One thing that happened in my session is this: I somehow missed the coronation ceremony at Wyrm's Fortress and went ahead to the lower city. Did a bunch of things, found the submarine, and encountered Gortash who was rather miffed. Retreated, did hours of companion quests, learned that funneling huge groups of enemies into narrow passages makes the combat a breeze (murder tribunal, house of grief, fucking Cazzador). Then I went to the ceremony and after leaving, all of Wyrm's Fortress wants to cook my bacon, Gortash is even more miffed, but nobody bothers me in the lower city. Go figure ...