The Greybeards might actually be the worst faction in the game

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

I've been replaying and paying attention to the actual Greybeard questline for the first time in years, and I'm genuinely bothered by how little agency you have. They summon you, you go, they teach you a shout, repeat. That's it. No real choices, no consequences, nothing that feels like joining a faction.

Compare that to literally any other questline - even the College of Winterhold gives you actual decisions to make about how you approach things. The Greybeards just... exist. They're gatekeeping knowledge behind fetch quests and waiting around in HIGH HROTHGAR while they contemplate the way of the voice or whatever.

And the lore doesn't even back it up? Like, if you read about the Way of the Voice in the in-game books, it's all about discipline and balance and understanding the Thu'um philosophically. But the questline itself is just "go get this thing" and "sit here while we yell at you." Where's the actual philosophy? Where's the training montage equivalent? You're supposed to be learning from the most powerful beings in Skyrim and it feels like a chore.

Paarthurnax is cool at least. But even he gets sidelined the second the Blades show up. Speaking of which, that whole ending where you have to choose between the Blades and the Greybeards is presented like it matters but both sides are kind of insufferable about it.

Anyone else feel like the Greybeards should've been way more involved in the actual story?

 

[EbonyWarrior]

You're hitting on something real here. The Greybeards questline is basically on rails - there's no actual progression path where you can refuse them or push back or even roleplay someone who disagrees with their philosophy. In Morrowind, the factions had real internal politics where you could climb ranks, make enemies within the organization, get kicked out. The Greybeards don't even have that skeleton.

That said, I think the issue is less "the Greybeards are badly written" and more "Bethesda didn't know what to do with them narratively." They're lore-important - they're supposed to be these almost-divine beings who've transcended normal concerns - but that makes them terrible protagonists for a questline. You can't really have dramatic tension when your faction leaders are serene monk-gods who literally speak in thu'um. The College works because Savos Aren is ambitious and flawed. The Greybeards work in the lore books because they're mysterious and distant. But put them in an actual quest structure and yeah, it falls apart.

The philosophy thing you mentioned is the real missed opportunity though. The Way of the Voice is genuinely interesting conceptually - thu'um as meditation, discipline, consequence - but the questline never actually teaches you any of that. You just... collect shouts and nod along. A real training arc would've involved actual choices about how you use the thu'um, maybe consequences for shouting recklessly, something that makes the philosophy matter. Instead it's fetch quests between cutscenes.

The Blades ending is honestly worse because it pretends to be a choice when it's really just "pick a side and move on." Neither faction offers a compelling reason to care about their conflict.