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About this mod
Climb your way up the 10 hidden mountain peaks of Skyrim. Let the wind guide you to the summit. Meditate on top of the highest spots of Skyrim to become one with the land.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
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Translations
- Turkish
- Spanish
- Russian
- Portuguese
- Polish
- Mandarin
- French
- Changelogs
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Ascend - Hidden Peaks of Skyrim
A game reviewer once said:
"The greatest joy in Skyrim is running up an impossibly steep mountain face."
- Phil Savage, PCGamer.
And I agree! Maybe it's the challenge, or the thrill of visiting a place we were not meant to see. Whatever the case, climbing mountains in Skyrim is fun. "Ascend - Hidden Peaks of Skyrim" provides just that. There are 10 hidden peaks for you to find, explore and conquer.
Features:
- 🧭Rewards Exploration - This is what Skyrim is best at, and this mod excels at expanding the exploration side of the game.
- ⛰️Verticality as an Engaging Mechanic - See Skyrim like you've never seen it before and challenge yourself to get to its many peaks.
- 🙏 Faithful to the Vanilla Landscapes - The new paths are practically "invisible" and the vanilla environment itself is not changed.
- 🎨 Crafted with Love - Meditating on a peak will play a relaxing solo-flute Skyrim song, along with displaying a short poem. Total zen.
- 🧗 Expect the Unexpected: You might encounter buried secrets, ancient journals, forgotten bridges, dangerous avalanches...
- 🍃 Your Way To The Top - If you're lost while climbing, look for any sort of wind nearby. The wind shows the way.
- ⚖️ Balanced Rewards - Conquering a mountain grants you a passive bonus, but these are only active while in cold locations.
Compatibility:🧩
- No vanilla or landscape edits: This makes the mod compatible with basically everything*.
- Tested with thousands of mods, no issues: This includes Majestic Mountains, Ryn's mods and Skyrim 3D rocks... 0 issues.
- *Incompatible with: "Improved Mountain Lod and Z fight patch" (As it changes the size of the mountains)
- Skyclimbing: If you're using Skyclimb, the mod works too. Ideally you follow the path I laid out for you, but it's fine either way.
- Stress and Fear: Meditating at the top of a mountain will reduce your stress (If you have Stress & Fear installed).
- Custom Icons: If you have Inventory Injector installed, the new effects will display an icon.
What are the rewards? 🎁
- Friends made along the way: The main reward is the view and the satisfaction of reaching the top. But also...
- Resistances in cold areas: Reaching the top of a peak and meditating there will grant you one of three resistances towards fire, frost or shock magic. Each mountain type provides a different resistance and the bonus is pretty small, roughly 5% resistance per peak and capped at 15%. These hidden peaks are however incredibly difficult to get to and very well hidden. Even then, the resistance bonus only applies while in very cold areas or high mountains. Very fitting for the mod!
- Configurable: If you wish to disable the rewards, you can easily do so by typing in the console: "Set Haiku_DisableRewards to 1" (or setting the global variable to 0 via SSEEdit)
- Hidden rewards: Those that thrive exploring and solving puzzles might find a few additional (balanced) rewards and easter eggs.
- Solstheim:
Spoiler:
- Frykte Peak (Near Saering's Watch)
- Hvitkald Peak (Near Fahlbtharz)
- Mortrag Peak (Near White Ridge Barrow)
- Mount Moesring (Near Moesring Pass)
Completing all 4 peaks grants a total of 15% fire resistance while in cold areas.
Show
- Frykte Peak (Near Saering's Watch)
- Hvitkald Peak (Near Fahlbtharz)
- Mortrag Peak (Near White Ridge Barrow)
- Mount Moesring (Near Moesring Pass)
Completing all 4 peaks grants a total of 15% fire resistance while in cold areas.
- Skyrim:
Spoiler:
- Brittleshin Hills (After exiting Bleak Falls Barrow)
- Mount Anthor (Near the Shrine of Azura)
- Forelhost Mountain (Near Forelhost)
- Skyborn Range (Near Labyrinthian)
- High Hrothgar (At the Throat of the World)
- Shrine to Kyne (Addon in the patch - See below)
Completing all 6 peaks grants 15% frost/shock resistance while in cold areas.
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- Brittleshin Hills (After exiting Bleak Falls Barrow)
- Mount Anthor (Near the Shrine of Azura)
- Forelhost Mountain (Near Forelhost)
- Skyborn Range (Near Labyrinthian)
- High Hrothgar (At the Throat of the World)
- Shrine to Kyne (Addon in the patch - See below)
Completing all 6 peaks grants 15% frost/shock resistance while in cold areas.
Optional Peak - The Shrine To Kyne 🙏
- If you have Shrine To Kyne installed, I've added an optional patch for it. Shrine to Kyne is a small mod made by the talented Surjamte (come back to modding please) that adds a shrine to the top of the mountain north of Windhelm. I've used this mod for many years without issues (and it's a big inspiration behind Ascend), but the mod does indeed alter the vanilla landscape slightly, so something to keep in mind. I don't think it will be an issue as it's in a very remote location, but it's up to you if you want to install this or not.
Making Your Own Addons 🔧
- If you want to add support to other peaks, say... in Wyrmstooth or Bruma or whatever, please feel free to do so! I'd love that. All you have to do is open my mod in CreationKit, load one of the peaks in the render window and select the red trigger box, the meditation furniture, the candle and the big M (Map Marker) and then right click and "copy". Now you can paste it in a new location and customize the triggerbox script properties (no need to code or anything) and you're basically done. If you want a 1:1 tutorial (and you're serious about making the mod), I'll be happy to walk you through the instructions via a short call :)
Credits and Thank Yous 💙
- The amazing ViktoriousFlutes is behind the custom flute songs you hear while meditating. Thank you!
- The custom (super cool) warhammer model is a resource shared by the talented PrivateEye. Thank you!
- The Red Scarf is a custom model made by sforz (and uploaded by Edryu) and I absolutely love it. Thank you!
Easter Eggs, Secrets and Fun Facts 🥚
This section details the different Easter eggs included within the mod. Open the spoiler only if you don't care about discovering them on you own.
Spoiler:
Show
- Ghost of Tsushima: Shortly after releasing Destroy The Dark Brotherhood Quest Expansion I played a few hours of this game, and it struck me how satisfying it felt to climb up mountains and just look at the view. For this reason, you will find several nods to that game within the mod. Whenever you start meditating in Ascend, a careful sequence will follow. First, you will hear a Japanese flute sound and get greeted by a Haiku about the current location you're in.
- The Music: The Japanese initial flute is followed by a custom flute song. Each time you meditate, you will get to enjoy a random Skyrim OST flute cover by the talented ViktoriousFlutes. The music will only play as long as you meditate. So if you're enjoying it, close your eyes, and actually meditate on the spot!
- Golden Feathers - A Short Hike: Each mountain has one or two hidden golden feathers. Upon consuming one of these feathers, you will have a grace period during which fall damage will not hurt you. You can then just jump down and you won't die. The feathers are really well hidden though.
- Self-Doubt - Celeste: In your expedition, you might encounter a frozen skeleton buried in a snow mound. Hitting the snow with a fire spell or a torch will uncover the full skeleton, which is carrying a journal and a "dagger of self-doubt". This dagger has quite a nice enchantment, but carrying it will not be easy, as it weighs significantly more than a traditional dagger.
- The Hammer - Getting Over It: If you've got quite the curious eye, you might find an odd frozen corpse in a cauldron. This man seemed to die holding a hammer. This hammer is "Ice-Breaker", and it uses a custom model by talented modder PrivayeEye. This silver hammer will allow you to do extra damage against frost atronachs and ice-wraiths, but it still has one more obscure use...
- The Scarf - Journey: In your travels in Solstheim, you might find the body of someone who tried to climb one of its many mountains. They got frozen in the ice, and to free them you will need Ice-Breaker. Hitting the ice will free the corpse, who seems to be wearing a custom scarf with quite the unique enchantment.
〜AzX, Ares, BeatenPlastic, DBandit, El, Eric, Fatsalaad,
Maya, Megnoeu, Nanoteh, Nightfallstorm, Oliver
Sir Trooper, Thomas, Tzephira Ball〜
& everyone who is supporting me on Patreon or via other means
Thank you! Your support means a lot!
- ESL flagged? Safe to install mid-save?
Yes and yes.
- What happened to the screenshot contest?
It finished and the winner has been announced in the discord!
- Do I need to re-run Dyndolod to install Ascend?
Not really, the landscape changes are very minimal. You can run it if you want though.
- I really like this mod idea. What are some other suggestions of similar mods?
Try Leaps of Faith, by unknown mod author Jayserpa. Same concept, but you jump from high places and land on water.
- I don't like your stupid challenge and your carefully crafted paths. Can't I just use paraglider to get to the peak?
Lol, yes, you can use the console command TCL for all I care. It's your game, do what you want.
- How do I find the mountains?
The start of the designated path is usually marked with a small cairn with a red flying cloth pointing the way. It's very subtle, but you should be able to spot it easily. Thanks to EriBees for the idea!
- Help? How am I supposed to get down?
You can go back the same way you climbed, you can also uncover a secret way to get down without getting hurt... but let's be honest: You're going to do it mountain goat style. I know you! That, or you're becoming etheral and YOLOing down. It's fine lol.
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This mod is included in...
🗺️ A Dynamic World - 🧙 Roleplaying - 🏹 Immersion - 🎈 Performance Friendly - 🖱️ 1-Click Installation