u/timedragon1

I love pointy Breton ears. I really want the ability to make my ears slightly pointy as a Breton in TES VI. But things like this are often overlooked in all of the discussions that go on. So make this your place to talk about what small features you want that would go overlooked in other threads.

https://preview.redd.it/codjlflll8kh1.png?width=565&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f1a49f981678e22c5fd9eefe4284e64f812fb48

This is a continuation of this post here. Where I analyzed what I think a canonical Last Dragonborn would have done based on the criteria I set for canonicity.

Now, I'm going to do the same for the backstory and reconstruct it to the best of my abilities. To begin, I will reiterate what I said in the last post, this is just a thought project of mine. Please do not take it as me trying to disqualify your personal canons or anything like that.

My second disclaimer is that I understand a lot of these things are gameplay mechanics. However, I'm going to interpret them under the assumption that the Dragonborn is actually a person operating within the world rather than purely being a player character.

I'm going to begin with a list of details I managed to accumulate about the Last Dragonborn's dialogue and other details you can intuit.

LIST OF DETAILS:

He likely comes from Cyrodiil, or was at least crossing the border into Cyrodiil. Evidence for that is that "You're from Cyrodiil? What's it like back home?" is something that the Dragonborn can ask Legate Fasendil, the wording seems to imply that the Dragonborn is from Cyrodiil, reinforcing the first point. Incidentally, Hadvar also implies you're from Cyrodiil with "You haven't heard of the civil war in Skyrim? I guess down in Cyrodiil people have other things to worry about". Evidence generally points to the fact that the Dragonborn was from Cyrodiil and was crossing the border into Cyrodiil.

For some reason, the Dark Brotherhood has a contract on him (As this can occur as soon as you leave Helgen without interacting with anyone else).

For some reason, he was crossing the border into Skyrim illegally. Generally presumed to have crossed somewhere between Riften and Helgen, as it was close enough to be near Darkwater Crossing where Ulfric was captured.

The Dragonborn can only speak on his backstory once with Serana. Where he can say his parents are dead, his parents are alive and he loves them, his parents are alive but they don't get along, or he's an orphan. This doesn't mean much on its own, unfortunately.

The Dragonborn appears to have little knowledge of Skyrim's politics (Options with Hadvar when talking about Ulfric: "He's a traitor of some kind?", "I don't pay much attention to current events.")

The Dragonborn appears to be a Nord, so it's most likely he'd be from Bruma, but this isn't set in stone. Though it's likely considering Astrid is the one who sends the Dark Brotherhood Assassin after you, meaning the black sacrament had to have happened close enough to Skyrim for her to catch wind of it, since that's how the Dark Brotherhood was collecting contracts at the time.

The Dragonborn has no family or friends in Skyrim, and appears to not have been crossing the border to meet with someone. On top of this, once he's free from Helgen he appears to not really pursue anything else, meaning that the reason he came to Skyrim was minor enough that the Dragon attacks outweighed it or the goal was literally JUST to cross the border and leave Cyrodiil for some reason. And he had to cross illegally for some reason rather than going across the border legally.

The default trailer armor the Dragonborn wears is comparable to something a brigand or sellsword would have according to guards (Barely relevant, but I'm adding it as a detail anyways).

The Dragonborn appears to have some knowledge of Smithing and Alchemy from the start. Potentially his parents were/are craftsmen or he had a trade job for a time. The only time the Dragonborn has the ability to ask how to craft something is with Enchanting. All other instances are just him asking if he can use the workstation or, in the case of Smithing, asking if he can help out (Which implies some previous knowledge). The Dragonborn in the Hearthfire DLC is also capable of Carpentry, which is a pretty complex thing to just pick up.

The Dragonborn has some knowledge of Magic, always starting the game with Flames and Healing. Which are very practical spells, but this implies that the Dragonborn is reasonably well educated. This is true for previous Heroes too, but I also want to point out that unlike the Hero of Kvatch or Nerevarine who talk to trainers to learn a spell, the Dragonborn just needs to read a Spell Tome to pick it up. I also think it's notable that in Bleak Falls Barrow the Dragonborn sees a word wall and immediately gets curious about it. That implies some scholarly interests. I know in the game, we as the player see a big glowing light come from the word wall, but my opinion is that this is a representation of the Dragonborn reading the word wall and one word standing out to him for reasons he can't quite put his tongue on quite yet. I also want to note that some level of scholarly interest makes sense when the whole mechanic of the game is that the Dragonborn absorbs the souls of dragons and gains their knowledge.

He had no issue going to Bleak Falls Barrow alone and his dialogue doesn't really show any fear or reservations. At the very least, he seems relatively confident in his skills so he's probably been in a dungeon before. He also doesn't express any reservations about going to fight a Dragon when the Western Watchtower is attacked. This, on top of the fact the Dragonborn can fight trained Soldiers in the Helgen dungeon, implies he has combat experience and is relatively confident in that experience.

