Ok. Not been playing the game for long, approx 30 hours, but I am getting a basic understanding of the main quest . Civil War, Stormcloaks or Imperial Legion. Yada, Yada, Yada.

Now. Has anyone else noticed that there are a huge amount of bandits in Skyrim.? I have discovered more bandits than any other type of NPC.

Surely if they got themselves organised, established a leader, they could give the current regime in Skyrim a run for their money. Because it seems that law and order is pretty poor at the moment.

Great idea for a mod, by the way.

And then they would finally discover the secret of turning wood into gold!

Any sensible comments?

Perhaps if all of the bandits were one huge bandit group it would be possible. I think they're all just freelance groups that are really only groups of 4-8 members.

I think if you lure one bandit group to another bandit group they'd just start attacking each other, anyway. A mod that would make a bandit uprising would be cool, though.

They lack government funding, support of the people, a base of operations, a steady income, food resources, and every other thing that a stable group of people require in order to form any type of governing body. And raiding villages for their stuff doesn't work unless they have startup capitol and lands for farming and food. Even the vikings had hometowns for supplies when they were pillaging

They seem to be filler NPCs. Once you start the rebellion quest line, they suddenly become the opposing sides soldiers. Their outfits change, etc., but the loot is always the same, and the one fort I paid attention to this run through even had the same mix of archer/melee combatants before and after the switch.

I once thought this as well...

That said, I've reasoned that they don't form a large group because they are bandits... they there is probably much turmoil and cuttroating within bandit clans. At least this is how I percieve it.

I think the forsworn would be a much better candidate for this as they seem to have a lot of organization, and hagraven support.

Think of them more as "dangerous squatters" or maybe desperate people with bounties on their heads trying to survive in strange places and band together with others in the same situation.The problem with your bandit uprising theory is the assumption of communication.Bandit #1 doesn't just ask his iphone for a random phone number for "bandit" and then call around looking for other bandits.They are bandits , they're cut off from everything , the only things they're aware of is their personal situations , I haven't encountered a bandit guild as of yet , nor do I suppose I will , because then they'd be something else like say , a more violent version of the thieves' guild.

Excellent comments. Thank you all. Just wondered really if other people had the same view as me, that there is a huge amount of them.

Any modders out there, creat a bandit uprising please when the creation kit thing comes out. I'm too thick to do it myself.

Attila made it from the steps of Mongolia to Europe's back porch without getting care packages from home ...

I created a character and made him a part of the bandit faction. Now, I go around and visit all of the bandit strongholds and loot the chests of all the gold, as part of their payment to the bandit king. One day, I'll be bandit king.

Another character is a member of the forsworn faction. I've been walking into villages and towns and setting loose forsworn warriors to take back the Reach. Hagravens don't attack this character, lol.

I tried to create a Thalmor agent, but they still attack you in the embassy. Goofy thalmor!

(Edited to add: It does seem that 95% of skyrim inhabitants are bandits, especially since most of the forts and camps repopulate with bandits.)

The mistwatch bandits are independent and attack. I made a character as a part of the bandit faction, and the mistwatch dudes still attack. There appears to be a quest associated with them, but I couldn't complete it. All other bandits are friendly to me. I unleashed a group of regular bandits at Mistwatch and both sides fought. There may be other independent bandit groups.