Okay, I've completed the main quest for Dragonborn and I enjoyed it. Miraak seemed like an interesting enough villain but, frankly, I think he was less developed than either of the two main villains of Dawnguard.

We get a hint of his past: He was a member of the Dragon Cult, he was a Dragon Priest, he turned against the Dragons with the assistance of Hermaous Mora, and he promptly got his butt handed to him by the Dragons (not even Alduin, just a Dragon Priest) before Hermaeous Mora collected the guy's soul after death.

(This nicely does answer some of the questions about Dragonborn and Daedric Princes, though. Apparently, if you're Dragonborn and have a deal with a Daedric prince, you DO get sent to Oblivion.)

But there's a lot of other questions I had like WHY was THIS guy the Dragonborn?

Really, everything about the game focused on his status as a Dragon Priest barring some trash-talk and some soul-stealing. I wanted to know more about his Dragonborn status and the game just didn't delve into that.

Actually, I got the impression that he never died, and that Hermaeus Mora kinda plucked him out of harm's way at that last minute, keeping him in Apocrypha ever since.

Anyway. During development, Todd Howard once commented that he saw being Dragonborn as "being anointed by the gods." That generally speaks toward a certain kind of purpose. It may be that Miraak was originally the one destined to battle and slay Alduin, and that Hermaeus Mora's interference defied the decisions of the gods themselves. The desperate plan enacted to seal Alduin away may not have been necessary if Miraak hadn't strayed so far from the path. It happens more often than we might like to admit. How many Dragonborn have joined the Dark Brotherhood? How many sided with the Volkihar to terrorize Skyrim? How many use and abuse their power to gain even more, or just out of pure cruelty? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say. Miraak is not so unique, for some characters.

That would actually place a great deal of gravity on the final battle between you and him. The idea that not only have you been chosen to defeat Alduin, but also to clean up an age-old mess is interesting to me. It would help to explain why the game seems to stress that you and he are equals. I agree about not spending enough time on him though. I would have liked more encounters, or a chance to speak with him for a moment the way you can with some of the other villains in the Elder Scrolls games. Truth be told, had there been an option to simply let him live and kind of throw everything in Mora's face... er, eye, I would have. It was clear that Miraak was driven, ruthless. I never felt like he was a villain though. Power-hungry, sure. But as I said above, our own character can't really deny the same when he spends most of his time plundering ruins to learn more of those precious words of power. I wish I could have asked him what his intentions for Solstheim were, especially since the few allies he might have had there had been killed.

He was Dragonborn, because Akatosh gave him the gift. Why and how does Akatosh choose who he does? Anyone's guess. Hakon on the others were said to have come to Miraak looking for help, but he choose another path. He also didn't die, Hermaeus Mora whisked him away to Apocrypha when the Dragons (not a Dragon Priest!) overwhelmed him. I also don't get the impression from the main quest that it focused on the dragon priest side more than dragonborn. In fact, I would say they were about on par, or in favour of Dragonborn slightly.

He was underdeveloped, though.

Way underdeveloped. There should have been more books about him, or the one book should have been longer. He should have had more dialogue. Something, anything!

2 problems:
1. Hermanus mora overshadows him big time in this dlc. The focus was supposed to be on the dragonborn yet we barely ever see him, but run into mora several times, he even takes your kill at the end, I wanted to save miraak but no option.

2. As I said, we don't even get ONE legitimate conversation with him. It's always him talking to you. Plus there's no option to try and convince him that he's being manipulated, and to stop his mad plot, or even help him. Once again, speech skill= most useless skill in the game. That's a shame to. When I heard about this dlc, I was expecting a epic moment like meeting Ulysses in fallout new Vegas lonesome road.

Yes, I thoroughly agree.

You know who my favorite antagonist of 2012 is? Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. It's not just because of his personality, but because of how much interaction he has with the character. You get to know him, you come to hate him, and by the end of the game he feels like a complete villain. Miraak just doesn't deliver on this front. Now, granted, Jack had an entire over which to be explored whereas DB is just an expansion, but still. Even Harkon has more depth.

Please, Handsome Jack isn't a good villain. If he's the best of antagonist of 2012, that doesn't speak much to the quality anywhere else. He spends so much time being an annoying [censored] that it completely overbears any legitimate villain-y stuff going on. By the time Borderlands 2 finishes, you don't hate him because he's the bad guy trying to wipe him out, you hate him because he is annoying and won't shut up. Or at least I did.

Proclaiming Handsome Jack as the complete villain would be like doing the same with Dr Evil. They serve a role but by god...

I admit, it's kind of humorous that Miraak has an unintentional storyline of being a guy who screws up his chance at greatness. He's the first Dragonborn but:

1. Hakon One Eye defeats Alduin.
2. He gets his butt kicked by the Dragons.
3. Hermaeous Mora has to rescue him and holds him captive for thousands of years.
4. He ends up getting smacked around by the Last Dragonborn.

In short, he's the Dragonborn who never really did anything noteworthy.

Wait, did he get his "butt kicked" by the dragons? Or was it that dragon priest without a mask? I'm pretty sure the dragon priest was called his "jailer" or something, because he had earned great honor by defeating him.

I was pretty sure it was a Dragonpriest who personally beat him.

As to why he's Dragonborn, I just kinda shrug my shoulders and go "Akatosh. Dude doesn't have to explain [censored]."

All that would have been fine, really, if Bethesda hadn't hyped it all up.
Deadliest? Not even close. Honestly, I wouldn't even call him our adversary either. Hermaeous Mora was the antagonist of Dragonborn, while Miraak was just his puppet.

Valokh didn't personally beat him. Given what we know about the dragon cult, he probably lead the cultist forces. There's no shame in losing to god knows how many dragons accompanied by an army. The PC couldn't overcome those odds either.

