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 Harrow Gains Intelligence for the Guild and Regains Some Followers - 12/27/2022In which Harrowhark gains some vital intelligence for the Thieves Guild; takes over a mage tower near Morthal; fights bandits at Embershard Mine, the Saints bandit camp, and Knifepoint Ridge; and takes Lydia and Lucien back on as followers, despite having become a vampire.
- In Which Harrowhark Gets Down to Business for the Guild - 12/24/2022In which Harrowhark begins to explore the consequences--and the advantages--of being a vampire; conducts burglaries in Markarth; raids the Goldenglow Estate; warns the owner of the Honningbrew Meadery of Maven's scheming; and investigates the plotting of an Argonian in Solitude.
- In Which Harrowhark Becomes a Thief–and a Vampire - 12/21/2022In which Harrowhark and her three followers slay a dragon; spare a werewolf, despite the directive of Hircine; fight bandits and necromancers; cleanse Kilkreath Temple at the directive of Meridia, and acquire Dawnbreaker; stop a vampire plot in Morthal, which leads to Harrow's infection with Sanguinare Vampiris; and fail to locate the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Also in which Harrow, infected, abandons her followers and flees to Riften, where she joins the Thieves Guild. And not long after, is turned by her disease into a vampire.
- In Which Harrowhark Gains a Sapling and a New Companion - 12/19/2022In which Harrowhark slays a dragon in Falkreath; fulfills the request of the Jarl to kill troublesome bandits at Bannermist Tower; acquires a new companion, the scholar Lucien; discovers a strange talking dog who asks for her help; slays zombies from a ritual gone wrong; acquires Nettlebane from a hagraven; journeys to the Eldergleam, and allows a pilgrim to pray for a sapling rather than taking sap from the sacred tree.
- In Which Harrowhark Gets Some Houses - 12/15/2022In which Harrowhark fights bandits and Alik'r warriors; saves Saadia from capture by said Alik'r warriors; acquires new armor for herself and Lydia; answers a warrior's challenge and takes ownership of Hendraheim; and buys Breezehome in Whiterun.