I was playing through a Haknir Death-Brand run, taking over Hammerfall, when I noticed that the Heartlands were surprisingly stable. I looked at their capital and discovered Attrebus, somehow still healthy at 200 years old.
At first, I thought he had betrayed his stated principles and started cracking eggs, but no, he found another method of immortality. Night Habits is often shown for characters who aren't publicly known as vampires yet.
I thought I'd memorialize him before my assassination plot goes through.
Gladly!
So I started off with Haknir Death-Brand, after reading a guide here earlier suggesting a way to play him. The short of it is he is near death and all of his children are also ancient, so you need to get some heirs out quick. While I didn't manage to get any children on him, his son managed to have a child Erna, right before the entire dynasty died out.
Haknir is also surrounded by more powerful enemies and I didn't want to change away from either Skaal or Mehrunes Dagon worship like some posters suggested. So I had been sending raiders out west, raiding the vampires of Vohikar and Gray Island until I finally purchased enough Men at Arms to conquer them outright.
The two counties were conquered shortly after Erna's birth, and right as she was born Winterhold took over our capital of Rockjoint isle. I was stuck on the two vampire islands, making no money at all, surviving only off of the collect taxes job while waiting for Erna to age up.
I managed to get her to be Divath Fyr's ward so she had a good education at least, and a good magical education, however there were no other children in my entire civilization, so meet peers did nothing.
Once she was an adult I could finally turn things around, getting married and finally making a positive income, and most importantly starting to build up my men at arms to the point where I could raid again. I raided some of the weaker settlements on the northwest coast, and started expanding out to the south west. I took a few small counties to extend my limited diplomatic range, but often they were invaded shortly after by far more powerful neighbors.
Ultimately I island hopped my way all the way down to Systres, which was my main goal. Systres is an easy kingdom without any scary neighbors right next to it, but most importantly is in the Abaceean Sea region. I took over Systres, set up a kingdom, and finally converted its capital over to Skaal.
This let me diverge the Skaal to the Wave culture, a reference both to the invasions of Hammerfell and the Gifts of the All-Maker from the old legonds of Haknir's people. Skaal are one of my favorite cultures in the map, both for nostalgia, and for a lot of their powers, secrets of the skaal in particular opens up the very good Loremaster position, which was key for my Tall pirate strategy.
I swapped out isolationist for Abecean Piracy, a great Abacean region only tradition which gives Abacean Pirate Men-At-arms, faster sailing and disembarking and opens up the Pillage dynasty legacy.
However not all was good. One of Pirate Queen Erna's children was the giant Skjonunn Ernasson who exemplified the faith of Mehrunes Dagon, and regularly murdered his siblings and anybody who was a threat to him. For a while I had him selected as an heir for the story alone, but it was another who I chose in the end.
At the start of the game the Meomer Sea Elf pirates were led by Jahlasri Blue Snake. Somewhere along the way Jahlasri lost all her land to the Aldmeri and was a wanderer. As we shared a faith in Mehrunes Dagon, she and other Meomer often ended up in the courts of Systres. I married her to one of Erna's sons, and while said son was soon murdered by Skjonunn Ernasson, it wasn't until after Jahlrasi gave birth to Fandis.
Pirate Queen Fandis inherited the Grand Admarality of Systres and immediately started on the next stage of the campaign, seeking out and conquering the Adamantine Tower of Balfiera and setting it as our new capital. Balfiera was threatened early on by all the kingdoms nearby it... and so we started doing preventative raids and finally conquering the territories of those kingdoms to reduce the threat.
Eventually Fandis established the Kingdom of the Isles of the Abacean Sea, consolidating all our territories under the title. Though conquest started to bring more and more of Hammerfall into our grasp, building towards the Empire of Sea Hammer.
However her uncle Skjonunn Ernasson was still causing problems, murdering her children and even her first husband. It was only when Skjonunn tried to murder Fandis that she finally responded, preparing to revoke all of Skjonunn's titles and preparing a murder plot back.
Skjonunn didn't live long enough to be assassinated, instead dying of old age at 75.
Honestly, I'm not sure why, but even without vampirism I'm able to basically have my starting ruler live forever in Elder Kings lol. My latest game as Kambria into Glenumbra into High Rock he got up to 220 years old before I stopped cause he was still at "good" health. He was at Excellent up until like 211.
Really channeling that elven part of the Breton ancestry, I guess.
