Main quest spoilers ahead. Read at your own peril.

Hey guys, I have a question. I beat the main quest for the first time a few hours ago. I got sent by Delphine to get dragonrend and spent the next few quests getting directions from Parthurnaxx, as he was closer than Delphine and Esbern. I already had the elder scroll so I didn't need to do any of those objectives. I beat alduin in Sovngarde and ended up onthe throat of the world. After speaking to Parthurnaxx, I went down to High Hrothgar, waiting foe a celebration: the greybeards are missing. Now I'm in Skyhaven and it's empty. What's going on? Did I miss something? Where's Delphine, Esbern, and the greybeards? I hear you get to rebuild the blades at some point. When does this happen?

they dont go anywhere and the game continues on like normal. if you didnt do the blades quest to kill paarturnax before beating alduin then you lost that opportunity and will not be able to help the blades rebuild because now paarturnax is an essential and cannot die. that has to happen before the completion of thhe main quest.

they sould still be there though, have yyou looked around more because they wander out into the courtyyard and esbern goes outside the temple sometimes theres some training dummies there and stuff.

Wrong. I killed him after the main quest.

Wait WHAT ABOUT PARTHURNAX????

They are in the meeting hall and Arngeir will speak to you when you enter.

I thought the same thing- I was worried about them!!! I thought maybe they offed themselves in a grand shouting match because they thought the world was ending. Or something. But no, they were just in the conference room eating donuts waiting for my arrival. lol

Well its Christmas. Theyre probably with family.....

*laughing* Props!

LOL. They were gathered in the meeting hall in my game too.

(Claps at your comedy) Terrific. Terrific! Anyway, I had no idea you had to kill Paarturnax...that's crazy. Can I kill the blades instead?

I'm afraid not, I built these guys up before I got this demand of theirs so it felt pretty much like they backstabbed me after I helped them.

You cant kill them. But you dont *have* to kill paarthanux. its your choice.

Well that's stupid...they should be made non essential. They should've known we'd want to kill them if we didn't want to kill Parthurnax...

If y'all are on pc, eventually someone will do a mod. That's about all I can offer you right now.

you can make them unessential on the pc console i think, but ive never done it myself.

Oh.... yes, I think you probably can. But I'm not really into doing that sort of thing (other than armor....) I just pretend I killed them because they were living in some skooma-dream world of their own.... RP is a wonderful thing....

Well I played oblivion on the pc but I got skyrim for xbox so it would run better since my computer couldn't handle it well. Long story short, no killing the bar wench and the sewer rat...

There's hopefuly (for the love of god) now bigger fish to fry than killing them for being angry at their tunnel vision.Also you'll be ridding yourself of a group that "may" prove useful in the future , it's up to you to be the bigger thinker and see a better perspective.In some of the missions you find out the Thalmor are just as busy investigating the dragon problem , it concerns them just as much as everyone else.Now you've went and completed the main quest and gotten rid of the sole reason dead dragons were even being able to come back to life , therefore they should now be a numbered species unless paarthurnax figures out this little trick himself (if you let him live) which is completely plausible because he's trying to gather as many dov as he can that will accept the way of the word.So now the Thalmor can can devote all their energy back to their main hobby , screwing over man.Of course they'll be some of the last to even know the threat has been allaviated for now , so all this "game goes on as usual" kind of makes sense now.

So now you've removed the imminent threat of a huge dragon resurgence or so you hope.I also didn't think killing paarthurnax was a wise move but at the same time I remain ultimately ready to end his life if he strays and I'm given that opportunity.He himself admits his weaknesses in indulging in too much speech and the drive of all dov to subjugate and dominate , that last scene he's taking off with a BUNCH of his own kind which he's been sequestered from for thousands of years meditating to resist his inbred urges.You have to consider the gray in between the bands of black and white in anything , not doing so results in delphine-like blind loyalty to a cause she doesn't understand needs to adjust and adapt to succeed while relying on incoming information.

And this last bit , the information.Of all the things that could be modded to this game , it should be more options for you to simply explain yourself.When Delphine gives you the idiotic ultimatum like you're stupid and hadn't considered your decision , there's no option to say ,"SIT THE HELL DOWN AND LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW WOMAN!" Then proceed to explain what else in the world is a problem as there's way more going on that the blades are supposed to be caring about other than just dragons.You know , like the possible wiping out of mankind by the Thalmor , I dunno maybe I'm just nuts or something.........

Especially since the Blades are supposed to serve the dragonborn, not use him as an assassin for their own ends.

as much as you and others may not like to admit it. esbern is right when he says justice demands paarthurnax's death. he very clearly explains why this is so as well.

the issue i mentioned is addressed here under the bugs section.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Paarthurnax