Forsworn Briarheart

"Heart of thorn... bones of the wild... in life, Forsworn... rise from death, Blood of our Blood."

―Briarheart Ritual

Forsworn Briarhearts are high ranking male Forsworn that are usually found in Forsworn encampments. They appear to be partially undead in nature, as the ritual of creating a Briarheart involves cutting out the warrior's heart and replacing it with a briar heart, hence the name.

Combat

There are two distinct types of Forsworn Briarhearts: magic casters, and melee fighters. The attack methods used by Briarhearts are one-handed weapons and destruction magic, usually fire or frost based, but sometimes lightning. The melee using Briarhearts can be found dual-wielding Forsworn axes or swords, and are usually leveled with the Dragonborn. They are also rather quick, and can make short work of their enemies when at close range.

The magic-casting Briarhearts will often begin the battle by activating a cloak spell and conjuring an Atronach. They can cast Ice Storm, Icy Spear, Frost Cloak, andConjure Frost Atronach or Fireball, Incinerate, Lightning Bolt, Sparks, Flame Cloak, and Conjure Flame Atronach, depending on the preferred element of the Briarheart. These enemies can be very difficult to face at longer ranges, they also run backwards if you chase them making them harder to hit with melee weapons.

The partially-exposed Briar Heart can also be targeted with a bow if the Dragonborn is skilled enough. Striking the Heart will deal more damage than usual and is easier to score a critical hit on it, though not significant.

Locations

Gallery

Trivia

It is possible to pickpocket their briar heart, which instantly kills them and leaves a gaping hole in their chest, therefore, it is quite similar to a "stealth attack". Unfortunately, to combat this weakness, they have unusually keen hearing, making it difficult to sneak up on them even with Invisibility and Muffle.
Being only partially-undead, Briarhearts are immune to the effects of Silver Weapons, Turn Undead spells and the Dawnbreaker. They are, however, highlighted as Dead when Detect Dead is used (this is due to a bug, fixed in the 1.9 patch).
There are no female Briarhearts. This may be an oversight or maybe due to censorship, as the hole with the briarheart flower inside is always on the chest, and if the briarheart was a female, then the breasts would be exposed. Hence, no female Briarhearts.
The creation of a Briarheart can be witnessed at the Bard's Leap Summit and Lost Valley Redoubt, where a pair of Hagravens perform the ritual. The "created" Briarheart warrior may come to life and come to the Hagravens's aid if given enough time.
They often have a black soul gem, filled or not, in their loot making them a good source of soul gems.
Despite having their hearts removed and replaced with Briar Hearts, werewolves can still consume a heart from one for points toward werewolf perks.
Strangely, despite after dying when their Briar Hearts are pickpocketed, there is a chance they will send Hired Thugs after the Dragonborn.
Even though partially undead, Briarhearts are still affected by poisons.
When the briar heart is looted from their corpse or pickpocketed from them, their body will disappear and re-appear again, with their heart placing open. Their torso will also appear partially larger after that.

Bugs

PC 360 PS3 A Briarheart may send hired thugs to attack the Dragonborn if they pick-pocketed their Briar Heart.
PC 360 PS3 Briarhearts will show up as Dead when Detect Dead is used. This is patched in the 1.9 update, or if Dawnguard is installed.

Appearances

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim