sisterof

Google works too.

I am very sorry, but I think Thora may have multiple personality issues. :sad:

Yeah, two. The quests are largely independent. The only ones I can think of that conflict with each other is the main quest and the Civil War, because of the possibility to take cities during Season Unending (and missing the Thalmor in Markarth).

Oh, that would be great, actually. Better than simply saying "there was a mess and then the Dominion invaded and lol fare thee well, Skyrim". 'its okay. Here, let me offer a pirate laugh of support: har har har!

Elf snowman? On Dragonborn, I think you mean the Dragon Priests. There's a lot of info about them on both wikis.

Thank you for the inner lulz. "Quest limbo." :D Shall adopt that term. Skyrim is very undeserving of the term "RPG" when it comes to quests. Of course you can choose to follow a quest or not (you can't choose not to have them cluttering your journal, though). But there are no multiple ways to finish anything (at least that my sleepy mind can recall). It always comes down to kill the boss in one way or another. Letting Serana walk with an Elder Scroll and then tag along pushed the limits of my suspension of disbelief - it went so against the character I was playing. And yeah, you're quite right about the "if you don't want to give me choices, then don't write a situation when a choice is so evidently needed". Actually, I was unaware one could become a vampire without Dawnguard. Shame on me. I thought it was like with the Companions/werewolves, as no character of mine ever got infected. I have a tendency to play out something that offers no choice and, once the quest is done, just change the story in my mind to whatever path I found more convenient. Forge headcanon. Nod sagely at yourself. Keep playing.

It's the second time this week that I say this here - but have you played The Witcher series? :D For a viking-theme province, Skyrim is indeed quite tame. I think it's because they wanted to keep the place sympathetic for our current culture. A lot of people get annoyed with the Stormcloaks and more traditional Nords. Now imagine if the game said it's okay and even honorable to pillage foreign towns and have slaves, bash people's skulls for minimal offenses and so on. The lack of mods that add prostitutes and brawls surprises me - but I'm not that willing to use too many mods with scripts and such. What I would love is a smoking pipe in LotR style. Then I could smoke and stare nostalgically at the fireplace and brood about my homeland. Bonus points for manly singing.

If the Nords are indeed based on vikings (and I shall forever make free advertising of the series of that name here), plundering is something to be proud of. :biggrin: I missed that option for playing a warrior Dragonborn who would beat his chest and go ME. HONOR. I HAS IT. I guess I'll just have to get in the state of mind of the Thieves Guild. It wasn't hard letting my Khajiit give his soul to Sithis as he was my first character, but after so long playing this Dragonborn that despises Daedra, it's hard to get on a Daedra-loving thief's shoes. Oh well, that's what rpg are all about. Shoes.

You know that the opposing argument is going to be "that's because the Septim family was a divinely blessed lineage" right? And that now that the dynasty has changed that the rules no longer apply. That argument would be wrong then. The Septims were not given any special abilities above normal people. The only blessing they received was that Oblivion would be separated from Tamriel as long as their line was in control of the Empire. How long they remained in power was up to them. The Empire was blessed and had a divine reason to exist. I don't know why you require special powers - the fact that the Gods chose them to lead, and that their faithfulness would reflect in the well-being of the Empire is something that runs much deeper than battle power. Without a blessed lineage or an Emperor backed by the Divines, the Empire is simply a political institution with nothing on its side other than economy and diplomacy - two things it is failing at already. It's also interesting that the trials of St. Alessia mention that being blessed is not only about closing the Oblivion gates, but keeping the Empire powerful. Here, found it. About the faithfulness of the Emperor reflecting on the Empire and the need for him to have a nice Divine sponsorship: "So long as you and your heirs wear the Amulet of Kings, than shall this Dragonfire burn -an eternal flame- as a symbol to all men and gods of our faithfulness... But should these Dragonfires fail, and should no heir of our joined blood wear the Amulet of Kings, then shall the Empire descend into darkness...." - Trials of St. Alessia.

I'm under the impression that if you pledge your soul to any entity, it's not yours to take for a walk anymore. Though yes, you can use any of those claims (Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild) to enter the Hall of Valor temporarily. If you could choose to simply disregard any oath to the Daedra, Kodlak wouldn't need aid. Being Harbinger and a nice Nord all around wasn't enough to free him from Hircine's domain. You had to cure him of Hircine's gift, so he could enter Sovngarde as his final resting place. Also, the gate keeper, Tsun, doesn't say the Dragonborn is allowed in for being servant of Sithis/Daedra, merely that he won't hinder the quest to slay Alduin: "You trespass here, shadow-walker. Shor does not know you. Perhaps before the end you will earn the right to pass this way. Welcome I do not offer, but your errand I will not hinder, if my wrath you can withstand." "Do not mistake the night-shrouded thief's stealthily-taken spoils, stolen and unearned, for a warrior's plunder, won in honorable battle. Your doom already binds you to your dark mistress, but your errand I will not hinder, if my wrath you can withstand." So to me it sounds like once you pledge your soul, it's not yours anymore and Sovngarde is beyond reach upon your death. My thief is a Breton, and I think Sovngarde is not just for Nords but for anyone of Nord faith, but that's beside the point - the issue is that following through with the Thieves Guild questline, he is bound to Nocturnal for eternity. "Your doom already binds you to your dark mistress"

