Dragon Riders of Skyrim - An Eragon/Inheritance Based Mod

[92abcdefgh]

On the contrary, I think their demands of you to kill Parthunaxx are meant to appear exactly as ridiculous and pompous as they are. They refuse to continue serving you unless you alienate a faction that has proven far more useful then them, and until you do, you're met with only angry silence. If you actually decide to throw your lot in with the dragons (that's the way they'll see it) Delphine at least will probably decide you need to die. From talking to both of them, it does seem that Esbern is more reasonable than Delphine, but they would not be unreasonable in believing that you plan to use dragons to conquer the world (they might even be right, depending on how the story goes).

 

Look, these people hate dragons. They really, really, really hate dragons. They want to kill Parthunaxx over a ten-thousand year old grievance that has no personal effect on them, they clearly consider this more important than serving you, and they even admit that they don't care if the old drake is genuinely repentant or not. Bringing the blades around could be an interesting plot element, but even if they do not become hostile, they're probably not going to want to work with dragons.

 

Either way, are we really going to let the last two Blades spend their final years in a crumbling fortress, desperately telling themselves they're still important while the next Tamrielic Emperor (you) reclaims his birthright? No! Let them go out in a blaze of glory if nothing else!

[Draco856]

They were created for a reason, they still have a role, and they will be needed if for nothing else then as lorekeepers. The secrets to forging Akaviri weapons and armor are likely hidden within the lore of the Blades, and that will come in handy when it comes time to fight any opposing factions. As I said, Bethesda really dropped the ball on this, so as modders it's up to us to fix it in a way that pleases all. So, we have a few paths set before us:

 

1. Kill the Blades off and let them go with honor, though the Thalmor were largely successful in killing off the Blades, they were never able to eradicate them, the same will be said for us, we will never be able to destroy them all as their roots go past Tamriel, and into Akavir.

 

2. Simply leave them be, to live or die by their own choices

 

3. Change their way of thinking, change their mission of extermination of all dragons which made sense in the past when the Dragons were tyrants and ruled with an iron fist, less sense now that there is a Dovahkiin that is capable of wiping them out. We change their ways, get them to see the wisdom in an alliance with the Dragons and the Greybeards.

 

 

I still think Paarthurnax has to go, but not for their reasons, which is crimes committed under Alduins rule, but for the lack of help he could have given in these thousands of years since Alduins first defeat. For all the Greybeards that he has been teaching, he has not once sent them down the mountain to help in the critical wars. He could have sent Greybeards down to help in the Oblivion Crisis, but he didn't, his way is a way of doing nothing, and that was a fate he would have forced on the other dragons, and I wasn't going to stand for it, so he died, besides the fact that I think his only reasons for helping us in the first place was because he feared Alduin's revenge for his first betrayal, which is why he sat on top of the mountain preaching this way of the voice so the mortal races wouldn't simply kill him, he's been up there out of fear. He lived next to the time-wound, just waiting for the day someone strong enough to kill Alduin came along, he tried to gain our trust, but it's always wise never to trust another Dovah, he said so himself. If we could have looked into his mind, seen his true self then maybe he might have lived, but he was too much of a threat to keep alive, he was Alduin's brother, second born of Akatosh, he would have just taken Alduins place in the end.

[SunGodRa]

I think at least a dragon fast travel system since there is already a take-off and landing animation of you on the dragon... Easy mod to make.

[Qustav]

Dragons are the fastest moving creatures out there. Considering that we'll be making it so that we can actually control a dragon, moving from point A to point B won't take much time - even if it's from riften to solitude. I'd say even disabling fast travel altogether might be a valid option with this mod.

 

As for Draco's thoughts on Paarthurnax having to go I personally disagree. Mainly because you are comparing ethics and priorities of a dragon to those of humans. Also as he said at one point, he had no idea of when Alduin would return; only where. As the last dragon out there his knowledge about Alduins defeath in the hands of the ancient nord heroes was essential for Dovahkiins victory. Had he or the greybeards gone out to the world it would have risked his excistance along with his knowledge. As such his choice was to wait at the throath of the world teaching the way of the voice.

Also you seem to relate to the voice as a weapon that needs to be used, whereas the greybeards use it for meditation very much the same way shaolin monks practised kung fu. Not to mention the voice is rather potent when used as a weapon, and to some extent taking those out to the battlefield could be compared to using nuclear weapons irl. The ethics of using such weapons I leave for you to consider.

Edited December 6, 2011 by Qustav

[Draco856]

That's the thing, the ancient nords actually had Voice users when they fought. The voice was used as a siege weapon, much like how one would use a catapult. And comparing it to nukes isn't really a good comparison, because the voice could only do so much, it can't create the devastation of a nuke, I compare it more to direct fire weapons, not explosives. Catapults, other medieval siege weapons are what I compare the voice to. And sending one or two Greybeards wouldn't have hurt, sending them all might have, because there are only 4 where there used to be enough for a small army. I wasn't making any comparisons between humans and dragons, Paarthurnax feared Alduin, he betrayed him to mortals and all they did was send him to another time instead of killing him, so he had no choice but to sit and wait for the return. He said it's wise not to trust another Dovah and I didn't trust him, I don't trust Odahviing either, but at least Odahviing has shown a willingness to follow, where as Paarthurnax wants to rule, dissect his name and you'll see one of the reasons I don't trust him.

[billygoat654]

in case no one else mentioned it dragon controls can be based on the controls for horses like they were in an oblivion mod although dragons may need some changes done to them for that to work

[Yuurt]

Call out to any other dragonborn using a ritual sounds nice, but we can't have too many, one from each playable race and province, plus one from your own race. So that would be 12 Dragonborn in all? Maybe add some from non-playable races as well Anyone else think a Falmer Dragonborn would be cool?

 

Playable Races:

 

High Elf (Likely traitor)

Wood Elf (Also likely traitor)

Dunmer

Orsimer

Imperial

Breton

Redguard

Nord

Kajiit (sp)

Argonian

 

Non-Playable Races:

 

Falmer - Possible if we go that route

 

Cursed Ones:

 

Werewolf - Ones who can no longer transform between forms, think Sinding, would need to give them voices and dialogue, but it'd be a nice twist espeically if the PC is a Werewolf as well. Perhaps this one would only be possible if you are a Werewolf, you can call out to any who share the beastblood that might be Dragonborn. You would have to use your own beast form when testing them otherwise it might be a bit one-sided, in their favor.

 

Vampires - Could be replaced by any race, so we could have a Breton who is a Vampire and Dragonborn, etc. Just to give a bit more variety, must get along well with any Werewolves that might possibly be roaming around.

 

There are likely a few I've missed, Dremora and such can't be Dragonborn, because they belong to Oblivion, don't really know any other cool races that are all ready in the game.

 

I think there should not be another Dovahkiin of your race somewhere else in Tamriel (are we expanding this to all of Nirn?) as that just makes you an exception, which you are not. You are Dovahkiin, like many others have been, though you just happen to be more succesful (besides already knowing of your blessing/birth-right).

 

Other thoughts:

Also, a general thought about the Acts: I don't feel that this mod should envision a HUGE change or power-gain for your character as, yes you defeated Alduin and removed him from Svongaarde, but still, you are not the only Dragonborn in history. What makes your character the one who ends it all? I think that this mod should at least lightly set the stage for another conflict towards the end of it and should not involve wiping out the Thalmor, but rather defending Skyrim from their invasion. The defense in itself can be long and filled with town/region specific content, rather than just "Defend this fort" (add twists to each battle and different leaders/objectives to end each fight). For example the fight in Whiterun would be towards the middle of the Thalmor invasion and would involve you watching from the Throat of the World as the city was approached by an army. You would lead your men to attack the army and would have to wipe out giants and ultimately man the walls. In other locales like Solitude or Winterhold where the city is above the sea, the battle could be fought over sea and could be an aerial battle the whole time, and unlike Whiterun, you wouldn't deal with giants and instead would deal with archers from INSIDE and ON TOP of the city walls in Solitude and Thalmor mages in Winterhold.

[Draco856]

Well, then there will have to be some way of identifying which race you play as, and should you be playing as a modded race, there would be no real way of knowning I think. And I think we should limit this to Tamriel, including races we have yet to see might be a bit of a problem from a design standpoint, as we only have text descriptions of the races of Akavir, though I'm sure we could do something them, just not right now.

[Yuurt]

True, maybe Paarthunax could ask where you hail from, forcing you to identify yourself as one of the in-game playable races.

On another note, I don't think all of the dragonborn have to be mages, as that would clearly show some bias on Akatosh' part. It's not like you will be able to fight on the back of your dragon other than just shouting through him or her. Anyway, none of the magic spells have big enough ranges.

[Draco856]

Well, I'm sure we could always make new spells to be used from dragon-back, but I agree, they can't all be mages. Redguards, Nords, and Orcs are more often then not Warriors, while Bretons, and High Elves are mostly Mages, Argonians, Kajiit's (sp), and Bosmer are mostly Thieves, Dunmer tend to be all three in my experience. and Imperials, well, they tend to be Warriors or Mages.

 

We could use bows from dragon-back, but aiming is going to be a problem, so maybe rudimentary magic, simple spells like fireball, ice spike, novice level spells for those who aren't mages, and the mages have the rest of the spectrum, novice to master.