So after having once again spend far too many hours running around in Skyrim and being reminded of all that interesting storytelling potential it has I wondered if anybody knew some good fanfiction set there.

I am looking something that is "realistic" when it comes to the setting (so for god's sake please do not give a story that copies videogame elements), believable characters with at least some development from the main cast and a plot that isn't a carbon copy of the game.

 

I've not read them in a while, so YMMV, but Ms Katonic has the Cicero Dragonborn series, which I remember being fun. She's also done an elvish series that I think was quite good. Then she has a third series, with Elisif as the dragonborn, which I preferred to the elvish one, but didn't like as much as Cicero.

However, one thing to hold in mind is that the author has a thing for submissive bisexual/curious males. So there's sex scenes sprinkled throughout, although I don't recall them being horrifically offputting. I also can't remember how many of the stories this is a thing in - although I know it's a major plot point in one of the ones with either the elf or elisif.

I've checked the rest of my favourites/alerts, but can't find anything that's complete, or updated since 2013.

 

There was a very good crossover with Fate/Stay Night that had Arturia(?) as the Dragonborn, but it didn't get terribly far. Can't recall the name or author.

 

I forget the name of the fic, but I'm 90% sure it was written by DeviateFish on SpaceBattles and here, I believe. No idea what handle he uses elsewhere.

 

It got mixed reviews here but I enjoyed the Familiar of Zero/Skyrim crossover Zero Summing.

 

Dragon From Ash is by far my favorite Skyrim fanfic. Features a Dunmer as a Dragonborn and contains more lore elements than one usually sees in Elder Scrolls fanfics.

 

So my favorite Skyrim fanfic is actually a MLP fusion called The Wind Thief by Cold in Gardez.

Cold in Gardez is one of the best authors in the MLP fandom, and even though this is an early work, it's filled with exactly what you talk about. The characters are the highlight of the fanfic. There are no game mechanics. It does go over some of the minor dungeons, but otherwise the plot is mostly original. If you can get around the fact that all the main characters are ponies, it's an awesome fanfic and absolutely has my recommendation. You will get a lot more out of it if you know the basics about the first season of MLP, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have this knowledge to understand what's going on. As a bonus, it's fairly compact (72k words) and mostly finished.

 

You guys are talking about Thu'um of a Distant Utopia and I would sacrifice a lot of people in order to get more updates. Fucking loved that so, so much.

 

Will second this, hands down my favorite ES fic. Hits all the points you mentioned too Erandil - developed world, solid characters, spiced up plot. The additional lore woven in is just gravy.

 

Thank you, this was exactly what I was looking for.

 

Welp. Blasted through 300k words of that and can't believe there's no more, though it seems to have been updated in September.

It physically hurts knowing that I'm likely to never find an Elder Scrolls fic this good again. It's a masterpiece.

Romance is believable and nicely handled, he handles Velandryn's power levels well with believable progression, the characters are all gold with actual back story and depth. Early in the fic Velandryn's is really outclassed but comes out of situations through use of cunning more so than skill.

My only complaint would be for the last 100k words I was screaming, "Just fucking go to High Hrothgar!"

 

The Whitest Man in Skyrim is a decent SI. Not Gary Stu, more like a wimpy young adult. Zero game mechanics. Nowhere as good as something like Dragon From Ash though. A decent, light-hearted SI, if you can stomach those.

 

Agreed. This shit made me buy Morrowind again.

 

I back Dragon from Ashe, but another good one is probably Dragons.

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8532059/1/Dragons

It's an Eragon crossover that has, in my opinion, the best characterized 'standard' nord Dragonborn I've ever seen. Also, rarely do I get to see an Eragon crossover that isn't trash.

It really picks up later when you begin to see Daedra. In fact, the author characterizes ES characters excellently in general.

 

How much of Eragon do you need to know? I read the first three, but could never be assed to pick up the last one. Is there anything crazy I should know about Inheritance going into it?

 

I can't remember much about it besides there being some crazy asspulls and retarded final battle.

 

Dragons is a pretty solid fic and a decent read, although it does get a bit boring with how much of a stomp it can be. Whilst Dragon From Ash is well... it's pretty clear that the author really loves the Dunmer, to the point where it just seems like such a joke that they're so much better than everybody else and how lucky that the Nords are that they'll help them out, even just a little bit. It was alright at first but seeing them in Morrowind just made it even harder to take seriously, where at every opportunity we're shown just how much better they are than everybody else, especially the Nords, and it's getting annoying that the author is so obviously biased.

 

The viewpoint character starts off biased. Kind of an important distinction.

 

Thank you for the suggestion but that fic (or at least the opening chapters) are actually a bit too much on the (completionist) gamy side for me. Plus some of the times/situations he uses Dovahkiin in seem really strange/wrong to me.

 

And I was fine with that at the start, hell I really liked the fact that over time he was shown to grow as a person due to his new experiences humbling him and causing him to have a greater respect for others and their culture. But then Lydia goes to Morrowind and apparently he was right all along because they're just that amazing, and I know that it happened because the author just loves the Morrowind lore so much and is taking all of this stuff from canon (although making things a fair bit better since the Dunmer apparently aren't turbofucked as much as they were said to be in Skyrim canon.)

But in the end, as interesting as I found all of this Dunmer lore, all it did was show that apparently Velandryn was right all along and that the Dunmer really are that much better than the Nords.