Did you kill Paarthurnax?

[CaptainRC]

Delphine, pretending to be an inn keeper hiding in fear of her life keeping a low profile. She was so loyal to her oath that she had completely abandoned the idea of supporting and protecting the Dragonborn in an end of the world situation. Really smooth. Remove Delphine from the picture and all you would remove from the plot is the dragonstone (which wasn't even vital). She trolls you by stealing the object from that dungeon before you can retrieve it merely to waste your time. After all this feat wasn't enough to convince her and she required you to kill a dragon in front of her. She is overall not very supportive nor helpful.

 

Esbern, was hiding deep in the ratway behind a well locked door probably fearing a Thalmor assassination more than anything. He leads you to the sky haven temple and points you towards Dragonrend. He actually does help as he utters the name of Odahviing for his capture though he is not the only source for this info. He is a scholar and not much of a fighter and has a supportive role. Esbern is annoying due to game design where he and quests relating to him are buggy.

 

Before my involvement neither had much of a future. They had more than abandoned their oaths and even hope. Without me they would not even have access to sky haven temple even if they were able to find it. Without me they would not even have recruits (why only three, really?). So when they arrogantly order me around, I am less than receptive.

 

This rises an interesting question though, how did the blades learn about Paarthurnax? According to Paarthurnax at least until 100 years ago he had visitors. Since blades fell from power ~30 years ago after the war, they had since the dragon war to learn about Paarthurnax ie thousands of years. I doubt one of the graybeards told them and I doubt they can climb the mountain.

 

After playing the main quest again, I found out one little tidbit of information that explains the Blades in a nutshell. Remember that book that Esbern puts down on Delphine's table after you reunite the two? After the meeting, I decided to do the one thing I hadn't considered doing before and picked it up and read it. It's called "Annals of the Dragonguard" and it completely backs up Arngeir's warning that the Blades only claim to serve the Dragonborn. To summarize, it's basically a record of the Dragonguard (the predecessors of the Blades) building Alduin's Wall and that while they had made an Oath of Allegience to the Emperor of the time, they were all too willing to ignore it when it suited their purposes. While we all already know that this has been Delphine's and Esbern's behavior throughout the game, it shows that the Blades throughout history have always put their agenda before their oaths. This, in my opinion, makes Delphine's argument about Paarthurnax's betrayal of Alduin making him "worse, not better" so hypocritical that I completely lose all respect for them. It also make me, once again, question the Blades' real motives during the Oblivion Crisis. However, we may find out in a future DLC.

 

As for how they found out about Paarthurnax, if you return to Sky Haven Temple after the Blades have fixed it up a bit, you'll see a desk next to Alduin's Wall with several books on it. One of them is the "Atlas of Dragons," which is the journal that Esbern mentions after you finish negotiating the peace treaty. Paarthurnax is listed in it.

Edited September 4, 2012 by CaptainRC

[BrettM]

Dragons cannot be really killed as after all Alduin was able to resurrect them.

Dragons killed by ordinary means can be resurrected by Alduin. However, if a dragon's soul has been absorbed by a dragonborn, I don't think even Alduin can resurrect it. That's why Delphine tells you that a dragonborn is the ultimate dragon slayer. Even if you could learn Alduin's resurrection shout, if you got close enough to the corpse to use it, you'd absorb the soul and prevent resurrection.

[Inquart]

The way I see it, it's the Blades that somehow need Dragonborn, not the other way around. Delphine's attitude towards Greybeards and Dragonborn was rather insolent and after Oblivion, it nearly hurts me to see how far the Blades have degraded since then. I think any remnants of that organisation should be completely disbanded and formed anew, not as a genocidal dragon hunters, but rather as a true Dragon Guard - an order keeping close eye on the dragons and propagating the idea of a peaceful coexistence of Man and Dov while swiftly hunting down those dragons wishing to continue Alduin's quest for dominance and destruction. With Dovahkiin as a leader of Man and Paarthurnax leading dragons, such peace would be more possible than ever, at least in my humble opinion.

 

As for killing him - of course I let him live, without any hesitation. If he is sincere in his atonement, the future and existence of both Man and Dov might be peaceful; if he is only deceiving us, plotting some day to once again undertake his older brother's fiery crusade against mankind, he will be quickly defeated and put down just as Alduin was. It's a bit risky, I know, but I for one am willing to trust the Old One, considering all facts. If he ever starts kicking, Dovahkiin surely will be there to judge him once and for all.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Inquart

[sinnerman69]

What would wrap up this whole Skyrim Series up in the end is a more choices and no forced decisions, let the player decide to approach the blades, thieves guild or stormcloak and imperial sneaked in journal entry's just because you passed by stormcloak and imperial escorted prisoners and no weird nakid courier stalker over whelming you with quests you may not wont to do, no roamers of Aventus Aretino wanting a Orphanage hag killed, heck let us force him back to the Orphanage if we can, let us wipe out more factions beside the dark brotherhood!.. Edited September 5, 2012 by sinnerman69

[daventry]

If i do kill Paarthurnax, why are the Greybeards Essential if they kick me out, since their Purpose in life has just ended, shouldend they be killed aswell.

[Cobwebmaster]

If i do kill Paarthurnax, why are the Greybeards Essential if they kick me out, since their Purpose in life has just ended, shouldend they be killed aswell.

 

Why kill the Greybeards? For the fun of it? They are followers of Jurgen Windcaller and practice the Way of the Voice. What threat are they to the Dragonborn or anyone for that matter communing with the sky up in their isolation? Paarthurnax is their leader. Killing him doesn't remove their purpose, just a big chunk of their knowledge and skill base. Between them they can still continue to practice and teach their philosophy. After all they may well have taught Ulfric and others. Falling foul of and ending the Blades is one thing. After all, there are only 2 remaining of a forgotten sect of warrior priests who failed at everything they were supposed to achieve. Even Tiber Septim and Raymond Cyrodiil didn't trust them completely as it was obvious that they had their own agenda and were trying to use the Dragonbornr. Killing the Greybeards however has immediate political consequences in Skyrim as they are generally revered by all Nords

[Cobwebmaster]

What would wrap up this whole Skyrim Series up in the end is a more choices and no forced decisions, let the player decide to approach the blades, thieves guild or stormcloak and imperial sneaked in journal entry's just because you passed by stormcloak and imperial escorted prisoners and no weird nakid courier stalker over whelming you with quests you may not wont to do, no roamers of Aventus Aretino wanting a Orphanage hag killed, heck let us force him back to the Orphanage if we can, let us wipe out more factions beside the dark brotherhood!..

 

 

Couldn't have put it better myself

[lquebecois]

i have done it. It can't be helped but i feeled sorry for him D:, but i've done it, i didn't talked to the greybeard after and now i'm rising my little blade army.

[lquebecois]

I killed him.

 

felt sadness and guilt and the greybeards no longer like me :-(

I saved just before killing him so I can do another run.

 

My reason was, that the game's main story did not continue with greybeards, all they do is provide shout location (it's useful yes)

On blade side I saw that I can maybe recruit and rebuild blades, have some fun :-)

 

although they allow you to recruit more blades, 3 isn't enough to rebuild the organization. I'm going to make a mod when creation kit is released and make the damn place a lot bigger better and fuller of blades to make the choice a bit more difficult.

 

you're kidding i hope???? it's just 3 member????

[Inquart]

The idea of rebuilding the Blades - perhaps as a new organization, combining something from both the old Akaviri Dragonguard and the Blades as they were in Oblivion - has some serious potential and I think Bethesda should have put more work into it than just letting us recruit three random people and that's it. Perhaps building an entire army around Dragonborn would be too much, but I'd like to see more side-quests involving the Blades, i. e. making some new contacts, recruiting spies, sympathizers and more Blades-to-be all around Skyrim, maybe also a blacksmith or an enchanter to work in Sky Haven Temple - you know, something we can to for the Dawnguard during "A New Order". Hunting dragons with the Blades (or any new dragon-wary organization they would be reformed into) might be intertwined with hunting down some Thalmor agents, raiding those old ruins filled with Draugr in search for Dragon Cult artifacts, something like that - something that would make the Blades more meaningful and a real alternative for siding with Paarth (right now it's more like "What, the Blades? What Blades? Hell yeah I'm taking Paarth's side!").