It had taken him too long to decide upon his path.

For months the Dovahkiin had been trapped in the middle of a feud between the Greybeards and the Blades. Ever since he had wound up in that room below the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood, he had been torn in two opposing directions.

On one hand he had the Greybeards, who told him that peace and meditation was the means towards enlightenment and finding his destiny. On the other he had the Blades, who asked him to fight with them to stop the return of the dragons through combat and bloodshed.

For many people, the violent methods of the Blades would seem like an obvious path to avoid, but he knew what was at stake. The meaning of Alduin's wall was all too clear to him. If he didn't face Alduin, no one would, and meditating on the top of a mountain wouldn't bring him any closer to defeating his foe.

But he needed the Greybeard's help. They had power, though they didn't often use it. If they could whisper a word and kill a man with it, what could he do if he mastered their power? He had often asked them to share their knowledge, to teach him the secrets that he knew they held, but they would only refuse each time he asked.

He was forced to look elsewhere for the power he needed, that's what led him to the College Mages. There he learned of the Dragon Priest's, and the power magic they wielded. Some of these priests became so powerful that their dragon masters took special notice of them, and gifted them with mysterious artifacts. To wield such power as to warrant attention from the dragons... surely they must have had immensely powerful abilities.

That was when he decided on his own path. He would not walk the way of the warmonger nor the monk, but rather the path of the Dragonpriest. He would learn their secrets, and use them in a way that could only be called ironic, to wipe their masters from the face of Nirn. He would study their magic, he would learn their secrets, and when he was ready...

He would shout them down with the force of a god.