Enderal: The Shards of Order
Developer(s)	SureAI
Writer(s)	Nicolas Samuel Lietzau [1]
Series	The Vyn Series
Engine	Creation Engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	July 3, 2016
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Enderal: The Shards of Order is a total conversion mod of Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim developed by SureAI as a sequel to Nehrim: At Fate's Edge. ^[2] It was released in July 2016, ^[3] initially in German only. An English version was released August 16, 2016. ^[4] An expansion, Forgotten Stories, was released on February 14, 2019.

Plot

The protagonist is introduced as a refugee attempting to escape to Enderal, a land of relative stability, on a merchant vessel. They are discovered towards the end of the voyage when a ghostly, veiled woman appears before them, causing their companion to be killed and resulting in the player being cast overboard. The player wakes up on the coast, discovers that they now possess magical powers, and travels to Ark, the capital of Enderal, to learn how to control these new abilities.

It becomes clear that the player is a Prophet, an individual of intense magical ability who can experience visions of both the past and the future, and that their arrival coincides with the Cleansing, a cycle of apocalyptic destruction and rebirth that has occurred for countless millennia, each time causing the total disappearance of the dominant civilization on Vyn. The cycle, overseen by shadowy and elusive supernatural beings known as the High Ones, has recently begun anew following the death of the Light-Born, the ruling caste of mages that were worshipped as gods by the inhabitants of the world.

The death of the Light-Born has caused mass unrest in every nation, making the world seemingly ripe for the Cleansing, but the rulers of Enderal, the Holy Order, have managed to hide the truth from their subjects and escape the turmoil. Throughout their journey, the Prophet aids the Holy Order and its leader, Grandmaster Tealor Arantheal, in their efforts to stop the Cleansing from happening. To do this, they must uncover the secrets of the Pyreans, the previous dominant civilization of Vyn. The Pyreans knew of the coming apocalypse and attempted to avert it by assembling the Beacon, a magical machine that supposedly offered the power to permanently banish the High Ones.

Upon completing the construction of a new Beacon, the Prophet learns that without a method of specifically targeting them, the Beacon's unfocused energy will result in the destruction of Enderal upon activation. The player then journeys to the ruins of the former Pyrean capital city to find the Numinos, the 'essence' of a High One, in order for the Beacon to identify the High Ones. However, at the last moment, they are betrayed by Yuslan Sha'Rim, a Nehrimese mage and associate of the Order, and their efforts fail. Grandmaster Tealor Arantheal refuses to concede defeat to the High Ones, and decides to light the Beacon without the Numinos, dooming Enderal.

The Prophet then meets the Black Guardian, a human from an unnamed prior civilization that fell to the Cleansing, who learned of the cycle and attempted to escape it by merging himself into a machine. The Black Guardian reveals that the High Ones had secretly manipulated events to ensure that the Beacon would be constructed and then lit, because it is actually the Beacon that ultimately triggers the Cleansing, not the High Ones themselves. Exploiting Arantheal's weaknesses and insecurities, they coaxed him into lighting the Beacon for them, and deliberately led the Order to believe that the Beacon would be their only hope of salvation. The Prophet further learns that they are 'Fleshless', an artificial recreation of a dead person given life by the High Ones to do their bidding, and that their original self died on the voyage to Enderal, when they were thrown overboard into the sea.

The Prophet is then faced with two choices, which determine the ending of the game. One choice is to flee to the ancient Starling city in the clouds to avoid the Cleansing, but leaving the rest of humanity to die, in the hopes that with the proper guidance, the next civilization in the cycle would not fall prey to the High Ones' manipulations. The Prophet can alternatively sacrifice themselves by destroying the Beacon and interrupting the Cleansing before it fully completes, saving the rest of the world but dying along with the rest of Enderal in the process.

In the Forgotten Stories expansion, a secret ending is available, in which the Prophet can concoct a special elixir using ingredients from an alternate reality. If they refuse to allow Yuslan Sha'Rim to interfere with the elixir, they can drink it to live a more ideal life, in which Enderal is still destroyed, but they and their companion manage to survive. It is left ambiguous as to whether this ending is real, or merely an illusion brought on by the effects of the elixir.

Development

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2017)

Enderal was in development for five years by a team of fourteen. ^[5] It requires the base Skyrim game but not its downloadable content. ^[6] The mod is fully voiced in both German and English languages. ^[7]

In December 2016, SureAI announced that Enderal would be getting an expansion pack, Forgotten Stories, to be released in 2017. ^[1] Forgotten Stories features content that was cut from the original release, and is expected to add 10-20 hours of gameplay. ^[1] This includes two questlines for guilds featured in the original mod, as well as a new secret ending to the main quest. ^[8]

In December 2020, project lead and writer Nicolas Lietzau published his debut novel "Dreams of the Dying", the first book of a trilogy that expands the Enderal universe and explores the mercenary past of Jespar Dal'Varek, one of Enderal's main characters. ^[9]

Reception

In his review at PC Gamer, Jody Macgregor awarded Enderal a score of 74/100. Macgregor found his 50+ hours spent in game enjoyable, rekindling the joy of discovery found in the base game. He appreciated the game's high standard of writing, and described the voice-acting as "far beyond what you expect from a fan project". ^[10]

Legacy

Project Director Nicolas Samuel Lietzau went on to became a writer for the SpellForce game series.

See also

• Skyrim mods

References

External links

• Enderal official website