A Khajiit's Tale: Episode #2 - Stoney Broke

Times were tough for J'Vari. Having shelled out on armour for his newly acquired companion, Faendal, to money was running low. A quick chat around town revealed very little in the way of profitable work in Riverwood. Other than standing around chopping wood until you we bored beyond all hope...

Or you could enquire if there was any work on offer locally, at The Sleeping Giant in. Orgnar, the guy behind the bar, tells us that the Jarl of Whiterun's men were looking for somebody to clear out a camp for them, which had been overrun by bandits.

That seemed reasonable enough.

Until we found Halted Stream Camp on the map.

Well... that was going to be a bit of a hike.

But money IS money. And loot was there to be had...

Time to spring into action, armed with only a sword, a frosty war axe and an Elf who frequently breaks his own system of beliefs (As discussed previously...).

What could possibly go wrong?

A Khajiit's Tale: Episode #1 - Faendal's House

This is Faendal's House. Finding himself in need of somewhere to stash loot I had J'Vari pal up with Riverwood's native Wood Elf, in order to have access to somewhere to do exactly that. It would do. At least until J'Vari had raised enough funds/done enough favours to get a house of his own.

The overall plan is to make his way over to Riften. But first off there is Whiterun to deal with.

Either way I know have access to a house with a lockable door, having thieved the key off Faendal. Well, if he will leave these things lying around in his inventory...

Side note:  Is it just me or are Slaughterfish getting more elaborate each game?

Bleak Falls Barrow : Done - So what now?

So, here we are. At the end of my initial little experiment into the different fighting and play styles of Skyrim. To be perfectly honest, at least in the initial planning of it all, this was actually as far ahead as I ever really thought ahead. I don't even know how how many people are actually reading this. Not that it was ever the point of the exercise.

From this point onwards I'll be posting up the odd bits an pieces as I play through Skyrim with each character. I can't guarantee I'll play through with them all to anywhere near completion, nor do I see much point in blogging their every movement (Seriously, ten different versions of Bleak Falls Barrow was tedious enough. I'm hardly going to follow it up with ten different versions of EVERY quest in Whiterun...). I'll only be posting key details from this point onwards, and avoiding repeats where possible. Sometimes these will be in the form of full blog pieces, sometimes just the odd image, we'll see. Each character's entries will then be Tagged by name along the right hand side.

Hope that all makes some kind of sense.

If you want to jump straight in to the entries for each character you can access them all via the links below.

Cheers

J'Vari - Khajiit Thief 

Fimmion - Wood Elf Hunter

Ogrul gro-Khadba - Orc Mercenary

Olda Wolf-Runner - Nord Warrior

Cassius Loran - Imperial Battlemage

Karlirah - Redguard Swordstress

J'Ram-Dar - Argonian Thief

Ocato - High Elf Mage

Vendrela Helas - Dark Elf Spellsword

Ancus Maurard - Breton Necromancer

Introducing: Ancus Maurard - Necromancer

So... My final Character.

And a Breton.

So, what to do with a Breton. They have a natural resistance to Magic, suffering 15% less damage from spells. They can also absorb magicka from spells cast ON them once per day. I could create a warrior with magic resistances, or a more diverse mage? I favoured the latter, but really with two other quite specific Mages already in my Character Bank what would really make this one's style of play different? What would  actually justify them?

An afternoon of Bethesda's Elder Scrolls forum prompted my choice. Why not make a Necromancer?

In the past Necromancy has often figured in Elder Scrolls games. Usually as a very BAD thing. The Mages Guild in Oblivion, for example, were obsessed with telling you how it had been BANNED and how WRONG it was, at pretty much every opportunity. If you played through that questline you'd eventually have to eradicate every last Necromancer you could find. It was a big deal. It also led to odd conversations like this:

Really? You honestly cannot think what he might have against it!? Just stop and think about it for a second,
you dazy mage! Because if you can't work out what problem a person might plausibly HAVE with the
descration of graves and the using of people's decaying bodies as puppets to be commanded by a third party's will I don't think the problem is with Arch-Mage Traven. I thing the problem is probably with you.

