A run down of how the four previous games started:

Arena- You start of as a political prisoner, a dissident opposing the imperial battle mage who was imposing the Emperor Uriel Septim. You get selected through a sorceress who's undead spirit lingered in the world to over throw the impostor and restore the rightful ruler.

Daggerfall- The odd duck of the Elder Scrolls as you don't start off as a prisoner. Instead you start off as an envoy of the Emperor, sent to convey a message and investigate into some mysterious happenings. Your ship gets blown off course and wrecked along the way and you somehow wake up in a dungeon.

Morrowind- You start off as a prisoner to be sold off into slavery in Morrowind. But an intervention from the Emperor saves you from your grim fate and propels you down a different path of destiny. Morrowind differs from the other games in that there is no tutorial dungeon as such.

Oblivion- You have no past, no ties, no history, nothing. Until the game starts your character quite literally didn't exist. You simply awaken as a prisoner in the prison of the imperial city. A confused individual who wound up in the wrong place in the right time as your cell somehow hides a secret escape.

Now, there isn't much known about Skyrim but what is known is that you start off as a prisoner... again.

So the question is, how did your character wound up as a prisoner? Discus here, be serious about it... or have fun with it.

Either way enjoy.

It's already part of TES, like a legacy or a tradition.

And I don't mind it, the blank state is great for roleplaying purposes.

My mage was framed. Nords would not like Dunmer Wizards, I'd imagine.

My character had six with a sheep

Arena (Akul)- like every other character Arena character, I wa a nice guard who was thrown there
Daggerfall (Cerylion) - not lkike I have a choice: DF generates its own story for me
Morrowind (Merilion) - I was Jagar Tharn's second in command and tried to hunt down my Eternal champion character. When Jagar was killed, I was thrown into prison but made a bargain with the new Emperor to release me. The character then, pretending to be a hero, ruined Morrowind's future (yeah, I was happy to hear that Nerevearine's actions really did scerw it up XD)
Oblivion (Nayrael) - my character is actually an Ayleid of ancient times who transformed himself into something like a Daedroth: he goes into Oblivion when he dies but later finds a way to get back into Nirn... tough Dagon hates him for certain things he did in past. Finding out about Dagon's plot, he takes care to end somewhere where the Emperor will find him so he could . The fact that 9 divines ended up on his side was helpful as well. He gets his revenge on Dagon and in the end even accomplishes his millenniums old goal: becomes something like a Daedra Lord
Skyrim (?) - not sure yet, will need to know more about the story. I think this one could have been a head hunter once. The reason for ending in prison: Head-hunting, no?

My character was a lowly assassin (didnt work for the Dark Brother hood or any other guild) who got to full of himself and eventually got caught after killing some authorial figure.

Oblivion- A poorly raised, waterfront Khajiit who had a certain skill for pick-pocketing.

Skyrim- Not sure yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll be a Khajiit, and he'll be the Rogue-Type of class.

here we go again

My Nord character got drunk and destroyed a tavern

my almter refused an invitation by the local lord for personal issues on the Lord's part

By Imperial told several people to ******* off and spit in a magistrate's face


well atleast tahts the plan more or less this time

I really don't care as long as i come out of the dank prison into the beautiful sunlight with sno and mountains. To me that is all that matters is the scenery and the gameplay.

my character did whatever stuff that was in the skingrad house that was abandoned with all the undead

I really don't hope so. I hope they come up with something new and fresh.

my dummer mage got in prison for trying to rebuild house telvanni (if it's destroyed) the neighbours did not like having a giant mushroom where their house used to be.

Agreed. There should be some dungeon crawling and cramped spaces for a while, and then theres this epic moment when youget out and see all the mountains and a huge valley down below. Ah, Skyrim...

Played an illegal game of Rashedas Roulette with a scamp, a land dreugh and a Nord with one eye. Long story short the land dreugh suspected me of cheating and challenged me to a duel. In the said duel it was going well for me until one of my stray arrows missed my opponent and impaled an excited bystander who happened to be a noble in the court of Windhelm...

I couldn't pay off the fine because that dastardly land dreugh stole all my of coin when I was apprehended by the guards of Windhelm; when I get out of here I'm going to find that miserable wretch and i will make him wish that he never set foot on land.

I think it's fine, I see it as kind of an elder scrolls thing, it wont effect my roleplaying, but all we know is that you start as a prisoner, not necessarily in prison.

Yeah, it's already been confirmed by Game Informer in the article of the February issue.

I got pulled over and the guards found my skooma and pipe in my horse's saddle bag.

My Ayleid sorcerer was wounded when a legion of Nord soldiers swept through the the northeastern part of the Heartland woods to try to get cut off separatists trying to get supplies from Morrowind. They destroyed and razed everything in their path and one of the trees that a particularly strong nord felled held my ayleid sorcerer who was sleeping as a shapeshifted bird and he got wounded in the fall. He woke up a week later and wandered, half out of his mind and not remembering a thing. A group of Nord loyalists found him and believed him to be a spy and imprisoned him. He was in prison for months before the events of Skyrim unfold.

My Breton battlemage got into a dice game... and just kept losing. Accusations of loaded dice were made, debts weren't paid, and the other guy had serious family connections.

If my character ever gets out of that stinking hellhole, he's never touching dice again!

My weaselly looking Nord, Junther Assuange, is a political prisoner and was arrested for making classified Imperial Scrolls available to the general public. The secretive and embarassing information he leaked to the people of Skyrim sparked a civil war.

My Argonian didn't have proper documentation when I left the Black Marsh.

My mage bored of ruling the world reset his stats to zero and built a world around himself. The final touch was building the prison around him. It's all one gigantic simulation because he's bored. Each game the powerful mage tries something new, but he seems fond of prisons. No idea.

Fernin was trying his hand at bounty hunting.

It is required to return the head of said bounty for identification. Only problem is Fernin got a bit angry and gave a few more stabs at the enemies face with his dagger. Now the head was unrecognizeable. He retunned to meet with a corrupt bounty collecting gaurd who would not accept the bounty for it was unrecognizeable mass of blood. They got into a heated argument and the official had enough, and when Fernin left he had him arrested for killing an innocent to collect a false bounty. Then after he was thrown in prison the official collected the bounty award for himself.

Fernin is pissed.

That sweetroll...

So tempting...so hungry

What!? i haven't seen that.

Well that's just great. :facepalm:

Anyway, in that case i think i'll just try to pretend it never happened.