Truly playing skyrim as a pacifist?

[InDarkestNight]

To make a disturbing long story short, I just had something happen to me yesterday that's left me unable to play Skyrim due to the content it contains. This is rather annoying obviously, since I was working on a new playthrough over the past few days. Now, it makes me sick to my stomach the idea of actually playing the game, or even listening to half the music I do. I really need some way to relax though, so I'm trying to come up with a way to play Skyrim until I get over my trauma.

 

Anyway, an idea hit me; why not attempt a character who isn't actually a killer? Obviously, doing this would lock you out of most of the game's content. Yeah, you can use fury spells to make your way through most of the game, or rely on summons or followers. Obviously a trust pacifist would be someone who does absolutely nothing that would lead to the death of another living thing. Yeah, I guess killing automatons and undead doesn't count as killing 'living things', but honestly at this point I'd rather not engage in violence in any shape or form.

 

Back on topic, most quests would be impossible to complete. All the major questlines involve combat, and literally the only one that doesn't end in a boss fight is the dark brotherhood in a bit of irony. Not all is lost however. There are many side quests in the game you can complete without actually engaging in combat. These mostly consist of talking to people, or performing fetch quests that require you to either get a generic item you could in theory buy from a merchant or an item from an npc you can just talk to. In theory, you could also do fetch quests that actually require you to enter dungeons by just sneaking past everything. Funny enough, I've heard some players prefer this. If you're a stealth character, then why go through the trouble of combat when you can simply sneak past everything? Of course, doing this could be a bit dicey. Many quest items found in dungeons are actually in the inventories of monsters, meaning there is no way you can acquire the item without combat (the dragonstone of Bleakfalls Barrow comes to mind). Still, it would give you more to actually do, there's precious little of that if you're planning on avoiding violence in any shape or form.

I've actually heard of people in the past just playing the game as a merchant. They literally don't fight anything, they just spend the game crafting and/or talking to merchants. Many players supposedly enjoy that, though I've never seen someone actually demonstrate it on youtube. Still, it would be sorta interesting playing as an actual npc in the game, rather than a killer like you normally do.

 

Mods can potentially help with this. Economy mods like Trade and Barter come to mind, making it easier to play as a traveling trader. There's also Your Own Market Stall. I wonder though if anyone's ever made a quest mod that allows you to do something without resorting to violence? I don't really know of any. I kinda suspect Mirai may have such, but I've never played that mod so I know nothing about it. In that vain, does Inigo or Sofia require you to actually kill things? What about Auri or Lucien? I would suspect Lucien does, since he is openly looking for a bodyguard and he does come with a new dungeon. Thinking about, maybe you could pacifist Tools of Kagrenac as long you go the stealth approach. Never finished that though, and I've only done it once so I don't really know.

 

The primary skill for any merchant playthrough would obviously be speech. Crafting and stealth skills are also on the table. Crafting though on second thought could be a bit iffy, since virtually everything you can craft is technically a combat tool. Illusion could be argued for too assuming you only use calm spells (instead of using fury spells to make things fight for you, which many seem to see as pacifist for some strange reason), though I guess fear spells could also be done if you want a bit of a darker bend. Either way, if you're doing the stealth without killing thing, you would probably need invisibility anyway given how many dungeons have super narrow passages with no hiding spots guarded by an enemy.

 

Another issue is what the goal is. Obviously, it would be a bit dumb to just keep hording more and more gold. The only goal I can think of would be to buy all the houses and furnish them. Maybe you could start off as a begger and try to work your way to the top.

 

So could it be done? The biggest problem really is just finding stuff to do. Is there really anything you can do that isn't merchant-related? Honestly, it would be an interesting challenge in its own right.

[InDarkestNight]

I remembered the mod Blackthorn, which I've wanted to try for years. Guess that can give me a more interesting goal other than just buying all the houses. Guess that's something.