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About this mod
The citizens of Skyrim just accept everything at face value, but what if not everything is what it seems? This mod addresses a missing feature for all good immersion walkthrough with conspiracy theories about Skyrim. The mods feature Ymir, a conspiracist Nord located in Windhelm. The conspiracy theories are as lore-friendly as possible.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
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Translations
- Portuguese
- Polish
- Mandarin
- Changelogs
Is it not strange that everyone in Skyrim just accepts all the events happening in the game as the truth? There's no wild rumors or deformed truths that should naturally happen when people gossips and discusses the events happening around them or somewhere else in the province. This mod aims to fix that by adding a NPC named Ymir in the Windhelm Market that will share his opinions on what going on and what is the hidden truth.
Just like Heimskr in Whiterun, Ymir will just speak all day long about his conspiracies. The conspiracies covers a variety of topics affecting common citizens of the province. Each conspiracy aims to be a "speech" by Ymir to be between 60-120 seconds long and not to be one liners. All of them are lore-friendly and take inspiration from the Elder Scrolls lore and the mechanism of the game, so no real world conspiracies or anything to break the 4th wall. There's also no insider knowledge, things known only by the player, for the conspiracies.
The goal with the mod is to have all the non-sense expected from someone living in Skyrim with the knowledge available to anyone. Ymir can also uses information from the Elder Scrolls lore at large, even if they are not in the game. It is less known knowledge, but should be available to those that "do their own research". An example is the Dendre Cats, one type of Khajiit that looks like a sabrecat. As a note, I made sure to not invent new lore, expect for the conspiracy theory itself.
When visiting the market in Windhelm, Ymir should start monologuing a conspiracy and once he's done, he'll start another one at random.
Like all good conspiracies, they evolve with time, which translate in game that he conspiracies evolve depending of the player's actions and some will appears once certain quests are completed.
Please note that each one has the same probability of being selected by Ymir, so it may take a while to hear them all. The purpose is to always have something different when visiting the market in Windhelm.
In total, the current version contains over 30 conspiracies, with over 1300 voice lines of monologues (over 25k words). The voice is done through xVASynth.
Approach and philosophy
My approach is to stay as lore-friendly as possible, meaning that Ymir is a regular NPC that has access to the same information as any other NPC in the game. He's only less credulous than the others and sees conspiracies everywhere. This translates that the conspiracies can only be done on subjects that are public knowledge or that have rumors about it. Ymir cannot know things that are secrets and thus form a conspiracy with that information.
An example of secret knowledge that cannot be used for a conspiracy is the Thalmor dossier on Ulfric. No one mentions this in the game and it is safe to assume that besides the player, Ulfric and Elenwen, no one knows. Same for the Circle of the Companions being werewolves. No one knows for certain, besides the members.
An example of a topic that can be used by Ymir is anything that a guard will say as a bark. To continue with the example of the Circle: after the attack by the Silver Hands, Ymir can speculate about the companions being werewolves or something related to werewolves as it is well-known the Silver Hands target only werewolves. It's safe to assume the movements of the Dragonborn are also well-known, even if the game never refers to the player as the dragonborn outside the main quest.
As such, the mod has the starting hypothesis that the player is known as the dragonborn. This is mostly for consistency for conspiracies about the player. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to have conspiracies about a random adventurer doing fetch quests.
I made sure that the facts used in conspiracies are truthful to the lore. For example, Altmers start the game with the highest level in Illusion magic. That fact can be used by Ymir saying the Thalmors are using illusions to deceive others. I used the lore information from other games and media in the franchise, with a priority on the lore of Skyrim itself. My goal is to use facts provided by the lore as a starting point and to go from there. For example, there’s no oven in Skyrim outside of the Hearthfire homesteads, so why is there baked goods everywhere? Of course, a good conspiracy theory is not about the truth and facts, so even if the conspiracy is based on the lore, there's plenty of speculation, half-truth and made-up nonsense to fill the gap.
If you a good idea about a topic for a conspiracy theory. share it in the comment.
Compatibility
There's a slight edit to the Windhelm interior cell to add a marker and bench, but should be compatible with most Windhelm overhaul.
Tested with Dawn of Skyrim with no issue.
There's a patch with The Notice Board under the optional download. The message board will contains some messages from the mod.
Create your own conspiracies
The letter system supports other mods. It is now possible to create your own conspiracies. You can create them about anything and about other mods too if you respect their permissions.
See the Article Section for more details.
Conspiracies examples
Of course, there's plenty more for you to listen and discover when visiting Windhelm and stopping by the market. The courier might even send you some correspondence from Ymir.
Showcases
See the video tab for showcases.
Alternative Voice
If the current voice of Ymir is not doing it for you, GllenQuagmiire0 created the mod Conspiracy of Skyrim - Annoying Ymir with a different voice inspired by Heimskr.
Future plan
There's more conspiracies to add and more topics to covers:
A few features that I didn't have time to add:
The mod is available for Xbox on Bethesda's website. Credits for the port goes to FM07.
Just like Heimskr in Whiterun, Ymir will just speak all day long about his conspiracies. The conspiracies covers a variety of topics affecting common citizens of the province. Each conspiracy aims to be a "speech" by Ymir to be between 60-120 seconds long and not to be one liners. All of them are lore-friendly and take inspiration from the Elder Scrolls lore and the mechanism of the game, so no real world conspiracies or anything to break the 4th wall. There's also no insider knowledge, things known only by the player, for the conspiracies.
The goal with the mod is to have all the non-sense expected from someone living in Skyrim with the knowledge available to anyone. Ymir can also uses information from the Elder Scrolls lore at large, even if they are not in the game. It is less known knowledge, but should be available to those that "do their own research". An example is the Dendre Cats, one type of Khajiit that looks like a sabrecat. As a note, I made sure to not invent new lore, expect for the conspiracy theory itself.
When visiting the market in Windhelm, Ymir should start monologuing a conspiracy and once he's done, he'll start another one at random.
Like all good conspiracies, they evolve with time, which translate in game that he conspiracies evolve depending of the player's actions and some will appears once certain quests are completed.
Please note that each one has the same probability of being selected by Ymir, so it may take a while to hear them all. The purpose is to always have something different when visiting the market in Windhelm.
In total, the current version contains over 30 conspiracies, with over 1300 voice lines of monologues (over 25k words). The voice is done through xVASynth.
Approach and philosophy
My approach is to stay as lore-friendly as possible, meaning that Ymir is a regular NPC that has access to the same information as any other NPC in the game. He's only less credulous than the others and sees conspiracies everywhere. This translates that the conspiracies can only be done on subjects that are public knowledge or that have rumors about it. Ymir cannot know things that are secrets and thus form a conspiracy with that information.
An example of secret knowledge that cannot be used for a conspiracy is the Thalmor dossier on Ulfric. No one mentions this in the game and it is safe to assume that besides the player, Ulfric and Elenwen, no one knows. Same for the Circle of the Companions being werewolves. No one knows for certain, besides the members.
An example of a topic that can be used by Ymir is anything that a guard will say as a bark. To continue with the example of the Circle: after the attack by the Silver Hands, Ymir can speculate about the companions being werewolves or something related to werewolves as it is well-known the Silver Hands target only werewolves. It's safe to assume the movements of the Dragonborn are also well-known, even if the game never refers to the player as the dragonborn outside the main quest.
As such, the mod has the starting hypothesis that the player is known as the dragonborn. This is mostly for consistency for conspiracies about the player. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense to have conspiracies about a random adventurer doing fetch quests.
I made sure that the facts used in conspiracies are truthful to the lore. For example, Altmers start the game with the highest level in Illusion magic. That fact can be used by Ymir saying the Thalmors are using illusions to deceive others. I used the lore information from other games and media in the franchise, with a priority on the lore of Skyrim itself. My goal is to use facts provided by the lore as a starting point and to go from there. For example, there’s no oven in Skyrim outside of the Hearthfire homesteads, so why is there baked goods everywhere? Of course, a good conspiracy theory is not about the truth and facts, so even if the conspiracy is based on the lore, there's plenty of speculation, half-truth and made-up nonsense to fill the gap.
If you a good idea about a topic for a conspiracy theory. share it in the comment.
Compatibility
There's a slight edit to the Windhelm interior cell to add a marker and bench, but should be compatible with most Windhelm overhaul.
Tested with Dawn of Skyrim with no issue.
There's a patch with The Notice Board under the optional download. The message board will contains some messages from the mod.
Create your own conspiracies
The letter system supports other mods. It is now possible to create your own conspiracies. You can create them about anything and about other mods too if you respect their permissions.
See the Article Section for more details.
Conspiracies examples
- Conspiracies about the Main Quest, the factions and the DLC. They evolves as the quest lines progress.
- Conspiracies about other quests that appears or have the narratives modified based on the Dragonborn's action. For example:
- the Temple of Kyanreth, which changes after the completion of Blessing of Nature
- The closure of the Markarth Hall of the dead, which changes once Namira's Quest is completed.
- Sweet rolls.
- Dwemers disappearance.
- The Great Collapse.
- Balgruff being a widow.
- Everything is dream.
- Sabrecats are khajiits.
- The courier is not human, but something else.
- Aerin is mind-controlling Mjoll.
- The jarls are daedric worshippers.
Of course, there's plenty more for you to listen and discover when visiting Windhelm and stopping by the market. The courier might even send you some correspondence from Ymir.
Showcases
See the video tab for showcases.
Alternative Voice
If the current voice of Ymir is not doing it for you, GllenQuagmiire0 created the mod Conspiracy of Skyrim - Annoying Ymir with a different voice inspired by Heimskr.
Future plan
There's more conspiracies to add and more topics to covers:
- C
onspiracies about the remaining main factions, the Civil War and the DLC Quests.Done - More random conspiracies. Suggest them in comments! If any inspire me, I'll add them.
A few features that I didn't have time to add:
Books and newsletters to find.Done, but more to be added in the futureHave NPC discussing the conspiracies.Done- Addons for mods. Suggest them in comments! Or you can make them yourself.
- Idk, a display for Legacy of the Dragonborn? A MCM menu?
- Maybe have more conspirationists in other locations so that Ymir isn't alone.
- Have better voice lines. Dan Ruta did an amazing work on xVASynth and he has all my gratitude. Without his tool, I wouldn't be able to create this mod and I recognize my own incompetence using his tools. For a better experience, a better voice will be needed.
The mod is available for Xbox on Bethesda's website. Credits for the port goes to FM07.