Nuts to that. I killed a Stormcloak courier in Imperial territory and I STILL got a bounty. Didn't have any letters on him or anything though. Weird.


Cool thread, I know.

Same here, only with an entire patrol. They were even killing Imperials. The minute I try to help my buds out I get a fine...

Killing someone should be legal just because we are at war?

That's how it works in our world anyway.

No time for ethics in Skyrim.... Leave that for Fallout.

Maybe the devs couldn't stand the thought of you killing a certain Fallout-character's namesake without punishment?

Wait, what? Stormcloaks are the enemy. MY enemy. You kill your enemies during war. Is there a hippie commune that I'm not aware of in Skyrim?

Why would they care? It's not even their game (in the sense they didn't produce it).

If they wanted to make a reference to New Vegas, you'd think it'd be that the Couriers are tough sons of [censored]es that just don't die.



"What kind of world would this be, if courier killed courier?"

Well... Yeah, especially if it's a courier for the enemy side running through your territory.

well back in those days it was wrong to kill a messenger.thats where the term dont kill the messenger comes from. and courier is just another name for it i guess. if could have been something he was taking to the stormcloaks that the legion wanted him to take. who knows?

Indeed. He was in quite the hurry too. Probably had vital information regarding Imperial camps, intelligence, etc..

I'm normally a peaceful man, but it had to be done.

All's fair in love and war, sir.

I'd rather my side send nothing to them. I killed the messenger, the camp he came from (Excluding the jerky dude who doesn't die) the farmer, the guy delivering the cow, the cow... Sorry, I'm going off topic.

I help when storm cloak patrols are fighting imperial patrols and no fines.

Yup. The Greybeards

I'm pretty sure the taboo on killing couriers is that you don't know what message he's bringing. He could be bringing a message of peace, a message of war, a message of offer, a message of surrender; all sorts of things. To kill the messenger is to kill without purpose; it's to kill ignorantly.
War starts for a reason, or at least we'd like to think so. Killing a courier? The only reason is "he MIGHT be bringing a message I don't like." Yeah, and your neighbor MIGHT be building a bomb to throw at your house.

Not to mention, if you allow the killing of couriers, how will anyone ever surrender? Or offer a truce? Who would ever accept a job to deliver a message declaring war or stating demands if they thought it'd get them killed?
In that sense, the Courier is sort of the last hope for peace.

I see where you're coming from... but your example regarding the neighbor and a bomb is quite the reach. All the lad had to do was tell me his purpose. I would have let him go (even if he was lying about said message). I can't take the chance. I won't. Not with so many lives stake.

I think whenever you kill stormcloak/imperials when its not part of a quest -or possibly when they're in their camp- is a fine, i remember killing stormcloak soldiers and the imperials who were "guards" in that hold arrested me for it... or at least tried to

But there's a seemingly equal chance that you ruined a peace treaty.
Of course it's a game so we know that's not the case, but in real life this is the case. Couriers probably adopted the policy of privacy regarding their messages for that very reason; a vigilante may decide he's in charge of the mail system and, depending on his personal opinions of the war, might kill you depending on what you're bringing. Again, we have a risk of losing any chance to bring peace. Thus, couriers keep messages private and mail is personal.

Imagine Ulfic him self sent a letter to General Tullius and he used a Stormcloack courier to send said letter. And then some little Dragonborn weenie kills that courier. I'd say that deserves a bounty.

No, that's not how it works in our world; at least it shouldn't and soldiers wouldn't end up in court martial.

Anyway, what are couriers? Even if they wear uniforms, they are just errand boys. Pickpocketing them should be enough.

Tell that to the Whiterun guards. I was coming into Whiterun from the northeast, and a Stormcloak courier passed me on the way running in the same direction.

When I got down to the crossroads at the bridges I could see the guards in front of the meadery with their bows drawn, firing at something further on down the road towards the city. Thinking that maybe their oft stated wish to deal with a bandit raid had finally come true, I drew my axe and took off down the road to see what nefarious evildoer had aroused their ire. But they'd stopped firing by the time I caught up to them and when I walked on down the road to examine their very dead target... it was the Stormcloak courier who'd passed me just minutes before.

So much for the fabled "neutrality" of Whiterun, eh? Not that I bought it for very long anyway.

I didn't buy since the first time i went up stairs -during dragon rising- and saw that they had marked Whiterun as imperial on their own maps... a give away much?

Also I just realized I where I recognized OP's photo from, and Tom Waits is friggin' awesome.

It was like that time I got a bounty in Eastmarch for stealing an imperial horse. And the only person left alive in that camp was the essential legate. What's he going to do? Complain to Ulfric Stromcloak?