Crafting Motifs 58: Fang Lair

Original media : TES Online

By Orryn the Black

For too long the magical discipline of Necromancy has been disregarded as a mere subset of Conjuration, or worse, dismissed outright because it is "evil." But our efforts in Fang Lair will impress all Tamriel with the importance of Necromancy! As such, it is critical that you lesser members of the Blackmarrow make an impressive showing; therefore, when crafting your arms and armor, you will follow these instructions to the letter. Unless you'd prefer, of course, to serve as a subject of experimentation. Hmm?

Axes: For thematic reasons that should be obvious to even the dimmest intelligence, our axes look like great razor-sharp cleavers on poles, with our hallmark "fang" on the end of each blade. A person threatened by a Fang Lair axe will have no choice but to imagine what it will do to their flesh and bone if they do not instantly yield.

Belts: While in principle the ideal material for our Fang Lair belts would be tanned human skin, in practice human-hide just isn't thick or durable enough for our needs, so you may substitute cattle or horse-hide leather. A skull-shaped belt buckle will get our point across just as well.

Boots: Our experience among the narrow-minded of Tamriel has taught us to be quick on our feet and ready to relocate, so our shoes are a relatively light element of our apparel. They may even be as simple as sandals, especially when paired with light armor.

Bows: Any style with "Fang" in its name implies it will look sharp and dangerous, and that's certainly the case with our Blackmarrow bows. Even the quivers that carry our broad-headed arrows are adorned with sharp motifs and even sharper edges. (Wear gloves when arming yourselves, fools.)

Chest pieces: Though we haven't been able to provide them yet for every member, eventually all of you will proudly wear our Fang Lair tattoos and body markings. These marks are a tribute to your fervent commitment to the Blackmarrow cause, and to show them off our cuirasses leave the less-critical parts of your torsos exposed.

Daggers: Like much of our equipment, our daggers derive from proven Redguard designs: curved, single-edged blades, sharp pointed, and with our signature "fang" in the barbed hook behind the point.

Gloves: You will agree—for you must—that for both conjuring and combat, it's best to have the fingers free of the confinement of cumbersome gloves; however, above the hands you can trust our flaring gauntlets to protect the wrists and forearms.

Helmets: The Blackmarrow wear close-fitting metal skullcaps with upper-face visors covered by tight-turbaned hoods that extend to our shoulders. If you are wise, you will wear an additional mail coif under the hood to protect your neck.

Leg greaves: We rely on leather, supple but many-layered, to protect our legs. Our fighting style dictates the primacy of mobility, in which attacks to the legs are mainly avoided or turned aside before a blade can ever contact our greaves or chausses.

Maces: A mace is the preferred weapon for an order with necromantic ambitions, because a body struck down by a mace is more useful for reanimation than a corpse with severed limbs. Thus our maces are heavy and functional, so that you may defeat an adversary with the least number of blows, leaving behind a body ripe for necromancy.

Shields: The broad oval shield of the Blackmarrow, rimmed with overlapping metal plates, has one purpose and one purpose only: to protect your body in combat. Those who fail to employ it properly may, upon death, be reanimated and assigned to menial and even humiliating tasks. So use it wisely.

Shoulder armor: The symbolism behind crafting our pauldrons to resemble grinning abstract metallic skulls should be obvious to even our least-sophisticated cult members. Remember: in Necromancy, there are no points for subtlety.

Staves: The focal finial of our spellcasters' magic staves features a mystic crescent between two bony, taloned fingers. It has been pointed out to me that this symbology appears nowhere else on our gear, but as a Master Necromancer I am above such a small-minded emphasis on consistency. It looks impressive, and that's good enough.

Swords: Our swords fundamentally hearken back to Redguard roots, though the austere descendants of the Ansei would shy away from the baroque and spiky improvements we've made to their overly simple designs. The fools! Soon, they, too, will acknowledge our greatness and kneel before us.