Throughout the game, the Dragonborn has the ability to ask people for jobs and people assume he's a sellsword a couple of times. He also reads books about treasure and actually takes an interest in going into those dungeons and seeing if it's real or not. Asking about paid jobs frequently and being eager to explore dungeons for treasure is a personality pretty consistent with the habits one might pick up from being a Sellsword by occupation.

MY ATTEMPT AT RECONSTRUCTION:

This isn't gonna be very satisfying.

But basically what this all implies is that the Dragonborn either grew up in or around Bruma or was in the area shortly before he came into Skyrim. He had (a) parent(s) that did a craftsman occupation and/or at a young age he held a trade job for a short time. However, the Dragonborn appears to be reasonably educated so his parents owning a store makes a bit of sense.

The Dragonborn in his adult life mostly worked as a sellsword and seems to have a personal interest in the adventuring lifestyle (And may have become a sellsword for that reason).

At some point, the Dragonborn got himself into trouble with someone and had to flee for Skyrim, being desperate enough to cross the border outside of the proper channels. He entered the border at some point between Darkwater Crossing and Helgen and was captured by the Imperials who were taking Ulfric to Cyrodiil (Before suddenly changing course to Helgen).

Which is... A pretty normal backstory, all things considered. So not very satisfying, but I personally think the Dragonborn being a completely normal sellsword who got into a bit of trouble is pretty interesting on its own.

Regardless, I hope this was interesting for anyone who wanted to headcanon a backstory for a "Canonical Last Dragonborn" like I do.

I'll start.

I have a theory that "Betmer" was a word originally used to refer to Khajiit, but later colloquially became used to refer to all Beastfolk.

I have no basis for this beyond the fact that "Mer", while simply meaning "folk" etymologically, is pretty much always used for races that have Elven descent except for the Betmer. Human Races don't get called "Mer", with the sole exception of Bretons. There's a hundred other possible explanations for this, but I like mine.

Alright, so first and foremost, I want to preface this which the fact that I believe anyone's interpretation of canon is legitimate and valid. I don't dispute this whatsoever. Your roleplay is not in question, and I fully respect and support whatever personal beliefs you have about this subject. So let's all get along, alright?

Okay.

So, to begin, I want to establish what I personally mean by "Canon" here. I am defining canonical as something that the Dragonborn had to have done based on interactivity with the main quest, references to the Dragonborn by that identity, and whatever other supplemental lore information this might be. To put it into perspective, imagine if you booted up the Alternate Start Mod and roleplayed a character that wasn't the Dragonborn. What can you do as a normal person and would this conflict with something that the Dragonborn had to have done?

We'll take this one at a time.

DAWNGUARD AND DRAGONBORN

The Dragonborn did the Main Quest and DLCs. Sometimes people object to Dawnguard having been done by the Dragonborn. Based on the criteria I defined above, the Dragonborn has to do Dawnguard. Beyond the fact that it's a DLC, you being the Dragonborn is explicitly referenced by Durnehviir, whether you currently are aware you're Dragonborn or not. Durnehviir also teaches unique Shout. This DLC can only be fully explored and interacted with through the player character being the Dragonborn. On top of that, Dawnguard directly interacts with the Main Quest through the Dragon Elder Scroll. I know the Elder Scrolls are enigmatic, but I'm gonna cast doubt on the Dragonborn and some random going down into Blackreach and doing the same puzzle to get the same Elder Scroll. I don't think anyone would reasonably dispute the Dragonborn DLC being done by the Dragonborn.

FACTIONS

With that out of the way, let's talk about factions. To preface, you need to join every single Faction to unlock the full versions of every shout. I have decided that this doesn't matter too much. The actual placement of word walls is mainly just a gameplay mechanic. I would also like reiterate here that all I'm analyzing here is whether the Dragonborn HAS to do it. The "Canon Dragonborn" may have still done these questlines, but it's up in the air.

The Companions: I do not believe the Dragonborn has to do this questline. You can join this faction as a nobody and become Harbringer without you being Dragonborn ever being brought up. It never interacts with any main quest. Being the Harbringer is pretty much never brought up beyond this questline. The Dragonborn can meet Kodlak in Sovngarde, but this isn't necessary in any way. Therefore, I'm ruling that this does not necessarily have to be done by the Dragonborn.

