Frea - A Lightweight Dialogue Expansion

When I first played the Dragonborn DLC, I thought Frea would have been the equivalent of Serana for this DLC: a follower with strong connection to the main story and unique reactivity to the world. While she did turn out to be a memorable character in the main story, her role as a reactive follower was rather underwhelming. Teldryn Sero, a follower who has nothing to do with the main story, somehow has even more comments while adventuring than Frea! Needless to say this triggered my OCD and I decided something had to be done.

Sharing the spirit of YALDE, Frea - A Lightweight Dialogue Expansion (FALDE) is my attempt to expand her dialogue, not as a super follower mod, but in a lightweight manner that will bring her reactivity to the world up to par with other reactive vanilla followers like Sero and Serana. New dialogue should blend seamlessly into the vanilla experience as if it had always been there, without feeling overdone.

- Carefully written lines: This mod takes great care to preserve her core personality by not straying far from what Bethesda has already established for her: a spiritual Skaal warrior with a strong sense of duty toward her people, while also being open-minded and curious to see more of the world.

- Location-aware: Frea will offer her insight on the cities and dungeons of Skyrim. As the future keeper of lore for the Skaal, she will keep an open mind on things and be more observant than judgemental.

- Storyteller: Frea will have random idle lines with some referencing the events of TES3: Bloodmoon.

- Immersive rejection: A new dialogue topic expands on why she is not interested in marriage. While the reason may have been already obvious, I think it makes sense that she should get her own dialogue on the topic, just as Serana gets to explain her reasons on not being interested in marriage.

- Bug fixed: Revoiced the vanilla "It has been an honor, Skaal-friend." goodbye line which has messed up audio (nobody has this fixed yet AFAIK).

- All voice lines are generated using ElevenLabs to stay faithful to her original voice. Many hours were spent experimenting lines repeatedly to hand-pick the most natural-sounding deliveries with the right expression for each context.

There are a total of 53 new lines. Like YALDE, FALDE follows a quality-over-quantity approach where having lines that matter is more important than bloating the dialogue with filler lines. These lines also have a low random chance of trigger to avoid repetition, which is a quirk of the vanilla follower framework. A detailed breakdown of all new lines is provided in the spoiler below.

Winterhold:

- The wind and snow are unforgiving to this place. Its people have endured much.

The Arcanaeum:

- So much knowledge gathered in one place. To be a keeper of all this lore must be a sacred responsibility.

Falkreath:

- The forest surrounding this place is beautiful. The dead here can rest peacefully.

Whiterun:

- This city is so busy... Many have chosen to make their home here.

Jorrvaskr:

-Warriors gathered in one mead hall. The Companions remind me of the Thirsk of Solstheim.

Markarth:

- I cannot understand why people chose to make a home in ruins that are removed from the balance of nature...

Solitude:

- The capital of Skyrim is immense with such impressive walls. Life here must be very comfortable.

Riften:

- These people look at me with distrust. How can one live within the safety of these walls and still be afraid?

Dawnstar:

- The people here make their lives upon the harsh sea and wind. There is strength in that.

Morthal:

- There is a strong spiritual presence in this land. The people here must know it well.

Riverwood:

- Such a nice village, surrounded by bountiful nature. The All-Maker watches over this place.

Windhelm:

- The cold here is familiar to me. These people respect their traditions, much like the Skaal.

Raven rock:

- The history of Raven Rock is known to my people. There was a time when one of their own pretended to be Skaal to start a feud over the land.

Tel Mithryn:

- These elves are the latecomers to the island. Using magic to make a home out of mushrooms may be the strangest thing I've ever seen.

Altar of Thrond:

- All-Maker!  It's the Glenmoril Witches!

Orc strongholds:

- The way these Orcs live is not unlike the Skaal. I can respect that.

Player home:

- You have made an impressive home for yourself.

Farm:

- The farmers live by the land, and the lan