Riften, Windhelm, and the Coast: Imperial vs Stormcloak, Again

I kind of want to marry Brynjolf and his accent.

I've always had trouble with Riften. As Keah, I entered the city maybe a handful of times. But as Ella, I need to set up a different base of operations than my homes in Markarth, Whiterun, and Hjaalmarch. This means I need to be south or east, and Riften would so neatly provide a home for me.

In Eastmarch, there is unique fauna-- Creeping Clusters, Dragon Tongues instead of Mountain Flowers, more fish in the hot springs and along the coast. There are plenty of ruins around to provide Bone Meal, and vampires are around enough so that I have a constant source of Vampire Dust. South, in The Rift, Riften is a direct line to the Dawnguard, thief, and assassin quest lines. Windhelm, which is barely a couple hours travel, is the route to Soltsheim, and the mage's guild is just a bit further north. In this northern area, there are sabertooths instead of wolves, which provide alchemical ingredients instead of yet more hides.

Ending up having to jaunt up the coast within view of Windhelm.

But still, I find Riften and Windhelm both problematic. Both are full of deceit, prejudice, and poverty. Riften is an example of these qualities in Imperials; Windhelm shows these qualities in Stormcloaks.

Riften has both the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. The city is so poor that I picked up two quest lines on walking into the city to simply provide merchants with ingredients-- Fire Salts for Balimund's forge and Ice Wraith's Teeth for Marise Araval to help her keep her meat cold. Mjoll and Aerin try their best to keep the hatred to a minimum, but the people are frankly uninterested, and the fact that Mara's temple is here is a slap in the face of all of the citizens. They hate that priests and the presence of the Goddess of Love, when what they have to do to survive is make deals, bribe the thieves' guild, and bully others so that they can avoid being bullied: the first thieves guild quest is to steal a ring from the merchant Madesi so that Brand-Shei can be framed for it. The excuse given is that Brand-Shei needs to learn to keep his nose out of others' business. Whose business? Madesi's? The guild's? And Brand-Shei is nice. He's a Dark Elf who was raised by Argonians and wants to find out more clues to his past, even though he likes his Argonian brethren. The Jarl is mostly uninterested and her business is run by her steward. Maven Black Briar virtually owns the city.

Anyway, I had to finish up Brand-Shei's quest before I could head back into Riften, so I ended up bouncing between Riften and Windhelm for a while, killing Grelod and finding various things. After a quick jaunt to Loreius Farm, to meet Cicero before moving on with the Dark Brotherhood quest line, I ended up moving up to get the White Phial quest started for the alchemist in Windhelm and stopping at the Shrine of Azura on my way.

Along the coast from Riften to Winterhold are veins of iron and corundum. I also ended up clearing Mount Anthor, which got me the word Iiz for Ice Form. Up in the moutains around Winterhold are numerous cold-weather only beasts, like Ice Wraiths and Snowy Sabre Cats and Ice Wolves..

The Forsaken Cave and Crypt, where the White Phial are located, had another Wall, Aus, for the Marked for Death shout. I headed back to Windhelm to fork over the White Phial and made my way back down to Riften. Outside of town, I accepted a quest to get a Moon Amulet for Kharjo of one of the Khajiit caravans. I decided to sleep for an hour in the inn to kill time until I could meet with Brynjolf. I was promptly abducted by Astrid of the Dark Brotherhood. I expected this, but did not expect to be taken all the way from the Rift to Hjaalmarch! Regardless, I stopped in at Morthal while I was there to report to Idgrod, receiving the title and weapon of the Thane. I ended up cleaning up Eldersblood Peak (netting the word Haal of the Disarm shout) while I was nearby. The dragon here appears to eat Snow Trolls, so I bet there are some about somewhere nearby.

After ALL OF THIS I was finally able to go to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, where there was-- yes-- another word for the Marked for Death shout, Lun.

All in gold. Also, had to enter the Palace of Kings in Windhelm. Spent several minutes yelling at the screen/Ulfric.