So damn, I'm sorry, I keep changing my darn mind. New job and all has curtailed development on the Turning Wheel so I turned back to Vanilla with a build that is literally almost five years old! The old Ning site once had an Exotics Contest, and I was in between submitting a Dwemer build and this one. Ultimately, the Dwemer build became the Exterminator and this languished because I struggled to find an rp angle that really motivated me to complete the build. Enter this contest and I found one. Think on this…
What if a fallen Lady of Light and Life, was so jealously enraged at the Daedric Prince who caused her fall that she, in their ongoing war, found a way to corrupt his most prized manifestation of ultimate domination, his Daughter, so to speak? Using a minion of her own creation, eternally sworn to her service, to rape from the very King of Rape, and then bend the darkness of His creation into the folds of her Mistress’ light prisms. Bringing life from deep undeath through the power of her Cause to wield Dawn’s greatest weapon. Mold a Champion of brightest light from the Darkest shadows of Coldharbour. And then, once newborn to the Holy Light of the Lady, this Champion and the Mistress’ loyal servant would then cleanse, purge Tamriel in a font of Aethereal light so blinding and beautiful, that nothing undead would remain. What creature could the Mistress conceive that would be up for such a daunting task? What creature would consent to being ripped from the Colored Rooms and cast down to the dull nirnly plane with absolutely nothing? What creature would welcome such torment? What creature could fight through so many demons to obtain something so utterly foul and bring it to her Lady’s Light. A Dark Seducer? No, they are far too dark for this task. Nay, for a task this great, there is only one acceptable to Merid-Nunda. A golden creature of healing starlight, lightning, and undeniable loyalty.
I present to you...
The Auroran.
This build is based on the Aurorans from Oblivion's Knight of the Nine dlc, which are Daedra created by Sheogorath, Azura, and Meridia. In KoTN, they help defend Meridia's Champion, Umaril the Unfeathered, against the Champion of Cyrodiil. Her enemy in the Daedric world is Molag Bal and with good reason. There are hints, and I totally buy it too, that she and old Baly were once lovers, leaving her, a child of Magnus, and one of the Magna-ge, to be shunned by her brothers and sisters, other Aedra and lumped in with the Daedric princes. I will expand on this lore as I progress with the build. So, expect artifacts of both Molag Bal, Magnus, and Meridia to play a special part in this build. I'm sticking mostly with ES IV in recreating this type of Daedra for Skyrim, with some minor changes to reflect ESO and the lore. This is a build that'll have several options to realize into fruition based on whether you are playing on console or on PC, with or without mods.
Race: Altmer. They are tall and superior in every way for this build. The bonuses to three skills are fabulous.
Stats: 2:1:0, She is going to be quite squishy.
Alignment: Whatever fanatical devotion to Meridia and using that power to restore her light to the world and bring the darkness of Coldharbour into her fold at whatever the cost is. :D
Class: Elements of a Summoner, a Crusader, a Battle mage, and an Elementalist.
Blessings: None, dammit. She’s a Daedroth, the blessings of the Aedra mean nothing to her. If you must for gameplay, Julianos is actually an interesting choice as he was a god that experienced some rejection when he was in the form of Jhunal. A shunning, so to speak, from the rest of the pantheon. Similar to Meridia in some ways. Or, if you’re going modded, Wintersun, lets you worship Meridia to your heart's content and offers some great perks for selecting our Lady of Light. I'll add those to the build, so people know, though I myself do not have Wintersun on PS4.
Stone: I originally went with the Atronach stone in the first playtests to simulate the Auroran’s in game 25% resistance to magic, but you can also find a number close to that in gear found in the game, so in my last playtest, I took a risk and went with Apprentice and did not look back. She regenerates magicka like a wee battery with highborn and the perks from Restoration. And yeah, she’s weak to magic, sorry, not sorry. Learn to play with weaknesses, people. She's been cast down from her plane, she shouldn't be strong. This task is a test of her faith.
Shouts: Having a thought with this one. I always have dragons in the air, because I always enjoy killing them, and she didn’t struggle to kill them on the difficulty I tend to test at (Expert) but the main quest isn’t really a goal. Now, I did read some oog stuff (I’m a lore nut, I know) that mentions Meridia having the ability to bend time, by riding a rainbow across the dragon, bending and condensing it while she traveled. Dragon is a metaphor for time, so, I’m thinking that slow time could actually be a viable option for her. It would offer a very interesting synergy with both restoration cloak spells and chain lightning. (I want to play test this to confirm, so I’ll probably rig something up this weekend). At the same time, I’m not sure I want to deal with Hermeus mora too much.
Skills: I went completely Vanilla, unmodded for this. So, Destruction, Restoration, Conjuration, One-handed. The Auroran's in ESO carry one-handed weapons and shields (so block is optional if you think you are too squishy in the beginning) and I'm simulating the effect of the Knights of the Nine Aurorans with Shock magic and bound weapons.
Gear: Necromancer's amulet (part of my ongoing 'keep this amulet away from Necromancer's' series of builds), Zahkriisos (for both the shock boost, shock resistance, and the look, Auroran's have 50% resistance to shock), Elven Armor, Auroran armor (if you feel like looking up steam), any gloriously golden armor. Ebony spell knight armor is also a wonderful option for the CC people out there (cleanse the heart or leave it corrupted, she doesn’t really give a shit since she doesn’t believe in Mara, both armor options offer fantastic boosts for her character). The inventory was specifically designed to be lean and mean. There are no houses to store all your pretty things, none of that.
Spells: Sparks, Lightning bolt, Lightning cloak (to recreate Light that protects, it’s an Oblivion thing), Chain lightning (to recreate Light that burns from the Oblivion Auroran), bound sword, Storm Atronach, turn undead spells, wards, sun spells, barrier spells (to recreate Light that protects). Healing spells are important because that is the only source of healing, other than the Staff of Magnus once it absorbs magicka. The light of Meridia is the only thing for this Oblivion warrior. There is no other sustenance than the sustenance of her Lady’s Light, so obviously, no Survival mode on this one.
Gameplay: Fast-paced and rather dangerous, because the armor rating will not be high as stuff will be mismatched and the Auroran can’t be arsed to smith anything, grow shit, or enchant shit. She is a Daedra on a mission. Cloak yourself in Meridia's loving protection, conjure bound weapon and blast and whack whoever dares attack you. Use wards to block spells, because if you get hit, you will probably feel it. I’m so happy, always wanted to play a ward based build and I finally got to. No sneaking, no funny business. Sneaking is for wussies. :D There was a very fun amount of ways to play and I liked shifting between the various combat methods, but all of it is fast.
No potions, so respite becomes important, minimal looting or use of other skills barring the perked ones. Aurorans are also associated with Sheogorath and Azura, but I also read that sometimes Azura is aligned with Bal, which puts a certain spin on things, don't it? I corrupted that bitch's star. Again, souls are not the issue, it's the undead. Isolationist gameplay. No house, no food. She is almost like a machine, like a Terminator in service to her Lady Prince. In addition, when she finds Meridia's beacon, I had her leave offerings... of all the undead she's killed until she was worthy to enter the temple at Mount Kilkreath with Serana.
- Gargoyles: gems and ores
- Skeletons and draugr: bonemeal and the boss's weapon. Dragonpriest masks for the dragon priests.
- Vampires: Vampire dust
- Ghosts (if they can be looted): Ectoplasm
- Necromancers: Collect and deposit the most valuable item they are carrying.
Quests: The Break of Dawn (one of the last quests, after Serana is cured), Dawnguard, The Man who Cried Wolf & The Wolf Queen Awakens, partial main quest, College of Winterhold, Nordic tombs, Necromancer lairs, and Vampire lairs, Laid to Rest, Blood on the Ice, Fail The House of Horrors, FAIL the Taste of Death, Frostflow abyss, Saints and Seducers CC, Crypt of the Heart, No Book of Love, you don't love Mara. But the magic resistance! NO! You love Meridia! And Kynareth can kiss your Auroran arse too! You fuck up that Eldergleam proper, kill dem spriggans, and make that tree BEEEEG in Whiterun. But you help Andurs at Whiterun cause skeletons are bad.
Training: None. This, for me was a build that would refuse training. I also refused potions of any kind, because most things made by mortals are just eww.
Follower: Serana, the new acolyte of Meridia. Her new Champion. Go through Dawnguard and cure her! Then, and only then do you do the Break of Dawn. Equip her in Elven or Glass armor and just let her new light shine, baby.
To do: The playtests for this build were done a long time ago, about three or four to be exact, over the course of about 5 years and I have all my notes for them. The last playtest saw Apprentice stone use and heavy consideration of the ebony spell knight armor or continuation of Elven gear, it’s really dependent on what enchantment you get from Elven gear when it drops. You could also just piece meal it too, a combo of Elven, Zahkriisos and the ebony spell knight gear. The best part of the Ebony gear are the gauntlets, which are amazing either way. I also have to make the following.
- New arts, I’m gonna do a revamp and opt for a broken glass tile look that borrows colors from Meridia’s plane. Pick the images, source them, do the font. I have a lot of screenshots for this build actually, so that makes me very happy. There's a sample image above. It needs fine tuning and borders and stuff.
