Forums » Elder Scrolls

Death of a Traitor: Saadia

    • 1467 posts
    March 21, 2015 7:33 AM EDT

    This is a rather difficult one to pinpoint but with the success of Roggvir I figured this could be a fun one to watch unfold.

    What does everyone think of everyone's favorite Reguard Traitor/Hunted Woman, and in the end who's side are you on? The Ruthless Alik'r or the Young, Innocent seeming Lady hunted down throughout all of Skyrim.

    • 622 posts
    March 21, 2015 7:51 AM EDT

    I think she sold them out. No exact reason why, but if the so-ccalled 'assassins' wanted her dead, they would have killed her as soon as Kematu saw her

    • 122 posts
    March 21, 2015 7:58 AM EDT

    I really want to believe that Saadia is innocent, but if she is within the crosshairs of the Alik'r, elite mercenaries of Hammerfell, she must have done something. This subject is tricky for me because of all the things I don't know exactly. As such, I usually side with Kematu because the rewards are higher :P

    • 237 posts
    March 21, 2015 12:52 PM EDT

    I don't think I've sided with Saadia more than once.  A wizard knows better than to be tricked by some seductive wench!

    • 1217 posts
    March 21, 2015 1:34 PM EDT

    I'm inclined to think she's guilty(I'm just condemning people left and right, here). Someone once presented some pretty compelling evidence for why, which I believe had to do with her claim that the Alik'r had been hired by the Thalmor, staunch enemies of the Redguard.

    • 95 posts
    March 21, 2015 1:38 PM EDT

    Personally? I wipe out the Alikir and take the Scimitars and replace them all with powerful enchantments, like Absorb Health and Fiery Soul Trap and Absorb Stamina with Fiery Soul Trap, stack them all with a ton of Soul Gems and unleash them all upon Whiterun.

    • 1595 posts
    March 21, 2015 2:59 PM EDT

    This is one of the hardest quests in the game to roleplay through for an honourable character thanks to the piss poor dialogue choices. Normally I side with Saadia  

    Truth be told I think that Saadia is guilty, the Alik'r soldiers have the more convincing argument.

    • 237 posts
    March 21, 2015 4:45 PM EDT

    Yeah, the Alik'r story makes much more sense.  Although it is still possible, albeit far less likely, that the Thalmor manipulated the Redguards into hunting her down, I doubt they'd tell the story they do as a coverup.  Redguards are too kewl for that.

    • 237 posts
    March 21, 2015 4:46 PM EDT

    There are other sources of scimitars!

    • 1467 posts
    March 21, 2015 7:01 PM EDT

    I will kill traitors until Skyrim is free...Now let's see who isn't a traitor. Aela, no she technically betrayed Kodlak's trust, um, yeah this'll last for a long time.

    • 1467 posts
    March 21, 2015 7:03 PM EDT

    Kematu and his little mercenaries have  a much better reasoning and their story is more plausible then Saadia's, however I quite often struggle to kill her because she seems so innocent. But whatever I alays take the option that gets me more gold so I betray everyone.

    • 4 posts
    March 21, 2015 9:36 PM EDT

    I've never sided with Saadia. In fact, I've never even listened to her side of the story. I always run to the redguards and turn her in as soon as I can. 

    • 1217 posts
    March 21, 2015 9:53 PM EDT

    Why?

    • 237 posts
    March 22, 2015 12:26 AM EDT

    Betraying everyone is the appropriate course of action for some characters.  Once, I played a spy who made a point of doing this every time the game made it possible.  Naturally, she Calmed Saadia and got a second reward before killing her, too.

  • March 22, 2015 1:44 AM EDT

    Ugh. I really dislike this quest, mainly because I think Bethesda failed. They were trying to go for a really grey morality, no right or wrong answer, and ended up with a quest that makes no sense, no matter which way you slice it.

