Sorry for bringing /v/ into Veeky Forums but they're all shitheads over there and I trust you guys far more when it...

Sorry for bringing /v/ into Veeky Forums but they're all shitheads over there and I trust you guys far more when it comes to answering RP related questions.

Long story short I've dusted off Skyrim and I'm doing two Characters I've never played before: A Nord joining the stormcloaks and an Imperial joining the Legion. My issue is I've always played neutral characters so trying to get into their headspace and figure out their motivations and whatnot is kinda difficult for me. Any advice or insight is appreciated.


Failing that Viking/Nordic style games general I suppose

Both a Nord in the Storm Cloaks and an Imperial in the Legion have similar motivations.

Stormcloaks simply think the Legion has betrayed Talos, the Legion thinks that Stormcloaks are weakening the empire, thus hurting any chance of Talos worship returning

Thoughts?

But wasn't it stated that a stoemcloak victory would be even worse for Skyrim since the Altima could then just steamroll the land?

Just because it's true doesn't mean that it has to be what your character believes. If you want a Stormcloak Nord then just have his backstory be a typical Nord backstory. He was raised with Nordic values and believes strongly with Talos. He faces things head on and doesn't shirk from danger. He was travelling for a time but once he got wind of the war he hauled ass for home only to get busted at the border.

Design the Imperial along roughly the same lines are you're good.

True. The only other thing I can't reconcile is why my imperial would rejoin the empire after almost being executed by them. It seems like one of those battered wives situations where they go back under the misguided idea that they "didn't mean it"

>stated
I dunno what that's supposed to mean

But if the Stormcloaks lose, you have an empire that helps to snuff out Talos, at which point they might as well be the Thalmor

Use the alternative start mod - you can play as someone who simply got stationed in Skyrim

Just have his dedication to order and his loyalty to the Empire outweigh that. Besides, the way I saw it it was more of a case of that captain being a bloodthirsty cunt than the Empire being ruthless. And after that Hadvar helps you escape and doesn't turn you in or anything, so let bygones be bygones.

>I dunno what that's supposed to mean
In the Thalmor dossiers Ulfric is listed as a Thalmor asset. It's never confirmed but popular belief is that the strife caused by the war is beneficial to the Aldmeri Dominion's plans.

The Nord is just a typical xenophobe. Imperial knows that it his duty/best interest to oppose the thalmor no matter what and the best chance of victory lies in a united empire.

Imperials are elf subjects in their grand scheme to destroy the world. Nords are bit racist but acknowledge that there is fuckery about, with elves telling them that talos is baddos.

alright, you're imperial was the middle management for a garrison on the northern border. one day, the duke of bruma went hunting one day, got a great elk, and decided to get piss drunk to celebrate. he left his prize horse, the one that he has a deep and personal connection to in your capable hands. your imperial character, disdaining the nordic ways, since it is unbecoming of a duke of an imperial city to get piss drunk while there is a war going on in the north, decideds to spend the night at an inn, leaving the garrison in the capable hands of your second in command. he then proceeds to get only slighly drunk and finds himself a nice breton woman to spend the evening with

when he wakes up, he's being dragged to a cell. apparently, in the night, a theif snuck into the stables, managed to outsmart your second in command and steal the dukes prized horse and fled north. the duke is, understandably angry (with a large hangover) puts the blame on you instead of your subordinate (since it WAS your job to look after the horse). the duke manages to get some strings pulled, and puts you on a cart north with some other prisoners, since his pockets are deeper than his morals, to be tragically killed in a stormcloak attack. after alduin, the imperial mucks around, fearing that the duke learned wind of his survival and, fearing reprisal, wanders over skyrim. as the civil war worsens, he decides to join back up with the Legion, since he thinks that if he can demonstrate himself well enough in the war, he might get enough clout to stave off the Duke killing him

btw, Ralof was the horsetheif

This

Ulfric and the stormcloaks are dumbasses who have no vision outside of Skyrim

If you wanna get metaphysical about it I'd like to point out the differing way Lorkhan is portrayed depending on if you're man or mer. This is relevant because Talos is essentially an avatar of Lorkhan.

Mer: Lorkhan severed us from timeless perfection, an unchanging world were we were complete and whole

Men: Lorkhan freed us from a prison of sameness, he created the physical world were we can grow, evolve, and change.

Mer worship the universal, men worship the particular.

All evidence point towards the Aldmeri's ultimate goal being the destruction of Mundus, they want to bring the physical world to an end and return everything to undifferentiated sameness.

Because, after realising that you're a mythical hero with great power, you put on your big boy pants and realise the responsibility towards the people of Tamriel that comes with such powers. Convinced that the welfare of the Empire is more important than your personal grudge, you rise above petty notions of revenge and support the Empire in the Civil War, because you know this is greater than you, and that your actions have consequences.

Skyrim magic vs 2hnd swords.

Dead elves for days.

>characters you've never done before
>the most vanilla characters possible for that game

Yeah, that's Skyrim for you. I always ended up a talking cat that kills both Ulfric AND the Emperor, because fuck everything. Sometimes he's a sneak-archer, and sometimes he wears heavy armor and defeats people exclusively by punching them.

Fun analogy: The Aldmeri's goal is basically the exact same as that of the Human Instrumentality project in Evangelion. They want to reunite everything back to the primordial soup of eternity and unity.

Sneaking in skyrim.....

>attack for 30 damage
Or
>hide and attack for 553333778855 dmg

Yeah. It is fun sneak-critting dragons to death, though. Fuck those flying assholes.

So I've played Skyrim to death but got the XBone edition for Christmas. What are some fun characters to RP?

Can be super weird in the lore department. Played since morrowind. I know about Kalpas, CHIM, Muatra, and general /tgesg/ memery.

A Breton Reachman who just focuses on appeasing Daedra through quests and receives artifacts from them.

I tried being an asshole instead of being helpful for the first time but still manage to be quite good aligned most of the time.

What ar the best Xbone mods?

Well, if by the end you haven't replaced your dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine or Macho Man, you're doing something wrong.

Also the Unnofficial Patch is a must.

Those mods seem pretty reddit tier.
That was my first character after doing my standard argonian test the game for 10 hours character
Is it fun to be an asshole? I always power/metagame too hard too let my self pick dickhole responses.

The most fun I had actually roleplaying a Skyrim character was when I made an Altmer and used the alternative start mod to roleplay an Altmer agent, whose primary purpose was to ensure a Stormcloak victory so the Altmer could then conquer an independent Skyrim without Imperial protection.

Practically, it meant playing a character who used exclusively Elven equipment to covertly fight the Imperials, doing what was possible to ensure they failed without being obvious in my presence. I'd even use specifically non-Elven arrows so when the bodies of the Imperials were recovered, it looked like regular Stormcloak violence.

Mostly a joke.

Falskaar though. Now the guy who made that knew how to Get Shit Done.

>ignore main quest for a while to focus on my character's goals (basically learning magic at Winterhold and then just exploring, doing dungeons and side quests as I run into them)
>pretty chill, having fun
>decide to do the main quest a bit more to get shouts
>finish the burial mound quest
>try to go back to exploring
>can't go 50 fucking feet without a dragon swooping down and setting my horse on fire

The game is literally better without dragons.

Except the Thalmor count on the weak Mede dynasty remaining in power...
There is an excellent chance it is decisively ended in Skyrim.
The Nords and Redguards would then be free to war on ( read: ignore because the Dominion is not powerful enough to invade such treacherous terrain) the Thalmor.
The Aldmerei need the Empire to be their shitty enforcement arm to by time to recover from the war. The White Gold treaty was signed at a point where the Empire had finally turned the fight around and the Aldmerei forces were reeling. Rather than capitalize, the cowardly Cyrodil sued for a shitty peace. They were too stupid to realize how shitty it was. It cost them first Hammerfall (which had already successfully rebelled over this bullshit) and would go on to cost them Skyrim.
What could have been a military victory at cost, became a diplomatic catastrophy that did end the empire as it's warrior cultures deserted en masse.
What they failed to do with blade and spell the elves did with pen, and let the empire annihilate itself.

