3E 427, Summerset Isle, central Shimmerene:
Nine young Altmer sit in the back room of a salon. To all appearances, they have little in common beyond their diversity: some have drastic hair styles, others face-obscuring tattoos, still others obvious body modifications. They would all stand out in virtually any crowd.
They sit haphazardly around the room, no obvious organization between them. A hum goes around the room as they discuss the issue at hand. A few small objects change hands -- a dagger, a small vial, a key.
One stands. She is tall, even for an Altmer, and the look on her unmistakable face betrays nothing. “So, we are in agreement, then,” she says, quietly. The room hushes around her. “I will be the one to kill Princess Aurilaena.”
THE BEAUTIFUL
“Many among the Altmer have claimed that subjugation variously of the Khajiit, Argonians, and Dunmer justifies, or even stands as proof of, the Altmer’s superiority. But meritocracy cannot exist where there is slavery. The slave and the master are both under the yoke of bondage.” - Anonymous, In Pursuit of a More Beautiful World, 3E 426
Race: Altmer
Features: Something drastic. I went with a mohawk and a bright red facial tattoo.
Stone: The Apprentice, which approximates the Altmer’s Oblivion-era weakness. This stone makes an Altmer feel like a classic Altmer.
Stat Distribution: Start at 1/1/1 until you hit 200 in each, then switch to 2/1/0. You should wind up around 300 M / 250 H / 200 S.
Major Skills: Alchemy, Destruction, Sneak
Minor Skills: Alteration, Restoration, Pickpocket, Speech
Shouts: Dismay, Marked for Death
Equipment: Weapon: Blades Sword. Armor: Blackguard’s Armor, Blackguard’s Hood, Linwe’s Gloves, Shrouded Boots (switch to Thieves’ Guild Boots after taking the Silence Perk). Jewelry: Amulet of Articulation, Muiri’s Ring / Nightweaver’s Band. Note: Pick a set of nice-looking clothing (I like the blue “Fine Clothes”) and wear them about town when not on a mission.
The Beautiful are an organization of radical Altmer dissidents. Per the Third Edition of the Pocket Guide to the Empire:
“Originally a salon for artists with the reasonable philosophy that Summerset must let go of its past in order to move forward, the Beautiful became a revolutionary gang dedicated to the destruction of the greatest monuments of Altmer civilization.”
The Beautiful appeared at a time of unprecedented dissidence in Summerset. Reacting to social pressure from youth exposed to the many and varied cultures in the Empire, the nobility softened its stance on the other races of mer; racial purists responded by condemning all but the most hardline rulers. Summerset was on the verge of being torn apart by competing political ideologies.
The Beautiful looked at this volatile cocktail and said, “Good: light it.” The Altmer’s complacency and stagnation, they reasoned, were poisoning the entire Altmer culture. What began with polemic literature quickly escalated through defacing monuments to outright murder. Summerset needed to be shaken from its sleep -- violently and without ambiguity. Anything worth salvaging would survive. The Altmer would be forced to reexamine themselves and rise on their own merits.
Unfortunately, the Oblivion Crisis caught Summerset by surprise, and, in its aftermath, the Thalmor seized control. An ultraconservative, backward-looking faction, the Thalmor moved swiftly to crush any renaissance movements in Summerset. But the lifespans, and memories, of the Altmer are very, very long …
SKILLS AND PERKS
“Faced with an open door, free of his shackles, a slave may hesitate. This does not mean that he does not desire freedom -- he wishes it more than anything else. But with his bondage, the only thing he has ever known, suddenly falling away, he may hesitate out of fear and doubt. He stands, unable to act, looking for his master, in fear that his bid for open air may be the last thing he ever does. The Altmer are slaves in this way.” - Anonymous, In Pursuit of a More Beautiful World, 3E 426
This build is about subversion. You want to use traditional Altmer skills in ways that both undermine traditional expectations and neutralize enemies’ advantages.
Major Skills:
Alchemy: Perks: Alchemist (5/5), Physician, Benefactor, Poisoner, Concentrated Poison, Snakeblood, Purity. During the late Third Era, the Altmer were accomplished alchemists, using the ancient art to augment their magics. The Beautiful take this knowledge and use it as a weapon, focusing on poison and combat buffs.
Sneak: Perks: Stealth (1/5), Muffled Movement, Light Foot, Silent Roll, Silence. The graceful and elegant Altmer seem to ignore the art of stealth. The Beautiful use the Altmer’s grace to their advantage, allowing them to move quickly and easily among civilians and targets.
Destruction: Perks: Novice through Expert, Rune Master, Augmented Flames (2/2), Intense Flames, Augmented Frost (2/2), Deep Freeze. The art of Destruction is the wheelhouse of the “pure mage” and one of the Altmer’s greatest weapons. The Beautiful turn this art on its head, using it to control, manipulate, and intimidate. Key Spells: Flame Cloak, Whirlwind Cloak, Fireball, wall spells, rune spells.
Minor Skills:
Alteration: Perks: Novice through Expert. Traditionally a defensive art, the Beautiful use Alteration’s utility as a weapon of surprise. Key Spells: Magelight, ash spells, detection spells.
Restoration: Perks: Novice through Adept, Recovery (2/2), Ward Absorb. Despite their near mastery of magic, the Altmer have largely ignored the art of Restoration. The Beautiful use this blind spot to their advantage, using Restoration’s power over life to create decisive advantages, particularly against other magic users. Key Spells: ward spells, sun spells, Poison Rune.
Pickpocket: Perks: Light Fingers (1/5), Night Thief, Cutpurse, Poisoned, Keymaster. What’s more subversive than pickpocketing? The main use of this skill is in assassination, but the ability to lift keys also allows the Beautiful to use their targets’ assets against them.
Speech: Haggling (1/5), Bribery, Persuasion. The Beautiful’s agenda is rooted in a bourgeois philosophy, and they have spent significant time and energy refining their manifesto.
One-Handed and Light Armor: Even though this build will use one-handed swords and light armors, no points are invested in these skills.
(Note: This perk spread takes this build to level 46. If you intend to keep playing the build after that, feel free to drop points into Armsman and/or Agile Defender.)
GAMEPLAY AND ROLEPLAY
“Of all the words for cowardice in any language of man, mer, or beast, ‘tradition’ is by far the most troublesome.” - Anonymous, In Pursuit of a More Beautiful World, 3E 426
This is not your typical assassin or nightblade build. The Beautiful are a violent, radical organization that wants attention for their cause. Quiet eliminations can be useful, but the Beautiful are making their point, and making it loudly: the Emperor has no clothes. Skyrim, a current hotbed of political activity, is a prime place to make your point.
Sneaking is used for mobility, to create battlefield advantages by placing yourself in key positions. In combat, poisons delivered by your sword provide your primary direct damage, with runes, walls, and flame spells serving as crowd control. Collateral damage is unimportant -- the idea is to spring from the shadows (or from the crowd) and bury your target as quickly, and loudly, as possible. Your foe’s failures will be a lesson for all those who witness.
Your quests and actions should be focused around bringing notoriety to the Beautiful and attention to their cause. The Dark Brotherhood has strong confluences with the aims of your own organization. The Thieves’ Guild is a strong ally, and can provide resources and a place to lay your head, but do not advance their quest to the point where you take them over -- they are an ally, but they are a separate organization with their own agenda. Any quests that weaken the Thalmor or other entrenched interests will serve your goals. Ironically, this may mean helping the Imperial Army in the Civil War, as they stand the greatest chance of tearing down the dying institutions and weakening the cultural strangleholds in place in Skyrim and elsewhere.
Make no mistake: you are what passes in Tamriel for a terrorist. However good your intentions, however valid your objection to Summerset’s stagnation, you are breaking eggs to make omelets. Quite a lot of them. You will incur bounties, have to buy your way out of prison terms, and probably even kill merchants and quest-givers.
Tactics:
Sowing Chaos: Requires Dismay, any explosive fire spell. When your target needs to be taken out in a public way, instill fear into the hearts of bystanders. Hit your target with a Fireball or other spell, and use Dismay to disperse the crowd.
Decay: Requires Marked for Death, any ash spell. Your subversive magics show bystanders how your target’s stagnation has doomed him to decay. Immobilize your enemy with an ash spell, then hit him with Marked for Death. He will emerge weak and vulnerable, ripe for your reaping.
Toxic Assault: Requires Poison Rune, Vulnerability poison below. Choke the life out of your helpless target with poison. Coat your blade with a Weakness to Poison cocktail (multiple hits stack) and drop Poison Runes under him with your off hand. They will wither from the inside out.
Poisons:
Blood Boil: Butterfly Wing + Eye of Sabre Cat + Skeever Tail = Ravage Health, Damage Magicka. Use against mages, particularly Altmer.
Vulnerability: Death Bell + Sabre Cat Tooth + Large Antlers = Slow, Weakness to Poison. Use in hand-to-hand combat to cripple opponents, softening them up for a lethal dose.
NOTES
Off the Grid: I had a lot of fun with this build staying "off the grid". I bought a horse early and used it for all my travel, never using the carriages and keeping off the roads. I never rented a bed, instead trying to find usable beds outside of civilization. I never bought a house, and instead used Froki's Shack as a home.
Politics: In making this build, I studied the radical organizations active in the U.S. during the 1960s. I envision the Beautiful much like the Weather Underground, and the Thalmor (pre-Oblivion Crisis, before they rose to power) like the Minutemen. With what little we know of Summerset during the pre-Crisis period, a period of unprecedented and divergent social pressure made an easy analogy.
Alchemy?: The Altmer have a strange relationship with Alchemy, losing it in Skyrim in favor of Restoration. I chose Alchemy for this build over Enchanting not just for gameplay reasons but also because it felt more like a "classic" Altmer.
3E 427, Summerset Isle, central Shimmerene:
Nine young Altmer sit in the back room of a salon. To all appearances, they have little in common beyond their diversity: some have drastic hair styles, others face-obscuring tattoos, still others obvious body modifications. They would all stand out in virtually any crowd.
They sit haphazardly around the room, no obvious organization between them. A hum goes around the room as they discuss the issue at hand. A few small objects change hands -- a dagger, a small vial, a key.
One stands. She is tall, even for an Altmer, and the look on her unmistakable face betrays nothing. “So, we are in agreement, then,” she says, quietly. The room hushes around her. “I will be the one to kill Princess Aurilaena.”
THE BEAUTIFUL
“Many among the Altmer have claimed that subjugation variously of the Khajiit, Argonians, and Dunmer justifies, or even stands as proof of, the Altmer’s superiority. But meritocracy cannot exist where there is slavery. The slave and the master are both under the yoke of bondage.” - Anonymous, In Pursuit of a More Beautiful World, 3E 426
Race: Altmer
Features: Something drastic. I went with a mohawk and a bright red facial tattoo.
Stone: The Apprentice, which approximates the Altmer’s Oblivion-era weakness. This stone makes an Altmer feel like a classic Altmer.
Stat Distribution: Start at 1/1/1 until you hit 200 in each, then switch to 2/1/0. You should wind up around 300 M / 250 H / 200 S.
Major Skills: Alchemy, Destruction, Sneak
Minor Skills: Alteration, Restoration, Pickpocket, Speech
Shouts: Dismay, Marked for Death
Equipment: Weapon: Blades Sword. Armor: Blackguard’s Armor, Blackguard’s Hood, Linwe’s Gloves, Shrouded Boots (switch to Thieves’ Guild Boots after taking the Silence Perk). Jewelry: Amulet of Articulation, Muiri’s Ring / Nightweaver’s Band. Note: Pick a set of nice-looking clothing (I like the blue “Fine Clothes”) and wear them about town when not on a mission.
The Beautiful are an organization of radical Altmer dissidents. Per the Third Edition of the Pocket Guide to the Empire:
“Originally a salon for artists with the reasonable philosophy that Summerset must let go of its past in order to move forward, the Beautiful became a revolutionary gang dedicated to the destruction of the greatest monuments of Altmer civilization.”
The Beautiful appeared at a time of unprecedented dissidence in Summerset. Reacting to social pressure from youth exposed to the many and varied cultures in the Empire, the nobility softened its stance on the other races of mer; racial purists responded by condemning all but the most hardline rulers. Summerset was on the verge of being torn apart by competing political ideologies.
The Beautiful looked at this volatile cocktail and said, “Good: light it.” The Altmer’s complacency and stagnation, they reasoned, were poisoning the entire Altmer culture. What began with polemic literature quickly escalated through defacing monuments to outright murder. Summerset needed to be shaken from its sleep -- violently and without ambiguity. Anything worth salvaging would survive. The Altmer would be forced to reexamine themselves and rise on their own merits.
Unfortunately, the Oblivion Crisis caught Summerset by surprise, and, in its aftermath, the Thalmor seized control. An ultraconservative, backward-looking faction, the Thalmor moved swiftly to crush any renaissance movements in Summerset. But the lifespans, and memories, of the Altmer are very, very long …
SKILLS AND PERKS
“Faced with an open door, free of his shackles, a slave may hesitate. This does not mean that he does not desire freedom -- he wishes it more than anything else. But with his bondage, the only thing he has ever known, suddenly falling away, he may hesitate out of fear and doubt. He stands, unable to act, looking for his master, in fear that his bid for open air may be the last thing he ever does. The Altmer are slaves in this way.” - Anonymous, In Pursuit of a More Beautiful World, 3E 426
This build is about subversion. You want to use traditional Altmer skills in ways that both undermine traditional expectations and neutralize enemies’ advantages.
Major Skills:
Alchemy: Perks: Alchemist (5/5), Physician, Benefactor, Poisoner, Concentrated Poison, Snakeblood, Purity. During the late Third Era, the Altmer were accomplished alchemists, using the ancient art to augment their magics. The Beautiful take this knowledge and use it as a weapon, focusing on poison and combat buffs.
Sneak: Perks: Stealth (1/5), Muffled Movement, Light Foot, Silent Roll, Silence. The graceful and elegant Altmer seem to ignore the art of stealth. The Beautiful use the Altmer’s grace to their advantage, allowing them to move quickly and easily among civilians and targets.
Destruction: Perks: Novice through Expert, Rune Master, Augmented Flames (2/2), Intense Flames, Augmented Frost (2/2), Deep Freeze. The art of Destruction is the wheelhouse of the “pure mage” and one of the Altmer’s greatest weapons. The Beautiful turn this art on its head, using it to control, manipulate, and intimidate. Key Spells: Flame Cloak, Whirlwind Cloak, Fireball, wall spells, rune spells.
Minor Skills:
Alteration: Perks: Novice through Expert. Traditionally a defensive art, the Beautiful use Alteration’s utility as a weapon of surprise. Key Spells: Magelight, ash spells, detection spells.
Restoration: Perks: Novice through Adept, Recovery (2/2), Ward Absorb. Despite their near mastery of magic, the Altmer have largely ignored the art of Restoration. The Beautiful use this blind spot to their advantage, using Restoration’s power over life to create decisive advantages, particularly against other magic users. Key Spells: ward spells, sun spells, Poison Rune.
Pickpocket: Perks: Light Fingers (1/5), Night Thief, Cutpurse, Poisoned, Keymaster. What’s more subversive than pickpocketing? The main use of this skill is in assassination, but the ability to lift keys also allows the Beautiful to use their targets’ assets against them.
Speech: Haggling (1/5), Bribery, Persuasion. The Beautiful’s agenda is rooted in a bourgeois philosophy, and they have spent significant time and energy refining their manifesto.
One-Handed and Light Armor: Even though this build will use one-handed swords and light armors, no points are invested in these skills.
(Note: This perk spread takes this build to level 46. If you intend to keep playing the build after that, feel free to drop points into Armsman and/or Agile Defender.)
GAMEPLAY AND ROLEPLAY
“Of all the words for cowardice in any language of man, mer, or beast, ‘tradition’ is by far the most troublesome.” - Anonymous, In Pursuit of a More Beautiful World, 3E 426
This is not your typical assassin or nightblade build. The Beautiful are a violent, radical organization that wants attention for their cause. Quiet eliminations can be useful, but the Beautiful are making their point, and making it loudly: the Emperor has no clothes. Skyrim, a current hotbed of political activity, is a prime place to make your point.
Sneaking is used for mobility, to create battlefield advantages by placing yourself in key positions. In combat, poisons delivered by your sword provide your primary direct damage, with runes, walls, and flame spells serving as crowd control. Collateral damage is unimportant -- the idea is to spring from the shadows (or from the crowd) and bury your target as quickly, and loudly, as possible. Your foe’s failures will be a lesson for all those who witness.
Your quests and actions should be focused around bringing notoriety to the Beautiful and attention to their cause. The Dark Brotherhood has strong confluences with the aims of your own organization. The Thieves’ Guild is a strong ally, and can provide resources and a place to lay your head, but do not advance their quest to the point where you take them over -- they are an ally, but they are a separate organization with their own agenda. Any quests that weaken the Thalmor or other entrenched interests will serve your goals. Ironically, this may mean helping the Imperial Army in the Civil War, as they stand the greatest chance of tearing down the dying institutions and weakening the cultural strangleholds in place in Skyrim and elsewhere.
Make no mistake: you are what passes in Tamriel for a terrorist. However good your intentions, however valid your objection to Summerset’s stagnation, you are breaking eggs to make omelets. Quite a lot of them. You will incur bounties, have to buy your way out of prison terms, and probably even kill merchants and quest-givers.
Tactics:
Sowing Chaos: Requires Dismay, any explosive fire spell. When your target needs to be taken out in a public way, instill fear into the hearts of bystanders. Hit your target with a Fireball or other spell, and use Dismay to disperse the crowd.
Decay: Requires Marked for Death, any ash spell. Your subversive magics show bystanders how your target’s stagnation has doomed him to decay. Immobilize your enemy with an ash spell, then hit him with Marked for Death. He will emerge weak and vulnerable, ripe for your reaping.
Toxic Assault: Requires Poison Rune, Vulnerability poison below. Choke the life out of your helpless target with poison. Coat your blade with a Weakness to Poison cocktail (multiple hits stack) and drop Poison Runes under him with your off hand. They will wither from the inside out.
Poisons:
Blood Boil: Butterfly Wing + Eye of Sabre Cat + Skeever Tail = Ravage Health, Damage Magicka. Use against mages, particularly Altmer.
Vulnerability: Death Bell + Sabre Cat Tooth + Large Antlers = Slow, Weakness to Poison. Use in hand-to-hand combat to cripple opponents, softening them up for a lethal dose.
NOTES
Off the Grid: I had a lot of fun with this build staying "off the grid". I bought a horse early and used it for all my travel, never using the carriages and keeping off the roads. I never rented a bed, instead trying to find usable beds outside of civilization. I never bought a house, and instead used Froki's Shack as a home.
Politics: In making this build, I studied the radical organizations active in the U.S. during the 1960s. I envision the Beautiful much like the Weather Underground, and the Thalmor (pre-Oblivion Crisis, before they rose to power) like the Minutemen. With what little we know of Summerset during the pre-Crisis period, a period of unprecedented and divergent social pressure made an easy analogy.
Alchemy?: The Altmer have a strange relationship with Alchemy, losing it in Skyrim in favor of Restoration. I chose Alchemy for this build over Enchanting not just for gameplay reasons but also because it felt more like a "classic" Altmer.
