Inigo
is an advanced Game Mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by Gary "SmartBlueCat" Hesketh, which involves the titular Inigo as a potential follower for the Dragonborn. The Dragonborn first finds him locked away in a Riften cell, atoning for his past crimes. He claims to remember the Dragonborn as an old friend, one whom he betrayed. Regardless of whether or not the player recalls these memories, Inigo can be recruited as a follower and the player can find out more about his past from there.
The first version of the mod was released in August 2013. SmartBlueCat has since expanded quite a bit on the mod, allowing Inigo to, amongst other things, interact with other followers added by mods. SmartBlueCat is currently working on version 3.0 of the mod, which, according to teasers, is going to expand significantly on Inigo's personal questline and backstory.
Inigo provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Bi: If the Dragonborn goes running around naked, Inigo may remark that he thinks they have a nice body. He says this regardless of the Dragonborn's gender.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: His twin brother, Fergus, was killed by a racist mob that had blamed the two brothers for a rash of burglaries in their town. Fergus, who was already wounded, pushed Inigo out the back of their tent and down a hill, staying behind to fight off the mob while Inigo escaped. It's clear from his conversation with the Dragonborn that he still harbors a good deal of Survivor's Guilt.
- Artificial Brilliance: A major selling point of the mod. This comes through most clearly with his conversation triggers:
- Inigo will switch to a low whisper if you talk to him while sneaking.
- Inigo has specific reactions to different enemies; he'll be ecstatic at fighting spiders, for instance. This even gets as specific as calling out Elenwen as a bully should you choose to fight her.
- If you give Inigo a set of Guard armor, he'll play the part of a Hold Guard, including opening fights with bandits with "Stop right there, criminal scum!".
- If you have Lydia and Inigo as followers at the same time, they'll sometimes have conversations of their own (using spliced dialogue from the game files for Lydia's end). He does this with other followers as well, notably Kharjo.
- If you use Healing Hands on Inigo, he'll thank you if he's low on HP, but if he's at full health or near it, he'll tell you to save your magic.
- Many conversations you have with Inigo can only be had if you're both sitting down, either at an inn or at the player's home.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The mod gives several to the player.
- Whenever Inigo is lost, the player can use their enchanted map and set a quest marker on him to find him. This can only be done after Inigo points out that the player's map is enchanted, which is done shortly after they first meet.
- The player can change up Inigo's playstyle, either to make him more aggressive or only attack on the player's command.
- Later on in the questline, the player receives a spell that can teleport Inigo to the player if they are friends. However, if the player ruins their friendship then the spell will no longer work the same way.
- The Atoner: Inigo feels really bad for sticking an arrow in his old friend's skull, to put it lightly.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Not so creepy to Inigo. His favorite creature to fight is a giant spider.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Inigo specializes in both with his own ebony weapons, but the player can replace his equipment with other items if desired.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The player can find out more about Inigo's past through his own tales, as well as Langley's stories about those events.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: You'll notice that Inigo's family isn't anywhere to be seen. His adoptive parents and brother are all dead by the time the player meets him in the cell. His parents were attacked by bandits, and his brother was killed by racists. And that's not to mention Inigo's real parents...
- Developer's Foresight: Inigo has a lot of different conversation triggers for various situations, including what armor he and the Dragonborn are wearing (or even if they're not wearing anything), what types of enemies they're fighting, etc. See also Artificial Brilliance above. Some examples:
- If Inigo is wearing guard armor, he'll frequently tell enemies that they're under arrest.
- He will make comments on many of the game's unique items if he is equipped with them, particularly the Daedric artifacts.
- If you give him a crossbow, he'll comment on it and even say "My bow is very cross with you!" during fights.
- If you start running backwards, Inigo will warn you against tripping.
- If you dress him in Dark Brotherhood armor, he'll begin to refer to you as Brother or Sister and make comments about the Night Mother.
- Fantastic Racism: Inigo is on the receiving end of this, having been both a Khajiit and an odd colored one at that.
- Furry Reminder: Inigo may make references to chasing his tail or complain about having to deal with fleas.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Inigo has some very distinctive facial scars that look like they were left by a creature's claw.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Even if Inigo is obeying the Dragonborn's orders, there's no changing the fact that he's incredibly powerful and can easily outmatch an early-game player. There's also the fact that Inigo is actually the hero of his own prophecy, so the Dragonborn can even possibly serve as a Hyper-Competent Sidekick to Inigo in turn!
