---------------------------------
---------------------------------
Visiliu Doesn't Live Here Anymore
An Armor Mod by Silver Sorrow
(more or less)
silver-sorrow@cox.net
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
This is the novella-length readme.
Pull up a comfy fire in front of a roaring
chair and read it to a complacent cat.
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Story, As Such
3. Dependencies
4. A Note On The Included .Esps
5. Installation
6. Exhaustive Description
7. Getting Started With Your New Monkey
8. Compatibility Issues?
9. Known Issues
10. Credits: Resources
11. Thanks
12. Programs Used
13. Legal
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
1. Introduction

Hi there.
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
2. The Story, As Such

A little while before the Main Quest begins, Dagoth Ur, tired of having his concentration and solitude disrupted by thieves, looters, adventurers, and other wingnuts, hires on a few mercenaries to keep the idiots at bay. Each of his Ash kin are also assigned a mercenary or two to safeguard their own sanctuaries.

In another part of Vvardenfell, a lone, jittery thief is putting her new stealthy armor to the test: she's going to rob a few tombs for some cash to pay off the guy who made the armor, before his goons make her sleep with the slaughterfishes.

In the Underworks of a canton in Vivec, a Dunmer rogue/armorer is bleeding to death.

In Dagoth Ur's citadel, a female mercenary of (human) Akaviri descent rams her sword through a fellow merc's head and walks out, never to be seen in Vvardenfell again.

...and then you step off the boat, giving the rude prison ship guards the finger.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
3. Dependencies

Tribunal and Bloodmoon.

If you can't handle the Tribunal dependency, do yourself a favor and pick up the GOTY version (or find the expansion somewhere). I dislike being so adamant about this, but you're really missing out on the whole Morrowind experience if you don't have the expansions. Start a paper route, sell your plasma, start your own meth lab in your parents' basement,** whatever.

[** NOTE: Do NOT start a meth lab in your parents' basement. That was just a joke. You should use the garage.]

No third-party mods are required...I hope.
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
4. A Note On The Included .Esps

I've included two .esps with this mod.

DO NOT USE THESE .ESPS TOGETHER! USE JUST ONE!

Don't you hate it when people yell? I hate you for making me yell.

"ss_DBNRDZ.esp"
This is the regular plugin. Use this if you want to fight my mercenaries. Personally? I think they're more interesting to converse with...

"ss_DBNRDZ_NV"
This is the alternative. The mercenaries in the various strongholds are non-hostile. This is for those of you who are either playing with Endrek's "Sixth House" mod installed, or if you just like talking talking to cynical, disgruntled (and perhaps even insane) mercenaries who have no inclination to put themselves at risk. They'll just stand around and look pretty. Or ugly, depending.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
5. Installation

Okay. Have you figured out which .esp you want to use? Fantastic.

Make sure that your archiving utility preserves folder paths!

1a. Either extract to your Morrowind\Data Files folder,

...or (if you're like me)...

1b. Extract to a temporary folder and move the folders to your Morrowind folder manually. Textures are loose and go into the Textures folder. The .esps go into the Data Files folder. The text files are invaluable and thus go into a lead-lined vault so that their brilliance doesn't seep into the local water supply, causing yet another tiresome Renaissance.

2. Pick whichever .esp you want to use (standard or non-violent). Do NOT use them at the same time! I can't stress that enough, people.

3. Launch Morrowind and choose the "Data Files" option. Check the .esp. Hit OK. Play. Enjoy.

There *is* another method, which involves NOT enabling folder names, dumping the whole thing into your Data Files folder and then posting panicky threads in the TES forums. This is not recommended, as I will be forced to have you hunted down and killed with your own splintered femur. Don't make me call The Cowboy.

(By the way, you shouldn't be asked to overwrite anything when installing. I believe that I've named my files uniquely. If not, then...geez. Whatta world.)

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
6. Exhaustive Description

This plugin features four sets of armor.

The first is called "Black Netch," a darker variation on the standard netch armor. It's more durable and is a little more expensive. It's light armor, meant for thieves and assassins from low-level to godlike...depending on your sense of taste. I hail from the Garrett School Of Stealthy Fashion, which explains quite a lot. I realize that now. Anyway, I figured this would be a good set to fill the glaring gap that exists between Bloodmoon Wolf armor (AC: 15) and Dark Brotherhood armor (AC: 30).

