BrettM

It isn't quite correct to say you can't team with others. You can use a follower NPC, or, with the right mod, more than one. So, if you really wanted to take a team and be their healer, you could probably make it work. It might be an interesting way to play, though I don't think that I'd try it until I made my second mage. :)

The respawn time is supposed to be 10 game days for any mine that can't be cleared (friendly mines that have no foes) and 30 game days for other mines. However, I've also had problems with ore veins not respawning as expected. They will often be respawned visually -- looking as they normally do before you mine them -- but mousing over them does not produce the option to mine them. I know, for example, that it has been far more than 10 game days since I last visited Gloombound, and all the ebony veins are bright and shiny, but I can't get so much as a pebble out of them.

The best guide I found was So You Want to be a Mage. It gives a nice, balanced coverage of all the ways to be a mage in Skyrim. I made my second character a mage, specializing in archery and destruction (shock) magic, with a little restoration. I guess you could call him an archermage. The guide helped a great deal, but I did find it tough to get started, and wound up in light armor very quickly because cloth just wasn't cutting it for me. All of the robes available to players in vanilla Skyrim are just meh, if you ask me. I ended up going with a mod: Psiijic Master Outfits. This is a reskin of the robes worn by the Psijic monks, with a choice of cloth or leather versions in different colors, and ornaments appropriate to a dovahkiin. But it isn't anything Gandalf-like. I'm sure if you browse the Nexus mod site, you can find something that will suit your tastes.

Thank you for that video! I don't know how I missed that Wolf Remix, but WANT!! NAOW! I use a couple of armor mods that I really like, and may deserve a place in your list. 1. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=5237 This is a reskin of the Ebony armor and weapon set to make a craftable Ivory version. It's just nice to have an alternative to black for our good guys. 2. http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10680 These are craftable versions of a reskin of the Psijic robes that gives a choice of colors and changes the design to something more suited to dovahkiin. I love these for my mage, and they can be crafted in either cloth or leather (for us wimpy mages who want real armor).

I have no idea where the wikia got that. To me, it would make more sense if Thorvald was Vignar's heir. Olfina just doesn't seem the type to handle being jarl.

My experience with clearing Karthspire early on one character was exactly like bben46's. I was in quite a panic until Delphine and Esbern finally decided to stop hanging around the first bridge and follow me onward. I've never seen a rubble-filled passage anywhere in Karthspire.

I've played an Argonian, a Bosmer, and now I'm working on a Khajiit. Would Sovngarde be an appropriate afterlife for any of them? Would it be welcome to any of them? When my first character got through Sovngarde, I couldn't help wondering if being brought back there for his afterlife would make him any happier than Kodlak would be to be taken by Hircine. Yes, it's a lovely place full of fascinating people, but Argonians have their own beliefs regarding the Hist and their fate after death. I had been imagining that a vision or communication from the Hist was his reason for being in Skyrim in the first place, and I think he would not enjoy being sundered from his people and the Hist for eternity, Dovahkiin or not. For the Bosmer, I'm less certain. His motives for being in Skyrim have more to do with politics than religion, given the current Thalmor control of Valenwood. I don't know much about Bosmer religion, but they seem like independent sorts, and a mighty hunter might be quite happy to spend eternity with a bunch of Nord heroes. I still don't have a good handle on the Khajiit, though I suspect the Thalmor presence in Elsweyr is probably involved. Those cats are just strange. Hanging around Shor/Lorkhan for eternity might suit a Khajiit fine or it might be anathema. I haven't made up my mind yet. I just wish I could take all three of these characters to their homes and learn more about their cultures.

Did you climb the stairs to High Hrothgar and read all the tablets? Doing so will give you the "Voice of the Sky" effect for 24 hours, during which animals will neither attack you nor flee from you.

No. You need the Jarl's permission to buy property, and you can't get it without either siding with the Stormcloaks and doing several missions or siding with the Imperials and replacing the Jarl.

There are enough MMORPGs these days, but few good single-player RPGs. I have nothing against MMOs (I'm a fan of Guild Wars and eagerly awaiting GW2), but it is nice to have a single-player like Skyrim for a change of pace. If nothing else, your character is more center-stage in a single-player game than s/he could be in an MMO, and all the world-changing decisions are yours alone.

The potion may have the name "Resist Poison", but it will have both effects when you drink it. When a potion has two or more effects, the game just picks one of them to use for a name according to some internal priority list. For example, if you combine Hanging Moss, Bear Claws, and Giant's Toe, you get a potion named "Fortify Health" that will also Fortify One-Handed and Damage Magicka Regen. It would be a little ridiculous if the game tried to name it "Potion of Fortify Health and One-Handed while Damaging Magicka Regen".

Take heart. I'm sure she died happy, having something to do in the service of her Thane. My housecarls all die of terminal boredom because all they ever do is get to sit around the house. Half of them don't even recognize me when I walk in the door because I rarely visit those houses. Divines know I've tried to give them all a day off, telling them to get out of the house, go shopping, visit the pub, or whatever. But they never do it.

The orcs are supposed to be ugly, as near as I can tell, so it isn't any surprise that when they turn out that way. The khajiit don't look bad to me, and it is possible to make an Argonian that isn't hard on the eyes, IMHO. (Two of my three characters are Argonian.) I agree that the elves are ridiculously, pointlessly ugly, though, and I got pretty frustrated making my Bosmer character.

I also found that you don't have to go through Alftand, despite what Septimus tells you, but you can go through any Dwemer ruin that has access to Blackreach. I went through Mzinchaleft so I could pick up Mjoll's sword on the way. I did Alftand for the next part of the quest where I needed the blood samples. Saving myself some backtracking is why I took that character to Septimus early, since he's the only one who can give you an Attunement Sphere.

About all you can do is try to bump or drag the object against the edge of some piece of nearby furniture (table, shelf, bench, etc.) or a wall to try to make it turn upright or rotate into the position you want. Then carefully back away so you don't bump it again and try to place it in position on top of the table or shelf where you want it. There just isn't any way to make it easy, though. Placing items is always an enormous pain in the tail, even if you're lucky enough to be working with a bottom-heavy object that will rotate itself into the right orientation.

I had one character that did Discerning the Transmundane before getting as far as Elder Knowledge in the main quest line. It didn't screw up the main quest except that most of Elder Knowledge is skipped because you already have the artifact needed. Just be sure you're ready for the fight before you reach the point where you need to use it.

Stealth archery works great there for me. It takes a long time, but I find I can sneak around and pick off most of the draugr one at a time without much problem, especially using the Eagle Eye perk to get some good long-range shots at them. At your level, you ought to be able to take out a Deathlord with a couple of sneak shots, or even one-shot them if you have the triple-bow-damage sneak perk. One thing that helps is to not go until dusk to maximize your sneak potential. If you arrive in daylight, just crouch as soon as you dismount and use the T key to wait for dark. You should be far enough away from the first foes to do that, or have enough room to back away until you can wait. (One of my characters was so sneaky the dragons wouldn't even notice him at all in the dark. I finally had to shout a quick "Fus" to get their attention so I could get the battle started. After I had taken out all the nearby draugr, of course. :)) You ought to either be able to pick off a couple of the closest dragur before the first dragon shows up, or be able to engage that dragon far enough away not to draw the attention of the draugr. What sort of bow and arrows are you using, and what enchant do you have on the bow? My light-armor characters are very fond of the elven bow, which has a nice weight/damage ratio and can be improved to the max with only a couple of perks invested in Smithing. Use the best arrows that you can get a good supply of right now, which should hopefully be Ebony, or at least Glass. (Elrindir in the Drunken Huntsman is the best source of arrows in all of Skyrim. He often carries 40 or more of the best arrows that a merchant will offer to a character of a given level.) I like using Shock damage + Stamina damage enchants on my bow, because it has the best all-around utility against all types of foes. If you don't yet have the Dual Effect enchanting perk, just go with the Shock damage. Fire damage would be better against the draugr, but the dragons are likely to be resistant to it, and they are your worst worry.

