Standing Stones are just plain STUPID

[Glanzer]

I've never liked the idea of the Standing Stones:

 

• Anyone can touch them and suddenly gain magical powers. Yeah I know NPCs don't actually use them, but there's nothing preventing them from using them, at least lore wise. The fact that NPCs don't use them doesn't make sense.
• Since the stones give such increased power/abilities/benefits, why aren't soldiers guarding them? Why don't bandits camp around them and force people to pay for the privilege of using them? The whole economics of the stones is overlooked.
• I don't remember any backstory to these stones when playing through the game. But I didn't read all the books (yawn) or look through all the online wikis (DOUBLE YAWN) to see if there was.
• I've looked around for quest mods that disable all the stones until you've procured some ability or some rare artifact, or something that would "unlock" the stones for you, but didn't find anything. I think it would be best if the standing stones just outright KILLED you if you weren't worthy or hadn't achieved some quest objective.

So... the next best thing I've decided to do is use this mod and modify its changes to drastically reduce the effects: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4688

[anjenthedog]

Because they're not dragonborn and they don't work for them and they have no idea what they are or what they do in the first place because it's been generations since they had a dragonborn to figure the correlation? It might be cool (some new mod or expansion of some known mod) to add progressive stages of "guarding" (maybe with leveling?) by enemy factions once the Dragonborn is declared...

[paradoxnrt]

The Stones don't work for everybody....in fact, they might only work for Dragonborn (Shard/Soul of Akatosh) AND/OR Shezarrine (Echo of Lorkhan)....which works out well for you, since your Character is actually BOTH simultaneously!

You can find a book about the 'Watcher of Stones' somewhere in Kodlach's Quarters....it's a story about an adventurer who dedicated his life to the stones, but could never activate them because he was simple a normal mortal.

[VulcanTourist]

There is a mod published this year which allows NPCs to acquire spells, perks, shouts and more that would otherwise be restricted primarily to the player. I don't think that mod's feature set extends to standing stones or their buffs, but I doubt it would be difficult to extend it to include them.

[G4M3W1NN3R]

logically it would make no sense having guards protecting mundus stones which only benefit the dragonborn, especially with the whole war going on, as well as the constant threat from dragons, bandits, vampires and the like

 

i seriously doubt the jarls of each hold respectively would want to waste their soldiers on protecting the mudus stones, thus decreasing the protection of all major holds

 

it also could not work due to the lack of outposts near said stones and the lack of guards/soldiers (baring in mind of the war) in each hold, their is like 5 or so, which seems very small for the situation that skyrim is in. i mean lets face it riverwood was previously un-protected until the dragonborn got involved which warrents the believablity of lack of guards in whiterun, as if they had abundance then riverwood should of been protected from the very start. so by default riverwood not being protected, means it makes no sense for the mundus stones to be more important and warrent protection over riverwood as an example.

 

plus look at where the stones are located, the lady for example is on a little island surrounded by lake, for the guards to protect it, their would need to be an outpost or another town close by, unmodded their is nothing their, not even a bridge. closest is riverwood which is a fair distance, which previously did not have guards. and unless you never go to whiterun, riverwood will never have guards, thus no guards will be anywhere near the lady mundus.

 

their was an imperial outpost, but that crumbled into lake

 

the game would have to be much more alive and have alot more population, outposts and the like, to make guards protecting mundus stones more believable.

 

the way mundus stones must be looked at, is from when you get to the very first set of mundus stones on a brand new game , because the very first mundus stones you see are the warrior, mage and thief stones, and by you just getting their for first time, means riverwood is not protected yet, and that is the way to see it, which means the closes guards are all the way in whiterun.

 

basically, for the first 3 mundus stones to be protected by guards, means riverwood would have needed guards from the very get go without the dragonborn involvement, but likewise the reason riverwood has no guards is part of the story, as such, the mundus stones would not of been protected, naturally.

 

lets also factor in that their are bandits very close to the first 3 mundus stones (group by the cave which is very close to the mundus stones, and then also another group right round the corner), and they dont care about them, as such it further makes no sense for guards to be their guarding them.

 

gotta love the irony though, the first 3 stones are literally called Guardian Stones xD

 

 

case in point, the game seriously needs a much bigger population in all the holds, and many more outposts, and towns. thus increasing many more guards, which in turn would make guards protecting mundus stones believable.

Edited August 27, 2020 by G4M3W1NN3R

[righteousgoddoward]

Don't knock the Stones...I like em :devil: