The Seaside Library
Adds a library/bookstore featuring almost all books from the previous TES games (Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion), as well as purchasable books from Skyrim.
Loremongers welcome! This mod came to me after a good friend got me interested in all the books and lore behind The Elder Scrolls games. It was a lot of work, but I think it’s finally finished. Do tell me if I made a mistake somewhere! I noticed there is another mod that adds these books too, but I figured that, since I worked so hard on this one, I may as well upload it.
What is this?
A free reading place for all citizens of Tamriel, the Seaside Library is managed by Metteri, a Breton, her husband Adairan (former Thalmor captain – I know this may not be very lore-friendly), and their daughter. You may hear about its grand opening by picking up a pamphlet; they are scattered around Skyrim’s inns.
About the Library:
Located northeast of Solitude, the Library is divided into five areas; at the entrance there is the reception, with a shrine of Julianos, a silver urn and a cupboard to accept donations from visitors. Next we have the books from Daggerfall, including the uncensored The Real Barenziah series and King Edward books. Then we have Morrowind, with a special shelf for all 36 Lessons of Vivec; to the right is a small discussion area by the fire, and finally, a small space with Oblivion books, including clippings from the The Black Horse Courier, and a bookcase with some random regular Skyrim books. (Hint: to read any books or notes without taking them off their containers, press shift while browsing them.)
About the Library’s attic:
If you come here looking for the books from Skyrim, do not fret! Just go up to the attic! (People who know my other mods will probably think it looks familiar.) The trapdoor is on the second floor. There will not be anybody up there, so read them at your leisure! (I edited all skill and quest books so they will not do anything once you read them; you can identify the ones I changed by looking for ‘Damaged’ in the title. The books in the hanging shelves are skill books organized by skill group: next to the chair it’s Sneak, in the middle it’s Combat, and at the back, Magic. I also navmeshed the area but for some reason followers won’t go up – not much problem, since there’s barely any room to move about). Adairan has (begrudgingly) agreed to sell these books to costumers looking for them. There is also a satchel with some of Metteri and Adairan’s backstory.
Services and working hours:
Visitors are advised to read the Library rules and behave. All items (except for food and the aforementioned regular Skyrim books in the bookcase) belong to the library, so they cannot be freely taken. If there is any book you’d like to own, ask Metteri if she has any available for sale – she and her family stay in the second floor. They open business at 9 AM and close at 8 PM. They will finally ask you to leave and lock the doors at around midnight.
If you need a break, you can find a bed in the basement to have a nap. You will be woken up and asked to leave when it’s time to close the library for the night. The dresser is safe for you to store your items, so feel free to have a nice read wearing comfortable clothes instead of stiff, noisy armor!
Donations:
Now, you may be wondering – what was that about donations? That’s right: visitors gave the chance to help the library grow! You can leave any gold you can spare in the silver urn, and old books you don’t want in the cupboard. (Interacting with either of those containers will give you the Gift of Charity blessing, even if you don’t actually put anything in them, but hopefully it encourages you to do so!)
All in all, this mod is a simple, unobtrusive way to introduce players to the depth of the TES lore, especially the ones who may not have played the other games in the series. No DLC is required.
To conclude, a small warning: some of these books have mature content, so download at your own discretion.
Updates
02/01/14: After a long break, I uploaded a cleaned version of the latest ESP file to avoid bugs. Replace the original ESP with this one.
04/15/13: Added subsidiary library in Whiterun: Blackwalk Library (heh, get it?), and updated guestbook.
03/28/13: Fixed map marker info, cell names, and added some more greetings to the guestbook.
03/26/13 – Added subsidiary library in The Reach: The Cryptic Runes.
03/05/13 – Added subsidiary library in The Rift: The Lettered Skeever. The Reach in the works.
Compatibility
The latest version of the mod will most likely conflict with the beginning sequence of Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1, since it places a new house that replaces the destroyed farmhouse where the core lands, which will leave the core out of reach. Once you grab it, it should be no problem. In order to make it work, I’d advise to either temporarily disable my mod or follow the following instructions by Aaron_of_Mpls at Steam Workshop:
“I managed to grab it from nearby with console commands, though: help “space core” to find the mod’s ID number (first two digits of the Core’s Base ID; the remaining six should be 0012ca), prid xx000d62 (replace xx with the two digits from earlier) to select the Space Core, and moveto player to move it to where I could pick it up.”
Notes
I originally made this mod for the Steam Workshop. To install, place the files in your ‘SteamSteamAppsCommonSkyrimData’ folder. Then activate the mod through your preferred launcher by ticking the checkbox next to the esp.
Images for some books were taken from the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages. All text was taken from the Elder Scrolls series of video games created and owned by Bethesda Softworks, the copyright of which is held by Bethesda Softworks. All trademarks and registered trademarks present in the text are proprietary to Bethesda Softworks. I own nothing at all.
