Non-Dragonborn protagonists and the problem of shouts in fanfic

[BardCollegeQuill]

I've been working on a character who's a nord sellsword in Skyrim, completely ordinary, and I keep running into this wall: how do you write around the Dragonborn stuff without it feeling like you're ignoring half the game's lore?

Like, my guy could theoretically encounter dragons. He'd hear about the Greybeards. He'd know shouts exist. But he can't use them, and he's not special in that way. And I don't want to write him as bitter about it or secretly resenting the Dragonborn or whatever. He just... doesn't care that much. He's got his own problems.

But it feels weird to just not mention it, and equally weird to constantly acknowledge it. Has anyone figured out a clean way to handle this? Do you just accept that your OC exists in a slightly alternate version of events, or do you try to make it all fit together?

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I think you're overthinking it a bit, honestly. Your character not caring about the Dragonborn stuff is actually the most realistic response a random nord sellsword would have. Like, most people in Skyrim aren't obsessed with the dragon crisis - they're worried about money, food, staying alive. The Dragonborn is this huge world-shaking thing but from the perspective of a mercenary in some backwater town, it's probably just background noise.

The key is just not making it feel like you're dodging the lore. You don't need to constantly acknowledge it, but a casual mention here and there - overhearing tavern gossip about dragons, maybe a Greybeard summons happening in the distance - grounds him in the world without making it about him. He hears about it the same way real people hear about major news events and then go back to their day job.

Honestly the trap a lot of fanfic writers fall into is feeling like every character has to have an Opinion about the Dragonborn, like it's this personal thing. But why would a sellsword? He's got contracts to fulfill. If anything, the chaos from the dragon war might even be good for business. That's way more interesting than resentment.