Introducing: Ocato - High Elf Mage

I've spoken quite a bit about the High Elf situation in Skyrim in my Imperial article, and a small amount in my Redguard article, also. In comparison to previous Elder Scrolls titles Altmers in particular have a much greater role to play in proceedings than before. And interestingly it all begins with what happened after the conclusion of Oblivion.

If you played through to the end of Oblivion, and completed the Main Quest, then you'll know how the Oblivion Crisis really ended - the sacrifices made and how it all panned out. Well, that was the how it was
seen to have transpired in The Empire. The Elves, however, had their own take on things...

During the Oblivion Crisis transport gates from Oblivion were opening up all over Tamriel. In the Summerset Isles, homeland of the High Elves, The Thalmor claimed that THEY had defeated the Daedra, and closed the gates to Oblivion. Hailed as heroes by High Elves and Wood Elves alike The Thalmor used the Oblivion Crisis as a way of furthering their own agenda, uniting both races as a second version of the Aldmeri Dominion, a coalition of Elves governed by The Thalmor.

And so began a very complicated period in Elder Scrolls history. Because as far as The Thalmor are concerned the Oblivion Crisis was the fault of the weakness of Men. They vehemently believe that THEY ended the crisis ( No MAN could have done that ) and that the age of Men ruling over Tamriel had to come to end. They waged War for 30 years with The Empire, taking control of several provinces, and while peace was eventually achieved it seems very much that it was only pressed for because The Empire were not looking likely to win. They managed to force The Thalmor out of Cyrodiil itself, but territories such as Elsweyr (Homeland of the Khajiits), Black Marsh (Homeland of the Argonians) and (until its liberation by the Redguards) Hammerfell had all fallen under Thalmor control.

This is what happens when you don't have a Septim Emperor on the throne...

In Skyrim The Thalmor very much see The Empire as only still existing because they allow it to be so. The peace treaty signed at the end of the war allows them to move freely across the entire Empire and hold Embassies in places of their choosing throughout the provinces of The Empire. This is why you'll encounter them in several places out on the road in Skyrim, and how they hold one such Embassy, up near Solitude. They also have a representative in the Mage College up in Winterhold, and Justicers keeping a watchful eye over the Jarl of Markarth, in Underhold Keep. There's a clear and definite presence, that's for sure.

It's no secret that they consider themselves the 'Superior Race' of Tamriel, as they walk around in their sharp black robes. They are quite deliberately fascistic both in outlook and design. They believe that any reference to Men being even as capable as Merfolk must be scorched out. It's why the worship of Talos, the Man who ascended to a God, is banned across the whole of Tamriel, as a term which The Thalmor insisted upon in declaring peace with The Empire. And as you'll see, they hunt down anybody who breaks that rule.

In creating a High Elf character it's hard NOT to have that in the background. While I certainly wasn't setting out to produce some kind of distasteful Elf-Supremacist character, it does kind of set a scene for how
the Altmers are perceived in Skyrim. So I decided that as far as the game was concerned while my High Elf wouldn't exactly be setting out to hunt down Talos worshippers and generally be evil, they would treat encounters with The Thalmor as respectfully as possible. After all as a native of Alinor to them The Thalmor would be agents of the government. THEIR government. So a certain amount of somewhat wary respect would be necessary.

And here is result. This Ocato - High Elf Mage. And purely a mage, at that. No Battlemage hybrids, with heavy armour or swords to assist. Ocato was going to wear Mage Robes, choose to activate The Mage Stone, and fight purely with Spells. High Elves have the highest starting Magicka of all races in the game, making them prime candidates for pure magic users. They also have the ability to trigger a higher regeneration rate of Magicka once per day. Ideal.

I had originally planned to create a female High Elf Mage. But a key criticise I have over the new Elf face styles in Skyrim is that while I feel that they really do suit the Wood Elves with High and Dark Elves it's a very different picture. For male characters it's not so bad, but female High Elves? It's really not easy to produce a female High Elf who... well, doesn't in some way look vaguely haggard or grotesque. Especially when hair is added.

It's a little bit annoying. I find it somewhat difficult to believe that such Elves would find it quite so easy to blend into everyday society in Skyrim. Female Elves in Fantasy games tend generally to be considered to be
outstandingly beautiful. I dont expect the see the insanely porny big-boobed fantasy elves in Skyrim ( Much like so many mods which were made for Oblivion ) but it would be nice to be able to produce a female elf who looks a little more in step with the aesthetic of other races in Skyrim. They stand out as just looking
quite... odd to me.

I had Ocato exit Hegen with Hadvar. I figured a High Elf to more likely to trust an Imperial than to take up with a Nord freedom fighter, even if that didn't result in his joining up with The Imperial Army. A pure Mage in the Army is GOING to get his ass kicked...

While obviously the majority of armour and weapons available during the tutorial sequence very much caters for Warriors there ARE still Mage options. Every character has 'Flames' and 'Healing' available at the start
of the game. A spell tome of 'Sparks' is available in a locked cage in the Torturer's chambers, next to the body of a guy dressed in Novice Mage Robes and Hood. The Robes speed up Magicka regeneration and the Hood gives you 30 points extra Magicka. Added to Ocato's already ample Magicka stats this made dual wielding the spells of Flames and Sparks really very easy, and didn't result in the issues I had with my Battlemage, where I could only take down one enemy at once, before my Magicka was drained.

Outside, and down the hill, I chose to activate the Mage Stone, to ensure my Magic skills rose quicker. Hadvar was disappointed by my choice :) I also decided to but on some boots and gauntlets, to give me some kind of armour value, as I had with J'Ram-Dar, my Argonian Thief. It wasn't going to make a huge difference, but Light Armour in those two places didn't feel to be too much of a betrayal. If I could pick up some enchanted versions at some point later, or enchant them myself, I could either improve that armour value, or make other spell schools cheaper to cast. That would be acceptable.

Of course starting with Hadvar means you have access to Alvor's house and the obvious suggestion to use the forge. I had Ocato do a bit of Smithing, for the levelling. Improving those leather gloves and boots, and smithing some armour for a companion. It seemed wrong not to, really. I have no intention of taking the Perks from the Smithing tree, but this early level up allowed me to reduce the cost of some spells before heading out, and getting closer to getting the Perk for get a Dual Casting bonus. I also turned those Wolf and Bear Hides into Leather armour to sell back to Alvor.

Wearing such light apparel also provides the advantage that you're always going to be able to carry a bit more loot than your Heavy Armoured characters. I got plenty of cash from selling my Helgen loot, and supplemented it by chopping wood, and selling it to Hod at the Mill. This allowed me to pick up as many Spell Tomes as I could. The selection at The Riverwood Trader is a little bit limited, but it did get me important spells like 'Oakflesh' and 'Frostbite'. Frostbite meant I could dual wield the two opposing Elements of Fire and Ice, which covers the weaknesses of most enemies in the game. Oakflesh is essential if you're only wearing Robes. It gives you some actual physical resistance, which given the number of melee situations up at Bleak Falls Barrow was going to come in most handy.

As you can see I opted to adopt Sven as Ocato's follower. I supposse Lore wise it would have been more sensible to take Faendal (In an all Elves in-it-together sort of way), but I wanted somebody to cover melee situations, rather than ranged attacks. I had range sorted with my magic. So I spent the last of my cash buying Sven some solid Steel Armour, and headed up the mountain. He was able to fight at close quarters where needed. Sure, as with when I was playing as Cassius, he did have a habit of walking INTO Ocato's line of fire. But he survived it. It worked out okay.

It is a shame in some ways that there are no 'finisher' moves for Spellcasters. At least I haven't experienced any so far, anyway. But there is a level of satisfaction in setting an enemy on fire, knowing that even as you back away to flee on occasion, they are still taking damage from your handiwork. Oakflesh did seem to do its job, and while I did still take a fair bit of damage if three Draugrs attacked at once, I did still survive. I was also able to take down two enemies in a row before my magicka was spent. It was clear that in the long run I was going to need to keep a stash of Magicka potions on me, but this was a little more forgiving than my Battlemage playthrough.

So, having made it to the Word Wall and taken care of the Draugr Boss, I was actually quite pleased with Ocato's progress. Using purely magic did raise my levels up a fair bit. By the time we'd left Bleak Falls he had the Dual Casting bonus Perk, and the first level of Augmented Flames. Upping my Destruction Magic skills looked like it wasn't going to be too difficult to achieve.

