What the Dawnguard DLC™ Should Have Been (Every Dawnguard Mod for Skyrim)

[Music] from the new magical veil forgotten and lost to time to the stormy skies of a new mysterious dimension to reviving the ancient legends of the once lost snow elves to revealing ancient prophecies of the fabled elder scrolls dawnguard has one of the most interesting stories characters and lore in the entire game and it's why it took me this long to properly delve into transforming this dlc into the most engaging piece of modded content from transforming well-known locations into wonderland's fitting to their themes to overhauling the looks of almost every character in the dlc and redesigning many of the story's side quests into interesting and immersive challenges this video aims to be your one stop shop to everything dawnguard modding split into three main categories to cover each area of the content pack from the bustling new southern order forming in the rift tasked with defending skyrim against the rising bloodthirsty vampire menace to the ancient lost enclave of bloodsuckers in the north growing ever-hungry to carry out their timeless tyranny of the sun to everything in the middle the quests both sides partake upon the characters they meet and the stories they tell i've tried to cover every aspect of this dlc within this video leaving no stones unturned and only showing you the very best that the skyrim modding community has to offer and bringing you one of my longest most in detail overhauls to date so sit back relax and prepare yourself for the ultimate dawnguard modded experience covering everything from armor and weapons to spells and creatures that you will find as you progress across your vampiric journey with this overhaul i wanted to keep the main theme of the dlc but elevate it to the next level enhancing every area i could think of and making you fall back in love with in my opinion the best questline skyrim has to offer so let's not delay any further welcome to heavy burns ultimate dawnguard [Music] overhaul [Music] [Music] now the first thing we're going to do is transform fort dawnguard and we're going to start way at the beginning with the mod immersive dawnguard dayspring canyon which moves a small cave passage on the border of the rift to a new opened up valley further down the path inside we're going to be using immersive fort dawnguard in the canyon you'll find a plethora of interesting sights from old ruins littering the pathside to a small broken down fish and farming huts which you will need to be able to restore further on the entrance has been enhanced with new defensive gates and walls leading up to the fort and inside there has been a plethora of changes to both the layout and the decorations placed within its halls but that's only the start because as you progress through the dawnguard questline each of these areas will start to enhance some completely changing from what they were originally fit to house a true vampire slaying faction from greenhouses on the roof being restored to house both food and alchemical ingredients to the previously mentioned ruined houses now being rebuilt to house both farmers and fishermen which will populate the once lonesome valley to a new temple room built to worship stendar from within the main hall or dexian's new alchemical tower overlooking the valley below or the hidden pathway that leads up to the watchtower at the peak of the cliffside there are so many new amazing areas and additions to this once planned fort that you'd believe that this was an entire dlc on its own and by throwing on cc's fort dawnguard reborn textures on top of that we have a truly transformed and enhanced vampire slaying home base these mods coupled together are so far the best improvements to this pivotal location that have ever been released on the nexus and with that we have our first dawnguard section completely overhauled next sticking to the dawnguard side of things we're going to take a look at some enhancements to existing content added within this dlc the first of these is the well-known mod named frankly hd dawnguard armor and weapons which simply retextures all the existing dawnguard militia armory and it's safe to see why this is a must-have for anyone who chooses a dawnguard side or just wants them to have a more prominent role when encountering them in their game and this mod goes hand in hand with the dawnguard arsenal mod which aims to introduce a variety of dawnguard weapons and spells that the base dlc left out this means introducing a dawnguard dagger a one-handed sword a great sword a batalax and finally a battle hammer but that's not the only thing this mod adds alongside the plethora of new weaponry which is distributed among the dawnguard soldiers it also includes new seamless sun spells sunray shoots a novice level concentrated beam of sunlight at your opponents meridian room creates a proximity sunlight explosive that burns the undead upon triggering holy ground which grants the power to mark the floor with a burning blessing which damages any undead that walk upon it and finally the master level spell gaze of arcade which channels the might of the god of birth and death to unleash a torrent of sun damage each one of these weapons and spells can be found or bought around the fortress and just adds that depth we expect to see while fighting for the guardians of stendar and just to top it off i'm also using another mod named dawnguard centuries which just adds more dawnguard soldiers patrolling around each of the cities in the game and also adds some additional vampire guards protecting the outside of castlevalkahar now the bulk of the mods in this video will come under the quest section which aims to overhaul most of the pivotal aspects of the dlc but we're first going to look at some volca specific mods and i want to point out that these are mods for the dawn guard dlc specific additions not vampires as a whole first we're going to take a look at the type of creatures you'll be encountering on both sides of the quest but more prominently if siding with khan volcah and that starts at the bottom of the food chain by making the quite immersive tweak to the existing vampires your face within dawnguard's dungeons vampire's fight with claws is a mod which simply implements exactly