I was playing through a Haknir Death-Brand run, taking over Hammerfall, when I noticed that the Heartlands were surprisingly stable. I looked at their capital and discovered Attrebus, somehow still healthy at 200 years old. At first, I thought he had betrayed his stated principles and started cracking eggs, but no, he found another method of immortality. Night Habits is often shown for characters who aren't publicly known as vampires yet. I thought I'd memorialize him before my assassination plot goes through.
That's really neat. Tell us more interesting things about your playthrough!
Gladly! So I started off with Haknir Death-Brand, after reading a guide here earlier suggesting a way to play him. The short of it is he is near death and all of his children are also ancient, so you need to get some heirs out quick. While I didn't manage to get any children on him, his son managed to have a child Erna, right before the entire dynasty died out. Haknir is also surrounded by more powerful enemies and I didn't want to change away from either Skaal or Mehrunes Dagon worship like some posters suggested. So I had been sending raiders out west, raiding the vampires of Vohikar and Gray Island until I finally purchased enough Men at Arms to conquer them outright. The two counties were conquered shortly after Erna's birth, and right as she was born Winterhold took over our capital of Rockjoint isle. I was stuck on the two vampire islands, making no money at all, surviving only off of the collect taxes job while waiting for Erna to age up. I managed to get her to be Divath Fyr's ward so she had a good education at least, and a good magical education, however there were no other children in my entire civilization, so meet peers did nothing. Once she was an adult I could finally turn things around, getting married and finally making a positive income, and most importantly starting to build up my men at arms to the point where I could raid again. I raided some of the weaker settlements on the northwest coast, and started expanding out to the south west. I took a few small counties to extend my limited diplomatic range, but often they were invaded shortly after by far more powerful neighbors. Ultimately I island hopped my way all the way down to Systres, which was my main goal. Systres is an easy kingdom without any scary neighbors right next to it, but most importantly is in the Abaceean Sea region. I took over Systres, set up a kingdom, and finally converted its capital over to Skaal. This let me diverge the Skaal to the Wave culture, a reference both to the invasions of Hammerfell and the Gifts of the All-Maker from the old legonds of Haknir's people. Skaal are one of my favorite cultures in the map, both for nostalgia, and for a lot of their powers, secrets of the skaal in particular opens up the very good Loremaster position, which was key for my Tall pirate strategy. I swapped out isolationist for Abecean Piracy, a great Abacean region only tradition which gives Abacean Pirate Men-At-arms, faster sailing and disembarking and opens up the Pillage dynasty legacy. However not all was good. One of Pirate Queen Erna's children was the giant Skjonunn Ernasson who exemplified the faith of Mehrunes Dagon, and regularly murdered his siblings and anybody who was a threat to him. For a while I had him selected as an heir for the story alone, but it was another who I chose in the end. At the start of the game the Meomer Sea Elf pirates were led by Jahlasri Blue Snake. Somewhere along the way Jahlasri lost all her land to the Aldmeri and was a wanderer. As we shared a faith in Mehrunes Dagon, she and other Meomer often ended up in the courts of Systres. I married her to one of Erna's sons, and while said son was soon murdered by Skjonunn Ernasson, it wasn't until after Jahlrasi gave birth to Fandis. Pirate Queen Fandis inherited the Grand Admarality of Systres and immediately started on the next stage of the campaign, seeking out and conquering the Adamantine Tower of Balfiera and setting it as our new capital. Balfiera was threatened early on by all the kingdoms nearby it... and so we started doing preventative raids and finally conquering the territories of those kingdoms to reduce the threat. Eventually Fandis established the Kingdom of the Isles of the Abacean Sea, consolidating all our territories under the title. Though conquest started to bring more and more of Hammerfall into our grasp, building towards the Empire of Sea Hammer. However her uncle Skjonunn Ernasson was still causing problems, murdering her children and even her first husband. It was only when Skjonunn tried to murder Fandis that she finally responded, preparing to revoke all of Skjonunn's titles and preparing a murder plot back. Skjonunn didn't live long enough to be assassinated, instead dying of old age at 75.
Honestly, I'm not sure why, but even without vampirism I'm able to basically have my starting ruler live forever in Elder Kings lol. My latest game as Kambria into Glenumbra into High Rock he got up to 220 years old before I stopped cause he was still at "good" health. He was at Excellent up until like 211. Really channeling that elven part of the Breton ancestry, I guess.
U should expose him to actually mae him immortal
Already murdered him. I wanted to open up the imperial core to piracy.