most baffling issues I've seen in modding, with aliases spontaneously blanking. Thanks to his work 1.06 is a stronger version.
  • Keruah: Great to bounce ideas from, and kept the discord server well-fed with memes! 
  • loop8000, Flim7: Great sources of thoughts and story feedback!
  • Terrance, Xeenex, Fran, Veldrin: memes and QA, awesome combo. Also, thank you for your help in the discord support channel answering questions!
  • Neochiken: the go-to person for all things VR -also created the VR patch. Thank you neochiken!
  • 777sage: had some amazing ideas about potential bad endings for Chapter II, was the inspiration for the mind-control feature, and gave great feedback on Thornir during Chapter III.
  • Waddles: great last-pass for the finished mod, helped created the compatibility settings for Immersive Equipment Display.
  • Ckord: gave me the idea to have a non-dragonborn path for quest 2. Don't miss her underrated Thalmor Dialogue and Quests!
  • jdauley: helped me polish the good ending for Chapter II, and became our first Patron!
  • zoneofdarkness: inspired the body host mechanic with a single dark comment, and then gave me the idea for the last epic battle.
  • pega3: helped me fix a javelin bug that would have been a showstopper -seriously, I would have canned the whole thing if that hadn't been fixed.
  • UltimasPrime: was so, so very thorough with Chapter II. The bugs he found, I swear, I wouldn't have.
  • JackTheDave: joined us after release, and quickly and thoroughly tested Chapter II update 1.05. Thanks Jack!

TRANSLATORS (in discord):
  • Hanea: French.
  • Blamia: Spanish
  • The Demon of Justice: Russian

PATRONS:
Your gifts helped pay for a good amount of the 5 thousand voice lines:
  • Grand Patrons: Publius, Sicarri, Johnsop119, Handwran, Ashlee, Vint
  • Patrons: Vatonage, KindanMcRorie, NewExtractzz, AsTc3r, Cobra187, jessikitty, KIRUha, Terrance

OTHER:
  • Bethesda. I don't always agree with them, but this game has stood the test of time.
  • The Skyrim modding community, in particular Dragonstar's discord (PM for invite).


WANT TO HELP?

Please know that the most expensive part of modding is paying for voice acting, and that voice actors 100% deserve it. I can only imagine a world where I can spend all my weekends writing quest mods, safe in the knowledge I can pay my people for their awesome work. All Chapters put together have costed around 5 thousand dollars, is my guess.

Would you like to thank my voice actors for the tremendous work they do? Please join my Patreon.

Hey, want to chat about Daumbra? It's one of my favorite topics; come over to discord! https://discord.gg/52qUTXu .


AD TIME


Chapter II won won Mod of the Month for April 2021! (Chapter II was backported to Skyrim LE courtesy of Doctor ShekelAlso available in FrenchChinese (2)JapanesePortuguese, SpanishKorean and Russian)

Check out my other mods:

  • Melee Power Knockback - It makes it so your power attacks send the enemies flying -and you can get knocked back by them too. Totally configurable.
  • Knockout and Surrender - So you don't have to murder-hobo your way through Tamriel anymore; now you can choose to spare or knock-out (but not kill) enemies that surrender.