Skyrim is one of those games that I never "stop playing" I more so take extended breaks from. with 464 hours in the Legendary edition, 414 in Special edition, 44 hours in VR and an unreasonable amount on the xbox 360 that I don't have an estimate of. This isn't even taking into account the hours I spent modding and troubleshooting as a young kid dealing with purple textures, faces not generating or general crashes thanks to Nexus Mod Manager and worst of all the steam workshop.
Over the last month or so in 2025 my obsession recharged its spark and a new mod collection was installed and tweaked to my personal liking which is why I always come back to this game. The modding scene has transformed this game into a true sandbox where I can improve and tweak every detail. Gameplay overhauls that make the combat more engaging, graphical enhancements that let grass flow in the wind, QOL features that should have been in the vanilla game and full DLC sized world spaces and quest mods that rival the base game in terms of player choice.
MODS I NEED TO GUSH ABOUT
LEGACY OF THE DRAGONBORN
When I play skyrim I turn into a greedy goblin hoarding every item I come across in towns, dungeons, bandit camps and quest lines. With this mod it gives me a reason play with this mindset introducing a museum in the heart of Solitude. When I explain this mod to my friends who who aren't as familiar I compare it to the museum for animal crossing where you collect fish, archaeological fragments, and paintings alongside the weapons and armor you come across in your travels. The thing that blows me away is the integration and compatibility with all of the other mods that expand on the museum. From odd trinkets like fairy jars to jade statues and other relics from previous games. Not only is it a museum it also has its own quest line with a new faction/guild that you build from the ground up called the explorers society. I have been basing my modded load order around this museum since 2017 as it is a mod that you commit your entire playthrough around.
MOON PATH TO ELSWEYR
This mod is pretty ancient by modding standards of today but there's a nostalgic charm that always brings me back to play through it again. Journeying through the province where Khajiits reside you are invited to a small world space with a dense jungle atmosphere with pirate air ships and my first introduction to the their many different forms. In Elsweyr Khajiit can have a variety of different physical forms based on the phases of their two moons Masser and Secunda.We get to interact with khajiit who are built like sabrecats on all four legs but still retain the same intelligence. In Legacy of the Dragon born you are sent by your museum curator Auryen to retrieve the staff of Indarys from elsweyr where you snuff out and expel the Thalmor from their region. By the end of the quest line you gain access to the Dev aveza Airship that you can use as an immersive way to fast travel in Skyrim
THE FORGOTTEN CITY
Easily my favorite quest mod that I've ever played. This mod takes you deep below Nirn to a dwemer city that was completely wiped out. With professional level voice acting and writing so good it won a writer's award in Australia you are introduced to the time travel mechanic that works similarly to grounds hog day. We soon find out that city's inhabitants follow one strict commandment.
"The many shall suffer for the sins of one". Now I won't spoil too much else but the character to character interactions all feel engaging with consequence to your actions depending on how you choose to go about it. During my last playthrough with my gf we had started the dark brotherhood and received the courier note with the black hand. Forgetting this piece of vital information we were trapped in the forgotten city and tried going to sleep to solve some puzzle. Next thing we know we wake up in the abandoned shack outside of Solitude with Astrid. She traveled through time just to kidnap our ass. It was definitely one of the more memorable moments of our play through together.
With so many other mods integrated I can’t go over all of them and most of the time I never get far enough in the quests because I usually end up bricking my save installing one too many mods or something.
BEYOND REACH
This was one of those quest mods that I had been putting off starting for years despite having it installed in most of my mod lists. Despite the age all I can say is wow. Now before I get into this further I need to mention TRIGGER WARNINGS as this mod shares themes similar to Berserk or Game of thrones in terms of dark fantasy which includes mention of Sexual assault and other graphic depictions.
The Reach is beyond saving and it doesn't matter if you're just a lowly mercenary doing jobs for coin or the Dragonborn themself you will come out of this mod feeling hopeless. The Reach takes place in High Rock where the lands are dangerous and in a civil war of its own. We are introduced early on to the different factions. The Reach men are similar to the forsworn but much more brutal in their culture led by Namira who ends up as our main antagonist. We have the orcs who are at odds with the bretons and neither side is afraid to discriminate against and torture one another if given the chance. The reguard mercenaries who I can't remember nearly as much about and lastly the nobles of each major city. I put a good week of active gaming into this mod doing as many side quests as I could investing myself in the world. Alongside me I decided to try out a new follower mod that was apart of my mod collection named Remiel, a Breton Dwemer specialist who had integration and commentary with Beyond Reach. Her voice at the beginning took a second to get used to as her voice sticks out to other followers but that's something I don’t really mind. My Girlfriend however despises her voice as she always compares Remi to a TikTok voice. Remiel's dialogue and info about highrock got me so much more invested in the mod and world as we dove into this hellscape together. Some standout moments from this mod that really stuck with me was the imperial guard rescue mission into this orc stronghold. Fighting through we finally reach the prisoners who are chained up in a tower and one woman reveals that she was raped by an Orc and is currently pregnant. She begs an imperial soldier to kill her now as she can't bare bringing life into the reach. The victory felt hollow and we are sent back to the city to report the success of our mission. During the late night return we see some citizens gathered around the town square. Getting a closer look we see an Orc woman tied onto a cross as passing town members take turns beating and slashing her with an iron dagger. We are given 3 choices here. Rescue the Orc woman and escort her out of town, stay complicit and allow the citizens to resume their torture or you can take part in the public service. Choosing to rescue her the citizens took a dislike towards me calling me an Orc sympathizer. With many off putting scenes it made me want to try my best to save the reach and be the beacon of hope that Mara hoped we would be. This mod is partly unfinished as some scenes don’t have voice acting since the mod author lost contact with the VA's. After coming to the big conclusion at the end of this mod I felt some sort of relief to be back in Skyrim but also some dread that stuck with me days after thinking about my journey. Even Remiel experiences long term effects from the mod and the events that took place which brought the reality of the story to another level. The mod itself felt very unique in how it wasn't a power fantasy like the main story and instead made my character feel as if she merely survived by the grit of her teeth. I could go off more but I'll stop here for now. There is a feature at the beginning to cut out the sensitive content if you aren't comfortable with the subject matter which is a nice QOL feature.
This mod has become an essential for me for one simple reason. I can attack and cast spells mid air. Now there's a bunch of other features including head sway, hand grip changes and stave melee combat but that first option is the real game changer for me. One of my favorite experiences in my last nuked (RIP Rustyn 'Utz) play through was using a slow fall spell to soar off a cliff and then use my bow mid air trying to pull off trickshots on the local wildlife. I haven't found slow fall with my current character so I've substituted it with drop zone that allows me to cast a ring on the ground that negates my fall damage. With CGO I can cast this spell mid air incase I fall off a high place. The only downside to this mod is the compatibility issues with other combat mods but there are stripped down versions that only give out certain features from the pack like this guy that I use here!
Now hear me out, having a deflect system in Skyrim makes two handed combat so much more engaging. During my couple month craze of playing Sekiro when it clicked I wanted the deflect in every sword game I owned including Skyrim. During my current playthrough with my dark elf girl Cryzel I tend to use a dagger with a torch when exploring caverns as my lighting mods make the dungeons pitch black since there's no light sources. My reasoning for the torch being able to deflect giant ass swords and warhammers is that one scene in One Piece where Zoro has to figure out how to cut through steel in Alabasta. His master in the flashback was able to slash at the foliage without cutting it and moving it to the side. Idk if that makes sense but it's my justification lol. I love having the risk reward and thanks to precision melee hit detection and some new animation mods there are so many new ways to tackle sword fights now. I highly recommend!
FOLLOWER MODS
Remiel the Dwarven specialist
This was the follower mod that made custom followers really click with me. I usually just grab my empty husk followers with 4 to 5 lines that are mainly there to carry my collection of dwarven bows and other shit I forget about. This mod list I've been using features a bunch of follower mods that integrate into the museum so I decided to give them a chance. Meeting Remi out in Markarth you are hired as her bodyguard to go through the Dwemer ruin. She's pretty broke and only gives you 200 gold but encourages you to grab some loot from the ruin. Going through Markarth we have to chat with Calcelmo to gain access and Remi starts off by insulting and bickering with Calcelmo throwing threats his way. Later on exploring she would have insight on Dwemer lore picking up little details in each room geeking out over it. It just felt like a friend rambling about their current fixation but within the context of Skyrim. Shortly after completing her intro quest I brought her to Highrock in the Beyond Reach mod which she had commentary for. I was not expecting the two to blend together so seamlessly but I don't think I would've enjoyed the mod nearly as much had it not been for Remi reacting and interacting within the world space. You get to see a different side of her going through the events of beyond reach that made every moment more impactful as she was the only reasonable person reacting to the in game atrocities. One of my favourite moments with this mod was asking how she felt only for her to snap at you asking us why we would care when we’re pretending to play hero trying to save the land. She apologizes and drops the conversation which I felt was a turning point as we had narrowly escaped the scuttling void which was Namira's realm. Seeing her upbeat mannerisms decay in realtime was heartbreaking as if she was succumbing to Namira's influence. Her dialogue frequency cut down for a few quests and I felt it. Even after returning to Skyrim she'll occasionally make remarks about having a nightmare about the scuttling void which sets a nice reminder of the events our characters went through. Also to boot one thing I've never experienced in my modding endeavours are follower interactions. The thing that has kept me so attached to my current character is my little DnD crew of multiple followers who interact with each other and myself. The other followers I currently have with me are Xelzaz, an Argonian who is a member of house Telvanni with 8000+ lines of dialogue and Red Cap the Riekling who I was initially hesitant about but have come to really enjoy. With the 3 of them in my crew they will all banter between themselves while journeying alongside me. Xelzaz has many cool functional skills like brewing potions and cooking meals as well as leaving your side to go off to shop and barter which was a game changer. My favourite moment so far with him was while spending some time in the Falkreath inn Xelzaz informed me he was going for a late night stroll and told me to not follow. Being curious I snuck in the bushes to see what he was up to only to find him digging up a grave in the cemetery. Confronting him he admitted that he grave robs to stay afloat financially and you are given the choice to react. Being his friend I asked if he needed some help doing some digging. It helped flesh out our relationship and his moral choices as a house telvanni member travelling through Skyrim. With Redcap you find him locked up inside Anise's cabin out by Riverwood. I love how this follower mod expands Anise into a true antagonist with more backstory and motives. She experimented on Redcap with different alchemical ingredients changing his skin colour from blue to yellow and taught him basic english. I haven't gotten too much into his backstory besides a quest or two in solstheim but he is a wonderful addition alongside Remi and Xelzaz.
