RUSTIC ALCHEMY and ENCHANTING TABLES
A rustic overhaul of the alchemy and enchanting tables of Skyrim. The aim was to bring real antiquity to these arcane crafting tables as is fitting of their ancient origin.
RUSTIC ALCHEMY and ENCHANTING TABLES is a rustic overhaul of the alchemy and enchanting tables of Skyrim. My aim was to bring real antiquity to these arcane crafting tables as is fitting of their ancient origin. What follows is my reimagining, which differs in some respects from Bethesda’s design.
Have you ever thought about where alchemy and enchanting tables come from? You can’t just go to Belethor’s shop and say… “Give me one of those arcane enchanters to go.” They don’t grow on trees, and they aren’t crafted by local craftsmen. There is a reason you have to get an alchemy table from the steward in Dragonsreach when you purchase your home. They are very hard too come by. These are ancient artifacts who’s origins are not entirely known or understood. The ones found in cities were “liberated” from elsewhere.
UPDATE 7/17/15: I’ve added a conversion of my alchemy table textures to fit the meshes of the Revamped Alchemy Lab HD mod. You must have that mod installed to use these textures. RAL HD improves the shape of the table top items, as well as adding glowing liquid to all the carved depressions in the table surface. It makes the alchemy station much more attractive and striking in game.
The main table textures are 2K. The glass is 1K, and the hose textures are 2048 x 128. I made several changes to my original textures, so please view the gallery photos to see the details. Load order is Revamped Alchemy Lab HD first, and my file second, so my textures will overwrite his.
ALCHEMY TABLES
You’ll run across alchemy tables when exploring caves and dungeons, so it only follows that they were in fact created on site. The vanilla alchemy table may be brown, but it’s certainly not made of wood. It could be rusted iron (I suppose), but it would take an incredible amount of ore to smelt something that large and thick. No, despite Bethesda’s poor color choice, the table must be made of stone. These tables were crafted long ago, by the inhabitants of the ancient nordic ruins. Therefore, the dense black stone shares the scrollwork found in those dungeons.
The veined slab on the top is not just any stone… it’s a type of stone that amplifies the properties of whatever substance comes in contact with its surface. And what stone would have such special properties? A stone from Aetherius… a meteorite. It is for this reason, that the same “magical” stone was used to create the arcane enchanter.
ENCHANTING TABLES
While the enchanting table frames are made of wood, it is in fact the meteoric stone tops that allow these arcane devices to store their magical properties. I never understood Bethesda’s idea of having glowing symbols showing through a wood top. How would the wood be a vessel for that kind of energy? Lets not forget that to learn an enchantment, you have to destroy the enchanted item first. Would destroying a magical weapon not create some kind of conflagration? A wood surface would seem unpractical for such a purpose. In my reimagining, the meteorite stone is carved with the enchantment symbols. They are then infused with their magical properties by ancient magic rituals.
Did you ever wonder when you did the Gildergreen quest that in the Hagraven’s nest at Orphan Rock you find an arcane enchanter? How would it get to such a hard to reach place? The answer is simple… the Hagravens created the enchanters. The Hags created the Nettlebane, the only weapon hard enough to damage the Eldergleam tree. It’s also hard enough to shape the densest stone. There’s another clue… the horned troll skull and ritual candles all signify witchcraft. The Hagravens are the one inhabitant of Skyrim with the arcane knowledge to create a magical device like the enchanting tables. It seems obvious that they wouldn’t share that knowledge with the Nords, so the enchanters you find in cities were taken by force.
TEXTURES
If you’ve made it this far, then I thank your indulgence. I like to give an explanation for why I made my textures the way that I did. My design choices have a rationale, even if it might differ somewhat from the original Bethesda concept.
I’ve made two versions of the mod, both a 2K version and a 1K version. Not all the textures contained are at that stated resolution though. It’s the main table textures that are the full resolution. That’s because there are other “secondary” textures involved that don’t warrant the same resolution as the main textures.
The alchemy table is fairly simple. There’s just the table texture itself (diffuse and normal), and the glass texture (diffuse and normal). The enchanting table is more complcated. You have the main table texture (diffuse, glow, and normal), the enchanting symbols (diffuse and normal), the troll skull (diffuse and normal), and the candle (diffuse, glow, and normal). Therefore, you have two textures that aren’t unique to the enchanting table. The candle and troll skull textures will replace those objects in your game as well. As always, choose the version which is appropriate for your setup.
I hope people enjoy the latest installment of my rustic series of retextures.
Cheers,
Gamwich
I recommend LeanWolf’s Improved Enchanter Candle Meshes to give better shape to the enchanter candles. I used his meshes for all the screenshots. You’ll get smoother cylinders to the candles, and it with remove the triangular join to the dripping wax at the base. The transition will look more natural.
