While Bethesda has done a fine job developing the fiction of the continent of Tamriel, there's one important story missing from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — yours. And what good is a tale that goes untold? We want to know how you fit into the lore of Skyrim, and we're not above sharing it with a few thousand of our close friends.

It's fan fiction, but it's okay when it's Skyrim. We've all got stories to tell, whether it's just a few short sentences of character development to help flesh out your particular Dovahkiin or a lengthy bardic composition honoring a particular heroic span of your unique adventure. This is a game that develops differently for each player, so comparing experiences is the only way to fully appreciate all it has to offer.

So bring us your odes, your short-stories, your bawdy tavern tales and your adventure journals. Each day next week we'll be chosing one to be showcased on the front page of Kotaku for all the world to see.

I'll even go first.

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My life-long dream is finally within my grasp. I am going to join the Imperial Legion.

I didn't realize this was my life-long dream until a few days ago, when that lovely man helped me escape from Fort something-or-another when the bloody great dragon attacked.

I could tell he was fond of me the way he hesitated when the armored woman ordered me executed. The way he beckoned me forward, singling me out from the gathered criminals, the come-hither way his eyes scanned the prisoner manifesto, eager to know whatever he could about my name and appearance. "I'm Emily the Nord," I told him. Were my hands not bound by strong rope I would have flirtatiously run my fingers through my short-cropped raven hair.

Sparks flew, and not just the ones given off by the smoldering ruins left after the mighty lizard unleashed its fiery breath. He could have left me to die. Instead he cut my bonds and led me through a series of underground passages, killing any ne'er-do-wells that dare interrupted our time together. The closeness was almost more than I could bear.

Oh yes, and we killed a bear. And to think I almost missed this due to my dragon-halted beheading.

Once we reached the surface he led me to his village, introduced me to his father, and said the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

"You think about joining the Legion. We could use a strong arm like yours."

It was as if destiny tapped me on the shoulder and told me to pay attention.

"What?" I asked. He repeated himself with the mock annoyance that comes with familiarity.

Suddenly it all made sense; I *would* make an excellent legionnaire! I've always wanted to wear plate armor and swing a sword about in long, graceful arcs, and mother always said I had a real knack for oppression. I used to oppress anything I could get my hands on as a child; other children, house pets, furniture, dead leaves. "You've not been oppressed until you've felt the cold steel heel of Emily the Legionnaire!"

I could tell by the way he was staring at me that I had spoken out loud, and if that bewildered look was any indication, he liked it. So much so that he immediately gave me a recommendation for the commander of the Legion in Solitude and bundled me out the door of his home.

He also gave me an important message for a town called Whiterun, something about a dragon. I crumpled that up and tossed it away. How was I going to deliver a message to a town? "Hello, town. Here's your message." "Thanks Emily the Legionnaire, you should stop by and oppress me sometime!" As I chuckled to myself I realized the commander of the Imperial Legion in Solitude was staring at me, and that I'm not very good at chronological storytelling.

Driven by my newfound life-long dream I made a beeline for Solitude, stopping only to gather some colorful flowers, oppress a couple of wolves, explore a cave filled with disgusting undead creatures, and buy a fancy hat. The Imperial Legion loves fancy hats.

Oh yes, and I killed a dragon and earned the magical ability to shoot concentric circles from my mouth, so there's that.

"Are you listening?" the commander of the Imperial Legion asked.

"FUS!" I replied, grinning impishly as concentric circles sent papers flying everywhere.

"Yes, very nice," said the commander of the Imperial Legions at Solitude, who was probably named something very dashing, like Leoric.

"As I was saying," Probably-Leoric continued, "You cannot simply walk in here and demand to be made a legionnaire. We require our new recruits perform a service before being welcomed into the ranks. What we ask of you is...first, stop taking off your clothes."

Honest mistake.

"We ask that you travel northwest to Fort (I wasn't listening) on the coast. It's been overrun by bandits, and we wish to reclaim it. Do this for us, and your dream..."

"Life-long dream!"

"...your life-long dream will be realized."

That was all I needed to hear. I grabbed my axe, a handful of fire (never leave home without it), and my best oppression outfit and set off for Fort (it could be anything, really).

The northern coast of Skyrim is characterized by a large number of sheer cliffs that don't react well to being oppressed. The rocks at the bottom, however, take it like champs.

Four days into my hour-long journey I finally stood at the gate to Fort (it has something to do with snow or cold, I'm sure of it), cursing Probably-Leoric-But-Maybe-Sir-Darviathar (so cool) for not providing me with a map or splints. Maybe some of those climbing things, what are they called? Crampons.

