With all the advances that have been made, the atmoran people believe that they are entitled to live beyond their usefulness.
They believe that those who do not contribute to the pack deserve to get dragged along as they leech resources to fuel their failing bodies.
They believe that they have the right to deny their own mortality, to turn a blind eye to the inevitable end that lurks right around the corner.
They believe that if they ignore this truth, that it will cease to be, that he will stop stalking them.
They are wrong.
He is here.
He is knocking.
We will let him in.
Leeches do not leave unattended. They must be removed before they gorge too much resources from the body.
Hello, back again with another contest build. It's a character concept I've been playing with for a while, it's easy to play, level and learn, focusing on a small number of spells and best of all, it requires no equipment whatsoever. The concept has been molded to fit with one specific deity for the purposes of this contest. When thinking of a god to build around, I could't really think of anything to go with the mainstream gods/daedra, so I decided to challenge myself to build around a pretty obscure one. Orkey, for those that don't know, is the Atmoran god of Mortality, and an enemy of the nordic people. Thus I have created a priest of Orkey, a spiteful and deluded battlemage who drains the energies of his foes with ancient atmoran runes. Many believe Orkey is some wierd amalgamation of Arkay and Malacath, as his chosen people are the Orcs. he is famous for summoning Alduin to eat the nords lifespan, a dubious plot that was undone at the cost of King Wulfharth. He is reviled by the Nords for this, or most of them....
I tried to make this build as lightly modded as possible, and have narrowed down the selection to two essential mods and one highly recommended mod, which greatly enhances the roleplay of the build but is ultimately not necessary for its core gameplay.
Essential Mods
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim - Necessary to promote the DOT/debuff focused playstyle of the build
Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim - Needed for the death based restoration spells and Wither.
Highly Recommended Mod
Imperious - Races of Skyrim - Nice for the nords racail ability to do more damage to certain races, in your case choose bretons, redguards and imperials.
Aesthetic Mod
Immersive Armors
Race: Nord
A son of the north, The Doorman gains his religion from the ancient enemy of his people, viewing him as a necessary force to ensure the world still functions. He does not share the same national pride many nords have, viewing his race and other races of man as insects who do not appreciate how little time they have on this world, and takes great pleasure in reminding them of their frailty whenever possible.
He gains 50% resistance to frost damage, and can use Battle Cry to show his zealous worship of death, terrifying weaker foes and sending them running for their lives.
Standing Stone: The Atronach Stone
Using the power of this stone, The Doorman gains 50 extra magicka and the ability to absorb 50% of incoming spells, further making you a drainer of all energy and life.
Stats: 2/2/1, 2/2/0, 0/1/0
A good mix of magicka and health is needed, but due to this buidls constant absorbtion and boost from the atronach stone, it is not as necessary as most mages. Cap stamina at 150, moving to the second split until you reach 250 magicka, then put all remaining stats into health.
Faith: Orkey
The god of mortality and a mostly forgotten god of the ancient atmorans, Orkey is portrayed as cunning, spiteful and deceitful. He is resolute in his hatred of the nords and frequently plotted to destroy them during early history. His power has likely waned since then, as his worship has dropped off and he has mostly been forgotten.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Violent and unhinged, The Doorman is a spiteful lunatic who will kill any who he percieves as cheating the sacred ending of their mortality.
Shouts: Drain Vitality, Mark for Death, Become Ethereal, Soul Tear
Only Sheogorath knows why The Doorman of all people is deserving of dragon blood, but he will not argue with fate. Shouts are not necessary for the build at all, but the ones listed fit with the theme of death and frailty.
Skills: Destruction, Alteration, Conjuration, One Handed and Restoration
The Doorman plays like a unorthadox battlemage, focused on passively damaging and draining enemies around him, making them more susceptible to his DOT inflicting runes. The build can be very tanky, but only at close range and is very dependant on close range fighting to succeed. Destruction is used to enchance the effects of your lightning cloak and runes, alteration to increase your tankyness and to dish out passive debuffs, conjuration and one handed to use your bound sword and to cause it to inflict even more debuffs and restoration to improve your long distance fighting and your healing spells.
