Storylines
There are many different storylines in Skyrim. Of course, there is the main storyline where you end up defeating Alduin, The World Eater, but there are others as well. There are different factions you can join that each have their own story and DLC that add different stories as well. The Companions are one of these factions. They pride themselves on their fighting prowess. You join their ranks and find out that a group known as the Silver Hand is hunting them down because the Companions are werewolves. As you go through the quests, you are searching for pieces of an ancient battleaxe that was owned by the founder of the Companions. As you look for these fragments, the Silver Hand are trying to hunt you down, leading to many battles with them. The College of Winterhold is a faction that is a school for learning magic. You start there as a student and eventually move up to become the Archmage. The Thieves’ Guild is a faction of thieves that you can join. In the Thieves’ Guild, you eventually find out that someone has been stealing from their vault and you go out to find the culprit. The Dark Brotherhood is a faction of hired assassins that you can join that follows a set of rules known as the Five Tenets.
Other than these factions there are many other questlines, but only a few major ones. The Civil War questline is one of these major ones. It has the Dragonborn join a side in a civil war going on in Skyrim. The Imperials are from the Imperial City, which is the capital of the continent of Tamriel, where Skyrim resides. The Stormcloaks are the rebels who are trying to make Skyrim free from the Imperials. At face value it just seems like a normal rebellion, however there is more to it than that. Prior to the events of Skyrim, there was a war between the Imperials and the Aldmeri Dominion (a group of Altmer). In this war, the Imperials would have lost, but they signed a peace treaty called the White Gold Concordat. The White Gold Concordat outlawed the worship of a god called Talos, the god most Nords worship, and disbanded the Blades, a group of followers of any Dragonborn who is found. Because of the outlaw of Talos, the Stormcloaks were formed, and they revolted. In the civil war, the Imperials are taking orders from the Aldmeri Dominion, meaning the Nords are forced to fight them instead of the root of the problem.
