In Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim there is a side quest that, on its surface, seems to employ the old trope of He Said She Said; you don't know who's telling you the truth, and yet you still have to pick a side. Neutrality is no option. I speak of the side quest In My Time of Need, a sidequest that, until recently, had no clear cut answer. But I have found in game what I believe to be the "smoking gun" that can put to rest this issue once and for all.
First, some backstory. In the sidequest you are assigned to help a minor character, Saadia, escape from some Alik'r warriors who are hunting her down. According to her, they are hunting her down for daring to speak out against the Aldmeri Dominion. But according to the Alik'r, they are hunting her down for selling out her city to the Aldmeri. No matter who you help, the reward is the same, but the outcome is different; help Saadia, and you kill the Alik'r, but help the Alik'r and Saadia gets taken prisoner. So, who's right? Who's lying?
This sidequest is not one that I tend to do often, as my instinct is typically to help Saadia, and since I don't use companions very often, the Alik'r tend to kill me a lot. But in a recent playthrough, I came across a DAMMING piece of evidence that points me to the liar! And that liar's name is...
Saadia!
To prove my point, allow me to dig into the lore of the Elder Scrolls. The Aldmeri Dominion is a nation set in the Summerset Isles that is currently conquering the continent of Tamriel. They have taken the provinces of Valenwood and Elsweyr, have occupied Cyrodiil and Skyrim, and have made advances towards Hammerfell. That last area, however, declared itself independent from the Tamriel Empire, fending off the Aldmeri Dominion's main power, the Thalmor, by themselves. Unlike the Empire's rather pathetic attempts at repealing the Thalmor, the Hammerfell forces were by and large SUCCESSFUL in their attempts to remove the Aldmer from their territory. This all happened by the year 180 4E, 21 years before the events of Skyrim.
And now this is where the smoking gun comes into play: Saadia, if pressed, confesses the reason she's being hunted down is because she spoke out against the Aldmeri Dominion. If you were unfamiliar with the lore (and chances are, unless you'd seek out said knowledge, you would be) you would have sided with her, as I did. Ah, but the LORE exposes her lie! Consider: WHY would Saadia have a problem in Hammerfell for speaking out AGAINST the Aldmeri Dominion, if said political body had been cast out of Hammerfell TWENTY YEARS PRIOR!? If anything, Saadia would have been able to return home to Hammerfell a vindicated woman!
"Ah, but the Alik'r.." Yes, they were rash. If you explore Skyrim a bit after slaying the dragon in Whiterun, you'll run into some Alik'r harassing random Redguard women. This all helps the player side with Saadia more; who, after all, wants to side with jerks like THAT? Plus the fact that, no matter where they go, they seem to cause trouble with local law enforcement. Add to that the fact that they holed themselves up in a bandit cave? DAMMING!
But none of this takes away from Saadia's conviction by contradiction. Saadia claims she is being persecuted for speaking against the Aldmeri Dominion. If this happened in Skyrim, Cyrodiil, High Rock, wherever, she'd have a point. But she did this in Hammerfell, the ONE place in Tamriel she literally could speak out AGAINST the Aldmer and be COMMENDED for it! Her story holds no weight because she's LYING!
The truth is, Kematu (leader of the Alik'r hunting Saadia) is right: Saadia sold her city out to the Aldmer during the Great War. All the evidence points to this logical conclusion: had Saadia been telling the truth, she would NOT have been pursued by Alik'r warriors, but by Aldmeri soldiers. The Alik'r are natives of Hammerfell, warriors who fought AGAINST the Aldmer! It is their very presence in Skyrim that condemns and exposes Saadia's lie!
So there you have it; a liar exposed by her own story. All one needs is a bit of background knowledge and boom: the liar exposed. DAMN does Elder Scrolls have fantastic lore!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment