Despite the civil war, dragon attacks, and other major events in the province, the people of Markarth seem to have bigger problems of their own.
This jungle of stone and orange metal couldn’t feel farther from the rest of Skyrim.
I’ve never been a fan of spending time in Markarth, but I was able to make my time there more enjoyable with some great mods that improve the city and make your trip there worthwhile. Let me show you some of the best I’ve come across.
One of Markarth’s most remarkable features is the entrance – something you miss if you get there by accident after going out to drink with Sam Guevene during A Night to Remember.
Markarth is a fortress city. It’s supposed to be impregnable!
The entrance sort of reflects that, but I don’t know if it’s enough with the menace of Forsworn or dragon attacks looming over the city.
City Entrances Overhaul – Markarth by JPSteel2 explores what a truly fortified Markarth could look like. The new walled fortress is colossal, armed to the teeth, and manned by the bravest Markarth soldiers.
But if you want to run CEO Markarth with any of the following mods, an increased compatibility version is available here.
JKrojmal’s fantastic city overhauls have been a staple of Skyrim modding for ages.
JK’s Skyrim brings together all of his projects into a single mod for a quick and easy overhaul of every settlement – including Markarth.
This mod leans into Markarth’s Dwemer aesthetic while completely transforming the smithy area, adding new buildings, and changing the décor to give the city a more prosperous look.
It also introduces some well-placed landmarks that make it easier to navigate the city from memory.
A great and simple way to improve the look of a city without messing with its basic structure is by replacing the textures with better, more detailed alternatives.
MRF’s Markarth gives the city a beautiful and realistic look with parallax textures that add depth to irregular surfaces and better reflections to Dwemer metal.
The retexture extends beyond Markarth and into the Dwemer ruins underneath, a nice touch.
Other than the higher-quality textures, I love the addition of moss here and there. Skyrim must be pretty humid, and if people can thrive in Markarth, so can moss!
Usually, you’d think of Markarth as a primarily underground city. There are catacombs, Dwemer ruins, and presumably tons of other facilities we just don’t get access to in the game.
Sky City Markarth Rising by Reindeer51 flips the concept around by developing the city vertically. Instead of assuming there are more buildings underground, we see them rising far above us, embedded in the mountains like everything else in the city.
You’ll see towers and fortifications, Dwemer machinery, and architectural features that sell you the idea of a large and bustling city.
This mod shines for being extremely easy to pair with other overhauls since it keeps to the higher areas of the city.
One thing that really disappointed me about vanilla Markarth was how mundane everything felt despite it being one of the most hardcore cities in Skyrim lore-wise.
I think part of the reason was the uninspired textures. They weren’t great in Dwemer ruins, and they didn’t work any better for an entire city.
FrankFamily’s Frankly HD Markarth (and Dwemer ruins) is the perfect add-on to make The Reach more epic.
These textures are detailed, crisp, and more three-dimensional than their vanilla counterparts.
Frankly HD Markarth has been the gold standard for a long time.
You can’t go wrong with it!
Still, it’s easy to find a couple of textures that could have used some improvement and were sadly overlooked.
Creator Kulharin took matters into their own hands and put together a complete Markarth & Dwemer ruin retexture by filling in the gaps in Frankly HD Markarth with textures from other mods.
Note: it still requires the original Frankly HD Markarth to work, so it’s considered an expansion.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
