Thrall Thread : Living with the dead

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Harkin

Necromatic Mastermind
Also trying 2 find thalmor justiciars that conjure storm atronachs, Elenwel was a horrible thrall, despite her supposedly knowing the spell I fought her and tested her at 40. She just shot a few spells then used her fists lol.Any ideas where to find them? Trying 2 keep this awesome thread alive!
 

Adam Warlock

Well-Known Member
Also trying 2 find thalmor justiciars that conjure storm atronachs, Elenwel was a horrible thrall, despite her supposedly knowing the spell I fought her and tested her at 40. She just shot a few spells then used her fists lol.Any ideas where to find them? Trying 2 keep this awesome thread alive!
justiciars are randomly encountered and not reliable as thralls.

Thalmor Wizards respawn at the embassy (random radiant levels)and most will conjure storm atronachs.
 

Harkin

Necromatic Mastermind
Cheers man, Il keep a lookout. Not been on skyrim lately, looking forward to new games comin out, that shadow of mordor looks imnense.
 
Long time no see, fellow thrallers! Hows everybody doing? Discovered any new bug/glitch relating to thralls? If so, please let me know ;3

Since my last appearance I've been considering doing something quite crazy with my (not so) new character; anchoring every unique corpse, humanoid or not, for the sake of... necromancy?!
With that in mind, I'd like to ask you guys for a quick list of every humanoid thrall and whose should I start hunting first. I don't really feel like reverting my old saves in order to go catch a particular thrall, so a bit of planning wouldn't hurt.

As for the character...
Currently Infidel is at level 28 and he already captured the following thralls: Drelas, Bashnag, Brandish and Kematu. I'm also planning on using Southfringe Sanctum as a lvl 40+ corpse deposit -stares to Kematu- while I keep the thrallable ones inside my owned properties. Sounds like a good plan I guess... Any objections?

Trying 2 keep this awesome thread alive!
PS: Worry not, the thread shall remain forever undead :3
 

Adam Warlock

Well-Known Member
^^Southfringe Sanctum as a base ?
Have you anchored Pumpkin yet ?

For suggested thralls it helps to know if you have any DLC.
Both of them have a host of scaling NPC who will exceed thrall limit but are available to you at your current level.
 
Believe me, Pumpking is still alive! I don't really know the reason why, but perhaps it has something to do with clearing the sanctuum stealthly, as I did with infidel. It might be that by avoiding to trigger the hostility of the Spellswords, Pumpking also stood unaffected. -weird, isn't it? I could post a screenshot later...

Uh, yeah I got all the DLCs for PS3. It'd Better not to bother with Solstheim tho, seeing as the required level for me to spawn Master Cultists is higher than 100 (trust me, I spent a day and a half testing this). It's also very frustrating only being able to encounters volkihars past lvl 80 :c I'm pretty sure I'll have to choose between picking one or another thrall but that's something I'll have to cope with...

Please note that my ambitious plan (mostly) doesn't involve killing townsfok but we can make some exceptions, can't we? Let's just say I wanna play less like a villain and more like an antihero :3

PS: Oh! If you're still interested in testing thrall issues, I've found something quite odd about my Reaver Lord from Nchardak; Unlike my Kagrumez Reaver Marauder, he keeps dissapearing whenever I enter a new cell or encounter an enemie. Perhaps I thralled him too early? It might have some relation with Krosulhah... who knows?
 

Rhew

The missing snow elf
So a few questions. As long as you thrall them before lv 40 you can use them after you pass lv. 40? My character is lv. 37 now and I have a house full of the Dark Brotherhood. First time trying this thrall thing and it's fun. I can finally have Veezara as a follower :p. Also do I need to anchor the DB characters? Sorry if these questions have already been answered. 88 pages is a lot to shuffle through :oops:
 

Adam Warlock

Well-Known Member
So a few questions. As long as you thrall them before lv 40 you can use them after you pass lv. 40? My character is lv. 37 now and I have a house full of the Dark Brotherhood. First time trying this thrall thing and it's fun. I can finally have Veezara as a follower :p. Also do I need to anchor the DB characters? Sorry if these questions have already been answered. 88 pages is a lot to shuffle through :oops:
The DB NPC have permanent corpses for the most part and don`t require anchoring BUT they will scale past the thrall limit as your character does.(up to 50)
IF the thrall (like Veezara) remains CONTINUOUSLY active from BEFORE you reach lvl 41 , she will remain as your thrall until she is killed or deactivated. After that , she can`t be thralled again.

