Ranters, welcome back to Game Rant's weekly look at The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and all its modding goodness!

This week, we askew function for the most part and focus on aesthetics and convenience. Gleaming Falls is a modest town/player home halfway between Whiterun and Windhelm that is situated beneath a peaceful waterfall. Riverwood House, while not overly beautiful, is incredibly convenient for new players who need a place to store their ill-gotten (or legitimately gotten) goods before having enough gold to by Breezehome. Finally, we will look at the Heavenly Holy Armor, a beautifully rendered set of heavy armor that looks like it was handed down by Akatosh himself.

As always, the links provided will take players to the Steam Workshop where they can subscribe to the various Skyrim mods. As a reminder, it is best to test each mod with only a few other mods installed to determine stability. The three mods shown here this week all function together wonderfully.

First Up: Gleaming Falls

Gleaming Falls

Author: Countercruel

While Skyrim is definitely a beautiful game, with lush forests and beautiful waterfalls, there are few true peaceful areas where players can kick back and put their feet up. Most player homes, detailed and full of goodies, don't offer a real sense of serenity. Thankfully, there is a great mod called Gleaming Falls that is half-player home, half-semi functional town.

Gleaming Falls is just down the road and East of Whiterun. The map marker will alert players when they have arrived, and there are steps leading the way down to the retreat. It is completely hidden from the road, settled in a small valley, giving it even more of a secluded and peaceful feel.

Unlike other small outposts and villages, Gleaming Falls is empty of intelligent life. There are no NPCs present, but that doesn't mean the small, tucked-away retreat isn't full of use. Players will find a fully-functioning blacksmith, alchemy and enchanting table, and a place to sleep. There is plenty of storage for loot, but take note that some of the barrels and storage containers are designed to respawn, meaning their contents reset periodically. Be mindful of this when using the Gleaming Falls mod.

Riverwood House

Author: AClassyChap

The start of the game can be somewhat tough for players to hold their goods they've looted across Skyrim. While Breezehome in Whiterun is relatively cheap, earning 5000 gold takes a little while at the lower levels. Even though players can use a glitch/exploit to obtain Breezehome for free, they still must have the gold. The Riverwood House mod helps the early player eliminate the need to be a pack-rat early on.

Situated on the Western bank of the river through the town, Riverwood House is a modest home with fairly spacious, if not overly unique interiors. There are some very nice goodies spread throughout the home, as well as plenty of storage for loot. There is a large basement in Riverwood House, complete with a fully functioning forge, minus a smelter. While this is a nice touch, all of these services are available at Alvor's house as well, but it's nice to know that these services belong to the player.

While not overly flashy, Riverwood House is still a great mod for players because of its central location and its availability to players immediately at the beginning of the game.

Heavy Holy Armor

Author: HFH Avenger

The Heavy Holy Armor set is designed for the dragon-slaying hero who no longer wants to romp around Skyrim in dark and drab armor any longer. Author HFH Avenger created a gorgeous set of armor that shines in the sun light as much as it is functional to its bearer.

This set of armor was made using the ebony armor model and recoloring the textures. Found under the Dragon Smithing section at the forge (100 smithing skill required), the Heavy Holy Armor is a fully craftable armor set that has the same stats as Daedric armor. The armor update is purely aesthetic, but it's a very nice aesthetic addition.

The only drawback is the expense to craft. Each piece of the set requires a piece of ebony armor (one for each respective type) and other crafting items, including dragon bones and scales, gold ingots, silver ingots, and diamonds. Of course, players could simply add the necessary items via the console, but what fun would that be? Of course, most of the items are not hard to find, but diamonds are not easy to come by. We at Game Rant will forgive you if you craft these items legitimately save for the diamonds.

Ranters, what do you think of these mods? Do you like the mods that brighten up Skyrim?

Skyrim mods are available only for the PC.

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