During the main quest I'm willing to bet that while dragons are the main enemy, we will fight a lot more of their henchmen or foot soldiers than we actually will of them, just for the fact that if we killed twenty dragons every main quest it would quickly lose it's charm.

Now as far as I know the foot soldiers of the dragon invasion force haven't been shown yet(If they have fill me in) so what do you guys think they will be?

Could they be humanoid looking dragonkin or perhaps just humans that do their bidding, maybe they control the undead?

Who do you guys think they will be?

I was thinking about this one day. All I could come up with was some sort of Alduin cult but that would just be a Mythic Dawn rehash. Not sure what they'll do with this.

I think your confusing dragons as they are in this lore with other ones? These won't have any 'minions' as far as I know. They are gigantic beasts of terror and could easily burn a town to the ground on their own. What kind of wimpy dragon needs soldiers?

Well there is that dope-as-hell concept art of the statue of the dragon-hunter about to slay the snake.
This might suggest different stages or lifecycles of dragons.... Wyrms and whatnot.

I think the dragons are actualy the foot soldier/invasion force of alduin, the dragons are clearing the path for his destruction of Nirn. But this is just my take on the issue, I could be wrong.

yeah they don't need anyone else, they're one man armies. However this makes me think of something important, WHO THE HECK ARE WE FIGHTING AGAINST??? Like if the Dragons are out there destroying things on there own who else are we going to fight? There has to be some minions of Alduin or something. (Alduin, not the regular dragons)

I remember reading "Undead Priest" in one of the earlier threads.

Smaller dragons?

I'm not sure. It really depends on how the main quest plays out. My assumption to this has been that dragons are more like the Oblivion Gates of Skyrim. They come in partway through the plot, and they are big obstacles to tackle. The plot will probably start focusing on the impending civil war, which is the last sign that heralds the arrival of Alduin. You'll probably play a part in that for a while, but the arrival of the dragons throws everything off and the two sides must come together to stop the mutual threat to their existence, with you spearheading the charge.

Don't forget that there's a civil war going on in Skyrim too. We'll almost certainly be forced to pick sides in that.

Aside from that, we'll probably be seeing some people allied with the dragons as well, just like Dreamers from Morrowind and the Mythic Dawn from Oblivion.

arnt dragons alduins henchmen?

I remember hearing something about dragon-related temples. So we'll probably see some kind of Alduin-worshipping doomsday cult.

Theres a civil war going on.

One for the Septim Empire the other for the Sons of Skyrim.
One or both might try to kill you. Not really henchmen, but enough foot soldiers to overcome between your dragon fights.

My theory.(ninja'ed)

I'm not sure if they're referring to an active temple dedicated to the dragons, or old ruins left behind by the dragons populated by miscellaneous enemies where you find the inscribed walls and learn more Thu'um words.

But in the end I'll guess skyrim unites to fight the dragons.

And then they can all beat the crap out of each other again

Niker

Yeah exactly, another silly cult would just be boring after the Mythic Dawn in Oblivion.




No, I am not confusing them with anything, while they are huge beasts of terror and easily burn towns to the ground they are also extremely intelligent beings and have the ability to speak, plan and control. If we don't have "minions" to fight then every single quest in the main quest we have 2 options - 1. We will be fighting 5-10 dragons every quest which would get old very quickly and cheapen the experience, making it seem like dragons are absolutely nothing or 2. Have the main quest completely empty of combat and fight a dragon at the end of every 2nd or so quest in the main storyline. Sounds much better to have minions to fight and then a dragon every now and then.



Yeah sure of course they are, but they would be more Commanders and Generals than foot soldiers. As I said above, would get very old if we fought a dozen dragons every quest in the main storyline.




Precisely. They must have some sort of minion/foot soldier we will be fighting against most of the time.

I think that we will be mainly put into the Civil war theme.

Fighting dragons will be sidequests, and hte only real dragon that you'd have to fight in the MQ will be alduin, who sides with the bad guys.

Kinda cliche I think, but thats all I can come up with

Niker

I think of it like this, there is Alduin...and the dragons, no 'minions or soldiers' they dont need 'em. My thought is that through the main quest you will not be directly fighting minions of Alduin, but other creatures like, for example, to stop a certain dragon you have to get something from a cave, this cave is infested with bandits, or undead or goblins or anything else...see whta I'm getting at, You wont be spending the entire main quest fighting dragons and Alduin head on. ....Ya this sorta didnt make sense....so...ya, if someone other than me understands what I'm trying to get at then well.. yay! So I leave you with...this poor little smiley getting dragged to oblivion bliviongate:

An Alduin cult might not be such a bad idea. The lore provides more opportunity to flesh them out more than the Mythic Dawn - which was really cartoonish.

Nords generally fear Alduin, rather than worship him - he is the world-eater, after all. On the other hand, it does also sound like something terrible happens if Alduin can not eat the world, and the kalpa continues without end. So there might a heretic Nordic religious cult which believes that opposing Alduin would be disastrous (well, even more disastrous than the world being eaten), and they will try to stop you from preventing Alduin eating the world.

Aside from that - it'd be great if most of the MQ didn't revolve around combat. Hopefully it's a little more like Morrowind where there's a good amount of focus on the lore, and a lot of quests are just about getting information about Alduin, the Greybeards, world-eating, etc. etc.

Well there's already a cult that reveres Alduin. It's called the Imperial religion.

Perhaps that could be one source of conflict in the story. The pro-independence faction of Skyrim upholds traditional values, and rightfully fear Alduin. The Imperial-aligned group could have converted to Imperial beliefs. Perhaps not outright serving as Alduin's minions, but greatly resisting the notion that their dragon god could pose a threat to mankind. If you go running down the streets of the Imperial City shouting "Akatosh is evil! Worship not the devourer of worlds!" you'll be carried off and punished for heresy. Perhaps the Dovahkiin won't get to choose a side after all, if that's the case.

Actually, lore has always been pretty hazy as to whether or not Alduin is actually Akatosh, but going from UESP:

This would be neat.

Yeah, the Imperial Cult could really throw a spanner into the works here, and make things interesting.

I guess the cult I had in mind was something unlike both the Imperial Cult and traditional Nordic religion. They may not worship Alduin like the Imperials worship Akatosh. Their approach could be more pragmatic: something really really bad will happen if Alduin doesn't eat the world and the kalpa doesn't end. Indeed, they might fear Alduin just as much as Nordic "orthodoxy" - but they don't let that get in the way of more important business.

But would the main quest really feel that epic if it feels like we aren't fighting the dragons head on?

If we are killing dragons every single quest in the main storyline, it's going to get old fast..

But that is where minions and cults come in, you feel like you are still battling against the dragons and dealing them blows that really hurt them even though you aren't actually killing any dragons.

If it just has us going into caves to retrieve certain things to hurt the dragons further in the storyline, it's not going to feel as epic as it potentially could.

There has to be some kind of Dragon Cult even if the cult is from Akavir and lead by the Ka'Po'Tun... Considering Tosh Raka was obsessed with dragons that he eventually turned into the Tiger-Dragon, but that could just be a metaphor.

Ka Po' Tun is the "Tiger-Dragon's Empire". The cat-folk here are ruled by the divine Tosh Raka, the Tiger-Dragon. They are now a very great empire, stronger than Tsaesci (though not at sea). After the Serpent-Folk ate all the Men, they tried to eat all the Dragons. They managed to enslave the Red Dragons, but the black ones had fled to (then) Po Tun. A great war was raged, which left both the cats and the snakes weak, and the Dragons all dead. Since that time the cat-folk have tried to become the Dragons. Tosh Raka is the first to succeed. He is the largest Dragon in the world, orange and black, and he has very many new ideas.

Might see some Akavir action in Skyrim =D (Unlikely though)

Bethesda has said dragons are going to be kind of random events except for the occasional place they're scripted in. They're not going to be a detached boss you don't see till the end, they're a real threat that can swoop down onto a town at any time. That said, I don't think it will be a really common occurrence. I imagine there might be a cult of some kind, but not of Mythic Dawn proportions. Probably just a little side quest. Then there are the temples mentioned, and I'll bet there are going to be a few who have been convinced by dragons that after they help bring down society, they'll be rewarded with kingdoms or something. Also, the civil war. And factions.