under sun and sky

Ra'Kiir Stormblade, the Vestige

female giants: fantastic reskin that replaces some of skyrim’s male giants with women. there are a few mods for this on the nexus, but this is the only one in which the giantesses resemble their male counterparts, not scaled-up lady nords. you have to hike out to the more distant camps to find them, iirc, but that’s part of the fun 

friendly giants (and mammoths): makes giants unaggressive towards the player unless attacked outright. sometimes they’ll even run over and help you out in a fight. great for lore purposes—i play a researcher who’s friendly with several giant clans—or for players who just want to hang out with giants. who doesn’t

scarified dark elves: adds decorative scar patterns to dunmer models (like in morrowind). you can either apply it to your character alone, or to all the dunmer in the game

redguard fashion: modder’s resource that adds several yoku outfits to the game. noteworthy for including the biggest, fluffiest gloves i’ve ever seen—perfect for redguard characters who miss home, but still want to stay warm and toasty

falmer companion gleeb: adds a falmer follower to the game! his name is gleeb! i love him so much! you will love him so much!

player headtracking: rather than staring blankly ahead all the time, your character will turn their head to look at npcs within a certain range. depending on your character’s relationship with that npc, they’ll also smile or frown at each other! an absolutely essential download, if only so your character can smile at gleeb

bigger trees: scales up all the trees! forests are dense and gorgeous with this mod installed

fallen trees: adds fallen trees to strategic locations around skyrim. some of them span cliffs and rivers, which is fun—instead of wading through the water, you can (very carefully) edge across on the tree

bent pines: adds a gorgeous new tree model to the game. yes, i do like trees. why do you ask

supreme and volumetric fog: i like fog, too. if you hate being able to see your hand in front of your face, this is the mod for you. it really is Supreme and Volumetric

the bottomless pit: probably not lore-compliant but i’m including it anyway. this is my favorite quest mod because of how different it is—you navigate the dungeon (a bottomless pit) entirely by falling. it is extremely challenging. you will die. you will die a lot. but you’ll definitely feel as though you’ve earned the prize at the end

winterhold bridge repair: fixes the college’s crumbling bridge, rendering it infinitely less dangerous. my archmage held me at staff-point until i downloaded this