The Ideal Skyrim - Changing the Lore & Improving the Setting

[Music] the children of the sky the sons and daughters of kind the nords for thousands of years they have practiced a spiritual form of magic known as the way of the voice based largely on their veneration of the wind and its personification found in kind the warrior wife of shore nords are intimately connected with wind and storm birthed onto the throat of the world with kind sweet breath so it is no wonder they bear immunity to the woes of frost and resistance to storm skyrim the threat of the world kind their reputation is bards epic songs and poetry the thumb all are thematically and culturally connected with concepts such as the sky wind storm voice and breath these are the nords that i fell in love with as a young boy playing my naught character in oblivion that was loosely based off conor mcleod from the 80s movie highlander in 2011 skyrim changed things don't get me wrong i was blown away clearly but some of the new law that was introduced fundamentally changed many aspects of nordic culture and intertwined it greatly with dragons it introduced great things like the dragon priests their masks and of course some epic dragon fights and there's no debating the fact that now dragons are a far more integral part of the law in both skyrim and more broadly tamriel but i can't help but wonder what skyrim would have been like if the dragon cult was not retconned into skyrim's history and if the thumb was not co-opted into the language of the dragons but instead it remained a fearsome power of the nords i also have to say that for me personally being the dragonborn was tiring after a while it got kinda old after the first playthrough and in terms of role playing many builds and characters that i like to play are just not the prophesized hero vibe so i would end up ignoring the main plot anyways but if skyrim had no dragons it would naturally have no dragonborn the first pocket guide to the empire had painted nords as the epitome of the barbarian archetype with a magic like the voice that could circumvent the pitfalls of that reality barely clothed men in the north are unrealistic but when these men are born from the breath of a wind goddess sporting an immunity to the cold in a resistance to shock as they had in the elder scrolls 3 morrowind it makes a lot more sense another pitfall of the barbarian archetype that is the mead swilling axe flailing bear skin type is well that they're not organized like typical armies and may lack sufficient technology or siege engines to conquer or threaten more advanced civilizations but another of their abilities helps them get around this pitfall it is said that when they attacked a city they needed no siege engines the tongues would form up in a wedge in front of the gatehouse and draw in breath when the leader let it out in a thumb the doors were blown in and the axemen rushed into the city we never see this and of course the law still exists in the distant past of the first era and yes we do have the pacifism of jurgen windcaller to be thanks for denouncing the use of the voice for war and battle but it also was said in the first pocket guide that tiber septim the first emperor of the third empire renewed the use of the thumb for war and he made an imperial college of the voice in makath so that it may be the mighty deeds of nord heroes of old will soon be equaled or surpassed on the battlefields of the present day of course we never saw this law was changed but you kind of get the idea nords of 2011 skyrim seem much more imperialized or imperial like in the way they act we see little in the way of the superstitions blood feuds battles between yells raiding ancient customs etc even the landscape was different than previously described however some could argue that this is for the better but regardless in this fun little experiment i wanted to try my hand at a bit of world building a little reconstruction of skyrim's law a version that could have happened if dragons were not made such an integral part of skyrim's history along with many other changes i'll try and use all the similar law regarding the great war the thalmor and such and i'll even use familiar characters like ulfric stormcloak and other yells and the like but ultimately i want to go through each and every hold and redo them in a way that makes it feel more congruent with the nord's representation prior to skyrim's release as well as bringing a more polarizing diversity of culture as i initially began this script it was solely focused on removing the major dragon focus but as i let myself get into it i began writing plenty of additional alternate ideas for what you could call our ideal skyrim if you've watched our channel for a while you would know that we occasionally make ideal videos where we essentially take a game or game concept and have some fun fleshing it out we did so for a potential elder scroll 6 hammerfell which is linked in the description and ultimately this script out turned to be a similar thing so it's no longer just about an absence of dragons but instead it's a full overhaul of skyrim but with familiar elements to work with i'm personally a big fan of modding projects like tamriel rebuilt and project tamriel which are mod projects for the elder scrolls iii morrowind which construct other lands such as mainland morrowind cyrodiil and skyrim to be more congruent with the law of morrowind's era that is the early 2000s elder scrolls and here i plan to do something similar yet rather than a total reconstruction i'm going to be using many of the familiar places characters core conflicts and themes so that i can create something ideal but not so different to the original 2011 skyrim game that it would not be recognizable world building within parameters is fun but with all that said let's get into it first let's make some changes to the timeline between oblivion and skyrim you see the 200 years of the fourth era really don't add much in fact it even harms the setting and that entire chunk of time could be greatly condensed into a period of about 60 years skyrim as it is was built with a poor concept of time dharma refugees in the grey quarter seem as if there is a very recent problem yet the eruption of red mountain and the subsequent argonian invasion happened over 190 years ago from the time of skyrim that's nearly two centuries surely there would have been some sort of cultural development integration or solution in that amount of time also look at things like the great collapse where winterhold sank into the sea it's it's been about 80 years and still there is but a few thatched buildings and what seems like no attempt to rebuild even the great war ended over 25 years ago from the time of skyrim everyone under the age of 30 would pretty much have grown up without the worship of talos and one could even doubt the significance he would have to them i think skyrim would have benefited from a much shorter time gap it makes the continuity of the elder scrolls games feel stronger and the events of the past 60 years would feel like important context to the game world and the characters in it so i've made up a mock timeline of the fourth era with the big events but they all happen within the span of 61 years rather than 201 and you can see this feels a lot more realistic there would be old men who actually lived in the waning days of the septum empire we could meet lots of elves that lived in somerset before its new thalmor regime the wounds of the great war would be fresh and make the stakes with the thalmor seem so much higher veterans would be plentiful which makes tensions all the greater and at the end of the day i think this timeline contains all the core events of the fourth era and adjusts them to a smaller time frame without making them feeling too rushed either just a reminder that 60 years is a really long time 60 years ago was 1961. consider that full plate armored knights in our real world history came and went in about 200 years one other major change i would adjust to the lore of the fourth era timeline is the conditions of the white gold concordat i would propose that shaw is the main focus the conditions would remain the same regarding everything else but the thalmor demand that all worship of shizhaa shaw shior lorkhan lorkaj or any cultural variation of that god must be outlawed talos could also be outlawed for the same reasons given in game such as he's a man not a god and the outlaw of talos would be big for the imperials but to the nords who in this version of skyrim primarily worship their traditional nordic pantheon the outlaw of shaw's reverence would be the paramount heresy and to the most impactful change for them having the main religious issue surrounding shore makes so much more sense too because shaw is inherently an anti-elven god and in the old mary pantheons he is known as lorcan it is basically the ultimate evil to them so having the white gold concorder to be primarily concerned with the outlaw of anti-elven figures such as shaw i feel is a far more motivated position and i think this can set the stage for the civil war far better with the great war in this alternate 61-year timeline having only ended 10 years prior to the story this new adjustment can feel very fresh the majority of skyrim could be holding on to their old gods such as kain junal and stun and so on while the more cosmopolitan parts of skyrim such as solitude or market may be slowly converting to the imperial faith leaving behind ancient customs and this friction of change could be seen everywhere and creates a good amount of cultural turmoil which provides ample opportunities for different quests and characters to interact with this dynamic would feel far better in my opinion it creates a very clear cultural divide between the east and the west rather than being basically the same but with disputes over worship of talos and basically land talos is an imperial god and in bethesda skyrim all the nords basically just worship the imperial divines now this fundamentally acts as a lot of nordic culture and it's something i'd want brought back in the sections where i discuss each city and hold i'll bring up the specifics of each place and their take on the civil war but ultimately a clear cultural divide and active conversion of nordic to imperial would be really interesting to see also remember in this timeline the nords have only accepted and i would assume begrudgingly the mead emperors in recent history of which there have only been three and they've only been around for 48 years there would be nords who were pro-empire when it was septum run but they have now lost faith in this illegitimate dynasty it creates some real and living tension there would be old yarls like yal skuld of dawnstar who swore oaths to the septum dynasty as a youth but no longer believe in the empire run by the mead dynasty and hence join the stormcloaks rebellion at the end of the day i think this compressed timeline and focus moved to the nordic pantheon of shore versus the imperialized way of things and elven influence helps the setting of skyrim greatly and provides lots more believable tension and reasons for the civil war by the way i'm also aware that this change of focus from talos to shore changes the unconfirmed meta-narrative about the thalmor into their goal to erase talos and undo reality with the towers but again these similar ideas could be retrofitted to fit lorkhan also known as shaw because he was quite literally the god who trapped them in the first place also i just want to note as well that by extension of the anti-lorcan shore shizar sentiment as per the white gold concordat pantheons that venerate him as a chief or central figure get vilified on the whole so things like the nordic pantheon but before we get to all the holds and such we need to hit some fundamentals about the setting and needed adjustments to the main plot the problem here is that without the lore about the dragon cult the dragons and such there's no need for a last dragonborn alduin would still exist as the harbinger of end times in the nordic pantheon but he would not have spent the late marathic era as some domination-obsessed dragon overlord instead he remains the nordic equivalent of akatosh so how do we approach the plot i would suggest creating a more thaal more centric plot if we aren't going to have some mega dragon killer superhero chosen one plot and after having read comments and posts for over eight years here on youtube in regards to skyrim it would seem that the majority of you are far more invested and interested in the thalmor plot and the imperial verse stormcloak dynamics as opposed to the dragon's plot alduin coming with an army of dragons is dare i say a little plain i don't want to create an entire plot here because i want to get into the world building which ends up making this video huge anyways but big conspiracies regarding the thalmor's involvement in the continuation of the civil war further weakening the empire from behind the scenes is good and so it'd be cool to see that explored more thoroughly and that made the focus of the main storyline perhaps it interconnects with the falmouth or something maybe they want skyrim weakened while they cue the falmer and raise an army underground maybe they discover an elder scrolls in blackreach and want to use it for nefarious means look i don't know i'm just spitballing but without the talos towers framework or with other dragons it would have to be something different and a daedric invasion is just so overdone put it this way the thalmor have potential to be a far greater active antagonist something similar to the mythic dawn in oblivion or the sixth house in morrowind and it would be cool to have some new faces and personalities to the enemy instead of a big bad dragon who is concerned with something as straightforward as destroy the world because he is compelled to anyways let's move on to the actual world building to clarify there were no dragon wars or ancient dragon cults so when israel came and the snow elves were wiped out things were different for the next centuries i also kind of want to say here that the dragon cult dragon war thing is already such a jammed in thing into the timeline that it would be easy enough to take out overall instead of dragons dragon language stuff like this we want the elemental components of the nords explored more deeply to see a culture of song epic stories of heroes who attempt to emulate kings of old think of how characterized the norse gods are in real world mythology the nordic pantheon should have the same treatment and exist here front and center instead of being replaced by an imperial dragon one of the biggest changes is surely that the thumb has nothing to do with the dragons and everything to do with kyne and her sons and daughters the nords i think it'd be really cool to hone in on the far more elemental aspects of this when i hear some tongues possess a thumb so powerful that they cannot speak i get amped up powers like swallowing thunder clouds or controlling the earth making thralls filled with mud or creating clouds of acid rain by giving the clouds quote stomach aches turning the rain into bile the thumb should be an enlightened power of connection with the elements rather than just dragon speak a quintessential thematic debate could be about the nord's use of this power and the ethics of it on one end of the spectrum you have the greybeards who follow the pacifist ways of jurgen windcaller and use the thumb only for reverence of the gods and on the other end of the spectrum you have people like ulfric who want to use this powerful war to ensure that the nords may live according to their traditions and not have to supplicate to other powers such as the dominion for example this debate about the ethics of such a power could be a central theme on one end pacifism and peace is surely the best way to experience life yet such unwillingness to engage in conflict enables the disruption of that very peace and on the other hand the use of the powerful war enables you to defend what you hold dear but it more than often leads to an abuse of this power and allows for tyrants and bloodshed i think the philosophy surrounding the thumb should be discussed more in game and presented as an issue known about and engaged in by the many people of skyrim if tiber septim founded the college of the voice and ulfric turned from the teachings of the greybeards there should be more exploration of jurgen windcaller's philosophy and mentions of the destructiveness that the early nordic tongues brought it should be a multi-layered and compelling theme central to both the personal experience of the power and also its ramifications for the politics surrounding it the other little gripe i have with the dragon cult and the dragon wars and such is that it replaces a lot of the history in terms of what is talked about like when you hear ancient skyrim most people think dragons and dragon cults but we do not think of the songs of wolf or the songs of isgramoi and his battle against tribes of giants we don't hear about vraga the gifted and his conquests of high rock and resdayne battles against sumerian chimeri heroes nor do we hear about how it was the nords who ultimately brought men to power in tamriel ending the dominance of elves we don't hear about the elysian order and how it wreaked havoc on skyrim when it was accepted by king borges we don't hear about the individual battles against the falmer from ancient times nor battles against the dwemer we don't hear much about mighty feuds between the earliest dials nor do we hear much about the clever men of old and their worship of janal god of hermetic orders ultimately a lot of skyrim's historical context in the law is not presented front and center in-game as in discussed and talked about by npcs but it is rather replaced by a focus on dragons and the dragon cult which is placed front and center at the end of the day i think ideally more of the peripheral law should relate to the nords themselves and nordic culture aside from the dragon cult which i feel took the majority of the talk space but in this ideal version there is no dragon cult so let's get started we begin at the beginning of the game go figure ulfric stormcloak has been arrested for murdering high king torig and the civil war has begun of course whether he murdered or fairly challenged by ancient custom is up for debate depending on perspective and political leaning but regardless here we are in a similar situation ulfric escapes civil war is in full brew and since we're talking about ulfric let's talk about the center of the rebellion the hold of eastmarch ulfric is the head of the stormcloak rebellion and yahl of windhelm he is a fierce offender of the old gods and tradition he and his followers model themselves on the nords of old those who worship shaw khan and so on ulfric had fought with the empire in the great war which ended 10 years ago but after returning to skyrim and the events of the marcoth incident unfolded in this version regarding reference of shaw not talos he had lost all faith in the empire seeing them as mere puppets for the thalmor no longer respecting the traditions of the nords who since ancient times had always championed the causes of man a few weeks before the beginning of the game ulfric stormcloak challenged high king torig for the throne and killed the young king the stormcloak rebellion has swung into full action and the holds of the east have rallied to his side they crave a king who fights for skyrim and will defend their traditions and gods so naturally windhelm is the center of the rebellion and it's a colorful place more than you would expect from a home of the true nords the grey quarter is teeming with dunmer 55 years ago dunwood began fleeing morrowind in droves after the eruption of red mountain as well as the following argonian invasion and windhelm was one of the main stops though rifton also received an influx but we'll get to that later at the time this refuge was facilitated by the empire and grants from the elder council's coffers were given to the isle of wind helm in order to accommodate this influx but eight years later year 13 of the fourth era titus mead seizes the imperial throne and rejecting this new rule morrowind claims independence following this financial support was no longer given to the yale of windhelm because the dunmer were no longer citizens of the empire however the problem was already there the grey quarter had begun and more families and friends flocked to this refuge integration attempts were made but with such a large population of a fundamentally opposed culture it was difficult and so this resulted in a dunmagetto over the next decades generations of dunmer would be born and live their lives here knowing no home in morrowind racial tensions are very high and they have been several massacres riots assassinations and assaults at differing periods even fires that have burned districts ultimately a program of conscription and indentured labor was implemented and dunmer would have to work in farms and construction as well as units in the army in return for their citizenship for the nords in windhelm their place is a birthright but for the dunmer even those born in the grey quarter they must earn their place with service to the yal you will occasionally see a smattering of dunmer fighting for the stormcloaks sporting bone mold armor pieces made from the bones of local animals like mammoths and cows even some have chitin armor imported from morrowind do not mistake these fighters as loyal to the rebellion though they fight in order to ensure the safety and security of their families who live in the expansive grey quarter the grey quarter itself is much larger expanding to the docks district and it would be cool to see shanty-style structures done with similar decorations lanterns and cultural banners and such that we saw in raven rock for example we would want nords entering this area to feel out of place there would also be satellite villages set up all along the road to refugees rest quarters and homes for the many who work as farmers for the nords many of these villages end up being controlled by criminal groups such as the kimono tong from morrowind who runs skooma into windhelm which is creating a growing skooma problem among disenfranchised youths in the city also just because the grey quarter is all done does not mean they're all kumbaya either with a shorter fourth era timeline the death or disappearance of the tribunal and their disavowed status as saints rather than gods only came about 60ish years ago the reclamation's faith has only been newly reformed and there are many who scorn those who have reverted to the daedra and instead stay faithful to the tribunal believing that they are not truly dead and will one day return to this world and rebuild morrowind when the people rebuild their faith so you would have a religious conflict of dhanma worshiping the tribunal preaching a return to a golden age whereas the ones who worship the reclamations have become more in tune with the ways of the daedra and have accepted their status is because of the false gods and they choose to live in accordance with the words of veloth the newer generations tend towards the reclamations but on top of all this is the abhorrence of both religions from the view of the nords the nords see the dunmer as demon worshippers whether it be vivec or boethiah they're all the same to the nords so there's a lot of tension there the nordic wind helm the rest of it outside the grey quarter would be similar in vibe but doubled down on the true nord theme multiple shrines and statues to the nordic gods houses that paced cannas root on their doors so that warebears don't attack taverns full of storytellers reciting epics of past heroes an arena made for battles over insulted honor and disputes vikings as in the profession of a raider at the docks who are preparing to head on raiding missions master smiths who work with sacred style rim which is also used in the burial of kings and great heroes in the catacombs beneath an ancient and honoured tradition you would be able to see the dead non-decomposed corpses in their graves because they're frozen in magical ice sure that may sound weird but it's an ancient custom of nordic burial we want some of their customs and superstitions to show here and provide contrast to the more toned down cosmopolitan and practical ways of the more imperialized western holds in short we want the west to feel more like the skyrim we got and the easter feel more like the skyrim we didn't get in terms of base underlying culture we also want to emphasize the elemental feeling of the nords here so it'd be fitting to have a hall or temple on the mountain peak behind the city or perhaps in the velothi mountains nearby and here the priests and priestesses of kind come for reverence but also the newly formed order of the tongues in ulfric's younger days he trained to become a greybeard so he could master the way of the voice for reverence of the gods but when the great war came about he refused to stand idle and used his power for battle as he returned and became yala of windhelm he would begin the training of new tongues powerful users of the voice and devoted nords in fact many left the imperial college of the voice in markham to come to ulfric because he boasted the most powerful thumb second only to the greybeards and those he taught became more powerful which is suggested to be because they live in accordance with the nordic gods specifically kine who gave the nords the power of the voice in the first place the imperial college in macarth is actually quite dilapidated and almost a bit of a failed experiment of the last centuries never really meeting tiber septim's vision also i guess just to make some extra notes about the aesthetic but i think the look of galmar the bone charms the bare skin horde the pelt draped over the shoulders and so on this kind of aesthetic should be seen more often it would be cool to see the nords of windhelm stick to the most ancient and customary looks perhaps motifs that look similar to ancient nordic armor but made with modern standards in mind also consider that woad should be used if you remember in the older games the nords had a greater power called woad and woad if you don't know is the blue pigment that celtic warriors painted on themselves this power in game provides a temporary magic shield and we can extrapolate from this that the nords somewhat employ the use of woad to protect themselves so that war paint isn't just for show and we could use this to expand on the world building having berserker warriors charging into battle covered in magical word painted on them by sacred priests or shamans employing animal symbology to represent the gods fighting half undressed may seem stupid but if woad truly is magical and substitutes armor in ways then it makes sense using magic to make the barbarian archetype work is what we want to do here there's another thing to remember the depictions of the ancient nordic pantheon use plenty of animal symbols in association with them so shaw is the fox saunas the bear kaine is the hawk mara the wolf the bella the moth stone the whale jenelle the owl orchy the snake and aldo and the dragon so throughout all the truest of nords these kinds of symbols and motifs should be regularly used ultimately i think you get the picture but we'd want windhelm and more broadly eastmarch to be full of nords who embody what a first era nord was like and when you mix that with the dunmer tensions who themselves have their own divides it can make for some interesting stories and perhaps world-changing outcomes like maybe you can become a stormcloak and eventually you can choose to purge the city of dunmer pushing them out forcibly or rather you can convince ulfric that they can be invaluable or replace ulfric with bronwolf and give the dunmer the same rights in windhelm as the nords perhaps the morag tong continues as a hidden cult within the walls of windhelm and there's a series of quests regarding the assassination of important nordclan leaders there there could also be a market full of weird and exotic imports from morrowind and nords who scoff at their weird food or some of those who have embraced it guards carrying cargo in the street nords threatening to turn them into leather i just think it'd be really cool and a great driver of conflict but in summary we want hardcore nordic pantheon worshiping ancient custom adhering nords who are forced to live amongst dunmer and so have treated them poorly now before we jump into the other eastern holds i feel like it would be a good idea to flick over to the other side of the map and discuss the most imperialized hold and i'm not talking about hafingar in this version of skyrim it is the reach that is the most imperialized and i would make it more congruent with older descriptions of this land i quote from the first edition guide to the empire only in the west do the mountains abate to the canyons and maces of the reach by far the most cosmopolitan of the holds of skyrim nords of pure blood are holding only the barest majority according to the recent imperial census and this makes sense we have a border zone here with precious resources ripe for the picking it's placed at the meeting of hammerfell high rock and skyrim and in previous law it was the bread basket of skyrim being the most fertile land in the region however 2011 skyrim's reach didn't look so fertile perhaps that could be fixed add a few more live trees and make it appear more lush we could even have inca style terrace farms built down the sides of these mountainous regions filled with abundant crops also 2011 skyrim shifted the valuable resources from agriculture to minerals like silver which is also fine i don't mind that i feel like if it's actually both it's even more reason for it to be a fought over place so let's go with both in this version so as a desired land by all for its minds of silver and fertile land we end up with a long and turbulent history of fighting between nords bretons imperials red guards native reach folk and really anyone who wants a slice of the pie this has resulted in the biggest cultural melting pot of skyrim where nords make up only barely a majority at 35 the rest being a mix of the other races now before we get too far into the city itself i do want to refer to the reachmen a bit in the market