The Sload are one of those races that seem to have had a large impact on the history of Tamriel, yet there is little actually known about them. They have always intrigued me, so when I saw the exotic races contest there was really no other choice. So if you want to be a big fat wizard slug-toad then read on.
***Disclaimer: While there is quite a bit of lore on this race most of it is very vague and none of it is actually from the sload’s point of view, except for the dialog from N’Gasta in Redguard. So much of this presentation may not be entirely lore friendly as I used my own imagination to fill in some of the gaps. ***
West of Somersett there is a vast coral reef that has grown out of the sea forming the archipelago called Thras, also known as the Coral Kingdom. This archipelago is inhabited by one of the most reviled races on Nirn, the sload. They are a large corpulent and amphibious race that strongly resemble “slug-toads” hence the derogatory name that they are known by. What they call themselves is unknown but they seem unconcerned with what other races think of them and are unperturbed by this moniker, going so far as to refer to themselves as sload or worm when dealing with other races.
The sload are well known as accomplished wizards specializing in necromancy and teleportation. They place great value on intelligence and careful planning. Sload are a slow to act race preferring to weigh every option and possible outcome before committing to any course of action. This is reflected in the popular fables of their society. In which the villain acts on impulse, instinct, or with urgency while the hero is methodical and calculated. In fact in the gurgling language of the sload there is no word for adventure the closest approximation being “tragic disaster”. Don’t be mistaken, this does not belie a slow mind, in fact they are more than capable of making quick decisions they simply choose not to act upon them, perhaps realizing that most problems are short lived. This may be due to their extremely long life cycle, for sload measure their lives in centuries and barely notice the passing of years.
The life cycle of these strange creatures is a fascinating process. Sload start their lives as tiny grubs. They are non-sentient creatures at this point with the barest hint of a nervous system. They eventually mature into vaguely octopus looking creatures called polwygles. Polwygles are pale off-white creatures with five tentacles and no skeletal structure whatsoever. At this point the juvenile sload will begin to venture out of the brackish lagoons of Thras, into the open ocean.
Eventually they will mature and instinctively make the journey home to Thras. On this journey the octopus looking creature undertakes a dramatic metamorphosis. The five tentacles begin to change shape while the body elongates and an endoskeleton begins to form. By the time the creature arrives in the lagoon where it was born it no longer resembles a polwygle but instead looks more akin to an adult sload, albeit a very lean one (the corpulence they are known for comes with advanced age). At this point they will possess the pale and scaly skin of an adult. The tentacles will have become the sloads arms, legs, and tail. They also possess a set of bright red external gills that spike out of either side of the jaw. The gills, hands, and feet will eventually be subsumed by the corpulent rolls and jowls as the sload ages, for now they look much like argonians but for the toad like head and protruding gills. Young adult sload are extremely rare as this is a relatively brief period in their long lives. Most stay in Thras growing into the obese creatures we are more accustomed to. However, a few rare individuals, maybe one every millennia, will be possessed of a very uncharacteristic trait, wanderlust, and will instead strike out after only a few short years in the Coral Kingdom. These individuals are known as “Grave-Worms” for surely they will find nothing else in their travels but an early grave.
Race: To best represent the Sload race I chose to be an Argonian Vampire. They already share physical characteristics like tails and scaly skin, and the ability to breath under water was perfectly suited to the Sload.
A note on appearance: To best simulate the Sload appearance choose the maximum weight option and choose to be male, sload have no gender bi-morphism. Go with a pale skin tone and set the face sliders to their widest and shallowest settings. No horns or feathers. Select red war paint for the jaw horns to create the illusion of external gills. Combined with vampirism this creates a very un-argonian appearance.
Stone: The Atronach stone coupled with the Atronach perk will mitigate our fire weakness while making us practically immune to all forms of magic. Load the Aetherial Crown with the Ritual stone for some necromantic mayhem, this will allow unlimited castings of this normally once a day power.
Skills: Alteration, Conjuration, Enchanting, Restoration
Stat Placement: M:2 H:1 S:0 until you have 300 magicka then reverse the ratio. Sload aren’t just capable magic users they are also large and resilient creatures.
Weapons: The Sload are “hands off” when it comes to physical confrontations. Instead they rely on their zombie thralls in combat. The Grave-Worm supports his thralls through tactical use of poison rune, ash rune, and paralyze/Staff of Paralysis.
Apparel: Temple Priest Robes are my personal favorite because of how bulky they are. It’s the closest I could get to a “fat” character. I enchanted the hood with fortify magicka and the boots with resist fire (for those rare occasions when magic absorb doesn’t trigger). Alternatively the Mythic Dawn Robes are a good choice for an N’gasta cosplay, and the Archmage’s Robes are a powerful choice that also adds some bulk to the character, the tail clipping just annoys me.
Gear: Aetherial Crown, Ring of the Erudite, Necromancer’s Amulet, Azidhal’s Ring of Necromancy
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint
Alteration: The sload are known to be powerful magic users with a severe disdain for physical confrontation. However, Skyrim is a dangerous place and sometimes conflict is unavoidable. This skill provides much needed defense in the early game through flesh and detection spells, and some very sload like offence in the late game when you gain access to the paralysis spell.
