Welcome, everypony, to my latest build! Now, it has come to my attention that too many Nords I’ve played are the atypical honorbound warrior who believes in Talos and whatnot. Well, with this, I wanted to play a more brutal Nord, one that would be at home plundering with Hoag Merkiller and other ancient Atmorans. Welcome to....
An old Skald sits by a roaring fire, children at his feet. “Listen well pups, this is a story of valor, of a fierce warrior of old Atmora. Long ago, in the days of Ysgrammor, there was one amongst his 500. The son of a vassal of Ysgrammor, Bahadur Iron-Blood, always eager to sink axe into flesh was he, and skilled in tactics. When the 500 landed in Skyrim then, he led raids across the towns of Snow Elves, sacking them, and bringing back much plunder. Bahadur became wealthy and powerful, owning a small fort as one of Ysgrammor’s loyal vassals. He later lost his life when the Snow Prince used wicked magic to send his ship to the sea. Though, legend says, that when Skyrim needs aid of a true Nord, Shor shall cast his soul back into the mortal realm.....”
Race: Nord, of course. Not only does it fit in with the lore, but they gain a nice 50% Frost Resist (Useful for Frost Dragons, Falmer, etc), Battle Cry, and bonuses to Light
Armor, One-Handed, Speech, Block, and Smithing.
Standing Stone: The Warrior or The Thief to start with, then switch over to The Lord for added magical and physical defense later on.
Stat Spread: 1/3/3 in Magicka, Health, and Stamina.
Major Skills: One-Handed, Light Armor, Speech, Lockpicking, Sneak
Minor Skills: Illusion, Smithing, Block
Main Shouts: Bend Will, Storm Call, Dragon Aspect, Elemental Fury, Battle Fury, Kyne’s Peace, Cyclone/Unrelenting Force
Pantheon: Atmoran/Ancient Nordic, plus Hircine and Sanguine
Primary Quests-Main Quest, Dragonborn, Unearthed, Thieves Guild (Stop after Dampened Spirits), Companions (Stop after Proving Honor), The Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cidnha Mine (Thornar Side), Civil War-Stormcloaks, Kyne´s Sacred Trials.
GAMEPLAY
With this character, I wanted to play something a bit different than the typical honor bound Nordic warrior. This guy will be using Fear and Frenzy spells on foes, poisoning his axe and dagger, sneak attack, the whole shebang. The build also pays homage to Bjorn Ironside, a legendary Swedish king, said to be a son of the equally legendary Ragnar Lothbruk/Lodbruk, who famously, in order to gain entry to a place he wished to raid devised a tricky plan: Hastein sent messengers to the bishop to say that, being deathly ill, he had a deathbed conversion and wished to receive Christian sacraments and/or to be buried on consecrated ground within their church. He was brought into the chapel with a small honor guard, then surprised the dismayed clerics by leaping from his stretcher, and then hacking through the rest alongside his men.
Most fights will generally start off either stalking your prey like a hungry wolf, sinking your brutal weapons into their flesh, then engaging their comrades, or just straight up charging them. Using Bend Will to get some to your side for a short time helps in large encounters. Using a hybrid of Elemental and Battle Fury, alongside followers or non hostile NPCs allows you and any alongside you to tear through foes like a hot axe through fresh butter.
Archers and dragons are your secondary priority, after two handed, heavy armored foes like Bandit Chiefs or Reaver Lords. Use Frenzy or Fear spells on an enemy or two to allow you some help. Next, dash towards the foe, or, if they’re on low health, saunter over and cut them down like a badass. With dragons, either Bend Will them to your cause, hopping aboard one for extra fun, or simply let your followers use ranged attacks on them, then get in close when they land. Try and stay in the middle of them, not too close to their mouth or tail, otherwise they’ll use Tail Whip on you (rarely super effective), or the infamous Overpowered Insta-Kill MegaDeath Chomp. With mages, let any followers deal with summons, and start hacking away at the mage, or mages.
