I was heading into The Reach last week from Whiterun Hold. It was late in the evening, the weather was extremely foggy. The colours reminded me of Oblivion almost, yet something entirely different. The hold is the most aesthetically pleasing and the atmospheric place in Skyrim in my opinion. Not only that, but the hold has its own unique bandits with their own history/lore.

I could easily make a playthrough only using The Reach. I want to hear your thoughts on this superb hold.

I like winterhold more than the reach.

If you're on PC, "Alternate Start: Live Another Life" will let you start the game as Forsworn (Breton only). You start with a "home" (Druadach Redoubt) with your own safe-storage chest - however, other Forsworn outside DR are still semi-hostile to you. They'll shake their fists at you as you approach.

I've played with it a bit. It's fun, but would love to find Forsworn-themed mods that are reasonably current to flesh out the experience.

I love the areas around Whiterun the most. To be exact: Whiterun/Riverwood/Windhelm. Also some regions between Whiterun and Markarth are magical.

What do you mean the reach? Riften?

The Reach is the hold in which Markarth is placed. @FalloutFanatic04

Oh.

The Reach is up there with Falkreath, Riften and Hjaalmarch for me.

The Reach and the northwestern mountains are where my character spends most of her time now; it's fun to play the Forsworn at their own game.

Sorry to say but it is my least favorite hold. Yes I even like Hjaalmarch better. Cannot really explain why either. Quess I just like the forests and the snowy areas better.

I never ever go to the reach unless I have to. I dunno, there's just something I don't like. Maybe it's too cliffy for me. I'm partial to the area around Falkreath and Winterhold the most.

I love the Reach and one of my favorite RPs was a Reachwoman/forsworn warrior. I spent MOST of the time with her in the Reach and since she was aligned with the forsworn faction I could move her freely from camp to camp without being attacked.

Markarth will never be the same after she got her king out of Cidhna mine. Got about 14,000 bounty that night LOL

Agreed, except that it's definitely too cliffy for me. Skyrim overall's pretty bad about putting rocks ever-slightly too big to get over, but the Reach is just nuts about it.

My favorite area in the game is around Darkwater Crossing (southern Eastmarch apparently). It's not only beautiful, with a pretty lake and inviting hot springs, that dragon roaring in the distance is actually rather soothing somehow. I always leave that one alone if at all possible.

As a Breton player, I do try to help out the Forsworn somewhat. Though I really disagree with their methods I can see where they're coming from. It's a shame the lunatics took over the asylum.

Heh, I kind of like the region for many of the reasons others don't like it. The rough terrain and winding roads give the Reach more exploratory "punch" than other areas, and there's a fair bit of variety in terms of the mobs and settlements, from Peryite pukers guarding Dwarven ruins to Hagravens camping outside Nord barrows. To me, it "feels" like there's more to find, maybe because it's so hard to find it...

I agree. To me it definitely seems like the most extensive region in Skyrim. And the winding roads and cliffs make me think I'm in Wales or Ireland.

Splendid desolation indeed Sir.
Not my personal favourite.

I find it harder and harder to have a single favourite hold in Skyrim.
Oh go on then. The Rift.

Hard to navigate and always foggy. I get a feeling it's warm though (Forsworn armor! And they're Bretons, so no cold resistance!), so I guess that makes it damp too, with all that fog.

It has some pretty views, but... As far as I'm concerned, the Forsworn can keep it.

The Reach is beautiful indeed, but I would restrict myself to the Rift if I had to. I've found myself spending the majority of my time there recently.