- Make sense out of all the damn notes I’ve accumulated for this build and write it out all properly and seriously.
- Make sure this build adheres to the thematic material of the contest.
- Really decide if I want Dragonbornness or not. The slow time synergy with chain lightning and restoration cloak spells is damn intriguing, but I only thought of that today when mulling this build over for the umpteenth time. Two words are available to me from an rp standpoint. The Civil War is meaningless to her, she doesn’t care if people die, only if they are reanimated. That being said, I’m not sure if she would be pissed at Alduin reanimating a dragon, but at the same time., the dragons aren’t really dead, are they? I could rp the ONE shout as the lore between Meridia and the Dragon. Gifts that allow her minion to bridge time like she can. That could work well.
- Clarify her roleplay. This isn’t a narrative build, it’s actually more along the lines of my old Exterminator build, so a roleplay section and maybe a small little backstory, and that’s it.
- See if I can improve her gameplay. Let’s face it, I am not the best at gameplay and while I’m detail oriented, I can miss things on this department. I had a great time whenever I played her, but I have a great time playing a naked punching kitty, so I'm not the best person to judge quality gameplay. That being said, I'm always balanced.
- Actually post this build. Five years is a long, long time.
Feedback is appreciated as this is, a draft of a build. The more we hash stuff out now, while it's still in WiP, the better it'll be when it's actually posted, I always say, so bring it.
Replies
Looks great so far. My experience with the Shivering Isle DLC is non-existent, but I certainly get the gist of the Aurorans. A lot of unique concepts intertwined with the build that I can definitely get behind too. Roleplaying as something besides a mortal is always fun, though difficult for me personally to get into character with, because I myself am a mortal, obviously. But never mind that lol, I like the theme of light/prisms/etc and your choice of spells reflects (haha get it?) the concept. This build clearly is magicka heavy, and I like that you took the Apprentice route over Atronach. Makes a lot more sense given that Altmer magicka kicks in and puts priority on wards, wards suiting the theme of the build tremendously. The offerings section is a nice touch as well, love me muh RP. Looking forward to the finished product and the art as well, it's quite intriguing.
Edit: It seems you're conflicted with gameplay and whether to become Dragonborn or not, so I'll throw my two cents in.
Go for it. Seeing as this character is wholly dedicated to wiping out undead and the reanimated it actually works perfectly, because what's reanimated? DRAGONS!! Her being Dragonborn makes her the only one who can permanently wipe out a dragon and keep it from being reanimated. This will satisfy your itch to use Slow Time and it also opens up more possibilites to gameplay, which you said you wanted to expand upon. Let me offer some shouts I think would contribute to this, and hopefully fall in line with your theme.
Become Ethereal. Bending light rays around you, altering time to make yourself intangible. Not sure if that's quite accurate, but it seems close enough, but I'll let you be the judge of it. The use of the shout opens you to some nice combinations involving Master level spells, since this build will be squishy, it may be essential.
Kyne's Peace: I know this build is like super anti-Aedra and doesn't believe them, but if she becomes Dragonborn then this might leave her with a bit of a dilemma, so perhaps she'd have at least some change of heart? Not sure how you'd justify this, but I only list the shout as it seems fitting to someone only concerned with undead, as the shout allows you to tell that sabre cat or thief to just chill the hell out, since maybe she'd would rather not lift a finger or spend a drop of magicka to deal with these petty encounters. Just an idea.
Let me know what you think! We can bounce back ideas if you'd like more help or thoughts, I'm willing to give it.
My rationale was leaning exactly towards that. Alduin is reanimating dragons, so the activity is justified.
I considered Become Ethereal, because as you said, it's all spectrally and lighty, I'm just not a huge fan of it it (it CAN be a crutch shout), and I'm discouraged from using it because that + wards makes the ward usage less special and frankly, wards do not ever get enough love in builds, especially in Vanilla. I also don't really plan on using Master level spells and heavily used BE in my last build and yep, it factored into creating special moves. And lol, nothing is essential on Expert, Master maybe, but not Expert. It's a valid point, I'm just not sold on it.
Meridia's concern is not with killing anything. She is perfectly fine with killing things and is a rather bloodthirsty Daedric Prince (go check out what she did to the entire city of Abagarlas just because their patron god was Molag Bal). She only has problems with things that don't stay dead.
Don't misunderstand, I have playtested this build and all the times she playtested, I did enough of the main quest to get dragons in the air because I enjoy fighting them, so of course she did absorb souls and I did enough dungeons to accumulate words. It just wasn't a huge part of what she did and I'm trying to mull over if it should be. Sort of like my Exterminator to some extent as he only ever used Bend Will and that was to simulate Dwemer Telepathy. He had absolutely no connection to the Aedra or Daedra whatsoever and approached all of them like a scientist, what information could he extract that could be of benefit to the Dwemer people. As a result, he was able to do quite a few quests with good justification. And I think for the Auroran, a similar approach can be taken, though not based on science but on faith and service to Meridia. So I can get on board with shouts that sort of enhance a Meridia devotee's gameplay, but not others. Becoming Dragonborn to better serve Meridia's agenda is something I can get behind, as it does give you access to the scrolls you'll need to kill Harkon. It's also, and I'm not joking, one of the first times I've ever used Slow Time, because like BE, I consider it a crutch shout and abused by many builders over the years. Her build was the first where I really could justify it as an interesting component and synergy with the Daedric Prince's lore rather than potentially gamebreaking. I would probably only use it when things got really hard though.
Beyond that, however, I do not see her engaging in any of the Aedric themed quests unless they specifically deal with the undead, so that rules out Mara and Kyne. Mara's tough, because magic resistance is awesome and you DO help ghosts reunite, but at the same time, the ghosts were not reanimated, they are just ghosts. I don't think she'd care since their deaths occurred naturally. Dibella is a possibility since there IS a Briarheart involved and that is bad and unnatural. Hag Ravens are basically necromancers in a sense, but there is nothing stopping me from just going to Broken Tour Redoubt and just taking out the Briarheart on my own without even bothering with Dibella's quest. I'm eager to hear any justifications people can come up with to do Mara and Dibella quests. It's a matter of Roleplay versus Gameplay. Now the quest in Ansilvuld, the place with the Ghostblade? That's one she would definitely do because there IS a Necromancer involved. It also really justifies Blood on the Ice, why not stop Calixto and then take the amulet and corrupt its usage to eliminate necromancy.
I lied, I do plan to weakly enchant some gear, either a sword or axe with some shock damage or turn undead. Reviewing my notes brought that up.The Saints and Seducers CC has Dark Seducer and Golden Saints weapons that are rather nice and I've obtained them as early as level 3 on Expert with some creative kiting and running and patient gameplay (those guys are no joke!). The Saints sword is particularly lovely and looks a lot like the blades the Aurorans carry in ESO. On the other hand, the glass axe has a very similar shape to the weapons wielded by the Aurorans in KoTN, so some playtests perked blades (the last one) and some perked axes (the first two). I'm kinda drawn to axes again, just because I used blades in my last build and bleed damage is pointless, but still very fun and can give her just a little more edge in combat, especially when her magicka well runs dry. The only problem is that there are no bound one-handed axes, only the bound sword, so, I had a wee dilemma, though it's easily solved with mods. I solved it partially by perking axes and relying on the bound weapon perks and the standard one-handed perks to give the bound sword the edge it needed. And perking axes lets the actualy physical axe shine since it'll be no higher than glass in quality wheras the bound weapon is Daedric and already has an advantage. I can also opt to perk both, nothing really stopping me. She's not a particularly high level build since I abandoned perking armor.
Why don't you just use silver weapons, Lis? I know, I know, because the Auroran just doesn't.
Would be cool to see double champions of meridia, if that somehow could work or come out as a support caster with Serana tanking. def digging the whole Champion of Meridia.
It's a valid point and thanks for stopping by. The problem is that this build recreates a specific Daedra from another game, where they are spell-casting tanks of doom (pretty nasty enemies too, Umaril was well-guarded), so support doesn't immediately pop to mind. Spell Knight gear would definitely make her more tanky and with its purple and gold accents, actually doesn't look half bad. She wore it a little in one of the playthroughs.
Awwwww YISSSS gimme dat golden armored, shock slinging deliciousness.
Actually her armor is black and gold. Opted for the Ebony Spell Knight and the quest actually is something she would do from an RP perspective, so I am glad at that. I cleansed the heart, because angry ghosts are bad and the evil hag ravens made him evil by sticking a briar heart in him.
Looking great so far Lis. Didn't know Sheo and Azura helped make the Auroranz
Yes, they are part of their line up, so I can see myself doing some stuff for Sheo, but since Azura and Meridia are not exactly friendly, I will probably corrupt the star to prove my loyalty to my Lady of Light.
I see much potential here. Loving your take on Aurorans.
I'm flattered, Curse, thanks. I am not happy with a lot of things still, but it'll hopefully get there by Oct. 31st. The Fallout 76 weekend is done, so I'm actually taking a break from that game to finish this up.
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