Markarth Guards seem to be broken and I can't get out of the hold to let the place reset

It all started with me accidentally shouting at a guard. I'm only level 4, so it didn't even make a crack in his health bar. But now, no matter what I do, they just kill me. I've mostly just been trying to leave the town with healing but they're just as fast as I am and they destroy me.

I'm an imperial, but my voice of the emperor doesn't seem to be working. Granted, I'm not exactly sure how to use it.

Also, fast travel won't work because I'm surrounded by enemies.

I tried reverting to a previous save but the safest one I have is way back at Alvor and Sigrid's house when I was level 1 and still had to retrieve the Dragonstone.

Killing all the guards is out of the question, as well. Lydia's already dead to them so I'm on my own and definitely not strong enough to kill them all.

How do I get out of this??

EDIT: I was able to figure out how to use my Voice of the Emperor. My bounty wasn't too high and it's all good, now. :)


You may want to consider Yielding (emphasis mine):

Yielding is a way of ending a fight started by accident. If your opponent shows a high disposition toward your character, you can ask him to stop fighting by holding the block key and activating the NPC, as if you wanted to talk to him. (In Skyrim, this was changed to just sheathing your weapon and seeing if the person will accept it.)

Yielding will usually work on NPCs, but not against monsters (so you should be able to yield to the Markarth guards).

After you yield, you can choose to pay the fine for whatever crime you've committed, go to jail (from which you can often escape), or continue to resist arrest.

Your Voice of the Emperor power should work as well:

Voice of the Emperor is a Greater Power possessed by all Imperials, which allows them once a day to cast a powerful Pacify effect on all NPC targets within a 75 ft radius.

Note that its radius is limited to 75 feet, so try to have as many of the guards as close to you as possible before you use it.


In theory, by constantly attempting a yield (lowering your weapon in combat with guards) eventually they should agree and let you live. If the guards behaviour doesn't change because you died, try saving before you enter combat and simply reload the save over and over until they accept. Make sure to damage a guard if they don't accept the yield, this "reload method" seems to work on shopkeepers just fine, maybe it works similarly on guards. What I suggest you do is you sheath your weapon near the guards, if they accept yield you either pay off the bounty or choose to go to jail, and if they reject you pull your weapon back out, strike at them and reload the save until they accept the yield. Hope this helped.