You start out as a prison guard.

You start as a Slave, a dragon come and burn everything, you re one of the few survivor because was in a underground prison. You flee and as the dragon keep burning the nords, you screan " Burn then ALL those &¨*¨%%*" A fragon swoop by you recruits you as scout for the attack and the game is over because you sided the dragons, which, under the circunstances, was the wisest choice.
You take a rocking chair, a jug of wine, some roasted boar and see the world goes ablaze, thinking:
"This world was becoming pathetic anyway, NEXT!"

I just hope you don't start at the beginning of an unskippable tutorial every time. That always puts me off when it's a game where I expect to make multiple characters.

Imprisoned for unknown reasons. Escape for obscure reasons, hopefully. The more like Morrowind the better

Well, since you play a dragonhunter maybe the games starts out with you decked out in platemail, robes, or light armor depending on the class you chose, stalking a baby dragon. As you near it the mother swoops down and knocks you off a cliff and you tumble down miraculously not breaking any bones but your head does hit a rock and you black out.

You wake up to a bunch of raiders/looters taking your armor and bags in which you black out again, then you wake up to a grizzled old traveler looking down at you, in which he asks you the necessary questions to get your birthsign and whatnot sorted out. This old man turns out to be Esbern (the old Blade) and he takes you back to his camp or village to test you (tutorial) then starts training you after which he sends you off to start the main quest, or to the Greybeards for further training.

Maybe they'll go with a similar method to Fallout 3. Maybe your mentor, Esbern raised you as a child and read stories to you aobut the Dragonborn but then it turns out to be true and he sends you on a quest to go and get something from a cave and you thinks it's an ordinary fetch quest but you discover that you can read Dragonic and the main quest goes from there.

Theres that thing about being released from prison that gives that whole new look on life thing.
I really don't mind it starting that way. Kind of like it.



Prisons always good to start people on a clean slate. Sort of.


@Eggy/ The way they say it in the article is that your sent to find a tavern/shop keeper's artifact and stumble upon the ancient writing. So it probably is part of the main quest, at least the beginning.

How about you are out on a ship, when you are from and where you are going is not discussed and after a short tutorial type situation similar to that discussed in a bar earlier in the thread, the ship is attacked and subsequently destroyed by a dragon. You wake up with little/no recollection of who you were before that. You wake up on a beach or at the bottom of some cliffs and must ascend them through some caves or something that way your past is not determined for you, you are not forced into the main story yet but are given a taste of the horror that is rauaging Skyrim.

*EDIT* For those who don't want a tutorial allow the player to choose to stay in his room and not socialize with the rest of the ship which would result in the dragon attack coming almost immediately.

I think you will be a prisoner, but not from the Imperial City. I think you were kidnapped from someone and you escape that way. It may even be in a cave
you have to escape from to pay homage to Daggerfall. Once you get out, you will have to figure out why you were kidnapped and who wants you dead.

I think this is most likely, Fallout 3 has your father as the mentor, Esbern certainly will play the same role.

He's not your father though, he will have raised you in your parents' stead because they probably died in a dragon attack. The formative years of your life will form the tutorial/character generation section, and you will "leave the vault" when Esbern is taken away in a similar calamity (dragon attack) leaving you with a quest to fulfill ("Find the dragon that slayed me! Avenge my death and protect the people of Skyrim!")

I come from the distant future, where it is confirmed you start as a prisoner just like always.

I agree as well. I enjoy the whole prisoner escaping/prisoner being released intro

I think it would be cool if you start off the game like this:
You are in prison and you are just wasting your years away in there, all of a sudden some dragons come and starts burning and destroyng the prison. A dragon knocks down the wall of your cell and you run out.

Can't think of what else to add to it.

In my opinion, not in a freaken prison cell. Better off starting out getting off a traveling boat, waking up in an inn/cave/camp site, or a traveling caravan. In all honestly, I don't really get how a "prison cell" is tradition if the intro is arguably appear only in one game.