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: If the Dragonborn is unmarried and wears the Amulet of Mara when talking to Inigo, Inigo may quote this trope almost word for word.
- Interspecies Adoption: Somewhat. While his adoptive mother was also a Khajiit, his adoptive father was Argonian.
- Malicious Misnaming: A playful version. When interacting with Lucien, Inigo sometimes call him "Julian", despite admitting that he does knows better when Lucien confronts him about it. Much to Inigo's amusement, Lucien decides to fire back by calling him "Indigo".
- Mark of the Supernatural: Inigo's blue fur is actually an important aspect of his backstory. A Khajiit's appearance is based on the alignment of the moons at the time of their birth, and Inigo's unique coloration is the result of an extremely rare lunar alignment that only occurs once every two centuries or so. The window of this alignment is apparently extremely narrow, as his twin brother, born just a few minutes afterward, had much more traditional Khajiit coloring. Unfortunately, he was born into a tribe that considered a blue-furred baby to be a "bad moon omen" and he was slated to be sacrificed.
- Master Archer: Inigo does like to boast about his archery skills, but he can back it up easily and very clearly favors his bow over his sword.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The crazy tales Inigo recounts to the player can be too far-fetched to believe, and it is up to the player to believe him or not. That being said, there is some evidence proving him right. Like his story about Windhelm can be backed up by the bodies underneath the bridge.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The villainous figure called Doom Strider serves as one. And what they apparently will do in the future really earns them that title.
- Nice Guy: Inigo is infinitely loyal to the player is generally friendly to other NPCs (with a few exceptions, such as Nazeem, the legendary Jerkass from Whiterun).
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: To a degree. Inigo has much of the same drawling, sing-song timbre as most Khajiit, but completely lacks their syntax, referring to himself in the first person rather than the third. He was rescued from his home village by a pair of mercenaries when he was very young, who became his and his brother's new adoptive parents. His adoptive mother was a Khajiit, but they were raised away from any other Khajiit community.
- The Lancer: Inigo was practically designed to be this for the Dragonborn, albeit a much more supportive version than normal. His sly, oddball way of speaking contrasts the player's straightforward dialogue options (both within the mod and without) and unless you go out of your way to mimic him, his style of combat will contrast with yours.
- Mages have a frontline warrior specializing in one handed weapons who will protect them while they prepare their spells.
- Warriors get an archer to support them from afar while they handle the front lines.
- Thieves find themselves will a chaotic ball of screaming insults charging their enemies for a perfect distraction.
- Schrödinger's Question: Used upon his introduction. At the beginning of the game, Inigo has voluntarily committed himself to the Riften jail. When the player finds him, Inigo recognizes them and he explains that he is attempting to atone for prior actions committed while depressed from his brother's death and under a skooma addiction. Specifically, for betraying the player while he/she and Inigo were on a mission and Inigo tried to kill the player for their share of the profits, causing the player to lose their memory. The player can respond definitively that the incident never took place, that it happened to someone else, or accept that it happened and they have no recollection of it. If the player denies it, Inigo will insist that the player was his old partner, but he was admittedly very deep into skooma at the time and no other character can verify the story one way or the other, so it could be true, he could be mistaken as to who it was that he betrayed, or he could have hallucinated the whole thing. The mod never confirms one version of events over another and the mod author has stated that whatever answer the player gives becomes the "truth" of that playthrough.
- Stalker without a Crush: A strange heroic example. After following through a questline, the player will come across Langley, who has been stalking Inigo for years to gather more information about this "champion" of a prophecy.
- Those Two Guys: Due to Inigo having a large amount of unique crossover dialogue and party banter with other mod follower, Lucien, they develop this relationship if they both are in the player's party. Most often their dynamic takes the shape of Straight Man and Wise Guy, with Lucien being the former and Inigo the latter, although Lucien often proves that he is Not So Above It All and more than happy and eager to play along with some of Inigo's stranger ideas.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Inigo loves sweetrolls. So much, in fact, if you add a sweetroll to his inventory, you can occasionally catch him wolfing it down, and it disappearing from his inventory.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Some of Inigo's ambient dialogue is him marveling at how beautiful the world around you is, such as remarking on how beautiful the stars look on a clear night.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Inigo is scared of draugr and is not fond of the undead in general. According to one of his stories, he was nearly torn apart by a horde of draugr, which is how he got some of his distinctive facial scars.
