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So Im having this anoying dilemma. I have played through the game content with atleast 10 characters, and put x hours into the game. But every time I finish the prophecy of my Dovakhiin, I feel like I should have done something different along the way, and this leaves me with a feeling I should start a new one. My main goal is to play through the game as correctly as possible according to the typical nord dragonborn of lore. My biggest question is during which point of the game should the dragonborn join the civil war? right after escaping helgen? After defeating Alduin? or somewhere in between? Or should he have no buisness in the war at all?

After defeating Alduin - every soldier slain in the war makes Alduin stronger, as he devours their souls.

If you want to kill something, it's generally not a good idea to feed it.

Good point indeed! and a nice observation. Only thing is that it doesnt feel right that galmar sends you on a test to kill an ice wraith, when you are known as the bane of the world eater. And I like the thought of proving yourself as a stromcloak soldier before traveling to high Hrothgar

I dunno. If it were me and I heard the shout from High Hrothgar I'd probably want to investigate it first. Especially after hearing that Ulfric can use The Voice as well.

Raven rock hero wrote:Good point indeed! and a nice observation. Only thing is that it doesnt feel right that galmar sends you on a test to kill an ice wraith, when you are known as the bane of the world eater. And I like the thought of proving yourself as a stromcloak soldier before traveling to high Hrothgar

Don't worry, Galmar is always a right idiot, with the ice wraith bit he even bets with Ulfric that the player doesn't make it. He's the number one reason to dislike joining the Stormcloaks IMO. First time I tried the Stormcloaks I almost went and changed sides to the Imperials because I felt so insulted by the incompetant sod...

BTW, a definitive dovahkiin character wouldn't necessarily join the Stormcloaks.

I'd think he'd me most likely to join the Legion? Given that being Dragonborn used to be connected to being Emperor? (I kinda had my hopes that the last DLC would involve travelling to the Imperial City to become Emperor and founding a new dynasty... Guess not...)

Yes, the term dragonborn has mostly been linked to the septim bloodline of emperors, but it seems natural for a nord being caught by the legion while crossing the border to skyrim to join with the Stormcloaks. Yes, it came as a shock that bethesda will not make any more DLCs, was hoping for the moot to declare a new high king and stuff..

who says the "official" dragonborn even has to be nord? I reckon he'd more likely be an imperial tbh but like the nereverine before the dragonborn can be anybody so there is no right way to do things.

Bethesda. The official character from each game is always the native of the land.

Since when? I only ever recall the race and sex of the heroes left unstated entirely.

ZackyZombify wrote:Bethesda. The official character from each game is always the native of the land.

No it isn't Bethesda always make sure that the player character doesn't have to be any particular race.

The nereverine was stated specifically as an outlander, could be a non native dunmer but could just as likely be anybody else that nerevar became reincarnated into.

The champ of cyrodil again could literally be anybody.

Just like the dragonborn is reliant on being born with the soul of a dragon, nothing to do with race, the nord chap used in the trailer on posters is just a placeholder.

elderscrolls had always been about roleplay and bethesda have never forced a character on you.

I think what ZackyZombify meant (and which he is right in) is that the 'defautl' character that comes up when the character creation starts, is always the 'native' of the game's setting - at least since TES3... In Morrowind, the character creation defaults to Dunmer, in Oblivion to Imperial, in Skyrim to Nord. Not sure about Arena and Daggerfall, never played them, but as both of these technically start in the Imperial City, but there are no Imperials (funny how few people have mentioned _that_ major lore inconsistency...) my guess would be that it isn't...

That's not what I mean by official. Saying the official race is saying the default character is that race. It's not forcing you to be anything. The "default" or "official" race for Skyrim is Nord, that's why the character is a Nord in all the trailers. Same with oblivion, it's an imperial. Again this is the DEFAULT or OFFICIAL race as it's the native of the land. Nowhere does it say that you have to be that race or even play the story.

Ninja'd.

That's what I meant...

Marelo wrote:Since when? I only ever recall the race and sex of the heroes left unstated entirely.

Veloth refers to the Nerevarine as 'he' in Dragonborn.

ZackyZombify wrote:That's not what I mean by official. Saying the official race is saying the default character is that race. It's not forcing you to be anything. The "default" or "official" race for Skyrim is Nord, that's why the character is a Nord in all the trailers. Same with oblivion, it's an imperial. Again this is the DEFAULT or OFFICIAL race as it's the native of the land. Nowhere does it say that you have to be that race or even play the story.

Ninja'd.

Its set there by default to show the native race of the land the games are set in, its nothing to do with the law official hero of the game.

Edit

AngryNord wrote:

Marelo wrote:Since when? I only ever recall the race and sex of the heroes left unstated entirely.

Veloth refers to the Nerevarine as 'he' in Dragonborn.

Well veloth needs to re-read his history books because unless she had a secret sex change in the summerset isles my altmer nereverine was definitely a lass.

This is why there's always a default race. Because people are always like "oh my character isn't that so that's not right." Well I'm sorry to say but your character isn't the main one. That's why there's a DEFAULT CHARACTER, so they can refer to THAT CHARACTER in books as "that race and sex". It's hard to write books saying "it, them, they" the whole time. So they have the default character to refer to when they have to. It's a male nord (skyrim). Or male imperial (oblivion).

To be honest, it seems to me that the ideal Dragonborn would have allowed the Treaty of High Hrothgar to stand.

True. It upsets me that it wasn't a finish to the quest line. As some roleplay characters need not to divide a country.

ZackyZombify wrote:This is why there's always a default race. Because people are always like "oh my character isn't that so that's not right." Well I'm sorry to say but your character isn't the main one. That's why there's a DEFAULT CHARACTER, so they can refer to THAT CHARACTER in books as "that race and sex". It's hard to write books saying "it, them, they" the whole time. So they have the default character to refer to when they have to. It's a male nord (skyrim). Or male imperial (oblivion).

give me an example of anyone in game or in lore or books refer to any of the previous characters as "a male imperial" or "a male dunmer"

I'm not saying they do. I'm saying that if they have to they have to fall back on the default character. Since they would choose the default character over a female Orc. Even in oblivion they have a default character in the creation kit. Guess what, it's a male imperial.

Raynil dralas wrote:

ZackyZombify wrote:This is why there's always a default race. Because people are always like "oh my character isn't that so that's not right." Well I'm sorry to say but your character isn't the main one. That's why there's a DEFAULT CHARACTER, so they can refer to THAT CHARACTER in books as "that race and sex". It's hard to write books saying "it, them, they" the whole time. So they have the default character to refer to when they have to. It's a male nord (skyrim). Or male imperial (oblivion).

give me an example of anyone in game or in lore or books refer to any of the previous characters as "a male imperial" or "a male dunmer"

1 - Skyrim - Sheogorath, which according to lore is the Champion of Cyrodiil (player character of Oblivion): A male Breton

2 - Dragonborn - Veloth (who lived during the time of the Nerevarine) refers to the Nerevarine as "he".

Both of these are confirmed in the UESP "Lore" section plus in the relevant sections for Skyrim and Dragonborn.

I think right after escaping Helgen makes the most sense to me. When the pc is vulnerable, alone, very poor, etc. Joining the army would provide shelter, food, companionship. Granted, other factions do that but the Civil War is the first one that comes up. Or after you've been Dohvakiin for a while and are sick of one side or the other.

ZackyZombify wrote:This is why there's always a default race. Because people are always like "oh my character isn't that so that's not right." Well I'm sorry to say but your character isn't the main one. That's why there's a DEFAULT CHARACTER, so they can refer to THAT CHARACTER in books as "that race and sex". It's hard to write books saying "it, them, they" the whole time. So they have the default character to refer to when they have to. It's a male nord (skyrim). Or male imperial (oblivion).

Do you have any hard evidence that the default is supposed to be the canonical hero? There has to be A default, after all, and it makes sense thematically to make it the predominant race of the region, but that doesn't mean the default is the canonical truth. But all you're presenting is the assumption that this is the case.

Look at this book from Skyrim on the Oblivion Crisis. The author of this text (the real author, not the lore one) makes a specific, obvious point never to mention the race or sex of the Champion. Why would they bother to do that if there was a canonical answer to these questions? And why would the lore writers make the choice to make such omissions the overwhelming trend, or even outright state, in-game (as I seem to recall they have), that the personal details of a given hero are lost to history, if they intend there to be a real answer?

Seeing as things like that book are way more common than actual specific mentions of race or sex, I'm more inclined to count the relatively rare mentions of sex as slip-ups that should have been caught by better proofreading.

Re: Sheogorath: At that point the Champion of Cyrodiil, being a Daedric Prince, can take whatever form they please. It hardly counts as a confirmation of their original form, especially since the NPC has to have SOME race in the game data.

But just to toss this on: This book states that the Agent of Daggerfall is male. Again, though, I'm inclined to say this is just an error on the part of the lore writers, given the overwhelming precedent of non-specificity.

If we are counting game data as lore then the CoC was named Bendu Olo. Which he wasn't in my game and most likely wasn't in yours.