Character Build: The Twilight of Meridia

The Twilight of Meridia

If you love unorthodox demon hunters, then you are definitely in the right place! We, the Teejiokno Noodlelords (Teej, Chris Diokno, Noodles and Bonelord), are proud to present you The Twilight of Meridia: a 0% magicka regeneration blood mage, capable of feeding on the magic cast by others, who specializes in hunting down rogue mages, undead, necromancers, vampires, dremora and every other magical or unholy being.

Back when we were developing this build idea, we took inspiration from infamous characters like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2's Visas Marr, DC Comics’s Etrigan the Demon and Marvel’s Blade and Ghostrider.

We wanted an anti-hero, a tortured soul, who uses demonic powers to combat darkness. As a result, this twisted character fights evil with its own weapons: blood magic, necromancy, poisons, daedric atronach powers and fierce destruction magic in the form of fire and lightning.

There are three things that make the Twilight of Meridia stand out from a crowd and be a fierce demon hunter. We will explain them in great detail later but for now, here’s a brief description:

The Potent Equilibrium Glitch – It amplifies Equilibrium’s Health to Magicka transfer from 25 to 46 points per second. This allows our character to heavily invest into the same resource, health, which is used to both cast spells and survive in a fight. Do you need to take down a Draugr Deathlord Archer? No problem, bring it on, there’s enough health for everybody!

The Advanced Atronach - It gives our character 100% spell absorption, +100 Magicka and 100% magicka degeneration (resulting in an overall 0% magicka regeneration). This is the ideal buff when fighting against mages because each incoming hostile spell replenishes magicka. Also the magicka degeneration constantly forces the player into using Equilibrium to regenerate magicka and cast spells.

The Guide to Poisons with Positive Effects - It lets our character heal and buff her undead minions by hitting them once with a dagger coated in poisons with positive effects. The most beneficial positive effects are: restore health, fortify health and resist magic.

Table of Contents

Lore: Who is the Twilight of Meridia? ~~ Find out who the Light Keepers are. Who is Karethys Maryon and what is her connection to the mentioned faction? How did this Dunmer girl become one of the fiercest demon hunters to ever walk on the face of Nirn?

Glitches & Exploits ~~ Find out more about the Potent Equilibrium Glitch, the Advanced Atronach and the Guide to Poisons with Positive Effects. How can you activate them?

Gameplay ~~ Which skills make the Twilight of Meridia such a fierce demon hunter? What are some good recipes for poisons that neutralize tough mages like Orchendor or boost the attributes of undead minions?

Low Level Gameplay ~~ What should you do in the first ten levels? Which skills should you focus on? Which quests should you immediately do?

Character Customization ~~ What are the best standing stone, stats distribution, powers and equipment for the Twilight of Meridia?

Let's Play! - Master Difficulty ~~ Do you want to see a full playthrough of the Twilight of Meridia from early to end game on Master difficulty? Check out the first video in the series and watch the rest on youtube!

Guide to Demon Hunting ~~ Which unholy and magical creatures should the Twilight of Meridia hunt? Which spells are best used against each of them? Where can these beings be found?

Closing Notes ~~ Who are the artists whose pictures we photoshopped?

Lore: Who is the Twilight of Meridia?

A Light Keeper…

Meridia - The Glister Witch is the Lady of Infinite Energies, Daedric Prince of Obscurity, ruler of the Coloured Rooms and forever sworn enemy of all undead. Due to the fact that she is shrouded in mystery, few men and mer know of the existence of a cult of priests devoted to her – the Light Keepers, also called the Merid - Nundae.

Light Keepers take up residence in Meridia’s temples from all over Tamriel. Their lesser duties include cleaning temple rooms, performing rituals that honour Meridia, keeping the light beacons – like the ones found in Kilkreath Temple – lit and of course protecting her powerful artefacts. If an outsider were to witness all these, he or she would never suspect that the secret duty of any Light Keeper is to rid Nirn of undead.

Light Keepers are expert demon hunters who in honour of their mistress always disappear into obscurity after slaying an unholy foe. When hunting, Light Keepers are not very fond of the traditional crossbow and instead rely on channelling powerful holy and fire magic originating from Meridia’s own realm of Oblivion – The Coloured Rooms.

