Major changes are expected to come with the arrival ofThe Elder Scrolls 6after over a decade ofSkyrim’s enduring legacy, but the upcoming Bethesda RPG is likely to take influence from more than one popular entry in recent years. While it would be satisfying to see another province of Tamriel depicted in unprecedented detail alongside streamlined gameplay as the mainline series typically does, the impact ofThe Elder Scrolls Onlinepractically featuring the entire continent and its deeper lore cannot be ignored. Now thatESOhas found success in returning to the class-based structure of olderTEStitles and iterating on the system,The Elder Scrolls 6should follow it by officially incorporating death magic as a player option.
The concept of a necromancer in the world of Tamriel is nothing new, but this has never truly been a designated option for the player to build into. Historically, what might be considered necromancy spells have been split across the likes of the Conjuration, Restoration, andMysticism schools of magic inThe Elder Scrolls, leaving it a disjointed build without much complementary synergy. After being given an entire class of its own inESO, however, there is now a proper precedent for the strengths and weaknesses of introducing a playable necromancer into the series.
The Elder Scrolls Online’s Necromancer Class Stands as a Bold Proof of Concept
How the Dynamic of a Minion-Based Playstyle Has Panned Out in ESO
Despite being promising in theory, the execution of theNecromancer class inThe Elder Scrolls Onlinehas been lackluster when it comes to the summoner archetype. With restricted durations on minions, it tends to fall short of the traditional appeal of raising an army of the dead and manipulating them from a distance. Regardless of these shortcomings, it still manages to stand out through versatility over raw effectiveness.
The Potential for Nuanced Subclasses
The biggest triumph of the class' design inESOis the flexible builds it can facilitate, which mainly venture outside summoning. While the Bone Tyrant skill line subverts tropes as a tanking-oriented character with defensive spells and health regeneration, Living Death revolves around healing magic in a support role. TheGrave Lord Necromancer inThe Elder Scrolls Onlineis the closest to a traditional minion focus, but even that skill line also focuses on damage-over-time in a display of how the Necromancer’s identity has room to be expanded on and refined.
Introducing Necromancy to The Elder Scrolls 6 Would Require Careful Execution
Defining a Niche Among TES' Schools of Magic
In order to be a welcome addition to the next mainline title, a Necromancer build would need to be handled with care in order to not contradict the existing classifications of magic in the series. The Mysticism school used to be related to spells like Soul Trap and Detect Life until it was eliminated and split among the othermagic schools inThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, leaving Conjuration as the closest label for death-related techniques as it stands. To avoid redundancy with these, necromancy spells like greater reanimation or health-draining could be used to enrich schools rather than forming a new one.
Commitment to Lore Requires Player Sacrifice
An element of the class whichESOacknowledges and is somewhat of an elephant in the room is the fact of necromancy’s taboo nature. Many of the school’s core spells are considered crimes if done out in public, and this isn’t inappropriate, given the morbid acts committed byThe Elder Scrolls' strongest necromancers. Whether or not Bethesda wants to include a playstyle which could so easily lock the player out of being accepted by many NPCs remains unclear, but how the player’s use of magic will impact their reputation inTES6will determine that.
