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Feeding the empire, one roast chicken... or pork chop... or rabbit steak at a time! Cyrodiil demands MEAT! Ever notice how there's no real farming presence in Cyrodiil? Except for some really small isolated places, there's perhaps one major operation going on outside of Skingrad. And they make wine. Wine is great and all, but where do folks get the meat? I mean the good meat. Chicken, pork, rabbit. We have plenty of mutton, but, well, mutton can only go so far before it gets old. There's also a noticeable lack of traditional crops being grown anywhere on any kind of meaningful level. So I got bored while thinking about this and decided it was time to do something about it! I searched high and low and found only a small number of farming mods. The usual. Sheep, sheep, sheep, and oh, more sheep. Wonderful. Got the mutton sources covered now. So I'm attempting to fill in some of the gaps. There were a number of other good farming mods but they all landed in locations that were less than ideal, at least for my game. The UL team has someone working on a grand implementation out by Anvil, so I figured on letting them take care of that. So why Faregyl? What's so special about this place? Nothing really. When I scouted for locations it wasn't used by anything I could find. So I figured it was as good a place as any to stick some small farming operations. This mod adds a pig farm, chicken farm, rabbit farm, some traditional crops, and a local smithy to the Faregyl area. Instead of an isolated sleepy old inn, now there's a useful farming village to help sustain the population. Each farm is owned by an NPC who has a work schedule and a normal eat/sleep schedule. Don't try and mooch off the stuff though. Killing the livestock or stealing the crops is going to make someone angry if they catch you! There's also a local smithy who will repair gear and sell mundane supplies and equipment. He's got an ox to pull his cart, but the ox is mean. Don't mess with him. There's also two local legionaries who patrol the area to help keep the peace. And of course, the abandoned gold mine. Something the locals are reluctant to talk about.... Addendum for 2.x: If all you're looking for is a nice little village mod, you can ignore the quest and things will continue on their merry way. This mod was originally intended to be just that. A village with some nice atmosphere and a bit of a twist on the buildings. The mine quest as it was in version 1.x was an afterthought thrown together without much planning or direction. It is of course fun, and has some nice story elements and is worth the trip down there just to see it. Of course, as with all things of this nature, I couldn't resist tweaking and fiddling and have ended up creating something much more. So if you're into questing, the surest way to trigger things is to head for the mine. You may also get it as a rumor from elsewhere. If you've played through 1.x already, then you'll already have a pretty good idea of what's going to transpire. Things have been adjusted some and the quest is now tracked via the journal with actual logs. The story has been fleshed out more and is a lot more interesting. There's also a bit of cross-mod story telling going on. A mod called Pemberly Manor had some mention of one of the NPCs having holdings around Cyrodiil. One of which was the farms at Faregyl. I've incorporated this into things and not only are the farms owned by the NPC, but so was the mine. To say more would spoil. A word of warning - the quest now has some real consequences based on what you do and the decisions you make. The mine is no longer the end of the story. The state of the village itself can be affected. As you progress this should become somewhat obvious. It is also possible that you will not get to experience everything that's possible. Yes, some decisions can have dire consequences. Yes, you can be evil, and yes, you can screw things up even if you weren't planning to. This is an aspect of many games that Oblivion is lacking in. Most of your actions have no real impact on Cyrodiil. They will in Faregyl though. Of course, that means you can play through again with a different character and have a different outcome. Something else to keep in mind. Certain mods may influence the outcome of events depending on what their NPCs may do while in the village. Play your cards right and some of those extra NPCs may help you turn a bad situation around. Travelers from TIE come to mind as the most common examples. A few of them make regular stops in Faregyl and are generally friendly to the player. Influence from mods can also go bad if they place enemies near the area. You've been warned. Also a general caution. This has been the case since first release, but none of the villagers are marked essential. If they die, they die. I've made every effort to keep nasties away from the village by removing spawn generators but I can't cover everything.

An expansion for the village of Shor's Stone. Shor's Stone always seemed like a place that had more potential than what was in the game, and as it turns out, that's because it does. NPCs talk about Odfel's wrecked house and the need to build a new one, but the wreckage doesn't exist. Grelka has some scenes with the other NPCs that can never play because she never comes to the town, and may well have originally been planned for there. Plus the place always seemed a bit empty, in need of somewhere for the folks to gather at night other than just the fireplace in front of Sylgja's house. Now, all of these things have been taken care of. Shor's Stone is no longer a backwater half-village. * Grelka now has a home at the south end of town. She will travel between there and Riften by horse at the appropriate times. * The Tapped Vein, the inn, where folks gather for the town's evening meal. A subtle tribute to Elder Scrolls Online and the village's past association with Ebony mining. * Inn has a properly working innkeeper, server, and bard. * Odfel's wrecked house now exists on the north side of town. So sad. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees that account for the changes. Requires the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch to be installed first!

A simple village expansion for Ivarstead. Ivarstead always seemed like it should be more to me. There are a number of people living in the inn on a permanent basis. While the game indicates it is a village in decline due to fewer and fewer visitors coming through, it's very clear that those who are in the inn now are permanent residents to the village who have fairly strong ties they can't just cut. Since it would have been lame to throw down a bunch of empty or destroyed properties, it felt only right that 3 new houses should be built for those residents to occupy. * Temba Wide-Arm will offer to share her house if married to you. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees that account for the changes. * Bonus: Golldir now has a home as well and will return to it once his quest, "Ancestral Worship", is completed. He can be married at that point and you can move in with him if you wish. Requires the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch to be installed first!

A simple village expansion for Soljund's Sinkhole. Soljund's Sinkhole is another one of those places where it just seemed odd that more was not done. A mining operation that by all accounts would be thriving were it not for a draugr problem. An area that 3 people are effectively living in, with only two actually being housed, and one of whom is a marriage prospect for the player! Such cramped conditions cannot stand, and so this small expansion has been done to relieve the crowding problem. * Guard barracks for the guards to live in, with one extra patroller added due to the dangerous area. The jail is just for show, sorry * Perth can now share his house with you if you marry him. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area.

A simple village expansion for Whistling Mine. It always seemed odd to me that an established mine with an active smelter had no place for the people there to live. Whistling Mine is cold, and inhospitable. Nobody in their right mind would actually sleep there! This mod solves that oddity by providing a small village for the 4 NPCs to live in and spend some time in. Cause who wants to spend their lives living in the mine they work in! It was also somewhat strange that Winterhold Hold had nothing but a single half ruined town in it. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees that account for the changes.

A simple village expansion for Darkwater Crossing. If Darkwater Crossing ever seemed like too many people with nowhere to live were there, you're probably right. It's major enough for Tullius to know about it to set up an ambush for Ulfric, yet there's a single house there where two people live while everyone else sits around a campfire. Not anymore! Three new houses have been added to provide accomodations for the 4 NPCs who had no place to call home. * Sondas Drenim will offer to share his house if married to you. * Derkeethus will offer to share his house if married to you, assuming you haven't recruited him into the Blades. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees that account for the changes.

An expansion for the village of Shor's Stone. Shor's Stone always seemed like a place that had more potential than what was in the game, and as it turns out, that's because it does. NPCs talk about Odfel's wrecked house and the need to build a new one, but the wreckage doesn't exist. Grelka has some scenes with the other NPCs that can never play because she never comes to the town, and may well have originally been planned for there. Plus the place always seemed a bit empty, in need of somewhere for the folks to gather at night other than just the fireplace in front of Sylgja's house. Now, all of these things have been taken care of. Shor's Stone is no longer a backwater half-village. * Grelka now has a home at the south end of town. She will travel between there and Riften by horse at the appropriate times. * The Tapped Vein, the inn, where folks gather for the town's evening meal. A subtle tribute to Elder Scrolls Online and the village's past association with Ebony mining. * Inn has a properly working innkeeper, server, and bard. * Odfel's wrecked house now exists on the north side of town. So sad. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees that account for the changes.

A simple village expansion for Karthwasten. Karthwasten is supposed to be a bustling mining town with two actively worked mines, yet only has a couple of buildings and too many NPCs to match. Plus it's a known lore town that's been here for at least 200 years. So this place needed a bit of an expansion to flesh it out and make it seem more like the "Karthwasten Hall" of old, in as much as Skyrim will allow for that. No more pitifully small center of mining for The Reach! * Each NPC now has their own home. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees, that account for the changes.

A simple village expansion for Ivarstead. Ivarstead always seemed like it should be more to me. There are a number of people living in the inn on a permanent basis. While the game indicates it is a village in decline due to fewer and fewer visitors coming through, it's very clear that those who are in the inn now are permanent residents to the village who have fairly strong ties they can't just cut. Since it would have been lame to throw down a bunch of empty or destroyed properties, it felt only right that 3 new houses should be built for those residents to occupy. * Temba Wide-Arm will offer to share her house if married to you. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area, including trees that account for the changes. * Bonus: Golldir now has a home as well and will return to it once his quest, "Ancestral Worship", is completed. He can be married at that point and you can move in with him if you wish.

A village in the mountains southeast of the city of Dawnstar. Tamriel has had many villages on maps for as far back as anyone can remember. What happened to them all? Nobody really knows. This mod is simply my take on bringing one back from Elder Scrolls: Arena. Helarchen Creek was a small village in the game somewhere in the mountains near Dawnstar. Originally it appears as though Bethesda planned to put this around the Nightgate Inn, but then changed the name on that and cut the content. Some further research using old Arena maps placed the village further north anyway, so here it is. * Two of the NPCs can be married and will optionally share their homes with you. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area.

A small village expansion for Dragon Bridge. Dragon Bridge always seemed like it needed something more, and it did. There was always poor Varnius Junius, who gets sent to Solitude representing the town and everything, but had nowhere to live. Plus his boss, Tasius Tragus, who was never placed into the game, but would also have just lived in the inn. The inn is not a home! Varnius and Tasius now have their own homes on the northeast side of the village, like everyone else in town. It's not much, but there just isn't enough space in the place for anything more. Tasius even has a nice terrace with a view to reflect his presumed status in town. * All added houses are radiant quest enabled, so you may get Companions missions and anything else that's properly configured to use NPC homes for quests. * LOD has been generated for the area.