Having reached Markarth, I spend a while wandering around and marveling at the ruins. I remembered it being an impressive city, but I'd forgotten that it's completely built inside and around intact Dwemer Ruins. It's the most vertical of all the cities, with steep winding stairs and towering rocky outcrops, and I think I'd probably have to say it's the most impressive overall.
I mean, this is the approach to the Jarl's chamber. It kind of has to be granted the title of Most Impressive City. Look at it!
The city also showcases Bethesda's amazing talent for 'blocking' to increase the sense of scale and distance. A large rock dominates the centre of the city, with the Temple of Dibella and impressive Guard Tower on top. This restricts your view and makes it so that when you're on one side of the city, it's quite a long way to get round to the other side of the rock, and the view is then completely different. The developers have clearly used this technique in the map at large, with hills and mountains preventing you from gazing out across the entire map, and making certain areas feel a lot more remote than they actually are.
I approach the Jarl but he doesn't have any kind of of dragon-related errand for me. I spend some time jumping around on the rocks and stairways of Markarth, picking up a few quests but declining to start any of them. I decide to investigate one of the 'dragon lairs' (there's one near the Shrine of Peryite) marked by a dragon symbol on the map. I've been to them before to discover Word Walls, but that was before I started the main quest. Perhaps a dragon will be there now that I've begun it? Fortunately, my inclination turns out to be correct, and I slay a Frost Dragon there, enabling me to unlock the last word of the Bend Will shout.
I'm therefore able to return to Solstheim and read the Waking Dreams black book (it doesn't work if you try to read it whilst on the mainland).
Miraak is waiting for me high upon his tower at the Summit of Apocrypha.
The journey to the Summit involves several 'chapters' and quite a satisfying trek, with Seekers, a Lurker, and a puzzle to solve. On my way, I'm assailed by the deformed-looking dragon which I previously saw by Miraak's side. I'm able to tame it using the Bend Will shout, and it flies me up to the Summit:
Miraak is there along with two other dragons, and so begins an aerial battle. Although it looks awesome, the controls are extremely difficult and not intuitive at all, and I keep dying to savage onslaughts from both Miraak and the other two dragons, with seemingly no hope of success. After a few tries, I manage to simply persuade my dragon to land on the ground near Miraak, which allows me to dismount, and I start summoning Dremora Lords (by this point I'm fortunately able to summon three).
The Spellshield protects me from Miraaks magical attacks and the dragon-breath from the other two dragons, and although Miraak puts up a ferocious resistance, the battle ends with him surrounded by my Dremora and mercilessly cut down. On the brink of death, he repeatedly resurrects himself by consuming the soul of one of his dragons, only to be cut down again in short order. Once all of the dragons are dead, he seemingly reaches some kind of apotheosis (?), but Hermaeus Mora intervenes and impales him on a tentacle, ending his reign as Mora's Champion:
He accepts his end stoically, and Mora has a new champion. So, the main Solstheim quest is over! It's taken 6 hours all told, although a couple of them were dragged out by my errors or stupidity and I probably could have done it in 4 or 5. It did seem a tad short, but the three 'main' dungeons - the Temple of Miraak, the sunken ruins of Nchardak, and the final journey through Apocrypha - were quite enjoyable and relatively meaty endeavours. I think to feel truly epic there would have needed to be another 2 - 3 hours of main quests.
In terms of the storyline, as with most Skyrim stuff it's a curate's egg. The relative simplicity and straightforwardness of the plot is made up for by the lore and the world in which it's set. The story of Miraak attempting to return to Mundus from the realm of Oblivion, for reasons not particularly fleshed out (that I could establish anyway), only to be supplanted by the new Dragonborn, isn't particularly interesting in and of itself, but the epic 'feel' of the story of Dragon Priests, infernal pacts with a Daedric Prince, and forbidden knowledge gleaned in order to breach the veil between Oblivion and Mundus, is satisfying.
On reading some of the backstory for Miraak, he does seem quite hard done by. Certainly Hermaeus Mora has chosen pretty badly by forsaking him in favour of Tharon-Zul, who henceforth can and shall in no way act as his champion and in fact will simply return to Skyrim and in all likelihood never think of Mora again - especially if that butler doesn't return with his loot.
In a way this does make it feel kind of cheap - a bit like how you can become the Arch-mage of Winterhold but important mage characters say things like "I had you figured for a mage" and "That spell looks dangerous, keep it away from me" without ever acknowledging your rank. As I'm ostensibly Mora's champion now, surely there should be some repercussions for me never actively doing anything for him from this point onwards. Obviously such game-altering developments are beyond the scope of the game, but that's kind of the point - the game makes a rod for its own back by allowing the player to become the leader of everything and the champion of everyone.
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