The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

=== Setting ===
Skyrim is set in the year 201 of the Fourth Era, which started just after the upheaval of the so-called "Oblivion Crisis" from the previous game. Skyrim is a cold and mountainous region in the north of the continent of Tamriel. It has traditionally been divided into nine administrative sections, called "holds", each governed by a jarl from a larger town. Of these settlements, Solitude, Windhelm, Markarth, Riften, and Whiterun are larger and more powerful. The landscape is littered with forts, camps, and ruins, some of which were built by the now-extinct race of the Dwemer, or Dwarves. The Nords, one of the human races, view Skyrim as their homeland, though members of other races populate Skyrim as well. Most ubiquitous are Dark Elf refugees from the neighboring land of Morrowind, which was devastated by a volcanic eruption; and the Reachmen, a tribal faction of barbaric savages that occupy a large western portion of Skyrim known as the Reach. Various Orc strongholds are also located throughout Skyrim, having been allowed to settle in the region at the behest of the Nords.
Skyrim is a province of the much larger Empire, which at one point comprised all of Tamriel. The Empire has recently fought a war with the elvish Aldmeri Dominion, who believe that they are racially superior to humans. While the conflict, known as the Great War, ended in a military stalemate after a hard-fought battle at the imperial capital, the greatly weakened Empire was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty called the White-Gold Concordat. This treaty led to the Dominion annexing the Bosmer province of Valenwood. Large parts of Hammerfell, home of the Redguards, was also to be given to the Dominion as part of the Concordat, but the native Redguards promptly seceded from the Empire in response and drove the Dominion out, becoming an inward-looking rogue state. The Argonians of the Black Marsh, having lost faith in the Empire as an institution, seceded as well and established their own nationalist faction that took control of Tamriel's southeastern territories. By the game's events, the Empire is a vestigial organization which only maintains control over Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and the northwestern province of High Rock.
While most of Tamriel worship a religious pantheon of eight deities, the Nords of Skyrim are accustomed to worshiping a ninth god, Talos, the deified human general who founded the Third Empire. The Dominion, led by the intolerant Thalmor sect, rejects this notion and its implication that a man became greater than any elf. They instituted a clause in the Concordat forbidding Talos worship in the Empire. Motivated in part by this condition, Ulfric Stormcloak, the jarl of Windhelm, leads a rebellion against Imperial rule, with the holds divided between the two sides.
In the ancient past, dragons ruled over vast swaths of Tamriel. Their hegemony was overthrown when three human warriors threw the dragon ruler, Alduin, forward in time using an Elder Scroll, a powerful and mysterious artifact. When Skyrim begins, the survival of the last known dragon, the sage Paarthurnax, is a secret kept by an order of monks called the Greybeards. Within their monastery atop the Throat of the World, Skyrim's highest mountain, the Greybeards dedicate their lives to the Way of the Voice, a discipline founded by Jurgen Windcaller for the Thu’um (dragon shouts).
A line of heroic "Dragonborn", gifted by the god Akatosh with the ability to learn shouts intuitively by absorbing the souls of dead dragons, is long thought to be dead. Ancient prophecy maintains that Alduin will return to consume the world, and a "Last Dragonborn" will defeat him. Many Nords believe this will come true, though there are just as many skeptics.

Characters

The player character is the mythic Last Dragonborn and is typically referred to as such. The Dragonborn can be male or female, from one of ten races. Each of the ten races has, in addition to a bonus for certain skills, a power specific to their race – for example, Nords start with a bonus to several martial skills, and the ability to intimidate enemies for a short period. The player can recruit one NPC at a time as a follower, who can travel and fight alongside the Dragonborn; there are forty-five available followers in the base game, with thirteen more added in the downloadable expansions.
Outside of followers and Alduin (the primary antagonist), NPCs prominent to the plot of Skyrim include Balgruuf the Greater, Jarl of Whiterun, a city in the center of Skyrim; Arngeir, the leader of the Greybeards; Delphine and Esbern, two of the last members of the Blades, an order of warriors sworn to help the Dragonborn but nearly wiped out after the Great War; and Paarthurnax, the last surviving dragon and grandmaster of the Greybeards. Also notable are General Tullius and Ulfric, who command the Imperial Legion and Stormcloaks, respectively. During the course of the game, the Dragonborn can join and assist either side to gain victory in the civil war. Other factions that the Dragonborn can elect to join include the Companions, a noble order of warriors; the College of Winterhold, an institution dedicated to the mystic arts and magic; the Thieves Guild, a league of burglars who have fallen on hard times; the Dark Brotherhood, a fellowship of assassins; and the Bard's College, a group consisting of bards, poets, writers, and public speakers.

Plot

Imperial soldiers have captured Ulfric Stormcloak and are preparing to execute him, along with the player who was caught up in the skirmish and mistakenly identified as a rebel. The executions are disrupted when the dragon Alduin appears and attacks the imperial outpost. The player escapes and warns Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun of the dragon attack. When another dragon attacks and is slain, the dragon's soul flows into the player character, causing the nearby guards to call them "Dragonborn." The Greybeards summon the Dragonborn to the Throat of the World with a deafening shout, where the Dragonborn begins training in the Way of the Voice.
Delphine, a member of a secret society called the Blades who were known as dragon hunters, intercepts the Dragonborn on a training quest and arranges for the Dragonborn to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy in Solitude, on the (mistaken) suspicion that the Thalmor are responsible for the dragon attacks. There, they learn that Esbern, a Blades lore master obsessed with the prophecy of Alduin's return, is alive and hiding somewhere in Riften. The Dragonborn rescues Esbern in Riften as Thalmor agents also try to capture him. Esbern leads them to an ancient Blade temple and a massive engraving depicting Alduin's prior defeat. Esbern deciphers that the ancient Nords used a special shout that forces a dragon to land and experience the concept of mortality, thus rendering Alduin and any dragon weaker, unable to fly, and vulnerable.
Arngeir does not know the shout, which is called Dragonrend and violates the Way of the Voice. Arngeir sends the Dragonborn to Paarthurnax at the summit of the Throat. Paarthurnax reveals that no one living knows Dragonrend, but theorizes that the Dragonborn could learn it by looking through time at the throat of the world, the site of Alduin's banishment. To do this, the Dragonborn retrieves the Elder Scroll used in the banishment from a massive subterranean lost city. The Dragonborn returns to the summit and learns Dragonrend by witnessing the events of Alduin's prior defeat where he was not defeated but only cast forward in time. After returning from the vision, the Dragonborn is attacked by Alduin and uses Dragonrend to fight him. The Dragonborn is successful and Alduin is forced to flee.
The Dragonborn's allies hatch a plan to capture a dragon at Whiterun. The Dragonborn helps negotiate a truce in the civil war to prevent either side from capturing Whiterun – whose Jarl has remained neutral in the conflict – during this delicate operation. The captured dragon, Odahviing, questions whether Alduin deserves lordship over dragons. He reveals that Alduin has gone to recover his strength in Sovngarde, the Nord afterlife, where he feeds on the souls of the dead. Since the portal to Sovngarde cannot be reached on foot, Odahviing bargains for his freedom in exchange for flying the Dragonborn there. Entering Sovngarde, the Dragonborn meets the three heroes who had once defeated Alduin long ago. With their help, the Dragonborn kills Alduin and returns to Skyrim.