Welp, apparently I am forced to join Winterhold College for the mainquest. Despite being a pure warrior, and despite me never wanting to join in the first place. Now normally I'd just brush it off and ignore that giant waste of space in my journal telling me to take a tour, except now all the NPC's are going "OH LOL YOU'RE THAT GUY FROM THE COLLEGE RIGHT??" so it's quite annoying.

What is the faction ID for winterhold college, can I get rid of the starter quest from my journal?

You should've did what I did and just coc to the mage library and the ratway...that way you aren't forced to join the mage and thieves guilds.

You don't need to coc to the Ratway. You can just talk to the inn keeper in Riften and proceed to travel to the Raged Flagon normally. Just throwing that out there.

What's coc? Console command?

Yes. Stands for "center on cell".

Hm, I didn't realize you had to be a member of the College to progress the MQ (I only got that far with one character who was already a member). That's just wrong.

I don't know the ID for the faction, best to use the coc for now, but I assume you've already joined anyway. So you're probably going to have to wait until the CK comes out, which shouldn't take too long anymore

You can avoid the College entirely if you go straight to Septimus.

Might be out of luck. Can't you just hit some members and have them turn hostile and kick you out. Maybe. Works on your wife.

Cheers