Unlocking Bend Will despite Miraak: An Experiment

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Wildroses

Well-Known Member
My new character, after leaving the Companions because she refused to become a werewolf, doing all the non-Daedric quests in Whiterun and half building Lakeview Manor started the main quest. Directly after being sent off to find the Horn of Jorgen Windcaller the cultists attacked her.

I haven't replayed Dragonborn yet, so I thought: Why not? Then I realised the only dragon I had killed was the one attacking the Western Watchtower so unlocking Bend Will might be hard. And that made me curious as to how long it would take me.

So I'm running an experiment. How many dragons must I kill before I can finish the Dragonborn questline?

I won't get Storn to sacrifice himself before I have three souls. My plan is to do all the Solstheim main and side quests possible, then the main quest with a break in the middle to do all the College Quests, then the Dawguard questline. I'm guessing it will be sometime in the middle of doing the Dawnguard questline before Miraak lets me have three souls.

Has anyone else done something like this before, willingly or unwillingly? And does anyone have a prediction as to how long it will take me to get three dragon souls?
 

Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
My new character, after leaving the Companions because she refused to become a werewolf, doing all the non-Daedric quests in Whiterun and half building Lakeview Manor started the main quest. Directly after being sent off to find the Horn of Jorgen Windcaller the cultists attacked her.

I haven't replayed Dragonborn yet, so I thought: Why not? Then I realised the only dragon I had killed was the one attacking the Western Watchtower so unlocking Bend Will might be hard. And that made me curious as to how long it would take me.

So I'm running an experiment. How many dragons must I kill before I can finish the Dragonborn questline?

I won't get Storn to sacrifice himself before I have three souls. My plan is to do all the Solstheim main and side quests possible, then the main quest with a break in the middle to do all the College Quests, then the Dawguard questline. I'm guessing it will be sometime in the middle of doing the Dawnguard questline before Miraak lets me have three souls.

Has anyone else done something like this before, willingly or unwillingly? And does anyone have a prediction as to how long it will take me to get three dragon souls?
Are you still at this?
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Sorry for the delay, my life over the past few months has involved sending 200 invitations for a function, shifting from an office my organisation has been in for forty years, a sinus infection, Christmas chaos and a laptop which crashes if I play Skyrim too long (still with repairmen). I ended up having to dump that initial character as I screwed up her perks and abilities and she just wasn't fun to play. I rerolled her with a new skill set, and I must say Miraak is disappointing me. I've fought three dragons and he's let me have two of them.

Level 15, the first dragon she killed when getting the first word of Bend Will Miraak let her have. While heading to Raven Rock after cleansing the Sun Stone but before her first visit to Neloth she came across a Dragon in the wilderness which Miraak stole. At level 19 she'd gotten two black book powers and done the Raven Rock quests to get rid of Ash Spawn and open the Ebony Mine a dragon attacked Raven Rock, which Miraak let her have.

And that's when I had to send my laptop to the repairmen and I have no idea when I'll get it back. Pity, I was really getting into this character.

I'm not off Soltheim and haven't even got to visit Neloth and I'm two thirds done. I'm kind of hoping Miraak is a jerk and doesn't let her have that third soul for a while as he is going to ruin this characters roleplay if he lets her have the third too quickly. Doing the Dragonborn questline as soon as possible means it ends up with Miraak being your ultimate nemesis. After reading a disturbing and disturbingly well written short piece on Skyrim Kink Meme I decided that Miraak had raped my character during that first meeting when she was paralysed. As the prompter said, Miraak isn't really the type to be bothered by consent, dragons like to dominate and he's been stuck alone in Apocrypha for how long? The experience was going to cause my PC to be obsessed with gaining enough power in the form of strength, abilities and items to kill Miraak, no matter what the potential cost. If Miraak keeps letting her have souls she's going to lose her roleplay value to me pretty rapidly.
 

Kohlar the Unkilled

Time for some ale
Hopefully Miraak becomes sufficiently cruel. Perhaps he's going easy on you due to your relatively low level? I've tended to avoid most of Solstheim's quests until I'm around level 25-30, and Miraak never cut me any slack regarding dragon souls.

It reminds me of my latests sojourn into Bloodskal Barrow. I battled my way to Zahkriisos, (whom I consider to be the most dangerous of the Dragon Priests), and saved when I reached his chamber, with trepidation because I was lower level than usual. Well, he glitched somehow, becoming stuck at the spot of his initial rising. He shocked Marcurio a few times, and that's it. How disappointed I was; I had come expecting to be lightning-propelled across the screen at least a couple of times..!
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
I wasn't surprised he let me have to first. I'm pretty sure he's scripted to let you have that first dragon if you had no spare dragon souls. But I was stunned he let me have the second so quickly. If he lets me have the third quickly I'm going to have to conclude he has some sort of sick crush on my character.
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
My laptop returned yesterday, so I got up to level 25 doing Served Cold for Severin Manor and visiting Neloth to get the Black Book and the second word of power, which I already had a soul for. A named dragon sent my Miraak attacked us outside, and Miraak let me have it, the jerk!. But rather than lose all interest in this character, I have decided to unlock Dragon Aspect before getting a spare soul for the third shout. I'm rationalising it as Miraak shows off that shout while saying you have no idea of the true power a dragonborn can wield when you first meet. So I need three more souls now. Lets see if he lets me have them as easily or not. I'm hoping to finish with Solstheim and the main quest before meeting him at least.
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
And at level 32 the experiment is over. Miraak let me have the next three dragon souls before I even made it off Solstheim.