The necromancer often finds that moving on to other thralls is the easiest solution.
Or you can simply STOP LEVELING at 40 until you finally tire of your DB minions.
Some players use the Restoration loop(glitch) to apply an increased amount of HP via enchanting in order to preserve a thrall continuously but I find that cumbersome and ultimately boring.
 
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Rhew

The missing snow elf
So a few questions. As long as you thrall them before lv 40 you can use them after you pass lv. 40? My character is lv. 37 now and I have a house full of the Dark Brotherhood. First time trying this thrall thing and it's fun. I can finally have Veezara as a follower :p. Also do I need to anchor the DB characters? Sorry if these questions have already been answered. 88 pages is a lot to shuffle through :oops:
The DB NPC have permanent corpses for the most part and don`t require anchoring BUT they will scale past the thrall limit as your character does.(up to 50)
IF the thrall (like Veezara) remains CONTINUOUSLY active from BEFORE you reach lvl 41 , she will remain as your thrall until she is killed or deactivated. After that , she can`t be thralled again.

The necromancer often finds that moving on to other thralls is the easiest solution.
Or you can simply STOP LEVELING at 40 until you finally tire of your DB minions.
Some players use the Restoration loop(glitch) to apply an increased amount of HP via enchanting in order to preserve a thrall continuously but I find that cumbersome and ultimately boring.

Thanks for the info! I'll just keep her at 37 until I get bored with the DB thralls :)
 

HouseHosted

Mundus 9-5, Oblivion weekends
Hello,

Tonight I feel obligated to express my deepest disdain for the Broken Oar Grotto. It has been my worst fear to lose my Dremora Churl by my side, and now that day has come.

I keep in immediate record three save files should any uncalled for event like disappearing bodies, hard freezes, and/or any of the other unmeasurably unkind things occur. Sadly, these three saves were overwritten during my assault on Broken Oar Grotto for various reasons. I blame ignorance for this mishap; for it was not at all in my conscience to even consider such a bug to exist. I am playing on the 360, and so I do not have access to console commands. All this is very... maddening... The thought of carrying on without my Dremora Churl is... a black and lonely one.

"I honor my lord by destroying you!"

"I smell weakness."

/montage

*sigh*
 

Adam Warlock

Well-Known Member
Hello,

Tonight I feel obligated to express my deepest disdain for the Broken Oar Grotto. It has been my worst fear to lose my Dremora Churl by my side, and now that day has come.

I keep in immediate record three save files should any uncalled for event like disappearing bodies, hard freezes, and/or any of the other unmeasurably unkind things occur. Sadly, these three saves were overwritten during my assault on Broken Oar Grotto for various reasons. I blame ignorance for this mishap; for it was not at all in my conscience to even consider such a bug to exist. I am playing on the 360, and so I do not have access to console commands. All this is very... maddening... The thought of carrying on without my Dremora Churl is... a black and lonely one.

"I honor my lord by destroying you!"

"I smell weakness."

/montage

*sigh*
Broken Oar Grotto is a black hole.
Time to go find another dremora to fill the singularity in your black heart.

I thought I was being clever when I thralled that scaly bitch , Deeja , so I could watch her kill her brother at the climax of their quest.
there aren`t very many decent Argonian thralls in the game and that move cost 2 of them. Not to mention Captain Hargar or his minions.

As an experiment , I took a follower (Dark Brotherhood Initiate) inside Broken Oar and then told him to go back to the Sanctuary.
He has been stuck in there for over a skyrim year thus far.

I imagine there are any number of quests that might be broken by the Grotto.
Thankfully , conjurations operate normally while inside.