Conjuration: Necromancy is the norm in Thras; in fact it’s encouraged and forms the backbone of that society relying heavily on undead servants to perform most if not all of the menial tasks necessary to run a country. Sload are skilled necromancers and this one is no different. Note that the Dark Souls perk interferes with one of the special techniques listed below, so be aware of the trade off before you select this perk.
Enchanting: Enchanting is the most laborious job that a sload willingly takes on, that is until someone learns how to get zombies to follow the complex procedures to create useful enchantments. In the meantime it falls upon the Grave-Worm to make sure his thralls are equipped with the strongest magical weapons and armor.
Restoration: The sload is a support character and will spend most of his time behind a meat shield reknitting the flesh as fast as the enemy can rend it. Furthermore the Necromage perk combined with vampirism will push the limits of this builds abilities to new heights by increasing the benefit you gain from all your enchanted gear by 25%.
I chose to stay true to the sloadian heritage of magecraft with a focus on necromancy. The goal of the Grave-Worm is to create the best undead servants possible. You will collect a menagerie of dead thralls each suited to certain tasks. Before going on any quest or delving into any cave the Sload carefully plans out his course of action, selecting the most appropriate
thralls from his collection and bringing along the most complimentary follower. Once these choices have been made the sload will equip his thralls with appropriately enchanted weapons and make sure that his follower is equipped with arms and armor suited to the task at hand. Of course all this assumes you know the master level spell Dead Thrall. For the purposes of this build I grinded Conjuration and Restoration to 90 and 70. This facilitates your role as a “Grave-Worm” hailing from the Coral Kingdoms who has traveled to Skyrim to study the return of dragons and the ancient dragon cult that was steeped in necromancy much like your own people.
In order to get the most out of this build you’ll need to get the Dead Thrall spell as soon as possible. To that end I’ve posted my method of speed leveling Conjuration to 90 and Restoration to 70 (for access to the Dead Thrall spell and the Necromage perk respectively) over in the tips and tricks group, a method I call the NecroGrind. If you follow this approach however you won’t have enough magicka to cast Dead Thrall. You should only have 240 magicka at this point, a novice hood and The Necromancer’s Amulet will increase that to 320. However, Dead Thrall will cost 465 with the amulet. At this early stage you will need some alchemical help to be able to raise your thrall, specifically some Sload Soap, detailed below. The soap will get you to just enough magicka to raise your thrall, so choose them well.
Sload Soap:
The Sload spawn much like salmon and other fish do which is the primary reason they lack the familial bonds we are used to. In fact Sload have little to no regard for their young. One common practice is the creation of Sload Soap a valuable and highly sought after alchemical ingredient. The soap is a waxy substance created from melting down and preserving polwygles, and is said to be instrumental in some necromantic practices among the sload.
Ingredients: Salmon Roe and Jazbay Grapes.
This potent substance greatly boosts the user’s link to aetherius for a brief period of time enabling magical feats normally beyond their abilities. After the initial boost there is a lingering regenerative effect. Magicka regenerates 22% faster for 300 seconds. Magicka is increased by 215 points for 5 seconds.
Conveniently this soap can be sustainably produced at Windstad Manor. Use the garden for growing Jazbay Grapes and the hatchery for breeding salmon. The trick is to kill the salmon with an Unrelenting Force shout (one word is enough) the collected salmon will now produce a sample of Salmon Roe, normally a very rare ingredient, letting you create tons of Sload Soap.
In the early part of the play-thru you will grab whatever corpse you can find. Mostly this will consist of bandit chiefs or similar heavy armored warriors who will make effective meat shields while you delve into dungeons in search of lost lore and magical artifacts. Eventually however you will want thralls tailored to specific jobs. For example a fire mage is amazingly useful when razing a coven of vampires but is practically useless in the ash wastes of Solsthiem. It pays to be prepared and no Sload worth his blubber is going to make a move before all the cards are stacked in his favor. However, collecting thralls and keeping them on hand can be tricky as corpses are not permanent and can disappear, even if left in a player house. To remedy this simply place a permanent item on the corpse this will keep it from disappearing. Below I’ve listed some permanent items that you can obtain to preserve your favorite zombies.
Letter from a Friend/Museum Pamphlet/Declaration of War – These are all notes that if left in a corpses inventory will make it permanent.
Ebony Blade/Zephyr – These are two phenomenal weapons that the Sload would never personally use but can make even mediocre thralls into killing machines, and as a bonus they will make that thrall permanent.
Below I’ve listed my favorite thralls for this build along with how I prefer to equip them. Together these two will destroy most enemies keeping their sload master very safe. Once you have these two characters following you around you’ll be assuming the role of healer, making sure that your thralls stay in top fighting condition.
Chief Yamarz: Despite his very low level cap (20) the Chief has the most health of any comparable thrall target in the game, over 1000! Complete the requisite quest for the Cursed Tribe and after slaying Yamarz you can reanimate him as the meatiest meat shield in Skyrim. Also he comes equipped with a full suit of orcish armor. Below are the enchantments that I equip him with.
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Head: No beneficial enchantments are available for Yamarz.
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Chest: Fortify Heavy Armor, once you get Extra Effect add Fortify Health.
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Hands: Fortify Heavy Armor.
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Feet: Resist Element my choice was fire.
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Weapon: Fully charged Ebony Blade.
These enchantments build upon Yamarz’s already substantial resilience. The Ebony Blade is the perfect weapon despite the chief’s lack of a two-handed skill. The weapon will make his corpse permanent, keep his health full, and doesn’t require you to recharge it. All in all with this setup Yamarz will become an unstoppable juggernaut of death.
Orchendor: This guy is awesome period, if you haven’t thralled this guy yet go get him. He is a powerful destruction mage using all of the elements, he readily heals himself letting you focus on keeping your other thrall intact, he has the afflicted’s vomit attack, and he teleports! If all that wasn’t enough he is also immune to magic! He also spawns with hand and feet armor, which is unique since most mages are only equipped with boots. Below are the enchantments that I equip him with.
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Head: Orchendor doesn’t wear any head armor or clothing.
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Chest: Comes pre-enchanted.
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Hands: Fortify Magicka, once you get Extra Effect add a fortify armor enchantment.
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Feet: Resist Element my choice was fire.
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Weapon: Absorb Magicka
Magicka all the way, the reason you take a mage is for their spells so it only makes sense to keep them casting as long as possible. To that end the best weapon enchantment is definitely Absorb Magicka. Orchendor only switches to melee when he runs out of magicka to cast spells, a weapon that siphons off the enemies blue stuff will get him casting again in no time. His chest will always be pre enchanted, for me that was always fortify magicka regen.
For more thrall ideas check my post in the Tips and Tricks Group Necronomicon Vol. 5: Grave Digging.
The other magical discipline that sload are known for is teleportation. Skyrim lacks specific teleportation spells but does contain some analogous abilities that can mimic this group of spells. Initially, and the most obvious form of teleportation magic in Skyrim, is the Whirlwind Sprint shout. The Sload character should obtain the first word of this shout early in a play-thru and use it liberally. My favorite tactic with this shout is to run ahead of my little party and agro the enemy then use this shout to teleport back behind my followers. The other occurrence of this magic in Skyrim is also one of the most obvious and most powerful forms of teleportation, Fast Travel. I like to justify game mechanics as much as feasible when I’m playing a game as immersive as Skyrim and Fast Travel is one of those mechanics that while necessary is also very immersion breaking. Instead I’ve formed it into a type of magical ability that can be unlocked (kind of like the first Dark Souls if you ever played it).
Teleportation falls under the Alteration school of magic, being in essence an extension of the telekinesis spell. I saw each word of Whirlwind Sprint as a new spell that improved upon the previous version much like Stoneflesh replaces Oakflesh; Wuld-Nah replaces Wuld as you progress down this particular discipline. The final teleportation spell is the ability to Fast Travel. To facilitate a progression system in teleportation I made the following assumptions in my play-thru.
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Wuld is a Novice level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport a short distance about 50 feet. (No requirements it can be used as soon as it’s obtained.)
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Wuld-Nah is an Apprentice level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport a little further about 75 feet. (Requires an Alteration skill of 25 before it can be used.)
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Wuld-Nah-Kest is an Adept level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport a significant distance about 100 feet. (Requires an Alteration skill of 50 before it can be used.)
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Fast Travel is an Expert level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport to any previously visited location via a magical anchor. (Requires an Alteration skill of 75 and must have learned Wuld-Nah-Kest before it can be used.)
Tying these abilities to the Alteration skill tree the Sload cannot use a spell until the previous spell has been learned. This means that Wuld-Nah requires an Alteration skill of 25 before you can use it and Wuld-Nah-Kest requires a skill of 50. This means that Fast Travel can only be used once you have learned all three words of the Whirlwind Sprint shout and have an Alteration skill of 75. Finally, following this guideline makes attaining Fast Travel its very own questline.
The Grave-Worm, while appearing reckless to his own kind, is still the epitome of caution when compared to the shorter lived races. He approaches each confrontation with clinical analysis, weighing every choice before acting. To facilitate this we will make liberal use of Detect Life/Dead spells before every encounter. Then approach the hostile party and cast a flesh spell to alert the enemy and pull them toward our undead thralls and follower. When the enemy gets close the Sload uses Whirlwind Sprint to teleport behind his line of followers. From this position of relative safety the Sload maintains a steady stream of restorative necromancy keeping his zombies in top fighting condition for the duration of the battle.
The two offensive spells the Sload makes regular use of are Poison Rune and Paralyze. The Poison Rune spell has great synergy with our undead thralls since they are immune to poison. The Sload is able to cast this spell right into the midst of the fighting without worry of harming his own thralls. Paralyze is used to remove a target from battle and allows the caster to apply several Poison Runes to great effect. The paralyzed target is also easy pickings for your thralls.