The next step seemed obvious. I could either take Ocato to Whiterun, to face of against a Dragon (Hmmmm. Maybe I should have opted for Augmented Frost...) or to make the long trek up the map to the Mage college at Winterhold. I needed more Magic like a magic junkie, and somehow I didn't think that the General Store in Whiterun was going to give me my fix...

We'd see. But I'd say that Ocato pushing for a chance to be Archmage at some point was pretty much a given. :)

Good stuff.

Next Time: A Dark Elf Spellsword. Come back and see...

Introducing: Cassius Loran - Imperial Battlemage.

Ah, The Empire...

It's not what it once was.

Long gone are the days of The Septim Bloodline, glory of The Blades and ceaselessly committed Guards who'd follow you to unbelievable lengths to maintain the law...

No. In Skyrim, effectively, The Empire have become The Thalmor's bitch...

As the Thalmor Justicer in Markarth takes such pleasure in telling you 'The Empire only exist because The Thalmor allows it to be so'. Who'd have thought that as you helped force back The Daedra in Oblivion you were NOT actually ending The Empire's problems, but merely helping start 200 Years of new ones.

This is what happens when a Legendary Bloodline of Emperors comes to an end. The Elves get their way...

Still, the Imperials ARE still here. They look pretty much the same, and Redguards and Nords fill their ranks in Skyrim, if the tutorial sequence is anything to go by.

You see, I've never done a playthrough siding with The Empire. It was about time I did.

The boring option, and plainly obvious option for an Imperial, what have been to have created a character who was purely a soldier. But I'd kind of had enough of that. All of my new characters so far had been warriors or thieves, and all of them exclusively using weapons as their only attacking option. I wanted to use magic for a change. But I did also want to play along the Imperial side of the Civil War quests. So, I struck upon a compromise...

This is Cassius Loran, an Imperial Battlemage. 

My plan from the outset was to build a magic user, but one which could actually hold their own in a fight. As a Battlemage I was going to tank Cassius out in Heavy Armour but principally have him wielding Magic, occasionally supplemented by a Sword (Enchanted if possible) or a Staff to conjure a particular spell, if necessary. A magical Hood would be okay, but this guy wasn't going to be wearing actual robes, that was certain.

And as you can see from this post-Helgen image that approach went REALLY well...

Because what I did not take into account was that if you follow Hadvar The Imperial out of Helgen, as opposed to Ralof the Stormcloak, then you only fight Stormcloaks along the way.

Stormcloaks do not wear Heavy Armour. At least none of those in the Tutorial sequence. Plenty Heavy Weapons to loot. No Heavy Armour.

So that was the first order of the day upon reaching Riverwood. Hadvar tells me that as far as he's concerned my actions at Helgen have more than gained me a pardon, but until I he can speak with General Tullius up in Solitude I'm going to have to lay low. Luckily, while Hadvar may be with The Imperial Army he is actually a Nord, and his Uncle is Alvor the Blacksmith (Of 'Strong and Simple' fame...) . I at least have a roof over my head for a while, and access to the Forge outside.

Which resulted in this:

Iron Banded Armour and a Novice Mage's Hood. It's the best armour I can Smith myself, right now, and the Hood gives me 30 extra Magicka points. But the majority of money raised by selling my Helgen loot went on buying Spell Tomes at the Riverwood Trader. Every character starts the game with at least the spells 'Flames' and 'Healing'. There's also a Spell Tome of 'Sparks' to be found in the Torturer's Chambers in Helgen. Having chosen the Mage Stone and having been dual wielding fire and electrical damage since leaving the Tutorial I shelled out for the defensive spell 'Oakflesh,' destruction spell 'Frostbite,' and illusion spell 'Clairvoyance'.

A lot of longer term Elder Scrolls players dislike Clairvoyance intensely. It is, after all, a magic spell which creates a stream of light covered mist which guides you to your next objective. They consider that to be far too much hand-holding for their liking. But frankly, by now, I know exactly where I'm going. Far too well, in fact. And Clairvoyance is a really useful early way of raising your illusion skill level, with pretty much minimum effort. Just follow the trail... :)

My follower choice this time around was Sven, having now had enough time and space from the idiot to have forgotten quite how annoying he was. I had no money left after purchasing those spell tomes to get him any specific armour, so I just let him use whatever random loot I stripped off Bandits on root, and left him to do his own thing.

