4.2 The Two Factions

       Now that we have to make the decision between fighting in the name of the Imperials or the Storm Clocks. I decided to take a look and see which faction grabs my attention and I had in my mind that I won’t follow the good cause or the fairer said if I saw the other more interesting and charismatic.

        My first choice was to visit Solitude because I didn’t give the Imperials much attention since our first interaction in Helgen, the first thing I noted about the city is that it is organized and well-engineered with the bridge design and I perceived that the wealth they speak of is true until I saw the beggars and thought well since they claim they are fair and they are wealth why are there beggers? This prompted me to conclude that people are not what they claim to be. Reaching the palace I saw

       The whole console gathered which looked like an advisor and combat strategist. Which built the thought that whenever the widow Elisif requires consult about any matter they are plenty of experts by her side.to talk about the song “Age of Aggression” it gives the sense that everything was fine without the Storm Clocks rebelling against the Imperials and this song was introduced in my blog earlier because as I said that this song words were to aggressive and filled with hatred.

       On the other hand, I must also give equal attention to the Storm Clocks so I paid a visit to Windhelm .Surprisingly, the designers intended to disgrace the image Storm Clocks as soon as you step foot onto Windhelm through a sign of discrimination between some nords and Night elves . I left this first scene and I proceeded to the palace and the place was a disaster compared to Solitude looking at the advisors and the construction .However I Saw that Ulfric has this charisma when it comes to leading and reclaiming honor.As opposed to the Age of Agression  , Age of Oppresion talsk about how soon the Storm Clocks will reclaim their honor the song mainly praises Ulfric.

Plog Meta-Reflection

       Skyrim, the digital game, have been our digital text mean that we had to treat for English 131 Mermaids and Other Monsters.As my class mates and the academic community are my audience I was able to illustrates the lessons of this game through the genre of online pages. This digitals text brought in and included various skills that a normal text could include and even more. Mainly the skills in this text relied on the reader observation and listening skills. These skills are demonstrated in my blog through following the events I encounter and listening to different individuals to form an image or an idea of Skyrim as a whole. My blog specifically demonstrates this concept in my blog entry 2.1.Riverwood. Skyrim features both way interaction between the audience and the text medium, the game, which brings the audience role to the next level because the player gets to choose who he/she wants to be identified in the game as.

      Another skill I demonstrate in this assignment is making connections. I demonstrate this skill in two different parts in my blog. First, I show the connection between certain events that could lead into something. For example, the stone statue puzzle and the door pattern where I had to make certain connection of events that occurred sequentially to figure out the solution. Making connections is not limited to solving puzzles, it extends to understanding certain individuals behaviors. My blog illustrates this skill in my 4.1 Dragon Rising blog where I make connection about the Jarl behaviors and in 2.2-3.1 where Adolaf actions grabbed my attention to find what the connection between Battle Borns and Gray Manes is. This skill could help me as a writer by reviewing my arguments and see how do they connect to each other. Just as the designer expects us to notice the connection between events he intentionally show us as gamers I will try to make the connections noticeable to my audience.

        The second skill I found effective is including visuals so that my audience could connect each paragraph with the pictures I took from my gameplay so that I and my audience could be on the same page. This skill have been demonstrated across my whole blog.My 2.1 Riverwood blog is when I first saw the potential of using visuals in my blog because my audience could easily take a look at the picture I included and understand the meaning or the reason of certain assumptions I introduce. To be specific the first picture in the same blog present a landscape of Riverwood with a mountain in the background which explains my immediate assumption that Riverwood runs on mining as a profession.  This skill could be helpful in future writing because it would help the reader maintain interest while helping him visualize and understand the points I am trying to deliver as a writer.

        To conclude, Skyrim offers many lessons as a digital text but I chose to focus on both the connection establishing skill and visuals presenting skill. Both these skills were examined in this blog and how can they contribute or be translated in the academic community. Skyrim Also makes its audience build some habits without realizing. Some of these habits are constructive such as fast problem solving skills etc, but there are some weird habits when you look at them in a real life scenarios for example, when the player keeps checking dead corpses for loot. The audience in general tends to neglect those weird habits and focus on acquiring the constructive skills.

4.1 Dragon Rising

              Dragon Rising, the quest name the spread of word about the dragon mad me conclude that moment of confronting a dragon in Skyrim have come. With the jarl Balgruuf giving the command to me and Irileth to head to the tower and slay the dragon.

               After we saw the ruins of the tower with the fire still up I knew that the dragon is still nearby moments later the dragon showed. Because we outnumbered the dragon ,we were able to slay him .the death of the dragon brought controversy between the group members because apparently the dragon powers was transferred to me and one of the guards recognized this phenomenon. The guard latter addressed me as a “DragonBorn”  which meant the I could absorb the dragon powers and use them to shout.

               On my way back to Dragons reach is when the thunder struck with the a loud voice saying “Dovahkiin” I didn’t pay much attention to it so I proceeded to Dragons Reach.the interaction with jarl Balgruuf surprised me this time .The jarl first asked me about what happened in the Tower and I reported that we have slain the dragon and what struck me is that he didn’t celebrate at this moment. Instead he asked me “that can’t just be it”. This moment I realized that the jarl knew something about me or one of who fought alongside with us was a “DragonBorn”. The option the appeared then both were revealing that I am a DragonBorn, but still how did the jarl know that there was a DragonBorn. When he said that he heard the “GrayBeards” calling for the DragonBorn I immediately remembered the thunder strike and the loud noise. Furthermore, I deduced that the jarl is a step ahead of me because if it is true that I am a DragonBorn and I do poses some unique power , I can only see one explanation of his generous award of promoting me to be Thane of Whiterun ,the highest rank the jarl could give, and giving me a weapon is because he wants to keep me under his arm and control me.

3.2.Bleak Falls Borrow

          The Bleak Falls Barrow was an interesting quest where the gameplay puzzles and clues made the game interesting. The idea of making the player keep track of the events or visuals that he pass during the quest to be able to complete the quest. That quest mainly featured puzzles and riddles but it also featured some brief combat along the way.

            The two puzzles in the quest were the stone statues and the door ring pattern. The stone Statues problem solution didn’t take a lot of time because the game clearly showed that there is a pattern and the stone frames should match the pattern above because the top frame wasn’t accessible so I made this assumption.

           The second puzzle which was the one that took me some time to figure out. Was the door pattern lock where I couldn’t see any clear clue in the room that indicates what the pattern should be, but thanks to my routine check of dead bodies I was able to find the Golden Claw along with Arvel’s journal. Arvel was the person whose greed led him to his death. As I read through the journal I couldn’t help but notice the text between the quotation marks which states “when you find the Golden Claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands”. This riddle made me think for a moment and try to find out which hands does he mean so I went to examine the palm of the Golden Claw I retrieved earlier and there was the pattern I was looking for.

           

            The quest also included some combat which was not the main purpose of the quest because the fights were not challenging except for the spider and the Nordic warrior at the end of the Bleak Falls Barrow because both of them were in the way of important quest requirements such as the spider roaming in front of Arvel and the Nordic warrior carrying the dragon stone.

3.1 Winterun Religions and Clans

             I have spent some time in winter run collection information and two things appealed to me first the religion and the clan conflict in Winterun. The religion appealed to me because of the missionary screaming in Witnterun and the clan topic appealed to me because previously I chose Gray mane when Adolaf asked me and kept screaming after words.

             Religion, after a brief walk around Winterun I was able to Identify religious figures through their costume. The priest and the missionary were wearing a yellow rope which is apparently considered a religious costume in Skyrim.i found out that there are two religious groups in Skyrim one who owns the Kynareth and they own a temple and believes in a holy tree just outside of the temple and the other, I only found one missionary, believes in Talos .The Kynareth religion preformed and interesting healing prayer for wounded soldiers.it is also said that the tree is a branch of the oldest tree in Skyrim. For the missionary I heard him yelling about Talos so I went to investigate who Talos was. I came to conclude that Talos was a Nord who as the missionary described had the ability to look into people’s hearts and the Voice that made him rule Skyrim

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Clans in Winterun I got to talk to several members of both clans the Battle Borns and the Gray Mane. I got the idea that both clans were in conflict. So I wanted to look into the conflict and what caused it. Apparently the Battle Borns and the Gray Manes were both respected clans that had roots in Whiterun. What started the conflict was the battle born alliance with the imperials both clans had different perspectives of this event the Battle Born saw it as a step towards civilization and welfare. However the Gray Mane saw it as betrayal of their ancestor’s beliefs and becoming servants for the imperials.

2.2 Before the Storm

            On my way to Winterun I found some strangers struggling with a giant so I decided to help them. After we downed the giant, a lady approached me thanking me for the assistance and introduced me to her group named the companions and they are located in Winterun I said to good now I have connection within Winterun.

            As I reached the gates of Winterun a guard approached me and asked of my purpose in Winterun at this moment I saw the potential of my decisions because if I chose the aggressive approach with the guard I would have been beaten and thrown in jail because I wasn’t sure about the aggressive approach and its results I chose to go with message that Gredur initially sent me to deliver. From the reaction of the guard I concluded that he was informed about the dragon and he should provide the Jarl of Winterun with any Intel related to the dragon that appeared in Helgen.

As soon as I entered the gates I saw two individuals talking I approached them and from the conversation I understood he wants the women to forge some weapons. Because I didn’t hear the conversation and understood it fully I chose an option (Grey-Mane) that didn't please him, he then identified me as a Storm Clock and kept threatening that the Imperials will get us. The thing that left me puzzled is who those Grey-Manes are and what’s their relation to the Storm Clocks. From this point I decided to avoid any contacts till I reach the Jarl of Winterun.

Just before talking to Jarl one of his guards Irileth approached me aggressively when I didn’t show any signs of aggression. But she calmed down as soon as she know that I have Intel about the dragon. Soon I talked to the Jarl of Winterun and he asked of my purpose coming to Winterun. The list of options dropped and I saw an option that shows a connection between me and the Imperials. This option reminded me of the previous incident with the man at the gates, so I decided to keep myself neutral for now and go with the second option.

2.1 Riverwood

After spending some time in Riverwood, I learned about several topics some of them are within the town and some involves Skyrim as a whole. The information I gained during my time in Riverwood was through observation and interaction between certain villagers. When I first stepped into Riverwood I immediately formed that idea that this is a small village with mining as the main profession of the village, but little did I know that the village was a lumber mill.

Most of the information I gathered about the village was through talking to other villagers and asking them some questions .when I approach one of the villagers and try to talk to them a list of options drops so I conclude that they are interested in talking to me. I feel that sometimes that list limits the question I could ask to a certain character. For example, interactions rarely show an option where I could ask them about who he is and information related to the character I am talking to. However these option have been quite informative in terms of the broader scope of knowledge. Of all the villagers the bartender Orgnar was the most informative because apparently he interacts with most of the villagers with his position as supply provider. I came to that conclusion because he is aware of the love triangle between Sven, Faendal, and Camilla and he was also aware of the robbery that occurred at trade store.

The most valuable information in terms of Skyrim as a whole was from Gredur because she sort of explained some of the major events going on in Skyrim. The most interesting information was about Ulfric the kings slayer it was interesting how he got that title and Gredur shared with me the story were he the high king Torygg to a duel were he won. Gredur also, explained why she is on the side of the Storm clocks by saying that the imperials were good in the past but they are no longer and it is time for change. 

Here is an interesting song that captures Sven hatred towards Storm Clocks even though Gredur is the lumber mill owner and her brother which is a supporter of the Storm Clocks live in the same village

1.2 Unbound

           The quest unbound is the first decision making quest I had to do in Skyrim. It started with me brought into a carriage heading to the "execution block" where I have been exposed to different aspects of mainly two groups the Imperials and the Storm Clocks.

The race I chose for the game was Khajiit because of the extra damage they deal when unarmed which will come to use in later parts of the game.

Imperial Army, the imperial Captain was the women that pushed me away from the Imperial Army because I arrived as an unidentified prisoner but she didn’t take the time to think of what to do with me. She immediately issued an order of execution. That got me thinking of what the structure of the imperial a whole and I assumed that they are corrupt and money guided group but you can’t judge a whole group based on one person and that where Hodver role comes into play as the good man who tried from the beginning to save but he only had the opportunity when dragon showed up and tried to help me escape the castle and an interesting emotional appeal showed up when he tried to save the kid , but I have already formed an image about the Imperials that still remains the same after my interaction with Hodver.

The Storm Clocks showed as the rebels that lives in small groups in Skyrim and what I liked about the Storm Clocks was how they greeted the god of death with no fear other than the man that tried to flee and got shot by an arrow but most of the Storm Clocks told the god of death “not today” because the dragon invaded the city. Rolaf had a huge influence on my decision because he talked about his childhood and how cities were considered a safe place to him and cities changed in his view as he grew older. Finally, it was the hatred towards the Imperial captain that issued my execution that led me be a Storm Clock.  

1.1 Names and Titles

   I chose to name my character Sultan, my name, so that I could say that it fully represents me and represents what I am planning to become in the world of Skyrim the name Sultan was given to the kings of during the Ottoman Empire, Such as Sultan Mehmed II conqueror of Constantinople. The word Sultan itself is derived from the word “Sultah” which means authority.

   This is my first interaction with the game Skyrim but I have my brother as a source when I need help with the game. What I have learned from my brother is that the character name doesn't influence my playstyle or the story line of the game, so I didn't put much thought into it.

    However, if the name were to influence my progress and were to change the story line I would have chosen a name that makes me blend into a certain community, or the name of one of the fallen legends or heroes in Skyrim. I also, learned the characters a given titles depending on their contribution or achievements during the game which I find interesting because the people interactions with you would differ if the title had a fearsome message within it such as “Sultan The Skinner” so people would know that Sultan earned his title by slaying several creatures and skinning them, unlike for example, “Sultan The Wanderer”, people would think twice after knowing my title. What would be a useful resource s is that is knowing the titles and how can they sever your purpose and aim to earn that title.