I enjoyed the college of winterhold storyline. But it seemed somewhat generic and obvious, not to mention extremely short. So, just a couple hours ago, I decided to quickly write up a synopsis for an alternative story dealing with the college and it's characters. I tried to keep some things similar but had to change up some, like Ancano not obviously being a bad guy right from the start. Also, I tried to add in some player choice. I apologize if I get names wrong or events and lore screwed up. I had to type quickly. Also, I'm technically not done with it either but it was getting way too long. So just let me know what you think:
College of Winterhold
Ranks: To increase in rank and progress the story, the player must complete certain quests, contribute to college, and have magic skills at a minimum level

Story
Entering

Player must get one of the court mages to sponsor him by interacting with the mage through trade and misc. quests. Then, the player must display a talent in one school of magic. Once complete the court mage will offer to travel with or meet the player at the ramp to the college.
Upon arrival, Faralda asks to see a display of magic and talk to the court mage about their recommendation. After being satisfied, Faralda will lead the player and court mage to the college. Upon entering, mages can be seen practicing in the courtyard. All the while, Faralda is explaining the history to the player.
Entering the Hall of Elements, the player is introduced by Faralda and the court mage to Tolfdir, who is currently giving a lesson to the other students, who have already been accepted. Player must demonstrate an ability to use the ward spell. After successfully doing so, the player will be granted the rank of associate.
Associate
Immediately after entering the college, Ancano arrives to speak with Tolfdir. The player is introduced to Ancano, who remarks how interested he is in seeing the growth and development of every student at the college. Ancano is an emissary and is at the college to integrate the teachings of the Thalmor with the teachings of the College in a partnership under magic and seems rather charming. He then makes an off-handed comment to one of the students, implying they have a relationship of sorts. Tolfdir instructs the other students to introduce the player to their room. The court mage that arrived with the mage will congratulate the player and say that he/she will keep in touch with the player, to see their progress. Then, the court mage leaves. The player will receive letters from the court mage at each increase in rank and the player can respond with either a positive or a negative letter back.
The other students give the player a tour of the college before taking him to their new room. During the tour, each student will make comments and even stop the player, giving the player an opportunity to respond to dialogue to develop friendships or rivalries with the other students as they each pursue magic for different reasons. One particular student, interested in power, happens to be the one Ancano briefly spoke to earlier.
After the tour, the layer is shown their room. They will then be told that, being the lowest ranking student, they are responsible for helping the other students develop as well as their own development. The rest of the quests for this rank involve the player getting basic lessons from the other students or finding their own ways to prove to the upper mages that they have a desire to learn. Eventually, Tolfdir will see that the player is ready for more instruction and will include him in future lessons (skill check here). He will then give the player the rank of Apprentice
Apprentice
The player begins official lessons with some of the students and Tolfdir. These lessons include combat training, enchanting, alchemy, role of mages in Skyrim, the role of mages for the college, and even taking the mages to sites of interest, such as a nord ruin or the midden. During these lessons, the player continue to reveals more and more potential as a student. Also, relationships with other students will continue to develop. After the first lesson, Ancano and Savos Aren will be seen, with Savos Aren acknowledging the player for the first time. These two seem to have a rivalry of sorts but also respectable to each other.
Throughout the remaining lessons, Ancano and Savos Aren will attend and offer advice to the students. Also, some of the higher ranked students will attend as well, to give support. At the end of each lesson, both Ancano and Aren will approach the player, offering words of encouragement and advice.
At the conclusion of these lessons and a skill check, Savos Aren announces that it is time for the apprentices to study under a teacher as a journeyman. Each teacher will announce a student they wish to teach. However, he says, he has a special announcement. He personally would like to tutor the player, as he has seen immense growth in the player in a very short time. At this moment, Ancano arrives and says that he too wishes to take on the player as an apprentice. Here the player makes a choice that is informed from previous interactions with the two possible teachers. After the player’s decision, he is advanced in rank to Journeyman (here I divert the story based on who teaches the player)

Savos Aren Pupil

Journeyman
The first task given to the player is to meet Aren in his quarters whenever he is ready. Upon arriving, Aren advises that he wants to make sure the player advances as fast as possible and that he has ideas for the player. So first, Savos opens a portal to Oblivion, commenting that he once made a deal with Hermaeus Mora to allow access to his realm of Oblivion for knowledge and training. He invites the player inside.
Entering Oblivion, the player is greeted with endless rows of books in a library (the game map actually would loop to seem endless). Savos says that somewhere, within this library, lies a book containing past rituals of magic. As a simple test, he wants the player to find it. The player must then search the bookcases and ask the denezins of the realm, who are ghosts long in search of knowledge, for help in locating the book. As the player goes deeper into the library, dangers pop-up in the form of new daedra servants. During this time, the player may find other books that teach unique spells, such as precognition (a spell that briefly stops time and allows the player to move around as a ghost to view what lies ahead), mirage (a spell that briefly allows the player to copy the look of an NPC to blend in), gust (new wind destruction spell, does that fit into lore?), and even a spell that forces a kill animation for mages if the enemy is weak enough. These spells are not required and entirely optional to find. Once the player locates the book, he returns it to Aren who remarks how the book itself cannot leave Oblivion, so he writes some notes, opens the portal back, and returns to his quarters with the player following. Afterwards, Aren rewards the player with a lesson that permanently boosts a chosen skill and tells the player to return shortly.
The second task begins with another private lesson, starting with Aren asking the player how they are doing. In between lessons, the player may have been approached by other college members asking about his private lessons. The player can choose to divulge to Aren or not. As the lesson begins, Mirabelle enters with a Windhelm guard, who claims necromancers are slowly killing off citizens of a city and raising them again as dead. Aren at first claims it’s not the college’s business to deal with the situation but the guard persuades Aren that the necromancers pose a threat to the college as there are rumors that the army they are raising is going to be used for a college takeover. Doubtful, Aren agrees to investigate the situation and brings the player along. The player can choose to travel with Aren or meet him there. If they travel with Aren, Aren will not be a companion but instead marked essential until he arrives at the location. However, the player will receive a bonus for listening to Aren along the journey. Arriving at the fort, Aren and the player are instantly paralyzed and knocked out. Waking up an unknown amount of time later, the player sees Aren about to be cut open by necromancers. After killing them, the player realizes Aren is unconscious and must drag Aren through the fort while fending off. As the player enters the final room, the Caller is waiting. She summons an army which the player must fend off and protect Aren and eventually fight the Caller. After initially defeating her, she floats into the air and begins to draw residual energy from the dead in the room, including the player, who slowly gets drug across the floor and is unable to control himself. The Caller remarks how she trained under Manimarco (sp?) during his brief revival in Cyrodil, implying she is very old. Before she can rip the players life away, Aren steps forth and casts ward, absorbing the rest of the Callers power from the player. Then, the player and Aren team to fight the Caller again. After her defeat, Aren retrieves their equipment (yes, this fight has been without items, so the player needs to utilize magic smartly) and says they better return to the college, although the player does not need to travel with him. (If the player checks around this final room, a tome can be found that begins a lichdom quest, if the player wants to pursue it).
The third task for this rank is given the moment the player returns to the college. Tolfdir was visited by Thalmor while Aren and the player were gone, wondering where Ancano was. Aren wants the player to find out what exactly happened between Tolfdir and the Thalmor. As the player speaks to college members, it becomes clear that Ancano and his student (the power hungry one) left shortly afterward the players first lesson and haven’t been seen since and the Thalmor suspect foul play. They were appeased for the moment but Aren guesses they’ll return soon and wants the player to find Ancano. More investigation reveals that Ancano and his student entered the midden and talked to the Augur of Dunlain. It turns out that Ancano had been unaware of its existence but had heard about it recently. After bringing his student to visit the Augur, Ancano seemed suddenly anxious and left quickly. He exited through a cave underneath the college, along with his student. Believing it would be hard to track him, the player returns to Aren who agrees that the pursuit would be inefficient. He says the Thalmor will have to be dealt with later. He then promotes the player to magician after a skill check.

Magician

The first task here is another lesson with Aren. The player enters the arch-mage quarters and finds Aren in the middle of a circle symbol written on the ground. Across from him is a member of the Psijic order. As the player approaches, Aren dismisses the Psijic monk, who disappears, and prompts the player to stand where he had been. Aren explains that much of what he knows of magic has been through mistakes. And so it is time to pass that lesson onto the player. He describes a scenario that involves the sacrifice of one of two fellow students. He proceeds to conjure images of them within the circle. He asks the player which he would sacrifice and the player can give a rationale for a choice. He then will describe another scenario, involving another moral dilemma with more students. Again, the player must choose between the two or none. One final scenario is presented that involves two more students in another scenario. After answering, Aren will say something that reflects the choices the player makes then informs the player to meet him at Labrynthian (sp?). He dispels the circle and leaves the room. The quest at Labrynthian operates very similarly but instead Aren is alive and the point of venturing here is to correct his mistake. Upon beating Morokei and finding the Staff of Magnus, Aren will actually take the staff before the player realizes what it is and thanks the player for their help, teaching the player a new spell (Wizard’s Fury, which is a magicka-draining and fire-damaging cloak spell).
The second task here is for the player to teach a lesson under the guidance of Aren. Aren explains that the player needs to be able to continue the education of the students and begins to express a new philosophy of integrating the college with skyrim more. After the lesson, a citizen of winterhold arrives neading healing. Seeing this as an opportunity, Aren asks the player to take care of the healing. Upon completion, another skill check occurs and Aren will name the player a warlock.

Warlock

Aren admits that the player’s time as his apprentice is nearly up. Soon, the player will be ready to take on their own pupil or venture into skyrim. He feels that the player is ready to undergo experimental magic.
Returning to the arch-mage quarters, Aren reopens the portal to Oblivion. Inside, Aren instructs the player how to open the portal themself, although he warns that in order to do so he must make a deal with Hermaeus Mora. As the player goes in search of the Daedric Prince, Aren ventures further into Oblivion. The player finds the Daedric Prince and finds out the only deal Mora will accept is the ownership of the player’s soul upon death. Accepting the deal will grant the player the ability to travel to Oblivion whenever. They have the ability to read unique books and in this area, skill growth is more rapid. It acts like a training ground. The player can choose to not accept. After the conversation with Mora, Aren will return and say they must return. Back in the college, Aren asks the player if he would like a gift. Before the character can respond, Mirabelle arrives in a panic, saying the Thalmor have seized winterhold. Aren says their experiment will have to wait. As the three head down to the gates of the college, Ancano is seen leading the Thalmor, and presents the corpse of the student he was previously teaching. Ancano says the college belongs to the Thalmor and to surrender or more students die. Aren refuses and a fight breaks out. The Thalmor continually respond and the college slowly begins to lose ground. Aren approaches the player saying this is an opportunity to test some new spells. He gives a spell to the player to cast upon the ground. When the player does, Aren casts another a few feet away. A protective shield forms that keeps the Thalmor back.
Aren says that the citizens of winterhold must truly despise the college for occurrences like this and the Great Collapse. He hands the player a scroll that Aren created. It contains a unique spell that will give the player unlimited magicka for a short time. He orders the player to remain behind as he tries to bring the remainder of the students into the hall of elements. Suddenly the Thalmor break through and the player must use the scrolls to fend off the Thalmor as Aren tries to protect the college members. He shortly returns and is joined by Mirabelle. The three fight back the Thalmor. Eventually, Ancano will call for a truce, only if Aren comes with them. Aren agrees, turning to the player and saying he is now a Wizard and among the elite at the college. He must work with Mirabelle to finish protecting it. He leaves with Ancano and the Thalmor retreat.

