Oblivion:Umbra (person)

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995

Umbra (person) (RefID: 00026B2A) [Oom-bra OR Uhm-bra]
Location	Vindasel
Race	Bosmer	Gender	Female
Level	50	Class	Warrior
RefID	00026B2A	BaseID	00026B1B
Other Information
Health	394	Magicka	172
Respons.	50	Aggress.	5
Faction(s)	None

Umbra (Latin for 'shadow' or 'ghost') is a female Bosmer Warrior who can be found in the Ayleid ruin Vindasel. She named herself after her sword, the powerful artifact Umbra. If the story seems familiar, this is because the sword Umbra also appeared during Morrowind, along with another character who had named himself after the sword. As part of his Daedric quest, Clavicus Vile would like to get the sword back.

Years ago, Umbra's name was Lenwin, and she lived in Pell's Gate where she was Irroke the Wide's apprentice. She found Umbra, although where she located it is unknown. The sword's need for souls drove Lenwin to pick fights with and kill many villagers. When driven out of town, Umbra became a mercenary.

She now appears to regret her actions and has retreated to Vindasel to prevent any further deaths. However, if you challenge her, she is more than capable of defending herself.

Contents 1 Related Quests 2 Details 2.1 Umbra's Ebony Armor 2.2 Umbra's Statistics 3 Killing Umbra 3.1 Snipe from out of reach 3.2 Get Something Else to Kill Her 3.3 Get Someone Else to Kill Her 3.4 Melee Combat

[edit] Related Quests

• Clavicus Vile: Collect the sword Umbra.

[edit] Details

[edit] Umbra's Ebony Armor

In addition to her sword, she also wears a full suit of Umbra's Ebony Armor. Her ebony armor is actually leveled. If you are at or above level 15 (the level at which ebony armor starts to appear in regular loot), you will receive armor with statistics identical to standard Ebony Armor. Below level 15, however, the health, weight, and armor rating are actually identical to Orcish Armor. The statistics are summarized in the following table. The second columns of numbers indicate the values above level 14.

Name	Object IDs
			1-14	15+	1-14	15+	1-14	15+
Full Set		141.75			2610	5550	55.0	60.0
Ebony Boots	0000A307 / 0000A30D	15.75	600	950	250	550	5.5	6.0
Ebony Cuirass	0000A308 / 0000A30E	52.5	1200	1900	940	1900	13.75	15.0
Ebony Gauntlets	0000A309 / 0000A30F	10.5	600	950	250	550	5.5	6.0
Ebony Greaves	0000A30A / 0000A310	31.5	900	1425	460	1000	8.25	9.0
Ebony Helmet	0000A30B / 0000A311	10.5	600	950	250	550	5.5	6.0
Ebony Shield	0000A30C / 0000A312	21.0	900	1425	460	1000	16.5	18.0

[edit] Umbra's Statistics

General Statistics		Attributes		Skills
				Combat		Stealth		Magic
Level	50	Agility	79	Armorer	100	Acrobatics	15	Alchemy	20
Health	394	Endurance	100	Athletics	100	Light Armor	15	Alteration	15
Magicka	172	Intelligence	69	Blade	100	Marksman	20	Conjuration	10
Fatigue	338	Luck	50	Block	100	Mercantile	10	Destruction	10
		Personality	40	Blunt	100	Security	10	Illusion	10
		Speed	100	Hand to Hand	100	Sneak	20	Mysticism	10
		Strength	100	Heavy Armor	100	Speechcraft	10	Restoration	10
		Willpower	59

She also has her own "Umbra's Restore" ability, which effectively allows her to heal 2 points of health per second.

[edit] Killing Umbra

Because of her powerful sword and high-quality armor, killing Umbra at a low level can be very advantageous to low-level characters. Although the sword is officially part of Clavicus Vile's quest, it can be used by the player long before the quest is possible (and can even be kept after the quest if you choose). However, Umbra is a very difficult opponent, especially at low levels.

It is not technically necessary to kill Umbra in order to obtain the sword or complete the quest. You can force her to drop her sword (disarm her using a combat mastery perk, or use Disintegrate Weapon to reduce the sword's health to zero), then simply pick it up. Or you can Paralyze her then steal the sword. Fleeing from her afterwards will require either Invisibility or 100% Chameleon. These techniques generally require high-level characters, however.

