10 Video Game Characters Who MASSIVELY Changed Before Release

Alduin, the main antagonist of Skyrim, is a god-like being who exists solely so that he can one day devour the world and end the existence of everything else.

The stakes of the main storyline are incredibly high, and given how your character is wrapped into a whole prophecy about stopping Alduin from filling his belly with delicious world-bits, you'd think this story was something Bethesda had cooked up for Skyrim since the beginning of the game's development.

However, in reality, the first draft of Skyrim had nothing to do with the end of the world. In fact, at this stage, Alduin wasn't even a dragon but another Dragonborn bent on conquering Tamriel.

The first iteration of Skyrim's primary antagonist was the long-lost Emperor from the Septim dynasty, Uriel V, who would have amassed an army of dragons while in exile in Akaviir and then set forth to Tamriel to reclaim his throne.

The main plot of Skyrim at this point didn't involve taking on a god but a simple feud between two powerful dragonborns. This idea was ultimately changed, but the developers seem to have reused parts of it in the Dragonborn DLC, with Miraak and his cult.

He's no legendary emperor, of course, but he still gets the job done.