Should you be able to kill high ranking individuals such as Kings and Counts or should they remain Essential throughout the game?

Well, I really would like for that to be a possibility. But, that'd take quite a bit of work to be able to do. If a baron or such were to die, we'd expect to see anarchy throughout the immediate area as well as somebody to fill their position. Then you'd have to have a bunch of seperate backstories, possibly quest lines etc.... It's just not efficient in my opinion...

Depends upon the game's story and quests, right?

Will the people of skyrim have the same hierarchy as the one in Cyrodiil?

Well... the only king is already dead and i doubt we will be able to kill a new one...but other nobles,why not? In fact i ll enjoy it. :toughninja: :violin:

I hope they specify the hierarchy more. I would love to see Kings, Dukes, Counts, and Lords, and Knights. And maybe their would be rivalries between different royals (like 2 dukes fighting for land) so there could be all kinds of quests associated with them.

Well, I think anyone who isn't an essential character to a quest should be kill-able, including nobles. It's more fun & realistic that way. Of course, like someone else mentioned, it doesn't make much sense to kill a noble without having political repercussions in that noble's realm--like a replacement to fill their office, etc.--and that would take a lot more work to put those kinds of storylines in the game. But it would be cool to see them do that--like if some count or other dies, their son or daughter comes in to take their place...

And I like the above idea--more specific hierarchies, and such....

According to what i've heard about Radiant story and AI, i've pretty much gathered that bethesda wants to remove the "Essential" function or maybe not remove but... change it. you can kill the NPC but it will be replaced by another.

I like the sound of that.

KILL EM' ALL!!!

Well, Skyrim is going to be in the middle of a civil war, so it would make sense for Kings/Counts/Nobles to be killable. Kill the Count of one area and put that entire group of fighters into anarchy to make it easier to conquer them. Of course, doing so might also make them that much more determined to fight. Either way, it could make things very interesting.