Note that Umbra will not initiate an attack unless you are on the associated quest. You must attack her first (registering as an assault); her murder can trigger a invitation to join the Dark Brotherhood. A level 25 custom Frenzy spell will work on Umbra, but note that Spell Effectiveness must also be 100%, which means in most cases removing any armor that your character is wearing. Note also that a custom Command Humanoid spell will also work on Umbra, meaning that it is possible to walk her to an area with guards before attacking her. After the Command Humanoid spell wears off, Umbra will continue to fight any enemy with which she is already in combat. Umbra will not, however, resume battle with your character, meaning that the ability to cast Command Humanoid at this level will effectively reset Umbra's enmity.

Overall factors to take into account are:

• She will be attacking you with the sword Umbra, therefore her attacks will consist solely of melee damage. Because Umbra is enchanted, Resist Normal Weapons effects provide no advantage. The only ways to improve your defense are to increase your armor rating to 85, and to add Reflect Damage enchantments.
• As a Bosmer wearing unenchanted armor, she has no specific weaknesses or resistances.
• Generally the greatest challenge in defeating Umbra is her healing ability: damage has to be done as rapidly as possible so that she does not just heal herself in between your attacks.
• Any strategy will be made easier if you decrease the game's difficulty, by moving the difficulty slider to the left.

Possible strategies to defeat Umbra include:

[edit] Snipe from out of reach

There are several places in Vindasel where it is possible to position your character, providing you with a clear shot of Umbra but preventing her from reaching you. This strategy requires ranged attacks, and therefore works best for marksmen and mages.

• Balcony: You enter Umbra's room in a balcony/gallery area. Near the broken section of railing, it is possible to jump over to the narrow sections of ledge outside the railing. Although it may seem like Umbra should be able to attack you from the balcony, she cannot.
  • Once you start attacking Umbra, she will try to swing at you from the bottom of the wall. When she is directly under you, the ledge can get in the way of your shots. If so, wait for her to back up and stare up at you; she will always back up to the same location. Keep your crosshair aimed at that spot and fire at her every time she backs up. Do not try to fire at Umbra when she is moving because she is fast enough that most shots will fail.
  • Also, it is possible to target Umbra even when she is directly below you, even though she may not be visible, because the visible model of Umbra is not the entire targetable model. Try shooting slightly above the ledge blocking your view of her; your arrows may hit if you have the right angle.

• Columns: One of the tables is up against a column. If you drag a basket from the floor to the top of the table it is possible to jump up onto the ledge of the column.
  • It is possible at times for Umbra to knock you off of the pillar; frequent saves are recommended.
  • Use the same tactic as above to hit her: aim constantly at the spot that Umbra backs up to, and only fire at her when she is there.
  • With long weapons (i.e., claymores) it may even be possible to strike her from this location.

• Columns, alternative method: It is instead possible to jump from the broken railing to the top of one of the columns. It may require multiple tries.

• Columns, alternative method 2: It is also possible that, while Umbra is pursuing you, she can become caught behind the debris. This means that if you are on the opposite side of her (on the ground of course) she will continuously (and futilely) run after you. Spells might detonate on the debris so, if you plan on using spells, make sure your spells have at least a small range (1 or 2 feet would probably do).

• Hide behind the brazier: She stops pursuing you when you're on the other side of the flames, directly opposite from her. Just Fireball her and she drops in seconds.

To maximize your chances, you need to do maximum damage with each shot; otherwise Umbra can just heal herself as quickly as you hurt her. Get the highest quality bow and arrows available at your level; you may be able to purchase some in the Market District, although the best quality equipment will be found in random loot. Enchant the bow with a powerful damage enchantment (Sigil stones can be useful for low level characters). Be sure to take a lot of arrows (i.e., 30 high quality arrows plus 50-100 backup arrows). Use Sneak mode for your first shot; adding poison to each shot can further increase the damage you do each time.

As a mage, make a powerful, long duration custom damage spell; couple it with Weakness to Magic and Weakness to Element spells to increase its potency. Be sure to take plenty of Potions of Sorcery or custom Restore Magicka potions. You can also summon a creature to do most of the damage, or just to keep Umbra occupied while you pelt her with ranged attack.

One risk with these strategies is that the Umbra sword may disappear when Umbra dies. It appears that if she is up against the ledge when she dies, she falls forward into the wall and drops the Umbra sword behind the wall, making it impossible to obtain it. To avoid this, you can whittle her life down to almost nothing from your sniper spot, then jump down and use a melee weapon to give the finishing blow in a more open area.