My suggested route through this is to get the quest to kill Captain Hargar from the executioner Ahtar first.
Go and clear the grotto BEFORE going to see Deeja during the Light`s Out quest.
this is a perfect opportunity to use disposable thralls like bandits, forsworn, or vampires.
when you return to the grotto Jaree-Ra will be alone and is an easy kill
 
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HouseHosted

Mundus 9-5, Oblivion weekends
Don't feel like reading? Please read tl; dr.

Broken Oar Grotto is a black hole.
Time to go find another dremora to fill the singularity in your black heart.

I thank you for your condolences; however, I believe I just discovered a fix. You'll have to bear with me as I am quite overcome with joy. After coming to terms with the loss of my Churl, I, like any red-blooded conjurer sought a replacement. Certainly, your suggestion to simply find another sounds easy; though, I am currently undertaking a level one playthrough, and
cannot "bump" into any other Dremora.

Well, this is what I'd thought. After reading through your forum's Thrall picture thread, I recalled the Dremora trapped by enchantments in Winterhold. Perhaps level four may be terribly underwhelming for a level 50, I thought, it may not be for a level one. This is what I had intended to do at the same time as readying my recently trapped Dremora Churl to be completely "invalidated." Now mind you, I was also working on a what-if plot to save my Churl. This was to gain the knowledge of all three words for Relenting Force to, in effect, throw my Churl out the grotto.

Upon attaining the third word, I was finally ready to run back to Broken Oar to take some of the items off him to move to Vlindrel Hall (by the way, thralls are amazing for storing items-- infinite carrying capacity, at least, in my Churl's case. I've not tried this on any other kind of thrall.) Something typical of my personality: Forgetting what it was I'd set out to do because of cuing so many other things around a short time-frame, I left Broken Oar after the exchange of some items. I fast travelled to Understone Keep, entered Vlindrel Hall, turned, and there he was. My Dremora Churl!

I cannot even begin to explain how this has happened. I can only try to recollect, as best I can, what it was I had done in the short time he had been trapped. Events as follows:

1. Exit Broken Oar Grotto

2. On way to Sleepfall Barrow to recover helmet for that guy in Solitude-- to 'help the people' to become Thane and receive Shield of Solitude, and stop in at Orphan's Tear because it's on the way. Killed them all, turned and noticed Churl hadn't showed up.

3. Fast travelled and ran back and forth a couple times until realizing Churl was still in Broken Oar. Entered and exited Broken Oar two times before assuming efforts were in vain. In a fit of wild unvarying denial attempted conjuring familiar (as I always do) and went to leave.... This is when I went online to hunt for answers. None surfaced beyond moving on or "believing" he'll one day come back to me if left "alive" in the grotto.

4. Choosing the latter, I kept him thralled, travelled to High Hrothggar, and began Jorgen Windcaller quest. Rented the attic room, received the last word, and travelled to Honningbrew for a little dishwashing.

5. Travelled to Broken Oar, conjured familiar (as I always do,) to grab more items, reanimated, saved while he was reanimating (because this is the kind of stuff I do... Left, travelled to Understone Keep, and ran to Vlindrel Hall. This is when I seen him.

Explanation:

My guess is, by leaving the grotto before the "reviving" animation was complete, tricked the game into thinking he spawned outside with me. Safe to say I'm not going to be troubleshooting this, guys. I'm sorry. I do not want to lose him again. But, for anyone desperate enough, or interested in seeing if this can work for everyone: Feel free to try.

As an experiment , I took a follower (Dark Brotherhood Initiate) inside Broken Oar and then told him to go back to the Sanctuary.
He has been stuck in there for over a skyrim year thus far.

As I've read, this is an issue with a couple followers. Luckily, my Jenassa had not succumbed to this obstacle. It seems there are a couple ways to remedy the issue for followers, although, they are very specific and-- far from what I can describe as a solution that provides an answer. Rather they instead resolve the issue magically. By this I mean: It makes no sense to me why it worked.

