I have a dilemma to say the least. I want to own the house in Herjim after doing the blood on the ice quest, but to do so I need to join the civil war. I want to complete the thieves guild quest dampened spirits, but to do so, I need to join the civil war so I can remove Maven from Riften so she can give me the quest (she doesn't give the quest if she is a Jarl). I don't want to be part of the civil war though. I don't want to have to choose between some racist corrupt Nords and some Thalmor boot licking corrupt Imperials.

Why? Why am I forced into this? I did a ton of favors in Windhelm, why can't I buy a house? Maven is a Jarl, so? Why can't she give me a quest that has nothing to do with the war? Why am I forced into something that's irrelevant in both cases? There is no reason except lazy continuity. Stuffing the civil war into everything won't make me like it, it's a lose-lose situation with little to no benefit, well, except the benefits forced into it.


I'm not on PC so I can't use console commands to bypass the asinine restrictions either (Got a PS3).

Well, as I see it, you have to do some distasteful things to get the appropriate rewards. Bethesda puts moral dilemmas (some greyer than others) into their games to make us decide between the lesser of two evils - that's just what they do. I would've loved to have the suite in Tenpenny Tower, but I was not going to blow up Megaton to get it so I had to accept the corrugated metal apartment.

I'd like to get some of the rewards in Skyrim, but I'm not willing to what it takes so I have to go without.

Not everything is for everybody.

If you want to do the Thieves' quest, no problem - Maven will never be Jarl if you don't do the civil war quests (and side with the Imperials).
You won't get the house, however - but do you really need it?
(I could never bring myself to blow up Megaton either, even on my most morally suspect Lone Wanderer).

I understand lesser evils, I've done nearly all the Daedric quests. But this is railroading plain and simple. The civil war has nothing to do with either of those things, it's forced in there for the sake of it. This would be like forcing you to be a cannibal and eat a corpse in the Daedric quests if you wanted to, say, slay Alduin. It makes no sense, it's forcing morality in where it doesn't need to be.

My business with the Thieves Guild has nothing to do with the civil war either. I got through the entire DB quest line, even killing the Emperor, and I didn't have to pick a side there either.

She became Jarl during negotiations of the main quest line. In order to proceed and kill alduin, I had to negotiate a ceasefire and was forced to put Maven in power. I never picked sides, both sides had to give up something. Now the consequence is that if I don't pick a side (again, something totally irrelevant) I don't get to move forward.


As for the house, it's the best house in my opinion. Secret room, tons of storage space, ideal location.....all of it for nothing, because I don't help capture a fort. Never mind that I solved the murder case and did every favor the city had to offer.

Ah, fair enough - I haven't tried a run where I've not been involved in the civil war. Can you do the thieves quest before you do the ceasefire quest?

And yes, it's really annoying about Hjerim but them's the breaks.