From what we've learned so far it's safe to say that Alduin is going to be the Antagonist and main boss in Skyrim. What his motives are is still kinda unclear but I have a theory as to what he's going to do and how we've gotten to this point.

1st a little basic history lesson about Akatosh/Alduin. He is the Chief God of the Nine Divines and the deity that St. Alessia got the Amulet Of Kings from. The Amulet is made of Dragonblood, its Akatosh's blood as he took pity on the humans and crafted the Amulet to keep the Daedric away. Also he gave the humans the Dragonfires which would always be lit as long as there was an emperor who was of the Bloodline of Alessia who wore the Amulet, the Gateway to Oblivion wouldn't be opened.

Next the Events of Oblivion which caused the real main problem which is going to hopefully be addressed in Skyrim. Mehrunes Dagon wasn't happy as he wanted to conquer Tamriel and he truly believed that Nirn was his plane. So he came up with a plan, The Jager Tharn plot was the 1st part of his plan but it failed because Tharn couldn't persuade his Protege to join him which lead to the Hero of Arena getting the Staff Of Chaos and stopping Jager Tharn. So Dagon had a better idea kill the Emperor and his heirs hearby getting rid of the Dragonfires and allowing the gates to Oblivion to open. He succeeded thanks to Mankar Cameron and the Mythic Dawn. However unknown to Dagon and his allies a lone prisoner, The Hero Of Kvatch would hear the call of the Emperor and stop him. In short it lead up to the Hero finding the last and lost heir Martin Septim and getting him to relite the Dragonfires and stop Dagon but that didn't work. Dagon had already crossed into the plane of Nirn and would start his conquest of it. Martin then made the decision to smash the Amulet of Kings and become the Avatar of Akatosh. Which that worked it destroyed Dagon and save Tamriel from Dagons wrath.

Now your probably wondering well why does it matter what happened in Oblivion, well it does matter because Martin broke the Pact that St. Alessia had with Akatosh. By destroying the Amulet Of Kings Akatosh is free to act on his own and by seeing what the Mythic Dawn did to the Emperor and his 3 sons my theory is that Akatosh/Alduin is unhappy with the way that people act and I believe that he see's evil everywhere and Alduin thinks that it's time to recreate a new plane. My belief is that he will use the Cult Of Akatosh/Alduin to start the process. They will go by a different name which I can't really theorize because it could be anything. Also if a new plane is created everybody will probably die on the current plane that's my theory at the moment. That is probably the best reason as to why Alduin is the Antagonist in Skyrim. Your the last of the Dragonborn which are descendent from Alessia. I believe that the Protagonist will be the only one that can stop Alduin but how you stop him well that will be revealed when your playing the game.

We all already know why he is the enemy and his motives. Alduin was essentially trapped here and the only way for him to be freed is with the destruction of mankind. And like anyone else in his situation he chose his own happiness and freedom.

after watching "Case 39" last night

i'm not sure I can label pro/antagonist until its all said and done

You are mostly correct. Only Dagon is not so much what poor deluded Camoran said (couldnt even get right wich sphere was of wich Prince, the demented fool) he just wants to jump again. He needs to find all that he took from previous kalpas and put in hidden places into the next, and destroy them, that is his curse.
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/seven-fights-aldudagga

Where the spheres of Anu and Padomay meet is a circle.
The circle is the Wheel.
The Hub of the Wheel is the Mundus.
The spokes that reinforce the Wheel are the Aedra.
The voids between the spokes number sixteen and are the Daedra.
The Tower is the I that sees the Wheel sideways.
The Wheel turns.
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/tower

The dragon is Alduin is Akatosh who returns to eat the world so the wheel can turn and continue into the next kalpa.

That's basically the main reason behind every evil person within the last couple Elder Scrolls.

Dagoth Ur wanted to conquer the world
Mehrunes Dagon wanted the Plane of Nirn because he thought it was already his
Alduin's reasons will probably be similar to the two above

less to do about the destruction of mankind, and more about the destruction of Mundus. Aduil, Akatosh, Aruiel, they're all the same being viewed at a different perspective.

here's a nice post Lady Nerevar gave us



http://www.imperial-library.info/content/seven-fights-aldudagga should help put perspective on Alduin and Mehrunes Dagon.

I was just thinking in Oblivion, Kvatch was the first City to be attacked by the Daedra, Kvatch just happens to be the same place that has the Chapel of Akatosh..Coincidence? Perhaps but I thought it was very fore-shadowy looking at it now.lol :batman:

First of all that is an obvious fairy tale that I keep pointing out and has no basis in fact (especially since Mehrunes Dagon is one of the original Daedra princes). You have to realize this "I really like how we treat our Dwarves. They were originally elves and they are long gone. You can see all their ruins but you don't know what happened to them. Any theories on what happened are in game speak. That's one thing we are careful about. All the lore is in the voice of these narrator's that are in the world, so they can be wrong and you get these conflicting reports." -Todd Howard

I personally still stand by my hypothesis that Alduin isn't Akatosh but might be some aspect created by accident when the world was created or something of the sort.

Also, none of the events in the past elder scrolls were the cause for the events in Skyrim to happen (except perhaps the Oblivion Crisis according to the hub updates), they are just prophecies that would herald the dragons return, not the actual events that made it happen.

Dagoth was crazy because of Lorkhan's heart.

Mehrunes Dagon (not entirely sure here) but was cursed with being compelled to destroy Nirn in order to return to his former self.

Akatosh (as with all other Aedras) is trapped on the mortal plain and wants out. And after all this time, hes finally got a way out , just so happens he has to destroy all the mortals to do so.

I just have to interject on a few points.

1) 'original Deadra' has no meaning. The Wheel turns. What happens on one kalpa influences the next. Dagon was a leaper demon. Then he got caught out by the dragon in his plot. Then he was cursed a Dagon. And the next kalpa he was Mehrunes dagon and had always been so As I said before, give up your linearity and one dimensional view, and see things from the god-place.

2)These texts are not conjecture. They are the word of god.

3) What happened to the Dwemer is well known, not only via in-game lore but also the word of god
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/final-report-trebonius

Aww poor Alduin. I mean can you really blame him if he's just trying to free himself? :sadvaultboy:

Maybe because he wants to eat the world.

Just ask Lady Nerevar. She's a lore pro. She explained that all to me.

Yeah, and he is hungry too after being trapped for so long. We should feel pity on him and bring him a hamburger; not go all high-and-mighty and just try to solve everything with slaying spells and enchanted weapons :shakehead:

Alduin is just a socially misunderstood dragon

He is not so much trying to free himself as he is going to fulfill his function. he eats the world so the Wheel can keep turning.
Its not like he is some trapped fiend awaiting revenge.
He is one of the architects of this world, and has a lot of interest in not seeing the Wheel grind to a halt.

I kinda hope half-way through the game the player gets to choose whether his task is to prevent the destruction of the world, or help shape it to better the replacement.

This is the problem with the Imperial Library. People take it as fact and seem to think it is a BGS official website. If people would take the time to read the sources instead of taking the information as fact we could save ourselves a lot of time. For the two sources you posted above, the Aldudagga source is written as an obvious fairy tale and is also in the Obscure text section written by a man that hasn't been a developer with BGS since during Morrowind. Occasionally BGS hires him to write some things for them but whatever he writes doesn't mean it's fact, whatever BGS decides to use of his writings is facts. He definitely isn't god. Also the second source you gave about the "wheel" is also an obscure text written by Kirkbride, thus cannot be taken as fact. Then you cited the "Final Report of Trebonius" another document I've read from the library that also is not fact. You know how you figure out it is not fact at all? Because if you look at it's tag in the Imperial Library it is FAN MADE. I've read all TES official lore and the writings in the Imperial Library and I can tell what is real and what is not. Also as I quoted up above about what Todd Howard said. Every real lore is written from the perspective of a character from within the game world. That allows for conflicting accounts and false information.

I don't know why we have a thread on this, I read somewhere or perhaps heard one of the game informer interviews that Alduin is the main antagonist. I'll try to find a link.

1) This is written with full consent of Bethesda. Bethesda still consults Kirkbridge when it comes to lore.

2) Obviously a Nord heritage is like a 'fairytale' I have pointed this out before. Please absorb. A culture with emphasis on written knowledge passes tales on differently as a culture who goes by an oral tradition.
All tales in an oral tradition are told in such a manner as to be entertaining, with places for suitable laughs or sneers, when told around a fire in a longhut. That it is told in the manner of a good yarn does not make the fundamental message less true.

