Well, Lokir (the horse thief, I think that's his name) steadfastly maintains he isnt a Stormcloak, and his lack of a Stormcloak cuirass and Ralof and Lokir's dialogue would seem to support that.
Your name isnt on the list that Hadvar has. And Ralof's lines, (not to mention Ulric's later on) also indicate you are not part of the rebellion.

On that carriage there were a few 'criminals' rounded up in several, different occasions. The horse thief was on his way to Hammerfell (thus, probably in the Reach region or on the road south of Falkreath that leads out of the province). The player crossed the border (from Helgen, there is a road going into Cyrodill) while the pass was blocked and the Stormcloacks were caught in an ambush at Darkwater crossing.

All of them might have been rounded up for being sent to an imperial prison. Too bad one of them was Ulfric, so Tullius decided to end the rebellion quickly and now, because prolonging the war only benefits the Thalmor

The problem is that Darkwater Crossing is nowhere near any border. Like I said, Mzchulft or Shor's Stone would be more likely the area in which you'd be when you're trying to cross the border (assuming you ccame from Morrowind)

He said the character was trying to cross the border, which implies a few things:

• You met them when they were around Darkwater Crossing
  
• Crossing the border may be a crime

The reason we were brought along with Ulfric to Helgen is because we were caught along with the Stormcloaks. It is possible that they found Ulfric and immediately scout the surrounding area and found Lokir and us who looks highly suspicious, and they assume us to be Stormcloaks. Hence Lokir repeatedly cries "We're not Stormcloaks!" and he told us to tell the Imperials that it's just a misunderstanding

When you think about it, it's a bit weird that they know beforehand about Lokir (he's on the list) yet they don't know us. Especially because Lokir seem to hate the Stormcloaks

However, it still brings the big question: We were trying to cross the border? Which border?

How does Darkwater crossing compare to the de facto border between Imperial controlled and stormcloak controlled areas? Its possible that the border referred to is not the official Skyrim border, but rather the current line of control between the two factions.

I kind of pictured my character climbing out of the woods just as the imps ambushed Ulric. Kind of a "what the hell have I stumbled into now" moment (my character's whole journey to skyrim was full of wtf moments.. it's why he's in rags). I had nothing to do with Stormcloaks. The reason why they arrested me is that I insisted on that, and then smacked one of the guards. edit: Oh, as for the border, I figured I had already gotten into skyrim. I was merely arrested near darkwater.

Well, I looked around, and found a map. Dunno about its authenticity, but according to this map:

http://riftwall.com/images/skyrim_text.jpg

Darkwater Crossing is even closer to The Rift than it is to the Throat of The World or Whiterun

They could have possibly been going in to Rift to meet up with support. If you've checked out Shor's watch tower, you'll find a note talking about an Imperial Ambush.

From my understanding, that's just where they picked you up. Not that you were busted right there "crossing". You had already crossed before your arrest.

You were not caught with Ulfric. You were just put on the same patty wagon. When you ask about how Uflric was caught he was busted in Darkwater crossing but it doesn't say you were. In fact you can impy you were not anywhere near there because by asking the questions you are saying you have no idea how Ulfric was caught. If you were there you would know.

Plus it is also mentioned that the guards thought they were transporting Ulfric to Cryidill but then were sidetracked to Helgen at the last minute to excute him instead. It is possible you were put on that wagon because they were initally intending to deport you back across the border but you wound up riding with storm cloaks and that was that.

The Empire is corrupt. They never had anything on you, so they just made up a story without checking their maps! There! LOL

I imagine my character stumbled over a camp, not knowing who she's dealing with. They shared their meager dinner with her and while she ate, BAM Imperial Soldiers ambushed them! LOL

@ Doright: Hmm, you make a lot of sense! For some reason I always thought I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and so would be summarily executed along the Stormcloaks. I mean, crossing the border really carries a death sentence? Talking about strict immigration laws here LOL

well....the thing is all the beginnings of elder scroll games have always has some big caps that the players IMIGINATION had to fill in, this way it allowed any chracter to be anything they wanted at any and at any place, honestly if you dont have good imignation then skyrim isint for you

