LE Realistic Choices

[Taejang007]

Skyrim has an immense amount of freedom to go where you want to go. But many choices are limited. I'd love to see a mod (or a series of mods) that addresses this. Below are some issues I believe could be improved.

 

1) Allow the player to expose Sybille Stentor as a vampire, removing her from her position and teaching her arrogant self a lesson. The other mage in Solitude, Melaran, would have course take her place (as he does by default). Currently players can simply kill her, but cannot expose her, even if the player is a Dawnguard member.

 

2) Expose Anuriel as an agent of Maven Black-Briar. This also exposes Maven herself, who should then be imprisoned. Because of her immense support in the town, this could lead to a civil war between the guards. A cool idea would be to bring in Imperial or Stormcloak soldiers to restore order and take control, making this an alternative to the existing main questline. In the end, there could be options for Laila Law-Giver retaining the Jarl-ship, or it passing to another- perhaps Mjoll the Lioness, who would undoubtedly take an active role in any Riften civil war. This would be a complicated mod, but you can see the possibilities would be awesome. Mixed into this would have course be options for removing the Thieves guild, but there is a mod in progress to do that already. Because this would change the dialog for the main quest line (namely who is named Jarl after the peace conference or during the questlines of the respective sides), it may involve changing some voiced dialog to silent dialog, but that wouldn't be too horrible for the benefits. (There is a mod that does some of this, but it seems development has stopped and the mod isn't complete.)

 

3) Expose the Silver-Bloods and purge the corrupt guards. This too would change the main questline, and who can become Jarl, but would be immensely satisfying for almost any type of player- good guys want the city purged, bad guys want revenge. Jarl Igmund could be left in-place or removed for his role in the Foresworn massacres when Ulfric took the city years previously. Or Igmund could be killed by a vengeful Silver-Blood supporter, or even by the player (up to the mod designer). If the player hasn't gone to the mines yet (it would be best for the quest to let the player avoid this outcome with more aplomb than the stock game allows), then the Foresworn king could be hunted down and the mines themselves purged as well. Again, because of support for the Silver-Bloods, there could be an open guard rebellion, forcing Igmund into exile (or killing him), and allowing the player to bring in the Empire or Stormcloaks to restore order and take control.

 

4) Slap Jarl Balgruuf's children. Or scold them. Or scare them. Or get Balgruuf to do something. ANYTHING to get them to stop disrespecting the Dragonborn. Its just so annoying that after saving their town from a dragon, you have to put up with the spoiled brats in silence.

 

5) Ancano isn't exactly sneaky about his 'clandestine' activities and hidden purpose in being at the College. The player should have the option to interrogate him, kill him, kick him out, or do something to him earlier on in the quest. The mages don't like him and have no reason to allow his presence; why they do so is beyond me. This could lead to a showdown between Ancano and the Archmage, leading to the Archmage's death, thus preserving the timeline. This must be a cutscene to prevent the player from intervening. Ancano could then rush (or teleport) into the Magnus room and seal the entrance, requiring the player to fulfill the rest of the quests without any stupid, "Why couldn't I stop the bugger when he was obviously up to something?" thoughts.

 

6) Option to attack Ondolemar without the guards interfering. This can happen if the player has killed enough Justicars previously, and the guards don't interfere, but the guards will interfere if the player attacks him directly (despite Markarth's history of Talos worship and animosity towards the Empire). An easy way to do this would be giving Ondolemar a dialog option similar to wandering Justicars, where the Justicar attacks after the player refuses to agree with the Thalmor view of Talos. It may not allow a direct attack, but does allow any player to, in a sense, initiate the attack, and all that dialog is voiced and in place already.

 

Some of these would take some serious effort to do, and some wouldn't be so bad. I'm willing to help alpha-test these if someone is willing to put in the design work.

Edited October 29, 2012 by MXan