The Erebus is actually a witchhunter class variant with a few twists (necromancy and stealth) and regarding the roleplay he 's using only Shadow Magic (you can learn about the lore behind shadow magic Here and Here and might as well check Henson's amazing build The Ceya-Tar revolving around the same roleplay theme of shadow magic, also the lore behind the name of the build is Here). This build offers a fast paced and fun gameplay, one moment you can storm the battlefield wreaking havoc with your bow and magic and the other you can fall back to the shadows and control the bodies of your enemies to fight for you.
Click for Music to accompany your reading
You can find the Backstory for the Erebus in this blog post: Here (If you take the time to read it please leave a coment and tell me your opinion on it because it 's the first time I wrote an extensive backstory like this one and i hope i did it right).
The Erebus
Build
Race: Breton (personal preference), Imperial, Nord (racials fit in with the roleplay), High Elf (for extra Magicka)
Stone: Mage, Lord or Ritual (I prefer to stick with one stone from the beginning for roleplay purposes, I went with the Lord for this one)
Dragon Shouts: Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint, Aura Whisper, Become Ethereal, Animal Allegiance, Dismay, Slow Time, Kyne's Peace, Marked for Death, Soul Tear, Bend Will, Dragon Aspect
Stats: 3 Magicka / 1 Health / 2 Stamina - I followed this pattern until I was between level 25-30 after that enchanted gear and perks kick in and you can allocate your stat points with a relative freedom be it more Health, Stamina or even Magicka.
Gear and Enchantments: (Personally I used mods to acquire my gear which i will list at the end of the build, for those who can't use any mods I will suggest some attire).
Chest: College Master Robes of Conjuration (Fortify Conjuration / Fortify Magicka Regen)
Hands: Thalmor Gloves - Fortify Archery / Fortify Magicka
Feet: Black Boots - Resist Fire / Resist Frost
Head: Circlet of your liking - Fortify Destruction / Fortify Magicka (Note: You can alternatively use the aetherial crown and have two stone blessings).
Necklace: Fortify Archery / Fortify Alteration
Ring: Fortify Archery / Fortify Restoration
Note: One thing you can do depending in the difficulty you play at is to drop the extra effect perk and have these enchants on your gear besides the master robes of conjuration: Fortify Archery x 3 / Fortify Magicka x1 / Resist Fire or Frost (you mostly come across fire i think but frost is still a painful element to deal with)
Skills
.
 |
Archery: This is one of the Erebus's favorite skills because the practitioner has a lot to gain, Self-discipline, Clarity of mind in any situation, the means to defend oneself and the means to reach the apex avatar of the warrior philosopher. |
 |
Alteration: This is the skill with which we use Shadow Magic to protect our physical form with the shadows enveloping our body (flesh spells) and grow even further our control over the shadows and ultimately the control we exert over the physical world shaping it as we see fit. (Ash shell/rune, Paralysis, Detect Life/undead, Candlelight/Magelight) |
 |
Conjuration: This skill further enhances the Shadow Mage's ability to give solid shape to the shadows he is controlling (Bound Bow) and even give him the ability to summon aspects of his slain enemies from the Shadow Realms under his command. |
 |
Sneak: This is the skill that comes natural to a Shadow Mage. Their mastery over the shadows has given them the ability to move freely within the shadows and remain unseen. They could make even the most skillful assassin feel ashamed of himself. |
 |
Restoration: Healing himself is one of Erebus's innate abilities thanks to his shadow magic and he's not only restricted to heal physical wounds but also the fatigue his body has suffered (Respite). When he 's at death's door he is able to avoid this predicament by restoring himself completely with one of his aspects in one of the shadow realms. He 's also able to tap into his enemies' shadows and damage their physical forms (Poison Rune). |
 |
Destruction: The aura of a Shadow Mage is to be feared. One, cannot simply approach a Shadow Mage in battle and expect to come out of it unscathed (Cloak Spells). Also the dealings with the Shadow Realms has given unique knowledge in Rune Magic (All types of Runes). |
 |
Enchanting: The Shadow Mage is able to bind the shadows of an object and change it's properties to his will. |
 |
Alchemy: The Shadow Mage after acquiring knowledge from the shadow realms is able to create a concoction to help him naturally blend with the world of shadows. (Unperked skill used only for the creation of invisibility potions). |
Perks
Level 50 Perks: Here
Level 60 Perks:
Gameplay