The College of Winterhold: I have, in the past, made a very lengthy post about this. To summarize my argument here, The College of Winterhold has to be joined during the Main Quest and Dawnguard. Now, it's entirely possible to get around it in the Main Quest by finding Septimus Signus' Outpost on your own, but this is, ultimately metagaming. It's not the intended path of that questline. But regardless of your stance on that, you still have to join in Dawnguard. Beyond that, there is a note in ESO that directly states Morokei has to be killed by the "Voice of a Dragon". This is not reflected in gameplay, but it is an obvious intended reference to the Dragonborn. On top of this, the College of Winterhold is one of the factions where your status as a Dragonborn is acknowledged by members of the faction. A normal person can join the College of Winterhold in gameplay and play the questline, but I'm ruling that this has to be done by the Dragonborn based on supplemental information.

Dark Brotherhood: For the most part, this does not interact with the Dragonborn at all. There are two things that are mainly worth bringing up. This questline can be directly referenced in the Stormcloak Questline in a spot where the Dragonborn has to have been (More on this later), and the first quest of this is required to access the orphanage in the Hearthfire DLC. Now, you do not need to open up the Orphanage to engage with the adoption mechanic, and the Stormcloak thing seems more like something to ensure Bethesda didn't accidentally mess up quest order. It is possible that the Dragonborn did the Dark Brotherhood, but I am not ruling it as necessary.

Thieves Guild: This... Is more complicated than I initially expected it to be. The Thieves Guild Questline interacts with the Main Questline. That brings up a very important argument, since 9/10 times the player is gonna go to talk to Brynjolf, as that is where they are directed to go. Compared to the Companions and the Dark Brotherhood, there is a higher likelihood that the Dragonborn interacted with this Questline. However, you have other options that aren't metagaming. You can persuade Brynjolf or people in the Ratway to skip the initiation quest. A random person can still do the initiation quest after the Dragonborn persuades Brynjolf. So... I'm gonna rule the Dragonborn does not have to do this, but there is a good argument for it.

DAEDRIC QUESTS

There's a couple of criteria I'm going off of here. Most Daedric Quests are optional, but some do force the Dragonborn to interact with them. To update the criteria I made above, if the "Alternate Start Random Guy" and the Dragonborn are both forced to do a quest in gameplay, I'm prioritizing the Dragonborn in terms of canonicity.

So, I'll start with all the ones that are optional and don't force the Dragonborn to interact with them in any way: Azura, Boethiah, Hircine, Malacath, Namira, Peryite, Sheogorath, and Vaermina. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Now I'm creating a second category. Quests that force the Dragonborn to interact with them at some point, but the Dragonborn can just ignore them and the Dragonborn is (likely) not the only person being bothered about it: Clauvicus Vile, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal, and Sanguine.

And now for the final considerations:

Hermaeus Mora: Pretty much has to be interacted with as part of the main quest, since the Dragonborn needs to be the one to retrieve the items from Septimus Signus to begin with. I'm ruling the Dragonborn definitely did this one, with extra consideration for the fact it makes a nice prologue to the Dragonborn DLC.

Mephala: This is an interesting one. Technically the Dragonborn has to do the Main Quest to unlock this Quest, and it's very strange for some random person whose not Thane of Whiterun to be investigating Dragonsreach like that. I think there's a strong chance the Dragonborn had to do this Quest for it to have happened, but I'm not entirely sold on the idea that is HAS to be the Dragonborn.

Meridia: This is a strange one. The Dragonborn pretty much is always forced to encounter this thing and the Dragonborn has no particular reason to not pick up the strange gem object if they're in the middle of looting. Which means there is a very high possibility that the Dragonborn was the one who touched the Beacon, and I don't recall there being any mention of Meridia having multiple beacons scattered across Skyrim (I might be wrong). Now once the Dragonborn has the Beacon, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the Dragonborn to not bring it back as opposed to holding onto it forever, and the Quest does eventually have to be done by someone. My ruling is the same as Mephala. It's likely, but I'm not sold that it has to be.

DECISIONS

This section starts to go into more opinion territory. Sorry in advance, I'll do my best to still analyze things neutrally.

There are three primary decisions that the Dragonborn is forced to interact with at some point. Since I'm trying to establish was a "Canon Dragonborn" would have done, I'm gonna have to analyze these. Instead of using "Must" and stuff like that, I'm instead gonna focus on probability based on my personal analysis, though there will be one big "Must" brought up. I'll get the easy ones out of the way first.

Blades vs Greybeards: I think it's more likely the Dragonborn spared Paarthurnax. Just based on the reasoning of a character in that situation which like 99% of the fanbase has also come to. The Paarthurnax was the Dragonborn's mentor, the Dragonborn likely feels a strong connection to Paarthurnax, and the Blades are making a pretty unreasonable request with the information the Dragonborn is actually given. That's pretty much it, there's not a whole lot to analyze here.