Spells:
Alteration: Ebony flesh, Wither, Paralyze
Destruction: Lightning Rune, Lightning Cloak
Conjuration: Bound Sword
Restoration: Close Wounds, Welling Blood, Slay Living, Finger of Death, Tree Rings, Circle of Death
Recommended Difficulty: Master/Legendary
This build can be busted, with basically unlimited magicka and stacking debuffs and DOT (Damage Over Time) damage, can really tear through most enemies. It does have a huge weakness however, being that it's only effective at close ranges, and I purposefully ommited any spells to help with this to encourage the build to play to it's strengths. If you find yourself dominating at later levels, I reccomend installing some difficulty mods like Revenge of the Enemies or some mod that increases the number of enemies in dungeons, or Wildcat - Combat of Skyrim.
Born as a rich noble in the city of Bruma, you grew up witnessing the lap of luxury. Your mother and father were practically royalty, and acted as if they were gods, throwing parties to rival that of Sanguine himself, and possessed an army of servants whic they commanded to do any concievable task in existence. You however, experienced none of these comforts. As the youngest child, you were expected to make your own way or die, and you had a sneaking suspicion your father was hoping for the latter. No, their affection was saved for your three sisters, who were divines in their eyes and each destined to inherit their fortune, with you as the eldest, being left the petty scraps.
That however, did not happen. As you grew older any hope of an inheritance was lost, your youngest sister shed their mortal coil, her body ravaged by some . A tragic affair, one that almost broke your family apart, but such a tragedy could never be repeated. Oh but it was, as slowly your other two sisters were struck down prematurely, one by dark brotherhood assasin and the other by a very fortunate bear. Faced with nowhere else to turn, your parents named you as the sole heir, and wounded by their loss, seemed to warm to you as their son. A few decades later, your mother passed from natural causes and your fathers love for you only grew. You were so close to what was rightfully yours, all you had to do was wait a few more years for the old man to pass on. And so you did. You waited. And waited. And waited.
But still your father remained. Furiosity overtook you, your father was still breathing and soon to be the oldest man in tamriel at this point. When would he die? You threw this question around your brain for many sleepless weeks until you found the answer. He will die when you do what must be done. And so, as your father was reclined in his fireside chair, you took your mothers lettercutter and ushered him into the great beyond. This victory was bittersweet, however, as in your fathers senile last years, he himself reduced all he had built to rubble. Ruined, you tried for many months to piece it back together to no avail. If only he had passed on when he should, his legacy would still remain, his son would be safe. His selfishness, you concluded in clinging to his feeble, rasping breaths instead of letting himself go, ruined you and for what? For a few years of useless, rasping breaths spent sprawled out in a rickety chair? Some mortals, you gleaned, were too sentimental over their own bodies, attempting to drag the civilised world with them into obscurity. You also learned that someone was trying to prevent this. Someone was hunting the condemned, stubborn souls. Someone saw fit to spare you when all your kin were slain.
Someone was watching out for you.
A mural of the ancienct atmoran enemy god, Orkey.
An insincere prayer to those whose lives were cut short by this brutal conflict.
When playing this build, mortality is a given, a constant shadow. Your own mortality is fleeting and everyone else's even more so, and as such, danger of death or the death of others will be of no consequence to The Doorman. Those who try to cheat death (In The Doorman's mind at least) either through medicine, resilience or foul undeath must be stopped at all costs, and those who are in good health must be reminded that their fortunes can change at any moment of his choosing, of your choosing. Since your revelation, you have realised that all material possesions, political and economic power are pointless and unneccesary fabrications of those who fear the inevitable visit your god provides. There is only one power you respect now, the power to take life, and you will gain that in troves. In your eyes, the honored dead earn their place by living dangerous lives, and going out in their legendary prime, instead of disgracing their vessels with the frailty of old age. Any mortal who wishes to die in their sleep after a long life does not deserve to live.
The Doorman is first and foremost, a deluded murderer. Firm in his belief that natural causes can take too long, he will seek to thin some of the herd to remind the rest of their mortality. He is also in some senses, a serial killer and will go out of his way to murder any elderly person he can. Good examples of targets include Olava the Feeble, Nepos the Nose and Olfrid Battleborn. Generally when deciding on quests to do, he will do any quest with an oppurtunity for bloodshed, ruining the lives of others or to advance his own power. A bit more nuanced however, is the Doorman's respect for the finality of death, making him fiercely anti-undead and anti-tomb looting. With that being said, here are some recomendations:
Main Questline - Alduin is no longer in the thrall of your master, and seeks to rule the world instead of end it. End him. Your dragonborn also grants you the ability to destroy the immortality of dragons, which The Doorman will relish.
Dark Brotherhood - A perfect oppurtunity to release the weak from their failing flesh, money is of no concern to him however.
Dawnguard - Harkon and his court think themselves above the laws of mortality placed upon them. They are wrong. Side with the Dawnguard to destroy these walking corpses and kill Serana afterwards if possible.
Dragonborn - Similar to Harkon, Miraak believes he is beyond the reach of mortality. Extend the hand of Orkey to greet him. Also exploit the ample oppurtunities for power in Apocrypha.
Civil War - The Doorman will side with the Stormcloacks, as they are the side most likely to lead to a greater conflict with the Aldmeri Dominion, and thus more deaths.
The Cursed Tribe - Orkey favors the Orcs, and is possibly an aspect of Malacath himself. Also try to befriend each of the various strongholds throughout Skyrim.
The Taste of Death - Tombs are sacred places for the dead, not a pantry. End the disgusting degenerates who would feast on the dead. I recommend not killing Eola on sight but rather wairing until the cannibal gathering to strike.
The Wolf Queen Awakens - Potema must be banished back into the dirt.
Remove the Weak - Not an actual quest, just a goal you should try to follow. Any sick or elderly must be removed from existence, lest they drag us further into the abyss as they flail around in their death throes. Try to avoid getting caught when possible, but it being an upstanding citizen in the eyes of the law is no concern.
Another stubborn fool being sent six feet under
PERKS OF NOTE:
Destruction:
- Runecaster: Enchances our runes range and lets us place more
- Ancient Seals: Turns your runes into stacking DOT dealing killing machines
- Ionized Path 2/2: makes our magic more deadly asa you drain your victims energies, which we do a lot of. Will end up being a huge damage buff
- Static Field: In conjucntion with lightning cloak, will ensure no enmies are above 75% health, making them more vulnerable to our instant kill spells.
- Arc Burn: Makes sure our DOT spells do bonus DOT. DOT!!
- Magnetize and Electroconvultions: Helps us crowd control a bit, and Electroconvulsions makes low health enemies easier to target with Slay Living.
- Show them All: Even more magicka drain cus why not.
Alteration:
- Mage Armor: Makes us not fall over like a wet noodle when things hit us.
- Energy Shield: Works in conjuction with The Monarch to allow us to basically have constant damage reduction, as it allows you to sacrifice your magicka for damage reduction and we have an infinite supply of that when people are up close. Means you will feel especially squishy when far away.
- Welloc's Dormant Arcana: Allows you to give yourself passive buffs when under a certain spell. Choose flesh spells as the trigger, and stamina regen, bonus armor rating and magic resistance as the buffs.
- Intuitive Magic 2/2: Allows for novice and apprentice spells to be cast for free. Very useful for spamming shock runes.
- The Monarch: The main perk here. You lose magicka constantly, but absorb it from others at a rapid rate. Basically in conjuction with all our other perks, this will mean bonus damage against affected tagets with your bound sword and lightning runes, and will reduce all damage you take with energy shield. The cornerstone of the playstyle and the main priority in alteration.
- Nullifier: Works in conjustion with The Monarch to ensure that noone gets any magicka back, also very useful against warrior types as they can't do many power attacks against you. Also fits very well with the theme of being a bottomless pit for lifeforces.
Conjuration:
- Void Burn: Makes a stacking debuff that drains magicka and stamina, then health whenever you hit someone with your sword. Very useful in conjuntion with other perks allowing you to deny power attacks and drain magicka even faster, allowing you to start draining health as soon as possible.
- Dark Whispers: Gives you bonus armor and damage when you hit a target with your bound sword. Very useful because you lack a lot of armor and cannnot smith your weapon, and have no skill in enchanting.
One Handed
- Clash of Champions 3/3: Reduces the damage of enemies you strike, combining nicely with Energy Shield to reduce damage further.
- Crosscut 2/2: Allowqs us to quickly deal chunks of damage to enemies, making them more likely to die from Welling Blood.
Restoration:
- Descending Light: Ensures we have enough magicka to cast our fleshspells and fuel our Energy Shield until we can close the gap on any enemies.
- Edgewalker: Improves the effectiveness of Slay Living and Circle of Death on low health targets, making thme more likely to just drop dead.
Death Cultist Chic
There is none. Wear what you want, pick up any useful enchanted items if you want, but even they aren't necessary and I did fine on legendary with only the rags on my back. It was pretty refreshing not having to worry about gear at all.
My Look
Shrouded Hood
White Skull Face paint
Shaman Robes
Shaman Gloves
Shaman Boots
Although the build is very simple to play, there are tons of fun combos that can be made. Some of these abilities are not strictly necessary for the build to function, but do make for fun combat.
Aging Aura
Requirements: The Monarch, Nullifier, Ionized Path 2/2, Show Them All, Lightning Cloak Spell
Those who stand against the god of mortality's will soon find themselves drained and feeble, powerless against his chosen champion. Through a combination of these perks and spell, your victims stamina will be draining and unable to regenerate, and their magicka supply will be obliterated. This all happens passively as well, truly giving a harbinger of death type vibe and making targets weaker against your damage over time abilities.
Withering Muscles
Requirements: The Monarch, Energy Shield, Clash of Champions 3/3
Any who take up arms against you soon find themselves lacking their former strength, making their melee attacks far less effective. Basically a combination of the magicka fueled Energy Shield, the magicka siphoning The Monarch perk and the damage reduction on hit from Clash of Champions to give a total of 55% damage reduction on top of any armor bonuses. Makes for a very tanky character.
Ancient Curses
Requirements: Bound Sword Spell, Void Burn, Lightning Rune Spell, Ionized Path 2/2, Ancient Seals, Arc Burn, Intuitive Magic 2/2, Lightning Cloak Spell
The Doorman unleashes malignant magic on his enemies, draining their already weakened essence even further. Basically, with your sword and runes (which are free) you can stack up a ton of Damage Over Time effects on your enemies, eating through their health. These effects are all enchanced by low stamina and magicka, showcasing Orkey's tendancy to pray on the feeble and infirm, and pairning well with Aging Aura to rack up damage.
Tragic Demise
Requirements: Lightning Cloak Spell, Electro Convulsions, Slay Living Spell, Edgewalker
As a harbinger of mortality, the Doorman has the ability to snuff out the fading lives of those on deaths door. Good for finishing off high health enemies. Basically whenever a target within melee range falls below 25% health, it will fall to the floor, spasming uncontrollably. This makes them easy prey for your instant killing, free to cast Slay Living, which thanks to Restoration Mastery and Edgewalker, works on targets with more health than usual.
Bloody Accident
Requirements: Welling Blood Spell, Static Field, Lightning Cloak Spell Crosscut 2/2
The Doorman can mark a target and predict their demise, ending their existence with an unfortunately striking blow. Cast Welling Blood on a target, causing them to instantly die if they take a certain amount of damage, then enter melee with them. Because of your lightning cloak, their max HP will instantly go down to 75%, then make a few standard melee attacks and a power attack. If the enemy is weak enough, they sould just plain die.
Open the Door
Requirements: Tree Rings Spell, Finger of Death Spell
The Doorman uses his favor with Orkey to protect himself, then destroys another targets lifeforce using his own. Basically, just cast Tree Rings, which gives you a huge bump in health for a short time, then cast Finger of Death, which kills a target, but makes you take damage equal to 125% of the damage result. Make sure you are high health when using this ability and preferably close to your target, as it is quite magicka heavy.
Spontaneous Tragedy
Requirements: Dual Cast Shock Rune Spell, Destruction Dual Casting, Ancienct Seals, Intuitive Magic 2/2, Circle of Death Spell, Edgewalker
The Doorman calls on his patron to drain and snuff out the fragile souls of his enemies, rapidly draining them and dragging them into the afterlife. WHen surrounded by a group of enemies, cast Circle of Death then rapidly dual cast Lightning Rune at your feet. Enemies will rapidly be drained of health, dying instantly should they fall below 40% health.. (Higher due to Restoration Mastery and Edgewalker, but I don't know the specifics :p)
There is a reason the honored dead never die of age.
Gameplay with The Doorman is pretty straightforward, the main idea is to drain health with damage over time effects then finish low health enemies with instant kills. When combat starts, simply stroll on in, summon your bound sword, and cast Ebonyflesh on yourself using the Magicka from your Descending Light perk and then make a B line for the nearest group of enemies, absorb there magicka and use it to cast lightning cloak. Once that's done, start runeslinging and slashing. make sure to get this done as quiuckly as possible as you are VERY vulnerable until you get up close and personal. With a combination of Aging Aura and Ancient Curses your enemies will drop like flies as you stack up damage over time effects on them, which increase in power the longer you stay closer to them. Any mages are neutered as they cannot regain magicka and warriors are unable to regenerate stamina and rapidly lose it thanks to your Void Burn perk. You should be fairly resistant thanks to Withering Muscles and a few healing spells, so you can survive in close range for longer than most mage armor users. If you want to target a specific, mid health creature use Bloody Accident to kill them in one, precise blow. ALternatively, you could use the far more risky Open the Door if you're confident you won't take much damage afterwards. If you find yourslef surrounded, send them all to The Old Knocker with Spontaneous Tragedy.
At peace among the dead.
Well, thats it! This build took WAY too long to make, due to Covid Scares, Technical Issues and a fractured wrist (typing is hard lol) but I'm glad I finally got it done. Felt great to play Skyrim again and I had a good time finally putting this playstyle idea into practice :)
Replies
This is presented really well, and the screenshots are very nice, IMO another build that's set the bar high.
I'll have to shoot you a like when I jump on my phone later, some reason I cant like builds on my pc.
I shall Long-Chapper this tomorrow as I drink my morning coffe.
Sorry, I took so long. It is a well-presented build. I like the screenshots you have chosen and I also enjoy that we have another no crafting build.
I can see that you've thought about the connection to the deity of choice and I like the spin of Orkey dealing a sort of final judgement against people who have outstayed their welcome in Skyrim. That being said, there are some aspects of your backstory that made me scratch my head (Bruma noblity, daughters inheriting over sons) and lead me to conclude that the backstory was an original part of the build and that you later adapted to fit Orkey. So it creates a bit of disconnect.
And yes, I'm going to address the elephant in the room, because I want you to think about how you use your spells. Can you play this build without crutching on Ocato's Recital? Ebony flesh, lighting cloak, and close wounds all consume a hefty amount of magicka and each come from different schools. From what I understand of the perks you picked from Ordinator, get 50% off by taking rank two of each of the Mastery perks, and you need 50 in each school to do that, to select rank two of Mastery. Let me do some math.
Ebony Flesh (Base cost 341) = 170
Lightning Cloak (Base Cost 370) = 185
Close Wounds (Base Cost 126) = 63
170+185+63 = 418 magicka investement for these spells without gear. Your cap magcka is 250. I think you can play this without Ocato's Recital, but you would need to invest in cost reduction gear. See, this is the problem I have with that spell. There's a reason why investment in magicka and school cost reduction exists. There's a reason why magic works the way it does in Skyrim, flawed as it can be sometimes. Ocato's Recital is an Apprentice Level Alteration spell. Let me refer to one of your selected perks.
I looked up Ordinator, just to get my facts straight, because I'm not going to voice a criticism without knowing my stuff. If I'm wrong, then please, do let me know. I based all of my information off the Skyrim wiki for spell costs and the Nexus page for Ordinator and Apocalypse. So essentially, if I'm understanding this correctly, you get to cast Ocato's Recital for FREE? In addition to shock runes and all novice and apprentice spells? Please forgive me if what I'm about to say comes off as harsh. It's not meant too and perhaps all it means is that I just have a different approach to gameplay than you do. Ultimately, you do what you want, it's your build, but can you perhaps see that this combination is overpowered? It required a 50 skill in Alteration? That's it? 50 Alteration to spam Ebony flesh and Lightning Cloaks? And Close Wounds? This is a huge criticism I have of Ordinator and why I don't use it. Please tell me you balanced this with a difficulty mod of some type, because to be honest, I would be extremely bored with this build after a while. Where is enemy strategy when all you do is crutch a spell combination? Don't misunderstand me, I am all for simple gameplay in the context of control combination, because I'm very bad at combinations. I'm also all for small inventories and limited spells because I think that's rather lore-friendly. You don't see your average mage enemy in skyrim spamming forty different spells. They usually have between 2-5, depending on what they're doing. That being said, I think there is a point where this desire to limit inventory and make gameplay as fluid as possible can result in a created gameplay imbalance. You can argue that it is countered by your lack of equipment and Legendary difficulty, but IMO, this is not enough of a counter for balanced, entertaining gameplay, unless you are using mods that I do not know about.
Now back to my original question. Can you play this without using Ocatos's Recital. My answer, yes you can, but you would have to restructure your stats (opt for a more glass cannon approach with heavier magicka investment) and the build would need gear. Ocato's Recital gives you the ease to do a build like this without such investment and I understand the appeal that it has, why it's attractive, especially when we've played the base game for so long. I dunno, I just think that spell, in its ease, takes away so much of what makes Skyrim, well, Skyrim, I guess, to put a point on it. The struggle that's supposed to go along goes with making a character invested into magic.
Again, please don't be offended. People build and when I see a new build, I point out what I see, both the good and the things I have problems with. There's a lot to like about what you did here and I think the concept is interesting. All my criticisms are also my opinion and you are welcome to disagree with them. Most people here do and I'm an old fuddy duddy when it comes to gameplay, a Requiem girl by nature, so if my game isn't supremely miserable, I'm not happy. :D Criticism is just telling a person what you see, that's all. You take what you want from it.
Great job and good luck to you.
Very good point, this build is very much playable without ocato's recital, and I can see how it can builds overpowered. I did originally make this a pure ordinator build without apocalypse, only caving to gain access to the death spells. The inclusion of it was mainly for the early levels, and if I'm honest, my own modded experiences with the game as I have a TON of enemy mods to make it challenging (probably because ordinator is OP lol). To go back to Ocato's recital tho, it doesn't really allow you to spam spells, only casting them on you at the beginning of combat, and there was plenty of times when playtesting that I had to recast them CONSTANTLY in prolonged or spaced out engagements (blackreach was a nightmare). I might remove Ocato's recital to make it more balanced though, good suggestion.
Good to know, but careful then about early levels. If you are needing crutch spells at early levels then again, there are possible balance issues in your game. Some of the best builds on this site and others were played on Adept, so lol, you may not need to beat yourself up so much during gameplay. Way back when, the goal of building was for others to play your playthrough and I guess, I always have this as a filter in the back of my mind when I build, so I tend to approach it in a way by imagining what someone else is doing based on the blueprints or instructions I've given them. And this, again, is probably me and just that I have a different approach to building, especially now. Some builders like to see their end product right away or they don't focus so much on early game, stepping out of rp and taking shortcuts in leveling to achieve the end result. And THEN they rp. And that's fine. For me, building is more of a progressive journey, otherwise I just see it as a grind for gear and perks. Building is very centered on the rp of the character, rp supported by gameplay, quests, and gear. This means a few things. First, I usually really like it when I can play in a way that gels with the rp of the build from the beginning, even if the build is suffering from lack of perks and gear. So usually to counter that, I make builds that must struggle through something or earn their powers. It then easily justifies your crappy skills in the beginning. :D. It also means that I don't see endgame quite in the same way. Usually endgame coincides with achieving a gameplay goal for the build, rather than obtaining gear or perks. So it could just be that my reaction to how others are doing things is just a reflection of what I prefer seeing in a build.
Next time, to spare yourself my Ocato's Recital tirade, you might want to include difficulty mods in your build mod list. It helps the reader see that you've properly balanced your game.
Added a bit about diffuculty mods to the difficulty section and removed Ocato's Recital, thanks for the advice :)
This build is awesome man! I don't know much about Orkey but I dig the one man absorbing the life force of other people and those screenshots really added to the vibe of the build. Good job man!