Thank you to Alexia Renaldis for her absolutely stunning voice acting on this follower. Also thank you to SerketHetyt for her amazing screen archery.
Overview
Vayne is a deadly assassin who emerges from the shadows to fight alongside the player. More than just another follower, Vayne is a fully-featured companion with advanced AI, a unique romance system, and enhanced combat abilities that make her a formidable ally in your adventures across Skyrim. Each of her features is detailed below. Vayne is designed for higher difficulty games, and as such is extremely strong at low levels.
I spent more time on the design and development of this mod than any other I’ve made in the past - including the Iceheart Sisters. I took what I learned from the aforementioned duo and tried to improve all those systems or create new ones that were better. I removed features I thought were a detriment, or could be better duplicated by other mods (like managing outfits - why recreate the wheel when the latest outfit management mods out there are so amazing?).
Vayne is voiced by the lovely and talented Alexia Renaldis (the voice of Lily from the game Subverse, as well as other games). She has been such a pleasure to work with. Always polite and ready to make changes as needed. When I work with voice actresses, I don’t focus on timelines - I focus on making sure they have everything they need to voice the character. Busy schedules? That’s fine by me. I’ll wait. There is no rush. I prefer to work with real actresses than AI voices, not that I have a problem with those and I might even try it someday, but I always prefer the real thing. If you are interested in voicing a character for the community, just reach out.
Dedication
This mod is dedicated to my friend, Migal. You might remember him from Bathing Beauties or Beefcake Luxury Suite (BBLS), a legendary location mod he made many years ago and has managed to update all this time. I didn’t know of his work when I met him. He invited me to his Discord and befriended me. Always giving me good advice, teaching me about modding, and helping me do better. Together, we expanded his Discord server into what it is today, Modharbour. There we have over 20 fantastic mod authors that have their own channels and frequently collaborate on mods together.
Last December, Migal became ill. It is not my place to talk about his private health information, but what I will say is that it has taken a toll on his life in just about every way. Every day I think about him and hope that he can make a speedy recovery. Selfishly, I miss talking to him, coming up with ideas, and collaborating on new things.
This mod is my dedication and gift to him. All Donation Points it earns will go to Migal. I wish him a quick recovery so he can return to us on Modharbour.
Vayne’s Background
Vayne’s parents were once devout worshippers at the Shrine of Azura, but fled their duties fearing the Goddess’ prophetic visions. Settling in Winterhold, they raised Vayne, who enrolled in the College of Winterhold to study illusion magic. A traumatic assault by a noble-born student, unpunished due to his status, led Vayne to exact vengeance by sneaking into his chambers and slitting his throat. Betrayed by the College’s inaction, she abandoned her studies and fled to Riften.
There, she honed her stealth with the Thieves’ Guild, rising swiftly through their ranks. A charismatic Dark Brotherhood assassin, Eland Dax, recruited her, becoming her mentor and lover. Vayne executed numerous contracts under his guidance, only to discover Eland’s manipulative intent to use her skills to seize control of the Brotherhood, and discard her afterward.
Heartbroken but resolute, Vayne abandoned the Brotherhood and became a freelance assassin, taking contracts for the Black-Briar family and other wealthy clients. A hidden secret ties her to the shadows. She has a distant Dhampir ancestor (half-vampire), granting her an innate lesser power of invisibility and uncanny prowess in darkness.
Character Information
LOCATION: Mistveil Keep in Riften.
Perks
Illusion Dual Casting, Light Fingers, Savage Strike, Matching Set, Custom Fit, Unhindered, Fighting Stance, Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting, Misdirection, Cutpurse, Perfect Touch, Light Foot, Assassin’s Blade, Muffled Movement, Master of the Mind, Aspect of Terror, Armsman, Agile Defender, Stealth, Illusion Apprentice/Adept/Expert, Skill Boosts, Silence, and Deft Movement.
Special Perks
Blood Money: Dagger damage while invisible increases if a certain quantity of gold is placed in her inventory. 100 Gold = 10% increase, 500 Gold = 50%, 2000 Gold = 100%.
Nightmare: Fear spells have a 25% chance to paralyze in low light levels. Dagger attacks deal increased critical damage against fearful/paralyzed opponents. Invisibility increases effects.
Special Weapon
Vayne has a magical dagger called Dagoth’s Tooth. The weapon drains stamina from her targets.
Updated for Vayne Remastered: Dagon’s Tooth now levels with the player (scaling damage). Each time you level the weapon will also level. There is no need to temper the weapon. This was done for compatibility with mods that have increased difficulty, and extremely high character levels. If you don’t like this feature, you can simply gave Vayne a new dagger.
Combat Features
Advanced Stealth AI
Shadow Step: Vayne can cast an improved form of invisibility on herself at the start of combat and every 10 seconds after that. This also gives her the ability to invisibly teleport to her targets.
Sneak Attacks and Backstabs: Like the player, Vayne gets a damage bonus for sneak attacks and backstabs from invisibility (stealth). Vayne will also attempt to get behind her enemies for backstab attacks.
Enhanced Target Priority: Vayne will attempt to attack ranged targets starting with spellcasters then archers, if she can break away from melee combat.
Survival Instincts
Smart Healing: Vayne will automatically flee and heal when her health gets low. She will then step back into the shadows and re-engage into combat.
Post-Combat Recovery: Vayne will heal herself after battles if needed.
Romance System
Romance Levels (Progression)
In order to romance Vayne, you must gain points to progress through three levels of your relationship with her - Strangers, Friends, and Lovers. After you reach the Lovers level, you can ask Vayne to marry you. Each level has a set amount of points before you level up. You can check the status of your level at any time by talking to Vayne and asking how she feels about you.
Many of Vayne’s dialogue/voice lines change as you progress levels. As a stranger, the type of idles and follower system responses you get from her will show you that she doesn’t trust you yet and won’t talk about herself much at all. When you progress to friends, she opens up about herself and treats you more like an equal. Finally, when you become her lover, she will treat you with love and adoration.
Vayne’s feelings toward you change based on your actions and achievements while she’s with you.
Romance points can only be gained when Vayne is your follower. If you dismiss her (tell her to head home), the romance points will be paused until you invite her to follow you again.
Positive Actions (Gain Romance Points):
Complete quests and questlines together
Clear dungeons and discovering locations
Perform sneak attacks and backstabs
Learn dragon shouts
Pick locks and pockets (she appreciates skill)
Use persuasion and intimidation
Simply spending time together (daily bonus)
Romance Dialogue
At each romance level, there are different dialogue options available with Vayne.
Strangers
Talk to Vayne until the dialogue option for this level disappears. She will reply and you will be rewarded with bonus romance points. This includes all aspects from follower commands to idles.
Friends
Like the strangers level, you haven’t completely gained her trust. She will open up a bit more about herself and also be more friendly to you. This includes all aspects from follower commands to idles.
Lovers
You will now be able to marry Vayne. Until then, you can keep collecting romance points. Each time you speak to her using the dialogue topic for this level, she will give you points and the screen will fade-to-black to indicate that Vayne and the player are having a private romantic moment. After a few seconds the screen will return to normal and you can continue.
To check the status of your romance with Vayne, ask her how she feels about you. A message box will pop up and tell you how many points you have, what level you are, and how many you need to get to the next level.
Negative Actions (Lose Romance Points)
Note: you can lose levels as well as points!
Become a vampire (daily point loss) or feed on others (each time you feed)
Complete any College of Winterhold quests (Vayne despises the College due to a tragic event from her past)
Get arrested (She considers getting caught a failure)
Harm innocent creatures (Be careful of those bunnies!)
These penalties are designed for role-play purposes, yet it is completely possible to still win Vayne’s love by doing all of these things. It just might take longer. After all, love conquers all - and even a vampire can marry Vayne if they work at their relationship with her hard enough.
Marriage completely removes the loss of romance points and levels. Once you get married, she trusts you and will put up with being a vampire, becoming the Archmage, and even hurting those poor bunny rabbits.
Marriage
Once married to Vayne, you’ll gain permanent skill bonuses:
10 Sneak
10 Pickpocket
10 Speech
You will no longer lose romance points. You can still gain them (brag to your friends how many you have! Its a competition!).
Additional Features
Settings Menu (Home Management)
Home Assignment
Tell Vayne to make your current location her home. You can do this in any interior location.
Move Out (Reset Home)
Before you can change Vayne’s home, you must ask her to move out of her current home. Only then will the Home Assignment feature show up again.
Summoning Power
After you finish the brief Introduction Quest, your character will automatically learn the Summon Vayne lesser power. Call her at any time you need her. She won’t mind. Much.
Settings Menu (Hairstyle Management)
Select a Hairstyle
Vayne has 13 Non-SMP hairstyles and 12 SMP hairstyles. Follow the menus to choose a hairstyle and Vayne will change her hair.
If you don’t like any of the hairstyles, ask Vayne to return to her default style and use an outfit manager to assign a wig along with whatever outfit you want. Keep in mind, if you put a wig in your outfit, it will change Vayne’s hairstyle too. So if you plan to use the hairstyle, just add armor items to the outfit and no wigs.
Hairstyle Settings
Those of you who like complete control over what type of hair you are seeing, you can turn off non-SMP hair or SMP hair in this menu. You can also turn them back on or choose both types. Changing these settings simply hides the menu for the corresponding hairstyle type (SMP or Non-SMP) from the Select a Hairstyle menu.
Settings Menu (Debug Toggle)
You can turn on or off debugging notifications here. If you turn them on, you will see when you gain romance points and other notifications that are normally just for debugging. Some players may like seeing the points they gain at all times, but the default setting is OFF.
Introduction Quest
This is a very brief discussion between the player and Vayne before she will follow. It is nothing intricate or long. After this discussion the player will receive some information and Vayne will be able to follow.
Other Features
ESL-Flagged to save you a spot in your load order.
Uses MY skin and your installed default body (with my asset pack requirement). Compatible with 3BA, BHUNP, CBBE, TBD, or UNP bodies.
Visions mod architecture means smaller footprint on your hard drive and better performance.
Fully-voiced with over 570+ voice lines.
Quest Aware Comments
Vayne has extensive quest-aware commentary, but only for Dawnguard and the Dark Brotherhood quests. For Dawnguard, she has dialogue options (you need to speak to her) and idles that she may speak randomly. For the Dark Brotherhood quests, she will only speak random idles.
Requirements
Racemenu or a hair color sync mod
Backported Extended ESL Support - if you use 1.5.97 version of Skyrim.
ELLE - ZK Rogue (Required if you use the optional Skypatch for this outfit)
Soul Hunter Armor Mashup (Required if you use the optional Skypatch for this outfit)
Dark Envoy - CBBE 3BA BodySlide (Required if you use the optional Skypatch for this outfit)
Installation
Be sure you have all the requirements for these mods before you begin the installation process.
Download the Visions Asset Pack for the body type that you use (3BA/CBBE/TBD or BHUNP/UNP). Absolutely required.
Install this mod with your mod manager (or manually).
To update this mod, download the newer version and replace it (do not merge). It is completely safe to update mid-game.
Load the addons AFTER the main Vayne Remastered mod.