It Took Me 12 Years To Realise The Forsworn Are Utterly Absurd...

This is true of any and every kind of brigand group in skyrim. NPCs settlements and cities are only poorly made representations of what they should be, infinitely smaller and less populated than what they should be. If you were to take their sizes as accurate, almost any bandit group would be big enough to take a hold capital

People coming to the realization that bethesda are the worst rpg crafters in the industry. If only they continued to make their games like morrowind

Forsworn are merely <Insert Oppositional Faction Here>. There really is no other reason for them to exist.

Hagravens can actually talk beyond grunts and small words, I would know I almost married one

I always thought of Forsworn as a bunch a separate tribes, grown from the same traditions and customs, but not being one organisation. Secondly, think of Trojan War, which was mostly fought outside of the city walls. Forsworn don't have siege equipment and technology to take over a city. In addition, they are disorganized, it's each man to themselves, they don't function as a civilized society.

What I don't get about skyrim is so..,you're the "dragonborn" canonically a nord. You in no way shape or form resemble a dragon, but in contrast your "highest goal" is to be the "ultimate dragon slayer" which contrasts with "dragonborn" dragonkin, dragonrelated. Why is the title "born of dragons" used? shouldn't it be "dragonbane" not "dragonborn"

I remember i annihilated that huge foresworn camp with the Call Storm shout, it was an awesome moment, didn't move a finger, very satisfying lol

I mean the world of Nirn also doesnt operate along any of the same lines as our reality. Its a magical reality, quite literally dig deep enough into the lore and learn of mythopoetics and transliminality and you see just how insane it gets. The issue is that we shouldn't judge it by the standards of our world or any other for that matter. And as for the smaller settlements Skyrim is also a very isolated area on the fringes of civilized tamriel.

Looking at that huge fort why would they even need Markarth? Clearly the Reach already belongs to the Forsworn 😜

They have numbers, but they don't have organization. That's a key point.

Multiple tribles cant organize themselves and taking plain npc numbers is wrong.
Its like saying why bandits cant take whiterun.

Its almost like Bethesda slap this shit together without thought

I helped the firsworn in one of my first playthrough, after most of them were still agro, i never helpbthem, i always just slaughter them constantly.

You took it too literally

Think the answer to how they haven’t taken markath is that they have, ulfic beat their asses with his men and seems to have split the forsworn into divided camps (some answer to the matriarch some to madanach)

Once I fast travel to a foresworn base, when I loaded back into the world the bastards destroyed my Horse. I chugged all the skooma I had on me and went on a killing rampage. I raided all forsworn I could find many dozens were destroyed. When I came back to my senses and the skooma had worn off I walked back to my estate and retired from Skyrim Adventuring forever. RIP “Eggs” Until we meet again in Sovngarde.

The game needs Spears like Morrowind and new NPC's that would show up here and there. Say one store owner dies from a dragon from walking home from work . He was your favorite shop owner ! Store was close to your home and he had more gold to trade with ! So mybie he had a son or daughter or his wife or some other new guy from else were buys his old shop and can trade with you. That be awsome. Watching a small town grow over time. mybie the town has 6 buildings. 1 year in the game ( not real life year ) after helping the town or makeing quests aid them they grow there town and even build a small keep or castle or city walls.

Leveling up a new character now. Was an imperial level 103 now doing a hilgh elf at level 82 trying to get to level 143 before i start questing. A billion stabs later...

I hate f ing forsworn f ing terrorists

I do agree! I do the quest to get great armor gear that does actually fits towards my sneaky rogue dual weilding conjurer summoning with alternation , restoration & illusion thief assassin mage hybrid Dragonborn builds. Then , I will kill him in assassin dagger of woe kill cam shot after we are alone before leaving without consequences from his followers and I will get cleared of accused crimes & blacksmithing enchanted family ring in Markarth. Especially since I didn't even kill anyone by being sneaky midrange pickpocket Dragonborn in able to get all of the necessarily journals that I had needed during this questline without getting caught that would still resulted in battles. I will definitely bypassed their conversations that will ultimately triggers their attacks against Dragonborn awhile I will definitely equally master level sneaky steal all of their high money level loots for just leaving them alive! This is actually more entertaining fun during this questline for myself! LOL , my hubby calls me his sneaky pea since I am sneaky hybrid characters in all of my rpg roleplay games! I do find pure build such as warrior too boring to play for myself when I am entertainingly intrigued in going around about way of getting things done without straight up automatically battles from conversations within questlines by using my trained skills as good strategy tactic resources to ultimately accomplish my goals without battles if I can despite being equally high level in dual wielding swords or daggers and achery. I don't mind fighting but it is more entertaining intriguingly fun to accomplish my goals in different way after I had hybrid build of my Dragonborn characters! I love different strategy tactic goal options that you can have that doesn't required constant questline automatically conversation fighting all the time within Skyrim! Sneak with pickpocket and theft is definitely great strategy tactic option if you are high enough skilled Dragonborn. 😂

It's really very simple the forsworn are not in anyway unified. the majority of them still live the way they always have as bands of hunter gatherers living in tribes that rule themselves. no one tribe has the strength to storm the walls and towers of Markarth. they where only ever unified for short spurts at great need throughout their history. With the civil war in Skyrim happening the Forsworn are showing signs of becoming more unified you can find letters here and there in forsworn camps pointing to different hag raven covens gathering up disparate tribes and forming small nations of multiple tribe. This happened previously when Madenoc was appointed king of the Forsworn and lead them to driving out the Nords who were cruel to their people and establishing an independent city state in the latter half of the great war. The thing is to me it seems like the forsworn hadn't fully consolidated power nor organized before Ulfric returned with the Stormcloaks to drive them back out of Markarth and scatter the forsworn again. So the reason the forsworn don't rule the reach is because they aren't organized or unified the last time they where was a very long time ago, back before the founding of the Septim Empire from what lore books I can find. Also there seem to be different totem styles between certain forsworn groups which may mean differing gods/religions between the tribes. So the reason their rule seems so complex is because it is disjointed and unorganized.

I still play Skyrim, it's still an escape for me.

The population of bandits across Skyrim is also whack, it's the scale of the game.

And as far as the Forsworn care the Reach is theres, why are they going to hide? No one is strong enough to take on their biggest encampments so why not occupy them openly?

You forgot two very important things. First they have to get their troops into the city… they would barricade the gate and plenty foresworn would die before entering the city … also I am pretty sure the foresworns don‘t have a single essential person on their side so as soon a essential person from the city came the war would have been lost for the foresworn

The weirdest part about the Forsworn is that, unless I am mistaken, they claim to be the first humans in the reach, before the Nords...

But don't all humans come from the Atmorans meaning that the Nords would have been first to set foot on Skyrim? How could the Forsworn have been first?

Its called Bethesda and designers who don't understand what they are making.

Think of the Reachmen as the Irish or Higlanders of ye olden days. A colonised and subjugated people that periodically rises in rebellion with more or less success when the opportunity is presented or a larger than life leader can be found to unite them. Until then most go about their daily lifes while others live as die hard outlaws keeping the guerrilla war going in the remote parts. They could absolutely take cities and maybe even hold them for a little while but they will be disloged sooner or later when the powers that be crack down.

Here's a question: why do the Forsworn inhabit Nordic ruins? I mean, it makes sense as a hideout, but the game itself implies that not all of those ruins are, in fact, Nordic. Take Red Eagle for example? He's a draugr, even though the draugr are Nordic undead, and Red Eagle was a Reachman. His sword is also ancient Nordic, as is his tomb. Or what, the Nords gave him a fancy Nordic funeral, like the did the Snow Prince?

Also, had the Foresworn all become friendly, the player would still have to contend with bandits and the Falmer, the latter could have been programmed to spawn in the overworld more frequently, as the game implies them to. And if not, why have the player get constantly attacked by anyone? I love the Reach, but I'd really rather not get attacked at every turn. 😒

Damn Bethesda suits rushing development. 😡

there are odd things like that in Bethesda games yes. on the note of the forsworn being more powerful than the city guard avarti is correct but I dont he is thinking just hard enough. YES taking markarth by force would be easy, but after? both the imperials and the nords dont want them there and it would be easy to take it back from them. in fact it would be cause enough to put the civil war on hold to deal with them. (honestly wish that was a plot point in the game) they basically do already control the reach except for a city and a town, the rest is theirs. to actually do a worthwhile takeover of the reach would be an intrigue play to take over markarth from the inside. other than that they have no reason, as for the madonach story line he is the king of forsworn but who said ALL forsworn? maybe before ulfric beat him in battle he was but I fail to believe he could keep every one of those tribals under his rule I would imagine they fractured into different clans since.

I genuinely think avarti has ran out of things to doomer over bethesda games about and trying to pick at this just to make sure you the viewer knows he still exists. harsh? maybe but remember when he said elder scrolls should be like the witcher games?

Their problem (apart from Bethesta itself) its the witches, and their cult

Omg never did the maths, but so true! I've always wondered why you couldn't give Markath to the forsworn after the conspiracy quest, where you realise at the same time that Madanac already controls it... like, after civil war, you see much storm cloak in windhelm!

I was always annoyed that you couldn't join the Forsworn. Also, it would've been cool if the tribes were at war with each other. There should have been a whole quest line.

The quest with the leader escaping the prison in Markarth left a trail of dead guards, all with me not doing anything.

The escapees alone could've taken that city.

Game mechanics will always be game mechanics, often they do not make sense realistically but serves to allow the game engine to run smoothly.

Lore wise though:I despised their group day one, because when I play I do gather the facts of the lore before choosing sides, which I hope all players do rather than being vehemently for one side for shallow reasons like "armor looks cool" or the like. But I'm also already negatively predisposed towards terrorist groups or most kinds of violent rebellious splinter factions who whinge about some "true ownership" they have.

It's very simple to me: The Reach is neither nord nor reachman land originally, it's dwemer land. And the dwemer are all gone, so it comes down to who should rule the Reach. And a paultry barbaric retinue who perform human sacrifices, replace their very hearts, murder people on the road and commune with daedra have no business ruling anything. Many of their Reach-men kin even think so.

Exterminate the forsworn to a man I say. But do also treat law-abiding Reachlings fairly of course.

Absurd details? Well, here is one: What's the deal with the abundance of easily harvestable alchemical ingredients? You can come upon quite a lot of them on even the most leisurely stroll. Sure, you have a lot of easily irritated wild animals and bandits running around within a stone toss away from any settlement at even the best of times, but how come it's all just sitting there in quite the quantities with only a few folk venturing out to harvest them (usually with quite poor results, as judging by the corpses) rather than anyone who needs some cash deciding to go for a walk? I'd be pretty surprised if one of Skyrim's main exports wasn't alchemical ingredients at this point. Yet nobody seems to really make any use of them during situations where it sure would be handy to have a potion or two kicking about in their pockets. Do Nords just like having a lot of flowers all over the place to spurce up the scenery?

1- in High Rothgar the Stormcloack negotiate Markarth, Tullius let them have it.

2- Stormcloacks in Markarth should feel like americans in Vietnam.

3- the Forsworn should be able to kick Stormcloacks after liberating Madanch out and become their own state with Madanach considered as a Jarl.

then forsworn come from being a sub faction to a real one.

I've never been concerned over anything scale based in Skyrim. City populations, tree sizes, and even time itself are all wildly out of proportion. I'm sure anyone creating a realism mod list would have a field day with examples like the Forsworn. Could they even feed themselves for a week given the food supply found in their camps?

I thought Skyrim was dead?

bro hates all factions

You worgoy about one thing- fornsworn wears leather armor and have kinda wooden weapon,when Markarts and other cities guards have at least iron/ steal weapons and armor,I think this is a huge advantage moreover they are probably way better trained.

Huh. Yeah, I guess so. I always just assumed they weren't terribly organized after Madanach was put in the mines, and a lot of the more nonsensical places they settled were long-established city/towns/gathering points for Reachmen rather than being freshly built war encampments.

You make good points, but Skyrim sucks. People have been saying for years that it paled in comparison to Morrowind or even Oblivion.

It would have been great had there been an option to join the Foresworn, liberate their ancestral Reach, forge an alliance with the Nords to kick out the Imperials and their Elven masters.

Same with the option to join the Silver Hands to liberate the forces of Hercine.

They did conquer Markarth, and even requested to be a province of the empire, but were destroyed by Ulfric. The problem is that they aren't united. They're just a bunch of disjointed clans. It's why the last time someone was able to get them united, they were able to comquer Markarth, and earlier in time, the Longhouse Emperor even held the Cyridilic throne for a time.

I can only imagine that the Foresworn are just another thing that Bethesda put into the game without thinking too much about it cause it just seemed cool just like the civil war which also leads to nothing weither you join the Stormcloaks, Imperial Army or do the canon thing and join nobody besides Harkon. Skyrim sucks when it comes to this. Stories just lead nowhere.

What you call absurd, I called completely dumb since the beginning.

They haven't because they're severely inferiorly armed and if they do the imperial legion or the stormcloacks will come for there asses like last time

Ooh Yeah, I am cream of the crop