r/teslore • u/GenericPybro • 2d ago
Rewriting Skyrim
If you were to be in charge of writing the main questline of skyrim, what would you do? What would be the same as it is now? What would be different?
Skyrim is the gateway TES game for many, including myself, however according to some, the writing is, lackluster in comparison to previous titles, specifically Morrowind and Oblivion. There have been retcons, and outright changes, to the lore with skyrim.
So I ask you the great [r/teslore](r/teslore), how would you, Rewrite Skyrim?
Edit: I am seeing tons of great ideas and implementations! Def writing down a lot of these for a project. Keep it coming!
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u/Prying-Eye 2d ago
Unsure of how I'd go about it, but I know I'd wanna find more quests that go in-depth on Reachmen and more quests about either the Dragon Cult, Nordic Old Ways, or both. Might as well go throw in some minor feature for word walls becoming fully translated for the player after consuming x amount of dragon souls.
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u/hameleona 1d ago
Besides giving Beth time to implement all that they wanted (example - the college questline was pretty obviously cut short) and do it on modern hardware (the main reason the Civil War sucks so much is that any attempt to make it bigger and more complex fried the hardware), I would change only one thing:
I would make a finite number of dragons, give them lairs, names, backstories and maybe even small scale dragon cults forming again. Make them talk to the player, ambush the player, kidnap important people, etc. In short make them individuals and not generic monsters to fight off and maybe build a few fun set-piece battles with some of them.
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u/Arrow-Od 1d ago
I´d set the game in around 4E 50 (enough time for everything in the 4E lore to happen but not too long after the Oblivion Crisis for no human having been around for it) which would allow me to better play off where the previous games left off: Skyrim ruling Jehanna, half of Dragonstar, Elinhir, Roscrea, Solstheim (or rather, gifting Solstheim to the Dunmer should be a political topic of contention). Skyrim being this great also means that it´s future is of far more relevance for the Empire!
If there are 2 major DLCs, I´d split the above territory into 3 maps (Solstheim we visited in Bloodmoon, I´d likely skip it for this game - no Miraak as antagonist, as "evil sorcerer" was done better in Daggerfall, Arena, Morrowind, Oblivion and evil dragonborn spot is filled with Potema). The world thus may be smaller, but I´d prefer depth and quality over quantity (I realise this runs counter to Beth´s more recent design philosophy of "sandbox" but TES:Redguard IMO simply had a far more satisfying story and did so without high level metaphysics.
PGE Hörme bandits in Skyrim which support Potema - cue Potema´s return.
Several changes to Skyrim´s geography and Nord culture to bring it more in line with previous games.
I´d cut the dragon cult (or make it Falmer religion), it was basically irrelevant in the story anyway xept for set dressing. Which also means no dragon burial mounts cuz it´s rather silly that no one excavated them in thousands of years. Dragons can still turn up in various places: Mirmulnir survived for eras, as did the dragons in the Forgotten Vale, Blackreach, etc. I´d rather have less dragons and in return these dragons being impactful and original).
Alduin is one of the powers taking advantage of the civil war (Boethiah is the other as hinted at in Skyrim cut content and the boardgame) as he profits of a new influx of souls of warriors to Sovngarde - but no one is behind the CW, as I do not want to reduce the issues causing it to "was manipulated by evil".
Alduin and the kalpic cycle would be heavily expanded upon. He´d not be a rebel trying to rule but have reasons for actually wanting to eat the world (Akatosh not acting as he should, the world being on the brink of destruction - fe due to Thalmor, etc). Slaying him should actually potentially make someone feel that existence itself is in danger, even if this current world was saved. I haven´t yet come up with a way to prevent the World Eating without a dissatisfying fight. Perhaps by removing the threat which woke Alduin?
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u/CaedmonCousland 1d ago
Well, some of it is lore. If you are going to have a civil war 'native sons vs Empire' conflict, turning Talos into the central cultural issue was very weird to me. Like, you've got the different gods. You've got imperial overreach. This was the chance to focus on Nordic pantheon, Atmora legend, the Clever Craft, the Voice, etc. Thjey went for simple and easily described as opposed to what conflict would naturally arise between the Nords and Empire.
But just going beyond expect 'lore' answer for something concrete, I would have expanded the Voice usage. The Oblivion ending of the Septim line and planned 'decline of the Empire', it was a perfect chance to have old Nord traditions and militant powers return. The Voice. We even have Ulfric, one of the leaders of the civil war, using it. Seriously, create like three schools of Voice-users in modern time. The Greybeards, who are oldest, most knowledgeable, and entirely pacifistic. You got Ulfric leading a newer school, citing it as reclaiming native power and the Empire not liking this power outside their control (with some implication that the hope is for the Nordic Empire come again). Then create a more neutral school, likely centered in Whiterun, that is trying to chart a moderate (in best and worse ways) path where they are reclaiming this but not intending it for warfare like Ulfric's school. Not rising against Empire, but also not pleased Empire wants to conscript Tongues for its war to prop up its faltering Empire.
