Great work! A lot of the story made sense in my head at the time but I admit that I didn't communicate it well at first. Later updates have made it clearer with the addition of notes/books you find. I do aim to clarify everything but you've pretty much nailed everything already. It's a problem when you have too many moving parts and a lot of subtext.

Mortifayne's voice sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of the ocean, compressed about fifteen times, and finally put through a scuffed old-time radio filter. It's the audio equivalent of pushing coarse sand through steel wool.

Wait, the mercenary group is called the Ustase, as in the Croatian facist paramilitary group active during WW2? Was the mod maker from the Balkans then? Because that makes a lot of sense. -A wartorn land filled with misery -Tacky statues of glorious leaders painted in gold dotting the landscape -Aforementioned leaders also happen to be sadistic psychopaths -Constant ethnic wars being fought between the people who live in the region -Peacekeeping force garrisoned in the area -Crimes against humanity carried out by a nazi scientists -Leader's getting elected because their foreign policy is "I will exterminate that group of people from our lands" -The mod maker's crippling depression, probably caused by living in the Balkans Armina has Balkan energy written all over it

A detail you forgot is that when you arrive in Arnima the Reach Merchant is being harassed by the guards. You can help the Merchant for a second time by convincing the guard to give back the Merchant's wares. The Merchant will repay you by delivering the sealed letter Jackos gave you to Merosa. The Merchant is a decent buddy and he saves you a walk back. He also gives you the quests to deal with orcs and the bounty with Mortifyane.

Some historical trivia I only now pick up on: the incident in Munstor seems to be based on the Anabaptist Rebellion of Munster. It happened during the German Peasants' War , and was an attempt by the Anabaptists to establish a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, and did involve proto-communist ideas (but also compulsory polygamy, rumours about shared wives, taking away foreigners' property to give to the locals etc.). And it ended in every bit as horrific way as the Munstor siege in the mod.

What truly cemented this mod as amazing for me was walking through the burning, ravaged kingdom and visiting all the known places. Seeing every character we've met up until that point either already dead on the ground, or on the verge of death, fighting to the very end. With the exception of the cast present at The Divide, nearly every single character died. The priest whom we'd helped with Belize? He died on me, just before I dealt the final blow on the last of the attackers. This mod broke me, so much so that I literally retired the character I played it through with. I returned to Skyrim, took off my gear, tossed it into the waterfall and steppeed into my custom home, only to log off and never boot it up again. She deserved it after what she'd witnessed in those kingdoms. I can't wait for what Razorkid cooks up in the future.

I remember playing the early version of this mod when it first released and the atmosphere was so much better than Bethesda's vanilla world. Spending time in the waterlogged bogs of Armina's lowlands with its constant rain and grey skies actually made me want to take a hot shower IRL The contrast between the constant damp grey lowlands and the first time seeing sunlight for the first time in ages when going into the mountains actually made me feel happy. The mod author later revealed in an interview for Nexus mod spotlight that they were going through some really bad depression when they made the mod, so they just built the world how they felt.

Love "Vigilant" but "Beyond Reach" is a winner for me. Consistent, coherent, grim and not as detached from Skyrim as the Vicn's trilogy. "BR" certainly does not contain fancy items and spells like "Vigilant" does but story and atmosphere are more important in my eyes. And in that regard "BR" delivers. The biggest difference and improtance to me is that after "Vigilant" I could casually return to Skyrim and do any questline or other mod like nothing happened - questline has begun, questline has been finished; next. "Beyond Reach", on the other hand, gave me PTSD. For hours I was mindlessly wandering around from location to location, doing nothing, literally walked on foot the whole distance to Dawnguard fort, reliving those events in my head over again. It actually makes you want to give up the whole Dragonborn and Civil War things and just escape somewhere far away. And this is a very rare emotion you can ever experience in a videogame. P.S. One..ahem.. bright individual below called this mod "overrated", but I would say quite otherwise, "Beyond Reach" deserves way more praise. It is unique mod. I hope that razorkid will polish it to sheer perfection one day.

Playing Beyond Reach the first time really blew me away. As the Dragonborn I was so use to always resolving whatever conflict I came across, both in the main game and other DLC mods (prior to the Vigilant Trilogy), so when I came to Beyond Reach I was expecting that no matter what, I would be able to overcome and save the land. Instead, I came out like a defeated man, that despite all I did I couldn’t save the land aside from a few individuals I cared about, and left with some PTSD in some ways. Beyond Reach truly scarred me in some ways and blew my mind, and a part of me despite all that what’s to go back and play it all again.

