The Iceheart Sisters - Followers - Location - Quests - NPC Comments - Banter

Author's Note

Those of you who have followed my modding know this mod has been a long time coming. It really is the cornerstone of all the storytelling I plan to do. It was the hardest task I have set myself so far. I learned a lot, and I will carry those new skills into future mods. It will keep growing over time, too. Working with the voice actresses for Anja and Kelsa takes time, so please be patient. I plan to add more banter, more quests, and more romance features down the road.

I'm not the only one who worked hard on this. My good friends JobiWanUK and Socalista did their best work on addons that are every bit as meaningful as the main mod. I can't thank them enough for helping me bring the Iceheart Sisters and the Woken Furies to life. This is only the beginning, folks. Please visit their profiles and grab their mods when you have time.Please read before installing:

1. The main Iceheart Sisters follower mod is NOT ESL-flagged. It will take a full slot in your load order. (The Mill and Banter addons ARE ESL-flagged.)

2. Do NOT import the sisters into follower management mods. NFF may work, but certain NFF features will break their follower functionality. No other follower frameworks should be attempted at all.Overview

Anja and Kelsa Iceheart: two fully custom-voiced followers with around 1,000 lines between them, and more to come.

This project comes in three parts, and you can mix and match them as you like:

• The Iceheart Sisters - the main mod, adding Anja and Kelsa as followers with romance, combat, and a full set of management features
• The Iceheart Mill - an addon home base and quest location, with a bonus voiced follower
• NPC Comments and Banter - an addon that weaves the sisters into the everyday life of Skyrim

You can find the sisters wandering Whiterun. At night they share tales and drink with the Companions.Backstory

The Iceheart Sisters are twins, though not identical, found as infants on the northern shores of Skyrim. They were raised near Dawnstar under the care of a famous bounty hunter named Varg One-Eye. It was clear from a young age that they were different. The people of Dawnstar loved them, but also feared their latent magic. Scholars who visited declared them only part human, the other part being something else. Whatever their heritage, both had an innate gift for frost magic.

Varg became their foster-father and taught them everything he knew about bounty hunting. For years the sisters rode with him on his contracts. When they came of age, they bought a mill in Riften Hold and turned it into a tavern and a base for their own bounty hunting business. A few years ago, Varg went missing on a mission to Solstheim.Meet the Sisters

Anja Iceheart, the Frost Witch

Voiced by Kitt Nevada (KittenVox), the renowned VA of Ivy from Fallout 4.

Anja can be a little abrasive, but underneath she is fiercely caring. She is the brains of the duo and a solid tactician, protective of her sister to a fault. She doesn't give her heart easily, but when she does, she gives everything. Her skills lie in Destruction, Restoration, and Conjuration, with frost as her specialty, plus some stealth and light armor. She keeps a low-cost Frost Cloak up in combat.

• Frostborn Mage - her frost spells raise a target's weakness to frost by 35% for 30 seconds, even on normally frost-resistant races
• The Frost King's Blessing - frost damage rises with a filled soul gem in her inventory. 1 Greater Soul Gem = 15%, 10 Grand Soul Gems = 50%, 5 Black Soul Gems = 100%
• IceBlaze - her unique frost dagger, dealing extra frost damage on hit (thanks Gonzeh84 for the Skyrim conversion)
• Marriage Gift - her spouse gains the Mantle of the Frost King perk

Kelsa Iceheart, the Frost Barbarian

Voiced by Ophelia Valentine, a talented Twitch streamer and YouTuber.

Kelsa is the more naive and outgoing sister, often stumbling into trouble through sheer innocence. She is warm, still mending a broken heart, and looks up to Anja enough to do anything for her. She is the brawn of the duo. Her skills lie in Two-Handed weapons (warhammers especially), Heavy Armor, and Blocking, with a little inherent frost magic and a frost cloak of her own.

• Mantle of the Frost King - frost-enchanted weapons and armor grant an increased healing rate and double damage against fatigued or slowed foes, and her power attacks land stronger enchanted blows
• The Frost King's Blessing - frost damage rises with a filled soul gem in her inventory. 1 Greater Soul Gem = 15%, 10 Grand Soul Gems = 50%, 5 Black Soul Gems = 100%
• Frostskjelv - her unique warhammer, dealing frost damage on hit (credit to Steelfeathers for this awesome warhammer)
• Marriage Gift - her spouse gains the Frostborn Mage perk

Romance System

I designed and scripted this romance system myself. It isn't finished or perfect, but here is how it works.

