Crying Corpse Spell
(4E-194 14th of Evening Star)
Darklight Tower
Galeron, having learned a variety of spells he thought would make him effective in combat, decided that he would focus solely on increasing the limit of his maximum magicka. When he first shifted his focus onto magicka training, he already had a bit more magicka than a typical adult witch from his coven but he knew this wouldn't be enough, if he wanted to be anything other than ordinary. He needed his magicka reserves to be massive and overwhelming. There were still spells, like Summon Storm Atronach, that he could perform but his limited magicka made using them impractical.
With this goal in mind he spent the next two years doing nothing but Magicka Manipulation Meditation. He discovered early on, after first discovering his magicka, that guiding his magicka through his body, like blood through his veins, could not only assist his magicka in regenerating faster but, after prolonged practice, would permanently increase his passive magicka regeneration. He noticed that magicka regeneration speed was not always the same and, if you were completely out of magicka, your magicka would regenerate faster, almost like a heart beating faster to circulate or produce more blood for an active or wounded body.
His hypothesis was that circulating his magicka throughout his body left his core in a constant state of depletion and so, because of it staying in "emergency refill mode" for extended periods, it eventually acclimated his body to a more rapid intake of magicka. This, of course, was only effective after depleting his magicka. If his magicka was full when he tried this, the practice would slowly restore some of his vitality, if need be, but that's about it. Once he depleted his magicka and more came pouring in, he would direct it away from his core and throughout the rest of his body, thus maintaining an empty core. If he attempted to accumulate more than his core could handle using this method, the excess would either immediately disperse or, if there was too much, he would suffer from a backlash.
At this moment, Galeron's magicka reserves were almost double what they had been two years ago and his magicka regeneration had increased nearly three fold. While he wanted to increase his magicka reserves, he knew that it would take quite some time, until he reached the level of ridiculousness that he was reaching for. As such he focused more on magicka regeneration, since he knew that this would help to compensate for his shortcomings in the magicka reserves department.
Galeron had convinced his mother that it was time for him to begin actual combat training. He had spent the past month putting all of the spells and sword and bow skills he had been taught into practice against his Forsworn tutors. He was nowhere close to being a martial expert but, with his abnormally potent Destruction Magic at his disposal, he was at least able to keep up with his tutors, by the end of the month.
Galeron was almost satisfied with his physical prowess at this point. Having Orsimer blood running through his veins, he was already a bit taller and thicker than even most Nords but the benefits he gained from all four of his blood lines was fractional. If he went up against a full blooded Orc in a melee he would almost certainly lose. This wasn't particularly problematic for Galeron, as he only wanted to ensure that he didn't neglect his physical health, reflexes, and abilities. He had no intention of walking the martial path, after being reincarnated into a magical Universe. His sights were set on magical, mastery, power, and domination.
He planned to limit himself to only melee combat in his upcoming training, continue testing himself for another month, and then resume his Magicka Manipulation Meditation.
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(4E-198 7th of Sun's Dusk)
Darklight Tower
After Morila had shown him off to the rest of the Coven soon after The Great Flaming Arm Catastrophe, celebrating his birthday as "The Day of Fate" had become a mandatory event for the entire Coven. They seemed to be quite fanatical, in their belief that his conception was a means for them to populate every corner of Nirn with Hagravens and Witches. While he had no intention of destroying that delusion just yet, he still found the whole charade to be quite bothersome.
Once all of the day's celebrations, none of which involved cake or party games, were completed, he approached Morila the Meat Face and submitted his last request to the Matron.
"Excuse me, Mother. Are you busy?"
Morila looked up from a trinket she had been inspecting and responded, "No, no my dear. What can I do for you?"
"I was simply thinking that, although I'm not completely unfamiliar with Hedge Magic, I have spent most of my time studying standard spells and melee training. I don't regret this path but I feel that it's time that I began to immerse myself in the magic that makes our Coven as great as it is. Will you teach me, Mother?"
"Hehehehe," Morila let out a high pitched laugh. "I've been waiting for you to ask me that. I was even beginning to suspect I might have to shove it right under your nose. I'm glad to see that you came to me in your own time. Come, follow me. We can get started tonight." Morila directed him, as she walked off towards the Chironasium.
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(4E-199 28th of Sun's Height)
Darklight Tower
Hedge magic was peculiar, indeed. It seemed to involve capturing live Spriggans, putting them through a blood magic ritual, using that ritual to alter their nature magic into some type of twisted soul magic, and then extracting the Spriggan's Taproot as a source of that power.
Calling it soul power, however, could be confusing as it could imply that it's simply raw magicka or perhaps simply Mysticism. Perhaps that's why people called it Dark Magic. If you took the word "Hedge" literally, however, a Spriggan could be thought of as a sentient hedge, thus justifying the name.
