But she still protects it right?

Hm. The thing is, I've heard you have to kill the emperor and I really don't want to kill the one guy holding together the empire.

 

Anything you leave in your house cannot be stolen. As far as the game is concerned, the Dovahkiin is the only person who steals anything. It's even in one of the loading screens. Something to the effect of: "Items that you store in your house will never disappear, but if you leave things somewhere else, they may not be there when you come back."

Out of curiosity, why did you think that your house could be robbed?

 

Someone on another forum said so and I decided to ask here to check it out.

Edit: The more I play this game, the more I think I could write an epic fanfic that was built around specific quests. And I really don't have time to do both of those plus my other obligations.

 

I wish more effort had been put into the original writing. A lot of these side quests are so fucking lifeless it's unreal. The Dark Brotherhood questline was one of the most unambitious I've ever played, and I'm astonished I could find the assassination of an Emperor boring. The Stormcloak Rebellion I'm part of is rapidly becoming rinse and repeat.

Honestly, with the amount of people willing to write for something like Skyrim, I'm massively disappointed that this seems to be the best they could do. There's masses to do, but bar sections of Winterhold none of it has so far held any serious interest. Just feels like a sickening waste of an awesome environment, in which I can go everywhere without ever really getting anywhere. The only side-quest I've genuinely found exciting so far is the Mythic Dawn / Mehrunes Dagon one, but it had the most anticlimactic ending imaginable.

I'm actually considering building a mod with a new major questline.

 

The Thieves' Guild questline was actually pretty decent, imo. The others were mostly dungeon dives, even though they really shouldn't have been.

Hell, they could have done so much with the College of Winterhold. Retain spellcasting, and have crafting a new spell be part of your instruction. Something similar with enchanting. Have a set of gauntlet runs, so to speak, where you can only use spells of a particular school - no weapons, no shouts, no other spells. Make it a real College, instead of just a random series of caves.

The Empire/Stormcloak ones were decent - until you realise they are basically scripted, with your commanding officer telling you where to go and what to do. I should be able to strike at the enemy on my own, intercept more couriers to give my side a strategic advantage, pay off advisors to reduce enemy influence...

It is rather disappointing, true.

 

Question: When it came down to the negotiations between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, did you do Markarth for Riften or did you do Markarth for Pale + Winterhold?

Because though I'm way from being there, I'm kinda torn. One the one hand, exchanging Markarth for Riften is like exchanging one shit-hole for another, though each shithole has their value. Markarth has silver and Riften is a closer link to Cyrodilic soil and threatens Ulfric's southern flank. But then there's the fact that Markarth is very much isolated from the rest of Ulfric's territory and is teaming with Falmer and Forsworn waiting to cause trouble, while Riften has no such problems beside serious corruption and the presence of the Thieves Guild.

And if you go of the other route of taking Pale + Winterhold, those are two northern regions that directly threaten Eastmarch and Windhelm, as well as cause bitterness between Ulfric and his Jarl supporters + established a stronger northern link between the loyalists holds. Sure, they're not as valuable logistically or materially, but they're also seperate Ulfric's 'empire' into two easily conquerable territories, whereas waging campaigns in northern territories would be conceivably difficult.

To this day I don't get how the hell Riften started out Stormcloak and Markarth started out Imperial, especially considering their locations and local factions.

 

Have you read The Bear of Markarth? I'm not sure why Riften would support Ulfric, but Markarth supporting the Empire? Anyone who survived Ulfric's purges would have good reason to hate the Stormcloaks and everything they stand for.

 

What do you mean? Riften is right next to Windhelm. Ditto Markarth for Solitude. Geographically, their starting alignment makes sense.

But yeah, what Beonid said about Ulfric's actions in Markarth also applies.

 

Considering how awesome the Dark Brotherhood was in Oblivion it's doubly disappointing. Nothing comes close to touching on The Purification of the Cheydinhal Sanctuary or the Whodunit quest. Literally the only cool thing was being able to summon the ghost of Lucien Lachance, even if he's rather less stealthy in death than he was in life.

 

The Natives and Forsworn? Sure, but they're currently castrated by the Silver-Bloods. The Nords who came back into power thanks to Ulfric and his men (a fact that Thongvar Silver-Blood explicitly notes)? You'd think they'd have risen up and overthrown Igmund, who seems so obsessed with the Forsworn that he doesn't even realize his guards are corrupt and the Silver-Bloods run the city more than he does.

Riften borders Cyrodil, and the Black-Briar family dominates the region far more than the idiotic Jarl. You'd think those conditions would have made Imperial alignments much more likely. I'll give you Markarth, though. They're basically surrounded, but the entire place is basically hard to conquer between the Forsworn, Silver-Blood mercenaries, Falmer, etc...

 

I considered making that very point, but then I figured that Maven Black-Briar isn't pro-Empire so much as she is pro-Maven Black-Briar. Having her puppet Jarl announce allegiance to the Empire, with Ulfric so close and having recently demonstrated both his strength and his belligerence, could well have resulted in an invasion a la Whiterun (especially given how close it is to Windhelm and how little the Empire would realistically be able to do). Declaring support for the Empire for no real gain, with a very serious risk of having the amenable Jarl replaced with someone far less likely to rely so heavily on her advice, isn't really to Maven's advantage. So I personally find it likely that she actually advised the Jarl to side with the Stormcloaks, while keeping Riften corrupt and in her palm so that she could take over as a pro-Empire Jarl if they grew strong enough to defend her title and influence.

 

My God man, that's ingenious!

...

Can I use that?

 

Lol, sure. As long as I get to be a beta :awesome

 

I'm already working on a framework. I've got an essay for the 18th, but if I can finish up the framework before then, I'll send it your way.

 

Had to share this cover made by one of my favorite singers: Dovahkiin (Skyrim Dragonborn Cover).

It's just so beautiful and epic and MUST RESIST URGE TO SQUEE.

Edit: I can't stop listening to it. >.<

 

I like my dog Vigilance despite the fact that he looks like a mangy moving pile of moss. But he will.not.shut.the.fuck.up. Seriously he barks like every 10-15 seconds, just walking, just standing, wtf?

Is he barking at anything, or is he just trolling my speakers?

 

He's trolling your speakers. Pretty sure there's a mod that was made specifically to shut Vigilance up.

 

I wouldnt mind it so much if it was AT something, but christ, even when we're sneaking he's barking. Even if it doesn't alert the enemies in the game, it's still very immersion breaking and annoying as all hell

 

If you run across it let me know, I love the dog Meerko that I found but I just could not stand that fucking incessant barking and I just eventually ending up sending him back to the shack.

 

Behold!

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=188