Embark on a short quest to discover the dark secrets that can transform you into an undead Lich created by the author of Undeath Immersive Lichdom, the Path of Transcendence is a Light-Weight Lichdom mod designed to compliment many other Necromancy themed Mods such as Ordinator's Necromancy System and The Path of the Revenant just to name a few.
Requirements
This mod does not have any known dependencies other than the base game.
Feel Free to make your own updates and upload them here on the Nexus.
File credits
WDog367 for the Lich's Eye Glow FX Effect Testiger2 for the mesh used on the Amulet of Gedna Relvel MihailMods for the Bone Tyrant and Bone Colossus Meshes and Textures
Donation Points system
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Added new passive ability that scales with Lich Age, as a Lich you will heal anywhere between 2 - 10 points of Health per second.
Redone the visuals of the Nether Lich form by adding a passive mist effect similar to the ghosts from the mod SPECTRE.
Redone the Resurrection system, you will stay in Nether Lich form until you successfully cast Dark Sacrifice, while in this state you will not have access to Necromantic Empowerment or the ability to resurrect.
Now you are able to stay disguised indefinitely using the new Mortal Shroud power, while in this state you will not have the Magicka Flood ability which raises Maximum Magicka and Magicka Regeneration.
Version v1.8
Fixed the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th tier Magicka Flood effects that were not appearing in the Active Effects.
Removed the one and only Dirty Edit within the mod that was overwriting Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy.
Version V3BETA
- Redone Skin Texture for the Lich that remedies the issues people have had with female hands.
- Removal of the Amulet of Gedna Relvel, Bone Colossus, Bone Tyrant and Devour Energy Spells. (I was NOT satisfied with the meshes and the Bone Colossus had issues)
- Phylactery of Transcendence now uses the mesh of what was once the Amulet of Gedna Relvel, I wanted the Phylactery to look more unique.
- Changed the Recipe for the Phylactery of Transcendence to reflect it's new appearance.
- New Spell, Ritual of Reflection which reduces maximum magicka but all raised creatures reflect 50% of damage to their attackers.
- New Spell, Ritual of Plagues which reduces maximum magicka but all raised undead explode when struck dealing disease based damage.
- New Spell, Ritual of Devouring which reduces maximum magicka but you siphon 10, H/M?S from raised creatures when they drop below 80%.
- New Spell, Ritual of Empowerment which reduces maximum magicka but you heal all raised creatures by 5 health per second.
- Spell Spell, Ritual of Lethargy which reduces maximum magicka but your raised creatures absorb 15 S/M from enemies per second.
- Altered the Necromancer Lords Journal and quest entry in the quest to reflect the fact the Amulet of Gedna Relvel is no longer a thing.
- Changed the Script that completes the TTOU quest, now the quest will end when the Tome is in your possession instead of having to read it and altered a script that was preventing Argonian and Khajiit Lichs from getting glowing eyes, Don't know what happened there.
- Modified the File Path as to not conflict with the UndeadFX mod (It had come to my attention the eyes use the same path).
- Fixed the spelling of the safe in Drelas' Cottage from Drelas's Cottage to Drelas' Cottage.
- Fixed a few spelling errors in the Bloodstained Note.
Version V2
- Bone Tyrant script has been redone to allow anyone to transform into a Bone Tyrant.
- Bone Tyrant spells "Death Grip" now has better sound effects and scales off of the Adept Alteration Perk.
- Bone Tyrant Spell "Soul Clutch" now has better sound effects deals +15 more damage per second and scales off of the Adept Destruction Perk.
- Bone Tyrant is now 25% larger and more comparable in size to it's appearance in ESO
- Necromancer's Journal is now called Necromancer Lord's Journal and has been rewritten
- Necromancer Lord has had their maximum level reduced to 60
Version V1.9.1
Changed the conditions on 1 magic effect and 1 spell that was preventing the Scroll of Transcendence from working.
Version V1.7
Removed the Keywords, 5 points of Armor Rating and Weight from the Lich Skin and Beast Lich Skin.
Altered the Eye Glow effect to match the Dragon Priests, in addition the Lich will now be surrounded by a dark mist.
Added 2 new MCM menu options to disable either the Eye Glow effect or the dark mist.
Version V1.6.5
Fixed issue with female Nordic Lichs T-Posing.
Made it so you are unable to create Dark Souls from killing Dark Souls.
Added an option to disable and enable Undying Perception in the MCM Menu.
Version V1.6
New Nether Lichdom system, when your health reaches 0 you will become spectral, this makes it so you will be effectively unkillable outside of Nether Lich form.
Better optimization of several scripts, the Lich transformation in particular looks much more fluent.
Some removal of outdated records.
Redid one of the Load Screens to talk about immortality (This used an outdated variable for the water weakness which once existed)
Slight Alteration of the visuals for the Necrosis spell which has been renamed Devour Energy.
The Amulet of Gedna Relvel has been fixed and overhauled, now it releases the Crimson Plague upon enemies in the form of disease based damage.
An MCM Menu to customize your Lich experience, how resistant or weak you are to various effects including the ability to disable the No Restoration effect feature.
Will require a fresh save or game which has not had this mod installed in the past.
Version V1.5
Fixed a typo in the Undying Perception ability
Adjusted the Dark Sacrifice Script to unequip the Dark Sacrifice and Revert Form Spells when used to avoid accidental recasting
Fixed the Spell Book image effect for Bone Tyrant
Version V1.4
The Ritual of Becoming spell now comes in the form of a Scroll, this is to prevent those who want just the new spells to not get the spell stuck in their spellbook it also means you now have only one chance to not mess the ritual up, there is however a second scroll hidden within used for development purposes which bypasses all of the initial requirements which you can use, if your lazy or desperate enough you can add it via console commands knowing full well that you cheated and did not earn the power that it bestows, also you can bask in the knowledge that the King of Worms will facepalm in your general direction if you achieve Lichdom this way.
Redone the visuals for the Bone Tyrant form, the fire effect was not very "Necromancy" like, the transformation also functions more smoothly and will no longer un-equip your clothing/armor either, it will however un-equip any weapons your are wielding in favor of the Death Grip and Soul Clutch spells, not sure if this was mentioned earlier but you can no longer interact with the inventory in this state, it is too prevent you from equipping items which would otherwise cause problems.
Redid the visuals for Dark Sacrifice, now instead of the tall beam of light you will be enveloped in a purple shroud for a brief moment, the sound FX is now different, much more smooth and much more immersive, I am quite pleased with the effect now.
Redid the visuals on the Resurgence spell, not it will only be red particles coming from your enemies instead of Red, Blue and Green particles, in addition the name shall be changed to "Necrosis" as to not overlap with a spell from Apocalypse Spell Package with the same name.
The Tome of Unlife now adds the leveled lists to Necromancer enemies with a 5% chance to find an ancient spell tome, the Bone Tyrant Form can be learned by any race but will only work if you are a Lich by design due to technical issues, anyone however can learn the other spells so now this mod will also feature as a sort of Necromancy enhancement as opposed to just a mod to benefit those who wish to be Lichs.
Version V1.3.1
Hopefully the issue where people are not getting the Ritual of Becoming spell has now been fixed, I forgot to put the spell in as a Property on the Scripts, my mistake.
Version V1.3
The Bone Tyrant form has been completely redone, it is now a Master Level Alteration spell, it no longer requires a Black Soul Gem and comes equipped Death Grip in the Left Hand and Soul Clutch in the Right Hand, Death Grip functions like Vampiric Grip and Soul Clutch is a DPS effect that will raise a Dark Soul from the victims corpse upon death, I have made the Dark Soul look as best as my abilities would allow and am quite pleased with it, the Dark Soul is a physically weak creature but you can have as many of them as you desire, the Tyrant form itself has also gained an FX effect to be more on par with how it appears in Elder Scrolls Online, in addition it will no longer be gained simply by becoming a Lich.
A new summon spell called "Conjure Bone Colossus" has been added as a Master Level Conjuration spell, it like all Master Level spells has a 3 second cast time and a high magicka cost, the Bone Colossus is very powerful and lasts for approximately 60 seconds, it will be effected by Conjuration Perks, it utilizes the Mesh and Textures from the best looking variant of the creature by MihailMods and has been tweaked to my personal preference
A New Master Level Restoration spell called "Resurgence" has been added, it is a rather unique spell for it is an AOE Drain spell but only effects Undead, the spell works by stealing the Necrotic Energy from nearby undead to empower your own vitality, for every Undead effected you gain 50 health, magicka and stamina however the spell is rather costly so is best only used when you have at least 4 or 5 draugr in the area.
A new power has been added that is given to you while under the effects of Dark Sacrifice, the power is rather simple and will return you to your true Lich form, I know people have been asking for this ability so here it is in the next version.
A number of fixes have been added concerning the Amulet of Gedna Relvel, now it will work as originally intended.
The transitions when Transforming back and fourth between Lich Form, Mortal Form and Tyrant Form have been updated to be more fluent and natural.
Lichdom Spells can now be found by discovering Ancient Spell Tomes, these Ancient Spell Tomes have a different appearance from regular spell tomes and will teach the spells added in this mod, they become available to you once you have become a Lich, imagine it as you now being taught by the Tome of Unlife as how to recognize them.
The Withered Flesh weakness has been removed and the Aura of Death passive is now twice as effective.
Version V1.2
Just a small edit to the POT_LichTransformationScript that should allow the Lich to enter the Soul Cairn.
Version V1.1
Removed Bone Tyrants from the Playable Options.
Increased Dark Sacrifices Duration by 4x so now it lasts for 1 hour instead of 15 minutes.
Increased Bone Tyrant Duration by 50% and added Waterwalking and the inability to be knocked back while in this form.
Made it so you cannot craft the Phylactery of Transcendence unless the Tome of Unlife is in your inventory.
Fixed a typo in the weakness to fire ability.
