SureAI

In the interview, I was curious about the "special launcher" that was mentioned. At present, I must play Skyrim through Steam. Will I be able to launch Enderal without using Steam?

More than likely not. Steam may have to be up and running. If it is anything like nehrim was, the game will have its own launcher, mod list, and a bunch of links, info, news, updates, etc.

Actually, im not even sure if steam would be needed. Skyrim can be bought on a disc, and run without steam if I am correct, but if steam is required, it would probably be for authentication reasons.

Skyrim requires Steam, even the disc version
I'm also a little curious how they will manage to run a total conversion, optionally without removing/overwriting Skyrim. But I'm not exactly aware of the restrictions and options developers have with Steam. It would be nice if Valve (or Bethesda) have some options to allow total conversions like Enderal to be a bit more independent from their main game (still requiring it, but maybe with a seperate entry in Steam). But I honestly doubt they will care about these things.