Hi, new to these forums, but am fairly active in gamefaqs skyrim forums and uesp.net forums. Came here to see if I would get more responses. Gamefaqs is quantity > quality of posters and responses and uesp is quality > quantity but much less activity on the forums compared to something as large as gamefaqs. I also hope this is the in the right section. Anyway...

So I'm new to Markarth and was hit with this mission and decided to follow it through since I was seeing so many forsworn in the area, and they just tried to kill a seemingly innocent shopper. Turns out she was working for General Tullius, but that doesn't mean she should be murdered. The hit was ordered by Thonor silverblood I believe, who is using Madanach to control the forsworn to do his bidding.

I think I have everything correct so far. Now it gets confusing, I get sent to jail and let's say I choose the path to kill Madanach, a madman who seems to want chaos and revenge against all people regardless of whether they committed any wrongs. The game seems to treat it as if I've chosen to side with Thonar, and he gets the Jarl to exempt me from what I was framed for. Is there no option that basically says (and this seems like common sense to me) that half this city is corrupt, and the silverbloods/forsworn/city guards working together need to be brought to justice? Seems like the only thing I've done, is help the corrupt family deal with one of their agents who got a little out of hand.

The other option is I support Madanach, and fight my way through half the city to help him escape, and kill the silverbloods, but I've basically alligned myself with the forsworn.

Is there something I'm not getting? Shouldn't, after all this, Thonar and the silverbloods be thrown in jail for all the stuff they've been doing? When I went to the Jarl before, it seemed obvious that the silverbloods and the Jarl don't like each other. I thought, good, I can have some support for uncorrupting the city, but Thonar got my name cleared for avenging his wife I think. Is the Jarl under the silverbloods influence as well?

Just seems like there's no good option here. They killed the guy I had to meet in Talos (guards too) and then they tried to kill/arrest me.

why not post in the spoiler section?



oh and not to just be "that guy" i will respond to the topic and say this is quite the glitchy quest, i sided with the forsworn and killed the entire city with them, thinking the forsworn took over. lo and behold i have a bunch of angry guards waiting for me next time I arrive in markarth.

best option is to align with forsworn and when you get out of prison don't kill anyone and rather let the forsworn kill the guards

The Silver-bloods are the Black-briars of the West. They can buy themselves out of anything, and pull most of the strings in Markarth, due to the silver trade.

And, truly, killing Madanach is the good guy option. He was killing more people than he should have under Thonar's guidance, and the Forsworn are butchering innocent people and sacrificing each other. If you help him escape, you kill half the town, which is DEFINITELY a bad guy option.

He's new. Deal with it.
OT: I haven't done any major quest there yet. :C

I believe your options are to either work with Madanach long enough to escape, or simply serve your life sentence (rot in jail forever) There are no clear "good" choices and IMO this adds depth and flavor to the story. Sometimes you just have to choose between two bad options. The Jarl is completely oblivious to the situation altogether (listen to him and his steward when they talk about it). He can't help you with corruption he doesn't know exists and they have strong evidence against you. I also killed numerous guards when I found my new friend killed in the shrine of Talos though eventually I used my Voice of the Emperor to calm guards down enough to haul me away.

In a way you can sympathize for the Forsworn, but in another way it's easy to hate them. This isn't Oblivion, there are not "good" vs "bad" choices.

Step 1. Help Madanach and the Forsworn escape.
Step 2. Allow Madanach to kill Thonar.
Step 3. Double cross Madanach, help the guards kill the remaining Forsworn in the city.
Step 4. Every single guilty party is now dead.
Step 5. Sit back with a refreshing stein of Black-briar's mead and reflect on a job well slaughtered.

"No One Escapes Cidhna Mine discussion (many spoilers) "

Then why put it in the General forum? I had best move it. :rolleyes:

he's new. deal with it. :biggrin:

Haha sorry, I'll post quest discussions on that page next time. Thanks for moving it and not makign a big deal about it. I might just have to follow your approach Sephiel, but won't I still be viewed as the guy who let a terrorist escape? I think that's just how the game mechanics work for that quest, and people will think I'm on Madanach's side.

