Saint Alessia, the Slave Queen of Cyrodiil, the Paravant, Al-Esh, and Aleshut, all of these names define a singular and pivotal person in Tamrielic history. She led the Alessian Rebellion against the Ayleids and became the first Emperor of Cyrodiil. She also created the Imperial Pantheon, more commonly known as The Eight Divines (now Nine) to encourage peace between men and mer.
Near the end of her reign and her life, Akatosh formed a pact with Alessia, the Dragon God of Time. Akatosh reached into his heart and pulled out some of his own blood, imparting it to Alessia. So long as the Emperor on the throne bears both the blood of Alessia and the blood of Akatosh, and so long as the Dragonfires remained lit, Akatosh would close tight the gates of Oblivion. As Alessia lay dying, Akatosh formed a bright red soul gem, again from his own blood, and sealed Alessia’s soul inside. Her soul and the souls of her descendants would be sealed inside to provide council to whoever the current Emperor might be. The soul gem became known as the Amulet of Kings. This pact is revered even today by the dragon symbol the Empire bears.
When Martin Septim smashed the Amulet of Kings to defeat Mehrunes Dagon, all of the souls contained within it were released into Aetherius and the bloodline of Alessia ended.
Akatosh compelled Alessia to return to Nirn, her home. Tamriel was in danger on many different fronts with no one to protect it.
Race: Imperial
Alessia was a Nede, the race that branched out over time to become the Imperials, the Nords, and eventually the Bretons, however they are much closer to Nords and Imperials. I chose Imperial for two reasons. One was Voice of the Emperor because Voice of the Emperor is a criminally underrated daily power as it can be used offensively and defensively. The other reason was because Alessia lived almost her entire life in Cyrodiil, thus making her closer to an Imperial in my mind.
Alessia will be using all three stats, though health is the most important one. You can stop leveling Stamina and Magicka around 250, though that choice is up to you.
Stone: The Lady
Alessia is both charismatic and vigilant. This Standing Stone embodies both her personality and her role play. Use the Warrior or the Lover to level up before switching to the Lady. The Lord is another possibility.
Blessing: Akatosh or Auri-el
While both are beneficial to Alessia as a character, they also fit extremely well with her role play. There’s a decent amount of lore supporting the fact that Akatosh and Auri-el are one and the same. The point that rectifies this statement the most is that after Auri-el came into being, time began, thus establishing an immediate connection.
Shouts
Battle Fury, Become Ethereal, Dragon Aspect, Elemental Fury, Fire Breath, Slow Time, Storm Call, Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint.
Battle Fury is great in addition to the rally pumps you’ll already be casting on your followers. Become Ethereal is great if you need to charge a powerful spell caster, and you also happen to get a free power attack out of it. Dragon Aspect is an insanely good buff to quite literally everything you want. Elemental Fury is a great way to take down tough enemies fast. Fire Breath can help you make quick work of a small, concentrated force as long as your followers aren't in the way. Slow Time allows you to do virtually the same thing as Elemental Fury, though it make particularly more powerful foes easier to dodge. Storm Call is amazing outdoors against a massive force—It works wonders in Skuldafn especially. Unrelenting Force is also a surprisingly defensive shout, especially when used on larger enemies who take longer to get back on their feet. Whirlwind Sprint can be used offensively or defensively; it allows you to dash in and out of the fray or close the gap on a particularly mean spell caster.
Quests
Main Quest Line, Dawnguard (Dawnguard), Dragonborn, Civil War.
These are the main problems that are ailing the land. This is why you have returned to Tamriel.
Main Quest Line: Possibly the largest current threat to Tamriel. This is your main priority. The rest of the conflicts arising can ultimately wait until you stave off the end of the world.
Dawnguard: Vampires threatening the whole of Tamriel? Seems like a problem. You’ll be taking the Dawnguard side here and will be picking up Auri-el’s Bow and Shield along the way.
Dragonborn: Miraak rears his ugly (albeit masked) head. You thought you were the first Dragonborn, the Paravant, but it seems that the Dragon Cult of the Merethic Era had some ideas of its own.