    According to the Redguards... Saadia sold out a city in Hammerfell to the Thalmor and they seek to bring her to justice back home. Yet, if you hand her to them, they kill her, dump her body somewhere, and she ends up in the Whiterun tombs. Also, refresh my lore-skills, but isn't Hammerfell still free and holding out against the Aldmeri Dominion?

    According to Saadia... she's a Redguard noble who's hiding from the Thalmor who want to assassinate her. So, she's hiding in a nation crawling with Thalmor, due to the Civil War, in a nation where she sticks out like a sore thumb rather than in Hammerfell where she would be just another Redguard in a country of Redguards. Let's never mind the fact that we're meant to believe that the Thalmor hired Redguards instead of local agents, and not even any ol' Redguard, but the Alik'r.

    Honestly, I never do the quest. When it first gets triggered, I use a console command and delete the guys that come talk to you.

    • 1217 posts
    March 22, 2015 1:48 AM EDT

    When it first gets triggered, I use a console command and delete the guys that come talk to you.

    While us console peasants go dancing around them in and out of Whiterun to avoid getting it added to the journal.

    • 41 posts
    March 22, 2015 4:22 AM EDT
    Does this make me a peasant lord?
    • 41 posts
    March 22, 2015 4:25 AM EDT
    Personally, I prefer siding with the Alik'r. This is partially due to the fact that, frankly, it's easier to hand her over to the Redguards than to slaughter them all, and the fact that she threatens you with a knife doesn't really help her case.
    • 168 posts
    March 22, 2015 10:57 AM EDT

    Saadia is a traitor and as such deserved to die not only for her crimes, but to lie to me as well. After doing some digging on Skyrim Wiki, I discovered that the Alik'r are telling the truth, although I already knew that when I had a chat with Kematu and learned his side of this story. To begin with, Saadia's story has several inconsistencies: First,  she somehow knows that one of the Alik'r has been arrested (after claiming that she wasn't even aware of their presence in the city of Whiterun), which suggests that the Alik'r might be the ones telling the truth about her. Second, in the book The Great War, the great houses of Hammerfell unite against the Aldmeri Dominion, and to date in Skyrim, these facts, along with Hammerfell's success at repelling the Dominion, undermine Saadia's claim that the Alik'r are assassins hired by the Thalmor, who want her dead for her speaking out publicly against the Dominion. Come on!! Redguards hired by the Thalmor, the ones they fought during and after the Great War? Cool story, sis!!

  • March 22, 2015 1:07 PM EDT

    I'm actually a bit ashamed that it took me months of dancing before I realised I had the Power of God with the "disable" command.

    • 1217 posts
    March 22, 2015 1:14 PM EDT

    When I leave Whiterun, I usually jump off the roof of the guard barracks, and I can land behind them with plenty of space to get out.

    • 1217 posts
    March 22, 2015 1:14 PM EDT

    One of us, Mushasheck, one of us.

    • 2 posts
    March 23, 2015 8:07 AM EDT

    The Elder Scrolls Wiki has somewhat good evidence that Kematu might be right. If the Thalmor really wanted her dead, they could've sent  Justiciars.

    • 1467 posts
    March 23, 2015 8:13 AM EDT
    If the Alik'r in question are actually working as Mercenaries Saadia suggests the there is actually no logical reason the Thalmor wouldn't hire them. Mercenaries sell their services to the highest bidder and well the Dominion is no doubt a high bidder.

    I think your point on her not knowing about the Alik'r in advance is slightly flawed. It really depends on the exact timing of when the prisoner was captured, She might have been aware of him and no longer considered him a threat (considering the Alik'r were done with him) and dismissed him, not knowing about the other Alik'r agents already being in Whiterun is perfectly reasonable unless he was captured within a few hours of her telling you this. Even then she works at a bar, gossip travels fast.
    • 1913 posts
    March 23, 2015 8:30 AM EDT

    Not true, because with Malborn and you the thalmor send assassins after you.