That guy is such a jerk. He hogs your dragon souls until you actually set up a character for whom you want him to steal dragon souls from and then he's all: "Sure, you can have them."
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Okay, I'm doing this experiment from the other perspective now. My current character, Swanhilde Silver-Blood, headed to Solstheim to fetch Sorine some crossbow plans and arrived late but not late enough than Arano told her sternly that she wasn't in Skyrim anymore, she was in Morrowind and their laws applied. Serana, who had been right next to me in this conversation, then said this must be the beautiful Skyrim weather she'd heard so much about...but I digress. She rented a room at the inn then woke up at the Temple of Miraak so I decided to start the Dragonborn questline.

Swanhilde is level 55 and has done a whole heap of quests by now and is partway through stacks. She has finished the College Questline, is on the verge of killing Harkon and is currently organising the peace conference to trap a dragon at Dragonsreach. At some point I want to do Lost to the Ages and there are several quests in Windhelm and Whiterun I plan to have her do once she's cleared some of the current ones from her journal.

So, lets see if Miraak is more ruthless to a level 55 with no spare dragon souls than he was to my last girl.
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Well then, level 56 and he let him have her first dragon at Saerling's Watch to learn the first word of Bend Will, but I'm pretty sure he is scripted to do that if you have no spare dragon souls. The reason she managed to gain a level was getting completely lost in a blizzard and being really hungry because she was expecting to buy breakfast at the Retching Netch when she woke up, so she ended up going through Benkongerike looking for food and fire, then the Black Book Untold Legends while she happened to be there. Now the real fun begins.

On another note, I was impressed and amused at Hermaeous Mora's reaction when I first entered the Black Book Untold Legends because he remembered I'd told him I'd never serve him and I wasn't his champion back over the Oghma Infinium. To summarise it was: "Ha ha! Well look who's here? Told you your free will was an illusion. Enjoy the library."
 

Irishman

Well-Endowed Member
I just finished killing Miraak for the 1st time with my Lv74 character. He just killed the one western watchtower dragon, went to greybeards than met the cultists down the mountain. I went to Solstiem after killing the dragon that Delpihine 'helps' you fight. So I got on Solsteim with my 2 souls, fought maybe 8 dragons before I had the final showdown with Miraak, and in the entire time I was on Solsteim, he only took one of the souls.

Does he normally take a higher % than that? This was really the 1st time I have finished the Dragonborn DLC and the 1st time I ever saw him steal a soul. Was pretty neat!

On a similar note, miraak was very easy to beat. My character does have vampire-Necromage enchanted equipment, but I was still hoping for a tougher fight. I really had to drag it out and only hit him once every 10seconds or so, than miss-fire some lightning chains just to give the situation some excitement :p
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
It seems to vary from person to person how many he'll take. I've heard wildly differing accounts, although the ones in which Miraak takes a high proportion are very vocal about it. Dragon Souls is Serious Business, as a comic once put it.

Miraak took the dragon soul waiting outside once she'd gotten the second word of power from Hermaeus Mora. I'm quite enjoying the relationship her and old Hermy have. "I'm not your minion!" "Oh aren't you an adorable little Dragonborn...now run along and do what I told you or you aren't getting your knowledge."
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Well, level 57 and a few quests later I fought three dragons in todays playsession and he let me have every single one. I plan to unlock Dragon Aspect as well to see if he'll keep being mean to me or just let me have all the dragon souls I want.
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Harkon is now dead and she got another dragon soul, which she promptly used to unlock the final recently learnt word of Whirlwind sprint, even if I wasn't doing this. I need that shout for when I'm overencumbered while walking between shops. Swanhilde is on the verge of going to Skaldafun, so it will be interesting to see if Miraak makes an appearance there.
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Miraak let her have both dragon souls at Skuldafun. So I've decided to call his bluff and just keep using them as I get them. For some reason this character isn't meeting a lot of dragons. She has twelve unlocked words.
 

Wildroses

Well-Known Member
Two more dragons killed, and Miraak took one of them. I tried to kill the dragon on one of those three little islands neark the Skaal village, but when I hit it with Dragonrend the spoilsport decided to fly six million miles in the opposite direction to land on the mainland and never came back. The one he took was on Skyrim in Eastmarch, and the one he let me have attacked while I was trying to kill the Lurker Vindicator and a bunch of Rieklings from cleansing the Water Stone, which had me chugging potions frantically.
 

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