Civil War: This one is tricky. The Thalmor may not be Daedra-worshiping brutes, but they bear a striking resemblance to the Ayleid overlords you overthrew in the First Era. On the other hand, you’re not sure what to think about one of your ancestors being considered a god. Choose your side wisely, the fate of Skyrim hangs in the balance.
Break of Dawn: You can choose to wield Dawnbreaker, though it’s not the most lore-friendly weapon for Alessia to possess.
Perk Spread
The above is the complete perk spread, this is the level 55 park spread.
Major Skills
One-Handed
Your main form of offense, aside from your followers. The sword is your weapon of choice, since it has the fastest attack speed while still having a good amount of damage.
Illusion
You will only be using the Calm and Rally effects from this skill. Calm effects are very powerful offensively and defensively, same as Voice of the Emperor.
Light Armor
You’re not a full mage and yet you’re not a brute either, meaning you’ll be utilizing light armor so you can take a hit and survive, but you should think twice about standing still.
Minor Skills
Archery
You prefer to pick fights from a distance and let your followers deal with it, though that is increasingly a luxury. Once you get Auri-el’s Bow, you’ll be able to summon a powerful sun attack while outside, this can often turn the tide of a battle if used correctly.
Block
A normal bash has enough stagger on a foe for you to put some space between you and heal a bit. Once you get Auri-el’s Shield, you’ll be taking a few more hits while blocking, but only to charge your shield.
Restoration
You want to make sure both you and your non-essential followers stay alive, and this is the skill for the job. Ultimately you only need Heal Other and Close Wounds.
Smithing
Armor isn’t cheap, and you’ll be getting three sets of armor and weapons for you and your two followers (see below), so the cost of the materials is much less than buying three sets of armor.
Equipment
Eventually you’ll want to suit up with the best light armor you can possibly make, which is Dragonscale. However, this character’s attire choice is pretty versatile. Though, she may or may not like Elven armor simply because of its origins. Anything from Leather to Ancient Falmer is fine, but my armor of choice was Dragonscale. Your shield will ultimately be Auri-el’s Shield.
For weapons, you can choose an unenchanted blade such as a Dragonbone Sword and Auri-el’s Bow. You don’t have to use Sunhallowed Arrows with it, but it does boots the power of the bow itself and makes better use of the enchantment. I used an Amulet of Talos and whichever enchanted ring I found that suited my needs for jewelry.
Gameplay and Role Play
Alessia had hardly any vices as far as we can tell, however history and lore are typically imperfect so we don’t know for sure. For the purposes of this build, she is a noble-hearted leader, so keep that in mind as you play. As far as combat goes, you want to dodge missile weapons as much as possible. If you’re running at an archer, don’t bee-line for them, weave and duck out of the way of their arrows. Another example is if you’re fighting a troll, they typically have very blatant tells, and you can often backpedal out of the range of their attack if you know the reach of your weapon, in this case a one-handed sword. Depending on how good you are with reading your enemies and dodging, you can ultimately kill just about anything. You won’t be using a shield much until later levels when you can take a few more hits. In the case of followers, you want to make sure you keep them buffed with a rally effect or three. You don’t have to be in combat to gain Illusion experience from rally spells, and all three spells stack.
Two Followers
In order to have two followers, you must start the quest “Prophet” from the Dawnguard quest line, so that you can have Serana as a voluntary follower. You also need to complete “Glory of the Dead” (make sure you cure your lycanthropy) and “Dragon Rising”. While Serana is you follower, head up to Farkas or Vilkas and start the quest “Dragon Seekers”. Make sure you have no bounty quests, as this will cause a glitch. Serana will still be your follower, and Farkas/Vilkas will be your second follower. You’ll be able to interact fully with both of them, meaning trading items, giving them commands, telling them to wait at a location, etc.). Once you complete the quest, you should be able to dismiss Farkas/Vilkas and recruit a second follower. To dismiss this glitch, dismiss your secondary follower first, then dismiss Serana and create a fresh save. For role play/Illusion purposes, you should do this after you have Serana cured of her vampirism. If you’re on the PC, I recommend just installing a small mod that allows the use of multiple followers.
Powers
Grand Rally
Courage + Rally + Call to Arms + Battle Fury
You inspire your followers and instill them with a newfound strength, allowing them to overcome otherwise insurmountable obstacles.
Fire and Lightning
Use Auri-el’s Bow to fire a Sunhallowed Arrow into the sun + Storm Call (In that order)
Using the power of Akatosh and the dragon blood that runs through your veins, you call a massive storm of fire and lightning to decimate all who stand between you and the safety of Tamriel.
Closing and Thanks
Thanks to Mason for hosting this contest.
Thank you, Pelinal Whitestrake for letting me bounce ideas off of you and ultimately giving me the idea to use Illusion in this build.
Credit to Okiir for the perk spread background and Bethesda/Zenimax for the skill icons (which I altered rather poorly).
I hope you all enjoyed reading this and will enjoy playing this character! Thanks for reading!
Saint Alessia, the Slave Queen of Cyrodiil, the Paravant, Al-Esh, and Aleshut, all of these names define a singular and pivotal person in Tamrielic history. She led the Alessian Rebellion against the Ayleids and became the first Emperor of Cyrodiil. She also created the Imperial Pantheon, more commonly known as The Eight Divines (now Nine) to encourage peace between men and mer.
Near the end of her reign and her life, Akatosh formed a pact with Alessia, the Dragon God of Time. Akatosh reached into his heart and pulled out some of his own blood, imparting it to Alessia. So long as the Emperor on the throne bears both the blood of Alessia and the blood of Akatosh, and so long as the Dragonfires remained lit, Akatosh would close tight the gates of Oblivion. As Alessia lay dying, Akatosh formed a bright red soul gem, again from his own blood, and sealed Alessia’s soul inside. Her soul and the souls of her descendants would be sealed inside to provide council to whoever the current Emperor might be. The soul gem became known as the Amulet of Kings. This pact is revered even today by the dragon symbol the Empire bears.
When Martin Septim smashed the Amulet of Kings to defeat Mehrunes Dagon, all of the souls contained within it were released into Aetherius and the bloodline of Alessia ended.
Akatosh compelled Alessia to return to Nirn, her home. Tamriel was in danger on many different fronts with no one to protect it.
Race: Imperial
Alessia was a Nede, the race that branched out over time to become the Imperials, the Nords, and eventually the Bretons, however they are much closer to Nords and Imperials. I chose Imperial for two reasons. One was Voice of the Emperor because Voice of the Emperor is a criminally underrated daily power as it can be used offensively and defensively. The other reason was because Alessia lived almost her entire life in Cyrodiil, thus making her closer to an Imperial in my mind.
Alessia will be using all three stats, though health is the most important one. You can stop leveling Stamina and Magicka around 250, though that choice is up to you.
Stone: The Lady
Alessia is both charismatic and vigilant. This Standing Stone embodies both her personality and her role play. Use the Warrior or the Lover to level up before switching to the Lady. The Lord is another possibility.
Blessing: Akatosh or Auri-el
While both are beneficial to Alessia as a character, they also fit extremely well with her role play. There’s a decent amount of lore supporting the fact that Akatosh and Auri-el are one and the same. The point that rectifies this statement the most is that after Auri-el came into being, time began, thus establishing an immediate connection.
Shouts
Battle Fury, Become Ethereal, Dragon Aspect, Elemental Fury, Fire Breath, Slow Time, Storm Call, Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint.
Battle Fury is great in addition to the rally pumps you’ll already be casting on your followers. Become Ethereal is great if you need to charge a powerful spell caster, and you also happen to get a free power attack out of it. Dragon Aspect is an insanely good buff to quite literally everything you want. Elemental Fury is a great way to take down tough enemies fast. Fire Breath can help you make quick work of a small, concentrated force as long as your followers aren't in the way. Slow Time allows you to do virtually the same thing as Elemental Fury, though it make particularly more powerful foes easier to dodge. Storm Call is amazing outdoors against a massive force—It works wonders in Skuldafn especially. Unrelenting Force is also a surprisingly defensive shout, especially when used on larger enemies who take longer to get back on their feet. Whirlwind Sprint can be used offensively or defensively; it allows you to dash in and out of the fray or close the gap on a particularly mean spell caster.