The awesome Targe of the Bloodied, which you can grab from Alftand, not only looks brutal, but can be used to bash your opponent, doing bleed damage alongside axes.
One thing I found about Fear Spells is that, like Frenzy-type spells, they can cause any NPCs in the area to attack that NPC. It´s fun doing this to an NPC you don´t like, and watch them running in terror as their allies cut them down.
Once you have a decent follower, like Vorstag or Mjoll, its time to get to work. Since we’ll be siding with the Stormcloaks, then you’ll lend them a helping hoof, and gain a profit as well. Your main goal will be to raid Imperial held towns and villages. Do not kill everyone, leave at least one alive to tell the tale of your raidm and do not sneak steal everyything. Barge into a home, nab anything valuable, such as armor, potions, or just plain old Septims, and then leave.
Now, onto the armor. I friggin love Linwe’s set, or the Blackguard Set. To get either, you have to join the Thieves Guild. I stopped after Dampened Spirits, then saved before getting a mission from Delvin and Vix, doing the ones from Windhelm, to get the Summerset Shadows quest, or head to Solstheim, chat up Glover Mallory, get his Ancient Nord Pickaxe back from Cratius, as well as grabbing getting the Improved Bonemold Formula back, then head into his basement to grab the Blackguard set, alongside some other epic loot.
With the Targe of the Bloodied, this was used as much a weapon as a defensive tool. Doing a bash on your opponent, followed by a poison coated axe swing, not only will you cause stacking bleed damage, but you'll also do damage caused by the axe.
The Ironblooded Reaver advancing up an incline, shield and axe ready to spill some blood.
EQUIPMENT
(ARMOR)
(Weapons)
SKILLS
One-Handed-Your main form of offense, switching between dual wielding axes to deal some hard bleed damage, axe-and-board, or sword-and-board allows for a some diversity in combat.
Sneak-Taking some inspiration from Vikings, the Ironblooded Reaver isn't a stranger to hunting his opponents unseen, and slamming his axe or blade into their skull.
Block-Alongside both Light Armor and One-Handed, this skill will act as your secondary form of defense, and a weapon with bases, which is how shields were used historically as well
Light Armor-Your main form of offense. We won´t be perking too much into this, since, due to the usage of an unhorned Steel Helmet (Or the Helm of Yngol if you prefer), we wouldn't get any benefits from the light armor only perks.
Speech-Historical vikings honored oration and oral tradition, such as with skalds. This skill also helps with training, as it allows us to sell any items we find or make to certain trainers, like Eorlund.
Lockpicking-This awesome skill, while allowing us to pick certain leveled locks with more ease, the skill also allows you to find more gold and valuable loot within chests. I pictured my character, not using a lockpick to carefully open a chest, but jamming the lock open with the tip of his blade.
Illusion-Ah, fear and frenzy type spells, how I´ve come to love these two. With this build, I pictured it not as my character using magic to affect the minds of his foes, but his brutality in combat, and sheer presence draining the fighting spirit of lesser foes, or him challenging worthy opponents to face him in open combat.
ROLEPLAY
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Try and limit actually purchasing items, find or buy them. This counts mainly for Imperial held areas.
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When drinking or eating, eat double if you´re with a companion, to simulate them eating.
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Raid every so often, every five days at the least, every two weeks at the most.
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Train your skills often, either on hapless (Fire Nation) peasants, training dummies, Imperials, whatever you can find.
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Drink Nord Mead or Ale often, every other swill you can sell, or toss into the sea.
THANKS
Thanks to Relycs for the awesome Equipment spreads, and Lord Buffalo for the Perk Spread.
Replies
Oh my gosh, I made that perk spread back when I was Lord Buffalo!!! It's positively terrible!
Apoligies about that :/
Hey, it's all good Blacklight
*Shrugs* the same could be said of the many other builds on this wonderful site
Is there a modded option for this?
Or would you mind if i were to work on strem-lining it for my mod list and maybe ill send it to you?
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