Finally ended up finishing the MQ by level 46 and it left me feeling rather... Confused...

I realize after I almost killed Alduin that he had to regain his strength in Sovengarde. What I don't get is how he can get there. I was aware it was a realm only the dead could enter, but apparently if you can fly you can get there? Then there was the matter of the Dragon Priest that opened the portal for Alduin. I thought Alduin could enter but apparently he needs the power of one of these priests to get there?! How did they get the power to open a window to the afterlife? After finally entering Sovengarde I was confused by the lack of people. Is this only a small area of the afterlife? I realize Alduin needed to trap the recently slain souls that had not made it through (even though I just walked right through without ever dispelling the fog) and eat them. In the Hall, though, there are still only a small collection of Nords. Also, why was Alduin aloud to reside there by Shord (Whoever the leader of Sovengarde is)? The warrior at the beginning of the bone bridge (Can't remember his name) said that he was told to allow Alduin to reside there... So yeh, thats what I don't get... Also, what opens up after I finish the MQ?

You can start an epic fight with a bunch of dragons, or let them fly off and pick them off another day.

But pretty much you are dumped off, given a small speech, and life as normal in Skyrim.

I feel your pain.

I have no clue, TBH...
And a few horse-playing tards munching on cow leg in some crappy lodge is hardly a worthy dimension.
What happens after you finish? Oh, you'll love this part: not much!
No one cares, and all the NPC's still treat me like a level 1 noob fresh off the prison wagon.

I really hate the MQ ending, there's even no rewards! I even hoped that after I kill Alduin I would get his power to call meteors!!

Or at least get to loot his corpse...

The entire main quest after Blackreach felt phoned in and rushed to me, like they didn't even care. Both fights with Alduin were not any different except one time you have 3 invincible friends that distract 99% of his attention and its a different location. Killing him was not even satisfying since he was so weak, and just like every other dragon in the game.

Very true, I was heavily encumbered and weak to fire attacks with my Nord; it would have been impossible for me to fight him head-on.
But with the invincible NPC's helping out, I was able to hide and plink him with my worthless arrows like a coward. He fell quickly and without any effort on my part.

Wait, what?, you don't consider a shout for a sovingard hero a reward?, one of the best shouts in my opinion, and iirc there's also a reward of a weapon?

What level were you on?, I was on adept level 50 and using an epic ebony bow enchanted with fire and ebony arrows, took me over an hour to finally kill him, the hero's were getting pasted by alduin.

It might be more special if that "hero" didn't fall so quickly. After 2 or 3 shout blasts he gets a smack upside the head, poof gone. Shout bar takes 5 hours to recharge.

MQ was one of my first real things I did, so I wasn't too powerful. Level 15, 20 maybe... had a few shouts. Ran circles around the bridge guardian [censored] and blasted him with fire breaths. Otherwise he beat me in a few hits. My gear wasn't too impressive, believe me.

Well, I guess I'll get back to playing on my newer character then.... I'll ready up on some of the stuff I missed in the guide. Starting on a file I haven't played in awhile on FO:3, rather miss that game, I always go through my Fallout and Elder Scolls phases, lol.

Egad! After what y'all said, I'm in no rush to finish the MQ

Heh. Me either. I do the first few things - just so I can get souls and shouts. The rest of it can take a hike.... I don't care if I ever finish the MQ. MQs are never why I play games in TES franchise anyway. Reminds me. I need to go dig out my Daggerfall dvd and see how many patches it needs.... I never finished the MQ on it either....

I was hoping I would at least be able to make an Armor from Alduin's corpse, or at least be given a talking to by someone important like High Chancellor Ocato in Oblivion and get a cool looking armor.

i think there are supposed to be lots of Nords out wandering in the fog. Conveniently, you don't get to meet them or see them.

I just finished the MQ today and I also wondered how the hell Alduin got into Sovngarde. Maybe the priest was just there for the dovahkiin to unlock the portal and Alduin had his own power to do it. I also didn't quite get why the people living in Sovngarde hadn't slay Alduin for themselves allready. I was like lvl 39 and all I did was Dragonrend him and cast Destruction spells on him and he went down in no time. For an instant I thought I was able to loot him when a 'Search Alduin' popped up and as I was spamming buttons he disappeared. I was quite disappointed the MQ only gives you a shout as reward. Bout the Nords in the fog, one actually came up and talked to me that I had to back and I had him following me until he got eaten lol.

I reloaded after defeating him, to make sure. The first time around a strange golden arrow fell from the sky with the "search Alduin" option, then it vanished. I was like wow, thanks.

Alduin's purpose is not only to consume the world but also to consume the souls of the dead; hence Alduin can access Sovengard to fulfill this purpose. I know this was mentioned by someone in the main quest dialogue, probably by the Greybeards. Since the mortal world was proving too difficult for Alduin due to the return of the Dragonborn he probably thought it safe to start with Sovengard

yeah, 200 hours in and I haven't even been past the point where you find the Old Base with Delphine and Esbern. I'm gonna go extra slow....

Well apparently the Dragon Priest let him in and was closing the portal behind him. I just don't get why hes gotta rely on mortals to heal himself after the "I'm so powerful" speech and what not... I also remembered something I forgot, he can't be harmed unless suffering from Dragonrend. Oh wait, the three heros knew that as well, nevermind... They could have easily killed him when he came to Sovengarde, I don't get it.... Someone with massive lore knowledge please enlighten me!!

Well, that's another badly thought out issue with the story/gameplay. First of all, Dragonrend, at all 3 levels comes back before it wears off, meaning it could be maintained indefinitely by just one person, which, if it actually had a much longer reuse/lower duration would have justified the need of 4 Dragonrends.

Also, it's incredibly silly how in life, they could not even stand up to him for a minute...yet when they help us fight him in Sovngarde...they all tank him like it's nothing at all.

Basically, the entire fight was overkill in our favor...he was no harder than the first dragon we kill with the aid of the Whiterun guards. No special tactics or anything required really.

Ok so Alduin is like the first living thing ever created or something (he is referred to as Akatosh's son) so he has that power. There was a dragon priest at the portal, you had to use his staff to enter Sovngarde. I'm sure they got the power to do it through magic (like how a conjurer opens a portal to Oblivion). As for the amount of people, only the honored dead are allowed in (the ones who died in battle I think), and inside the mead hall there was a good amount of people for a Bethesda game. You have to understand the limitations though.

I assume Alduin was allowed to reside there because he is the son of Akatosh? Or perhaps Shor has no choice (he would get destroyed).

First, you have to realise who Alduin is/was. We are talking here about the first dragon ever. Akatosh's favourite. An immortal creature that was made from the very fabric of creation. Some misinformed people even believed Alduin to be the Nord version of Akatosh (which a young boy eloquintly disputes in 'Alduin is real'). So it stands to reason that this is a foe of immense powers and abilities.

How did he manage to get to Sovngarde? From the conversation with the dragon you capture in Whiterun it can be deduced that he learned this secret aeons ago and refuses to share it with his fellow Dhove. Being able to feed on the souls of the dead gave him an edge over his kin from the start. It is clear though that he opened a portal to Sovngarde with the aid of a dragon priest. Perhaps since the dawn of time there was alway one selected to maintain this portal. Dragons can shout but they are no sorcerers. Opening portals into other dimensions would definitly require a very powerful magic user. Just because you have to resort to using lesser creatures to do your bidding does not make you weak. Heck, all evil potential world dominators resort to tricks like that.

So he gained access to Sovngarde and started eating lost souls. Why was he allowed to stay? Very simply because in Sovngarde he could be killed permanently. In the world of the living he could be beaten back and even hurt to an extend but never vanquished. He was a part of the world remember? But in the land of the dead he could be killed quite dead. So they let him come and go as he pleased in the hopes that someday a heroe with the power to kill dragons (you) would find a way to Sovengarde and take care of business. The game is patient like that. NPCs can sit around for thousands of years just waiting for you to come by. Don't ask. Why did they not kill him themselves? Because they can't. Only a living breathing dhovakiin can kill dragons so that they stay dead. It is the blood inside your veins that gives you this ability to absord the souls of dragons. Since dead people don't have any blood left not even Ysgrammor himself could touch Alduin.

Why so few people in the hall? Because to enter the hall dead Nords have to prove their bravery against the guardian of the bridge before they may enter. And of course if you had to put every dead Nord in their from the last aeon or two the game would blow up. Oh and Alduin probably had breakfast that morning before you arrived.

Why was Alduin so easy to kill? Because although you might have run off and done 100 hours of sidequests, gathering herbs or smithing daedric armor the quest waited patiently for you to get back to it. Quests are cool like that too. So while it may feel like years later to you, in actual quest time only a few days have passed since your first battle with Alduin on the throat of the world. Confusing, I know but I guess it's to keep the flow of the story right. So when you get to Sovengarde after crawling through a dungeon filled with undead minions and a few dragons you find a much weakened Alduin. He is using a large part of his reserved power to cast a mist over Sovngarde to make it easier to hunt. It also serves to protect him from interference by the locals in the hall. So you join forces with said locals and dispel the mist, thereby enabling you and your new dead friends to shout that vilest of dragons down to the ground. It's not a heroic battle. It's not a tale the bards will sing for years to come. It's just something that needs to be done. The end of a long journey. And I think this is what many people miss about this quest. It is not about the end but about the journey getting there.

So you get beamed back to Skyrim after saying your goodbyes and learning a new shout that allows your dead friends to pop in for a quick visit every now and then. And there right in front of your eyes is your reward. Not gold. Not some magical piece of armor. Nay, those are for noob adventurers. We just killed the world eater man and although victory felt hollow it was still a great deed. What better reward than looking up and realising that half the dragons in skyrim came to pay homage to a hero and to mourn a once great dragon.

So yeah, have fun at it folks. Rewards are what you make of it. And besides a cool dragon slaying sword, many shouts learned along the way and the ability to call heroes from Sovengarde you of course also get the ability to call a dragon to assist you in battle. Now tell me that's not cool.

^
It's not. The journey felt incredibly short and rushed after Blackreach, like they had no idea what they were doing or how they were going to conclude it, so they just decided to rush us through to the end....and the lackluster boss battles I entirely attribute to a combination of laziness and apathy.

If anything, the fact that he is devouring souls while we are away gives the game justification for making him stronger the longer we procrastinate. They could have even gone the route of saying that he is far stronger now, even though we had just beaten him, because he has consumed a ridiculous amount of souls in such a short time, artificially inflating his level of power, but at the same time destabilizing his physical form, making him killable in Sovngarde due to such an act of desperation. We don't even get that kind of explanation for why he is suddenly killable.

Instead, our victory feels hollow and ill earned, and it's clear they did not even try to do anything interesting really with the battle, or the lead up to it. Lack of scripting knowledge notwithstanding, even I could have conceptualized a far better final encounter than that copy and pasted tripe they gave us.