The Sixteenth Accord of Madness
A mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Level Overview
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Development info
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Level features
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Level summary
"The Sixteenth Accord of Madness" details the story of Sheogorath, the Daedric prince of Madness, and Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric prince of Forbidden Knowledge. The player is caught in a dispute between the two, and is enlisted by Hermaeus Mora to enter Sheogorath’s realm and retrieve the secret the Madgod has kept from him.
"The Sixteenth Accord of Madness" details the story of Sheogorath, the Daedric prince of Madness, and Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric prince of Forbidden Knowledge. The player is caught in a dispute between the two, and is enlisted by Hermaeus Mora to enter Sheogorath’s realm and retrieve the secret the Madgod has kept from him.
Design Goals
Use old meshes in new ways
My initial goal when designing this mod was to use existing meshes in ways that they were never designed for to create interesting environments. While this may make artists twitch, this skill is useful for prototyping new ideas and whiteboxing levels.
Explore the same space from different angles
The Mania section of my interior features an entry space of two rooms, and then the same banquet hall repeated three times. However, while the first hall has a normal orientation, the second is turned ninety degrees to the right, and the third is turned a full one-hundred and eighty degrees! I wanted to explore the ways we think about a space when we are confronted with it in different ways.The feeling for each room is quite different, even though the architecture is the same.
Explore insanity, as it relates to the creative process
Mental disorders, and depression in particular, are highly correlated with creativity. The trick for these people with abnormal brains is to embrace the creative insanity and not to fall into the darker side of the disorder. The established lore of Sheogorath’s realm with its two sides, Mania and Dementia, exemplifies this concept. Because of this, I tried to incorporate a sense of creativity in Mania, and a sense of depression, the dark pit of doom, in Dementia.
My initial goal when designing this mod was to use existing meshes in ways that they were never designed for to create interesting environments. While this may make artists twitch, this skill is useful for prototyping new ideas and whiteboxing levels.
Explore the same space from different angles
The Mania section of my interior features an entry space of two rooms, and then the same banquet hall repeated three times. However, while the first hall has a normal orientation, the second is turned ninety degrees to the right, and the third is turned a full one-hundred and eighty degrees! I wanted to explore the ways we think about a space when we are confronted with it in different ways.The feeling for each room is quite different, even though the architecture is the same.
Explore insanity, as it relates to the creative process
Mental disorders, and depression in particular, are highly correlated with creativity. The trick for these people with abnormal brains is to embrace the creative insanity and not to fall into the darker side of the disorder. The established lore of Sheogorath’s realm with its two sides, Mania and Dementia, exemplifies this concept. Because of this, I tried to incorporate a sense of creativity in Mania, and a sense of depression, the dark pit of doom, in Dementia.
Design Details
Secluded Valley
- The player starts at the southern end of the valley, facing a cobblestone path leading north
- At 1A, Hermaeus Mora appears before the player and gives them a quest to retrieve The Ultimate Secret from Sheogorath
- Following the path, the player encounters Sheogorath in his humanoid form in front of a small cabin at 1B. Sheogorath tells the player that the secret is "just inside"
Maniac Mansion
- The player starts at the west side of the map, in a seemingly small cabin with troubling furnishings...
- At 2A, the player encounters Orpheus, who informs the player that Sheogorath has tricked them and that they are now in the Shivering Isles, Sheogorath's plane of Oblivion. Orpheus then asks the player to search for his wife, Eurydice in Dementia
- Next, the player encounters people behaving very oddly surrounded by cheese
- At 2C, the great hall rotates 90 degrees to the right, and the player must complete a jumping puzzle on furniture to exit the room
- Finally, the great hall rotates another 90 degrees and is completely upside-down at 2D. The player jumps on giant wheels of cheese stuffed with body parts to reach the exit
Demented Caves
- The player descends a ladder into the caves on the west side of the map
- Throughout the tunnels at 3A, the player encounters Madmen condemned to live in Dementia by Sheogorath and must defeat them to continue
- At 3B, the player encounters Eurydice standing on a narrow bridge over a seemingly bottomless pit. Dementia has twisted her mind to be full of despair, and she contemplates jumping to her death. After the player speaks to her and reminds her of the life she once had, she reconsiders and commits to finding her way back to Mania
- Behind Eurydice is a small chamber with The Ultimate Secret resting on a wooden table at 3C. When the player picks up the note, it reads "Mehrunes Dagon likes pink pantaloons"
- The player exits the level at the east side of the map, gives Hermaeus Mora the "secret" and receives a reward
