Quote Originally Posted by JBHuskers View Post
Outside of an item boosting your speech, all I have found to improve speechcraft is mercantile stuff. I think I'm about 25.

I've only got 20 hours in so far. But I'm ready for some Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild.

In the story, I find it interesting that the Mages Guild is basically wiped out in Cyrodiil, and only Winterhold has mages in a concentrated study. I wonder if any of the DLC expands on the downfall of mages.
Yeah, pretty much the only way to increase speechcraft is via books, "bartering" with merchants, being able to lie/persuade people through dialog options, or going to a trainer (the Bards College in Solitude).

As for the mages and such, it is definitely interesting that they've been wiped out. There seems to be quite a bit of hate toward the mages in Skyrim and it seems like they are almost being blamed for the Oblivion Crisis, even though it was clearly the Mythic Dawn cult who caused all of that. Maybe they are connecting necromancers with the Mythic Dawn or something? I'm not sure, but there is definitely a lot of hate for mages in Skyrim.