Personally, I have sympathies for the plight of the Forsworn. There are real world anologies to what happened to them.

In the land that was to become Australia, the British had hunting parties to massacre aborigines and in the following years took much of their land from them. In North America the same thing happened when the Europeans invaded and took most of the indigenes' lands and killed or displaced thousands.

The Forsworn have similar grievances against the Nords who cruelly disenfranchised the natives of Skyrim. My Nord wants to be a friend to the Forsworn but they keep attacking her so she is forced to reply with defensive force.

I will not hit on a Forsworn who shows no aggression but instead will try to get into conversation with them. Unfortunately those opportunities are far too rare.

There is a lot of TESV, I have yet to do but one thing that appears to be missing is a way to become involved with the Forsworn. Perhaps a DLC? Cidhna Mine was my only chance to hear their side of the story and I was saddened when my connection with them was severed when we escaped.

Forsworn aren't aboriginals.
They declared genocide on every non-Forsworn in the Reach.
So the reason they don't get trials are anything is simple: THEY STARTED IT!

Try some illusion spells. Calm?

As vikingdragons said, they (The Nords) aren't the ones who started the whole "murder anyone that isn't us" routine.

And that's kinda the clue to your answer. I'm sure the first hippie that wandered into Little Big Horn after Custer's visit wasn't welcomed with warm arms either.

change hearing to beating then yes i agree

Only the gutless don't rebel against their oppressors.

The Forsworn are no longer the radical group of natives who want their land back. They're a group of ritualistic human sacrificing genocidal bandits. If the Forsworn were the aboriginals who wanted their land back, they'd have either attacked Markarth already or asked for the Dragonborn to help rather than kill him outright.

If the original Forsworn was truly a group that wanted their land back, I'd be obliged to help but not anymore. They're nothing but filthy bandits.

Um, they did attack Markarth. They held it for something like two years before the Nords, with Ulfric at the lead, managed to take it back and started executing them. That's when they fled out into the hills and became the Forsworn.

They really don't have the power to do it again, though. They only succeeded the first time because the Empire and it's legions were occupied with the Dominion. Now, though? They're left with gorilla tactics and raiding, or terrorism.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_%22Madmen%22_of_the_Reach

Actually, the Forsworn were there long before the Nords

The forsworn were there before the Nords but that doesnt mean they were there first. Im fairly sure they took it from someone that was there before them.

dwemer were there before them all, pissing on the walls (seen any toliets in the game!!!!)

The elves were there before any men. And yet there is scant few on these forums that support the Thalmor's righteous crusade to recover their stolen lands. Double standards...

That might be worth noting if the Altmer ever actually controlled the regions they're trying to conquer and control, but they didn't. Cyrodiil was ruled by the Ayleids and Skyrim by the Falmer.

The Thalmor aren't trying to recover stolen lands. They're trying to destroy the world.

Hard to sympathize with the Forsworn when they consort with monsters (hagravens), commit ritual sacrifice, and violently attack anyone who isn't one of them. If they ever had legitimate claim to the Reach and it was taken away from them by Nord invaders, that's as regrettable as any other incident of people losing their lands to conquerors. But in the time since, they've become violent, hateful barbarians.

I like the way you worded that

Anyway, i agree with you. I think there should have been a quest in the civil war questline where you had the option to give them the Reach, or at least part of it. On the condition that they stop the human sacrificing, necromancy and whatnot. It would be interesting to try to convince Ulfric to give up the reach to the forsworn.

The irony that is the Forsworn. Bretons on their own land taken by the Nords. The indigenous inhabitants of the Reach who want their land back. Sound familar? My little Breton is very conflicted when dealing with the Forsworn and she wonders if Ulfric Stormcloak would support their battle to get their land back. Sure he would, wouldn't he?

Great job with the story, Bethesda...so many twists and turns and another subtle plotline to think about.

Remember, it was HUNDREDS of years ago the forsworn lost their land.

imagine if the Native Americans suddenly decided to take up arms and swore to kill every European-descended American they could find. Would this be a reasonable thing to do? Would you side with them? - Hopefully the answer is "no" if you're sane. Because something terrible was done to a people's ancestors centuries ago, it doesn't excuse commiting equally terrible acts in revenge hundreds of years down the line.

If you follow a doctrine of "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" sooner or later everyone is eyeless and toothless

This. An attempt at genocide hundreds of years after the fact when they could just as easily put down their arms and join the rest of the world is nothing short of an act of war. Besides, if they want to take out all the Nords, you would think they would hesitate when going after the player if they aren't a nord. They also should consider allying themselves with the Falmer if they actually want a chance to win any kind of war/

Creeps who attack me unprovoked, even after I help spring their leader from jail, deserve death.

After you do the quest, only the band associated with the King of Rags at their base will all be friendly to you.
Every other camp will remain hostile however. I suppose to its the keep the quests associated with the forsworn from breaking.

I don't believe the forsworn started out as a band of murderers however; that came later, after ulfric.

Totally agree... I felt swayed in the dirrection of the foresworn at 1st... Until I saw what they were doing...

Just allying themselvrs with hagravens ( Which I've found more than one area has ) is enough to set my sword to the task, not to mention the rest.

On another instance, The Legend of Red Eagle seems to imply the Hag Ravens came to the Reachman offering them power for vengeance against the people who took their lands though.

Two that I can remember, in Cidhna Mine and somewhere...where they're training young necromancers...?

The Forsworn were once the settlers of the Reach sure, but after the Markart Incident they have become consumed by revenge. They have fallen so far that they have the heart of some of their warriors and hedge-wizards replaced so they can become more powerful, and they are assossiated with the Hagravens which are known to deal in dark, twisted magic according to the in-game loading screens.

And only the weak allows the desire for revenge destroy who they are