The Lost Telvanni Codex 1.4 file

PREFACE:

The Telvanni Codex is an enchanted tomb of spells, reputed to hold the soul of a long-dead
Telvanni guild master. Some say that this book holds the secrets of the most powerful
spells in Tamriel. Others, especially the Telvanni themselves, dismiss this theory and
instead say that if such a book still exists it is unlikely to contain any spell more
powerful than known to the most prodigious archmages of today. Many young apprentice mages
have quested to find "The Lost Codex" for the glory of their college and the promise of
personal power, although very few have bothered in the last 50 years. Recently however,
speculation has renewed after a report of an old sketch found in the Imperial Palace of a
Altmer mage in regal splendor riding through the city streets.

DESCRIPTION:

The Telvanni Codex is a carriable spellbook containing many levelled spells that you
may learn provided you have sufficient mastery in the relevent magic school. You
may only learn one random spell at a time by accessing the codex from your inventory.
And there is a catch: Each time it teaches you a new spell the book will test you -
typically by conjuring a levelled creature that will immediately attack. Reader beware!

The Telvanni Codex is also a very valuable item but this value decreases as you absorb
it's power by learning spells. Hence you are also effectively paying for the spells.

DETAILS:

The principle aim of this MOD is to put back all of the spells from Morrowind that were
omitted in Oblivion, even those that were useless or now redundant in Oblivion. These
spells come close to the original versions but are consistent with Oblivion gameplay.
Hence there are several versions of each spell for the different mastery levels and
the effect of each spell is mostly improved from those in Morrowind. Almost all spell
effects are dependent on your skill level for the magic school; some are also somewhat
dependent on your mastery; and a few have an additional minor dependence on your Luck stat.

Since the added spells are levelled they do not have a major unbalancing affect on the
general game. Of course this largely depends on how you use them.

The Morrowind spells/spell classes included are:

Alteration: LEVITATION, JUMP, SLOW FALL, LOCK, SWIFT SWIM
Mysticism: ALMSIVI INTERVENTION, DIVINE INTERVENTION, MARK, RECALL
Illusion: BLIND, SOUND, SANCTUARY
Destruction: POISON, WEAKNESS TO POISON
Restoration: CURE POISON, RESIST POISON

The only missing spells from Morrowind are Detect Magic Item and Detect Key, which would not
work for techical reasons. The other exception is the Conjuration version of COMMAND, which
is correctly re-assigned to the Illusion school in Oblivion. To compensate there are 5 new
Call Creature spells added to the conjuration school that are similar to both Summon and
Command spells but work differently to either.

The poison spells allow the poison effect to be used in a magical way as it was in Morrowind.
They work differently from the physical poison in Oblivion and persistent destruction effects.
The poison effect is referred to as Telvanni Poison since it is not cured by standard Oblivion
spells and conversely the codex versions of cure, weakness and resist do not affect standard
Oblivion posion effects. After reading the Codex there will be a small chance that some
creatures and NPCs will attack or otherwise infect you with Telvanni poison.

The illusion spells Blind, Sound and Sanctuary are approximations to the Morrowind spells,
where their effect was difficult to judge. Blind and Sound can be used as a genuine complement
to your stealth skills in addition to reducing the target's effectiveness in physical or
magical combat respectively.

To redress the balance of spells per school, etc., the following new spells/spell classes are
also available:

Alteration: Vampire Swift
Conjuration: CALL CREATURE, CREATE ARROWS
Destruction: Holy Light, Holy Water
Illusion: Mass Mesmerize
Mysticism: Apparate
Restoration: FOCUS *magic skill*

The conjuration spells are meant for Druid and Ranger (type) classes and so conjuration is no
longer just for the wicked. Call spells only beckon wild creatures and only work outside.

Holy Light and Holy Water spells only affect the undead (including vampires) and daedra.
They make up for that fact that Telvanni Poison spells have no effect on these factions.

The Focus *magic skill* spell class acts similarly to a Fortify spell but without adding the
real Fortify effect. It allows characters to channel their Wisdom into spell power to give a
taste of the "cheats" available in Tribunal. For example, Focus Alchemy will allow you to make
significantly stronger potions.

Vampire Swift and Mass Mezmerize are high level spells that can only be used by vampires. Apparate
is a teleportation spell that is less effective (may fail) at lower alteration mastery levels
unless the caster is a vampire. Vampires can also cast Call Creature spells more effectively.

In total there are 78 spells you can learn, 50 of which are faux Morrowind. Some of these are
variations on a theme, e.g. the Sancturary set, whereas others have more distinct variation,
e.g. the Jump Set, and others are unique, e.g. Ghost Walk. Because of differences in duration,
cost, area of effect, etc., all of the spells are unique to some degree and most become more
powerful as your magic skills improve. However, since you may not be interested in using all
of them you may unlearn any of these spells by casting them while wearing Varrigfa's Gloves.

There are also several other major variations of the MW spells, e.g. Hovitate, True recall, etc.
A more complete description of the individual spells is found in the Telvanni Codex itself.