I'm wondering what quests a hero would do if he wants to defeat evil in Skyrim.

It's tough to play without using outside knowledge but I don't want to waste time chasing down rumors until I finally dig up the real threats/evil. I'm just pretending the rumors are much more specific and numerous so that's how he knows about the major issues.

So far, my hero put down the vampire threat (an obvious first choice), freed the people of Dawnstar from their nightmares, busted up the skooma ring in Riften, and destroyed the Dark Brotherhood. Eventually, he'll do the MQ and Dragonborn but that'll be at the end.

So what's next - defeat the Wolf Queen in Solitude or vanquish the vampire threat in Morthal? Maybe travel from city to city and do everything required to become Thane? That's a mixed bag of random quests - where's the real evil to eliminate?

Thanks all!

Potema is definitely a big threat. Meridia is the one Daedric quest I'd say you should do. Maybe deal with the cannibals in Namira's quest. There's a necromancer in Hillgrund's Tomb.

Well there the "Taste Of Death" quest in Markarth, you will get to deal with a cannibal cult.

Vaermina's quest is also very reasonable for a hero.

Other than that, I think you nailed the big ones. But I wouldn't write off all the rest of the Daedric quests. Forget that *you* know how they are "supposed" to work: all your character knows is that there's a witch hunter investigating daedra in Markarth, or there is a gang of Boethiah cultists somewhere south of Windhelm, etc.

Your mileage may vary, but I found the Dragonborn DLC an epic failure for a my 'good' elf. She ended up facing a dilemma: Either save the world by betraying friends and prostituting herself to a daedra lord, or decide the price to her principles is too high and walk away to let the world fend for itself. She chose the latter and walked away from the questline in disgust. In my opinion, that questline takes 'the ends justify the means' way beyond what my elf could accept.

My "hero"/ Paladin type character did MQ, then went after all the Dragon Priests and then when I got the Dawnguard DLC he did that.

That to me is something a "good" character would go after.

The Whispering Door is a good quest to do in the " I want to help", your character won't know what is going on... So as far as he know's he would be helping the Jarl with his son. At least the Wiki states that you can have a "good" ending, just don't kill any friends and either sell the sword OR lock it away so that it can never be used.