SurReal Necromancy - A silent Symphony

Introduction: This mod started out from the Craftybits team tossing ideas around a thread for a necromancer and mage oriented addon for Craftybits which is probably the best Crafting lifestyle mod to date for Oblivion. When there were enough ideas but nothing happened, I decided to start experimenting with the ideas - And that's how it started, A Necromancy overhaul with a practical and busy touch, with actual theory! I've been working on this mod pretty much alone, gradually fleshing out the ideas and pestering/amusing the wonderful Craftybits team with testing the mod, but we don't have too many testers with free time and decided to do most of the testing myself.

Getting to the point: This ofcourse means I've been working on it for months and I'm getting close to a release, the thing is I can't wait and I think neither can you, so If you feel like helping me with getting the first version of this Badboy out the door, I'd be thrilled! This is a downright shameless recruitment :laugh: Take a look at the Mod thread http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/index.php/topic,1549.0.html and if you feel up to it sign on up and get Unholy! I've got big things planned yet... :dance: The interesting things start at page four.

And once this is done and you feel up to it there are some awesome things to be done with Craftybits itself, help us bring realism to a virtual world, it's hard as hell! Beta testers, scripters, modelers, mostly testers and scripters, people with good ideas, show us what you can do! :ph34r:

It's not really my call, but since Illiana is also no longer modding, don't let her down by letting the development on Deserts of Anequina slow down, get that Jewel going on!

I honestly intended this to be a simple introduction to my upcoming mod of Surreal Necromancy only, but these things can't really be separated!

This has been Dominick from Team Craftybits, with a little Rallying call to the http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/index.php! Put your modding hats on!

a friend of mine PMd the topic about this tome. i've j ust started working on crafty bits i can't quite get it the "make useful doesnt work" but thats not your problem how ar eyou?

Yeah, if you have trouble with the "Make useful" tool key, post in the Bug report section at Craftybits HQ.
Would really like to see some interest in this necromancy mod. If anyone is interested in working with Surreal Necromancy let me know, PM me or sign up at Wormhole, no strings attached. bliviongate:

Here are some features that I've already realized in the mod, so you know what to expect if you don't want to read the whole development thread at Wormhole. I should mention that Stalker should get a big credit for it, I built this mod on the foundation of his system of Minion creation, improved on it the best I could and just added a whole lot of new features. Without stalkers mod, this wouldn't exist as it is now.

So there are two core features. The usage of Unholy circles to create, bind and assemble undead minions on an unholy altar drawn on the ground. You need your own blood to bind them to your will. The Circles are usable anywhere and are essentially powerful magical finetuning magnifying glasses to guide the ressurrection processes aswell as other necromantic activites.
And a central use of Tomes of Unlife that act as Necromancers' Bibles, with most of your know-how coming from researching the vast knowledge of the Tome (The tomes are connected with an astral network, the contents are controlled by souls imbued into the tomes and act as unholy personal computers)

I've made loads of new meshes, Zombie arms and bodypieces are usable and harvestable, with new bending meshes(Not stiff like they were in vanilla)
Skeletons and other bone creatures are created with bones, that you find around the game or harvest from skeletons.
Blood of npcs and creatures can be harvested into blood vials, if mixed with health potions to preserve the life in blood. The bottled blood of creatures and npcs are compatible with vampire mods, that alter the base humanblood item.
Here's a big one. NPC's can be skinned! That's right, and it's a intuitive hack-n-slash process that goes by stages (Normal - skinned- gutted- fleshed - cleaned - washed)
And there are all the guts and ingredients you expect to get, Argonian lungs and orc hearts, high elf skin and whatnot. The skinned meshes are gender and race based.
I've created new skulls for each of the races, that can be used to make race specific skeletons.
Homunculite minions - NPC Undead with the personalities of people. I'm actually working on this right now so they can become real companions that help you in your necromantic practices. I've specially created new wearable skeleton and zombie models for this purpose, so any npc can become your Undead minion.
Glyphskulls - Special enchanted skulls created by carving/burning unholy sigils on the bone with special claws. They may act as Soulgems, magicka reservuars or just powerful unholy tools to boost your gameplay.

And there are several little features too, like special items that you can quest for to aid in your dark work. One of these includes an unholy bone quill that painlessly draws your blood when held to anoint your minions with.

There are several other cool things, like being able to go into spirit form and hunt for souls in the vast worldspace of Aetherius.

I'm expecting to get this done in the next month if I'm able to get the help I need to test all this out. Come give me a hand if any of this means something to you

Some screenshots of mod content:
http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=183
http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=184
http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=94
http://thewormhole.nfshost.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=95
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6186/ghoulsi.jpg
http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv79/BenNM_2009/HBCx4.jpg
There are a lot more, but I'll let you find out for yourself

Hmm, Having some minor fail on making undead creatures with this mod.
Could I get a idiots guide?

...awesome :goodjob:

Well it is still a wip, so the best ingame guide so far is the "Domund" testing cell, there should be a cheat sheet on the wall that will help you. I'm adding ingame instructions on corpse assembly to the corpse preparation books as we speak. I'll have a cleaned and updated version up later tonight at the development thread at Wormhole.

My god... This is going to be great! The best of luck with the creation of the MOD, this is going to be a popular one, that's for sure!

If I get enough publicity and attention, then sure why not. Players like to express their darker side from time to time and I aim to make it realistic, fun and fulfilling

i'm looking forward to this! any requirments for being a beta tester?

Absolutely, come on down and see what you can find I'm glad I've gotten so much help already.