The Guilds of Skyrim #5 : The Stormcloaks and the Legion

• Posted by Paul October 26, 2011 - 738 views

  In this part of our series on 'The Guilds of Skyrim' I'm going to take the two sides of the civil war together - as they will clearly be inextricably linked in Skyrim.

  First news of the 'Stormcloaks' slipped out in one of the PAX play tests, as journalists quickly ran into the Stormcloak presence in Riverwood, the first town that most people encountered in the game. We don't know much about them yet. Here's what we do know:

  • their leader is Ulfric Stormcloak (voiced by Vladimir Kulich in game), the Jarl of Windhelm. That suggests that their power based will be Windhelm, although they clearly have a wider presence.
  • according to UESP they rely largely on 'hit and run' guerrilla tactics, couple with Destruction magic, as an offensive style.
  • they have rivals in the form of the 'Battle Born', based in Whiterun
  • it appears from the achievement list that the eventual aim of the Stormcloak quest line will be to capture the city of Solitude.

  Moving on to the Imperial Legion. 

  • in this game they are led by General Tullius (voiced by the gruff voiced former Battlestar Galactica actor Michael Hogan)
  • we can surmise that they are based in Solitude (see 'achievement' above) but a journalist found an Imperial Fort in Falkreath where it was possible to join the Legion, suggesting a much wider presence.
  • the Legion is the military power in the Empire, ultimately answerable to whatever Emperor is in power at the time. It is conceptually modelled on the Roman Empire in terms of their armour, organisation and even many of their names.
  • The Legion was previously 'joinable' in Morrowind where it was possible to rise up through the ranks to eventually become 'The Knight of the Imperial Dragon'. The Legion was not joinable in Oblivion where their role seems to limited more to patrolling roads and cities.

  We know little about the quest lines that will be offered to us these factions - although the achievement list tells us that apart from the eventual capture of either Windhelm or Solitude, there is an earlier target of capturing either Fort Sunguard or Fort Greenwall.

  If, as could speculated, Bethesda has taken their cue from Fallout New Vegas (albeit not strictly a Bethesda game) it might be possible to 'play one side against the other' in the conflict between the Legion and the Stormcloaks. Whilst it seems inevitable that there would be a point where one has to make a clear choice, it would be brilliant if the early part of the quest line allowed for playing both sides.

  How do intend to deal with the civil strife afflicting Skyrim? Are you already itching to be a Rebel and free Skyrim from the shackles of Imperial invaders? Are you a loyalist for the Empire looking to crush rebellion? Perhaps you're going to try and 'sit on the fence' and help both sides. Or maybe you're going to be playing a character who simply keeps right out of the conflict altogether.

  Start by voting in the NEW poll in the sidebar - and then discuss your tactics, ideas, strategies and hopes for this part of the game on this thread.