(Note: Video was made for version 0.1 of the mod. Much have changed in later versions. A new video will be recorded eventually)

Important! The overall scope of this Windhelm expansion mod is currently unfinished.

For players, please understand that the current base mod (file here) is playable. Everything you see in the pictures are indeed there. As long as you don’t abuse corner cases, your experience with the mod should not contain any glaring, broken things. However, the newly added districts are currently empty and devoid of life, with all the building doors permanently locked. Most patches are still a ways off, though Tamriel worldspace mods are likely compatible as long as there are no game-breaking object clipping issues with EWE's expanded Windhelm footprint. Interiors, NPCs, quests, merchants, and dynamic gameplay content, will be added in subsequent iterations.

Due to my own capacity constraints, I am encouraging any interested mod creators to create third party content for it, so that perhaps we will see a completed version faster. The plan is that I will be maintaining and improving this as a base mod, and other interested folks can contribute third-party addons on top of the base mod. Please see "Call For Help" document here for details. If you are interested in contributing an addon, please read the "details" link, and then reach out to me so I am aware of your efforts.

Overview

Epic Windhelm Expansion (EWE) is my attempt at a Windhelm expansion mod for Skyrim Special Edition. Broadly speaking, Epic Windhelm Expansion tries to do the following.

• Expands Windhelm's footprint to the west, north, and northeast directions, resulting in 3 entirely new city districts.
• Restores and makes accessible the wallwalks of Windhelm, turning them into a picturesque and functional road network to be used by player and NPCs.
• Enhances the city walls with epic-looking battlements, towers, gatehouses, and castles, complete with crenelations with machicolations underneath.
• Adds many epic structures and scenic environments to the expanded Windhelm city in a way that boosts the overall level of atmosphere of Windhelm while remain lore-friendly and not overdone.
• Repairs many problems in the vanilla Windhelm worldspace, such as midding or hidden terrains, missing standins for large parent worldspace objects such as the Windhelm Bridge, as well as various imperfections in vanilla buildings when viewed from nonstandard angles. Overall, the fixes should make the Windhelm worldspace look whole and complete from any vantage point in the newly expanded city.
• Provides a northeast gate that exits to the flat snowy plains to Windhelm's northeast, allowing a more sensible and straightforward road to Winterhold to be paved.
  

For a quick basic walk-through of mod details (with lots of pretty pictures), as well as a starting point to dive into individual pages regarding added content, please read the overview document here.

Current State Of The Mod

In the Windhelm worldspace, the basic layout, structures, and building locations are finished. The vanilla fixups are also complete as far as I can tell. We also have standins, whether it be Tamriel worldspace standins for Windhelm worldspace objects, or Windhelm worldspace standins for Tamriel worldspace objects. All exteriors are fully navmeshed, and all doors are properly linked to stub interior cells. The mod also contain a config file and the LOD model copies required to generate decent-looking DynDOLOD output.

However, with the exception of the Windswept Manor Commons, no interior work have been done. There are also no NPCs, merchants, quests, or other actual gameplay content in the newly expanded areas. This means if you explore the mod now, though you can explore the expanded Windhelm city without any issues, the new areas will be empty and devoid of life. All the doors are locked. If you unlock any door in the console and enter, you'll end up in the stub cell which is functional but will contain just a few pieces of floor and nothing else.

Also, the completed locations are fairly barebones and not decorated with clutter and small details.

Compatibility

The following articles give you an idea about compatibility with other mods:

• Vanilla Area Edits in EWE
• Vanilla Navmesh Changes in EWE
  

Since EWE keeps navmesh edits to an absolute minimum, many Tamriel Worldspace mods should be compatible out of the box. For example, I believe all Windhelm Bridge mods should be compatible. Other mods that may have minor object clippings in the Tamriel worldspace might be handlable by disabling some stuff via the console. There should not be navmesh shenanigans unless we're talking about the cell just outside the Northeast Gatehouse where I do have a navmesh override (for the door triangle of the gate).

I currently have a patch for Windhelm Exterior Altered. Though I will warn that this mod contains deleted navmeshes and therefore it is difficult for me to recommend, though it is a very popular mod for Windhelm.

