Might help if you clarified what exactly the problem is. The journal entry for the quest doesn't show up or something? When you say you used the console, did you use setstage?

 

Yes to everything you said. It doesn't show up in the journal and when I talk to Astrid the only dialog she has is asking about herself. Using setstage doesn't do anything, apparently it just resets itself or something.

It worked no problem for my other character but for some reason not this one. The only real difference is that the one I'm using now is a vampire but I don't see how that could screw with anything.

 

Honest question: If the curse of the werewolves was only shared among the Circle of the Companions, and from what it seems was completely voluntary, why the hell did they keep doing it? Couldn't they have just been like "lol, we're going to stop now"?

 

Hm, if setstage isn't working then I don't know what else you can do. The guys who made the unofficial patch for Oblivion are working on one for Skyrim though, but that isn't much help for you at the moment.

Only thing I can think of that might be causing that is a bug I think I might have heard about where being a vampire screws with what race your character is identified by, but not sure if that is relevant to the quest at all. Sorry - best idea is probably to ask at the offical forums, or google around for a solution. There might even be a mod to fix it on the nexus if you're really lucky.

And Hashasheen, yeah probably but they were fine with being werewolves until Kodlak decided he wanted to go to Sovngarde. Even if they stopped converting new members (which would have been difficult as Skjor and Aela still liked being werewolves, hence them turning the player into one) they still would have been claimed by Hircine. The questline was about saving Kodlak from that really, and making sure he could get into Sovngarde (spelling?).

 

Why would they stop? Keep in mind that only Kodlak and the brothers had any misgivings, and that too after quite a while. When they were young and fiesty, being a werewolf seemed like a win-win for them. Aela still feels that it's a gift, not a curse. Kodlak points out that most, if not all, of the Harbingers after the incident welcomed the opportunity to hunt forever.

Edit: Missed what Fatality said, but yeah, basically that.

 

I don't think Kodlak was the first one to express such dissension, though someone can correct me on that.

 

I've spent hours on forums, Google, and Nexus; no dice. I've even cured my vampirism and done the quest but it doesn't change anything. Guess I'll just have to wait when the Unofficial/Official patch comes out and solves the problem. Have they said anything about when the Unofficial patch would come out?

 

Homeboy... I'm not gonna be a dick here and I'll just straight up tell you: "Unofficial" means that Bethesda didn't make it.

EDIT: And to answer the question, the unofficial patch will come out when the modding community has identified the major problems with the game left over after Beth quits releasing major patches on a regular basis.

 

I'm not retarded, I know what Unofficial means. I put Unofficial/Official in the sense that either Bethesda fixes the patch or the modders fix the patch. Still, thanks for not being a dick about it.

Guess I'll have to either not do the DB quests or start a new game. Thanks for the help guys.

 

*shrugs* Sorry man. Then again, I think you're probably better off doing Thieves' Guild and Dark Brotherhood on a new game anyway, as I hear both are notoriously buggy.

 

That is the first I've heard about someone other than Kodlak disliking being a Werewolf. His diary didn't really suggest anything about previous Harbingers trying to cure it or anything - it seemed like he was the first. Obviously there could be more to it though - what gave you that idea?

 

He does mention that some other Harbingers were less than ecstatic about it, but I always thought that was less 'Oh God NO' and more 'Meh, Sovngarde would have been nice but I can work with this too, seems pretty fun'.

 

I think it was either something in the diary concerning his dream about Hircine's Realm and Dovahkin, or some fanon mutation.

Edit: Never mind, just looked up the journal. Doesn't seem to have been any serious dissension. The original Harbringer who made the deal seemed somewhat regretful, but besides that, it was all gravy until Kodlak.

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Kodlak's_Journal

 

I just found out that Hircine actually means "Of or characteristic of a goat, especially in strong odor."

Maybe were 'wolf' isn't the right word. Goats are scary.

 

Been thinking on the Imperial Orthodox/Arcturian Heresy opinions on Talos. It's becoming my opinion that neither one is actually true, and the truth lies in between to a degree.

Hjalti (Talos's original name) doesn't sound Breton, which goes against the claim of him being from Alcaire. And Atmora was pretty much dead at this point in time, so there's no chance at him being from there. So I got to thinking... what if Hjalti was a hostage in Alcaire?

Think about it. How would a Breton rise to command Nords, let alone become a Jarl/High King of Skyrim (which he'd have to be at war against the Reachmen of Breton and be an ally to the King of Falkreath and secure his northern borders). He must have either been a son to a Jarl or a King given to the Bretons as a hostage for a peace treaty, returning to Skyrim later on and becoming High King. His time in Alcaire (and High Rock in general), must have made him a major enemy of other Jarls (which explains the presence of Nords in alliance with the Bretons, if they turned traitor against their High King).

So he comes home, rises to High Kingship and is forever at war with the Reachmen, like his fathers before him. Except he allies with the King of Falkreath, and their combined forces march on the Reach. There, Hjalti is supposed to have met Ysmir the Underking, who either blessed him with the Voice and left or secretly became his advisor/double. As Ysmir supposedly came back from the dead on multiple occasions from being ashed, I'd like to suppose this was less a reincarnation in the flesh than being a wraith, and becoming a close advisor, mentor and ally to Ysmir. With Ysmir's aid, he sacks Old Hroldan and conquers the Reach for Skyrim, and is dubbed Talos by his army. He meets the Greybeards and is told his destiny, which makes him turn his eyes against his ally the King of Falkreath and wonder...

