Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-15888551-20130830024027/@comment-81.157.168.179-20160816013812

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding Paarthurnax and the Dragon Born, which is surprising given this wiki explains them prety well.

Whatever the dragons were doing to mortals in the past under Alduin was so bad that Paarthurnax decided it had to stop so sided with the mortals. He helped teach the mortals how to use the thrum (dragon shouts) which was the only way they were able to turn the tide on Alduin and his forces. He isolated himself on top of the mountain and started the greybeards to help control his inherit lust for power so as not to harm mortals. Although he likely was responsible for killing countless mortals under Alduin rule he is also responsible for saving over 4 eras worth of mortals from such fates.

The Dragon Born, as the name suggests, is a dragon. The only difference is a mortal body and their power originates from a different diety. The dragon born also suffers the same sort of problems as dragons such as Paarthurnax, an insatiable lust for power. This can be seen by all the stuff you end up doing throughout the game, often comming at the expense of killing mortals. This alone is why you should side with the greybeards and not listen to anything the Blades tell you to do as they basically want you to become the new Alduin. Why they do not let you physically transform into a dragon temporarilly (instead of just riding one) I do not know, however I am guessing its because the dragon mechanics are clunky and terrible so would not translate as well to user control as werewolf does.

Killing Paarthurnax for things he did would mean that someone should kill the dragon born for what he/she has done. After all they end up killing hundreds of bandits, rebles, soldiers and necromancers and some times using their souls to enhance their gear.