I played this mod during a pretty low time in my life. I won't doubt that it was one of the variables in my life that kicked me in gear into going to college to pursue not only just Psychology, but also Premodern History. It felt like such a peculiar almost the same reaction you get to gore type feel every time the story touches you. It felt like you wanted to look away but you really knew deep down this is raw. The messages and themes are eclectic and eschatological in nature, with the addition of Marxist themes its a lesson to be learned about revolution, consequence, and the tertiary nature of man. Platonic thought gives us the idea that desire intelligence and spirit sets the soul in motion. This setting tells us the direct consequence of desire. An eastern hinterland and the swamps that surround it, full of the scar of many battles fought over again, desire. The Aylieds desired, The Alessians desired, the Reachmen desired, Evermore desired, Wayrest desired, the Redguards desired, the Daedra/Witchmen desired, a prevailing theme encountered. So many others, to me no other type of media has encouraged me to think critically and question authority structures. There are so many themes and parts of the story that are worth more words than this comment alone. I've replayed the story countless of times in effort to get a full perspective and it always changes the more deeper i go into more and more content. Well done, this really is a work of art.

My favorite part of the mod was burning and soul trapping 4 PDFiles and their king in black soul gems and dumping them in the soul cairn once the quest was done. Was worth pushing through the endgame bugs.

I love your videos man, can't wait for you to cover Glenmoril once it's finished

I started playing Beyond Reach and made it about half way through a few years ago, but I didn't finish because I decided to make a new character. To this day, it is my favourite mod and I love how dark it is. Highrock's problems make Skyrim's problems look like children's play.

Thank you for mentioning me! Really laughed at your response to Beyond Reach being darker than Vigilant: Darker than Vigilant? Impossible! Blasphemous even! To me, this was such a naturally true statement that your doubt caught me completely off guard.

I...I want to install these expansion mods here. Whoever the author is, they know WAY more about Elder Scrolls lore than I would've expected and I absolutely adore theorizing what all the Metaphysical nonsense that the Elder Scrolls has. This was more than just a mod author's Elder Scrolls induced fever dream, it's a legitimate exploration of the themes underlying the entirety of the setting. It's...this is absurd to say about a MOD of all things, but it's art! There's no other word that I can find that matches what this is to me. And to think, I would've skipped over these for the rest of my gaming life, if not for Vigilant and this video you've made. So, you did a phenomenal job making these videos in my humble opinion. Thank you for sharing!

Cotho is the best mod showcaser out here, he even slap up with TES lore like its a Warhammer Lore video Also if I recall, the mod author made this while in massive depression, and said that those who are disturbed will find comfort with this, which I admittedly kind of is

Fuck yeah Beyond Reach!!! I ummed and erred about the choice I made at the end, but what really sold me was the message of entropy. Sometimes, it's better to let something die now than to live on and suffer and hurt far more people that it would should it die now. A lot of the husks dialogue went over my head, and I consider myself decent at Lore so it's either a testament to the lore of this mod, or a testament to the stupor one falls into after listening to that fuck drone on and on. Either way, it was def an experience I don't regret. It really shaped a lot of my characters views about the future (Since in this timeline they went from Beyond Reach to the Vicn trilogy, which also deal with a lot of themes of entropy and decay, and really have such a sense of finality to them.) But yeah glad to see this covered by you! You're really shaping up to become one of my all time favorite TES-tubers lol. Obligatory recommendations since I have no life: Wheels of Lull is a great time, also deals with Tower lore but with a dash of mindfuck Michael Kirkbride lore, The Forgotten City (although that's a bit less lore focused and might prove difficult to review given the complex nature of how it's layed out((Also also it's been covered to death elsewhere)), Carved Brink is a great time with a slightly disappointing ending, and my personal top quest mod of all time, Finding Derkeethus, a heart wrenching tale of a lost soul in a cage of his own making, yet he doesn't realize the key was always nearby, waiting for him. ANYWAYS hm yes Dark Despair.... Delicious

not sure if you circle back to it but at the end of the early quest with the imperials there's a point where you can see a ghost of the wayward husk observing how you deal with the captive woman

Mortifayne sounds like he's speaking through an old wireless

This and Vigilant never leave my load order. I don't play it everytime, but it never leaves. Great video, there is a lot I never understood you make a lot more clear, thanks.

The only mistake I noticed was that the Ustase didn't beat Husk. They flayed him (skinned him alive). I just finished this mod today, and watching this video has clarified SO much that I missed. I took long breaks while playing this mod, so I didn't retain the vast majority of the cryptic foreshadowing from the first half of this story. Some of the things from this video that shocked me the most were finding out that Mortifayne ate his wife and that Wayward brother is husk's brother!

Played this mod about a year back, had very mixed opinions on it. Its got some real stand out content, I personally liked the track through deadric realms and some of the lore/writing around the husk and ego. However some of it felt...edgy? I dont think having dark elements is bad, by any means. Some of my favorite skyrim quest mods have very dark plot lines twisted in, but stuff like king .PDF and some of the more goretastic bits just kinda threw me off, felt less like meaningful story writing and more early 2000's shock content. I also feel like it alot of the time borders on being lost in its own lore sauce to a detrimental degree. I love backstory and good writing, but an hour+ to hear all the dialog options? As Pascal once said "If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter." Either way, a great vid as per usual. Ill be excited to see your glenmoril video once that mod gets fully finished. Hope to see more mod related vids in the future.

This story gave me trust issues. I felt that any NPC in this world could be a lying monster. After a while my typical Skyrim behaviors were replaced with critical thinking and attention to detail. I love the darkness of this mod. As disturbing as it can be, the message is important and felt significant.

Thanks bro for these, you gave me the final bit of motivation to make my own mod playthrough ❤️

Lovely, another analysis on a DLC sized skyrim mod. I actually only briefly tried this mod and uninstalled it rather early on since it felt a bit too dark for my tastes.

A daedric prince that wants to escape this kalpa? Was Orlando loosing his lips again?

Hi I've been a subscriber for some months now. I can't understand how you don't have more views with the production quality you have. Another amazing video!

Skyrim: the frontier

An amazing follow up to the vigilant video! Great job!

I vividly remember playing through this mod TWICE during the pandemic, I absolutely loved it. Also, the voice actor for the Wayward Husk should form a black metal band, he'd do great screaming vocals!

23:36 alr bro we get it you wanna tease us with the glenmoril video

*video starts “HER SISTER, WILLY WONKA, WE WILL HAVE PEACE”

This is going to be one of the first mods I try when I get a PC.

You can save the girl by attacking the griffin before it attempts to eat her. Youvalso get a quest to help her afterward. One of the few things where it feels youre truly helping one of the characters

Yes! Since you told me the video would come, I couldn't wait. Finally, it is here.

your reviews of mods are fantastic. Please, keep bringing mods to your channel

I just recently played through this mod and, saying the Last King is broken is an understatement: Besides *all* the issues you mentioned, taking the sigil stone now doesn't even kill him, the quest will progress like normal and you'll return to Evermore, but he will still be active out of bounds: boss music playing forever, red dot on the on pass, and literally everyone in the world aggroing on the unreachable boss. Needless to say, the game becomes completely unplayable afterwards. The only solution I could come with was to hit the hand to remove th shield, then immediately use the killall console command to leave him kneeling on the ground with 1 HP then quickly run and hit him before he gets up to end the battle "properly". Also, the restoration loop doesn't work either. I tried enchanting an overpowered weapon to one shot him with, and that would just crash the game 100% of the time. The fight is too scripted and doesn't know how to handle that amount of damage being dealt in a single cycle. The same thing happens with the boss at the asylum with the two arteries; if you destroy the main body before the fifth cycle, the game softlocks.

That was really interesting video, honestly. Don't remember last time I was listening to a 1 hour + video and not as something in the background, but actually watching it from start to finish.

Reamonn was a total bro

I absolutely love these videos I would love to see this turned into a series

It has some of the hallmarks of amateur writing, like someone just laid claim to a thesaurus, but I enjoyed the tone for the most part. The area felt nice and distinctive like an actual different race lives there instead of just another flavor of the same thing.

I started dying of laughter at 1:17:30 because of the very nonchalant music for a very serious but lengthy creepy scene that made me go wtf? I just needed an explanation of what the hell he was saying.

This mod was a beautiful experience. The music, the atmosphere, the content was so memorable.

this was the first new lands mod i played for skyrim, great review Cotho.

thanks for the great review.big quest mods need more review like this

Long form content W. Great stuff!

5:50 If I'm not mistaken, the map is flipped the wrong way and upside down so you actually on the northern shore of that inlet where the red arrow is. The divide is the Eastern most city in the Reach not West and the bog is in the south along with the Iliac bay. When playing the mod before I installed a map flip I always thought it was weird that the pirates in the Bog were coming in on ships from a large river in the North and that the snowy peaks were in the south.

Damn I completely forgot to continue playing this mod after killing the ayleid king lol. Amazing video by the way, watched it all in one sitting.

Bro do you remember that video of the dude talking about how this mod helped him get the strength to beat cancer? That was crazy

Going to install this mod mid-game

the wanting stillborn make me think so hard of griffith that I'm sure the author was strongly inspired by berserk yet the twist and adaptation to the elder scrolls deep lore fit seemlessly mods like vigilant/glenmoril/unslaad and beyon reach are my favorite because they use the deep lore of tes in service of tragic and complex character while using ( sometimes ) forgotten daedric princes as the perfect medium for the conflicts ( on physical and cosmic scale ) it give a fantasy world like no other that doesn't shy away from from complicated metaphysical stuff, wich is kind of what fantasy world are supposed to be about yet so many don't go all the way prefering to make the magic and divine system more generic and bland saddly

Beyond reach was, in my opinion, the best mod I have ever played so far

Man plays on Legendary Edition, you Cotho have my respect

Glad to see your covering more Mods, will you do other games like Fallout? New Vegas has the Someguy series which is pretty good and I would be interested to see your thoughts on it.

One of the best quest mods for sure. The characters are great, the worldspace is beautiful. The narrative is special, and I love the journey and the message. It really feels like Berserk in some ways. Some dialogues are a bit rough but that's the only problem in my opinion. 59:06 you have to get the black sphere in the middle. He's not supposed to be beaten in a fight I believe

Here I go down the Skyrim rabbithole for the 6 time now.

Some mods really do have a problem with verbal bloat. Interesting NPCs and the like give you tonnes of NPCs who just talk and talk and talk and talk at you and you just stop listening after a while. Even worse when the mod is relatively new and you end up in dialogue circles.

The writing is so fantastic it’s just a shame so many voice actors didn’t look up how to pronounce certain words before submitting their recordings.

Love your Vigilant mod review, i think you need to do more review for quest mods on Skyrim

41:02 😂 i wasn't ready for the reply BRUH moment.

I am currently playing and it is awesome ❤❤❤

Okay....this video made me get pulled into your content, the first of the videos that got me watching yoy, is your take on Vigilant. That video is so well done, the mod is amazing eith the storytelling, and lorefriendly. Which does give off the Darksouls-esque vibe(may have spelt that wrong)

Wow I started it last week and have just finished it, nice timing.

I was almost brought to tears when I finished Beyond Reach

I literally LOVED this mod, Btw I suggest you check the secret panel in Mortifayne's palace...

Small, easily missable detail in the ending: on the bridge, right before you leave, you can see that Thalmor member that hung out with the Imperial Commander looking over at the destroyed Kingdom and basically going "My work here is done, the Empire has fallen!" Fucking Vigilant tier kino.

Loving your mod review/retelling/movies. But im not sure if it ends up being darker than Vigilant as Molag Bal ended up inflicting much more damage onto the world overall in that mod compared to Namira in this one. The ending of this mod is more bittersweet admitedly, but to paraphrase Mara: "You're a demigod, i am a god, and we've got to keep trying to protect the mortals. At the very least, this new current situation is borne from mortal conflict rather than the cataclysmic and far reaching touch of a daedric prince, making it **relatively** easier to fix compared to what Namira had in store, despite its horror- theres still hope" (you yourself throughout the video mentioned the scale of the conflicts in the mod being mostly local with the world saving part only coming at the middle and then back to local again. The Reach needed a demigod to save the world and stop Namira and the durenni king, but in theory anyone could change their political and social issues) Admitdely, this is undercut by the fact the mod ends and just sends you back to Skyrim. If i had control over such things my Dragonborn would have stayed in the Reach to help out, comitting to the theme of Hope. (But then again, my Dragonborn would have killed ""Damian"" in oblivion to begin with :D lol)

