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Heroic Spirit Guide - Abnur Tharn

Tags: #Dragonborn1721  #Heroic Spirit Guides 
  • December 9, 2018

    Abnur Tharn, is one of the most famous Imperial Battlemages, or Mages of any sort that existed at any point during history. He was a politician, advisor and leader for more than 100 years, and firmly cemented himself as a structural piece of the Empire during the middle Second Era. It is considered almost a joke to comment on how he stays in power, that as long as there is a King or Emperor, somehow Abnur Tharn will find a way to thrive.

    His legend is not cemented in acts of great magical power, or military might though he does have both behind his name. Instead his legend is empowered by his stable power, political clout and methodical, intelligent manner. Heisa somewhat oddMage, who is hardly the person you think of when thinking of a typical ‘brilliant mage’ but still one that has cemented himself as a Heroic Spirit, an everlasting legend who’s story will persist as long as humanity exists.

    Qualified Servant Classes:

    Note 1: All Heroic Spirits are summoned into a specific ‘class container’ which dictates many of their skills, parameters and even personality. While they’re often most suited for a particular class, there are many heroes that qualify for multiple classes and thus could theoretically be summoned under any of those classes. An easy example is Almalexia. She is well known for both her swordsmanship and magical abilities and would commonly be summonable under the classes of Saber or Caster.

    Caster and Saber*

    While his role as a Caster Servant is obvious to anyone even partially familiar with his legend, Abnur Tharn (Saber) is a more ambiguous class with a different background than purely the legend of Abnur Tharn himself. Simply put, the title of Imperial Battlemage is one handed down throughout the Empire that has close ties to the original Imperial Battlemages, who were incredibly powerful mages that were also skilled warriors. Because of this, he is given the skill ‘Double Summon’ which allows him to be summoned as both Caster and Saber, giving him many of the advantages of both classes while also providing small debuffs if compared to a hypothetical Abnur Tharn summoned under a single class (perhaps a B ranked Mana instead of an A)

    Caster Servants are typically defined as those who were Mages in life. Whether they were Shamans, or Battlemages, Sorcerers or Witches, as long as the individual casting magic was an integral part of their legend, then they can be summoned under the Caster Classes. Typically these mighty spellcasters are weak in close quarters (being weaker than even Assassin-Class Servants) but make up for it with their magical ability as well as the unique Class Skill 'Territory Creation' that allows a Caster to set up powerful defenses around their location. It's often said that a Caster with a strong Master is the worst opponent to fight because they can create a location so difficult to breach that it would be almost impossible to even reach the Servant.

    Saber Class Servants are generally considered the strongest of the classes. The average Saber will have above average stats in 3 physical fields and then still be at least average in regards to their Mana. Their one skill that is often low is their Luck stat, an attribute shared by the three Knight Classes (Archer, Lancer and Saber) due to their members primarily being Heroes who met tragic ends. The class is also home to almost every major hero for any society, Swords are simply the most common weapon and since that's the core component required to be summoned as a Saber, it makes sense that statistically, powerful heroes are more often summoned as Saber than any other class (bar perhaps Berserker). 

    Parameters:

    Note2: Parameters are defined both by the individual and the class they’re summoned under. For example, all Caster’s have a base Mana of A, but there are individuals who have specific restrictions that may reduce their Mana to B or are incredibly powerful and thus could have a rating of A+. The system is hardly a way to judge a servant fully, just because an individual has higher stats doesn’t mean they’ll automatically defeat someone with lower stats, but it would mean that (for example) a Servant with a Strength of A will be naturally stronger than one with a Strength of B.

    Note 3: The ranking is E, D, C, B, A, EX. Ranks E through A can also have a modifier (either + or -) that designates that their skill has certain restrictions or increases in certain situations. Essentially a + or – means that their highest level isn’t stable or permanent, with a B+ being normally weaker than an A but being stronger than an A in certain circumstances. Examples – fighting a specific foe, being blessed or cursed, having a spell cast on you, etc

    Note 4: A servant is more powerful than a normal mortal by default (or the average human). E is 10x more powerful than an average human. D is 20x more powerful and so on and so forth. EX is theoretically 100x more powerful, but the scale is ambiguous.

    Strength: C

    Endurance: D

    Agility: B

    Mana: B+

    Luck: C

    Noble Phantasm: A


    Class Skills:

    Note 5: Class Skills are the skills that all Servants summoned under that class have access to, but to a varying degree based on the individuals. These are very general skills, but everyone will have different ranks in each skill based on certain aspects of their legend which are popular. If a Saber Class Servant was well known for fighting Mages, then they may receive a higher Magic Resistance than another servant who was known for being killed by a Mage.

    Riding: D-

    Due to his low rank in Riding, Abnur Tharn is essentially only capable of riding horses at an acceptable rate. If it is anyway mysterious or has any unique factors he is quite incapable of it as horse-riding was never a part of his legend.

    Magic Absorption: C+

    Rather than the common ‘Magic Resistance’ skill of a Saber Class servant, Abnur Tharn is summoned with ‘Magical Absorption’ a skill that he personally altered, allowing him to have a 30% chance to absorb any spells that are at least C-Ranked (Adept Spells from other Servants, but any spell other than Master-Level Spells cast by normal people).

    Item Construction: B

    Abnur Tharn is a powerful mage that is known to have skills related to enchanting and alchemy. While he isn’t incredibly well known for these skills, as a Caster he is still capable of enchanting items and crafting potions

    Territory Creation: B+

    Abnur Tharn as a mage is capable of setting up barriers and traps in order to protect whatever he deems his ‘Workshop’. However, because of his more political nature (rather than that of a researcher), his workshop never could be properly set up to kill or even dismember enemies and so he was forced to rely on a set of illusions to hide his more sensitive notes. Because of this, he greatly specialized in setting up powerful (but subtle) illusions that can completely hide anything he deems ‘Dangerous’ whether that’s to him, enemies or anything else is completely up to him

    Personal Skills:

    Note 6: Personal Skills are unique to everyone…mostly. Two Servants may have Personal Skills with the same name, but they’ll have unique differences based on their own personal life and legend (for example, two Servants may have the ‘Charisma’ skill at the exact same rank, but one of them may be more charismatic when talking to military leaders while the other is more charismatic when talking to commoners.

    Double Summon: B-

    While Abnur Tharn is double summoned as both Saber and Caster, the conflicting natures of the two classes end with all his stats being easily considered poor for either one class or the other. Generally this results in an average (with a base E strength as Caster and A as Saber he’d have a Strength of C) between the two, but the specific allotment is adjustable based on an unknown set of rules.

    Imperial Knowledge of the Academic Mind: EX

    Abnur Tharn is a magical genius capable of discerning his opponents magical ability at a mere glance. In life, this ability wasn’t fully developed but as a Servant, he is capable of temporarily gaining any skill related to magic that his opponent may have. Whether this is something like ‘Mana Burst’ or ‘High-Speed Incantations’ has very little effect, only that it is related to magic.

    The Burden of Knowledge: B

    Tharn’s issue has always been that he is simply smarter than other people and is completely incapable of treating people who he’s smarter than (most people) in a kind or considerate manner. He does however have a knack for talking with those he considers equal or who have political power and gains a boost like Charisma, making him much more likable to those people, but less likable to those he considers unintelligent

    Noble Phantasms:

    Note 7: Noble Phantasms are unique to each Servant completely and is a notable part of their legend. For some heroes, these may be unique weapons or a set of armour that they wielded in their life, for others it may be a concept that is closely related to the Servant’s legend. For example, Morihaus is likely to be summoned with The Lord’s Mail as a set of armour while Tiber Septim may have a Noble Phantasm connected to his role of Emperor or Dragonborn.

    Everlasting Might of the Imperial Battlemage: E – A+

    Abnur Tharn’s is perhaps the most well-known ‘Imperial Battlemage’ and certainly one of the most famous legends connected to the title. Everlasting Might of the Imperial Battlemage is an interesting conceptual Noble Phantasm that allows Abnur Tharn to gather the knowledge of any Imperial Battlemage (Whether that’s someone who held the more well-respected title or the more common title that signifies members of the Imperial Army) and use any magic that they were capable. This lets him ignore any other qualities needed to cast the spell, and essentially treats the spell as if it were his own.

    The power of this Noble Phantasm is its utility rather than its power. While there are powerful spells that Tharn can access, it’s more beneficial when considering the sheer number of spells that he has access to through this Noble Phantasm.


    I’ve caught you here. There’s a reason that this is in the Character Building Group rather than Roleplaying or something, and that’s the translation to Skyrim. My intent with these Guides is to create something slightly like Trekster’s Ultimate Character Creation Guides, with the intent on creating characters that closely mimic the rules of another universe, and then translating them to Skyrim. There are massive differences, I’m using individual characters and a completely different system, and well technically mine could work in both. This could just as easily be a canon Heroic Spirit as a Skyrim Build.

    To be honest, the translation is rather minor because the Backstory, Roleplaying and Combat are going to be mostly left to you rather than fully developed by me, so instead I’ll mostly just be listing a set of Skills, their Stats and anything I deem compulsory knowledge that can’t be edited. Which for the most part, should be minor unless the character has something really specific about them that isn’t already mentioned.

    Skills and Stats:

    Primary Skills: Alchemy, Alteration, Enchanting, Illusion and One-Handed

    Secondary Skills: Conjuration, Destruction and Restoration

    Optional/Tertiary Skills: Block, Heavy Armour and Smithing

    Stats: 6 Magicka, 1 Health and 3 Stamina per 10 levels.

    Required Perks and Equipment:

    One-Handed: Armsman 5/5 and Bladesman

    Alchemy: Alchemist 5/5 and Benefactor

    Enchanting: Enchanter 5/5

    Illusion: Illusion Dual-Casting, Quiet Casting and Expert Illusion

    Alteration: Atronach

    Equipment: Imperial Sword and Imperial Shield (Can be heavily enchanted or replaced with more fitting modded equipment if it still holds that ‘Imperial’ nature).

    Roleplaying and Other Information:

    So here's where we delve into the largest portion of this little end section (which totally isn't here just to justify the guide existing here). Who is Abnur Tharn? The first thing you need to understand is that the Tharn Family is perhaps one of the oldest noble houses in Cyrodiil, dating back as far as Saint Allesia. They've essentially held power in some form (to some degree) in Cyrodiil since then, which makes them, arguably the strongest family in Cyrodiilic history until the Septims, and even then you could make an arguement for the Tharn Family. This is where you find the basis of Abnur Tharn's personality, he is intensly loyal to the Empire as a concept. I would aruge that he has no real loyalty to any individual Emperor except maybe Varen, and he is hardly loyal to the people, instead I think he's more invested in the idea of the Empire continuing because that's how his family gained power. He is intensly proud of his family as well, and does actually consider himself to be 'better' than others.  Abnur Tharn Answers Your Questions is a perfect source to understand his personality when interacting with different people. He responds to people of all walks of life in this series, and you can see the differences depending on the Race, Social Standing and Ambition of those he talks to. 

    Because of this, I consider the Civil War Questline a requirement for this character, siding with the Imperials because there is absolutely no way I can see him siding with Ulfric Stormcloak. He isn't the sort to care about who's in charge, but he would hardly be fond of anything that Ulfric preaches, does or has done. In other words, Ulfric is the only person that I would consider Tharn's 'Nemesis', someone who he despises with all his power. The College of Winterhold is another questline that I believe he would complete, but it is not a required questline. They have knowledge, and he would be incredibly fascinated by the Eye of Magnus once he finds it, but other then that, there's no reason for him to be involved in a "Savage Magical School". The Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild and Companions are all unquestionable as far as I'm concerned, absolutely no reason Tharn would participate in those quests. Other the that, it's up to the individual to make decisions.

    Replicating Servant Skills is a bit trickier. All of the Class Skills are obvious and are already accounted for in the 'Required Perks' section but the Personal Skills may require an extra touch. Let's start off easiest, by covering The Burdern of Knowledge. It really is simple, you treat anyone that isn't politically powerful (Thanes mostly) or Academically respectable as utter trash. I would consider most of the CoW respectable enough, though he has issues with J'zargo and a few of the less professional Teachers, but for the most part, yeah everyone there is chill. Double Summon is easy as well, and is reflected in stats. Lets quickly cover the Noble Phantasm before I have to do tricky things :( Everlasting Might of the Imperial BattlemageWhich, okay it's actually easier than I though. Download a Spell Mod (Apocalypse for PC/Xbox users, Phenderix's Magic Evolved for PS4 users) or more and use them. That way you have all of Skyrim's Spells, plus a really nice pool of other spells that a normal mage can't use. It's actually a perfect system I guess. 

    Finally we have Imperial Knowledge of the Academic Mind. Okay so this one is tough. So, the thing about this is that the skill is designed to tempoarily gain a 'Personal Skill' that another Servant has, related purely to Magic. Now it makes perfect sense in relationship to Fate (the other universe) because it gives Tharn a huge boost when fighting other Casters (for those familiar with Fate, think of it as a magical version of Imperial Privilege...but you know, he can copy Mana Burst :P) but with Skyrim's system...it means very little. The problem is the temporary nature of the skill. I could easily just say 'defeat a Mage and gain a new spell/access to a new school of magic' and that'd be that, but...Imperial Knowledge is temporary so... The best I can think of, is that you create 6 unique rings with a Fortify Magicka + Fortify Spell School. You can equip one of those rings for the length of a day, and then it's locked for 2 days, incapable of being used. 

    That kind of works...yeah I like it. You gain a power-up on each day (and useful ones at that) but then it's locked for a certain period of time. Okay there we go, still kinda tough because it's not perfect, but better than anything else I can think of.

     

    Closing Notes:

    Whoo, Closing Notes time. So this guide is something a bit different for me because it's not a build *gasp* but it's something I wanted to do kind of, experiment with a bit. I think Trekster has really set the way for really delving into expanding Character Building so that it's not just your typical builds. This is still a guide on how to play the game, it's just got a different take. Hmm what else do I have to talk about? Well okay, right. So why start with Abnur Tharn? Well so I went to This Page and I'm going alphabetically. Yeah that's it, I mean I do think he's kind of interesting and I think I found some really creative ways to represent different aspects of his character (Everlasting Might of the Imperial Battlemage is awesome...uh I mean I really like it so I think it's awesome).

    So Artwork was a tough one because it's so freaking difficult to find artwork for Abnur Tharn. Because it's a character that we've seen and has artwork, it's a little harder for me to mix in images that might fit, because I know exactly what the fella looks like (both in Concept Art and in-game). ESO screenshotting is kind of limited because it doesn't have a dedicated Photo-Mode and you can't just jump into the console and delve into it like you can with Skyrim. It kind of puts me in a scenario where I need to use fanart or Concept Art. Sadly, Abnur does not inspire much Fanart...that or it was all porn related and Tumblr just blew it up, but somehow I struggle to believe that (the guy does have at least 7 wives...so you know)

    Image 1

    Image 2 

    Image 3 and More Details for Saber Class

    Image 4 and More Details for Caster Class

    Part of Final Image

    Details on Abnur Tharn - Including all my Sources for anything Lore-Friendly (basically not much :P)

    Fate - Parameter Rules    |    Fate - Servant Definition    |    Fate - Noble Phantasms    |    Fate - Full List of Skills

    As a final note, I just wanted to thank Trekster for inspiring these guides. Obviously we've got really different takes and inspirations for the series and they're honestly really different, but there's so much of his work that inspired mine. Check Out His Guides because they really are awesome, and a bit more suited to just plugging a build into the Guide and playing with it. Hope these are interesting, I tried really hard to balance the combination of Skyrim and Fate, though I'll freely admit to focusing more on the latter.

  • Member
    December 9, 2018

    Abnur Tharn eh, nice, nice. Love to see you still working on the Heroic Spirits series Deebs

  • Member
    December 9, 2018

    Also butstillonethathascementedhimselfasaHeroic Spirit. Should probably fix that

  • December 9, 2018
    Abnur Tharn eh, nice, nice. Love to see you still working on the Heroic Spirits series Deebs

    Ah, not quite. Went with a different approach and (as per the title) this one isn't technically a build. Still going with the same concepts, but different spin on it to make it a bit easier to create (still not massively easy, but enough that I could probably get two or three out a week. Dunno, the second one's been going a lot smoother than the first because there was less Lore, and I now have the system down a bit more...Ah anyway, thanks for dropping by Chris :D

    EDIT: And Thanks for pointing that out, no idea how it happened but thanks

  • Member
    December 9, 2018

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    Abnur Tharn eh, nice, nice. Love to see you still working on the Heroic Spirits series Deebs

    Ah, not quite. Went with a different approach and (as per the title) this one isn't technically a build. Still going with the same concepts, but different spin on it to make it a bit easier to create (still not massively easy, but enough that I could probably get two or three out a week. Dunno, the second one's been going a lot smoother than the first because there was less Lore, and I now have the system down a bit more...Ah anyway, thanks for dropping by Chris :D

    EDIT: And Thanks for pointing that out, no idea how it happened but thanks

    I thought you'd do Jagar, but sweet. Glad to hear that

  • Member
    December 9, 2018
    Abnur Tharn. Overlord of Nibeney, Chancellor of the Elder Council, Imperial Battlemage, and the absolute Archtroll of the TES setting (last seen absconding with the Amulet of Kings). Dude's one of the best written and voice acted characters in any game, ever :D I think you've done him proud here, Deebs, although he's like as not to ditch that sword and shield in favour of a staff at first opportunity - let the unwashed Colovian barbarians be first in the meat grinder, innit? xD This is the start of a huge project, and presentation is incredible! Looking forward to more, for sure.
  • Member
    December 9, 2018

    Also, him as a Dual Summon....interesting. I just went over this and yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Wonder whose next....