THE PATH OF TRANSCENDENCE
Starting by the entrance of Hob's Fall Cave, embark upon a short quest to slay a powerful Necromancer seeking a legendary necromantic artifact, if you follow his clues you may instead retrieve the artifact for yourself but what you choose to do with it is entirely up to you.
FEATURES A short Quest which should take no more then 10 or 20 minutes to complete 2 New Custom Artifacts to discover, A custom Amulet and an infamous Tome from ES:IV Oblivion The Ability to become an Undead Lich with support for all Default Races
The quest may be small but I tried to make it as immersive as possible, once you retrieve the artifact you will learn a new spell called "The Ritual of Becoming" that can assist you with the transformation however it is not that simple, you will also require a Phylactery and a number of Souls if you ever wish to ascend to the state of Lichdom.
The Lich transformation itself is based on the book from "TES IV: Oblivion" from which this mod takes it's name.
THE POWERS OF A LICH
STRENGTHS
30% > 150% faster Magic Regeneration depending on how many days spent as a Lich 40+ > 200+ extra Magicka depending on how many days spent as a Lich 2 > 10 points of Health restored per second depending on how many days spent as a Lich 10% > 50% more effective intimidation depending how many days spent as a Lich 100% resistance to Poison and Disease 25% resistance to Frost and Shock 25% resistance to Physical damage Passive Waterbreathing
WEAKNESSES 25% weakness to Fire 100% Slower Health Regeneration Potions and Healing Magic have no effect 10 > 50 reduced speechcraft depending to how many days spent as a Lich NETHER LICHDOM The Key to a Lich's ability to cheat death are the souls that they consume, when your health reaches 0 instead of dying you will assume Nether Lich form, in this state you will not beable to cheat death again and will not heal by 2 - 10 points of health per second, to escape this state you must revive yourself by consuming 1 Filled Black Soul Gem which will restore your physical form.
MORTAL SHROUD As a Lich you will be attacked on sight by those who may find your choice of lifestyle threatening, by using the Lesser Power known as Mortal Shroud you are able to disguise yourself as if you were one of them, doing so however will reduce your maximum magicka by 40 - 200 points and magicka regeneration. by 30% - 150%, using the power while it is already active will return you to your true Lich form.
UNLOCKABLE SPELLS (Version 2 Only) BONE TYRANT You can learn a powerful spell that can temporarily empower yourself, it is a master level alteration spell that will transform you into a powerful Bone Tyrant for 60 seconds, while in this form you will move slower but will have access to the powerful spells Death Grip and Soul Clutch, Death Grip Functions as a Telekinesis Spell that drains the lifeforce from the enemy, Soul Clutch is a powerful Spell that will raise a Dark Soul in place of whoever it kills and it will follow you until it is destroyed.
DEVOUR ENERGY You can learn to empower your vitality by sapping the necrotic energy from nearby undead, this includes Vampires and other Lich-Type enemies, for every undead creature nearby you will sap 50 points of Health, Magicka and Stamina, this is an incredibly powerful spell.
CONJURE BONE COLOSSUS You can also learn to summon one of the most powerful forms of undead to serve it's whim for 60 seconds, a mighty Bone Colossus based on the creature of the same name that is featured in the Elder Scrolls Online, to get this and the other spells you will have a 10% chance of finding the spell tomes on any Necromancer enemies that you kill but only once you have become a Lich.
MOD CONFIGURATION MENU If you play on higher difficulties or just feel that your Lich needs a defensive boost then do know that the Path of Transcendence comes with an MCM menu which requires the Skyrim Script Extender and is obviously a PC only feature, this menu gives you the choice of the following
MCM OPTIONS 25% Resistance to Physical Damage OR 50% Resistance to Physical Damage (Default is 25%) 25% Resistance to Frost Damage OR 50% Resistance to Frost Damage (Default is 25%) 25% Resistance to Shock Damage OR 50% Resistance to Shock Damage (Default is 25%) 25% Weakness to Fire Damage OR 50% Weakness to Fire Damage (Default is 25%) Toggle whether or not you suffer from a debuff that prevents health regeneration and restorative magic from having an effect (Default is On) Toggle whether or not your magically enhanced senses allow you to detect those in the surrounding area (Default is On) Toggle whether or not your Lich has a Glowing Eye FX like NPC Dragon Priests (Default is On) Toggle Whether or not your Lich is surrounded by a dark mist like NPC Dragon Priests (Default is On)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. Where do I start the quest? A. You will find a dead vigilant near the entrance of Hob's Fall Cave, he is carrying a Note.
Q. I have Killed the Necromancer, now what? A. Read his Journal for your next objective.
Q. I am unsure what to do, can you help me? A. I feel as if I should ignore those who ignore the quest entries which explain everything, seems fair.
Q. I have equipped the Amulet and keep dying, why is this happening to me? A. The Amulet is explained in the Necromancer's Journal, the living cannot wear it.
Q. I have completed the quest, what do I do now? A. It is stated in the Journel entry after quest completion and on the Scroll of Transcendence itself.
Q. Where do I get an appropriate Phylactery from? A. You can craft it at a forge.