« I am alive because that one is dead. I exist because I have the will to do so. And I shall remain as long as there are signs of my handwork, such as the blood dripping from this blade. »
- Boethia’s Proving
Hello and welcome to my Skyforge page ! Today i present to you a bran new build for vanilla Skyrim : The Thrillkiller. A ruthless and brutal ex-gladiator who will do anything to restore the Blades and accomplish the desires of her god, Boetia.
The Thrillkiller was born in Cyrodiil, she never knew her parents and was probably sell by them to a slaver who prepare gladiators for the arenas fights. Even if slavery was technically illegal in Cyrodiil, this slaver make his slaves looks like volontary workers and the the authorities weren't very observant about it anyways.
To avoid solidarity among his slaves and so a mutiny, the slaver made them worship Boethia, the Daedric prince of treason, secrets plots of murder and conspiracy. With than, the slaves would never think of team up to overthrow their master because they would always be to busy ripping each others appart. The childhood of The Thrillkiller was really brutal and she was treated with extreme harshness like her comrades and she had to fight for herself to survive. It’s her intelligence, her strenght, lack of hesitation and, most importantly, faith in Boethia who kept her alive for all these years. During The Great War, the ressources of the Imperial City severly declined and most of its guard where requisitioned to fight the Thalmor. The Thrillkiller heard of this and she prepare a plan to escape. One night, she escape the barracks where the slaves lived with a few others slaves and their succesfully escaped, killing their master in the same occasion. For a few weeks, they lived as a bandits gang in the hills close to The Imperial City but there where ambush by a captain from The Blades, a guild of warriors dedicated to the protection of The Emperor. Since the Blades deseperatly need new members to replaced the catastophic losses inflected by the Aldmeri Dominion. So, he offer them a deal: They either die or join the Blades. The Thrillkiller and her mens accept, relanctualy. For years she serve in The Blades and this order give her more liberty and comfort she ever had. She was abble to satisfy her bloodlust and she even discover herself some predispositions for magic. She never forget neither her faith in Boethia, neither her loyalty to the Blades. When the Great War end, the Blades where banish from the empire and a new order was founded to protect the Blades.
The Thrillkiller see this as a true liberation, The Blades was a mighty group of warriors, they couldn’t waste their talent, protecting some old men in his ivory tower and the Penitus Oculatus was better for this task anyways. Unfortunatly, they where now hunt down by the Thalmor and she has to fly away. She wander for years, returning to her former life as a bandit until she end up in Skyrim where she was ambush by the imperial legion and taken to Helgen to be executed.
The Thrillkiller is a lawfull evil character. She’s fully devoted to Boethia and strongly believe in the right of rule by might and than the reason of those best able to have their way is always the best. As such she will do anything to purge every form of weakness from Tamriel and seek to slay Alduin, but not because of any desire to protect the world, but simply to acquire power and because she consider than he have failed as a world destroyer and deserve to die for his weakness.
She decide to help of the jarl of Whiterun and that lead her to discover than she’s a Dragonborn. For her, this is the confirmation than Boethia guide her on the path to glory, she gladly accept the invitation of the Greybeards and seek to developp her power. While in mission to recover the horn of Jurgen Windcaller, she meet Delphine, a former member of the Blades and she see that enconter as the perfect opportunity to rebuild her order. You should take a break in the main quest after killing Sahloknir to pursue a few others quests, it’s easy to roleplay the Thalmor party as an event which will take place several months aways.
She will join the Thief guild, even if she see them as a total joke, she need money to restaure The Blades and finance her researchs at the College. Futhermore, by becoming the master of the Thief Guild, she will renforce the influence of The Blades both on Skyrim and on the underground society. But most importantly, by completing this questline early, you will get the Nightingale helmet, mandatory for the aesthetic, more power and many marchants to sell the loot of your pillages.
The College of Winterhold, Civil War and both Dawnguard DLC and Dragonborn DLC are also great options for this character, because these quests will allows herself to gain power and more influence on Skyrim, as long as purging weak foes from the world. For The Civil War, both sides are fitting for her and she will join the camp she think is the strongest. No mater if she side with the Legion or the Stormcloacks, the influence of the Thalmor on Skyrim will be decrease.
She has no patience for rivals in the underground society and for this reason, she will destroy the Dark Brotherhood. She always despiced assassins and cuthroaths and consider them as a threat for the Blades than need to be take down. If she’s ever attack by of their agents on the road, she should immediatly retaliate and go meet Aventus Arentino and set up a trap to lure them and discover the location of their base.
The main goal of this character is to rebuild the Blades. After the quest The Wall of Alduin, you have the option to recruit three new members for the guild by talking to Delphine. You can recruit any follower than you wan’t but i recommand choising capables warriors who would have a reason to join the Blades and not to much ties to the place they belong to. In my playtrought, i recruited Jenessa, Athar and Golldir. So when you’re hunting dragons, you will have a squad of warriors figthing at your side. You will wan’t to return to Skyhaven Temple regularly to get and renew Dragonslayer’s Blessing from Esbern and use it as a hideout. She see Delphine and Esbern as useless fools and she will kill them in the future to become the only person to control the Blades, but for now, their ranks are too thin for that.
