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Skyrim and other Creation Engine games utilize an in-built localization system to support multiple languages. Historically, this system has been misunderstood by the modding community, who have opted to directly translate plugins rather than localize them. This article documents this system and how to localize plugins.

Advantages Over Direct Translation

The vast majority of translations available on Nexusmods and other sites are created by copying a mod's plugin file (esm, esp, or esl) and directly replacing the text inside. The translated plugin file then overwrites the mod's original plugin file, and the translated text appears in game. This method (referred to as 'direct translation' in this article, though there is no commonly accepted name for it) is perfectly functional, but has some notable shortcomings. The largest by far is that translations are not preserved through updates. Any change to the original mod's plugin file must be forwarded to the translated plugin, either by re-translating the original or recreating all changes in the previously translated plugin. This is both time consuming and leaves much room for error.

Another major issue involves distributing mods intended to include multiple languages. If utilizing the