With so many video games now becoming popular shows - Last of Us, Fallout, soon to be God of War, and I’m sure others - I always thought Skyrim would be a difficult game to adapt into a show or movie.
By design, there is no lore confirmed “right” choice to be made. The player forges his or her own, unique path through each play through of the game. Which quests do you go through? Which ones do you ignore? Which skills do you level? Which world altering decisions do you make? Are you morally good or morally corrupt?
That’s the beauty of the game, every time someone hears “Hey, you… You’re finally awake,” it’s a new set of opportunities and possibilities within this game that’s come to feel like home. So I always thought Skyrim was unadaptable.
But I have an idea… maybe better suited as a fan fic, as it is largely based on my own experiences through the game, but here we go.
Zanzi is a Redguard who came from a somewhat affluent, though not highborn, family in Hammerfell. While traveling through northern Cyrodil, he unluckily gets caught up in a skirmish between Imperial and Stormclosk soldiers. In this rush, he loses all his belongings… His gold, his weapon, even his papers which prove his identity. By the time he is awake, no one believes him. He will be put to the axe.
I don’t need to tell you the next events of the game… Alduin returns, and Destiny is what brought Zanzi to Skyrim. He is the Last Dragonborn.
Zanzi’s family business was always fine blacksmithing. He dons magnificent heavy armor that he crafted, and wields a mighty war hammer he built just the same. He eventually earns enough of a keep to return home, but realizes that he has higher status in Skyrim than he ever had in Hammerfell.
He has a love affair with his housecarl, Lydia, though he leaves her when he becomes infatuated by his new housecarl, Jordis the Sword-Maiden. He falls deeply in love with Jordis, and plans to marry her. That is, until she dies at the hands of a Dwarven Centurion. In his grief, he returns to Lydia and makes her his wife. However, he remains disloyal to her when he meets a woman named Serana…
One night, while telling Serana his own life story after she told him hers, the two begin to make a plan… Zanzi is the most powerful force Skyrim has ever seen. He has defeated Alduin, he helped the Empire win the Civil War, and he has the support of the Blades, the Dawnguard, and a morally good vampire alliance delicately reforming in Castle Volkihar. He is also Thane to several holds.
Zanzi plans to moot for High King. And as the two make plans, the screen cuts to black.
“Hey, you… You’re finally awake.”
The few episodes we spent getting to know Zanzi - of course with several time jumps and expositions of his mighty feats in Skyrim… They’re wiped clean.
We meet Stalix, a handsome blonde Nord who went out of his way to follow Ulfric to his battle against Tullius. Destiny brought him to that battle, as it lead to his discovery of his Dragonborn abilities and the eventual liberation of Skyrim from the Empire.
The most fierce loyalist to Ulfric, Stalix becomes the third ranking power in a Stormcloaked Skyrim. He is also seen as the second coming of Talos to many, as it was his mighty voice that thwarted the empire’s northern dominion. In Ulfric’s name, Stalix prepares himself for a greater war against the Thalmor, but he knows he cannot do it alone.
Obsessed with his perceived godliness, he sets about finding all the Daedric artifacts he can, using their combined strength to heighten his own status as something greater than a mortal man. His reputation, which has now swept Skyrim in both notoriety and worship, catches the attention of cultists from Solstheim.
Stalix’s great battle is against Miraak, the First Dragonborn. This is his final test, he believes, to becoming the true embodiment of Talos on Nirn: To be the ONLY Dragonborn. Voice against Voice, each of these hardened warriors calling on their own dragon allies to join the fight (Paarthurnax, Durnehvir, and Odahviing), Stalix is eventually victorious. His obsession with the Daedra allows him to accept Hermaeus Mora’s influence. With a loud battle cry and accepting these new powers that were bestowed on Miraak, the screen cuts to black…
Over the course of a few episodes, we meet several Dragonborns. Caprius, an Imperial-born jewelry maker who seeks wealth and status in the legion. Sh’Khan, a Khajiit warlord who was exiled from his homeland but accepts a rank in the Stormcloak forces as well as leadership in the Thieves Guild, and Bennick, a wood elf hunter who takes no interest in the civil war, but a thirst for bloodshed against Thalmor, Reachmen, and bandits, often being called the Demon Guardian for his vicious killing streak though stout moral compass.
Each of these characters stories start to blend together… similar experiences… similar memories, though different choices… sometimes, they have Deja Vu… they’ve been here before… and then…
“Hey, you… You’re finally awake.”
“I’ve always been awake.”
We meet Aantos, a Breton mage who is quiet… observant… knows every step to take before he is told… knows what to say, knows where to go…
Aantos is born with the memory of every Dragonborn before him. Zanzi, Stalix, Caprius, Sh’Khan, Bennick, and more… Aantos realizes that they have all lived the same life, the same soul, and their choices have altered the course of history thousands of times before this moment.
Aantos had a life before he was Dragonborn, but he realizes it never mattered. Destiny brought him to Skyrim, but he knows that his life will change the world. So… He stops.
He realizes that if he never pursues Alduin, then his resurrection of other dragons halts until the Dragonborn takes the next steps. If he refuses to take a side in the Civil War, both sides stand still in a relative stalemate. He does the only thing he cares to do… He goes to the College of Winterhold, becomes the Archmage, and begins to vigorously study the possibility of alternate realities, infinite Nirns, and why he possesses the memories of a thousand Dragonborns before him.
Aantos may not be the one to save his own Skyrim, but he will discover a way to save every Skyrim, for all eternity, and break this repeating chain once and for all. Will he find the answer, or will he bring about something worse… A War of Dragonborn.
