The Redoran Ronin
(WIP, currently doing a playthrough and wanted to post my thoughts as I go)
"The Natural World is a great teacher, and I am its student. I have learned the art of warfare from the fierce sands of the great Alik'r. I have cultivated my mind in the deep swamplands of the Black Marsh. And now the divine’s have sent my soul to be forged in the icy crucible of Skyrim’s Snow-capped peaks. I can hear destiny's call, and I will answer."
Character Snapshot
Race: Dark Elf
Class: Warrior
Standing Stone: Atronach
Stat Spread: 0:1:1
Major Skills: One-handed, Light Armor,
Minor Skills: Alchemy, Smithing, Sneak
Motivation: To achieve harmony of Body, Mind, and Spirit.
Faction Allegiances: Companions, College of Winterhold, Bards College, Raven Rock, Dawnguard, Imperial Legion.
Backstory
Roleplay
Mastery of Body
Questlines: Civil War (Legion), Companions (Cured lycanthropy)
Both the Civil war and Companions questlines are low-priority, but pure warrior aligned characters shine here. Both feature almost entirely Human enemies to fight, and we get to witness all the fabulous dual-wield kill cams at every-turn.
Mastery of Spirit
Questlines: Main Quest (for Greybeard’s training, and meditation with Paarthurnax), Side-quests from the Temples of the Divine’s: Book of Love, The Blessings of Nature.
Mastery of Mind
Questlines: College of Winterhold, Bard’s College.
One of my favorite side-characters in fantasy is Master Elodin, from the Name of the Wind. If you’ve read this book, you’ll remember the enigmatic “master namer” and his strange antics and pedagogy. This cryptic professor was respected for his unique and specific skills, but never fit in with the rest of the faculty. We imagine a non-mage dragonborn can fill a similar role for the college of winterhold as the school's only master alchemist, and master of the voice. Both of which are forms of magic. We know from Mirabelles opening dialogue that the archmage doesn’t run the affairs of the college, so the role of master wizard falls in the capable hands of Tolfdir. As Archmage, you come and go as you please, occasionally bringing apprentices along for in-field experience. Perhaps Savos Aren was the school's alchemist, that would make sense considering how much of his quarters are devoted to the alchemy garden as the centerpiece.
Gear
His primary weapons will be two un-enchanted blades swords. However, he can and should collect the unique katana's of the world as a small side-quest. Bolar's Oathblade, Dragonbane, Harkon's Sword, and Goldbrand.
The Gauldur Amulet is the most important piece. Three parts, one for body, one for mind, and one for spirit. Gauldur judges his soul in perfect balance and grants him the amulet.
Redoran Watchman's Helmet. The only piece of creation club content needed, but it is essential to the aesthetic!
Fur Armor. The waist-armor variant that still includes the shoulder shawl. This is done to showcase the gauldur amulet (like the loading screen orc), but we still want the cape to tie-in the
Leather boots//Hide Bracers. These both feature similar metalic studs to bind the leather, and they look great together. Fortunately, you can check around vendors for enchanted variants. Even base stats for health and stamina on both make a big difference.
Ring - Whatever you feel is lacking. Fortify one-handed is best in slot, but I used a ring of health for the entire playthrough. Dual-wield attacks are plenty strong once you reach lvl 70 in one-handed.
Perk spread
Special Moves
- Ash Barrier: Fortify Magicka Potion+Ironflesh+Bones of Earth. The Redoran Ronin uses his knowledge of Alchemy to create a defensive layer of hardened ash around him. By using an alteration spell that requires a fortify magicka potion first, it's easier to roleplay it as power gained from Alchemy rather than Alteration.
- Wrath of the Redoran: Dragon Aspect, Ancestor’s Wrath, Elemental Fury
Thoughts
This is my first new build after playing Elden Ring… and dual Katana’s while wearing the Ronin’s Set is a hard thing to let go of… The aesthetic of Yura’s ridiculous hat has a strange appeal.
This is the first of a few planned “alternate universe” builds. It’s a reimagined version of “The Redoran Swordmaster” from our youtube channel.
