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Event Build: The Cult of the Ancestor Moth

Tags: #Character Build Spellsword  #Character Build Acrobat  #Character Build Mage Armor  #Race:Imperial  #Rank:Event Exemplar  #Event:Factions  #Hainesy  #HainesyOneness2016  #Oneness 
  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    Well it seems we greatly overshot the deadline, which is entirely Hainesy’s fault as always ;) , but regardless we did not back out this time. Why? Because I think we have created a style that has yet to be seen in the land of Skyrim. Something so simple its genius, if we do say so ourselves. Rather than going through the normal routine for building we took a different approach, one that we think matches up with the personality we interpreted for members of the Cult of the Ancestor Moth. And to top it off we have the lore of these famous Moth Priests to compliment it. So we present to you:

    The Cult of the Ancestor Moth

    “The Order of the Ancestor Moth is as ancient as it is noble. We nurture and celebrate our beloved ancestors, whose spirits are manifest in the Ancestor Moths. Each moth carries the fjyron of an ancestor's spirit. Loosely translated as the "will to peace," the fjyron can be sung into the silk produced by the Ancestor Moths. When the silk is in turn spun into cloth and embroidered with the genealogy of the correct Ancestor, clothing of wondrous power can be made.

    Adepts of our order are gifted with prescient powers. The wisdom of the ancestors can sing the future into the present. For this reason, our order and our order alone has been given the privilege to interpret the Elder Scrolls. These writings exceed even the gods, both aedra and daedra. Such insight into the inner fabric of reality comes at a price. Each reading of the Elder Scrolls is more profound than the last. Each leaves the priest blind for longer, and longer periods of time. Finally, the last reading achieves a nearly sublime understanding of that scroll's contents, but the priest is left permanently blinded to the light of this world. No longer can he read the scrolls…

    At one time, we also provided protection. Many generations ago, Gudrun came to our temple. Newly blinded by visions of what was to be, she brought with her new teachings. The visions of the ancestors foresaw the need of the monks to defend themselves. They train and practice the teachings of Gudrun constantly. They are masters of the sword of no sword, the axes of no axe.”

    -          Pension of the Ancestor Moth

    Race: Imperial

    Stone: Lord

    Major Skills: Alteration, Illusion, One-Handed

    Minor Skills: Block, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration

    Weapon: Blades Sword

    Clothing: Red Robes, Footwraps

    Jewelry: Fortify Magicka and Magicka Regeneration

    Stats: 3/1/0 or 5/2/0

    Shouts: Aura Whisperer, Call of Valor, Elemental Fury, Slow Time

    The Build

    As we have mentioned, we wanted to create a unique style for such a unique faction and we think we did just that. When reading about the Cult of the Ancestor Moth one thing that became apparent was their personalities. They are seemingly harmless people that are just inherently joyful. Well for those that have played Oblivion or have faced Dexion Evicus at lower levels, you know they are not harmless. No matter if they are blind or under some spell they are extremely dangerous. Yet outside of battle they seem to be batty old people who spend their days reading and tending to the Ancestor Moths. The Moth Priests are, in a sense, those wise old men and women that are just naturally happy and joking in nature, but are lethal if pushed to the edge (think about someone like Mr. Miyagi).

    We really wanted to exemplify this personality in all endeavors, especially combat, so we created a style much like that of the witch hunter, but stems far more outward. This style is basically a counter or anti build. Rather than pick a certain skill or trait to build around we built around countering other skills and traits. This really shows the danger these Moth Priests pack and symbolizes the vast knowledge they have gained from interpreting the Elder Scrolls and reading books all day, but also their ability to have fun as they toy with their enemies. As you will see, the skills and spells we have chosen are actually just extensions of what the NPCs from Oblivion and Skyrim already had.

    Another thing we had to factor in was blindness. Though it is almost impossible to replicate this blindness, let alone do it constantly, we have implemented a little something. Furthermore we have worked in traits that are ideal for a blind swordsman, such as impeccable speed and agility thanks to keen senses outside of sight.

    What we have created is a character that can dodge enemy attacks, disrupt spell casting, and then land vicious counterattacks. Every battle is different, and every fight is like a chess match, for your life. Well your character's life.

    Skills

    “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

    Alteration

    The first and most obvious way to begin our skill set for countering is to have a steady armor rating. Well thanks to the flesh spells of Alteration and the Lord Stone this is a simple task. With all three Mage Armor perks, Ebonyflesh grants us an even 300 armor rating. Add in the Lord Stone and you are sitting at about 350. Nothing too flashy, but it definitely gets the job done. The other thing that Alteration will add to the arsenal is the Ash Rune spell! As you will see, rune spells play a huge role in this build and the Ash Rune is no exception. It is the ultimate counter to any enemy because it stops them dead in their tracks. Lastly, Stability will not only increase the duration of our flesh spells and Ash Rune, but also Slow Time.

    Block

    While not the most heavily emphasized, blocking will continuously play a role, against melee enemies specifically. Although you will typically always have a spell in the off-hand, Alastor has enlightened us as to how easy it is to just switch off that spell through your favorites and chain a block to it. This makes it easy to shift right into the block and activate Quick Reflexes in a moment’s notice. Quick Reflexes in tandem with Slow Time and our modest armor rating make melee enemies a piece of cake to pick apart.

    Conjuration

    We would like to thank Mason and his Heretic build for inspiring the use of this skill and essentially the basis of the build stemming from it. As some of you may know, you can actually battle necromancers for their raised dead. By using a stronger reanimate spell than your enemy you can actually take ownership of the dead body and raise it as your own.  To aid in this stealing of bodies we have taken both Summoner perks allowing you to steal bodies from across the room as you enter. To wrap up Conjuartion we have the very underrated banish spells. These are just some of the pieces to the assortment of spells you can use against enemy mages.

    Destruction

    The first half and the magical half of our offense. We have chosen not to specialize in any element but to instead specialize solely in the use of rune spells. All three elements have their merits and all aid in a different way. Fire is the damage dealer thanks to its small ‘after burn’, frost will slow all enemies hit for a short period of time and finally shock will take out a nice piece of an enemy mage’s magicka tank. With Rune Master, not only can these spells can be cast at a great distance, but so can the Ash Rune and the Frenzy Rune.

    Illusion

    This skill perfectly depicts the entire concept of the build: controlling the battlefield and messing with people’s heads. Calm, Fear and Frenzy spells will all be put to good use. By using these spells you can create utter, yet controlled, chaos while you systematically tear through enemies. You can move entire armies to single out the higher level enemies through smart use of these spells and then proceed to put your other skills to work.

     

    Let’s talk about how runes compliment Illusion magic. For starter’s Frenzy Rune, which is one of the strongest Frenzy spells in the game, can now be cast from a safe distant as you observe the carnage that awaits your arrival. But the other rune spells also play their role here. Now as enemies are brawling among one another or running and crying to their mommies you can begin to chip away at them with ease. Although you can only have one rune active at a time, you can very well drop one right in front of a fleeing bandit or right in the center of a couple vampires killing each other. And to add to what I said before, you can drop a couple Ash Runes as you near the end of the timer on your spell to help single out your enemies as they revert back to their senses.

    One-Handed

    And here is our other offensive skill. There is nothing too fancy here. What the Moth Priest lacks in physical strength he makes up for in magical and intellectual prowess, and vice-versa. Without exceptionally high physical damage or exceptionally high magical damage, the two combine to even each other out and become a very formidable duo doing decent damage each hit.

     

    Restoration

    Finally there is Restoration. This skill works two-fold. First being that it keeps you healthy for the inevitable drawn out battles. Second, along with Conjuration, it acts a solid line of defense against enemy mages. Thanks to wards just about every spell in the game is able to be blocked, and then some.  A nice additive that comes with the use of ward spells is a boost to armor rating, so if used correctly a ward can also aid in battles with physical enemies as well.

     

     

     

     

    Shouts

    “The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”

    Aura Whisperer

    By first messing around with your in-game display settings a little, such as the brightness, you can create a sonar-like effect with Aura Whisperer. This is good for trying to recreate the blindness aspect with your other senses keened in. And as such, using Aura Whisperer will limit you from using other shouts while actually limiting your vision making it a true handicap.

    Call of Valor

    As described in many stories of the Cult of the Ancestor Moth, the clothing spun from the silk of Ancestor Moths is empowered with the spirit of their ancestors making for some intriguing powers. Call of Valor is our translation of these powers, by quite literally calling on the spirits of your ancestors which have been entwined in your clothing. The beauty of this is that it plays right into our playstyle. With three options of spirits to call upon, you can beckon whichever has the best match up with the enemies you are dealing with. Be aware that using this is kind of like throwing all your chips on the table because you probably will not be able to use another shout for some time, but the added support does more than make up for it.

    Elemental Fury/Slow Time

    These are your bread and butter shouts. With these two shouts, you really get a sense that the Moth Priests are not old and decrepit, but actually agile and strong. The uses of these are typically interchangeable depending on the situation at hand. Elemental Fury gives a nice boost to our physical damage and attack speed which makes it a solid choice at any time in any battle. Slow Time is just as good but there are some times when it can be especially devastating. For instance, against mages and archers, at full strength it becomes relatively easy to dodge spells and arrows to help set up your desired field. While in close range it can become extremely potent when tacked on during Quick Reflexes because it gives a sustained form of slow time. Each shout has many positives so it all comes down to the situation at hand and what kind of mood you are in when choosing which to use when.

    The Power of the Ancestor Moth

    “I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

    Now you are probably asking yourself how all this fits together. Well you see, the idea is that no fight will ever be the same. You fight with the ideas of Gudrun. You were trained in fighting in the art of  “the sword of no sword and the axes of no axe.” So rather than actively search and destroy everything in sight you try to quell the situation until it is otherwise unavoidable then you use your training as a line of self-defense for yourself and the scrolls.

    At the start of battles with melee enemies and/or archers simply cast your flesh spell, use whatever shout you fancy in combination with Illusion spells then proceed to pick off enemies via calculated attacks with your sword and runes.

    For magic users it is typically safe to skip over using a flesh spell in favor of entering magical warfare. Steal their raised bodies, banish their conjurations, dispel their attacks and retaliate with spells of your own. Make them run around senseless tripping over runes or running into the blade of your sword. It is all part of the game.

    For tougher enemies that may not like Illusion spells, such as dragons, you still have all of the tools capable of dismantling them. Wards and flesh spells are your best friend against dragons. Use Call of Valor in dragon fights to get either Gormliath or Felldir to help you because the damage increase of Elemental Fury or using Slow Time is not as helpful in situations like this. After some practice with wards and positioning runes, dragon fights and just about any other battle should become easy regardless of difficulty because the mechanics remain the same, some brawls may just last a little longer than others.

    Roleplay

    “When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is, then it is nothing.”

    Trying to roleplay as a Moth Priest can be pretty difficult in Skyrim. For starters you cannot read your first scroll without being Dragonborn. To add insult to insult, during Dawnguard you have to go find another Moth Priest to read a scroll for you! Then consider you only get robes relative to what Moth Priests actually wear through Hearthfire, you cannot get your sword without committing a crime or being Dragonborn, and you cannot even get sandals without being a female and part of the Dark Brotherhood!  But regardless of all these downsides the grass is much greener on the other side.

    Looking past the faults there are so many positives to this faction that is rich with lore. To begin, the personality of such a character is a joy to play. Playing as an old, aloof character is not something you actively do in your spare time, usually, so it is a good change of pace and Skyrim offers many opportunities to show such traits through everyday conversations and things of the like. We each also took the time to collect skill books as well as pick up any others books we came across. This not only helps in leveling, but it is essential to any Moth Priest in the pursuit of knowledge. Likewise we did not stray away from using scrolls to cast spells because it is first and foremost a source of information prior to finding the tome for that particular spell, but it also saves magicka. And looking at the spells this build uses, you will need all the magicka you can get.

    Then there is the one thing that has become the calling card of this faction, their blindness. As stated earlier, Aura Whisperer becomes a great substitute for actual blindness with some adjustments, giving some physical and technical handicaps. Although, it would be too difficult to run around continuously blind. So in keeping with the tales, we only went into our ‘”blind mode” after each reading of an Elder Scroll and tried to maintain it for at least a couple of in-game days. This really helps you appreciate all that a character like this has to offer when its options are entirely open.

    The last thing we want to mention is that the Cult of the Ancestor Moth are the protectors of the Elder Scrolls and as such you should make it your duty to seek them out and defend them with your life, no matter how difficult Bethesda has made it for you to believe you are actually a Moth Priest, because in the end you will really feel like you are, we assure you. 

    Again guys, we are truly sorry for the delay but we have both had a lot on our plate for awhile now. The sad part is we had this playthrough done a long time ago lol. We are glad to finally have the chance to share it with you all.

    We would like to thank all of you guys for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

    Also a shout out to Alastor for being Alastor, Vindictive for showing us the Quick Reflexes + Slow Time trick, and Mason for his Heretic build as well as making this event possible.

    Hainesy's Other Builds

    Oneness' Other Builds

  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    Great build as always, it's good to see so many people using my extended slow time exploit.

  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    It's up, whoo hoo! The Ancestor Moth Priests always seemed so cool, and I remember in Oblivion always being terrified those guys would detect me while I was in there sneaking around (love the comparison with Mr. Miyagi... spot on xD). I was wondering how you were going to take on the whole blindness thing... that's a pretty cool angle ;)

    Using rune spells as your only source of Destruction magic is also a fun and intriguing way to approach combat... also seems more scholarly somehow (which is in keeping with the lore and roleplay of the Ancestor Moth Priests). It's also nice to see wards getting a little love from a build.

    Looks like my favorite combination for a build... interesting RP/lore, and fun/challenging gameplay. I wouldn't have come anywhere near to where you guys ended up in trying to recreate this faction (which is what makes you master builders).

    Great job... HainesyOneness 2016 ;)

  • Member
    May 27, 2014
    This build is amazing, great job you two. :)
  • Member
    May 27, 2014
    Thanks for the shoutout bro! This sounds like a seriously fun playthrough, having a counter for anything an enemy could throw at you. Way to turn CB inside out fellas! I guess I'm gonna have to get Hearthfire if only for those Red Robes and incredible Alchemy opportunities! When I first saw what you guys chose I was admittedly disappointed but you and Hainesy really pulled it together. I've gotta try that "blind mode" because I've wanted to roleplay blindness and this may be the best way to do it. Glad the ultimate duo had one more to churn out and with Mason missing in action, the Factions Event hasn't "officially" ended lol. +1
  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    Vote Onenessy 2016

    Great job on this one guys! I seem to recall another Moth Priest build on the site but I can't remember what it is. In any event, this one is great. I thought about rolling a blind character before by wearing the Execution Hood and turning the brightness all the way down; nice to see that you guys incorporated a cool blindness mechanic yourselves.

  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    Shit, I forgot to give you a shoutout for that. I added it in now. I know I remembered to in my Emissary build lol. I'm glad you enjoyed it though 

  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    "Master builder"? Ha. I wish! 

    Thank you man. It definitely was tough finding a good starting place, but once we did we just started rolling and then everything fit into place like a big puzzle. It felt really good seeing the end product compared to some of the ideas we started with xD

  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    Thanks Chris! 

  • Member
    May 27, 2014

    Like I said to Shinjin, at first we thought we were in over our heads because this faction is all lore and not much actual in-game stuff, we thought we were making a librarian at one point! (Which actually sounds like a pretty cool idea) But after researching the classes that the Moth Priest NPCs had in both games, and what spells they used, it really enlightened us. I'm sure Bethesda didn't mean to make anything like this, but in a way they did, very subtly I might add.

    As for the blindness, it was one of the big struggles we had early one because nothing in came really reflected that too much, we can't even get blindfolds! So after a little brainstorming we decided go outside the game. Though it can be a bitch to change the settings from what you are used to, it is pretty fun man.

    It makes me happy to see that you, and others, still have faith in us lol. Thanks dude