a question of morals

[roieco]

Thanks all for your thoughts and insights.

[Moksha8088]

As long as you can distinguish between real-world events and those of a video game, then what you do in the video game should not cause you real-world guilt. The exception to this is if you use terms like immersive lore. If that is the case, then you probably exist somewhere between those two dimensions and so your actions may impinge on your status in both dimensions.

 

Hope that helps.

[roieco]

@Moksha8088

Thanks for replying. Good point, and i agree.

 

However what i was inquiring was your opinion of this character in-world.

1. If you'd describe her, by her actions as depicted in the op, as evil, good or something else.

2. Can such a person even exist irl?

[fraquar]

Such a person really wouldn't exist, because they wouldn't have the time let alone the inclination to do all of those things. In fantasy they do - and then some because time is irrelevant and there are no consequences for your actions.

From the off the PC is left really with 1 question - is the Dragon a one-off or is it a harbinger of something much, much more important as the legends suggest. In the mean time between answering the two sides of that question they simply don't have the time to be distracted by all these other trappings that the game puts in - and doing them AFTER the main quest has finished makes no sense whatsoever.

 

Alternate Starts open up some of these Faction lines as realistic endeavors prior to their exposure to the "trigger event", but even then the player realistically wouldn't have the time to climb the ladder to be the leader of multiple factions (which many would require at least 1/2 an adult lifetime to accomplish). Even if that was unrealistically possible they wouldn't have time or space to administer their roles of all those factions anyway.

 

However, this is a fantasy game that allows ALL of those things to be done - good or evil be damned - we do them because the authors want us to do them to get our monies worth out of the game.

 

Morality? Lol. It's a game.

[roieco]

@fraquar

thanks for the reply.

again, i agree. a realistic person wouldn't have the time, skills or energy to accomplish all the things described in the OP.

 

but again, your viewpoint is that of a clever person looking at the game world from outside, while what i'm asking is in-world.

assume that the PC has mad time management skills, incredible talent and unbelievable luck and her biography is exactly as described on the OP.

now assume that you're her childhood friend, and you learn of her exploits and you have every reason to believe that they are true.

 

then what would you think?

[HadToRegister]

@HadToRegister, @jones177

so if i understand you correctly, you're saying that there's no redemption for her.

doing good things, no matter how many or great, does not compensate for her evil deeds?

 

 

 

Well, what I'm saying is, she's killed 1300 hundred people, that were in her way, regardless if they deserved it or not, which means, that the GOOD things she did, weren't benevolent things, she did them because they would affect her as well, so she stopped those things from happening without a thought of saving everybody else, she did those things to save herself.

So basically, even though she did "good things", it wasn't for the purpose of "doing Good", it was for "Self Preservation" without any regard for others.

[Moksha8088]

@Moksha8088

Thanks for replying. Good point, and i agree.

 

However what i was inquiring was your opinion of this character in-world.

1. If you'd describe her, by her actions as depicted in the op, as evil, good or something else.

2. Can such a person even exist irl?

The game is set up so you kill those who would try to kill you. Only the tame spell from Qaxes Questorium can overcome the rage of most baddies and that will not work on dragons, Miraak, etc.... If the character did not go out of her way to kill non-hostiles, then the character was simply playing the game as intended.

[fraquar]

@fraquar

thanks for the reply.

again, i agree. a realistic person wouldn't have the time, skills or energy to accomplish all the things described in the OP.

 

but again, your viewpoint is that of a clever person looking at the game world from outside, while what i'm asking is in-world.

assume that the PC has mad time management skills, incredible talent and unbelievable luck and her biography is exactly as described on the OP.

now assume that you're her childhood friend, and you learn of her exploits and you have every reason to believe that they are true.

 

then what would you think?

No, my point is this:

If I become the Dragonborn early, there is no way on the planet I could go anywhere without being noticed - I'd be a Skyrim rock star - I couldn't take a stroll to Shor's Stone without an audience and everyone knowing who I am. From a role playing perspective trying to do nearly all of the Faction Quests makes no sense after that.

 

The key to reaching the lofty levels of these factions is that while you are doing it you are relatively anonymous. Once you reach the top everyone is going to know who you are and that will make the rest of the faction quests hard if not impossible to role-play.

 

Ex. I mean, what sense would it make to see the Harbinger running around with Thieves Guild armor trying to sneak up and pickpocket someone?

What sense would the reverse make, where the active Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild (no honor among thieves) is going to become Harbinger and rebuild the Companion's honor?

[HadToRegister]

@Moksha8088

Thanks for replying. Good point, and i agree.

 

However what i was inquiring was your opinion of this character in-world.

1. If you'd describe her, by her actions as depicted in the op, as evil, good or something else.

2. Can such a person even exist irl?

 

To answer #2

 

It would be IMPOSSIBLE for a person like that to exist IRL, because the world would never be able to agree on whether that person was good or evil

 

The debate would never end, because you'd have one side claiming she was good, while explaining away all the evil things she did, and you'd have the other side claiming she was bad, and pointing out all the evil things she did.

 

The final outcome of this character would need to be written by someone like Stephen Moffat, who, would be able to explain away why this murdering person, is a benefit to society.

 

Thanks for the topic.

 

It's making me think

[roieco]

Thanks @all for sharing your interesting and insightful thoughts.

 

If I may share my own point of view on this,

I think that had I been in this world and learning of this character's exploits, I'd believe her to be a psychopath (in the medical meaning of the word). Psychopaths, while able to recognize what's currently in the best interest of herself or the society she lives in and act to achieve those objectives, would be indifferent or even unaware of the moral implications of her actions, and would be far less inhibited by them, even to the point of ignoring them altogether.

 

(Naturally in order to make that observation I'd have to know what psychopaths are, which would require that I'd be a pretty clever Skyrim citizen) ;)

 

Just my two Septims :)