One notable figure in the history of the Light Keepers is Karethys Maryon of House Telvanni, although because of some horrifying events, she no longer goes by that name at the moment.

Karethys was once a Dunmer refugee from Tel Vos who fled Vvardenfell by the skin of her teeth during the eruption of the Red Mountain. Meridia presented herself in a dream to the dark elf and offered her a deal: The daedric prince would welcome her to stay at Kilkreath Temple in Skyrim at the cost of her servitude as a Light Keeper. Karethys, having no place to call her own, accepted and travelled to Skyrim where she was inducted into the ranks of Meridia’s cult.

who witnessed atrocities…

Being part of House Telvanni, Karethys was a very powerful mage. Understanding the mystical arts seemed like child’s play to her as she quickly mastered the holy and fire magic originating from The Coloured Rooms. In fact, because of her magical prowess, the Dunmer girl became one of the most skilful undead hunters that the Light Keepers at Kilkreath Temple had ever seen. Sadly, this is what led to the priesthood’s undoing – a fate worse than death.

Karethys was a huge asset for the Light Keepers and the hunt for undead and necromancers became bolder. This gained the attention of one of Meridia’s deadliest enemies, a necromancer going by the name of Malkoran the Defiler. Malkoran grew tired of the thorn in his side that the Light Keepers were proving to be. Necromantic activities in Skyrim were becoming close to non-existent. Something had to be done if the dark arts were to thrive once more.

Making use of the ongoing civil war in Skyrim, Malkoran amassed an army of undead soldiers under his command and attacked Kilkreath Temple. The battle at the entrance resulted in many casualties on Karethys’s side and thus Malkoran succeeded in pushing the Light Keepers inside the temple. The necromancer was clearly bent on exterminating them and taking hold of the Meridia’s sanctuary. Time went by as the fighting continued. The temple’s enclosed corridors worked in Karethys’s advantage as she single-handedly decimated a large number of Malkoran’s undead army.

Fighting through countless waves of zombies, the Dunmer rushed through the now blood soaked chambers in search of survivors. To her horror, there were no other Light Keepers left alive - only walking corpses whose souls were torn and corrupted. Enraged, Karethys went after Malkoran to put an end to everything. After a thorough search of the temple, she found him in the chamber housing Meridia’s precious artefact - Dawnbreaker.

and was reborn into undeath.

The battle between the two powerful mages commenced in a raging magical storm: fire versus ice, holy magic versus necromancy. Karethys had never encountered such a powerful foe and everything became even harder when Malkoran decided to pit former Light Keepers raised into undeath against her. The clash of spells continued as the Telvanni mage sent wave after wave of fire into the hordes of undead. After a fierce display of each caster’s magical prowess, finally both mages exhausted their magicka.

Unable to cast any more spells, Karethys set her eyes on Dawnbreaker and rushed to grab it from its pedestal. Once the sword was in her hands, she turned towards Malkoran. To her surprise, the necromancer was performing an odd ritual but she initially didn’t give much thought to it as she started to charge towards him. In her last living moments, Karethys saw that as the ritual was nearing completion, the light coming from Meridia’s inside temple beacons was beginning to rapidly fade.

Horrifying shadowy creatures rose from the dead corpses. It was then that she realized that the ritual was meant to drain the temple of its magical energies and empower Malkoran. The room suddenly went dark and Karethys drew her last living breath… In the weeks to come, Malkoran experimented on the Dunmer girl’s body and soul. His goal was to turn her into the ultimate mage hunter, should Light Keepers from other regions of Tamriel ever try and take over the now known Kilkreath Ruins.

Unfortunately, his experiments were a success. Karethys became a slave to the necromancer’s will; she became a being that fed on the magic cast by others, with the unique ability of turning her own corrupted life force into magicka. After witnessing this atrocity, Meridia went against her hatred for undead and, in a desperate act, freed the former Light Keeper from Malkoran’s control. Faced with the hard truth, Karethys vowed to use her dark powers to hunt down every unholy creature and rogue mage. She became known as The Twilight of Meridia, the one who works in the dark, to serve the light.