I don't fast travel and have the same problem - mainly because I only take quests that suit my current character. Main quest, Dragonborn, Companions, Mages Guild College of Winterhold (without taking the title of Archmage), a bit of the Civil War, bunch of those bounty and random quests like the Redguard woman and the Aetherium Forge - and I'm barely over lvl 35. And it's the highest level I've ever reached in Skyrim. My poor second-most-played is 25 or so. I'm not sure you can roleplay and reach lvl 80++. Unless you're willing to go hitting stuff randomly and doing mechanical chores ad infinitum. :/

So you mean that watching over Nocturnal's sanctuary is not a full-time job nor forever? Because exchanging a few decades of life in good fortune for an eternity of checking in with a Daedra isn't much of a fair exchange. :/

I won't be TES VI so soon, unfortunately. I'm quite alright with Fallout 4 - I love the series. Hopefully it will be something that offers more freedom like New Vegas did, in terms of player character. I never liked the "pre-story" forced upon the player on Fallout 3, even though several elements of FO3 are superior to FONV. New Vegas is just so decadent and hopeless and bright, can't help liking it more. So... Fallout is a beloved series and FO4 a welcomed game. Now let's hope their announcement won't be about some other lesser series. Regardless, anything they announce now will take years. So I'm looking forward to Dragon Age III actually.

No, i don't agree. What's the point adding the Thalmor story if it ain't gonna be finished. Skyrim deserved a real ending with multiple twists & turns but Bugthesda just ditched it like it was yesterday's trash. Skyrim is not over it was canceled. & FYI in TES VI there's gonna be different storyline. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Disagreed (out of hope, though). We never kept hanging on lore like with Skyrim in previous TES games. Everything that was significant was resolved by the end - the Nerevarine finishes off the Tribunal and the threat of Dagoth Ur, the Hero of Kvatch stops the Oblivion invasion. In Skyrim the only thing that got resolved was the Alduin prophecy. The Civil War has no definite resolution (because it cannot be both, it must be resolved in such a way that both endings are addressed/rendered invalid), everything stands still midair about the Dominion. I don't require another DLC - I want at least a single official blog post saying "the Dominion invades shortly afterwards and enslaves Skyrim" or "a new Emperor manages to get on Ulfric's good side and Skyrim remains sovereign but allied to the Empire" or anything that solves the Civil War without ignoring the choices of players that picked one side or the other. And yes, I've been ranting nonstop about it. Bear with me. Otherwise, Skyrim was a great game. If the OP was so annoyed by it, perhaps TES is simply not the kind of game he enjoys - which is perfectly fine. I only enjoy a very limited number of games too - couldn't care less about any other. As far as the TES series goes, Skyrim was true to it - thought it was indeed lacking in dialogue and writing in general. Regardless, TES was never THAT brilliant in that regard, even in Morrowind which is our best example still. I have nothing against the levelling system. The combat can get a bit boring but alas - the openness of the world and the sheer beauty of it, coupled with the nice lore and universe, makes up for any technical woes in my book. @hubsabubs: Perhaps you'd enjoy the Witcher series. The atmosphere offers much more immersion, in my opinion, but of course it lacks the freedom. You're right about the world-building taking precedence over all the rest - the developers repeatedly remarked that the main character of Skyrim is Skyrim - the province. The look and feel of it. I too wish there were more details like those you mentioned - but given the size of the world versus how small the developer team actually is, I can see why they sacrificed a lot of things. That said, since they put so much effort into making the land and such, it's strange that they won't be releasing more DLCs to build up on this "firm foundation" they built. Modders with probably address some of the immersion things, though, in a smaller scale.

I never played the Thieves Guild questline to the end. :ermm: Unfortunately, I was too dumb to resist kitten-like curiosity and read a bit too much and spoiled myself. Now I can't come up with a character that would be OK with selling his soul for eternity for some Daedric Prince. That said, I wouldn't hurt Brynjolf (whose name's spelling I must always google) because for once there's some different voice acting, and a great one at that. The fact that he comes to any character is quite ridiculous, though. My Dragonborn was completely "wtf dude, I never stole a single thing in my righteous life - erm... on purpose". Dishonored has a fantastic setting, I loved it. The setting. Not the game itself. The powers are extremely cool - so cool that after a long play session, I returned to Skyrim and kept stupidly trying to use that Blink ability without realizing I had changed games already. The Outsider looks awesome with his Bosmer eyes and monotone voice. The place itself too, which reminds me of a rundown and cursed version of Hamburg. But the story is weak as weak goes, I couldn't care less about Corvo and his woes, there's no emotional involvement. I do hope that they release another game set in the same universe, but with more free roaming, TES-style. I'll be playing Skyrim for a while longer until I'm done with bullshitte writing about the characters I created there, and then probably go back to Fallout New Vegas to drown my sorrows about the lack of a lore conclusion to the Civil War. And then join the line for Fallout 4. Totally out of topic, but I needed to procrastinate somewhere. These lab reports are getting on my nerves. :psyduck: