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When you first meet Esbern during A Cornered Rat as part of the main quest, sometimes his voice will be missing and/or he doesn't answer the door.

- "Skyrim: Esbern - Bugs" article, UESP wiki
I saw some solutions:

  1. Download plugin - but it's only in English and I don't want to mix two languages, because it will ruin the game atmosphere for me.
  2. Use OBMM and repack Data files. But I haven't got Oblivion (and enough space to install it) and no instructions to install it without the game.

Is there are another solution to fix this issue?

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Anyone know if this issue still exists with the current latest version of Skyrim (v 1.9)? –  galacticninja Mar 31 at 4:01
@galacticninja, as I know it was fixed with early patches. So it should work fine with latest version. –  Dracontis Mar 31 at 21:12
I played yesterday in 1.9, in russian localization, Esbern is missing his voice and fails to open his door. –  Ivan Solntsev Apr 23 at 8:45

3 Answers 3

up vote 7 down vote accepted

This should work:

  1. Download BSAUnpack

  2. Launch it, and find the directory of the game.

  3. Go to Data, and select the file called "Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa" If you use Steam, it'll be in:

     C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps
  4. Then, under Common (or the folder corresponding to your Steam name), press Extract all into the data directory (the same directory where the voiceextra file lies)

There will now be an extra directory in the data folder:



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go to my documents, my games, skyrim, open skyrim.ini

on the most bottom, add this line: [Archive]>>>press enter to next line<<< sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

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Well, as I heard this thing is already patched with official patches. –  Dracontis Jan 31 '12 at 18:07

Easier Fix. Tested and confirmed 4/17/2010. Among the Re-entering rooms for the free roam speech. When you get to Season Unending. When esbert gets up to speak and stops moving becoming unresponsive to other council members save the game. Right after, load the same save....Remember to save over the last save otherwise it will not work....This may take a few attempts but it will force an action from esbern and after 5 times or so give or take your current system it will get you through the chain without any downloads.

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This way works, but it will ruin storyline. –  Dracontis Apr 17 '12 at 7:42

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