Hey guys, its been awhile. I have been gone for a long time due to reasons. A while ago, I came across a book found in Skyrim by the name 'The Third Door' and wanted to recreate the main character or at least a descendant of the character, while creating some of my own lore. Hence, how this build came to life. What became create is a Warrior, not afraid to play dirty similiar to a Brute (the Class not the Build). Anywho, onto the build, shall we?
Queen of the Axe
The reputation of the Queen of the Axe was destroyed, so many years ago. Because of the crimes my grandmother had committed, and what had been written in the Third Door. People think the the Queen of the Axe is a myth, a legend. However, what people refuse to believe is that sometimes legends are real, and very much alive.
I am the granddaughter of the original Queen of the Axe. My name is Ellabeth III.
The only people who’ll hire me, are either stupid, desperate, or both. Or, perhaps they are simply not blind to the truth. I am a wandering sellsword of sorts, sometimes I am hired to kill or aid certain people, other times I am hired to acquire ancient relics.
I have received a letter from Ulfric Stormcloak, leader of the Stormcloak Rebellion, to help him win the Civil War. I have been told to enlist, as a normal soldier at Windhelm, and to keep a low profile, as he does not want the soldiers to know who I am. As most of them, believe the myth, that my grandmother killed Nienolas the Mighty and that my mother went on a killing spree, for unknown reasons, only to be put down by a dozen guardsmen.
The legends about my family, back to the original Queen of the Axe are true, but what people don't know, is that Mephala, has had a hand in the death of my grandmother and my mother. That and she has sent her right hand, the Spider Queen, leader of the Spider Daedra to either hunt me down, or make those who are near and dear to me either exile and/or kill me.
I must tread carefully, as I fear Skyrim will be my final resting place.
The Build
Race: Breton Female
Stone: Warrior-> Lady
Stats: 100/490/300 (Including Enchantments, no Blessings or Potion, Buffs. You can use Potions/Blessings/Buffs to further increase your stats if need be).
Shouts: Become Ethereal, Drain Vitality (glitched verison).
Quests: Twelve Labours (See below)
Passives: Become Ethereal Meditation, Blessing of Talos, Sinderion’s Serendipity.
Something I have not really see used often is Bleeding Damage from Orcish War Axes and Battleaxes. During the playthroughs, I was wondering on how to make combat while either Dual Wielding or wielding a giant Battleaxe, into an elegant dance. I didn't need to look far due to Power Attacks!
I never have seen used, is Builds based around playing as a Mercenary. One can argue that, the Dragonborn, in Skyrim, is effectively a Mercenary as you get paid for almost EVERY quest. But I like to think it is the Roleplay, that truly sets the Queen apart from normal Mercs.
Playing as a Breton for this build is highly recommended, due to thier natural resistance to Magic (25%), along with Dragonskin, which is a god send on higher difficulties and higher levels, while being connected to 'The Third Door'. I also used the small height to my advantage as I imagine Bandits seeing a small Breton would assume that she is weak and fragile. Ha!
Skill Overview
One Handed: This skill is primary source of damage, used against Living NPCs, Automatons, and sometimes Undead. We will be using Orcish War Axes, (they appear around Level 12), while also perking Hack and Slash, to utilise a slight bug/oversight that practically created this Build. Read the Bleeding Damage Section for more info.
Two Handed: This skill is our secondary source of Damage, used againist Dragons and sometimes Undead. We will be using the Orcish Battleaxe, but can easily be changed for the Elven Battleaxe. I would suggest Wuuthrad, but it doesn't seem to be affected by Bleeding Damage.
Alchemy: This skill is essential as it enables us to increase our survivability, and increase the damage of our Shouts and Bleeding Damage, while adding in some helpful boosts, to our DPS, via Lingering Damage Poisons.
Light Armour: This skill is used for recreating the 'look' of a Mercenary, while enabling us, increased Stamina Regen via Wind Walker, which easily carries its weight in combat.
Enchanting: This skill is purely optional, as looking for the Enchanted Orcish War Axes and Battleaxe can get pretty annoying. This skill is only used for Weapon Enchantments and making recharging our weapons easier. Perks can easily be used to add Armour Enchantments, but I found it more fun to use it as a Minor Skill.
Speech: This skill is used from a roleplay perspective, of both being a Mercenary for the Stormcloaks/Imperials, and being the granddaughter of the dreaded Queen of the Axe.
Arms and Armour
In my honest opinion, Scaled Armour seems suitable for a (Wandering) Mercenary, like the Queen of the Axe. Fortify Health and Stamina have been chosen to boost the Queen's' HP and Stamina. The Amulet of Talos has been used, in conjunction with the Blessing of Talos to make Shouts more easier to use in combos, and too stack. For this reason, I have only used Become Ethereal (One Word) and Drain Vitality (Glitched Version), due to their short Cooldowns.
The Orcish Battleaxe can be found or bought from Merchants, while the War Axes, have been created via an Arcane Enchanter. If you want, you can find the Orcish War Axe of Despair and Soul Snares via Merchants through the punch reload method.
Tactics and Enemies
Throughout Skyrim, you will come across several enemies, each requiring a different tactic. Due to having 200-250 AR End Game, I highly recommend using the Vitality/Vigor Booster, along with Become Ethereal and the Lady Stone.
Archers can be found almost everywhere in Skyrim and at higher levels, can become rather difficult to deal with, I highly recommend using Charge to get close and personal. I also recommend taking these guys out second, after any mages. If you choose to make the battle, more easier that is.
Mages and Dragons will one of the most strongest opponents, Early Game and End Game. I highly recommend using Charge, along with Denial. If they are out of range, use Drain Vitality every chance you get, as it has the reach of Unrelenting Force (3 Words) and staggers them. Also, staggering both Mages and Dragons can and will heavily even up the battlefield.
Warriors won't really be much of a problem. Unless of course they either have enchanted weapons (Bandit Chiefs) or have poisoned weapons (Falmer). Use either Curse, The Elegant Dance or No Mercy.
Automatons and Undead both aren't affected by Poisons, Fear Enchantments and Bleeding Damage. At higher levels, I highly recommend taking them out ASAP, while combining both Become Ethereal and Vitality/Vigor Booster.
NOTE: Undead ARE affected by Absorb Health, whereas Automatons are not, making them the stronger out of the two.
Hell, get creative in combat. There are countless ways to defeat your opponents, one thing I highly recommend is using Power Attacks for Staggering. In other words, play dirty.
Bleeding Damage
Ah, Bleeding Damage. When I first started playing Skyrim, I never used Hack and Slash or Limbsplitter, as they seemed useless. Not anymore though. Due to a bug, Orcish War Axes/Battleaxes, do 18 Bleeding Damage over 8 seconds if you have Hack and Slash/Limbsplitter at Level 3. This might not seem much, but it is the equivalent of using Daedric War Axes/Battleaxes.
18 Bleeding Damage over 8 seconds, isn't much, but what I haven't seen used is the combination of Weakness to Magicka Poisons, Drain Vitality and Lingering Poisons. Thats right, Bleeding Damage is classed as a Magical Effect, meaning that it is affected by Weakness to Magicka AND Drain Vitailty is effectively Bleeding Damage, but just affects Stamina and Magicka at the same time.
In short;
Bleeding Damage (BD), Drain Vitality (DV), Weakness to Magicka Poisons all stack!
I'll be calling this Advanced Bleeding Damage, purely for ease of typing and reading.
Once you through, Weakness to Poison, Lingering Damage Magicka/Health along side with Advanced Bleeding Damage, creates what I like to call; Ultimate Bleeding Damage.
Simply put, Lingering Poisons, stack along side Advanced Bleeding Damage, and the Lingering Poisons are futher increased via Weakness to Poison Poisons.
What is even better, is that ALL of the effects (Magical and Poison), all last 10 seconds. Expect for;
-BD which lasts 8 seconds (when using Orcish War Axe/Battle Axe
-Drain Vitality which lasts 20 seconds and its cool down is 12 seconds and it STACKS!
-Weakness Poisons, which last 30 seconds.
Oh and don't forget, you can increase the strength of your Weakness to Magicka Poison, by applying a Weakness to Poison Poison! (Not sure if Weakness to Poison would stack with another Weakness to Poison via Concentrated Poison).
Special Moves
Ah, I rather enjoyed creating Special Moves for the Queen of the Axe. Due to the fact that, it is a part of the History of the Queen of the Axe (purely from the Third Door).
Basic: These moves are simple yet effective and can be used at any level.
Charge: Due to her advanced knowledge in Axes, the Queen of the Axe can charge towards a single enemy, while temporarily deflecting all damage, and using no stamina.
Requires: Become Ethereal, Critical Charge, Dual Wielding.
Charge becomes a great way to start battles, and it can easily be down the moment you acquired Critical Charge and Become Ethereal. This can easily be changed into using the Battleaxe, by simply using Great Critical Charge instead.
Curse: The fools who have either read the Third Door or heard of the Queen of the Axe, fear her, due to the murder of Nienolas the Mighty. However, they soon come out of this state of terror, only to return to it once more. There are rumours that the Queen knows where to hit, to cause continous pain, even when out of her sight.
