The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition Serana Dialogue Expansion Mod v1.0

A lore-friendly mod that expands Serana's dialogue in the Dawnguard questline and includes her in the Main Quest and the Dragonborn questline. PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER!

So yeah, the title is self-explainatory. Another mod that gives Serana more to say about the three main quests of the game.

The point of this mod is to make it so that Serana feels as if she's part of the Skyrim Main Quest as well as the Dragonborn questline, as well as adding a few extra dialogues during the Dawnguard questline. More importantly, expand on her relationship with the Dragonborn. Now she will react to the events that are happening and give you her input, respecting and mostly supporting your choices but staying true to her moral values and beliefs. If you say or do something she disapproves, she won't keep quiet about it. This video will show the extra dialogues in each of the main quests (if you don't mind spoilers instead of experiencing it for yourself).

If you're concerned about my take on her personality, I tried to keep her as close to vanilla as possible. As I understand her, she's confident, smart and caring to those who show concern for her in return. She rarely loses her cool unless it comes to a personal matter (such as her family). She's still a bit naïve and very lonely, and as such values you greatly you as a friend. A black sheep among her fellow Volkihar clan members except her mother (before the Prophecy) and a fish out of the water in modern times. She also worshiped one of the most evil Daedra long ago, so while she clearly has a benevolent nature and regrets some of her past decissions, I don't think she's a paragon of virtue either. As such, she wouldn't judge you if, for example, you were to join the Dark Brotherhood.

Judging by her appearance, she became a vampire between her early and mid twenties, but her exact birthdate has been lost to time. Given the in-game evidence, by the time she was locked away the Dwemer were still around, which must have been before 1E 700. That means that she has been sleeping for 3,700 years at least. I know game developers stated that she fell asleep during the 2nd Era, but as Todd Howard stated, when encountering lore contradictions we are to trust the game's sources first, and the developers second. Thus, I'm trusting this quote:"I always wondered what the dwarves actually looked like. I hear they're like elves, but with beards."

So, taking that into account, her sumber predates the rise of Reman Cyrodiil, the Interregnum, and of course every single game of The Elder Scrolls series. Hell, if she was contemporary to the Dwemer then she probably met some Chimer, and as such never saw a Dunmer in her life, and only heard tales of Ra Gada sailors of the east (Redguards). Some of the new dialogues I added address this "woman out of her time" situation she finds herself in. She's kinda like the Sole Survivor from Fallout 4 if you ask me. In fact, after you complete Alduin's Wall and Beyond Death, you'll be given a dialogue option that will start a quest involving the collection of four in-game books that will give her some historical context of what she missed while she was asleep.

As you can see, I made a lot of research in order not to break the lore and make her as consistent as possible, so I didn't change anything about her personality. If anything, I filled some of the gaps. For example, while it's not stated that she ever visited the College of Winterhold in the vanilla game, her dialogue when looking for a Moth priest suggests that she's at least familiar with the place. Some of the added dialogues suggest that she's been there a couple of times. As a sidenote, a couple of the added dialogues suggest that she feels uncomfortable talking about her age (not insecure, just uncomfortable).

Most of her dialogue in the Dawnguard questline will focus on her perspective and reflect on the impact that longevity has caused in her life, but will also spend time tryng to get to know you too. In the Skyrim main quest and Dragonborn she'll mostly be along for the ride, but she will gladly give you her input on your current mission.

In summary, this mod makes her feel more alive and involved in the game's main quests while keeping her personality true to what the game's writers original vision. A good friend to help you save the world.
I hope you enjoy the mod! :)

FAQ:

1-What are the quests where she has new dialogues?
It's all in this list.
Dawnguard: (this questline has the least new dialogues since she is already pretty involved in it in the vanilla game)

• Bloodline
• The Bloodstone Chalice
• Prophet
• Chasing Echoes
• Beyond Death
• Touching the Sky

Skyrim Main Quest:

• The Way of the Voice
• The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller
• A Blade in the Dark
• Diplomatic Immunity. (if you use console commands to bring her with you to the Thalmor Embassy you'll get an extra dialogue. This is not obligatory)
• A Cornered Rat
• Alduin's Wall
• The Throat of the World
• Elder Knowledge
• The Fallen
• Season Unending
• Paarturnax
• The World-Eater's Eyrie (only if you bring her to Skuldafn with console commands. This is not obligatory)
• Dragonslayer (the dialogue at the end of the quest will depend on wether you brought her with you or not)

Dragonborn:

• Dragonborn
• The Temple of Miraak
• The Fate of the Skaal
• Cleansing the Stones
• The Path to Knowlegde
• The Gardener of Men
• At the Summit of Apocrypha

All these quests have also miscelaeous comments that she will say throught them to integrate her in the story even more.

"From Arena to Oblivion"
This is a custom fetch quest I made. Once it's available you'll get a new dialogue option in which she will ask you to find four specific books related to the four events that predate the Dragonborn Prophecy (ergo, the four main Elder Scrolls games) so that she can catch up to the most recent events since she was asleep. As a reward you'll get skill increases in her specialties (Sneak, Light Armor, Conjuration and One-Handed) and by the end of the quest she'll give you an enchanted ring that you can either carry or sell.
The quest will also set her relationship rank to "confidant" (+2) because the damn game keeps her as "acquaintance" (which is equal to 0 in the disposition ranks) even after you complete the dawnguard questline. Ergo, in the vanilla game she keeps treating you like a stranger even after all you do for her, which is why I decided to make this change so that her disposition matches her words. This quest will be accessible once you've completed "Beyond Death" and "Alduin's Wall".

Sidenote: for those quests that don't allow you to bring followers and you're just tired of typing "moveto player" on the console, you might want to download Nether's Follower Framework. It has a feature that allows you to teleport followers to you without having to use console commands. HOWEVER, Serana is purposedly not integrated until the end of the Dawnguard questline because of her behavior thorugh its duration. If you integrate her manually before the Dawnguard questline, make sure to ONLY do it for those specific quests, and once it's done, remove her from the framework. After completing the Dawnguard I think you shouldn't have any problem, but if you don't want to take the risk, then just use console commands.

2-Help! The conversation doesn't start when it's supposed to!
Don't worry. It happens when you install it in an existing save. It's easy to fix. All you have to do is quicksave, quickload. In my experience you only need to do this once, and that's it.
If the problem persists, try putting this mod as below as possible in your load order. If it's still happening, then it may be an incompatibility I am unaware of. I dunno, I'm a noob when it comes to modding, but I've been testing this for a while and iT jUsT wOrKs.

3-How will the dialogue trigger?
The original idea was to make them force greet when the right conditions triggered, but then I remembered that some forcegreet dialogues happen at the worst possible times (looking at you, courier).
So instead, I preferred to let the player pick the right time (as long as the dialogue is available). Don't worry, her greeting will change to the specific dialogue, so you will know when to talk to her while playing. Just activate her and let the scene play out, then her follower command options will be available again.

4-Is it safe to install mid-game?
It won't break your game BUT, most of her dialogues are triggered upon the completion of certain quests. So if you have already completed those Serana will talk to you as if you had completed them just now. The more you completed beforehand, the more conversations she'll have to get out of the way, but once you're through with them her follower dialogues will be unlocked again. Bear with them for a while.
Regardless, it's kind of weird for me to see this happen because I do set them to not be able to be triggered after reaching a certain stage of a quest. Really, this problem shouldn't be happening at all 

Now that I'm on the subject, this mod is made so that you bring Serana along for the entire game. So my advice is the following: Defeat Mirmulnir to unlock your shouting, then either go to High Hrothgar and then start the Dawnguard questline, or skip Hrothgar for the time being and just join the Dawnguard. Keep playing the Dawnguard quests until Prophet where she becomes a pseudo-follower and then play the game as you see fit.

5-What are your future plans for this mod?
I want to add new dialogues to secondary quests. This is my order of priorities:

1.                  

Some side quests, like The Forsworn Conspiracy, The Wolf Queen Awakened or even Daedric quests. I'll come up with some as I go.

2.                  

The four Guild Questlines: Yeah, you're probably wondering why this is below sidequests in the order of priorities. Well... I don't really know what to do with her in those because when it comes to questlines instead of individual quests I want her to have an arc, like in the main questlines. Big brain time!

3.                  

If I learn how to make her interact with other vanilla followers, I'll... Make her interact with other vanilla followers, in case you're using a multiple followers mod like Nether's Follower Framework. I still haven't figured out though. I tried scripting a scene between her and Nazeem and I still can't get it to work. Those two audio files are doing absolutely nothing. And before you ask no, I'm not going to make her interact with custom followers. Sorry Inigo.

I don't want to make promises, but I MIGHT take requests for quests you'd like her to have a dialoue or two, but of course that depends on wether or not I manage to come up with a dialogue that doesn't feel forced.
When will these be released? Ask my ElevenLabs' monthy subscription :´)

6-Does this mod edit Serana as an NPC?
No, it only adds new dialogue options for her. I haven't touched her stats, equipment or spell list. So don't worry, this mod won't cause conflicts with combat AI overhaul or face replacer mods. Go nuts and make the Serana of your wet dreams!

7-Is this mod compatible with face replacers?
I JUST SAID IT!!!! D:<

I honestly don't think this mod should have incompatibilities, as it adds stuff rather than editing existing stuff. If anything, mods that alter vanilla quests might cause some of the dialogues to never happen in the first place.

8-What about the Player Character's personality?
I tried to keep this as Bethesda as possible and either give the player character a few different options to choose what suits you better, or keep the response as neutral as possible when there's no alternative. The only trait that your character will have is that they're genuinelly concerned for Serana's wellbeing and wants to be a good friend to her. Because if they weren't then why on earth would you even want to install a Serana mod in the first place?

9-Will I be able to ask about anecdotes from her past, her opinion on politics and stuff?
I gotta be honest, I'm not really a fan of those type of conversations with custom followers. Sure, it can make them more interesting and deep, but you can only ask once and then the magic is gone. I personally prefer to have Serana react to the events that are ocurring to make her dynamic rather than sit at a tavern and talk about her opinions on politics, or make up anecdotes in her past and risk breaking the lore of her backstory.
So to make a long story short, no, this mod won't have tavern conversations.

10-Are my dialogue options consequential?
No, it won't affect your in-game relationship with her. Of course, contextually, she will agree with some of your choices and disapprove of others, but none of those have a particular gameplay mechanic.
So no, you won't get a "Seranah Morgan disliked that" message.

11-So you used ElevenLabs AI to voice her. Do her lines sound human enough?
Well, surprisingly, half of the times it kind of nails the real Laura Bailey's performance (which is seriously concerning), while the other half are "meh". I had to waste several takes (ElevenLabs has a limited number of uable characters) in order to get a performance I felt comfortable with. It will never be as good as a real voice actress, but it's the best I can afford. For some of the lines that required most emotion out of the character I managed to sneak some of Laura Bailey's Serana lines, as well as some of Kainé's, from Nier:Replicant.
Fun fact, in some of the scrapped voicelines it started yelling in f*cking japanese! WTF?!
Generally I think ElevenLabs did its job satisfactory. Also if you noticed that I addressed the ElevenLabs topic in the eleventh question before I said so, you get a cookie! :D

12-Hey, did you notice that X line has a grammar error?
English isn't my first language, and while I have a B2 degree and can handle myself quite well, there's a slight chance I may have a grammar error in a line or two. I've double-checked every single one so it should be fine, but if you see one I missed please let me know. Any comment that contributes to make this mod better is always welcome! 

13-Will this mod cause conflicts with Serana Dialogue Add-on/Serana Dialogue Edit?
I mean... My mod only adds new content instead of editing existing content, so... Maybe? In theory? I never tried it, but best case scenario, you'll get a Serana with split personality disorder. Mod at your own risk and tell me the results 

14-Can I marry Serana with this mod?
As a fellow Serana simp it pains me to say this, but no.
This matter is more complex than it seems. Serana acknowledges her past as a Daedra worshipper, and thus is aware of the questionable morality of the actions she and her parents committed (I'm not talking about the ritual to become a vampire. I'm sure her family did other things to earn Bal's favor before that). She probably turned a blind eye to the thousand innocents her father sacrificed in Molag Bal's honor. She's matured much since then and reflected on what she did, but because of that she probably feels so much guilt that she deems herself unowrthy of a Divine's blessing. That's a fundamental part of her character and I don't want to break it with a talk-no-jutsu to convince her to go to a temple, as it may bring unwanted results.
But as I stated before, I'm a simp. That's the main reason I did this mod in the first place. I want to be clever about it. The problem, as I see it, is the temple itself, not the Dragonborn. So, I need to find a way to make a quest that enables her as a spouse without having to go through the ritual of Mara. A.K.A, make it lore-friendly (and hopefully not sound cringe). Thus she would gain not just spouse dialogue, but mother dialogue as well.
I don't know how to do that, sadly, and I don't see myself learning how to do that in a very long time (I'm open to CK programming teachers), especially with the other priorities I have with this mod. The CK is way more complex that I thought when I started working on this mod. You have no idea the headaches this has given me so far D: