the toughest one: protect yourself or deal some damage?

"they even worship daeric gods" *me who sold my soul to like 14 of them*

For the ebony blade when you use calm on an enemy they’re counted as friendly so you could just kill calmed bandits

Bro, I helped Cicero really early in the game. I helped him with his wagon wheel and now (after sparing him) he'll call me "Listener", "Friend" or "Best friend". If you help him early in the game in general, he'll always consider you a friend

Toughest decision: What am I going to name my character this time?

Dragonborn: "I can't side with you Forsworn, you're evil!" Madanach: "Evil how, exactly?" Dragonborn: "You kill innocents, and worship daedra!" Madanach: "Didn't I hear you sacrificed someone to Boethiah--" Dragonborn: "--that's different! She offered me some cool armor."

"they even worship Daedric gods!" Me: *Hides the mace of Molag Bal and Mehrune's Razor while sweating profusely* how evil.

the last one really isn't a tough decision to make, for every Thalmor that dies a child sleeps soundly at night

Me upon finding the Ebony Blade “Cool! Another artifact weapon to gather dust in my rare/enchanted item chest that lags when I open it”

Paarthurnax is the easiest choice for me in the game: Just ignore it and never complete it Blades are clearly in the wrong, because Paarthurnax betrayed his dragon kin and taught the Voice to mankind. Alduin had two chances to destroy the world but Paarthurnax was there each time to thwart it

"If you just attack and kill Fjola, but I don't know why you would do that." She's a flippin' bandit chief, you mow down enough unnamed ones, does knowing her name really make the fact that she slaughters innocents excusable?

I never once disliked Cicero, he always seemed the most sincere while astrid always seems to be hiding something

My toughest choice in skyrim: A) Murder nazeem to death B) soultrap Nazeem and leave the gem in blackreach as far from the cloud district as possible

The Forsworn even worship the DAEDRA. Almost every Dragonborn: Yeah, sure, real bad guys

“The thalmore can actually be pretty good friends” me unsheathes the ebony blade😂😭

The Cicero decision is one of the easiest ones I've ever made. He attacked Astrid because she insulted the night mother anybody else who got hurt only got hurt because they tried to get in the way. If you're wanting to stay true to the dark brotherhood the only option is to spare him, as he was the only one actually sticking up for the truth of what the dark brotherhood is supposed to be

The most stressful choice is what loot to leave behind. Sure you could drop the nord great sword, it has low stats, and isn't worth a lot, but it was the first weapon you bought before deciding you would play a sneak archer build. It has sentimental value, damnit! You can't give that up! So ultimately you decide to thow away nothing slowly walk to your horse, and hope a town is close.

Nate: "Cicero *HATES* the Dragonborn!" Cicero in-game: **Lowkey infatuated with the Dragonborn and would literally do anything for them**

Regarding the king in rags, I usually go along with him right up to the last door. Then, when it's just me n him.... he gets murdered to death. This way, I get both the pardon AND the forsworn remain unhostile.

My first playthrough I didn’t know how to fast travel, so I ran into Cicero by that farm behind whiterun, I was so surprised to see him in the sanctuary when I found the dark brotherhood

When I found out about Astrid's betrayal, I actually figured that Cicero may have found out, and that was why he snapped and tried to kill her for betraying the Dragon Born and the guild.

Childhood is killing Cicero because you thought he was a weirdo. Adulthood is when you spare Cicero because he's one of the only NPC's who isn't bland as shit.

The Cicero quest always very much intrigued me, since the dialogue indicates, he went off AFTER hearing Astrid talk to somebody, about not believing in the old ways anymore. He is a half deranged Guardian of the Nightmother... That sounds like a very viable trigger for him. Also, we do learn that Astrid even wanted to sell the Player out to the P.O. to keep her "family" alive, and just the way it was before cicero came around, in other words, bringing the D.B. back down the "wrong path" when in the service of Sithis. Hell, we only have Astrids word for what Cicero overheard. It is very well possible, he heard her selling the Player (who he respects as the Listener) out to the P.O. We never really get a statement from Astrid WHO she talked to, or about WHAT. And the Player DOES GET SOLD OUT, immediatly AFTER the falling out with Cicero.

I killed Cicero the very first time but I felt so guilty. For starters, he's doing his job. He's more of a brother than a y of them, devoted his life to the night mother. That and his voice actor is fucking amazing. The most unique and fascinating voice in the whole game

“The Forsworn are the bad guys.” Me, listener of the Night Mother, vampire lord who helped partially blot out the sun, and the Guild Master, wielding the mace of Molag Bal and the Spellbreaker while wearing the Masque of Clavicus Vile and the Savior’s Hide: “Interesting”

"Which character that trusts you will you-" Delphine.

You forgot that Astrid taunted the night mother, provoking him the first place

When Idolaf said "Gray-Mane or Battle-Born?" I started shaking and crying and just crouched there thinking about it for a whole in-game year while he stood there waiting for my answer for an entirety of year. In the end i decided to not pick sides and ran away from city to never come back

"Hows it going guys..." when will someone make a Nate NPC for Skyrim?

Thanks to the mod “The Paarthurnax Dilemma” I don’t need to choose between Paarthurnax and the Blades. It lets you talk sense into Delphine and defuse the situation.

On the Forsworn Conspiracy, you can also escape with madanach and the other fellas, and, just as Madanach gives you your whole gear back (along with the special armor), you can kill everyone there and then. Then you steal the key from his body and exit the cave, and Thonar will be waiting for you outside just as if you killed him in the beginning.

If you have Lucien Lechance out when hunting for Cicero, the apparition will say something along the lines of, "Our Dark Father does not want this".

For some reason it bothers me when you call Cicero a clown. He's a Jester, damnit...that sounds much more professional!

"Why would you kill Fjola?" She's a bandit leader! I've murdered to death plenty of bandit bosses before her and I didn't even know their back stories. :p

My brother and I are playing simultaneously and when we got imprisoned we chose different options . He straight up killed every single prisoner (he went full werewolf on them) escaped and just went on his way. I on the other hand had no such perks and in fact did this quest three levels earlier than he did. You gotta love it when games give free reign to do things like that.

Who to kill? *walks towards esbern and Delphine while unsheathing sword*

Mephala: "Yes! Take my blade and, hey, what're you doing hanging it on the wall?" Dovahkiin: "Oh? Sorry. Two-handed playthroughs are boring. Later."

Me reacting to the Ebony Blade: I am going to kill Delphine *10 times in a row*

I've spared Cicero in every one of my hundreds of playthrougher regardless of the role I'm playing. Call me crazy but I've always like his... Eccentric personality.

I firmly disagree on the "Cheating" of using the Ritual Stone to repeatedly resurrect and kill someone for the Ebony Blade. Particularly, I went with Faendal, the elf archer who wants you to gaslight Camilla from the Riverwood Trader to get with her. There's a bit of beauty in this because the Ebony Blade is the artifact of the Daedra Mephala whose spheres include lies, sex, murder, and secrets. Well Faendal wanted me in secret to lie to Camilla about who wrote the letter from the bard Sven in order to have sex with her. So I, in secret, lied to him about being my companion then lied to Mephala about how many of my companions I murdered. Like I've got to imagine Mephala's sitting her web like. "Damn...well played."

Forsworn: we are corrupt and evil! Me: *joins dark brotherhood, kills anyone who is even SLIGHTLY rude to me, and makes deals with daedra* Me: you were saying?

Everyone: PLEASE DON'T KILL CICERO. HE'S THE BEST COMPANION AND IS A GREAT CHARACTER. Me: haha want funni clothes

If you spare Ciciro, he actually becomes immortal & is invaluable as a follower

You actually answered one of the questions I've had for a few days now. I went into a bandit stronghold and murdered everyone while trying to earn money and level up my skills. At one point, I see a dead body and get a quest saying that I need to tell Fjola's family what happened to her. No dialogue options or anything popped up, I was just shooting huge fireballs and blowing everyone up so I didn't know there was even a quest associated with the place lol. Guess I'm gonna be killing an old man later today

With Cicero.... I spare the guy... He was justified in attacking Astrid the defiler of the Tenets who sells out her own Family.

This game came out in 2011, I've done tons of playthroughs *and I'm still finding new things.*

I've made two characters and two playthroughs in Skyrim. The morally good Argonian had some issues with these choices. The morally evil Khajit also had problems, trying to pick the more evil side.

14:17 I didn't like that in this quest you couldn't just say your wife left you and doesn't wanna come back, which would have been the correct option. You only get the option to say shes dead or you didn't find her.

I love that he knows “We’re NOT killing the friendly animals”

For the Christer quest I told him she was dead, so he was fine, but went back and killed her afterwards because she was a bandit leader after all.

Cicero is the "purest" character in Skyrim. He doesn't lie, nor does he pretend. He's dead loyal to the Brotherhood's code, even when the guild isn't. The kind of guy to have a few cups of hydromel with If he wasn't a batshit crazy murderer of course 😀

For me, it'd probably be choosing between stormclouds and imperial. At the end of the day, I chose imperial because they seemed like a more peaceful and organized faction while storm cloaks just seemed a little more violent. I wish you could make the Imperials and storm cloaks friends and together take down the Thalmor.

Saving Cicero isn't a tough decision at all, Cicero does like you, he's borderline in love with you, and the Brotherhood is very limited since Astrid had all the members killed.

Toughest choice in Skyrim: Siding with the stormclocks because u like general Tulius’ armour or side with the imperials because u like ulfric’s clothes

the thing i've always hated with the Forsworn Conspiracy is that the whole faction doesn't become friendly when you side with the King-in-Rags. It would have been much more interesting if you became hostile to the Reach and friendly to the Forsworn, maybe even with the option of doing a mini version of the civil war in the Reach to help the Forsworn rest control of the hold

A thought just occurred regarding the Mistveil quest. There's a chance a NPC called Frighten Woman approaches you and tells you that she was kidnapped and held at Mistveil Tower and asks you to do something about it. So if you spare Fjola, you're basically letting a bandit group get away with crimes. I've agreed to lie to her husband the two times I've ever done this quest and left it at that but that's pretty much done now.

Never kill Cicero, he is one of the most powerful followers these are his levels Archery 97 Block 20 Heavy Armor 20 One-Handed 100 Two-Handed 15 Smithing 15 Alteration 61 Conjuration 15 Destruction 20 Illusion 15 Restoration 25 Enchanting 20 Alchemy 15 Light Armor 97 Lockpicking 15 Pickpocket 15 Sneak 100 Speech 15 He is also very funny

I usually spare Cicero, he is by far my favourite character in the entirety of Skyrim. He simply wanted the brotherhood to follow the traditional ways of old and didn’t trust Astrid (which he was right to do anyways.)

So here's a trick that may work for the ebony blade; if you use a calm spell or voice of the emperor on bandits and then leave, come back, bandits have a positive disposition towards you. Kill the bandits, get 5he buffs. Only reason I think this may work is bandits you do this to, then kill, you get an inheritance letter from them, meaning they must've liked you. Don't know if this works , so I'll have to try it, but I think it's worth a shot lol

for the first quest, I had the awkward situation of the stormckloaks running Markarth so neither the guards nor the forsworn attacked me and I pretty much just stood there and watched not knowing what to do.

When Cicero follows you he LOVES YOU wtf are you talking about lol 😂 I love Cicero

Re: the first one, the Forsworn, you can have it both ways to get the armour Madanach gives you and not totally help the Forsworn, either. Just wait till after Madanach gives you the amour, then murder him and his companions to death. Leave the mine and there's Thonar waiting for you.

Deciding who to support in the Civil War was easy for me. The Stormcloaks didn't try to kill me. The Empire did. That's something I'm not going to overlook.

I remember rage quitting during the prison quest, I was so caught off guard by being imprisoned and having that happen and hearing I couldn't leave and I didn't have the means to pick out. It was just because it was unexpected, so I thought i broke the game after having fought my way out of the city, only to wait and have to fight them again despite having waited a week. I eventually went back and put up with it and realized it was part of the story telling but man.

I actually really like the kill madanach option from a story perspective. After Eltrys is assasinated, I fight off as many corrupt city guards as I possibly can like a damn John Rambo but eventually I succumb, not out of fatigue, but from the realization that it’s hopeless to fight agents of a city so deeply corrupted by forsworn. So once I’m in cidnha mine, I kill off every damn one of the forsworn in the joint to prove my innocence and force a corrupt system to collapse in on itself. Pretty cool shit.

I didn’t even know you could kill Madonach instead of join him.

I didn't even try killing the forsworn so I had no idea there was an alternate ending. Goes to show that Skyrim still has some secrets to be found

Literally every single time I’ve played, I went with Madonach, I didn’t think to kill him, figured he was important and never looked it up… but upon escaping I never heard nor saw Thonar Silver-Blood, we all just started escaping through town. The others would fight and leave and I’d just leave usually, after acquiring The Armor of Ye Olde Gods

Bethesda made a though choice not adding callipers......

Me: *Is champion for all daedra, kills people who anger me and is leader of dark brother hood and thieves guild* Also me: Forsworn are evil

Don't forget, if you side with the forsworn... The armour of the Gods is rewarded! A unique forsworn light armor.

"They even worship Daedra" Me, a Dunmer: By Azura, what fiends!

Toughest choices you say nate? Me: to murder or not to murder to death?

When I was doing the Cidnha Mine quest I decided to follow the forsworn for see where they would go, and after the quest they all turn passive until they reach their location and then they turn neutral. So Madanach got attacked by a bear and died and everyone else just kept running past him

12 years of playing this game and I'm still learning new things about it. I had no idea about being able to sell stalrim to the thalmer

Madanach : I am leader of the fornsworn. Dragonborn : Hears voices ( yet another child has prayed to their Mother)

Easy: kill Esbern and the other Blade for suggesting the Dragonborn betray Paarthurnax.

*I knew it would come to this one day. I knew..... and no one believed*

7:55 never killing him again after hearing that. Lucien was a giga chad.

I'm glad you shared the story for the first choice... I messed it up... Much like crossbow bolts and accidentally siding with the vampires, I accidentally got blacklisted out of Myrkarth as well by butchering that quest. When the guards told me I was arrested, I'd recently read the waiting screen comment about how jail time will ruin your skills, so I wasn't having that! Killed my way out of the city, barely since I was low level. Only visited once since, found out the Jarl and a few others can't be killed and just have to be avoided... Filled all my black soul gems too! But alas, beyond being able to finish quests within buildings provided they don't naturally have guards in them - or the Jarl - then it's not ruined the game entirely for me. Thanks to your videos, however, I will eventually be doing a more thorough and accurate play through, with the right kinds of choices being made to have the kind of outcomes I want. There are some places I've found of curiosity that I'm looking forward to watching through your videos to hear your comments on - so thanks for posting them! Glad you're able to make a career out of helping players like myself, win win!

Nate: "The Forsworn even worship deadra! They are totally evil" Me: "Yeah, totes. Who worships deadra amirite"

1:30 "Think Stormcloaks, but a LOT more evil." Oh dear. You've done it now, Nate.

Just starting out a skyrim channel and your videos help so much!

Spairing Cicero is as easy a choice as not killing Parthurnax is. Change my mind. XD

To be fair to the Forsworn, the Reach used to be theirs before the Nords conquered it and during the revolt they even treated the Nords equally during their brief rule, even though the Nords had never extended them the same courtesy. And then Ulfric came in and massacred a whole lot of them, radicalizing loads of native Reachman and leading to the modern Forsworn. I'd be pretty pissed too.

Hack for the Ebony Blade: somehow befriend Nazeem and murder him to death ten times

You probably won’t see this or care but I just want to Thank you for your videos. I started my first playthrough about a year ago, I didn’t read books, I would skip through diologue that seemed boring, I was a lazy player; but your videos have really gave me a new perspective and made me think deeper into Skyrim, so for that I thank you once again. That is all. Bye :)

bro the wife leaving her husband and her husband looking for her broke my heart i need a minute

I killed Cicero in my first playthrough. In my 2nd i spared him, thinking i want to save as many old Dark Brotherhood members as possible. I would never kill him after that.

Nobody: Old men in Skyrim: "You're not as DUMB as you look"

I'm glad I watched this because I never knew that about the ebony blade, I have to try that sometime

1st one: After hearing the stories of your fellow prisioners and after finding out that forsworn were the rulers of "markarth" (they were there first then the nords came kicked the forsworn out and claimed that land for themselves thus creating markarth as we know it today) I decided to help the forsworn. 2nd one: if you summon the spectral assassin he wil say and I quote "I will kill this jester if you so desire, but there is a disturbance in the Void. Our Dread Father does not wish this." so I did not kill him seeing as I was part of the DB (serving sithis) and he did not want cicero to die. 3rd one: found the ebony blade, dont know who to kill yet. 4th one: tell the dude the truth and the kill her. 5th:one f*ck the thalmor. ANOTHER really hard choice for me was to tell the truth or to lie to Narfi, pondered on this for quite some time, ended up telling him the truth, felt like it was the right thing to do, after that I joined the DB and killed him for a quest.

Lockdown + Switch + Skyrim has been a blessing, I’d never have enough time to ply this game otherwise.

When you walk between the glaciers of The Pale,you can hear the ice cracking and rumbling

I'm not gonna lie I didn't even know you could kill Madanach till I watched this video, I always helped him

I love how deceptively he worded the New Stahlrim Source bit as being various but never stating they're all in one location

Me:*obatins ebony blade* Also me:*reads the book* Lidia: how may I serve you thane?

Nate: love the vids! How about pointing out that rugs/carpets always point to main doors and corridors, in case you get lost? Dwemer and Nordic ruins. Has helped me get unlost a bunch of times!

I always thought the answer to the Cicero issue was easy. Looking at the dark brotherhood, he’s really the only person that was there for the right reason. To everyone else it was a job that let them do what they did best and make a lot of coin doing so. Cicero was there to serve the night mother like a good follower and keeper. He may be crazy… but he’s our crazy ❤

In my most recent two-handed-weapon-user playthrough, I simply brought the Ritual Stone's blessing with me on the quest "Lights Out!" and killed Jaree-Ra over and over to charge the Ebony Blade XD