There are gaps in what the game shows you, but if you read the books in game, they fill a lot of the gaps. For example, in Morrowind, you were sent there by the Emperor to fulfill the prophecy that a prisoner would take down the false gods.

you know people have to actually walk or ride TO the borde in the first place....right?

your character could of been doing ANYTHING, fishing, hunting, running, walking the main thing is he was cought ''trying to cross the border'' infact your character may not of even been thinking of the border at all he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, if your hunting/tracking Ulfiric or any rebel leader/general you will take anyone around in view incase they warn/tell anyone who has influence to break them out.


what you are ''told'' and what your character was actually doing is a completley different thing.

what ever happend to the creative minds / imagination around here. stop picking holes and play the game for what it is, if you cant accept it for that then chances are your not going to enjoy yourself.

im fed up of being a prisoner to start the TES games but w/e i can deal.

for most of my characters no, not really. was just totally a case of wrong place wrong time.

I did have two who were on the way into the country for different reasons and got caught up in the heightened security and ended up being arrested or dragged in for questioning that led to arrest. Neither of them are very nice individuals to begin with, as far as the Empire would be concerned. I mean... did you see the clothes they put you in? Who got our gear and money?

lol

Darkwater Pass is NorthWest of Riften though and really not at all on the border. Not even close enough to the border to be a gross overjustification or "rouding" error.

I think it's just some flavor text to give us the idea that we're gonna have to build that part of our story again.

i was skinny dipping.

Perhaps you were spotted with the Stormcloaks near the border and the ambush happened near Darkwater.

A question has anyone found the actual site of the ambush?

This would have been my guess as well as to a possible reason.

It's possible you and Lokir were busted around the Riften border and the carts were heading to cyrodiil for trial/imprisonment, but got diverted when Tullius captured Ulfric's band of merry men.

If we look on the map, the prisoner caravan was coming from the south and went North to Helgen. The nearest roads and border crossings lead to Cyrodiil. All I remember is Ralof saying "You were caught trying to cross the border, right?" I didn't hear anything about Darkwater Crossing. Also, Darkwater Crossing in-game is a mine...

So some are complaining about a minor point that in the long run is totally irrelevant? Use a little imagination and you can come up with a plausible explanation, much like a lot of posters here have done already. Quit nit-picking.

This is what I'm thinking. If you notice most of the NPCs don't leave their hold areas (hence us running errands for them in quests). You may need 'papers' just to travel between regions like The Rift and Falkreath. I'm assuming a state of martial law since there's a current civil war so the "border" could between The Rift and Falkreath and moving freely was not allowed. As for the landmark issue - there was no GPS back then and probably no 'official' detailed map that was distributed so the borders and landmarks could interpreted differently by different people/factions.

Plus, at the end of the day, our name wasn't even on the 'list' so all bets for accuracy in the charges are off.

Edited for content.

LMAO right on! As I said, the Imperial are corrupt and didn't even have anything on us, so they made it up! Those bastages! LOL

No GPS hahahaha but, dang I'm sure they had a compass!

I'm usually on board with that but the OP is right. It's a gigantic plot hole that shouldn't be there. Why not just say you got crossing the border where a border exists? And it doesn't make sense that crossing any border in Skyrim would get you arrested because there aren't any border guards along any stretch of any border, anywhere in the game. And if the developers wanted to stick with the border story yet still remain consistent, the border could consist of somewhere you can't crossover back to; like when you go too far in any direction the game gives you the prompt that you can't go any further in that direction. So create a small area in the east (or wherever) that you can visit and that is the border from where you came, but that you can't cross back into.

Simple enough. It cleans up every glaring inconsistency the OP is talking about.

I love this game but this feature is annoying. It's like when you see a movie that's really good but throughout is peppered with needless disfluencies that never should have been there in the first place. It smacks of a bad writer with too much power getting his way.

I don't think it's you who gets caught at Darkwater Crossing, just the Stormcloaks.

I just replayed the intro to find out the context of the dialogue...


He said they were on their way to darkwater, not near it. They got ambushed.

/thread