Skyrim is the fifth game in The Elder Scrolls series developed by Bethesda Game Studios, the same game development company that produced the Fallout Series. It is a role-playing adventure game that revolves around completely nonlinear game play. This means that the player is not forced to complete missions in the main quest. They are free to roam the landscape and explore towns, cities, dungeons and complete any side quest they are given by non-player characters (NPCs). There are many NPCs in the game and they serve a wide variety of purposes.









Some of them can be convinced to become a companion of the player and join them in combat, and others can be romanced and eventually married. The player may also choose to join a faction, which is essentially an organized group of individuals who have a common goal or purpose. The Dark Brotherhood is one of several factions in the game and they serve as assassins for hire. Each faction has a unique set of side quests for the player to complete, but it is very difficult to be part of more than one faction at a time so the game may have to be played multiple times to experience all it has to offer.
Skyrim is not considered a sequel to Oblivion because its storyline takes place exactly 200 years after the ending of Oblivion. At the beginning of the game, you learn that the King of Skyrim has been assassinated and that a civil war has broken out between the Nords in Skyrim. One side of the conflict wants the realm of Skyrim to leave the crumbling Empire and become their own nation, while the others want to stay part of the Empire and think it is worth fighting for. Similar to the previous games, Skyrim starts with the main character as a prisoner who is scheduled to be executed. After escaping, the player soon learns that the civil war is part of an ancient prophecy that says that it signals the return of Alduin, the Nordic god of destruction. Alduin is a massive dragon that will destroy all of Skyrim, according to the prophecy. They also learn that they are the last of Dovahkiin or Dragonborn, a person appointed by the gods to be a dragon hunter. They are responsible for protecting Skyrim and Tamriel from Alduin and his servants the Jills, a group of powerful black dragons.