Introducing: Fimmion the Hunter

For the second new character I created I made the decision to pick a fighting style which I hadn't really gotten on with in my first playthrough.

Archery.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I have nothing against Archery. Quite the opposite, actually. While I was still at school, in fact, I used to have weekly Archery Lessons. Loved it. I was pretty good at it, too.

Without a doubt my favourite Oblivion playthrough was as a Dark Elf Archer. I Mastered the bow in that game, zooming in and doing some serious sniping. I could one-shot kill almost anybody I encountered whilst dungeon crawling around Cyrodiil or on the Planes of Oblivion.

Which may have been part of the problem I guess, because when I started my original Nord playthrough I began wielding a bow just as soon as I could get my hands on one. In my mind I was going to kick ass just as effectively as I had in Oblivion. In practice... this was not the case. Archery was tough to get into. I  found the targeting a bit hit and miss, the range a bit limited, and the actual damage done by bows to be incredibly frustrating. I could pick up a Sword and take on a Bear, felling it with four swipes, yet with a bow it seemed that I could empty half the arrows in Skyrim into a Frostbite Spider, and STILL it wouldn't go down.

I was disappointed. I still kept a bow with me, in case I had a change of heart, butI gave up using it for regular combat very early on.

But like I say, I love Archery in concept, and once I had decided on creating new characters based on specific disciplines I figured that I really aught to give Archery a second go. It was a no-brainer. I owed it that.

The obvious choice of Race in an Elder Scrolls game when considering the creation of an Archer character is that of the Wood Elves - or 'Bosmer' as the more pedantic TES fans will probably insist. Natural Hunters and Bowslingers, who come from the Forests of Valenwood. They have a starting bonus for Archery, and the ability to call upon (And command) woodland creatures once per day.

Not bad.

There have been a few changes made to the Wood Elves in Skyrim. In Oblivion, to my mind, the only central difference between Wood Elves and their High Elf cousins seemed to most frequently be based purely on physical Height. Wood Elf NPCs tended to be shorter, squatter, and frequently just a little more irritating to talk to. Such as Thoronir, the smug merchant in The Imperial City, or Glarthir the paranoid loon who kept on asking you to stalk people on his behalf, in Skingrad. It was hard to see these often chubby and diminutive characters as being part of the supposedly excellent Hunter Race they were apparently part of.

(And it didn't really help that it those two Wood Elf NPCs mentioned above were involved with possibly the two most tedious quests in the game...)

Bethesda have given the three Elven races a collective aesthetic makeover for Skyrim, and I think that out of the three it's the Wood Elves who have probably benefited the most from it. Their faces are now more angular and features more pinched, resembling something far more akin to a forest sprite than a human being. And that's a good thing in my book. Their eyes being black, and their their hair options looking quite so ragged also helps. Not so many mirrors to primp in front of in the middle of a Forest. Nation, obviously... :)

So this is what I ended up opting for. I've called him Fimmion, and opted for a Mohawk haircut and a knotted beard. The warpaint was also intentionally designed to match up with the hair colour. This is going to be one camouflaged and coordinated frickin' Elf.

The other major Elven development worth commenting on in Elder Scrolls lore has been that of The Thalmor. You'll see these guys wandering around in several areas of the game, and have dealings with them. An alliance of High and Wood Elves, which sprung up after the events at the end of Oblivion. Whereas in Cyrodiil the gates to Oblivion were closed by Martin Septim's sacrifice, in High Elf realm of the Summerset Isles The Thalmor claimed credit for ending the Oblivion Crisis at their end. And then some.

The Thalmor are, to a degree, the Elven equivalent of white supremacists. That might be labouring a point very slightly, but the racial element to their intentions seems pretty clear, and they are pretty much hell-bent on an aggressive Elf only expansion across the world. Between games they went to war with The Empire, and, to be perfectly honest, it doesn't sound like it went too well FOR The Empire by the time it was done. There was a calling of Peace, sure. A settlement was agreed upon, but frankly the number of concessions made BY The Empire certainly sound far less like a truce and far more like the acceptance of defeat, to me.

In light of this I did consider briefly in having Fimmion side with the Imperials when the Dragon attacked Helgen. But it just... didn't feel right. The Thalmor are much more of a High Elf led organisation. I get the feeling that if they ever DID succeed in their world-wide conquest then the Wood Elves would be left as the downtrodden underclass. They might even wage war against Valenwood eventually, for its not conforming to their own preferred way of life.

So, instead, I had Fimmion follow Ralof, of the Stormcloaks, out of Helgen. I don't know if I'll actually have him join up with them for future questing. It might be interesting having a Wood Elf joining the fight to 'free Skyrim'. They certainly don't have a lot of skilled ranged fighters at their disposal. He'd certainly be an asset to them, but we'll wait and see.

For now it was time to get this Elf kitted-out and ready for adventure. Off to Riverwood, and Alvor the Blacksmith.

Apparently 'By Ysmir, if it's strong and simple' he can forge it. And the words 'Strong' and 'Simple' pretty much covers all that you need to know about Alvor, in general. This is a man who leaves huge amounts of his store's inventory (Weapons, helmets and crafting materials) lying around in the open air, all day and all night.

For shits and giggles I had Fimmion wait until Alvor turned in for the night and then had him take some of Alvor's poorly guarded Iron and Steel ingots from beside the workbench, to improve the quality of the loot he'd gathered from Helgen. In the morning, when he arrived for work I sold Alvor all the loot I'd improved with his OWN ingots, and he paid us the now slightly higher price for them, none the wiser that anything had changed.