Creation Club content is used only for the Redoran Watchman’s Hat from “Ghosts of the Tribunal.” It’s really only used for the wide-brimmed, alien-looking hat aesthetic, but you could always just use something like the Morag Tong helmet if you don’t have any CC.
Replies
Hey ! I really like the concept of this character, a One-Handed version of your most popular build could make a great unique character. I have a few ideas for this guy than i would like to share to you.
Firstly, imagine if this build was, instead of an alternative version of him, was the disapointing protégé of The Redoran Swordmaster and than shortly after their seperation. He leave High Rock at his turn in hope to find him and reconcile with him. He travel for a while with The Aetherial Pilgrim who teach him a few things he know about magic. This explain why the Ronin would have more skills in magic than his former master. They seperate near the border of Skyrim and the Ronin find himself in an ambush of The Imperial Legion and is send to Helgen to be executed.
So this character would be a breton instead of a dunmer.
The roleplay for this character could be a quest to redeem himself when he realize how stupid he was back in High Rock. He was a young and foolish young man born with a silver spoon in his mouth who was never abble to understand the pain and suffering of peoples born in lower classes of society. And now than his master, the closest thing he ever had to a father figure his gone, and began to feel grief for the pain he caused him and try to redeem himself by following his philosophy.
I imagine the relationship between these two could be something similar between Saburo and his father in the movie Ran by Akira Kurosawa, exepect here, it’s the son who his morally wrong.
His journey to Skyrim turn out to be a true redpill for him. War, death, racism, poverty... He now had to experience the harsh reality of these things he only knew from romantic novels and he wan't to make everything in his power to help the defensless. He will join the Legion to make Skyrim a more welcoming place for strangers, fulfiling his destiny as dragonborn by slayind Alduin and Miraak and protect Skyrim from vampires by joining the Dawnguard.
About his gameplay, i have an idea about a playstyle which would reflect his experience with his master and having his own vibe. While the Redoran Swordmaster is all about carefull positioning and outsmarting your ennemies by exploting their weakness. The Ronin would be about taking down your ennemies quickly and with style. For this he could use the Spectre’s Strike move from The Imperial Spectre (Silent Rool + Critical Charge), the shout Slow time and a special poison of Slow and Ravage Stamina (Deathbell + Salt Pile + Bone Meal). This would certainly provide a unique playstyle which would reflect the personality of this character. He would conserve the battles ethics of The Redoran Swordmaster but would rather be a chaotic good character.
For his skills, since the build is inspired by Elden Ring, it would make sense to prioritize agility for this character, this would not be a very tanky character and so he would have to avoid the attacks of his ennemies. These are the skills i see fitting for this character. With this perk spread, the character would be abble to have the skills of his master with a sword and more magic skills to have a unique gameplay. Destruction is use for the Whirlwind cloack spell, Alteration for Paraylyse and Ebonyflesh, Smithing to improve the swords and the pieces of light armor on the character Sneak is juste for Silent Rool and Shadow Warrior aswell as occassional stealth kills.
A ratio of 1;1;1 and Atronach for the Stone
For the gear, the Ronin should wield a normal Blade sword in his right hand and switch between Dragonsbane and Bolar’s Oathblade in his left hand depending of the situation.
For the gear i think Diadem of the Savant, Expert Robe of Alteration, Dawguard Light Gantlets and Predator’s Grace fit this character and help making him fonctional.
For his specials moves, i have a few ideas :
1 – Swords Dance
Whirlwind Cloack + Slow Time + Poison of Slow and Ravage Stamina
The Redoran Ronin move with the speed of a tornado taking down hundred of ennemies with style.
2 – Dragon Storm
Storm Call + Dragonskin + Bones of Earth
This is a defensive move the Ronin learn during his time with the Aetherial Pilgrim and is very usefull to take down dragons since this character doesn’t have any weapons or tools to hit ennemies at distance.
EDIT:
I think it would be better to remove a perk in Bladesman to take both perks in Dual Flurry instead.
Wow thank you for taking the time to write all of that! I would totally do the backstory, but the disapointing pupil of the swordmaster is actually a planned build for season 5 (one day). I love the special moves!