Wizard

Mirabelle instantly gets the player working on healing students and repairing the college. She notes that the Thalmor still reside in Winterhold. She suspects another attack soon. As the player finishes the last chores, a sudden blast erupts through the school. Mirabelle believes it comes from the midden and leads the player down into it. They arrive at the Augur, which glows a deep black and red. In front is Ancano with his dead pupil resurrected and Aren, seemingly bound and dead. Ancano explains how he found out that the Augur was once a student and a man no less (don’t know if this is true but I’m rolling with it). It is an abomination and must be destroyed. Originally, he believed it would take all the Thalmor to destroy it, but he had been keeping track of Aren and found out he had found the Staff of Magnus while in Labrynthian; also, Aren had been experimenting with new magic. Ancano had found all the power he needed without the sacrifice of Thalmor in Aren alone. The Augur begins to resemble a man in shape and screams in agony. The screen begins to blur and a flash of light erupts with a blast.
The player finds himself lying next to Mirabelle, who is slowly rising to her feet. Ancano is briefly seen fleeing, his dead apprentice carrying Aren and a glowing body from the room. The player cannot rise and Mirabelle says the player has a few broken bones (which are viewable if the player looks around). She apologizes that she has no magicka to heal the player and neither does the player. Aren appears before them in a spectral form. He crouches down and heals the two before explaining that he is technically not dead. During his lesson with the player about sacrifices, Aren had tied his soul to the players while inside the circle. He apologizes but promises he did it for this very reason. Long ago the Augur told him this would happen but the Augur had no power to see beyond this moment. Aren knew he would have to find some way to survive to heal Mirabelle and the player. He leads the two out of the midden and back to the college. Outside the sky flashes from night to day and the ground and city of winterhold flash in and out. Aren explains that, since the Augur was an artifact of divination, it was directly linked to time. By trying to kill the Augur, Ancano undid time. Currently, the college and the city of winterhold are merging timelines causing ghosts of past and future people to appear, as well as buildings from the old city of Winterhold. This allows the player to see what the city had been like at one point. The three leave the midden and return to the college courtyard. On top of the wall, Ancano proclaims the Augur dead and that it will be reborn through a Mer. Him, to be precise. The other Thalmor are seen approaching the castle. Aren says they either must fight Ancano and the Thalmor, then revive the Augur, or they can activate a spell that Aren learned from the book the player had given him from Oblivion much earlier. The spell acts like a genocide bomb, killing all members of a particular race within a radius. If used, the spell will kill all Thalmor but also kill any Altmer students at the college. Also, because the time lines are merging, the spell would have effects in the past and future too.
If the player decides to fight, it becomes a typical battle scene and Ancano uses the revived body of Aren to fight too. The Thalmor will continue to respawn until the player kills Ancano, which generates a finite number of Thalmor. Students and citizens of winterhold can be killed during this fight. Also, as the fight insures, the ocean can be seen through flickers getting rough. At the conclusion of the fight, the ocean crashes into a past winterhold, allowing the player to witness the Great Collapse.
If the player decides to use the spell, he, Aren, and Mirabelle will form a triangle and begin to channel power to the player, who creates a ball of pure magicka in the air. At detonation, all Altmer will lay dead. Also, the shockwave from the spell causes the sea to rise and crash into a past winterhold, creating the Great Collapse.
(This accounts for the discrepancy for the reason of the Great Collapse. It is possible to be a natural cause and also a consequence of the college. In particular, it’s the consequence of the player’s decision)
After Ancano’s defeat, Aren says they need to revive the Augur with the staff of magnus. The staff can be found on Ancano’s body. The player directs it to the Augur now in human form and begins to change back into normal. As it does so, the time splits stop and the player returns to present skyrim. By recognition from both Aren and Mirabelle, the player becomes Arch-mage and is now responsible for the college. Citizens from winterhold are in the courtyard, thanking the college for freeing them from the Thalmor and they ask what happened, depending on the choices of the player. The player can respond truthfully or lie to the citizens, which will affect the perceptions of the college for the rest of the game. Also, Aren comments how he is still connected to the player. If the player chooses, Aren will inhabit the player’s body and act like a semi-permanent boost to the character’s skills and magicka. Also, the player can, once-a-day, greatly draw upon Aren. For 60 seconds, the player receives unlimited magicka and a boost to all magic skills, as well as having a visual change in the player (semi-spectral perhaps?). However, after the 60 seconds, the player will suffer reduced magicka, magicka regen., and lowered skills for 24 hrs. It is a boost needed whenever the player is in a tight spot. Also, Aren will (like the medic armor from Fallout 3) occasionally make comments to the player, as he watches the events. He may give warnings of attacks or something similar. The player can ask Aren to be quiet if the player gets annoyed with the comments. If the player chooses, he can undergo a unbinding ritual that will release Aren and allow his spirit to pass. Aren says he has no preference and will respect whatever decision the player makes.

Arch-mage

As arch-mage, the player is responsible for rebuilding the college and investing more time into relations with Skyrim. Since the player followed Aren, the purpose of the college now is to integrate itself. Also, the player can take on a pupil of their own. Misc. quests will appear and allow the player to decide to deal with the situation itself or send students. These will slowly increase the standing of the college. Aren left behind some notes that point to locations of spell tomes and items the player can hunt down. Same thing for necromancers at odds with the college.


I haven't written the Ancano side of the story, but if someone likes what I've done and wants to write that aspect of it, having the player be a pupil under Ancano, go right ahead. Just let me know what you people think of this.

it's an interesting alternative. I would have loved for Skyrim to include promotions and various skill-checks.

I liked some of the ideas. My main criticism is that the PC gets to interact with the Arch-Mage too soon. IMO it would be better if that was delayed as long as possible. In the meanwhile, the Arch-Mage could either be shrouded in mystery or built-up as some magnificent mage by the other members of the College. This would make the PC's first interaction with him more remarkable.

I like this idea. I really missed going up through ranks.

I also think it would be cool as Archmage to help rebuild Winterhold.

I wanted this too but I was working off the Ranks from Oblivion and I had a hard time generating quests before working with the Arch-Mage. And yes, the Arch-Mage should be greatly admired and mysterious. I didn't write any dialogue but a lot of that would be done through dialogue.

Any other takers?

yeah.. i found it funny that at the moment i got into the College and i think after they showed me the room, i was talking with someone about the Arch-Mage in the main "courtyard" and after that i saw this guy standing there so i talked to him, only to find out HE was the arch-mage listening in on our conversation. LoL XP

I love this idea!

Basically, before reading this i had concluded that i wanted several of the things you add:
- A longer questline
- Skillchecks, i would actually even go so far as to include perk-checks on the highest ranks (dual casting would be a good idea for instance) to ensure that only a character going for a mage style would be eligible
- Ranks
- Choices with impact (applies to all of the game, not just the college)

Your story is really cool too. Tbh i would have been happy if they had just redone the current one a bit though, my first three things i wanted to add would be easy to just add into the current questline. Basically i think they could have made some of the misc quests you can get from your fellow students a prerequisite to rank up in between some of the actual quests (after sarthal or after the caller i guess) integrating misc into the questline (much like you propose), and then they could have added one more proper quest and introduced skillchecks with each rank up..

Your idea of rewriting the whole thing is great though, and i really love how you manage to put choice into it!

Yeah right now when you meet the Arch-Mage it's just another character really. The first time I saw him he was standing in my way so I had to shove him aside by sprinting into him. Needless to say, when I found out he was the Arch-Mage I wasn't impressed at all


I really like your idea OP! It would definitely make the College more interesting and better to play through.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm going to bump this while I work on the Ancano side of the story.

Actually, nevermind. I can't seem to get into the mindset right now for a Thalmor centered story.

YES. About triple the level of depth and interest of the original story.