Quests
Main Quest Line, Dawnguard (Dawnguard), Dragonborn, Civil War.
These are the main problems that are ailing the land. This is why you have returned to Tamriel.
Main Quest Line: Possibly the largest current threat to Tamriel. This is your main priority. The rest of the conflicts arising can ultimately wait until you stave off the end of the world.
Dawnguard: Vampires threatening the whole of Tamriel? Seems like a problem. You’ll be taking the Dawnguard side here and will be picking up Auri-el’s Bow and Shield along the way.
Dragonborn: Miraak rears his ugly (albeit masked) head. You thought you were the first Dragonborn, the Paravant, but it seems that the Dragon Cult of the Merethic Era had some ideas of its own.
Civil War: This one is tricky. The Thalmor may not be Daedra-worshiping brutes, but they bear a striking resemblance to the Ayleid overlords you overthrew in the First Era. On the other hand, you’re not sure what to think about one of your ancestors being considered a god. Choose your side wisely, the fate of Skyrim hangs in the balance.
Break of Dawn: You can choose to wield Dawnbreaker, though it’s not the most lore-friendly weapon for Alessia to possess.
Perk Spread
The above is the complete perk spread, this is the level 55 park spread.
Major Skills
One-Handed
Your main form of offense, aside from your followers. The sword is your weapon of choice, since it has the fastest attack speed while still having a good amount of damage.
Illusion
You will only be using the Calm and Rally effects from this skill. Calm effects are very powerful offensively and defensively, same as Voice of the Emperor.
Light Armor
You’re not a full mage and yet you’re not a brute either, meaning you’ll be utilizing light armor so you can take a hit and survive, but you should think twice about standing still.
Minor Skills
Archery
You prefer to pick fights from a distance and let your followers deal with it, though that is increasingly a luxury. Once you get Auri-el’s Bow, you’ll be able to summon a powerful sun attack while outside, this can often turn the tide of a battle if used correctly.
Block
A normal bash has enough stagger on a foe for you to put some space between you and heal a bit. Once you get Auri-el’s Shield, you’ll be taking a few more hits while blocking, but only to charge your shield.
Restoration
You want to make sure both you and your non-essential followers stay alive, and this is the skill for the job. Ultimately you only need Heal Other and Close Wounds.
Smithing
Armor isn’t cheap, and you’ll be getting three sets of armor and weapons for you and your two followers (see below), so the cost of the materials is much less than buying three sets of armor.
Equipment
Eventually you’ll want to suit up with the best light armor you can possibly make, which is Dragonscale. However, this character’s attire choice is pretty versatile. Though, she may or may not like Elven armor simply because of its origins. Anything from Leather to Ancient Falmer is fine, but my armor of choice was Dragonscale. Your shield will ultimately be Auri-el’s Shield.
For weapons, you can choose an unenchanted blade such as a Dragonbone Sword and Auri-el’s Bow. You don’t have to use Sunhallowed Arrows with it, but it does boots the power of the bow itself and makes better use of the enchantment. I used an Amulet of Talos and whichever enchanted ring I found that suited my needs for jewelry.
Gameplay and Role Play
Alessia had hardly any vices as far as we can tell, however history and lore are typically imperfect so we don’t know for sure. For the purposes of this build, she is a noble-hearted leader, so keep that in mind as you play. As far as combat goes, you want to dodge missile weapons as much as possible. If you’re running at an archer, don’t bee-line for them, weave and duck out of the way of their arrows. Another example is if you’re fighting a troll, they typically have very blatant tells, and you can often backpedal out of the range of their attack if you know the reach of your weapon, in this case a one-handed sword. Depending on how good you are with reading your enemies and dodging, you can ultimately kill just about anything. You won’t be using a shield much until later levels when you can take a few more hits. In the case of followers, you want to make sure you keep them buffed with a rally effect or three. You don’t have to be in combat to gain Illusion experience from rally spells, and all three spells stack.
Two Followers
In order to have two followers, you must start the quest “Prophet” from the Dawnguard quest line, so that you can have Serana as a voluntary follower. You also need to complete “Glory of the Dead” (make sure you cure your lycanthropy) and “Dragon Rising”. While Serana is you follower, head up to Farkas or Vilkas and start the quest “Dragon Seekers”. Make sure you have no bounty quests, as this will cause a glitch. Serana will still be your follower, and Farkas/Vilkas will be your second follower. You’ll be able to interact fully with both of them, meaning trading items, giving them commands, telling them to wait at a location, etc.). Once you complete the quest, you should be able to dismiss Farkas/Vilkas and recruit a second follower. To dismiss this glitch, dismiss your secondary follower first, then dismiss Serana and create a fresh save. For role play/Illusion purposes, you should do this after you have Serana cured of her vampirism. If you’re on the PC, I recommend just installing a small mod that allows the use of multiple followers.
Powers
Grand Rally
Courage + Rally + Call to Arms + Battle Fury
You inspire your followers and instill them with a newfound strength, allowing them to overcome otherwise insurmountable obstacles.
Fire and Lightning
Use Auri-el’s Bow to fire a Sunhallowed Arrow into the sun + Storm Call (In that order)
Using the power of Akatosh and the dragon blood that runs through your veins, you call a massive storm of fire and lightning to decimate all who stand between you and the safety of Tamriel.
Closing and Thanks
Thanks to Mason for hosting this contest.
Thank you, Pelinal Whitestrake for letting me bounce ideas off of you and ultimately giving me the idea to use Illusion in this build.
Credit to Okiir for the perk spread background and Bethesda/Zenimax for the skill icons (which I altered rather poorly).
I hope you all enjoyed reading this and will enjoy playing this character! Thanks for reading!
Yeah so you went for a more crowd control version of Alessia, as a commander in battle, but still an Acrobat like mine
I propose that you name your character build Saint Alessia (Vileo) while I name mine Saint Alessia (Armathyx). That should clear up any confusions.
Yeah so you went for a more crowd control version of Alessia, as a commander in battle, but still an Acrobat like mine
I propose that you name your character build Saint Alessia (Vileo) while I name mine Saint Alessia (Armathyx). That should clear up any confusions.
Yeah pretty much. I also never really used the Rally effects before, so I wanted to try those out. They were pretty fun to use.
And i'll do that. xD
Yeah pretty much. I also never really used the Rally effects before, so I wanted to try those out. They were pretty fun to use.
And i'll do that. xD
Funny you had the same problem I did with the Civil War, but ultimately I went with the Empire.
It's a good question. What side would Alessia be on? On the one hand you have to support a united empire. On the other hand you have to truly fight for mankind and get rid of the Thalmor and any pressure coming from the Aldmeri Dominion.
I went with the Empire because I saw it as a long term means of defeating the Dominion, but sometimes I thought maybe it would have made sense to go with the Stormcloaks in order to form a Skyrim-based Empire, also in the long term, that would immediately take the fight to the elves.
Funny you had the same problem I did with the Civil War, but ultimately I went with the Empire.
It's a good question. What side would Alessia be on? On the one hand you have to support a united empire. On the other hand you have to truly fight for mankind and get rid of the Thalmor and any pressure coming from the Aldmeri Dominion.
I went with the Empire because I saw it as a long term means of defeating the Dominion, but sometimes I thought maybe it would have made sense to go with the Stormcloaks in order to form a Skyrim-based Empire, also in the long term, that would immediately take the fight to the elves.
Thanks! It's basically a throwback to the rebellion against the Ayleids. A small force gaining momentum and inspiring others to join her cause, eventually taking down the powerful Ayleid overlords.
Thanks! It's basically a throwback to the rebellion against the Ayleids. A small force gaining momentum and inspiring others to join her cause, eventually taking down the powerful Ayleid overlords.