The second set, and the real focus of this mod (at least, it was when I started), is the Dagoth Armor. It's an unholy combination of ebony, glass, and blood, and is medium-weight armor. There are also two light version sets of the armor. The light-weight set is the first one you'll find if you start your search where I tell you. (see Section 7, "Getting Started With Your New Monkey")

The third set is called Red Dragon armor. It's somewhere in the Dagoth medium range, but has a completely different tone to it. While Dagoth is an "evil" armor, Red Dragon is the craftsmanship of Akaviri-descended islanders who didn't hold with redundant concepts such as shields or magic.

[Note: Although the pauldrons, gauntlets and boots of the Dagoth and Red Dragon are somewhat similar to each other, there is a very good explanation for that. And when I think of one, I'll let you know. Okay, here's the REAL reason: the guy who designed the Dagoth armor (in the mod, not me) was inspired aesthetically by the Red Dragon armor, which was worn by a colleague. So. Do you buy that?]

The fourth set really isn't meant to be worn as protective armor at all; it's more or less casual wear for the woman who wore the Red Dragon armor. I made it light armor instead of clothing because I usually have Vagabond Angel's Hissyo Katana on my character's belt...and if this set was clothing, it would disappear due to the scripts. So with armor, everything stays in its place and you don't horrify the puritanical natives with your dirty, dirty nakedness.

There are also a few other things: a couple of very strong swords, an axe, a couple of set pieces, custom objects, a new shirt, a robe, some other custom stuff...and so on. The real focus, as I mentioned, is really the armor. I just wanted to make it something a little more than a "find this guy and kill him for his armor" mod. Those are perfectly fine, but I thought I'd add a little characterization to the people wearing the armor through notes, journals and some slight conversation.

Yes, I put in a few readables. Some of them are short and punchy, some of them are long (and probably quite boring). Only a couple are required to find out where to look for the armor, and the rest are meant to establish personalities or simply to goof off. I spent quite a lot of time figuring out dialog and other stuff, which I had intended to avoid with all due diligence...but I did it anyway. Why? I have no idea. It should work. If not, oh well.

So! This is NOT a quest mod -- more of a "find it, sucka!" -- although if you squint your eyes and turn your head sideways, you might be able to justify it as a quest mod. Or a duck.

So what did I do? I just recolored and/or mangled textures and stuff for *mostly* stock pieces of armor. Some other mod resources were used in the making of this mod, the authors of which I will thoroughly thank in a couple of sections. I am NOT an accomplished texture artist, nor am I a modeler. I'd like to be, but I have long since discovered my own limitations.

One Important Note: when you go looking for the light Dagoth armor, you'll eventually find a damaged Indoril helmet. This helmet still has the standard OrdinatorUniform script attached even though it has a unique ID, so don't wear it unless you're a masochist. I left it that way because the guy who owned it has a hot sister and he's known for that, at least...so the Ordinators would recognize his helmet if you wore it. Just pretend this is so.

If you'd like to know more about this mod, me (you fool!), or whatever, read the "ss_DBNRDZ_FAAQ.txt" included in the archive.

The WIP thread for this mod at the TES forums: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=176876
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
7. Getting Started With Your New Monkey

To start you off, here are some clues to finding the armors.

Black Netch
A thief, who is desperate to scrape together the cash required to pay off the guy who made the armor for her, was last seen in Seyda Neen. No one will have any information (of course), but by checking near the silt-strider, maybe you'll find a clue that tells you exactly where she went. It's funny how that works, isn't it? If you have no problems with tombs, the armor will be yours.

There's a rumor of another set or two, but those are not for the weak of stats. You'll find them (maybe) by following the Main Quest, anyway. [*chuckle*]

Dagoth Armor (light)
(This is a clue-based set) Check the road by the Vivec silt-strider for a note that will start you on your way. Caveat: a couple of the pieces are only *slightly* damaged, because even I have a heart. Or I did. It was delicious.

There's another light Dagoth set, but it's worn by a mercenary you'll probably meet eventually.

Dagoth Armor (medium)
If you follow the story set down by the (dead) crafter of the Dagoth armor in Vivec, you'll find out that he forged several medium-armor sets for some Sixth House mercenaries. Consider becoming a badass before engaging them. They are strong, they are mean, and they want to kill you...depending on which .esp you use, however. If you want to avoid killing and/or being killed right away, take a trip to Tureynulal and look for a bedroll. The guy who was using it got mad and quit, leaving the armor behind.

