YX33A

Counter points to your counter points: You are completely correct; it's not Ulfiric's Fault you were sent to the chopping block, it's the dragonborn's fault for crossing the border illegally and the fault of a Imperial Officer with a chip on her shoulder. You mean everyone treats Nords like this, right? It's the stereotype and nothing unique. Orcs weren't even considered sentient beings until the Daggerfall, they were assumed to be an offshoot of Goblins(roughly). Spoken like a True Blade, friend. While it's true that the Thalmor are the true enemy in Skyrim, even General Tullius wants to give them the Karmic Death they have earned, and after you complete the War questline you get more proof of this; for the Empire he has his sights set on them now, for the Stormcloaks he admits if they hadn't been involved this could have ended peacefully. Hardly fair to speak ill of the empire for fulfilling their end of a bargain made to end a war. They Thalmor get to do that EVERYWHERE, and they do that to more then just Talos worshipers. Basically if you speak ill of them, you may just vanish. Malborn's Family vanished as well, Bosmer, and if the Thalmor are truly starting up the Aldmeri Dominion again, then why are they killing their allies in secret? Everyone has said the same bloody thing as you here, even in support of the Empire. Point five on the list wasn't fair and the OP admits it. By your logic then no Nord's born in Skyrim would have any reason to support Ulfric. And the Empire hates the Thalmor as well. Hell, it wasn't until the Stormcloaks had their "fun" that Skyrim had a strong Imperial presence, and not until then that the crackdown on Talos hit Skyrim. If Ulfric had never dueled the high king, and killed him, all those "True Sons of Skyrim" would be free to worship Talos still in peace. You know something we don't? Seeing as these games are part of a Living world, we have no way of knowing who wins this war, what the results of it are beyond Skyrim, and how long it takes for the Dragon's to be beaten again, if ever. And don't kid yourself, Dragons have been a part of games before this; Daggerfall has one as an aide to a member of a Royal Family, though he is out of the way and mentioned only once or twice. In Redguard you have to kill one to progress to the final boss. But you're right. we have no way of knowing if the Empire will still exist by TES7. But trust me, it takes an army of equal strength to grind a war to a standstill, and it takes more to win one. And the Great War never truly ended, my friend, and when it starts again, will the Stormcloaks be there to stop it? Or will they be crushed like ants against a flood of Bosmer, Thalmor, Khajiit, and god knows who else? Here's a hint: That's at least three times the amount of troops the Stormcloaks will have, and if the Empire is gone, then they own that as well, so that's 4 times, if the Dunmer join up, 5 times, Bretons, 6, Orsimer, 7, Argonians, 8... You see the problem?In closing, the Empire may not be faultless, but they want what's best for Tamriel, not just themselves. The Thalmor want what's best for them, and the Stormcloaks want what's best for them. Everyone wants what's best for them, but the Empire still has to look at the big picture, seeing as the Empire is called this since it(used to, anyway) rule all of Tamriel with a fair but tempered hand. Is it doing this now? No, because they lost enough support from the other parts of the Empire. They lost MOST of the empire to the Thalmor.

In theory a female dragonborn could be a daughter of coldharbour, assuming the ritual was added into the game. But that would break so much of the Dawnguard questline in my head that my mind would be spinning.

OK, that's pretty sweet, honestly. My only super proud moment was when I made clam chowder once. Totally pointless, but damn if it didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I haven't posted here in ages, but again, #5 on the list isn't super fair. Murder implies something much worse, killing someone for (generally) petty reasons. If the duel was to the death, as I'd expect a duel for the right to Lead a Country to be, then it's hardly murder. If poison was involved, if the High King was at a disadvantage due to some sort of sabotage(like the duel in Morrowind where you fight a guy who doesn't speak (much) in Mournhold and get a pretty sweet sword if you win), if Ulfric had used some sort of Black Magic technique, etc etc, then yeah, maybe murder. But considering that anyone can learn to Shout if they study with the Greybeards, it's hardly fair to say that Ulfric had an unfair advantage. And besides, the high king wasn't doing much for Skyrim anyway. Talk to the Blacksmith in Solitude and he explains he was mostly "The Empire This, The Empire That" with his leadership. Ulfric would be a fine High King if he wasn't Racist IMO. He has at least part of the idea right; The Thalmor are evil. And that's the bottom line. As well put by LeddBate, the real threat in Skyrim is the dragons, but the threat outside of the player's grasp is the Thalmor. The great war showed their true colors. Not that anyone needed to see them themselves in Skyrim, anyway. I hate 'em for two reasons. One, they claimed they solved the Oblivion Crisis themselves, and oh boy does that piss me off. Two, they basically own the Khajiit now, having lied about solving the lack of the moons, and may well have caused them to vanish in the first place. There is also the fact that they claim Elves are the true "Master Race", but Malborn's family was purged, and from my research, the Dark Elves don't have any real ties to them other then Kinship. They aren't exactly welcoming of people who aren't HIGH Elves, and even so, they will treat their own kind like dirt if they don't believe their version of the Truth. Plus, y'know, Talos was most certainly a god. Two proofs of this: He shows up in Morrowind and asks you to throw a coin into the volcano(and the whole Imperial Cult will tell you that that stranger was Talos and that it's a ill omen), and two, the blood of a god is needed to open a portal to "Paradise" in Oblivion, and this was solved by finding a sample of Tiber Septim's blood. AKA the man who Became Talos. Not that I think anyone here wouldn't know this already, mind you. With the exception of my best friend, I don't think anyone who plays Skyrim isn't familiar with TES Lore.(he bought the game during it's last sale on steam, and it was his first real foray into TES)

I can only offer advice that would pertain to my playstyle, one of a mage. That being said, I can't play without Thunderchild now that I have it, as I feel that as Dragonborn one should be awesome with your Thu'um, and this mod make it awesome. I always suggest at least the Unofficial Patches. And always look for mods adding content that was remove from the game, such as Cutting Floor, as they are a great source of extra gameplay that fits seamlessly into the game, as the content WAS in the game. And while many people suggest "play for X amount of time before adding mods", where as X might be hours, days, or playthroughs, I say you should add mods when you feel that they are needed. If something strikes your fancy, get it. If something seems wrong, fix it. If it ain't dead, KILL IT. Deadly Dragons is something the game very well could need. But I say playing without a collection of spells that stand out, and are viable in the end, is unthinkable for a mage.

I did two of the tests before, and redid only one of them(because one of them is flawed at its core). I redid the RPG Personalilty Test and it's been so long that I actually forgot what my stock answers were to get Necromancer. I usually get Necromancer. I think I got Warlock once. http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/7.jpg I can't do the Color Test in good faith as I end up getting Red when I know that I am Red/Blue. And for the DnD character test(Which seems to be for core 3.5ed) I got my staple character. A Neutral Good Human Sorcerer. Stats are wonky, though. My dump stat seems to be Cha which makes zero sense for a sorcerer. You always make your primary stat your core stat if you only have one stat. Stats stand at: STR 13 DEX 17 CON 15 INT 15 WIS 16 CHA 11 Ideal would be: STR 11 DEX 15 CON 16 INT 13 WIS 15 CHA 17 At least in my books. Not that I often use the 45-pointbuy option much, just that I know that one aims to have your primary stat at 17 with a racial bonus to lined up to make it 19. But as I know more about 3.5 ed DnD then most DMs in my home town, I make Min Max characters without screwing up my stats. So a "endgame" character by me has Min only on things that really don't matter to me, and Max on things that make my character able to kill Pun Pun. Or whatever elder evil we are up against. Did a post preview: Huh, guess some things never change. I almost always get Necromancer. I don't even pick the slow painful magic bit because it's slow and painful, I pick it because it's still hostile, but is more creative then throwing more mana/spells at your foe to beat them. That, and Necromancy typically included Curses, which make my other spells more likely to kill you, for example. I'll do it one more time before finishing this post and change that one answer to fireballs. Plus it's more fun to make it slow but not painful. Then they can still fight you and try to beat you, which would remove the effect, basically. http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/6.jpg Bah, change one answer and you go from super evil to super not-like-me. I was more happy with Necromancer.

I killed him(every playthrough so far anyway), for the exact same reason; that dagger is awesome. I mean, I'm already an assassin, anyway, but a dagger that can instantly kill someone is awesome. Plus it looks cool. The dagger I mean, not his death. His death was messy, not a good kill in the least, and I always manage to end up with a couple daedra hearts and phat stacks of weregild, but no human hearts. This time around, though, his death WILL look cool with the Heartbreaker mod, and I WILL get that human heart I needed. I think. He isn't a Mer, is he? Either way, that awesome heart I rip out of his chest is going straight into a squeezer and I'm bottling it up and saving that blood for later.

