::Features::

I've always been that guy who plays mage characters in RPGs. Necromancers have always been my favorite class to play for the added difficulty and strategy involved with optimizing undead, the preparation required beforehand and the sheer satisfaction when you were repaid for all of the time and effort that went into them. I will never forget all of the fun that I've had with reanimation in Oblivion and Skyrim, but I've always wanted some more complexity in the Necromancy experience and variety in the necromancer builds that can be possible, so I created this mod to hopefully help with that.



This mod DOES a few things:

• It creates its own Necromancy skill which is separate from the Conjuration skill, levels up the more its practiced and influences a few of the new spells.
• It introduces a few new mechanics to the Necromancy experience while keeping as close to the lore as possible.
• It gives the player an immersive way to gradually improve and expand their Necromancy knowledge via a unique grimoire.
• It prevents reanimated thralls from turning to ash when they die, which allows them to be reanimated again. Please note that enemy Necromancers will also benefit from this feature as well so it will make fighting them more challenging.
• It provides the means to toggle off the default zombie voices for reanimated thralls.
• It adds a few new reanimation spells that eliminate the level cap and opens up the ability to reanimate a larger range of different corpses than before.
• it grants players the opportunity to customize the weapons, armor and default outfits of reanimated thralls.
• It gives players the ability to summon reanimated thralls.
• It offers players the ability to increase the reanimation limit in an immersive manner.
• Reanimated thralls raised with the new reanimation spells will not trigger the annoying "That spell looks dangerous" comment from NPCs.
• It grants players the ability to dissect corpses and harvest organs and ingredients that are typically difficult to find in the vanilla game.
• It gives players a way to view stats for reanimated thralls so that players can easily compare them and be well informed when trying to optimize them.
• It adds an alternate means outside of the permanent corpse exploit to safely and permanently keep corpses.
• It grants players the ability to create a wide variety of undead that can be reanimated.
• It adds the ability to memorize a large number of humanoids and creatures to create clones.
• It includes fixes for a few of the vanilla necromancy bugs, namely the "moonwalking" bug.
• It opens up more uses for Black Soul Gems beyond enchantments.
• It introduces a new recipe for the Atronach Forge that unlocks the ability to craft Black Soul Gems as well as other methods to acquire them.
• It offers an immersive way to resurrect dead NPCs without the need of console commands.
• It gives the player the ability to craft unenchanted replicas of the Necromancer's Amulet and the Necromancer's Robes set.
• It grants players the ability to craft embalming tools which can be used to perform dissections.
• It gives players the ability to craft unenchanted "cloth" versions of the daedric gauntlets for the folks out there like me who only plays in first person and loves the look of those gauntlets when casting spells but don't want to forfeit the armor bonus from the Mage Armor perk. #FashionScrolls
  

This mod DOES NOT:

• Require SKSE 64.
• Come with an MCM menu.
• Require a new game or save.
• Edit any of the vanilla perks or perk trees.
• Edit any of the vanilla spells.
• Add any custom alchemical ingredients.
• Add a lot of custom miscellaneous items.
• Criminalize Necromancy, players won't gain a bounty for practicing it.
• Localize Necromancy, players can perform it from anywhere without being bound to specific locations.
  

While the primary goals of this mod have been achieved, this mod is still a work-in-progress, so more features and mechanics to Necromancy will be introduced in future updates.








::De Vermis Mysteriis::

De Vermis Mysteriis, also known as "Mysteries of the Worm," is a dark grimoire which serves as teacher and mentor to new necromancers. The grimoire has a life of its own and oftentimes appears to new necromancers after they have reanimated their first corpse with the promise of power at the cost of souls. It occupies the shield slot when equipped, can be favorited and can be held by the player, despite being flagged as a shield it doesn't provide any armor and will not conflict with the vanilla Mage Armor perk from Alteration. Once equipped, it can be read and the player can begin their journey down the path of Necromancy.

