Skyrim Special Edition

About this mod

A Lore-friendly TES VI power concept and shout alternative.
-Includes Shehai Spirit Swords, Enthronement Blades, and new curved swords for your wielding pleasure
-Shehai-specific ADXP I MCO Animations
-ENB Light, SPID and KID Patch available

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Translations
  • Portuguese
Changelogs
***Update: Level and 1h/2h skill-based NPC distribution can now be found here.
Shehai - NPC Spells and Weapons (SPID)

          Introduction

          The Way of the Voice is not the only weapon against Akatosh's children. If we immerse ourselves in the history and lore of Tamriel's people, it is easy to tell the Nords were not the only race that contended with these powerful creatures. One such race is the Redguards, and if rumors are true, there is a good chance The Elder Scrolls VI will take place in Hammerfell. This mod attempts to give an alternative to the Way Of The Voice. Through the Way Of The Sword, you can travel the path of a sword singer and master the mighty spirit swords known as Shehai.


 
          The Lore

          Lost to the sands of time are the Ancestors of the Redguards. They were an elite sub-set of the Yokudan people known as the Ansei, who later settled in what is now known as Hammerfell. These special warriors had the ability to materialize and sustain a sword using their own life force, known as a Shehai. This complete mastery of the sword was sometimes referred to as Sword Singing. Only with full dedication and mastery of the sword can someone strike in such a way that the vibrations of their blades seem to sing. These vibrations have been known to rival those of even the mystical Dovah.

        The Book Of Circles

          To begin on your path to the way of the sword, you must obtain a Book Of Circles. This not only contains essential lore-friendly knowledge but serves as an in-game manual. It is also a one-handed skill book and is required to be in your inventory for most recipes. You may obtain The Book of Circles from Eorlund Gray-Mane once Skyforge steel weapons are available for purchase. If luck is on your side it may also be found being sold by merchants that deal in rare texts. If, for some reason, you are unable to acquire the book, a copy can be crafted using a tanning rack.

          Shehai

          With the way of the sword, you will only need to dedicate yourself to one-handed and/or two-handed skills. Although magical prowess plays no part in materializing these Shehai, once unlocked, they can be found under the alteration school.
 
          One/Two-Handed Rank and Skill Level (1st tier)
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          Novice (1-30)
          Gain experience with any one or two-handed weapon, including the new swords added by this mod.
          Adept (30-50) 
          You have unlocked the first rank, Shehai
          Expert (50-70) 
          You have unlocked the fire, frost, earth, and shock elemental variants
          Master (70+) 
          You have unlocked the final rank or Mystic Shehai 

          Mystic Sword Singing

          Once unlocked, each of your Mystic Shehai will Sing on a strong attack. At first, it will be an echo of its former self. Not until you unlock the higher tiers will you achieve your full sword singing ability.

          Sword Sung Shouts 
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          Base: Dragonrend
          Fire: Fire Breath
          Earth: Unrelenting Force
          Frost: Frost Breath
          Shock: Slow Time and Call Storm
          Wind: Whirlwind
          Blood: New “Absorb Vitality” shout created for this mod (Red shout that absorbs health and causes fear)
   Lycan's Howl: shout created for this mod (Pacify, Detect Life, and Summon Pack)


          Sheahi Cooldowns and Shout Levels

          Your Shehai is only stifled by your experience level. To break these ceilings, you must climb tiers of knowledge through patience, experience, and cunning; only then will the Skyforge reward you with the tomes to set you on the path to being a Legendary Sword Singer.
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Shout lvl / Avg Cooldown, Shock, Wolf
I:   60, 120, 108
II:  48, 108, 96
III: 36, 96, 84
IV: 24, 84, 72
V:  12, 72, 64

          Enthronement Blades

          If you were to stray from this path and are a master smith, you will have the skill needed to forge an Enthronement blade. In order to create such powerful blades you will need the aid of having something with the notched pickaxe enchantment equipped (The original Notched pickaxe can be found at the very top of the Throat of the World). These swords are seen by many as a shortcut and are an affront to the Way of The Spirit Sword, not even requiring the Book Of Circles. As such, they require a filled black soul gem in the crafting process. While these blades only have the strength of a rank one Shehai, they have the advantage of being improved at a grindstone. While you do not need arcane blacksmithing to improve them, you will need its skill level requirement of 60.

          Enthronement Blade Singing
         
          As stated earlier, forging and wielding these blades is considered less than admirable, but if you are an exceptional sword singer and blacksmith, it is possible to sing with these swords as long as the associated Shehai spell is known. Enthronement Blades can only be reforged once per tier and will have the singing ability of the previous rank.

          Recipes 

          To reduce crafting screen clutter and to nerf spam, crafting/selling Shehai Tomes recipes have been adjusted only to appear when the spell isn't already known, or the tome isn't in the character's inventory. To improve compatibility conditions no longer have vanilla perk requirements and have skill level requirements associated with that perk. Only regular swords still require steel smithing (for now)

          Recipes cont.
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Skill Book/ Manual
Book Of Circles: Roll of paper + Charcoal + Leather

Shehai Sword/Greatsword Tomes (Skyforge + The Book of Circles in Inventory)
Base: Bone Meal + Filled grand soul gem + scimitar/scimitar greatsword or one of the other new swords added by this mod.

Elemental Variants (Skyforge + The Book of Circles in Inventory) 
Requirements: Base spell learned to craft and summon

Fire: Fire Salts + Filled grand soul gem
Earth: Spawn Ash + Filled grand soul gem
Frost: Frost Salts + Filled grand soul gem
Shock: Void Salts + Filled grand soul gem
Wind: Glow Dust + Filled grand soul gem
Blood: Vampire Dust + Filled grand soul gem
Wolf: Moon Sugar + Filled grand soul gem

Note on Blood: You must be a Vampire (Dawnguard DLC) to craft and summon the Blood Variant. If you learn the spell and cure yourself, you will lose the ability to summon them until you are a vampire again.

Note on Wolf: You must be a Werewolf (Dawnguard DLC) to craft and summon the Wolf Variant. If you learn the spell and cure yourself, you will lose the ability to summon them until you are a werewolf again.

Enthronement Blade (Skyforge + Notched Pickaxe equipped)
Base: Bone Meal + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Base Greatsword: Bone Meal + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips

Elemental Enthronement Blades (Skyforge + Notched Pickaxe equipped) 
Fire: Fire salts + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Fire Greatsword: Fire salts + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips
Earth: Spawn ash + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Earth Greatsword: Spawn ash + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips
Frost: Frost salts + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Frost Greatsword: Frost salts + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips
Shock: Void salts + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Shock Greatsword: Void salts + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips

Elemental Enthronement Blades cont. 
Wind: Glow Dust + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Wind Greatsword: Glow Dust + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips 
Blood: Vampire Dust + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Blood Greatsword: Vampire Dust + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips
Wolf: Moon Sugar + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Wolf Greatsword: Moon Sugar + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips

Elemental Enthronement Blades cont. 
Ebony Blood: Vampire Dust + 1 Filled black soul gem + 2 ebony + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Ebony Blood Greatsword: Vampire Dust + 1 Filled black soul gem + 4 ebony + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips
 
Curved Swords 
Steel Smithing perk required
Named with Redguard prefix for ease of use 
Swords and vanilla Scimitar recipe: 2 steel + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Greatswords and new Scimitar Greatsword: 4 steel + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips

Curved Swords cont. 
Ebony Smithing perk required
Immortal Redguard prefix
Ebony Scimitar recipe: 2 ebony + 1 corundum + 1 leather strips
Ebony Scimitar Greatsword: 4 ebony + 1 corundum + 2 leather strips
 
          Reach and Speed
          
          Shehai are considered Spirit Swords and as such, are lighter to swing and have an extended mystical reach over traditionally forged weapons.
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New swords: R= 1.0 S=1.0 (Vanilla)
New Greatswords: R=1.3 S=0.7 (Vanilla)
Shehai/Enthronement Blade: R=1.05 S= 1.05
Shehai/Enthronement Blade Greatsword: R=1.35 S=0.75
Mystic: R=1.1 S=1.1 (default dagger speed is 1.3)
Mystic Greatsword: R=1.4 S=0.8


          Elemental Resistance and Damage
        
          For the sake of further compatibility, elemental damage has also been applied to the Shehai
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Shehai for fire, frost, and shock have their corresponding elemental damage
Blood is disease (contract Sanguinare Vampiris)
Earth is poison
Base Shehai is magic
Wind is physical (also added unrelenting force immunity value for balancing)

Plus: They are compatible with anything that uses elemental keywords such as the augmented perks in the destruction skill tree or Frozen Electrocuted Combustion.
Downside: Shehai are less effective against enemies with a resistance to that specific elemental damage type.
Example: Fire Shehai will be less effective against an enemy with fire resistance. 

         Shehai Tiers
         
         Unfortunately, even with maxing one’s skill, there is not a lot of room for damage scaling. I have restructured and rebalanced to make way for leveled tiers to remedy this issue meant to take you from the beginning of your journey to the Ebony Warrior. All require an associated skill level of 70. Only after mastering your sword skill and meeting the character level requirements will you unlock a corresponding damage tier.  

         Shehai Tiers
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Honed
Rank/Character level
Lvl 25
Lvl 35 

Refined
Rank/Character level
Lvl 40
Lvl 50

Tempered
Rank/Character level
Lvl 55
Lvl 65

Legendary 
Rank/Character level
Lvl 70
Quest Reward for Ebony Warrior

        Enthronement Blade Tiers
          
          I have used the same method for the Enthronement Blades. The new tiers are based on character and smithing at 100. Tiers have also been applied to these blades. It is possible in conjunction with the way of the sword you can sing with your enthronement blade but being they do not require the wielder's life force to sustain they are by design weaker than the Shehai. Only magic effects will increase and shout at higher but remain at rank 2 of the previous book tier. Once skill level and character level are reached, you may reforge into the next tier. 

          Shehai Player Life Leech

         All Shehai consume the user's life force in the form of health per second while in combat to sustain and, by design, will not give you alteration experience. This effect is doubled while dual-wielding and should only be attempted by an expert or master rank Sword Singer.
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Rank 1 
          Sword: Consumes 1.5 health per second
          Greatsword: Consumes 1.75 health per second 

Rank 2 (Mystic)
          Sword: Consumes 2 health per second
          Greatsword: Consumes 2.4 health per second

Level Tiers

Book
Honed / Refined / Tempered / Legendary

Sword
2.0hps / 2.75hps / 3.6hps / 4.5hps
Mystic Sword
2.5hps / 3.0hps / 4.0hps / 5.0hps
Greatsword
2.7hps / 3.7hps / 4.7hps / 6.0hps
Mystic Greatsword
3.4hps / 4.0hps / 5.34hps / 6.67hps

Note: Magnitude on the Shehai spell card will not display decimal integers.


Shehai Damage on Hit
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Shehai Base Damage Equivalent
Base/Enthronement Blade
DPS: 11 = Scimitar/Skyforge Steel
CritDmg: 5
Flame, Earth, Frost, Lightning Wind, and Blood/Enthronement Blades
DPS: 12 = Glass
Stagger = 0.75 (Except Earth = 0.85)
CritDmg: 6
Mystic
DPS: 15 = Dragon Bone
Mystic Flame, Earth, Frost, Lightning Wind, and Blood 
DPS: 14 = Daedric
Stagger = 0.85 (Except Earth = 0.95)
CritDmg: 7
Base Greatsword/Enthronement Blade
DPS: 14 = Skyforge Steel
CritDmg: 9
Flame, Earth, Frost, Lightning Wind, and Blood Greatsword/Enthronement Blades
DPS: 14 = Glass
Stagger = 1.2 (Except Earth = 1.3)
CritDmg: 10
Mystic Greatsword
DPS: 17 = Dragon Bone
Mystic Flame, Earth, Frost, Lightning, Wind, and Blood Greatswords
DPS: 16 = Daedric
Stagger = 1.3 (Except Earth = 1.4)
CritDmg: 12

Level Tiers
Shehai Sword Damage

Honed / Refined / Tempered / Legendary
Base
17 dmg / 21 dmg / 26 dmg / 32 dmg
Elemental
16 dmg / 20 dmg / 24 dmg / 30 dmg
Mystic
19 dmg / 24 dmg / 28 dmg / 35 dmg
Mystic Elemental
18 dmg / 22 dmg / 26 dmg / 33 dmg

Shehai Greatsword Damage
Honed / Refined / Tempered / Legendary

Base
26 dmg / 33 dmg / 41 dmg / 50 dmg
Elemental
25 dmg / 32 dmg / 39 dmg / 48 dmg
Mystic
30 dmg / 37 dmg / 44 dmg / 55 dmg
Mystic Elemental
28 dmg/ 36 dmg/ 42 dmg/ 53 dmg


Shehai Absorb on Strike

All Shehai absorb health to help mitigate their life-leeching nature 
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Table Key: h=Health m=Magic s=Stamina

Base Shehai/Enthronement Blade: 10h 
Elemental Shehai/Enthronement Blade: 15h
Mystic Elemental Shehai: 20h
Mystic Shehai: 22h
Base Shehai Greatsword/Enthronement Blade: 20h
Elemental Shehai Greatsword/Enthronement Blade: 30h
Mystic Elemental Shehai Greatsword: 40h
Mystic Shehai Greatsword: 44h

Level Tiers

Shehai Sword Absorb
Honed / Refined / Tempered / Legendary
Base
26h / 33h / 41h / 50h
Elemental
24h / 30h / 37h / 45h
Mystic
30h / 37h / 44h / 55h
Mystic Elemental
27h / 34h / 40h / 50h

Shehai Greatsword Absorb
Honed/ Refined/ Tempered/ Legendary
Base
52h / 66h / 81h / 99h
Elemental
47h / 60h / 74h / 90h
Mystic
59h / 74h / 88h / 110h
Mystic Elemental
54h / 67h / 80h / 100h


Shehai Absorb on Hit (Projectile)

         All Shehai shouts absorb Health, Magic, and Stamina for a one-second duration. Blood is the only one with a two-second duration for health absorption and is considered vampire magic/drain. Changes on rank 2/Mystic of each tier

Dragonrend = 35 health (1-second duration)
Elemental  = 30 health, 15 magic, and stamina with (1-second duration)
Blood = 30 health (2-second duration)

Level Tiers
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Shehai Sword and Greatsword Shout

Mystic
Honed: 41h,18m,18s
Refined: 52h,23m,23s
Tempered: 65h,28m,28s
Legendary: 79h,34m,34s

Mystic Elemental
Honed:36h,18m,18s
Refined: 45h,23m,23s
Tempered: 55h,28m,28s
Legendary: 67h,34m,34s


          Future Plans

          In a future update, my/our hope is to implement several things including a more immersive way to implement the Shehai and a Pankratosword power but lack the skill set to execute it if you have experience with either of these and would like to help us with this please pm me.

          Other hopes and dreams
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- Merging plugin files (Clean saves will be needed) 
- Optional file adding swords to Alik'r Warriors
- Optional file adding Enthronement Blades to Remnant Agents (Requires CC content: Redguard Elite Armaments)
- Legendary Mystic Shehai will change after finishing your battle at the Last Vigil. (Legendary rank 2)
- Optional file for the Ebony Warrior to either be a Sword Singer or if I can't get that to work he'll have an Ebony Enthronement Blade.
- ENB light patch.
-Shehai with their own “magic school” and perk tree
-Leveled list edits for distribution among NPCS
-Questline
-New enemy type
-Custom sounds and animations

Technical 

          This is a spiritual successor of sorts to Dovah Defense. I am responsible for the models, textures, and some of the creation kit stuff. AndrealphusVIII does creation kit work and excellent scripting for the new sword shouts.

Credits
LeanWolf and masterofshadows for use of the Better Shaped Weapons scimitar model
Jg1 for use of the Believable Weapons scimitar model
Black(exm842), Magink, and krembrule for providing the fantastic animations

Official Xbox Port Here
Also, check out AndrealphusVIII to support his work as well.