Miraak – Dragonborn Follower
Have the antagonist of the Dragonborn DLC as your follower! His in-game dialogue has been used in order to make him a “fully voiced” follower. Miraak will semi-intelligently use a variety of Shouts in combat. The final quest of the Dragonborn DLC was changed to give you the option of teaming up with him against Hermaeus Mora.
Version 1.7 is out. This fixes a pretty big bug with Miraak’s AI. More details in the stickied post.
Have the antagonist of the Dragonborn DLC as your follower! His in-game dialogue has been used in order to make him a “fully voiced” follower. Miraak will semi-intelligently use a variety of Shouts in combat. The final quest of the Dragonborn DLC was changed to give you the option of teaming up with him against Hermaeus Mora.
Requirements:
The latest Skyrim patch (Version 1.9.32.0.8)
The Dragonborn DLC
Optional: SkyUI for its Mod Configuration Menu (MCM)
Installation:
With Nexus Mod Manager: Simply click on the “Download with Manager” button.
Manual Installation: Extract both files (the .bsa and the .esp) to your Skyrim data folder.
Upgrading:
I recommend first saving while you are not in combat. Afterwards, quit Skyrim and simply install over the old version. Making a “clean save” is not necessary. Then just load you game, give it a few seconds to process anything it has to then continue your adventuring!
Features / Stats / Etc:
An alternate ending to the end of the Dragonborn DLC: Using the power of the Bend Will, you can make Miraak your new best friend! Then you fight waves of Mora’s minions. More info in the “How to Use” section.
Miraak’s dialogue files were edited and repurposed in order to make him “fully voiced”.
If Miraak thinks you’re taking a break, he will “sandbox”. This means he will wander around, use furniture, pretend to craft, have a snack, etc. This can be disabled in the MCM if you don’t want this feature or it conflicts with another mod.
Miraak can be married.
While traveling with Miraak, Mora may send minions to finish the two of you off. Stay alert!
Once you unlock Miraak as a follower, the area around the Tree Stone will now have a camp with bedrolls, crafting stations, etc. The camp also has a “safe” chest with a tome that can summon Miraak to you at any time.
The camp also has two friendly Cultists you can recruit. Rokzaam, a male Dunmer, and Rekzaam, a female Dunmer. They’re technically naked in order to make it easier for you to equip them but they automatically equip things when they load into an area. They receive spells based on level and use Shock spells, Conjure Seeker Flame Atronach / Seeker / High Seeker (depending on level), Flesh spells (rarely used), healing spells and wards. They have Frost and Fire Breath respectively. They also have tomes that can summon them.
Rokzaam and Rekzaam can be set in the mod menu to follow Miraak around while Miraak is not a follower or to follow Miraak at all times.
There is a book in the camp chest that, while in your inventory, allows you to craft unenchanted versions of Miraak’s sword and clothes (comes in unarmored, light and heavy variants) as well as create his staff at a staff enchanter. The book can also be created at a tanning rack.
Miraak’s level is 10% higher than yours. His minimum level is 15 and he maxes out at 150.
For combat, Miraak prefers to use Shouts. His Shouts have little cooldown and he has a decent variety to choose from. Many of the Shouts below can be disabled via the MCM:
For general combat, he uses Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Cyclone and Unrelenting Force. The first two will stagger enemies and the latter two will send them flying. Also, in the MCM menu there is an option to make Cyclone more frequent.
When injured sufficiently, he will use either the full three word version of Become Ethereal or, if he’s really in trouble, use the one word version (which doesn’t last as long but is a lot quicker to use). When Miraak’s health, stamina and magicka are full or if the ethereal state is about to end, he will resume fighting.
He can also use Bend Will. In order to preemptively prevent any possible bugs with the player’s Bend Will, his Bend Will acts differently. When used on anything vulnerable to the two word version of Bend Will, it will temporarily transform the target into a “Temporary Cultist” who will assist you if the target is a humanoid and non-essential; if the target is not a humanoid or essential, the target is stricken by fear and will flee. His Bend Will will not work on dragons but to compensate, I gave Miraak a Shout that summons dragons (more info below).
If you are outdoors and Miraak considers the situation bad enough, he can use his most powerful shout which summons his three dragons, Sahrotaar, Kruziikrel and Relonikiv, to destroy the enemy. After combat is over, the dragons will continue to patrol the area they were summoned at. The higher the player’s level, the tougher they will be. Kruziikrel and Relonikiv max out at 50 and Sahrotaar maxes out at 58. If you talk to Miraak while he is not your follower, he can teach you this Shout.
When fighting far-away enemies, Miraak may use Whirlwind Sprint to close the distance. In the event he Sprints off a cliff, falls down a hole, etc. the mod will try to detect that and teleport him back to your side.
Miraak has Elemental Fury but it is disabled by default and must be enabled at the MCM menu as the mod cannot tell if his weapon is enchanted or not. Also, he sometimes wastes the whole duration using spells instead of slashing.
Miraak also has Dragon Aspect. His version does not summon an Ancient Dragonborn but, unlike you, he is not limited to using it once a day.
