Enderal

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. It was released in July 2016, initially in German only. An English version was released August 16, 2016. An expansion, Forgotten Stories, was released on February 14, 2019.

Plot
The protagonist is introduced as a refugee attempting to escape to Enderal 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. Furthermore, they discover that the 'Red Madness', a strange and unexplained epidemic of mental illness, is spreading throughout Enderal. Upon reaching Ark, it is revealed that the Red Madness heralds the approach of the Cleansing, the final stage in 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. This cycle, perpetuated across the ages by unseen, shadowy 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 before they were overthrown.

The Prophet decides to assist the Holy Order, the rulers of Enderal, in their efforts to thwart the Cleansing and stop the High Ones. The Order's leader, Grandmaster Tealor Arantheal, instructs the Prophet to uncover the secrets of the Pyreans, the previous dominant civilization on Vyn, who knew of the coming apocalypse and unsuccessfully attempted to avert it. Using old Pyrean schematics, the Order begins constructing the Beacon, a magical machine that supposedly offers the power to permanently banish the High Ones and stop the cycle for good. The Order's quest attracts the attention of the nearby nation of Nehrim, who believe that the Cleansing represents humanity's ascension to a higher state of being. As such, upon learning of Arantheal's plans to stop the Cleansing, the Nehrimese declare war on Enderal.

The Order learns that without a method of specifically targeting the High Ones, the Beacon's unfocused energy will result in the destruction of Enderal upon activation. As the Nehrimese armies launch a surprise assault on Ark, the Prophet journeys deep underground 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 properly identify its target. However, at the last moment, they are betrayed by Yuslan Sha'Rim, a Nehrimese mage and associate of the Order who has succumbed to the Red Madness, and their efforts fail. Arantheal refuses to concede defeat to the High Ones, and in desperation decides to light the Beacon without the Numinos, dooming Enderal.

The veiled woman once again intervenes in events, and the Prophet is taken to meet the Black Guardian, a human from an unnamed prior civilization that fell to the Cleansing, who 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 without the Numinos, because this is what ultimately triggers the Cleansing. As the High Ones are immaterial and cannot physically influence the course of events, they exploited Arantheal's weaknesses and insecurities to coerce him into lighting the Beacon for them. 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 returns to the surface to see that the Cleansing has indeed already begun. They are then faced with two choices, which determine the ending of the game. One choice is to flee an ancient 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
Enderal was in development for five years by a team of fourteen. It requires the base Skyrim game but not its downloadable content. The mod is fully voiced in both German and English languages.

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

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.

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".

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