The Erebus is an individual whose arcane art the Shadow Magic can rival even the Elder Scrolls so I went all the way and made this a powerhouse build. If anyone decides to play this one (that would make me quite happy) and would like to tone down the power of the build he/she can do it of course by setting any limitations they desire, leaving out the Extra Effect/Bull's Eye perks for example or by not using certain spells/powers, it's your character so you decide how you play just use this one as the general theme of your character. Now, regarding the gameplay of the character i had a specific motive in my mind with which I 'd like to approach every battle situation. First of all I 'm using stealth as a mechanic to provide synergy between other aspects of the gameplay and I decided to fully perk it mostly for the roleplay of the character. Also Destruction is used only for the occasional runes and Cloaks. The way I played was first to remain hidden and watch my enemies and plan my attack, after that I would lay down a rune (optional) or just cast a flesh, cloak spell and my bound bow, then either leave stealth and enter combat or take down an enemy first from stealth Raise him and then proceed in a more personal confrontation with Bow combat in close range. In the early levels you can use a normal bow along with Raising enemies and rune spells and in the higher levels with enchanting you can fully enjoy Erebus's gameplay (Note: be sure to get some training in Destruction from Faralda it won't be a skill to level up fast). The Erebus is also able to escape and defend against every possible situation be it with paralyze spells, shouts or stealth. What i used a lot when I was in a sticky situation was an invisibility potion and sneak that 's why I listed Alchemy as an unperked skill, I used this for roleplay as well since what kind of Shadow Mage you ' d be if the shadows didn't hide you. Also don 't forget to use your shouts and swap between them often. Another thing I used was the Whirlwind cloak since it was quite funny having people flying around but also it could bring the feeling of strength the presence of a Shadow Mage has (Some people might find the whirlwind cloak a bit too strong so feel free not to use it as much and make use of the other cloak spells I 'd advise frost to slow down enemies and of course fire cloak for undead or swap that for Stendar's Aura for the better aesthitics).
Note: Invisibility potion ingredients: Nirnoot, Crimson Nirnoot, Vampire Dust, Chaurus Eggs, Ice wraith teeth, Luna moth wing, Ash creep cluster.
Special Skills:
 Release of the thousand shadows
The release of an array of vengeful shadows to damage and feast on the very life force of your enemies.
Requires: Ritual stone (if picked or Aetherial crown used) + Soul Tear + Flaming Familiars + Poison Rune
|
 Shadow Force
The control of one's own shadow to engulf his body in order to strengthen it, exert his aura in a violent rotation to harm the enemies willing to approach and the exertion of a pure wave of shadow magic in order to push any menace away
Requires: Flesh Spell + Whirlwind Cloak + Unrelenting Force
|
 Shadow Blink
The Shadow Mage is able to teleport instantly in a location moving through the shadows getting away from the thick of the battle and remain unseen in their embrace.
Requires: Whirlwind Sprint + Invisibility Potion + Shadow Warrior
|
 Avatar of Shadowborn
Gathering the endless powers of the shadow realms enhances the Shadow Mage's abilities to the fullest your Grand Pressense is harming and shatters the mind and spirit of your enemies.
Requieres: Dragon Aspect + Flesh Spell + Fire cloak or Stendar's Aura + Dismay.
|
Roleplay
Regarding the roleplay aspect of the build there are one or two basic things that should be followed.
- Forget about the schools of magic the only Art of Magic the Erebus can cast is Shadow Magic
- You don 't use under any circumstances necromancy, what you do is to bind the shadows of your slain enemies and control their soulless bodies to do your bidding, something like a puppet master. (still quite creepy and cool if not "cooler")
- You are a power hungry individual who only thinks about getting stronger so try to do as many of the quests that give you some sort of "power" as possible be it items or skills.
- If you join the Companions or the Vampires in Dawnguard cure both Vampirism or Lycanthropy since you consider that both of these are diseases that will hinder you in the practice of your true powers rather than make you stronger.
Now regarding if this build is good or evil I 'd like to leave this choise to the one that will play the build.Do the Main Quest, the College of Winterhold, Dawnguard and Dragonborn also quests giving you some sort of skill or power or artifacts like the Deadric quests and if you go the "Good guy" route give them the responses which show the least respect towards them. The character can also join the Companions and to roleplay that part while doing their quests play only with your flesh spells and bound bow or you can even disregard any other type of "Shadow Magic" (no flesh or heal spells) and train yourself only in the Way of the Bow (something i found quite refreshing in the middle of my gameplay). Also you can easily do with this character all the "Bad guy" questlines since he has a pretty good stealth gameplay and is driven by a hunger for power.
Mod List:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30466/? The armor mod in the 1st picture and what i used for half of my gameplay.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9645/? Great mage robes mod and what i used in the other half of my gameplay.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3222/? friendly advise, disable the crosshair while wielding the bound bow.
Closing Notes
Well, first of all nice to meet you! Here is my first build posted in the skyrim blog Tamriel Vault and I hope it 'll be well received, any constructive criticism or advice to improve this one or a future build i might post are welcome. Thanks for your time.
The Erebus is actually a witchhunter class variant with a few twists (necromancy and stealth) and regarding the roleplay he 's using only Shadow Magic (you can learn about the lore behind shadow magic Here and Here and might as well check Henson's amazing build The Ceya-Tar revolving around the same roleplay theme of shadow magic, also the lore behind the name of the build is Here). This build offers a fast paced and fun gameplay, one moment you can storm the battlefield wreaking havoc with your bow and magic and the other you can fall back to the shadows and control the bodies of your enemies to fight for you.
Click for Music to accompany your reading
You can find the Backstory for the Erebus in this blog post: Here (If you take the time to read it please leave a coment and tell me your opinion on it because it 's the first time I wrote an extensive backstory like this one and i hope i did it right).
The Erebus
Build
Race: Breton (personal preference), Imperial, Nord (racials fit in with the roleplay), High Elf (for extra Magicka)
Stone: Mage, Lord or Ritual (I prefer to stick with one stone from the beginning for roleplay purposes, I went with the Lord for this one)
Dragon Shouts: Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint, Aura Whisper, Become Ethereal, Animal Allegiance, Dismay, Slow Time, Kyne's Peace, Marked for Death, Soul Tear, Bend Will, Dragon Aspect
Stats: 3 Magicka / 1 Health / 2 Stamina - I followed this pattern until I was between level 25-30 after that enchanted gear and perks kick in and you can allocate your stat points with a relative freedom be it more Health, Stamina or even Magicka.
Gear and Enchantments: (Personally I used mods to acquire my gear which i will list at the end of the build, for those who can't use any mods I will suggest some attire).
Chest: College Master Robes of Conjuration (Fortify Conjuration / Fortify Magicka Regen)
Hands: Thalmor Gloves - Fortify Archery / Fortify Magicka
Feet: Black Boots - Resist Fire / Resist Frost
Head: Circlet of your liking - Fortify Destruction / Fortify Magicka (Note: You can alternatively use the aetherial crown and have two stone blessings).
Necklace: Fortify Archery / Fortify Alteration
Ring: Fortify Archery / Fortify Restoration
Note: One thing you can do depending in the difficulty you play at is to drop the extra effect perk and have these enchants on your gear besides the master robes of conjuration: Fortify Archery x 3 / Fortify Magicka x1 / Resist Fire or Frost (you mostly come across fire i think but frost is still a painful element to deal with)
Skills
.
|
Archery: This is one of the Erebus's favorite skills because the practitioner has a lot to gain, Self-discipline, Clarity of mind in any situation, the means to defend oneself and the means to reach the apex avatar of the warrior philosopher. |
|
Alteration: This is the skill with which we use Shadow Magic to protect our physical form with the shadows enveloping our body (flesh spells) and grow even further our control over the shadows and ultimately the control we exert over the physical world shaping it as we see fit. (Ash shell/rune, Paralysis, Detect Life/undead, Candlelight/Magelight) |
|
Conjuration: This skill further enhances the Shadow Mage's ability to give solid shape to the shadows he is controlling (Bound Bow) and even give him the ability to summon aspects of his slain enemies from the Shadow Realms under his command. |
|
Sneak: This is the skill that comes natural to a Shadow Mage. Their mastery over the shadows has given them the ability to move freely within the shadows and remain unseen. They could make even the most skillful assassin feel ashamed of himself. |
|
Restoration: Healing himself is one of Erebus's innate abilities thanks to his shadow magic and he's not only restricted to heal physical wounds but also the fatigue his body has suffered (Respite). When he 's at death's door he is able to avoid this predicament by restoring himself completely with one of his aspects in one of the shadow realms. He 's also able to tap into his enemies' shadows and damage their physical forms (Poison Rune). |
|
Destruction: The aura of a Shadow Mage is to be feared. One, cannot simply approach a Shadow Mage in battle and expect to come out of it unscathed (Cloak Spells). Also the dealings with the Shadow Realms has given unique knowledge in Rune Magic (All types of Runes). |
|
Enchanting: The Shadow Mage is able to bind the shadows of an object and change it's properties to his will. |
|
Alchemy: The Shadow Mage after acquiring knowledge from the shadow realms is able to create a concoction to help him naturally blend with the world of shadows. (Unperked skill used only for the creation of invisibility potions). |
Perks
Level 50 Perks: Here
Level 60 Perks:
Gameplay
The Erebus is an individual whose arcane art the Shadow Magic can rival even the Elder Scrolls so I went all the way and made this a powerhouse build. If anyone decides to play this one (that would make me quite happy) and would like to tone down the power of the build he/she can do it of course by setting any limitations they desire, leaving out the Extra Effect/Bull's Eye perks for example or by not using certain spells/powers, it's your character so you decide how you play just use this one as the general theme of your character. Now, regarding the gameplay of the character i had a specific motive in my mind with which I 'd like to approach every battle situation. First of all I 'm using stealth as a mechanic to provide synergy between other aspects of the gameplay and I decided to fully perk it mostly for the roleplay of the character. Also Destruction is used only for the occasional runes and Cloaks. The way I played was first to remain hidden and watch my enemies and plan my attack, after that I would lay down a rune (optional) or just cast a flesh, cloak spell and my bound bow, then either leave stealth and enter combat or take down an enemy first from stealth Raise him and then proceed in a more personal confrontation with Bow combat in close range. In the early levels you can use a normal bow along with Raising enemies and rune spells and in the higher levels with enchanting you can fully enjoy Erebus's gameplay (Note: be sure to get some training in Destruction from Faralda it won't be a skill to level up fast). The Erebus is also able to escape and defend against every possible situation be it with paralyze spells, shouts or stealth. What i used a lot when I was in a sticky situation was an invisibility potion and sneak that 's why I listed Alchemy as an unperked skill, I used this for roleplay as well since what kind of Shadow Mage you ' d be if the shadows didn't hide you. Also don 't forget to use your shouts and swap between them often. Another thing I used was the Whirlwind cloak since it was quite funny having people flying around but also it could bring the feeling of strength the presence of a Shadow Mage has (Some people might find the whirlwind cloak a bit too strong so feel free not to use it as much and make use of the other cloak spells I 'd advise frost to slow down enemies and of course fire cloak for undead or swap that for Stendar's Aura for the better aesthitics).
Note: Invisibility potion ingredients: Nirnoot, Crimson Nirnoot, Vampire Dust, Chaurus Eggs, Ice wraith teeth, Luna moth wing, Ash creep cluster.
Special Skills:
Release of the thousand shadows
The release of an array of vengeful shadows to damage and feast on the very life force of your enemies.
Requires: Ritual stone (if picked or Aetherial crown used) + Soul Tear + Flaming Familiars + Poison Rune
|
Shadow Force
The control of one's own shadow to engulf his body in order to strengthen it, exert his aura in a violent rotation to harm the enemies willing to approach and the exertion of a pure wave of shadow magic in order to push any menace away
Requires: Flesh Spell + Whirlwind Cloak + Unrelenting Force
|
Shadow Blink
The Shadow Mage is able to teleport instantly in a location moving through the shadows getting away from the thick of the battle and remain unseen in their embrace.
Requires: Whirlwind Sprint + Invisibility Potion + Shadow Warrior
|
Avatar of Shadowborn
Gathering the endless powers of the shadow realms enhances the Shadow Mage's abilities to the fullest your Grand Pressense is harming and shatters the mind and spirit of your enemies.
Requieres: Dragon Aspect + Flesh Spell + Fire cloak or Stendar's Aura + Dismay.
|
Roleplay
Regarding the roleplay aspect of the build there are one or two basic things that should be followed.
- Forget about the schools of magic the only Art of Magic the Erebus can cast is Shadow Magic
- You don 't use under any circumstances necromancy, what you do is to bind the shadows of your slain enemies and control their soulless bodies to do your bidding, something like a puppet master. (still quite creepy and cool if not "cooler")
- You are a power hungry individual who only thinks about getting stronger so try to do as many of the quests that give you some sort of "power" as possible be it items or skills.
- If you join the Companions or the Vampires in Dawnguard cure both Vampirism or Lycanthropy since you consider that both of these are diseases that will hinder you in the practice of your true powers rather than make you stronger.
Now regarding if this build is good or evil I 'd like to leave this choise to the one that will play the build.Do the Main Quest, the College of Winterhold, Dawnguard and Dragonborn also quests giving you some sort of skill or power or artifacts like the Deadric quests and if you go the "Good guy" route give them the responses which show the least respect towards them. The character can also join the Companions and to roleplay that part while doing their quests play only with your flesh spells and bound bow or you can even disregard any other type of "Shadow Magic" (no flesh or heal spells) and train yourself only in the Way of the Bow (something i found quite refreshing in the middle of my gameplay). Also you can easily do with this character all the "Bad guy" questlines since he has a pretty good stealth gameplay and is driven by a hunger for power.
Mod List:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30466/? The armor mod in the 1st picture and what i used for half of my gameplay.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9645/? Great mage robes mod and what i used in the other half of my gameplay.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3222/? friendly advise, disable the crosshair while wielding the bound bow.
Closing Notes
Well, first of all nice to meet you! Here is my first build posted in the skyrim blog Tamriel Vault and I hope it 'll be well received, any constructive criticism or advice to improve this one or a future build i might post are welcome. Thanks for your time.
