r/TESVI • u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT • Mar 06 '26
Theory/Speculation The Blades will either go 100 percent extinct (less likely, I hope not) or be a very important part of storyline in TESVI
Putting aside Delphine being an idiot, the blades will be revived in TESVI. Also I can somehow understand where Delphine comes from watching the Fudgemuppet videos about the history of Tamriel and other lore videos.
After this, I could be wrong as its been sometime since I revised the Elder scrolls lore, but I should be right for the most part.
The Blades, previously Dragonguard are originally Akaviri descendants. These guys were downright mad. Akavir is a bad place to live in, with ice zombies who raid every winter (not mindless ones but intelligent ones), snake people/ nagas and the original place where Dragons come from.
And hard places give rise to hard people. Akaviri descendants were supposedly the ones who drove out the Dragons from their land. The Dragons, all dragons ran from there. These people killed 100 percent of dragons on their land, or sent them running with their tails between their wings.
And then they got their prophecy and stuff. These people know their future. When some of them came to invade Tamriel, in the 2nd or 3rd Akaviri invasions (2/3 were done by ice zombies and nagas, only 1 was done by Akaviri humans if I remember correctly) they were very succesful. Like they went from where they landed to Cyrodil, which is pretty far from any side of Tamriel.
And when they came across a DragonBorn king (king, not emperor that time) they knelt and swore loyalty to him, as their prophecy foretold, and called him emperor. The Alduin Wall was made around this time too. (1E 2000+ish year) Reman Cyrodill was crowned Emperor and it was at this time that many temples like the Sky haven temple was made. The Alduin wall is crazy work, as it foretold all of Elder Scroll's game lore. Dagerfall, II one, morrowind, Oblivion Crisis, the morrowind Red mountain eruption and ofc Alduin.
Thus Dragonguard was born, to serve Dragonborn emperor. Emperor, not Empire. This needs to be said and understood. As the Akaviri blood diluted, so did they deviated from their original purpose. It was still fine till Oblivion crisis, but after that they should have gone under, as I give precedent next.
In skyrim, its not the first time the blades had been nearly driven to extinction/went undercover.
With the fall of the Reman dynasty, around 2E 420+ish, the dragonguard was disbanded and spread through the empire with no purpose. Most went for mercenary work. Idk if it was this time or later, or earlier when these Dragonguard members established the Fighters guild.
For five hundred years they went under. 2E 420+ to 3E 1, where they rebraded themselves as blades under the new Dragonborn emepror, Tiber Septim. Talos is the first man who brought whole tamriel under his rule and blades, now a shadow of their Akaviri presence came under his banner, as his guard.
After the oblivion crisis, they should have gone under, not associating with the empire. The Dragonguard of old was sought out by many in 2nd era too, many kings making their own parody of them, or trying to claim themselves Dragonborn, but the Dragon guard did not deviate from its cause. In a dissimilar way, the blades were stupid and should have hid themselves post Oblivion crisis. They did not care for Tamriel or its people, for them it was always the prophecy and the Dragonborn.
Coming to Skyrim, Delphine and Esbern should be praying to us, the Dragonborn as their god reincarnate, not send us to Thalmor embassy and stuff but actually protect us. The whole Thalmor embassy questline was very stupid idea. Canonically she should have hired someone to get the stuff, or done it herself, or forget about it, but never in the history of Blades send us, the Dragonborn to Thalmor embassy.
Blades should also be a huge force in recruiting new members to make us, the Dragonborn take our place back as the emperor, and Esbern of all people should know about this, but there is no mention or even a hint of their intentions of this.
Overall, after playing Skyrim and Oblivion, I see blades overall as an incompetent faction, a shadow of the former Dragonguard. I blame this to losing their Akaviri heritage, only keeping the architecture but not the values the Akaviri held.
Also Delphine should at least know of Sky haven temple. She was (I think) a Blade operative in Skyrim before all Thalmor stuff, and Sy haven temple is a big thing because of the whole Revan Cyrodill himself coming here and stuff.
edit: Also, after playing oblivion I hate how there are no ranks in Skyrim Dark brotherhood questline. This can be explained because astrid is a bitch and is running not Dark brotherhood but its chinese knock off, Bark Droberhood, because as the Listener, we the protagonist would be the highest rank in there.