incident so it would have a similar backstory where king madanak takes over marcoth for the reachmen during the great war and soon after it is taken back by the yal only with the help of ulfric on the condition that shaw's worship would be protected now in response to this the four sworn are created and i like them a lot as a guerrilla warfare based rebel group however i think 2011 skyrim reduced them to an enemy type for the most part and we don't see peaceful villages of richmond who live out their own existence without being actively hostile and for a region like the reach i see it only fitting that it should be filled with villages and small towns that a majority reach folk populations who practice their own culture but are not a hostile group there could be cool story threads about village elders who want to live in peace but they're forsworn are radicalizing the youths and dragging them off to fight an unwinnable battle bringing only unnecessary bloodshed you know the force one quest where you can release king madanak well that could even start a new questline afterwards if you choose his side where you can help convince the villagers of the reach folk to take up arms with him because the king has returned and they have a fighting chance hell at the end of it it would be cool if instead of marcoth being in imperial or stormcloak hands that instead there is a third option of instating king madanak or art madanak as they would say as the new ruler of the land but with that said let's discuss mark harth itself more i think it would be fair to say that the rich men make up about 30 percent of marcos population so breton-like people with their own languages and traditions identifiable by their traditional tattoos or scarification though not all richmond would necessarily do this so if markup city is roughly 30 percent reach folk 35 nordwell let's say around 15 would be red guard and the final 20 would be a mix of imperial bretons and other races who have come to this trading hub of the west i think the dwemer city repurposed is a really cool idea but i think the city should be expanded outward more with more modern buildings being created and making up districts of the town the dwemer structures and intersections would act as a higher class district as it is more defensible and indestructible as well as prestigious nords predominantly make up the higher class district including the yala and families like the silver bloods but as i mentioned before marcath is the perfect opportunity for a melting pot in a spot where we can have other cultures leaked in and mix and interact with the nords and yes i'm talking about things like curved swords in fact mark harth is a far better location for the in my time of need quest so rather than sadia the red guard woman hiding in whiterun we could have her hiding out in marcath and the aloki warriors have tracked her down for selling out taneth and with our enhanced and compressed timeline it makes far more sense that she's being tracked down for crimes made five to nine years ago instead of over 20 years ago like in the actual game anyways i just think it would be a better fit but markov should have this melting pot vibed not only in its population but in its markets it's a cross point of land trade as well as a place of abundant resources itself so it should be reflected trade routes from dragonstar and evermore would bring all kinds of goods accessible in the iliac bay area and bring them to trade in marcotte which has trade routes with other hubs as such as solitude and white run but back to markath itself the markets and economy should be a central part of this city trading companies mercs and security businesses farming mining craftsmen and imperial administration the empire here provides the yala ignorant with plenty of imperial troops to bolster his power and keep the reachmen suppressed as well as keeping the stormcloaks from taking it if the reach was lost to the stormcloaks the empire would lose a big resource and would risk being divided by land with macarthur no longer connecting falkreath and high rock as with all melting pots we would get a mix of religion the imperial cult aka the divines would be predominant but we may also get some yokudan-based religious practices come in via crown redguards and of course with the reachmen we would have their unique pantheon of spirits that they worship which are mostly daedra and before i mentioned the imperial college of the voice founded by tiber septim in the hopes that it may one day provide soldiers that can use the thumb in defense of the empire well for a time it was popular when it was cool and new back at the start of the third era but over time with the realization of the dedication it required it failed to be financially feasible it had been opened and closed multiple times throughout the centuries of the third era because of differing circumstances but in the wake of the oblivion crisis it was reopened and made popular again people were scared more than ever of typical magical practices because of the association with oblivion and daedra which by the way is why the mages guild was dissolved in cyrodiil however the nords could see the thumb as a holy and reverent type of magic the voice was sacred and not profane and so it became a popular alternative for a while once again the impracticality of learning the voice and the introspection and determination it required made it a poor alternative to the practicality of typical magic and so over the 60 years of the fourth era it became less and less popular yal igmund who is incredibly rich keeps it alive as a symbol of greatness and prestige in his city but it's hardly practical the practitioners who learn there are adept at best and many of them have abandoned the college for windhelm and have instead chosen to learn under ulfric and his disciple tongues the idea being that living as a true nord and worshiping the old gods is what allows for greater connection to the way of the voice how is one to master the thumb when worshiping pale shadows of kind such as the imperial kinarath and a final note to talk about marcath is of course the dwemer city it is built out of this of course would attract many dilemma researchers such as calcemo and hence it has become somewhat of a hub for dwemer scholarship with morrowind blanketed in ash or in chaos it is no longer easily accessible since then dwemer research has diverted to skyrim and hammerfell mostly with makath being a dwemer city itself and smack in the middle of both places it makes it the perfect hub for research and artifact collection but now we've discussed both polar opposites somewhat the incredibly cosmopolitan and imperialized reach a melting pot of races and subcultures and eastmarch home of the traditional nords set on returning skyrim to the old ways and casting off the empire so now let's get to the middle ground whiterun in the game skyrim this is the tipping point of the war the ninth hole the balance of power yale belgruff the greater seems very intent on supporting whiterun and whiterun first but he also accepts the rule of the empire over ulfric also he does sympathise though because of his secret talos worship however in this fun version he holds on to his reference of shaw secretly instead as well as the rest of the nordic pantheon more openly and he becomes increasingly disenfranchised with the encroaching imperialization that has occurred as a byproduct of the white gold concordat but as for the city and hold itself we can undoubtedly say that whiterun was heavily inspired by the lord of the rings and the city is basically modeled off ederas the capital city of rohan i mean even their sigil is that of a horse now i'm gonna be honest i'm all here for it i think it's a really beautiful city cool landscape and cool themes with the various districts though they need to be much bigger but the main thing i would want from a revamped white run is horses we want them to feel like the horse lords who rule over these planes where are the famous horse breeders the patrols on horseback thanes and house cars sporting beautifully armored horses i reckon that white run should be accessible via horses and with a bigger cloud district there could be a stable up there and you could have horses making their way through the crowds winding up to the palace the guard armor replacement does a fantastic job of redesigning their guard's armor plus give some cool noble armor to the yal and his brother and i think this is a must have for a revamped skyrim now horses and lots of them give many advantages it's much easier to patrol and guard a large span of territory couriers can relay information faster trade is much easier with horse-drawn carts essentially an abundance of horses and a central position in skyrim could make whiterun quite the hub now one thing skyrim originally i feel didn't have explored well enough is the thanes we understand that a yal has thanes kind of like a barren equivalent you could say essentially lords but of course with a nordic on a culture-bound flavor all of the holds should have a variety of things that have stewardship over certain villages or keeps spread throughout the land and i think whiterun in particular is such an important example considering its size and ability to traverse rorick's dead should be run by ethane in a keep whose duty is to keep giant clans at bay and watch the borders of the reach there should be keeps and villages like this scattered throughout the plains as well as one of them available to the player if they were to become thane imagine becoming thane and having land granted to you where you may build your keep and farm and such however you like but thanes as characters are important it would be interesting if riverwood had athene who kept the border to a falkraith safe and also administered the lumber trade he could have a small hall complete with hearth servants and trophies of his life displaying trophies for thanes and yalls would be a point of pride they are a people who take valor honor and great accomplishments worthy of song as the most desirable traits so then we should see nobles and important characters flexing their feats ultimately this makes whiterun and really anyhold feel much more like a small country of its own its own hold with its own cultural identity and feel of sovereignty yes there is an underlying culture and religion but each hole should feel like a particular flavor of nordic state complete with their own hierarchy and internal politics and speaking of such it should be divided as it is the conflict hold so to say instead of the imperial verse stormcloak debate thing here have an axe let's start a war we should see more build up the hall of dragon's rate should at one point for a quest be filled with all the various things who end up in a conflicted debate about who to back remember each of these things are from clans that have run the same keeps in villages who have cavalry and soldiers who pledge loyalty to them and the threat of them peeling off and betraying the yal is present the whole greymane and battleborn feud should be much larger and feel more significant than just a small family affair both alfred battleborn and wigner greymane should be thanes who have their own keeps and villages as well as mansions within the white run city we would want them to truly feel like the rich and influential families as they are described they would personify the central conflict that threatens to tear apart whiterun if bolgrove cannot maintain his power as an extra note i think that bolgrove should be able to be convinced to ulfric's side perhaps it's very hard to achieve and very conditional but there are also conditions where he is replaced by vigna as usual in whiterun we also have the companions which is a faction we have talked about plenty on the channel and a faction we would like revamped but since their home location is whiterun and they are such a skyrim wide renowned faction they should bear a reasonable amount of influence on the culture and i would argue that instead of giving the companions this sort of flavorless impartial type of mercenary banned character they should instead be true nords they should be the local force pushing the yarl to preserve their ways i mean they venerate isgramor for crying out loud this could be a tense conflict and balancing game for the y'all to maintain companions along with the greymane clan are staunchly true nords and you have preachers screaming illegally about shaw and on the other hand you have the battleborns and avenichi who have helped whiterun profit in recent years so we have this internal conflict for belgruff who ultimately wants a nordic white run with the old gods shaw and such but at the same time he's dependent on the empire and is not ready to cut ties and this conflict should not only be within him but shown throughout the whole city whiterun at the center of the civil war's borders should be the most conflicted city politically also we should consider that white run with all the horses and lots of flat land should have the best cavalry of skyrim and hence an even more important force to have on your side of the civil war alright now let's head west to the mysterious lands of hillmarch and its city of morthal before we get into the nitty-gritty i want to make one thing clear dawnstar morthel falkreath and winterhold were done dirty and they need a healthy revamp ideally no longer just thatched houses each place should have its own distinct architecture like the other five cities and it should feel unique in its own right but with that said let's start talking about morthel morthal is situated on the edge of a swamp and much of the hold is like this resulting in a place of a rather poor wealth sustained almost entirely by lumber harvesting in the mining town of stone hills which provides iron now morthl in the original game is being run by yal igrod ravencrone who is a little bit esoteric so to say she's a mystic she sees visions of prophecy and places her trust in higher powers of course mortal is also home to falling in the wizard and there are vampires afoot nearby including the whole quest with a ghost girl and so on so if we were to sum up morthel's theme with a thesis statement i would say it's the creepy horror town in a backwater and it's a good theme it's a nice change-up but i think it's something that could be doubled down on see we get lip service to the whole mystic thing but it's never explored thoroughly but for starters we'd want the actual town itself to be enhanced probably something like the great towns and cities mod just to give it a bit of an aesthetic identity now if you have this poor town that only really makes any wealth out of lumber and iron what else can we do here for starters i would suggest that if there were bogs in the swamps nearby you could have people who go in to harvest peat which is a useful product for making powerful fires additionally herbalists and alchemists may set up shop and the swamp may be a plentiful source of potent alchemical ingredients and hence the town almost has this freelancer economy of adventurers and pickers who navigate the dangerous swamps to harvest peat and find specific ingredients in order to turn a profit in this low prosperity town combined with the dangers of vampire layers frostbite spiders and other monsters the swamp makes a wet grave for many and in part because the people are desperate to make a living necromancers also begin taking up residence in the swamp and nearby thanks to the availability of many corpses and preserved bodies in the bogs mortal is a place without the dignity and prestige of a lot of other places in skyrim and we want this to be seen throughout we want to maintain the gritty feel but also the mystical one based on the necessity to get creative with money making we'll often find street magicians and illusionists or seas and fortune tellers who claim to be able to see your future for a fee some will make you love potions or elixirs that attract gold some will genuinely provide you with powerful insights or potions some are basically full of it the place gains a reputation as a home of mystics and charlatans and it's very hard to tell which is which of course this culture is headed by yal igrad ravencrone who is a mystic herself and she maintains a very open mind about things which sometimes grates against the superstitions of local nords but this in turn has made morthal a home for people such as fallion her court wizard or members of the imperial cult even some daedric cultists have been made welcome in some degree of course as long as no laws are broken the yal herself believes in the nord gods such as kaine and junal but she is a student of comparative religion and she finds mystical truths in all faiths morthl is even home to dhanma khajiit and argonians in small numbers who can practice their native religions rather openly compared to the rest of skyrim you will also find traders selling interesting religious and cult artifacts from around the place trading trinkets amulets and statuettes of gods even daedra it'd be cool to even see like a somewhat devious cult to orky also known as old knocker or the death god he in the nordic pantheon is symbolized by a snake and he's been an antagonistic figure for the nordic gods a loki type character in ways so let's imagine that there is this unpopular even amongst the nords sort of nihilistic death cults that revere orky kind of like our world equivalent of satanic cults just an idea but mortal would be the perfect place for that overall due to the land lacking economic prosperity morthl has had to offer other advantages and niche services in this case it's a religious freedom of sorts and a place of mystical and magical services many outcasts and unwelcomed of nordic society find their place here it's truly a backwater vibe town and hence a lot of its quirks are overlooked by the rest of skyrim because it remains rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things of course there are true nords with which there are local tensions and of course there are its own problems with necromancers vampires and general swamp monsters but ultimately it would be a unique town for skyrim that provides more of a mystical swamp-like experience that it was going for okay time to start moving west to east so let's start at the westernmost place we haven't talked about yet and that is solitude the capital hold of hafinger solitude is a cool city in design but brah it's the capital of skyrim let's make it a tad bigger you know from the front gate the city should be sprawling down to the level of the water creating entire new districts with narrow streets of diverse shops and merchants solitude is an economic powerhouse and is connected to the sea and this should be seen with merchants everywhere sprawling markets the east empire trading company made busy and the local tax agents and banks are having a field day every day wealthy is a good way to describe solitude now while the reach may have a lot of wealth it also has its fair share of problems with the richmond and such a mixed population where cultural tensions remain heated always solitude on the other hand is still predominantly northern population with imperials and britain's making up the secondary majorities solitude is also marcoth's primary connection to the sea trading routes and hence a lot of the reaches economic prosperity is passed through and traded out of solitude here we see many sailors and ship captains in the city and taverns looking for jobs or resting before they sail out with cargo loaded nords are also historically good sailors and there are many recruits found for the imperial navy here naturally since solitude is both the capital of skyrim and the seat of imperial power in the region there should be a large presence of the imperial legion and the imperial cult the temple of the divines is there and in it we find many nords flocking to and converting to this new faith including the yala ellis of herself there should be a culture of cooperation and reverence for the empire and we should see these crossroads and mixing of culture not just imperial armoured nords yes these nords may be very pro-empire yes they may have converted to the imperial cult but they're still nords and have cultural roots in this land and its traditions so while they may not be wearing bear skins and shouting praise to kine as they fight elves they still maintain cultural elements of nordic life such as love of battle drinking feastings song and even superstitions but instead of honor battles to the death think formal duels instead of mead swilled from a horn think wine drunk from the barrel instead of reverent feasts of the gods think gorging on bread and suckling pig instead of songs of israel's conquest think of nord-led victories for the empire instead of overt and practiced superstitions think subtle ones it would actually be really interesting to see imperial preachers attempting to consolidate and appropriate these native nordic traditions to help make religious conversion easier think like how halloween's roots are from an ancient celtic festival called sarwin where it is believed that this time that barriers to the physical world and the spiritual world break down allowing for more interactions between humans and spirits and in modern beliefs it's all spooky ghosts come out but with similar principles it would be cool to see the imperial cult sort of co-opt and imperialize the nordic traditions for a smooth transition now you may remember the letdown that was the bard's college well we need to improve that and make it a much bigger part of the culture here this is what was said in the pocket guide founded during skyrim's long elysian flirtation the bards college continues to flaunt a heretical streak and its students are famous carouses fittingly enough for their chosen trade students yearly invade the marketplace for a week of revelry and the climax of which is the burning of king olaf in effigy possibly a now forgotten contender in the war of succession graduates have no trouble finding employment in the noble households across tamriel including the restored imperial court in cyrodiil but many choose to follow in the wandering footsteps of illustrious alumni such as kalysos and maura kellis bards are everywhere in skyrim and song and stories are paramount to their culture but the bards college possesses that heretical streak the students are not afraid of indulging in other ideas and versions of events that differ from the orthodox such as they are with king olaf but this should be expanded more oh and the bards college should be a joinable faction with ranks and the like it would help if you can play music for gold perhaps even craft instruments or finds legendary such ones as the pan flute of mara kellis however the musical aspect is not the only part being a bard is not just about having a good voice and a string in morrowind the class is described like this bards are law masters and storytellers they crave adventure for the wisdom and insight to be gained and must depend on sword shield spell and enchantment to preserve them from the perils of their educational experiences lore masters and storytellers the bards college should be a place where you are encouraged to seek out adventures in ruins of old and build stories and philosophies about the world to write into song in ways the bard's college is the nordic pursuit of a creative life and perhaps there should even be a bunch of dybella worshipers here but ultimately it should have that free ideas kind of alternative thinking a philosopher's faction which questions dogma not to provide another alternative as is done in the wars of politics and religion like what is happening with the imperial stormcloak conflict of today but to merely question and ponder to seek the growth of the mind in search for truth and meaning perhaps this would put them at odds at times with the local thalmor embassy who are here to ensure the nordic pantheon's abolition in the same way they are defiant in their view of king olaf so they should be defined in whatever views they hold and let us not forget that this is an educational place there should be people from all walks of life mages soldiers tavern wenchers priests even all these people are united by a love for song and story a life in the creative pursuits as a player we should be very much able to be a part of this faction and it should have an entire questline as well as an actual way to be a bard like i said through playing instruments or even reciting stories to people in taverns all the way up to yales in their halls singing songs of epic histories may actually engage players with the law in a more active way by making knowledge of this law part of the gameplay experience rather than mostly peripherals in the form of books but in summary imperialized nords imperial navy lots of sailors bustling markets with merchants from all over skyrim and tamriel lots of bards in training and the college itself has a massive influence on the local culture also solitude is just really big and sprawls a lot more okay so moving across but south we have the folk wreath hold and of course the city itself which is folk wreath okay so you know falcreath town in a boreal forest sits in a basin with a big lake nearby yes it should be bigger but also a little different looking it needs a big tomb and a graveyard the great cities and towns mod does a great job at uplifting the place but let's get into it in the law there are three core elements that stand out first it's economically reliant on lumber because trees look around that's abundantly clear beautiful woodwork should also be abundant too historically it is known as the heroes graveyard many great battles took place here for centuries and countless warriors were buried here leaving behind graves and monuments to them so there is a melancholy to the place and finally something that is not often mentioned but it has collovian roots while modern folk wreath is considered a nordic hold in times past it has been one of the northernmost colovian estates in fact king cool kane the guy who tiber septim was initially helping as a general was the petty king of folk wreath which was at the time part of the colovian estates for those who need a quick refresher imperial culture is roughly divided into clovian western northwest and nibbanese east and south cultures the nibbanese are generally more magical and exotic diverse and varied with many cults and so on whereas the clovians or seronotics are traditionally more straight edge uniforms orthodox and warlike imperials so folk wreath by default has a lot more imperial collovian background in its history and i suppose this is what made it rather natural to side with the imperials over the stormcloaks so simple ask bring back the clovian fur helm but in truth this is a perfect place to see a mix of clovians and nords of all the yards it would make the most sense to me to have the most count-like or cyrodiilic feeling one be here granted skyrim actually did a good job with yao siddigi who is placed there by the imperials and who revels in hunts and feasts and luxury a man who seems to enjoy the trappings of nordic society and prestige that comes with it but who in actuality is rather soft a puppet solitude is the capital of skyrim and the king of course has to hold nordic values for the people and the reach has also been fought over tirelessly by the nords and markarth is cosmopolitan by circumstance more so than implementation whereas falkreath quite literally was considered part of the clovian estates and hence imperial in the past it's only natural that its yard should be most imperial-like anyways core to skyrim is the conflict between the empire and the stormcloaks and in this version we double down and make it a core religious and cultural conflict of nordic tradition versus the imperialized way which is now being pushed because of the white gold concordat now we've talked about this conflict through different lenses in different cities and here in fall creature we have a unique example in the city there should be a cultural conflict between nord and clovian there are those who feel as if they should be more like nords and embrace their traditions and gods aka stormcloak supporters secretly of course and then there are those who treat falkreath as an extension of cyrodiil like the yal kind of does perhaps there is an inner conspiracy for the imperials to maneuver the all into accepting a treaty which would declare falkraith part of cyrodiil which is something that even imperialized nords would not like but in the chaos of the civil war it's possible perhaps the player can have some part in uncovering this plot made by the penitus oculatus agents working with clovia nobles and you can assist their plot to make folk reef part of cyrodiil province uniting it with the clovina states once more or you can thwart the plot to make it remain part of skyrim choice is yours the other important part about falkreath is this hero's graveyard bit now we saw a graveyard in skyrim but it looked as if it would fit a village what we want instead is a big graveyard and a giant ancient nordic tomb of catacombs for burials of heroes past there should also be a sort of culture built around death here with rk playing an important part perhaps even a day of the dead type festival takes play here and deathly motif items are sold or amulets and prayer beads or even people selling flowers for the graves of loved ones there could be some cool grave robber themed quests or a necromancer type thing but we don't want to overdo them hunting should also play a decent role in the culture and poachers may be rife in the area overall i feel like falkreath could just be made more distinct by playing into the colovian heritage and also playing into this hero's graveyard part it would be a great way to explore the funeral riots of different cultures perhaps the nordic first imperial way of things is a point of contention local nords are unhappy with the way that their families have been interred by imperial priests stuff like that let's head north it's time to talk about the true nords the nords of the north the nords of the pale the hardy elemental nords of old who live among the ice and storms such are the northern men of dawnstar now dawn star in og skyrim is pretty plain and like i've mentioned there are mods to give it a nice facelift but