Glitches & Exploits

The Twilight of Meridia makes use of three glitches / exploits. Each one of them is thoroughly explained in the paragraphs below.

The Potent Equilibrium Glitch

Simply put, the Potent Equilibrium Glitch boosts Equilibrium. The Regeneration perk from the Restoration tree not only increases the amount of health points restored by healing spells, but it also amplifies Equilibrium by 50%! So, instead of converting 25 health points into magicka per second, the Twilight of Meridia will convert 37! The glitch also gets exploited by Vampirism and Necromage.

It all results in the 37 health-to-magicka points becoming 46 if Equilibrium is single cast and 103 if dual cast. To all blood mage skeptics, the Potent Equilibrium Glitch sounds suicidal. In response, we invite you to watch the videos found in this presentation showing gameplay at maximum level (37 - 40-ish). Convince yourselves of just how overpowered yet balanced the Twilight of Meridia is!

The Advanced Atronach

The Advanced Atronach permanently grants 100% spell absorption, 100% magicka degeneration and +100 magicka. To activate the glitch, drink a potion of restoration (Abacean Longfin, Cyrodilic Spadetail) and a potion of restoration & weakness to frost (Abacean Longfin, Cyrodilic Spadetail, White Cap) right before accepting the Atronach Stone.

The first potion amplifies the effects of the second. The goal is reaching 100% fortify restoration with the second potion. The only way to keep tabs on the glitch is to look at the increased magicka in the perks menu each time you activate the atronach stone. +80 magicka means the advanced atronach is at 80% of its power. Don't believe what you read in Active Effects.

The Guide to Poisons with Positive Effects

Poisons with positive effects allow the Twilight of Meridia to heal or fortify the health and magic resistance of her undead minions. The idea is simple and it exploits the absence of the Purity perk from Alchemy. After raising an undead, our blood mage applies such a poison on a dagger and strikes the minion with it. Both the positive and negative effects are applied.

For example, if a bandit melee fighter is killed and raised, it can be infected with a poison that damages magicka regen, restores up to 100 health and fortifies its health bar by up to 63 points. That said, pay attention to who or what you use necromancy on. Poisons with positive effects can be applied on undead minions only if the npcs were NOT immune to poisons when they were alive. This means that it doesn’t work on vampires or Draugr. Check out the Gameplay section for recipes.

Gameplay

The Twilight of Meridia is an unorthodox demon hunter who feeds on any kind of magic. She is a 0% magicka regeneration blood mage, an undead undead-hunter and a mage mage-slayer. The only way for this character to replenish magicka is to either fully absorb the spells cast by others or convert her own health into magicka. All the skills in her arsenal from destruction magic and alchemy to equilibrium and necromancy serve the purpose of purging unholy beings from the face of Tamriel.

Alteration: Alteration has only two perks, yet it is the core skill of the build. With a 0% magicka regeneration, the Twilight of Meridia needs Equilibrium to constantly regenerate magicka. This may look like a weakness, but it’s quite the contrary. No matter the level, low or high, our character needs to spend most of her level up points into health. This means that she is always using the same resource to both stay alive and cast spells. Hard hitting enemies like Draugr Deathlord archers are no longer a problem. In addition, the adept level spell Close Wounds is more than enough to counter the negative effects of Equilibrium.

Destruction: The Twilight of Meridia’s main sources of damage are fire and lightning based spells. These two types are the ideal offense against undead and mages of all sorts. Fire is very efficient when fighting various undead, including vampires, because they are all weak to it. Lightning on the other hand, drains magicka in addition to doing damage. As a consequence it wreaks havoc against any kind of spell casters, especially those who like to teleport. At maximum level (37 - 40-ish) we recommend casting only Fireball and Chain Lightning. Higher tier spells just make the Twilight of Meridia feel way too overpowered.

Conjuration: Sticking to the fight evil with its own weapons idea, necromancy and Expel Daedra are a no brainer. Undead minions enhanced by poisons with positive effects prove to be outstanding meat shields. We imagine these health fortified and magic resistant zombies as big muscular flesh golems. They are an excellent way to mitigate the damage incoming from melee foes like vampires, Draugr and Dremora Lords. Raising undead is also good for cutting enemy necromancers from their supply of corpses. In the late game levels, we advise getting a mage dead thrall, like Estormo, capable of casting both fire and lightning magic.

Restoration: Restoration is a minor skill. Out of this magic school, the Twilight of Meridia mainly casts healing spells to counter the negative effects of Equilibrium. Contrary to belief, Close Wounds is more than enough to keep the health bar in good condition for an efficient blood mage play style. The spell is relatively cheap to cast but it heals quite a lot. When it comes to sticky situations in undead fights, Turn Undead proves to be quite useful. It buys the Twilight of Meridia a bit more time to either restore some magicka, heal or rethink certain actions. We advise against using sun magic to combat undead since fire spells are enough.

Alchemy: Alchemy is crucial in activating the Advanced Atronach, but it also plays important roles in mage and undead hunting. First of all, the Twilight of Meridia can infect her raised undead with poisons with positive effects. These poisons restore and fortify health or increase magic resistance at the cost of magicka damage. Simply apply the poison on a dagger and strike an undead minion. Second, our blood mage can brew poisons for taking down tough mages like Orchendor or any other weaker teleporter. Third and final, with the help of potions she can enhance her destruction spells and fortify her health for more blood magic use.

Elixir of the Blood Mage (Potion)

Effects: Fortify Destruction, Fortify Health
Ingredients: Glowing Mushroom, Nightshade, Wheat

Orchendor’s Blight (Poison)

Effects: Lingering Damage Magicka, Weakness to Magic
Ingredients: Torchbug Thorax, Creep Cluster, Hagraven Claw

Elixir of Spell Shielding (Poison)

Effects: Damage Magicka Regen, Resist Magic
Ingredients: Blue Mountain Flower, Chicken’s Egg, Crimson Nirnroot

Elixir of the Flesh Golem (Poison)

Effects: Damage Magicka Regen, Fortify Health, Restore Health
Ingredients: Blue Mountain Flower, Nightshade, Wheat

Low Level Gameplay

Many people complain that although a character build is awesome, they don’t know what to do with it in the early stages of the playthrough. At first sight, the Twilight of Meridia may look like it shares the same problem. Equilibrium can only be acquired later in the College of Winterhold’s quest while the Advanced Atronach and poisons with positive effects require a decent Alchemy level. In consequence, we decided to write a guide for low level gameplay.

Straight outta’ Helgen go into Shriekwind Bastion and contract vampirism. When the blood sucking fangs start growing, journey to the Atronach Stone and activate it without thinking of the advanced version. 50% spell absorption, 50% magicka regen and +50 magicka are enough in the beginning. Then, go to Winterhold and start the college quest, but on your way there pick up Uthgerd the Unbroken as a follower. Your main objective is to get into Labyrinthian and learn Equilibrium.

It’s quite easy if you act as a Healer for Uthgerd and let her take all the hits in a fight. Focus on leveling Restoration, Alchemy and Destruction. This way, you should learn Equilibrium sometime between levels 7 and 10. Once done, ditch Uthgerd and start hunting down mages or undead. We recommend sticking to the normal Equilibrium and Atronach versions for a while. Get used to them and once you’re confident enough in your character, activate the glitches in small steps. Go for the 80% Advanced Atronach or the 37 points Equilibrium first. Build your character over time, make her feel stronger as she levels up. It gives you a sense of character progression, and this is awesome!

Character Customization

Race: Dunmer Vampire (Female). We wanted a race that best represents our character’s dark theme. Since Dunmer are known to be reserved and ill favoured by fate, we thought they’re the perfect fit.

Stone: Advanced Atronach. We recommend getting the Atronach right from the beginning of the game. Playing with 0% magicka regeneration takes some time getting used to it. That said, it's a good idea to start with 50% and let things settle in place more smoothly.

Stats Distribution: 1 Magicka | 2 Health | 0 Stamina every 3 levels. Once you reach 200 Magicka invest every following level up point into health. The goal is reaching 300+ Magicka and 500 Health at level 40 with the help of the advanced atronach and enchanted equipment.

