Harrowhark Playthrough
| Harrowhark | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Playthrough Info | |
| Game | Skyrim Anniversary Edition |
| Race | Imperial |
| Playthrough Dates | Started 11/19/2022, ended 6/18/2023 |
| Platform | PC, Steam Deck |
| Language | English |
| Difficulty | Adept |
This is the page for my seventh Skyrim playthrough, for the character Harrowhark, renegade Imperial, necromancer, erstwhile vampire, and assassin.
I began this playthrough on 11/19/2022, and it alternated between my Win11 VM on my M1 MacBook Pro, and my Steam Deck. This was also my first Skyrim playthrough to use a full set of mods (as opposed to just the USSEP, which is what I had with Shenner).
The playthrough unexpectedly ended in early July 2023, because I broke it partly due to too much rearranging of her mods, and partly from a disastrous attempt to fix it that lost me three+ months’ worth of saves.
A writeup of all the mods I used in this playthrough can be found here.
As with Shenner’s playthrough, this one used the Anniversary Edition.
Harrowhark breaks my personal character naming scheme of “characters who appear in books I’ve written, whether or not those books are released”. Instead, she is named after Harrowhark Nonagesimus in Tamsyn Muir’s splendid Locked Tomb series. And as with that character in those books, I will frequently be referring to this character as Harrow for short.
Harrowhark’s Backstory
This is kind of the part where I regret forgetting to install Alternate Start – Live Another Life before starting Harrow’s playthrough, because starting her off as a vampire out of the gate would have been an excellent excuse for her to be arrested and sent to Helgen.
I decided instead that she’ll have fought off a rape attempt. And that she killed the guy–only, in blind fury, raised him. Just so that she could stab him again.
And she got caught doing that. Given that necromancy is extremely frowned upon in most of Tamriel, that is what got her sent to Helgen for execution.
She carried a massive grudge about this, because she was under no circumstances sorry that she killed the guy, or that she raised him. Because he absolutely deserved being stabbed twice.
This contributed to her into joining the Dark Brotherhood, not to mention learning more about how to control her necromancy. And made her willing to accept being a vampire once it happened to her.
Playthrough Posts
Here are all the posts about Harrowhark’s playthrough! These are dynamically updated, so a new post should appear here when it goes up. They’re listed in descending date order, so the newest posts should always appear first. Also, note the pagination controls after the first five posts. You can page through to see the older ones.
- In Which Harrowhark Learns of Her Guildmaster’s Treachery - 02/26/2023In which Harrowhark helps the Orcs of Largashbur, and acquires the hammer Volendrung; promises a ghost she'll bring him a sword; slays the leader of the Saints bandits, and then the mad conjurer Thoron; and ventures into Snow Veil Sanctum with Mercer Frey, only to learn of his treachery when he confronts Karliah.
- In Which Harrowhark Does Contracts for the Brotherhood - 02/20/2023In which Harrowhark slays a dragon at Bonestrewn Crest; slays the bandit Tyra Blood-Fire; brings a fish to the alchemist in Falkreath, and helps ID a guard with a skooma problem; carries out minor contracts for the Dark Brotherhood; and gets training from colleagues at the College of Winterhold and in the Thieves Guild.
- In Which Harrowhark Becomes Thane of Riften - 02/15/2023In which Harrowhark gains a thaneship, a house, and a housecarl in Riften; secures Markarth for the Thieves Guild by recovering a lost silver mold; and quests into Folgunthur to learn the truth of a forbidden legend.
- In Which Harrowhark Joins the Dark Brotherhood - 02/09/2023In which Harrowhark takes her first contracts from the Dark Brotherhood; declines to fill a cup at the altar at the Roadside Ruins; slays a dragon outside Riften; helps Illia kill her mother before she can become a hagraven; begins learning to fish; stops a conspiracy in Markarth, while also running a thievery job; and pursues skooma dealers active in Riften.
- In Which Harrowhark Visits the Forgotten City - 02/06/2023In which Harrowhark acquires Bloodthirst and Red Eagle's Bane; slays a dragon at Fort Greymoor; and ventures into the Forgotten City, where she fights to prevent an unspeakable disaster from destroying everyone there. CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE FORGOTTEN CITY MOD.