Large-scale "city overhaul" mods in the Windhelm Worldspace, such as JK's Skyrim or Capital Windhelm Expansion, are currently incompatible. Smaller mods that adds interiors might also be incompatible if door triangles are finalized onto a vanilla navmesh edited by EWE. The safer thing to do is usually to load EWE after other mods, since EWE's navmesh edits usually expands the navmesh shape into new areas and thus pretty crucial to keep, whereas if the other mods don't get their door triangles, the worst that can happen is followers stuck outside when you enter the mod-added house.

For details regarding future patch plans, please see the roadmap. Feel free to let me know of incompatible mods so that I am aware of them and may add them to the eventual patches list.

Permissions and Credits

Other than inherited custom assets permissions discussed below, EWE itself has completely open permissions. You may fork the mod and do whatever you like. All I ask is a credit somewhere.

EWE contains custom assets from the following sources:

• Manor House Modders Resource by Tlaffoon
  • Some chimney pieces were retextured and used as roadside curb
    
• Castle Modders Resource by Tlaffoon
  • Western Fort, Northeast Castle, Eastern Tower, Dockside Keep are built out of retextured models from here.
    
• Stormcloak Cabin Resource by Kraeten
  • Numerous buildings and facades in the Northeast District are retextured versions of this building. Also "hid" this building inside other buildings in order to have the "wolf head" wooden beams protrude out as decoration.
    
• Griffon Fortress Resource by mr_silka, converted by Kraeten
  • Some pedestals for statues, general platforms, and stone stairs, were retextured models from here.
    
• Black Thorn Keep by mmccarthy4
  • The crenelations with machicolations for the battlements, as well as some wooden rampart rail, were retextured models from here.
    
• Strotis Castle Wall Resource by stroti, converted by Tamira
  • The main structure of numerous wall towers and bastions were a retextured model from here.
    
• Rochester SE (Mod Resource) by breti ported to SSE by sumugi
  • The architectural meshes of the Windhelm Bakery Building, the "Rochester-style" buildings in the Northeast District Residences, the Meadhall's underbridge portion, the Western District Temple's skyway, the new 03 building of the Arena Market Shops, the stone facades of the Windhelm Arena Structural Restoration, among others.
    
• Capital Windhelm Expansion by Surjamte
  • Reused Surjamte's work on adding the eastern archway opening to the Palace of the Kings model.
    
• Lakeview Manor Evolution - Source Files by mrpdean
  • The front stairs of Windswept Manor, among other things.
    
• Whiterun house foundations by elinen
  • The base foundation of Windswept Manor, among other things.
    
• Tread Crane by Tlaffoon
  • Treadmill cranes in Dockside

Though EWE itself has completely open permissions, please know that the above custom assets have their own permissions that must be followed. EWE only uses third party assets that have open permissions, so that forks of EWE downstream does not have to re-ask for permissions. That said, third party assets permissions may still be more strict that EWE's permissions, so anyone forking EWE should keep that in mind. At the very least, make sure to:

• Always credit original authors of above assets
• Do not use in works released on sites other than NexusMods
• Do not use in works for monetary gain (e.g. no mods being sold, no donation points)
  

... but please double-check with their respective mod pages, in case I missed a detail.

Screenshot Details
The screenshots are taken using the following visual setup (in no particular order):

• Silent Horizons ENB for Cathedral Weathers
• Enhanced Lights and FX
• Smooth Sky Mesh
• Cathedral Weathers and Seasons
• Obsidian Mountain Fogs
• Realistic Water Two
• Noble Skyrim Mod HD-2K
• Majestic Mountains
• Majestic Mountains Northside
• Blended Roads
• Cathedral Landscapes
• Enhanced Vanilla Trees
• Cathedral Plants
• Cathedral Snow
• Fluffy Snow
• ETHEREAL CLOUDS
• Better Dynamic Snow SE
• Skyrim Textures Redone - Enhanced Night Sky
  

Screenshots were taken with uGridsToLoad=9 with xLODGen for terrtain LOD + TexGen + DynDOLOD at the "Medium" setting. uGridsToLoad=9 is not a value that should be used to actually play the game. In practice, LOD generation should be good and sufficient. See the Standins and LODs page for details on how these are handled by the mod. Users should generate LODs using tools like DynDOLOD.

A very small number of screenshots (some night shots) were doctored slightly in Photoshop where contrast is dialed down and brightness is dialed up. For some reason the screenshots come out very dark despite it looking fine in game.