1. I was randomly attacked by a Breton. That's it - just Breton. Is there more to this story? I mean - I killed him after he started throwing fireballs at me, so I wasn't able to interrogate him properly.

2. I happily ran into the Dunmer, who is looking after the old Silt Strider. After I came out of Neloth's tower and started making my way toward Miraak's tower, I ran into a couple of Ash Spawn. I don't wear armor. I use bound dagger and bound bow and I was caught off-guard, so I high-tailed it back towards Neloth's tower seeking refuge. It is at this point that I hear, "I'm staying out of this." I turn around and I see the Ash Spawn attacking something, off in the distance. It took me a while to down the two baddies. Afterwhich, I sought out the care-taker of the Silt Strider. Alas, I found him stiff and dead, under a rock. That silt strider makes quite a bit more noise, now that he's dead. Poor Silt Strider.

- Tommy Truck

1. I think you've gotten one of the random encounters that also occurs in Skyrim where you find a hostile adventurer that goes under the alas of whatever race they were- I've been attacked by NPCs just named 'Imperial' or 'Bosmer' on my travels. They're pretty tough to beat but carry some good loot.

2. That's terrible.

Usually when I get attacked by a "Insert race here," it's someone from Boethiah's cult trying to prove themselves, and the daedric quest starts after the fight.

O.o the second part made me so sad. Poor Silt strider.

Yeah, as for part one - he did have some pretty good loot. As for part two - he also had some good loot, but I would have prefered for him to survive as a trading partner and the sole provider for the now very lonely silt strider. I would happily take his place, but I'm busy. You know how it is. Still, the constant moaning over the loss of her friend saddens me, too.

- Tommy Truck

Aussie was attacked by an enraged Orc, unfortunately she did not have any calm spells strong enough or any other spells to safely get out of the fight, so killed her. Braggen was attacked by a mad khajiit, he is an imperial so used that Voice of the Emperor power on him, I have not been back yet to see if he stayed peaceful or not.

I've had a simular story, where I was outside the Telvanni Tower, and the Fire and Ice mages fighting near there were following an injured spider all the way to the Tower.
The apprentice was outside, and the Mages started getting him involved in their dispute.

But, Neloth was on his way home from one of the quests, and made short work of the Fire mage...