• Update Mod - This option only becomes visible whenever a new update of this mod is installed, players will need to press this option to finalize the updating process in-game.
• Cast - Grants players the ability to summon and banish undead back to storage. This option will only become visible after the player unlocks the ability to promote their reanimated thralls.
• Ritual - Allows players to perform the "Soul Harvest" and "Requiem" rituals.
• Soul Harvest - A ritual that allows players to convert filled black soul gems into the "Souls" currency that's used by the mod.
• Requiem - This ritual allows players to discard the templates of broken minions that were automatically disposed by the mod. The templates are used as a reference in the creation of Corrupted Thralls. Please keep in mind that this ritual only appears after the mod has disposed your first broken minion.
• Stats - The player's necromancy related stats can be viewed with this option.
• Player's Chest - This option only becomes available if Cheat Mode is enabled in the mod's settings, it's a magical chest that can be accessed via the book and contains several starting ingredients and tools required for Necromancy. It has also been flagged as safe storage, perfect for all of the cheating criminal scum out there.
• Junk Chest - This option only becomes available if the Debugging Mode is enabled in the mod's settings, it is a chest which temporarily stores the belongings of the last 25 corpses that were disposed, thus giving the player another opportunity to access those items should they accidentally dispose a corpse with loot that they wanted or to recover items from broken minions that was automatically disposed by the mod.
• Settings - This allows players to tweak specific aspects of the mod.
• Difficulty Mode: Casual - This mode circumvents the requirements for "Souls" for casting certain spells via the mod's menu interactions. It also makes black soul gems immune to breaking from the "Soul Harvest" ritual. Casual Mode will increase the chance to obtain Necromancy items with the "Augury of Death" perk by 11%
• Difficulty Mode: Normal - This difficulty mode will impose the price of "Souls" for certain spells however it will likewise make black soul gems immune to breaking from the "Soul Harvest" ritual. This mode will increase the chance of obtaining occult items with the "Augury of Death" perk by 9%.
• Difficulty Mode: Hard - This mode imposes a requirement of "Souls" to cast spells at zero magicka cost via menu interactions. Inexperienced Necromancers who perform the "Soul Harvest" ritual will run the risk of breaking their filled black soul gems into soul gem fragments. This chance of breaking black soul gems reduces with increased Necromancy skill, however, black soul gems will no longer shatter once the player achieves a Necromancy skill level of 100+. This mode will apply a 1 Soul penalty for every cast of the Memento Mori spell and will increase the chance of obtaining Necromancy items with the "Augury of Death" perk by 7%.
• Difficulty Mode: Nightmare - This difficulty mode comes with all the same penalties as Hard Mode but will instead increase the chance of obtaining Necromancy items with the "Augury of Death" perk by 5%.
• Debugging Mode - This setting unlocks the "Debug" button for each unique menu interaction (for the grimoire, corpses and undead). Debugging will attempt to fix any bug that the player might encounter. This mode also unlocks the "Junk Chest," a chest which temporarily stores the items of the last few corpses that were disposed.
• Cheat Mode - This setting sets the mod to ignore the requirements of souls and ingredients to perform Necromancy. It also introduces two new "scrolls" that expand the number of clones that can be studied, or souls bound to the grimoire - each of those new unique "scrolls" can store data on 128 unique corpses. It also grants players access to a "Player's Chest" via the grimoire which can be accessed from anywhere in the world and contains items that can be used to test the mod. Cheat Mode makes black soul gems immune to breaking from the "Soul Harvest" ritual. It increases the chance of obtaining Necromancy items with the "Augury of Death" perk by 100% and overrides the loot chance for the different difficulty modes. It allows players to craft undead and unlock chapters in the grimoire for free.
• Compatibility Mode (Corpse Menu) - This setting improves compatibility with undetected mods with corpse menus that conflict with the Corpse Preparation perk.
• Compatibility Mode (Undead Menu) - This setting improves compatibility with undetected mods with menus that allow interaction with reanimated thralls which conflict with the Speak With Dead perk.
• Speedrun Mode - This setting will allow players to speed up the dissection process by skipping the fade to black sequence. It also allows players to bypass menu prompts that request for confirmation before performing irreversible actions like dissections, disposals, etc.
• Zombie Voice - This setting toggles the default zombie voice or undead moans of reanimated thralls on or off. Please note that once the zombie voices are toggled off the reanimated thralls will use the idle and combat voices lines that they had in life.
• Read Grimoire - This option leads the player deeper into the book to learn the new perks and spells that the mod has to offer.
• Debug Mod - This option allows players to debug the mod itself and only becomes available when Debugging Mode is enabled. It's recommended that you at least attempt to debug the mod first before filing any bug reports should the issue persists.
• Close - This option closes the book's menu.
  

::Necromancy Skill System::

This mod isolates Necromancy into its own skill which can be leveled up. It can be leveled up by soul trapping, performing rituals, creating the undead, reanimating the dead, summoning the undead, dissecting corpses, harvesting ingredients, studying corpses and binding souls. It is uncapped, meaning that it's possible to push your Necromancy skill beyond level 100 and the mod is designed in such a way that players will still benefit from pushing Necromancy past 100. You will receive the grimoire soon after you reanimate your very first corpse with the mod enabled. Once you've obtained the grimoire, you will gain access to a "Necromancer Rank" visible within the Active Effects tab which will keep track of your Necromancy skill level (from Novice Necromancer to Master Necromancer) and the number of souls stored within the grimoire.


::Souls System::

Souls are needed as a power source for certain rituals (like reanimations with zero magicka cost via menu interactions) and, as the beginning of this section hinted to, a currency to unlock more chapters to advance one's knowledge in Necromancy. In a way, "Souls" will behave like perk points for the purposes of this mod. To obtain "Souls" the player needs to acquire a black soul gem that's filled with a grand soul and perform the "Soul Harvest" ritual with the book. Players can also do the reverse and channel their "Souls" into empty black soul gems in order to fill them.


::Chapters System::

With the "Read Grimoire" option of the grimoire, new spells and perks can be learned from the book's chapters. The grimoire will slowly reveal more chapters that can be unlocked with higher Necromancy levels (every 25 levels). However, these chapters will need to be translated in order to be understood by the player through the use of specific reference texts, manuscripts and/or certain ingredients. Once these chapters are "translated" then simply read them to learn the new spells or perks. If you wish to unlearn a specific perk or spell, then simply reopen the chapter to forget the chapter's contents. Once a player has learned the contents of a chapter it will "disappear" from the book, but if you wish to craft more copies of that chapter then toggling on Debug Mode will make that chapter's recipe visible again.





::Necrotic Affinity System::

Necromancy involves the manipulation of souls, and the grimoire equips the budding necromancer with the means to bend souls to their will. Players can choose one of six different affinities: Soul, Fire, Frost, Shock, Poison and Disease through the "Necrotic Affinity" spell and during specific conditions. With an affinity the player communes with souls of those who died in a specific and tragic manner connected to that affinity and then attunes the player to it. Fire Affinity binds the player to the souls of those who met their end to thirst or fire and can be unlocked while the player is being attacked with fire spells, being burnt by fire outside of combat or whenever the weather is hot. Frost affinity aligns the player with the souls of those who died from the harsh cold of Skyrim and can be chosen whenever the player is struck with ice spells or while wandering through snowy weather. With Shock Affiinity the player binds themselves to the pain of those who perished to lightning, it can be triggered whenever the weather is rainy or stormy or while being killed with shock magic. A player can commune with the souls of those who died from poisoning while under the effects of poison themselves to unlock Poison Affinity. Disease Affinity can be unlocked after the player has contracted a disease or while battling creatures known to spread them like rats and wolves. Soul Affinity ties the player to the restless souls of those who died under mysterious circumstances and gets selected whenever the player casts the spell in ominous weather like fog or whenever the weather is overcast. Necrotic Affinity allows players to customize the visuals of the reanimated thralls that were raised by the new reanimation spells in this mod, it alters the damage types for certain hostile spells and interacts in different ways with some of the new perks like Necrotic Inoculation.


