How do I even approach something like this behemoth?
Guess I should start with this: I only really started hearing about Bethesda Game Studios a year or two into writing this blog, when I began informing myself on gaming news and such. I had heard of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. I had no idea how many other franchises were owned by their parent company – not any games I gravitated towards since I wasn’t a PC gamer at the time. Shortly after I joined Steam, I got my hands on a couple of Bethesda titles through sales – that’s how I got today’s game, but also Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. I went for the original version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, not the re-release with a graphical upgrade; in my personal finances, I could only afford that one.
Beware of swooping dragons. |
Oh course, I had heard of the map’s size and how large this world was: What I could find on it, what I could visit… It’s no secret that this game is packed full of stuff to do. I went in hoping to do as much as possible, until I saw the map proper.
….O… Okay, this was gonna take some more planning than I thought. My first idea was to meticulously visit every inch of the world in order to find all the dungeons, all the places that could be visited, all the areas of interest, and clear a bunch of them to level up until I felt ready for the main quest. Even after a hundred hours visiting this world, I still have only this achieved:
Anything covered is a dungeon I’ve cleared. Thanks MS Paint, you’re a big help once again. Oh, and I haven't updated that map in a while...
Hundreds of dark basements await! |
But without further ado, let’s discuss the main quest, shall we? Any topics of interest will come along the way.
UNBOUND
"Yeah yeah, I'm finally awake." |
Why did I pick Redguard? I was told that each race inhabiting this world had a handful of perks that may come in handy, but I couldn’t tell just yet how useful each one would be. I realized through past gaming experiences that I was more of the warrior, hacking-and-slashing type, so I would go for any of these races. I went for Redguard because it’s still fairly rare to play darker-skinned human characters in video games. It’s refreshing, it still feels new to me. If the occasion presents itself? Damn right I will. The name I picked? Something that sounds fantastic and mystical, though I may have overdone it as far as names go in this setting: Nikhaolaas. Yeah, yeah, my name again, how original of me.
Uh... Dude... Behind you. |
BEFORE THE STORM
Which path of life shall you choose? |
So we come into Riverwood, the first town we can truly visit. The first shop is here, and so is the first blacksmith – which allows the player to learn about blacksmithing and creating weapons and armor. The shopkeeper has a quest about finding a golden claw stolen by bandits. The Sleeping Giant Inn looks like a nice place, but that innkeeper looks like she'll kill me if I steal a piece of bread. After this stop, we can resume walking towards Whiterun, an impressive gated city resting atop a mountain, with the Jarl’s home, Dragonsreach, at the very top.
Getting to Whiterun isn’t so difficult, and once we get there, we can directly meet Jarl Balgruuf and tell him about the events in Helgen. I like that Whiterun is discovered so early in the game, as it’s a perfect hub area for the player – at least at the start. Its location makes it easy to walk to many of the surrounding areas, and it’s got all the commodities one might need early in their quest. Nikhaolaas even gets some decent armor from Balgruuf before he’s sent on another quest.
BLEAK FALLS BARROW
The Whiterun court wizard, Farengar Secret-Fire, needs our help. In order to study the return of dragons to Skyrim, he needs a stone found in the depths of a nearby dungeon, Bleak Falls Barrow. The stone may contain vital information.
Goddamn spiders! (Apologies to all arachnophobes.) |
Not a very useful language if you need to go venture deep within a tomb each time you wamt to learn a word. |
Back at Whiterun with the stone, we see Farengar talking to a woman… I think I've seen her before. Farengar gets the stone, and we talk to the Jarl for a reward…
DRAGON RISING
…only to learn soon afterwards that there’s been a dragon sighting at the western watchtower. Irileth, the Jarl’s housecarl and a skilled warrior, is tasked with assembling a team of Whiterun guards and Nikhaolaas will follow along, having proven his worth.
I need to kill that thing |
Walking back to Whiterun to report on the death of the best, a booming voice resonates across all of Skyrim.
DOVAHKIIN!
Dragonsreach is a pretty castle. I hope nothing happens to it. |
That title of recognition also comes with a Housecarl that will take care of the home when you’re gone; the Housecarl appointed by Whiterun, Lydia, can also be a follower that will tag along on your adventures, carry stuff for you, and help killing enemies.
I’ve actually grown attached to Lydia. I’ve also grown attached to Breezehome, my house in Whiterun. I might go back on all of these elements later. For now, it’s time to follow…
THE WAY OF THE VOICE
Having a stroll? On your way to the next quest? Not in the mood to fight? Too bad, here's a dragon. |
So I went the ultra-boring route of going methodically to every dungeon and clearing them one by one just because I could do that.
It took me some time before getting to this quest, for a bunch of reasons: I wanted to be at a higher level first; I wanted to clear as many dungeons as possible; and I had accumulated so many quests, long and short, that I had forgotten what I was supposed to do to continue the main plot.
There’s a little rule of game development that you must always remember: Someday, everything will have been done in your game. While some players let go of a game as soon as they lose interest, others go far beyond, aiming for 100% completion and then some. It also means that it doesn’t actually take very long for the player base to have visited the entire map, even areas devs may have thought were impossible. Never underestimate the power of self-imposed challenges. The rule is summed up as such: “If you have a highest mountain in your game, somebody will scale it”.
Now that's more my type of home. |
It’s in there that we meet the Greybeards, who have mastered the unique magic of the Voice, which you’ve just learned about and which unleashes devastating effects from speaking the dragon language. They’re so powerful that the walls of High Hrothgar tremble when they whisper. The only one capable of speech that won’t end the world is Master Arngeir, who gets to explain the Dovahkiin’s fairly unique situation, and how he is able to instantly mastering the magical abilities of the Voice by learning the words to its spells. The dragon shouts, or Thu’um, are multiple and can do all sorts of things – and unlike regular magic, which admittedly the Dragonborn can also learn, it doesn’t use Magicka. Instead, the shouts have cooldown times.
The Greybeards proceed to teach Nikhaolaas another word of Unrelenting Force, the shout that creates a strong gust of wind pushing things away from the Dragonborn – a shout particularly fun to use on clifftops. They also teach a word of Whirlwind Sprint, which allows him to run at super-speed for roughly one second. Then, of course, we're asked to test these new abilities.
Turns out the Greybeards didn’t give him these teachings for no reason; they have a quest for him. To prove once more that he's the Dragonborn (like, do we need to prove it even more to you people?), they ask the Dovahkiin to bring back the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller from the Nordic ruins of Ustengrav…
The adventure continues! In Part 2.
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