Factions You Wish Existed in Skyrim

[Emiscary]

I'm sure threads like this already exist, but I've been dicking around with Skyrim again in light of the new DLC, and I've found myself musing about the game, and I wanna chat.

So, here are some factions/archetypes I feel the game could use/has room for:

1) An at least semi-legit business. (The East Empire company maybe?)

I enjoyed the Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood questlines quite a lot, don't get me wrong, but I was a bit sad that there were no factions that focused primarily on making money that weren't also stealth based. I'm sure it makes me impatient, but I wish there was a faction available that let me make huge amounts of cash *without* forcing me to skulk around in the dark for it.

I'd love to say -I dunno- clear out a haunted glade of enchanted trees, fork up a few grand to hire some workers and start up a logging company. I picture it being something like what it was like owning a mine in Dragon Age 2, but y'know- better executed.

2) An Artificer's Guild.

I know the Mages Guild has a couple quests relating to enchantment, but in this instance I'm thinking more about the clockwork kind of artifice than the magical kind.

Put it to you this way: it's a massive tease that they filled the game to the brim with shiny geared Dwemer toys but refuse to let you take them apart. There's definitely room for metal-obsessed handymen in Skyrim.

3) The Greybeards.

Hear me out. The Greybeards "guide you" automatically through the game, and they're perfectly happy to talk at you about the way of the voice, but they don't really give you much of an opportunity to follow it. To complete the main questline you automatically have to ignore their teachings and deal with The Blades (not a big issue for me since I hate their pseudo-religious pacifist B.S.), and that seems weird to me. The whole game seems to be about the dangers of the abuse of power, so why not give people an opportunity to hold back?

I can imagine it being fun to actually try being a pacifist for a change of pace, so why not let the Dragonborn actually take the high road instead of just showing it to him? As for suggestions on how to make it work: give anybody who actually commits to being a wuss (good person) a unique shout that works like Kyne's Peace but modified to work on humanoids. "Pacify" maybe? The third word could be something like "Reform", and instead of temporarily making bandits not-hostile it could show them the error of their ways and convert them into honest workers

4) Survivalists.

This one irks me more than most of the other ones I've mentioned. There are multiple races of beastmen in Skyrim, and more than one deity associated with the natural world (Hircine, Kynareth, Kyne, etc.), so why isn't there a faction of (for lack of a better term) "wild men"? Some aloof group of tree huggers huddled up on an idyllic patch of dirt who want nothing to do with all that civilization nonsense. Really feels like this is something that should be in the game already.

5) PIRATES.

This is the only one that tops out #4 in terms of needing to be in the game already. They let me kill pirates, they let me steal from pirates, they let me buy crystal-dragon-heroin from pirates, but they won't let me be one. Cruel.

6) Your Own Hold to Rule.

I've already covered most of the stuff I feel is missing/would like, so this one's more on the wishful side of things. I really wish they'd let you actually play politics, at least to some extent, outside the negotiating table at High Hrothgar. Basically, I want another Great Hold/City added to the map, and the ability to rule it. Somehow.

Sadly this is a big enough wish that it'd probably need to be it's own DLC/a self contained mod, but it sounds damned entertaining to me. It'd be nice to actually run a city, and have the town guard answer to YOU for a fucking change. Set the code of law, behead dissidents, run businesses out of town, set your friends up with manor houses with nice views? The possibilities are endless.

As for explaining how a new city appeared on the map? City frozen in ice for centuries finally thaws. City that drifted off from the coastline aeons ago floats back into place. Is it really that important? It's a high fantasy setting, whole cities can literally appear out of thin air if you need them to

7) Drug Runners.

(I didn't think of this one till tonight, so here it is.)

I'm a big fan of Breaking Bad, and I feel like the alchemy skill desperately needs some loving. So my proposition would be this: introduce a faction of brilliant sociopaths strapped for cash with a knack for mixing up illicit substances.

Balmora Blue for instance?

You could hunt down exotic ingredients (hint: plant/fungi monsters, beautifully rendered flowers in hellhole caves, blood samples drawn from nobles wacked out on sleeping tree sap maybe?), run from the law, mercilessly exploit the desperate and foolish, eliminate competitors- you name it!

Maybe I'm just twisted, but it sounds like a hell of alot of fun to me. Scrambling to tear down your lab as guards pound on your front door, nervously sampling your own product to see the effects, cutting your goods with filler to increase your profits- reminds me of Goodfellas. Good shit.

8) Homunculi.

This is the last one I plan to elaborate on, and it's by far the weirdest, so let's get this over with.

So, when I say Homunculi, I mean a faction of (for lack of a better term) "Frankenstein's Monsters". A group of intelligent humanoids that were either magically reconstructed from spare parts, or created artificially from scratch.

Why? Because one of the most spectacular things that magic can do in settings like TES is create life. But they rarely take time to explore what the limitations of such a process might be. And if there was a backable/joinable faction of them, it'd give you a wonderful opportunity to examine the issue. Do they have true souls? If so, which aedra/daedra will accept them? Are they morally blank slates, or is there some carryover from their creator/unwilling donor(s)? That kinda thing.

As for how you come to be associated with a collection of whipstitched freaks that may not really be human? I'm guessing it'd involve a freak accident of some sort resulting in your being rebuilt/reborn as one. Striking oil with a fire-enchanted pickaxe, then being stitched back together by a wandering lunatic? Stepping into a magical vortex and being disintegrated, only to have your soul drawn into the artificial body being built by a local madman? Who knows.

What kind of activities would you do as part of such a faction? Good question. Collecting specific body parts from townsfolk to add to yours? Fighting off priests of Arkay obsessed with dictating the lifespan of others? Searching for arcane lore that could make you whole again? I imagine the end of the questline would involve choosing to either accept your new (admittedly bizarre and repulsive, but likely useful) form, or choosing to restore yourself to your original one.

I'm well aware that what I just proposed isn't for everyone. Most people don't long to be ripped to shreds and stitched back together to get a better understanding of what it means to be alive- but fuck most people. Most people are boring plebs who breathe too loud

Besides which, the game already allows me to become the following things:

A cannibal.
A torturer.
An unliving bat-monster that can telekinetically manipulate blood.
A talking 6 ft bipedal lizard that can freely transform into a 9 ft bipedal wolf with the strength to throw a full grown man wearing 100 lbs of armor 55 ft with one hand. BACKHANDED.

So it's really not that much of a stretch, is it?

 

[SoranMBane]

Some sort of arena to fight in and do quests for. There is at least one bandit hideout where the bandits have set up a little fighting ring for wolves, so why not just make those bandits friendly, expand the fights to larger animals and people, and allow the player to participate? It could be sort of like the Thorn in Fallout: New Vegas, except with sabertooth tigers and chauruses instead of deathclaws and cazadors. The player could choose to make bets, fight, or do quests where they have to go into dens to retrieve baby animals or eggs to restock the arena's animal supply. To make the fights more varied and interesting, the player could lay down a number of rules for each fight governing things like the number of fighters, whether the fighters can use their own equipment or arena stock equipment (or no equipment, for some good old-fashioned boxing matches), magic use, or whether the player will be fighting as a werewolf. Fights where the rules stack the odds more heavily against the player would yield better rewards.

 

[Xarathox]

The lack of opposing factions to join was a bummer. The idea has been cried for in the past by long time players, and still it hasn't become reality.

 

[sanquin]

Before any new factions in the game, they should properly do the factions that are already there. They should take some hints from Morrowind. Going with one faction should decrease reputation with another. Same with guilds. What fun is there in being both a high ranking member in, say, the dark brotherhood. Yet also be a high ranking member in, say, the companions? I would think that a group of basically illegal assassins wouldn't want to have anything to do with a group of mostly legitimate mercenaries.

That's the thing I missed the most in Skyrim (and oblivion, btw) I think. Your actions having actual consequences. Killed a key npc? The quest chain can't be continued. Gained high rank in one guild/faction? An opposing guild/faction doesn't want you near them any more. Etc.