"Crampons!" I shouted in response to the challenging war cry of the particularly menacing-looking brigand charging towards me wielding a giant hammer. The crackle of lighting arcing across the fingertips of his mage friend and the distinctive thwip of arrows being fired in my direction covered my volcabularic indiscretion, but there was just the hint of a smirk on the hammer holder's face that just would not do. No one smirks at a (prospective) member of the Imperial Legion!

It was oppression time. I stood up straight, swung my axe menacingly, and lit my hand on fire. "You..."

Did you know it is possible to get hit so hard with a two-handed hammer that everything slows down and goes all third-person? I wouldn't recommend trying it yourself, especially while wearing steel armor.

As I watched myself crumple to the ground I couldn't help but admire this tiny band of brigands, working together to take down an agent of the oppression. Like a well-oiled machine they reacted, filling my body with arrows, sparks jumping off the gleaming metal encasing my body, and the dull clank of the weighty weapon as it shattered my chest and my dreams of being a Legionnaire in one fell stroke. That these thieves...

Thieves! It's been my life-long dream to be a thief!

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And that, my friends, is why I stick to non-fiction. Think you can do better? I know you can. The comments section is yours.

The nifty Steam Game Stat tracker shows that about 210,000 people are currently playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. That's compared to the distant second place Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which hit a peak at 78,000 or so players today. [Thanks Kent]

Your Dovahkiin may be all sorts of bad-ass, but this video features the cutest Dragonborn of all. Thrill to this imaginary game's pixilated vistas! Gasp at the exciting downhill skiing sequences! Wish that someone makes this into something actually playable!

Skyrim Trailer - Retro Edition [YouTube]

Who needs fast travel when you've got sprinting, speed shouts, and the miracle of digital video speed manipulation to take you across the province of Skyrim in speedy style? Watch my Dragonborn run a cross-country marathon in The Elder Scrolls V.

This video captures the entire trip from the extreme northwest to the southeastern border of Skyrim, from the scattered islands to one mysteriously powerful gate. If you've not played the game yet and wish to avoid seeing too much, this video is the poster child for seeing too much. It is not your friend.

That having been said, who can guess how long the trip took without being artificially accelerated?

If you guessed roughly a half hour, then you owe yourself a nice pat on whatever part you prefer. Taking into account getting stuck behind a mountain and fiddling about with my map, I'd say it was nearly spot-on 30 minutes. It's a bit disorienting, seeing what feels like a massive living and breathing continent traversed in such a short time. The sprinting and occasional super-speed shouts might have had something to do with it.

And yes, I had to stop and ask for directions.

Just for fun I've also included the video without music, filled with the hilarious patter of hamster footsteps and the high-pitched squeak of dragon-shout.

If you want to get the best graphics out of your Xbox 360 play-through of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim you may want to hold off on installing it to your console's hard drive. At least for now, developer Bethesda says.

Early reports of graphic issues with the almost universally beloved role-playing game led the developer to look into the reports and post an update on their official forums:

"Skyrim uses a lot of dynamic streaming systems, including textures," according to the official forum post. "We've seen a few reports of certain textures temporarily scaling down on the Xbox 360, and not scaling back up. We have verified that this issue does not occur when playing off the disk and when the game is fully cached (not installed). Skyrim makes heavy use of the Xbox 360 caching system, and caches over the normal course of play while in menus or interiors. This cache can be wiped when other games are played or when the user manually removes it. We're working on a solution in the next title update for those who have installed the game. "

So while a fix is in the works, it sounds like the best temporary solution is to just not install the game on your console.

Texture Scaling on 360 [Bethesda Forums, thanks LikChan]

You've heard the buzz, read the reviews, and consulted the stars; all signs point to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim being the second coming of Oblivion, only bigger, better, and bolder than its beloved predecessor. And for the most part it is, but there are some definite flaws on this shiny dragon-clutched diamond.

Now keep in mind I'm not trying to rain on Bethesda's parade or minimize the accomplishment of Skyrim in any way. It's a game deserving of praise (which I'll get to eventually), and these five flaws, while annoying, for the most part don't affect the overall experience. This is just a small selection of agonizing issues that I need to get off my chest before I get back to my Dragonborn.

The Animation

One of the most criticized elements of the previous two entries in The Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda has certainly improved character animation a great deal for Skyrim, to the point where third-person play is a viable option, as long as you don't make any sudden moves or attempt to climb down the side of a mountain. In fact, unless you're running in a straight line or fighting (meaning too busy to notice), that old familiar jerkiness rears its ugly head. And forget about climbing; there are no animations for such actions, and simply walking down the side of a mountain half sunk into the rock doesn't do a lot for immersion.

Possible Solution: Let's motion capture some people! Call up Rockstar, see if they know anybody.

The Hair

My least favorite part of playing any open-world Bethesda game is selecting my hair. As demonstrated in my character creation video for Skyrim, this is not an area that Bethesda has shown gobs of improvement in with this latest title. It's getting better, and the higher-quality faces certainly help, but faced with the decision of wearing the hideous polygon hair and a skullcap textured to look like hair, the skullcap wins every time.

Of course you wind up with a helmet before too long. In fact, the Dovahkiin image that's been circulating since the early announcement days encourages players to wear a helmet, so Bethesda is likely aware of the issue.

Possible Solution: Lose the hair selector and just have everyone select a helmet at character creation, or require all prisoners' heads be shaved before transport and incarceration. Yes, even the kitty people.

Loading and Lag

One day there will be an Elder Scrolls game in which I don't have to sit through a loading screen every time I enter a building; I recognize that this is a matter of time and computing power and if I just wait for it it will eventually arrive. It always flummoxes me when I'm exploring a vast open world that stretches for miles in every direction, every inch explorable, yet to enter a thatched roof cottage we've got to kick things into high gear. More of an expectation than a real disappointment, at least Bethesda made some excellent interactive loading screens to help pass the time.

Lag, on the other hand, could probably be avoided. Playing through the Xbox 360 version my travels have been intermittently interrupted by brief pauses, during which I assume the next part of the world is trying to load behind-the-scenes, but fails. A brief pause now and then while travelling isn't incredibly bothersome, but coupled with the lag I've been experiencing opening up the game's nifty new cross menu — enough to make me worry the game might have locked up on me — then yes, I'm somewhat disappointed. The problem doesn't happen all the time — I suspect it's tied to caching — but it's there.

Possible Solution: The magical consoles of the future, pixel grease.

The Combat

Here lies my biggest Skyrim disappointment. I'm given a vast, gorgeous realm to explore, decked out in realistically designed armor and weapons, and pitted against lifelike creatures from mundane to horrific. What happens next should be the ringing of steel, the crumpling of armor under powerful blows; a deadly dance performed by the deadliest of foes. What actually happens is a great deal of flailing. One button controls the item or spell in your left hand, another handles the right. This works fine for spell casters, but for melee players? Not so much.

As advanced and gorgeous as Bethesda's game engine is, it's not a miracle worker. Building a truly satisfying first-person melee and magic battle system is a monumental task. If the game were purely a PC monster it would be one thing; a mouse does wonders for directional sword strikes.

Then again, both consoles playing host to Skyrim have devices capable of adding extra depth to combat. I can't fault Bethesda for not supporting technology that wasn't around when they started developing the game, but maybe next time?

Possible Solution: Skyrim Special Kinect Edition; Dragonborn Heroes on the Move

The Dragons

Massive. Threatening. The darkness spreading across Skyrim is the shadows cast by dragon wings. These vile creatures are at the very heart of the game's conflict, and provide the greatest challenge ever faced in the history of The Elder Scrolls.

Unless you hide behind a rock. They hate that. It confuses them so much that once they're done breathing fire they'll sit, bewildered, giving you the opening you need to attack.

Now I've only fought a handful of dragons in the game so far, but those I have faced were only impressive graphically. I should have been terrified for my life. I should have gotten the impression that I was facing insurmountable odds, but I do not. It's the nature of the beast, you see. Thanks to the combat system (see above) there really isn't any way to make a fight with a dragon as dynamic and entertaining as it should be. It reduces what could have been some truly epic encounters into rounds of 'Can I thwack it yet? Okay, I thwack it now.' Attacking the flying dragon with magic and arrows makes me feel as if I were fighting more dynamically, but really I'm just speeding up the process a little.

My lovely domestic partner put the whole dragon thing into perspective after watching me play for several hours. She observed that while fighting a dragon, I was calm and reserved. When facing off against the Snowy Saber Cat in the clip here, I screamed, ran, and nearly peed myself.

Possible Solution: The Elder Scrolls VI: Snowy Saber Catborn

Now before we start with the "Hey, he's hating on Skyrim! Burn him!", this isn't about hate. It's just a means of pointing out that as good as this game is, the next one could be even better. Can you imagine?