Blood Magic and Dark Magic were the foundations of Hedge Magic. Everything accomplished with Hedge Magic utilized one or both of these powers. Galeron was engrossed in the study of Hedge Magic. It was so much more interesting than he thought it would be. So many possibilities, that he had never considered before, now seemed so obvious he wanted to kick himself... and so he did so.
Well before his sixteenth birthday, he had already mastered the Revenant Creation Ritual, the Summon Storm Atronach spell, and inducing Invisibility. The most important in regards to his practice of Hedge Magic, however, was obviously the Revenant Creation Ritual.
Necromancy spells, in this world, really didn't involve any kind of Conjuration, unless we're talking about some mad bargain with the Ideal Masters. The Raise Zombie spell was the most simplistic way to accomplish this and its name was fitting. Unlike in the game, there was no time limit. The different tiers of Necromancy spells were distinguished by the completeness of the false soul implanted into the corpse. A very basic false soul would result in a nearly brain dead reanimation hardly worthy of the name, hence the classification of Zombie.
Casting Reanimate Corpse required a different level of false soul that would result in a smarter and more aware reanimation that was actually deserving of that designation. Each higher tier of undead required a more sophisticated false soul, with the height of Necromancy being an Undead Thrall that was more or less as mentally, magically, and physically capable in undeath as he/she/it was in life. If Necromancers had any kind of moral code, at the top of that list of potential sins would be something like "Casting Raise Zombie on a Dragon Priest Corpse."
This particular discrepancy concerning the practice of necromancy Galeron found to be rather curious but ultimately in line with the other magics he had experienced. When casting any necromancy spell, there was no visual manifestation of magicka until the targeted corpse was raised and a magic circle with binding runes appeared near the inserted Black Soul Gem. This was also the case for many other non elemental spells, especially Mysticism and Illusion Spells.
So far he could only guess that this was simply how magic worked here in this world. However curious he may be, without some clue as to where to begin investigating, he could only accept it as it was for now.
While absorbing all of this knowledge and considering all he'd learned, Galeron was being constantly bombarded with ideas of how to apply it. The Briarheart Ritual was another Blood Magic ritual in which a Dark Magic Taproot was fused with the heart of a corpse, as a live Human was sacrificed by draining all of its blood into the corpse. Once the ritual was complete, the corpse, despite being an undead, would appear to be eerily similar in appearance to a normal person. The blood of the sacrifice would flow through its body powered by the Briar Heart, which takes the form of an exotic red and green pine cone. The Briar Heart itself, and thus the Briarheart Creation, is bound to whichever Hagraven is responsible for completing the ritual.
This ritual, like most others, involves a significant number of runes. After seeing these runes and their configuration, Galeron was inspired and was certain he could, with his not insubstantial knowledge of enchanting, replicate the effects of this ritual in a much more efficient manner. As soon as his lesson for the day had ended, he returned to his room and began experimenting on Skeevers, Frostbite Spiders, Foxes, and other creatures surrounding the Darklight Tower.
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(4E-199 31st of Last Seed)
Darklight Tower
Last week, Galeron had finally perfected his new spell and had every intention of using it as his secret weapon to break out of this place, with plenty of benefits in hand. Just today, however, one of the Witches who had gotten close to Wylandriah, the Court Wizard of Riften, reported that Jarl Laila Law-Giver had discovered their presence in Darklight Tower and would be sending a contingent of Riften Soldiers to clear the place out.
While he truly wanted to postpone his escape until his next birthday to give himself more time to train, it looked like the Jarl of Riften was going to force his hand. 'If I don't get out of here by the time they arrive, it's uncertain whether I'll survive. I need to leave before they arrive but I'll have to time it carefully, if I want to keep at least one of my prizes.'
Galeron got word the next day that the Riften Soldiers had left the city and were enroute to their location. The Witch reported that they would arrive in three days. Galeron went to his room and spent the next three days making sure that every "i" was dotted and "t" was crossed.
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(4E-199 3rd of Hearthfire)
Darklight Tower
"Galeron, the Jarl's men are almost here. I'm told they'll be here before the sun rises tomorrow. I need you to fight with us. We need every advantage we can get. You're more than ready and we're so close to our goal. We can't allow them to interfere with our plans. We've come too far to fail now. Make sure you join the fighting tomorrow. If I don't see you during our preparations, I'll come find you and drag you out." Morila warned him.
"Worry not, Mother. I may need some time to work on a little surprise I have for them but, rest assured, I'll be there killing our enemies right alongside you and our sisters." Galeron said, with a wicked grin.
"Very good. I'm interested to see what this surprise is. I'll see you then." Morila said, as she turned and left.
Just after midnight as the Riften Soldiers were slowly closing in on Darklight Tower, all of the Witches and Hagravens of Morila's coven were gathered on the bottom floor of the tower. Morila was relaying, to the attendants, the strategy they would employ against the soldiers. As she finished her speech and everyone nodded that they understood, she looked around and noticed that Galeron still hadn't arrived. 'Damn, that child. If I find him upstairs hiding, I'm going to hang him up by his toes and drain him dry.' Morila silently cursed, as she went back upstairs to look for him.
Galeron was sitting at the desk inside his ugly ass mother's room, located on the top floor of the tower. As soon as Morila walked in and saw him sitting there, she immediately started to scold him and was about to grab him, when he cut her off.
"Ah, Mother! You're just in time. I've just finished my big surprise. Are you ready to go see the looks on their faces, when I give it to them?" Galeron asked, as he rose from the chair.
"Dammit boy! Whatever you have planned had better be good! Everyone else is already downstairs and ready to fight! Now let's go!" She waved her arm dramatically towards the door, while turning around.
Galeron, who was almost 17, now stood at 6'10", had his snow white hair hanging down past his shoulders, and his skin, which had blackened even further into a pitch black demonic looking shade, stood in stark contrast to the browns and greys of the Forsworn armor that he'd received from Morila's tutors. His face, surprisingly, had developed into a hybrid of Henry Cavill's face as well as some features very similar to one of Galeron's ESO male Breton characters. After standing up from his chair, he hurried to catch up with Morila.
"Haha, have no fear, Mother. What I have planned is absolutely…" Once he arrived behind her, he prepared a Paralysis spell in his left hand and placed it upon the back of her neck. Morila froze in place. Galeron then quickly withdrew a Black Soul Gem covered in blood red runes and that had been sharpened to a point. He plunged the teardrop shaped Black Soul Gem into Morila's navel, while moving his left hand to grab her under her chin and pulled her head back. "...to die for." These last whispered words seemed to inspire the malevolence in his heart to draw a smile across his lips and the evil in his intentions to spark a gleam in his crimson red eyes.
Once the Teardrop Gem broke Morila's skin, a number of runes began burning grooves into her skin, starting at her pierced navel and quickly working their way up to her neckline. Galeron had her head tilted back, as he kept the tip of the Teardrop Gem inside of her and pressed the rest flat against her skin, before forcing the rest of the gem inside under the skin of her torso.
Galeron then immediately grabbed his Soul Trap enchanted dagger and slit Morila's throat precisely where the runes that had burned rune shaped grooves into her skin had stopped. Morila's blood gushed out of the freshly cut wound and began filling the runes burned into her skin. As each rune groove was filled, it began to glow with a strange power.
Once all of the blood runes had been filled all the way down to her navel, the very bottom end of the Teardrop Gem, which could be seen from the wound in her navel, emitted a purplish blue light which quickly formed what looked like a circular elemental rune trap around Morila's navel. Galeron placed his palm over her wounded navel and when he removed his hand the Deadric Runes for "BIND" were there in the middle of the Runic Circle.
He had been recasting Paralyze every couple of seconds, despite the fact that the entire incident only lasted about ten seconds, the fourth of which she was already dead.
Morila stood silently in front of him, with the illumination of his spell slowly fading, her mind, body, and soul now belonging to Galeron!
The spell he used was an altered version of the Briarheart Ritual, the Crying Corpse Spell. Instead of sacrificing another person's blood he had enchanted a specially crafted Black Soul Gem with runes that would etch themselves into the target's skin upon the target's blood touching the gem. Stabbing Morila with the Teardrop Gem fulfilled this condition.
The runes that were etched into Morila's skin were a replacement for the original Blood Ritual.
In order to create an undead he needed either a false soul or something like the Briar Heart. He decided to go with both. The Teardrop Gem was used to capture her own soul. Her own soul was used to power the spell that fused the Teardrop Gem with her magicka core and her own blood was used to power the runes that keep her body functioning, like a Briarheart. The purplish blue Binding Seal, that appeared over her navel wound, was the false soul that would not only bind her to him but also give Galeron a more complete and fine tuned control over her.
A false soul was typically just a configuration similar to an Elemental Rune Trap placed within a corpse, that is configured in such a way to give the caster control over the target. This configuration required three aspects. One was the binding of the target to the caster. Second were the runes that would allow the caster's will to be sent to and received by the target. The third were the runes designed to allow the undead to draw magicka from the Black Soul Gem that was required for any Necromantic spell.
Unlike in the game, every creation of an undead, using standard Necromancy, required both this rune configuration and an implanted Black Soul Gem to act as the corpses replacement magicka core. While the Black Soul Gem acted as the Magicka Core, the Runic Configuration, being a medium to transmit the caster's will, provided the corpse with an intention that could manipulate and utilize that magicka, thus a false soul.
Now that Morila was under his control, he manipulated her so that she cast Invisibility and Muffle on herself and then Galeron followed suit. The two of them then made their way out of the top of the tower, past a squad of Riften Soldiers clearly intent on flanking the Coven from the top of the tower, and down towards Crystaldrift Cave.