The Kriaal are a Daedric beast race, created in a pact between Mehrunes Dagon and Hircine.

Legend holds that Mehrunes Dagon, in his plans to open the Oblivion Gates in what would be known as the Oblivion Crisis, made a pact with Hircine to provide him with stronger warriors.  Hircine, eager to prove that the Daedra were just as capable of creating a new race, borrowed several of Mehrunes Dagon's dremora for an experiment.  Initially, this experiment failed, as the Dremora were highly resistant to Hircine's attempts to infect them with Lycanthropy.  However, unwilling to stop at the first signs of trouble, Hircine's plan was quickly adapted; If you can't turn the Dremora, but your realm is full of werewolves, start pairing them up.

The first Kriaal were born in the Hunting Grounds, their forms taking after the brutal beasts they came from, though some took on aspects of the Dremora as well.  With proof that his plan worked, Hircine started work on training the new creatures to hunt, and soon after, taught them how to fight.

By the time the Oblivion Crisis happened, Hircine's "pack" was ready.  Hircine had given them special instructions, and when the first gate opened at Kvatch, the Kriaal burst forth, turning silent and invisible, and running into the Wilds.  Enraged, Mehrunes Dagon had his Dremora destroy Kvatch.

200 years later, the Kriaal have spread across Tamriel, but many have found comfort in the cold lands of Skyrim.

--- Current Features ---

• A new Beast Race for Skyrim, created by someone with very little talent with 3D editing.
• Variants of the same race designed to alter the way you play.
• A new follower, hanging out in Fort Dawnguard, currently using the Vanilla Voice Type of Male Brute.
• Probably a few bugs that could use a bit of squashing.
• A couple new crafting ingredients and a few weapons, created from vanilla/DLC assets and NifSkope.
  

---Planned Features---

• A settlement of Kriaal, possibly somewhere near Rorikstead. (This will take quite a while, don't hold your breath.)
• Finishing the Female's face assets at some point.  (To be fair, I think they're at least playable at this point, but not pretty.)
• Integration into the Worldspace with small camps and random NPC's.  (Could take a while, but I might start poking a few Kriaal into the local bandit population just to give you something new to fight.)
• Less bugs, more content.  (As opposed to "less content, more bugs," which is mostly where we're at now.  I'm... Trying to work on it.)
  

---Requirements---

• Skyrim
• Dawnguard
• Dragonborn (0.06-A onward)
• RaceCompatibility for Dawnguard
  

---Notes---

While I will not port this over to Skyrim SE or the Consoles, this is not done out of malice.  I have no personal intentions to port a mod that's still in development to a system I can't test on.  My previous machine was capable, CPU wise, of handling Special Edition, but I would have killed my GTX 275 trying it.  My current laptop is running with Intel Integrated Graphics (Intel HD 5500, if you're curious,) and while I'm sure I could make Special Edition run on it, it wouldn't be pretty. And I have no plans to purchase an Xbox just to test mods on.

However, I will do this for those of you who will ask about it:  You have my permission and my blessing to put this up on SE or XBox.  However, you will assume all support for the version you have uploaded.  This means keeping up with the updates, fixing bugs, and otherwise dealing with potential issues that I can't find at my end.

All I ask is this:  If you are going to port this for others, please credit me in your description, and leave a link back to here.

---Powers---

All Kriaal have Oblivion Walker (resists/weaknesses), Hunter's Claws (Unarmed Damage), Twin Hearts (damage modifier), and Twin Hearts Racing (damage/combat speed multiplier.)  The Variants all have different main racial powers.

Oblivion Walker (Passive) is a basic 35% resistance to Fire, but makes you 20% weaker to Frost, Shock, and Poison.

Hunter's Claws (Passive) allow you to do 15 extra points of unarmed damage.

Twin Hearts (Passive) multiplies all incoming damage by 1.5, meaning you take a bit more damage in every fight.