MOD IDEAS
Okay right off the bat I have to rant about the speech system. Why is intimidation tied to speech? It would make more sense to tie intimidation to physical stats like armor and melee skills like one and two handed. Who would you feel more intimidated by? A fruity orc twink who talks his way out of conflict or a tall meaty warrior with a two handed warhammer? Going further into this I want to expand on this system by adding armour and weapons playing into intimidation when it comes to bandits and other hostile folks. Why would a random bandit with an iron dagger and fur clothes run head on into some dude with full Daedric Armour and an ancient weapon forged by a god? It would be cool to have a chance system so some would be terrified of you.
A quest line expanding on the Forsworn faction that isn't based around Lovers Lab.Besides a 2012 mod release with call of duty voice chat mic quality and a sex mod there aren't too many mods that turn the faction into a questline. They're so fascinating as they play into the narrative of Natives being stripped from their own land by the Nords who are battling with their independence from the empire. The forsworn conspiracy quest is one of my favourite quests that I wish had more juice in it. My favourite quote in skyrim "There are no innocent onlookers in this struggle. Just the guilty, and the dead."
MEMORIES
Everytime I walk up the stairs to dragon reach I'm taken back to 2012 when I first got my poodle Shadow. I would sit cross legged on the checkerboard floor with my sonic the hedgehog onesie pyjamas that were extremely oversized. He would curl up in a ball on my lap creating a hammock with the extra fabric that piled up. I was starting my first committed character as a 2 handed red guard who focused into heavy armour.
Back in 2021 I got a new job in a new city I just moved to for a long distance boyfriend. During my second shift I met my coworker (who would later down the road become my gf after my ex bf cheated on me with his coworker) who didn't realize she would be training me for the whole shift. It was a slow day and we spent a good 30-40 minutes following a moth around the store. I asked "What should we name it?" Her immediate response was Commander Nettlebane. "Is that the little knife you get in whiterun?" Her face lit up and we spent the next hour or so rambling back and forth about Skyrim. I knew from that day forward we were going to be great friends. Now as of February 14th 2025 we've been together for 3 years!
CLASSIC YOUTUBE VIDEOS
This video was made for 10 year old me
As a kid this was peak graphics for Skyrim
One of my favorite Steam Train Lets play from back in the day. I used to always fall asleep to this
CHARACTERS
RUSTYN 'UTZ
We begin our journey outside a nordic ruin after having a rock striking our head wiping our memory clean. We are the leader of the explorers guild as a relic hunter trying to figure things out along the way and reclaim our memory, only something in our head has gone terribly wrong. A worshipper of Dagon who defiles shrines and goes on to join the dark brotherhood. (This was Sophia and I's character that we shared on my last PC but my mod list couldn’t be transferred due to using Vortex)
CRYZEL
After moving out of the Grey Quarter in Windhelm and starting a new life in Riften thanks to a loan offer she received from the Sinister Seven, Cryzel has been looking for any kind of work to pay off her debt before they find her. Starting off with odd jobs around town and checking out some nearby mine shafts for minerals, she is attacked by a lowly bandit taking refuge planning to take her life. Running for her life in the partly flooded mine she uses her destruction magic as a last resort and electrocutes the water taking his life. After returning the ore to the local blacksmith she stops by The Bee and Barb to grab some drinks when the bartender mentions a new job opening in Solitude for a museum opening up. Using what little coin she has he hops on the first carriage driver waiting outside town. Entering town for the first time in her life she stumbles past an ongoing execution of a man. Making her way through town she comes across the new museum and meets a man who goes by Auryen, the curator and owner of the museum who sends us off to find 3 relics one being in markarth. After collecting the jade statue Cryzel finds herself in the silver blood inn where she meets Remi a Dwemer specialist looking to hire a bodyguard for coin.