Dawnguard vs Volkihar: The Dragonborn will always start off by joining the Dawnguard and finding Serana. After finding Serana, the Dragonborn has to make a choice. There's two main arguments I've come to here. 1. The Dragonborn has an inherit want for power due to having a Dragon Soul, so would take the Vampire Lord offer. 2. The Dawnguard is the most compldete questline, and has a stronger canon argument. I'm gonna say... I agree with the second one, actually. It's the most complete questline of the two of them and it makes the most sense for the Dragonborn to face off with Harkon at the end over (I always found the Volkihar path reasoning to be not as strong). The Dawnguard is clearly the more thought out questline between the two, and there's a lot of strong thematic parallels with Serana being a Vampire who helps hunt Vampires alongside the Dragonborn, a Dragon-blooded/souled individual who helps hunt Dragons. I am personally strongly in favor of the Dawnguard being more canonical.

Civil War

This is gonna be fun. I will preface this section with the fact that... I'm actually not sold other way. But I'm gonna present the arguments I've come up with for both sides, and I'm gonna avoid personal opinions to the best of my ability. My personal opinion is that I'm more biased towards the Empire, but I'm keeping that largely separate from the analysis. I will also not be focusing on practical arguments of Imperial vs Stormcloak, and instead focus on what makes more sense with the Dragonborn's reasoning as an individual living in the world with the information they have and not the meta reasonings fans argue with.

The first question to ask is... Did the Dragonborn stop interacting with the War after Season Unending? This is a popular stance with strong arguments behind it. I'm gonna say no, however. I think the Dragonborn did in fact pick a side, though I do believe Season Unending happened as it's a main quest. Optional as it may be, it's very well done and definitely integrates much better into the Dragonborn's story than just doing a faction before The Fallen (With the only counter-argument really being the Sovngarde thing I mentioned with the Companions). The reason I believe that the Dragonborn did in fact pick a side is because I'm 100% positive that the Siege of Whiterun, at the very least, is gonna be a canonical event that happened. The Siege of Whiterun is at a point in the Civil War where... No random person could have done those quests. From that moment on, you are acknowledged as a Dragonborn in dialogue as it has to happen after Dragon Rising. The Civil War is locked out without Dragon Rising being done and, because of that, both sides will start calling you "The Dragonborn" around that point. So you being Dragonborn is acknowledged, and only the Dragonborn could have done the remainder of the questline.

So... Imperials or Stormcloaks? I'm gonna have to focus purely on themes here as there's no much supporting evidence with supplementary lore and the criteria I established for "Canon" doesn't work either way.

Stormcloak Arguments: It makes the most sense for the Dragonborn to go with Ralof, as Ralof saved their life and the Dragonborn is probably not gonna be very happy with the people trying to cut off their head. The title that the Dragonborn receives, "Stormblade", is thematically similar to the title Tiber Septim received, "Stormcrown", following the themes of the Dragonborn being declared Ysmir in the same way Tiber Septim was.

Imperial Arguments: Jarl Balgruuf is an NPC that the Dragonborn establishes a very close working relationship with, and I find it unlikely that the Thane of Whiterun (The only "Thane" title that should necessarily be canonical by my criteria) would be entirely in favor of sieging Whiterun, though by the time the Dragonborn realizes Whiterun is about to be sieged, it's a bit too late to pull out of the Stormcloak path. Thematically, for the past 4 mainline games (Focusing on mainline since there's an obvious counterargument with Redguard), the player character has assisted the Empire fairly directly in some way, so the Dragonborn also assisting the Empire makes sense. Dragonborns and the Empire has long been closely connected culturally as well.

My final decision: I cannot decide. I do not think that I can make a reasonable judgement beyond the fact that I think the Dragonborn definitely chose a side. People are 100% free to provide more supplementary information on this, but I do not feel comfortable making a call.

CONCLUSION

And that is the extent of my analysis. I did not feel like going through every single side quest in the game, but I'm sure you can use the criterion I established for "canonicity" on all of them on your own if you so wish.

I hope you enjoyed this analysis. I spent about 2 hours typing it up and fact checking myself, and I hope it stimulates a good debate on the subject, as I love reading the various arguments and debates on here.

In Season 1 of Andor, Andor under the alias of Keef Girgo is arrested by Imperials and taken to a trial, where he's lined up with a bunch of other accused and quickly shuffled through to be read off his charges and be sentenced in a rapid fashion. He's given a ton of bogus charges and then hauled off to a labor camp.

Let's say Phoenix Wright magically appears right before Andor is read off his charges. Can Phoenix Wright somehow pull off an acquittal?

We're assuming:

Phoenix Wright has all his experience from all the games, including crossovers.

The Imperial Court under the P.O.R.D. has a "nearly 100%" conviction rate rather than a flat 100%.

Phoenix Wright is fully aware of what's going on.

Charges Phoenix is working with:

Disruption

Anti-Imperial Speech

Fleeing the scene of an Anti-Imperial Activity

Damaging Imperial property

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Can Phoenix Wright pull it off?