 Skyrim 's main story revolves around the player character and their effort to defeat Alduin the World @-@ Eater , a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world . The game is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion and takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim . Over the course of the game , the player completes quests and develops the character by improving skills . Skyrim continues the open world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time , and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely . 
