Advice for new Character Strategy

[Toft]

Normally i play a compliant goody-two-shoes (with Dark Brotherhood blind-spot). You know, Truth, Justice, Tamrielic way.

 

This time i decided to play a character with an unconventional back-story:

 

Young High Elf (ok 100yo+), novice Thalmor. sent by Thalmor High Command to go deep undercover to further what i am told are the "real" aims of the Thalmor in trying to destabilise Skyrim, soften up any or all sides to further the rule-the-world goals of the Glorious Centauri Aldmeri Republic &c. I am dumped in a cart with a load of plebs (and Ulfric) sent for execution (im sure you know the story*). (And i have been given verbal permission that if necessary, killing Elenwen/slaughtering other Thalmor is OK if absolutely necessary)

 

* And im sure you willl have noticed that this makes the Thalmor complicit in Alduin's attack (and gives them a reason for scheduling the executions for Helgen rather than Cyrodiil) ... Knowing about it beforan? Plotting with Him to do it? Who can say.

 

So far so good. Then i hit a snag: what the <bleep> do i do, and how the bleedin' 'ell do i do it? (And, come to that, what are the "real" aims of the Thalmor - but that is far too big a topic, so don't bother, just what *I* have been told)

 

The first bits are fairly cookie-cutter. Become Dragonborn, grow up and become powerful, assassinate (non-essential) people (undetectably) along the way. Stick spanners in the works of Nords and the Empire getting along. Do i go to Windhelm first, or Solitude? How about the Forsworn? The Afflicted? Nord Bigots? Daedra? The Guilds?

 

Then: Play both sides against the middle? Promise to give the Jagged crown to one side, then give it to the other? Adjudicate unfairly in the Civil War debate? Convince Miraak to work for the Thalmor?

 

---

 

Simon

[chanchan05]

I suggest get Live Another Life mod, and just forget the Dragonborn bit and start somewhere else. Like a new arrival via ship at Solitude as an undercover Elf agent.

[Toft]

Thanks @ChanChan05

 

BTDTGTTS. I abandoned that idea (I used the "Thalmor Embassy" start) after getting killed/far too side-tracked before getting anywhere near Helgen (You get Killed Very Easily at Dead Mans Respite, not to mention Wolfskull Cave with Added Potema). That's what made me come up with the "Double Agent in the Cart" scenario. Starting in the Embassy, carting to Whiterun (can't get in without paying) and seeing the aftermath at Helgen doesnt solve my problem, really.

 

What i was after rather more was

a) including all the nice DragonBorn Shouty stuff (i'm unsure whether your advice included dispensing with being DB at all...)

b) how to go about things in the mid- and long-term - both at Solitude and Windhelm and all the adjudication of the Civil War Parley stuff - also shoe-horning a recalcitrant plot into something it was never designed to cater for :-}