The Elder Scrollsseries is known for its relatively large pool for playable races. Granted, the variouselven and human races tend to dominate, but many players have a soft spot for the reptilian Argonians and tiger-like Khajiit. However, while the different races inThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimare more than graphical changes, they aren’t quite as distinct from each other as they were in previous games in the series.
One mod forThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimattempts to remedy this in a small way by bringing back a minor feature fromThe Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. The new Beastly Beastmen mod makes the animal-like races more distinct by having them walk on their toes instead of the soles of their feet.
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Beastly Beastmen comes to us from mod creator Rogueshot, who is also responsible for the popular Savage Skyrim mod. For Beastly Beastmen, Rogueshot created all-new skeletons forSkyrim’sbeast races. This includes making them walk on their toes, called walking digitigrade, as they did in2002’sThe Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. The mod also adjusts their necks, heads, shoulders, and spines to make them more visually distinct fromSkyrim’smore humanoid races. The goal of these adjustments, according to Rogueshot, is to make the game more immersive by making the Khajiit and Argonians appear more like human-animal hybrids instead of resembling “people in costumes.”
The Beastly Beastmen mod also makesSkyrim’sbeast races more dimorphic, meaning that there are more significant differences between males and females. The mod makes male Khajiit and Argonians significantly larger than the females, as is the case with many real animals. The males also have longer arms and hunch over more, as shown in the mod’s Nexus page screenshots. This makes male Argonians look even more like dinosaurs than they did already and makesSkyrim’sbeast races even more distinct from thevarious races of Men and Elves.
Rogueshot notes that Beastly Beastmen should be compatible with mostSkyrimtexture mods. However, while the mod page lists a few exceptions, it will almost certainly conflict with most mods thatspecifically affect Argonians and Khajiit. Therefore, players will have to create a custom patch using the TES5Edit utility if they want to use both simultaneously. Additionally, Rogueshot cannot guarantee the mod will work with the various custom beast race mods available online.
Skyrimplayers can download Beastly Beastmen from Nexus Mods and Bethesda.net. It’s available for the standard andSpecial Editionversions of the game on PC and Xbox One. The mod should also be compatible withSkyrim Anniversary Edition, as it does not rely on theSkyrimScript Extender to function.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
