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About this mod
With this mod, players may learn to raise permanent undead followers and trap the souls of NPCs using Black Soul Gems. A skilled enough Necromancer can learn to transcend the bounds of mortality and become a powerful undead Lich.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
WHAT IS ADDED
Black Soul Gems - Used to capture the souls of sapient mortals (black souls), grand level souls which cannot fit into normal soul gems. Black Soul Gems are illegal in Morrowind but can still be found in the possession of necromancers, smugglers and black market dealers. Black Soul Gems can't be used to trap animal or Daedric souls, only mortal souls, but once they are filled they can be used like any other soul gem for enchantment.
"Practical Necromancy" - A book teaching the basic workings of Necromancy. Necromancy is illegal in Morrowind, so the book is not openly sold, but it can be found in a variety of locations, most commonly in the vicinity of practicing necromancers. Players need at least 40 Mysticism to learn the spells in this book.
"The Ritual of Becoming" - A rare book detailing the process of becoming a Lich. Several copies are said to exist in Morrowind but they are likely found only in the deepest and darkest places. Players must have at least 80 Mysticism to learn from this book.
Necromancy Spells - The following new spells are added:
Note: All the "Animate" spells create one permanent follower, and cost one filled black soul gem per cast.
Animate Ghost - Raises a more powerful variant of Ancestor Ghost. Casts status-affecting spells. Requires Ectoplasm to cast.
Animate Skeleton - Raises a Skeleton which can be equipped with armor (counts as NPC rather than creature). Unlike other Animate spells, this one does not need any alchemical ingredients to cast.
Animate Zombie - Raises a combat-oriented variation of the Bonewalker. Requires Gravedust to cast.
Black Soul Trap - Special Soul Trap spell used to capture black souls. Ordinary soul trap spells won't work on Men and Mer.
Ritual of Becoming - Transform yourself into a Lich, an immortal undead being of great power.
Players who become a Lich gain the following extra spells:
Disguise - Caster takes on mortal appearance and can interact normally with mortals.
Recall Phylactery - Returns caster to the position of their phylactery at any time.
BECOMING A NECROMANCER
Aspiring necromancers must first seek the book "Practical Necromancy" which teaches the basic spells. Minions can be given simple orders through dialogue, just remember that they aren't too smart. To raise minions, you'll first need black souls.
To trap black souls, cast Black Soul Trap on an NPC and kill the NPC while the spell is active. Mortal souls have a charge of 500 and can be used like any other souls for enchanting, but black soul gems are required in order to trap them.
BECOMING A LICH
A powerful necromancer may decide to enter into a state of undeath themselves, to preserve their minds from old age and disease. While some may opt for Vampirism, those with the time and knowledge often choose the more difficult and deliberate path of the Lich.
The Ritual of Becoming is taught by a rare book of the same name. By using the power of at least 20 black souls, the necromancer places a special Soul Trap enchantment on a trinket henceforth known as a phylactery. The ritual results in the necromancer's soul entering into the phylactery. The body of the necromancer (now a Lich), still under direct control, enters an undead state with the expected strengths and weaknesses.
When a Lich falls in battle, their body and possessions disappear and are reassembled at the phylactery. For a short time, the Lich will be weakened while their body reconstitutes. If the Lich is killed again during this period, it could take centuries for them to physically manifest once again (Die before respawn cooldown is ended and it's a game over).
To interact with unsuspecting mortals, a Lich may take on the appearance they once had in mortal life. This disguise is nearly perfect but requires magicka to maintain, and the Lich risks exposure if anyone sees them changing form. Every NPC encountered by an undisguised Lich will turn hostile.
TIPS
Black Soul Trap is triggered when NPCs are struck (specifically, when they would make some kind 'pain' vocalization upon taking damage). It might not trigger if NPCs are killed too quickly. When the Black Soul Trap is fully active it will play a sort of churning sound.
If you want a quick way to start on the path of Necromancy in a gamey manner:
Black Soul Gems can be found in necromancer lairs. They can also be found in
You can relearn deleted Lich spells by reading The Ritual of Becoming.
Liches cannot wear pants. By default, Liches will appear to be wearing pants when disguised. This may be changed by opening the console and entering the following line (case insensitive):
For testing/cheating purposes, you can make the player a Lich at any time with the following console command:
Useful for trying out the Lich state before committing to a character.
PLANNED FUTURE CHANGES
- Hostile attention from Temple and Mages Guild when openly practicing necromancy
- Presence of necromantic minions treated as crime
- Damage in holy places for necromantic creatures
- Allow changing pants for Lich disguise
THANKS AND CREDITS
Morrowind USkele mod by Mack_Of_Trades69 is used for the playable Skeleton model.
Skulls by Svartalfar is used to provide skull models for Argonians, Khajiit, and Orcs. Thanks to SpaceDevo for linking this resource.
Many thanks to the authors of "Morrowind Scripting for Dummies" and the Tamriel Rebuilt Modder's Guide, as well as the maintainers of uesp.net, and to everyone else sharing knowledge in the modding community. The information they provide made this mod possible.
Thanks to the developers of Morrowind and OpenMW for creating and breathing new life into a beautiful game.
=Technical Notes=
OpenMW required to play. OpenMW-CS is required to edit the addon. TESCS crashes when opening the file, likely due to the "if-elseif limit" for legacy Morrowind scripts. Possible workarounds include splitting the warp cell indexing script into several smaller scripts, which is how several vanilla Morrowind mods handle that.
Leveled lists are not used. New object instances are placed in cells directly rather than in existing containers. This mod should be compatible with most others.
Vanilla records modified: Dedaenc, Sharn gra-Muzgob dialogue topics concerning Necromancy
Phylactery Recall will only function in predefined cells due to scripting limitations. This can change in the future when OpenMW implements more functionality.
The Lich appearance is granted by the Soul Conduit item, which is a special pair of pants set to retexture the entire body.
This mod makes use of some Voice dialogue scripts, importantly the Hit line triggering the PN_NPCSoulTrapStart script, which must have top priority to work properly.
As of posting, OpenMW-CS cannot cleanly sort Topic Info entries. To re-sort them without dirtying records you must a third-party tool (none currently exist, AFAIK), or use a hex editor to manually change the records.
To sort them manually, you must edit the NNAM and PNAM subrecords to correspond to the appropriate INAM entries. Be certain to count the bytes for the modified INFO records and update the size value (the 4 bytes after NAME) or the parser will go off the rails.
.omwaddon files use the ESP format, for more info, see: https://www.mwmythicmods.com/tutorials/MorrowindESPFormat.html
Black Soul Gems - Used to capture the souls of sapient mortals (black souls), grand level souls which cannot fit into normal soul gems. Black Soul Gems are illegal in Morrowind but can still be found in the possession of necromancers, smugglers and black market dealers. Black Soul Gems can't be used to trap animal or Daedric souls, only mortal souls, but once they are filled they can be used like any other soul gem for enchantment.
"Practical Necromancy" - A book teaching the basic workings of Necromancy. Necromancy is illegal in Morrowind, so the book is not openly sold, but it can be found in a variety of locations, most commonly in the vicinity of practicing necromancers. Players need at least 40 Mysticism to learn the spells in this book.
"The Ritual of Becoming" - A rare book detailing the process of becoming a Lich. Several copies are said to exist in Morrowind but they are likely found only in the deepest and darkest places. Players must have at least 80 Mysticism to learn from this book.
Necromancy Spells - The following new spells are added:
Note: All the "Animate" spells create one permanent follower, and cost one filled black soul gem per cast.
Animate Ghost - Raises a more powerful variant of Ancestor Ghost. Casts status-affecting spells. Requires Ectoplasm to cast.
Animate Skeleton - Raises a Skeleton which can be equipped with armor (counts as NPC rather than creature). Unlike other Animate spells, this one does not need any alchemical ingredients to cast.
Animate Zombie - Raises a combat-oriented variation of the Bonewalker. Requires Gravedust to cast.
Black Soul Trap - Special Soul Trap spell used to capture black souls. Ordinary soul trap spells won't work on Men and Mer.
Ritual of Becoming - Transform yourself into a Lich, an immortal undead being of great power.
Players who become a Lich gain the following extra spells:
Disguise - Caster takes on mortal appearance and can interact normally with mortals.
Recall Phylactery - Returns caster to the position of their phylactery at any time.
BECOMING A NECROMANCER
Aspiring necromancers must first seek the book "Practical Necromancy" which teaches the basic spells. Minions can be given simple orders through dialogue, just remember that they aren't too smart. To raise minions, you'll first need black souls.
To trap black souls, cast Black Soul Trap on an NPC and kill the NPC while the spell is active. Mortal souls have a charge of 500 and can be used like any other souls for enchanting, but black soul gems are required in order to trap them.