For the uninitiated that's exactly what a Necromancer does - They raise the dead and command them to do stuff for them. In this case mostly to fight on their behalf. This seemed like pretty mental way of playing the game. I mean effectively your only ever attacking anything passively, through another person. Another DEAD person.

Was that even possible? I mean if you walked into a room full of enemies who are all ALIVE you've not got any dead guys to fight them on your behalf. But then again, all Bretons come with the ability 'Conjure Familiar' which summons a familiar to fight for you. Job DONE! In... theory.

Would it actually work? I had to find out...

So, off to Helgen and the Character Creator.

Introducing Ancus Maurard, your friendly Bretonian Necromancer. :)

Yeah. I know. A little over the top maybe, with his eyes are whited-out and his largely having been painted up like Baron Samedi... But he might as well LOOK the part. And it's not like I've used whited out eyes on any of my other characters to date. Something a bit different.

As a Breton I had him follow Hadvar, the Imperial who is concerned that your name is not on his Execution list, through Helgen. For this early part I had no Necromancy spell, so I had to resort to conjuring my familiar (A spectral Wolf as it turns out), to do my dirty work, whilst keeping my distance. To be honest the Imperials in this section are more than capable of killing of the Stormcloaks you face escaping Helgen. The
Frostbite Spiders and Bear are a little trickier. Though once you've looted Frostbite Venom off the spiders a single arrow coated in that poison, and fire into the Bears body will be enough to kill it. :)

As you can see I opted for the Novice Mage Robes that you'll find on the dead mage in the Torture Room. A boost delivered to regenerating Magicka. Very much needed.

I did however find one distinct disadvantage of using 'Conjure Familiar'.

Okay, so I caught Ancus mid-blink when I took this photo. But it could just as easily have been that his eyes were closed in frustration, from the suffering the near constant howl delivered by that ghost Wolf, over and over, every few seconds. Seriously, it's beyond MADDENING.

The familiar is not terribly hardy, either. He can only take a few hits and doesn't dish out much damage either. Clearly if I was going to make this work in the long run I was either going to require a more powerful Summon (Flame or Frost Atronach for example) or I'd need a sturdy Follower to do my bidding.

As a Necromancer of course there was one very key detail still missing from my arsenal. Ancus couldn't actually raise the dead...

Easily fixed. One trip to The Riverwood Trader later and Ancus had a Spell Tome of 'Raise Zombie'. I picked up 'Clairvoyance' and 'Okaflesh' while I was there, also. I don't want Ancus to really have access to a lot of offensive spells, because using destruction magic rather defeats the point of what I'm trying to do, but Illusion and Alteration magic is fine. I also went across the way to sell my loot from Helgen to Alvor the
Blacksmith, and bought some steel gauntlets and boots to give him some kind of armour value.

No weapons though. I did debate acquiring an enchanted dagger for him or something. But at this point that just felt like cheating...

As you can see I opted to take Sven up to Bleak Falls Barrow, with the intention of using him as a damage dealer. I didn't much care what he wore, but whatever weapons I could find he'd use those. I was sick of
spending money on equipping followers by this playthrough, so just left him in his ridiculous Bard attire. I let him and my 'familiar' take care of the first bandit to attack and then got to work with my Necromancer duties...

Not bad, eh.

Only one flaw to the plan. If you choose to loot your Zombie Thrall before raising them, then they're not quite so effective.

Because they have no weapons. And they're fighting in their pants...

An early teething problem though. Nothing more. :)

Raise Zombie is a particularly useful spell, with far less in the way of limitations than I expected. I mean you can use it on Bandits.

You can use it on Skeevers.

Once you've killed it you can even use it to raise that giant Frostbite Spider from the dead.

Although you can't actually get it through the doors to leave the room... :)

Excepting the Draugr Boss at the end of the Barrow (Who is too high a level to be raised with that spell) anybody else is fair game. Even Arvel the Swift, the annoying Dunmer thief who stole The Golden Claw you were sent to seek out.

And it seems that once conjured you actually gain Conjuration skill for your zombie thralls attacking things for you. I managed to level up very quickly through this picking perks from the Conjuration and Illusion trees. And as Bleak Falls Barrow has corpses and enemies in such numbers it's incredibly easy to get a chain going from, one Zombie thrall to the next, from the dead Bandit in the first chamber, the the Skeevers next to him, right through to the last but one area.

The only drawback is the mess which your blue-tinted warriors leave behind when the spell wears of...

Although, given that you wont have looted them first those little blue ash piles do make it easier to go back and find prospective ill-gotten gains once your thrall has collapsed...

I was actually incredibly impressed with how much fun this all was. Granted, I'm going to need to find a higher powered version of the spell to command some Boss level creatures it seems, and I have no idea how I'll be able to kill Dragon this way, but by and large this is a really interesting play style to use. And certainly a challenge.

Upon returning to Riverwood I traded in the loot for a Novice Robe of Conjuration, to lower the cost of my conjuring the dead. Not cheap, but it'll come in handy. Now I've just got to decide what to do next. The Mage College at Winterhold is one possibility. I also really aught to hunt down The Ritual Stone, which allows you to raise every corpse in the room, once per day. If I remember rightly from my first playthrough of Skyrim it was located on a mountain overlooking Whiterun. I'm pretty sure that it was guarded by a Necromancer too - I must go kill him, and steal his robes!

I love it when a plan comes together.  :)

Introducing: Vendrela Helas the Spellsword

So... moving on to The Dunmer.

Dark Elves.

I'll start this article by saying that in the past I have LOVED playing as a Dark Elf. I played a Dark Elf Archer in Oblivion for a long time. They were awesome because of their natural resistance to fire - which when you were roaming the planes of Oblivion is something you got attacked with A LOT. They made great sneaky types and had a natural talent for destruction magic. If you wanted to play the game as a Vampire character a Dark Elf was also a good choice, because their natural immunity to fire offset against a Vampire's natural weakness to it.

All very clever.

But as I'm sure you've probably guessed by now, from my tone and the use of past tense, that I have a bit of a problem with Skyrim's Dark Elves. Much as with the other Elf Races there has been a certain amount of... cosmetic tinkering with Dark Elves since Oblivion. As I've said before, while it may be a matter of personal taste, in fantasy games I like Elves to at least some degree be aesthetically pleasing . I don't mean in an obvious or porny way. I don't need that. But Elves should look in some way, for want of a better word... beautiful. Even Dark Elves - just in a slightly darker, bewitching, kind of way. It's certainly how things were in the last Elder Scrolls instalment.

In Skyrim? Well, here's the good news. If you still wanted to play as a Dark Elf Vampire you can. The problem is that now you're kinda going to look the part a bit more...

Remember how they used to do Vampires on Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Looking at those images it feels like I'm having flashbacks to the late 90s/early 2000s. It's the sharp protruding brow, wrinkled face, and deep circles around the eyes. A bewildering, and definitively non-sexy, makeover. :)

Equally bewildering is the voice acting for male Dark Elves in Skyrim. They've all become Cockneys. Seriously. Cockneys! Well, bar Arvel - the dodgy Bandit Thief who stole the Golden Claw. When you meet him in Bleak Falls Barrow, all caught up in a giant spider web, he appears to be from Sheffield or somewhere vaguely Northern. Can't quite pin it down...

But the others? Cockney. Cor. Blimey. Love a Duck. Etc.

I wanted to create a Dark Elf Female. That was the plan. A Spellsword - able to take advantage of a Dark Elf's natural talent for magic, and to creep around in Light Armour making use of the natural Sneakiness. But in doing so, time and again, I struggled at creating anything which didn't...look like a hag. This isn't the Oblivion character creator. You cannot soften certain natural features by tweaking the head mesh anywhere near as much. I'm playing on Xbox 360, so mods were not at my disposal. It became pretty clear that at best I was likely to create a character which was certainly more likely to look like an androgynous male, than the female I wanted to make. But I made do. And this was the end result.

Vendrela Helas. For that is what I have called her. And for a spellsword type there is plenty on offer in the tutorial area at Helgen. Light Armour, be that Imperial or Stormcloak, swords, bows for ranged fighting, and a Spell Tome of 'Sparks' to add to your magical arsenal. They're all there.

There's no obvious Lore based path for a Dunmer to follow. I mean there's no obvious reason to side with Imperials or Stormcloaks, or even The Thalmor - who doubtless see them as a corruption of their Elven ideal. I chose to have Vendrela follow Ralof of the Stormcloaks out of Helgen. It seemed the more likely of the two, I guess, but I won't have her joining up with the Stormcloaks in all likelihood. It wouldn't really make a lot of sense to me.

(You know, from the side I don't think she looks quite so odd.)

Anyway, as with other light armoured characters I swapped out the inferior Stormcloak Cuirass and Imperial Light Armour for some proper Leather Armour. From an aesthetic point of view it doesn't look quite right on a Dark Elf. My hope would probably be, at the earliest point, to try and get her into some Falmer Armour or something. It's probably the Light Armour type which looks most natural on a Dark Elf. You can't BUY it, of course. I'll have to hunt some down in a Falmer lair or Dwemer Ruin, but after my first playthrough I know of quite a few places to find Falmer, now. Although I think they'd probably kick my
ass at this level.

I chose not to get involved with followers on this playthrough. To be honest there wasn't really much need for them. It might just be my own personal opinion, but playing as a Spellsword type is probably the best
all-rounder character you can produce. You get to sneak, hack with a sword, burn with a spell and fire with a bow if you want or need. It's a play style I know of old, and I swept through Bleak Falls Barrow pretty darn quickly and easily. I did have to head back to Riverwood half way through, to sell loot after becoming over-encumbered. It happens. It's not a big deal.

Everything else involved with this run-through was pretty much the same old... same old. I got nothing of true unique use from the chests at the end. The improvements I've made through perks were Armsman (To improve one-handed sword damage), Agile Defender (For more efficient use of Light Armour), and Fighting Stance (To use less stamina on power attacks). And if I continue I'll probably hunt down the Lover Stone (All skills rise faster) to compliment the 'All-Rounder' feel of the character.

The problem is, I'm not entirely sure I will.

It's not because of look of the character. A bit annoying, granted, but not enough to stop playing. A Spellsword is a GREAT all-round archetype of a character, allowing so many multiple disciplines to be toyed with. Vendrela would also be a viable option for all four main Faction Quests - Mage College, The Companions, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood.

So, what's the problem?

Well, in creating these characters I was trying to specialise. I didn't want another all-rounder. I tried that in my first playthrough. Been there. Done it. Playing as Vendrela would be enjoyable enough, but it wouldn't be exploring anything in depth, and it wouldn't be anywhere near as challenging.

So in all likelihood I probably won't be coming back to this. Sorry if that offends the Dark Elf fans out there.

If anybody has a better idea for a Dark Elf character archetype, of course, I'd be willing to listen. :)

So... 9 Races down. 1 remaining.

Breton.

What to do with a Breton? Well, I had a plan. It was a bit mental. But it might just work.

Next Time: The Necromancer. Can you play Skyrim PURELY by raising the dead? Come back and find out...

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 J'Ram-Dar - The Complicated Thief

Moving on, we reach another race to have been given a bit of a more dramatic overhaul in Skyrim. The Argonians - the Natives Race of Black Marsh.

Argonians are one of the two 'Beast Races' of the Elder Scrolls world, along with the cat-like Khajiits. As I mentioned in my Khajiit Thief piece a lot of long term Elder Scrolls players felt that both races really got short changed in Oblivion. The Argonians probably moreso, in fact. At least with the Khajiits there was a clearer ( Well slightly more obvious, anyway ) distinction between Male and Female faces... :)

The Argonians in Oblivion really were pretty limited, with a very small selection of Horns to differentiate one from another. Which didn't really work. Because there were so few. For example, really the only clear distinctions between, say, Teekeeus the Head of the Chorrol Mages Guild, one of the Pirates on The Marie Elena, Amusei of the Thieves Guild or even Mach-Na of Mach-Na's books in Cheydinhal were their clothing and/or noticing that one of them was actually female...

There are a lot more options in Skyrim, varying from a number of different scale colours as a base, using faders normally reserved for things like eye shadow or cheek blush adding highlight scale colours and markings, and to adding spikes and ridges to a face instead of hair or facial hair.

There's a lot you can do.

Here's what I achieved:

This is J'Ram-Dar. My rather complicated Argonian Thief. A little disappointing that there are no red Argonian eyes types on Skyrim (The ONLY option available in Oblivion I believe) but as you can see I've gone to the greatest effort to get MAXIMUM horn/spike coverage on his head. :)

Argonian's are MADE for sneaking so I would be rather daft not to make use of that. I say 'complicated thief' because what I intend to do with him is concentrate not only on Sneaking skills, but also Illusion Magic. This will allow me to make regular use of spells like Invisibility and Muffle to hide his presence, while sneaking up to back-stab the enemy or attack at range with a well-aimed bow or projectile spell.

This will, of course, take quite a lot of work...

J'Ram-Dar departed Helgen with the help of Ralof, and upon leaving the exit cave looked a little like this...

I was originally going to stick him in light armour, but when I reached the Torturer's Room I picked up these Novice Mage Robes. Usually they're not of a lot of use to me (But raise a fair bit of early gold in their selling) but I thought I'd give them a try. The Robes help regenerate Magicka quicker, which in turn could aid my speedy use of Illusion Spells to level up. And if I'm going sneak around, what better way to do so than in a robe with such a small weight. I won't make a sound... :)

I also made use of the Novice mage Hood, which provides an extra 30 Magicka points.

But... well...

It looks a little daft on an Argonian.

See. :)

Although, I had to wonder if I was already using some kind of Illusion magic, passively, with that Hood. It's the only way I could explain as to where all the frickin' Horns disappeared to...

Well, at least they don't clip through, I suppose.

Anyway... the predictable bit. Bleak Falls Barrow. And differing weather conditions...

Talk to Faendal? I can barely bloody SEE him in THIS!

As you can see, I opted to take Faendal with J'Ram-Dar - as the stealthier option of the two first followers. In Leather Armour. The majority of money from my Helgen loot was held in reserve for better Robes from The Riverwood Trader,  but Leather is cheap and quiet. Pure Leather Armour is also the hardiest for this point in the game. So, wins all around.

As you can see J'Ram-Dar does had an Imperial Sword on hand. I also had a Huntsman Bow in reserve. Having purchased a Spell Tome of 'Clairvoyance' in town, I used that wherever I could in order to raise my Illusion score, before switching into stealth whenever I knew I was approaching the enemy. And now having done this area of the game SO many times I pretty much know every place to sneak for maximum effect. :)

I found myself alternating quite a bit between Swords and Archery throughout Bleak Falls, although I found it much easier to switch to using the 'Flames' spell when encountering Draugrs. I did have J'Ram-Dar wearing Leather gauntlets and boots to add SOME kind of armour value, but if the Draugrs got too close they could do me so serious damage. Flames seemed to take them down fairly quickly, with either a sword slash to finish them off, or wait for Faendal to shoot them down with his bow. And of course the Mage Robes helped regenerate the Magicka back a little quicker afterwards. It all fitted together pretty well. :)

Job done.

On the way back from the Barrow we had our first random on road encounter.

J'Ram-Dar and Faendal were stopped by a man who rather gave away his role in the world somewhat, by being named 'Fugitive'.

Fugitive didn't really stick around to chat for long. Instead he just shoved this shield into J'Ram-Dar's
hands, and insisted we held on to it, or so help him, he'd hunt us down! (Be afraid. Or something).

After which he made a pretty quick exit, insisting he'd come back for it.

I took a look over it. It was a Hide Shield of Waning Shock - defence against electrical damage. Not really of any use to J'Ram-Dar or Faendal though, as neither were using shields. But either way this was clearly a
little bit dodgy. Sure enough, further down the road, a Nord Hunter ran up behind us, asking if we'd seen a Fugitive who'd run off with his Shield.

Now what do you do in that situation? Frankly the Shield is worth more than any reward he'd be
likely to give us. Odds on the Hunter would catch up with the Fugitive, and kill him, anyway. But on the off-chance he lived we might be able to barter a higher price with him, or, you know, kill him and keep it?

I had J'Ram-Dar lie to the Hunter, and keep the shield. We'll see how that pans out in time, I guess. :)

This playthrough was a bit of strange one, really. The first thing I bought when I traded in my loot I back in Riverwood was a Novice Robe of Illusion. Much the same as what I had previously been wearing, but with a secondary enchantment making Illusion spells cost less... But up to this point I wasn't really in place to make the best of that Illusion bonus. Because aside from Clairvoyance I had no illusion Spells. I picked up an Oakflesh Spell Tome while I was there, to add a little protection to my armour-less robes, but when it came to Spells there wasn't much on sale. Maybe there'd be more down the road, in Whiterun?

J'Ram-Dar's best bet though, remained in a pretty unusual place for a Thief to be going. The Mage College up in Winterhold. He'd already had it mentioned to him by owner of the Riverwood Trader, and it would give access to training and spells for illusion magic. Oddly J'Ram-Dar could well be a the character I've created with the most potential factions to join. He wouldn't really fit in with The Companions but I think the
Thieves Guild is a given. I wouldn't write off The Dark Brotherhood either.

And yet despite all this potential, and oddly actually having made a bit more cash than my other characters by this point in the game, I think he may well be the least well-formed in terms of long-term plans.

That said, if I can get him where he needs to be he could be pretty awesome.

Next Time: I try to make a High Elf Pure Mage. No armour. No weapons. Just magic. Come back and see how it goes...

Introducing: Karlirah the Swordstress

Moving from a campaign based on Magic to a whole Race very much not.

Redguards, by and large, don't DO magic. There's a whole belief that spellcasting steals souls and meddles with minds, that the average Redguard just doesn't trust. There was 'Trayvond the Redguard' at the Mages' Guild in Cheydinhal, back in Oblivion, but the reason he was there in the first place was because he was hounded out of Hammerfell for practicing magic...

Yup. Magic is not so popular...

The Reguards are another race which appear to have undergone a bit of a revamp in Skyrim. You don't notice it quite so much whilst creating a character of your own, but when you start to encounter Hammerfell Native Redguards, turning up as NPCs, you certainly notice the difference. Granted I have not played every Elder Scrolls title out there, so maybe things have been different in the past, but certainly in Morrowind and Oblivion other than the obvious natural differince in ethnicity the aesthetic style of NPCs was not radically different from the rest of Tamriel's residents. They still dressed in the same clothes and armours.

But now, in Skrim, we have gone from this:

To this:

Yes, Redguards certainly appear to have become a bit more... well, Arabian. Right down to the use of Scimitars. It is kind of logical in some ways, I suppose. These guys are Alik'r warriors from the Alik'r desert region of Hammerfell. That kind of clothing for use in a desert environment is not an entirely implausible design choice. But it certainly feels a little bit jarring compared to what I've seen of the Redguard in previous games. You're likely to meet an Arabian styled troop of Redguard at some point, probably while you're in Whiterun, and then have to suffer City Guards all OVER Skyrim commenting on their 'Curved Swords'.

It becomes a little wearing...

As with previous versions of the game Redguards make some of the best out and out warriors you can have at your disposal. Great starting stats for using one handed weapons, and Adrenaline Rush to keep slashing at the hardier enemies for longer. Their resistance to poisons certainly comes in handy too.

I decided to take advantage of the higher one-handed starting stat by creating a character who would be dual wielding weapons from the start, and with Magic not playing a part I could split my focus on upgrading
Stamina and Health as I progressed through the levels.

This is Karlirah. Redguards don't tend to have surnames, unless acquired through marriage, so I haven't given her one. I figured it was time I did another female character, so why not a kick-ass female sword-mistress? A little bit frustrating producing a satisfactory result with the character creator, though. The Skyrim  character creator is nowhere near as detailed as Oblivion's for adjusting head meshes, and there doesn't appear to be any way of creating a female Redguard without tired looking circles underneath their eyes. It's nowhere near as bad as trying to make a pretty looking Dark Elf Female, but a tiny bit frustrating nonetheless.

I've also tried to get the hair and skin tint as close to the Redguards in Oblivion as I could.

As with last time, I had Karlirah follow Hadvar out of Helgen, and take refuge in Alvor and Sigrid's house in Riverwood. My intention had been to kit her out in Heavy Armour, creating a Knight style character. But once again I forgot that in choosing to side with The Imperials I wasn't going to be picking up any Heavy Armour at Helgen. Just Imperial Light Armour. Not quite what I needed...