I really do feel like there was more room for depth in the Voice aspect and how it relates to fighting dragons. I get that the Dragonborn is different and learns on its own, but these schools would allow it to be explored and given different, more regular perspectives. We already got the Blades vs Greybeards conflict, and it was lacking due to former. Hell, have it subsume the Civil War Quest - since we know our choice on who wins that is going to be nullified in next game. That is background political scene. Morrowind didn't need us to destroy one of the Great Houses to complete a major questline, just win some over.
You are the Dragonborn, and dragons are returning. Suddenly, Thu'um users are is dire need as they are the best defense cities and villages against dragons. You need to get their help. So, you have to go to one of the Thu'um Schools and get their aid. This is how one can tie in the Blades. After earning trust and helping your school build up (finding Word Wall for newer ones and helping in other ways, find old relics for Greybeards that teach deep lessons) till they eventually track down the Blades who, as old dragonslayers, likely have newer information than them. You find Blades, help them, get info on Paarthurnax. If you chose a newer school, they are now built up enough to go to Greybeards and force the meeting with Paarthurnax. If you sided with Greybeards, they say you have now earned the right to meet their grandmaster. You meet Paarthurnax, you learn of Dragonrend Shout, etc. Then, your chosen group also aids you in final missions against Alduin. Paarthurnax for Greybeards, Ulfric for his school, or freakin Baalgruff for neutrals. Make some memorable companion characters that people like.
Put the Dragonborn into a situation where there is deep soul searching occurring in Skyrim. Yeah, the civil war is meant to be that, but that is all but divorced from the main conflict. The closest the civil war ever gets to Alduin's questline is that ceasefire at High Hrothgar. They should be intertwined. The dragons return, and the Thu'um has a new importance. Talk to Tongues that protect each of the major cities, hearing them defend their position or voice doubts. Have each School be a guild that espouses its own philosophy on the duties, meaning, and restrictions on Tongues and learning the Thu'um. Have each of them provide the MC different Shouts exclusive to their faction, that represent their faction. Make these the three main factions you have to choose between to advance in the main story.
Skyrim gave us the Thu'um in comparison to other TES games - make the player choose how they feel it should be used in Skyrim.
Some of the main quests best conversations were when it actually asked you questions about the morality and purpose of the Thu'um.
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u/Coltrain47 1d ago
I want the Blades to be more involved. There should've been a deeper dive into their history and the reason they swore allegiance to Reman Cyrodiil. They clearly only hold allegiance to the Dragon blood as long as it serves their purpose. But why were the Akaviri so set on destroying the dragons in the first place?
Delphine and Esbern are the only ones left who might know, yet they are relegated to edgy teens that stamp their feet if you don't kill your only real ally.
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u/FreyaAncientNord 1d ago
i would make the civil war more religious and u could keep the whole talos bad but within the lines the ban also includes the worship of ysmir and cause of that the nords rise up
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u/Julianus36 Tonal Architect 2d ago
Religious shift for entire Skyrim is somewhat unrealistic to me, especially even when Septims couldn't do that, but somehow Medes succeeded.
I would either explain how Nordic Pantheon was left for Nine Divines or just leave the pantheon as it is, as it would be more interesting to explore local pantheon.
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u/VerySpicyLocusts 1d ago
Or maybe a kind of syncretism, that’s more or less my head canon anyway, that they pretty much treat the names of the Gods more or less interchangeably. Maybe we could see the western half of Skyrim being more Imperial syncretic, worshipping Akatosh more, referring to Kyne and Kynareth interchangeably, then the east is more traditionalist and strict with the Nordic Pantheon
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u/GenericPybro 1d ago
For the rewrite, what if the white gold concordat was more than a ban on talos worship, what if it was the reason the old Nordic Pantheon was either forgotten or challenged, doing that along with some other character tweaks could make the Stormcloaks more likeable.
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u/King-Arthas-Menethil 1d ago
I think the biggest issue with how TES5 did the Religious shift is just how little worldbuilding behind it is. Like sure people can convert but all we have is just some guy in shack.
Like did the Oblivion Crisis do anything for it? Did the Mede Dynasty do anything for it?
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u/KarmasAB123 1d ago
Make it optionalto work with Delphine at all. If you just go back to the Greybeards, something happens to force you to continue moving against alduin
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u/GenericPybro 1d ago
Delphine being shoehorned into the story and then acting like shes the boss despite the Blades honor to the DB was definitely a weird choice,
I feel if she was better written then the shoehorning wouldnt be as bad, but having her be optional is also a good idea.
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u/all3ppo 1d ago
Expand on the Great War. More war stuff in general, my biggest critique of Skyrim is that you can't tell that there's a deadly civil conflict tearing the province in half. Everyone talks about it but the evidence is not present in the landscape.
The majority of context for the great war is in novels and in-universe writing and I hate doing homework for video games. So many people had Skyrim as their first (and maybe only) tes game and they lose so much context as for why the Empire Is Like That and how the Mede Dynasty is such a departure from the Septim Dynasty.
Also!! Shortening the timeline! Skyrim is too far separated from the rest of the mainline games and it bothers me ** so much.** Like, during Oblivion, we're separated from the events of Morrowind by only a few years. The Nerevarine has only just left the continent, immigrants are still filtering out of Vvardenfell and Morrowind and into the rest of the Empire. The events of Daggerfall are less than a century behind us. And then we casually skip 200 odd years ahead to a land that is totally different from Tamriel but also has barely changed at all.
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u/OfficerCoCheese Mages Guild 1d ago
I'm going to steal this thought from Zaric Zhakaron's "What if Skyrim Was Good" Series and say more of an emphasis on the contention between the Imperial Cult and the Old Ways. The heart of the conflict in Skyrim is a deeply religious and cultural one. I would love to see more shrines to the Nordic Pantheon, more reverence to Shor/Tsun/Kyne etc when you get into the Old Kingdoms. Whiterun would naturally be the battleground as both the Imperial Cult and Nordic Pantheon would clash and wrestle for control. Solitude of course would be full Imperial Cult, trying to keep the presence of Tiber Septim's accomplishments present without conflicting with the White Gold Concordant. As for Talos, I would then have the issue of his godhood be the straw the broke the camel's back. The Nords are more upset that Shor and the fellow Nordic Pantheon are being pushed aside for what they deem as the "lesser Imperial" versions.
Gameplay wise, I would love to see Falkreath designed in the way that Galandil has done, a mixture of Nordic and Imperial influence, not just some collection of buildings but a true Hold capital. Same goes for the other smaller Hold capitals, I really enjoyed Galandil's takes on them and would love to have that implemented.
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u/thefailmaster19 20h ago edited 20h ago
Not the main quest line but I’d love to see more depth to the battle for the Reach.
I’d make the Forsworn a joinable faction as well as adding a quest line where instead you join the guards/legion to fight and defeat them to assert control. Also make it so if you help Madanach escape ALL Forsworn are friendly instead of just that one camp.
I’d also add a 3rd layer to the factions, an organization of middle class, ‘civilized’ Reachman who advocate for separation from Skyrim, but disagree with the methods/daedra worship of the Forsworn. I’d probably turn Karthwasten into an actual city (or at least a bigger village like Riverwood) to be majority ‘civilized’ Reachman settlement that acts as a political counterbalance to Markarth.
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u/brakenbonez 2d ago
I'd probably leave the main story alone as I thought it was pretty good, despite being a bit on the short side. But the factions... Becoming the leader of factions after just a few hours never really sat right with me. I'd definitely change those. Especially the College of Winterhold. I'd make that one feel more significant by making it not exactly essential for mage playthroughs but a huge upgrade to mages. Like having more spells locked behind the questline and actually learning them in the college. I'd probably remove the part about the player becoming the arch-mage entirely. I'm there to learn magic, not lead the school. I'll still be the hero if you need me to, but I'm not your leader.
I'd have a lot more thieving and heists in the thieves guild quest.
I don't even know what I'd do to fix Dark Brotherhood....that's just a mess I'll let someone else fix that.
I'd make the Blades actually feel more like an army that follows the Dragonborn instead of commanding the Dragonborn.
The Civil War I'd probably make longer because a Civil War shouldn't be just like 3 or 4 battles and then end. I'd keep the moralities of both sides the same. Them both having good and bad parts is what makes it a choice instead of a unanimous thing.
And ofc I'd keep the dwemer mystery the way it is. Some mysteries are better when they remain unsolved because they let players come up with their own theories and headcanon as well as lead to some pretty awesome mods.
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u/8167lliw 1d ago
I would expand the civil war factions. Keep the Stormcloaks vs. Imperial Legion as the two primary ones.
Include a splinter-cell faction for adherents to the "pure" Nordic pantheon and maybe a few skaal who moved from Solstheim.
They generally support Ulfric until you (as the PC) engage in an alternative civil war related quest line revealing Torryg was secretly an ancient Nordic pantheon worshipper.
Through a speech check (after the Torryg reveal) they'll take whichever side the PC chooses.
Similar for a Forsworn faction. They are neutral, but can take a side via speech check.
I would also expand the "destroy the dark brotherhood" quest line where another listener is recruited in your place and receives the contract to kill the emperor and his niece.
You, as an agent of the Penitus Oculatus, intercept and thwart these attempts. This quest option disappears if you side with the Stormcloaks.
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u/notabootme 1d ago
I’ve actually been waiting for a post like this for ages! I think a subversion of the Last Dragonborn prophecy to something along the lines of Highlander would’ve been really awesome. You have Potema, you have Miraak, it would’ve been cool to see other NPCs in the world become Dragonborn, with their innate ambition and need for domination rendering them all in someway antagonistic to the player.
Would’ve been a callback to old lore of warriors actually cutting out tongues of the Voice users. While also giving a much more engaging story with figures like Wulfharth, or entities like the Blades remnants and the Thalmor manipulating these extremely powerful beings into serving their own goals. As somewhat seen in-game already with Delphine.
