"When the shield-wife Bagrar first fought in battle, she wielded a two-handed mattock too large for her small frame. Shamed in battle, Bagrar took up the sword and shield. She blushed at being forced to wield smaller weapons, and other warriors, seeing her embarrassment, mocked her.
With a lighter weapon in hand, Bagrar became a fury on the battlefield. Her sword struck several times before her opponents could counter once, and her shield became impenetrable. She earned the title of Troll-Slayer.
Bagrar thanked Malacath for her prowess and dedicated herself, becoming the defender of the faith during the Balagog blood purge, and her shield became known as the Agra Crun—the blood shield."
Doing some work on formatting and testing the art. Nothing is finished. Spoiling the surprise somewhat, but meh, I'd rather the formatting look good. It's my submission for the Crossworlds Event and if you love the 80s, Sword and Sorcery, and the worlds of Robert E. Howerd and the Elder Scrolls, then this build is for you! Happily watch as Zula's foes bleed to death as they run away in terror, burning in flames. :D
Notes: (I need to shift this around, but I need to get my brain going)
Mods and CC content: The only mod I would really recommend is something that maybe brings down Arcane smithing to something lower than 60, so you can have more fun playing! Otherwise, you can totally play this on Vanilla and definitely play this with an unpatched game! Mundus and Morrowloot Ultimate are also nice, but there are nice standing stones in Vanilla and you can find chaos damage in Solstheim. I used some CC content, but mostly the new Arcane spell pack for Elemental flare and bolt. Also Myrwatch has an unenchanted staff that you can swipe if you can kill the Charus to get in. You can play very well with fire magic and then just get Ignite later and you can certainly play with a shield in the beginning while you wait to get to solstheim where Neloth has unenchanted staves. So you can find everything in the game to do what you need to do, but having some mods or CC content does make getting it at early levels easier.
Mundus (PC & Xbox users, do Warrior and Lord), Mundus for PS4 (do Lady + Atronach). I don't know why Simon hasn't changed them on ps4 yet. But what is most important is magic resistance and the block boost, so whatever two stones give you that. Vanilla standing stones (Lord and Lady if playing on Survival, Lord and Atronach if not)
Arcane Sorcery, Myrwatch, Wild Horses (need to add to this list)
Race: Orsimer. Sex doesn't matter, but if you think Grace Jones is amazing, go female. She was my first impression of the character before I read Howard's comics and honestly, it's her impression that I've stayed with. And Berserker for the win!
Difficulty: Tested on Adept and Expert (her AR stinks, you need to be extremely careful with Deathlords on Expert, they can two-shot me if I'm not careful)
Dragonborn: If you want. I always do it to get dragons in the sky and I can see the character coming out of their shadow under Conan to achieve their own glory. Becoming Dragonborn and achieving a semblance of civic responsibility also mirrors Zula's arc in Conan the Destroyer.
Skills: Block (right branch of tree), One-handed (damage and axes branch), Destruction (novice-apprentice and augmented perks and yeah the one that makes them run), Restoration (novice and regeneration), Sneak (stealth to left side of tree up do light foot because adventurers are not stupid people), Enchanting (charging weapons), Smithing (solving the riddle of steel and arcane, possibly Orcish instead), possibly Illusion (for aspect of terror, but I need to do more research on it see if it effects the fire damage done from bashing).
Gear: Early game, Armor of the Old Gods (the biggest challenge doing the Forsworn quest at Expert was Nepos' house, he has a nasty magic wielding maid), Diadem of the Savant (counts as light armor in an unpatched game), boots of the old Gods, Gauntlets of the Old gods. Mid to Late game, Aetherial crown or Otar the Mad, Armor and Boots of the Old Gods, Gauntlets of your choice, The Gaulder Amulet, Ring of Ahzidal (because magic rings are so Conan!).
Weapons: War axe paired with an unenchanted staff of your choosing. I thought the destruction staff reminded me a bit of the Thulsa Doom's cult in the original Conan, but the unenchanted Alteration staff is also very attractive.
Combat: There are no spears or combat staves in the game. You can mod one in, but I really wanted the challenge of trying to recreate some of the combat without relying on mods. So I opted for an unenchanted staff paired with a one-handed weapon. Once Avi pointed me towards some ESO lore about the Orcs of Fharun stronghold and the legend of Agra Crun, then I knew that an axe had to be the one-handed weapon. Bleed damage isn't all that great, but there are some great quirks that come out when you pair it with a unenchanted staff. When you bash with an unenchanted staff and a weapon, sometimes the bash takes the damage of the weapon. This actually happens a lot. In addition, if your weapon bears and enchantment, hehehe, the bash will bring that too. I chose chaos damage because Morrowloot ultimate gives a Skyforge Steel Axe with Chaos damage as your gift for killing the first dragon. I don't think I've changed the weapon since. Granted, the best axe for bleed damage is the Orcish war axe and it is feasible to put chaos damage onto an improved Orcish axe. Back to my point. Hehe, bleed damage from war axes kicks in when you bash with an unenchanted staff too, so it's like having a Targe of the Blooded that also can do fire/frost/shock damage too. All perks on the right side of the tree work, giving the build a fun feel and the feeling of using a staff as a weapon. But there is also the option of destruction magic. My goal was to always keep the axe steadily in the right hand, while only switching off the left, keeping the options very easy to access and switch out. In addition, because the unenchanted staff shows up as equipped, you look like a total badass when riding a horse and fighting on horseback.
Quests: Mainquest, side quests, Daedric quests, any quests that involve obtaining an object or a special weapon, preferable starting with a "THE" because it sounds like a comic book. Also, if you stumble upon them, ALL. THE. BETTER.
I will be tying in the lore a better. I'll be borrowing from the Legend of Agra Grun, the Fharun stronghold from Orsinium and using that to Skyrimize the Character of Zula from Robert Howard's Conan comics. In the movie Conan the Destroyer, she's playe by Grace Jones and is a staff/spear wielding horseback warrior who's a little crazy. In the comics HE's a sorcerer. I will be mashing the two as this allows for the best Skyrimization.
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