Alduin's Bane

Alduin is banished in time by an Elder Scroll.

**Alduin's Bane** is a quest available in *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*. After retrieving the Elder Scroll, Empress Marcella Varian will need to go to the Time Wound at the summit of the Throat of the World and, with the help of an Elder Scroll, learn the Dragonrend shout from those who created it, so that it may be used to finally defeat Alduin once and for all.

## Background

"I've located the Elder Scroll that was used to cast Alduin forward into our time by the Nord heroes of old. If Paarthurnax is right, if I read it near the Time-Wound I will get a vision of the past, when the ancient Nords used the Dragonrend Shout against Alduin."

## Objectives

1. Read the Elder Scroll at the Time-Wound
2. Learn the "Dragonrend" Shout from the Nord heroes
3. Defeat Alduin

## Walkthrough

*"Hold, Alduin on the Wing! Sister Hawk, grant us your sacred breath to make this contract heard! Begone, World-Eater! By words with older bones than your own we break your perch on this age and send you out! You are banished! Alduin, we shout you out from all our endings unto the last! You are banished!"*
―Felldir the Old[src]
By completing the quest "Elder Knowledge," Marcella has obtained an Elder Scroll. Marcella will need to return to Paarthurnax atop the Throat of the World and read the scroll at the Time Wound. When the Elder Scroll is read, a cinematic scene will begin. Marcella will see an image of three Nordic heroes: Gormlaith Golden-Hilt, Hakon One-Eye, and Felldir the Old, as they are battling several of Alduin's brethren as the area around the Throat of the World is littered with the dead bodies of both dragons and Nords. Marcella will then learn all three words of the Dragonrend shout, which will be used to defeat Alduin in a battle afterward, before watching as Alduin slays Gomlaith, forcing Hakon to keep him distracted while Felldir uses the Elder Scroll to banish Alduin into time. Once Marcella comes out of the vision, Alduin will attack them and Paarthurnax. Dragonrend is used on Alduin to make him land on the ground, where Marcella can then begin to damage him. After Alduin is defeated, he will fly off and escape to Sovngarde, taunting Marcella that this defeat does not count and they will meet again.

## Journal

 220 | *I read the Elder Scroll near the Time-Wound, and learned the Dragonrend Shout in a vision of the Nord heroes fighting Alduin in the distant past. When I returned from the vision, Alduin attacked me, and I used Dragonrend to bring him down and defeat him.** Quest complete

## Trivia

* The cinematic part in this quest when the Elder Scroll is read at the Throat of the World is the only visual representation of the Dragon War, besides the books that can be read in the game.
* When Alduin kills Gormlaith, her Ancient Nord Sword falls into the snow nearby. After Marcella returns to the present, it can be found where it fell despite not being there before they read the Elder Scroll.
* Depending on difficulty, Alduin has roughly 25–100% resistance to both frost and fire magic and only physical and shock damage will harm him.
* Like all dragons, Alduin's breath attack relies on his magicka pool. A barrage of shock spells can potentially deplete his reserves to a point where he is only able to do physical attacks.
* Alduin can be prevented from shouting the meteor storm by using Dragonrend as soon as he is seen.
* Alduin is completely invulnerable to all damage while in the air and, thus, can only be harmed while he is under the effect of Dragonrend.
* The Elder Scroll will remain a quest item after the completion of the quest, but will also remain weightless. The only way to remove it is to sell it to Urag gro-Shub at the College of Winterhold or with console commands: `player.drop 0002d513 1` or `player.removeitem 0002d513 1` (replace `002d513` with `xx0126dc` if *Dawnguard* is installed).

## Bugs

1. *Please **reload an old save** to confirm if the bug is still happening.*
2. *If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.*
3. *Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.*

