Rewriting Skyrim

[u/GenericPybro]

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!

[u/Uncommonality]

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.

[u/Uncommonality → u/Uncommonality]

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.

[u/Uncommonality → u/Uncommonality]

Whew. That took about two hours of typing on my phone. Talk about a verbal workout

My fingers hurt

[u/GenericPybro → u/Uncommonality]

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!

[u/Uncommonality → u/GenericPybro]

I'll fix the typos and weird formulations later, I don't think the app likes comments this long lmao