Twin Hearts Racing (Active, Greater Power) lets you deal Double Damage for 60 seconds, while also giving you 50% faster Health and Stamina regeneration for 60 seconds

All Kriaal except the Swiftpaw get Void Walker (Active, Greater Power), making you appear spectral, fortifying sneak by 100 points, and muffling your footsteps for 30 seconds.  The Swiftpaw instead gets Void Stalker (Active, Greater Power) which does the same except for 60 seconds instead.

Basic Kriaal get Last Stand (Active, Greater Power), which boosts your combat focused skills (Archery, One-Handed, Two-Handed, Destruction, Conjuration, Block, Restoration) by 40 points for 60 seconds, while simultaneously damaging those exact skills by 30 points for 600 seconds (net gain of 10 points for 60 seconds), while also restoring 55 Health and 55 Magicka immediately, as well as fortifying Health and Magicka by 70 points for 30 seconds, and draining 10 Stamina per second for 600 seconds.

Kriaal Warriors replace Last Stand with Deep Focus (Active, Greater Power), increasing Health/Stamina regeneration by 15% for 30 seconds, as well as doubling weapon swing speed for 30 seconds.

Kriaal Mystics replace Last Stand with Ritual of Blood and Agony (Active, Greater Power), damaging your own health by 50 points in trade for 500% faster magicka regeneration for 30 seconds, and 350 points of extra magicka for 10 seconds.

Kriaal Swiftpaws replace Last Stand with Ghost Fingers (Active, Greater Power), fortifying Lockpicking and Pickpocketing by 100 points for 30 seconds.

Kriaal Vulkasirans have all racial powers at once, as they were meant for testing these powers.  However, I'm tempted to leave them in here just because they are quite fun to play, despite their overpowered nature.

Each Variant has slightly different physical characteristics, viewable in the Article "Gameplay and Roleplaying Tips" for those who are curious.

---A Word on Balance---

I know, right now, these guys are very powerful.  I'm trying to find a good balance between fun and balanced, and as someone who has never played a sneak character, I'm finding that combining Void Walker with two-handed weapons to be a good bit of fun.

I'm sure Void Walker will find itself toned back in the future.

Last Stand is meant to be stupidly powerful because it's meant to be your last-ditch attempt to pull through a fight that's a bit too much for you.  Given that you're weak to poison, frost, and shock, you may find yourself appreciating this once-per-day cursed gift.  It's meant to be self-balancing.  You're really strong for 60 seconds, but can't power attack because of the stamina drain.  You get 55 points of health and magicka back instantly to help keep you alive and in the fight.  Your health and magicka are fortified by 70 points for 30 seconds, because you've dug deep into your physical reserves, which is going to leave you weak and tired by the time this fight is over.  So, you get a minute, one glorious minute, to win your fight, or you're going to find out what combat fatigue feels like.

Of course, I have no clue if Last Stand even works yet.  There's a lot of stuff going on in it at once.

Deep Focus replaces Last Stand for the Kriaal Warrior to simulate the differences between an untrained fighter (the Kriaal) and a trained warrior.  Last Stand is the functional equivalent of desperately flailing around with a weapon, hoping to kill the other guy before you die, using adrenaline and your reserves to stay (hopefully) alive.  Deep Focus is the equivalent of remembering your training, using that same adrenaline to swing your weapons faster, using those same reserves to bolster your recovery.  One is just as powerful as the other, just in different ways.  Last Stand's beneficial effects last longer.  Deep Focus doesn't carry any penalties aside from being a once-per-day thing.

Ritual of Blood and Agony is my take on blood magic done by a Kriaal Mystic.  You're using your powerful daedric blood to refuel your mystic reserves.  Just like with Equilibrium, it's risky, because there's no safeties put in place here.  However, the decision to give you 35 points of Magicka in trade for 25 points of Health was because blood magic is strong, and daedric blood, being born of magic, should be really strong.  Plus, it needed to be as good as Equilibrium, or people would just get Equilibrium and just use that instead.  So, I decided, it needed to be, technically, better than Equilibrium.  Yes, for a Kriaal Mystic, I've ruined a quest reward.  For everyone else, it's still good.