BECOMING A LICH
A powerful necromancer may decide to enter into a state of undeath themselves, to preserve their minds from old age and disease. While some may opt for Vampirism, those with the time and knowledge often choose the more difficult and deliberate path of the Lich.
The Ritual of Becoming is taught by a rare book of the same name. By using the power of at least 20 black souls, the necromancer places a special Soul Trap enchantment on a trinket henceforth known as a phylactery. The ritual results in the necromancer's soul entering into the phylactery. The body of the necromancer (now a Lich), still under direct control, enters an undead state with the expected strengths and weaknesses.
When a Lich falls in battle, their body and possessions disappear and are reassembled at the phylactery. For a short time, the Lich will be weakened while their body reconstitutes. If the Lich is killed again during this period, it could take centuries for them to physically manifest once again (Die before respawn cooldown is ended and it's a game over).
To interact with unsuspecting mortals, a Lich may take on the appearance they once had in mortal life. This disguise is nearly perfect but requires magicka to maintain, and the Lich risks exposure if anyone sees them changing form. Every NPC encountered by an undisguised Lich will turn hostile.
TIPS
Black Soul Trap is triggered when NPCs are struck (specifically, when they would make some kind 'pain' vocalization upon taking damage). It might not trigger if NPCs are killed too quickly. When the Black Soul Trap is fully active it will play a sort of churning sound.
If you want a quick way to start on the path of Necromancy in a gamey manner:
Spoiler:
Show
Go to the Balmora Guild of Mages and find Sharn gra-Muzgob. Use Open and Telekinesis spells to open her chests.
Black Soul Gems can be found in necromancer lairs. They can also be found in
Spoiler:
Show
St. Delyn Plaza, sold by the necromancer Dedaenc.
You can relearn deleted Lich spells by reading The Ritual of Becoming.
Liches cannot wear pants. By default, Liches will appear to be wearing pants when disguised. This may be changed by opening the console and entering the following line (case insensitive):
set PN_disguiseWearPants to 0For testing/cheating purposes, you can make the player a Lich at any time with the following console command:
StartScript PN_MakePlayerLichUseful for trying out the Lich state before committing to a character.
PLANNED FUTURE CHANGES
- Hostile attention from Temple and Mages Guild when openly practicing necromancy
- Presence of necromantic minions treated as crime
- Damage in holy places for necromantic creatures
- Allow changing pants for Lich disguise
THANKS AND CREDITS
Morrowind USkele mod by Mack_Of_Trades69 is used for the playable Skeleton model.
Skulls by Svartalfar is used to provide skull models for Argonians, Khajiit, and Orcs. Thanks to SpaceDevo for linking this resource.
Many thanks to the authors of "Morrowind Scripting for Dummies" and the Tamriel Rebuilt Modder's Guide, as well as the maintainers of uesp.net, and to everyone else sharing knowledge in the modding community. The information they provide made this mod possible.
Thanks to the developers of Morrowind and OpenMW for creating and breathing new life into a beautiful game.
=Technical Notes=
OpenMW required to play. OpenMW-CS is required to edit the addon. TESCS crashes when opening the file, likely due to the "if-elseif limit" for legacy Morrowind scripts. Possible workarounds include splitting the warp cell indexing script into several smaller scripts, which is how several vanilla Morrowind mods handle that.
Leveled lists are not used. New object instances are placed in cells directly rather than in existing containers. This mod should be compatible with most others.
Vanilla records modified: Dedaenc, Sharn gra-Muzgob dialogue topics concerning Necromancy
Phylactery Recall will only function in predefined cells due to scripting limitations. This can change in the future when OpenMW implements more functionality.
The Lich appearance is granted by the Soul Conduit item, which is a special pair of pants set to retexture the entire body.
This mod makes use of some Voice dialogue scripts, importantly the Hit line triggering the PN_NPCSoulTrapStart script, which must have top priority to work properly.
As of posting, OpenMW-CS cannot cleanly sort Topic Info entries. To re-sort them without dirtying records you must a third-party tool (none currently exist, AFAIK), or use a hex editor to manually change the records.
To sort them manually, you must edit the NNAM and PNAM subrecords to correspond to the appropriate INAM entries. Be certain to count the bytes for the modified INFO records and update the size value (the 4 bytes after NAME) or the parser will go off the rails.
.omwaddon files use the ESP format, for more info, see: https://www.mwmythicmods.com/tutorials/MorrowindESPFormat.html