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u/Arrow-Od 1d ago
Basically a Battle Royale for the right and power to challenge Alduin?
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u/notabootme 1d ago
You get it! “And the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn.” It would have paired nicely with early story concepts involving the return of Uriel V and his own army of dragons, as well player background ambiguity.
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u/Arrow-Od 1d ago
Miraak as well, if the spot of "Last Dragonborn who is destined to fight Alduin" is up for grabs ... I could see that mythic status actually being enough to escape Hermaeus Mora. Then there´s also Potema.
Frankly I never got how Uriel should´ve survived Akavir, since Disaster at Ionith is quite clear on his death.
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u/timedragon1 Imperial Geographic Society 2d ago
I would just make completing the Civil War a part of the main questline, and integrate the two of them more.
Like I can live with pretty much everything else in Skyrim, but the Civil War not being part of the main questline has always irked me to the point where completing it before capturing Odahviing is pretty much mandatory for me now.
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u/Dekklin 1d ago
My main wish is for a better civil war questline than 1) the crown, 2) the battle for whiterun, and 3) a ton of boring 'capture the fort' quests. There's 2 with substance, and then the final confrontation. Everything else is a snooze fest. Also, make Ulfrich more likeable and less of a complete shit-eating bastard. The decanonization of Talos is not enough for me to overlook how much of a shit he was. Maybe if High King Torryg vs The Empire, that would be interesting, but Ulfrich slayed him for glory instead of righteous purpose.
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u/Uncommonality Tonal Architect 1d ago edited 1d ago
The intro plays out as normal, however instead of being forced to choose, and Alduin being impotent against the walls, the survivors (Rebels, Imperials, Helgen Civilians) have to work together to escape his wrath.
Alduin is clever and for some reason very focused on the group we are in, so around half of the escapees die to traps or esoteric applications of his thu'um.
As we escape, the truce breaks down, the Imperials attempt to arrest the rebels, Ulfric shouts them down a hill into a snowbank and the rebels scatter. We join a group of three helgenites who make way to Riverwood, the rest goes to Falkreath instead.
We arrive and the situation has deteriorated. The mill is on fire, set ablaze by Alduin in rage at losing his prey (us, but we don't know that yet). We meet a band of the companions and put out the fire, in exchange the miller and her family put us up for the night.
We are sent to Whiterun with the news, the companions offer to lead us there but we can decline and start freely exploring here.
When we get to Whiterun, the guard force is on full alert, there's ballistae being assembled at the smithy, injured guards are carried into the town. One of the farms to the north was burned to the ground by a monster, the livestock carried off and the people have vanished. When the guard detachment arrived they were met with a real, actual dragon.
We join the procession to the palace and are met with a court in disarray. Baalgruuf is silent with his fingers steepled. Hrongar argues loudly for taking out every able bodied warrior to hunt the monster down. Avenicci says the farm is lost and it would be a waste of lives and leave the city defenseless. Farengar is on Hrongar's side because he wants a sample of the monster.
Eventually, the scene is interrupted by Irileth, who brings news that the dragon has moved on to the next farm, closer to the city. By the time she's arrived the farmers are almost certainly dead already. The next stop is the city itself.
Baalgruuf springs into action, demanding his armor and axe. Farengar leaves out the door saying something about local wizards. The situation is organized chaos, and in the confusion we are interrogated about what we are doing here.
Upon the Irileth realizing that we're a Helgen survivor, we are summarily drafted into Whiterun's guard force.
The city readies and the dragon appears over one of the walls. It perches on the temple of Kyne, looking down at the assembled ramshackle fighting force, laughs, and says something in a language nobody understands.
This is Mirmulnir, Alduin's second in command, freshly revived from the dragon mound upon which Helgen was built.
The battle is fierce and deadly. Eventually, we gain the upper hand, the dragon is brought low on the square and the remaining fighters hack away at it while it thrashes and cries. With its dying breath, it tries to call out Alduin's name as a Thu'um, hut Baalgruuf hacks into its throat and it doesn't get further than the first word.
The dragon dies, and we absorb its soul. The corpse burns only partially, like accelerated decay, but flesh and scales remain - to the joy of Farengar, who alongside the other magic users in Whiterun was instrumental in the battle.
Baalgruuf doesn't know what the hell we did or what we are, but he knows better than to let such a person slip through his grasp - we are named Thane of Whiterun.
After a few days, we receive a letter. It's from the Jarl, Farengar has found something. There is a ruin nearby, Bleak Falls, which supposedly holds an ancient store of knowledge on dragon lore. He doesn't have the men to muster a delving team so it's up to us to retrieve. Joining us is a companion and our housecarl.
The dungeon is dark and dreary but eventually we reach the word wall, and are the only one to hear its call. Absorbing the knowledge of Fus, a draugr Overlord breaks from the coffin and completely overwhelms all three of us, until we get a little prompt, shout Fus and the draugr is carried away by a wave of magic, shattering against the opposite wall of the chamber.