But as I found, leaving Sven to DO his own thing is not always a good idea.

I had a pretty solid magic combination going - Flames in one hand, Frostbite in the other. Eventually I got the spell perk giving me a dual casting Bonus for doing that. It was actually quite potent. I could take down a Draugr, providing it was only one at a time. It would pretty much wipe out all my Magicka to kill one Draugr in a row. Clearly I was going to be going through a LOT of Magicka potions in the long run.

The problem was that every time I started throwing Magical attacks AT an enemy NPC, Sven (in his infinite LACK of wisdom) would engage the enemy by standing directly IN my line of fire! Seriously, 8 times out of 10 Sven would end up deliberately (Or so I'm, calling it) getting himself set on fire while I tried to take down our foe. 

And he'd complain about it.

Constantly.

"I'm supposed to be on YOUR side!" he'd say.

Yes, Sven. You ARE. So why do you keep standing IN MY WAY?!! :)

Granted, playing the game without weapons DID feel really alien at first. I kept wanting to go for my back-up Sword. But once I got properly into it, I got over that hurdle, and into using magic as intended. Going through the Ranks of Destruction magic should be more effective now that I'll actually be specialising, and if I can enchant some of that Armour or some jewellery with enchantments which lower the cost of certain schools of magic I'm sure I'll be able to strike a pretty solid balance.

For now, I've upgraded Cassius' armour to Steel and am getting ready to head into Whiterun. It'll be interesting to see how he fares up against the challenge of a Dragon. I suspect he'll get his ass kicked, but who knows...?

From there, it'll be a bit of a toss-up as to which direction he'll head - Up to Solitude to join the Army or over and up to Whitehold to the Mage College. Decision, decisions. But it's nice to have some choices to make which my other characters won't logically be having to make. I think I'll be sticking with this one for that reason.

Next Time: Redguards and Swordsplay. A natural mix?

Introducing: Ogrul gro-Khadba the Mercenary

In setting up character number 3 I had my first... incident with the Skyrim save system. You see, I initially created all 10 of these characters in one large session, saving each after exiting the Character Creator, and then starting again with the next. The save system for Skyrim is the same as the system for Oblivion, to be honest, but it's not exactly friendly in terms of trying to manage multiple characters. It's just one long list of every save ever made on your console, in a chronological order, starting with the most recent save at the top and the earliest saves at the bottom.

Most modern RPGs and adventure titles (Most of Bioware's as an obvious example) have moved away from this system in the past few years, splitting up saved games into separate folders - grouping all of the saved games produced for each character as separate from the whole. This makes sure that you don't accidentally save over the top of one character's progress with that of another...

Not so with Skyrim though. When I came back to start proper work on my Orc character I discovered that he was no longer there... Bugger. Yes. I'd saved over him.

So, despairing at my own stupidity, I started again. And this was the end result...

And to be honest I think I actually prefer it to my original Orc, which had no hair and looked a little bit more apologetic in his expression. I fixed THAT second time around. To me, an Orc should never look apologetic, or friendly, or charming in pretty much any way. My chief grumble about the Orcs in Oblivion was that even in the grimmest of situations they always looked and sounded as if they were feeling so damned cheerful! :)

It probably didn't help that they all appeared to be voiced by the same cheerful guy, and granted some of them were intended to provide comic relief, but by and large the Orcs of Cyrodill really did seem to be incapable of delivering any true kind of menace. Even the one who was Grand Champion in the Imperial City's Arena. Or the guy from the Fighter's Guild who insisted on ever addressing me as 'Meat'.

(A term which if I'm brutally honest, from the expression on his face as he delivered it, made me wonder far less if he was trying to threaten me and far more if he was trying to make some kind aggressive sexual advance upon me. I didn't care HOW much I wanted to progress in the Fighters Guild. I wasn't going to do it by becoming his 'Bitch'. :) )

So, yes. In my book Orcs should look menacing and/or aggressively grumpy. They are after all a simple but aggressive folk, governed by a very tribal mindset, with a penchant for hitting things over the head with heavy weaponry, and for frequent in-fighting with each other - usually started by a tremedous overreaction to something fundamentally trivial in the beginning.

(I suspect that this may be the true reason as to why the Orc Capital of Orsinium has been sacked quite so many times. It probably gets trashed far more frequently by its own native residents than the forces of High Rock or Hammerfell. :) )

If you ever DID see an Orc smiling it should truly be a reason to worry. Because that would be a smile brought on by the overwhelming sense of achievement they were feeling as they were about to bring an axe or warhammer down on your head...

I named my Orc 'Ogrul'. Ogrul gro-Khadba.

Orcs in Elder Scrolls games are named in a very similar way to how the Welsh used to name themselves - a First Name followed by a Surname which was created using the First Name of one of their Parents. And always the parent of the same gender.

If the Orc is male the Surname has the prefix of 'gro-' followed by the name of their Father, and if they are female they use the prefix 'gra-' followed by the name of their Mother. Very Tribal, no?

My intention with Ogrul was pretty simple, to play him as a Mercenary, and to suit him out in the heaviest armour and the heaviest two-handed weapons I could find. No subtlety, no sneaking. I was building a very intentional 'Tank'. I'd never played an Elder Scrolls title in that manner before. The idea of not using magic and just... hitting things hard seemed a bit basic to me. But what the Hell... why not? Maybe I'd learn something :)

I had Ogrul escape Helgen with Ralof, and make use of the heaviest arms and armour on hand in doing so, In this case an Iron Greatsword and some Heavy Imperial Armour, which he'd looted off an Imperial Captain, who I'd had him club to death at the earliest possible juncture. But hardy though that armour WAS it did leave us with a little bit of a problem. After all, it had belonged TO an Imperial Captain, and walking around in a quite specific set of a dead man's clothes was not exactly the most inconspicuous way to travel for an Orc who'd just escaped his own execution, and was now 'on the run' from the Imperial Army.

It was time for a change of attire... :)

It has to be said that probably the main drawback of limiting yourself to Heavy arms and armour is the price tag attached to that. They cost a lot more than the Light alternative. It is slightly cheaper though to Smith your own. If I was going to have Ogrul wearing the Heaviest kit I could find relying purely on stumbling across that kind of armour out in-the-wild could be very time consuming and very random in the results. If I was going to get my hands on full sets of high end armour, such as Orcish, Ebony or even Dragonbone, the only truly reliable way of doing that would be to get Ogrul to learn Smithing as a secondary Skill-set.

And here are the early results...

At this point Iron Armour was the best Ogrul could smith. And only to 'Fine' quality. But the main armour is 'Banded Iron,' with a slightly higher armour value. It's a good start. It'll certainly be sufficient for this part of the game, anyway. It also helped me level up in the process of crafting this armour, allowing me to take first 'Juggernaut' perk. No Bandits were going to be kicking this Orsimer's ass.

With my previous two characters stealth had very much been the order of the day. I needed the element of surprise, and therefore the idea of having a follower with me as I crept around Bleak Falls Barrow seemed a bit self-defeating. Well, given that Ogrul was wearing enough Heavy Armour to alert pretty much everybody to his oncoming presence, that was not an issue this time... So I thought 'sod it' let's go and find him a suitable lackey. :)

There are two Favour Followers available to characters entering Riverwood. You can, however, only acquire one or the other, and this is achieved as the reward for completing a small side quest. A side quest which to some degree intersects with 'The Golden Claw', as it involves one of the Valerius siblings. The guys who run The Riverwood Trader.

Ah, Camilla Valerius. The subject of obsession for so many of Riverwood's male residents. Although, if we're being brutally honest, this is a very SMALL town, and there really isn't that much in the way of competition. The others female residents are either married, exceptionally old, or somebody else's mother. Nevertheless there does seem to be some competition for her, and two very specific rivals for her affections. Both of whom, to listen to them, sound utterly unsuitable for ANY woman alive (or dead) and whose statements about their intentions towards Camilla sound worryingly obsessive, and as if they both may in fact have deep psychological problems.

First off there is Faendal, the Wood Elf (And Heathen murderer of Trees - if we go back to the revelations of last time's Blog).

Faendal's pastimes include being rather fond of stroking his own chin, and telling people how much they should NOT BE TALKING to somebody called 'Sven'. Even if they haven't actually met anybody called 'Sven' yet. In general he seems quite hostile and more than a little bit whiny.

And of course, he's also an ELF. >:(

Ogrul may be a Mercenary, he may even have done some very questionable things in his past to have resulted in his being taken to Helgen for execution, but associating with Elves was not one of them!

(Yes, yes... I know technically that Orcs and Elves are from the same stock! Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, Orsimer - even Falmer and Dwemer - they're ALL Merfolk if we go back far enough. But don't pose that concept to an Orc. You won't enjoy their response...)

So what about this 'Sven'? Faendal tells Ogrul that he's always off drinking mead instead of doing his job at the mill. Well, an Orc can see merit in any man that can hold his Ale! Maybe he's a better candidate?

Or... maybe not.

Sven may be a mead-swilling Nord, but he also still lives with his Mother. And if you thought Faendal sounded like an aggressive stalker Sven will tell you at length of how he's already told Faendal just how Camilla Valerius is already 'HIS,' 'HIS' he tells you!

He also likes writing poetry, and doing a lot of this

And this

Which doesn't exactly put him in Ogrul's highest regard.

But still. He's not an ELF.

Whichever prospective follower you choose they will give your character a 'Fake Letter' claiming to be from the other. You will then take said letter to wherever in town Camilla Valerius currently is, she'll read it, and proclaim never to have anything to do with the person she believes to have written the letter. You can of course tell her the truth, dropping your guy in it. Camilla is a marryable NPC when you reach that point, later on in the game. But doing so will mean you don't have the option of using that guy as a follower.

I had Ogrul opt to side with Sven. I have no idea what he wrote in that letter, but passing Faendal in town afterwards it was clear to see he was not a happy bunny, and he refused to talk to us '...after what YOU'VE DONE'. :)

But enough prattling. It's time for ADVENTURE. That Golden Claw won't find itself, you know? And I really NEED the reward money the other Valerius sibling is promising. So, off to Bleak Falls Barrow...

And you know what? I actually found hacking at foes en route, with my two-handed sword, to be fairly enjoyable. I had certain concerns at the outset. Two-handed weapons in Oblivion just seemed to be slow and inefficient. Here I was able to finish my foes by actually skewering them with my greatsword and letting them drop. That was relatively entertaining to watch :)

However, it should be pointed out that the journey to Bleak Falls was not without incidents of another nature.

There MAY have been some debate (Okay, so there WASN'T really, but just... go with it for now.) over just what IS suitable attire for going questing in Draugr crypts. And for not looking 'Flouncy'. The debate MAY (Again, just... go with it.) have been punctuated with a Greatsword. And it MAY have concluded with concept that a certain individual might look 'LESS Flouncy' if they were to actually put on some sodding armour.

Or maybe NOT. As the sad armoured truth might have revealed to be so...

There is no winning with Sven, it would appear.

Still, he did have his uses whilst fighting Giant Spiders and Draugrs. Mostly, it has to be said, with a bow and arrow. But also because the definite advantage of taking a follower along with you on your travels is that you can effectively use them as a pack-mule for loot which you find along the way. Being able to carry twice as much loot obviously means that you can coin in twice as much money when you reach the nearest town, to sell all of it. There was plenty loot to be had this time around also, and with far more items found which were actively useful to my style of play. Battleaxes, Warhammers and Greatswords. In the end I settled on this Steel Battleaxe, to keep as my primary weapon.

Clubbing things with Heavy Weapons may not be as pretty as setting your foes on fire, or besting then in sword to sword combat. But I have to say there is something terribly satisfying in watching your character finish off the enemy by first kneecapping them, before bringing an axe or warhammer down on their head. It's hard to beat that... :)

My perks for Ogrul so far have gone on Juggernaut, Champion's Stance, and two on Barbarian. He now deals more damage, takes a little more damage, and doesn't use up quite so much stamina in swinging that axe for power attacks. Basic tweaks, yes. But effective. As far as what will happen next goes? Well, with this style of play I think it's probably a bit of a foregone conclusion that he should join up with The Champions faction in Whiterun, and I think I might consider setting his permanent City of dwelling as Markarth. The feel of that place somehow seems to match his character.

We'll see. But I've certainly enjoyed playing as Ogrul far more than I ever expected to. He may be my current favourite, in fact. But there's plenty more time for that to change. For now, it's time to move on...

Next Time: Women. And Nords. Yes. A winning combination? Come back and find out...