I felt like a lot of Miraak's flashy appearances and antics could have led for a very satisfying victory. But, then Hermaeus Mora just kills him off.

No epic battle of the Alpha and Omega.

No chance to learn about your predecessor, and his tale of falling into corruption and power.

And no real consequence for bidding eternal service to Mora, either.

You trade knowledge for knowledge, and somehow ended up a servant of one of the most deceptive and wicked Daedra.


I really hoped it would have focused a lot more on Miraak and his followers and his temple and ruling over Solstheim, than a Daedric prince that sounds like Sean Connery if he were a whale.

Miraak was probably defeated by Valhok AND the Dragons. Then they entrusted Valhok with the honour to jail and guard him.
Anyway we don't know for sure:
Why Miraak turned on the dragons. Maybe because he found the Black Book and Haermeus Mora tainted him, but we don't know for sure.
How did he discovered that he was Dragonborn? When did he? Why did he refuse to fulfill his role by killing Alduin?
How did he escape jailing?
Which are his motives, his goals now that he's escaping Apocrypha? Dominate the world?

He's way underdeveloped...he has less dialogue lines than most of Raven Rock's NPCs....

miraak dont even return for real in solstheim that is completely pathetic he always stay trap in mora world even in the final battle. i like to fight him in solstheim 1 vs 1 n dont have hermanus -mora envolve in this.that can be great if miraak got the best on mora n my dragonborn got the best on miraak. i even like to help miraak to escape of mora grip.anyway the point is the 2 dragonborn lose at the end n mora really win . so that dlc shall be call hermanus_mora

its the dragon priest without the mask who kill miraak the first time in the dungeon where you fight that dragon priest they have a book who tell all the story.n the old man that follow you in that quest he tell the same thing

Yup. Neat character though, a lot to speculate on.

Agreed. While I think the buildup was magnificent, with him casually knocking you out of Apocrypha and swooping in to steal your Dragon souls, the payoff was disappointing. I also point to the relative shortness of the DLC's MQ as a (not the) cause. As I've been prone to say, despite the panicked cries of "video games are too long so people won't play them anymore!" if someone buys a TES game they both want and expect a timesink.

Let's look back in time at Morrowind. A great deal of early quests and a few midgame ones existed almost entirely to set the stage, to give you well-woven exposition into the nature of Morrowind, the Tribunal and the Sixth House so I, the player, actually cared about the conflict between these groups and what it meant for the land and its people. Seriously, there was a major early quest spent entirely gathering information for Caius Cosades that was secretly a way to exposit to the player without being clunky. It made sense for the story and served a narratiive function. If there is one major thing that could be improved in Skyrim and all it's questlines and DLC, it is this. They jump into the conclusions of the quests without giving us enough reason, unless you've played the other games and already fallen in love with Tamriel, to care about what happens. While there was an information-gathering quest in Skyrim's MQ, it was just one and very narrow in its focus, giving information on the Blades and only scraps of anything else. Imagine if there were a second quest to gather information specifically on the dragons, and a third to gather information on the Blades that was needed to find Sky Haven, rather than one lump quest that was to find Esbern, who knew all this stuff but wasn't really sharing it.

Similarly, look at Dragonborn. How much bettwe would it have been if the Telvanni quests wove into the MQ, and Neloth was both the Guide and the Threshold Guardian. You would need to find information so he could help you, and in so doing a player who wished to do so could take and anolyze this information (on Miraak, Apocrypha, ancient Solstheim history or anything else, really) him or herself.

Yeah, that came off harsh. I like Miraak, and the DLC as a whole, but there is definitely room for improvement in the "develop stuff pls" department.

EDIT: Also, his status as the First Dragonborn had zero relevance to the plot. That's pretty low, dudes.

Please enlighten me as to how they hyped up Dragonborn aside from a trailer.

I think Bethesda were aiming for a mysterious and totally unknown antagonist. And they totally achieved that. Plus, i think Miraak wasnt the real bad guy, it was Hermaeus Mora. He basically seduced Miraak with power then Miraak realized it and tried to escape. Miraak is basically another end of the dungeon fight.

Aside from the trailer? Alright, how about the description?

I don't get this. Hermaous Mora was...actually pretty straightforward and didn't really do anything evil. Yeah, he killed someone but that was because the guy was refusing to give up his secrets after an agreement was made.

It's also difficult to say he seduced anyone since he was upfront with all of his bargains. On a scale of 1-1000 for manipulation, Hermaous was actually about a 3.

Which isn't bad, actually. It's a refreshing change from Clavicus Vile and Mephala that Hermaous gives you what he promises.

It's not like he's our antagonist either since he's nothing but helpful. You could say he's the villain of the DLC as much as Sheogorath of the Shivering Isles.

This expansion's MQ lacked incredibly in story, but was very heavy on atmosphere.

The story was bland as hell, because Miraak was indeed underdeveloped. You only speak to him twice--I mean--he only speaks TO you twice. The rest is taken up by Hermaeus Mora. They shouldn't have called this Dragonborn, they should have called it Aporcrypha, because naming it after the Dragonborn (Miraak) is just plain misinformation. You only see him twice!

However, the atmosphere was incredible. First the cultists find you and attack you, then you take the eerie boat ride to Solstheim, find that a ton of people are under some sort of creepy mind control, travel through a very elaborate temple, and head to Apocrypha, one of the most original and unique worlds I've seen. So this was great in that department.

Still, I'd rather have a better story than atmosphere. So I disapprove of the MQ. Everything else in the DLC is wonderful, though.

Yeah, there's quite a few aspects of the story that could've been stretched out a bit more...