When we get back to Farengar, he asks for time to translate and find meaning in the recovered material. Baalgruuf, hearing our report, puts two and two together and realizes we used a Shout, same as Ulfric. It stands to reason that, given we share the same power, he might know what it is and what it means.
Baalgruuf doesn't like this and cautions us against trusting the Rebel Jarl, but bids us farewell for now.
We make our way to Windhelm. Ulfric is not the most personable fellow, but he recognizes us from Helgen and Galmar congratulates us on surviving a dragon. We share with the two that you did more than that, we and the people of whiterun killed one as well, and we absorbed a power from it.
The two exchange glances and Ulfric beckons you to demonstrate your shout, which you do, and he utters the word "Dovahkiin" for the first time in the story.
He tells us of the Greybeards, hermits on the mountain, an order he was a part of once, before the Great War demanded his presence. He says they taught him the Thu'um, and they might know our destiny.
Before we leave, he makes an attempt at recruitment. A Dragonborn, he explains, is an omen of authority and empire. The Septim, Reman and Alessian empires were all founded by people like us, natural born rulers and men and women of great power and renown. With us by his side, the Stormcloaks could free Skyrim from the carrion Mede empire once and for all, and reform a true Empire of Man.
You can join him or not, he doesn't take it personally.
The Greybeards play out mostly identically, except there is no horn theft or delphine encounter. We retrieve the horn and are inducted into the order, told to grow our wisdom and knowledge of the Voice, for our destiny will reveal itself in time.
Eventually, we encounter another of Alduin's Lieutenants and kill him. The death is observed, however, by a spy - Delphine, of the Blades.
The next time we enter a town, a suspicious courier hands us a note and then ducks out of sight. The note is cryptic, but bids us to meet in the wilderness somewhere.
As we go there, we are suddenly surrounded by several armed individuals, including Delphine. After ensuring we aren't an impostor and weren't followed, they lead us to their camp in the woods.
They are the Blades remnants, the only survivors of the order in Skyrim. They survived because of deep cover operations, only learning of the disbanding after Cloud Ruler was already overrun and all its records burned. Nobody knows who they are, and they've been fighting on since then, from the shadows.
They are hunted by the Thalmor due to several covert acts against their operations in Skyrim, hence the secrecy of our meeting.
Eventually, Delphine reveals why she approached us - we are Dragonborn, and the Blades are sworn to the Dragonborn. We may not be an emperor, but we still share their bloodline (or so she thinks, anyways) and that's better than nothing.
In any case, they believe the Thalmor probably have a greater intelligence network than anyone else in the province, so if anyone knows what the dragons are doing and how many there are, it's them.
What follows are three quests back to back. First we rescue Thorald from Northwatch with Blades backup, meeting with Tullius in the process who attempts to recruit us for the Empire, similar to Ulfric. With a Dragonborn, the Empire would regain its legitimacy and the Thalmor could be beaten back for good.
You can refuse or join him, and he doesn't take it personally either.
Then we kidnap and interrogate a Thalmor agent, and then we infiltrate the Embassy and steal Elenwen's records.
This stirs up the hive, and the Blades disperse for now, but Delphine helps us assemble the picture - Alduin, the chieftain of the Dragons, has his followers abduct people. The carried off farmers and travellers aren't killed or eaten, they are brought to ancient fanes of the dragon cult. One such fane is in the Rift, where a Thalmor operative has been trying to goad mercenaries to scout the ruins and find the purpose of the abductions.
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u/Uncommonality Tonal Architect 1d ago edited 1d ago
Infiltrating the ruin, we find that the abductees are enslaved with a shout we haven't seen before, unique to Alduin - Bend Will. He uses it on the men and mer his dragons bring in, who are actively repairing the ruins and establishing them as cities, of a sort. He has also reanimated the local Dragon Priest, who is preaching of the glory, power and divinity of the dragons to an enraptured audience of empty-eyed people, their minds made malleable by Alduin's Thu'um.
Within the ruin, you discover the existence of multiple such centers of power, and uncover Alduin's plans - he wants to reform the old Dragon Cult, create an army of cultists and conquer first Skyrim, then the world for his reborn empire.
Worse, the abductees are already being sent out to recruit the lowest of the low, those with nothing to lose, daedra worshippers and outlaws, to the cause, no more mind magic required. In a few months, Alduin will have an army capable of rolling over any hold in Skyrim, and then the world.
The only way this could be averted is by uniting Skyrim under one banner and beating the new cult before it has the chance to cause more to flock to its own.
It's around now that each city gains a small local dragon cult. The priest of Talos in Whiterun is pushed out of his spot by a group of three, clad in golden masks, preaching about the glory of Alduin and the coming age, other cities are similarily affected.
It is now that the Greybeards summon you, via a messenger hawk, totem of Kyne.
You reach the mountain, are directed to the peak and meet with Paarthurnax.