As for actual factions that I'd like in the game: As mentioned in the OP, a tinkerer guild, an artificer's guild and a pirate faction should be in there!

Or also a lot of fun; Being able to make a new guild that does the same as an existing one, and then be rivals. Like, say you want to make a new mercenary guild without werewolves and that does things your way. You could start small. A few people under your wing. You get assignments and have to divide them and such. Your group forms into a small guild. The other guild notices you and becomes a rival. And eventually you would be able to grow large enough to overtake the other guild. Basically doing management rather than being the errant boy in the form of getting assignments, handing them out to npc's, and managing your guild's funds, size and members.

 

[Rol3x]

House Telvanni, I know it doesn't make a huge amount of sense for it to be in Skyrim but i don't care, those guys have style.
Helping in the growth of a new mage dominant faction in a hostile land would be awesome, maybe even an underground organisation because of the mistrust the meatheads in Skyrim have of magic.

 

[Doom972]

I'd love to be able to join the Thalmor. I was disappointed when my High-Elf couldn't join them and had to spy on them.

I think Daggerfall had a prostitute guild. I'd love to have that in Skyrim. That could make for some very amusing quests.

I miss the arena from Oblivion. I'd love to see an improved version of that.

 

[Auron]

Some anti-Thalmor force within the Empire, I mean from my point of view the Rebels from Skyrim are wrong but the Empire's just less wrong and not by much. I haven't played Dragonborn yet but I think any resolution regarding their dominance will be left to future games unfortunately.

 

[Windcaler]

Just a few off the top of my head

1. The Morag Tong. I know I know, they were one of those factions only found in Vvardenfell but come on a government sanctioned group of assassins would have been amazing in Skyrim. Plus you could have gone all hitman on them, making targets die quietly and without witnesses before dragging the body to a place it would never be discovered. On a lore note it also would have been awesome to have some conflict between them and the Dark brotherhood cell in Skyrim

2. A group of Dark elf refugee's that had fled Morrowind and were trying to found a new city on Skyrims shores. They could have quests and work for the player to help them establish their foothold on some of the most northern islands, just beyond the reach of Ulfric. Then the more you do the more their city grows, maybe even having some of the interesting archetecture that Morrowind had like massive shells turned into houses or pods that many house Telvanni structures were made out of

3. A group of sentiant Draugr that had not yet slipped into madness in conflict with graverobbers and/or necromancers. In return for the players help they would teach him how to forge amazing arms and armor of the ancient nords and teach the dragonborn new enchantments. Perhaps some ancestors of Jarls or just normal nords would have other quests to inspire their descendents to greatness

Edit:

4. An anti-thalmor group that wasnt the Stormcloaks. The thalmor are guilty of some heinous stuff and deserve a lot. I wish there was a faction that based everything they were around imprisoning/killing the elves, spying or using antispying tactics on them, and rescuing people who had been imprisoned by them.

 

[Doom972]

I'd love to be able to join the Thalmor. I was disappointed when my High-Elf couldn't join them and had to spy on them.

I think Daggerfall had a prostitute guild. I'd love to have that in Skyrim. That could make for some very amusing quests.

I miss the arena from Oblivion. I'd love to see an improved version of that.

dagerfall had nudity in your character paperdoll and if you walked into the temple of dibella there was no mistaking where you were, they embraced the beauty of the naked body

its weird looking at how stream lined and the lack of options you get in a 17 year period

At least we have The Witcher series for that sort of things.
I have to say that SKyrim might be a step in the right direction after Oblivion. Cyrodiil felt way cleaner than it should have been. Skyrim feels much more believable than that.

 

[wintercoat]

I want to be able to join a gang of bandits. I'm always disappointed when all of the factions are "legitimate" factions. I just wanna be part of one of those bands of bandits out roaming the countryside sacking merchant carts and overrunning small villages. I wanna strong arm for protection money, I wanna threaten people. LET ME BE BAD DAMNIT!!!!!

Captcha: mend fences. God damn it Captcha, I want to smash fences, not mend them!

 

[Zombie Sodomy]

When they were making Daggerfall(2nd E.S.) they had a prostitute faction planed. You could pay for their services and even join the faction. The Prostitutes Guild never made it into the final product, but many of its workers were never removed from the game. You can't have sex with any of them but every now and then you'll open a door at an inn and see a naked woman or two crouching in front of you. With all the advances in graphics since then I highly doubt they could get away with naked women today, but some hookers could be interesting. I bet the quests would be awesome.

 

[darth.pixie]

Winterhold Thane with some sort of importance or Jarl or something similar.

I was already a Dragonborn, hero, incredibly rich person and Archmage. I could have built two or three houses, gotten the dark elves from Windhelm in, financed a new dock, businesses and whatnot, rebuilt pretty much everything and have the first city dedicated solely to pursuit of magic and at the same time be less racist than all the other holds. I doubt the Imperial Jarl would have minded.


A werewolf pack that doesn't include the Companions would have been fun. At the end of the quest, there is only one proper werewolf there anyway. I want to infect people, gather all the werewolves around and just run around in a pack, ransacking everything.

 

[JaceArveduin]

I want to be able to become one of the Vigilants of Stendarr. It'd be pretty awesome joinin the group who's only purpose is to kill baddies.

 

[Old Father Eternity]

I want to be able to become one of the Vigilants of Stendarr. It'd be pretty awesome joinin the group who's only purpose is to kill baddies.

The Daedra are not bad, they just are and do.

 

[The White Hunter]

Before any new factions in the game, they should properly do the factions that are already there. They should take some hints from Morrowind. Going with one faction should decrease reputation with another. Same with guilds. What fun is there in being both a high ranking member in, say, the dark brotherhood. Yet also be a high ranking member in, say, the companions? I would think that a group of basically illegal assassins wouldn't want to have anything to do with a group of mostly legitimate mercenaries.

That's the thing I missed the most in Skyrim (and oblivion, btw) I think. Your actions having actual consequences. Killed a key npc? The quest chain can't be continued. Gained high rank in one guild/faction? An opposing guild/faction doesn't want you near them any more. Etc.

As for actual factions that I'd like in the game: As mentioned in the OP, a tinkerer guild, an artificer's guild and a pirate faction should be in there!

Or also a lot of fun; Being able to make a new guild that does the same as an existing one, and then be rivals. Like, say you want to make a new mercenary guild without werewolves and that does things your way. You could start small. A few people under your wing. You get assignments and have to divide them and such. Your group forms into a small guild. The other guild notices you and becomes a rival. And eventually you would be able to grow large enough to overtake the other guild. Basically doing management rather than being the errant boy in the form of getting assignments, handing them out to npc's, and managing your guild's funds, size and members.

Trust me when I say that killing a key NPC can end a quest line, I've managed it a few times without even realising it. But that's because a fair number of important quests start off in the same category as the things like fetching an old lady milk so I tended to forget about them...

OT: Opposing factions, like some kind of anti-companion questline, some kind of templar/anit-mage thing would be cool too, things like that, to really give you more freedom to craft your own experiences.

 

[Voulan]

On a realistic level, I would really like the option to join the Thalmor, and perhaps a counter-faction that could be an exclusive and secret Imperial force used to spy on them, while maintaining the air of being an ally due to the Concordat. If you read the dossiers they had at the Embassy, the Thalmor are clearly spying in turn on the Imperials, so gameplay wise this shouldn't conflict too much.

I'd also like the option of joining two factions already in the game - the Forsworn and the Vigilants of Stendarr.

Other than that, I'd rather they improve the already existing factions. I hate being referred to as a newbie by the guys in the Thieves Guild, when I'm their bloody boss! And I'd really like to see more leadership roles, or some more diversity in radiant quests. I also feel as though we could improve the College of Winterhold and the city in general as a new set of quests - and even make it so only mage characters can enter, not just a random guy that happens to know the one spell required to get past the gate.

 

[Corven]

I'd have liked to see opposing guild factions, or at least a way to circumvent the guild quests like how you can eliminate the dark brotherhood.