***************************************************************** The Elder Scrolls III "Blood Magic" by Hale 9/25/2019 v1.0.00 ***************************************************************** **************************************************************** Index: 1. Introduction 2. Thought-Process 3. The Blood Mages 4. Final Words and Thanks ***************************************************************** 1. Introduction ***************************************************************** The idea for this mod came about while I was working on YARABO (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/47150). In that mod, I had a few powers and togglable spells that, as a drawback, would damage or drain the user's stamina instead. I thought it would be neat to then do a "blood magic" mod that used health for spells as well, somewhat like how it was handled in Dragon Age Origins. This mod is my crude attempt at trying to implement this idea. The mod is split between 3 versions; - The "Full" version is as I intended, which makes some of the blood mage tutors hostile (one of whom is a vampire), or belonging to specific factions that will deny you service unless you're a member. You thus need to be a member of these specific factions and/or find a way to pacify the hostile mages. - The "Simple" version removes the mages from any factions they might have been a part of, pacifies the two that are normally hostile, and changes the vampire mage into a normal human, and relocates her to an alternate location. - The "SUPER Simple" version places all six of the mages, and the Odd Ruby, into the Eight Plates in Balmora. This exists mostly so players can test the mod right away, and see if they like the characters and dialogue. It isn't really intended for normal play, unless you really like the idea of these six weirdos openly chilling in a pub. ***************************************************************** 2. Thought-Process ***************************************************************** In an ideal world, I would have created a new power that allows the player to toggle between magicka and health to cast any spell, including custom spells and maybe even enchantments. However, I am woefully deficient when it comes to coding, or really, anything tech-related. Like absolute boomer-tier deficient. So, my rather blunt alternative was to make a whole lot of spells (about 792) that cost 0 magicka, but inflict Damage Health upon the caster as a secondary effect. The amount of damage done is equivalent to how much magicka would have been spent had this been a normal spell. Because of this, a character with enough magicka resistance won't be that effected by the side- effects of blood magic. With 100% immunity, you essentially have a ton of powerful free spells. It is INCREDIBLY easy to trivialize the game as a result of this, so keep that in mind if you decide to use this mod in a serious playthrough. For the most part, the mod simply copies and modifies a wide array of vanilla spells. For certain schools however, there was a lot more variety. Destruction and Restoration make up the majority of spells in this mod, due to how precise and particular a player might want to be with them, as opposed to the more utilitarian schools like Illusion and Alteration. I tried to include as many variants as possible for several types of magic since you can't spell-make with how blood magic is implemented through this mod. Of course, due to this, you also need to be proficient in Destruction magic in order to cast any of these spells. This is just a technical side-effect with my implementation, but I actually kind of like the idea due to it being an inherently destructive form of spellcasting. Another side-effect is that all spells cost 0 gold to purchase, since magicka-cost is apparently tied to the spells' monetary cost. This is something I would like to rectify, but I have no idea how to. As a result, I wrote the dialogue of the blood mages to imply that they wish to "freely share their knowledge" with you to compensate. Speaking of... ***************************************************************** 3. The Blood Mages ***************************************************************** To get these new spells, you need to find the six newly added blood mage tutors. They are mostly found in out-of-the-way or obscure locations, though there are slight variations depending on which version of the mod you use. As stated before, the "SUPER Simple" version places all 6 the Eight Plates, while the rest are found mostly in dungeons and caves. Their locations are listed in the two other notes that come packaged with this mod. Aside from the six mages, a familiar face has also been added to the ToddTest cell, near the Ordinators and nestled between the three Bloodmoon item chests. This ring-less bosmer can sell you all 792 spells at once if you just want to test them out immediately. To get to him, type "coc ToddTest" into the console. Lastly, in the depths of Nornen-dur, lies an "Odd Ruby" that contains the secrets of the most devastating spell included in this mod. It's an incredibly broken spell made mostly for fun, and was placed in a location as obscure as possible for this reason. However, a copy of it can be found in ToddTest, as well as in the Eight Plates if you are using the "SUPER Simple" version of the mod. No matter what version you use, the mages all have an incredibly low starting disposition, and you'll need to butter them up quite a bit before they'll be willing to share more info about themselves. ***************************************************************** 4. Final Words and Thanks ***************************************************************** I hope you enjoy Blood Magic! As I stated earlier, I am NOT a very tech-savvy person, and I did the best I could with what I wanted to do. If you have any criticisms, or suggestions for Blood Magic, definitely post it on the mod's Nexus page. If you want to reupload Blood Magic to another site, alter it to your own specific tastes, or use this in your own mod, feel free to do so. Hell, if you know how to implement the simple, togglable ability version that I fantasized about in section 2, go for it! I would be genuinely overjoyed if something like that existed and made this mod obsolete. Now for the mushy stuff. Big thanks to Bethesda, in its many incarnations from LeFay to Howard, for creating one of my favorite game series of all time. And thank you to the modding community for insane dedication and love you've given back to these games over the last two decades. I hope we see many more.