In My Time of Need, Saadia is lying Options

[Destri Melarg]

I haven’t seen this debated here before, so please allow me to get the ball rolling. Here are a few reasons why I believe that Saadia is a liar:


First, let’s ignore the fact that when you blow her cover her first instinct is to draw you into a private area and pull a knife on you. That could have been the case even if she was telling the truth.

Saadia claims that she is being hunted by Kematu’s band of mercenaries for speaking out against the Aldmeri Dominion. We must ask ourselves when exactly did this ‘speaking out’ occur? The events in Skyrim take place a full twenty years after the signing of the Second Treaty of Stros M’Kai. If we are to assume that she has not been hiding at the Bannered Mare for the last twenty years, then she made her comments against the Dominion after the elves had already left Hammerfell. There would be no reason for her to have to flee in fear of a Thalmor reprisal.

On the other hand, let’s assume that she spoke out during the heat of the Great War when parts of southern Hammerfell were occupied by Thalmor forces and therefore dangerous to any with the courage to speak. Why then didn’t she simply return to the protection of her noble family after the Treaty was signed? Once the elves were gone Hammerfell would have been the safest place in Tamriel for her, yet she chose to remain in hiding for a full twenty years after the elves had left her homeland. Why?

Saadia claims that Kematu and his men are mercenaries hired by the Aldmeri Dominion to silence her. Let’s take a look at that, shall we? The Thalmor rose to prominence in the aftermath of the Oblivion Crisis. In their nearly two hundred year history we have ample evidence of the lengths to which they will go to silence a dissident:

Rynandor the Bold was exiled by the Thalmor shortly after the Oblivion Crisis because he was critical of Thalmor claims that they were responsible for repelling the daedra. He then met with a violent end at Thalmor hands shortly after his departure. Lathenil of Sunhold was assassinated soon after bankrupting himself to see that copies of his book, Rising Threat, were distributed throughout the Empire. And Hadrik Oaken-Shield's journal details his dealings with the Thalmor . It is not contracted mercenaries he fears, it is Thalmor Justiciars.

Thalmor xenophobia would not allow them to trust the job of eliminating an enemy to one of the ‘lesser races.‘ It is highly unlikely that they would pay the expense of sustaining a band of Redguard mercenaries to search for a single Redguard woman throughout the holds of Skyrim. Especially when you consider that their own agents are already in place and, unlike Kematu’s group who can’t even get inside Whiterun, they are able to move (and even make arrests) with impunity. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that any Redguard, no matter how far he has fallen, would enter into a contract with the race that virtually obliterated most of southern Hammerfell.

Are we all so conditioned to jump to the aid of this 'damsel in distress' that we are willing to swallow any c0ck-and-bull story that she throws our way? Or are we suspiciousl of Kematu because he has chosen to camp at a place called Swindler's Den?

This post has been edited by Destri Melarg: Feb 6 2013, 10:24 AM