In terms of equipment, Miraak favors the use of one-handed weapons and heavy armor. He also has some skill in block but, as his Restoration and Destruction skills are significantly higher, it may be better to let him have a free hand for spell casting. He also has good Alteration but knows no spells of that school. Miraak has no skill in archery, two-handed weapons and light armor. The majority of his skill points (nearly half) are in Speech.
Miraak’s spell list depends on your current level. This is to both prevent him from using his best spells early on and to prevent him from using his weakest spells later on. His spell list will change at levels 40, 50 and 60. He uses mainly Shock spells, some Fire, healing spells and wards. The spells are the same as the ones the enemy Miraak uses, except the follower Miraak also has Thunderbolt, Incinerate and Close Wounds when at a high enough level.
Miraak is immune to the Wabbajack (with the exception of its damage spells), Mehrunes’ Razor, Bend Will, Mora’s Grasp, paralysis (magical or otherwise), decapitation, reanimation, Apocrypha tentacles and any effect that would normally “ragdoll” an NPC (Unrelenting Force, shield charge, etc) will only stagger him instead.
Miraak comes with his robes, his boots, his gloves, his mask, his sword and his staff. The sword and his mask are leveled. They can be replaced with a higher leveled version through dialogue options when you reach the required level. An option to have him automatically upgrade instead is in the MCM.
In the MCM menu, you can give him more carry weight (2000 to be exact), waterwalking and silence (reduced armor noise). You can also give him Force Without Effort, The Fire Within, Dragonborn Force, Dragonborn Flame and/or Dragonborn Frost.
Miraak has been given the Light Foot perk and won’t trigger pressure plates.
Miraak’s other perks: Augmented Shock 1, Respite, Bladesman 1, Critical Charge, Magic Resistance 1, Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Recovery 1, Extra Damage 2 (x1.5 damage with two-handed weapons, x2 with all other weapons) and he deals x1.5 damage against dragons (minor bit of trivia: dragons have a perk that negates 50% of incoming damage except from the player).
How to Use / Walkthrough:
If you install the mod on a save that has already beaten Dragonborn,the mod behaves as if you already rescued Miraak. You can also go to the MCM menu and use the Skip option (or use the command “set MFSkipMQRequirement to 1”) and then change locations to start the unlocking quest at any time. If you do any of these, disregard the next few instructions and start reading at the part marked with an [xxx].
Get to the final quest in Dragonborn’s main questline.
You will be given an optional objective: use the full Bend Will Shout on Miraak multiple times. Successfully hitting him with a Bend Will means your Shout will recharge in 30 secs (three words of Bend Will usually takes 120 secs). Bend Will will still function even if he has a ward up but not when he’s ethereal. After a few Shouts, Miraak will go down.
You’ll need to hit him with the Shout a few more times. Miraak will not fight back or even move at this point. Successfully hitting him with a Bend Will at this stage recharges your Shout even quicker.
He’ll become your ally and the two of you must defeat several waves of enemies Hermaeus Mora will send at you. If you kill an enemy here, their items will all be automatically removed and placed into a special chest. This is because (1) I delete the corpses in between waves to improve performance and (2) looting during a climatic battle makes it less fun.
After defeating all of the enemies and after some dialogue, talk to Miraak. He’ll then disappear and the chest mentioned earlier will appear. The chest will also have Miraak’s equipment and bonus gold depending on how many dragon souls you would have gotten if you did the vanilla version of the quest and killed Miraak.
[xxx]As soon as (1) 24 Skyrim hours pass you complete that quest, (2) you change locations after using the “skip” button or (3) you install the mod on a save that has already beaten Dragonborn, you will receive a message telling you to sleep at Raven Rock.
Go to The Retching Netch or Severin Manor and sleep. It doesn’t matter how long.
A quest marker should appear. Follow it to the Temple of Miraak.
You should now see your new follower Miraak, a camp and two friendly Cultists you can also recruit.
Known/Potential Issues/Bugs:
Miraak does not always say the right words when shouting. As of version 1.1, it happens so rarely that it’s nearly unnoticeable.
Miraak refuses to use chairs, cooking pots, etc. In the screenshot where he’s sitting, I temporarily changed his race just to take that picture. Fixed as of version 1.1
In the MCM menu, it says v1.0 even if you’ve already upgraded to v1.1. If you look at the mod details in the Creation Kit it will also say v1.0. These are purely cosmetic and it won’t affect anything else in any way. Fixed as of version 1.2
In v1.1, Bend Will’s highlight text does not mention its new feature of turning humanoid enemies into cultists. Again, only a cosmetic bug. Fixed as of version 1.2
Version 1.2 does not seem to work properly unless you’re upgrading from an earlier version. Saving then loading that save fixed my problems but I cannot confirm that will work for everyone. Fixed as of version 1.2b AND I also fixed a much more serious bug that actually broke the quest.
