Warning! This build is modded and relies on Zaric Zhakaron's common foundation. This build will use mods that may not be available on every platform. Tested on Legendary Difficulty with Revenge of the Enemies, High Level Enemies, and Organized Bandits in Skyrim, so your experience may vary wildly. Like my other builds, this build buys into the power fantasy of Skyrim. If you don't like that, go play an Older Elder Scrolls game, or some other RPG.
The Grace-fallen Paladin
Name: Alessia Cosades
Race: Imperial (with Imperious)
Gender: Female
Class: Paladin
Personality and Roleplay: She is a seasoned knight. Like her ancestors before her, she has struggled with an addiction to Skooma and Moon Sugar. She is loyal to the Empire, and will initially join the Legion, and after her initiation, she will do the main quest. She will start out in Redwater Den to buy Skooma. Filling up the Museum in Solitude will be a major goal, as she wants to be remembered as the Dragonborn. Her end game weapons will be the Sword and Bow of Ancient Tongues, and the Shield of Reman Cyrodiil. All of her gear will be smithed up to legendary, and she will also acquire the Amulet of Kings as soon as possible. She will join the companions but reject the beast's blood. She sees the Daedra as tools to acquire power, but would never taint herself with a foul, Daedric curse like Lycanthropy or Vampirism. Other than that, all daedric quests are on the table, and any with different choices, it is up to you which reward to pick when you get to choose. She will do the main quest up until Season Unending, where she will take a break to fetch the Jagged Crown. She will think of her place in the world, and decide to defect to the Stormcloaks and become Empress of Tamriel someday, to sit upon the Ruby Throne. Being Dragonborn, she has a birthright to it anyway. No factions are off the table, with the exception of Clan Volkihar. She will join the Dawnguard to fight the Vampires and spread her name and fame. She will free Solstheim from the clutches of Miraak for the same reason. She will join the Vigilants of Stendarr in the Vigilant Mod, going for the bittersweet ending (see the guide) and having good Karma. She will join the thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood to be well connected, and become the leader of both, to keep them under her thumb once she's in charge of Tamriel. She sees them as a means to an end. She is ruthless in the pursuit of her destiny. Her goals are to lead the Empire to destroy the Thalmor once she's queen. The last quest she will do is the assassination of Titus Mede. After which, she will have already learned bend will, and won Skyrim for herself. She will then return home to the Imperial City, wait for the Elder Council to meet, then bend them to her will with the Thu'um, to force them to declare her, Empress of Tamriel. Of course, that will be her fate, but you can't do that yourself, even with mods.
Backstory: Born in the Waterfront District in the Imperial City, not because she lived there, but because her parents were trying to make it home for her mother to give birth, but didn't quite make it. They had to stop their cart and a less well off friend of the family let Alessia's mother give birth in his home. Alessia's mother was a woman of little standing, a remenant of the Alessian Order and a member of the College of Whispers. Her father was a Legionare, who worshipped all the Imperial Gods, including Saint Alessia, Reman Ebonarm, Morihaus, Shezzar, Talos, and the Eight Divines. He was a legate and a proud, doting father. From a young age, Alessia showed interest in religious life, but always wanted more than just a preisthood. No. She had her sights on the pinnacle of religious life in Cyrodiil. She dreamed of joining the Knights of the Nine. Her distant ancestor, Caius Cosades was Grand Spymaster of the Blades during the time of the Nerevarine, in other words, head of reconosence opperations for the Blades. Tales of the Nerevarine were passed down her family line for generations, and in Caius' journal so she dreamed of being a hero. Skooma problems ran in the family. And soon after she became an apprentice in the Knights of the Nine, she had fallen into the trap her family had fallen into for generations. She kept her problem a secret, and did so flawlessly for years, until she was 15. She had already receieved her magical training, and been sent on missions as an aide to more experienced knights. She was shown forgiveness, and with help, overcame her addiction. Later that year, was the Battle of the Red Ring, the battle for the Imperial City during the Great War. Her father fell in battle, and her mage mother barely survived. She helped defend city tooth and nail, until she was struck with a fear spell that trapped her in a nightmarish hallucination by a thalmor soldier, who had conrered her. He didn't have the heart to kill the girl, but he didn't want her to be in the fight, and so whilst under the sway of a mage, she ran, ran as fast as she could and hid in a well. She was expelled immediatley after the battle, and she was crushed by shame and guilt. She fell back into her addiction, and was hooked even harder than before. For 20 years, she did whatever work she could, doing literally anything for money. She would sell her sword by day and sell her body by night, all to feed her addiction. This caused her gods to abandon her. From there on out, she worshipped Hermaus Mora, Sanguine, and Azura, who welcomed her worship and her flawed self with open arms. On multi-day mercenary contracts, she'd camp out in caves and ruins to save money. She would only stay in inns or cities if she was sleeping with someone. During this time, she became an alcoholic as well. She eventually got a job to kill someone from a wealthy lord and met Inigo, a Khajiit. They were sent to kill an enemy of the arrogant noble. Inigo too was a Skooma addict trying to pay for his addiction. They had spent the nights on the road together under the same covers. Inigo was pulled aside after they were hired and told that if Alessia died, he would get her part of the reward as well. Desperate to end his withdraw symptomel, he fired an arrow at Alessia's head, guaging out her left eye. Eventually, she would stumble across him again in Riften and enlist him to help her in her travels. Anyway, after barely surviving the arrow to the face and chugging a high grade healing potion to stop the bleeding and ease the pain. She made her way home to see her mother. After being cast out of the Knights of the Nine, which were subsequently restructured into the Knights of the Eight, she had avoided going to see her mother out of shame. But she had received bad news from a courier. She hadn't been home in decades. Why was she returning home now of all times? She still could find work, she could still support herself by doing what she had been doing for the past twenty years. Well you see, her mother was dying of the Plague. On a recent visit to the Adamantine Tower in High Rock and a tour of the Illiac Bay, she contracted the disease from a diseased spriggan. She returned home to die in peace. When Alessia got to her family home in the Elven Garden District, her mother was bedridden. Her mother wouldn't let her come close due to the contageousness of the Blight. She told her daughter that she was being leaft everything. The House, the magical texts, her grandfather's Akaviri Armor and sword he was given for his service to the Blades, and a few hundred septims. She stayed home for a few more days, before her mother died. She took everything she needed, sold the house, and decided to leave Cyrodiil. There wasn't anything for her here anyway. She decided to head north, to Skyrim. She took a boat to Solitude and arrived at the docks. And the first thing she did was try and find a Skooma Dealer, as she sold her supply to a Khajiit Merchant at the Imperial City Docks so that she could pass customs. This led her to Redwater Den, where she will begin her adventure under the Live Another Life mod and it's New Beginnings extension.
Replies
Hi,
It’s an interesting build you’ve got here Tekassassin, but it’s lacking a bit. One such example is the presentation, there’s nothing really to break up the massive walls of text, which also rings me to my next point.
The massive walls of text, it’s large, bulky and hard to keep track of and not read. Honestly I couldn’t make sense of the backstory for this very reason. I haven’t even touched the personality section due to time constraints but I will later today.
I don’t have much time right now so I can’t fullt delve in and point out any suggestions but check out these links as well as other builds on the Forge - that and perhaps try shortening the Build Name, it’s a fairly big mouthful.
https://theskyforge.ning.com/groups/tes-character-building/forum/gu...
https://theskyforge.ning.com/discussion-forums/character-build-turn...
https://theskyforge.ning.com/discussion-forums/character-build-turn...
I will put screenshots in the final version.
Hey Tekassassin.
To echo what Lee has said, I feel presentation is where you’re hurting the most. The end goal of posting a build is for others to play it. With that said, the build has to be presented in a way that’s easy for others to read. Buried beneath 30+ lines of text is a potentially great backstory.
I know you’ve yet to include a gameplay section but here are some helpful tips when you do:
Be sure to thoroughly but concisely explain what mods you’re using and how they work together. The best approach when writing modded builds is to Always assume your reader has as only played the vanilla game.
Try not to have your character do too much. With mods builds comes the temptation to pump the character with loads of spells/skills/perks etc. ideally you want your reader to have a solid idea of what your build does in combat on their first read through.
Keep your build focused. A build with dozens of unique synergies and tactics will make that difficult. It’s better to have a build that’s good at just one or two things thbkbe that’s good at dozens of things.
Hopefully this helps and if you have any questions feel free to ask.