Red Dragon Armor & Clothing
In Dagoth Ur, Lower Facility, the room adjacent to his cave-y lair has been turned into a mercenary barracks of sorts. In one corner is an elaborate construction of soft items. This was the quarters of the mercenary boss, Visiliu. She went off her nut from all the noise, stabbed a guy in the head, and walked out, leaving everything behind. This means that in her chest (footlocker!) is the Red Dragon armor and the Red Dragon clothing...the sword's still in the guy's head (nearby), but he isn't going anywhere. The chest is locked. I've had mercy upon the security-incompetent player by making it a 50-level lock, instead of the 100-level lock and Insta-Kill Unholy Apocalypse Of Pain And Fiery Death trap I had originally planned.

There are a couple of swords and axes as well, and they may be considered "uber" by people who like using such words without irony...but I don't care. I play with the difficulty slider set anywhere from 0 to 100 usually, so these will not be one-hit-kill swords under those circumstances. Just think of them as rewards for killing really angry level 70+ warriors. ...or even a more tangible reward for killing the Big Bad Guy. I mean, Azura's crappy little ring?? Pffffft. An insult!

A Special Note On The Red Dragon Armor
I didn't intend to release the Red Dragon armor, originally. It was a personal mod that went with this bizarre little pocket concept I had going with Morrowind. The armor was originally intended for females only, but since I had received such good feedback about the armor...and having plenty of time on my hands...I decided to finish it up and include it here.

However.

There is no helmet or shield with the RD armor. I would have liked to adopt one of a couple of possible samurai-styled helmets for the armor, but I didn't like how they were too high in the back, giving the impression of a cue-ball head. So I've foregone the helmet. The shield, meanwhile, is a more simple issue: I never use them. They just get in the way, as I prefer two-handed weapons. In character, the RD warriors didn't use shields.

Also, seeing as how the RD armor was originally female-only, fixing up the male cuirass proved to be a real pain in the greaves. I didn't want to make it, but I HAD to, if only for completeness' sake. It's somewhat Spartan in design. Perhaps one day I will finish it...but most likely I won't. I really don't care to think about it ever again.

To complete the look I originally envisoned, I wholeheartedly recommend Vagabond Angel's Hissyo Ornate Katana: http://vagabondangel.com/hissyo.html

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
8. Compatibility Issues?

None, as far as I know. Thanks for asking, though. Really.

I might point out, however, that blake.'s "Nerevar Say Nerevar Again," which makes Jiub the Nerevarine and modifies the game so you don't have to follow the Main Quest, shows a flaw in my mod. Since it's a year later and the Sixth House nasties are all dead, it doesn't exactly make sense that my mercs are all standing around, just waiting for you to show up.

So here's where the magic of role-playing comes into the picture: pretend that the mercenaries have all been on vacation for the past year, and they've just returned to work to find that their jobs are gone and their 401k's vanished into thin air. They're very upset about this...and then *you* walk in... You can also RP the non-hostility version if my mod: in which case, they're too depressed to fight you. And they all have shock-induced amnesia, which makes them think they're still employed by the Sixth House. See? Easy.

Additionally: my mod will not work too well with Great House Dagoth, at least near the beginning of that mod. I've looked at it from various angles, and it's either remove the mercenaries completely or leave them in and let you square off with 'em in your reduced state. Not a pretty sight. Making them non-hostile does not work, as most or all NPCs will want to kill you on sight anyway due to your transformation. (Things may be better later on, when you are able to control your appearance, but I think it may be a huge pain until then.) There may be a way around this via script, but I'm no scripter.

So: if you're playing GHD, you might want to hold off installing my mod until you're able to control your appearance. You can't use armor until then anyway, so...

As for other mods? Hmmm...well, you got me there. I don't usually play huge gameplay-changing mods, mostly just armor and cosmetic stuff. Shouldn't conflict with anything, though. See the ss_DBNRDZ_FAAQ.txt for a list of the cells I modified.

Note: It seems to work fine with Morrowind Comes Alive 4.1...even though the strongholds might get a little...er...*crowded* in some cases.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
9. Known Issues

Cosmetic: This being non-Better Bodies armor, it's bound to show some clipping with Better Bodies. The Dagoth bracers in particular look a little odd at the wrists.

Can I do anything about this? No. Will I, if someone makes Better Glass Armor? You bet your sweet assets.

Aesthetic: The Domina cuirass mesh and Better Bodies makes one's shoulders look odd if you're not wearing a shirt or pauldrons. I wish I had something wittily philosophical to say about this, but I'm running on empty at this point.

Endless Reading Material: I've had reports -- and have experienced for myself -- that the notes I have placed by the silt-striders respawn a while after being picked up. I have no idea why this is, but I refuse to worry about it anymore. I throw care to the winds. Just read the notes and leave 'em where they are.

Frustration: According to Starfox (one of my invaluable testers/lab rats/beta hosters), using an English-to-French translation utility on my mod to get it to work with the French version of Morrowind produces interesting results. It seems that all of the barrels that I had moved in "Dagoth Ur, Lower Facility" and "Vemynal, Outer Fortress" were right back to their original positions...right in the middle of the bedrolls I had laid out for detail's sake. After several failed attempts to address this issue, I seriously considered using my mouse cord to garrotte myself.

Fixing it? Well...I could delete all of the barrels and manually place new ones, but that would probably be a form of blasphemy. The bedrolls are reportedly still useable, but just look very uncomfortable.

But otherwise, the error didn't show up. I've tested this on two different machines and didn't have the error, so you'll likely be okay. I think. I hope.

I think that's it.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
10. Credits: Resources

In alphabetical order (sort of):

As a group and individually:
Allerleirauh, Astarsis, Darksharp, Don Salus, Eternum, Gorg, Hell Kitty, Hellwolve, Motoki, Nomad, Rhedd, Sheikizza, Texture Freak, Zuldazug - hairs, a face or two or three. I tried sifting through the sheer number of materials avaliable to find out exactly who made what, and it was driving me COMPLETELY INSANE. I was asking myself questions like "Does 'DS' mean Darksharp or Don Salus?? Is it in Better Heads? Is it from Dark Elves Heroes? Or one or the other? I can't...I can't BREATHE!" So I'll credit everybody named in the various text files. If you don't like that, then too bad. You can yell at me and threaten me with lawsuits (good luck with *that*), but I don't care anymore. Thanks, whoever did what. I owe you plenty.

Bethesda - the original meshes and textures, and just about everything I can think of that isn't third-party related.

CanadianIce - an icon and...oh, yes: her female glass cuirass which is the foundation of the female version of the Dagoth armor. Without her cuirass and textures...well...I don't even want to think about it.

Carnithus - a tapestry from Carnithus' Armamentarium, as well as a boot texture from the Phoenix Boots. [As requested, here's a link to his website: http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/innercrypt/]

Crazyboy - an ingredient jar that I used.

DarkSoul - the Dagoth sword

dongle - the Adamantium tower shield [http://www.deffeyes.com/morrowind/]

Elric_Melnibone (and Gorg) - the female ponytail hair

Emma - a face

GhostNull - the exceedingly nifty glowing Daedric axe, which I modified somewhat.

Harvester - a face

iReni - two hairs (one has the earrings recolored by me). As requested, I will include the excerpt from the readme:

"Original face models are made by Rhedd, remodeled by Ren.
Original face and hair textures are made by Ren.
Animated heads are converted to nif format by Cait.
Rin's black dress and stockings are from Aleanne's Clothing v1."

jdooby and Liewan - a robe

Jeremy McGuinn - several items: the BN hood, the female netch cuirass, the netch greaves' knees, the RD female cuirass, various pieces of his textures used here and there, including that KILLER dragon on the RD cuirasses... I owe him a great deal of thanks, and it's a shame that he hasn't been given his choice of handmade Italian sports cars for all his hard work. I wish I could oblige.

karstux - the steel nodachi mesh and textures

Lizardo - a couple of faces

Lochnarus - one of the coolest faces I have in my collection.

Michael "Helios" Bennet - a couple of furniture textures from "Darker Morrowind" which I used for certain pieces of furniture by Qarl.

Qarl - the blood meshes...also, a couple of other faces. And a buttload of other great stuff to make this a far more detailed experience than it should be.

Vince Tyrande - a face. The required mention:

"Tyrande face textures by King Vince
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/animelist/
Original face models by Rhedd.
Original face textures by Allerleirauh."