TLDR, Cyrodil falls, nothing of value lost.
Ulfric (shitty person he is) loses, and the Thalmor conquest is complete.

>Realize the gravity of power
>Support a failing puppet regime and it's genocidal masters.
Why was a super hero supposed to support Vichy France again?

Basically :

Nord - Fucking imperials wanted my head? Now I want theirs! Talos wants it! (A religious fanatic with a revenge boner)
W-wait why am I cocksucking Ulfrick again? Who cares!
Remove Mer cause that drunken idiot who harrasses them late at night said so.
Uh why do all my friends hate me now after winning for the Stormcloaks?
Why aren't the Jarls doing anything helpfull like at least manning the fortresses instead of letting bandits and necromancers take them?
Wait why don't the Imperials want to trade with Skyrim any longer?
What do you mean "Reachmen proclaimed their independence again"?

Imperial - I don't want trabble with the law, better go with this amiable Legionary.
Oh so I was caught by mistake and put on the same cart with some rebel leader?
The rebel leader turns out to be a Greybeard who broke his oath and used shouts for personal gain.
Even worse he used it in a sword duel to kill the High king in a "fair contest".
Wait that rebel leader is actually a Thalmor puppet while accusing others of the same?
Oh the audacity!
Save a few stormcloak prisoners from Thalmor cause fuck Thalmor.
They thank me by saying "Damn Imperial", I had it with these guys.
Genocide the fuck out of them and finally no more war.
A few buthurt nobodies and drunks but it's mostly better now.
That bitch Maven now actually has to care for the well-being of Riften.
Skald is replaced with someone who doesn't act like a brat and actually cares for civilians.
My bro Balgruff can finally tend to his lands without worrying about attacks from enemy soldiers.
That veteran in Windhelm actually got the Nords and Dunmer to stop bitching about each other and restored order by enlisting more guards.

The point is that the empire would leave Talos worshipers free as long as they keep it secret.
You get to hear it in the intro too when you get to Riverwood.
The empire only kept up a facade of persecuting Talos worshipers.
Heck they didn't even arrest Heimskr who is preaching in public after winning the war.
And don't forget the lines from general Tullius "What i'm not sure about is the peace treaty we made with the damn Thalmor."
In the quest to save Fralia Graymane's son you can get official pardon for them from Tulius in hopes of easing tensions.

I always figured my Argonian Dragonborn would support the Empire because he planed to rule it someday.

>Ulfric
>a greybeard

Ulfric isn't a Greybeard. Literally any Nord can learn to shout if they try hard enough. It's just way easier for the Dragonborn.

Ulfric did train with the Greybeards, that's how he learned shouting. He LEFT their order to meddle in political affairs.

Can you really? I always just walked over and killed everyone.

training with greybeards =/= being a greybeard

>Casually disregard several lines of dialogue by General Tullius that blatantly suggest the White-Gold Concordat was a deliberate ploy to allow the Empire more time to gather forces
>Ignore that the Legion is keeping the worst of the Thalmor away from Skyrim and other Imperial provinces
>Ignore that the Thalmor are about as strong as the Empire since the Great War and only try to play themselves off as stronger

>Support an unpredictable Thalmor puppet instead who actually has a fucking dossier telling you how much of a fucking puppet he is

I enjoyed a Breton Magefucker.
Stock up on alteration and antimagic items.
Ignore pissards, walk though dragonbreath bitch-slap dragon priests.

Lets keep /tesg/ to the weekends guys

Perhaps a very determined character looking to change the Empire for the better from the inside.

I think it would have been even more awesome if Ulfric HAD been a renegade greybeard or something

If others had thuums.
Instead of dragon, you, old guys who never used it.. oh and every fucking draugr with more than a loincloth and a handaxe.

Who told you Seele isn't behind the current Aldmeri Dominion? C0DA allows it.

He was training TO BECOME A GREYBEARD but left after the Great War started to fight alongside his father the Jarl of Windhelm.
He gets captured by Thalmor.
Meanwhile his father dies.
The Imperial citty falls.
Thalmor torture him and convince him that the info he gave away was crucial to the capture of the capital.
He is released after the war and returns to Skyrim as a "war hero".
Thalmor use him via the Silverblood family to start shit in Markarth.
He genocides the town and demands Imperials to grant him free worship of Talos so he would stop and let the legion establish peace.
They give in to save civilians.
Thalmor turn up and demand the arrest of Ulfric.
Ulfric escapes thanks to Thalmor warning him.
Riles up the other Jarls at a moot but gets shot down by majority vote.
Decides he had enough.
Rides up to Solitude.
Challenges Torygg to a sword duel for his title due to an old custom.
The start fighting and as soon as Ulfric starts to get his shit pushed in (since Torygg received proper sword training and probably studied in Hammerfell ) he uses a shout to knockdown Torygg and shanks him while he's down.
He flees thanks to a retarded guard and makes a "rightfull" claim on the throne starting the civil war.
A few months later general Tullius is appointed to lead the legion in Skyrim.
He deliberately missleads the Thalmor who are leaking info to Ulfric so he doesn't get captured.
He snaps a trap on Ulfric in which the player and a horse thief get caught up cause they were on the same road.
Instead of going to Cyrodill to judge Ulfric there he decides to avoid any chances of Thalmor interference and tries to execute Ulfric in Helgen.
Thalmor make a timely appearance in Helgen but get cockblocled.
Alduin swoops down to save Ulfric so he can munch on the souls of the dead.
Accidentally frees the dragonborn.

Did almost the exact same thing. Got stuck with a dragon spawn bug and anytime I exit my home 3 dragons show up and fuck me and the family up.

Get the mods that add custom house building sites for the orsimer and argonians then either rp an orc building a new tribe/stronghold or an argonian doing w/e the hist wants you to do in skyrim.

>He was training TO BECOME A GREYBEARD
No, he was training to use the voice.
Notice how he didn't disregard all regular people matters like they do?
Your husbando just wanted power, not to join the monks.

Unarmed unarmoured breton anti agic tank with a focus on alteration, restoration, enchanting and using enchanted gloves to punch people to hell and back.

Ulfric was a Greybeard Acolyte when the great war started.
He left to fight in the great war and was banned from returning to the monastery.
And i can't blame them cause he's the cause of Alduins profecy comming true and basically summoned him.

Of course that's what they want you to think.
"if you fight your enemies, they win" - Impericucks

So, in direct opposition to RPing in Skyrim, what are the most OP, Munchkin builds one could make?

stealth archer

Ranged sneak attack build, abusing alchemy and enchantment.

Attack Magic is trash tier without mods.

Thread reported for off topic

I almost always play a Nord, and usually side with the empire. Want to get into the headspace of the character? Dump your outside knowledge of the game, and try to think how your character would react based only on the words of the Jarls, Citizens, and the books you've read about the war and whatnot.

Reading the Thalmor Dossier, The book on the Great War, and asking the Jarls and Citizens what they think of the war usually leads me to join the Empire.

However, on another playthrough, My mage lived in Falkreath, and saw a lot about how the Empire's replacement Jarl was terrible, and how the loyal townspeople truly felt about it all. Combine that with Winterhold being a Stormcloak City, and You've got somone ready to support Ulfric.

A puppet leader being incompetent? Tell me more

Stealth archer of course as number one.

Using enchanting to make OP gear best used on making some legendary armour with destruction enchants to lower spell cost to basically zero + a 200% increas for mana regen and spam lightning blast all day.

>be dovahkiin
>Want to be a bard
>Accidentally kill everyone with your songs

#DragonbornProblems

no, that was cut content. The pardon is still in the files.

I did exactly this and it was fun. I later dressed in furs and went 2 handed weapons and joined the storm cloaks.