No, you're the chosen one. All Martin did was turn into the avatar of Akatosh. While that is amazing and great, it was you that dared enter the realm of Oblivion. It was you that battled hordes of Daedra. It was you that battled the Mythic Dawn and entered Mankar Cameron's realm. The entire world was saved because of you. Even Martin's great and final act was possible because of you. You weren't JUST his errand bow. It is unfortunate, however, that at the end, Martin steals the glory.

I kind of find myself wondering if maybe they wrote themselves into a corner. Someone was like, "Hey, let's have Mehrunes Dagon show up! That would be epic!" But then they couldn't figure out how a mere mortal was going to stop someone as powerful as him.

Anyways, on topic, my problem isn't so much being the Chosen One as it is how it plays out in Bethesda's games. The opening cinematic to Morrowind definitely suggested there was something special about you, but you don't find out why until later. Oblivion threw it out you at the very beginning. Skyrim basically does, too. Certainly you can ignore the main quests, but that's not really a good solution to the problem. In Oblivion, the Emperor already told you that you were special and in Skyrim, the word walls wills till trigger for you alone.

Skyrim pulls that card a little too often, like an excuse for bad writing. For the main quest, the Elder Scrolls foretold of you. For the College, the Psijic Monks foresaw you and your actions. For the Dark Brotherhood, the Night Mother chose you. For the Companions, Kodlak saw your coming in a dream. In the Thieves Guild, Frey somehow knew things were turning against him when you showed up. And in each time, it's pretty much used as an excuse to explain away things that don't make much sense.

In the TES VI, I'd be very happy if they figured out how to make it all unfold very naturally. I'd love it if they just let you create your character, then dumped you out in the wilderness somewhere. Maybe the cart you're being transported in tips over and the guard is killed, freeing you. Then they give you some dialogue to point you towards a tutorial and in the direction of the main quest, then leave you to your own devices, able to ignore both. No hint that you're special (other than you being the main character of the story) and no hint that there's even a crisis happening. Then let it all slowly unfold over the course of the game play. And you find yourself an ordinary person cast into extraordinary circumstances, requiring you to rise to the challenge and become great/special. Sure, the whole event was foretold of by the Elder Scrolls, but nobody knows it's you.

I disagree, because for all of that "you" could have been anybody. Only Martin could perform the final act. Any heroic type could be the catalyst.In Skyrim you ARE the Dragon Born. Only the Dragon Born has the power. Only the Dragon Born can do it.

Otherwise I agree. I had to do some serious mental RPing to get around being Dragon Born ... not sure if I was successful .

Yet only you were seen in a vision by Uriel Septim, and only you ended up in a jail cell that should have been empty. Granted I don't see why an army of blades couldn't have done the exact same thing, but you were special in Oblivion. The very fact that you alone carry the amulet, you alone are send to save Martin, you alone go into gates it proves that the Blades have a greater then average trust in you, or greater then what they should logically have and all of that becaues the Emperor had some vision before he died.

I agree. I'm tired of being the chosen one.

I want to be a normal dude who just gets stronger, and does quests. Without me having to roleplay it or use mods.

All you need to do is avoid the Main Quest and continue on with the hundreds of side quests and smaller quests and you can live your life in Skyrim as another random character. You do not HAVE to be the Dragonborn in Skyrim. On one save, I have an High Elf that is the leader of the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild and that's that. It is not hard and not as if you are thrown into a "Chosen One" role at the start of the game unless you get to the point in the Main Quest where you are seen as the Dragonborn.

Start a new game, create a random race, ignore Main Quest. Simple!

To do the Civil War you have to become Dragonborn and that is unacceptable

You're released from prison under the pretense that you'll find Caius and become one of the Blades. He tells you to go adventure and train until you're not so green, but if you completely shrug off your duties as a Blade by never returning to him, you're disobeying his orders.

A decision without consequence. Nobody will care, nobody will even notice. Nobody ever told you that you were going to be important. Screw Caius, screw the Empire and still have a good life is perfectly possible in Morrowind, at least it was for me. It was a lot easier to roleplay ignoring Caius then it was ignoring Uriel Septim or the Greybeards.

i'm doing the civil war questline without starting the main quest

Finish it and you will be called dragonborn

In order to do the battle of whiterun you have to become acknowledged as Dragonborn

Fighting dragons and giants with swords and arrows alone isn't escaping real life?

how about playing GTA IV. there's a nice one where you start as a nobody. game is complete [censored] though, so... yeah...

I hope nobody thought I was making excuses on Bethesda's behalf... I know most of their writing svcks donkey doodle.
I'm used to using my imagination to make up for that kind of thing though. I'm real good at suspending reality. Might be a side effect of being completely cuckoo. :3

You would have to have played the game once in order to know that if you don't ignore the mainquest you will be a hero pretty much right away. If the devs really want you to feel special, fine. But why do things have to be rushed, having to work your way up from being a nobody would make progression alot more exciting.

But no, it's all about instant awesomeness nowdays.

GTA isn't a fantasy rpg - so I don't see how thats even relevant?

