The Men of Winter

The Men of Winter

Improves the appearance of around 60 male NPCs in Skyrim.

＊What this mod offers:
Improved appearance for some of the most memorable male NPCs in the game.
Works as a standalone mod, which means it does not require you to have any other mods for the male characters to have the changed NPCs look like the ones in my screenshots.

＊About The Men of Winter:
The Men of Winter aims to enhance the appearance of memorable male NPCs of Skyrim, overall giving them more hardened and realistic facial features.
No female NPCs are changed in this mod; just dudes. I found that Skyrim moddding community tends to pour some of the most amazing creative minds into mass-producing brand, sexually-attractive looking, mostly female NPCs.

I set out my goal to create interesting, rustic, personalized faces for males, and redesign the male NPCs in a way that reflects their unique personalities, occupations, and lore. I was not interested in making them look younger or sexually attractive.

If you’re like me and think these NPCs should deserve more love, this is your mod.

＊The following NPCs have been reworked

The Men of Winter V5 added the following NPCs:
(from A-Z):
Athis (Dunmer in Jorrvaskr)

Balgruuf the Greater (Ruler of Whiterun, the capital of Whiterun)

Belethor (Imagine this guy at a Thanksgiving dinner)

Benor (“The strongest man in Morthal” says he that dies to crappy crabs in my game)

Brill (A guy who cooks Vignar’s favorite mutton stew)

Brunwulf Free-Winter (“Free-Winter fellow”)

Erik/Erik the Slayer (Appearance reworked in V5)

Falk Firebeard (He is in charge of Elisif, which puts him in a very powerful position)

Farkas (The best muscle in the Pack)

Galmar Stone-Fist (Might be the racist one in Ulfric’s gang)

Golldir (Nephew of Aunt Agna)

Hrongar (Balgruuf’s brother who prefers war)

Kodlak White-Mane (His journal makes your eyes soggy)

Marcurio (He waits for you to actually talk to him in Bee and Barb)

Olfrid Battle-Born (Father of two and the proud chief of Clan Battle-Born)

Quintus Navale (Apprentice at the White Phial)

Ralis Sadarys (He wants to dig up a ruin with your patronage)

Roggi Knot-Beard (A miner from Kynesgrove you somehow end up hanging out with)

Skjor (Aela’s friend zone)

Stenvar (“The strongest mercenary in Skyrim”, gotta admit he’s got the look)

Emperor Titus Mede II (Emperor who must die)

Captain Veleth (Ravenrock’s best hope in its defence)

Vignar Grey-Mane (Vignar the Revered, head of Clan Gray-Mane)

Vilkas (The brain in the Pack, which means he knows how to properly fetch the mead)

Vorstag (Markarth regular guy)

– V4:
(A-Z)
Belrand (Solitude, fighter)

Brynjolf (Riften, your senpai in Thieves Guild)

Cicero (He’s transporting his mother but that damndest wagon wheel!)

[font=Times New Roman]Cosnach (Markarth, transporter for Lisbet)

Derkeethus (Darkwater Crossing, waiting for you to come and save him)

Eltrys (Markarth, the lad who asks for your help in investigating the Forsworn conspiracy.)

Enthir (College of Winterhold, the wood-elf broker who sells you stuff)

Erandur (Prist of Mara but there’s more to this guy)

Erik/Erik the Slayer (Rorikstead, farmer boy)

Erikur (Solitude, a Thane at Blue Palace)

Esbern (You need to find this old man)

Ghorbash the Iron Hand (Orsimer veteran in Dushnikh Yal)

Hadvar (Riverwood, Legionnaire lad)

Idolaf Battle-Born (Whiterun, the elder brother)

Jon Battle-Born (Whiterun, the younger brother)

Lokir (He might be from Rorikstead)

Madanach (Markarth, the King in the Rags)

Miraak (From Dragonborn DLC, your fated enemy)

Mercer Fray (Your sensei in Thieves Guild)

Neloth (From Dragonborn DLC, House Telvanni master wizard)

Ralof (Riverwood, Stormcloak lad)

Runil (Falkreath, priest of Arkay)

Scouts-Many-Marshes (Windhelm Docks, a man with a pure heart, marriageable)

Sheogorath (Mad God)

Storn Crag-Strider (From Dragonborn DLC, the elder in Skaal Village)

General Tullius (A military governer)

Ulfric Stormcloak (You know who he is)

Veezara (The baddest ass in Dark Brotherhood and maybe in all of Black marsh )

Ysgramor (Hero of men)

Many of them have never been covered by other make-up mods out there, but these are the people I have always had in mind upon releasing this mod.

Ulfric has 3, Galmar, Tullius and Erik have 2 variations for their face textures. The Screenshots should give you some insight.
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＊Further Information About the Mod

All NPCs are standalone; You don’t need to have any mods to have them look like the ones in the screenshots.

Specifically, the following assets are already included in this mod:

Human/Elf/Orc races body parts meshes and textures from SkySight by fadingsignal (Naked bodies have undies on)

Nord race textures from The Veteran Skin by ZwabberdieBo are incorporated into some of the NPCs

Tint masks from Unmasked Faces for less-greenish tints

Custom hair meshes/textures from Apachii SkyHair and KS Hairdos are used for some of the NPCs

Eye meshes are Invisibility effect friendly; Wil not cause the infamous eye glitch after the effect wears off.

Beards, brows, mouth/teeth, facial details such as dirt, scars, and war paints

Argonian characters were given iconic fins upon their heads, as well as beautiful hair styles and sharper claws, bigger tails

What this mod does not include, and as such rely on individual mod setup for more desirable effects are:

Hair textures for vanilla hair styles…My recommendation is Superior Lore-Friendly Hair – HD textures

Argonian skin textures…My recommendation is FAR – Forgotten Argonian Roots

These assets do not affect any other characters in game, including your own character. Only the changed NPCs will use these new assets.

No NPCs have been purposefully changed their body weights in this mod. Therefore you do not need to “setnpcweight” in order to avoid the neck gap issue.

There are two optional modules available during the installations:

Perks & Skills Module is a new addition in V5. In previous versions, The Men of Winter modified some NPCs’ skills in addition to their appearances, and this feature turned into a separate plugin from V5 and forward. The goal of this module is to provide appropriate skills, perks, and sometimes equipment to the modified NPCs.

For instance, Ysgramor is classified to be a “citizen” in Vanilla and had very low skills in everything regarding fighting,
but now his class has been set “combatwarrior2H” and he is a highly-skilled warrior who knows many perks from two-handed, one-handed, and block skill trees. Although we will never see him fight in any quest, it never hurts to give him real strength.

Brynjolf and Mercer now have “Light Foot” perk so they will not activate any booby traps in ruins.

The second optional module is to provide an option to remove Miraak’s ability to show off his face during the final battle at the end of Dragonborn DLC’s main questline.
By default, The Men of Winter makes it so that you can see Miraak’s face hidden underneath his mask during this fight. This optional module will simply remove that change so that Miraak will never reveal his face to Last Dragonborn; just like vanilla.
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＊Compatibility & Requirements
The Men of Winter requires Dragonborn DLC in addition to the updated Skyrim.

All changes and fixes made to these NPCs from Unofficial Skyrim Patch have been implemented, therefore there is no need to make a patch with USLEEP. The Men of Winter does not require USLEEP as a master file.

Obviously conflicts with any mods that edit the same NPC(s).

The Compatibility Patch for
The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal SE is available and can be installed together with the main file.
Just hit the download button, and follow the instructions given by the installer.
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＊Recommended Mods
The following is the list of mods to make the NPCs look more superb.

Superior Lore-Friendly Hair – HD textures by skyrimaguas
:For some hair styles are Vanilla assets and this retexture makes them look absolutely beautiful and realistic.

FAR – Forgotten Argonian Roots by redtox
:For 3 Argonian NPCs. Install 4k/2k skin&body textures from this amazing mod and all Argonians in your game look stunning.
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＊To Users
Some armor mods, weapon mods, and re-texture mods for armors are certainly used in many of my screenshots but they’re not included in my work!

If you find any issues please go post it in the comments section but please beware one thing:

I will not take requests about which NPCs to be included in this project.

You’re free to talk about it there but please acknowledge that you’re likely ignored.