Hi I've been thinking for awhile about The Companions and Fighter's guild. I've barely started The Companions questline so I could be way off about my assumptions.

Is there a reason why there is no Fighter's Guild in Skyrim? I mean the guild is like commissioned by the empire isn't it? They are supposed to be in major cities to perform mercenary tasks like disrupt REBELLIONS aren't they? Why did the empire drop the ball here?

I also can't see the empire using The Companions to replace the guild as their leaders are werewolves and seem neutral to the civil war. If there was a Fighter's Guild it would be in full favour of the empire against the Stormcloaks right?

I am quite new to the lore so their may be many holes on my theory but if anyone can help me out that'd be great.

IIRC, the Fighter's Guild never got a foothold in Skyrim, because The Companions fulfilled the same function and appealed more to the Nords. Think of the competition between the Blackwood Company and the Fighter's Guild in Oblivion (The Companions are the Fighter's Guild and the Fighter's Guild is the Blackwood Company), only in Skyrim (the province) the Guild didn't have any Hist shenanigans to give them an edge, like the Blackwood Company did.

Only cities that apply for a guild charter get them. So, if a guild wasn't wanted, nobody fills out the paperwork.

The Companions are Skyrim's equivalent to the Fighter's Guild, and more historically and culturally significant.

Plus, a guild of warrior werewolves is much cooler than a bunch of goody goodies from Cyrodiil.

All good replies but the truth is that the guild charter application process was just too long and too tedious for any Nord warriors to start and finish before they got so drunk they forgot all about it.
Of all historical attempts to complete the charter application only one got half way through the process before passing out in a drunken stuopr and nobody even remembers their name.

Because in newer Bethesda games there can only be one faction per function, or else the player might need multiple playthroughs in order to get every achievement.

Is there even anything that says that the Fighters Guild exists under the Mede empire? Would the Mede empire even give out imperial charters for mercenary organisations.

While I miss the organisation of the Fighters Guild (the number of guild houses there are in the gameworld, that is, and the bosses/regional leaders), I much prefer the lore of the Companions. A lot more could've been done to make the Companions three-dimensional and characterful, if only by drawing inspiration from The Five Hundred Mighty Companions...

They're a pretty dull bunch, in the game.

The original Fighters Guild was established as a mercenary army to settle unrest in the 2nd Era Potentate. Skyrim probably had little unrest and didn't need an augmented army, so none ever formed.

You think there would be atleast 1 Nord Fighter's Guild if it exists in Morrowind though.

Too hard. Why have two guilds for fighters or two guilds for mages? That's so 2002, brah.

4th era Skyrim is a lot less developed than either 3rd era Vvardenfell or Cyrodiil, as such it lacks a lot of the infrastructure that existed in those milieus. No Black Horse Courier, no Psychic-Guard Corps., no Fighter's Guild.

Also, the preponderance of sellswords in Skyrim makes a mercenary company with franchises in every city a tad redundant.

I also got the impression from Oblivion that the Fighter's Guild was caught in a morass of bad business practices and was basically relying on it's relationship with the Empire to stay alive. That was, after all, what the Blackwood Company was about, they were a young mercenary outfit that could outcompete the fighter's guild (partially through underhanded means, partially because their contracts were more attractive to buyers. In this way, the Guild died with that other guild. In Skyrim, who would fill that gap of organized mercenaries?

I feel the same. I also don't like how pretty much every one of them is "WAR LOL JUST LETZ ME KALLZ ALL D THINGZ!!". Skyrim goes out of its way to make lots of the Nords like this.

Lack of a centralized infrastructure breeds fractionalization of organization at every level. There would be more different guilds competing with each other, not less.

Don't mean to go around licking boots, but I agree.

If only they'd actually wolf-out once in a while. Only time you get to really team up with another werewolf is during one sidequest that's not associated with the Companions at all (and even then, only by defying Hircine's command... even if he is still pleased with the results).

For a group that supposedly upholds Ysgramor's elf slaying traditions, they do nothing to battle against the injustice of the Thalmor preying upon the Nords of Skyrim under the umbrella of the enfeebled empire. There is a huge disconnect between what the Companions believe and the political reality in Skyrim. Really disappointed how Bethesda crafted the Companion storyline.

I totally agree, they should of spruced up companions quest line a bit, I did 4 quests for them before I was in the inner circle, way to fast, way to easy like some cheap tramp that threw themselves at me, I didn't have to work for it at all.
and the vampires not turning to dust when you kill them was a massive disappointment and completely ruined my daydream of tearing vampires apart with my big werewolf claws and seeing them turn to dust.

Braith IS the Skyrims fighters guild.

Especially since the game has a turn-to-dust animation that's used for resurrected NPCs. Why can't vampires have that by default?

First, definitions: Companies, not guilds. Trade guilds make competition unnecessary.

Secondly, the idea of professional mercenary companies of government backed guilds appeals to the civic and business-minded Cyrodiils but is just alien to the Nordic spirit.

It's probably mostly just game limitation.

I guess that lore wise there are a lot of local or province wide groups like the Companions and most likely a Fighters Guild as well, but smaller compared to other provinces since it has a lot more local competition.Because Bethesda's limited budget they choose for only one 'fighters guild' and choose for a more unique local group rather than the same fighters guild we have had i the previous games. The Companions might be very local, only based only in Witherun, but since Bethesda doesn't want to add the other local groups they are 'upgraded' in-game to be more province wide to represent the other groups and the fighters guild.

So that's why the College of Winterhold lets you become Archmage with very rudimentary knowledge of magic.