Enderal: The Shards of Order
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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 see into the past, and that their arrival coincides with the Cleansing, a cycle of apocalyptic destruction and rebirth that has occurred for an indefinite amount of time. The cycle, overseen by supernatural beings known as the High Ones, has recently begun anew following the death of the Lightborn, part of a race of beings treated as gods by the inhabitants of the world.

The death of the Lightborn has caused mass unrest in every nation, making the world seemingly ripe for the Cleansing, but the rulers of Enderal have managed to hide the truth from their subjects and escape the turmoil. Throughout their journey, the Prophet uncovers remnants of previous civilizations and assembles a magical beacon that supposedly offers the power to break the cycle of the Cleansing. They also discover that for countless cycles, there have been key figures - the Prophet, the Traitor, and the Emperor - all chosen based on their unique characteristics and desires. A nearby nation known as Nehrim, believing the Cleansing will elevate them into godhood, wages war on Enderal. In actuality, the souls of all those killed in the Cleansing will be consumed to birth a new High One.

Upon assembly, the player learns that a method for targeting the High Ones is needed, and a journey to the capital and epicenter of the civilization that came before Enderal is needed to achieve this. The civilization's populace, learning of the cycle, created a floating city that has managed to avoid destruction, but is now deserted. This journey reveals a plot twist: The High Ones have secretly manipulated events to ensure that the beacon would be constructed, because in truth, the beacon causes the Cleansing. The Prophet learns that they are in reality a Fleshless One, a magical construct, and that their true self died on the voyage to Enderal. They travel to meet the Black Guardian, a human who once learned of the cycle and attempted to escape it by binding his soul to a large steampunk robot. Failing to complete the robot in time, he has been trapped underground for thousands of cycles. After attempting to betray the Prophet and steal their body, the Prophet and their companion defeat him and escape to the surface.

The Prophet is then faced with two choices:

• Flee into the city in the sky with a companion as the world is destroyed and rule over the primitive beings during the next cycle as an unaging god, guiding them and creating a better world that can end the cycle.
• Sacrifice themselves to ensure that only Enderal is destroyed by the Cleansing, leaving hope for other nations to uncover the truth.

In the 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 the Traitor to interfere with the elixir, they can drink it to live a more ideal life, in which Enderal is destroyed, but they and their companion manage to survive.

Development

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.