The romance quest for each sister begins as soon as you finish her brief introduction quest. You can romance both sisters, but you can only marry one. Romance advances by spending time together, not gifts and not spicy dialogue. To me, that is the truest way for two people to fall in love.

• There are four stages: Friend, Confidant, Lover, and Spouse
• Each stage takes 7 in-game days to advance, and the sister must be grouped with you for the timer to move
• If you dismiss a sister, her romance is paused until she is following again
• Their dialogue grows warmer and more loving as the stages progress
• Reach the Lover stage with one or both sisters and you can ask one to marry you

When you marry one sister, the other sister's romance quest stops and your stage with her returns to Confidant. The sisters will not share a husband or wife, but the unmarried sister stays close friends with her sibling's spouse. Marriage also grants a permanent perk tied to that sister's frost heritage (see Meet the Sisters above).Follower Features

• Summon spell - after each sister's intro quest, you are given a lesser-power spell (not a book) to summon her at will for almost no magicka
• Follow Close - each sister stays near you and teleports to your side if you get more than 3200 units away, so she never gets lost or stuck. It turns off while she waits or is dismissed, and you can disable it entirely from a dialogue menu
• Set Home and Move - tell either sister to live in any indoor location and send her home whenever you like. Tell her to move to reset her home and pick a new one
• Outfit System - each sister has a sleep, home, and adventure outfit you set through a dialogue menu. Switching is manual for now, so you do not need a separate outfit mod to manage them

Other Features

• Reverie skin - Reverie Skin 1.11+ by Novelyst, with eyes by wammy and docteure from Eyes of Beauty Remastered
• Your body - the Visions series uses your installed body. Compatible with 3BA, BHUNP, CBBE, TBD, and UNP, and works with OBody and WetFunction
• Visions architecture - a smaller footprint and better performance
• FOMOD installer - choose SMP or Non-SMP during install

Addon: The Iceheart Mill

The sisters bought this mill and renovated it into their home and base of operations. It works as a player home for up to 8 followers and comes packed with quests and a bonus fully voiced follower. This addon is ESL-flagged.

• Bounty Board - 5 unique bounty quests, with a special bounty questline that opens once the board is cleared
• Fully stocked tavern merchant - the merchant kicks off that special questline
• 3 unique bounty enemies - what will your choices be?
• Full crafting - all crafting stations plus linked activator storage sorted by category
• Sleeping space - 4 single beds, 2 double beds, and 4 basement cells with bedrolls
• Bonus follower Susannah - 758 AI voice lines from Megaman2K's Simply Open Source Voice Pack. Grab her addon in the Miscellaneous section of the Files tab (requires the linked voice pack)
• Elysium Estate Teleporter - an optional addon that adds a teleporter in the mill basement (Miscellaneous section of the Files tab)
• Patches included - Hjertesten Hall, Blackthorn Manor, Lux, Lux Via, Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods, and Bjorn. More will be added as needed

Note: one Mill NPC who can become a follower (Phaedra) requires Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO SE. Without RDO, that single NPC simply cannot be recruited.Addon: NPC Comments and Banter

This addon makes the sisters feel like a natural part of Skyrim. The people around them notice them, talk to them, and talk about them, and the sisters talk to each other. It is ESL-flagged and adds around 90 new lines voiced by the original Iceheart Sisters actresses.

• Five scenes between Anja and Kelsa with various triggers
• A special scene in the Bannered Mare where Mikael sings a song for Anja
• Random NPCs approach one or both sisters to flirt, with random reactions in return
• Selected NPC voice types greet a sister, with random greetings back
• Selected vanilla NPCs comment on the sisters when they pass close by
• Greetings and flirting also work with mod-added NPCs that use vanilla voice types

Roughly every 24 hours there is a chance a vanilla NPC (selected voice types, either gender) approaches a sister to flirt. Roughly every 8 hours there is a chance a unique vanilla NPC greets one or both of them.Requirements