Powers: Powers are not a big part of this character’s gameplay. Still, we assembled a list of those that might prove useful. Sailor’s Repose boosts healing spells by 10% and in consequence makes them better counter Equilibrium’s health loss. Sinderion’s Serendipity gives a 25% chance of creating duplicate potions so it’s useful in crafting poisons with positive effects. Mora’s Boon fully restores health and magicka while Secret of Arcana reduces spell cost by 100% for 30 seconds.

Blessings: None.

Equipment: You are not allowed to use any kind of magicka regeneration equipment because it takes away the core ideas of the build. Buy or find and equip any rings or necklaces that fortify health or magicka, but especially health. At low level we went with a +20 health ring found in Saarthal. Later in the game we bought a +70 health ring from Radiant Raiment in Solitude and obtained the Gauldur Amulet. As for appearances, we equipped the Hooded Black Robes in the lower levels. In the mid-to-late game stages it’s completely up to you. Bonelord and I loved the Hooded Thalmor Robes, Thalmor Gloves and Vampire Boots because they reminded us of Blade’s clothes from Marvel Comics. Chris on the other hand went with Vampire Armor. Both the combos look awesome so it’s your choice.

Let's Play - Master Difficulty

Local member pcoutcast decided to take the Twilight of Meridia for a spin and show his progress to everyone on youtube. He is currently recording a series of videos entitled "Let's Become" in which he does a full playthrough from scratch on Master difficulty. Keep in mind that we, the Teejiokno Noodlelords, made this character build work on Adept difficulty so you might see some small changes in pcoutcast's skill set. Check out the first episode below and be sure to watch the rest on youtube!

Guide to Demon Hunting

Instead of giving you a list of quests to do, we decided to write a guide to demon hunting. The Twilight of Meridia has all the necessary skills to take down any kind of magical and unholy being. But how can you use them efficiently against certain types of npcs? We wrote a list below that provides the answers to this question. Once you understand it, start travelling Skyrim on your own terms and give hell to any supernatural evil doer.

Draugr

Draugr come in many varieties ranging from melee fighters, to frost type spell casters and archers, with the higher level versions using shouts: Unrelenting Force, Frost Breath and Disarm. By far, the most dangerous is the Draugr Deathlord archer who always combos Unrelenting Force with high damage ebony arrow shots. That said, these creatures are not much of a problem for the Twilight of Meridia. The 100% spell absorption affects incoming spells while the large health pool gives our demon hunter plenty survivability against high damage physical attacks. The most effective way to kill Draugr is to use fire spells and, should they summon Frost Atronachs, Banish Daedra comes in handy. Draugr can be found throughout most of Skyrim’s tombs.

Vampires

Vampires are primary spell casters or spell swords. They make great use of necromancy, always seeking to revive a nearby corpse. Most vampires usually cast frost based spells, although some of them prefer lightning magic too. They use a modified much powerful version of Drain Life which, at higher levels, drains health, magicka and stamina. When a vampire reaches low health, it will most of the times cast an invisibility spell and run away. Often allies like thralls (former bandits), death hounds and rarely gargoyles can be found in their presence. The best way to wipe them off the face of Tamriel is to attack them with fire spells. Infamous vampire lairs include: Bloodlet Throne, Haemar’s Shame, Dimhollow Crypt and Castle Volkihar.

Mages

Mages fall into two categories: common and infamous. Common mages resort to using spells based on one of the three elements: fire, frost or lightning. They are known to also conjure atronachs, cast healing spells and, most annoying, channel wards. The most dangerous versions are Pyromancers, Cryomancers and Electromancers. The best strategy against them is to use lightning spells and drain them of Magicka. On the other hand, infamous mages are those who bring a twist to the fight, like teleportation (The Caller) and 100% Magic Resistance (Orchendor). When it comes to these types, it is crucial to poison them with Orchendor’s Blight and keep hitting them with lightning spells. Check out Fellglow Keep and Bthardamz.

Necromancers

Necromancers specialize in raising the dead under their command and most of them are very fond of using frost magic, wards and healing spells. As with mages, the common most dangerous versions are the Arch / Ascendant Necromancers. Again, the best strategy against them is the use of lightning spells with the addition of necromancy. Undead minions serve as the perfect meat shields against hostile raised zombies. The more infamous necromancers are: Arondil, found in Yngvild, who commands an army of female spectres; Vals Veran, found in Hillgrund’s Tomb, who can teleport – best poisoned by Orchendor’s Blight; and of course Potema’s Remains, found in Potema’s Catacombs, who can shout.

