Aye, just as the Dunmer had trouble grasping the fact that the Nerevarine was an outlander, the Nords have probably painted a picture of Dovahkiin in their heads of a stereotypical Nordic male warrior.

Though in that case, the obviously Cyrodiilic armor is questionable. Wouldn't he be wearing Nordic armor?

I don't like being the side-kick in a video game. that's it.

Dovahkiin is "Dragon Born" in whatever language "they" use. I'm positive of it.

I'm also hoping that the player IS the Dragon Born--that the statue depicts a male is immaterial. I mean, the opening video of Morrowind referred to the player character as "he" and it didn't mean anything either.

maybe the dragons fear him and so he will try to rule over them and use them for his evil doings. and you are supposed to kill him before he realises the dragons fear him or before he finds them or something like that :-p

This.

The player character is always the hero, no matter the game (with some exceptions, of course). Might as well admit it and actually make the player character a heroic (as opposed to the only regular mortal that is competent).

I'm going to speculate.

Assuming Dragon-Born refers to the man who will remake the Empire, it will most certainly NOT be the player. Bethesda couldn't retcon what race or gender or name the player has. They had a hard enough time with the Warp in the West.

Also, if Dovakhiin does something ridiculously important and epic, like Martin sacrificing his life to end the Oblivion Crisis, it will also probably not be the player. They wanted to give a name to the savior, and it was not the player. Nobody in the Infernal City ever mentions the Champion of Cyrodiil. It's only Martin. However, if the level of Epic coincides with the Nerevarine, then it's probably the Player, as that gives him a title to have in later games.

Now, the question is does Dragon-Born have mythic significance? If it does, it's probably the player. I don't think they'll go with the whole re-incarnation route again.

Evidence against? Tiber Septim had been called the Dragon-Born. The Imperial Emblem of the Septim Empire is present in the trailer. Speculation indicates that the Blades take an important role in the story. Those indicate to me that the player isn't the most important character.

Evidence for? The Nerevarine was also called Dragon-born, indicating that the title isn't as closely tied to the Septim dynasty as we might believe. I don't believe that Bethesda would make the player the sidekick again so soon after Oblivion.

All this evidence is highly shaken up if this turns out to be- gulp- the last Elder Scrolls game.

The Empires of Tamriel have traditionally been associated with the Dragon Born.

Which means the reawakened threat of the Dragons may inspire a Reman Cyrodiil like act, turning one's enemy (originally the Tsaesci, now it's the dragons) into the agent by which the Dragon Born forges a new Fourth Empire of Men. After all, the last Dragon Born of Nordic descent was Tiber Septim, who used the Red Dragon Nafaalilargus to forge the Third Empire.

We also have to consider the fact that currently, Skyrim may be in civil war. This is a situation that only gets resolved when a new emperor of Tamriel takes charge, as both Tiber Septim and Reman Cyrodiil won the loyalty of the Nords and forged them into a unified province. Traditionally, he who unified and held Skyrim held Tamriel. So the Dovahkiin as the prophesized heir to the Imperial Tradition holds, as the successor of sorts to previous dynasty founders.

Of course, given how Bethesda lets the player choose their path, to keep it Elder Scrolls, that would mean the player NOT being the Dovahkiin.

If the whole "M. Night Shymalan Surprise Tweeeest" thing is played out, then that too will mean the player is not Dovahkiin. Whether the Dovahkiin is evil, or something else entirely, remains to be seen.

On the Other Hand, if the player is the Dovahkiin, then that means something else entirely. Here we have possibilities.

The Nordic interpretation of Akatosh is Alduin, the world-eating dragon who destroys one existence to pave way for the next. Dragons in Skyrim are less respected and more feared than in Cyrodiil, and this may come through, making the Dovahkiin the Dragon Born and Dragon Bane.

On the less genocidal route, the Dragon Born is the player healing Skyrim, and finding for the Dragons an appropriate means of existence.

So...possibilities. Possibilities that abound. Stuff to consider.

Wait, wait. It's not Sofa'King?

For those who say that the player can't be Dovahkiin because he is depicted as a male: In the introduction of Morrowind, the words after the Underking's quote clearly say that the prisoner was sent to Morrowind "ignorant of the role he was to play in that nation's history." In The Stranger it also refers to the Nerevarine as "he," though the player can be either six.

That said, l don't think being the Dovahkiin is that impossible. When the gender of something is unknown, it's usually referred to as male.

I totally didn't see a mustache. The lines seemed to be part of what he was breathing our (Thu'um?). Otherwise, the face looked completely blank -- unidentifiable race and gender. So I'm leaning toward PC.

Just because the ancient iceman prophets carved a big burly nord into their wall does not mean that they actually prophesied that Dovahkiin would be a big burly nord.

Just saying.

Sorry if this has already been answered, but are you guys sure it's "Dovahkiin" the narrator says and not something else? And it that is it, where did you get confirmation?

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1148322-skyrim-trailer-breakdown/page__p__16786739#entry16786739

Ah, thanks much.

"Dovahkiin", cool name.

The person on the mural doesn't have a mustache at all, the one under the nose is the mouth (obviously, the person is screaming/shouting, probably due to Thu'um) and the one in front if its mouth is not a mustache, it's the extension of the flames s/he's blocking with the shield (which probably is being empowered by the Thu'um, you don't block dragon fire easily)

he has to be useing thu'um considering that if legends are to be believed dragon fire is hot enough to melt even deadric artifacts(fear struck) and no sheild by itself could protect him.

