black candles burn, all minds aligned

First, we've changed how Kaidan is introduced. His introduction quest, A Bounty for Hunter, will no longer appear automatically in your quest journal. Instead, there will be a couple of ways for the player to start the quest naturally. Players will also notice various quality of life and other immersive changes sprinkled throughout his introduction.

Once you recruit Kaidan, players will notice Kaidan’s idle commentary has been expanded. From remarks on the weather, the player's skills, and various locations, Kaidan will have more to say about the world than ever before. This includes roleplay options for players with 14 new backgrounds, 11 new homelands, and over 30 new religious responses that Kaidan will respond to and helps ensure the character you present to Kaidan reflects who they are.

We have also expanded his commentary during Skyrim’s main quest where Kaidan now has reactions for alternative starts, idles, and conversations tied to major story moments. This includes a before and after conversation from Sovngarde.

Along with the main questline, we are thrilled to introduce unique commentary for Paarthurnax Quest Expansion by Jayserpa! This is a patch that focuses on Kaidan’s morality and his journey of redemption in which Kaidan will have set beliefs that he will hold to, no matter what you decide to do.

Kaidan also now has expanded dialogue for the Companions and College of Winterhold questlines. With these additions to Kaidan’s dialogue, we have also included three new unlockable titles: Thane, Harbinger, and Arch-Mage to Kaidan’s nickname system.

In addition to questline commentary, the Book Review Pack allows Kaidan to provide more commentary on the various books that you may encounter in your journeys across Skyrim. If the book is among those he can comment on, all his responses will be unique to the book given and you can ask him for his thoughts on those books. After completing the mini-quest of collecting the Eslaf Erol series for Kaidan this will unlock Kaidan’s training dialogue! Kaidan will be able to help train you in a handful of combat skills that he himself is proficient in: Archery, Block, Heavy Armor, One-handed, Two-handed, and Stamina! These scenes will also involve unique commentary and sound effects based on player skill.

We have also added new interactions between Kaidan and his horse, Kiai! She will now start her journey as “Horse” until Kaidan gives her the name “Kiai” as Kaidan definitely does not get attached.

Along with this, we now have patchless compatibility with the mod I’m Glad You’re Here with full nickname and title support and responses based on location, progression, and friendship/romance level with Kaidan! When the mod is enabled, the vanilla romantic hugs will be replaced with a custom hug animation— no more vampire hugs! DAR or OAR are required to ensure the custom hug animation works.

Lucien fans rejoice! By popular demand, a patch for Kaidan and Lucien’s banter is now available! All existing banter between them has been fully revoiced with Kaidan’s new voice actor, Paul Warren.

Along with these new expansions, patches, and additions to Kaidan’s integration into Skyrim, we have also included general changes and bug fixes to improve overall quality of life.