[Morus Ivylake]
This build came from a challenge some associates of mine left me on a discord group. The "Three Word Challenge" So I've decided to turn it into a series of builds/possibly a challenge to issue to other members? The rules are you get issued 3 words, with things like one-handed and heavy armor counting as "one" for the sake of build convenience. You must utilize all three words as parts of your build. It could be a weapon a skill.. etc. My first three word challenge words are Stealth, Chillrend, One-Handed. So as part of the Three Word Challenge, I present to you, the Emperor of Shadows!
Backstory
Morus was born in Valenwood, home of moving tree cities and all sorts of wonders. Unfortunately he was never fully able to appreciate it, as he was born with little to no sight. Though his parents spent almost all their money, they were never able to find a potion or spell to make his sight return. It never really vexed him having no sight however, for while his sight was shadowed, he was never truly blinded from the world. He was always able to know roughly where people were in relevance to him, and though he often needed a guide to find his way through buildings and the like.. his hearing and other senses were heightened to compensate.. so usually kicking a small stone or wearing a small bangle would allow him to hear the echoes and know exactly how far walls were from him.. so he seldom ended up walking into walls.
Though his sight was darkened, he also swiftly became one of the better archers in his village, for as long as he shot second, he could hear the sound of the arrow impacting upon the target.. and from that, and the murmurs of the elves witnessing the shot, he was usually able to get an idea as to where the center of the target was. If the shot was "Close" to where he heard the impact he would usually adjust his aim according to what they would say about his foes. He also found himself decent enough at Swordsmanship, since most fighters opted to wear armor.. armor which would make noise and alert him to where the blows would be coming from. Over time, he turned to magic to make his "sight" better in a fashion.. spells like "Detect Life" would allow him to sense the living auras of all people around him. All he would then have to do was listen to the sounds of their footsteps to know where steps and furniture were, and he was able to navigate without assistance much more easily. Due to his ways of "Seeing" the world, he developed quite a knack for stealth and being undetected.. though his intention was not originally to be a thief or an assassin he soon grew to enjoy being undetected by prey, be it animals or humans.
He started to develop a relationship with one of the local girls, who didn't mind his blindness or his unique way of seeing.. She had been maimed in a housefire when she was a young girl, and had scarring up her side and on her face. Morus of course saw none of this only the aura of the woman he loved. It was after he met her that he murdered for the first time.. one of the other men from the village tried to court his wife away from him. This man was a rival of Morus's from back in the days, and never quite let it go that a blind man could shoot better than he could. Morus crept after the man in the treetops one night, after he had arranged to meet with Morus's potential mate. That meeting never happened.
He was contacted by a local version of the Dark Brotherhood and lived a double life, a quiet home life with his beloved, who suspected nothing, and when called upon would go for "magic lessons" sometimes for weeks on end. He told her he was trying to get his vision repaired so he could look into her eyes.. and as people so often do.. she believed him. Who would suspect a blind man who required magic to know how not to bump into a chair could ever be a ruthless assassin.. but the gold he earned from the contracts saw his mate and he into a loving marriage, a home of their own.. and the beginning of his downfall.
One night he came home to find his wife murdered, and discovered that his secret had been discovered. He sought refuge with his guild of assassins but found they had fled.. and without sight he could not discover the hidden clues they had left within for any members needing to locate the guild. So he did the only thing left to him.. he fled as well. He retrieved one of his caches of gold, too scared to head home and retrieve anything there in case his pursuers came back, and hitched rides on carriages, boats.. whatever it took. He was too busy focussing his attentions on what was possibly catching up that he walked.. aha blindly.. into an ambush. However his adventures were just beginning...
[Replace the perk spread image above with one containing your perk choices. If you don't know how to do one, head over the Skyrim Art group's
and post a comment there with your perks and image.]
Basic Information
Race: Wood Elf/Bosmer. Male. Only requirement is that his eyes both be white to indicate blindness.
Stone: Early Game Thief Stone. You can easily use Faendal or Aela the Huntress and a lot of cash to get your archery skill up to 50-75 for free if you have them as a follower, and your one handed will level up on its own. Late Game probably Atronach for a bit of extra defense vs mages with the Aetherial Crown containing the Shadow stone since infinite use invisibility isn't something you should pass on.
Stats Distribution: [3] Magicka | [3] Health | [3] Stamina. (Basically go even across the board here. You need plenty of magic to keep using stuff like Detect Life/Detect Dead and you'll also need stamina to do power attacks and get extra carrying capacity and your health just for survivability. You're blind not feeble.
Equipment: At the Start of the game wear Ragged Robes and footwraps. Once you get your first house, start wearing a simple and clean green robe with jewelry you find. Once you either become Thane of Solitude or Windhelm you start wearing Noble Clothes. These can be found in the East Empire Company Warehouse, along with fur lined boots. Might need to sell them to a fence and buy them back so they don't get taken away if you get arrested. Then your end game, after you kill the Emperor of Tamriel wear Emperor's Robes, Fine Shoes, Aetherial Crown. For your rings we have three paths that I will describe for end game RP purposes further down. Weapons: Early game wield an elven sword and bow. These are easily obtained by getting 250 gold, then taking a follower with you to Solstheim. If you run from the gate down to the farm down the way you'll find a free full set of bonemould armor plus shield for your likely heavy armor follower, and a couple elven arrows, an elven bow and elven sword on the dead redoran guard. Don't worry about the ash spawn, let your follower deal with it or simply run back to the Bulwark and let the guards kill them. Late game are determined by your RP path.
Gameplay
Though there is no true way to play as "Blind" character in Skyrim, in early game and when not doing stealth you'll need to keep a follower with you at all times. We're going to invest in the alteration skill tree, for armor spells and for the Detect spells. You can also use iron arrows to shoot the walls of dungeons as a sort of RP thing.. you can hear the vibrations and sense where monsters are because of it etc.
[Archery]: As this is a stealth build, and Bosmer are the best at Archery, it feels silly not to include it. This will be your primary damage dealing skill.. picking enemies off from the shadows with your bow and keep things at a distance. Though you are blind, you need to get at least Eagle Eye to get the quick shot and power shot skills.. just don't use it I guess?
Perks Chosen: Overdraw (5) Critical Shot (3)Hunter's Discipline, Ranger, Bullseye,Eagle Eye, Quick Shot, Power Shot
[One Handed]: If enemies get close to you, you're going to want something better to do than shoot them in the face. As such we're going with One Handed. A sword fits his backstory and will keep you alive vs most foes.
Perks Chosen:Armsman (5), Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Critical Charge, Paralyzing Strike.
[Alteration]: As your primary source of vision for this build, and for your armor skills you are going to want to max this perk tree out fairly quickly to make sure your spells cost you as little magicka as possible. Get the Atronach perk as well as it gives you even more defense against magicka damage.
Perks Chosen: Novice Alteration, Apprentice Alteration, Adept Alteration, Expert Alteration, Atronach
[Sneak]: Obviously we're going to need Stealth for this build, as you are a stealth character and as you are unarmored, you want to be as undetected as possible to avoid as many fights as you can. The inability to set off traps is also likewise a really good thing.
Perks Chosen: Stealth (5) Muffled Movement, Backstab, Silent Roll, Deadly Aim, Light Foot, Silence, Shadow Warrior.
[Block]:As you will not be using a shield you will want to get the most power out of your blade that you can, and the bash perks of the block tree, plus the shield wall perks will help give you the most survivability we can without using a shield or armor.
Perks Chosen:Shield Wall (5) Quick Reflexes, Power Bash, Deadly Bash, Disarming Bash.
Roleplay
I have to include a separate section for my Roleplay this time. In this section I will be detailing specific roleplay rules that you can play as. I've already tried it out on my own so they ARE viable and doable.. they just add a lot of extra challenge to your game. I will also be detailing two possible paths to minimize as much of these as possible, for people that don't want to deal with the super heavy roleplay aspects.
Roleplay Rules
- You must always keep a follower with you at all times! They are your eyes.
- You must always let your follower attack your foes first. This allows you to "Hear' where the foe is and shoot them to support your ally.
- You must get Chillrend last, as this is a non combat build the best form of chillrend does not spawn within the game until level 46 and higher, so when you reach that level, get Chillrend for your endgame weapon. You may use a glass sword when they start spawning.
Roleplay Paths
In this build I present you with three optional paths to take your character for completely seperate roleplay reasons. Each affect your playstyle to a degree and as such should be picked carefully.. If you pick a path there is no going back, you must pick a side.
PATH OF THE BEAST
This path involves you joining the Dawnguard, and the Companions. You will obtain the blood of the beast and become a Lycanthrope, a beast of Hircine. In other words.. a Werewolf. The werewolf blood will enhance your senses beyond human imagining, allowing your hearing and sense of smell to be almost like sight. This will allow you to "see" without the aid of a follower or the aid of your detect spells, though you'll never get a good night's sleep again.. and you constantly have the urge to turn into beast form and rip out bandit hearts it's a small price to pay for the ability to see better than you could in your entire life. In this path you will obtain the ring of Hircine and some form of necklace that allows you to resist poison, as beast blood only grants disease immunity. You may also obtain the Armor of the Wolf, not for battle purposes but just for ceremonial events such as Kodlak's Funeral. In this path you will obtain Dawnguard Rune Axe instead of Chillrend, and destroy the Vampires with it and Auriel's Bow, as though you are a stealth character, as a werewolf you instinctively hate vampires. Get Serana Cured as well.
PATH OF THE BLOOD
Alternatively, you may join Castle Volkihar, having heard a rumor that blood of a PROPER vampire.. one created by Molag-Bal would unshadow your eyes and let you see from the darkest depths. In this path you will be doing the "House of Horrors" quest first to gain the Mace of Molag-Bal.. as you hoped you could convince him to turn you into a vampire and just ended up with a giant metal club. (In this path you will wield the Mace of Molag-Bal instead of Chillrend) Desperate for your sight to return you went to a vampire nest and let yourself get infected by a beast and though you were able to see to a degree, it was not the clear sight you had heard vampire sight had granted you. Things started to look up when an orc came and asked you to join some vampire hunters.. clearly not able to recognize one on sight. You use the Dawnguard to get in touch with Serana, an honest to goodness daughter of Cold Harbour! Her father rewarded you with his blood, and your sight was completely unshadowed, allowing you see the beauty of the night for what it truly was. In this path, you will be obtaining the Ring of the Erudite, and the Necklace of Bats/Gargoyles and wearing that instead. IN this path use Ebony bow, or if you find a Daedric wield that instead.
PATH OF THE DOVAHKIIN
If you wish to continue on the original style of the build, but have an alternative to using your magicka all the time to see your foes, you may follow the path of the Dovahkiin. In this path you will obtain Chillrend as normal, and you will get the Aura Whisper shout, which allows you to see your foes, all of them. You will obtain Lycanthropy for this path as well.. but you will decide you miss the ability to get a peaceful night's rest in the arms of your new bride, and cure yourself like you cured Kodlak. The Lycanthropy beast Form will only be used once after the initial use, and that will be to perform the Amulet Stacking Glitch (get follower and 5 amulets of Talos, only after dealing with that young girl who asks you to get her mom back to church. Talk to girl talk to mom, get amulet give to mom then get 5 amulets of talos. Next part takes careful timing.. Talk to your follower at the same time as entering beast form. If you did it right you should end up in beast form while in conversation menu. Give the follower the 5 amulets, then go to "equip" one from their inventory. it should prompt you how many do you wanna equip, equip all five and bam your shouts no longer have cooldowns. Use this as a way to embrace the Blood of the Dovahkiin within you to get constant use out of Aura Whisper, and to use every shout you like in rapid succession.. they can be pretty powerful. In this path obtain the Ring of Namira, since Bosmer are canonically cannibals. Wield a Stahlrim bow end game.
Closing Notes
I've removed the quest section because all paths the character can take are detailed above. All other quests than the ones I list you can do at your discretion. I won't be detailing them or making specific sections for all quests in the game etcetera. Hopefully you've enjoyed my build and look forward to my next Three Word Challenge.. and Baldur's Builds.
[Morus Ivylake]
This build came from a challenge some associates of mine left me on a discord group. The "Three Word Challenge" So I've decided to turn it into a series of builds/possibly a challenge to issue to other members? The rules are you get issued 3 words, with things like one-handed and heavy armor counting as "one" for the sake of build convenience. You must utilize all three words as parts of your build. It could be a weapon a skill.. etc. My first three word challenge words are Stealth, Chillrend, One-Handed. So as part of the Three Word Challenge, I present to you, the Emperor of Shadows!
Backstory
Morus was born in Valenwood, home of moving tree cities and all sorts of wonders. Unfortunately he was never fully able to appreciate it, as he was born with little to no sight. Though his parents spent almost all their money, they were never able to find a potion or spell to make his sight return. It never really vexed him having no sight however, for while his sight was shadowed, he was never truly blinded from the world. He was always able to know roughly where people were in relevance to him, and though he often needed a guide to find his way through buildings and the like.. his hearing and other senses were heightened to compensate.. so usually kicking a small stone or wearing a small bangle would allow him to hear the echoes and know exactly how far walls were from him.. so he seldom ended up walking into walls.
Though his sight was darkened, he also swiftly became one of the better archers in his village, for as long as he shot second, he could hear the sound of the arrow impacting upon the target.. and from that, and the murmurs of the elves witnessing the shot, he was usually able to get an idea as to where the center of the target was. If the shot was "Close" to where he heard the impact he would usually adjust his aim according to what they would say about his foes. He also found himself decent enough at Swordsmanship, since most fighters opted to wear armor.. armor which would make noise and alert him to where the blows would be coming from. Over time, he turned to magic to make his "sight" better in a fashion.. spells like "Detect Life" would allow him to sense the living auras of all people around him. All he would then have to do was listen to the sounds of their footsteps to know where steps and furniture were, and he was able to navigate without assistance much more easily. Due to his ways of "Seeing" the world, he developed quite a knack for stealth and being undetected.. though his intention was not originally to be a thief or an assassin he soon grew to enjoy being undetected by prey, be it animals or humans.
He started to develop a relationship with one of the local girls, who didn't mind his blindness or his unique way of seeing.. She had been maimed in a housefire when she was a young girl, and had scarring up her side and on her face. Morus of course saw none of this only the aura of the woman he loved. It was after he met her that he murdered for the first time.. one of the other men from the village tried to court his wife away from him. This man was a rival of Morus's from back in the days, and never quite let it go that a blind man could shoot better than he could. Morus crept after the man in the treetops one night, after he had arranged to meet with Morus's potential mate. That meeting never happened.
He was contacted by a local version of the Dark Brotherhood and lived a double life, a quiet home life with his beloved, who suspected nothing, and when called upon would go for "magic lessons" sometimes for weeks on end. He told her he was trying to get his vision repaired so he could look into her eyes.. and as people so often do.. she believed him. Who would suspect a blind man who required magic to know how not to bump into a chair could ever be a ruthless assassin.. but the gold he earned from the contracts saw his mate and he into a loving marriage, a home of their own.. and the beginning of his downfall.
One night he came home to find his wife murdered, and discovered that his secret had been discovered. He sought refuge with his guild of assassins but found they had fled.. and without sight he could not discover the hidden clues they had left within for any members needing to locate the guild. So he did the only thing left to him.. he fled as well. He retrieved one of his caches of gold, too scared to head home and retrieve anything there in case his pursuers came back, and hitched rides on carriages, boats.. whatever it took. He was too busy focussing his attentions on what was possibly catching up that he walked.. aha blindly.. into an ambush. However his adventures were just beginning...
[Replace the perk spread image above with one containing your perk choices. If you don't know how to do one, head over the Skyrim Art group's
and post a comment there with your perks and image.]
Basic Information
Race: Wood Elf/Bosmer. Male. Only requirement is that his eyes both be white to indicate blindness.
Stone: Early Game Thief Stone. You can easily use Faendal or Aela the Huntress and a lot of cash to get your archery skill up to 50-75 for free if you have them as a follower, and your one handed will level up on its own. Late Game probably Atronach for a bit of extra defense vs mages with the Aetherial Crown containing the Shadow stone since infinite use invisibility isn't something you should pass on.
Stats Distribution: [3] Magicka | [3] Health | [3] Stamina. (Basically go even across the board here. You need plenty of magic to keep using stuff like Detect Life/Detect Dead and you'll also need stamina to do power attacks and get extra carrying capacity and your health just for survivability. You're blind not feeble.
Equipment: At the Start of the game wear Ragged Robes and footwraps. Once you get your first house, start wearing a simple and clean green robe with jewelry you find. Once you either become Thane of Solitude or Windhelm you start wearing Noble Clothes. These can be found in the East Empire Company Warehouse, along with fur lined boots. Might need to sell them to a fence and buy them back so they don't get taken away if you get arrested. Then your end game, after you kill the Emperor of Tamriel wear Emperor's Robes, Fine Shoes, Aetherial Crown. For your rings we have three paths that I will describe for end game RP purposes further down. Weapons: Early game wield an elven sword and bow. These are easily obtained by getting 250 gold, then taking a follower with you to Solstheim. If you run from the gate down to the farm down the way you'll find a free full set of bonemould armor plus shield for your likely heavy armor follower, and a couple elven arrows, an elven bow and elven sword on the dead redoran guard. Don't worry about the ash spawn, let your follower deal with it or simply run back to the Bulwark and let the guards kill them. Late game are determined by your RP path.
Gameplay
Though there is no true way to play as "Blind" character in Skyrim, in early game and when not doing stealth you'll need to keep a follower with you at all times. We're going to invest in the alteration skill tree, for armor spells and for the Detect spells. You can also use iron arrows to shoot the walls of dungeons as a sort of RP thing.. you can hear the vibrations and sense where monsters are because of it etc.
[Archery]: As this is a stealth build, and Bosmer are the best at Archery, it feels silly not to include it. This will be your primary damage dealing skill.. picking enemies off from the shadows with your bow and keep things at a distance. Though you are blind, you need to get at least Eagle Eye to get the quick shot and power shot skills.. just don't use it I guess?
Perks Chosen: Overdraw (5) Critical Shot (3)Hunter's Discipline, Ranger, Bullseye,Eagle Eye, Quick Shot, Power Shot
[One Handed]: If enemies get close to you, you're going to want something better to do than shoot them in the face. As such we're going with One Handed. A sword fits his backstory and will keep you alive vs most foes.
Perks Chosen:Armsman (5), Fighting Stance, Savage Strike, Critical Charge, Paralyzing Strike.
[Alteration]: As your primary source of vision for this build, and for your armor skills you are going to want to max this perk tree out fairly quickly to make sure your spells cost you as little magicka as possible. Get the Atronach perk as well as it gives you even more defense against magicka damage.
Perks Chosen: Novice Alteration, Apprentice Alteration, Adept Alteration, Expert Alteration, Atronach
[Sneak]: Obviously we're going to need Stealth for this build, as you are a stealth character and as you are unarmored, you want to be as undetected as possible to avoid as many fights as you can. The inability to set off traps is also likewise a really good thing.
Perks Chosen: Stealth (5) Muffled Movement, Backstab, Silent Roll, Deadly Aim, Light Foot, Silence, Shadow Warrior.
[Block]:As you will not be using a shield you will want to get the most power out of your blade that you can, and the bash perks of the block tree, plus the shield wall perks will help give you the most survivability we can without using a shield or armor.
Perks Chosen:Shield Wall (5) Quick Reflexes, Power Bash, Deadly Bash, Disarming Bash.
Roleplay
I have to include a separate section for my Roleplay this time. In this section I will be detailing specific roleplay rules that you can play as. I've already tried it out on my own so they ARE viable and doable.. they just add a lot of extra challenge to your game. I will also be detailing two possible paths to minimize as much of these as possible, for people that don't want to deal with the super heavy roleplay aspects.
Roleplay Rules
- You must always keep a follower with you at all times! They are your eyes.
- You must always let your follower attack your foes first. This allows you to "Hear' where the foe is and shoot them to support your ally.
- You must get Chillrend last, as this is a non combat build the best form of chillrend does not spawn within the game until level 46 and higher, so when you reach that level, get Chillrend for your endgame weapon. You may use a glass sword when they start spawning.
Roleplay Paths
In this build I present you with three optional paths to take your character for completely seperate roleplay reasons. Each affect your playstyle to a degree and as such should be picked carefully.. If you pick a path there is no going back, you must pick a side.
PATH OF THE BEAST
This path involves you joining the Dawnguard, and the Companions. You will obtain the blood of the beast and become a Lycanthrope, a beast of Hircine. In other words.. a Werewolf. The werewolf blood will enhance your senses beyond human imagining, allowing your hearing and sense of smell to be almost like sight. This will allow you to "see" without the aid of a follower or the aid of your detect spells, though you'll never get a good night's sleep again.. and you constantly have the urge to turn into beast form and rip out bandit hearts it's a small price to pay for the ability to see better than you could in your entire life. In this path you will obtain the ring of Hircine and some form of necklace that allows you to resist poison, as beast blood only grants disease immunity. You may also obtain the Armor of the Wolf, not for battle purposes but just for ceremonial events such as Kodlak's Funeral. In this path you will obtain Dawnguard Rune Axe instead of Chillrend, and destroy the Vampires with it and Auriel's Bow, as though you are a stealth character, as a werewolf you instinctively hate vampires. Get Serana Cured as well.
PATH OF THE BLOOD
Alternatively, you may join Castle Volkihar, having heard a rumor that blood of a PROPER vampire.. one created by Molag-Bal would unshadow your eyes and let you see from the darkest depths. In this path you will be doing the "House of Horrors" quest first to gain the Mace of Molag-Bal.. as you hoped you could convince him to turn you into a vampire and just ended up with a giant metal club. (In this path you will wield the Mace of Molag-Bal instead of Chillrend) Desperate for your sight to return you went to a vampire nest and let yourself get infected by a beast and though you were able to see to a degree, it was not the clear sight you had heard vampire sight had granted you. Things started to look up when an orc came and asked you to join some vampire hunters.. clearly not able to recognize one on sight. You use the Dawnguard to get in touch with Serana, an honest to goodness daughter of Cold Harbour! Her father rewarded you with his blood, and your sight was completely unshadowed, allowing you see the beauty of the night for what it truly was. In this path, you will be obtaining the Ring of the Erudite, and the Necklace of Bats/Gargoyles and wearing that instead. IN this path use Ebony bow, or if you find a Daedric wield that instead.
PATH OF THE DOVAHKIIN
If you wish to continue on the original style of the build, but have an alternative to using your magicka all the time to see your foes, you may follow the path of the Dovahkiin. In this path you will obtain Chillrend as normal, and you will get the Aura Whisper shout, which allows you to see your foes, all of them. You will obtain Lycanthropy for this path as well.. but you will decide you miss the ability to get a peaceful night's rest in the arms of your new bride, and cure yourself like you cured Kodlak. The Lycanthropy beast Form will only be used once after the initial use, and that will be to perform the Amulet Stacking Glitch (get follower and 5 amulets of Talos, only after dealing with that young girl who asks you to get her mom back to church. Talk to girl talk to mom, get amulet give to mom then get 5 amulets of talos. Next part takes careful timing.. Talk to your follower at the same time as entering beast form. If you did it right you should end up in beast form while in conversation menu. Give the follower the 5 amulets, then go to "equip" one from their inventory. it should prompt you how many do you wanna equip, equip all five and bam your shouts no longer have cooldowns. Use this as a way to embrace the Blood of the Dovahkiin within you to get constant use out of Aura Whisper, and to use every shout you like in rapid succession.. they can be pretty powerful. In this path obtain the Ring of Namira, since Bosmer are canonically cannibals. Wield a Stahlrim bow end game.
Closing Notes
I've removed the quest section because all paths the character can take are detailed above. All other quests than the ones I list you can do at your discretion. I won't be detailing them or making specific sections for all quests in the game etcetera. Hopefully you've enjoyed my build and look forward to my next Three Word Challenge.. and Baldur's Builds.