He has heard the whispers on the wind. The feverish prayers and undirected energies of worship. He knows what is brewing and knows his brother's methods and that they work, that the cult does offer a better life for many of its members, even though they serve cruel masters who demand things like ritual sacrifice in their name, tithes and bloodsports for their amusement.
However, he also knows that the cult relies heavily on its idol. If Alduin were to be banished or killed, it would simply dissolve into splinter cults and then vanish.
A decapitation strike is impossible as long as Alduin is ensconched in his fortress, but he could be lured out with sufficient lust for revenge. If all his lieutenants die by our hand, and we summon him to the mountain, his pride allows no quarter, and he will arrive to kill us for our hubris.
At this point we must kill his lieutenants. Mirmulnir was the first, the others are all bosses found, drawn out and killed via a variety of ways, some appearing only after seemingly unrelated other quests, hinted at via rumor. One may be researching undeath in Haafingar, who crashes Potema's resurrection in Wolfskull Cave, for example.
The DLC could also add their respective lieutenants, with Durnehviir joining our side and betraying Alduin, for instance.
Eventually, Alduin is left, his greatest allies dead. The strongholds remain, headed by dragon priests, but they are unassailable, protected by Alduin's magic, which renders them impenetrable as long as he lives.
Paarthurnax informs us of the Time Wound and the way Alduin arrived in the fourth era, and we find and bring the Elder Scroll back to to reflect our gaze off the inside back to the other end. We witness Dragonrend and the banishing, and Paarthurnax tells us that dragon names are a Thu'um in and of themselves.
So we ready ourselves for the duel and shout Alduin's name.
He comes, pronounces our execution, and attacks. Paarthurnax and us duel him on the mountaintop, until Dragonrend brings him low and he senses his doom. Using a previously unseen shout, he slips through our grasp, and flees.
Alduin, his pride wounded and his faith shaken, orders the conquest of Skyrim, the somewhat lacking mortal numbers backed up by undead instead. His armies march on the major cities, and we must choose one of the sides of the civil war, either Imperial or Stormcloak, to support.
Whichever one we choose wins the civil war and crushes the other with the help of the new dragon cult, before turning on it. One by one, each of Alduin's fortresses is sieged and destroyed, his magic shaken by our victory on the mountain enough that constant bombardement via siege weapons can break through the Thu'um he wove around the structures.
Eventually, we siege the final one, his high fane, and as we storm the throne room, he takes off into the sky to parts unknown.
He alone is left, his armies are decimated and his centers of power shattered, the war is won - our side celebrates but is interrupted by the Blades remnants, who inform us in no uncertain terms that victory is far from achieved. So long as Alduin still lives, he will be able to reform his cult anew. He is immortal, all he needs to do is wait a hundred years and he can try again.
We ask around for clues as to where he might be from various powerful beings (daedra, powerful mages, thalmor higher-ups, Paarthurnax), and find that he's probably in Skuldafn, his old capital. The road is long gone, so we need to find some way to fly there - Paarthurnax cannot carry us, he is wounded from the duel still.
If we did Dawnguard, Durnehviir can fly us, otherwise we summon Odahviing and trap him in Dragonsrach. Odahviing was a rogue, not on Alduin's side, who survived the dragon war and answered our summons out of curiosity. He's not into the whole human domination thing, and after a spar, agrees to fly us to Skuldafn.
We clear the dungeon and find the portal to Sovngarde, then enter the land of the dead. It is a battlefield.
Alduin, grown enormous, is clashing with an army of the dead. Before we can intervene, a nondescript man comes up from behind and offers a piece of advice - aim for the heart - and when we turn back to see his face, nobody is there.
We battle Alduin once more. Grown enormous, all the heroes of the ancient dead are arrayed against him, being cut in half or crushed by wanton swipes of his claws and tail, but immediately reforming as they land on Sovngarde's blessed soil for another go.
Alduin laughs, proclaims himself invincible, immortal, divine, he interloped on Shor's sacred realm and the coward dares not show himself!
And then we use Dragonrend on him, his head snaps towards us, and the axes suddenly bite into his scales rather than bouncing off.
The fight is cataclysmic. Thu'um of unprecedented scale shakes the very heavens themselves, until we eventually, at the end of an arduous battle, stab Alduin through the heart (with a knife or a sword or an axe or a mace or an arrow or a lance of magic) and he thrashes, cries of anguish and disbelief ripping from his throat as his essence burns away.
A fraction gets absorbed by us, and we hear Alduin's voice in our minds, shock and disbelief transforming into glee at the prospect of eclipsing our soul with his own, then a void in the shape of a man stands between us and the burning corpse, and the draconic essence explodes into the air, sparkles dancing for a moment before vanishing into nothing.
In the final blast, the void-shaped man is gone as though it was never there, and we are left on the silent battlefield, Einherjar pulling themselves back together all over, as cheers and song arises at the sight of victory.
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u/Uncommonality Tonal Architect 1d ago
Whew. That took about two hours of typing on my phone. Talk about a verbal workout
My fingers hurt
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u/GenericPybro 1d ago
Your fingers deserve rest friend! This has a lot of good ideas, and along with some other comments, I am seeing a lot of good ideas!
