Before falling asleep last night i had an idea... so when i woke up i decided to write it down here before i forget it.

After finishing the civil war questline for either the stormcloaks or the empire... wouldn't it be cool to actually become a jarl yourself. Maybe a continuance of the civil war questline where you help Ulfric become High king by convincing the other Jarls to choose him at the moot.

As a reward Ulfric proclaims you Jarl of some smaller hold... like for example Roriksted. Then there could be an entire questline to bulid up Roriksted and a great money sink for high level characters. Build a fortified house (smal castle), get merchants and the like to settle there... maybe even gather all your houscarls (and make them thanes), which you got by becoming thane for other jarls, at the same spot. Do quest to convince the brotherhood, the thieves guild and even the college of winterhold to establish brances in your hold.

And a main questline about defending your borders against the forsworn and at the same time keep the peace with bordering jarls.

Oh... and your spouse if you got one could become your steward and instead of giving you only cash from his/her store he could also be the one collecting the hold tithe... crops from the farmers, ingots from the blacksmith etc etc.


I'm actually suspecting that Bethesda got some sort of continuance for the entire civil war planned already... since Ulfric as of yet hasn't become high king... but im not sure this continuance would include the dragonborn actually becoming jarl himself. Which i personally think would be really cool.

Bad idea huh?

I like it... Would be like it was in Morrowind, where one could get your own "castle".

Roriksted is a town not a hold same with Helgan and I really don't understand how people confuse towns and holds. But it would be cool to be granted the position of Jarl in either Dawnstar or Morthal for completing the Civil War questline from either side. Have Morthal be the Stormcloak prize and Dawnstar be the Imperial prize. If someone could get great dialog work done then I would get it, but only if that condition was met.

Not a bad idea, but Rorikstead's not a hold, it's a town in Whiterun Hold. To be made Jarl, you'd have to replace one of the existing ones in the capitol cities.

edit: and Minus Sanity beat me to it by one friggin' minute.

There are two holds that really shouldn't change hands: The Rift and the Reach. Both go to a power hungry, corrupt and evil people (Maven Blackbriar and Silveblood family) if you do the civil war questline each of them by you selecting one side.

It would be interesting if you could have the option to become the appropriate region jarl, having to endure constipations and hidden wars with your enemies until your finally defeat them, putting them in jail, killing them or sending them out of the hold.

It would be great if the player had the opportunity to become the Jarl of Winterhold. Quests could involve rebuilding Winterhold to its former glory... sigh

You've got a great idea there and I'll look right into it as a part of the first expansion touching upon Thalmor retaliation and Ulfric's coronation.

I was thinking about something like this , but going about it different way and maybe a bit "higher" rank, but i haven't finished the game fully so it probably doesn't even fit into the story/world, but i have always wanted to wed the jarl of Solitude, since her husband got killed and well i like solitude heh, but it got me thinking that maybe if one did get married to her maybe they could work their way into High King. I havent finished the game so i dont know how well this would flow, but it could end up being a grand quest line where you have to go around the world "convincing" the other jarls that she or even you should be High King of solitude, then the mod could go deep into the aspects of running a kingdom.

Hello @ all,

i would like to have an option for a third way to solve civil war: Kill them all, taking all the castles for my own!

forgot your brewery mate.

Maybe having the option to be thane of only one hold and receiving a village with that title could be even better.

Rebuilding Helgen is much better idea. There was a mod rebuilding Kavath in Oblivion, but in Skyrim you'd be the Jarl of that town.

After gaining the ownership you first would need to cleanse the land from bandits and then start rebuilding and much investing.

At the beginning I tought it was awesome that I could get some of the followers to become blades, but then it turned out I can only have 3 of them and they don't do much. Helgen is much in the middle of the map, so unlike some of the bigger houses on the boarders it would be much easier to travel there with all your loot.

Except that Helgen was a (large) town in Falkreath hold. So the Jarl of Falkreath owns Helgen.

This. It isn't so hard, gosh.

Jarl -> Like a governor of a region. They live in the capital of their reign.
High King -> King of all Skyrim. He lives in Skyrim's capital.
Some guy in charge of a town -> NOT a Jarl. Perhaps a mayor, but there are no mayors in this game, all the towns seem to respond to the Jarl (who is the man who rules ALL the territory, not only said town).

But isn't the Jarl of Falkreath a real dirt bag - I thought he was the one who just tossed all the duties to his steward and didn't give a crap and just went hunting around. He even says, "Being a Jarl is great. You should try it sometime." And Falkreath is the big graveyard town, so that kind fits since you've been murdering nonstop since day 1. So I think Falkreath would be a great spot for this!

I really like the idea of a questline to become Jarl proper, and fix the city and make it better. Winterhold would also be good since it requires some real TLC

I still say that Helgen would be the best place for player to build his town and then improve it to city. This will remove the personal preferences about all the already existing ones - if you like some town then you should be able to copy it's style.

Since Helgen isn't an hold this makes it even better - cause I didn't want to become Jarl right away, but rather progress to that - first would be to get allowance from the current leader of skyrim (whenever it's the imperium or stormclocks that won the civil war), then buy it out from Falkreath (the Jarl changes depending on who won the war). Kill all the bandits and settle in.

I suggest rather than giving possibility to place houses, rather choose the building type and start restoring the village one house after another - and when restoring temple decide who shall be praised there (which Aedra).

At the begining it would be just a small town, and with dragonborn as it's mayor, but the road to being a jarl is so much better. It would mean so much more than just being a thane after doing 3 or 5 quest and buying a house if a city has one.

Winterhold has busted up buildings, so that one seems like a good candidate for player Jarldom. Perhaps, after finishing the Civil War for either side, you get sent to Winterhold to investigate activity by enemy remnants. The Jarl, his family, and his staff is assassinated, and you get made the new Jarl in return for your service, complete with your own Steward and Jarl clothing, and a unique Winterhold Ring that increases Speech.

Legion Example: Tullius sends you to Winterhold to investigate Stormcloak activity. When you arrive, the Stormcloaks have already attacked, killing most of the Guards (the civilians need to stay inside). A surviving Guard tells you the Stormcloaks are inside the Jarl's Longhouse, and they will secure the town while you deal with it...
You go inside, the Jarl's family and Steward are dead, and a General executes the Jarl. You kill the Stormcloaks and return to Tullius. He names you the new Jarl, and when you return, there is a Steward and Guard Captain waiting for you. They give you quests to rebuild Winterhold to at least part of it's former glory.
The Guard Captain quests involve protecting Winterhold with new guards to replace the dead ones, and building a wall to protect the town. The Steward quests involve rebuilding Winterhold by building the broken houses and hiring new merchants, such as a Blacksmith, and an Apocethary, for example.
Also, if you are not the Arch-Mage, then there should be a quest to secure friendly relations with the College.

There is a lot of depth you could go into with something like this, and someone may be able to make it work for all the Minor Holds.

Helgen wouldn't be bad either, and it would be easier than my idea (although i still prefer my idea). But Helgen keep would need to be reworked, because it only has a barracks, storeroom, dungeons, and tunnel. No throne room, no living quarters other than the barracks, etc.

It's not only that new buildings should be added at some point, but even the dungeons and should be remodeled to become like a mine - it's a good oportunity for a quest for it too.
Helgen is a lot of job, cause it was designed as a intro dungeon.

yeah...work parties finding metal veins in the cave would be cool. but it would mean a lot of work on the modder side. and as for adding buildings, that wouldn't be as hard with Helgen and Winterhold than with other places because of the ruined buildings. the simplest way would be a trigger to replace the ruined building with a built one. the advanced way would to have multiple triggers to simulate workers rebuilding the building.