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- Darkest Divinites
THE BEAST IN BLACK
Skyrim SE Vanilla Werewolf // Unarmed Character Build
Hello everyone and welcome to my Skyforge page. Today i'm going to present to you a build than have been in work in progress for nearly three months now. With the help of the Skypothesis discord server i was abble to make this build reach is full potential and it's with great pride than i present to you all today this new character: The Beast in Black.
A savage werewolf warrior who fight against any threat made to humanity by the daedras with a burning rage. He has a deep bag of demonic powers at his disposal and will use them all to fulfill his duties as dragonborn.
I was very inspired by the Devilman from the eponymous manga by Gō Nagai and this build grew out of a desire to make this character in Skyrim.
Without futher ado, let's jump into the backstory of The Beast in Black.
A decade before the return of Alduin, a caravarn of khajit merchants came to Skyrim. The chief of the caravarn was a master alchemist and an adventurer who decided to travel all across Tamriel with his two childrens to sell his concoctions and explore the world.
They travelled all across Tamriel for years and their journey lead them to High Rock, Cyrodiil, Valendwood, Hammerfell, Morrowind and finally Skyrim.
His youngest child was a daredevil and a human dynamo. He was always excited, full of energy and thrilling for adventures and sportives activities.
He spended most of his time running and climbing and often hurt himself in accidents, but his father was always him to heal him with potions. But he also awlways cried for the sligtests injuries and was very sensitive to others peoples feelings and because of that he was often teased by his father and his big sister to be a « crybaby ». He was very close to her and they would often go together explore the nature and play with the local kids. They never had the pleasure to install in a place and having long term relationships with peoples but it never matter to them, their life was peacefull but exciting, full of adventures and never boring.
After a few weeks spent in Falkreath, the father started to wander where he will go with his familly next, he heard things about The Reach. The nords told him it was a region full of wealths and dwemer ruins, and place full of alchemists, adventurers and erudites with who, he thought, could be interested by his conconctions. The nords also warned him about the forsworns. A group of savages who often attacked travelers and merchants liked him. But the man ignored their warnings. "It's not a few wildings with wooden axes who are going to scare me. I faced worst in my life, you know" he said.
He decided to travel with his childrens to the Reach and they left the next day… but something terrible happened to them on the travel.
On hallway to Markarth they were ambushed by forsworns who attacked them from the hills. The father and his daughter had no choice but to lay down their weapons. His son was abble to climb the hills and escape and run as fast as he can to search for help but he was infortunatly catch up by the forsworns and knock out.
He woke up in a dark and putrid cave. There was a lot of severead animals head put on spikes, bags of humans organs were hanging from the cellings and stranges marks were painted on the floor.
He panicked, his sister and father took him in his harms, trying to comfort him. There were going to be sacrificied, but at least they were together to share their last moments. A lot of strange persons gathered in the center of the room and someone approach their cage. It was an horrible creature, half bird, half raven with a hooked nose and a dress made of flesh : A haggraven.
She look at the familly with her evil red eyes, analysing all the members of the familly. She took the boy away and dragged him to the center of the room. She then tied him up and forced him to drink a strange liquor as the peoples in the room started to recite strange incantations. He almost vomited, this was the most disgusting thing he ever dranked. And before he even had the time to do anything, they bring his father before him and killed him. He bursted in tears and fell to ground. He begged them to spare his sister and tried to cut his rope with his claws, but he couldn’t do anything. His sister smiled at him and tears rolled on her cheeks. She felled on the groud. Lifeless.
He snapped, entering into an inhuman rage and suddendly transform into a werewolf. The forsworns tried to take him down but they couldn’t do anything and were massacared without mercy. He grabbed the haggraven and brutally devoured her, reducing her body in pieces.
He transformed back into a khajit. Horrified and broken by what happened. He used what left him of sanity to bury his familly and then spent the next decade wandering in Skyrim. He eventually settle into an abandoned hut and tried to recoverer from the death of his familly. Living alone and eating the animals he killed in the wilds. One day, he find himself in a skirmish between the stoarmcloaks and the imperials. The soldiers, mistook him for a skooma addict, decided to put him out of his misery by sending him to the chopping block. And this is where is story beggin. The story of The Beast in Black.
The roleplay beggin after being saved by a dragon at Helgen. Ralof ask him to seek the help of the jarl of Whiterun and the tasks that are given to him make him break out of his usuall hollow and sinister attitude. He take time to think about what he could do now. On his way to Whiterun, he enconter the compagnons and is approached by Aela "We are brothers and sisters in honor. And we show up to solve problems if the coin is good enough" she said. Helping the peoples of Skyrim sound like a good cause to devote himself, he decide to join the Compagnons before going to Bleak Falls Barrow to help Farengar with his research. He first expect to be rejected to be a khajit but at his surprise they don't care about his race, the Compagnons only care about the skills of a warrior. Even if he has no proprer warrior skills he manage to win a fight against Vilkas and gain the privilege to train with the Compagnons.
After defeating a dragon alongside of Whiterun, he discover that he his a dragonborn. He immediatly go to High Hrothgard to learn what it means before returning at Jorrvaskr after defeating a dragon with Delphine. He's scared by the power of Alduin and desire the skills to be strong enough to be abble face him and save the world.
He quickly gain the respect of the Compagnons and is invited to join the circle after he figure out that they are actually werewolf. For the roleplay, i imagined than The Beast in Black was already a werewolf and than the blood of the compagons allows him to gain complete control of his transformations and become a stronger beast.
Anyways, he's happy to find peoples like him and they help him gain understanding of his beast blood and understand what happened to his familly. Kodlak tell him the story of one his predecessors, a good but naive man, who was tricked by the Glenmoril Witches and pledge the Compagnons to Hircine. This story make him realize than nobody is saffed from the influence of the Daedras and than the world must be protected from and their worshipers. This would be his cause.
Eventually, he become harbinger of the Compagnons, their spiritual guide and decide to use the authority given by this role to inform his brothers and the enterity of Skyrim about the danger of the Daedras. He join the College of Winterhold to gain knowledge on the Daedras and the forsworns but also to gain a former trainer in Destruction and Restoration, as well as the skills to enchant his gear. The College is never a priority for him and he join only for the resssources and knowledges it has.
Protecting the world give him a new purpose in life and he regain colors and slowly reopen his heart again to the peoples of Skyrim. He his a chaotic good character who seek to help peoples no matter if his actions has consequences or risks for him.
They are peoples in Skyrim who actively cause problems to others in the cities of Skyrim such as Lemkil in Rorikstead, Saphir in Riften or Degaine and Mulush in Markarth. The citizens of Skyrim would live better with peoples like them in the ground and The Beast in Black could use his werewolf form to kill them and protecting his identity. This way he can become the superhero of Skyrim.
Speaking of Markarth, the Cidhna Mine ploteline is an important part of his roleplay. Because he has to team up with the mens who killed his family and ruined his life. This quest make him realize even them suffer from injustices and have a cause to defend. This quest will have important consequences of the rest of his playtrought and he will become a bit more tolerant to Daedras worshipers but still aware of their shemes and willing to protect peoples from their influences.
Both Dragonborn and Dawnguard DLC would be fitting questlines for him. The pieces of the pasts and Azura star side quests are perfect for him because it allows him to show peoples the danger the daedras actually represent and than they shouldn't be underrated.
Beside these quests i let you decide what this khajit would do, any quests that allows him to protect the peoples of Skyrim and help them with their problems is fitting for him.
The gameplay of this character was thought to create the feeling to play as a unstopable beasts capable of inhuman exploits and greats athletics prowess. It's very simple, get up close and personal with you sharpen claws, use Destruction spells to hit enemies from distance and restoration spells when you need to.
Sometimes, your claws and spells won't be enough and this is when the Beast form become handy.
The cloacks destruction spells are usefull to increase the damages made with both your khajit and werewolf claws. For the roleplay, his Destruction spells are roleplayed as an expression of his rage and his various enchanting and restoration buffs as toughness he has as a beast and athelete.
When creating the character, my initial choice for the armor was the topless variant of the fur armor. Unfortunatly, this doesn't really fit the vibe of this character and neither with the rest of his gear and there isn't any topless armor in the game that would make a character look like the actual Devilman. So i opted for a more minotor-like aesthetic and the end result look like a character who went, both literaly and in a figuratively, trough hell.
The Ancient Nord armor can be looted on Bashnag, an orc necromancer located in Southfrige Sanctum, a cave at the south-east of Helgen. You can also craft it at the Skyforge if you have completed the Compagnons questline and unlocked the Daedric Smithing perk. A perk, that will also allows you to craft your gauntlets and boots.
The Helm of Yngol, is a unique helmet found in Yngol Barrow, at the east of Windhelm, which had a 30 % resist frost enchantement. To get it, you will need to buy the coral dragon claw from Birna, in Winterhold or you will be stuck in the first room of the dungeon. Solve a few puzzles, defeat a few ghosts and take the helmet from Yngol remains in the last room of the dungeon. Along with your ring, you will wan't to get the Ring of Hircine and the four werewolfs rings from the Frostmoon Crag in Solstheim
All the enchantements will be extremely usefull for this build and help making you feel like an unstopable beast.
Spells
Wer're going to keep his spell selection very simple for the fluidity of gameplay
Destruction: Flame Cloack, Lighting Cloack, Fireball, Thunderbalt, Lighting Storm
Restoration: Close Wounds, Greater Ward
Even if the Master Destruction perk isn't use by this build, the lighting storm spell is obtainable from Faralda after completing the quest Destruction Ritual Spell, which require you to have a Destruction level of 90. Be sure to have the Secreft of Arcana power from the Black Books to use this spell effectively.
Shouts:
Unrelenting Force
Drain Vitality
Whirlwind Sprint
Fire Breath
Stats and Perks spread
Ratio
2 / 3 / 0
With this ratio, you will have all the magicka and health you need in combat. Stamina isn't perked because we have a fortify stamina enchantement on our boots and this ended up being all i needed in my playtrought. For this character, it's important to have as much health as possible because the enchantements doesn't carry on in werewolf form.
Standind Stone : The Lord Stone
For the boost in armor and magic resistance.
The Atronach stone would also be a good option but the Lord is a better option in my book.
Race: Khajit + Werewolf
For the roleplay, backstory and the passive ability Claws wich increase the damage of your fists.
Destruction
You will mainly use Destruction for cloack spells but it’s also very usefull do deal with dragons. Something unarmed characters usually struggle against.
Restoration
Of course, mainly to heal yourself but there also the Greater Ward spell usefull to protect yourself against dragons and mages. There is also a lot of cool buffs usefull for this characters such as Respite, Regeneration or Recovery.
Enchanting
Almost mandatory of Unarmed characters as the boost to Unarmed damage is too good to past up. But you will also be abble to craft much better gear than will make your playtrought much more enjoyable.
Smithing
The Daedric Smithing perk will allows you to craft and improve every parts of your armor. Builds that use two crafting skills are usually a pain to level up but Enchanting is much more important for this character so focus on this skill tree and level smithing at a natural pace.
Heavy Armor
With all perks in Juggernaut you will become very resistant and since this character only wear heavy armor he also benefit from the perk Conditioning which remove the weigh of all heavy armor pieces you wear. Few ennemies will have a chance against your strenght and agility. And of course, the perk Fist of Steels, almost mandatory for unarmed characters, will increase the damage of your claws.
Others relevant perks for this build
- Sailor's Repose
A reward for the quest « Frostflow Abyss » - Healing spells cure 10% more
- Ancient Knowledge
A reward for the quest « Unfathomable Depths » - Blacksmithing increases 15% faster.
- Seker of Sorcery
A passive bonus find at the end of the black book « The Sallow Regent » - 10% reduction in cost of all spells, 10% improved Enchanting.
- Secret of Arcana
A power find at the end of the black book « Filament and Filigree » - All spells cost no magicka for 30 seconds
I - Wild Charge
Whirlwind Sprint + Sun Flare
Sprint at a blinding speed at a group of ennemies and burn them to a crisp before they have any time to react. This is a great way to start a fight as this character, both fitting and efficient. Like a demonic appareance.
This move was actually taken from The Burning Barbarian video from Skypothesis.
2 - Devil Beam
Secret of Arcana + Lightning Storm + Disintegrate
"His devil beam can destroy all mankind ! His strenght is on display." As sing in the opening of the 1972 Devilman anime.
In this move The Beast is Black concentrate his magicka to create a powerfull beam of storm engergy that wipe out and turn to ashes everything and everyone in his way. It's especially fun when used surounded by ennemies or when a dragon is flying above you, ready to burn you to a crisp with his fire.
3 - Beyond Pain
Avoid Death + Drain Vitality + Enchantements
This move is more an improved version of the Drain Vitality shout. Just when your ennemies thought they have bested you in combat all your wounds magically heal and your energy is renew. For the roleplay, i imagine this move as a Wolwerine-like healing factor The Beast in Black has which manifest itself when enraged by his ennemies.
You can only imagine the despair on their face when they see that every effort they made to hurt you was in vain.
4 - Demon's Rage
Fire Cloack Spell + Ring of Bloodlust + Lord Stone + Beast Form
The khajit warrior let his hate explode and transform into a burning beast of darkness capable of wiping out an entire army. The Ring of Bloodlust is a unique ring bought from the Frostmoon Crag in Solstheim that make you deal double damage while in werewolf form but also take double damage. With the Lord Stone, you're abble to conteract the negative effect of this ring and be even more deadly without having to sacrifice defense in the process.
Thanks for you time and attention, i hope you like reading my build and you will give it a try. Writting this character was a bit tideous and i'm proud of the way it turned out. Devilman Crybaby is one of my favorite animes of all time and i wanted to make an homage character in Skyrim to this show.
I have a couple of builds in preparation and i hope you will like them.
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