Requires: Dual Axe Stance, Drain Vitality, Hack and Slash (Optional)
Curse is very effective against those who are affected by the Fear enchantment. Start off by using by tapping both left and right triggers (doing so does similar to a Dual Power Attack with no Stamina being drained), and use Drain Vitality as they are fleeing. If they survive Drain Vitality and come back, simply rinse and repeat.
Denial: Those who either study or use the Arcane soon find them losing concentration and becoming weaker to the very thing they control, all the while the Queen of the Axe leeches their vitality.
Requires: Orcish Battleaxe of Absorption, Magebane, Toxin (Optional).
I found this incredibly useful in combat against Mages, in the early levels. You can use any Battleaxe pre-enchanted with Absorb Health. This move is greatly increased when Concentrated Poison and Toxin are used.
-
Advanced: This moves are slightly more difficult to use and master, but are devastating in combat when used right.
-
No Mercy: Very few are Experts in Axes and even fewer are Masters. Masters, like the Queen, know how to deal heavy damage to a single opponent, in the blink of an eye.
Requires: Dual Axe Stance, Drain Vitality, Hack and Slash, Toxin, Venom , Vitality Booster.
I found this incredibly useful at times, against either a strong single opponent, or a troublesome foe who didn't play fair. You can easily drop Toxin and Venom if need be. I use it purely to stack the Bleeding Damage.
The Elegant Dance: Few are Experts in Axes and even fewer are Masters, but none have the skill like the Queen of the Axe. Groups have challenged her, only to be cut down nearly instantly before they draw their weapons. Those who do survive the first attack, rarely survive the second or the third.
Requires: Orcish Battleaxe of Absorption, Sweep, Magebane, Concentrated Poison, Vigor Booster.
I found this incredibly useful when surrounded by enemies such as Bandits and Falmer. Vigor/Vitality Booster gives some much needed Health Regen along with extra Stamina, while Magebane increases the power of Absorb Health.
Potions and Poisons
This build is heavily based around Poisons but does also use Potions, to further increase survivability in combat. The Potions and Poisons are below, I highly recommend creating your own Potions/Poisons, as I was sometimes foregoing Fast Travel, for Ingredient Hunting.
Hell, sometimes finding Torchbugs was difficult as at time I wasn't Fast Travelling (mainly depended on where I was), so I mainly created Magebane with a Weakness to Magicka effect.
Venom (Poison)
Effects:
-Lingering Damage Health 21 points per second, for 10 seconds.
Ingredients: Mora Tapinella, Imp Stool
Magebane (Poison)
Effects:
-Lingering Damage Magicka 21 points per second for 10 seconds
-Weakness to Magicka, 42% for 30 seconds
Ingredients: Torchbug Thorax, Salt Pile/Dwarven Oil, Wheat
Toxin (Poison)
Effects:
-Weakness to Poison 42% for 30 seconds
Ingredients: Chaurus Eggs, Deathbell
Vitality Booster (Potion)
Effects:
-Regenerate Health 105% for 300 seconds (5 minutes).
Ingredients: Garlic, Juniper Berries.
Vigor Booster (Potion)
Effects:
-Fortify Stamina 84 points for 60 seconds (1 minute)
-Regenerate Health 105% for 300 seconds (5 minutes)
Ingredients: Garlic, Lavender/Chaurus Eggs, Juniper Berries
The Twelve Labours
I don't expect you, reader, to know of the Twelve Labours. To save a bit of your time, the Twelve Labours are apart of the Greek/Roman myth of Hercules/Hercales. I wanted to recreate these Twelve Labours in Skyrim for Ellabeth III, who is trying to restore the reputation of the Queen of the Axe and possibly get rid of the Spider Queen.
I used the Twelve Labours as my 'Quests' for the Build. You can change most of the Labours to suit yourself, expect for the Restore/Liberate Labours (See below).
- Retrieve the Jagged Crown
- Battle for Whiterun
- Restore the Peace, Whiterun
-Blessing of Nature (Non Hostile Route)
-Missing In Action - Liberate and Restore the Peace, Falkreath
-Retrieve Runils' Journal
-Deliver Berit's Ashes
-Destroy the Dark Brotherhood! - Liberate/Restore the Peace, the Reach
-The Lost Expedition
-Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cindha Mine (Kill the King of Rags)
-Defeat Red Eagle - Liberate/Restore the Peace, Hjaalmarch
-Laid to Rest - Main Quest (Finish it)
- The White Phial, Repairing the Phial, Return to your Roots
- Dawnguard (Dawnguard Side, Finish it)
- Restore the Peace, Dawnstar
-Waking Nightmares - Liberate/Restore the Peace, Solitude
-Lights Out!
-The Man Who Cried Wolf, The Wolf Queen Awakens - Reclaim a unified Skyrim for the Stormcloaks
-Completion of all other Labours
NOTE: I wasn't able to complete the 12 Labours due to not being able to have a 'visit' from Astrid. I found out that this was a bug via the UESP and has no known fix. Hence why I was stuck using the second version of Drain Vitality (Glitched Version, does 2 Damage to Stats per second, whereas, the third version does 3 Damage to Stats per second).
I imagined that after Restoring and Liberating each Hold controlled by the Imperials, the citizens of Skyrim would see, that the Stormcloaks are better for Skyrim as each problem that had be apparent when the Imperials were around, were gone. (E.g Gildergreen dead/dying, Potema). After completing the Twelve Labours, I imagine Ulfric Stormcloak, send the word, that he and his Stormcloaks had liberated and restored Skyrim.
I also, envisioned Ellabeth, being furious, realising that Ulfric merely used her as a tool, nothing more. Only for a Kill on Sight to be placed on Ellabeth, no matter where she went in Skyrim. All her friends having turned their backs on her.
NOTE: You can easily work for the Imperials and simply change some of the Labours.
Roleplay
Recreating the Queen of the Axe was rather difficult in some areas, as I had to somehow add an Epilogue of the Third Door, and how the descendants of the original Queen of the Axe would be seen and how the Man and Mer would react towards them.
After seeing her own mother trying to murder her, only to be put down by nearby guardsmen and exiled from High Rock, Ellabeth became a sellsword of sorts. Or a mercenary, (they are both the same thing, I think). Doing dangerous and odd jobs, trying to figure out how to rid herself of the Spider Queen.
Ellabeth, knows what it is like to be looked down upon, by friends and even complete strangers. But she knows right from wrong. She knows the murder of innocents is not right. She doesn’t contest killing Bandits, Undead and Animals. However, if she must, Ellabeth will not hesitate to either raise a weapon or intimidate anyone from guards, to merchants to even Jarls.
Due to her past and the history of the Queen of the Axe, she does not under any circumstances aid the Daedric Lords, or even the Divines. She knows very well, that the Daedric Lords exist, but she doesn't believe the Divines do, after all she has been through. Because if the Divines existed, surely they would have done something to aid her family.
Ellabeth, tries to keep a distance from anyone and everyone as she knows, one day they will either hear about the Third Door and look at her with disgust or exile or murder her, while under the influence of the Spider Queen.
Recommended Mods
I never really used any mods, during playing as Ellabeth, expect for SkyUI which is incredibly helpful in regards to the Favourites Menu. I wish I knew about it earlier.
Helmet Toggle: I never actually knew about this mod, till after finishing the playthrough. I highly recommend it as some characters look better without a Helmet or Circlet, like Ellabeth III.
Closing Notes
I’ve finally completed typing this build. According to Google Docs, it is about 13 pages long. Bloody feels like it… If you have any questions, please ask away!
Also, I’d like to thank Curse for holding the Tales of Tamriel, giving me some much needed pointers, telling me about Bleeding Damage being a Magical Effect, Screenshots and the Skill Icons (I needed a ‘bit’ of help as I am still a bit rusty admittedly). However, that first screeshot was an attempt by me.
For those, who are wondering. The Spider Queen, is the right hand of Mephala, sent to hunt those who anger her. I will be creating a build based around Her. I also, may create a Short Story based around Ellabeth III. Who knows!
NOTE: I created the Spider Queen, She is not actually in any Lore found in the Elder Scrolls Universe that I know of.
Those who want to read the Third Door can find it here:
https://www.imperial-library.info/content/third-door
Replies
I know this is posted a little early. But I am trying to get it finished before Easter. I will hopefully be adding in the Equipment Spread (forgot to create it) and Images in it sometime next week.
The build looks pretty solid so far. Best of luck getting it done.
Thanks Daedric Priest, just about finished it, just need some screenshots.
Echoing Daedric Priest, I think this build looks great so far. The "Twelve Labor" quest system is a really nice addition and I did something similar on a build I was working on. After the images are added in, I think this build will be much better. Nice job creating the myth of the Queen of the Axe, Lee.
Thanks Aysleph, made some changes, just need some screenshots. Tried to take some and well... Let's just say, I think I should stick to making Spreads for the time being.
Fixed it some more, added in the Special Moves (Improved), along with the Tactics (Combat redone), and Equipment Spread along with some images, just waiting for some screenshots.
Your screenshots are almost done. I can probably do skill icons too if you want me to.
Yeah sure if you don't mind. And before anyone asks yes, I did borrow some images from the Samarui purely as a place holder until I found some others, which I forgot to ask for. Sorry about that.
Try these icons, Lee.
Oh my... How you always seem to do it Curse, I'll never know. Thank you again. I'll add them in.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next