Skyrim and my Anthropological Lens

Over a decade ago, I embellished the play through of a game that is still relevant in today’s pop culture. It could be said that everyone who participated in this experience, has done so multiple times. The replay value of this game was unlike any other due to it’s vast open world, endless side quests, and thrilling story telling. At the time, I was just 19 years old. A barely blooming adult that has just been released into my own open world. LIttle did I know how small the world I have been living in actually was. Perspective is an uncanny enemy that still strikes even when we are conscious of it’s nature. All we can do to combat this nature is to ever expand our scope and understanding for others, their way of life, their beliefs, their solutions, their being. This being said, let me begin my story on how a single conversation about a game created over 13 years ago open my enclosed mind.

I was new to gaming at the time and few games captivated my attention; let alone entice me to embark on multiple playthroughs. All I knew was I was going to get to fight dragons. As the main story progressed, I chose to side with the rebellious faction of Stormcloaks under it’s leader, Ulfric in the Civil war that was pursuing. This was my biased nature. I grew up poor, I grew up American. I loved learning about our rebellious American history and our secession from England. Also, blue was my favorite color (color of the stormcloaks). So choosing the red Imperials was out of the question. Anyway, I beat the game, and it was nothing short of amazing.

One beautiful sunny day in Afghanistan, I was out by the bunkers after a mission hanging with my battle buddies who all smoked or dipped Copenhagen. In the midst of conversation, one particular fellow named Harrington brought up an interesting point about Skyrim’s civil war, and actually defended the Imperial (what I thought to be antagonists) side. Up until this point I have believed the side I chose in Skyrim was the “right” side. It was the side that was justified, it was the good side of the force. To me, the people in power enforcing their hand were always in the wrong. This is due to my limited perspective. My 19 year old life concluded to the prerogative mindset of a revolutionary, without even beginning to consider that America is more closely related to the Imperial red faction present day. I was thinking about where America came from, not what it has become.

Ulfric and the rest of the Stormcloaks were part of a sub-faction of the group that reconquered the Imperial City who felt that suing for peace with the Aldmeri Dominion was admitting defeat. They wanted to keep fighting, despite the odds being against them. The terms of the peace agreement that required the Empire to crack down on Talos worship was basically the last straw for that faction, as well as a convenient rallying cry.

Ulfric challenged High King Torygg because the High King supported the peace agreement. Ulfric wants to become High King himself so he can continue his war against the Aldmeri Dominion.

The Imperial faction is basically trying to prop up the existing ruling family of Skyrim rather than let Ulfric take over. Most of them actually don’t like the Aldmeri Dominion or the peace areement, either, but they take a more realistic view of their chances if they were to attempt to throw the Aldmeri out of Tamriel. The Empire basically wants to wait things out and rebuild, and Ulfric is a threat to that strategy due to his desire to restart the war against the Aldmeri Dominion.

Still, I was not wrong in choosing the Stormcloaks as the righteous faction. On the flip side, those that empathized the Imperial red coats were not incorrect in believing they had chosen the virtuous faction. As you can see, there is no “correct” side, and this is the case in many oppositions. It’s like saying anions are “good” and cations are “bad”. It’s like saying left is better than right or clockwise is superior to counter-clockwise. In this case, there is simply a chain of events and it got to a point where a side is needed to be chosen. This decision is gonna rely heavily on one’s experiences throughout the upcoming of these trials and tribulations. I now live my life remembering this revelation from a conversation about a game over a decade ago. I continue to widen my anthropological lens by no longer looking at just the surface of things due to this conversation, and I believe I am wiser for it.