On reflection this choice also didn't make the greatest amount of sense either, based on Race and Lore.

If this was Oblivion a Redguard wouldn't have much trouble helping out the Imperials. But in the two centuries between games things have changed. The Thalmor tried to seize parts of southern Hammerfell during their war with The Empire, and although The Imperial Army did send forces to fight them off, when it came to the END of the war it was a very different story. In signing the White-Gold Concordat (the peace treaty refered to so frequently in Skyrim) the new Emperor gave in and and gave The Thalmor the land they wanted.

The Redguards, not unreasonably, were pretty pissed off about that, and refused to acknowledge the treaty. They forced the Thalmor out of Hammerfell themselves, and since that point Hammerfell has remained a fully
independent State.

Now when you place all of THAT in the background... would a Redguard, who had just escaped execution at the hands of The Empire (Dragon attack or No) decide to follow an Imperial Officer? Or would they decide to run, with the aid of the guy from the Stormcloaks? Now that I've opted for the former I actually think they might be more likely to go with the latter.

Oh, well. Too late now.

To be honest, I don't think Karlirah will be likely to go down the Civil War path for either side specifically, though. She has no real common ground with The Nords, and as you can't really join the Imperial Army as an infiltrator... so I think neutral is the way to go. :)

So... a trip to the Forge later, I got Karlirah kitted out in Banded Iron Armour and two Imperial Swords. I had her smith the armour herself, up to 'Fine' quality. Mostly for the levelling, it has to be said. While it is
usefull for Heavy Armour wearers to have smithing skill, in this playthrough I think the focus needs to be on using the armour and weapons better, rather than being able to make them. Picking up smithing perks
would give me access to more impressive weapons and armours QUICKER, but at the cost of picking up those perks which best take advantage of this fighting style.

That's not a good trade off.

As you can see I picked Faendal again this time. Almost decided to go it alone, but decided a bit of back-up can't do any harm. This time, to make sure he didn't keep switching weapons, I insisted upon ONLY giving him bows and light armours to carry. It meant I came out of the Barrow carrying slightly less loot, but did mean that Faendal only used a bow throughout, as intended. An acient Nord Bow by the end, but a Bow nonetheless.

Oh, and in case any of you WERE curious as to what Faendal's 'Fake Letter' about Sven looked like, well, here you go...

Subtle. Clever. You see, Sven. You DON'T have to resort to racism... :)

Fighting with two swords was as enjoyable as when I was doing it with J'Vari. No Stealth this time obviously, but the damage dealt was good. Once again the Power attacks look awesome in Third Person, and with Adrenaline Rush active you get to do a bit more of that. Did kind of waste it though, by activating it for fighting the giant spider. Karlirah took out thespider far quicker than I expected, and then it ran out by the time I found any suitable number of enemies to continue using it on. Oh well. It is useful though.

Loot from the Barrow was sold off. No magical items which were of use to me, sadly. I was hoping that the end Draugr might be spawned with a one-handed Frost weapon. No such luck. Not really much use for a Battleaxe. Still, selling it all allowed me to purchase a full suit of Steel Armour and the ingots to upgrade it to 'Fine'. Unfortunately that also wiped out my finances a little. I can see where most of my future income is likely to be going already...

I dunno, though. While there were parts of this playthrough I definitely enjoyed , it did feel that in many ways they were just elements which I'd enjoyed through other characters already. I'm sure that, as I advance through the levels, this character could become an awesome fighting MACHINE. Possibly the best actual warrior character I'd have at my disposal. But I've just not quite gotten into playing as Karlirah as much
as my other characters. With the others I've been able to pitch where they'd be based out of, and what factions they'd associate with.

Karlirah's not quite THERE yet.

Given the trouble I had with carry weight, and therefore loot, I think I might opt for dropping the Warrior Stone and hunting down the Steed Stone instead. 100 more points of carry weight and no penalty of carry weight on movement.

We'll see.

Any recommendations or suggestions would be more than welcome. :)

Next Time: Argonians and Thievery. With a little bit of Magic. Come back and see...