Alright, so I know that many of us had issues with the Markarth guards still being hostile after the "Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cidhna Mine" quest, and if you went back to the Shine of Talos they'd start the quest dialogue over again (or any other guard would, for that matter).

Well, here's what I did to fix it, and it totally worked. All of the guards now act like normal guards, and nobody gives me the stupid dialogue loop. As well, my bounty for Markarth went away.

Step 1: Become Thane of Markarth. I realize that doing this is also bugged in itself, but if it's working for you or you've found a way to get past it then you need to do it.

Step 2: Go to the Shrine of Talos and engage the quest dialogue loop. Select the "What did you do to Eltrys?" followed by the "I'll go quietly" option. Don't press 'B' to exit out of the conversation at this point, just let it close itself. The guards should start attacking you.

Step 3: Do not attack them back! Just SHEATHE YOUR WEAPON and run away. Go out of the Shrine and try to find a normal guard - he should try to arrest you.

Step 4: Select the "I'm the Thane, let me go at once" option. He'll apologize, and the guards that were previously trying to murder you will lower their weapons and walk away.


You should now be able to talk to all of the guards normally, and you can re-enter the Shrine of Talos and the "quest guards" won't be there!

I must say that this worked for ME, and I did it twice just to be sure. I really hope this solves the problem for others too.

EDIT: RageGT found another solution using a similar method.


And here's another variation of the solution:

Bump. The only one who doesn't seem to react normally is Yngvar the Singer, who says "I should bash your head in for all you've done".

Though I'm not really sure what his normal dialogue is supposed to be.

Is there an easy way to become thane? Every time I enter the jarl's residence EVERYONE attacks me and I have to run away or die!

Well unfortunately you need to talk to the Jarl and his steward so you can accept bounties and quests. You also need to be level 20 to get the quest where you retrieve the Jarl's father's shield.
After this quest he should let you buy a house, but prior to asking for the house make sure you have at least 8000 gold, because if you decline the offer the house dialogue disappears for some reason.

To become thane you also need to help 5 Markarth citizens.

I'm not sure why they're attacking you... Do you have a really high bounty with the Reach? Make sure you only talk with the Jarl and the Steward, not the guards.

Well they don't attack outright, but because of the bug that occurs after the mine escape mission, you're forced to either run or fight. Doing this in the Jarl's home is extra tough because all the guards and others characters all attack, making it difficult to speak to him. I even have the damn sheild! Another user mentioned that I do a civil war quest for the Stormcloaks that might fix this. Or maybe the next patch will fix this. Crossing my fingers!

So when you talk to the Jarl, they start attacking? Or does a guard stop you as you walk through the Jarl's keep? Also, have you turned in the shield quest or is that what you're trying to do?

I have the same problem. Once I sprung myself from the mine(jail) with the Foresworn leader the guards attack me on sight. The guards in the town seem to be okay but the guards at the Keep try to arrest me on sight for supposed murders (it's a frame job). I even selected "take me to jail" and the dialogue options loop to the point where they don't ever end up taking me away. The only options are to attack or run. I've left Markarth after running, as to not kill potential NPC's, and have completed 20 other quests only to have to go back to Markarth for reward collection or quest advancement and the guards still try to arrest me on sight. It's not possible to talk to the Jarl as the guards will stop you well before you get close enough. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I'm just missing something. Thoughts?

Well, what happened to me wasn't exactly as you described... The guards would leave me alone but if I walked too close to them or engaged in conversation with them I'd get the whole "In the name of the Jarl yada yada yada" thing. But I selected the "take me to prison" option and pressed 'B' as the guard said his "no one escapes" thing, and the guards lowered their weapons and let me do whatever. This worked most of the time for me, but there were some instances where it didn't.

You can try that, I guess. Test it on normal guards in Markarth first (just make a save prior to doing this) and talk to them to get the dialogue loop. Then try just pressing 'B' after you agree to go to jail to exit the convo and see what happens. If that works you can then try it on the guards at the Keep.

Tbis only works until there are two guards, then they stop you immediately after you finish with the other guard and the cycle continues.

Hm. I guess my circumstance is slightly different than yours. Most of the time I could get the guards to just leave me alone, but they'd always give me their stupid dialogue loop. I hardly ever had them attack me.

Try committing a crime like pickpocketing right in front of a guard and see what happens then. I'm really not sure how else to help you...

If you are having issues with The Forsworn Conspiracy-Markarth, in particular: the final "Speak to Elrys" objective in the Talos temple when the guards don't give the dialoge option "What happened to Elrys" and try to arrest u on the 40gold bounty you had when you started the game, try reloading a previous save and play though The Forsworn Conspiracy again WITHOUT talking to Nepos before going back to see Elrys in the Markarth Talos Shrine. For some reason it suddenly played through flawlessly for me when I skipped Nepos the Nose.

Great, thanks! This worked for me with small variations.

See, I had done the quest and it was alright after I escaped the Prison Mines. But long long after that, in some small village, I cleared some Mines from Blood Silver Mercenaries and a Markarth guard came to arrest me. I submitted and it entered the loop. I escaped conversation then and the guard was calm. But when I reached Markarth again, even near it, all guards would come with the arrest dialogue and loop it.

I had to sneak/invisible into the Shrine of Talos, the quest guards were there and attacked me, I left, the other guards engaged in the conversation and I chose "Pay the Bounty" ... all normal Markarth Guards were reseted to neutral faction against me. I am a Thane of Markarth alright but I chose to pay. Then I entered the Shine again and the quest guards were still there and attacked me. I left, they followed. The other guards remained neutral. So I entered the Shrine again, chopped off a pair of heards of those stubborn arses and it is all cleared!

After 190 hours and level 55 I would be really pissed if I could not find a way to clear the problem without resorting to console commands! Anyway, thanks for the tips! =)

Awesome! I'm glad it worked out for you. I'm sort of bumping this so that people can see your version of the resolution and hopefully it'll help them out too.

This has worked for me with just one difference...

I left the Shrine of Talos, ran to the entrance to Markath and spoke to guard there.

Selected the "Thane" answer, he sheathed his sword but the Shrine guards will still showing as hostile.

I left Markath, the guards outside were NOT hostile...so I re-entered, talked to a "regular" guard.. all ok..no "Wait, I know you" or "Stop in the name of the Jarl"

BUT

The Shrine guards were still hostile. Out of frustration I decided to kill them..but this didn't turn anyone hostile NOR did it increase my bounty.

I now have a zero bounty in The Reach and no one is trying to arrest me!

Thanks for this OP

Hm, I guess the quest is bugged in SLIGHTLY different ways for everyone... Well, what matters is that it worked for you, and you're welcome!