So I've been taking my sweet, sweet time going through the MQ. I just started Elder Knowledge and now I realize......




Possible Spoiler...





I have to join the [censored] College of Winterhold!!!!!!!!! Seriously?? They just can't let me in when I tell them I'm there as Dragonborn looking for an Elder Scroll?

I know, I know. I don't have to do the quests for the College. I'll still, however, have a quest in my log that will never be completed. I will also forever be an apprentice of the College. Dun wan da.

Not cool, Bethesda. I dont like being pigeon holed so openly. The MQ of any RPG should never force you to join any faction/guild. Not happy.

Is there no work around? Besides mods...

End rant.

You have to 'join' for the main quest. You even have to do the first part of their questline to complete the Gauldar Amulet quest. As you say, you dont have to follow the whole questline through, but its pretty annoying having it hang about in your questlog.

I love you.

Edit: Ill see if this works. Didnt want to have to read about this quest on UESP but I guess Ill have to.

There is a possible way into the College without going through the gate, though I havent tested it myself.
But there is a dungeon under the College that has an exit to the outside world on a ledge behind the College.
Its one of those dungeon exits that puts you on a place that you cant reach easily yourself, but can clamber down from.
I have read of people who were able to gain entry that way, you could try it.

The way I see it, the main quest sort of has a secondary purpose of serving as a tour guide of Skyrim. Just in case players forget exploring certain areas, they cleverly include a few areas to get you on track. Whiterun, Riften, Winterhold, etc..

Also, technically, your player character is a mage in a way. It's just not part of the common schools of magic. If you're a warrior who can call down lightning storms, you're pretty much a magic user. As dragons are magic users. So roleplay it that way. And if you don't want to stick with Winterhold, don't. But you could even roleplay it as someone who decides they have a place there and logically becomes a leader.

I definitely see your point. But I just don't see my Breton warrior type joining the college. I'm pretty OCD when it comes to RPG's.

Well, just say hi to your fellow Breton Mirabelle, and then leave.

It's not as though you have to run around in mage robes if you dont want to! I sympathise with you about being forced to 'join' any sort of faction you dont like, but the mages colllege isnt so bad. You get your own room and safe places to store stuff, and there's a stupidly huge amount of alchemy ingredients lying around waiting to be taken. Plus the robes can be sold for a handy amount of gold.



Edit: My charecter is predominantly a warrior/tank style berserker, and I'd hoped to play the game as a hack N slash mindless grunt and leave all that fancy magic to the others. But there's no harm in learning how to throw fireballs and lightning bolts around. .

I finished the MG questline with 100 Magika (sp?), so you dont even have to be magically inclined!

Yeah, I thought this was kind of weak as well. I already knew who to talk to, as I joined the mages guild on another character, so I didn't have to do any quests.

Has anyone else tried to just Fus-Ro-Dah the chick guarding bridge into the ocean and attempted to waltz in?

She will accept your shout instead of a spell for entry if you tell her you are dragonborn

Yeah, that's what I meant to say above.

I agree it is slightly annoying, especially since they included the option of gaining entry by using a shout instead of forcing you to cast a magic spell. I don't see why they couldn't just extend this into a "By the way, I'm Dragonborn, just here to check something out" without actually beginning the guild questline just as a mage apprentice would.

Personally I just did the shout, crossed the bridge, and ignored whatever her name is who's in charge and gives you the tour. But you still have the entry sitting in your journal.

Shouts are magic though.

Dragons were Akatosh's first children, and embued with powerful magic like some other races. It's just their own unique magic. You, being dragonborn, have the same capabilities. Also, and I'm not sure why, but even the amulet of Akatosh has a magicka regen bonus. He must be presiding over some magical domain somehow. Maybe we could tie that into our reasoning a bit. It's almost impossible to be a pure warrior in this game, as that is commonly understood.

What I meant was they already included a method of entering the College grounds without having to express desire to be a mage and "study" at the College. I don't know why they forced joining the College and beginning the mage questline anyway.

Actually you don't need to do that quest, you can just go talk to the librarian directly. I didn't even go listen to Tolfdir.

So I broke down and consulted the UESP. I went directly to Septimus Signus, bypassing Urag and the College. There is no actual objective to talk to Urag so the quest updates normally in the Log.

So yeah....Umm...sorry for the rant, and a big thank you to everyone who commented. I hope in the future when my OCD causes more Skyrim angst I will be able to not look like a [censored].

Hey, my Imperial became the Archmage without a single perk in the mage tree. Figure this out.

This isn't so....