The Knight of Diagna
While Ponty has already made a build of sorts based on the Order of Diagna with his Paths of a Paladin, I wanted to explore my own version of the faction. Interestingly enough, the book Varieties of Faith in the Empire says with reference to Diagna: “Hoary thuggish cult of the Redguards.” The thuggish bit inspired me to create more of a “brutal” knight, someone who’s still a knight by nature, but who is much rougher and more aggressive in both fighting style and demeanor.
Regarding the faction itself, the Order of Diagna is one of the many knightly orders in the Hammerfell area, and was chiefly involved in the invasion of Orsinium, which lasted for thirty years. The leader of the order, Gaiden Shinji, was killed during the siege. Initiates wishing to join the Order must play the part of the Orcs in their annual recreation of the Siege of Orsinium. The eponymous Diagna is the orichalc god of the sideways blade who originated in Yokuda during the Twenty Seven Snake Folk Slaughter. He was an avatar of the HoonDing (the Yokudan God of Make Way) that achieved permanence and was instrumental to the defeat of the Lefthanded Elves, as he brought orichalc (read: Orcish) weapons to the Yokudan people to win the fight. In Tamriel, he led the Order of Diagna against the Orcs of Orsinium during the height of their ancient power, but then faded into obscurity, and is now little more than a local power spirit of the Dragontail Mountains.
Enough with the lore; let’s get on with the build, shall we?
The Basics
So, in order to create the "brutal" knight I was going for, I used traditional knightly weapons (swords and heavy armor, as well as a bow) while throwing in some more unconventional choices for a knight (dual-wielding, alchemy, and heavy usage of the paralysis effect). The result was a very offensive fighter, a warrior that's at its best when pushing the attack.
Race: Aside from being roleplay-appropriate, Redguards get boosts to several relevant skills (+10 One-Handed, +5 Archery and Alteration) and Adrenaline Rush is very useful for dual-wielders. Furthermore, their innate poison resistance stacks with Snakeblood for complete poison immunity.
Stone: The Atronach Stone, combined with the Atronach perk and all three ranks of Magic Resistance, makes the Knight well-defended against magical attacks. The boost to Magicka is nice too, while the hit to magicka regen is more or less negligible.
Stats: 1/3/2. The emphasis here is on physical, not magical, prowess.
Shouts: Elemental Fury. Lots and lots of Elemental Fury.
Skills
One-Handed: The Knight’s primary offense comes from a pair of Orcish Swords. Perkwise, grab everything except the weapon-specific ones.
Archery: For everything that your swords can’t reach, you can use your trusty Orcish Bow. Perk your way up the left side of the tree to Bullseye and grab the first rank of Steady Aim as well.
Heavy Armor: Your suit of Orcish Armor will protect you from blows during battle. You’ll want get all the perks here except for Matching Set and Reflect Blows. Side note: for jewelry to use, simply stick with whatever you find that has a useful and relevant enchantment.
Smithing: As a Knight of Diagna, you’ll want to be skilled in working with the metal of your namesake god, so grab Orcish Smithing here.
Alchemy: The Knight uses potions for healing and fortifying skills as well as poisons for damaging and paralyzing enemies. Grab all the perks in this tree except for Green Thumb, Experimenter and Purity.
Alteration: Flesh spells are a nice boost before you hit the armor cap, but the real gem here is the paralyze spell. This is the Knight’s method for crowd control, immobilizing opponents so he can deal with them later or beat up on them while they’re defenseless. Perkwise, grab Stability, all three ranks of Magic Resistance, and Atronach.
You should be at level 55 once the build is completed.
Alchemical Concoctions
Potion of Canis Root, One-Handed Ingredient, and Marksman Ingredient: With the Knight, I mostly stuck to simple, single-effect concoctions, but this was the exception. Aside from the fact that both your sword and bow damage will be boosted, due to a glitch, fortify marksman potions boost all forms of physical damage, not just archery damage. Thus, with the addition of fortify one-handed, your sword damage will be boosted twice as much.
Restore Health: As your primary means of healing, you'll want to have a bunch of potions with this effect on you at all times.
Restore Stamina: Given the importance of Stamina to a warrior build, the usefulness of this effect should be obvious.
Paralysis: This will be your only source of paralysis in the early going, though it should be largely supplanted by the more convenient Paralyze spell once you perk Expert Alteration.
Roleplay
Destroy the Orcs!
Here’s the real fun in playing a Knight of Diagna, and the whole reason why one would come out here in the first place. With the Order having taken part in the destruction of Orsinium in the first era, the Knight will naturally want to deal with the Orcs living in Skyrim. There’s nothing wrong with the civilized city Orcs, but the ones out in the strongholds are effectively creating mini-Orsiniums that must be destroyed before they become too powerful. The best part about all of this? With the exception of Yamarz (who is killed during the Cursed Tribe anyway), none of the stronghold orcs are essential. Keeping this in mind, here’s a course of action to take with them:
- Once you feel ready (keep in mind the quest has a minimum level of 9), do the Cursed Tribe. Yamarz will die in the process, so take his suit of Orcish Armor for yourself.
- The quest finishes in Largashbur, so at that point, kill all the orcs there, then go to the other strongholds and do the same.
- To top things off, do Lost to the Ages and spite Malacath by tossing Volendrung into the lava of the Aetherium Forge (credit goes to Asgard’s “Nogo the Bow-Saint” build for this idea) or the waters of the Sea of Ghosts if you don’t have Dawnguard.
Of course, there’s more to the roleplay than just simply killing Orcs. Remember that you are still a knight, so always strive to aid the weak and helpless, but do not spare the wicked your blade. You also disdain both the Divines and Daedra, preferring instead your traditional Yokudan gods. To top things off, here are some quests you may want to pursue as a Knight of Diagna.
Main Quest: Naturally, the return of the World-Eater is something that a knight would want to take care of.
Stormcloaks: You have no love for Ulfric or his rebellion, but you hate the Empire for abandoning Hammerfell after the Great War, and this provides you with the perfect opportunity to strike back.
Companions: Seek fellowship amongst a group of fighters. I chose not to take on Lycanthropy out of disdain for Hircine, but you might feel otherwise.
Destroy the Dark Brotherhood: Remember that whole bit about not sparing the wicked your blade? That applies to both Grelod and the Dark Brotherhood.
Dawnguard: Like Alduin, the Volkihar is a threat that must be destroyed.
Click Here For More Builds!
The Knight of Diagna
While Ponty has already made a build of sorts based on the Order of Diagna with his Paths of a Paladin, I wanted to explore my own version of the faction. Interestingly enough, the book Varieties of Faith in the Empire says with reference to Diagna: “Hoary thuggish cult of the Redguards.” The thuggish bit inspired me to create more of a “brutal” knight, someone who’s still a knight by nature, but who is much rougher and more aggressive in both fighting style and demeanor.
Regarding the faction itself, the Order of Diagna is one of the many knightly orders in the Hammerfell area, and was chiefly involved in the invasion of Orsinium, which lasted for thirty years. The leader of the order, Gaiden Shinji, was killed during the siege. Initiates wishing to join the Order must play the part of the Orcs in their annual recreation of the Siege of Orsinium. The eponymous Diagna is the orichalc god of the sideways blade who originated in Yokuda during the Twenty Seven Snake Folk Slaughter. He was an avatar of the HoonDing (the Yokudan God of Make Way) that achieved permanence and was instrumental to the defeat of the Lefthanded Elves, as he brought orichalc (read: Orcish) weapons to the Yokudan people to win the fight. In Tamriel, he led the Order of Diagna against the Orcs of Orsinium during the height of their ancient power, but then faded into obscurity, and is now little more than a local power spirit of the Dragontail Mountains.
Enough with the lore; let’s get on with the build, shall we?
The Basics
So, in order to create the "brutal" knight I was going for, I used traditional knightly weapons (swords and heavy armor, as well as a bow) while throwing in some more unconventional choices for a knight (dual-wielding, alchemy, and heavy usage of the paralysis effect). The result was a very offensive fighter, a warrior that's at its best when pushing the attack.
Race: Aside from being roleplay-appropriate, Redguards get boosts to several relevant skills (+10 One-Handed, +5 Archery and Alteration) and Adrenaline Rush is very useful for dual-wielders. Furthermore, their innate poison resistance stacks with Snakeblood for complete poison immunity.
Stone: The Atronach Stone, combined with the Atronach perk and all three ranks of Magic Resistance, makes the Knight well-defended against magical attacks. The boost to Magicka is nice too, while the hit to magicka regen is more or less negligible.
