MadCap's Mod Mondays - "The Bat of Skyrim"

"Bruce...you are a disgrace!"

"No! No! You are not my father! I am not a disgrace! I am vengeance! I am the night! I! Am! BATMAN!"

...and now, so can you!

Been a while since our last run at this, hasn't it? Why yes, a little over a year since we last dipped into the world of Skyrim modding here on this ol' blog of mine. What better way to get back into it than by bringing up DC's poster boy...

...no, not Superman. I'm sure there's a mod for that, but this isn't it.

No, instead, we'll step into the rubber suit of one Bruce Wayne aka Batman. Brought to us by modder stchwlkr, it is not an attempt to force Batman into the canon of the Elder Scrolls universe, but instead purports to be lore-friendly and insert the motifs of Batman in a way that is believable and natural to the world of the Elder Scrolls. The mod page makes clear this intention:

"I must clarify; this is NOT simply a "Batman mod" and this is not an attempt to combine the DC universe with the Elder Scrolls universe. My biggest goal is to create something inspired by the Bat-mythos that establishes this legendary character within the world of Skyrim by drawing from the rich history of the character and making it work within the lore of Skyrim. I made sure to respect the Elder Scrolls aesthetic, history, cultures, world-views, and religions and to allow these aspects influence the backstory given to the player as well as inform the decisions made by the player. I also made sure this would include most player preferences including female characters and other races instead of prioritizing one. This isn't plopping Batman into this world or cosplaying as him in particular but rather guiding the player character into becoming 'The Bat'."

And I'm just gonna come out and say it. You nailed it, stchwlkr, you nailed it.

To begin the mod, just sleep. It seems anywhere will do, and your journal will update...literally, in fact, a journal will be added to your inventory. When my thief character - Shade (yes, I know, imaginative name) - did this, he found out that he had spent the last ten years of his life hunting down a name with a black hand tattoo, a man named Chill...who had murdered his parents in cold blood. This was, naturally, a great deal of news to him seeing as he believed his parents were not only very much alive but living comfortably in the Imperial City.

Given the subject matter, however, a retcon was inevitable. Also, he had the last name of Wayne now. That was less troubling to him. Nevertheless, I decided to say that this was the Tamriel Two version of Shade whose parents had died tragically. Unfortunately, late in the journal it mentions the attack on Helgen and nearly being executed there, which might be a little funny if you used Alternate Start or some other mod that avoided the opening at Helgen.

Again, got to remember - retcons. Retcons are a thing. Even the retcons must inevitably be retconned. It is the way of things.

"Yep. Yep. No hockey pads."

With this new information, Shade's sights turned to his old home of Wayne Manor, tucked away near Ivarstead. There, he thought, his loyal butler Alfred would be waiting for him after all this time. Using his key to unlock the front gates and enter, Shade went for the first available door and found it barred and unopenable.

I should add here that this is a mod that is still a work in progress, so certain areas of the Manor are not accessible for the time being. That said, you will eventually find the way into the Main Hall and you'll find as Shade unfortunately did that Alfred is nowhere to be found, the text prompt saying that he seems to have left and locked everything up.

Hmmm...the plot thickens!

Eventually, Shade journeyed up to his father's study and found both the key to the Vault below (stuffed with the family fortune) and a button that led down...into the Cave. This is, by far, my favorite part of the mod and I honestly think it's supposed to be. It is a beautiful recreation of the Batcave, though obviously done through the filter of Skyrim. This doesn't do a thing to lessen the impact of seeing it and indeed may even enhance it. The first room you enter is a shrine to a master thief known as "The Robin" with various knick-knacks to be found therein. Deeper in the cave, you will find what is traditionally seen as the Batcave and...a suit of Nightingale armor. Ancient Nightingale Armor. On a table nearby is a Nightingale crossbow and another journal, the biography of one Solomon Wayne.

Real quick, though, the cave is multi-layered, though all in the same instance. There's a small area over a grotto where the Batsuit is kept on a mannequin, and just a ways away from it where there's a crafting area and four additional mannequins overseen by a dragon statue. It's pretty awesome. The crafting area, by the way, has everything - even a smelter! Batman is, after all, nothing if not prepared.

Solomon Wayne, who was once both the Gray Fox and a Nightingale, was the original owner of the cave and the ancestor of the player character - in the case of Tamriel Two, Shade. Finding this out, Shade was so utterly shocked by the implications and had to sleep it off. When he awoke, he had had a dream of seeing not a dragon...but a giant bat, and he realized what he needed to do. Taking the armor, and after getting the prerequisite armor of leather and iron (and, for the gauntlets, gloves), Shade crafted...the suit.

And by the Nine, it is a beautiful suit! With some neat enchantments on it to boot! Yeah, it's basically just a reskinned Nightingale suit with just the cape and the helmet having been changed, but damn if it isn't awesome to look at once you've finally gotten into it. Just keep in mind that it's form fitting, so there may be some clipping around the face. Grab the cheat room mod and fiddle around with it, I know I had to make Shade's chin a bit shorter to get it to fit in the cowl...I mean, his Tamriel Two counterpart has a bit less pronounced of a lantern jaw. Yeah, that, that's it.

Unfortunately, if you want to get the full effect of the suit, don't play as an Orc, a Khajiit, or an Argonian as it's not made to work for them. In one of the only sad spots about the mod, unless there's demand for it, stchwlkr has no plans to fiddle with it to make it work. That said, I don't know many people who would play non-Thieves' Guild related Khajiits or Argonians and even less who would play stealth Orcs, so it may just be that much of a non-issue and/or more trouble than it's worth. Needless to say, between that and the fact that the faces of those three races are a bit wonky, I get why stchwlkr wouldn't bother unless there were a demand for it.

Either way, that's really the only complaint I have about this mod and it's just not worth dwelling on compared to literally everything else around it.

"I am the night..."

The quest ends once you have left the cave by the marker...and you are the Batman. Skyrim is yours to journey across, bringing down criminals as the cowardly and superstitious lot that they are. You can, in fact, become vengeance. You can become the night. You can become...you get the picture. Already, the mod is pretty great and with stchwlkr saying that they're working on more, I can't wait to see what else gets added to it. After all, there are some unanswered questions lingering: What happened to Alfred? Will the obvious Robin reference in your journal end up becoming your sidekick and possibly a companion? Will you join Mjoll the Lionness in taking down the Thieves' Guild? Will Shade meet his nemesis within the Dark Brotherhood, the insidious Jester?

You'd almost think this had the potential to be some sort of franchise...

We can only hope, and look forward to, much more as stchwlkr continues to update and expand! As it stands, however, "The Bat of Skyrim" definitely gets a recommendation from me!

The Bat of Skyrim is available on the Skyrim Nexus. The link is given above. It's available on PC and for Xbox One.

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