Hello ladies gentlemen comrades and undecided. What do we know about the mod life cycle?? Well, everything seems to be clear with them, first someone comes up with the idea of somehow complementing their favorite (or least favorite) game, then, through much trial and error, alpha and beta versions are created, which are subsequently finalized, and sometimes this takes entire years. Well, whether the mod becomes popular or not depends on the gaming community; at best, a fan modification may even result in a separate full-fledged game.
However, does it always happen this way?? What if I tell you about a mod that did exactly the opposite?? That is, he had a lot of fans, they discussed him, made fan art about him, looked for download links. But at the same time, the mod itself did not even exist in nature. How is this possible? Well, most likely, many of you have already guessed what exactly we are talking about. But for those who don’t know, it’s still worth telling everything from the very beginning.
I won’t recount everything in detail here. But, in general, it all started with a post from a Morrowind fan who was looking for information about a certain mod with an unclear name jvk1166z.esp. It’s not that it was so difficult to download, the problem was more in getting it to run. But the author of the post wrote that he came across someone online who managed to do this, and for some reason the mod was launched via DOSbox. However, the strangeness did not end there; already in the game itself, immediately after leaving the imperial office, the same mesmerizing message popped up about “with the death of this character, the thread of your destiny is broken” and so on. And indeed, it turned out that all the characters important for the main quest were already dead, that is, it was already possible to complete the game, all that remained was to live in that same damned world.
By the way, the world of Vardenfell has also changed a little. Although at first it wasn’t noticeable. But if a player went out into the streets of one of the cities around midnight, he could notice that all the NPCs were just standing outside. And when I tried to talk to them and find out what was happening here, the only response I received was: “Look at the sky.”. However, after a while, all the non-player characters returned to their daily activities, as if nothing had happened.
It’s clear that, having learned exactly how to launch the mod, many players, who also read about it on the forum, did just that. But over time, new messages about oddities began to arrive on the forum dedicated to the mod. For example, many began to notice that the character’s health was gradually being taken away, just a little bit at a time, almost imperceptibly, but steadily. As it turned out, the culprit is a certain new character who constantly pursues the player, and it is almost impossible to notice him, since he is constantly hiding somewhere.
Moreover, the author of the post himself saw THIS for the first time only when it was already standing over his corpse. On the forum, the creature was dubbed an assassin, since it was dressed in something similar to the armor of the Dark Brotherhood from the add-on. But that’s where all the similarities with hired killers ended, since the creature had long legs, of course somewhat reminiscent of a spider, and, in fact, it moved accordingly. Some even claimed to have seen the Assassin crawling along the walls and ceilings.
Over time, one of the players discovered a Dunmer NPC added by the mod and issuing a new quest. Following which, you will have to go far to the west of Vardenfell, to a certain Citadel, and the only goal that was set was “to reveal the secrets of the Ancients”. Upon arrival, players discovered a cave. Moreover, from level to level, the dungeon could change completely unexpectedly, that is, if the player encountered an ordinary cave, then it was later replaced by tombs and Daedric ruins. One of the last levels turned out to be a typical Dweremer dungeon, followed by the final level – the same dungeon, only much darker and filled with either steam or fog.
Moreover, at all levels of the Citadel, the enemies were so difficult that only a few players managed to get to the very end of the lowest level to find there… but let’s take a short break.
As you most likely already guessed, this whole story is with a mod under the strange name jvk1166z.esp. was nothing more than an ordinary creepypasta. More precisely, not that ordinary, many of those who read it agree that jvk is one of the best creations in its, so to speak, genre. To be honest, I’m not that familiar with many creepypastas, so I’ll trust the opinion of connoisseurs. Although. for my taste, there are several shortcomings in the original story, but, I admit, it was still quite entertaining to read.
And if you were not familiar with the original paste before and became interested in it, then close this blog and come back after reading. Because, I will retell it further, but in a condensed version, for those who have simply forgotten or for those who are not particularly touched by such things. However, for further storytelling, you still need to go through the main bits of the story. So I warned you, there will be spoilers for the pasta below.
So, we stopped at the moment casinorise.co.uk when the forum members passed the last level of the Citadel to get to the location, which a little later was dubbed the “Portrait Room”. The point is that the whole room was hung with various paintings, all the time facing the player, moreover, the images for them were taken by the game directly from the user’s folders. Having passed through this room, at the end opposite from the entrance, one could find another door that led… but where it led became the main mystery of the mod itself, since no matter what the players tried to do, it did not open.
All those who reached this point, and there were quite a few of them due to the incredible complexity of the mod, either abandoned the passage here, or, like the author of the post, returned to the quest giver,. But even here they were disappointed, since all he now said was the notorious: “Look at the sky.”. And in general, all the NPCs in the game stopped communicating with the protagonist, well, with the exception of uttering this one single phrase. At this point, usually even the most persistent gave up trying to pass jvk1166z.
However, according to the laws of the genre, the only player with whom the author of the post maintained personal correspondence noticed that not only the behavior of the NPC had changed, but also the image of the sky had changed from the usual Tamrielic one to another, also familiar, but from our real world. Thanks to cunning astronomical calculations, the gamer hypothesized that the final door in the Citadel should open if you wait three in-game years. However, there was one problem, the same Assassin, who did not give the opportunity to simply rewind time, since he always followed the game character and began to attack, he should have stayed in one place for a while. Because of this, a friend of the author of the post had to constantly move around the map.
Over time, other changes began to happen to the game. The image of the starry sky was constantly changing, moreover, in accordance with the location of stars in the real world, starting in 2005 and so on. Gradually the game began to become darker, and NPCs began to leave populated areas for the nearest dungeons. However, the most terrible thing is that the Assassin also changed, now before attacking the victim, he began to scream heart-rendingly.
But the changes in the game did not stop there, as I already said, the image became darker and darker until eternal night set in, in which it was difficult to make out anything except the stars, the position of which already corresponded to the star maps for 2011. The NPC’s eyes began to bleed, and if you start a conversation with them, they still say the same phrase. And now, somewhere in the distance, at the very edge of visibility, in the darkness around the protagonist, it was constantly possible to barely distinguish some obscure figures. The Assassin still pursued the player, screamed heart-rendingly and attacked, but now he constantly crawled much closer to the character and could be seen more often. The player constantly ran to check the door, but it still refused to budge.
After some time, the writer reported that when entering the game, he began to find his character not where he left it when exiting. The most striking case was when he discovered his game avatar in the Corprusarium, although he did not remember how he went there. Moreover, as it turned out, Yagrum Bagarn is still available for dialogue, but the dialogue itself has changed and the last Dwemer now reported that the player is already close to the solution.
According to the classics, such stories should not end well. Well, accordingly, at the end of this creepypasta, the same friend who supposedly wrote to the author of the post either went crazy because of playing this mod, or began to see “real” ghosts. In general, as I already said, read and decide for yourself, after all, we are not here today for the sake of a simple retelling.
According to some reports, the original creepypasta was first published in 2010, of course, on 4chan. Why “according to some information”? Yes because. That now it is no longer possible to find the original, but the paste very quickly spread across the Internet and after a while, you could find it anywhere. Creepypasta was published both by fans of such creativity and by communities of Scrolls fans; it was included in the tops and published in printed collections.
Moreover, over time, half-joking forums appeared, where people continued to wonder how, after all, to open that very door. Of course, there were those who, not knowing about the original source, took everything at face value. Some tried to find a link to that very mod, sometimes in some discussions there were those who even dropped this link. Needless to say, in most cases, such links did not lead to anything good.
Of course, over time, a whole fan community formed around this one non-existent mod. A subreddit appeared where a group of enthusiasts discussed the possibility, after all, of bringing to life that same paste mod, or something similar. There were even some direct developments, but over time everything died out. Appearing in 2013, at first, the community reported on the work done, but then messages began to appear less and less, gradually reducing to simply notes of how long ago the work began and that it is still ongoing. Until the depressing message appeared in March 21 that work was currently suspended and, most likely, would never resume. True, after some time this subreddit came back to life for a short time, but not in connection with the resumption of work on the mod, but more on that later.
So, they talked about jvk1166z, even entire fan communities formed around him, themed forum role-playing games were held on him. But at the same time, the mod itself never even existed. However, at this point, some of you will exclaim: “How did this “not exist”!? What kind of screenshots are you showing us here all this time??»
Well, in general, mod jvk1166z.esp really exists, well, sort of. Let me explain what’s going on, but to do this we’ll have to start, as they say, from the very beginning, that is, from arriving in Seyda Neen.
After installing the mod, the initial scene, as well as the character creation process, did not change at all. But, upon leaving the office, the player is actually greeted by the same message about the death of an important plot character, and indeed, if you check, the important quest NPCs are dead, or rather, they fall dead, as soon as you approach them. And already in Seyda Nina, if you decide to wait until Fargot goes to hide his gold, you can notice that the NPCs actually go out into the street and say that very phrase. Moreover, that same Assassin will attack for the first time there, however, unlike the paste, there will be nothing spidery in him. But at the same time, at times he is even capable of frightening, since he appears completely suddenly, literally, out of thin air, and then dissolves there, moreover, he himself is immune to damage. But the sky, of course, does not change to the real one, but simply looks like a glitched texture.
The same Citadel is also present, however, unlike the original creepypasta, I couldn’t reach it in one use of the Icarus scroll, it’s too far away, but as for its structure, everything really turned out exactly as described, the opponents here are really very strong, fortunately the console, unlike the same paste, still works. The portrait room was also in place, although I personally was greeted by empty squares of frames, perhaps I should have thrown the images somewhere there, but I didn’t. And, by the way, to be honest, on my first visit, instead of frames, I actually saw those same yellow diamonds, familiar to those who had lost textures.
And, of course, the door at the end of the room, which, of course, is prohibited and does not open no matter what, even if you use the console. But there is still a way to get through it, but I’ll tell you about it a little later. Well, if we nevertheless open the final door, we will find ourselves at the very end of the creepypasta, that is, Yagarn Tarn will meet us. True, the gnome with augmentations will not praise us for getting closer to the solution, but will simply make fun of the player. Well, this is the end of the mod, especially since there is no way out of this location. Yes and where to go? All the plot characters are dead.
And, of course, the whole part about bleeding eyes, the dark world, the real sky, the Assassin’s screams and empty cities is not in fashion either.
And in general, all this is perceived as a joke. Well, just because it’s really a joke. April Fool’s joke. It was on the first of April that the download link was posted directly under the video by the author of the mod. Yes, the entire mod was created by one single person, and he created it specifically for the purpose of making a joke (a lot of effort was put in for the sake of one joke). And it was a Russian YouTuber – from the Honests Game channel (I will, of course, attach a link to the original video). And once again, a lot of work was done, especially considering the fact that it was done, essentially, as a joke. By the way, the original video tells you how to open the final door from the mod, so if you want to try playing, you will still have to follow the link (which, again, I will leave here).
By the way, I’ll also note that I never managed to get to Tieras, because when approaching the Phantom Gate, I was thrown out of the game. And, as far as I understand, the problem with this NPC arose not only for me, since on the Nexus there seems to be a corrected version of this mod, already from a different author, but it didn’t help me either.
Well, overall… overall, it’s hard to know how to evaluate this mod. That is, formally, up to a certain point, he follows the original source practically word for word. But, still, it’s difficult to perceive it as a horror game, simply because you simply already know what to expect from the game. But at the same time, fans of that original creepypasta were still happy about the release of jvk, albeit in such a comic form.
And, probably, the main advantage of fashion is, no matter how strange it may sound, the opportunity to touch history, a path so unique, in which there were ups and downs, horror, humor, and even, relatively, a great hoax.
Original Honests Games video. Link to download the mod in the video description.
Once again I ask you to follow the link to the author’s original video and support by watching and liking. Well, that’s all for today, thank you, see you later.