When players have finished their favourite RPGs but can’t stomach the thought of moving on to something new, they often try out a new gameplay style. This may be as simple as choosing a new romance option or class, or so drastic that they commit to never killing an NPC.
In Skyrim, it’s hard to do most of the interesting plotlines without killing someone, eventually. Even the game’s introduction requires it! However, sneaky players have found ways around the necessary deaths in the game.
Favoured methods include stealth, illusion spells, and letting companions kill for you when it’s absolutely unavoidable. Not all of the game’s quests revolve around murder, though. Here are 10 quests from Skyrim where killing someone is off the table.
10 The Book of Love
In the quest The Book of Love, the Dragonborn earns the favour of the goddess Mara by helping out the priests and priestesses at Riften’s Temple of Mara. Though Riften is a mysterious town full of people’s secrets, these priests’ goals are rather straightforward.
Mara is the goddess of motherhood and love, so her quests all involve star-crossed lovers. Across Skyrim, from Ivarstead to Markarth to Rorikstead, the player helps lovers. One widow is looking for her husband’s remains. A young girl is fighting with her parents about her decision to leave her hometown. In the end, the Dragonborn earns the Agent of Mara blessing and a permanent high-horse for helping the lovelorn.
9 Deceiving the Herd
If the Dragonborn in question is a morally chaotic person, the Deceiving the Herd quest is bound to tickle their fancy. In it, a dark elf named Feran Sadri asks the player to frame the Dawnguard (a faction of vampire hunters) for murder.
Of course, the easiest way to go about this is for the player to kill someone then plant the “Incriminating Letter” that Feran gave them. However, Skyrim is a dangerous place and someone is bound to die anyway. The easiest way to avoid killing someone is waiting until the vampires attack. On the other hand, one could use the Dead Thrall spell on an already-dead body, killing it in a town, and then planting the letter. It’s not killing if the person was already dead before, right?
8 A Chance Arrangement
The quest A Chance Arrangement is the Dragonborn’s introduction to the Skryim branch of Tamriel’s Thieves Guild. The first time a player enters Riften, they will see Brnjolf in the market advertising a potion (which is clearly a scam). If they choose to approach him, Brynjolf offers them a deal: he’ll pay them to plant something in another merchant’s stall while he distracts the crowd.
The Dragonborn could succeed with the other merchant being taken away by the authorities for possessing stolen goods. Or they fail, caught in the act by the city guards. Either way, Brynjolf is impressed by their gumption and extends an offer to join the Thieves Guild.
7 Argonian Dock Workers
There are many things that fans don’t know about the Argonians of Elder Scrolls, but one thing fans do know is that they need a union. In the quest Argonian Dock Workers, the Dragonborn is tasked with mediating between the Argonian employees on the Windhelm docks and their employer, a proud Norn man named Torbjorn Shatter-Shield.
To complete the quest, players just need to find Torbjorn in his house in the (upper-class) northwestern quarter of Windhelm. Intimidating, persuading, or bribing him can do the trick, but it won’t come to blows so long as one of your skills (or coin purse) is good enough.
6 Composure, Speed, and Precision
Composure, Speed, and Precision is one of the things that even hardcore fans may have missed in Skyrim. It’s found in the southern Falkreath mountains at Angi’s Camp. There, Angi offers to train the player’s archery skill for free.
Rather than the usual training, in which the player loses some gold and their level in archery goes up, Angi actually asks them to practice. There is a shooting range near her home just for this moment. Three rounds of shooting test each skill - composure (shooting three targets with no timelimit), speed (shooting three targets in 8 seconds), and precision (hitting a far target).
5 Tending the Flames
The Bards College of Skyrim offers a fun series of quests for the Dragonborn - though many fans were disappointed that, ironically, they never get the opportunity to play an instrument. When the player visits the Bards College in Solitude, they are warned that few applicants are accepted, but those who are must complete a task for the college.
Tending the Flames is the tale of this task. In it, the Dragonborn must retrieve a song called “King Olaf’s Verse” to perform at the palace before a ceremony called the Burning of King Olaf. The song is hidden in an ancient barrow, so the player doesn’t fight any people to retrieve it – only reanimated draugr.
4 Loud and Clear
The Thieves Guild in Skyrim doesn’t always have clear motives, but helping a shady businesswoman get ahead in the mead industry is definitely good for their profit margins. In Loud and Clear, another Thieves Guild quest, the player is tasked with clearing out a safe and burning down some beehives. This serves as retaliation for failing to cooperate with the guild and their shady client, Maven Black-Briar.
The Thieves Guild quests are perfect for players looking to do a pacifist run of Skyrim, since the guild looks down on attacking and killing anyone. Indeed, you’ll occasionally be punished if you were seen or killed anyone. Some quests, such as Loud and Clear, are tougher to do without murder, but a reliable illusionist or lightfooted expert can pull it off easily.
3 That Was Always There
The quest That Was Always There is one in which the Dragonborn is asked by the dark elf Revyn Sadri in Windhelm to plant a gold ring in a woman’s house. Revyn swears that he didn’t steal the ring, but accidentally bought it for his Used Wares store and then realized it belonged to a local woman named Viola Giordano.
At this point, the Dragonborn could do as the Revyn says and simply return the ring with no fuss. Dark elves aren’t looked upon kindly in Windhelm (or many other places). Revyn’s excuse that if he returned it himself, he’d be blamed for its theft, is plausible. On the other hand, if the player is suspicious, they can approach Viola directly and tell her that it was stolen. Choose wisely - after the quest, only one of the two NPCs can become a marriage candidate.
2 No News Is Good News
By the time the Dragonborn enters the scene, Skyrim’s civil war has been going on for several years. The Stormcloacks (Nords native to Skyrim) and the Imperial Legion (a faction with provinces all over Tamriel) have been fighting over the rightful ownership of Skyrim. Many soldiers have died for the cause on both sides.
The mother of one such soldier, Angeline Morrad, has been left in the dark about whether her daughter, Fura, is alive or dead. In No News Is Good News, Angeline tasks the Dragonborn with finding out for her. Bribing, intimidating, or persuading Captain Aldis reveals that Fura was killed while stationed near Whiterun.
1 Arniel’s Endeavor
The Dwemer robots in Skyrim are a pesky nuisance – especially for new players – since they’re quite strong from the get-go. Even more annoying was all the Dwemer scrap parts that fans wanted to loot and sell but were too heavy to lug through long dungeons.
Arniel’s Endeavor is a quest from the College of Winterhold, Skyrim’s magic university. Arniel asks gamers to retrieve some of the useless Dwemer junk for use in experiments because he hopes to discover why the Dwemer disappeared so long ago. The Dragonborn won’t have to kill anyone for this quest because if they do meet any enemies, they’ll only be the automatic robots.
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