Petrifaction: Ash Shell and a living follower. Casting Ash Shell on your follower will protect them from both attacking enemies and your own poison runes. Meanwhile the attackers will swing away at your petrified ally to no avail while your undead thralls tear the fools apart.
Petrifaction Shield: Ash Rune at your feet. One of my favorite failsafe tactics is to drop an Ash Rune and then stand in the middle of it while my thralls battle the enemy. If for some reason one of the attackers decides to come after me the ash shell will stop them, buying my thralls some time to finish their current fight before they come to my aid.
Thrassian Plague: Paralyze/Staff of Paralysis and Poison Rune. Mentioned above this ability is incredibly powerful and is a go to attack against living enemies. First paralyze the attacker then apply multiple poison runes. The runes “damage over time” effect stacks, quickly eliminating even the strongest enemies.
Walking Bomb: Ritual Stone and Azidhal’s Ring of Necromancy. Corpses reanimated while wearing this ring will detonate in an icy explosion when damaged. Particularly useful when fighting large hordes of weaker enemies in preparation of a boss fight, the weaker enemies are inconsequential as thralls but can be devastating as walking mines.
***Note that this ability is bugged. The Ring of Necromancy will not work if you take the Dark Souls Perk. It is still a fun ability for the earlier portion of the game and may cause some to forego the last two perks in Conjuration in favor of maintaining access to this special technique. ***
The sload aren’t an evil race per se, but they are certainly an alien one. Sload don’t experience emotions in the same way as other sentient races. They are however very good actors, capable of mimicking emotions in an effort to put non-sloads at ease. Sometimes this can express itself in over acting or over emphasizing an emotion. For example a sload might actually cry over spilled milk, an exaggerated response meant to show ones annoyance at needing to mop up the mess.
In reality sload are very calculating, they see everything as a resource, even other sload. They are constantly measuring the worth of everything and how it can be harnessed or spent to further their own goals. This mindset helps explain the sloads preference for necromancy. They see very little distinction between a wheat field and a cemetery; both are resources waiting to be harvested. This clinical world view even extends to the living. Sload measure everything by its possible use for personal gain.
This mentality is expressed in game by a general lack of concern for the wellbeing of others. The Grave-Worm is concerned only with his own dealings and feels little remorse if one of his allies or hirelings is slain, especially since the individual can always be reanimated to continue their service. As an example in all of my play-thru’s as this character I could never find a reason why the Grave-Worm would pursue the Civil War questline. There was just no gain for him that I could see. On the other hand the side quest Blood on the Ice is necessary for this character especially in the early game. I saw this quest not as the Grave-Worm expressing some altruism by trying to solve a murder, but instead as him recognizing the signs of ritual necromancy, something he would be very interested in learning more about. In the end the character could feasibly pursue any quest and take on any job as long as you can rationalize some personal gain or possible future gain that the Grave-Worm desires.
Recommended Quests: The recommended quests for this build are many and varied. There are quite a few quests that will need to be completed in order to obtain the recommended gear listed above such as the daedric artifacts. In accordance to the Grave-Worms particular interests any quest that revolves around necromancy or the ancient dragon cult are fair game. Below are some recommendations.
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Main Quest (Up to The Way of the Voice): Just for the first word of Whirlwind Sprint. I didn’t see this character as the Dragonborn and chose not to use any other shout besides this one. This will mark the first leg of the “Teleportation Quest”. The following two Nordic barrows should also be sought out during your play-thru Dead Men’s Respite and Volskygge.
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Dawnguard (Volkihar side): For vampirism, necromantic healing spells, and a very powerful ring. I chose to focus on the side quests. Note that Serana makes a fantastic follower considering her state of undeath and is highly recommended; just beware her rudimentary form of necromancy which could destroy a prized thrall if you’re not careful.
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College of Winterhold: You’re already going to spend a lot of time at the college, and the quests you are sent on dovetail nicely with your own wizardly pursuits and interest in the ancient dragon cult.
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Daedric Quests: The sload are known to traffic with the daedra and the Grave-Worm is no different. Many of these quests are already going to be completed for the gear listed above. However, many of the other daedric quests would interest the Grave-Worm even if the artifact will go unused.
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Dragonborn: The Grave-Worm would be hard pressed to ignore the presence of a living dragon priest. While we would be more interested in learning from Miraak, he is not interested in sharing his secrets. However, we are more than willing to broker a trade with the Lord of Secrets. I can think of few better patrons for a sload than Hermaeus Mora.
I would just like to say that this build was a joy to create from researching the sload to playtesting the character and finally designing the best looking “fat wizard toad” I could. Don’t get me wrong it was challenging to fit within the confines of the game but I hope I made it look both believable and fun. I would encourage you to go read the other contest builds, they are fantastic, and maybe even try out playing as an exotic race. Let us know if you do, and post pictures if you can, I would love to see how others craft these exotic races. This has been my interpretation of the Sload, thanks for reading.
-Vargr
The Sload are one of those races that seem to have had a large impact on the history of Tamriel, yet there is little actually known about them. They have always intrigued me, so when I saw the exotic races contest there was really no other choice. So if you want to be a big fat wizard slug-toad then read on.
***Disclaimer: While there is quite a bit of lore on this race most of it is very vague and none of it is actually from the sload’s point of view, except for the dialog from N’Gasta in Redguard. So much of this presentation may not be entirely lore friendly as I used my own imagination to fill in some of the gaps. ***
West of Somersett there is a vast coral reef that has grown out of the sea forming the archipelago called Thras, also known as the Coral Kingdom. This archipelago is inhabited by one of the most reviled races on Nirn, the sload. They are a large corpulent and amphibious race that strongly resemble “slug-toads” hence the derogatory name that they are known by. What they call themselves is unknown but they seem unconcerned with what other races think of them and are unperturbed by this moniker, going so far as to refer to themselves as sload or worm when dealing with other races.
The sload are well known as accomplished wizards specializing in necromancy and teleportation. They place great value on intelligence and careful planning. Sload are a slow to act race preferring to weigh every option and possible outcome before committing to any course of action. This is reflected in the popular fables of their society. In which the villain acts on impulse, instinct, or with urgency while the hero is methodical and calculated. In fact in the gurgling language of the sload there is no word for adventure the closest approximation being “tragic disaster”. Don’t be mistaken, this does not belie a slow mind, in fact they are more than capable of making quick decisions they simply choose not to act upon them, perhaps realizing that most problems are short lived. This may be due to their extremely long life cycle, for sload measure their lives in centuries and barely notice the passing of years.
The life cycle of these strange creatures is a fascinating process. Sload start their lives as tiny grubs. They are non-sentient creatures at this point with the barest hint of a nervous system. They eventually mature into vaguely octopus looking creatures called polwygles. Polwygles are pale off-white creatures with five tentacles and no skeletal structure whatsoever. At this point the juvenile sload will begin to venture out of the brackish lagoons of Thras, into the open ocean.
Eventually they will mature and instinctively make the journey home to Thras. On this journey the octopus looking creature undertakes a dramatic metamorphosis. The five tentacles begin to change shape while the body elongates and an endoskeleton begins to form. By the time the creature arrives in the lagoon where it was born it no longer resembles a polwygle but instead looks more akin to an adult sload, albeit a very lean one (the corpulence they are known for comes with advanced age). At this point they will possess the pale and scaly skin of an adult. The tentacles will have become the sloads arms, legs, and tail. They also possess a set of bright red external gills that spike out of either side of the jaw. The gills, hands, and feet will eventually be subsumed by the corpulent rolls and jowls as the sload ages, for now they look much like argonians but for the toad like head and protruding gills. Young adult sload are extremely rare as this is a relatively brief period in their long lives. Most stay in Thras growing into the obese creatures we are more accustomed to. However, a few rare individuals, maybe one every millennia, will be possessed of a very uncharacteristic trait, wanderlust, and will instead strike out after only a few short years in the Coral Kingdom. These individuals are known as “Grave-Worms” for surely they will find nothing else in their travels but an early grave.
Race: To best represent the Sload race I chose to be an Argonian Vampire. They already share physical characteristics like tails and scaly skin, and the ability to breath under water was perfectly suited to the Sload.
A note on appearance: To best simulate the Sload appearance choose the maximum weight option and choose to be male, sload have no gender bi-morphism. Go with a pale skin tone and set the face sliders to their widest and shallowest settings. No horns or feathers. Select red war paint for the jaw horns to create the illusion of external gills. Combined with vampirism this creates a very un-argonian appearance.
Stone: The Atronach stone coupled with the Atronach perk will mitigate our fire weakness while making us practically immune to all forms of magic. Load the Aetherial Crown with the Ritual stone for some necromantic mayhem, this will allow unlimited castings of this normally once a day power.
Skills: Alteration, Conjuration, Enchanting, Restoration
Stat Placement: M:2 H:1 S:0 until you have 300 magicka then reverse the ratio. Sload aren’t just capable magic users they are also large and resilient creatures.
Weapons: The Sload are “hands off” when it comes to physical confrontations. Instead they rely on their zombie thralls in combat. The Grave-Worm supports his thralls through tactical use of poison rune, ash rune, and paralyze/Staff of Paralysis.
Apparel: Temple Priest Robes are my personal favorite because of how bulky they are. It’s the closest I could get to a “fat” character. I enchanted the hood with fortify magicka and the boots with resist fire (for those rare occasions when magic absorb doesn’t trigger). Alternatively the Mythic Dawn Robes are a good choice for an N’gasta cosplay, and the Archmage’s Robes are a powerful choice that also adds some bulk to the character, the tail clipping just annoys me.
Gear: Aetherial Crown, Ring of the Erudite, Necromancer’s Amulet, Azidhal’s Ring of Necromancy
Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint
Alteration: The sload are known to be powerful magic users with a severe disdain for physical confrontation. However, Skyrim is a dangerous place and sometimes conflict is unavoidable. This skill provides much needed defense in the early game through flesh and detection spells, and some very sload like offence in the late game when you gain access to the paralysis spell.
Conjuration: Necromancy is the norm in Thras; in fact it’s encouraged and forms the backbone of that society relying heavily on undead servants to perform most if not all of the menial tasks necessary to run a country. Sload are skilled necromancers and this one is no different. Note that the Dark Souls perk interferes with one of the special techniques listed below, so be aware of the trade off before you select this perk.
Enchanting: Enchanting is the most laborious job that a sload willingly takes on, that is until someone learns how to get zombies to follow the complex procedures to create useful enchantments. In the meantime it falls upon the Grave-Worm to make sure his thralls are equipped with the strongest magical weapons and armor.
Restoration: The sload is a support character and will spend most of his time behind a meat shield reknitting the flesh as fast as the enemy can rend it. Furthermore the Necromage perk combined with vampirism will push the limits of this builds abilities to new heights by increasing the benefit you gain from all your enchanted gear by 25%.
I chose to stay true to the sloadian heritage of magecraft with a focus on necromancy. The goal of the Grave-Worm is to create the best undead servants possible. You will collect a menagerie of dead thralls each suited to certain tasks. Before going on any quest or delving into any cave the Sload carefully plans out his course of action, selecting the most appropriate thralls from his collection and bringing along the most complimentary follower. Once these choices have been made the sload will equip his thralls with appropriately enchanted weapons and make sure that his follower is equipped with arms and armor suited to the task at hand. Of course all this assumes you know the master level spell Dead Thrall. For the purposes of this build I grinded Conjuration and Restoration to 90 and 70. This facilitates your role as a “Grave-Worm” hailing from the Coral Kingdoms who has traveled to Skyrim to study the return of dragons and the ancient dragon cult that was steeped in necromancy much like your own people.
In order to get the most out of this build you’ll need to get the Dead Thrall spell as soon as possible. To that end I’ve posted my method of speed leveling Conjuration to 90 and Restoration to 70 (for access to the Dead Thrall spell and the Necromage perk respectively) over in the tips and tricks group, a method I call the NecroGrind. If you follow this approach however you won’t have enough magicka to cast Dead Thrall. You should only have 240 magicka at this point, a novice hood and The Necromancer’s Amulet will increase that to 320. However, Dead Thrall will cost 465 with the amulet. At this early stage you will need some alchemical help to be able to raise your thrall, specifically some Sload Soap, detailed below. The soap will get you to just enough magicka to raise your thrall, so choose them well.
Sload Soap:
The Sload spawn much like salmon and other fish do which is the primary reason they lack the familial bonds we are used to. In fact Sload have little to no regard for their young. One common practice is the creation of Sload Soap a valuable and highly sought after alchemical ingredient. The soap is a waxy substance created from melting down and preserving polwygles, and is said to be instrumental in some necromantic practices among the sload.
Ingredients: Salmon Roe and Jazbay Grapes.
This potent substance greatly boosts the user’s link to aetherius for a brief period of time enabling magical feats normally beyond their abilities. After the initial boost there is a lingering regenerative effect. Magicka regenerates 22% faster for 300 seconds. Magicka is increased by 215 points for 5 seconds.
Conveniently this soap can be sustainably produced at Windstad Manor. Use the garden for growing Jazbay Grapes and the hatchery for breeding salmon. The trick is to kill the salmon with an Unrelenting Force shout (one word is enough) the collected salmon will now produce a sample of Salmon Roe, normally a very rare ingredient, letting you create tons of Sload Soap.
In the early part of the play-thru you will grab whatever corpse you can find. Mostly this will consist of bandit chiefs or similar heavy armored warriors who will make effective meat shields while you delve into dungeons in search of lost lore and magical artifacts. Eventually however you will want thralls tailored to specific jobs. For example a fire mage is amazingly useful when razing a coven of vampires but is practically useless in the ash wastes of Solsthiem. It pays to be prepared and no Sload worth his blubber is going to make a move before all the cards are stacked in his favor. However, collecting thralls and keeping them on hand can be tricky as corpses are not permanent and can disappear, even if left in a player house. To remedy this simply place a permanent item on the corpse this will keep it from disappearing. Below I’ve listed some permanent items that you can obtain to preserve your favorite zombies.
Letter from a Friend/Museum Pamphlet/Declaration of War – These are all notes that if left in a corpses inventory will make it permanent.
Ebony Blade/Zephyr – These are two phenomenal weapons that the Sload would never personally use but can make even mediocre thralls into killing machines, and as a bonus they will make that thrall permanent.
Below I’ve listed my favorite thralls for this build along with how I prefer to equip them. Together these two will destroy most enemies keeping their sload master very safe. Once you have these two characters following you around you’ll be assuming the role of healer, making sure that your thralls stay in top fighting condition.