His northern flank fully protected, the King of Falkreath quickly aims to move south into the Colovian Estates, but the mountain passes are blocked by a combined army of Bretons & Nords. How this alliance happens when these two races are mortal enemies at this point is somewhat difficult to imagine, but I'd wager Talos either had enemies in Skyrim who were revolted and allied with the Bretons, or the Bretons had Nordic vassals (Solitude perhaps?) who sent their forces, or the Bretons hired mercenaries.

Anyway, Talos has Ysmir scout the mountain passes as well as the general area and discovers the relic of Emperor Reman and also makes contact with a Breton mage. Said mage was coerced by Ysmir to betray his lords and later slandered to weaken the moral/dignity of the Bretons, and ultimately Talos embarks on a risky strategy that ultimately pays off, also netting him new soldiers when he reveals his Shout, as the Nords defect. The Bretons are of course all slaughtered for their troubles.

From there, Talos proceeds to conquer the living fuck out of the Colovian Estates (aka West Cyrodil) in less than a year, before betraying the King of Falkreath and blaming it on Breton assassins, while injuring himself to make it look credible. Taking the throne as the most credible contender (and no doubt either turning the King of Falkreath's earls into hereditary governors or killing them all), he conquers East Cyrodil and then Imperial City, before moving on Hammerfell and High Rock. He is named Tiber Septim in Cyrodil as he is crowned Emperor. During this time, Septim is forced to improve upon the art of diplomacy and statemenship (already somewhat learned as a High King/Jarl of Skyrim), something aided by Ysmir and enhanced and flattered after his death.

Now in charge of a wartorn and weakened empire held together only by his will, Talos listens to his advisor Ysmir about using the Numidium and controlling the ebony mines of Morrowind, and moves against them, restraining himself from all out war as before due to the state of his empire and the deal-making with the Tribunal and the Altmer. Ysmir is furious, but as a wraith and little more can be swept aside as Zurin Arctus works on the Numidium as an engine of war.

Zurin discovers what can be used to power it, and Ysmir is contacted. Ysmir comes but is suspicious, and upon discovering his fate, battles Arctus and everybody's fucked up. Using a soulgem from Ysmir and his own heart, Arctus repowers the Numidium, and at the cost of his own life becoming the spirit within it. Talos smoke-screens the affair by claiming an assassination attempt, and uses the Numidium to conquer Tamriel, while no doubt promising Arctus that he will release him from the Numidium and grant him death

Post-conquest, Arctus demands his release unto death, and Talos disagrees. Arctus attempts to leave the Numidium and die by suicide, only to discover that without his heart he is unable to die. He tries to reclaim his heart, only to blow it and the Mantella into the Aetherius, destroying both the Numidium and Zurin. Zurin was left in a semi-slumber in a subterranean vault, waiting for an opportunity to reclaim his heart. In his undead shape, Zurin Arctus became known as the Underking, and from time to time he sent out his forces to find the Mantella throughout Tamriel. During the events of The Warp in the West, he is finally able to retrieve his heart and pass into true death.

Meanwhile, Talos lives a long and healthy life before ascending to godhood as a member of the Divines.

Now, if someone could just explain to me the connection between Talos-Lorkhan specifically and Talos-Shor and whether or not a trio of Ysmir, Tiber & Zurin mantling Lorkhan/Shor is fact in both Imperial Orthodox and Arcturian Heresy, then I could decided whether or not the Dovahkiin was a Shezzarine and then decide how to deal with that for my fic.

Also, if someone could explain how Shor could be alive while Lorkhan is dead, I'd appreciate it quite a bit.

 

Iirc, Lorkhan and Shor are identical in all but name. Shor is dead, too - but he resides in the afterlife; in Sovngarde. Perhaps all ES gods would end up in the appropriate afterlife, perhaps not. I'd speculate that the loss of divine power, when Talos mantled Lorkhan and took his power / thieving bastards usurped the power of his heart for their own means, rendered Lorkhan into a parallel state to mortality. Only, being dead, he was all ghostly and shit.

This is all conjecure from browsing a few wiki articles and half-assedly playing Skyrim. I know next to nothing about ES lore.

except that I follow the concept of chim irl and am well on my way to godhood - see you fuckers at my brand new pearly gates

 

So what you're supposing is, Shor is a ghost god in his kingdom of the after-life?

 

Essentially. His body has gone to Numidium, his power to Talos, and his soul to Sovngarde, so far as I see it. I vaguely remember hearing at some point in Skyrim that Shor had long periods of absence from his hall in Sovngarde. This is explained by his time spent as a mortal avatar; the Shezzarines. Not to mention being trapped within the Mantella, which was pretty much just the Incredible Hulk of soul gems.

 

You really have to stop pretending that this is a world where it's one thing or another.

All of the origins for Talos are simultaneously true and attempting to figure out which came first is irrelevant because, as of right now, they all happened simultaneously.

Lorkhan and Shor are both dead, more or less, but being dead doesn't mean that their ghost does not act, or that Talos cannot wear their mantles.

I've never got why the whole "they're one but they're not" thing is so hard for people to get; this is a world where belief shapes reality. If you've read American Gods, it's like what Odin says of Wednesday at the end "He is me, but I am not him."

 

This is something I really like about the Elder Scrolls world. It's in a constant state of flux. I like to think there's an explanation for everything that is both rational and logical; it just requires the kind of thought that's best found in a mind shattered by reading too many of the - whaddayaknowit - elder scrolls. It's reflections upon reflections, and ripples in a pond which are at once spreading in every direction and part of the same movement.

The entity referred to as Talos, Lorkhan, Shor, Shezarr, Ysmir, the Underking, and more, are all the same thing, and yet different. It's like a complex network of overlapping circles, only it doesn't work in two dimensions as circles would. Or even three, or four. And don't even begin to consider the daedric realms.

Whether the explanation entirely works or not is secondary. It's fun to try figuring out ways for everything to fit together.