Warden Journal Entry I
So… I’ve had a rather interesting day today. Gergus gave me a new assignment. Now, I’m used to that. Gergus is Cyrodiil’s regional Warden Commander, it’s his job to give me my assignments. But… this assignment wasn’t like most of my assignments.
Normally I get orders to deal with a coven of Necromancers, or Witches, or maybe some Daedra that slipped through back during the Crisis and somehow managed to go over two centuries without being caught and slain. Either that or a vampire infection. But no… I got something new.
I’ve been assigned to Skyrim as its Warden Commander by merit of being the only Warden there.
Skyrim.
So on the up side, I won’t have to worry about catching heat stroke at least. On the down side, I’m a mage being thrown in the only province more hostile to magic than Cyrodiil with two directives.
I) Enforce the Laws of Magic upon Skyrim’s mages, at least the disenfranchised ones. I am to either leave the Collage of Winterhold alone, or join it to keep an eye on its members and ensure that they don’t begin to abuse their powers from within. In the past, the Collage has always remained respectable, and it would go against the Council’s goals to interfere with them.
II) Improve the common people’s perspective on magic by providing assistance when it would not conflict with my first directive. Gergus didn’t give me any instructions regarding accepting payment or rewards offered to me for doing so, and since I’m going to be operative outside of Council territory I’m probably going to have to be a bit mercenary to fund my operations.
He also mentioned what he called Directive Zero: Do not break any of the Laws as set down by the Council. I’m going to leave a copy of the laws in the back of this journal to read every night just to make sure that I don’t forget them, along with my personal notes on them. Breaking the Laws would be… unfortunate. Possibly also dangerous to my health.
I’m going to head up north immediately. No time to go through official channels, the Council doesn’t have the same backing that the Mages Guild had, and we don’t have the political clout that the Synod does. Border shouldn’t be well guarded anyway.
Laws of Magic
I) Do not Kill Mortals through use of Magic
Exactly what it says. I can’t kill anyone using my magic. The Council even looks down on weakening Necromancers using magic. Fortunately these rules don’t apply to the undead… which is nice considering how many Necromancers hide behind dead bodies. I will just have to use this stupid hunk of iron to deal with mortals.
II) Do not alter the bodies of other Mortals through use of Magic.
I can’t use the school of Alteration on other people. Changing other people’s bodies just feels wrong somehow, not to mention it is wrong. I’ve had that paralysis spell used on me on missions (fortunately I had backup) and I know that I wouldn’t even wish that upon a Necromancer.
III) Do not invade the mind of another mortal.
No use of that stupid dreaming-amulet that the morons in Cheydenhall figured out back during the crisis, or any other form of magic that would let me enter someone’s memories. A person’s mind is their last sanctuary, and the only one that is completely sacred. I must not invade it.
IV) You shall not bend the will of any being to your will.
Which rules out most of the Illusion School. I can’t alter the minds of other people, or even the minds of Daedra. Taking away someone’s will is worse than twisting their bodies, its no better than killing them. Altering the physical world is still open though, so I should be able to use invisibility and muffle spells.
V) You shall not reach beyond the Boundaries of Life.
No. Oblivion Damned. Necromancy. That’s for morons, idiots, vampires, daedra, and Mannimarco.
VI) You shall not swim against the currents of Time.
I don’t even think time-travel is possible, but it’s definitely a bad idea to mess with history. That’s just asking for some remnant of the Mythic Dawn to kill off The Champion or Martin and leave us to be killed by Dagon.
VII) You may not allow Daedra into Nirn.
I cannot use conjuration magic. Conjuring is too much of a risk for the Council to allow. Also it isn’t exactly good for public opinion, since most people won’t bother to tell the difference between opening an oblivion gate and conjuring a single Daedra. Also there is the risk of the Daedra slipping the leash. I should probably also work against any Daedra trying to do… things.
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Hello gentlemen. I am Andrew Drake, and welcome to my attempts to discover and hammer out the flaws in the build I'm currently working on, which is inspired by The Dresden Files. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be playing my White Warden, and leaving my notes on the play style here along with some relevant journal entries written in character.
This Journal Entry includes several RP Restrictions (Laws of Magic) which I'm going to have to follow for the length of my playthrough. If you ever wonder exactly why I did something in a non-intuitive way, the reasons are probably above. It also includes the reason for this character crossing the border.
As for notes on the character itself, I'm trying to create a character that would be able to get involved with most of the quests in game without breaking RP, and who will probably develop some angst around the third trip to the Throat of the World. Its also intended to make me use magic in ways that normally wouldn't feel very effective.
I've kept myself from touching Conjuration at all, turned Destruction into a waste of perks, heavily restricted Illusion, and left Alteration's most overpowered spell off limits. This is intended to force me into a non-conventional play style as a Spellsword that can't use destruction most of the time, and who won't wear armor at all.