::Novice Necromancy::

This rank teaches the player a ritual to create undead, dissect corpses, interact with reanimated thralls and more. You can access these spells and perks by default via the book's "Read Grimoire" menu option.

• Corpse Preparation - This perk allows players to interact with the dead via a menu, perform rituals, dissections and dispose corpses. Be warned though, this perk will temporarily become inactive whenever the player has the Ring of Namira equipped, since it interacts with corpses in a similar manner, unequip the Ring of Namira to reactivate interactions with corpses once more. Corpse Preparation is a very complex system of the mod and will be elaborated on in the next section.
• Anatomical Insights - This is an alternative to "Corpse Preparation" which gives players the ability to craft two uniquely enchanted embalming tools at forges: a scalpel and embalming pick which can be used to avoid or minimize the need to interact with corpses via menus. The scalpel can be used to quickly dissect and harvest ingredients from corpses by simply slashing it a few times, the swings required can be reduced by removing the armor beforehand from the corpse and with higher Necromancy levels. The embalming pick primarily serves to improve compatibility with other corpse menu mods like CACO and Hunterborn by allowing players to slash the corpse to interact with it instead of activating it directly. These two enchanted embalming tools can be broken down at an enchanting table to learn their enchantments which can then be applied to different weapons for more customization options.
• Speak With Dead - This perk allows players to interact with their reanimated thralls via a menu to better customize and manage them. It teaches some more advanced rituals to improve the reanimated thralls further and the ability to promote undead. Due to how sophisticated this perk is, it will be explained in greater detail in another section.
• Animate Dead - An advanced version of the vanilla "Dead Thrall" spell with a few key differences. It can work on both NPCs and creatures, it eliminates the level cap for reanimated undead and the spell is delivered directly to a single target rather than via a projectile. It also eliminates the flags that label it as "dangerous" so that NPCs won't comment negatively about the spell if it's active. The only caveat to the spell is that you can't reanimate dragons and dwarven automatons for obvious reasons. Affinity alters this spell appearance.
• Subjugate Ghost - This works just like Animate Dead in every way, however, it is different in that it allows players to reanimate a corpse with a ghostly appearance instead. Affinity will morph this spell's appearance, for instance, players with Frost affinity will reanimate a chill friendly ghost.
• Augury of Death - This perk increases the chance of finding Necromancy related items like Black Soul Gems and the unique vials necessary for the Create Undead ritual from practitioners of the Dark Arts. This mod considers the following individuals as practitioners of the Dark Arts: any NPC who knows the vanilla reanimation spells (like Necromancers) and anyone who possess the Necromancy perk (like the Dragon Priests, Witches and Hagravens). Please note that the chance for the drop rate of these items vary based on the mod's difficulty setting and applies health debuffs for the harder difficulties of the mod (Hard and Nightmare Modes).
• Soul Harvest - This spell directly traps a humanoid soul into the Grimoire without the need of Soul Trap spells and Black Soul Gems.
  

::Apprentice Necromancy::

This rank is unlocked after level 25 Necromancy, the grimoire instructs Necromancers on how to better exert their will on their undead servants. It teaches you how to issue commands, how to temporarily bind enemy undead creations to your will, instructions on how to use your power to expand the limit on the number of dead that can be raised and more.

• Litany of Preservation - This perk unlocks the ability to promote reanimated thralls to Stored Dead. Stored Dead is a category of undead unique to this mod and will be explained in the separate Speak With Dead section.
• Summon Dead - This spell comes with the Litany of Preservation and allows players to summon Stored Dead to their side.
• Consecrate Dead - This spell allows players to remotely apply potions to their Promoted Undead and comes with the Litany of Preservation.
• Forbidden Knowledge - This perk makes it possible to craft vials at cooking pots, embalming tools at anvils, necromancer robes and grimoires at tanning racks. It teaches the ability to craft unique potions called "Blood Gems" which can be used to temporarily buff undead. It also unlocks the ability to craft Black Soul Gems at Atronach Forges, players will need to collect each one of the 5 unique soul gem fragments (that is created whenever a Black Soul Gem breaks in the higher difficulties of this mod) and either a Greater Soul Gem or a Grand Soul Gem (filled or empty) to craft the Black Soul Gem. The De Vermis Mysteriis can be broken down to learn its enchantment, so the grimoires that can be crafted with this perk will serve as perfect candidates for this enchantment and will open up more customization options.
• Necrotic Affinity - This power grants the ability to switch affinities. The player's current affinity can be tracked from the active effects tab.
• Danse Macabre - This perk uncaps the summon limit for players by tying it to magicka, the player gains an additional reanimated thrall for every 100 points of magicka. This of course means that those who truly want to become a powerful necromancer will need to invest heavily in magicka and less in health resulting in a squishy character which I'd like to think is a fair trade off. By default, this bonus caps off at 10 additional minions but with Cheat Mode enabled the magicka requirement is ignored and is capped at 50 additional minions.
• Domination - An apprentice necromancy spell which temporarily makes an unbound undead the player's companion or seize control of an enemy necromancer's reanimated thrall. Players will be able to command undead that are either at or below their character level. In addition to this level requirement, the effectiveness or success of commanding an undead with this spell increases with Necromancy skill. For instance, a level 30 character with a level 25 Necromancy skill will not be able to command a level 29 undead but will be able to once their Necromancy skill level either matches or exceeds that undead's level. Casual Mode only takes the player's level into account, while Cheat Mode ignores both the player's level and the Necromancy skill requirements.
• Soul Snare - This necromancy spell binds the soul of an enemy to your will upon their death, it behaves similar to the way soul trap requires the target to die while the spell is active. The soul is "animated" by the reanimation spell "Subjugate Ghost." This soul will be promoted to a Stored Dead automatically and will benefit from the advanced features of this mod.
• Memento Mori - This power casts non-hostile spells (like reanimation, magelight and armor spells) held in the player's right hand onto all of the player's nearby Promoted Undead (Stored Dead and Marked Undead). Harder difficulties of the mod like Hard Mode and Nightmare Mode will require 1 "Soul" per cast.
• Dismissal - This spell remotely kills the player's undead. It is learned at the same time with Memento Mori and can be paired with it to kill off all of the player's nearby Promoted Undead.
• Banishment - This spell allows players to remotely banish their undead. It can be learned under the same "Memento Mori" chapter and can be paired with that spell to remotely banish all of the player's nearby Promoted Undead. Unpromoted reanimated thralls will simply die on the spot if targeted with this spell.
• Catharsis - This spell allows players to dispel ongoing magic effects like reanimation effects on missing reanimated thralls. It can be learned under the same "Memento Mori" chapter and can be paired with that spell to remotely dispel magic or buffs from the player's nearby Promoted Undead. Please note that it only works outside of combat.
  

::Adept Necromancy::

This rank is unlocked after level 50 Necromancy at which point the grimoire teaches the player the secrets to not only bind more powerful souls, but to do so for much longer periods of time. This is a more advance course on the manipulation of souls and as such builds upon the introductory lessons on Necrotic Affinity.

• Litany of Ruin - This perk allows players to promote undead that were created via the Create Undead ritual or the Soul Snare spell into Marked Undead. Marked Undead is a category of undead specific to this mod that will be explained in the separate Speak With Dead section. This perk only becomes accessible once the Litany of Preservation perk is learned.
• Summon Undead - This spell allows players to summon Marked Undead to their side.
• Anathema - This follower spell allows players to order all of their nearby Marked Undead to attack a specific target.
• Necrotic Inoculation - This perk grants Promoted Undead immunity to damage from the player's affinity. For example, players who switched to Shock Affinity will now have Promoted Undead that are completely immune to shock spells. Please note that Soul Affinity will grant a 25% magic resistance instead since there isn't a corresponding "soul" resistance. The perk applies magicka debuffs to the player for the harder difficulties of the mod (Hard and Nightmare Modes).
  

::Expert Necromancy::

This fourth rank expands further on the lessons from the previous rank by teaching the player how to become a conduit for greater spirits. After level 75 Necromancy, the player learns how to resurrect the dead through the aid of the Great Sovereign and is granted the power to temporarily leave their body to possess their minions.

• Resurrection - This spell allows players to resurrect the dead.
• Possession - This spell makes it possible to take control of a Marked Undead's body. Sheathing one's weapons will quickly cancel the possession.
  

::Master Necromancy::

The final rank at level 100 Necromancy instructs players on how to awaken themselves spiritually by focusing their many lessons on soul manipulation inwards. The player learns how to greatly enhance their own skills and continue on their path to transcendence.

• Necrology - This perk is identical to the vanilla Necromage perk and will boost spells for the player if they are flagged as undead (via vampirism or lichdom with mods). It is designed for those who missed the way that the perk functioned before the Unofficial Skyrim Patch changed it.
  

::Corpse Preparation::

This section explains the various menu options that become available after the player learns the "Corpse Preparation" perk and interacts with a corpse while sneaking or with a swing of the embalming pick obtained via the "Anatomical Insights" perk. Each perk unlocks advanced interaction with all corpses with the exception of dragons and dwarven automatons. Those who have used Hunterborn in the past will have a better idea of what to expect as it's similar in a lot of ways. Please note that because of the way that the Ring of Namira interacts with corpses, this perk will temporarily go inactive (by design) if you have that ring equipped, so unequip the ring if you wish to reactivate this option.

• Search - This allows players to loot corpses.
• Dissect - Grants players the ability to dissect corpses to harvest ingredients and perform other tasks. The individual menu options for dissections will be explained in the "Corpse Dissection" section. Alternatively, the scalpel crafted via the "Anatomical Insights" perk can be swung at a corpse a few times to perform this action.
• Cast - Grants players the option of casting reanimation and resurrection spells with their "Souls" instantly via the menu instead of casting it with magicka. Casting those spells via the menu will be the only way that an unexperienced necromancer can cast those spells until they unlock the actual spells from the grimoire. It also allows players to dispel any ongoing magic effects.
• Ritual - Allows players to perform the Create Undead ritual.
• Create Undead - This ritual opens up the ability to create skeletal, corporeal, incorporeal and accursed undead.
• Demote - This option allows players to remove undead from the "Stored Dead" or "Marked Undead" category and optionally transfer them to the "Clean Up" category. All corpses that reside within the "Clean Up" category will be automatically disposed the next time that the player decides to use the "Dispose" button or whenever the player creates more undead.
• Dispose - Allows players to safely dispose vanilla corpses and the corpses of the undead that were created with this mod.
• Debug - This is an option that's only visible if Debugging Mode is enabled from within the grimoire's settings. It will attempt to fix any bug (vanilla or otherwise) that is affecting a specific corpse.
• Cancel - Allows players to exit the corpse preparation menu.
  

The player can craft four types of undead: skeletal, corporeal, incorporeal and accursed via the Create Undead ritual, which requires the acquisition of a few ingredients beforehand. While the secondary ingredients for each undead type will vary, there are four main ingredients that are required to perform the ritual:

• Vial of Corrosive Liquid - This concoction quickly dissolves the corpse's flesh in rituals to create skeletal undead.
• Vial of Embalming Fluid - This is used to preserve the corpses of fleshy or corporeal undead.
• Vial of Nightshade Oil - This oil is used to anoint corpses for rituals that create incorporeal undead.
• Vial of Tainted Blood - This vile blood is used to create accursed undead - creatures that have been infected with the curse of vampirism.
  

The main ingredients above can all be crafted at cooking pots, with the exception of the Vial of Tainted Blood which can be harvested from dissected vampires. A complete list of all the different undead types that can be created in this mod can be found under "The Undead" section.





::Corpse Dissection::

This section goes into more detail for the dissection menu which can be accessed via the corpse preparation menu. It unlocks a few options that are only made available after a dissection is performed and the player interacts with the dissected corpse while sneaking with the "Corpse Preparation" perk or with a swing of the embalming pick after the corpse has been dissected with the scalpel (both tools obtained via the "Anatomical Insights" perk). Please be warned though the act of dissection will mutilate a corpse in such a way that it can't be used in the creation of undead, however, the corpse can be reanimated and resurrected since those spells "repair" the dissected corpse. Please note that because of the way that the Ring of Namira interacts with corpses, this perk will temporarily go inactive (by design) if you have that ring equipped, so unequip the ring if you wish to reactivate this option.

• Search - This allows players to loot corpses.
• Harvest - This option allows players to harvest rare ingredients from certain corpses. Players can harvest hearts and flesh from humanoids, daedra hearts from dremora and lurkers, powdered mammoth tusks from mammoths, spriggan sap and taproot from spriggans, troll fat from trolls, vampire dust from vampires, bonemeal from draugr, ectoplasm from the spectral draugr, bonemeal and a skull from skeletons. Players can also extract a Vial of Tainted Blood from vampires which is a main component needed to create accursed undead. Alternatively, the scalpel crafted via the "Anatomical Insights" perk can be swung at a corpse a few times to perform this action.
• Study - Players can store information regarding the anatomy of a dissected corpse on one of three scrolls (and a fourth unique scroll which is only unlocked when Cheat mode is enabled). These scrolls can then be referenced to create clones of the dissected corpse, called "Worm Thralls" via the "Create Undead" ritual.
• Stats - This option allows players to view more information about the corpse in question and only becomes available to corpses that have been dissected first for obvious reasons.
• Cast - Allows players to cast reanimation and resurrection spells with "Souls" via the menu instead of magicka. It also allows players to dispel temporary magic effects.
• Demote - This option allows players to remove undead from the "Stored Dead" or "Marked Undead" category and optionally transfer them to the "Clean Up" category. All corpses that reside within the "Clean Up" category will be disposed the next time that the player decides to use the "Dispose" button. Corpses within the "Clean Up" category will also be disposed automatically whenever the player creates new undead.
• Dispose - Allows players to safely dispose vanilla corpses and corpses created with this mod.
• Debug - This is an option that's only visible if Debug Mode is enabled. It will attempt to fix any bug that is affecting a specific corpse.
• Cancel - Allows players to exit the corpse dissection menu.
  

::Speak With Dead::

Reanimated undead will have more options than vanilla should the player memorize this chapter of the grimoire. This perk, as its name suggests, aims to work just like a follower overhaul but for the undead and opens up more options to customize and carefully tweak reanimated undead. The following list seeks to explain what the various options do in this menu interaction.

• Trade - Allows players to exchange items with reanimated thralls.
• Equipment - This option allows players to order the reanimated thralls to equip weapons and armor and even order them to drink potions. It has a built-in outfit system which allows players to create new and permanent outfits based on what armor the thralls were ordered to wear. The outfit system also comes with a pre-made version of Tsun's outfit that male NPCs can use, as well as a "blank" outfit should players want Marked Undead to specifically use the best items alone and not revert to their default outfit.
• Command - Issues simple commands to reanimated thralls like "Dismiss" which kills the thrall automatically with more commands that will be added in the future.
• Stats - Allows players to view detailed stats on the reanimated thrall like the thrall's level, health, magicka, stamina, resistances, skill levels and more.
• Cast - Grants players the ability to dispel magic effects. It also allows players to cast non-hostile spells, that are equipped on either their right or left hand, on the reanimated thrall. This feature can be used to apply healing spells, armor spells, light spells, buffs and other utility spells. It is recommended that players stick to simple fire and forget spells and avoid concentration spells.
• Ritual - Allows players to perform the Soul Bind ritual.
• Soul Bind - A ritual that allows players to memorize how to create a specific reanimated thrall, by binding its soul to one of three scrolls (and a fourth unique scroll which is only unlocked when Cheat mode is enabled). These scrolls can then be referenced to create incorporeal clones of said thrall, called "Spectral Thralls" via the "Create Undead" ritual.
• Promote - Allows players to promote reanimated thralls to either "Stored Dead" or "Marked Undead" or demote them. These categories will be elaborated on in the next sections.
• Debug - This option only becomes visible if Debugging Mode is enabled. It will attempt to fix any bugs that are affecting a reanimated thrall.
• Nevermind - Kicks players out of the follower menu.
  

::Stored Dead::

Newly created undead are immediately flagged as "Stored Dead."

• Their health regenerates slowly over time outside of combat.
• They gain a bonus 100 points to health.
• They gain 100% resistance to poison and disease resistance with a 50% resistance to frost.
• They can be stored for later use.
• They can be summoned to the player with either the Summon Dead spell or with the grimoire's "Cast" option.
• They can be banished to storage via the "Cast" option in the "Speak With Dead" menu. Please note that they will be killed automatically just before being banished and then teleported to storage.
• They are immune to paralysis, disintegration, decapitation and the Wabbajack.
• They can water breathe just like other vanilla undead.
• The reanimation effect shaders for Stored Dead will persist across loading screens, unlike vanilla and modded reanimated thralls which lose their shaders due to a vanilla bug. This feature will also allow your Spectral Thralls to keep their ethereal properties across loading screens.
• Swapping affinities will seamlessly update the effect shaders for the reanimation spells without the need to kill and reanimate the thrall.
• A maximum of 25 bodies can be saved in this category.
• The number of corpses within this category can be tracked via the "Stats" option from the grimoire's menu.
  

