Nehrim

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I will grab Fate by the throat, it shall never drag me down. —Ludwig Van Beethoven

Nehrim: At Fate’s Edge is a total conversion mod for Oblivion. The colossal four-year project by SureAI (Also creators of two more Total Conversions, Arktwend and Myar Aranath, which are prequels) was a remarkable undertaking. The standard Oblivion mechanics were revamped playing more like a combination of Morrowind and Gothic than its base game (Stat Grinding is possible, but skills are mainly raised through experience points that are spent at trainers ala Gothic. There is no level scaling or respawning dungeons.) and an entirely new world was created, complete with lore and quest lines. The mod features a hand-crafted "continent-sized" map and a core storyline that could last over forty hours. The voice-acting is in German, but there are English subtitles and all the quest text has been translated into English. Additionally, the mod boasts impressive hand-designed dungeons and loot in place of Oblivion's randomly generated dungeons and spread sheet generated loot.

The Mod takes place on the war-torn continent of Nehrim, where the Chancellor of Middlerealm, Barateon, has outlawed all magic as well as declared war on the Northrealm. The Player is a member of a small monastery, who, one night, receives a mysterious letter on his doorstep. The letter leads him/her to an abandoned mine, which is unfortunately infested with trolls. He is eventually rescued by the mage, Merzul, who drafts in the PC into the local resistance. And thus begins your grand quest, though not all is as it seems...

As of this writing, it has since won the Best Singleplayer Mod award for 2010. In addition, an additional patch is underway, which shall continue the main story.

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Nehrim provides examples of:

