Skyrim’s vanilla races cover the basics, but by your fifth playthrough you may want something different. I’ve collected ten mods that add new races or overhaul the existing ones, from Snow Elves and Dwemer to Daedra and playable skeletons. This selection sits alongside the other Skyrim mod collections, if you need more for your setup.
The Ancient Falmer — A Snow Elf Race SE
Adds playable Snow Elves and improves the underdeveloped vanilla Snow Elf appearance from Dawnguard. Custom textures and reworked abilities built around frost and sun magic give the race its own identity.
- Icy Ternion, Icy Fury, Frostbite – starting set of ice spells
- Castigate, Smite, Nova – anti-undead abilities for non-vampires
- Icy Touch, Hoarfrost, Glacial Presence – a separate set for snow elf vampires
- craft Ivory Glass armor and weapons at any forge
- two followers, Valrysa and Ashian, at the Silver-Blood Inn in Markarth
💡 It’s also worth installing the Skin Patcher from The Ancient Falmer Patch Center and loading it after the main mod – otherwise the character will look like an ordinary Snow Elf with texture artifacts.
✅ Gameplay changes: the race is hybrid – there is ice magic and abilities against the undead, which conveniently covers both the open world and dungeons with draugr.
Zebsirious — Tamrielic Races of Skyrim
Adds seven new playable races at once, bringing the total list to seventeen. The format is modeled after Imperious: each race has three passive bonuses and one power, which must be unlocked through a mini-quest, rather than immediately obtained at character creation.
New races: Dwemer, Kothringi, Lilmothiit, Maormer, Orma, Sinistral Elves and Snow Elves.
- three passive abilities per race, plus a power unlocked through a quest
- flexible configuration via MCM Zebsirious
- patches for Growl, Morningstar and Sacrosanct
Each race has its own theme. Kothringi interact with ore veins, Lilmothiit rely on speed and agility, and Orma sense enemy intentions through something like a sixth sense.
✅ Gameplay changes: You get more than another elf with a magicka bonus. These races have distinct mechanics, such as Orma anticipating enemy attacks.
The Races of Oblivion — Golden Saints, Dark Seducers, Winged Twilights
Makes three Daedric types playable: Golden Saints, Dark Seducers and Winged Twilights. They use existing racial morphs, such as Nord for Golden Saints and Breton for Dark Seducers, so most hairstyles in your modlist work.
- Aura of Disintegration: Golden Saints reduce enemy armor resistance
- Dark Mirror – Dark Seducers reflect some melee damage
- Soul Vortex: Winged Twilights drain magicka from nearby enemies
- crafting Aureal and Mazken armor and weapons with the Daedric Smithing perk
- separate body options for Winged Twilights, including tails, claws and feet
⚠️ The mod is marked with an age restriction on Nexus due to some of the textures in the customization pack – keep this in mind before installing.
✅ Gameplay changes: Three different archetypes: a melee tank, a stealthy duelist and a resource-draining mage. Each feels more imposing and distinctly Daedric than a vanilla elf.
Lost Races of Nirn — Ayleid, Dwemer, Maormer, Snow Elf, Tsaesci
Five lore-based races in one FOMOD installer: Ayleid, Dwemer, Maormer, Snow Elf and Tsaesci. Choose between vanilla abilities, an Aetherius version or a version for Racial Abilities – Greater Power Replacement.
- Ayleid: Wild Heart temporarily reduces incoming magic damage and increases spell damage
- Dwemer – Override Command: temporary capture of a dwarven automaton
- Maormer — Fury from the Deep: shock damage to nearby enemies
- Snow Elves — Winds of the North: frost damage to approaching enemies
- Tsaesci: Tsaescence changes resistances with the weather and time of day
The author honestly warns: most of these races have problems with lore – Skyrim is not the place where it’s logical to meet them, so you’ll have to come up with the character’s backstory yourself.
✅ Gameplay changes: Three ability options make it easier to fit these races into an existing modlist without rebuilding it around compatibility.
Aetherius — A Race Overhaul
This overhauls the ten vanilla races rather than adding a new one, but the changes earn it a place here. Large once-a-day powers give way to permanent passives, and lower starting skills make your choice of race matter.
- Highborn for High Elves: more magicka and faster regeneration
- Spell Warding for Bretons – a chance to absorb incoming spells
- Green Pact for Wood Elves: movement speed and sneak attack damage
- addons: absorbing spells from Breton NPCs, distributing starting spells, even lower starting skills
The mod is included in the Simonrim set and seamlessly integrates with Mundus, Adamant and other parts of this ecosystem.
