As a result, he returned to High Hrothgar, where he had a reconciliation of sorts with the Greybeards. However, he was caught in an Imperial trap near the border, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the discovery that he is Dragonborn and destined to stop Alduin. While in Cyordiil, the Stormcloak Rebellion erupted, and he resolved to return to Skyrim and help those that the war had left destitute. Fed up with their stubbornness, he eventually left High Hrothgar, to seemingly never return.Īfter his departure, he spent many years wandering Tamriel, helping those in need. He tried to convince the others of his views, citing that “even the Greybeards must bend to the winds of change”, but to no avail. Instead, it should be used to protect and serve those in need, so that all life on Tamriel could benefit from its gifts. He believed it should not be used solely for worship of the gods, as the Greybeards use it, nor should it be used for war, as the ancient Tongues of old used it. As time passed, he developed his own philosophy on how the Voice should be used. As such, the Greybeards practiced a pacifistic and isolationist policy, which didn't sit well with our character. The Way of the Voice dictates that the Voice is to be used in worship of the gods, and that one should “Speak only in True Need”.
Though he was a gifted student when it came to learning shouts, over time he began to develop a difference in views with the other Greybeards. Many years ago, the Greybeard was granted the honor of joining the solitary monks of High Hrothgar to learn the Voice. As such, this build, at its core, is essentially a shouts-only build, which is a blast to play. Most importantly, however, you’ll never be able to gain any perks, preventing you from developing any skills other than your Voice. Since most loot is leveled, most equipment you’ll come across is the basic Iron, Hide, and the like. Combined with the utter lack of defense, this means that all it takes is a couple of hits to take you out, even on higher difficulties. Your stats are stuck at 100, which isn't a big deal for magicka and stamina, since they aren't terribly useful to the build, but it means you'll have very little health to work with. So what are the implications of never leveling up? Well, most enemies, to some degree, scale to your level, but on the other hand, many dungeons set the enemies to a certain minimum level, putting you at a disadvantage. It has 0 AR, no useful enchantments to work with outside of fortify shouts, no defense against magic, no standing stone, is permanently stuck at level 1, and yet is perfectly playable on Master and probably Legendary too. With that in mind, I developed this build with several limitations to balance out the ability to shout whenever I want. However due to its very nature, it’s a rather broken gameplay mechanic. Fortunately for us, there are a couple different methods for achieving 100% fortify shouts. Interesting NPCs also makes areas feel busier and fuller, although I could do with them being less verbose.The power of the Voice is capable of utilizing the effects of several different skills (Destruction’s fire damage, Illusion’s fear, etc) to the point where it could be relied upon as its own skillset if it weren’t for the limitations of shout cooldown. The Great Cities set bulks out the areas it touches with a few new, inconsequential NPCs, which I like. I've been trying to find alternate solutions. Some of them don't even sandbox, they just stand in place. Because I can't stand seeing the exact same NPC, in exactly the same spot, for 80% of the day, randomly sandboxing around in silence, then spending the other 20% doing the same in the inn. But after playing with it a few hours, I just can't stand how simple and repetitive their AI is. It also has the neat side effect of making being a thief a bit harder, since there are so many more random family members and staff just hanging around otherwise empty rooms. They don't have quests for you, they don't want to talk to you, they just want to live their lives.
I like it because it "bulks out" the NPCs in Skyrim with a bunch of pointless nobodies.
I keep putting Inconsequential NPCs back into my game despite how much it disappoints me.