at the end of the day it's a town in the snow it does have the benefit of a memorable vaimina nightmare quest which is set there and the ancient dark brotherhood sanctuary is also there but overall i feel like it's one of the least memorable towns however we want to change that and how we going to do that well we've been talking about the nords for a while now and we want to use older incarnations of the law to flesh out skyrim so listen to how they're described nords are also natural seamen and have benefited from nautical trade since their first migrations from atmora they captain and crew many merchant fleets and may be found all along the coasts of tamriel now in terms of feeling we have solitude to give that big merchant feeling trading hub kind of vibe we don't want to just replicate that because it would start feeling like solitude light but what is unique about dawnstar well it's position it's one of the northernmost cities that leads straight onto the sea of ghosts the seas they navigate are brutal and iceberg filled and i think what would be a cool theme here is to lean in on the viking inspirations here in dawnstar they are renowned sailors but more specifically with the smaller longboats of the nords built to more efficiently navigate the icebergs of the frozen north they also make for quick travel and are excellent ships to stage raids and skirmishes from the nords of dawnstar are believers in the traditional nordic ways they hunt hawker and whales and do some trading also to supplement their economy but one of their primary sources of income is raiding and who better to attack than your ancestral enemies the elves in our timeline morrowind has removed itself from the empire in favor of sovereignty when titus mead first took the throne and this opened a fresh new opportunity for the nords of dawnstar they once again began raiding the shores of morrowind as small groups of vikings plundering their lands but now the dunmer are more vulnerable than ever and their pickings are easy dawn star raiders plunder the rhetorian territories of the north and even staged in an attempt to retake solstheim at one point but it was repelled they often raid tombs and settlements in the shea gorad region and at times they have ventured past the west gash and down the bitter coast raiding villages once they even organized a raid of blacklight which was partially successful pillage and plunder is a way of life for the men and women of dawnstar and it's this bountiful yet brutal life that brings some measure of prosperity to the region it's also worth a mention that in recent times many of these raids have been redirected to imperial controlled lands as a contribution to the war effort many imperial ships have been attacked and the men of dawn star have sailed as far as daggerfall to harass imperial territories yal scold the elder is a fierce supporter of the stormcloaks i would say that he is undoubtedly loyal to ulfric stormcloak and he will fight the empire to his last breath they also have this particular reverence for stone the nordic version of stender for starters he is symbolized as the whale which is a vital animal for the people of dawn star who hunt them for food but also blubber to make oil and soap secondly stendar is the divine of mercy and stone similarly embodies a nordic version of mercy and that is ransom stunne is the god of ransom fraternity and justice and he showed the nords how to take and the benefits of taking prisoners of war and as they do this dawnstar grows at stockades the dawnstar prison is filled with prisoners of war and captures to ransom imperial soldiers bretons dunmer all set to be ransomed yet in the meantime before their return and ransom secured they are set to work manual labor in the mines the people's culture gods and traditions are so intrinsically intertwined with their way of life that you will barely find anyone here in support of the empire even those who look favorably on the empire such as brina marilis would not forsake the old gods willingly so in this version of the pale expect to see longboats round shields axes prisoners of war and coffers full of plunder from far-off places this is the epitome of the viking-inspired culture but now let's move next door to winterhold ah yes winterhold the place in skyrim that almost doesn't exist save for the college of winterhold which is by far the worst incarnation of a magic guild in the elder scrolls so far no you can't have a good magic guild we have a magic guild at home come home open the fridge and savos aaron says hear your archmage enjoy running homebrand hogwarts well criticisms aside let's build a better winter hold now of course it's easy to just axe the great collapse and say build a giant city sure it'd be cool but the great collapse is a part of fourth era law and i want to try and make it work because i believe it's a cop out to say well it's a collapsed city and they can't do much so in this compressed timeline we have to remember that the great collapse happened a mere five years ago which makes the wounds fresh and people alive will actually remember the city they lost perhaps many fled to whiterun windhelm and dawnstar and perhaps this should be noticeable in other cities because think about it it's an entire city that used to be the ancient capital of skyrim that just fell into the sea plenty would be dead sure but then many would have been injured or survived and so refugees from here should be shown in other cities however unlike the original winterhold in this version we're actually going to see an active attempt to rebuild in the five years since tensions being high where the college of winterhold is good and i think it's an interesting plot point as to why the college is left standing where the city is not and perhaps this could be revealed through a quest by exploring the hidden caverns and houses of vast wreckage that has sunk into the sea it'd actually be a rather cool exploration zone with sunken buildings that you need to maneuver into that reveal treasures and further collapse structures the potential for environmental storytelling here is insane also argonian's water breathing ends the water breathing spell might actually be put to some use speaking of treasures there could be employment from certain families to recover lost heirlooms or treasure hunters who are seeking to uncover the vault full of gold that was once part of the winterhold bank or treasury but as for the survivors we would still have fairly recently constructed buildings and there would be a bit of a tent city formed around trailing the path to the old gates wooden scaffolding and crane structures have been built to excavate and rebuild and majors have tents set up to assist in the reconstruction and recovery efforts the college majors are here in force trying to improve relations desperately considering that many blame the college in the first place the college of winterhold in this version of skyrim is not this vague academic institution where it feels like an unpopulated budget mages guild instead it is the pinnacle of magical instruction in the north home to the hermetic orders of junal the nordic version of giulianos to the ancient nords he was the rune god of knowledge and wisdom patron of the clever men the ancient nord name for those gifted in the arcane arts journal over the millennia of skyrim's history has largely fallen out of favor with the nords of generally anti-magical sentiment paying lip servers to janal tacked to the end of their list of greater gods however the college of winterhold has held tradition of the ancient hermetic orders of clever men and have since endeavoured to increase the standing of the arcane arts amongst the nords an effort which feels like an uphill battle at times this is also where most of the court wizards come from nords typically don't lack magic users so it's helpful when they come from a more culturally aligned group like the hermetic orders of janal besides the many practical benefits the college has brought in its time since its foundation it also gets afforded a degree of protection by its religious association with junal the college has many at times used their reference of junala's justification for their continued arcane practices and even the truest of nords would not dare move against such a claim for to do so would shame the gods however reasoning aside the college of winterhold is very much a practical and academic organization with the trappings of a cult dedicated to janal many of the motifs the statues the clothing and such is very inspired by janal who is represented as an owl members of the college sport interesting owl-inspired robes similar to the style of the archmage robes in the original skyrim you'd want an interesting mix of academic uniform you know the classical mage robes but also with cultish motifs the archmage is also a nord whether fair or not the legitimacy of the college as a hermetic order devoted to janal would certainly come into question if a dark elf like savos aaron was running the show honestly i think tolftiy should be the archmage instead and perhaps even instead of that title it should be something like hi al tolfdir or something unique rather than just a carbon copy of the mages guild externally we want the people referring to the college members as monk-like and there is very much a religious perception of the college in order to bring legitimacy however internally there are many non-nord members and it's a far more academic institution and let's not forget that it's not just about magic but also scholarly pursuits like history calculations and inventions of course there are various masters of respective schools and we would want the place to be populated by apprentices and new students but we could go on forever about possible improvements to the college of winterhold and this video is already huge so perhaps another time but now let's focus on the actual populace of winterhold as well as the yal and the nobility's interactions with the college and the rest of the world yao korea is just as distrustful of the college as he is in the base game however because of its religious associations as a follower of the old gods he cannot openly attack their legitimacy additionally he is put in a position that the college loves he is increasingly dependent on the engineers and majors of the college that are helping him in the reconstruction effort and so he cannot afford to lose them lest he want to lose his dream to rebuild the city outside the internal politics winterhold has a sturdy mining industry but it is one of the less profitable holds especially since local commerce and infrastructure has been devastated yale korea like most nords was a worshipper of the nordic pantheon yet he was by no means opposed to the empire pre-great collapse winterhold benefited from the east empire trading company and its connections to the broader empire however when winterhold sunk into the sea of ghosts the empire still busy with the reconstruction efforts in cyrodiil could barely afford to send any help at all and this felt like a personal attack to yalcory ulfric stormcloak however stepped in and sent men and indentured dunmer labourers to help in the rebuilding effort in part funding its restoration considering it to be an important place of nordic culture and history additionally stormcloak troops had been sent to winterhold to patrol its territories and secure its lands from banded threats and for this yalquori has become eternally grateful to ulfric and has sided with the stormcloaks and now on to the final of the holds the rift the eastern city of rifton stands at the shores of lake honrek in the original game riften has quite the nice environment and it's home to the thieves guild in theme it's kind of presented as a bit of a criminal haven with the blackbriar family and their illicit connections the fact that you get shaken down by the guards as you first enter the city shows as much riften is a place with an underbelly contrasted with the temple of mara and an active priesthood as well as some honest folk and even the yaal named layla lawgiver who seems earnest in her motives to do the city good yet her influence and capability is debated we want to keep all of this but first we got to get some additional bits to discuss in the law and i mean not older incarnations of the law i mean skyrim error law we have the book of crossed daggers the history of rifton and it gives us some insights the once proud streets and buildings have vanished and have been replaced with a collection of wooden structures and rough stone work shrouded in a permanent fog-like mist in order to understand how such a large city became nothing more than a glorified fortress one need only look to the history books for answers to quickly summarize this book goes on to explain that there was a bad yal and then an uprising and this burnt down the larger city so it's replaced with a shoddier rifton that we see today i don't mind this but i feel like we get robbed of a larger city however i actually quite like rifton as it is and it ends up being quite memorable also having a larger city having been there prior explains why there is such a large sewer system anyways how to improve this in this version riften was still burnt down but stone does not disappear especially not all the stone of a large and important city so i suggest the riften is the city by the lake the rift and we are familiar with but surrounding it to the east and south are complexes of old city ruins that are the size of two or more riftens these larger ruins are the remnants of the city that mostly burnt to the ground but now it has become a hiding place for squatters and thieves the guard has stretched too thin to even bother defending it and instead smaller walls and gates have been built sectioning off the rebuilt city from the old ruins to the south and east the sewers also expand this far and it is this network of tunnels that the thieves guild exploit in addition to a variety of other vagrants and smugglers the guard almost never come down here they turn a blind eye most often because they are stretched far too thin hell they're more likely to shake you down than turn you in this is why maven blackbriar is the real power of rifton running its underbelly in the past according to the same book riften was a major hub of activity for trade caravans and travelers to and from morrowind fishing skiffs could be seen dotting the lake at all hours of the day and the bustling city was alive with activity at night this city guard was formidable and maintained a tight grasp on its populace keeping them safe from harm the marketplace in rifton was also quite a draw containing numerous stands offering wares from across tamriel so we need to consider its position next to morrowind now we aren't going to have a great quarter 2.0 however we would see a higher dunmer population than other places and we would see dunmaguir caravans with guards in bone mold and kite and armor protecting them the ruined city would also be home to dunmer squatters who can set up here with little worries from the guard however they have not been able to amass large numbers because they get edged out by nords and others last thing to mention about the dunmer is that many of them would have come to rifton after the eruption of red mountain yet compared to the grey quarter in windhelm they have assimilated quite well and the reason is likely twofold windhelm's nordic population are amongst the most traditionalist and they have fought house rhetorian at the border for thousands of years resulting in a particular animosity for their kind whereas on the other hand rifton was too busy trading with the dunmer creating a mutual fattening of the pockets of course riften is no prejudice safe haven not by any stretch of the imagination it's just that some good coin can often make people forget even their deepest held beliefs the other much needed component to riften is an expanding of the docs region with an extension of houses built out across the water bringing in skiffs full of fish and sending goods to settlements across the lake district there would be smugglers with fish barrels filled with skooma and guards being paid to turn a blind eye and all kinds of duplicitous activity this dock area expands straight onto the lower level of rifton where we would see many hovels made into the old foundations skirted by boardwalks sitting over the water clothing lines hanging above buckets of waste being dumped from above to below this is where you see many beggars and vagrants who get kicked to the lower levels as to maintain a sense of normalcy up top overall i think in essence what we want to do here is skew things towards the poorer classes in 2011 rifton everything feels a little small like the guards should be able to handle the thieves guild all holed up in one spot there's barely any city to patrol as well we want the feeling of this bloated underbelly that is so big that all the law can do is throw a tarp over and mask it in as much perfume as possible so you walk around rift and up top look down to the water and you see boardwalks full of undesirables the sewer or the rat way as it is called is almost a city unto itself the system sprawls out into the surrounding ruins of the old city and provides access all over so with a small guard force and two whole riftens worth of ruins and a sprawling sewer system beneath it makes sense they can't really stop or control the thieves guild in any meaningful way and the last thing to mention is the overall culture in relation to the imperial conflict and i think the groundwork is there for a rather natural conclusion riften is a place rife with contradiction and that would be its central theme yao laila law giver presides over perhaps the most lawless city in skyrim she is also a supposed staunch proponent of the stormcloak movement and yet her ear is controlled by the black briars and her council which can rationalize away her values when necessary riften has an expansive criminal underworld and problems with poverty yet the surviving city itself parades as a beautiful proud city kicking all its dirt to the lower levels where it cannot be seen we also have in quotations true nords who fight the empire on the basis of maintaining tradition and honor yet many of them are just like the empire when coin is involved suddenly there's a lot less go back to morrowind grey skin and a lot more pleasure doing business with you as he pays a smuggler for a shipment of skooma ready to be taken to the youth of ivorstead and other farming towns with many individuals looking for something to cut the monotony perhaps this is something that could be shown in the outcomes of the civil war if you side with the imperials maven blackberry takes over and things remain very similar whereas if the stormcloaks are victorious with few imperial troubles in skyrim itself stormcloak reinforcements are sent to clean up the city and now patrol the ruins and hang schoomer dealers and thieves in the streets ugh so this turned into a very long long video and there are still things that i didn't discuss such as the plot because without dragons it would be radically different and there are so many possibilities i mean if people really want me to i could write a main story for this setting but in this video i really wanted to play with the world building and sort of take all these holds and give them a greater sense of identity and variety plus the fixed timeline in the context for the fourth era i think greatly improved storytelling opportunities so yeah give me your thoughts on this idealized skyrim i should also say hindsight is 2020 and it's easier to fix something rather than start from scratch however if you want an example of something like that you can check out our ideal elder scrolls 6 hammerfell linked below which was a giant exercise in world building plot and world design but at the end of the day we do all this for fun and i'd love to hear what you think below my name is scott from fudge muppet thanks so much for watching and i'll be back to nerd out with you again next [Music] time you

Channel: FudgeMuppet

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Id: QTEoy7jYz5A

Length: 79min 11sec (4751 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 02 2021