Chief Yamarz: Despite his very low level cap (20) the Chief has the most health of any comparable thrall target in the game, over 1000! Complete the requisite quest for the Cursed Tribe and after slaying Yamarz you can reanimate him as the meatiest meat shield in Skyrim. Also he comes equipped with a full suit of orcish armor. Below are the enchantments that I equip him with.
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Head: No beneficial enchantments are available for Yamarz.
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Chest: Fortify Heavy Armor, once you get Extra Effect add Fortify Health.
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Hands: Fortify Heavy Armor.
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Feet: Resist Element my choice was fire.
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Weapon: Fully charged Ebony Blade.
These enchantments build upon Yamarz’s already substantial resilience. The Ebony Blade is the perfect weapon despite the chief’s lack of a two-handed skill. The weapon will make his corpse permanent, keep his health full, and doesn’t require you to recharge it. All in all with this setup Yamarz will become an unstoppable juggernaut of death.
Orchendor: This guy is awesome period, if you haven’t thralled this guy yet go get him. He is a powerful destruction mage using all of the elements, he readily heals himself letting you focus on keeping your other thrall intact, he has the afflicted’s vomit attack, and he teleports! If all that wasn’t enough he is also immune to magic! He also spawns with hand and feet armor, which is unique since most mages are only equipped with boots. Below are the enchantments that I equip him with.
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Head: Orchendor doesn’t wear any head armor or clothing.
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Chest: Comes pre-enchanted.
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Hands: Fortify Magicka, once you get Extra Effect add a fortify armor enchantment.
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Feet: Resist Element my choice was fire.
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Weapon: Absorb Magicka
Magicka all the way, the reason you take a mage is for their spells so it only makes sense to keep them casting as long as possible. To that end the best weapon enchantment is definitely Absorb Magicka. Orchendor only switches to melee when he runs out of magicka to cast spells, a weapon that siphons off the enemies blue stuff will get him casting again in no time. His chest will always be pre enchanted, for me that was always fortify magicka regen.
For more thrall ideas check my post in the Tips and Tricks Group Necronomicon Vol. 5: Grave Digging.
The other magical discipline that sload are known for is teleportation. Skyrim lacks specific teleportation spells but does contain some analogous abilities that can mimic this group of spells. Initially, and the most obvious form of teleportation magic in Skyrim, is the Whirlwind Sprint shout. The Sload character should obtain the first word of this shout early in a play-thru and use it liberally. My favorite tactic with this shout is to run ahead of my little party and agro the enemy then use this shout to teleport back behind my followers. The other occurrence of this magic in Skyrim is also one of the most obvious and most powerful forms of teleportation, Fast Travel. I like to justify game mechanics as much as feasible when I’m playing a game as immersive as Skyrim and Fast Travel is one of those mechanics that while necessary is also very immersion breaking. Instead I’ve formed it into a type of magical ability that can be unlocked (kind of like the first Dark Souls if you ever played it).
Teleportation falls under the Alteration school of magic, being in essence an extension of the telekinesis spell. I saw each word of Whirlwind Sprint as a new spell that improved upon the previous version much like Stoneflesh replaces Oakflesh; Wuld-Nah replaces Wuld as you progress down this particular discipline. The final teleportation spell is the ability to Fast Travel. To facilitate a progression system in teleportation I made the following assumptions in my play-thru.
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Wuld is a Novice level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport a short distance about 50 feet. (No requirements it can be used as soon as it’s obtained.)
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Wuld-Nah is an Apprentice level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport a little further about 75 feet. (Requires an Alteration skill of 25 before it can be used.)
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Wuld-Nah-Kest is an Adept level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport a significant distance about 100 feet. (Requires an Alteration skill of 50 before it can be used.)
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Fast Travel is an Expert level teleport spell that enables the caster to teleport to any previously visited location via a magical anchor. (Requires an Alteration skill of 75 and must have learned Wuld-Nah-Kest before it can be used.)
Tying these abilities to the Alteration skill tree the Sload cannot use a spell until the previous spell has been learned. This means that Wuld-Nah requires an Alteration skill of 25 before you can use it and Wuld-Nah-Kest requires a skill of 50. This means that Fast Travel can only be used once you have learned all three words of the Whirlwind Sprint shout and have an Alteration skill of 75. Finally, following this guideline makes attaining Fast Travel its very own questline.
The Grave-Worm, while appearing reckless to his own kind, is still the epitome of caution when compared to the shorter lived races. He approaches each confrontation with clinical analysis, weighing every choice before acting. To facilitate this we will make liberal use of Detect Life/Dead spells before every encounter. Then approach the hostile party and cast a flesh spell to alert the enemy and pull them toward our undead thralls and follower. When the enemy gets close the Sload uses Whirlwind Sprint to teleport behind his line of followers. From this position of relative safety the Sload maintains a steady stream of restorative necromancy keeping his zombies in top fighting condition for the duration of the battle.
The two offensive spells the Sload makes regular use of are Poison Rune and Paralyze. The Poison Rune spell has great synergy with our undead thralls since they are immune to poison. The Sload is able to cast this spell right into the midst of the fighting without worry of harming his own thralls. Paralyze is used to remove a target from battle and allows the caster to apply several Poison Runes to great effect. The paralyzed target is also easy pickings for your thralls.
Petrifaction: Ash Shell and a living follower. Casting Ash Shell on your follower will protect them from both attacking enemies and your own poison runes. Meanwhile the attackers will swing away at your petrified ally to no avail while your undead thralls tear the fools apart.
Petrifaction Shield: Ash Rune at your feet. One of my favorite failsafe tactics is to drop an Ash Rune and then stand in the middle of it while my thralls battle the enemy. If for some reason one of the attackers decides to come after me the ash shell will stop them, buying my thralls some time to finish their current fight before they come to my aid.
Thrassian Plague: Paralyze/Staff of Paralysis and Poison Rune. Mentioned above this ability is incredibly powerful and is a go to attack against living enemies. First paralyze the attacker then apply multiple poison runes. The runes “damage over time” effect stacks, quickly eliminating even the strongest enemies.
Walking Bomb: Ritual Stone and Azidhal’s Ring of Necromancy. Corpses reanimated while wearing this ring will detonate in an icy explosion when damaged. Particularly useful when fighting large hordes of weaker enemies in preparation of a boss fight, the weaker enemies are inconsequential as thralls but can be devastating as walking mines.
***Note that this ability is bugged. The Ring of Necromancy will not work if you take the Dark Souls Perk. It is still a fun ability for the earlier portion of the game and may cause some to forego the last two perks in Conjuration in favor of maintaining access to this special technique. ***
The sload aren’t an evil race per se, but they are certainly an alien one. Sload don’t experience emotions in the same way as other sentient races. They are however very good actors, capable of mimicking emotions in an effort to put non-sloads at ease. Sometimes this can express itself in over acting or over emphasizing an emotion. For example a sload might actually cry over spilled milk, an exaggerated response meant to show ones annoyance at needing to mop up the mess.
In reality sload are very calculating, they see everything as a resource, even other sload. They are constantly measuring the worth of everything and how it can be harnessed or spent to further their own goals. This mindset helps explain the sloads preference for necromancy. They see very little distinction between a wheat field and a cemetery; both are resources waiting to be harvested. This clinical world view even extends to the living. Sload measure everything by its possible use for personal gain.
This mentality is expressed in game by a general lack of concern for the wellbeing of others. The Grave-Worm is concerned only with his own dealings and feels little remorse if one of his allies or hirelings is slain, especially since the individual can always be reanimated to continue their service. As an example in all of my play-thru’s as this character I could never find a reason why the Grave-Worm would pursue the Civil War questline. There was just no gain for him that I could see. On the other hand the side quest Blood on the Ice is necessary for this character especially in the early game. I saw this quest not as the Grave-Worm expressing some altruism by trying to solve a murder, but instead as him recognizing the signs of ritual necromancy, something he would be very interested in learning more about. In the end the character could feasibly pursue any quest and take on any job as long as you can rationalize some personal gain or possible future gain that the Grave-Worm desires.
Recommended Quests: The recommended quests for this build are many and varied. There are quite a few quests that will need to be completed in order to obtain the recommended gear listed above such as the daedric artifacts. In accordance to the Grave-Worms particular interests any quest that revolves around necromancy or the ancient dragon cult are fair game. Below are some recommendations.
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Main Quest (Up to The Way of the Voice): Just for the first word of Whirlwind Sprint. I didn’t see this character as the Dragonborn and chose not to use any other shout besides this one. This will mark the first leg of the “Teleportation Quest”. The following two Nordic barrows should also be sought out during your play-thru Dead Men’s Respite and Volskygge.
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Dawnguard (Volkihar side): For vampirism, necromantic healing spells, and a very powerful ring. I chose to focus on the side quests. Note that Serana makes a fantastic follower considering her state of undeath and is highly recommended; just beware her rudimentary form of necromancy which could destroy a prized thrall if you’re not careful.
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College of Winterhold: You’re already going to spend a lot of time at the college, and the quests you are sent on dovetail nicely with your own wizardly pursuits and interest in the ancient dragon cult.
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Daedric Quests: The sload are known to traffic with the daedra and the Grave-Worm is no different. Many of these quests are already going to be completed for the gear listed above. However, many of the other daedric quests would interest the Grave-Worm even if the artifact will go unused.
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Dragonborn: The Grave-Worm would be hard pressed to ignore the presence of a living dragon priest. While we would be more interested in learning from Miraak, he is not interested in sharing his secrets. However, we are more than willing to broker a trade with the Lord of Secrets. I can think of few better patrons for a sload than Hermaeus Mora.
I would just like to say that this build was a joy to create from researching the sload to playtesting the character and finally designing the best looking “fat wizard toad” I could. Don’t get me wrong it was challenging to fit within the confines of the game but I hope I made it look both believable and fun. I would encourage you to go read the other contest builds, they are fantastic, and maybe even try out playing as an exotic race. Let us know if you do, and post pictures if you can, I would love to see how others craft these exotic races. This has been my interpretation of the Sload, thanks for reading.
-Vargr