Dremora

Dremora are a humanoid race of Daedra who serve the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon. They appear as tall human-like creatures with black and red skin, black hair and short, curved horns on their heads. The most dangerous Dremora are known as Markynaz and Valynaz and both can be encountered as two handed sword swinging warriors or spell casters. Neither of them seem to be vulnerable to a specific type of magic in particular. The melee fighters tend to always have their sword enchanted with fire magic, while spell casters use fire spells, channel wards and conjure atronachs. Dremora can be found in Labyrinthian, Midden Dark (Velehk Sain) and at the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon once Pieces of the Past is completed.

Ghosts

Ghosts consist of Wispmothers, Ice Wraiths, Ghosts and Corrupted Shades. Wispmothers summon in combat up to four replicas. Their purpose is to distract the attacker’s attention while the Wispmother places frost runes on the ground and casts frost spells. Wispmothers can be found in places like Frostmere Crypt and Ruins of Rkund. Ice Wraiths are tough, agile, evasive and they have frost based melee attacks. These creatures can be found in Bonechill Passage or The Midden. Subjugated Ghosts are tormented spirits who can be found in Rannveig’s Fast, Labyrinthian, Yngvild and Eldersblood Peak. Finally, Corrupted Shades are ensalved spawns of darkness found in Kilkreath Ruins and Vahlok's Tomb. All ghosts are weak against fire spells.

Dragon Priests

Dragon Priests are powerful undead that once ruled over Skyrim at the behest of their dragon masters. Because of their blind loyalty, Dragon Priests were granted powerful masks which increased their magical powers exponentially. This allowed them to become liches and escape death by entering a deep slumber until Alduin’s arrival. In combat, Dragon Priests cast Ebonyflesh and wards for protection, put on themselves elemental cloaks, conjure different types of atronachs – some even raise the dead under their command – and attack using fire, frost or lightning based staves. Since they are undead, fire spells are extremely effective against them. These liches can be found in places like Volskygge, Labyrinthian and Shearpoint.

We'd like to thank PCOutcast for his Lets Play video. Full credit goes to Mason for discovering the Advanced Atronach. With this out of the way, Teej, Chris, Bonelord, it's been awesome working with you guys! The huge number of pms that we wrote to each other because of this project proves it! Without a doubt, this is one of the best character builds out of those made by each one of us! The amount of art that we used to present the Twilight of Meridia is insane. We hope you all enjoyed the 29 tarot cards that we made for this character build. We'd like to credit every author whose work we photoshopped:

Replies

Curse February 25, 2019 at 4:42am

You gotta love Noodle’s impressive presentation skills. I can probably find the original build so that this doesn’t have to be presented in image blocks.
- Curse > Curse March 1, 2019 at 8:56am
  
  Well it took hours of editing but its finally done.
Lee March 19, 2019 at 8:03pm

Ayyy, nice to see this Build again. Going to have to play it one day. Btw mate, it's in... Expert now not Novice
- Chris Diokno > Lee March 19, 2019 at 8:07pm
  
  You should Lee, we had fun playing this. And damn
Lee July 21, 2019 at 9:58pm

Don't forget to add your Expert tag Chris!
DeadBeatzZz December 5, 2020 at 9:12pm

Wow, just wow. This is amazing. This is the most interesting build I've ever seen.
- Chris Diokno > DeadBeatzZz December 5, 2020 at 9:14pm
  
  Thank you DeadBeatzZz
nystee December 10, 2020 at 5:30pm

Hey Chris Diokno I just want to point out that the build hit Master Rank
Demoquin February 23, 2021 at 3:02pm

Will this build still work if you are using Vokrii or Ordinator?
- Chris Diokno > Demoquin February 24, 2021 at 12:16pm
  
  Hmm, I'm actually not sure. We never tested it with it, especially as Vokrii didn't exist when we first made it a few years back. You could try it out and see?

This reply was deleted.

Skyrim Character Building

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