Stats: 1/3/2. The emphasis here is on physical, not magical, prowess.
Shouts: Elemental Fury. Lots and lots of Elemental Fury.
Skills
One-Handed: The Knight’s primary offense comes from a pair of Orcish Swords. Perkwise, grab everything except the weapon-specific ones.
Archery: For everything that your swords can’t reach, you can use your trusty Orcish Bow. Perk your way up the left side of the tree to Bullseye and grab the first rank of Steady Aim as well.
Heavy Armor: Your suit of Orcish Armor will protect you from blows during battle. You’ll want get all the perks here except for Matching Set and Reflect Blows. Side note: for jewelry to use, simply stick with whatever you find that has a useful and relevant enchantment.
Smithing: As a Knight of Diagna, you’ll want to be skilled in working with the metal of your namesake god, so grab Orcish Smithing here.
Alchemy: The Knight uses potions for healing and fortifying skills as well as poisons for damaging and paralyzing enemies. Grab all the perks in this tree except for Green Thumb, Experimenter and Purity.
Alteration: Flesh spells are a nice boost before you hit the armor cap, but the real gem here is the paralyze spell. This is the Knight’s method for crowd control, immobilizing opponents so he can deal with them later or beat up on them while they’re defenseless. Perkwise, grab Stability, all three ranks of Magic Resistance, and Atronach.
You should be at level 55 once the build is completed.
Alchemical Concoctions
Potion of Canis Root, One-Handed Ingredient, and Marksman Ingredient: With the Knight, I mostly stuck to simple, single-effect concoctions, but this was the exception. Aside from the fact that both your sword and bow damage will be boosted, due to a glitch, fortify marksman potions boost all forms of physical damage, not just archery damage. Thus, with the addition of fortify one-handed, your sword damage will be boosted twice as much.
Restore Health: As your primary means of healing, you'll want to have a bunch of potions with this effect on you at all times.
Restore Stamina: Given the importance of Stamina to a warrior build, the usefulness of this effect should be obvious.
Paralysis: This will be your only source of paralysis in the early going, though it should be largely supplanted by the more convenient Paralyze spell once you perk Expert Alteration.
Roleplay
Destroy the Orcs!
Here’s the real fun in playing a Knight of Diagna, and the whole reason why one would come out here in the first place. With the Order having taken part in the destruction of Orsinium in the first era, the Knight will naturally want to deal with the Orcs living in Skyrim. There’s nothing wrong with the civilized city Orcs, but the ones out in the strongholds are effectively creating mini-Orsiniums that must be destroyed before they become too powerful. The best part about all of this? With the exception of Yamarz (who is killed during the Cursed Tribe anyway), none of the stronghold orcs are essential. Keeping this in mind, here’s a course of action to take with them:
- Once you feel ready (keep in mind the quest has a minimum level of 9), do the Cursed Tribe. Yamarz will die in the process, so take his suit of Orcish Armor for yourself.
- The quest finishes in Largashbur, so at that point, kill all the orcs there, then go to the other strongholds and do the same.
- To top things off, do Lost to the Ages and spite Malacath by tossing Volendrung into the lava of the Aetherium Forge (credit goes to Asgard’s “Nogo the Bow-Saint” build for this idea) or the waters of the Sea of Ghosts if you don’t have Dawnguard.
Of course, there’s more to the roleplay than just simply killing Orcs. Remember that you are still a knight, so always strive to aid the weak and helpless, but do not spare the wicked your blade. You also disdain both the Divines and Daedra, preferring instead your traditional Yokudan gods. To top things off, here are some quests you may want to pursue as a Knight of Diagna.
Main Quest: Naturally, the return of the World-Eater is something that a knight would want to take care of.
Stormcloaks: You have no love for Ulfric or his rebellion, but you hate the Empire for abandoning Hammerfell after the Great War, and this provides you with the perfect opportunity to strike back.
Companions: Seek fellowship amongst a group of fighters. I chose not to take on Lycanthropy out of disdain for Hircine, but you might feel otherwise.
Destroy the Dark Brotherhood: Remember that whole bit about not sparing the wicked your blade? That applies to both Grelod and the Dark Brotherhood.
Dawnguard: Like Alduin, the Volkihar is a threat that must be destroyed.
Click Here For More Builds!