But that's the thing I don't have to ally myself with her to save the world. Killing her IS saving the world. Her blood and Elder Scroll are needed for the prophecy kill her secure the Elder Scroll you don't need her in fact you are taking a risk by allowing her to live a huge one by handing her over. On the subject of Morrowind's text based system. I'm very much with you. It's perhaps my favorite dialog system in gaming but I really don't see it being used in a AAA game any time soon. People are just too used to voice acting and a lot of people don't like to read especially in more action heavy games. However, I don't think I never had that disconnect when playing Morrowind because they weren't restrained by the cost of voice acting. I really think Morrowind was just a different game with a different focus made for players that do think outside the box and Skyrim for the most part isn't. I may be wrong but I feel like they just don't care enough with Skyrim to give options or at least rationale for why someone who isn't the stereotypical Nord hero warrior would play the game. They are so focused on catering to how their largest audience will most likely play. It's quite ironic when you listen to the making of and they say: "If we pose an interesting problem and then we let the player solve it in whatever he deems fit, that's gonna make the cool, interesting story." WTF happened? Kiling her doesn't save the world so long as Molag Bal exists(as stated in a different thread). It adds more work for Harkon, yes, delaying his plans, sure, but Molag Bal still exists, thus there are always going to be "Daughters of Coldharbor". Plus, all we know about the elder scroll on her back when we first meet her is that it's an elder scroll. No details beyond that. We know nothing about it's contents, or even that she IS a daughter of coldharbor. So much we don't know, yet killing her is your first response. You were on a Intel Gathering mission. Getting a Vampire to talk is great. It's jabbering on about stuff that is over your head, but says they will explain more when they trust you(and step one is taking them home)? You needed info. All you want is blood on your hands/claws. You aren't cut out for saving the world I'd say.(or rather your character) Kill first, ask questions never? That's a Bandit. A Hero thinks, has at best a plan(with a few plan B's, and maybe even a handfull of plan C's they forgot on purpose due to the risk of massive collateral damage), or at least thinks well on their feet. Again, even Isran seems to be okay with her in the end, and that guy is a true fanatic(unlike your character). In the end, though, if you were RPing someone who wasn't a fanatical murderer with the loose justification of "They're Vampires and must die", I'd say you might be a bit more accepting of how little control you have when you first meet her. Yeah, bugs me like hell that she can't be killed even after the DLC, but then again, she isn't forced to hang out with you after it either. Break the RP for the DLC and pick it up again when you've beaten it, and leave her back at the fort and never talk to her again.

Keep in mind that a "Daugter of Coldharbor" is just a pure-blooded vampire(IE one who was made directly from the Lord of Rape), obviously a woman in this case. Ever notice that Molag Bal isn't around to kill? Or that you plain old can't kill him? So long as Molag Bal exists, the ritual she went through could be done by anyone, anywhere. And Auriels Bow is an Artefact, which like seemingly all Artefacts in the Grey Maybe, tend to vanish and show up elsewhere when they feel like it. Doubly so if it's related to a God(such as the bow). One can't break an artefact made by a god for good(well, not usually. Going off of DnD Logic here, it is possible, they just are damn near impossible to break, usually requring a major quest line to remove from existence). I'd say my only real "Plot Hole" is actually more of a gripe; I don't want to join the Dawnguard in my next playthrough, but I DO want to have crossbows. ALL THE CROSSBOWS! I thought I saw a mod that allowed Vampire Lords siding with Harkon to still do the Ancient Technology quests, but I'm having no luck finding it now.

Long post spoiler'd. Tl; Dr, be flexible with your RP as you will ALWAYS face a dialog that doesn't fit your RP if you define it well enough, Serana is a vampire and Isran(who hates them more then anyone; just ask him!) cuts her a bit of slack after the questline, but before that, is not killing her only by your request(and is gonna kill you if she steps out of line), and Kingdoms of Almur: Reckoning deals with some of the issues one faces in the Elder Scrolls series better, and some worse. Oh, and even having dialog choices for how you treat her and the fact that she responds differently is awesome. Yes, it's a railroad as you HAVE to have her around, but every video game ends up being a railroad if it has a plot, as it starts somewhere and ends somewhere. The path might change a bit, as might your destination, but you always get railroaded in video games. Just is sometimes more jarring if you are used to having the ilusion of free will being there. Oh, and on that matter, Would You Kindly not quote this paragraph if you quote this post?

...Fine, I'll update my things. I HATE YOU BEES! Wait. I HATE YOU GOOGLE! Not really. But stop trying to protect me, I have AdBlock and NoScript running in a sort of Paranoia mode. EDIT: Great Googly Moogly! Thanks for the tip, HugePinball!

If Google were to vanish in a nuclear explosion, would anyone here miss it much? Just a harmless question.

That would help quite a bit, wouldn't it? *sigh* Google needs slapping again.

Anyone else kinda hate google for "protecting" people from stuff like this?

Yay, it's here! I've been waiting for this update, makes my life slightly easier. Though I've seen one or two mods get rated 10 unjustly in the past(by which I mean without a download, mostly on my own mods), I'm certain that that will be a thing of the past for more then one reason now. Now to go add thumbs up on mods I like, but didn't rate.