Masser and Secunda are the remains of the lost god Lorkhan, who was torn in half and launched into Oblivion by Auri-El and Trinimac in ancient times. They govern the lives of Khajiit – not to mention werewolves – and hold deep significance to every religion in Tamriel. As the protagonists of the night sky, Masser and Secunda should be at the top of your modding priority for a more aesthetically pleasing night sky. And these are my picks for mods that give your celestial bodies an extreme makeover!
1. Majora’s Mask Moon
Check Out This Mod Masser and Secunda are fine – but they’ll never be as iconic as Majora’s Mask’s ominous celestial body. It’s hard to say whether the moon shining over Termina always had a face – but thanks to Majora’s evil influence, it’s now plummeting toward the ground with a psychopathic expression. This mod by SarcasticDragon brings this cosmic terror to the skies over Skyrim, replacing Masser and Secunda. If this kind of cartoonish moon is something you enjoy, consider going for Soul Eater’s moon too!
2. The Dragon Moons 4K
Check Out This Mod Thanks to the minuscule amount of environmental pollution in Skyrim, you can see the moons floating above you with incredible detail. The Dragon Moons by Tobii drives this point home with 4K textures that make the red moon over Skyrim look crisp – almost as if you were looking at it from space. I say “the red moon” instead of Masser because this moon has two satellites, meaning it’s neither Masser nor Secunda but an entirely new celestial body. Maybe it’s not lore-friendly, but The Dragon Moons will make your night sky look decidedly bad-ass.
3. Megalophobia – Huge Moons
Check Out This Mod Skyrim’s moons look somewhat bigger than our own pearly white satellite here on Earth – but you can always go bigger. Megalophobia is defined as a “morbid fear of very large objects,” and it’s exactly what you’d feel if one day you looked out of the window and saw the moon was three times as large as the night before. This mod turns Masser and Secunda into huge versions of themselves by scaling Masser up by 3.5x and Secunda by 2.0x. The feeling of scale and proximity makes Skyrim feel like a terraformed habitat on an asteroid or a larger planet’s moon!
4. TB’s Atmospheric Moon Distortion
Check Out This Mod You have to check out TB’s Atmospheric Moon Distortion mod if you’re looking for realism. Thanks to a phenomenon known as atmospheric refraction, the light reflected by the Earth’s moon gets distorted as it makes its way to us through the planet’s gaseous atmosphere. It’s unclear what kind of atmosphere (if any) Nirn would have, considering that the universe in The Elder Scrolls is very different from ours. Still, one thing is for sure: the moons over Skyrim look way too crisp compared to our own, which can make them look unrealistic. This mod by TB changes Masser and Secunda’s textures to imitate the refractory effect of our atmosphere. It makes them look like they’re hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
5. Skygazer Moons – Masser & Secunda Retexture
Check Out This Mod Skygazer Moons by FadingSignal has been the #1 moon enhancing mod for Skyrim since the Legendary Edition days – and it’s even better in Special Edition. This mod gives Masser and Secunda a sublime makeover with very detailed textures that use real-life images from Mars and Saturn’s moon Enceladus as a reference to create two beautiful, realistic moons. These textures have a resolution four times higher than the vanilla moons, and the most recent update to this mod added glowing versions for those of you who like a little extra magic.
