After starting Skyrim over for the hundredth time, the opening sequence has started to bother me more and more. The first time playing, I could easily write it off as “the context will get filled in later”—but it never fully does. Why was your character taken into custody? Yes, we could just assume that all there is to it is that your character happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time—that you were crossing the border and just happened to be caught in an ambush with the Stormcloaks. But that seems overly simplistic, and it’s not certain that’s all that happened. In great role-play spirit, many players have taken it upon themselves to imagine what their character’s reason was for being taken into custody.
Empire Supporter On Route To Aid The Empire
Reddit user, Bambikins, explains that his journey started when he was crossing the border, and an arrow suddenly pierced the skull of his horse. He had been on his way to leave Cyrodiil to aid the Empire against the Stormcloaks. Ironically, when he went to investigate the nearby commotion after his horse had been killed, he got caught in the Stormcloak raid and was taken into custody. Quite a tragic story, given that the character had meant to help fight against the Stormcloaks and was about to be put to death by Imperials for pursuing that ideal…
It’s The Skooma’s Fault
Though perhaps not the most creative backstory of the bunch, Reddit user MattFleet’s explanation is rather humorous. His character just had a night out on the town in an Imperial city. After getting relatively buzzed through a few ales, a sketchy man in the corner asked him if he’d like to try some Skooma. Given the fact that his character was off work, he said “why not!” Lo and behold, nothing is remembered after that. He then wakes up in a cart to Helgen, with his buddy nowhere to be found.
Elf Who Lost Everything Sets Out To Stop Thalmor Oppression
In a considerably different flavor from the last, Reddit user, OohLongJohnson (yes, you read that right), explains that his character (a wood elf) used to live a very peaceful life with his family in Valenwood. Unfortunately, when he returned from his hunt one day, he found that his entire family had been slaughtered by Thalmor agents, as a part of the ethnic cleansing initiative. He tracked down the murderers and killed them, but his grief was still vastly overwhelming. Upon hearing of the civil war occurring in Skyrim, he heads there, vowing to do everything he can to stop Thalmor supremacy. Unfortunately, while heading into Skyrim, he ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dark Elf Caught While Tending To His Dying Master
In this story, Reddit user, imamworking, describes how his character had been residing in Snowveil Sanctum with his master. They were both potion makers from an exiled organization that was being persecuted for its ties to Mythic Dawn, the ones who killed the emperor in Oblivion. Without potions from this group, the ones who killed the emperor would not have been able to turn into Daedric soldiers. After a while in exile, this character got picked up by Imperials while out gathering potion ingredients to care for his aging master. Later, once this character broke free from custody and was able to roam again, he went back for his master, only to find that his master had died. Not only that, but an assassin was waiting by the body, ready to kill him too. Being the last member of the original group, he isn’t surprised whenever he finds a bounty for his death or assassins springing an attack on him.
Dunmer Assassin Almost Kills Ulfric Stormcloak
An unnamed Reddit user explains that his character is a Khajiit assassin and had been stalking a certain Stormcloak camp for a while. He did this will the goal of assassinating Ulfric, thus leading to more racial equality, from his perspective. On the night that he’d decided would be the perfect opportunity to go in for the kill—as he had his poisonous blade to Ulric’s throat—Imperials attacked the camp. This character quickly hid up in a tree, so as not to be caught in the action. Unfortunately, the tree caught fire from one of the torches, causing him to have to jump from the tree and break his legs. This led to easy capture by the Stormcloaks, and his dream of assassinating Ulfric went up in smoke.
Source: Reddit