• Visions Asset Pack - required (download the version for your body type: 3BA/CBBE/TBD or BHUNP/UNP)
• SkyPatcher - required
• FSMP - Faster HDT-SMP - required
• Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO SE - required
• Simply Open Source Voice Pack - required (for bonus follower Susannah)
• Backported Extended ESL Support - required for Skyrim SE 1.5.97

Installation

1. Make sure you have all of the requirements above installed first.
2. Download the Visions Asset Pack for your body type (3BA/CBBE/TBD or BHUNP/UNP). This is absolutely required.
3. Install this mod with your mod manager (or manually), and install any addons you want from the Files tab.
4. To update later, download the new version and replace it, do not merge. Updating mid-game is completely safe.

Compatibility and Notes

Compatible with:

• All body types: 3BA, BHUNP, CBBE, TBD, and UNP, plus OBody and WetFunction
• RSV, using the optional RSV Compatibility Patch on the Files tab

Not recommended:

• Importing the sisters into follower management frameworks. NFF may work, but some NFF features will break them. Other frameworks should not be attempted

Heads up: Anja appears with different hairstyles in some older screenshots and videos. That was beta testing. One early style had bad clipping, so we switched to the current one.Roadmap

These are planned, not promised, and most depend on the voice actresses' availability. Please do not ask for timelines.

• More romance features, more lines, and additional quests for the main mod
• More patches and sandbox packages for the Iceheart Mill, from me and from other authors (patches are welcome as separate mods)
• More banter for the NPC Comments addon
• 758 AI voice lines added to Susannah
• A planned quest mod, Father's Hunt, telling the story of the sisters' heritage and their search for Varg

Support

Check the Support section for the FAQ, articles, and help requests. You can also join the Discord for live assistance.Credits

A huge thank you to everyone at the Modharbour Discord for their support and friendship, and especially to those who helped make these mods possible.

• KittenVox (Kitt Nevada) - the voice of Anja. One of the best in the business, known for Companion Ivy in Fallout 4 and many other projects
• Ophelia Valentine - the voice of Kelsa. I searched so long, and I finally found the perfect voice for her
• Socalista - a fantastic author with exceptional custom location and quest design. A joy to work with
• JobiWanUK - his mods range from hilarious to load-order essential, and he is a great collaborator
• SerketHetyt - the beautiful screenshots, and a hugely talented author and artist
• Damakarmelowa - ideas and help whenever I needed it
• Subhuman - scripting answers and great ideas
• The testing team - you found bugs and genuinely made the mod better

Asset and resource credits

Spoiler

Suno AI (music), Replay, Eleven Labs (vanilla NPC voices), Reverie Skin 1.11+ by Novelyst, swefrida and khisartin (BNP Skin and Eyes), Xing (KS Hairs SMP), DINT999 (Wigs and Hairstyles), wammy (Eyes of Beauty AI Remastered), volodavkaa (Sword Widows Wail), Shish15 (Superb Shield of Solitude Replacer), Koralina (makeup, brows, Even More Eyes), scarlettdays21 (All the Lovely Mods), migal130 and SilverWolfMNG (BHUNP body preset), confusedchim (outfit management code), khisartin (Alt1 Brows and other cosmetics), D-Easy (Synergy - Specialized Follower Classes), Kalilies and Stealthic (KS Hairdos Renewal), ousnius, Kalilies, Stealthic (KS Hairs HDT SMP), lemonbalmtea (HG Hairdos 1 and 2), ShinglesCat (SC - KS Hairdos Retextured), KouLeifoh (High Poly Head LE), Niroku (Expressive Facegen Morphs), Ousnius and Caliente (CBBE), Acro748 (3BA Body), Baka (BHUNP Body), Ousnius and Caliente (BodySlide and Outfit Studio), Pocky (4K Human Female Makeup), Redprincess79 (Realistic Hair Colors), missjennabee and Nazenn (Improved Eyes SE), Docteure (Eyes of Beauty SE), wammy (The Eyes of Beauty AI Remastered), Kalahira (Kala's Eyes), nerune and Rektas69 (Mikan Eyes), SG Hairs, Tullius Eyes, Gonzeh84 (IceBlaze conversion), Steelfeathers (Frostskjelv), Megaman2K (Simply Open Source Voice Pack).

If I left anyone out, let me know and I will fix it right away.