Several observations based on what i think i know. 51:35 I) 4 games since Morrowind, so you include ESO i guess, but what tower you believe to fall in the game? The only one i can think of is the Crystal Tower, but nothing really happens to it in ESO, and this tower falls during the Oblivion Crisis, as described in the Rising Threat book series. I remember they had something about the Green Sap and the prince messing with it, but can't remember right now, and considering they allow bosmer to cultivate and eat vegetables in their stories... II) I believe you should include Daggerfall, cuz it deals with the Numidium, the first tower to fall. III) Skyrim does break the pattern, because the tower doesn't fall in the game; the stone, which is "shor's cave" is never named as such. Unless the stone is, say, the tiid-ahraan. 58:29 you make it sound like the tower is associated to the "last" (where does last come from and what does it mean?) dragonborn, but it would only be if they were shor, and even so, to my knowledge, barely, cuz the cave is just the rally point for the humans into the next kalpa. IIII) "they never experienced decay before" - just wrong, refer, for example, to the Seven Fights of the Aldudagga. Alduin eats the whole kalpa, including the daedra, and they are born anew. Also impossible to replace the Adamantia because it is born before time itself, which Alduin rewinds. Adamantia predates kalpa cycles. V) 1:01:42 Did you find the secret room in Mortifayne's house?

oh hell yeah my favorite mod ever let's go

Played this mod when it arrived on Xbox, I enjoyed the mod for what it is, but only played the main quest, and missed a lot of the side content, due to the events of the mod, great to see it being covered.

came back and subbed XD.

The comment is enough to get me angry. Good work man love,l, the video. Glenmoril references. 23:10 40:38

This was a great dlc but damn when it came out the trailer was fucking GOLD!! HAD ME DOWNLOAD IT ASAP!

My fav channel now!!!!!

Crazy to see I didn't see either of these endings. The reach boke in my playthrough and all was red

One of best mods I've ever played in games. Dark, distinctive atmosphere and identity. Played first with a knight character and fucking up some main quests. Saw that character get more more uncaring, critical, violent and tired as he explored almost every single marker, seeing all the shit happen. The mossy stone walls, beautiful jagged mountains and flowing river that care nothing of past races, lords and dark lords that could only corrupt the "creation". Gotta say even with some flaws this mod is really great. Currently playing with another Breton knight, redguard bandit and orc rogue for the different endings. The lore also, the ayleids, dwemer, daedras, the towers and the bleak conditions of inhabitants. If the mod still has to be completed, cant wait for it

Another banger coverage of another kino mod. Thank you Cotho very cool.

40:57 princess's whaat

I honestly didn't know there was so much after defeating the last king. I'll have to go back and check it out.

41:01 Bro really just says cunny right there 😭😭😭😭💢💢💢

I almost watched the entire video and I still have no idea what's going on in this mod lmao Still a great mod and I can't wait to try it by myself

Another excellent video by Cotho

Great mod. I just finished the main quest for the first time. 9/10. Some dialogue did become gibberish, but I understand the main point of what was going on throughout. Some smaller details did slip right past me, however as it was a lot of content

i didn't know2 the big E's tts (text to speech) device was voicing this centurion.

I wont stand for grass slander

I recently played through this mod, and ooooh boy, did I not understand jack fucking shit. I felt like such an absolute retard trying, and failing, to piece it all together. Thankfully this video, more or less, helped out. Also, I must've fucked up during the second ending, because I didn't get the carriage scene. All in all, 10/10. Would recommend to family and friends.

You can touch on death consumes all it touches dark themes not as bad as beyond reach and vigilance but it’s really well done

If I remember correctly weren't the Thalmor more or less the victors at the end? I remember in the town divide that the Thalmor Naruman was laughing that everything was crumbling. At least that's what I remembered but that was I guess a few version before the current one.

A mod about an interactive audio book. Honestly, if the mod was bigger, it wouldn't have suffered with the whole exposition dumps.

He do be spttin facts tho

Algo comment, will watch this soon

Uhh wow... I thought the knighting was the end. Time to go back I guess :p

Mod got me sitting 30 minutes in silence 💀

I did a playtrough where I played beyond reach, glenmoril and vigilant, and by the nine my character definetly has ptsd now

0:52 Update available for AA, eh? I see you.

Wtf you went from making ytps to longform content? Amazing Character arc dude, literally Pyrocynical moment.

I somehow managed to kill the alyed king cleanly without commands by kicking the orb inside the energy dome idk how but I think when you hit the hearth causes some kind of explosion or shaking moving the orb slightly since it has ragdoll physics 😂😂

When/if will a video regarding GLEMORIL, or any more about Vicns trilogy come out, assuming you plan to do so

I have it on Xbox serie X but i can't upload the part 2 for the vocal files of npc ...

Hope they finish the rest of the map, loved the mod but the western parts of it where pretty empty.