So why did Alduin decide to attack Helgen?

[kradus]

Alduin actually deserves those clishes.

[Brandy1123]

Dragons are timeless. 5 minutes or 5000 years makes no difference when you are outside of time or "live" with no time constraints or limitations. Alduin, being the brilliant and most ancient of dragons, knows that a Dragonborn will come, as legend says and as been the case in the past. Big "P", at the rift, must be somehow protected from harm from Alduin or he would surely be gone after the first re-entry of Alduin. "P" has some skill and powers of his own. Listen when you talk to him. He gives you a lot of information about what happened and what could happen.

 

I think Alduin knows the lust for power that mankind (all races included) has. He knows that eventually a Dragonborn will challenge big "P" at the rift and defeat him. This will destroy any future training of any Dragonborn after the Greybeards pass on. There will be no one to teach any shouts or the Way of the Voice. Alduin , the World Eater, will win at some point "in time" and the legend of the end will come to pass.

 

At least, thats my take on the whole matter.

 

 

As for attacking Helgen, I can only guess like the rest of the gamers out there who care to follow the story. Maybe Alduin in his wisdom knows this particular Dragon born poses a great chance to challenege "P" and start the ball rolling. Or, maybe the reappearance of Aldiun is soley besed on the fact that a DragonBorn is present. Without the Dragonborns soul being devoured by Alduin, he may be cast back into a timeless state and sucked from the world. Since a Dragonborn of Dragon blood eats or absorbs the sould of dragons and gets more powerful, It might be the same for any and all creatures of dragon blood, including Alduin.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Brandy_123

[kradus]

Why wouldn't Alduin simply kill big "P" himself if that's his plan? Edited March 16, 2012 by kradus

[Brandy1123]

Why wouldn't Alduin simply kill big "P" himself if that's his plan?

 

 

I think if he gts too close to the rift, even in its present state, He'll get sucked into it, or at least questions that fact. I also think thats why big "P" parked his hiney there. He gives me a cowardly vibe. So, why not hide out at the one place in the realm he might be safe.

[kradus]

But nothing happens to Alduin near the time wound. There doesn't seem to be any reason for Alduin not to kill "P", exept that he has better things to do than chase him around. Edited March 16, 2012 by kradus

[Vorsar]

Maybe I'm mistaken, it has been a while since I had the conversation with Paarthurnax. But didn't he state he was waiting for the return of Alduin on top of the mountain? That he was there because of that? If Alduin did reappear at the time wound, wouldn't he have some kind of interaction with Paarthurnax almost immediately? I dont remember Paarthurnax mentioning a battle with him, other than the one which took place while I was there. This would put down the stories of him attacking Helgan because of it's proximity to the time wound.

[Cipherthe3vil]

Correct answer:

 

Dues Ex Machina

 

 

I never see any reason to why Alduin would attack Helgen. There's no burial ground nearby, and he doesn't attack any other city.

[kradus]

Read the previous posts. Dragons can sence each other, kind of like the greybeards can sence words of power.

[VanguardVis]

To determine Alduin's intent on destroying Hlegen we need to look at what happened overall leading to the event.

First, we all know the prophecy that tells of Alduin's fate. "When the sons of Skyrim spill their own blood." We know Ulfric Stormcloak is captured by the Imperials and is about to be executed before General Tullius. The prophecy would seem to imply all Nord are at eahc others throats but simple feuds between Nords would have occured before. The 'sons' mentioned may be the ones looking towards what is best for Skyrim. That would mean that as Tullius has captured Ulfric and is about to be executed the blood of another son would be spilled. This could be what fulfills this line of the prophecy.

 

Next, we know Alduin was hurled into the timestream but we don't know how he emerged. Was it an instant event and he had no idea time had passed at all until later, or had he been watching the world the entire time and waiting for the time to strike? I focus more on the instant emergence which does aid in explanation. After being weakened by the mortal heroes and sent thorugh the stream, Alduin would emrege weaker, which is stated by Paarthunax even after Alduin would have had time to recover. A weakened Alduin would seek a place to recover and would flee from Paarthunax if he emerged and found himself confronting the old dragon. Fleeing Alduin would have flown down the mountain to gain speed and instead of flying around Paarthunax he would more likely have flown south towards Helgen. Considering the humans and dragons were at war at the time Alduin may attempt to devestate Helgen as to create a diversion for the mortal forces and he could easily flee while the mortals attempted to help the victims. It's plausible that as he lands in Helgen he feels the soul of another dragon and without him seeing another dragon, believes the Dovahkiin is somewhere in the town but has no idea as to where because the dovahkiin's 'soul strength' (if you will) is so weak without any training. This is why he rampages in the hope to kill one of the mortals, one he can't identify as the dovahkiin. He probably loses the sense of the 'kiin's' soul and flies off believing he has been triumphant. From there he would try to find aid from his brethren.

 

This would lead into the 'world-eater' part. After learning what has happened by raising the dragon near Whiterun Alduin plans to wage the war once again. So, to wage a war, you need an army. Alduin would raise the most powerful first to ensure everything will continue with his plans for world conquest, or rather enslavement of the mortals. His plans were to enslave the world just as he had before being sent into the stream which would greatly change the world. This change could be referened as 'the world being eaten' to fulfill that section of the prophecy. As Alduin began to raise his generals he would come across 'kiin' and Delphine near Kynesgrove. Granted 'kiin' would be stronger Alduin would still need to have somebody guard the Songarde entrance where he would go to fully recover and instead would create distractions to divert the dragonborn. Alduin would also feel relatively safe as the only way he could be threatned was by Dragonrend and explains why he would intervene at the Thorat of the World in order to try and kill the kiin. Unable to Alduin has to flee to Sovngarde and we know the rest.

 

The best explanation we can get of why Helgen was destroyed would only really be filled by Bethesda when they release official reasons for it, but until then we're left to wonder and make informed guesses at the reasons.

[BrettM]

Maybe I'm mistaken, it has been a while since I had the conversation with Paarthurnax. But didn't he state he was waiting for the return of Alduin on top of the mountain? That he was there because of that? If Alduin did reappear at the time wound, wouldn't he have some kind of interaction with Paarthurnax almost immediately? I dont remember Paarthurnax mentioning a battle with him, other than the one which took place while I was there. This would put down the stories of him attacking Helgan because of it's proximity to the time wound.

You remember correctly. Paarth said that he knew where Alduin would reappear, but not when, which is why he camped out near the time wound.

 

I seriously doubt whether Alduin emerged in any shape, though, to either attack Paarth or head immediately to Helgen. From Alduin's point of view, he had just been dragonrended by three powerful Tongues who then proceeded to beat on him with swords and magic. When WE did that to him, he had to flee to Sovngarde to regain strength. He must have emerged dazed, confused, and weakened rather than in fighting condition. Furthermore, I expect he would be unaware of everything that had happened during the thousands of years that he was gone.

 

My guess is that Alduin popped out of the time wound days (at least) before Helgen and headed directly to Skuldafn to recharge. On returning from Sovngarde, he would still need time to gather information and make plans before taking any action. How else would he know what kind of opposition the modern world might offer him, or how many of his kind still survived or might be resurrected?

 

Unfortunately, this still doesn't explain why he attacked Helgen.

 

It also opens up the question of why we didn't find out that Alduin had returned until the Blades told us. Paarthurnax must have known, but we didn't get to meet him until after we knew about Alduin. So, either Paarth never told the Graybeards (and they never sensed anything strange going on up above) or the Graybeards were deliberately withholding the information for some reason.