I've been wondering since the trailer... I thought that Elder scrolls V would be different to other fantasy RPGs in that dragons are honoured/worshipped by the citizens of Tamriel and Cyrrodil. But from what I've heard, its just the same basic story: genocide of the dragons. Its basically happened in many fantasy media, including: dragonheart, dragonkeeper, fable, dragon age. But since the features include 'play any way you want' does that mean i can find another way to stop the dragons without killing them? Can the dragon tongue be used in diplomacy? I love dragons and personally prefer not to kill them. I just feel bad that Bethesda finally brings dragons into the game and their only purpose is target practice. It feels like the fantasy RPG genre has learned nothing, except with mass effect recently and the rachni situation. Their race was exterminated in a war, as they were hostile and a threat to the galaxy. Why can't dragons be shown the same compassion that the rachni can?
Sorry if i digress, but i haven't been at peace since i saw the trailer with the dragon being killed and that the purpose of the game was to exterminate the dragons. Please share any knowledge that might help.

you ever try to be merciful with bandits in OB, just not finish them off and let them go. it doesn't quite work that way... should it be? who knows, but I certainly would not think a dragon would just give up or run away from a fight even if they were all but dead.

I think the dragon slaying is kind of the point. Maybe there will be a dragon that helps with training you or something. :shrug:

Listen, these dragons are trying to destroy the world. You can't reason with them, you can't make nice with them, they herald the return of Alduin, and he doesn't care for your empty words, his only interest (that we know of) is [censored] [censored] up. Kill them or avoid them, and if niether of those options work for you, you might want to reconsider whether or not this is the right game for you.

No,you can't have peaceful talks as Aldun wants to destory everything,and your charter is from the line of dragon slayers.Even if he wanted too,the dragons fear him and want him dead.

Oblivion would not let you ignore the Oblivion Gates - they would just start pumping out Daedra until the gates were closed.

I would expect that the Dragons, being the apparent McGuffin of the game, would not be easy to ignore - they would just continue to multiply, and if the trailer is any representation, hunt you down and force you to deal with them.

In the sense that you can choose not to kill the skeleton that is attacking you, yeah.

Hero: I'm a Pacifist!
Dragon: Oh, good.
*bites in half*

These dragons are trying to help Alduin herald the next kalpa. They don't care for your diplomacy.

I imagine dragons would be too proud to flee, so even if they're losing the battle,it will probably be a battle to the end (that is, unless you choose to run for your life ).

Needs ketchup

Well yeah, except for the fact that Todd Howard already said that not all dragons will be hostile. It was in the same quote I posted from the Eurogamer article yesterday in the thread about owning houses, just give me a moment to find it....

"There's no decision yet on mounts or difficulty levels. Inquiries about guilds, factions, alchemy and crime are all batted away. We do at least find out that you can buy property, and Howard hints that some dragons may not be your enemies."

Link: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-18-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-preview?page=4

So I don't think it's going to be "genocide of the dragons", there will be dragons that will attack on sight, and dragons that would rather have a peaceful solution.

Fixed.


You do know they're not endangered wild animals, or ancient fonts of celestial wisdom, or anything like that, right? They're the harbingers of apocalypse.

in the interview, Todd said that the dragons will act like monsters and will randomly come along; just as if a rat or a skeleton would. He said you will be able to not kill them, but their extremely hard to run away from. So i'm guessing most dragons that you encounter , weither random or quest encountered, you will probably have to fight. bliviongate:

all that means is the interviewer interpretted something that todd said as a hint. todd could have meant any thing, he could have meant that there will be dragons in the MQ that you will encounter but are not the normal met in the wild dragons.

Then my guess would be that the dragons that aren't hostile are essential to the main story and cannot be found outside of it.

Edit: ninja'd :toughninja:

I'll be slightly annoyed if they're like the Oblivion Gates to be honest. Oh, they're this big bad enemy, who will soon be eating up the goats and the children all across the countryside while moving on with their master plan to free themselves from Nirn and return to hence they came...

...but as long as the hero shuts their eyes and pretends not to see them, they just sit there.


Anyway, there's a reason why the dragons chose now to come back from the sound of the way Todd was talking. Im sure you can run if you really don't want to kill a dragon, but I'm sure the dragons will enjoy the chase.

The dragons care about us about as much as the snow cares for the trees.

We know one of the dragon shouts calls a dragon to your aide, so we know our character isn't going to go on a complete genocidal rampage.

Dragonborn: I SHALL SPARE THEE, DRAGON!
Dragon: :flamethrower:

That's actually a pretty good point and brings up an odd line of thinking from me:

What if the shout that summons this supposed dragon ally, is obtained via the story from the very dragon you summon?

Instead of being some temporary or limited minion with no real characterization, the summoned dragon ends up being an actual story character of some sort? The question then would be the means of obtaining it.

Does the dragon come of its own free will via some arrangement, or is it enslaved via your shout? If the latter, picture said dragon, possibly cursing you in its dragon tongue every time you summon it.

sure you can try and let them go once theyve spotted you but something tells me that wont end well

The way i see it you got three choices...

1) Stand and fight.

2) Run and hide.

3) Die.

dragons are gonna be there from the start so yeah worms options are the only ones you will likely get

Killing dragons is the basic story?

I dunno, the whole noble honorable dragon thing sound like a bigger cliche to me...

Both ends of the spectrum are pretty much cliches. I personally am hoping for the dragons to be characterized as being more gray.

Not exactly good or evil, but antagonistic nonetheless. Some dragons, perhaps those related to the plot that will have actual voicing, could be portrayed with varying degrees of morality but no matter how noble or terrible an individual dragon they should still be your enemy to the end.