GTA1 was pretty fun tho, not gonna lie.

Something TES could definitely use more of.

Nobody cares or notices because the quest doesn't handle it. Would've made sense for Caius to send people after you if you stay away too long. No one told you that you're going to be important, but the package you give to Caius tells him you are. He gives you a task -- to get better until you're less green, then come back -- which you ignore.

That's not very nice for your character to do.

It's easier to ignore as a player, but put yourself into your character's shoes. If your character is a decent guy, and is released from prison with the explicit instructions to find Caius and follow his orders, would you honestly walk out of his house and never go back after being told to come back when you're a bit more experienced?

I often ask myself whats the point of being whatever you want if you'll end up being the savior, the hero of Skyrim... but thing is... back there when playing Oblivion the role of assistant of the Emperor was rather well... trivial... I am the one that really saved the Empire, Tamriel... Martin was just a lazy guy that stood the whole game protected and kept in hiding because he was the Dragonborn, and in the end well... I was lucky to even witness the transformation and all the Akatosh avatar thing. To hell with Martin, the hero alone of Tamriel is me.

Back to Skyrim, its a bit odd that I can be everything... Listener, Harbinger, Thieves Guild Master, Archmage... champion of Boethiah, Molag Bal, Mehrunes Dagon, Dovahkiin... thane... but thing is if I could not, that would piss me off just as well. Id like to Bethesda to implement an antagonist path... well I'm dragonborn, but if I chose to hell with this I'll do something else, then another dragonborn shows up and maybe we even meet, or not at all... just don't bother me with the savior thing I want to be alone.

that where you are wrong. There is no escape being the Dragonborn. The Civil War requires you to do the main quest and even when you dont do that there is still the problem with the word walls. The Dark Brotherhood and the College of Winterhold lead both to word walls which you cant escape. One is in the Dark Brotherhood hideout and I dont think you can come up with a reason why your screen goes black focussing on the word and with voices playing in you head.

It was nice in oblivion not to be a chosen one , yeah uriel said he saw you in his dream but apart from him everyone else counted on you due to your abilities. On the other hand when you go from that to a warrior born with the soul of a dragon the COC does seem a little underwhelming

That is true, and if it would happen then it would be a different situation, because then I'd think Caius would find it important as well. When you progress through the MQ he even admits to not believing you were special just someone that had the appearance of special.


Not all my characters are nice towards the Empire and the Emperor. Some hate the Empire, some hate the Emperor. Hell even with my favorite Nerevarine I wanted to throw the Empire out of Morrowind after having completed most quests and start a huge ass war against the Imperial province with Vivec on my side. It's a matter of loyalty I think. In Oblivion it isn't, it's a matter of survivial in Skyrim it's pretty much the same thing. DRagons are being called the bringers of the end-times. Kinda hard to ignore, now of course people that know more about the Lore can ignore that as silly Nords because Dragons have always been around, but new players or if you role play as someone without all that knowledge it would make less sense to ignore the summons of the Greybeards and the main quest.

I'm not saying Morrowind was perfect, but it was a lot easier for me to just say "Oh I don't care about the Emperor anyway, and if I was really important they should have had somebody pick me up." then it is for me to say "Oh the return of the dragons must mean nothing, and I might be a dragonborn but surely that's irrelevant in the situation."

Yes! This is one of the things that really pissed me off about the Oblivion MQ. After grinding through what seemed to be dozens of oblivion gates, after running around doing all of that lazy bastard's fetch quests while kicked back in his cool armor, drank ale, sat at the fire, ate fresh meats and veggies, comfortably read, gave orders to people, and had his butt licked at every turn I end up escorting the [censored] to the temple in the capitol city through hordes of daedra and all he does is one thing. Then I have to walk around towns everywhere and hear a bunch of tards singing "Take heart! The mighty hero cried. He looked up at Dagon and cursed his foul name" out of tune instead of them singing my praises. I did everything! If it weren't for me, that coward would have died in Kvatch. The only reason he scraqed together enough cajones to take on the avatar of Akatosh is because he probably felt a bit guilty that he was such a wuss this entire time and realized that if he didn't at that moment, I would have probably just made a Martin Septim fillet out of him.

What I liked about Morrowind is that Caius actually *encourages* you to go join factions and explore. Then come back to him after you feel that you have "sown your wild oats" essentially. The MQ in Morrowind explicitly breaks the bond of strict adherence, even if only temporarily.

You can pretty much do the same thing in Skyrim. You aren't *annointed* until you find and deliver the Dragonstone to the Jarl of Whiterun. Absolutely nothing obligates you to do this. For all you care, your neck was saved by pure chance and you have a new lease on life... go back to whatever it was you were doing before you were captured (this is where coming up with a history of your character comes into play). With Oblivion, if you take the Emperor at his word, you're annointed the minute you exit the character creation screen.

"You are the only one who can save us. Because you happen to be fairly capable, and now have the confidence to attempt such a task because I told you that you would undoubtedly succeed, even if it was just a big lie in the first place."