[edit] Get Something Else to Kill Her

If you can lure Umbra into the traps earlier in Vindasel, you can let the traps do most of the damage. Attack Umbra with an arrow from the upper balcony to get her attention, then run to one of the traps. She will give chase; if you activate the trap as you pass and time things right, she will get caught by the trap. To keep Umbra stuck in the traps, you can use a Paralyze spell periodically. There are two traps you can use:

• The pit with spikes.
  • If you activate this trap as you run past, Umbra is very likely to fall into it. Then you just need to keep her in the trap area each time it rises up again. For maximum damage, make sure she is in the middle of the trap.
  • It is also possible to exploit the trap by engaging Umbra in conversation while she is standing over the trap, thus preventing her from moving or turning hostile. This can be achieved by initiating dialogue with her, then retreating back to the trap, prompting her to follow.
• The poison gas traps.
  • Run in circles around the outside of the poison gas area (but out of its reach); Umbra will walk in circles in the middle of it. About two minutes of exposure are sufficient to kill her. It is really easy to avoid almost all the damage from the poison gas and to keep out of Umbra's reach. This is by far the easiest and cheapest method and has the added bonus of just adding a pickpocketing rather than an assault or murder.

Another way to get Umbra to chase you is to pickpocket her, fail, then run before she has a chance to talk to you. Although this saves you getting an assault on your record, you will instead have a pickpocketing offense on your record. Also, you lose any possibility of a head start when fleeing Umbra; because she is so fast, be prepared to take some damage from blows as she chases you.

[edit] Get Someone Else to Kill Her

If you can get Umbra to chase you all the way to the Imperial City, it is possible to get the guards and other townspeople to kill Umbra for you. There are a couple major drawbacks to take into consideration, however. First, a lot of townspeople can possibly get killed in the resulting carnage, causing future quests (e.g., Master Training quests) to be ruined. Second, the guards may choose to go after you instead of Umbra, considerably worsening your predicament.

To make this work, you must have a means of boosting your speed, boosting your horse's speed (e.g, a custom on touch Fortify Speed spell), and/or slowing down Umbra (e.g., a poisoned arrow). Umbra is very fast (speed 100) and can even outrun most horses, with the exception of black horses. Skooma will provide an effective speed boost, but will also drain intelligence and agility. - Once you've chosen to give yourself a speed advantage, get Umbra's attention, as described under Get Something Else to Kill Her. Then flee, preferably jumping onto your waiting horse once you exit the ruin. Once you reach the Imperial City, stand back and witness the carnage. Be sure not to hit any of the guards, or they will definitely come after you.

Even without accidentally assaulting the guards, it is very possible that they will choose to chase you instead of Umbra, since you now have a bounty from assaulting Umbra. Some ways to keep his from happening are:

• Provoke her without assaulting her
• If you are in the Thieves Guild and attack Umbra after 10 pm, you could run to Armand Christophe, pay off your bounty, then take off to find some guards. This is difficult to do, however.
• Wear the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal when assaulting Umbra, then remove the cowl before reaching the guards.

You can also get an unkillable NPC ally, such as the Jemane brothers from the quest Legacy Lost, to help you fight her, while you find a point where she cannot reach you.

[edit] Melee Combat

If you prefer old-fashioned face-to-face melees, there are still a few ways of preparing in order to even the odds.

• Use Paralyze potions, spells, or enchantments to minimize Umbra's chances of attacking.
• Stock up on plenty of potions of healing or custom healing potions.
• If you are a skilled alchemist, you can make very potent "Damage Health" poisons. As little as 3 such poisons can effectively kill her.
• Some specific weapons that are particularly effective against Umbra are:
  • Use the warhammer Volendrung which you obtain by completing Malacath's Daedric quest; however, this quest is only possible if you are level 10 or higher. The warhammer is enchanted with Paralyze for 3 seconds and Drain Health 5 pts for 20 seconds. If you can keep on hitting her, she will be constantly paralyzed and won't be able to hit back.
  • Hit her with the Akaviri Sunderblade, which casts Disintegrate Weapon 100pts and Disintegrate Armor 100pts on strike. This can be purchased at any level from Sergius Verus, if you have enough gold. Seven hits should be enough to ruin the Umbra sword. Without her sword, she is less of a threat, although she is a master in Hand to Hand Combat, and still very quick.
  • Buy the Apotheosis staff from Rindir's Staffs in the Market District. Although very expensive, the staff does 99 points of damage with each blast; just 4 blasts are enough to kill Umbra. This staff can be purchased at any level, assuming you can find a way to raise enough cash to buy the staff. If you can, it would be a good idea to weaken her to shock, frost, and fire damage so that the maximum damage is delivered with each strike (because there are only 12 uses.)
  • If you have purchased the Unearthing Mehrunes Razor official plugin, you can use Mehrune's Razor and hope to defeat her with the "Daedric Banishing" ability.