Oskar - Over 3.4K Voiced Lines - Skilled Blacksmith Follower or Worker - (Followers-Companions-Quest-EoS)

Who he is

Oskar is a smith from a forty-house fishing village on the Pale coast who works the forge in Dawnstar. He has made blades for Jarls, but he is prouder of the ploughs he rebuilt for a village after a raid. His grandmother Aslaug cut the spiral on his cheek for luck, and his master Hallbjorn taught him the trade. He is warm, slow to anger and slower to forgive bad work, and he judges people by how they treat their tools. He won't serve you for coin: bring him a weapon worth his time.Talk to him

• Say "Let's talk." and pick a subject: his work at the forge, what he thinks about the war, the guilds, the Daedra, the gods, the Jarls, magic, the Thalmor, food, drink, money, the weather and the seasons; his past; what you're doing together; how he sees the two of you; romance.
• Long talks: the spiral on his cheek, the fire at nineteen, the ploughs, the man with the rings, his sister Signy, his master Hallbjorn, the village by the water, the Jarl's sword, his grandmother Aslaug, the quench, the boat, the colour of the iron.
• Orders: follow, wait, trade, go home and "Work on my gear.", all in his own voice.
• "About orders..." in a fight: fight closer, hold back, use your shield, heal yourself, take this potion.
• "I need you to do something.": point him at something to use, open or take, like any follower.

He speaks in my other mods

In Warband and Estates of Skyrim he says their lines in his own voice: in the band, and when you hire him at an estate.

He notices things

• Places: every hold and city (Whiterun, Windhelm, Riften, Solitude, Markarth, Morthal, Dawnstar, Winterhold, Falkreath), Solstheim, the mountain and beyond, inns, shops and stables, ruins, mines and dungeons, camps and roads, your houses and estates.
• Weather and time: snow, rain, fog, the sky, the time of day and the seasons. He greets you differently for each.
• What you do: sneaking, stealing and locks, violence, Shouts, spells, drink and food, crafting and smithing, trade, bounties and jail, becoming a vampire or a werewolf.
• Combat: spotting the enemy, attacking, power attacks, taking hits, when it's over, and lines for bandits, draugr, beasts, dragons, mages, the dead and giants.
• Quest advice: the main quest, the Civil War, the guilds, the Daedric quests, the gods, the Jarls, Dawnguard, Dragonborn and the Skaal.

How you meet him: "Prove Your Steel"

• Find him at the forge in Dawnstar and ask him to work for you.
• He wants a weapon worth his time: steel or better, tempered Exquisite or better.
• Pick "I forged a weapon for you." and he judges it: the metal, the temper and the kind. If your work is good enough, he serves you.
• Once he accepts, he's yours: hire him at your estate through Estates of Skyrim's own hiring, invite him into your Warband, or just say "Follow me."

As a follower

• His own follower system. He never takes the game's follower slot, so he travels next to your other followers.
• Follow, wait, trade and go home, all in his own voice.
• His own horse rides with you when you ride. If it gets lost, bring it back from his MCM.
• Different greetings before you hire him, while he follows, at camp, inside, at your estate, at his post and on the road.
• His own set, in the colours of his armour: Aslaug's Spiral (warhammer, fire damage), Hallbjorn's Hammer (his master's forge hammer, which he uses at the anvil), Sea-Wall (shield) and his spell Sea Shield (a ward that hardens his skin).

The skilled blacksmith

• Work on my gear: he tempers everything you wear one tier higher, all the way up to Legendary, for 50 gold a tier per piece. He tells you first if there's nothing left to improve or you can't pay.
• At his forge: whenever he isn't travelling with you, he works. Every day he forges ingots, sells his work for gold, and now and then finds rare ore in the scrap. Collect it through his trade menu.
• Estates of Skyrim: hire him at your estate as a skilled blacksmith, at the top of his trade, with his own traits.
• Warband: he rides with your band. With Warband 1.2.7 or newer he gets his own Skilled Blacksmith post, only for him: cheaper upkeep for the band's gear, weapons and armour tempered a tier higher, and rare ore from the scrap.
• All of it works without Estates of Skyrim and Warband. They only add to him.

He grows closer to you

• The longer he travels with you, the closer he gets: new hire, trusted, friend, close friend. His greetings, goodbyes and answers change at every stage.
• Romance and marriage, nothing explicit. Flirt with him, hear his confession or make yours first, court him with evenings, gifts and a dance, propose wearing an Amulet of Mara, and say your vows in the Temple of Mara.
• He has a conscience. Cruelty or bad work breaks his trust: you argue, and then you make up.

His own gear

• Aslaug's Spiral: his warhammer, blackened steel with a teal grip. 23 damage, fire damage.
• Hallbjorn's Hammer: his master's forge hammer. He works the anvil with it.
• Sea-Wall: his round shield, blackened with teal leather. 26 armour.
• Sea Shield: his own ward spell. It hardens his skin for 60 seconds.
• His face is from Burjak's Many Faces preset: dark hair, a full beard, and the spiral war paint in the colour of his armour.
• His armour is 4thUnknown's Northern God Armor, a requirement: download it from its page. None of its files are included.

Who he talks to

He has his own lines with Octavia and with the other Estate Specialists when they travel with you: Cassia, Nadira, Nari, Katrine and Rallena.Made for my mods

Oskar knows these mods when you have them installed. All of them are optional: he works fully on his own.

• Estates of Skyrim: hire him as a skilled blacksmith at your estates.
• Warband (optional): version 1.2.7 or newer has his own Skilled Blacksmith post.
• Octavia: they talk with each other on the road.

If you enjoy my mods and want to support them, you can donate here.

His look

• His own face, from Burjak's Many Faces preset: dark hair, a full beard, and the spiral war paint in the colour of his armour.
• His armour is 4thUnknown's Northern God Armor, a requirement: download it from its page. None of its files are included.

Installation

Built and played in a Nolvus Awakening load order. Nolvus users: install it like any other mod.

Install with your mod manager and enable all four plugins: Estate Specialists.esp, Seths EoS Oskar.esp, Seths EoS Oskar Part 2.esp and Seths EoS Oskar Intro.esp. All are ESL-flagged, so none uses a load order slot. On Skyrim older than 1.6.1130 you also need Backported Extended ESL Support. Needs SKSE, powerofthree's Papyrus Extender, SkyUI and MCM Helper (for his MCM), and Northern God Armor. AnimObject Swapper is optional (his own hammer at the anvil).

Safe to install mid-game: load your save and he is at the forge in Dawnstar.

Good to know

• Works without Estates of Skyrim and Warband.
• His own MCM: turn his talking on or off, set the minutes between his remarks (one clock shared with Octavia, so they take turns), choose what he talks about, and bring his horse.
• Light on scripts: nothing of his runs on a timer. He reacts when something happens: a new place, a menu closing, a fight, waking up.
• Already in a save before you installed an update? He gets his gear on his own the first time the mod runs.

Credits

• Burjak for the Many Faces preset his face is built from.
• 4thUnknown for Northern God Armor (a requirement; none of his files are included).
• powerofthree for Papyrus Extender and AnimObject Swapper.
• The SKSE team.
• Built with houseCARL and DevBench.

About AI use

Oskar was built with the help of an AI coding assistant (records & scripts). His voice is an AI voice made with Boson AI's Higgs Audio. His gear card was rendered from the mod's own files. I play him in my own game and fix reports fast, so tell me in the posts if anything's off.