Ghost Fingers was my answer to early-game lockpicking and pickpocketing problems.  We've all been there, swearing violently at our screens as we mash F5 before every pickpocket attempt, and F9 whenever we fail, or F5 before opening a chest, only to F9 after breaking 30 lockpicks and finding 3 gold coins that were snapped in half, a rusty iron war axe, and some belly-button lint from a troll in there.  Oh, and a lockpick.  This will give you the ability, once per day, to concentrate and clear your mind for 30 seconds, 30 glorious seconds where you're better than a master thief.  As for how it is that Swiftpaws haven't wrecked the world's economy, well...  Remember that low health?  You may be small and you may be nimble, but it'll take less effort for the average Nord to put a blade through you.

The Vulkasiran were designed to be used for testing, but they offer a challenge of their own by giving you a lot of choices as to how to approach any given situation.  You could use Void Walker and pull a vicious sneak attack.  You could pick-pocket the MacGuffin with Ghost Fingers.  You could Deep Focus and swing your weapon twice as fast, or you could top up your magicka with a sacrifice of health, then incinerate them with lightning.  Or, you could just do the normal thing and rush in like a bear in a china shop.  I'm not one for taking things away once they were added, so please, enjoy the fact that my testing race will never go away.

Hunter's Claws came about when I was poking about, as usual, and remembered that the Khajiit get claws, and they're useful.  So, the Kriaal got claws, because they're Hircine's pride and joy.  Claws make hunting easier, and more importantly, when some horrid creature disarms you in a dungeon, give them the old vicious swipes, finish the fight after clawing their eyes out, then go find your weapon.  I felt this sort of makes up for the fact that on higher difficulties, those spiders in Helgen might actually kill you.

No, seriously.  I lost a quarter of my health on Adept to the evil things.

As for the strengths and weaknesses, I like how they are right now.  Having a weakness to poison means that Falmer, Chaurus, and Spiders will suddenly become feared enemies.  Weakness to Shock means that you're going to have fun with mages.  Weakness to Frost makes those Restless Draugr and other Draugr Spellcasters more dangerous.  Of course, it's not all bad.  At least fire doesn't hurt as much as it does for everyone else.  Well, except the Dunmer, but we don't mention that around the Kriaal.  They might take it as a challenge.

(New in 0.07-A) Twin Hearts was my answer to the power-creep in the Variants, but I gave it to the Base Kriaal as well for balance reasons.  Taking that extra bit of damage makes it all that much more important to use your potions, take your time, and plan your fights.  Twin Hearts Racing was a counter-balance in an additional Greater Power that has its uses, but works much better for Melee builds (while still being useful for everyone, because increased Health/Stamina regen is always useful) who would otherwise be dealt an unfair kick between the legs from the extra 50% damage.

---You Are Not Alone!---

I've placed some Kriaal (and their variant NPC's) into the Leveled Lists.  They've formed an Alliance with the Legion (so you'll see the occasional Legion Alliance Warriors wandering around), but some didn't appreciate that alliance and rumor has it, the Stormcloaks have let a few in, though only the best.  Many have turned to a life of crime in the war-torn country of Skyrim, and have made a name for themselves as dangerous bandits and highwaymen.

This means, even if you're not using this mod for your current playthrough, you may still see Kriaal in the world.  This will, hopefully, buy me enough time to figure out how to make a few small settlements where the majority of the Kriaal live.  I most certainly want one near Rorikstead.   I'm really tempted to make a bridge across that lake in Dawnguard's little sub-area and place a small amount of them over there.  And, I'm also thinking of adding a camp or two to Solstheim, because if I'm needing it for resources, I might as well give back some of the fun by plopping a few Kriaal over there so that Solstheim isn't a way to just get away from the vicious Daedric beasts.