The Noble art of Hunting

Author: Averill Nathan Durand

Our world are full with monsters and dark things that go bump in the night. Only the stupid or the unprepared leaves their house after dark (unless one live in a well-patrolled city). Thankfully, there is a profession where brave Men and Mer are called to quell the tide of monsters that threaten us. If you are one of the brave people who feel this call, be prepared. Knowing what is out there is the first step towards becoming a hunter, a monster hunter. There is many monsters; they come in all shapes and sizes. One who hunts such varied prey, needs to know a bit about them all. As there is so many, it would be impossible to know them all of them. Therefore, one often categorize the prey into categories. Beings that fit together in one category often have similar weaknesses. There is three main categories: Living Monsters, Dead Monsters and Daedra. Out of these two, the most common ones are living and dead monsters. Each of these categories have again subcategories, witch shares even more traits and weaknesses. A good example of this is, under Living Monster, we have the subcategory Troll. There is lots of trolls, just to mention a few of them there is Azhklan Troll, Grahl, Frost Troll, Kalperklan Troll, Savage Troll and Swamp Troll. What they all have in common is their ability to regenerate from most of their wounds. Fire is the most efficient way to counter this ability.

Generally, the Living Monsters are considered the easiest monsters to hunt. They range all the way from Giant rats and Goblins (often seen together) all the way to an Ogre and beyond. This is often seen as the easiest as one often don’t need special equipment like silver weapons, one just need to stab it quick and hard enough and it should die. Although there are exception to this, Werewolf’s are a living monster, but is vulnerable to silver. As one don’t need a lot of special equipment, for living monsters this is what new hunters are recommended to start Hunting. You are recommended to get a bow or a crossbow, and a short distance weapon; axe, mace or sword. If you cant afford both a ranged and a close ranged weapon, fear not. If the financial situation is not ideal to get started. Know this, monster hunting pays and it pays well. You can get payed from civilians wanting to get rid of monsters; you can sell what you find in the monster’s lair. Sometimes you can even sell the corpse to the local mage, they always need something new to experiment on. Just grab your woodcutting axe and soon you will have enough Septims for decent gear.

The Dead Monsters are harder and require a lot more experience to handle. Here one REALY NEED TO PREPARE. The reason for this is, simple. Dead Monsters are the undead. That means black magic is usually to blame. If you die fighting the undead, the chances are you will soon rise again, as a mindless monster yourself. As my mentor told me during my training, "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." This is especially true, when you fight the undead. One can NEVER be too careful. One scratch from a vampire’s nail is all it takes to become one yourself (always have a cure disease potion, close by when dealing with vampires because of this. When you fight the Dead, know there are to main categories of undead, Corporal and Ethereal. The Corporal dead are physical things; they are solid, meaning if worst come to worst you can at least punch them if you lose your weapons. The Ethereal Dead are harder to deal with, here you need Silver or Magic weapons to even touch them. If you have no silver or magical weapons and you see ethereal dead, run. The best thing about Dead Monsters is that they are normally stupid, often stupider than an Orsimer. The dead, are somewhere between a giant rat and Goblin-kin in intelligence. Because of this, obvious traps that would not work on Man or Mer works on them. There are a few exception to this, Vampires and Liches (they are both exceptional cunning and dangerous). To be sure that the Undead you killed, is truly dead, Burn them in sunlight.

The most rare and dangerous Monster to hunt, is the Daedra. Immortal demons from Oblivion that can never die. You can never kill one, just destroy its physical vessel, ones that done, the Daedra will go back to Oblivion to get a new body. Easiest way to deal with the Daedra, is learning Banishing spells. Hit a Daedra once with a spell of sufficient power and you send it straight back to Oblivion. Trying to fight a Daedra, with a weapon is like a mouse fighting and trying to kill a cat. It might succeed but it will probably be toyed with until the cat is bored and kills it.

If you decide to become a Hunter, remember few things:

A prepared Hunter is a living Hunter.

Know what you are facing.

Have both ranged and close combat weaponry.

If unsure if it is dead, use fire.