what it says in the title when a vampire is disarmed they will utilize their razor sharp claws to slice their target which is honestly just a nice touch and a change of pace in encountering especially the more feral vampires in the abandoned sections of castle volkahar next we have the mod named vampire beasts which is a favorite on this channel for sure the first of these beasts is the fredder a wide jawed wear-back-type monster who often uses its sonar to disarm its prey before demolishing them the second is the feral proto-fledder found only alongside the forsaken vampiric falmers in the forgotten valley next is the catacan the only monster in this mod which is not considered unless a vampire often being extremely cunning and sentient higher variants who you'll rarely encounter but when you do you will not likely forget and if you thought that was a tough fight then watch out for the even more rare ancient elder catechist which are bigger and more powerful from their younger siblings and have mastered all possibilities and abilities that being a vampire can offer in battle and finally comes the ekamara and the garcane the dregs of those higher vampires that have let their beast impulses overcome them over time resulting in them becoming feral animalistic creatures who act on nothing but instinct but still offer a horrifying challenge when encountered across the volckerheart quest and just to add some easier vampiric enemies alongside the new beast editions we're also using the enemy bats mod which just adds a new smaller enemy type across caves forts and nordic ruins which will really add to the range of vampiric creatures you'll encounter across your game and for creatures on the volcah side for now that's going to cover the new vampire variants you'll have the chance of facing across the dlc but there's still a few more specific vulcajar additions before moving on to both sides of the main quest now the next two mods are specifically designed to expand upon the unique weaponry available through the vulgar quest line and it starts with an item which in the base dlc is kind of cast to the side as soon as you acquire it and that's none other than the bloodstained chalice staff of bloodstained chalice grants the player the ability to acquire an artifact located in a master locked chest on the castlevolcah balcony upon casting you will shoot a projectile of concentrated blood magic which on impact will form a bloodletter shade which will immediately shed off its flesh causing an explosion each shade you summon will be frenzied and attack anyone and anything in sight including you the mod is designed to offer a powerful but balanced mechanic so that the wielder of chaos cannot abuse its power without great consequences and in my opinion grants a very interesting and engaging use of the bloodstained chalice after acquiring it in the volckerheart quest next similarly to the last we have a mod which creates a more unique weapon out of an already existing item in the dlc but in this instance it's harkon's sword this mod replaces and reimagines harkon's blood matron into a jagged gothic blade more fitting to the mace of molag bal thanks to its spiked adornments and harrowing design and also grants it a chance to apply a bunch of new effects that make it truly stand out from before now similarly to the overhaul we applied for fort dawnguard we have balcoa castle rebuilt a mod which has been around for a long time but still stands to be pretty much the only fung overhaul of castlevalkahar to date what this mod does is after completing either the dawnguard or volcah side of the questline you're able to restore the ruined wings of the castle to their former glory by mining away at small rubble piles throughout the rooms you're able to restore pretty much the entirety of the area from the volga heart courtyard all the way up to valerica's study even restoring the rubble doorway that lay at the other side of the balcony which gives a more useful purpose to the balcony rather than it just serving as a fast travel point one of the things i especially like about this mod is that you can restore the broken tower at the foot of the island manning it with either vampire or dawnguard soldiers depending on the outcome of the questline and the same pretty much goes for the rest of the rooms inside if you sided with the vampires then you will restore the castle to its former gothic glory however if you finish the questline on the side of isron you can transform the castle into a new dawnguard outpost on the opposite side of skyrim and just a final note the north tower which can be accessed through the courtyard can now be renovated into a home for the player this mod is a great addition to the vulgar questline in particular but now it's time to move on to the overhauls that encompasses both sides of the dlc and that starts with an area which is definitely in need of some improvements the first mod we're using is 4k soul care which visually just gives new textures and assets used within the realm a new fresh coat and paired with high pony song husks a mod which refines the alien-like plant found around the plane we have a good visual base to start working with but now we want some substance and that's where mihail sultries come into play grotesque whispering flesh effigies that are unable to move or cry for help condemn to serve as soul lessons for enchantments for all eternity but the main source of the content here comes in the form of creatures first is batwing demons blind bone spear wielding daedra slender winged creatures that infest some pivotal areas across the game and act as guardians to valerica's prison next is the mourning souls spirits whose psyches are fallen into the void of sadness and despair becoming the last personifications of desolation tied to their ideal masters then we have fogmens pesky and sly creatures of the night that appear across the entire game world yet find a specific home nestled within the soul carrot storm golems are the elitist among the storm astronauts they are incredibly rare and powerful and pose a deadly foe if encountered within the foggy abyss finally we have grave lords insanely powerful beings connected to sithis and the void surrounded by their dread armies of great horde servants each