Skyrim Build: The Daedric Fugitive

Hello there fellow Dovahkiin. Today I'm bringing you a build fresh from the Deadlands. This is the Daedric Fugitive, a Redguard who was taken from his home during the Oblivion Crisis and dropped into Mehrunes Dagon's plane of Oblivion: The Deadlands. This escapee was able to find his way out when the Hero of Kvatch entered one of the portals and forced the jailers to leave the Fugitive unattended. After escaping, the Fugitive made his way down the tower, through the portal and back to Tamriel. Except not back to his home or even to Hammerfell. No, the Hero of Kvatch had unknowingly sent the poor Redguard into Skyrim, and years into the future by removing the Sigil Stone from the tower just as the boy passed through the Oblivion Gate. However, this left an impression on the Fugitive, imprinting magical powers onto the Redguard as he passed through time and space. This will grant him the upper hand and allow for his survival, and I'll explain more in the proper sections. So put on your traveling gear and let's take a look into the story of the Daedric Fugitive.

The Character: As I mentioned before, this character is a Redguard, a proud warrior hailing from the country of Hammerfell, and one of my favorite races to play as a One-Handed character due to their starting skill level of 25 in One-Handed, but more on skills later. This character will be able to regenerate his stamina 10x faster for 60 seconds once per day with his racial ability "Adrenaline Rush", something I honestly never utilize, but is there for your personal use should you want to try this character out for yourself. The name for our character is quite unique also, given that Reguards do not traditionally have family (last) names, only having first names as described by the UESP wiki. This Reguard is named Baelar, and he will be more of a lawful evil character, pursuing power no matter how many heads must roll for him to get it, which I'll touch on later.

Factions: For this character, you will want access to the College of Winterhold for access to the master-level spells. You can also get a bed to sleep in, an enchantment table and alchemy lab for a mere 30 coins, since you will probably need to buy the spell from Faralda for the entry test. I'd also recommend the Volkihar Vampires as that can give you the vampire lord form, which is pretty neat in my opinion. You could also go for werewolf instead if you want, and this will require you to join the companions when you get to Whiterun.

The Stat Spread and Skills: The Daedric Fugitive plays like a battlemage, slinging spells in his left hand and swinging a weapon in his right. The skills for this build are as follows: Conjuration, One-Handed, Destruction, Light Armor, and Restoration. As always, I don't mention the crafting skills since I go for them anyways, so I also use Enchanting, Smithing, and Alchemy for the various benefits they all have. For your stats, every five levels you will invest 1 point into health, 2 points into magicka, and 2 points into stamina. When you have a comfortable amount of magicka and enough perks into your magic skills that you stop running out of magicka, invest the 2 points into health, for 3 health and 2 stamina every five levels. If you enchant your weapon with drain magicka it will also refill your magic meter every strike, so that will also help, but more on that in the next section.

Spells and Enchantments: For this character, you will want to prioritize leveling your Conjuration, so you might benefit from using the corpse trick. Kill something, anything really, and then cast soul trap on its corpse until you run out of magicka, wait for an hour in game, and then repeat this process until you power level your Conjuration up to at least 90 so you can get the Atronach Forge. Grab the mage stone for an extra 20% exp to mage skills, and sleep in a bed you own for another 10% boost in experience for a short time. The Aetherial Crown with the Lover's stone also gives you the lover's comfort buff, and you can unequip the crown, then sleep, and put the crown back on to get the Lover's Comfort and Well-rested (I think this works anyway). Joining the College of Winterhold will grant you access to the master Conjuration trainer and spell vendor, Phinis Gestornce, and once you are at the appropriate level for Conjuration, you can buy the relevant spells from him. You will want to eventually buy Conjure Dremora Lord, Soul Trap, Bound Sword, and Dread Zombie to reanimate the dead. In Destruction, you will want the Choking Grasp line of spells and the Elemental Bolt line of spells added with the Anniversary Edition. Each can be bought at the corresponding level from Farengar in Whiterun, and Faralda from the College of Winterhold. I highly recommend watching Senpai Jake (https://www.youtube.com/@SenpaiJake) show you how to power level your skills if you want to be a mean, lean, spellcasting machine, because he has some great videos on YouTube. For Restoration, you will want to always take your business to Colette Marence and the College, because she has the Turn Undead spells which can be cast on the undead in the Midden, found under a hatch next to the Hall of the Elements. Reduce the cost of the Restoration spells with Enchanting, and then go to town making the undead pee themselves at the sight of you. Again go watch Senpai Jake on YouTube for the full breakdown on how to level Restoration, or watch Fevvy (https://www.youtube.com/@Fevvy) and one of his build guides on making an OP Restoration-using build, he's got tons of them. For Restoration, you will want healing spells. You could go for the poison spells too, but that is optional. Though Vampires are immune to poison, so it could be a "know thy enemy" type thing where your immunity is adapted into spells.