Elemental Fury currently doesn’t work at all due to a rather dumb oversight: when doing a “special” Shout, I’ve scripted Miraak to unequip what he’s holding as this seems to make his “AI Packages” run better. Fixed as of version 1.3
Sometimes, the cultists created by Miraak’s Bend Will Shout will spawn invisible. FIxed as of version 1.3
Miraak’s Dragon Aspect can become permanent (visually) even after it’s supposed to wear off. A workaround is to use the console command “removeitem XX021739 999” on Miraak where XX is Dragonborn’s position in your load order. Fixed as of version 1.3
The “Reset AI” button in the MCM can sometimes cause Miraak to lose his teammate flag. To check, use the command “getplayerteammate” in the console. If it says 0, type “setplayerteammate 1” to fix this. An inability to trade with him is how you will likely notice this bug. Fixed as of version 1.3
When the player learns the Bend Will Shout, it also gives the player the custom Bend Will Shout I made for the Miraak follower which turns enemies into friendly cultists. If you see two Bend Wills in your Shout menu, it’s the one with the ridiculously short cooldown (10 secs default). A workaround is to type “player.removeshout XX04F85F” where XX is Dragonborn’s position in your load order. Fixed as of version 1.3b
A severe bug prevents the alternate “At the Summit of Apocrypha” Quest from working properly if the vanilla version is not running when the mod is installed. Fixed as of version 1.3b
Miraak may sometimes lose his “teammate” flag. Symptoms include him switching back to his default gear and refusing to trade or take orders. To fix, use the console command “setplayerteammate 1” on him or dismiss him then tell him to follow. Fixed as of version 1.3c
The cultists created via Miraak’s Bend Will may disappear if you leave the area. It is best to wait for them to turn back to normal or kill them. Mostly fixed as of version 1.3c. This may still occur on enemies spawned via script or console.
If more than one enemy dies at the same time in the “At the Summit of Apocrypha” battle, the next wave may fail to spawn. Fixed as of version 1.4
With Ultimate Follower Overhaul, I was unable to make Miraak wait nor could I dismiss him. You will also have troubles recruiting Miraak with other followers if you do not enable “Skip Follower Count Check” in the MCM. I have been told that the waiting issue can be fixed by installing the Follower Compatibility mod. For dismissing, hit Miraak a few times while out of combat.
Miraak will usually seem to freeze before or after using Elemental Fury. To compensate for this problem, I’ve increased the duration of his Elemental Fury from 15 secs to 20. Fixed as of version 1.5.
Miraak, Rekzaam, Rokzaam and the dragons are supposed to completely ignore friendly fire during combat. This doesn’t work entirely.Fixed as of version 1.5.
While making version 1.4, some debug text was added to the Summit quest and I forgot to remove it. Removed in version 1.5.
Any mod that modifies the quest “At the Summit of Apocrypha” (specifically, any mod that changes the script DLC2_QF_DLC2MQ07_020179D7) WILL be incompatible with the alternate battle/ending I made for that quest.
If you have the file “DLC2_QF_DLC2MQ07_020179D7.pex” in your “DataScripts” folder, this will override the “DLC2_QF_DLC2MQ07_020179D7.pex” inside the BSA file and WILL cause problems with the alternate battle/ending.
Any mod that modifies the Temple of Miraak (the exterior area with the Tree Stone) and the place where the battle with Miraak takes place may cause compatibility problems.
The mod should be compatible with other mods that add a custom marriage but should an issue arise, put the mod which needs the marriage option below in the mod order.
While unlikely, if Bend Will is modified by another mod, this mod may not be able to detect if you hit the enemy Miraak with Bend Will.
Due to the way I implemented Miraak’s Whirlwind Sprint, this mod may conflict with any mod that modifies the “VoiceReleaseSlowTime” idle animation. While rare, if this does happen, place this mod higher in the load order, open the MCM menu and disable Miraak’s Whirlwind Sprint.
Unlocking the follower Miraak (by using “skip”), bringing that follower to the DLC’s final battle (by using either the summoning spell you get or by a console command) and using the mod’s alternate version of the fight will result in two Miraaks and the follower one will lose his “special” AI for the duration of the quest.
If you install the mod on a save that has already beaten “At the Summit of Apocrypha”, the mod will behave as though you did the mod’s alternate ending and saved Miraak or used the “skip” button. This may break some people’s immersion. On the other hand, this means that on a character that has already beaten the DLC you won’t need to click the “skip” button. For now, I’ll consider it an unintended but convenient feature.
I hope you will enjoy the mod! If you do, please endorse and/or track. Also, feel free to check out my other completed mods and my blog:
Almost Everyone is an Adventurer = My 1st Nexus submission. This allows you to turn most NPCs into useful, recruitable followers for you to use and abuse. Walk up to your favorite (or least favorite) NPC, pick a class and start questing with them today!
Stray Khajiit – Transforming Follower = Travel with a Khajiit with the power to transform into several different creatures each with its own unique abilities.
Better Dead Thralls = Improves the Dead Thrall spell to give you greater control over your thralls and make the use of thralls more convenient.
Here in his shrine, that they have forgotten. Here do we toil, that we might remember. By night we reclaim, what by day was stolen. Far from ourselves, he grows ever near to us. Our eyes once were blinded, now through him do we see. Our hands once were idle, now through them does he speak. And when the world shall listen, and when the world shall see, and when the world remembers, that world will cease to be.