Looks like Skyrim concept art to me, since there is clearly dragon script on the wall behind the large figure. If I had to guess, I'd guess this was an early concept for a word wall. Perhaps even the word wall in Ustengrav, in the big cavern with all the trees growing in it.

I've been thinking about this and doing a little research of my own that gives rise to two thoughts. 1. How sure are you that the Towers/Stones "uphold reality"? It seems to me that reality was established by the Adamantine Tower with the Zero Stone, and reality was stable as long as the Aedra were in residence. They then created the Red Tower with the Heart of Lorkhan as its Stone, which allowed Mundus to continue after they returned to Aetherius. These two Towers alone were sufficient to uphold reality, as the other Towers did not yet exist, so the others can hardly be necessary props. As I understand it, the Aldmer began the construction of the other Towers for their own purposes, in imitation of the original two. Since each Tower was built by a group having a more-or-less divergent viewpoint from the others, this was the point at which the Aldmer subdivided into Ayleid, Altmer, Chimer, Bosmer, etc. Would destroying these Towers actually bring down reality, or would it result in the associated splinter groups merging back together to recreate the original root stock? I.e., might the purpose of the Thalmor be to re-unite all of the branches of their race to recreate the Aldmer? Pulling down the Adamantine Tower might free their souls, but only if they are first made whole again. 2. The "unknown" Stone of the Snow Tower: The Eye of Magnus? The parallel of the name with the name of another Stone, the Heart of Lorkhan, seems suggestive, given that Magnus was the architect of the mortal plane. This would explain so much. If the Falmer were the splinter group that created the Snow Tower using the Eye, then they would surely have been upset when those Atmoran colonists just happened to stumble on the Stone while building Saarthal, leading to the Night of Tears as the Falmer tried desperately to reclaim it. This would also mean that Ancano's grab for the Eye may have been more than simple power lust, assuming that he knew what it was. We may have had a very narrow escape, with the Thalmor coming within a whisker of controlling the Snow Tower, whether this was Ancano's intention or not! The whole incident may have a much deeper significance than we realized, lending new weight to the ominious warnings of the Psijics. Will they be able to keep it safe, and can they be trusted with it?

The greeting of the Graybeards comes when you return the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller to them. I believe you need to finish that quest as well as Alduin's Wall. For Throat of the World, all you need to do is talk to Arngeir and convince him to let you meet the leader of the Graybeards, at which point they will teach you a shout that will let you climb to the top of the mountain. The console needs to be used with caution, because the more you use it the worse you can screw up a quest line, to the point where you might never be able to complete it.

I wouldn't worry too much about higher levels. In playing my own mage, I concluded that magic is pretty underpowered at low levels but seriously overpowered at high levels. Dual-cast Destruction + Impact is a wicked pair of perks. As my level went up, I found that I could one-shot more and more foes with a dual-cast spell, and stun-lock anything else until it went down if I didn't run out of magicka. Now I'm pushing level 60 and have Destruction cost-reduction enchants on several pieces of gear, so I no longer worry about magicka cost and there is almost nothing I can't one-shot except higher-level dragons. I don't know if I can give you much advice for the lower levels, though, since you seem to be doing far better than I was able to manage. I wouldn't have dreamed of getting anywhere near a dragon priest at level 14, much less going through the whole College of Winterhold quest line. Almost everything I met was killing me easily, and I couldn't maintain myself as a pure mage. I ended up in leather armor early on, relying on Archery while I built up my Destruction, with a sword for absolute emergencies. I was able to stop using the sword entirely before long, and in the end I wound up with an archer-mage that I am pretty pleased with, but it took some doing. I would say, however, that training Archery would probably be a better choice than training One-Handed. Bows have a better range than spells and give you a chance to get in some damage on the tough foes (especially with sneak attacks) before they close to spell range. Getting Light Armor higher won't help you unless you actually switch to light armor, but I see no shame in doing that since the protection far exceeds what you'll be able to do with Alteration. A set of light armor protects you better than magic and lets you keep Destruction spells in both hands more of the time.

This one didn't start out that way, but took a left turn into the usual argument. The OP was just asking about the mechanics and rewards of the two quest lines to find out if there were any gameplay reasons to choose one side over the other, not whether there were any philosophical reasons. But it's just too much fun to argue the philosophy and lore, so it was obvious the thread would get there sooner or later. :)

I'm not sure how anyone would get the impression that Skyrim was conquered. The relationship between Skyrim and the Empire should be obvious from casual conversations even to players who never study the lore. Some characters will mention their pride in serving in the Legion and others will speak of Skyrim as being the strength of the Empire. Some who support the Stormcloaks will speak of how the Empire sold them out with the Concordat. Even Ulfric speaks of his service in the Legion and how he feels betrayed by the Empire he bled for. Anyone who talks to a priest of Talos (or listens to the noisy ranting of the preacher in Whiterun) will hear about Skyrim's long history of support for the Empire. None of this is the kind of talk you'd expect to hear from a conquered population forced to provide conscript cannon fodder. But I don't think it's entirely accurate to say the Nords created the Empire, though they did join it voluntarily early on. Tiber Septim set out to conquer Skyrim after he became General of the Colovian Estates under King Cuhlecain. The Nords fought him until they realized that he was a "true son of Skyrim" when they heard his thu'um, after which they decided to follow him. One would have to study the lore some to find this out, but you don't need to know it to know that Skyrim isn't just another conquest. If you ask me, though, the Empire supporters in Skyrim are fooling themselves when they talk about the importance of Skyrim to the Empire and the respect that the Empire has for the Nords. All of that was true during the Septim dynasty, which had strong ties of kinship and shared history with Skyrim. But that was over 200 years ago and the current dynasty has no such ties. The Empire of today regards the Nords as barbarian outlanders who would all become brigands if the Empire didn't force civilization on them. They have absolutely no respect for the political system of Skyrim or the Nord sense of honor. The relationship between Skyrim and the Empire has changed since the Oblivion crisis, but there are many like Jarl Balgruuf who do not realize it and are clinging to the past.

I've never found any real need to do that. Once I have Enchanting and Alchemy to 100, then I use three sets of jewelry to optimize my Fortify Alchemy gear: 25% for the first set, 28% for the second, and 29% for the final. It may take me a little longer to get Alchemy to 100, but I also don't get into a situation where my foes are leveling faster than my combat skills can handle. I can see making maybe a couple of sets of Fortify Alchemy gear before then to speed the process just a little, but going through a whole bunch of sets that only differ by a small amount seems like such a pain when I could be out questing. The questing gives me far more than enough loot jewelry -- not to mention gems, gold, and silver -- to get the job done. However, if you're going to do it this way, why bother with gems? Plain gold/silver necklaces and rings will work just as well and are much easier to come by. To each his own, but I find power-leveling crafting skills just makes the game more difficult than it needs to be.

General merchants will offer gemstones of certain types (never flawless gems) and a few pieces of jewelry, but never a large quantity of either. Radiant Raiment in Solitude carries a wide selection of jewelry and the two jewelry booths (Markarth and Riften) carry a small selection, but none of them carries gems. You also have a chance of getting a gemstone when mining any kind of ore vein, so this may be a good source for you, especially if you follow ThrowingTracks's advice. Smithing jewelry is a good way to raise your smithing level faster than you can by smithing cheap items such as iron daggers.