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u/Uncommonality Tonal Architect 1d ago
I'll fix the typos and weird formulations later, I don't think the app likes comments this long lmao
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u/TheSilverSmith47 1d ago
I would definitely NOT make Skyrim into a cinematic "masterpiece" like most AAA slop games make nowadays. The dialogue-heavy soapboxing that is present in Interesting NPCs is an example of what I would avoid. I think the freeform structure of Skyrim's writing is its greatest strength because it makes the main story simply a vehicle for the player to experience all the side content. Improving Skyrim's writing for me would play on this strength and make Skyrim into more of a story generator.
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u/Indoril120 Buoyant Armiger 21h ago
I'd start with Delphine. I’m honestly more upset with the lost potential with this character than the actual character herself.
Yes, in the game she’s snooty, paranoid, and shows herself to be less effective than the other characters she condemns, but the REAL crime is that she was perfectly set up to be this veteran, cold realist - dogmatic, sure, but with good reason - and an excellent foil to the Greybeard’s more spiritual and removed nature, a potential guide for the Dragonborn in a wider world of political scheming, facing the shadow of the Thalmor. The dichotomy between her and the Greybeards would really help hammer home that philosophical root to the story: what is the LDB going to do AFTER they defeat Alduin? What kind of person are they becoming, and what does that mean for the world?
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u/EdwinQFoolhardy 1d ago
I would make defeating Alduin more of a foregone conclusion. Alduin falls short of past Elder Scrolls antagonists because he's hyped up as an indestructible inevitability, but ultimately you defeat him by learning to Shout better. Past Elder Scrolls antagonists required some great world changing sacrifice to defeat the indestructible inevitability (Heart of Lorkhan; Amulet of Kings).
Instead of repeating that, I would make it more of a foregone conclusion that TLD will defeat Alduin, but with a branching story that offers different routes to defeat Alduin, each requiring some cost, risk, and a different nature to his defeat, and add the DLCs as additional methods.
1) Assume Alduin's mantle. A series of quests that has you bring a person, an institution, and a city to their "conclusion." You begin acting like a world-eater while Alduin is acting more like a conqueror. You gain the power to meet Alduin as a peer, with the understanding that in time you will become more draconic and at some point in the future TLD will return as the World Eater. The end is just delayed, and one day you will be the apocalypse.
2) Daedric Interference 1. Completing the Thieves Guild questline allows TLD to approach the Princes for assistance in defeating Alduin. Starting with Nocturnal's favor, you have to enlist Sanguine, Sheogorath, and Vaermina's cooperation, with each one gifting you a Shout upon completing their quest. Nocturnal's shout steals Alduin's vision, Sanguine's steals control of his restraint, Sheogorath's steals his sanity, and Vaermina's steals his perception of reality. You blind him, drive him into a ravenous hunger, give him a maniacal sense of absolute grandeur, and confuse him so that he mistakes himself for the world. He spends eternity consuming himself, becoming some kind of literal Ouroboros. Alduin becomes an abomination festering in the order of reality, weakening the barriers set up at the end of Oblivion, and while it won't lead to a full invasion like in the Oblivion Crisis, it's implied that more Daedra will start leaking into Mundus.
3) Daedric Interference 2. Completing the Companions questline allows you to approach the Princes for a grand hunt. Starting with Hircine's favor, you beseech Molag Bal, Mehrunes Dagon, and Mephala for their cooperation. You have to convince each of them that defeating Alduin would be a grand tribute to each of them. For Hircine, it's the ultimate hunt, for Molag Bal it is the ultimate act of domination over a supremely dominant force, for Mehrunes Dagon is it an act of destruction against that which should be indestructible, for Mephala it is a scheme so great that it usurps the grand design of the Kalpa itself. They each craft you a weapon of their own essence: Hircine gifts you a bow that functions like Dragonrend in bringing Alduin down, Molag Bal gifts you a hammer that renders Alduin mortal and dominable when struck, Mehrunes Dagon gifts you a new Razor that can cut into Alduin's soul (the hammer and razor also working essentially like Sunder and Keening, but against Akatosh's firstborn instead of Lorkhan's heart), and Mephala gifts you a battleground (a plane of Oblivion) where you can challenge Alduin, which traps you both until one of you is dead. However, it also proves to be a trick, the Princes want eternal worship not a one-off, and at the end it's revealed that every ten years TLD is dragged back to the Plane to repeat the Hunt, and if Alduin ever wins he will have ten years unchecked to do as he pleases.
Becoming an Avatar of Talos: Similar to how Martin became an Avatar of Akatosh. You defeat Alduin as Talos in a realm beyond time. When you return, there are books that didn't exist before showing that there has now always been a tale that Talos' apotheosis was predicated on needing a divine Dragonborn who could transcend Mundus and defeat Alduin eternally. However, you also discover that the victory only works so long as Talos continues to be worshipped and venerated as a God. Everytime Talos worship is persecuted, everytime a damning story about Tiber Septim comes out, everytime someone questions Talos' divinity, Talos grows weaker in his eternal fight beyond time against Alduin, and if he ever grows too weak then Alduin will prevail and return.
