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Red Eagle Reborn

"Long ago, a child was born in the Sundered Hills. They named him Faolan, which means 'Red Eagle' in the tongue of the Reach, for the screeching bird-call that greeted his birth, and the crimson blooms on the autumn hills..."
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The Reachmen were the ancient people of the Reach and held vast kingdoms in western Skyrim. They existed long before the Dragon Cult, and were there long after the Dragons left and the ancient Nordic cities crumbled into ruin. Their warlords conquered Cyrodiil for a time, and they ruled the Reach for centuries before they were crushed by the Allessian Empire. The Forsworn of today are only a savage shadow of what was once a great civilization that stood against the Nords and Empire alike. Red Eagle was their greatest hero, a freedom-fighter who tried to unite the tribes against invaders, and died fighting the empire to try and win his people’s freedom.

But in the vanilla game, Red Eagle is simply depicted as a generic Draugr, and his tomb is simply an Ancient Nord ruin. The goal of this mod is to change that, to rethink the entire Red Eagle quest to better fit the lore of Elder Scrolls, and to give the Forsworn the history they deserve.

This mod changes several assets surrounding the Red Eagle quest, as well as modifying a few other Forsworn elements and adding some new content as well, all in an attempt to make the lore of the Reach more rich and interesting.



This mod modifies a number of different items either directly or indirectly related to the Red Eagle questline:

-Changes Red Eagle to a unique undead Briarheart, not a Draugr, and significantly improves his skillset to make it a worthy boss battle. He uses a number of spells and shouts as well as weapons, and is leveled to the player so he will always be a serious challenge.

-Adds many custom lines of dialogue for Red Eagle himself, created by heavily modifying bits and pieces of Madanach's dialogue.

-Adds a unique (and quite minimalist) armor for Red Eagle himself, who, it is said, "...came forth for battle, alone and robed in nothing but his righteous fury."

-Adds a unique Briar Heart to Red Eagle, the “Heart of Faolan,” that is an extremely ancient and powerful version of a Briar Heart. Upon consuming it, you will gain two unique Powers, one that gives you an extremely powerful flame cloak that buffs all of your stats for a time, and one that give you the ability to summon Red Eagle’s spirit to fight for you. (Note: this still works like a normal Briar Heart, so if you’re somehow able to pickpocket it from Red Eagle, it will kill him.)

-Adds a script to Red Eagle’s Crown that will make the Forsworn faction friendly to the player, but ONLY while the crown is equipped. I know there are a number of mods that let you join the Forsworn in various ways, but this is intended to be as minimalist as possible.  I originally had it linked to the sword, Red Eagle's Bane, but then you wouldn't be able to use any other sword replacers with this mod.  I might still try to make that work, but for now it's the crown.

-Changes the generic skeletons that awaken to help Red Eagle to unique, undead "Ancient Reachmen;" Red Eagle's personal honor guard. They are tough and varied enemies with unique armor and weapons. Also doubles their number to make it a real fight.

-Adds a full set of "Ancient Reachman" armors, both Heavy, Light, and Robes, designed to be a mix of ancient Nord steel, barbarian bone and fur, and elements of real world ancient Gaul/Celtic armors.

-Adds a full set of "Ancient Reachman" weapons, all with the vanilla "silver" enchantments (since the Reach is so rich with silver, it makes sense that they would use it.)

-Adds a new Forsworn type, called "Forsworn Loremaster", who wears a unique set of armor and carries the "Ancient Reachman Staff" as well as several books about Red Eagle. There are a few of these added to various Forsworn camps.

-Adds several lore books about the Reach, taken from ESO as well as some fan-made apocrypha.

-Adds a full higher-tier set of Forsworn weapons that use actual steel and not just bones, and adds them into the Forsworn level lists (intended as a sort of stepping stone between the Ancient Nord weapons and the contemporary bone weapons.)

-Modifies the "Armor of the Old Gods" to be something truly unique and ancient, and to fit in with the other "Ancient Reachman" sets. The armor is based on the armor of Hircine, but is much more savage and tribal.

-Modifies the "Predator's Grace" boots to be a unique set of Forsworn Boots, since you find them in a Forsworn camp.

-Modifies the dagger "Bloodthorn" to be a unique version of the "Ancient Reachman Dagger."

-Modifies the staff "Eye of Melka" to something unique that matches the "Ancient Reachman" staffs.

-Modifies the staff "Staff of the Hag's Wrath" to something unique that matches the "Ancient Reachman" staffs.

-Modifies the unused axe "Briarheart Geis" to be a unique version of the "Ancient Reachman War Axe" and adds it to the boss of Lost Valley Redoubt.

-Completely retextures the Nordic ruin architecture and adds extra touches to Rebel's Cairn to make it feel like a unique "Reachman" ruin, and not a generic Nordic one. These changes are subtle, as I didn’t want to completely replace the Nord architecture, but the texture changes give it a slightly different aesthetic that should help it feel unique.

-Completely retextures the entirety of Red Eagle Redoubt using the same texture changes and adds some extra touches as well. I wanted the memory of Red Eagle to feel very much alive since this was the seat of his power. I also revamped Bleakwind Bluff, since that seems to be part of the same larger complex of ruins (as well as a few random ruins up on top of the plateau.)

-Makes a few changes in Blind Cliff Cave as well, since that has presumably been inhabited by Hagravens for centuries and should feel a little more unique than standard Nordic.



-This mod does not change the stats of any of the existing items; all changes are aesthetic only.

-All new Ancient Reachman items are roughly on par with Elven & Dwemer items.

-All new Forsworn weapons are roughly the same as steel.

-I did not touch the actual sword of Red Eagle at all. There are other mods that already do this better than I could, so I wanted to leave that part open.   Make sure to load any sword replacers AFTER this one.

-If you want to use any other replacement mods for some of the unique items, those should still work fine so long as you load them AFTER this mod.

-There is a "topless" version available that will make the female version of Red Eagle's armor much skimpier.  It also removes the bra portion of the Loremaster armor.

-Disclaimer: You WILL see Red Eagle’s genitals, whether you use the topless version or not. I had to do a custom body to make him a real Briarheart, and I couldn’t figure out a reasonable way for you to be able to loot his loincloth (Have him wear another smaller loincloth underneath? A mankini?) It just seemed silly. The mod is flagged as Adult anyway, so just don’t be surprised.

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