Indeed that would totally svck......being forced to be a Nord the whole time........... could change the name to Elder scrolls : Conan

I wouldn't really like seeing the whole reincarnation thing again. It would feel kind of cheap.
Maybe you must find his tomb at some point and after completing a challenge, he(Being a ghost or something) gives his powers to you? I rather like that idea.

Keep in mind that it may not be reincarnating anything. Mantling isn't the same thing as reincarnation.

The fact that this character is central to the very first trailer makes me think there's more to this; we usually don't get the whole story handed to us on a platter before release, much less a whole year before. Notably, Dovahkiin is not mentioned as part of the Elder Scrolls prophecy, only named as "one they fear" -- and not all fears are grounded. He could well be a figment of myth. Or it could simply be a title that dragons bestow on mortals who scare them, the nuances improperly translated to imply a specific individual.

To be honest I think I'm more interested in the dragons themselves. What if it's not dragons in general that are causing this distress, but a specific set? Dragons are uncommon but not unheard of. Various sources indicate that there are a reasonable number living in Cyrodiil, just well-hidden. They're not gone and anyone privy to the Scrolls (e.g. the trailer's first speaker) should know this. There's already one obvious more-than-dragon that the general public should be aware of: Akatosh.

I'm not going to go into intensive speculation, but I'll just toss it out there that backlash from http://www.imperial-library.info/content/where-were-you-when-dragon-broke-complete-version is long overdue.

Who knows, perhaps there will be multiple dragon born, and the player will unite them and lead them to combat the dragons, it has been a long time since that prophecy after all...

The narration takes it from the scrolls, I would assume, since that really doesn't sound like something dragons would talk to mere Mer about. And in the scrolls, it usually just refers to someone from the Empire. Which might mean we or a non-player character might just happen to be an agent of the Empire, born under a certain...
...
Ah, who am I kidding, that usually is part of the introduction during character creation.

First and for most who is the threat, of course I think is the inhabitants of Akavir given that the logo of the game Is the Akaviri banner, more specifically the Ka Po' Tun which are cat-like beings led by Tosh Raka the first to ever be able to turn into a dragon "...He is the largest dragon on Nirn and is covered in Orange and Black Scales".
Acording to Mystirious Akavir, a book found in Morrowind and Oblivion Tosh Raka plans on killing all the Tsaesci, their most powerful enemy in their continent and then invade Tamriel.

The Tsaesci were the first of the Akavir to invade Tamriel in the First Age, which lead us to the one they fear the most, "Dovahkiin" translated Dragon Born, trough logic I'm going to assume that the person they fear is the one that defeated Them in their invasion of Tamriel Reman Cyrodiil.
Acording to the Remanada a book found in Oblivion (I think that BGS was setting up the foundation to TES V in here) Reman was the son of the King Hlor and Saint Alessia whom in the book she said to be "...the healer of all men and the mother of dragons" making this fella' here the original Dragon Born, he was the one to return the Amulet of Kings to men and the creator of the Dragonfires ritual for the coronation of Kings.
The final battle of Akavir against Reman was in Pale Pass that is in the frontier of Cyrodiil and Skyrim, when he defeated the Tsaesci, he forgave the Akaviri survivors in exchange of forces to fight the Elves.

The Tsaesci have vampire blood so they live more than mere humans, which made them a powerful asset in combat for Reman, he form a special unit of this soldier to serve the bearer of the Amulet of Kings, the Tsaesci then become the first Blades, which brings us to our next topic;

The Armour: I have read in several post that the armour depicted in the mural is imperial but no, is a Blade's armour, making it a Tsaesci Armour and given that acording to the Mysterious Akavir the Tsaesci tamed the Red Dragons; the armour,shield and sword most be "Dragonproof", maybe an ancient one or even the one of Reman, so this is making me believe that:

"In TES V Tamriel is going to be attacked by the forces of the Ka Po' Tun led by Tosh Raka, the Tsaesci are being enslaved by them and will play a major role in the story, that Chevalier Renald the right hand of Reman, an inmortal from the Tsaesci people, and the one who help in the rise of the first Tiber Septim to power that is believed to be in the "..Northern West..." to make and important appearence.

The main quest I Believe is that in order to save Tamriel you need to find this ancient armour that can only be wear by the true Savior or Champion of Tamriel to defeat the Dragons and Tosh Raka"

So Maybe You are a reincarnation of Reman or aiding the one that is, or, maybe the title is just given to the only warrior that can wear the ancient armour...

In anyway we are going to play and Elder Scroll who has dragons in it, I think that's all I really need

That is all that I have in regards of the Dragonborn there is a lot of information of this in the Imperial Library, and let's not talk about the old mage that is transforming into a dragon and svcking the life the guy to the right in the $%&%& center of the mural :wink_smile:

This. Maybe Dovahkiin is something that the character has to attain during the course of the story. Through leveling and acquiring the various totems needed, the player character can ascend to the mythic title of 'Dovahkiin.' That way, his/her initial race and gender doesn't matter.

Dragon born doesn't have to be a reincarnation or a continuance of the established bloodlines. The way I understand it, dragon born just means that you are Akatosh's chosen vessel to keep shut the jaws of Oblivion . . . the neck around which the Amulet of Kings rests. It seems to me that, in the absence of a Septim heir, Akatosh can confer the title wherever it suits him.

I just have the feeling the dragon born is going to be the next emperor. If you look on the mural, there's three people standing behind the Dovahkiin: one female on the most left and two males to the right of her. Also, there were three humans who started the empire, with gender in order: Alessia, then Reman, and as the last known dragon born, Tiber Septim.