	+ 360   If Dragonrend is used before Paarthurnax says to use it Alduin may be affected by Dragonrend but not land, and the Shout will become ineffective against him.
	+ A known method of fixing this is by reloading an earlier save from before using the Elder Scroll in the Time Wound. Also, leaving the location and fast traveling back to it fixes this. And if Marcella dies as Alduin is defeated it is possible that the fix will have to be repeated.
	+ Another method is to travel to High Hrothgar, enter and exit the building, and run back up to the mountain to resume the fight.
* If any menu is opened before Paarthurnuax says "use Dragonrend if you know it!" the game may crash.
* PC   360   PS3   The music for the cutscene may not seem to play. On a PC use CTRL+TAB to switch windows minimizing the Skyrim window, switch back to it and the music will sometimes start; however it will start at the beginning and often carry over into the battle with Alduin after the cutscene.
* During the cutscene the heroes will stare at Marcella when not interacting with other characters. This should not happen as Marcella is having a vision and not truly there.
* 360   During the vision, Hakon may slide under Alduin and make both of them fight on Felldir's left.
* 360   Sometimes when attempting to kill Alduin, all attacks (fire and tail/wing) will kill Marcella instantly no matter what their armor or skills. This will continue until the console is turned off and the last save before reading the Elder Scroll is reloaded.
* PC   360   The cutscene can freeze, leaving Marcella stuck staring at the three heroes, only pause works causing a reload.
* 360   When the fight with Alduin is begun, there may be no combat music. To correct this, reload the autosave made immediately after the cutscene.
* PS3   When Dragonrend is cast on Paarthurnax, while he is fire breathing on Alduin, it is possible that the sound of fire breathing will not stop. This can be fixed by fast traveling away and back.
* PS3   Felldir may be killed by Alduin in the cutscene in the past before he opens the Elder Scroll, causing Marcella to be stuck watching an endless battle between the sword hero and Alduin where they keep hitting each other but do no damage. The flashback never ends and a savegame prior to opening the scroll must be loaded to try again.
	+ PC(Fix)   Use console command `setstage MQ206 32` to go on with cutscene.
* PC   360   PS3   It is possible that Alduin will not appear after Gormlaith Golden-Hilt's warning. This causes the three Nord heroes stuck looking at the sky.
	+ PC(Fix)   To fix this, open the console and type: `​setstage mq206 70`. This will teach the Dragonrend shout, which is needed to defeat Alduin.
	+ PC(Fix)   Then, to get out of the cinematic type: `setstage mq206 100`
	+ Alternatively, fast travel to another location and attempt to read the scroll. After this wait for 24 hours and the quest should work as intended.
* PC   Killing Alduin too fast may glitch the quest and leave it unable to be completed. Waiting until he summons fireballs from the sky usually solves the problem.
* 360   When Hakon One-Eye is using his power attacks with his ancient Nord battleaxe, he seems to hold two weapons instead of one; the left hand has no visible weapon though.
* PS3   During the fight with Alduin, Paarthurnax may become an "enemy." It will not be possible to end the battle without killing Paarthurnax. This affects future quests as the quest marker sits on the bones of Paarthurnax (Though Esbern may provide the information required to complete the next quest.) The Blades will not give the Paarthurnax quest and Arngeir will not recognize that Paarthurnax has been slain. There does not appear to be a fix for this—restart from an earlier save.
* PC   During Alduin's Bane, when Alduin eats Gormlaith Golden-Hilt, Alduin can hit and instantly kill Felldir the Old by accident resulting in an unfinished quest.
* PC   During the cutscene, after the three Nord heroes used Dragonrend to cripple Alduin, he may become invulnerable, causing the three heroes to keep hitting him and the event in which Gormlaith is killed never happens, resulting in an endless battle.
	+ PC(Fix)   To get out of this cutscene and finish the quest, open the console and type: `setstage mq206 100`
	+ Upon exiting the cutscene, an additional Alduin may appear standing on the ground, in addition to the actual Alduin that needs to be defeated. He is invulnerable. After defeating the actual Alduin, fast travel to any other place, and return to the Throat of the World, the bugged Alduin should be gone.
	+ Alternatively, if the fast travel might not be available due to there being enemy nearby, the second Alduin may be disabled by `prid 0004377E` and `disable` console commands.
* 360   Repeated use of poison against Alduin may cause the game to freeze. Loading from a save made after the use of poison can also cause the game to freeze.
* PC   A rare bug makes Marcella completely invisible. Can be fixed by reloading an earlier save.
* 360   It is possible that Alduin will take no damage. This is caused by attacking Alduin before the talking is over.
* PS3   If Marcella is equipped with Blades weapons and armor, Aldiun may not do any damage, even if he is taken down to the ground with Dragonend.
	+ 360(Fix)   Exit the game and go to console settings/memory. Once there press "y" and reset the system cache. This may have to be done several times because it can happen again the same way.
	+ Another way to fix this is to run away from the fight and to come back after a few in-game days. Alduin will take damage as normal.
* 360   Followers may die as soon as Alduin starts speaking after exiting the Time Wound.
	+ 360(Fix)   Reloading the save should fix this bug.
* 360   Upon exiting the Time Wound, followers can have their equipment "reset," meaning that whatever armor or clothes that they were given and were currently wearing are lost. This can mean the loss of unique armor, so armor given to followers should be taken from them before entering the Time Wound. Weapons seem not to be affected by this bug.
* 360   Dead Thralls can die when reading the Elder Scroll at the Time Wound. If they are level 40 or below, they can still be raised after exiting the Time Wound, but if Marcella is past level 40 and that Thrall had a higher level cap, it cannot be raised again.
* PC   If Dragonrend is used on Alduin after the battle, it may cause Paarthunaax to keep flying about. This causes his voice to be too distant to be audible.
* PC   After viewing the cutscene in which the Elder Scroll is used on Alduin, Alduin may become invulnerable to any attack performed on him, excluding the Dragonrend Shout.
* During the fight between the Nord heroes and Alduin, Alduin might get pushed toward the Word Wall when he steps over the corpse of the dead dragon nearby. This causes Alduin to be stuck facing the wall and trying to turn around. However he will still be banished as usual.

## Appearances

* *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*

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