Apparently THIS is the kind of guy Fimmion is going to be...

As with J'Vari the Thief I used the Leather scavenged from Bears and Wolves encountered on the road to forge Fimmion some Leather Armour. Part of me wonders if I shouldn't go out and loot some Fur Armour, or maybe craft some Hide Armour, as the attire for a Wood Elf. It's not so much that those armours aren't quite so hardy (Although, well... they actually aren't) it's more that they have a much higher likelihood of leaving my Elf standing around semi-naked. If bandits wish to walk around semi-naked, fine. But this is Skyrim. The one predominant feature of Skyrim is that it's frickin' cold.

Fimmion is no fool in this regard. He'll wear the leather.

Upon crafting this armour I hit upon a plan. Leather is cheap. But suits of Leather Armour are worth much more than the leather on its own. Fimmion is a hunter. There's a logical combination here, just waiting to be taken advantage of. It was time to go out and hunt us some Deer!

I left Riverwood and went for a bit of a wander. It actually didn't take me too long track down what appeared to be a Stag, grazing by banks of the river. I switched into stealth, readied my bow, and lined up for the kill.

And that was where my archery let me down...

I actually managed to get two hits in on the Stag, but it was nowhere near enough to actually kill it. Just.. startle it. I also missed twice, because the arrows didn't stretch quite as far towards the deer as I expected, somewhat giving away my position in the undergrowth from the off. That... and Deers are FAST. There was no way I was going to catch up with it now. This experience dented my confidence a little. It was a reminder of the very reason that I stopped bothering with Archery in my first playthrough. But, to be fair, I was a Level 1 character. No Archery Perks had been acquired yet. Far too early to give up yet. I DO still think it's a viable way of making an income though, and it will raise my Smithing skill slowly too, in a way which is roleplay friendly.

(The number of people I see moaning online that you can max out your smith skills far too easy, just by creating Iron Daggers all day is somewhat grating...)

Back in Riverwood I bump into a friendly face. There was another Elf here!

Awesome. His name is Faendal, and he appeared to be an archery trainer. And sure, I don't have much cash available to use that training right now, but it's good to KNOW. Maybe we'll become, friends? Comrades? Maybe he can accompany on my first mission...

But wait a minute. Where's he going? What THE-!? No, Faendal. No! Leave the tree ALONE!!

You see, and I know this is the pedant in me talking, but Faendal may be the most illogical character you'll encounter in this part of the game. He's a Wood Elf. Fine. But what's his profession?

He's a Lumberjack. And while if you're a Monty Python fan then 'That's Okay,' if you happen to be a Wood Elf that's really very much NOT.

You see the Wood Elves of Valenwood have this thing called 'The Green Pact'. It's central to their culture. A deal made with the Forest Deity, or whatever, that they will never harm a plant or tree. In return the giant migratory trees of Valenwood allow them to build their cities upon then. It's a big deal. It's why Bosmer cuisine is comprised almost exclusively of meat or milk dishes, and why a lot of their weapons are crafted from bones or metal rather than wood.

In short, Faendal should not BE a Lumberjack. It logically goes against so much of what should be his culture and beliefs.

Fimmion is not going to be friends with Feandal. Because the Elf is apparently some kind of Heathen... :)

So, Helgen loot sold, armour upgraded, quest acquired from The Riverwood Trader, and I'm on my way up the mountain to get that claw back!

I'll admit, I may have had use a sword a couple of times. :) Yes. This is cheating. But faced with advancing Draugrs in Bleak Falls Crypt, with no follower to aid me, the Bow and Arrow weren't up to task to start off with. That was the downside. But the upside was that Fimmion did level up his Light Armour skill a couple of times. Mostly from Draugrs repeatedly hitting him, but it all counts.

The good news was that things did soon start to pick up, as I got used to using the Bow. A combination of sneaking, getting thumped by Draugrs, and picking the lock on the odd chest quicky started to level me up nicely. I used my first two Perks on Overdraw - the archery perk which means you do more damage with single shots from the bow. My tactic soon became to sneak into the area and fire at the enemy while they can't see me, for the Sneak Attack bonus. Most of the time I could still get enough shots in afterwards to dispatch my foe, but if they DID manage to get close enough I could use my bow to butt them, in exactly the same way that you would with a shield. This often staggered the enemy for just long enough to back up a short distance, load and fire a final arrow.

Job done.

The Draugr at the end of the Barrow, by the Word Wall, was a bit of a trial, but by and large I managed.

And you know what? I actually quite enjoyed myself too. I've only scratched the surface of Archery Perks so far, but they have already begun to make the overall archer experience far more enjoyable. And I'm already thinking of the future. For now I picked up this awesome Ancient Nord Bow. It's slightly heavier than the others on offer, but it also does slightly more damage too. And if I can keep an eye out for some enchanted bows (One for each element) I could even make up for the lack of magic being involved in my arsenal.

Still not sure where I'll base Fimmion, though. I'd love to have him a resident of Falkreath. The terrain in that area suits him down to the ground. But unfortunately there is no house for sale there. So I'll have to have a bit more of a think. Either way though, I'm quite looking forward to it.

Next Time: I turn my attention to Orcs. And hitting things with Heavy Weapons. Hard. Until they break. Why not come back and join us?