Last November, one of my favorite video games of all time came out. This game was The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim. Skyrim is a first and third person role-playing game that takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim in the continent of Tamriel. This game is also open world, which means the character can do whatever he/she wants to. Also, Skyrim has more of a medieval feel to it, and would seem that it takes place in the past. The plot of Skyrim starts out when the protagonist (or you) wake up on a wagon being pulled by a horse, but don't know where you are going. Your hands are chained together, and there are three other men on the wagon with you. One of the men you find out to be Ulfric Stormcloak, who is the leader of a rebellion against Skyrim's leaders, the other is one of his men named Ralof, and the third one you find out is a horse thief. Not a good sign. The Stormcloak soldier tells you that everyone is going to be executed for being involved in the rebellion against the other side of the war, the Imperials. The horse thief was not actually involved, but while he was riding away on one of his horses, he got caught up in a battle between the Stormcloaks and the Imperials. Ralof and Ulfric were also caught in this battle. You find out the wagon leads you to a town called Helgen, and when you get there, the horse thief tries to run away because he was not involved in the rebellion. The Imperials quickly shoot him down with an arrow. An imperial named Hadvar calls out everyone's name on a list....except yours. This is when you have to customize your character.
You can choose whether your character is male or female, you can name your character, and you can also choose what race your character is. The races in Skyrim are not exactly what you would expect. There are Nords, which are native to Skyrim and are tall, pale, and mostly blond people. The Imperials are native to a nearby province called Cyrodil, and many of them are in control of Skyrim through their empire. The other human races are Redguards, dark-skinned people from the province of Hammerfell, and Bretons, who are natives of High Rock and are medium-skinned. There are also elven reces such as high elves, very tall light hair and skinned elves, dark elves, who are green skinned and red eyed, and wood elves, short elves whose skin is very close to that of humans. Many high elves are members of the Aldmeri Dominion or the Thalmor, who technically control the empire of the Imperials. In addition to these, there is an Argonian, or a human-like lizard, a Khajiit, or a human-like cat, and an Orc, which is a big, green, monster-like being. In addition to choosing your race, you are able to customize you character's hair, nose, mouth, face and more.
Once you customize your character, you proceed to be executed. As you are kneeling down to get your head chopped off, a dragon swoops down, knocking everyone down. Your character has to escape quickly, because the dragon starts attacking everyone. As you are running, you meet up with Hadvar and Ralof, and the game lets you choose which of them you would like to follow. Whichever one you choose, you will travel under the town, reach the above ground, and reach a town called Riverwood. Both men have relatives that give you supplies in Riverwood, so they are indifferent. Once you receive supplies, you are on your own. There is a main storyline to Skyrim, which involves finding out you are Dragonborn, which means you are the prophesized man to save the world from dragons. You also have the voice (or shout) of a dragon. There are several other big story lines in Skyrim. You can be an assassin in the Dark Brotherhood, a warrior in The Companions, a mage (or wizard) at the College of Winterhold, a thief at the Thieves Guild, and a vampire hunter in the Dawnguard. Also, there is a civil war quest line, there you can either be a Stormcloak, and try to free Skyrim, or an Imperial, where you try to keep Skyrim under the empire's control. There are many other things to do in Skyrim, many places to visits, many quests to complete, but there is too many to say in one or even twenty blogs. Skyrim is a great game and I would recommend it for anyone.
