The Motherland

A Total Conversion Mod for Skyrim

Stage: Pre-Alpha

The darkness has swallowed you. Enveloping blackness crushes you, pulling you deeper and deeper into its cold embrace. You hold your mouth shut, a feeble attempt to stop the water of the ocean from spilling into your lungs, and frantically flap your legs and arms in a locomotive manner. Clouts of blood and the desecrated bodies of the ship’s crew float lazily past you, a memento of what you are to soon become if you do not escape from the sinking ship.

You swim from room to room, almost hopelessly trying to reach the surface of the water. Your lungs burn fiercely in your chest, and your heart pumps harder and harder with each stroke through the ocean’s water. Just one breath, you think. I just need one breath. Opening my mouth to try and get one wouldn’t be too bad…

You see a light. The golden rays nearly blind you as they refract through the rippling water inviting you upwards. Your effort redoubled, you swim up, and up, and up, through the shattered deck of the ship that had, mere hours before served as your transport vessel, and towards that light.

The surface of the water sunders as your body reaches it, and you frantically fill your lungs with air. Gulping down your precious oxygen, you spot a nearby shoreline, covered in golden sand and lined with swaying palms. You paddle to it, and drag your exhausted, waterlogged body to shore, where you collapse to the ground.

You lay there for a while, panting, the fire fading from your lungs and limbs, being slowly replaced by a gentle, mocking soreness. Rising on shaky legs, heart still pounding, you take a look at the world around you.

Azure waters extend from the golden sand beach you stand upon in almost every direction, the mesmerizing pattern of the gentle waves only broken by small islands and reefs of coral that poke up from the surface. Drooping palms and willows cover the islands in a tangled mess, and schools of exotic fish that you have never seen before swim and jump around the constructs of coral. To your left, you see what is left of your ship, it’s broken, ugly mast stick out of the water. The remainder of the vessel can be seen easily beneath the crystal blue water.

You reach into your pocket, pulling out the two items you pilfered from the Capitan’s chest before the ship fell under attack. You produce a small, mechanical device, its metal surface etched with runes, and a small piece of soaked parchment. It reads:

Go to Kabah, find Nautal

He knows what we seek.

You glace back at the mechanical contraption, and back to the note. A moment later, you place both items into your pocket, and begin to walk.

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The Motherland is a Total Conversion mod being developed with the Skyrim engine. The mod is completely unrelated to the Elder Scrolls, and takes place in its own universe, and with its own lore, history, and people. Our objective is to not only make a fun, engrossing mod that can be comparable to Skyrim itself, but something that, when seen on its own, will spark the reaction of “Wow, this is a cool game.”

The Motherland takes place in a land known as Mak’Tura, which translates literally in the tongue of the locals to “The Motherland” (big surprise there, eh?). Mak’Tura will be a truly strange and alien environment, with dense jungles, giant mushrooms, crazy rock/coral formations, hot springs, and even crazier inhabitants to go with. There is a deep amount of history and culture to this land, which resembles, at time, a strange Aztec/Mayan, though an awkward melting pot of different cultures will be featured.

We wish to make an entertaining role playing game that follows the tradition of Elder Scrolls games, which is “Be who you wanna be, and have fun doing it.” You can be an evil sorcerer, a noble warrior, a shadowy assassin, a presumptuous flower picker, or anything inbetween. There will be many, many quests available, and all sorts of new dungeons to pillage and loot. Your actions in the game will heavily affect the game world, for better or worse, and you will be able to physically see the world change with you.

We also hope to change the experience a bit as well. The Motherland will resemble Skyrim quite a bit, relying on its engine and assets a fair amount, though there will be noticeable changes. Overhauls with the user interface, new dungeon types, exotic cities, new weapons/armor, and different skills and perks will greet you when you start your new game, creating a fresh and unique experience.

The Current Agenda

Currently, we are on the region generation/lore development stage. We have our heightmap and generated landmass (see the screenshots), and need to get in there and start custom tweaking the terrain, adding vegetation, textures, etc etc. Due to some technical difficulties, I do not have a machine that can run Skyrim or the CK properly right now, though I will be acquiring one somewhat soon. In the meantime, I will be working a lot on lore and the plot, and I will need some skilled modelers to assist in creating a lot of static objects (mostly buildings, trees, and random objects). Feel free to PM me if you want to assist in anything related to this mod- help is always welcome.

Screenshots

-http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2013/msg-2374-0-02820700-1372453193.jpg

-http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2013/msg-2588-0-69500200-1372565678.jpg

-http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2013/msg-2588-0-67236800-1372610858.jpg

-http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2013/msg-2588-0-33371500-1372610750.jpg

-http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2013/msg-2588-0-76830200-1372610778.jpg

Thanks for taking the time to read through the thread and review our work in progress. We’ll soon be hosted on Dark Creations (hopefull), so check us out there! J

The Thread will be continually updated, with more info, screenshots, and the like. Keep your eyes peeled!