A new Skyrim mod lets you relinquish your life as the hero of the Elder Scrolls RPG, give up being the Dragonborn, and grind out your days as a standard Bethesda NPC, serving as a novel way to pass the time and capture the grim, plodding mood as we wait for more details on the Starfield release date.
The pressures of reality are pretty unrelenting. Bills. Work. Responsibilities. We drift into videogames to find an escape from all this expectation and obligation, with the cruel irony being that oftentimes, as in Skyrim, we end up thrust into the role of the one and only person who can save the world – if you think going shopping and making dinner is too much work, now you’ve got the fate of an entire civilisation on your shoulders.
What if you want to just drift into the background? What if you want the freedom of being a nobody, an anonymous, NPC-like figure who just disappears into the banal Bethesda backdrop? In the immortal words of the theme tune from Cheers, what if you want to go where nobody knows your name? Well, there’s a Skyrim mod for that, like there are Skyrim mods for just about everything.
I Am Not The Dragonborn ends Skyrim’s story after the “Dragon Rising” quest, which has been reworked so that rather than slay Mirmulnir and absorb his soul, thus confirming to the stunned Whiterun onlookers that you are, in fact, the chosen one, after you’ve killed the dragon you just…go back to what you were doing. You’re not the Dragonborn – you’re just some person. This is the ultimate in videogame escapism, letting you do and be basically whatever you want without anyone expecting, well, anything.
Described by creator Lobo22 as a “great mod for those who are tired of playing as the chosen one”, it even goes so far as to remove all NPC dialogue that refers to you as the Dragonborn. Download I Am Not The Dragonborn from Nexus Mods and spend some well-earned time roaming through Skyrim doing absolutely knack all.
Of course, as you roam Solitude and Riften, you might still want to peruse our guide on Bethesda’s next opus and all the Starfield cities. We also know all about Starfield skills and Starfield factions, most of which, you can guarantee, are going to force you to become the hero.