Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions


Dovahkiin the Double Agent: Play Both Sides of the Civil War

Tags: #Albino Skyrim Tip  #Tips and Tricks Roleplaying  #Tips and Tricks Showcases 
  • Member
    January 30, 2015

    As it turns out, there are a lot of opportunities for you to switch between which side of the Civil War you are helping rather than stick with a side and run with it. Let me show you what I mean:

    – At the beginning of the game, escape with Ralof.
    – Instead of taking his advice of signing up with the Stormcloaks, go to Solitude and do the Joining the Legion quest up until the point where you have to take the oath.
    – Instead of taking the Legion's oath, go to Windhelm and complete Joining the Stormcloaks, taking their oath instead.
    – Go with Galmar to Korvanjund and retrieve the Jagged Crown, but take it to the Legion instead.
    – During Season Unending, create a ceasefire agreement that favors the Stormcloaks. Fun fact: According to UESP, Bethesda considered options for this quest that would have you kicked out of your chosen army if the negotiated truce favored the other side. From there, you could switch to the other side. Of course, this didn't make it into the final version of the game, but it certainly would've been cool if it did.
    – All the while, continually switch between which side you help during the relevant world interactions. For example, if you come across some Imperial soldiers with a Stormcloak prisoner, you could fight to free him, but then the next time you come across a Stormcloak patrol, you could kill them all.

    Of course, you could accomplish the same thing by escaping with Hadvar at the beginning of the game and flip-flopping from there. Most, if not all the stuff I covered is well-known by now, or at least is information that can be easily found on UESP, but this shows how you could do this all in one playthrough. Does this let you accomplish anything useful? Not really, but it could make for some interesting roleplay (like if you were playing a Thalmor agent trying to weaken both sides, for example), and I think it's interesting enough to warrant sharing with the T&T Group.

  • January 30, 2015
    Looks pretty cool there Albino. And someone has used that tag yay, it's been awhile.
    But I'm pretty sure I told you once to not steal my ideas, this is two strikes now and this is getting out of hand, I was planning a build that operated on weakening both forces as much as possible and now it'll seem less epic.
  • January 30, 2015

    I kind of like this, it's deffinently worth sharing. I also wish that the Season Unending part was left in the game, I can just imagine doing the Civil War up to the Battle for Solitude, then being thrown out of the Stormcloaks and doing all over again for the Legion.

  • Member
    January 30, 2015

    Well, maybe you should plan faster next time. 

  • Member
    January 30, 2015

    I agree. Actually, I think there's a mod that adds in a lot of the cut Civil War content, but being a 360 player I can't use it.

  • January 30, 2015
    #360MasterRace except when I play PC and then #PCMasterRace. But I always use my Favourtie controlled of all time, the Xbox 360, great design on it.
  • January 30, 2015

    You can pretty much do that by becoming a Vampire Lord before entering the Soul Cairn, but it would be nice if the Blood Stone Chalice was more like the Jagged Crown, and it was also needed for the Dawnguard.

  • January 30, 2015
    Well maybe, you should have worse ideas. Or we should both have worse. Or maybe one day, we plan a build together, no arguments because we'd both have the same ideas.
  • January 30, 2015
    I agree a little more diversity with quests would be good. You know joining Harkon, or Mercer or Ancano.
  • Member
    January 30, 2015

    I'm drawing a blank there. I don't think you can switch between the Dawnguard and Volkihar the way you can with the Empire and Stormcloaks.