  • December 9, 2018
    Abnur Tharn. Overlord of Nibeney, Chancellor of the Elder Council, Imperial Battlemage, and the absolute Archtroll of the TES setting (last seen absconding with the Amulet of Kings). Dude's one of the best written and voice acted characters in any game, ever :D I think you've done him proud here, Deebs, although he's like as not to ditch that sword and shield in favour of a staff at first opportunity - let the unwashed Colovian barbarians be first in the meat grinder, innit? xD This is the start of a huge project, and presentation is incredible! Looking forward to more, for sure.

    He really is at that, to be honest there's something about all of the Five Companions (or however many there were :P) that I really enjoyed but he absolutely took the gold medal as soon as he popped up. The voice actor there really did him justice (which is something ESO has always done incredibly well).

    But yeah, could delve into all the intricate reasons he's probably a bit different as a 'Heroic Spirit' but the gist of it is still fucking complicated :P I mean, I've gone with his title of Battlemage as a literal title rather than the political title it actually is, but if we were going Fate-Lore stuff...Basically the Legend and the Hero are equally important, and if the Legend changed enough, it would impact the Heroic Spirit and change them slightly.

    If in 100 years everyone believe Alessia was a Male Orc, then she might be summoned as one. Or there would be a halfway point and she'd be a Female Orc or Male...

     

    But anyway, it's definitely going to be a pretty massive project, luckily it's only going to get easier as it goes along but I'm kind of dreading someone like Tiber Septim or Reman who just have so much Lore to cover...Dreading it in a good way, but yeah. Thanks for dropping by Phil, and for the kind words :D

  • December 9, 2018

    I thought you'd do Jagar, but sweet. Glad to hear that

    Also, him as a Dual Summon....interesting. I just went over this and yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Wonder whose next....

    I'll give you a hint. I say it in the Closing Notes :P But yeah the Double Summon was the starting point and everything just sort of fell into place from there. It guided the focus towards the idea of 'The Imperial Battlemage' being the focal point for the entire guide. Course it helped that it led to me giving him the magical version of Imperial Privilege which makes him super badass (Just imagine a Caster with Mana Burst and a Sword, with decent enough parameters to use them :P). The next dude might be more powerful but a bit more simple, 1 Class Skill, 2 Personal Skills and a single Noble Phantasm with two powers. 

  • Member
    December 9, 2018

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    Abnur Tharn. Overlord of Nibeney, Chancellor of the Elder Council, Imperial Battlemage, and the absolute Archtroll of the TES setting (last seen absconding with the Amulet of Kings). Dude's one of the best written and voice acted characters in any game, ever :D I think you've done him proud here, Deebs, although he's like as not to ditch that sword and shield in favour of a staff at first opportunity - let the unwashed Colovian barbarians be first in the meat grinder, innit? xD This is the start of a huge project, and presentation is incredible! Looking forward to more, for sure.

    He really is at that, to be honest there's something about all of the Five Companions (or however many there were :P) that I really enjoyed but he absolutely took the gold medal as soon as he popped up. The voice actor there really did him justice (which is something ESO has always done incredibly well).

    But yeah, could delve into all the intricate reasons he's probably a bit different as a 'Heroic Spirit' but the gist of it is still fucking complicated :P I mean, I've gone with his title of Battlemage as a literal title rather than the political title it actually is, but if we were going Fate-Lore stuff...Basically the Legend and the Hero are equally important, and if the Legend changed enough, it would impact the Heroic Spirit and change them slightly.

    If in 100 years everyone believe Alessia was a Male Orc, then she might be summoned as one. Or there would be a halfway point and she'd be a Female Orc or Male...

     

    But anyway, it's definitely going to be a pretty massive project, luckily it's only going to get easier as it goes along but I'm kind of dreading someone like Tiber Septim or Reman who just have so much Lore to cover...Dreading it in a good way, but yeah. Thanks for dropping by Phil, and for the kind words :D

    And we all know how Fate loves its genderswaps...not that I'm complaining. More waifu material for me. And Husbando material for those into men. And then you have Astolfo...and Chevalier d'Eon. I mean, at least both had reasons to dress like that. Astolfo to stop his uncle, and fellow Paladin Roland from running around on a naked rampage, and d'Eon for spying purposes