Since the Blades are no longer bended to the emperor, their know looking for a new purpose. As their new leader you decided than this objective should be acquire magical artefacts and new sources of power, as well as slaying Dragons. So, you can roleplay than obtaining every Daedric artefacts of the game is one of the objectives of the Blades. You will recover them all, claiming them in the name of Boethia and The Blades. Keeping them in Hjeerim, wich will be her main home. I chosed it for the dark vibe it has, for its proximity with the shrine of Boethia, the several weapons racks and for the secret enchanting lab hide behind a closet. Boethia’s Calling will be the most important moment of her roleplay, if you have to sacrifice someone to catch the attention of Boethia, why not sacrifice one of your housecarls ? After all, they said they will give their life for you, so why not allowing them to respect their promise ?
With time and efforts, you will restore the Blades to their former glory and behond. You will gain so much power and influence and spread so much fear in all of Skyrim than you will become in this game, what the Caesar’s Legion is to Fallout New Vegas.
Others roleplay features
- When talking to an NPC, always chose the most rude and straight to the point answers. Show no compassion and always chose intimidation in speech dialogues, no matter if you speak to a peasant or the local jarl. The Thrillkiller fear nothing and know better than anyone how to intimidate to get what she wan’t.
- If something is profitable to you, do it and to not think about the consequences it could have on others peoples.
- Avoid running in combat, avance slowly, the hand on tighlty to your mace.
When playing as The Thrillkiller, you must always remember one thing. Your spells, your weapons... all of this is superficial, because your weapon is actually fear. To dread the crowd with demonstration of pure destructive powers. I will depp futher into this in the special moves section of the build but once the combat started, you will wan’t to use the most efficents tools in your vast arsenal to quickly end it. She’s a crusader, a character who wield a mace and use various Destruction and Restoration spells, so you will have plenty of options to approch combat. She doesn’t have any perk in Illusion because her power come from brutality and her power as a Drabonborn, not from cunning spells.
She wear the Ebony Mail, the artefact of Boethia, a unique piece of armor which allows you to move quietly and make opponents that get too close take 5 points poison damage per second. At first, this armor seems to be perfect for a Nightblade but the poison actually effect any ennemy nears you, even those who didn’t notice you yet, so it made it really difficult to use it while playing as a nightblade. So, The Thrillkiller will instead sneaking to set up ambush and begin combat with the upper hand.
Weapon : For her weapon, The Thrillkiller will use a self enchanted Ebony Mace :
Judgment (Ebony Mace)
Absorb Health + Absorb Magicka
I think the Ebony Mace as a really regal yet brutal look, fitting for a crusader of an evil god. The dark color of this weapon and its golden paterns matches perfectly with the armor of this character.
While leveling you should use a mace enchanted with Fiery Soul Trap so will get a lot of soul gems to level enchanting. Since Judgment will be the only weapon of this character i didn’t feel the need to add Soul Trap to this weapon, since you could use Soul Tear instead. Futhermore, when you will have the level recquired to put two enchantements on a piece of gear, you will often have a lot of soul gems in your inventory and be at a step of the game where money will never be a problem again. So you will be abble to buy every soul gems than you need.
Armor:
The armor of The Thrillkiller was choosen to create a Batman-like aesthetic while still looking like a sinister crusader.
All of these enchantements will make The Thrillkiller more tankier and efficient in her crusade. I didn’t add an additional Fortify One-Handed enchantement because it would make Judgment too powerfull to keep the game interesting to play. Plus, the Regenerate Health effect will be usefull for one of her specials moves.
The Blades gantlets and boots matches with the Ebony Mail in addition to showing her affiliation with the faction.
The enchantement of the Nightingale helmet (Fortify Illusion) is useless for this character since she isn’t using illusion spells but it match perfectly with the rest of her gear and create a very sinister and Batman-like armor so no other option is better for her.
I know than all of these pieces of gear take a lot of time to get since you need to go pretty far in the Thief Guild questline and the Main quest to get the Blades gantlets and boots and the Nightingale helmet, in addition to reach level 30 to start Boethia’s Calling and get your hands on the Ebony Mail but the look it create is so amazing than it’s definitly worth the effort.
Spells:
- Every elemental destruction spell
- Close Wounds
- Greater Ward
- Repel Lessser Undead
Shouts
- Unrelenting Force
- Dismay
- Soul Tear
- Frost Breath
- Become Etheral
- Marked for Death
Stats and Perks Spread :
You should level this character with a ratio of 2;1;0
With this ratio you will have enough magicka to cast all the spells you will need and still have a decent pool of health. The absorbtion enchantements on your weapon will be really usefull to avoid runing out of health or magicka.
Standing Stone : The Atronach
This stone will give you +50 magicka absorption and 50+ additional points of magicka. It also include a 50- debuff in magicka regeneration but this character have a huge pool of magicka and a magicka absorbtion effect on her weapon, so, she can easilly overcome this debuff.
The Lord and Steed stones would be good options for this character as well.
Race : Imperial
Mainly for the roleplay and the racial abilty « Voice of the Emperor » but this race also have a base boost in One-Handed, Destruction, Restoration and Enchanting
One-Handed
Each of these perks are necessary. This choice of perks will make you extremely fast and extremely dangerous.
Destruction
All of these perks will make Destruction viable for the whole playtrought. Intense Flammes and Disintegrate are important for this character, because the first will make ennemies fleeing in terror when their health is low and Disintegrate will turn ennemies you slay with shock spells into ashes. Fitting for this character.
Restoration
You will only use this school of magic for ocassional uses of wards and healing spells, but you could probably get more use of this skill tree pass level 40.
Enchanting
Using the souls of foes you have slayed to increase your strenght is so fitting for this character than i couldn’t passed up. To boot, this skill tree will allows you to craft and enchant jewellery to buy training in the others skill trees of this characters while leveling enchanting.
Sneak
The Thrillkiller isn’t a nightblade so she doesn't need to have a tone of perks in the Sneak skill tree. She only sneak when she has to or to set up an ambush.
If you wan’t to play after level 40, you should get the 5 perks in Juggernaut in the Heavy Armor skill tree, get the Soul Squeezer perk in the Enchanting skill tree and add more into Restoration.
Others relevant perks for this build
- Sailor's Repose
A reward for the quest « Frostflow Abyss » Healing spells cure 10% more
- Seeker of Sorcery
Effect of the Black Book «The Sallow Regent » all spells cost 10 % less magicka.
- Mora’s Boon
Effect of the Black Book «The Hidden Twilight » Completely replenish Health, Stamina and Magicka once per day.
- Nightingale Subterfuge
A power you can get at the end of the Thief Guild questline. People and creatures in the spell's area of effect will attack anyone nearby for 30 seconds. This will be mandatory for one of her special moves.
Special moves are a combination of spells, abilities, potions and more to give unique abilities to each characters and make them feels more unique.
For this character, most of his special moves are roleplayED as brutal attacks wich spreads terrors among the crowd.
1 – Submission
Marked for Death + Voice of The Emperor + Backstab
With a single roar of your dragon voice, your ennemies realize they don’t stand a chance against you and fighting for their life is a lost cause. They abandon every hope, lay down their weapons and accept without resistance to be executed by your hand.
Use this move when bored by a group of weaks ennemies, unworthy of your time.
2 – Spirit of Darkness
Elemental Destruction Cloack + Become Etheral + Ebony Mail
When running out of health in combat, instead of fleeing for you life like a coward, cast any Elemental Destruction Cloack spell which fit better the situation and then use the Become Etheral shout. As your ennemies miserably try to harm you, their life essence will be consume by your magic and the poison effect of the Ebony Mail. Giving you a pretty long moment to regain your forces before going back into the fight. The health regen enchantement on your ring will help a lot to recover your health.
3 – Ambush
Unrelenting Force + Nightingale Subterfuge + Destruction Spells
The Thrillkiller use her power as a dragonborn to blast everyone on her sight against a wall. In their confusion, they will not difference friends from foes and attack each others, making them sitting ducks for The Thrillkiller and her destruction spells.
This special move actually come from The Saxhleel Vagabond build from Skypothesis, i tought it was fitting here so i allows myself to borrow it.
4 – Thunder
Candlelight + Potion of Invisiblity + Firestorm + Intense Flammes
Like a crash of thunder, the Thrillkiller will emerge from the shadows in an explosion of fire. First, you only appears as a small lighting ball, catching the attention of the peoples around you. Their curiosity will be rewarded with an explosion of fire. The fews fools who will survive the explosion will run for they live as their clothes catch on fire and you hunt them with your mace.
Note than you can also perfom this move with Sunflare but this spell granted by the All-Maker Stone at Solstheim isn’t compatible with the Intense Flames perk from the Destruction skill tree.
5 – Bite of Boethia
Elemental Destruction Cloack + Ebony Mail + Soul Tear
Boethia is said to have devored the god Trinimac who came out of his excrements, transformed into Malacath. In this move, The Thrillkiller imitate her god by absorbing the last living forces of a wounded ennemies to devorer his soul and raise his corpse to use it for a moment like a meat puppet.
This move compliment her as the ultimate champion of Boethia and is her favorite way to finish an ennemy.
Conclusion
Thanks you for your time and attention, i really hope you enjoy the reading ! I wanted to create a Batman-like character who use fear as a main weapon and i think i make a pretty cool and versatile build, i hope you will give it a try. I still have another build to share on the Skyforge but i will not wrote it know because i'm kinda sick of Skyrim right now.
Thanks again and have a great day !
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