Right, so I'm replaying through the Forsworn Conspiracy, and something's bugging me. It's likely just another flub in the timeline.

When exactly did the Markarth Incident take place? Braig talks about his daughter, and mentions that she would have been twenty-three 'this year'. I've seen people say it happened a year after the Great War ended, so obviously those numbers don't add up. Is this just another timeline flub, or did it happen more recently than I've seen people say?

On the other hand, Madanach says that, next to him, Braig has been in Cidna mine the longest. Borkul the Beast has been in for twelve years, which is longer than anyone else names. So more than twelve years. Even ignoring the timeline flub, that means that at most, Braig's daughter was eleven.

This would fit with the accusations that children were executed when Ulfric retook the city. But sheesh. Executing an eleven-year-old pleading for her father's life? This stuff happens in real life depressingly enough, but it's a pretty stark example.

I know people will say that Braig's clearly lying, but the dude's nearly in tears talking about his daughter, and he doesn't attempt to justify anything the Forsworn have done, saying that 'all I've got is my own anger'. He has no idea Madanach is planning to escape shortly, and he really doesn't have any real reason to lie to you (if he was lying for the sake of recruitment, I'd have thought he'd pick a more 'rah forsworn' angle, much like Madanach goes 'remember, it's the Nords who threw you in here'. Further, Braig refuses to talk about it until you tell him that Madanach sent you to ask. This isn't the attitude of a guy lying or exaggerating solely to get Forsworn recruits.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Wars#The_Forsworn_Rebellion, 25 years before the game starts. The Forsworn Rebellion actually began in 4E 174, before the Great War ended, when the Empire could not spare the troops necessary to secure control of the Reach. So it was going on while the last major events of the GW were also happening.

We don't know exactly when the Nord militia was formed or how long they fought before they retook control, only that the Imperial presence finally returned to Markarth in 176 and found that the Nords were back in charge by their own efforts and that Igmund was allowing free Talos worship and that resulted in the "Incident."

Edit: UESP says Markarth was retaken in 176, so it was less than a year between that and the nullifcation of Igmund's agreement with Ulfric and the militia.

Aha, thank you. So probably just another timeline flub. Thonar's journal says Madanach's been in prison for twenty years, which means Braig's somewhere between twelve and nineteen.

Basically, his daughter was super young when the Nords executed her in place of her father, which of course is the point. I was just wondering specifics.

Either the writers messed up, or the persecutions of the Forsworn went on for years, and Braig's daughter was executed several years after the Nords retook the city.

Why do you assume it was just after the uprising? Braig doesn't say that Ulfric had her executed, rather that the jarl did. I don't see any inconsistency or flub.

The rebellion continued, underground, so it makes sense that the reprisals did, too. Bothela and others talk about how many people have died or left to join the Forsworn over the years- that sounds to me like an ongoing thing. Of course we also find out that the powers that be in the city are using this a pretext to get rid of undesirables.

Which is an interesting thought given how many people use The Bear of Markarth as a reason to pin all the ugliness on Ulfric. He was arrested and sent to prison in 176, so anything that happened after that can't be laid at his doorstep.

People who do that just haven't paid attention to the dialogue in Markarth. But that is no surprise.