Fixing Skyrim's Main Quest
Part III
You're Finally Awake
You awake in your prison cell at Winterhold. You can speak to your cellmates, a horse thief named Lokir who is having a nervous breakdown and blames his misfortune on your other cellmate, Rala (girl Ralof), who will exposit about being a Stormcloak scout who got caught, and, in hushed tones, that we shouldn't worry, the Stormcloaks are coming to liberate the city soon! He will ask who you are (character creation) and how you ended up here. There are several options you can pick as a back story, one race specific one, and a "I can't remember/mind your business!" option if none of those fit your backstory.
Enter Hadvar, who seems to know Rala. From their conversation you gleam they are brother and sister and grew up happily in a village called Riverwood, before politics split them apart. Hadvar wants Rala to betray the location of the incoming Stormcloak attack, so that he can get her out of execution. She refuses, and though it saddens Hadvar he seems to respect her loyalty. During the conversation Rala will refer to Ulfric Stormcloak not only as "True High King" which Hadvar will disagree with, but as "Dragonborn" which Hadvar will treat as almost blasphemous. Rala will respond with something about the banning of Talos.
Towards the end of the conversation you see other prisoners being led out behind Hadvar. Times up. They are leading you out to the headsman's block. As you exit the dungeon you are hit by the bright, beautiful snowy land of Skyrim, you can look around you as you are led through the busy streets of the large bustling city of Winterhold. A large fantastical building, The College, looms in the skyline.
Just as execution seems imminent, the Stormcloak rescue mission erupts from hiding! But just as the two sides prepare to charge each other... Something happens that puts fear into both parties. A bone chilling roar followed by tremors in the earth. From the north, the vast black shadow of Alduin descends on us all.
Still bound, you flee from the dragon as around you the whole city is collapsing into the Sea of Ghosts. You get a close call from Alduin and a great view of the city around the College falling away leaving the College untouched. You get separated from the other prisoners, and get a choice to follow Rala or Hadvar. Together you descend into Winterhold's Halls of the Dead. "That was a Dragon! OMG!" Just inside you find the body of the Priest of Orkey and his lootable robes and healing spell tome. Hadvar/Rala remarks that the priest has been stabbed, not killed by the dragon attack. Who could have done this?
The lone draugr shambles towards you, lootable blade drawn. Hadvar/Rala will sound surprised to see one here. After you kill it, they shall explain that the odd draugr might be known to attack grave robbers or unsuspecting explorers in some ancient ruined tomb out in the wilderness, but here in a city? With a priest tending to the Hall? You continue through the Hall, there's a passage into the mountains he tells you, but crypts around you start popping open, you get a quick go at archery and stealth during draugr fights but this dungeon won't be drawn out.
Eventually you'll bump into Rala/Hadvar, whoever you didn't go with, who has arrived via a separate tunnel with some of their soldiers. They will try to hold their soldiers back and focus on escape, but a fight breaks out as the earth is still quaking around you threatening to implode the tunnels at any minute. In the chaos, the sibling you entered with is killed by the other, and you flee for the exit.
And that's how we begin. You'll exit the tunnel alone as it collapses behind you. You won't be funneled to any particular settlement or quest. There is a mountain between you and Winterhold to stop an immediate return, but nowhere is off limits either. Let's rundown the major changes and discuss why I made them.
Oh and Lokir got shot.
Location. We're in Winterhold, which is now a proper city, not Helgan. Pretty much, if we're going to destroy a settlement let's do it properly. The Great Collapse in vanilla Skyrim was undercooked, let's actually experience it first hand and appreciate the devastation on return visits. The Collapse will be big news, and people will gossip about how Jarl Korir, who lost his son in the attack, is going full Stormcloak because the Empire is not coming through with aid. He, as well as Nords in general, will be highly suspect of the College for surviving untouched, shoving a bigger wedge between Nordic society and mages (First the Oblivion Crisis, now this!?)
Hadvar and Ralof. Changing Ralof to a woman is literally just change for the sake of change. Like, why not? But making them siblings rather than vague acquaintances really sets up how divisive the Civil War will be. Making one kill the other will really set the tone here. Whichever one happens to survive your playthrough will become a fucked up guilt and grief driven character if you side with them, someone you can help or condemn, and if you side against them they'll be like a mini boss in a CW battle. It did cross my mind to make them lovers instead of siblings but I think this will be better off elsewhere, like with Jon and Olfina in Whiterun.
Ulfric and Tulius. They aren't here. It never made much sense to me why Tulius wouldn't kill Ulfric on the spot. From the Empire's perspective, no trial is necessary, he's a murderer and a traitor. Vanilla Tulius not only took Ulfric to a town (not even the nearest one) he planned to execute him AFTER a horse thief and the stranger in rags. It makes no sense.
The Halls of the Dead sequence allows you to tutorial basic combat/magic/stealth quickly whilst also putting the insane amount of draugr you are about to fight in this game into context. Draugr are a thing, but now they are rising en mas, and it has something to do with the Dragons. When a dragon attacks a city the dead shall rise, people will be unable to visit their ancestral barrows anymore.
Pacing. Above all I wanted to put the world of Skyrim into context in as short a time possible for the benefit of replayability. Playing vanilla Skyrim without an alternative start mod is torture. We've done away with the lengthy carriage ride that showcases a mechanic that doesn't exist in the rest of the game. We get into the action of the Dragon attack quickly but without sacrificing tension and the tutorial dungeon is much shorter.
For more context check out
Part One - Setting:
https://www.tumblr.com/moodcrab/713523288690802688/fixing-skyrims-main-quest
Part Two - Backstory:
https://www.tumblr.com/moodcrab/714501541554454528/fixing-skyrims-main-quest