First, my apologies if this concept has ever been suggested here - I did a search but found nothing that was quite the same. I'll also saying that I'm posting this as an idea only because the implementation is far beyond my skill as a modder. The idea itself was inspired by players I've spoken with, who, like myself, generally don't like being the Dragonborn. Too many games have thrown you into the shoes of a prophecied hero. From a roleplaying/immersion standpoint, the pressure to do the main quest, and nothing but the main quest, is high. Also, outside of the main quest, no one cares or acknowledges you as the Dragonborn at all, which is not immersive (if fortuitous for this particular mod concept). And for me, primarily because the imagery of "the Dragonborn" from trailers and poster art (see the forum backgrounds) is so powerful that I feel awkward about playing the main quest as anyone other than a scruffy male Nord in an iron helmet who fights dragons with a sword - sometimes a shield as well - and the power of the Thu'um.

So, what if you aren't the Dragonborn at all? Instead, you're the man behind the scenes. What the Hero of Kvatch was to Martin Septim. You would meet the nameless Dragonborn in Bleak Falls Barrow, and watch him learn his first word of power. You would follow him around - only while pursuing the "main" quest - and help him obtain dragon souls and words, as well as complete the games' major objectives.

As a non-dragonborn player, the only thing you'd actually lose is the ability to use Shouts, which are hardly necessary. As a rule they generally feel either useless or "cheap" anyway, in my opinion. But instead you gain a blank slate. Freedom from what being the mighty Dragonborn should mean about who you are and what you should be doing within the world of Skyrim.

I've tried to consider the plausibility of this from the standpoint of quest editing and dialogue. It seems like it should be possible to make most of the dialogue that's normally directed at the PC relevant to the main quest play automatically while the Dragonborn NPC stands around listening and you hang around the other side of the room. Killing dragons without the Dragonborn around might be a bit hard to reconcile with lore (and with dragon death animations) so I also had it in my head that if you encountered a dragon, the Dragonborn should soon fortuitously appear to help you kill it and take its' soul afterwards. I'm sure there would be some sticking points but I imagine some of the very competent modders out there could make this work functionally.

What I'm not really sure of is whether there would be interest enough on the part of mod-makers and users to make it happen. What do you all think? Anyone out there who thinks this would be worth doing, possible, and within your ability?

I would love to hear any thoughts anyone may have on this in concept. Share your enthusiasm if you like it! The more comments this generates the more likely it is to get attention from someone who may be willing and able to take it up as a project.

Thanks!

Well you can just never report to the jarl and ignore the main quest. That's quite an elaborate mod you're suggesting though.

So basically you want to play Oblivion again, just with Skyrim's content?
Wasn't this one of the main complaints about Oblivion? You didn't actually get to play the hero?

I understand your points regarding the lack of recognition.. I mean when I'm the Archmage/Harbinger/Nightingale/Listener/Chosen of every Daedric Lord/ AND the Dragonborn... I feel like I could probably end the Thalmor threat by myself, yet I get to be the errand boy for everyone. Yes, most shouts are revlatively useless, unless used at level 3, at which point most of them have cooldowns so long that you might as well not bother. Those that are useful border on overpowered.

I also don't share your feelings that the the main quest is heavily urgent. You can just ignore Hadvar right out of the gate, and go about your buisness. I personally follow the main quest fairly early, and when It's time to go fetch the Elder Scroll, I make a sharp left turn for at least 60-100 hours lol... I just can't take on the supposed Demi-god of dragons at anything lower than level 60.. At which point I need mods to buff him into the stratosphere.

Anyways, while the concept is interesting, this is quite the project, and one that I don't think can realistically be accomplished without a lot of contrived story-telling, or even outright mirroring the main quest anyways... As in making a semi-permenent player companion that is fully voiced (and does all the dialouge for you, while you stand back) to run through the main quest areas verbatim.

As far as interest, I think most people prefer to play the hero, and not the "other guy"... So chances are slim I would think.

Well, it does sound like fun. Have an NPC Dragonborn following routes that take him through the whole storyline. Problem could possible be if you lost track of him and you don't know where he is anymore. Regardless, I'm sure it could be done But yeah, would take time really.

Thanks for the reply, I've done just that, or rather played with Arthmoor's alternate start mod and just never gone to Helgen at all. But I would rather there be dragons in the game, I just want to be free of the "Dragonborn" mantle!

That was actually one of my favorite things about Oblivion, personally, and the first thing that I actually felt, at the end of my first playthrough, was distinctly superior to Morrowind and not just a function of improving technology.

I agree on all points.

That's a playstyle difference. If you're looking at it from a realism/immersion perspective, Dragons would have decimated all of Skyrim if you took that much time out from the main quest. I suppose if you killed 90% of all the dragons then justified it as "training to kill Alduin"...

Unfortunately you're probably right, although I'd like to think there are enough people who'd feel like I do about the constrictive nature of the main quest, and/or just looking for an interesting take on their 3rd or 4th playthrough, that the interest would be there. As far as mirroring the existing main quest or contrived storytelling - the original main quest is fairly contrived and I see no reason to change it except just as much as necessary as to make an NPC the central character.

Like I said, I realize it wouldn't be an easy thing to do, but I'm not sure how hard it would be either. However, there are at least already mod solutions for companions getting lost!