• Afterlife Express: A literal example: the Star People run a quite physical underground train that normally brings the souls of dead people to the underworld. When the player character shows up at the station, however, they reschedule in order to take you to their king as soon as possible. From the evidence aboard, it also appears to be the residence of someone else...
• All Rumors Are True: At least one of the Aeterna dungeons contains evidence that at least these Aeterna DO eat humans like is suggested by every non-important NPC
• A God Am I: The light-born are this.
• Abusive Parents: When young, Kim would be beaten by his/her father if s/he couldn't remember the details of the gods properly.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: less extensive than Oblivion however.
• Anime Hair: The Half-Aeterna have this going on.
  • You can be a White Haired Pretty Girl/Boy too.
• Anyone Can Die: Can they ever.
• Artificial Stupidity: It's an Oblivion mod, natch. The "Creatures" are especially stupid.
• Ban on Magic: If you value keeping your head on your shoulders, for the love of god don't cast spells in Middlerealm towns before a late part of the main quest.
• Better to Die Than Be Killed: When Narathzul finally confronts Chancellor Barateon, he throws himself off the Palace tower rather than face his punishment. He gets impaled by a spike below.
• Big No: Invoked by Narathzul upon finding out he's a Light-Born. He dies soon after.
• Black and Gray Morality
• But Thou Must!: You aren't allowed to refuse the offer to join the Order that Merzul gives near the end of the prologue. Notable in that Merzul actually lampshades this.
• Continuity Nod: You visit the setting of the prequel, Arktwend, at one point. Though only a few parts of it are involved in the Main Quest, it's fully explorable, and populated with familiar landmarks.
• Crapsack World: Indeed.
• Cutscene Incompetence: Unfortunately.
  • Certain characters also need to learn it's rude to randomly teleport people without their permission.
• Dark Messiah: Narathzul Arantheal. Despite being the Big Good, he's merciless to his enemies and kicks a few dogs before the end. Then he dies, but not before learning that his mother is a Light-Born.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Not necessarily anyway. In fact, Arkt, who wears black armor with a skull motive, becomes more-or-less the Big Good in the end.
• Dem Bones
• Door to Before: All over the place, pretty much every dungeon has one.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Kim, once you reach the titular Fate's Edge.
• Dual-Wielding: There are a few "blocking sword" items you can use, but they are just fancy looking shields.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: You can break the Siege of Cahbaet, liberate the Middle and South realms from tyranny, and ascend to godhood, and people will still give you flak for looking like an Aeterna.
• Eats Babies: Supposedly the Aeterna do this.
• Easter Egg: Several. Mainly Shout Outs to previous Sure AI works.
• End of an Age
• Fantastic Racism: If you play as a Half-Aeterna you'll get a vague sense people don't like you.
• Game Mod: In an odd case of "mod for mod", Oblivion Crash Prevention System functions for Nehrim and a version of Deadly Reflex can be found for the mod.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: At the end of it all, after you've defeated the Light-Born, ascended to godhood, and defeated Fate itself, your stats stay exactly the same. You don't even get any extra spells, like in Shivering Isles. Also, you are given the option to kill or spare Tyr. It's a purely moral choice, as it doesn't effect your stats any.
• Hide Your Children: Following in the footsteps of Oblivion.
• High-Class Glass: The banker in Erothin has this going on.
• High Fantasy
• Infinity-1 Sword: Item sets can be completed very early, compared to the very late arrival of the Shadowgod armor and are all quite useful. The Magic Winds set however is more powerful than the mage version of the end-game armor, due to the final armor only giving a small mana and resistance boost compared to the crazy boost of mana regen of the Magic Winds (which weighs half as much).
• Kleptomaniac Hero
• Knight Templar: The Southrealm is full of these. Also, servants of the Light-Born are actually CALLED Templar. And so are the battlemages in the Arcane Sanctuary.
• Light Is Not Good: The lightborn aren't exactly nice.
• Magitek: The Star People seem to employ this.
• The Obi-Wan: You actually get two.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Averted: the Star People are called dwarves by humans, but they look like short Elves and are actually stranded aliens from another planet trying to get back home. Eventually, they do. On a giant steampunk airship. But not before dropping you off on the Light-Born's home.
• Posthumous Character: Zelara, wife of Narathzul. His guilt for her death drives many of his actions.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Spoofed, the drunken "pirate" captain in one quest you hire/rescue for passage in one quest (who even wears a Jolly Roger eye patch) admits during his drunken ramblings he is just a scavenger/looter, not a pirate.
• Railroading: In Path of the Gifted Kero and his guards are marked essential, so even if you can kill easily take all 3 of them down in combat, you must undergo the rest of the quest to free the slave. Such uses break the theme of a lack of predestination.
• Saving the World
• Scenery Porn: just watch the trailer.
  • Upon exiting the mine for the first time, you are given a vista of the area.
• Screw Destiny: Literally achieved during the ending; Fate is actually a goddess who toys with peoples lives For the Evulz. But she gets killed by the player and Arkt during the climax. After Fate is defeated, people are now free to decide what they want themselves, instead of having everything predestined.
• Scripted Event: Relies heavily on these. Some are quite visually impressive.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Narathzul Arantheal. Though exactly how good He is is up to the player.
• Take Your Time: Occasionally adverted. One side quest has you need to get back an (alleged Artifact of Doom from a mercenary/bandit group that's taken it from it's place of (accidental) creation. The man who took the artifact actually walks through the game to his goal normally, causing a gameover if he reaches it, but if you meet him at one of the few points he passes by guards, they'll help you fight him.
• Technicolor Eyes: The Half-Aeterna once again.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: How do the guards know you're the one using magic anyway?
• The Emperor
• The End of the World as We Know It: The world is literally unraveling.
• Underground Level: you start in the largest mine ever.
  • The ruins of the Star People certainly count as well.
• Wide Open Sandbox: Not as much as Oblivion quest-wise but close.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: A few characters tend to suddenly fade away from the story.
• Womb Level: You get eaten by an Eldritch Abomination in the Southrealm, basically play through Gears of War in it.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Actually you can, but there's not much left of it.
• Zerg Rush: The undead in the ruins of the Star People.