For Enchantments I recommend using soul trap, fiery soul trap, or the frost or shock soul traps added by the "elemental soul traps" mod. If you know where to look, you can find the Silent Moon soul trap enchantment near the city of Whiterun, which is also pretty valuable to throw on weapons when leveling Enchanting, allowing you to recover some of the gold you spent on soul gems. I also recommend putting absorb magicka or health depending on if you reduce magic costs by 100% or not. For armor, I'd use the double enchantment perk to reduce two magic school costs to zero, allowing you to summon daedra, heal yourself, or damage your opponents if you don't want to summon the Dremora this particular fight. Either way, reduce two schools of magic to zero cost, and then buff up your one-handed damage, as well as your health pool and stamina pool so you can power attack and stay alive. Light armor doesn't protect as much as heavy, so buffing health will help boost your chance of remaining unstabbed to death.

Throw your enchanted one-handed weapon of choice into your right hand, slap on the best (or best looking) light armor you can find, and you got a Daedric Fugitive. I opted for Light instead of Heavy Armor because we need to be light on our feet to escape from Dagon's minions should they come after us. We may have escaped him once, but will we be safe from his clutches forever? Though you might be wondering, how did we manage to get caught up in this predicament in the first place? Well my dear reader, let me spin you a tale from Dragonstar, a city on Hammerfell as we explore the life of Baelar before he came to Skyrim.

Backstory: For as long as he can remember, Baelar was always alone. His mother had disappeared in his early youth, leaving him with a kind-hearted father who loved him very much. Baelar was an only child. He had no friends, and his father was always working. They lived in Dragonstar, a city in northeastern Hammerfell that shares its border with High Rock and Skyrim. The bordering country of Skyrim was the seat of a war between the Redguards, Nords, and Bretons for territory over the Western Reach. Baelar's father was a guard in the city, doing his best to protect his home and the most important person he had left. This job, however, kept Baelar from seeing much of his father, as he would always return from watch duty exhausted. Baelar knew what his father did was important, and when he wasn't on duty, they would be in town together or at home where Baelar was taught to read, write, and do simple calculations. Baelar's father loved his son, and swore that he'd always do his best to keep his boy safe. Well, one day Dragonstar was split into two territories, the East and West.

It was a battle between the two halves of the town, and there were frequent acts of destruction from both sides. Baelar asked his father what was going on, to which his father replied, "I'm not sure. We are at odds with our fellow townspeople." This confused Baelar, but he knew he never had to worry with his father by his side. That was until one day, in the 427th year of the 3rd era, the West side of Dragonstar attacked the East. Baelar's father was on duty, and while he and his fellow guards drove the attackers back, he was wounded in battle. The healers did all they could, but his wounds were too deep. Baelar wasn't expecting the captain of the guard to visit, but offered him a drink all the same. Unfortunately, this visit wasn't one of leisure, but of business. The captain did his best to give Baelar the news gently, but the news still broke the boy. He was only 15 at the time, but he was very close with his father, after all they were the two men of the house as his father had always said. He thanked the captain for delivering the news, and offered a drink one last time, but the captain politely declined and told Baelar to have one for him. With that the captain returned to duty, imparting the sword used by Baelar's father as a gift for the young Redguard, in hope he might learn to use one for self-defense should the need arise. The young Redguard took it and held it close, allowing a few tears to escape his eyes. The captain gave the boy a hug and said farewell. Once alone, the tears came naturally to Baelar, and they kept flowing until the sun had almost set. Wiping the tears away, Baelar pulled himself together and looked through his father's old books, hoping there was something he could find to earn himself some coin. Fond memories of the man brought on new waves of sadness, but Baelar pushed through them, he was his father's son, and he would do what he could to not let himself sink into despair. The one thing his father taught him that he needed now, was courage. Courage to face the heartache he would surely feel for the rest of his life, and courage to face it head on and rise above it. Resilience was the key, so he needed to show his father and the world he could make himself strong. Maybe not physically, maybe not magically, or even of spirit. Strong enough to handle the pain the world throws his way. Always having another option in case plan A failed. That was his father's advice, and he knew he was right. Many tears came and went, but he finally found a way to make some coin, but it would have to wait until tomorrow. For the next several years he worked as a stable boy, caring for the horses of the rich nobles who traveled to the city. Most of them were arrogant and cocky, looking down on the boy as lesser than them because he shoveled muck all day. This led to Baelar feeling offended on some level, and after taking all that he could bear, he made a promise to his father that he would become stronger, and be able to show up any pompous fat cat that money does not guarantee safety.

Unfortunately, within the next few years, his resilience would be tested to the absolute extreme, but his strength of will shall be displayed to the fullest extent. In the year 433 of the 3rd Era, the Oblivion Crisis broke out. Oblivion gates opened all across Tamriel into the Deadlands: the plane of Oblivion ruled by Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of Destruction. Baelar was captured in his home, woken by the door being burst open by Daedroth. He went for his father's sword, but the Daedroth was faster, grabbing him and taking him back through to the Deadlands, where he would face brutal torture by lesser Daedra for the amusement of Dagon. Time had lost all meaning. Had days passed? Weeks? Months? Years? Baelar did not know. His body had been beaten and battered, and his will broken. He was unsure how long he had been there, but something had drawn his tormentors away. He wasn't sure what it was, but this was the chance he needed to escape. With a small piece of metal in his cage, he used it as a lockpick, letting himself free to slip out without notice. He was surprisingly stealthy, but there were hardly any Daedra in the tower he was held in. The ones that were had been slain by a figure that had gone through a doorway to the higher levels of the tower. This was who would be the Hero of Kvatch, and had he known of Baelar's existence, he would have led the poor boy to safety. However, Baelar was too stealthy for his own good, and it wound up costing him everything he had ever known. The Hero made it up to the top of the tower just as Baelar got to the Oblivion Gate, and as the boy stepped through, the Hero pulled the Sigil Stone, disrupting the link between Tamriel and the Deadlands.

This distorted time and space, and sent Baelar into the wilderness of Whiterun Hold. With nothing but a loincloth to his name, Baelar got off the ground and looked around. He saw rolling fields all around him, confusing him as to where he was since he was obviously nowhere near Dragonstar. As luck would have it, it was nighttime, and he would soon freeze if he did not find some clothing. Fortunately, he was near a small camp that had been raided by bandits not long before he got there. The fires were smoldering, and the corpses were fresh. Apologizing to the poor people who had been ransacked, he rummaged through their belongings, finding some clothes and some armor. He also found a sword still in its sheathe, evidence this group was taken by surprise. Seeing the blade made him wish he had his father's sword, but he had hoped someday that he would return to Hammerfell and continue his life where he left off. He planned to stay the night here, then head off in the morning to the nearest settlement and see if he could get some answers, and see if the town would accept help fighting the Daedra back to the Deadlands. He built a fire, and then settled down for the night, but heard rustling in the bushes nearby. Wolves had come to find the scraps of meat left on the corpses, and found a live meal instead. One of the wolves charged him, lunging at the fresh meat with vicious glee. Baelar's life flashed before his eyes, and he stuck his hands out to block the wolf, but instead the wolf fell in front of him, dead. Baelar looked up and saw a Daedra who was dispatching the rest of the pack with vicious cries. Baelar thought he must be dreaming, but he was sure he had not gone to sleep yet. That was then he remembered the Daedra had captured him so he prepared to be grabbed again. However, the daedra did not take him, but instead returned to the plane of Oblivion it had been summoned from. This was when Baelar realized that he had been given a gift. He was able to cast magic and summon Daedra to aid him in battle. This gave him great comfort and allowed him to drift off to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, he ventured to Whiterun hold, not too far from the campsite he slept at. When he got there, his entire world turned upside down. He learned that he was not in the 3rd era anymore, and that it was 201 years after he had been taken. He was taken aback by the information, but realized he was completely alone, and anyone he knew back in Dragonstar was probably long-since dead. Realizing he was alone now, he set off from the city and just traveled. He eventually hears tell of a college for mages in Winterhold, and decides to go there, realizing he could live several lifetimes if he was gifted enough with magic. This, he thought, was the only thing worth pursuing now, and he had to live for himself.

Summary and Closing Remarks: So there we have it. Baelar is a changed man thanks to his time in Oblivion and the abuse of the nobles. This drives him to be hungry for power, so much so that you could have him join Harkon and his legion of vampires like I did. This will give you a reason to use the choke hold spells since they drain health from the target, and the elemental bolt could be roleplayed as training from Faralda. Restoration is used for the Necromage perk, which gives a boost to effects against undead targets. This means that you will receive extra benefits from your enchanted gear, making it easy to get to 100% reduced spell cost for any magic schools you see fit, as well as giving you extra buffs for the other attributes you seek to utilize. I also recommend an alternate start mod to be able to skip the long opening scene, and begin the adventure in the wilderness (doesn't need to be Whiterun, that's just where I chose to have Baelar land). I hope this build will give you something new to play if you want to keep things fresh, but also be a magically enhanced warrior. Fight or die well, and may we meet in Sovengarde.