Very Brief Description: Completely alters the story quest of Skyrim to become something interesting, cool, and less infuriatingly dull. Reason: Skyrim's story quest is awful. The civil war has no weight, nor do the dragons returning. Picking a side in the war doesn't make any sense from a story standpoint. Fighting Alduin is easy and exceptionally underwhelming. At no point did it feel like anything that was going on was of any importance. Less Brief Description: I want a mod that replaces the story quest of Skyrim to essentially become the following. Dragons: Alduin is back and very much a threat to the world. It is no longer just a theory that he wants to destroy the world. Furthermore, reaching him is nearly impossible, as he is guarded by an army of dragons who block any passage to Sovngarde. If you plan to kill him and save the planet, then you'll need a lot of help. The Empire: Until the current Era, the position of Emperor has been held by a Dragonborn and has been defended by the loyal Blades. The remaining blades desire to both stop Alduin and position the Dragonborn as the Emperor of Tamriel. Build up alies with the different holds, wrestle for the throne of High King, uncover and expose the true nature of the Aldmeri Dominion, overthrow the fake emperor, and finally take your place as Emperor. Thalmor seek to assist the Dragons and can be found doing so, resurrecting dragons from burial mounds or waking the powerful dragon priests. As Emperor, amass a force to help you reach Alduin. With an army of your own to hold back the dragons, you are finally able to work your way to Alduin and end him. The Aftermath: With the current threat to the world gone, you receive word from all across Tamriel that other provinces welcome you as their Emperor and wish to join the fight against the Aldmeri Dominion. Continue exploring and secure Skyrim. You may be Emperor, but your abilities in battle are still needed outside the walls of Solitude. More Detailed Description (Still Vague, as it would need to be more fleshed out): - After Alduin returns and after you are revealed as Dragonborn, the remaining Blades seek you out and inform you of their goal: Defeat Alduin and place a Dragonborn on the throne. - Eventually discover information about Alduins goal and where to find him. Learn you have no chance as you are now. - Meet with Tulius or someone and explain that you should be Emperor. Be rejected. You need more support before you can hope to dethrone an Emperor. - Set sights on position of High King. Explain your situation to Elisif. Come to the agreement that if you can get Ulfric to agree and stop fighting, the Jarls will convene and perhaps elect you. - Ulfric refuses to stop fighting. You learn more about the ban of Talos worship and the war between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion. - Promise to reinstate Talos worship. - Approach Tulius about the subject. He informs you he cannot jeopardize the peace between the Empire and the Dominion. - Discover the true nature of the Dominion (or at least the extremist leaders of the Dominion) and reveal this information to Tulius. Simultaneously reveal the corrupt/puppet nature of the current Emperor. - He promises support on the condition that you successfully end the civil war, become High King, AND gain the support of all holds. - Help defend the holds and towns from increasingly dangerous Dragon attacks. More dragons are showing up. (Due to assistance from Thalmor). Gain support from the Jarls. - Ulfric agrees to cease fighting long enough to meet about anointing High King. - At the meeting, Ulfric wants to be High King. The civil war was merely his ticket to the throne. Challenge him to combat and slay him. Be elected High King. - Confront the current Emperor and and the Thalmor stationed in/around Solitude. Drive them out of the hold with the assistance of the Blades and Tulius' forces. Word is sent out across the Empire that the war with the Aldmeri continues, but with a Dragonborn on the throne. - While driving out more enemy forces, it is revealed the spike in dragon activity is due to Thalmor assisting Alduin's dragons. (If the player encounters a dragon priest or and a dragon burial mound at any point, they will find Thalmor assisting the resurrections/awakenings) - With the situation becoming worse, you are running out of time. Assemble an army and march on Skuldafn**. As you progress through the area, many fights between soldiers and dragons can be seen. Deal with the dragon priest and enter Sovngarde. - Defeat Alduin. (Hopefully the boss fight will be less dull. Maybe fight him in stages, where he periodically flies up and summons two or more lesser dragons to fight you. I dunno.) - Return (maybe Alduin gives a special soul that powers a one use shout that the player must use to scare off all dragons at Skuldafn, ending the large scale battle) - (Perhaps player can choose where to set up their capital, at least until they can move safely into Cyrodil. Choices being move into Solitude, or move into Windhelm. Either option opens possibility to restore Windhelm, and capital can be switched for a large fee) - After receiving notices of support from other provinces and armies around Tamriel, the player can continue adventuring, clearing out remaining enemies and protecting Skyrim. After all, the Dragonborn can't help much from behind a desk. So that's my idea. I don't think any additional assets would be required other than voice acted dialogue. After seeing something like Enderal, I think this would be significantly easier in comparison. Please let me know what you think! I have no experience modding and no clue what would be involved in getting a project like this started, so hopefully someone reading this will be inspired to make it or something similar. **Skyrim claims Skuldafn is only accessible via flight. However, a workforce must have been able to go to and from the site to construct it. I think Paarthurnax should tell the player about this secret passage and inform them it would be useful for moving a small army through. However, it was sealed, and (for some reason I haven't come up with) Paarth won't open it for you. You have to capture the other dragon (that you capture in Dragonsreach) and it will break the seal/illusion/etc that blocks the passage. I think the dragon capture should occur around when the player becomes High King/Emperor, as then Whiterun would be willing to take that risk.
