Civil War choice actually locks you out of the best questline and nobody mentions it

[EbonyWarrior]

I'm on my third playthrough and just realized something that's been bugging me since my first run. The Civil War questline is already pretty thin, but whichever side you pick, you completely lose access to anything involving the other faction's holds. And I'm not talking about just some radiant jobs—I mean you miss out on entire quest chains that tie into the world in ways the main story doesn't even acknowledge.

Like, there are specific questlines in certain holds that only trigger if you haven't sided against them yet, and the game never tells you this is happening. You just wake up one day and realize "oh, I guess I'm never going to see what was supposed to happen in Windhelm" or wherever. It's not a bug, it's intentional, but it's also kind of a trap for new players who don't realize the Civil War is basically a point of no return for entire storylines.

Compare that to Morrowind where factions actually had competing interests and you had to make real choices about which paths were closed to you—at least there it felt deliberate. Here it just feels like content got cut and the Civil War became the guillotine that drops on half the map. Does anyone else feel like this questline needed another pass before launch, or is it just me?

 

[DragonbornVet]

I think you're conflating a couple different things here. Yeah, the Civil War itself is pretty bare-bones - you're right about that. But the hold-specific quests that get locked aren't really "entire quest chains" in the way you're describing. Most of them are radiant jobs or minor stuff that branches based on who controls the hold. That's... kind of the point of a civil war affecting the world, tbh.

The real problem with the Civil War questline isn't that it locks content - it's that the questline itself is so shallow that you barely feel like you're doing anything meaningful. You're just marching from fort to fort. Compare that to something like the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood where each quest actually builds on the last one and has real narrative weight. The Civil War just kind of happens to you.

That said, I wouldn't say it's a trap for new players. If you're worried about missing stuff, just don't do the Civil War until you've explored the holds you care about. The game doesn't force you into it. I usually don't touch it until I'm like level 30+ and have already hit most of the faction quests anyway. By then I know what I'm giving up.

Morrowind had actual faction consequences because those factions were in open conflict from the start. Skyrim's different - the Civil War is more of a backdrop than the main draw. Not ideal, but also not really a design flaw so much as a design choice that didn't land as well as it could have.