Well, the magazine stated that you start out as a prisoner before you somehow wind up somewhere on a mountainside. So maybe you were captured by bandits and put into a cave. Then they get eaten by ... the Udefrykte patron!

The game randomly decides that you are a redgaurd named Steve who is then thrown in prison and [censored] by a guard which triggers flashbacks of the main quest and then you play the flashbacks....

Lol I'm just kidding that would svck

you wake, blurred. you make out a man in a checkered suit in front of you. he says something, but you cannot quite understand it. then he pulls out a gun and shoots you in the face

Oh! Oh! This is cool! And then you'll get off the ship and be in some backwater town in a swamp with giant mushrooms for trees!

Your eyes are dim, blurred and unfocused. As your vision repairs itself slightly, you look towards a figure. Piercing the darkness, this figure lends its hand towards you, seemingly as a gesture of assistance.

"Wake up, maggot!"

The figure punches you in the face, grabs your collar and pulls you right towards his face. The man is a Nord, but he looks sinister...his face is scarred, his beard and long hair black.

"What's your name, exile?"

---Player enters name---

"You're lucky...most die without one."

The executioner drags you to the scaffold as he draqes a hood over his face. His axe is blood-soaked, implying that you aren't the only one who has been executed today. The crowd cheers, you see the high scaffold placed in the center of this Nordic-like town. At the scaffold, you are forced on your knees. As your head is lowered onto the holder, you see a small puddle of water, left after the last execution clean up. In it, you see a black silhouette slowly forming...

---Player customized his/her race, appearance, etc---

"Good people of this town! We have here today a ---insert race here--- of the lowest quality! ---short sentence insulting said race--- His crimes, and those done by others, mean nothing on the scaffold. Here his life will end before you all, a reminder that to defy...is to die. We bid him no speech, for he deserves none."

The crowd roars. The executioner's axe begins to fall, you can feel it on your neck...an ancient power spawns inside...

FUS RO DAH!

You cannot believe you spawned such anger. At that very moment, a dragon roars in the distance, interrupting the execution. Townspeople flee in terror, the executioner is picked off. You scramble off the scaffold pas the destruction, but black out from a crumbling building above...




In their tongue...he is Dovakihn.......DRAGONBORN!


THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM

Okay so you're in prison for God knows what reason then a dragon attacks blows up a wall somewhere and there's a prison riot and you have to fight your way out or it blows up the wall in your cell letting you go outside and you must quickly escape into the forest while innocent civilians all around you being burnt up with the cry of babies and dogs in the air, you might even quickly head into a burning building to save an infant, oh you might even have to stop some thugs taking advantage of the situation that are attacking a woman or looting buildings to introduce you to the combat.

You've been in a large, fortress-like prison for months. It sits on the edge of a cliff, and it is widely known as one of the most defensible and well guarded places in Skyrim. You managed to gather a group of friends. A Dark Elf simply named "Hollow", an Argonian Shadowscale called Heedal, and a Wood Elf known as Allimor. You've been conspiring for a while on escaping. Tomorrow, you all will be executed. It's this, or nothing. (Insert escape scene here.) You sit on a ridge below the main cliff. Hollow is bleeding out next to you from an arrow to the shoulder. Heedal was separated from your group. Allimor was partially decapitated almost right after you enacted your plan. You were the only one to escape without any fatal injuries. You stand, and Hollow tells you to leave, before the guards get around the cave-in. You do so, heading west down the ridge. Partway down, a pop-up asks you to confirm your name, race, etc. that you made in the beginning in prison.

prisoned on a bunker underground haha

I can see them starting in one of the other Provinces just as a set level and then have you travel/escape to Skyrim

Glorious tradition of the prisoner. :twirl:

I really like the prison thing actually. Starting out as an unfornuate prisoner and turning into a hero makes a good story.