Skyrim is full of fantastic mods, with a thriving community taking Bethesda's classic fantasy title and cramming all manner of bizarre stuff inside it.
From Star Wars to Just Dance, you can find a huge amount of non-Skyrim content in Tamriel if you know where to look.
Ever thought that magic wasn't quite rangey enough, or that the world of Skyrim could do with some Fallout-style weaponry? Well, the modding scene has you covered, with a host of guns along with lore to make it fit right into the Elder Scrolls story.
Tamriel Has Guns Now
Newly available in Skyrim Legendary Edition, modder Enroys has created the Lore Friendly Guns of Skyrim mod, allowing you to blast your enemies from miles away. Made using vanilla assets, it's a hugely impressive undertaking.
The guns use archery perks and animations from crossbows, and you can craft rifles from most types of material. You might even spot NPCs wielding these weapons around the province of Skyrim.
What's most fascinating is the lore behind the guns taking their place in Tamriel's arsenal. The story splits off after the Empire is forced to sign the treaty at the end of the Great War.
"Following the devastation of the Great War, it became clear to the Imperial high command of the vast advantage that Altmeri battlemages had over traditional massed infantry, being able to easily destroy grouped units with their magic."
The Emperor, Titus Meade, then needed to develop a new technology to counter the ranged dominance of the Altmeri battlemages, as it's hugely expensive and time-consuming to train them - two resources the Empire didn't have.
"The answer came from the archives of the Synod. Old dwemer schematics showed a rather simple design of a metal tube and a small iron ball, which when combined with fire salts and brought to flame, would launch the ball with a great amount of force."
These innovations allowed almost anyone to grab a rifle and fire it at an enemy from a long way away. The emperor soon realised that producing these in large quantities would be a great way to combat the battlemages, and so rifles became enormously popular throughout Tamriel.
Pretty convincing stuff, I'd say! The guns look great, and it's not too jarring to see them around Skyrim given the backstory Enroys included in the mod.
They look pretty slick too, with handguns and rifles both being available, and ammunition craftable at forges.
Some of the rifles even have their own backstories. For example, the Blades Handgun is a one-of-a-kind design based on Akavir's schematics, created with bringing down dragons in mind.
Just make sure you pack the right bullets! You don't want to be firing incendiary bullets at a monster made of fire.
Make sure you keep an eye out for more Skyrim coverage from us! We've talked about all kinds of fancy community additions, from immersive romantic rejections to a mod that lets you live your furry dreams.