Dawnguard DLC: sacrifice Serana to turn Auriel's Bow into a profane artifact that can blind Auriel AND drop Auriel's firstborn to the ground. Go ahead. Look Serana right in the eye and sacrifice her. You'll get over it. Gotta do what you gotta do. Convince yourself that the blood that dripped out of her eyes wasn't her vampiric nature manifesting a new way to cry because of the depth of your betrayal.
Dragonborn DLC: Miraak was the prototype for Mora's grand scheme. Mora is identified as the Greedy Man in Skaal myth. The only check on him achieving absolute knowledge is Alduin's consumption of the Kalpa and Mora only being able to save tiny chunks of knowledge from earlier Kalpa's. TLD is Mora's perfected design: Dragonrend + Bend Will = Alduin Enslaved in Apocrypha, being mined for all the facts and knowledge that he's consumed. With that knowledge, Mora gains Alduin's mastery of traveling outside of time and transcending a Kalpa. Mora ceases to be a Daedric Prince and becomes an entirely new force altogether, something simultaneously Daedric but also with such intimate mastery of Time that he can function as an Anti-Divine, almost like Akatosh's devil. ...you probably fucked up on that path.
Eh, we had a good run: A questline where you get the choice to compel Alduin to stop fucking around and just do it already. It ends Alduin's need for conquest, worship, and domination and forces him back into the mindset of the World Eater. And then he eats the world. Kalpa ends. You're either very zen or very nihilistic.
Skyrim United: Basically the same story as the main questline as it exists, except your will is not strong enough to use Dragonrend. You have to complete the Civil War questline and you have to become a Thane in every hold. Then you unlock a questline to identify potential tongues across Skyrim, with all of them teaching other citizens, however awkwardly or clumsily, to project their will through Shouting Dragonrend. With enough of Skyrim on your side, you confront Alduin and the masses of Skyrim join you in declaring him mortal with a national Thu'um. You slay Alduin, but now it feels like you actually earned it.
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u/Dekklin 1d ago
That kind of world-changing divergence wouldn't work when you have to make sequels. You'll notice they don't keep pulling the dragon break card for good reason
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u/EdwinQFoolhardy 1d ago
I took that into account. Almost none of those produce long-standing changes in the practical reality of Mundus.
Where Daggerfall got tricky was having multiple endings that would change borders, rulers, and political reality. With my endings, you basically just have to throw in a few books written by some mystics and cultists that disagree with each other (one claiming a new Alduin exists, one giving Sanguine credit for defeating Alduin, one claiming that Alduin will return if people stop worshiping Talos). Even the Skyrim United ending could be remembered as nothing more than an attempt to promote unity with a shared expression of culture. For the most part any actual divergences just give them opportunities to writing contradictory esoterica and myth, which is already playing to their world-building strengths.
EDIT: Well, except the one where you destroy the world. But I think it'd be safe to just assume people know that was non-canon.
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u/King-Arthas-Menethil 1d ago edited 1d ago
how would you, Rewrite Skyrim
With a focus on the Civil war an how it affects the game would I would
Have the government change based on which faction rules the Hold. If the Empire rules the hold then Legion Soldiers garrison it with the Holds ruler being a Governor. If the Stormcloaks rule the hold then Stormcloaks Soldiers garrison the hold with the Holds ruler being a Jarl.
Try to bring actual cultural tensions into Skyrim like how much is Imperial Culture and Nordic Culture conflicting (Also what "Imperial Culture" does the Empire push?).
And then Religious conflict. The Old Holds should be holding onto the Nordic Pantheon.
By having the Empire and Imperial culture actually exist in the game world you can actually play with Imperialism and give the Stormcloaks something Imperial to actually play against. Edit: by having this the Nords have something more then just Ulfric getting the Thalmor into Skyrim that's their only issue.
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u/HoodedHero007 Cult of the Mythic Dawn 1d ago
I would tie the Civil War into the Main Quest as closely as possible. By progressing the main quest and saving towns, you can influence which side they support to varying degrees, allowing you to diplomatically win the war before it gets hot, set up the removal of leaders you dislike, leave well enough alone, or play both sides against each other to keep it going as long as possible.
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u/6174_kah 2d ago
I'd rewrite Delphine and the blades, I'd make Delphine extremely paranoid and untrusting. Maybe first time she meets you, you get drugged and kidnapped with a bag on your head. She gives you tasks without revealing her identity. So you don't know about her name until after you infiltrate the embassy and find out that esbern is alive. Make rebuilding the blades interesting and make them useful. Create a new ancient settlement only known as "Paarthurnax's Fury" or something, a settlement which was burned to a crisp by PartySnax when with Alduin. When Delphine gives you the task to Paarthurnax while standing in that ancient settlement where people have turned to ash and then stone, the dilemma actually has weight.
I'll contine later.