If there's one thing that Skyrim and the Elder Scrolls series isn't short on, it's lore. I mean, that's kind of in the series' name, so it would be a bit of an oversight if there wasn't a healthy dollop of history slowly congealing over the snow-flecked cheeks of its northern wastes. But out of all of that history, from the Falmer to the mysteriously disappeared Snow Elves, there's none that seem quite as interesting as the Dwemer, the closest thing The Elder Scrolls has ever come to dwarves.
They're genius inventors, and the fruits of their hard work litter the underground of Skyrim's cities, and deep in its mountains. Automated traps and machines heave under the surface, and deadly robots and mechanisms do their best to protect the Dwemer's legacy. Which, naturally, makes the entire race ripe for exploration by enterprising modders, who have already made giant leaps and bounds in fleshing out the experience of both delving underground into the Dwemer complexes, and generally expanding Skyrim through offering more Dwemer content to enjoy.
Dwemer Spectres
Pastaspace has actually resurrected feature of Morrowind by bringing in Dwemer Spectres, which manifests the Dwemer's spirits in more than just the machines they left behind. Now the Dwemer ruins are significantly more dangerous, featuring the ghosts of Dwemer past, adding to the hostile history that you're attempting to pillage. Not only will you have to deal with great hulking automatons, but also their creators, too.
Not only that, but there's a whole range of unique spectre bosses, lore-friendly and a proper challenge, even for seasoned Skyrim veterans. More than just adding flavour to the areas of Skyrim where the Dwemer architecture still holds fast, it makes things significantly more dangerous, too.
Dwemer LuggageWhich means you're probably going to want to have some sort of help. You could go the boring route of just turning the Dwemer on themselves with this Dwemer Servant, but you're a proper fighter, and you are much more interested in filling your coffers than making sure your body is still filled with blood, right? Then step right this way, and grab yourself some Dwemer Luggage.
It's a giant chest whose opening serves as a portal to a holding dimension, and it comes with the excellent addition of a set of mechanical legs, so you don't have to worry about leaving any of your kit behind as you wander around. It might be slightly creepy, and perhaps even a touch sinister, but that shouldn't stop you from shoving its lid/mouth with as much loot as you, well, it, can stomach. The adventurer's best friend.
Dwemer Mining FacilitySpeaking of best friends, you're kind of tired, aren't you? You've been swinging that axe for months, and hurling fireballs from your fingertips for what feels like years. The thought of delving deep into a mine to start ponderously picking away at some hunk of rock in the hope that you might get some ore worth something just makes you groan, right? Then you'll want to be getting yourself the Dwemer Mining Facility, which takes all the hard work out of pillaging the soil for its bounty.
You'll need Dwarven Smithing to build it, but once you do you can just pull the lever, wait a day or two, and return to have the facility spit out a whole buffet of delicious gems and ore for you to turn into, well, whatever your smithy heart desires. Now you can look back at all those days pouring sweat into the wooden shaft of a pickaxe and laugh. Perhaps feel slightly sad that you wasted all that time, but mostly laugh.
And there you have it: three different ways to expand on the Dwemer, and use their inventions for your own personal gain. Don't worry about copyright, that won't be invented for a good few hundred years. Why don't you go steal that song you heard a bard sing the other day, too? No one will stop you.
The disappearance of the Dwemer is one of the Elder Scrolls' greatest mysteries. Think we'll ever find out what happened to them, or are we going to have to rely on mods like these to make them feel like a more lively part of Tamriel?