Modder creates tribute to their Elder Scrolls-loving mum so 'she can live on in every adventure I take in Tamriel'

A shrine to VIIVII's mother in the In Memory of my Mom mod. — (Image credit: VIIVII / Bethesda)

A modder named VIIVII has created a trio of mods in tribute to their departed, Elder Scrolls-loving mum. The In Memory of my Mom mods for Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind add protective shrines to each game that confer a few buffs to your health, magicka, stamina, or stats. They are very slight things indeed, but I'm afraid to say their emotional impact on me specifically is pretty much equivalent to a meteor strike.

"My mom Teneele passed away in January," reads the description on all three mod pages, "She was only 46 and in that time I have been trying to cope with the fact she is gone". They decided that one way to do that would be to honour her memory in some of "the games she introduced me to."

VIIVII has made a few mods before, but enlisted help from Elder Scrolls modding forums to figure out how to do what they wanted to do properly. Once they'd figured it out, they added a set of shrines to the games' starting areas, each one accompanied by a tablet that "just says she can live on in every adventure I take in Tamriel." The shrines' placement is very deliberate: VIIVII says that "Since my Mom always suffered from a severe case of restartitis," they placed the shrines close to each game's beginning.

By themselves, the mods are incredibly touching, but it might be even more sweet to see the way that the modding community has helped VIIVII out. A modder named Sovrath created the Skyrim shrine for them, while another—Arcarias—made a cleaned-up edition of the Morrowind mod that's now available on that version's Downloads page. Plus, of course, it was thanks to the help of modding forums that the mods could be made in the first place.

It was Mother's Day yesterday here in the UK, so I may be more susceptible to this kind of stuff than usual, but it really is quite lovely to see people come together to help someone memorialise their mum like this. Plus, the mods have apparently been downloaded over 200 times all together, so it looks like VIIVII's mum will live on in more games than just their own. Their advice, though, is to "call your parents and tell them you love them. You never know how much time you have with them". I'm not crying. That's just dust from Red Mountain.

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.