Skyrim player finds happy alternate ending for Paarthurnax, no mods needed

No matter what the RPG franchise, Bethesda knows how to make memorable NPCs for better or worse and The Elder Scrolls is no exception.

Every fan of The Elder Scrolls has that one NPC that they’ll remember forever, even though they’d love nothing more than to kick them off the edge of a cliff like the Adoring Fan from beloved 2008 classic, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

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When The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released in 2011 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Skyrim became Bethesda’s biggest RPG at the time with an even larger map of Tamriel to explore than its predecessor with countless quests and dungeons to uncover, interesting characters, and much more. To this day, players are still discovering new secrets in Skyrim over a decade since its initial release.

One of the most memorable NPC characters of Skyrim is one of legendary proportions - the great dragon known as Paarthurnax, leader of the Greybeards who served as lieutenant to Alduin during the great Dragon War. Now before we proceed, we are about to venture into spoiler territory for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, so you have been warned.

Towards the end of the story players are presented with a choice: kill Paarthurnax for his crimes, or let him live. Annoyingly, letting him live doesn't close out the quest, implying the only way to complete said quest is to kill the dragon. Which, you know, isn't much of a choice.

Thankfully, a kind Skyrim fan known as CelticDragon0 has found a way for Paarthurnax to survive offering an alternative ending and you don't even need mods, as explained on The Elder Scrolls Fandom website. There's quite a lengthy to do list, and the general gist is that you need to talk to certain people in a very specific order before putting in a string of console commands. It's a fair bit of work, and not the most exciting solution, but if you want to try it the steps are outlines in the link above.