✅ Gameplay changes: The choice of race finally affects not a couple of numbers in the characteristics, but the entire style of the game – an orc with Aetherius feels completely different from vanilla.
Playable Skeleton Races (Orc, Human, Elf, Khajiit, Argonian)
Adds a playable Lich race – a skeleton in five variations for all vanilla body types: human, orc, elf, Khajiit, Argonian. The race supports literally all vanilla clothing and armor, it just shows bones underneath instead of skin.
- full face customization for all five options
- two new companions, Musica and Sans, both available for marriage
- daily powers: a filled soul gem and full resource recovery
- spell absorption scale, growing with character level (from 25% to 100%)
- separate line of armor: Ancient Nordic, Evil Lich, Evil Lich Priest
There is an optional alternate start quest: the character wakes up in a dungeon as a resurrected skeleton, but it requires Alternate Start – Live Another Life to be installed.
✅ Gameplay changes: If you want to play an undead character while keeping vanilla armor usable, this is a surprisingly neat solution.
Half-Khajiit-Race (Ohmes-Raht)
The race is based on M’rissi from M’rissi’s Tail of Troubles: a human face on a Khajiit body. The game treats your character as a normal Khajiit, including claw damage and the Night Eye power.
- patches for High Poly Head, Slof’s Fluffy Khajiit Tails, Imperious and Aetherius
- requires a UNP or CBBE body – without them textures will not be displayed correctly
- vampirism works like any other race, plus a couple of additional abilities
⚠️ The mod is also marked with an age restriction due to some of the body textures – decide for yourself whether this set of resources is suitable for you.
✅ Gameplay changes: If you like the idea of a Khajiit without a feline face, this is one of the few carefully made options on Nexus Mods.
Aedra Race — Powers Once Lost
The first part of a larger series of mods about the lore of Aedra and Daedra. Adds the playable Aedra race, a starting quest and a flight system – the author is still actively developing the mod and maintains it in a separate Discord community.
- own flight system, for which it is recommended to install Open Cities
- optional custom UBE body with unique skin textures
- introductory quest explaining why Aedra ended up in Skyrim
When updating the version, the author directly asks to start a new game – with an old save, the race may behave unpredictably.
✅ Gameplay changes: Flight is rare in Skyrim, and it is the main reason to take a look here, beyond the race itself.
Enhanced Races
Another overhaul instead of a new race, but with a different approach: the author deliberately does not touch the basic skills of the races in order to maintain compatibility with as many other mods as possible. But each race has a thematic set of passives and minor powers.
- Argonian – healing and poison, including spitting poison as a minor power
- Bosmer: stealth archery and an animal ally
- Nord – Battle Cry, temporary enhancement of combat skills and characteristics
- Khajiit – the largest set of bonuses: from silent movement to reduced fall damage
If you already use SPID, the mod can distribute racial bonuses to NPCs as well as the player.
✅ How it feels in battle: races finally differ not only in their starting skill indicators, but in a real set of features that you want to use.
RaceCompatibility for Skyrim Special Edition
RaceCompatibility is a support mod rather than a race, but many custom races depend on it. It fixes Dawnguard vampirism and lycanthropy scripts so they recognize custom races as well as vanilla ones.
- merges Dawnguard scripts with original RaceCompatibility scripts
- adds a missing Bosmer race entry that was not in the file
- optional patches for USSEP and Better Vampires
The author separately warns: the mod must be installed after USSEP in the load order, and the patch for Better Vampires also requires the correct installation of Better Vampires itself after this mod.
✅ Gameplay changes: Custom races can otherwise transform into vampires or werewolves incorrectly, or lose abilities afterward. RaceCompatibility provides the foundation those races need.
How to install mods for new races correctly
Race mods need more care than retextures. They change formlists and vampirism scripts, and can compete over custom-race records. If you use several, pay close attention to load order.
- First install RaceCompatibility – it should load before the race mods themselves.
- Install your chosen races, following each mod’s FOMOD instructions.
- After racial mods, install compatibility patches – for Better Vampires, Growl, Sacrosanct, and so on.
- Run LOOT so that it arranges the plugins in the recommended order.
- If something is wrong, open the console and go to RaceMenu again, this fixes a good half of the problems with stuck race perks.
Which new race should I choose?
For distinct mechanics, try Zebsirious or Lost Races of Nirn. If you want an undead or Daedric character with less setup, Playable Skeleton Races and The Races of Oblivion are worth a look.
If I missed any race mod that is worth adding to the selection, write to me, I will test it and, perhaps, include it in the article