3) report to trebonius compiles and integrates in-game texts There is nothing in there that is new. Just explained for dummies.

But I feel a few things that differ between us are obvious. For one, you are reluctant to accept any out of game sources, no matter how valid.
Second, your approach is fundamentally more focused on the earthly, day to day, mundane, whereas my approach largely ignores day to day lives and focuses on the divine.
this does not mean that either of our explanations is neccesarily wrong.

Though I do wish you were a bit less relentless when it comes to declaring things 'not canon'

Umm no, Kirkbride is not "consulted" over the lore. He is hired occasionally to help write lore for the game. He is not the only one that writes lore and he is most certainly not consulted on lore that isn't his, it's Bethesda's...

A fairy tale has grains of truth such as Alduin wants to destroy the world for certain reason but it certainly isn't as was explained. Also, Mehrunes Dagon is one of the original Daedric Princes, he didn't magically became immortal and all powerful because of Alduin eating him. It just doesn't make sense seeing as how Akatosh isn't even immortal. How does one that can die eating a "leaper demon" make someone who can't die? Also, all the people that quote Imperial Library to prove that Alduin is Akatosh always seems to ignore the very fact that the world isn't so easy to destroy then remake....It took countless Aedra and the divinity and much of the power of the Divines to even make Nirn. They lost it and can't get it back. So he can't just decide he wants to destroy the world and remake it multiple times because he just doesn't have the power to, Akatosh is powerful, but not that powerful anymore. There is a reason that the other Aedra were so pissed with Lorkhan that they killed and mutilated him.

Of course not.
The void between the spokes are the Daedra and number sixteen.

But gods change. You can walk the way of a god long enough for him to be forced to walk like you.
You can mantle a god.

The force that represented Dagon simply got replaced.
Like Malacath to Trinimac.
Like the hero of Cyrodill did to Sheogorath, so Jyggalag did not have to.

The Wheel turns. And things change, but stay the same.
This is the Aedric trap.

Dont you see? Its a a wheel, circles in circles all mimicking. How can you refute something so elegant in its entrapment?
At least consider the poets truth: It is true, because it is tragic and beautiful at the same time.

That sounds fantastical and all but also it is flawed. There were not originally 16 daedric princes. Their have been those Daedric princes that were created. Also, the wheel just broke....again. Now there are 17 daedric princes. This wheel has taken some real spoke issues in this wheel. It just sounds right because that's how the non-canon story was written to fit. It's just the same as Notradamus. It's just made up crap that is vaguely described to fit the situation if needed to seem real. The difference is that the story of the spokes was actually more narrowly aimed at the fact that there were 16 daedric princes even though that number has not always been that way and isn't now. Not to mention time isn't cyclical in the TES mythos, it is linear.

This, my esteemed fellow scholar, is why it is pointless to debate with you.
You lack faith

Where the spheres of Anu and Padomay meet is the circle and the circle is the Wheel..

And as I have previously explained, things that happenstanced last kalpa leave an imprint on the next. A new kalpa begins and the Lords free of the wheel imprint themselves and have always been thus.
There were always so many Princes, until Meridia was cast down, and then there were always one more, and had always been one more
Just because you see things as temporally linear.. but I feel like Im trying to teach a brick wall here.
If you do not wish to understand, that is also fine.

There are many more earthbound mysteries for a scholar of your speciality to explore.
Like: were the Dwemer singular in mind and endeavor?

But leave the Wheel to scholars like me

"Where the spheres of Anu and Padomay meet is the Wheel." is not canonical information because it came from a currently not canon musings of a guy that used to be a developer and occasionally writes lore for BGS. I don't need faith, lore isn't a religion I need to have faith in, it's more like an Elder Scroll, you need to interpret it beyond what it seems and take in account other information given from other sources and interpret them both simultaneously and in contrast to each other. I don't need faith when I can have facts... Faith is the reason why the Divines don't shine a light to the Daedric Princes. Faith gets you nowhere. Faith is what caused the Aedra to lose their divinity and most of their power.

Yesterday I was thinking about it, among several cities, why he attacked Kvatch? bliviongate: