When I first played , sat in the solemn carriage ride to the chopping block, it wasn’t clear how I would get out of that predicament. When you’re being walked over to the executioner, just as you’re about to get your head lopped off, there’s a great big bellow from the mountains that sounds like th൲under spliced with the 🐼howls of a coyote - I didn’t know what the hell it was.
I went into Skyrim without any information or knowledge. Helgen was terrifying due to its aura of insurmountable dread. While Alduin takes down centurions and mages, I stumble towards the torture dungeon in the basement. It’s all I can do to stay alive - I’m weak with nothing but an iron sword and some musty rags. After your escape, when you're helping Whiterun and its jarl deal with the dragon incursion, another fight breaks out. It's surprisingly easy. There’s a reason for that. You play as the Dovahkiin, a mortal being with the blood and soul of a dr൲agon. They are summoned and given their power by the gods themselves, particularly Akatosh. This mythical power is often found in emperors like Uriel Septim due to th💦eir bloodline. They are powerful and capable of great feats. That’s why, in Skyrim, most fights are a cakewal𝓰k.
The dragons are never the strongest enemies. The giants are tougher - especially at earlier levels. Their clubs kill you in a single hit, walloping you into the stratosphere - in this matchup, you’re the centurions and mages being mercilessly slaughtered. Mammoths are also bastards to take on and Dwemer ruins are perhaps the most difficult dungeons in the game because of the automatons and the Falmer. Dragon attacks are more or less a nuisance. I don’t die to them all that often but I find myself reloading saves just because they happened to kill an NPC or two. They&rsꦆquo;re just annoying - at least mechanically. Story-wise, they are an astronom💯ical threat. Dragons are legends, although that never really comes across outside of the attack at Helgen and the finale with Alduin in Sovngarde. Even then, he’s a pushover. It’s not a complaint - I just alwa🧔ys wondered how average folk would do against a massive fire-breathing lizard.
In-game, a handful of town guards can take dragons down, which begs the question: what sets them apart from other enemies? A lot, actually - it’s just a case of game design trumping lore. The Elder Scrolls Online, however, shows us 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the true scale of dragons and why Tamriel lucked out by getting a Dragonborn the second Alduin popped back up. It could’ve been a whole lot worse. In ESO, you play as the Vestige, a Hero of the Elder Scrolls themselves. You go toe-to-toe with several Daedric Princes, be it Nocturnal, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Molag Bal, or, in the latest expansion, Mehrunes Dagon. You face off against gods at their most powerful, beings of untold strength. However, when pitted against dragons, good luck. On your lonesome, you will die. There’s no denying that. They have upwards of 15,000🐽,000 HP and attacks that can one or two-shot you at 20,000 health. They are designed to make raiding parties a ne🥃cessity to stand a chance. Even in the story, they can’t be defeated without magical artifacts like the Dragonhorn, famed mages of legendary status like Abnur Tharn, and Khajiiti armies in tow with Imperials.
Their shouts tear through armor, health, and entire groups like paper - Tharn has to protect you from them in the final fight, which evidently takes a tol💯l on him as his shield shrinks with each shout blocked. Dragons also dominate the battlefield with a range of 𝓰attacks as they summon hellfire, scorch the ground with their breath, or crumble the very earth beneath you - all at once. One dragon feels like an army’s worth of soldiers. Even the environments themselves begin to contort in their presence from the sheer power of their shouts - in some instances, the sky is stained blood red. When a dragon flies down to take on a party of adventurers in ESO, it’s an event. This is what the dragons are described as being like by all accounts throughout each Elder Scrolls game. We’ve met a few before Skyrim but never fought ‘em, so our first time duking it out with one was with the little resurrected weakling by the watchtower at Whiterun.
ESO puts it into perspective by finally letting us take a step back to real♍ly contemplate Bethesda’s take on dragons. You can finally understand why everyone buckled at the sheer mention of them. Had it not been for the Dragonborn, Skyrim would have been leveled. Granted, ESO is a war-torn mess. Adventurers far and wide seek fame and fortune as the entirety of Tamriel is at war with itself in the midst of several Daedric invasions. Imagine the Great War between the Thalmor and the Empire spliced with Oblivion’s own story of Mehrunes Dagon attacking all of Tam💙riel through his portals, only it’s far more than just one Daedra that’s vying for Nirn.
It’s clear that Skyrim’s Dragonborn is the most powerful protagonist in The Elder Scrolls so far. We couldn’t really see that before ESO’s Elsweyr expansion, but it’s intriguing to look back with this newfound knowledge. There are Heroes all throughout The Elder Scrolls’ story, from ESO’s Vestige to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Morrowind’s reincarnated Nerevar, to Oblivion’s Hero of Kvatch, but Skyrim’s Hero - the Dragonborn - is something entirely new. Dragons are powerful in a way that is unprecedented. They conquered Nirn, enslaved its people, and became myth, even being referred to as ‘demons’ in Khajiiti legend. They left their mark from Elsweyr to Skyrim to Akavir across the ocean. They are on par with - if not stronger than - the Daedra. Being able to topple them without breaking a sweat is proof of how strong we really are in Skyrim. How Bethesda will remove them from the narrative remains to be seen,🧸 but they certainly can’t s🅘tick around. Nobody would stand a chance.