I'm just curios about what side you took when escaping Cidhna mine during the Forsworn Conspiracy QL? Why?

Personally, I sided with Madonach because I roleplayed a Nightblade who cared about getting out of prison and not revenge. Once we reached the outside and I had my freedom and armor, I let Thonar die and then killed Madonach myself because they were both evil and my character has a shred of morality.

All the Forsworn were dead, corrupt Markarth guards got butchered, the masterminds of the murders got their just dues, and the only dead civilian was the cruel boss orc barking orders at the smelter. Not a bad day's work for a Redguard.

I used to side with Madanach, and then betray him at rhe end. Now I just kill him as soon as I'm in his cell.

Me too but since I never was attacked by Nepos in my current playthrough, I didn't have a good reason to hate Madonach.

My favorite experience with the quest though was standing behind him and then going Werewolf and slaughtering the entire prison afterwards.

I kill Madanach and his cronies before breaking out. I then rob the Silverbloods blind, and assassinate Thonar and his mine guards.

I've done it both ways, only recently siding with Madanach and letting him, and his friends, escape the city. Though, the townspeople don't seem to happy with me about that. Oh well.

Next time around I might go with the way Sojourner does it. Sounds like fun and something I hadn't thought to do before

I've done it pretty much all ways possible:

• Sided with Madanach and let him escape.
• Killed Madanach in his cell without alerting the other prisoners and escaped alone.
• Slaughtered everyone in the mine, including Madanach.
• Escaped with Madanach, but killed him before he exited at the end.
• Ignored the quest entirely. (I have a mod that prevents the quest from being added to your journal as long as you don't read Eltrys's note.)

Early in my playthroughs I sided with the Silver-Bloods. After that period, I sided with the Forsworn. On the latter, most of those PCs ended up killing the Cidhna Mine gang. As for the few, let's just say they hope Madanach takes a chill pill, IF these PCs become the negotiators for peace (probability, 0%, but at least hope).

I always side with Madanach just to weaken the silver-bloods who I hate for multiple reasons, honestly I hope that in the next game we hear about the Forsworn retaking the Reach and freeing it from outside forces.

I've sided with Madanach as well as killed him. On the times that I killed him I usually killed everyone in there though once I just killed him and left. On the times I sided with him I fled the city without attacking guards.

However my last play through using mods I am a forsworn character. So I freed my king and his men and we butchered everyone who dared to stop us on the way out. To quote Madanach "This was our land. We were here first. Then the nords came and put us in chains. Forbid us from worshiping our gods."

Sound familiar?

Madanach was simply being used by Thonar Silver-Blood. He had Madanach put the forsworn between him and his enemies. Pulled their strings if you will. His own personal army. Funny... I promptly killed Thonar and Madanach resurrected him as a ghostly puppet to help us fight our way out of the city. ironic you would say...

Although grim, I do like his line, "Time to see the sky, and make it rain red."

source: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Madanach

Sent chills down my spine, though understandable from his standpoint (for me, just leave the innocent alone). Definitely Forsworn thinking and sure your PC was thinking that way.

I don't like the Forsworn. They want to rule a world but they can't behave better than animals. What kind of world would they make if they returned to power? Their lack of morality would fit in well with the Thalmor. I understand it started as gorilla warfare, that they were loosing, and that they sought out a magic resolution that ended in witchcraft. Yeah, I feel sorry for them, but I still think of them as no better than animals. They've lost their humanity. They are in the same boat as the Falmer only worse. The Falmer had their humanity ripped away against their choice. The Forsworn accepted that fate willingly in the name of vengeance. And all Forsworn are a couple of bricks shy of a full load, esp this Madanach who thinks Ulfric is the boogy man under his bed.

That said, I don't see why I, the dragonborn, have to stoop to their level. I let as many live as possible. I helped them all escape and avoided killing guards. The towns folk praise me for escaping the prison. Maybe because I killed no guards? Did have a fun time wearing the silly helmet tho. Lol, I'm a deer!

..They don't want to rule the world they want to rule the reach because the Nords are oppressing them by forcing the Reachmen to work and live in terrible conditions and make it illegal for the Reachmen to worship their own gods. The Forsworn have harsh methods yes, but they are fighting a battle to retake their native home and to live freely. Really you can argue that the Forsworn have the same motives as the stormcloaks, to rule themselves and to worship the gods they want too.

I kill Madanach when I arrive. As sympathetic as some of those people are, they are harming innocents and will hurt more when they break free. That it's implied they may worship Molag Bal and Hircine and practice blood sacrifices also has something to do with it. Once free, I put an arrow in Thonar's back after he pardons and rewards me, because he still needs to pay for all the innocents he's ordered killed over the years, such as Eltrys.

Problem with your thought is although Deadric might be suggested, I see more of the Aedra, in a twisted manner. If you are arguing Hagravens, problem is the true worshippers of Hircine are Glenmoril, not the rest. Definitely hard to say absolute on my end, but the only shrines I've seen Forsworn related are Dibella and either Kynareth or Mara (w/e shrine is at Druadbach).

Ultimately, safely to say, we do not know what the heck the Forsworn worship, perhaps more than Dibella.

The way I see is that the Forsworn and Reachman Religion are two separate things, the forsworn being a heresy of the Reachman religion spread around by the hagravens to incorporate their gods into Reachman religion. Of course we can't know that for sure because we know nothing about their religion.

Word. The only key "God" is Dibella through a quest, but have seen a Divine shrine in Madanch's hideout, which is also Divine. The confusion lies is the Hagravens because of a guild questline and in the DLC-DB.

What are the "Old Gods"?

It's possible that to them Dibella is a warrior-god and we're mistaking the praising of her shrine by coating it in blood for defilement. We can't really say for sure since we don't know their culture or religion...all we have are implications with no real founding...

You've fallen for Forsworn rhetoric. That is what they say but that isn't how it really is. No one enslaved anyone and forced them to work or pray against their will (except maybe the Thalmor). Nords are all about freedom. This is a land dispute. And these Forsworn a nutty pants. They make shiz up to promote their crazy war because they're listening to evil hags who want to see them kill themselves terribly for amusemant. These people probably don't even remember what they once believed when they used to be civilized.

except we have no evidence that they are lying and we have no evidence to suggest the "nords are all about freedom" which is disproven since Cidhna Mine is essentially forced labor, we also have that the Reachmen have been fighting for independence since before the third era.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Reachmen

We have more reasons to suggest that the Reachmen are oppressed and forced into poverty by the Nord ruling class in the Reach. The only freedom the Stormcloaks want is for themselves and we have no evidence they'll be kind to the Reachmen, who are clearly oppressed by them, if the Stormcloaks take over skyrim.