Something that really got my attention in Oblivion was necromancers and the mystic that was wrapped around them. Through the Mages Guild you was sent on quests to find out more about them and on the way you saw things and heard about things on how to make Black Soulgems, how the King of Worms used to svck the souls of the living and/or making them his slaves. Others taunted you of how they would make your corpse dance and what not. My lust for finding out more of this mystic cult where somewhat satisfied by reading the available ingame books on the matter, but as you progressed through the Mages Guild and got to know these necromancers more and more, the more I doubted they were really necromancers, and as i got to the last quest, the final battle with the King of Worms, Mannimarco, i got really dissapointed to say the least. The onlything the necromancers did in Oblivion was using Conjugation to summon the undead.

Now with ESV Skyrim coming up i felt the urge to find a solution to this. when thinking on how Mannimarco could svck souls from the living, and how interested the necromancers were in creating Black Soulgems a thought occured in me. What if in Skyrim they could re-do the whole soultrap thing and actually make soultrap a skill usefull not only for trapping souls, but also as a skill used in offensive magic. The better you got at soultrapping, the bigger souls you could capture, but you wouldnt do it as they died, but rather as a way to "kill" them. This brings up the question "What is a body without a soul", and i think a logical awnser is a zombie! (and a slave to whomever holding its soul) This way the necromancer "class" is available to the player, and also the necromancers in the game are actually necromancers.

With the 2 hand system implemented this could work by holding the desierd soulgem in one hand (i always hated that the soul got stuck in a Grand Soulgem, instead of my Azuras Star), and the soul trap spell in the other. If you were skilled enough with soultrapping and the soulgem were big enough for the current foe, the soul would be captured and you got yourself a undead follower. If you werent skilled enogh, youd had to weaken the foe first, either by draining its stamina or HP.

TLDR

• Being able to play as a necromancer
  
• Soul Trap would work as an offensive magic
  
• Soul gem one hand, Soul trap spell in other
  
• Successfull soultrap -> filled soulgem and undead follower
  
• Black soulgems! to get a human zombie
  
• And ofcourse the Necromancers "Guild"!

I think this would be really interesting to play, and feel more like magic. Obviously it would have to be hard to get to high levels of soultrapping and to make Black soulgems. What do you guys think, i really hope this gets added in the final game, or atleast by modders!

I enjoyed the intricacy of the Oblivion Mage's guild story line, albeit a bit too linear. But I really never gave a crap about soul trapping human NPC's with black soul gems, I'm afraid.

That'd be an awesome implementation of it I'm not sure if you've played the mod Moriarcis for Oblivion, but that too made necromancy a complete class of it's own - not just some mage with sadistic tendencies and a penchant for summoning skeletons & zombies

Makes me think of Necromancer's carving big black/regular soul gems into daggers or at the end of a staff.

But I forget that soulgems are one time use only. darn...

hmmm? interesting thought could work, but im more interested in becoming a lich, if they add that with your idea then sweet

EDIT:if they added soul trap as a skill that would take care of the no mysticism skill thing

that would be cool creating a black soul gem dagger or sword, come to think of it doesnt umbra remind you of that?

EDIT: crap double post

Yeah, becoming an lich would be awesome, but i wonder how the local towns would react when i come to town trying to sell my loot?

oh dude check out my ''playable lich poll'' and vote we discussed all the formalities of becoming a lich, the answer to your question is the ''conceal true nature'' and ''reveal true nature'' spells, just like the lichcraft mod for oblivion

EDIT: the lichcraft mod for oblivion was my favorite mod whoever made it is a genius

EDIT: i pray that they add it to skyrim, but with a ring wraith robe, instead of the generic black robe

Wow, the ''conceal true nature'' and ''reveal true nature'' spells are genious. It would be awesome if you got the ability to become a Lich aproaching the end of the Necromancers guild!

thats what i thought too, it would be perfect, i mean this is what almost all dark sorcerers aspire to become, a powerful necromancer that does not want to be slowed down by the effects of old age and performs a ritual for immortality, sure you may not be a sweet talker to the ladies anymore, but looking skeletal with a robe and hood is just my image for my character and it would 100% work ingame i dont know why so many people dont think its a good idea, but nevertheless looking at my poll sure there may be a the most votes say no, but with a combined vote of yes, maybe, and depends on how they do it, overall yess beats no by far, as long as it is done right.

That's the only souls I trap. It's too boring to have to level up to lv 20 in vanilla Oblivion and then you have to identify if it's a grand soul creature - why do that when you can simply make black soul gems and soul trap a whole bandit camp?

I think that's overpowered. Necromacy should be a guild or something, but by no means a skill and soul trap should not be a potential instakill spell.

What's the point in having a whole necromancy skill? It's just bits of other magic classes (mostly conjuration) put together. More useless than mysticism.

i think they should add various necromancy tomes 1 they are just the coolest books in the game and 2 if they add the lich they should make it so you have to find these tomes, and get your attributes up very high like intelligence just to read and understand the books and so on that should be how they add the feature so its not easy to acquire and would prove very challenging to find the books and level up
EDIT: or the final quest in the necromancer guild provided you have a choice of course.

Thats not what i said. I said that a less powerfull necromancer might have to hurt the beast before he captures it (That sounds like pokemon D: ). That doesnt mean that a Necromancer master could instakill everyone, but if he could instakill lesser creatures like wolves it still wouldnt be OP. What i mean is that this system is possible only if (like everything else in the game!!!!!) its balanced first.

I dont have the exact equations to balance this, but it IS possible to do it, and it would be awesome!

i think its a good idea, but maybe somethin you should be able to when you are a master of necromany

I really really really realllly hope there is a Necromancer's Guild. I have been wanting one for a long time. If they have too make it DLC. I'll buy it haha.

I fixed mystique for you. I lol'd really hard when I saw that necromancers were using "Conjugation" to summon undead.

Also for your ideas, I think that the current soul trap system is fine but I hope there is a necromancer guild and a more wide selection of necromancer spells.