My suggested route through this is to get the quest to kill Captain Hargar from the executioner Ahtar first.
Go and clear the grotto BEFORE going to see Deeja during the Light`s Out quest.
this is a perfect opportunity to use disposable thralls like bandits, forsworn, or vampires.
when you return to the grotto Jaree-Ra will be alone and is an easy kill

Certainly. I had done this by accident on a few of my previous characters. Recollecting later, once the quest was active, that I had to enter the very grotto I'd just cleared. It's quite a treat to find out you only have to return to grab a single item or kill one person to satisfy a quest outline.

Tl; dr: Go Ctrl + F and type in "My guess is".
 

Harkin

Necromatic Mastermind
That reanimating trick for trapped Broken Oar Grotto thralls sounds interesting, you'd have to be pretty close to the exit or Slow time Shout but it could work. I've not brought thralls into there always killed them and left them outside, luckily theres 80+pages of useful information here!

I'll tell u guys about a failed experiment I was extremely desperate to try, hoping itwould work.

I wanted to thrall Sinding as a werewolf, by any means necessary, so I tried endless tests where you meet him in the Prison at Falkreath. I used a bucket to glitch through the wall into the cage, saved it, then tried killing him, using slowtime and thralling him either when he was in the death animation, transform to werewolf animation or actually in Werewolf form. After hours of testing I manage to find the exact interval where the game "Replaces " the humanoid, Thrallable yet useless Sinding with the Unthrallable Beast.

I was hoping I could catch him inbetweenthe thrallable version, so he retained beast form whilst being my minion. Probably the biggest test I've done for one NPC, however the only real way is to get him is by Ritual stone power for a measly 2 minute duration.

Oh Skyrim, you frustrate me sometimes !
 

HouseHosted

Mundus 9-5, Oblivion weekends
^ Close to the exit, yes. No need for Shouts though.

Ok. Soon after stating I didn't want to sacrifice my Churl again, I remembered I have other characters... Who would have guessed, right?

I took a bandit marauder to Broken Oar on my level 81 Argonian and proceeded to get her stuck. After some troubleshooting, I am confident should anyone use these steps they will relieve their [humanoid] thralls from this bug.

1. Kill then thrall subject
2. Leave Broken Oar as soon as spell has been cast
3. Is strange

Travelling to Riften's Mistvell Keep works. Travelling to Solitude does not work at all. Travelling to Understone Keep alone doesn't seem to work, but entering Vlindrel Hall does (I'm perplexed.) Whiterun doesn't work. Haven't tried Winterhold, or any other holds, though, I will note: Dragon's Bridge doesn't work and nor does fast travelling to Broken Oar once outside.

Provided no one else has figured this out, here are some grounds to resolve this bug. Good luck!
 

Harkin

Necromatic Mastermind
It'd be better to just never enter Broken Oar grotto with any thrall, Followers told to wait if you find they get stuck.

I'm the type of guy that does thrall testing, but since the areas bugged, and Thralls still for me act weirdly sometimes - due to so many variables, the fix above might work, but it sounds like the thralls have picked up Fast Travelling issues, such as dissapearances/completely Vanishing yes?

No Necromancer wants that, Thralls already nuisance being Slow on arrival of any Fast Travel -waiting an hour or 2 and poof they appear.

Theres 2 times one needs to enter Grotto, Bolar's Oathblade, and the Werewolf Quest, Thralls left outside wont vanish or be bugged when you've done what you had to do.
 

HouseHosted

Mundus 9-5, Oblivion weekends
It'd be better to just never enter Broken Oar grotto with any thrall, Followers told to wait if you find they get stuck.

I'm the type of guy that does thrall testing, but since the areas bugged, and Thralls still for me act weirdly sometimes - due to so many variables, the fix above might work, but it sounds like the thralls have picked up Fast Travelling issues, such as dissapearances/completely Vanishing yes?

You're right. It is quite odd. It might lead to a speculation of 'picking up fast travelling issues', though, it's hard to say. With my current Churl, I'll make any progressive posts if there are any issues. Honestly, I get the feeling there are three major factors in the success of this fix:

1. The reanimation places the subject in a sort of limbo until the spell is totally finished actualizing.

2. The auto-saving feature in Skyrim, itself, is quite buggy. You can pluck flowers/whatever or sell to a merchant, reload the save, and the plants won't be reset and the merchant's gold will bbe left at what they had before. I'm aware of the reasons why merchants behave this way, but plants behave much differently.

For instance, once you've exhausted the three auto-saves in cue, the plants will magically reset on their own without having to wait the whole period for them to reset. This may seem far-fetched in relation to thralls, but it might not be too far off. People aren't plants. I'm sure of that. I figure it takes an auto-save's-length of time for the thrall to reappear out of limbo-- but, it can only do this when

3. Is met: A distance (or set amount of time has passed in game since archiving and restoring files into new setting.

....The fact that the last step appears to have to take place in a hold... Well.. I'm sure about that one. I get the feeling it provides a "kind" of hard reset to the world, and as a result allows the thrall to reappear from out of the archive. I don't know.

Like I said, I'll keep using him, and if anything should happen in light of this recent trial, I'll note it, for sure.

No Necromancer wants that, Thralls already nuisance being Slow on arrival of any Fast Travel -waiting an hour or 2 and poof they appear..

This is also a strange one, I know. I usually revert to my limbo argument when these things happen. 'Course, more often than not, these issues arise when you're too far from the guy and he can't find his way. Also, they'll get caught on obstacles sometimes. Sometimes you just need to retrace your steps to get them back. Whenever I go to Riften, I usually have to wait seven seconds exactly for him to show up.. Oddly enough, the exact amount of time it takes for the little text indicating your location fades. Other times this doesn't happen and you must either go in then back out of somewhere, or a quicker solution is to re-fast travel to the same place.
 
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Harkin

Necromatic Mastermind
Well we understand the Fast Travel issue, Thralls like horses, use same data, the reason behind their delay to get to you, is because they warp to the Stables by the City, I can vouch they do appear right next to the local Stable.

Auto save is defo buggy, I actually disabled it when Orchendor 'Vanished' from my save on a Load. I only trust saving, a surefire way of keeping thralls is by saving the game when you are facing them and they are on screen, this hooks them to your game file.

This method doesn't work with thralls who have Scripted dissapearances, e.g Savos Aren, or non-names Thralls like "Khajit". But it is a sufficient method of keeping thralls u want.

Killing thralls, saving with corpses on screen also works.

P.S Sharing knowledge is great, you are welcome here!
 

HouseHosted

Mundus 9-5, Oblivion weekends
I'll take that into consideration, but the idea that thralls can simply vanish is something very peculiar-- he wasn't in your Active Effects menu or anything?

I have read about six pages of this thread (in no particular order,) and I'm sure I'd like to read more. I'll have to go back, but there was a neat tidbit...

Speaking of peculiar, for some reason (I'm assuming because of an issue with Dremora's left hands,) If you give a Churl a single Staff of the Frost Atronach or similar summoning staff, he will not use it. You need to give him a primary staff as well, i.e. Fireball. And for more reasons I cannot determine, they absolutely refuse to use stronger destruction staves. It could be because of their low Destruction skill at level one (and recognize how quickly they'd burn through the charge,) or maybe they don't like it... Food for thought for anyone wanting to adopt a Churl-- even though they are the weakest of the Dremora...
 

Adam Warlock

Well-Known Member
I'll take that into consideration, but the idea that thralls can simply vanish is something very peculiar-- he wasn't in your Active Effects menu or anything?

I have read about six pages of this thread (in no particular order,) and I'm sure I'd like to read more. I'll have to go back, but there was a neat tidbit...

Speaking of peculiar, for some reason (I'm assuming because of an issue with Dremora's left hands,) If you give a Churl a single Staff of the Frost Atronach or similar summoning staff, he will not use it. You need to give him a primary staff as well, i.e. Fireball. And for more reasons I cannot determine, they absolutely refuse to use stronger destruction staves. It could be because of their low Destruction skill at level one (and recognize how quickly they'd burn through the charge,) or maybe they don't like it... Food for thought for anyone wanting to adopt a Churl-- even though they are the weakest of the Dremora...
A robed dremora may do better with staves .
I usually equip the armored ones with a 2h weapon and a bow.
see here for all things dremora- http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dremora

i can usually find a churl hiding behind some more powerful types at the shrine of m.d.
 

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