Joel Braddock and Ronin - The meshes and textures for bringing the RD casual clothing/armor to life. Very Asian. Very cool.

Srikandi - His dialog tutorial was quite useful. Without it...well. "Greetings, outlander" is as far as you'd get with my mercs.

Many Miscellaneously Anonymous Internet People - the stray textures I found via Googling tribal designs. In particular, I'd like to thank the person who made that tribal dragon I used on the back of the RD gauntlets, as well as the tribal maze-y thing on the back of the RD cuirasses. I tried tracking down who made them exactly, but I've since seen each design in use in at least six different places. Whoever you are, you rock.

The Thief glyphs I used on the RD greaves and gauntlets are the property of Eidos, who more or less wrecked the Thief series with the subpar Deadly Shadows. I got the glyphs from a Russian Thief site, http://thief.nov.ru/glyphs.htm, put together by Logan. Thanks to Logan, and thanks to Looking Glass Studios for the first two Thief games. Simultaneous thanks and a swift kick in the ass to Eidos for continuing Thief and making it clunky (and almost unplayable), respectively.

http://www.formosa-translation.com/ - for a couple of Chinese characters used on the RD cuirasses. Invaluable.

So.

If you don't find your name in the above list and you did something I used, then...thanks. If that's not good enough, then you can e-mail me for a good, solid berating, and I'll promise to pretend to look apologetic for a few moments. Then I'll go back to more important things, like saying "I'll keelhaul yer mother!" to the Jehovah's Witnesses I have chained to a wall in the basement, next to the giant mutant rat queen pumping out squealing genetic freaks every hour on the hour. And they called me mad at the pet store...

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
11. Thanks

Obviously, everyone in the previous section. Without them and their work, I'd still be banging the rocks together.

Barry Bollinger - for not calling my armor stupid. ;)

My early testers, Starfox and Orloprat, good friends indeed.

Bobdog, Rogue Wolf and JoshuaKun, whom I've possibly infected with my enthusiam for Morrowind. Hey, it's cheaper than heroin, right?

Everyone who posted in the WIP thread with suggestions, ideas and support. I thank you all mightily and without reservation.

Leeloo - just for being Leeloo. Oh, and for pointing out to a chimp like me who *really* made the sword I borrowed from her Grimm Brothers Fairytale mod.

Lochnarus for making two or three of my favorite faces...

maw3193 for giving me lore-credibility. :D

Hamster's MorroMap -- http://mondgesaenge.de/MGES/morromap/index.htm -- for providing a valuable resource that I wish I had found a couple of years ago when I was standing in the middle of the wilderness all pissed off and wondering where the hell Zaintirari was.

All of my friends and surrogate family at Hangar 16 [www.hangar16.com] who, for the past five years or so, have given me a place to act as screwed up as I wanted, without the bother of VPOs or restraining orders or sexual harrassment suits.

My actual family for not smothering me in my crib when they had the chance. Most days, however, I wish they had.

All the bands whose music I had pointed at my head all through this.

Once again, thanks to all of the modders whose hard work was integral to making me feel special for a day. I'm a happy happy boy with sunshine in my tummy. But it can't keep me from creeping sleep. Deep. In the deep.

I'd also like to thank Lucy Liu and Sofia Vergara. And Kelly Hu. No reason. :)

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
12. Programs Used

Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0
Mozilla Firefox (which allowed me to interface with this Webnet thing you hear so much about these days)
NIFTexture
Paint Shop Pro 5 (I don't WANT a new version!)
TESAME
TESCS
TESDTK
Tesmu2
TESPCD
Windows Explorer (can't live without it...even though it sorta sucks)

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
13. Legal

Heh. Ha. Ha-ha. Hahaha. BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!

*gasp*

Okay, really: Every single thing in this mod belongs to its rightful owner and/or creator. If you see something in this mod you'd like to use in your own and you can't figure out who made it by looking at the credits, just e-mail me and I'll let you know from whom *I* borrowed it. If I can determine who it was, that is. If not, I'll give you highly misleading information that may very well result in bombing Cambodia back to the Stone Age. Again.

The books, notes and dialog that are part of this mod, however, are mine alone. I don't see why you'd want them...no, really: why??

Remember: if in doubt, e-mail.
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
That's it. Find that Dagoth armor and win the game in the name of evil!

And remember: scribo...NNAISE!!