one of these creatures aims to bring more challenge and variety to the soul cave but most importantly of all of them is the mod named grim which completely overhauls the reaper boss fight into an epic battle with an elaborate mini quest taking you to a pocket realm of the soul care in order to complete the fight inside you'll find a mysterious new realm filled with uniquely designed areas and some interesting new enemies to fight and in doing so also supplies you with some pretty unique items to obtain as a result it's a fun and challenging experience that you can actually do multiple times with varying stages of the boss fight and really gives the soul cairn some agency to stick around in because out of the two new areas introduced in the dlc both lack some level of purpose to stick around past the main quest objectives and that leads us on to the other new world space added within dawnguard and that's none other than the forgotten veil now the forgotten veil for me has always been one of those areas that i just can't wait to get to during the dawnguard quest but much like the soul care it's very much a one and done kind of area so i wanted to give the vale some reasons to both want to go back there and stick around for a bit longer than just reaching the inner sanctum to obtain auriel's bow so although there are very little mods that actually are available for the forgotten veil we're going to start by giving it a fresh coat and then look at some new content forgotten veil hd and forgotten veil eyes are both mods which together help to give the surrounding area a new fresh paint by retexturing both the snow elf ruins tile set and the new ice assets with fresh 4k textures both of these help to magnify the beauty of one of the most stunning areas in the game but we can also apply the same treatment to some of the items first we have iconic's remastered paragon gems which combined with the patch for particle lights for e and b provide a high definition and high standout ability redesigned for the five paragons found across the dlc next is the hdv textures for both auriel shield and bow both bringing some more crisp and next-gen upgrades to auriel's arsenal and on top of that we can also throw on auriel's bow of life to further enhance upon the fabled artifact with glowing insignias detailing the limb and string and overall these set up a good visual base for a few new additions to the land which starts off with a quite unique creature mud snow whales is an incredibly ambient mod by mahel which introduces giant mythical whales swimming in various magical locations around skyrim one of those being the forgotten veil and really injects a breath of legend to the world space lost to time and finally to give some agency to stick around or even call the veil your home we have the varkel castle mod which introduces an ancient castle that has long lost its previous owner and it's up to you to defeat the evil spirit that lurks there and reclaim it as your very own player home next it's time to quickly cover some mods that impact the way you experience the main story of the dlc no matter which side you choose to take and it starts with a visual replacer for all the unique npcs pandorable's npcs is a mod which overhauls the looks of 27 of dawnguard's characters on both sides of the story from offering hark on himself a more noble and cunning look to refining esron and everybody in between pandorable's npcs even goes as far to change the looks of base game characters such as sabile stentor it's really a must-have if you're looking to elevate this dlc in the next-gen fashion and give more personality to each of the npcs you encounter across the story and speaking of the story we're also using dawnguard tweaks and enhancements which adds a few changes on how you progress through the ranks of each faction and also increases the scale of some of the battles across the quest line following on from that we have the dawnguard and clan volckerheart epilogue's mod which grants the player the ability to obtain the opposing side's artifacts after completing the dlc then we have the ancient blood magic mod which introduces a new powerful boss which can be encountered in the volca courtyard and also equips the player with two new spells alongside it allowing the player to both summon a stone gargoyle and leech the life force out of the surrounding area in a powerful offensive aoe attack but there is still one last area of this dlc that we have left untouched up until now and that's serrano now serrano is quite frankly the heart of the dawnguard expansion so we're going to look at some mods that can customize and expand upon skyrim's most beloved companion in a massive way and because we're leaving no stones unturned i'm about to show you every single one of the top serrano replacers for skyrim starting off with one of the most popular mods saranac which comes in eight different distinct versions each adorning their own imaginations of what serrano could look like this is one of those mods that most people will recognize but most probably just go for the most recent variation without taking a look back and seeing what other options are available and as you can see throughout each update the sarongaholic mod does begin to get more refined and start to try new things each time sometimes introducing blood red hair instead of the classic dark black adorned in vanilla serrano honey is one of those mods which is really just up to personal taste some of the variations suit a more mature and weathered sarana that seems a little more fitting to her voice and longer life while others take the younger approach for a more princess take but if you truly wanted a more classic look then some might remember mods like the original bvfe fangs and eyes mod which is definitely a classic or perhaps you're looking for something more recent like the superb serrano replacer which is more of a mature look and sticking to that path we also have the sarana renewal replacer which is probably the most mature look for serrano out of the lot and from the same author as the dawnguard npc replacer earlier you can also use pandoraball's tape but many of these are more mature looks thus far so i've added in some younger variations like the sensuous serrano mud or one of the most popular as of this date the sarana reimagined mod maybe one of the most detailed and expressive thus far and just in case you prefer the more anime look to your npcs i've also threw in rb's replacer which leads us on to some more thematic replacers such as the refined volca more fitting to the vanilla theme or the sr serrano replace mod which gives her more of a natural look compared to the rest and finally we have llama creases maidens of skyrim a more elegant and put together look and with your sarana face of choice we're finally ready to move on to the biggest and final mod of this entire video hey so sorry we got off on the wrong note i understand it must be hard to side with the very thing you were sworn to destroy i also read stories there was supposedly a vampire in akavir which never fed in her entire life or whatever you call it and that vampire supposedly sided with humans fighting against her own kind so this must be bleak fall's borrow it's well-lit but decrepit dusty and kind of like the castle actually what's that a tablet there seems to be some inscriptions on it though even i can't make them out too ancient even for me from what i've heard at least the dragonborn or dovahkiin was a mortal blessed with the blood and soul of a dragon by akatosh himself the chief of the divines legend says this dragonborn may also have the ability to use the thumb in any case though i think we should head back to the yarl it's been a long day [Music] yeah this really is a bit of a hike even as a vampire i am getting kind of tired we made it wow what a trip ah damn it come on after everything we've been through we just get this a note a piece of paper they might be luring us into a trap for all we know i've heard stories of people being abducted in inns i'm just saying to keep your guard up find the horn as soon as we can and get out of there if i know my tamrielic history right dragons used to roam skies hundreds maybe even thousands of them and now that we know they're coming back i don't think this is good news for just about anyone right now i think delphine might just be our best bet the sooner we can get rid of the dragons the better do you have no better reason for acting than destiny are you nothing but a plaything of dez a fate [Music] what is better to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort i don't even know what to say i'm at a loss for words i just saw you talk to a dragon there may be evil here and sometimes things may suck but there is some good to strive and keep fighting for you know even to the dove who ride the currents of time destiny is elusive there are many hungers it is better to deny than to feed we need to trap a dragon in dragon's reach this damn better work now it is up to you to decide what to do with your power will you be a hero whose name is remembered in song throughout the ages or will you merely fade from history unremembered i don't think it exactly sits well with me for you to travel alone on top of a dragon only to arrive at another ancient burial mound by yourself you could die just just don't go there has to be another way zoom arc mora you will push the world harder than it pushes back do you know how beautiful something can be when it's attended by a master for hundreds of years my mother why would she do something like that locking me up all of a sudden forcing me to be part of a world i had no place in [Music] what you just saw there was only a small showcase of the enormous amount of content this mod offers to almost every aspect of your game that was a showcase of some of the dialogue featured alongside the main vanilla story and not even touching on the mages college thieves guild companions or dark brotherhood and just goes to show you how big of a mod this project really is reimagining the vanilla game's hands down best companion and allowing you to really immerse yourself in the world of skyrim with serana by your side sarana dialogue addon is one of the biggest companion overhauls to date and is constantly being updated and improved to recently changing the way she's romanced to be more more friendly or a massive dawnguard update coming later this summer serana is constantly being updated and improved upon and as the heart and soul of the dawnguard dlc she's integral in re-experiencing the expansion with new eyes and from overhauling the dawnguard volcah an entire path through skyrim's first dlc and then throwing this mod on top of all the other changes in this video you finally got a brand new dawnguard experience that will allow you to immerse yourself into the land and stories that bethesda have told in a way that keeps you engaged even 10 years on and that's going to do it for my biggest video today if you enjoyed then i'd really appreciate if you subscribed as we're on the verge of 50 000 subscribers and once we get there i'll be doing a heavy burns live super show stream where we'll be doing the grand face reveal and some other special events so make sure you subscribe and i'll give more details on that once we hit the milestone but that's going to be all for this video shout out to kruger on the discord for winning our first screenshot competition i'll be doing them monthly along with preset competitions to have your creations appear in videos so head over there links in the description and i wanted to give a massive thanks to my patrons who helped me be able to do huge videos like these i want to keep doing these large scale videos so i'll be working on a video overhauling the dragonborn dlc soon and let me know what other ideas you want to see in the comments and finally once we surpass the 50k milestone i'll start streaming regularly so look forward to that but for now thank you so much for watching and i'll see you in the next video take care you

Channel: Heavy Burns

Views: 1,441,906

Keywords: skyrim mods, skyrim se, skyrim, the elderscrolls v, xbox one, ps4, skyrim mods ps4, skyrim mods xbox, dawnguard, skyrim dawnguard mods, skyrim volkihar mods, skyrim fort dawnguard mods, forgotten vale mods, soul cairn mods, dawnguard creature mods, skyrim vampire mods, mods for Dawnguard DLC skyrim, DLC mods skyrim, skyrim dlc, skyrim snow whale mod

Id: kBln3oNloUU

Length: 27min 53sec (1673 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021