I really liked the lore behind Umbra and the fact that the NPC Umbra would shout things like "Umbra is thirsty! Umbra needs souls," etc.

But I was kind of disappointed when Umbra didn't talk to me or influence me to attack things I wouldn't otherwise.

Do you think there will be some artifacts with some kind of personality in Skyrim? Or, for example, where you suffer penalties from the Skeleton Band if you want to use the Skeleton Key. (I think this might be from one of my mods).

I like the idea of powerful artifacts that have some kind of penalty for using them.

If there are penalties, the item better as hell be worth it. I like the idea of Umbra turning you into more or less a Nightmare in Soul Calibur, but as long as the pros more than outweigh the cons. Another cool perk idea with using Umbra are npcs calling you Umbra. Maybe the skull of corruption in turn corrupts the player? (I can't think of any specific penalties other than RPing purposes)

that would be very cool.

if not included in vanilla Skyrim there is a lot of opportunity for mods here.

Maybe if you don't kill X number of souls with Umbra after X days, then you black out and wake up to find that Umbra has made you kill 30 people LOL

Or you suffer reduced health if you haven't killed anything in the last 30 minutes.

Some ancient cursed blade would be nice. And like you said with Umbra, it would be amazing if it talked to you, like straight inside of your head or soul. Maybe tell you to kill people, or do bad things..~

That reminds me of the madness long swords in the Shivering Isles. I looks like there is an eye on it, and I always imagined it was and actual eye ball that moved around, like and biological weapon...But yeah your idea sounds good.

I absolutely agree. I've always been disappointed that the entire notion of Umbra is a sword that's so powerful that it takes over the lives of those who use it, but then it doesn't have any effect at all on the PC.

And beyond Umbra, I'd just like to see that sort of thing anyway.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13398 does exactly this! If you don't "feed" it souls, it eventually takes over and forces you to kill. It adds a really interesting quest chain that eventually allows you to overpower the sword's will and control it for yourself.

I really hope they make artifacts unique and powerful in Skyrim.

The nearest thing from vanilla Oblivion would be things like the Staff of Everscamp or items than added a negative and positive buff.

-I like the idea of some items needing things (aside from recharging) in order to stay "happy" in the artifact-has-a-soul-of-its-own kind of way. Umbra needing souls is one. A set of Glass armour with 100% resist fire that looses fire resistance if not heated often enough.

-In addition, I would not be against the idea of being able to add extra positive effects by adding negative effects while enchanting.... or having random negative effects at lower levels.

A sword that wants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBnb4kPT-Ps. The more people you decapitate, the more powerful you get. Just an example. :shrug:

Shivering Isles had Dawnfang/Duskfang. In order to get the most powerful version of the sword you had to take at least six lives during night and during day.