::Clean Up::

Corpses of created undead can be removed from the Stored Dead category via the "Demote" option and sent to the Clean Up category. Corpses sent to this category will be reserved for the mod's built-in clean up system to prevent the likelihood of save bloating.

• They are reserved for the next clean up cycle should the player decides to "demote" Stored Dead.
• Corpses within this category are automatically cleaned up each time the player disposes a corpse.
• Corpses within this category gets purged automatically each time the player creates undead.
• Players can schedule a cleanup cycle via the "Debug Mod" option from the grimoire's menu.
• The clean up system safely disposes vanilla and modded corpses without destroying the spawn points for enemies.
• A maximum of 25 bodies can be sent to this category.
• The number of corpses within this category can be tracked via the "Stats" option from the grimoire's menu.
  

Due to the fact that one of the three triggers to initiate a cleanup cycle is the act of disposing a corpse, players should make it a habit to routinely dispose the corpses of created undead that they are not using anymore, instead of just leaving them around. If the corpse is one of the player's favorites, then the player can opt to "record" that corpse in the grimoire with either one of the mod's cloning systems: the Study system via corpse dissection or the Soul Bind system via the Soul Bind ritual accessed from the Speak With Dead's menu.


::Marked Undead::

With the Speak With Dead perk, players can "promote" created undead to "Marked Undead." Please note that players can only promote created undead to this category; players will not be able to promote vanilla NPCs and creatures directly, so they will need to create clones of their vanilla reanimated thralls using any one of the four cloning systems to unlock this feature. There are a few benefits to promoting your undead to Marked Undead:

• They will pull out their weapons whenever you do and will automatically equip the best armor and weapons in their inventory.
• They will sneak whenever the player sneaks.
• They will ignore friendly fire from allies during combat.
• They will never flee from combat even if they were clones of NPCs that generally flee from combat.
• Their health regenerates quickly over time outside of combat.
• They gain a bonus 100 points to health, stamina and magicka.
• They gain 100% resistance to poison and disease resistance with a 50% resistance to frost.
• They can be given outfits.
• They are now immune to paralysis, disintegration, decapitation and the Wabbajack.
• They can water breathe just like other vanilla undead.
• They can be summoned to the player with the Summon Undead spell.
• They can be banished to storage via the "Cast" option of the "Speak With Dead" perk. Please note that they will be killed automatically just before being banished and then teleported to storage.
• They can be issued orders like killing specific targets of the "Anathema" spell.
• They can be manually controlled with the "Possession" spell.
• The reanimation effect shaders for Marked Undead will persist across loading screens, unlike vanilla and modded reanimated thralls which lose their shaders due to a vanilla bug. This feature will also allow your Spectral Thralls to keep their ethereal properties across loading screens.
• Swapping affinities will seamlessly update the effect shaders for the reanimation spells without the need to kill and reanimate the thrall.
• A maximum of 25 reanimated thralls can be promoted to this category.
• The number of undead within this category can be tracked via the "Stats" option from the grimoire's menu.
  

::The Undead::

The Create Undead ritual grants players the ability to create 32 different types of undead which becomes 92 unique undead once the different classes of these undead types are taken into account. There are a few differences between the undead created with this mod and the ones from vanilla.

• They scale with the player's level, so will remain useful at higher levels.
• They immediately join the Stored Dead category and instantly gain access to the more advanced features of this mod.
• They have been set to not break the player's stealth if the player is sneaking.
• They all have the Light Foot perk, so they won't trigger traps.
• They all have the AlchemySkillBoosts and PerkSkillBoosts perks which will allow them to benefit from potions and enchantments that boost skills.
• Incorporeal undead created by this mod won't disintegrate on death and leave ash piles.
• The player can't resurrect created undead.
• New undead can't be made from created undead, but undead can be upgraded to greater undead if they have an upgradable option in the Create Undead ritual.
• Incorporeal undead can't be created from "soulless" corpses, that is, corpses that have had their souls used like "clay" to "mold" or create incorporeal undead.
  

::Skeletal Undead::

• Skeleton - Created from the corpses of NPCs. Five different skeleton types can be created based on the classes of the corpses, for instance, one can create skeleton archers from the bodies of those who were skilled in archery. Aside from archers one can create two-handers, one-handers, one-handers with a shield and a spell caster from the body of someone who was skilled with destruction magic.
• Corrupted Shade - Players can create 3 different types of corrupted shades - one Stormcloak shade from dead Stormcloaks, an Imperial shade from the corpses of Imperial soldiers and a generic shade from the bodies of those who were unaligned in the Civil War. Just as with the case of Skeletons above each type has 5 different classes, giving players the opportunity to raise a total of 15 different corrupted shades.
• Boneman - Created from the corpses of NPCs. Four different classes of Bonemen are available, with the mage archetype not being one of them.
• Mistman - Created from the corpses of NPCs.
• Wrathman - Created from the corpses of NPCs.
• Keeper - Created from the corpses of NPCs. Four different classes of keepers are available, with no mages available
• Corrupted Shade Priest - Upgraded from generic Corrupted Shades of the mage class.
  

::Corporeal Undead::

• Worm Thrall - Created from dead NPCs and by referencing scrolls with the anatomical sketches of corpses recorded from studying corpses after they were dissected. This undead is a corporeal clone of the subject that was dissected.
• Draugr - Created from dead NPCs. Five different Draugr are possible based on the classes of the corpses that were used, for instance, a Draugr that favors two handed weapons can be created from an NPC that favors the two-handed skill (just like in the case with Skeletons and Corrupted Shades above). This rule applies for all other Draugr types below as well.
• Restless Draugr - Created from dead NPCs.
• Draugr Wight - Created from dead NPCs.
• Draugr Scourge - Created from dead NPCs.
• Ash Spawn - Created from dead NPCs.
• Hulking Draugr - Created from dead NPCs.
• Draugr Deathlord - Created from dead NPCs.
• Forsworn Briarheart - Created from dead NPCs. Unlike the other corporeal undead the deceased NPC must be a male. Five different classes are available for Briarhearts.
• Draugr Overlord - Upgraded from Restless Draugr.
• Draugr Wight Lord - Upgraded from Draugr Wight.
• Draugr Scourge Lord - Upgraded from Draugr Scourge.
• Draugr Death Overlord - Upgraded from Draugr Deathlord.
• Dragon Priest - Upgraded from Draugr Death Overlord.
• Corrupted Thrall - Created from the templates of broken minions that automatically get disposed by the mod. These thralls are managed by the "Requiem" ritual.
  

::Incorporeal Undead::

• Spectral Thrall - Created from dead NPCs and by binding the souls of reanimated thralls via the "Soul Bind" ritual. These souls are bound to scrolls which can then be referenced in a way that's similar to Worm Thralls.
• Spectral Warhound - Created from dead canine like dogs, wolves and huskies.
• Spectral Draugr - Created from dead NPCs, just as with the case with other Draugr, one can create five different classes of this type of undead based on the class and equipment of the deceased NPC.
• Subjugated Ghost - Created from male dead NPCs, five different classes of ghosts can be produced based on the class and equipment of the corpse that the ritual is performed on.
• Headless Horseman - Created from male dead NPCs.
• Wisp - Created from any corpse.
• Ice Wraith - Created from any corpse.
• Wispmother - Created from dead female NPCs.
• Spectral Horse - Created from dead horses. This horse has been set to use the same meshes and textures that Arvak uses. This means that Spectral Horses will inherit the appearance of Arvak from Arvak mods like my Better Arvak mod, however, they won't inherit any of the passive and active spells from that mod. The auras of Spectral Horses will adapt to the player's affinity, meaning frost affinity will result in a frosty spectral horse.
  

::Accursed Undead::

• Death Hound - Created from dead canine like dogs, wolves and huskies.
• Frozen Chaurus - Created from dead Chaurus.
• Frozen Falmer - Created from dead Falmer. Five different classes can be raised based on the combat style that the Falmer had in life.
  

::Requirements::

• Skyrim - Latest Version
• Dawnguard
• Hearthfire
• Dragonborn
  

::Installation::

Before enabling the mod in your load order please kill off any reanimated thrall(s) that you might have with you and make a save or a few saves. It is important that you make a backup save before installing this mod, because this mod makes use of scripts and will corrupt your save should you decide to uninstall the mod on an ongoing save. This pre-installation backup save should be reloaded and used if you want to safely uninstall the mod at a later time. While save cleaners may be another option, I cannot vouch for how reliable they can be in cleaning orphan scripts from your save and might actually make things worse.

After making a pre-installation save to rollback to, should you change your mind about using the mod, you can either install the mod virtually with your preferred mod manager or copy and paste the contents of the zip files into the Data directory.



::Updating::

First of all, kill off any of your reanimated thralls before updating. You can update the mod by reinstalling it with the updated version through your mod manager or by manually deleting the mod and installing it again with the updated version. Once in-game equip the grimoire to enter the grimoire's menu, the player will see a new option available called "Update Mod." Click this option and wait for it to complete to finalize the mod's update in-game.



::Uninstallation::

This mod has scripts and shouldn't be uninstalled on an ongoing save that had the mod enabled. If you decide to uninstall the mod, then uninstall it and revert to the pre-installation save(s) that was made by following the Installation procedure above.





::Mod Compatibility::

The Dark Arts mod will serve as a good companion mod to the popular perk overhauls. It was designed with compatibility in mind and load order shouldn't matter if you use these mods. If in doubt about load order simply load this mod after these:


::Compatible Mods::

• NPCs React To Necromancy
• The Path of Transcendence - Lichdom
• Undead FX
• Undeath Remastered
• Undeath - Classical Lichdom
• Prelude to Purgatory - A Lich Custom Skill Tree
• Requiem - The Roleplaying Overhaul
• Path of Sorcery - Magic Perk Overhaul
• Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim
• Vokrii - Minimalistic Perks of Skyrim
• Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul
• Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim
• Skyrim Redone
• Perkus Maximus
• SkyrimSouls - Unpaused Game Menus
• Skyrim Souls RE - Updated
• Genuinely Intelligent Soul Trap
• Better Vampires
  

::Slightly Compatible Mods::

• Nether's Follower Framework - Becomes fully compatible once the following settings are disabled in its MCM: "Minion Support," "Minions Follow" and "Acquiring Minion Notification."
• Hunterborn - The Corpse Preparation perk conflicts with Hunterborn when sneaking, changing Hunterborn's MCM settings to interact with carcasses via activating instead of sneaking will bypass the conflict. Alternatively, you can use the Anatomical Insights perk instead to interact with carcasses via slashing them with its enchanted embalming tools.
  

::Incompatible Mods::

• Better Dead Thralls - This mod works very similar to the Dark Arts so you will have to choose one.
• Dead NPC Body Cleaner Remover - This will make your dead bodies disappear which is bad, so always keep in mind to quickly promote reanimated thralls that you'd like to keep, banish any of your Promoted Undead immediately once done with them or use the "Dark Arts" mod's body disposal mechanics instead.
• Mods that edit the ReanimateAshPile script within the ReanimateSecondayFFAimed and ReanimateSecondayTargetActor magic effects which tries to prevent the creation of ash piles from dead reanimated thralls.
• Mods that edit the ReanimateSecondayFFAimed and ReanimateSecondayTargetActor magic effects in an attempt to block the creation of ash piles from dead reanimated thralls.
  

If you found any conflicting mods, then please send me a message, so I can list the conflicting mod by name within this compatibility section for the sake of other users.



::Known Issues::

• There is an issue with the vanilla game where minions that are given armor to equip through this mod will wear it but will unequip them after being banished, summoned or after traveling through a loading screen. This happened because you removed all of the pieces of gear in their "default outfit" so the game forces them to re-equip all of the parts of that default outfit. There are two ways of dealing with this: the first being to re-equip the gear that you gave them but ensuring that you leave behind at least one of the pieces of their default outfit like their default boots for instance. The second and more reliable solution to this is to ensure that you promote this minion to a Marked Undead, doing so will ensure that they automatically equip the best gear in their inventory - just like the vanilla followers do. Marked Undead also comes with a feature that allows you to replace their default outfits altogether.
• This tends to be rare, but at times you will encounter a bug where the Corpse Preparation menu doesn't appear for a corpse when sneaking. If this happens then simply reanimate the corpse with a reanimation spell and use the "Debug" option from the Follower menu to fix this. Alternately, you can reanimate the corpse and simply go through a loading screen with the reanimated thrall (by entering another cell like a house) to fix it.
• Unfortunately, there are three engine limitations to the Possession spell. The first engine limitation is the camera, once the possession succeeds the camera tends to be zoomed in (making the Marked Undead appear invisible) but this can be fixed by simply zooming out the camera to make the Marked Undead visible. The second engine limitation prevents players from using the attack buttons for both spellcasters (humanoids with spells equipped) and non-humanoid undead (undead that are incapable of wielding weapons), however this limitation can be bypassed by simply moving the non-humanoid undead or spellcaster within melee range of an enemy target. Once within melee range, the undead will automatically attack and/or cast spells on the enemy without the player's actual input. The third engine limitation to possession tends to bug out the jumping animations for controlled humanoids (undead NPCs that are capable of jumping just like the player). However, this mod provides a built-in fix for this by setting the humanoid to "ragdoll" soon after jumping, which serves to preemptively fix that jumping animation bug, so please do not panic when this happens as it is intentional.
• Casting non-hostile concentration spells using the "Cast" option via the "Speak With Dead" menu for reanimated thralls or via the "Memento Mori" spell causes the player to keep casting said spell until their magicka is drained to zero. Sadly, the mod cannot detect and forbid the use of concentration spells in order to avoid this outcome, so I'd advise players to avoid using concentration spells and stick with simple fire and forget spells. If you've accidentally did this then unequipping the concentration spell from your hand will stop the drain on your magicka.
• There are some who fail to obtain the grimoire after reanimating their first corpse. For those who don't get it, then reanimate any corpse and interact with a tanning rack while that reanimated corpse is still following you - doing this opens up a new recipe that allows you to craft a copy of the book for free. Craft the book, equip it and then click the "Update Mod" option to finalize the mod. I apologize if that method might seem convoluted, but it's meant to continue the same spirit of gatekeeping access to the book only to actual Necromancers.
  

::Recommended Mods::

Please note that the following mods aren't actually required for this mod to work:

• A Merged Patch created with SSEEdit is recommended to increase compatibility between mods in general. Even if you don't use this mod, it's always a good idea to create one. You can learn how to create a merged patch here.
• A Bashed Patch created with Wrye Bash could significantly reduce the likelihood of crashes with NPCs due to having several mods installed that change the leveled lists. Again, even if you don't use this mod, it's always a must to create a bashed patch for better stability when you have mods that edit leveled lists, just be sure to rebuild a bashed patch every time that you change your load order. You can learn how to create a bashed patch here.
• Better MessageBox Controls - Highly recommended for better navigation through the new menus that are added by this mod.
• Enderal Font for Skyrim SE (Dumbledor Font) - If you ever played Enderal like I did and could never go back to the default Skyrim font.
• Disable Follower Collision - For those with so many minions that it's becoming increasingly difficult to navigate through them.
• Enhanced Reanimation - Allows the reanimation of decapitated NPCs, makes reanimated mounts rideable and allows reanimated Necromancers to cast reanimation spells.
• Faster Reanimation - Speeds up the animation that gets reanimated thralls on their feet.
• Dead and Daedric Guardians - Permanent undead minions that can be given commands and guard your lair.
• Undead Summons Emerge From The Ground
• Black Mage Armor
• Necromaster Robes
• Dragon Priest Cultist Armor
• Revenant Armour - Inspired by ESO Mannimarco
• Skyblivion - Master Necromancer Robes
• Lind's Black Robes Revamp - Texture Replacer
• Necromancers Amulet Replacement
• Black Robe Replacer (Necromancer Themed) 3 Variants - Male Only
• DCR - King Crusader Mega Pack
• Reapers Necromancers Robe Textures Replacer
• Revenant Necromancer Robes
• Evil Master Mind Armor
• Contractor and Mavari Armors
  

::Permissions::

Please do not upload my mod to other websites. Anyone can make a translation for this mod and my other mods without seeking my permission. The only thing that I ask is that you at least upload the translation to the Nexus. For those out there who own a website, then it's perfectly fine if you host the translation on other websites, but all I ask is that you please maintain a separate mod page for the translation here on the Nexus in addition to that copy on your website.



::Credits::

Special thanks to D6Damage for all of the necromancy related videos for D&D and Pathfinder which helped to fill the gaps in areas where even the Elder Scrolls lore on Necromancy was scarce.