No real point to this thread, other than to invite discussion. And to hear myself think.

I've made about 6 Nord 'Stormcloak' characters in the past two weeks.

Why?

Because I'm ever so slightly crazy and compulsive on things like this. The thing is that I really want to kill two birds with one stone: I want to finally complete the Civil War and the Dawnguard so that I can at last pave the way for Dunmer, Magic and Solsthiem! To my mind, Legion = shield and Imperial Sword. Simple enough. But the Stormcloaks, with their myriad of weapon styles, make things rather awkward for me!

I associate one-handed and shield with archery to be the mark of soldierly professionalism, and the two handed warrior to be more passionate, amateur but nonetheless skilled and dextrous (re: Words and Philosophy). I also find it hard to reconcile two-handed weapons with archery, because the weapon is obscured by the quivers on the back in a visually awkward way, and because two handed weapons are slower to draw. I've done the MQ with a sword and board, heavy armour, cliché Dovahkiin. So this time I really want to use light armour, but I also want to make a go with archery, crossbows in particular. Only issue is my feeling that archery and two-handed don't really gel.

However, I do recall that crossbow bolts are held at the waist and not on the back, which solves the visual problem at least. By way of strange coincidence, 30 Days of Night has come on T.V just now: a good, dark Vampire film to get things rolling.

Solution: join the Dragon cult.

Yeah. I can never stand Two Handed with Archery or S&B with Archery. Seems so awkward.

Your bow magically disappears when you equip another weapon so I always unequip my arrows as to not appear awkward on my back with my weapon...it irks me to see a quiver with no bow regardless of what weapon type I'm using.

The solution is to play a pure 2 hander with no archery

You know what I consider even more annoying? Having a greatsword on my back hanging on to nothing. It's just floating. If I have a 2h weapon I have to get arrows to hide this. I pretend it's a magical backpack. It makes it believeable that the sword is holding on to something and the character's back doesn't look empty. Oh! and it also hides the clipping. Can't stand how it clips through the armor.

You need to make a Dragon Cult mod

ha it annoys me as well and I used to do the same thing, I would pretend the straps on hide armor were a sheath strap that was hidden behind an iron arrow quiver. They really need to have 2H sheathes next time.
As for the clipping, I think the floating is much worse. I have an archer who has both bow and quiver floating a few inches away from her back which really annoys me when I pay attention to it.

Dahmaan Daar Bron.

(I wish I could join.)

Really? Im the opposite. I always have to have my quiver on or it looks weird

If only I was skilled enough at real modding to do it...