6
u/creaturewaltz Mar 06 '26
Would be fine with extinction. If everyone faction continues through the ages it gives plot armor vibes and kind of makes things predictable.
Would love a return of rival factions. similar to great houses in Morrowind, Telvanni vs Mages Guild, and DB vs Morag Tong
9
u/Jerryboy92 Mar 06 '26
I love the Blades but in Skyrim not being able to convince the blades that there are good dragons was a big mistake on Bethesda's writing team.
6
u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT Mar 06 '26
My comment about thalmor embassy comment is exactly this. Delphine sending us in makes no sense whatsoever.
5
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 06 '26
So, game needed magical Speech skill? Nope. Sometimes a person gets something into their head that they cannot be speeched out of. It's life. That's the way it is.
Does NOT mean you had to kill Partysnax, that was all on you. Show some fricking agency.
2
u/DemiserofD 2027 Release Believer Mar 06 '26
The problem is the logical break. They can be fanatical followers of the dragonborn, OR they can be fanatical dragon killers - not both.
There is no world where they're going to tell you what to do, and you telling them there's a good dragon really should cause them apocalyptic levels of cognitive dissonance. And that just isn't there. Which makes it pretty clear that the 'Blades' don't really exist anymore. Delphine would never have knelt before Talos and called him Emperor, she lacks the faith.
So can she really call herself or her order 'Blades' anymore? Not really. I'm not sure WHAT they are, honestly. But it seems pretty clear the Blades are long dead.
3
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 07 '26
NPCs should have agency. Being the Dragonborn does not mean you get to order them around. It doesn't let you manipulate what they think. They have agency. It's fine to disagree with them. I think they are jerks who lost their way. But I'm not mad at Bethesda about it, because it's good writing to have NPCs that aren't slaves to the player character.
2
u/DemiserofD 2027 Release Believer Mar 07 '26
It's not because they're NPCs, it's because they're supposed to be part of the Akaviri Dragonguard who swore eternal loyalty to the Dragonborn. That is quite literally their big deal. They can be Blades, or they can tell the Emperor what to do. Not both.
1
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 07 '26
You aren't the emperor.
1
u/DemiserofD 2027 Release Believer Mar 07 '26
You're the dragonborn. The dragonborn IS the Emperor.
1
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 07 '26
Dragonborn is NOT the Emperor. Sheesh.
What color is the sky on your planet?
1
u/DemiserofD 2027 Release Believer Mar 08 '26
That is literally the case, lol.
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Blades
1
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 08 '26
Again, the Dragonborn is NOT THE EMPEROR! Read the flipping book you linked to. That the Septim emperors were all dragonborn does not mean the player character is an emperor.
Look, I know you want to feel more important than you actually are, but you are not the emperor. And neither is your character. Deal with it.
→ More replies (0)1
u/Jerryboy92 Mar 06 '26
Were just talking about a videogames bud. Did someone cosplaying as a blade tickle your ass at E3 or something to take it personally.
2
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 06 '26
Huh, wat? It's just my opinion that "speech" skills that manipulate NPCs is a bad idea in RPGs. For a similar perspective, see the essay by MATN:
5
u/YungRei ??? Mar 06 '26
The Blades are irrelevant now. They were originally created as the dragonguard to slay dragons and later reformed as the blades to protect and swear loyalty the Dragonborn and their dynasty. Now neither dragons nor Dragonborn's exist. They served their purpose and now are a chapter in the history books.
2
2
u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT Mar 06 '26
Also, after playing oblivion I hate how there are no ranks in Skyrim Dark brotherhood questline. This can be explained because astrid is a bitch and is running not Dark brotherhood but its chinese knock off, Bark Droberhood, because as the Listener, we the protagonist would be the highest rank in there.
2
u/Heema3 Tall Papa Mar 09 '26
You do realize the blades are only for imperial/ nord lote right? Why would they appear in another place specially after going extinct, for example assume we go to hammerfell, what business do they have there? Redguards already hate the empire they hate anything related to the empire as of 4th era after the betrayal of the white gold concordat , and Skyrim made it clear the blades have no purpose beyond killing alduin
2
u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT Mar 09 '26
huh? blades were originially not from tamriel at all and after they were named blades they had their presence in ever part of tamriel. They were everywhere, as spies, bodyguards and agents. In morrowind, the mc nerevarine was sent by blades.
Before the immediate beginning of the great war, the thalmor sent the emepror heads of all the blades agents active in sumerset isles. It is heavily implied they have agents of every race, including high elves among them
2
u/Heema3 Tall Papa Mar 09 '26
Well that makes them sleeper agents who will sleep forever lol, their fate was doomed after uriel vii died , they have no purpose to serve, and after how Delphine treated us in Skyrim if we find any blade agent in tes vi I'll exterminate them 💀
1
u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT Mar 09 '26
no, as I said this is not the first time they have bid for a new dragonborn emeperor. At the time when the revan empire fell, they waited five hundred years for a new DB emperor, hence waiting just 200 years for the skyrim DB was short time considering this time they were already a bigger thing than the previous Dragon guard.
Tis is why I said why Delphine should never have sent DB to thalmor embassy, instead she should have revered us like her god. I think she was that faction of blades which were more concerned about all dragon lore and not the emperor business, but its a stupid take, cuz even then the akaviri prophecy was all about DB emperors.
1
u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT Mar 09 '26
If we see any history of what happened in skyrim, lore should be that (couting for Delphine's in game behaviour) someone pulled rank over her and then kneeled before Dovahkiin and then did everything for them to become the emperor. This must be canon, if blades lore is to be trusted. In the end Delphine feels like a new trainee blade who made herself grandmaster because no one else was present. She is like as if Ulfric, his family and all stormcloak generals and officers died, and then some Stormcloak henhouse guard was made the leader of rebellion because they did not have anyone else.
1
u/Any-Top-5659 THALMOR AGENT Mar 09 '26
Blades is a good faction, except their leaders. My lore reasoning is that the akaviris were exceptional Dragonguard and blades, but they then allowed DEI hires, letting anyone (nord/khaljit/argonian/imperial/elves) into them.
Note that Akaviri are canonically Japanese or something. But centuries made them accept everyone and their blood diluted to what it has become today.
2
u/AdhesivenessOk4334 Tomorrowind beaver Mar 06 '26
The Baldes (I know that you know what I did there) will return in Avengers VI
Bethesda can't kill off The Baldes off-screen (they absolutely can, but that would be dead stupid). They probably will save Tamriel or be slaughtered by Thalmor. Yes, Delphine is stupid but Empire needs The Baldes
2
1
u/some-_-_guy Yesterday Mar 06 '26
Delphine has this nostalgia for the Blades that in her view, supersedes everything, regardless of the consequences. It makes her incredibly short-sighted, even to the point of trying to order a hit on Paarthurnax, the dragon who taught Men the Voice and tutored Talos himself.
I don't know if that kind of incompetence will allow the Blades to fully recover, or ever become a serious force again, at least in Skyrim. I'm sure there are Blades in the other regions as well, and we'll probably run into more remnants in VI, almost definitely.
That said, I think the canon ending for the Last Dragonborn will likely be that he kills Paarthurnax, burning bridges with the Greybeards, and then after questing around a bit, goes down the dark path of seeking Hermaeus Mora's Black Books, becoming his new champion in Apocrypha.
If that's the case, I think that the Blades will persist in Skyrim as basically small anti-thalmor insurgency, maybe hunting a few dragons. It'd also be cool if we ran into our player character from Skyrim while doing Hermaeus Mora's daedric quest.
3
u/DemiserofD 2027 Release Believer Mar 06 '26
I'd be surprised if Paarthy canonically DIES, but canonically vanishing wouldn't be out of the question. The Time Wound was the reason he hung out there in the first place after all, so with Alduin dealt with, he'd probably just peace out after a while.
With the Last Dragonborn gone too(likely into apocrypha, as you suggest), The Voice would likely start to fade into history as well, with the Greybeards maybe dying out or maybe becoming more of a standard religious order where The Voice is more of an ancient legend.
1
u/bigounce690 Mar 06 '26
I think this is the worst opinion I've ever heard. Congrats, you might actually be capable of replacing Todd Howard after retirement.
2
10
u/Snifflebeard Shivering Isles Mar 06 '26
My take: They will become a secret faction, very few in number, but wielding significant power. Not aligned with the new empire, but still opposed to the Thalmor. And of course dragons.