Beyond Skyrim promises to make the open-world RPG bigger than ever

Past the borders of Skyrim’s vast, and already detailed, map lay the lands only spoken about in passing.

If you’ve ever yearned to walk past those edges and venture into new lands, expanding your next playthrough of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, then this project is the one for you.

Skyrim is one of the most moddable games on PC and features a wealth of content from the community

Beyond Skyrim is the brainchild of several mod teams who are hoping to work together to expand the playable areas of the original game.

So far, the team has released one expansion which will lead players into Cyrodil, the setting for the fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion.

Each part of the team will work on separate regions of Tamriel, though they share resources to ensure uniformity and quality throughout.

At present, the team is working through many new regions including Argonia, Atmora, Elsweyr, Iliac Bay, Roscrea, and the setting of my personal favourite Elder Scrolls adventure, Morrowind.

The plan is to release each region separately, however, it will be possible to walk from one region to another, charting a long journey across the world.

A nice detail noted on the project’s FAQ page is the dedication to the lore established by Bethesda.

This means that you’ll find all the correct details littered throughout, and shouldn’t see any contradictions between existing games and this mod.

Both regions of Atmora and Morrowind are in a “pre-release” phase, with active work ongoing - you can even join the team if you’re a talented 2D or 3D artist with a passion for modding.

The work of mod teams like this will forever astound me with their drive and determination to keep games alive and see them evolve beyond the original scope.

With some genuinely gorgeous assets already created and a superb batch of songs in an original soundtrack, this is going to be like playing a brand-new instalment in the franchise.