I couldn't tell you...but I think dragons have a thing for seven.

The quest will have us find the eighth dragonball, and using its power to locate the other seven, and thus consume the dragonballs and become a equal to Alduin.

{Insert epic battle scene in an alternate plane}

After the battle, we seal Alduin into the seven dragonballs, and they scatter across the globe. The eighth however stays with the player, giving them the ability to learn one epic time based shout. A legend is born that whomever can find the seven dragonballs is allowed to make one wish...

...and then years later a space pod lands, and some old guy drops the baby inside on its head...


I've solved it!

But really, I'm not sure what Beth has in store for us. The civil war has to come in to play somehow, otherwise there wouldn't be a reason to have it in the first place. And killing the God of Time probably isn't the best idea. Other than that, its up in the air.

Gotcha. So then the player character would just have Ysmir's/Talos' soul, possibly being a reincarnation of Tiber Septim similar to how the Nerevarine was Nerevar reborn. Works for me. So defeating Alduin would likely be a renewal of the covenant Akatosh made with Alessia, and later Tiber Septim.

I'm pretty sure I saw the very interview that the OP mentioned and i've been thinking on similar lines ever since. Todd was asked to explain what the Dovahkiin was and there was something about his answer and the way he said he didn't want to go into too much detail that suggested the exact nature of the Dovahkiin is essential to the plot. It seems ridiculous that we are going to meet Alduin head to head in battle so I also leapt to the intuitive conclusion that perhaps there is no such conflict at all and the Dovahkiin is actually the avatar of Alduin all along.

While this might seem far fetched it's actually a recurring theme in recent TES games. In Morrowind the player was asked to investigate the prophecy of the Nevarine and turned out to be the reincarnation. In Oblivion, Martin briefly became the avatar of Akatosh and in Shivering Isles the player has the opportunity to become Sheograth.

I've long believed that the Morrowind story and setting were heavily influenced by Dune while the Oblivion main plot most likely came from the back of a cereal box. I suspect one of the inspirations for Skyrim might be Highlander except it is Dragons that are gathering rather than immortals. We already know that the player absorbs the power of defeated dragons and I believe that with each victory the player will come closer to the final awakening of the avatar of Alduin within him or herself.

This also bears some similarity to the final Elric story in which Elric absorbs the souls of the Lords of Chaos until only he is left standing. The conclusion of the Elric saga is strikingly similar to both the Norse legend of Ragnorak and the Nordic Alduin myth: The final triumph of "evil" leading to the destruction of the old world and creation of a new world. So there is a thematic lineage there to support how Bethesda might have arrived at such a plot.

However, I think there is a second strand to the plot which is equally important and for that we have to look at the fine print in the prophecies. The Elder Scrolls predict that Alduin is coming and the Nords believe that Alduin will destroy the world. The implication is that the end of the world is very nigh but there is nothing to say that the two prophecies are necessarily linked and the plot may well revolve around that uncertainty.

I believe that the civil war is something of a metaphor for the dual perception that mortals have of Alduin/Akatosh. The rebels fight for the emancipation of nordic culture and by inference the image of Alduin as the world eater. The Imperial side represents the more benign image of the deity in the form of Akatosh.

In order to complete the plot I think the player will have to:
- Defeat all the dragons to ensure a mortal-friendly avatar of Alduin.
- Lead the Imperial side to victory in the civil war, in the process establishing a new line of Dragonblooded kings to replace the Septims.


Of course, I could be wrong :whistling:

Or maybe you ARE Lorkhan.