You escape with them, and your innocence is proven. Officially you arent considered guilty of anything.

This quest really makes you revise your alignments and the whole situation about the peoples of Skyrim...

Seems to me that what Nords did to the Forsworn, the Empire is doing to the Nords.
Yes the Forsworn are murderers and sick pagans but it is their land after all. There are no innocents in a war.
Plus I was super mad because I was thrown into jail by these corrupt maniacs who obviously hold the entire town.
Loved helping Madanach, then when we escaped I ran around healing all of the Forsworn, do my share of the fight.
It was enough that I'd already killed half of the Silver-Bloods... Who knows, maybe I come back for the rest later. :batman:

Except that the Empire's founder was a Nord, Skyrim joined the Empire voluntarily and that Skyrim has been quite contently part of the Empire for centuries... Yeah, sure. Exact equivalence.

Didn't say it was *exact* equivalence, just that it sounds that way when you listen to all the Nords moan about how the Empire mistreats them.
Either way, you are further proving the point of my first post, which is... The Forsworn's slaughter of everyone they run into is almost perfectly legit.
I'm just sorry I have to kill them, it's really hard to live a vigilante life in this game. :batman:

This is exactly what I did with the quest.

I allowed myself to be captured; I helped Madanach escape then watched him kill Thonar and finally preceded to kill every forsworn before they hit the blacksmith.

Afterwards a guard commented on it and they all realized I was set up with the conspiracy and all that. Plus I wasn't about the forsworn kill off every citizen in my favorite city...

Anyways; if you are looking for a way to finish the quest, I suggest this way. Guards are killed (I assume the ones in with Thonar), Thonar dies to Madanach, and you slay all the forsworn. A job well done.

I did it a little differently only to get both rewards, i the moment i got my gear back, i killed all the forsworn (tough battle if you are under equipped) then after i was congradulated by thonar silver blood, i gave him an arrow to skull and fled the city as incurred a 1000g bounty

The Forsworn should have simply joined the Empire instead of trying to remain independent of them and none of this would have happened.

Or the Aldmeri Dominion, screw it. ^^

Do the Forsworn remind anyone else of those savages in 13th Warrior? Every time I see one I just can't stop thinking about how they're very much alike.

I got out of the mine and hid (Because heroism is for the guy whose corpse I'll loot later.). Madanach and his followers killed a few guards and Thonar, but no one else because I waited until 2:00 am to leave the ruins. All that aside, this is a WARNING: Once the quest is over DO NOT GO BACK TO THE SHRINE OF TALOS. The corrupt guards are still there, the conversation will repeat, you will have to reload from a save because there is no Madanach to blame the murders on a second time or to get you out of prison, you are well and truly stuck.

The forsworn remind me of the wildlings from Game of Thrones.

I found it kind of odd that he got off scot-free, but he did lose his wife right in front of him... In regards to the prisoners, I just "Wolfed" them all down, MUHAHAHAHA.

Kill them. They deserve to die.


Yeah, it does.

Well, when I let madanach and the forsworn rampage through town, they only killed guards, maybe that was because it was nightine and everyone was inside?

Just murder him as he runs, AFTER killing that [censored] whose wife got killed. I felt pretty bad when i notifced he murdered the blacksmith the first time i let then escape, this time i won't be soo kind.

I'm pretty sure they will only kill guards and Thalanor. When it happened in my game, there were plenty of people around and some of them were even fighting, but the Forsworn took them down to a knee and didn't kill anyone except the guards and Thalanor.

Wrong, I clearly saw the Forsworn kill the Orc foreman and the smelter workers, along with some of the vendors there. The Forsworn will kill anyone they can in the city. My advice would be work with the Forsworn up until they give you the unique armor, then attack and kill them, get pardoned by Thonar, and assassinate him for only a bounty of 40 gold. Good days for Markarth :celebration: