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Artifacts Of Ultima

Ultima. What is there to say about this legendary, if now mostly unsung game series? Starting from a rather rudimentary beginning, each game improved on the last and revolutionized the way RPGs are made and played. It's rather dear to me, having grown up playing Ultima 6, later 7, and then Serpent Isle. Rarely for the plot, since I was a kid and didn't have the patience to play it properly (I had more fun cheating and trolling the Teleport Storms in SI), so, following up on my Black Sword mod, I decided to reach back into the pages of Ultima lore and bring back some of those unique, even iconic weapons that the Avatar wielded against the foes of Britannia. This is:



Artifacts of Ultima is a collection of weapons (and shields!) from the Ultima game series that, more often than not, have unique looks and powers. A fair few are level-listed and can be found in loot, while those that are more unique are found placed in the world and require a bit of exploration to find. Listed below is some, but not all, of what can be found:

~Swords~

Sword of Defense: Improves your armor rating and block skill, providing you with better defense in combat.

Fire Swords: Swords whose blades are wreathed in magical flame, fire swords cast light when drawn and are nasty burners. Blue fire swords are brighter and more potent than their red cousins.

The Magebane: A spellcaster's nightmare, the Magebane will evaporate the magicka of whoever you strike it with, preventing them from casting spells.

The Dragonslayer: While fairly modest in appearance, the simple look of the Dragonslayer belies its strength. While dealing fair damage against normal opponents, the Dragonslayer excels at what its name suggests: Slaying dragons.

Glass Sword: Despite the name, these iconic swords are unrelated to the malachite weapons used in Skyrim. These crystalline-bladed swords will kill just about anything in one hit, however the act of doing so shatters the fragile blade and renders the sword useless. Glass swords can be crafted though, however they require 5 peer gems and a high smithing skill.

Flamesting: Hailing from the conquered world of Pagan, Flamesting may not be as visually impressive as the flame-wreathed Fire Swords, but it makes up for it with speed and engulfing its enemies in a gout of flame from below.

Poison Dagger: Perfect for criminals, pirates, assassins or just ne'er-do-wells in general, this nasty little number has an enchanted, venomous blade fashioned from a sea serpent's tooth, and injects a slow, fatal poison that drains your target's health and stamina. Because the blade is made from the tooth of something that doesn't even exist in Skyrim, poison daggers can't be tempered.

Ophidian Swords: Hailing from the Serpent Isle, the Ophidian Swords are unique longswords that correspond to the three factions of the Ophidian Civilization: Order, Chaos and Balance.

~Shields~

Curved Heater: The classic standard shield, this is a simple heater shield with the visage of a serpent embossed on its face. It's a little better than an elven shield, though is classed as heavy armor.

Kite Shield: Equivalent to the standard Curved Heater, the Kite Shield is classed as light armor instead of heavy and weighs a bit less than its heftier counterpart.

Brass Shield: Heftier than the previous two shields, the Brass Shield is the best of the standard heater-type shields, though it's only heavy armor and weighs a good deal more than the other two.

Door Shield: The Door Shield is the best standard shield you can find, however it's big. No, really, it's BIG. Large enough for a Nord to hide behind if he's crouching, the Door Shield offers a great deal more protection than the other standard shields, at the cost of being the weightiest of the bunch. Because of its size, even those not well-versed in blocking can use it to deflect arrows, though by the same token its size makes it a bit tricky to navigate with the shield up.

Magic Shield: An enchanted version of the Curved Heater, the Magic Shield is distinguished by the glowing blue snake on its front. A bit better than its unenchanted relative in defense, the Magic Shield's enchantment also offers a 15% damage resistance, and a fortification to the Block skill.

Dupre's Shield: The distinctive shield of the Avatar's companion Dupre, this shield is the best of the best. Lightweight yet as good as an ebony shield, Dupre's shield also bears a similar enchantment to the Magic Shield, though 10% better than its lesser counterpart. Unlike the other shields, which can be found in loot, Dupre's shield can only be found in a certain place. Don't worry, it's nowhere too bizarre. :3

~Wands & Staves~

Lighting Wands: A small, green, vaguely ankh-shaped metal stick, Lighting Wands fire bolts of lightning at your opponents, but have much less charge than your average staff. A variant, the blue Lightning Rod, fires chain lightning instead, but has even fewer charges than their green siblings.

Fire Wands: These pronged wands fire potent bolts of fire at your opponents, though have less charge than a staff. A blue fire variant can be found, which does more damage but has fewer charges.

Firedoom Staff: A nasty sum of a beach, these express mail explosive doom to whatever chucklehead with an iron dagger tries to step to ya. Like the Fire Wand, there's a red type and a blue type, the blue type doing more damage and delivering a larger blast, though it has fewer charges than its counterpart.

~Special~

Hoe of Destruction: A particularly queer weapon, the Hoe of Destruction is, well, a hoe that was mistakenly imbued with powerful magic, turning it into a devastating weapon. The Hoe does as much as a daedric battleaxe, though swings faster, and is distinguished by its glowing red head.

Death Scythe: A terrible and frightening weapon, the Death Scythe is one of the best weapons you can find, but only three exist.This wicked scythe, blued from the death magics woven into it, absorbs health from your opponent, kills their magicka like the Magebane does and "curses" them by frying their stamina to keep them from power attacking, slowing them, and reducing the effectiveness of their armor.

Slayer: Caked in dried blood from its many victims, the dread mace Slayer has a 10% chance to instantly kill whoever is unlucky enough to get smacked by it, except for Dwarven Automatons ('cause they're robots) and Alduin ('cause he's Alduin).

Bonecrusher: Made by the Pagan Titan of Water, Hydros, Bonecrusher hates the undead and will happily smoosh their bones if you let it. All undead take double damage from the mighty warhammer and will probably need a hip replacement afterwards.

C???? ???r?: FiND mE iF yOu DArE. HHHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!

~Incompatibilites~

The mod should play nice with most mods, at least, since while there are changes to some areas, they're relatively minor. I'd be wary of mods that overhaul the College of Winterhold, since a couple minor changes were made to the Arch-Mage's quarters for the mod, so how it'll play with overhauls to the place might be unpredictable. I'd suggest keeping the mod low in the load order to minimize possible conflicts with such mods, and if you do run into a major issue or two, don't hesitate to let me know. Also be wary of mods that overhaul the exterior to Rorikstead, since new additions by those mods may occlude something from AoU.