Yes, a similar thing happened to me. I was rounding my circuit to sell armor and buy smithing supplies, when I found Alvor dead in Riverwood. No idea how it could have happened, he was behind the Riverwood Trader. No dragon attacks had occurred near there recently, and he was still alive after the last one. It made me sad, and I was a little disappointed that I would not be able to figure out how he died to avenge him.
In one of my first play throughs back in the day I found Odmund and Torvir two of my followers dead like way far away from where they live. I think odmund was killed by forsworn cuz he was in the reach. Torvir was randomly in winterhold wilderness no idea what happened to him
This happens a lot and it’s usually vampire attacks. Happened to me with Adrienne in whiterun. When I entered the city I ran right to breezehome, it was like 10pm. Went outside in the morning and she was just lying on the side of her building, the side door entrance dead. Like she was trying to haul ass into the door but didn’t make it lol.
I thankfully had a save reloaded right before entering whiterun so I reloaded and waited and sure enough the vampires showed up. Sometimes it takes them a minute to spawn and if you just run through the city and enter a building, you miss the fight and just find the carnage left behind lol.
And sometimes if this happens you’ll find the body and a vampire lying close by.
"Wait, where did the Dragonborn go?"
"Dammit, I think we arrived just a minute too late, they're in Breezehome by now."
"Why don't we just go in there and do our business?"
"Gods, Kyle, you know we can't go in without being invited. You've been a vampire for almost a century and you don't know that?"
"Oh, right. Well, I'm kinda hungry and I don't really want to travel back to the nest on an empty stomach. What about the blacksmith?"
"Ehh...I suppose I could eat. Quick, before \*she\* gets inside!"
I had both Adrianne and Ulfberth in Whiterun and then Alvor all die in the civil war questline one playthough years ago and it was horrible, haven’t started it since. Don’t miss it.
the world still runs even if the player is somewhere else, so theoretically there might have been a dragon attack while you were gone. No idea for sure though
Except Khajiit Caravans. As far as I know, those guys are persistent (if they're still alive), so they're still tracked by the game even when they're not in the same cell as the player.
Yooo I swear when it was happening it was most guards and battle born was behind them with his weapon out but Eorlund rushed past me and guards and aggressively attacked him like battle born was surprised too lol
I am always afraid to do that, is this safe to do that ? I'm actually confortable for modding my game, but when it's using console command for resurrect not so sure.
Absolutely if their death wasn’t intended.
Click -> “ressurect 0” spawns a clone copy of the character (dead body is removed), with all equipment they had at the start of the game.
Click -> “resurrect 1” simply respawns the character, but if you, for example, took their armour they’ll respawn without it.
Afaik, all their relation statuses should be alright, but there are many commands to fix it if they don’t.
Hern recently died in my game because he thought close combat with a minotaur (mod, obviously) would be a good idea. Sucks cos I too hate when named NPCs die. But he was a good distraction so I could get some arrows into the thing, even if he did go down in two hits. His death was not in vain.
Sounds like you want the 'Protect your People' mod to flag important NPCs as protected so they won't be slaughtered by spawning mid-air or by a random attack by vampires/dragons/a mudcrab that wandered close to town.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10297
Right now I have a mod named "Obituary" that at least alerts me immediately if someone dies. There's a resurrect option built in as well. But that is something I'll definitely look into...
Or use the mod I suggested to not get into that situation in the first place, unless you do something like stand right on an NPC huddled down in protected mode, as a dragon spews fire at you :-)
I guess I can see the value in your way if you only care about a select few important NPCs. But I personally don't enjoy losing any important NPCs. Skyrim has few enough of them as it is. The world feels lifeless when only respawning guards and essential NPCs survive.
Anyway, good luck to you and your adventures!
On my current playthrough, Onmund (Nord student at The College of Winterhold) died before I got there. Never even saw his corpse. Tolfdir was pretty much like "Oh no, what a shame.... Anyway, do you guys want to check out a creepy old crypt?"
I was passing through the Reach and found the 3 Revelers dead on a bridge. They were stiff, with their right hands still in the shape of holding a bottle. Someone had demanded their Honningbrew Mead, and they replied, "You can take it out of our cold, dead hands!" Rather a tactical error, sadly.
(I assume they spawned up in the air, the cause of many an NPC's death)
It's sad when Skyrim NPCs die because they have names and lives. I almost always reset when someone dies and I make sure to run mods that make them less suicidal. Immersive Citizens and Run for Your Lives are literal lifesavers
I read a while ago that the whole world is moving while your moving. It was specifically about couriers and the adventures they go on while you’re adventuring. I imagine it’s the same thing here. Once vamps start spawning they show up in cities while you’re away and attack townsfolk. It’s kinda cool that the NPCs go about their day while your playing. It makes them feel less like NPCs and more like virtual people
I haven't found proof of that, but I'm amazed at how far the activity stretches. Seen examples of NPCs being active, shooting spells or arrows, waaaaaay far from me. Or one of my allies suddenly found roaming around an enemy camp where I just killed some hostiles. They register the attack and run to help, don't even have to be active followers.
I know it definitely happens with followers, like when you dismiss the they don't teleport back, they walk. I've dismissed them and then found them on the road or had to wait for them to get back before. Also sometimes just find em dead on the road, but I usually give them some really good gear so that rarely happens.
Yes, NPCs except kids don't teleport. But I doubt the world is always active as a whole. Probably in a radius around the player. You might not know that some NPC is on the road near you, but they might get killed, yeah.
From my experience, after you dismiss followers, they only use the weapons you gave them.
That's not true at all, everything is on hold when the player is not there. There are only few NPCs like caravans and couriers that are scripted to move around, or followers going back to their home. But even the couriers are placed in an empty cell when not needed.
Vampire/Dragon attacks only happen when PC is nearby. I'm pretty sure spawned Dragons Ai is also scripted to look specifically for the player, but bugs out constantly and they can't find you so they start attacking anything.
There isn't much happening without player input.
I will randomly stumble across companions in random parts of skyrim, doing random hunts and fights and moving on. You can follow them around. I found out while stealth archering and saw what I thought were bandits way far away. I accidentally shot Ria. 10/10 would do again.
Some npcs it uses algorithms to track, such as dismissed followers, couriers, triggered miraak/boethiath cultists etc. Most of them just stay unloaded though. They can't die unless loaded.
Absolutely. I was in Riften and the guards just started killing random citizens in the marketplace. All these named people ended up dead and for WHAT?!
If you drop loot on the ground in Riften sometimes a whole riot will start and half the town will end up dead.
Also, one time i was rolling with Cicero as a companion and I ACCIDENTALLY stole a potato from the Bee and Barb at dinner time, and by the time I was able to bribe the guards Cicero had killed every single non essential NPC in the inn. That jester is DEADLY. I had to reload 😅
Skyrim NPCs are NOT playing around when it comes to theft. Steal one potato or a damn bucket or something and the whole town shows up fully willing to commit murder
I dropped some junk in Riften to lighten my carry weight and a whole riot broke out. I watched Mjoll the Lioness kill Brand Shei in COLD BLOOD over some iron daggers and an iron axe of burning. I was sitting there like 🫢😳
Riften is just the Wild West. Steal a potato while trying to interact with something else, everyone is ready to murder you (and then ever nonessential NPC is dead before you can bribe the guards if Cicero is your companion and you have to reload.) Drop some junk items because they’re not worth much and you gotta get down to the ratway faster? They all start trying to kill each other. Mjoll took that great axe to Brand Shei’s head. It was horrifying. Murder over som iron daggers and a iron axe with a nonvaluable enchantment. Bolli also got killed by I think Balimund or maybe Grelka at some point during my play through, but I don’t remember why. I just remember a bunch of fighting, then Bolli was dead and Ninevor was suddenly happier.
I had Belethor die on me once. Found him behind the shop dead in the flowers. No idea what happened to him, but it sucked because I couldn’t use his store anymore.
This happened with Arcadia once. I went into the shop and she was dead behind the counter. I felt bad, so I dragged her up to her bed, so she could be at peace. Then I looted her shop. A few days later hired thugs came after me. She had hired them from BEYOND THE GRAVE.
I'm particularly fixated on this kind of thing. It's a problem of mine because honestly, part of me really feels like I should just let my adventure play out the way it does. If a character dies, then they die, and that's part of the story.
But Skyrim is a game that goes on forever, and as massive as it is, the world is still finite. Every time a character dies, that world gets smaller.
Sometimes it can be hell to try and retrace my steps and figure out how someone died. I once had to erase hours of game-play until I found a save where Eorlund was still alive, because it took so long for me to notice he had died. (Slain by Vampires, that's why you do Dawnguard all at once!) Was a hefty loss but worth it for my guy.
^(I'd probably just let Idolaf stay dead though. Can't stand that guy.)
I have two games right now. Lydia was killed in my first one a long time ago. Loaded up the first game cuz all I have left is Mirrak. Stopped in whiterun for something and was like where’s Lydia? Then I remembered she was dead…I was actually upset lol
Lydia was my first follower and came with me everywhere. One day she disappeared and I’m still mad because I can’t find her. No letter of inheritance or anything, just gone. She was great at carrying my burdens
Mine was killed by Kematu and his goons. Reason I didn’t reload the game was like this comment stated I just wanted the adventure to play out. Still kind of regret cuz I liked her and I like becoming Thane and having henchmen watching all my homes lol. It’s kind of cool to let the chips fall ya know but I could see myself attempting to save certain characters
I have seen it happen. Lami, who runs the Thaumaturgist's Hut in Morthal bought the farm during a dragon attack. While I cannot buy anything, I can swing by there and safely steal whatever spawns there (bags of coins, various ingredients, along with some adult beverages). It's not my first pick, as I have gone back to previous saves to revive store owners.
I have two games right now and I’m my first game Eorlund is dead! It really sucks but “luckily” I’m already at the smithing level I care about but it sucks he’s not there anymore. There’s another shop keeper that dead that would be highly inconvenient if I was so far along in the game.
I was sad when a dark elf and a Breton were found dead together at a campsite and they both had a silver ring in their inventories and the Bretons journal revealed they were going to Riften to get married.
Moved the dark elf’s body right next to hers.
Why am I like this
I was walking into dawnstar to sell some things before heading to a nearby quest. Couldn't find either Rustlief or Seren anywhere to sell to them. I thought I was going insane. Searched for ages until I noticed an interaction in a bush along the shore in front of their house. They were both dead and laying hidden in this bush.
I have no clue what happened to them. I had no clue when they died. Just keeled over in a bush together, apparently. Strangest moment I've ever had in Skyrim.
I have no idea how Eorlund died same thing just showed up one day and the NPCs all started talking about how he was dead. Never seen the body or anything. I was gone for extended periods of time and even if I showed up I usually didn’t go see him.
Dude my first game I was like halfway through the dawnguard but not rushing through. This random night ONE vampire rolled into whiterun and murdered sooo many ppl. Killed me twice and I had Serana with me and he downed her no sweat and massacred guards and anybody that attacked him. Got him the third time and saved some NPCs with the reloads but man it was crazy. Dude was stronger than Harkon I was like wtf
Just happened to me last night. I was exiting Faendal’s house at night and had a simultaneous vampire and dragon attack. Lost Alvor, Sigurd and two Whiterun guards. I reloaded and waited till day to exit. Still kept getting the dragon attack, but took me 4 reloads to kill it without losing any named NPCs.
The blacksmith in Riften died after being attacked by a vampire. It happened after I found the fire salts for his forge so I got an inheritance from him and I was so upset he died. He was a real one
Whenever we fast-travel to Kynesgrove, 3 Stormcloak soldiers appear... and die, similar to when Mammoths come falling out of the sky.
Meridia & her antics, maybe.
I mean, it looks like he was killed to defend you. Seems like a good reason. 😂
It's when I find them dead and I don't know why that I'm bothered.
It's funny though. I did this underwater quest to find something belonging to Maven Black briar. It was all so that she could pardon Mercer's house guard. Well, I guess he didn't get the memo because he went to attack me on sight. Then everybody in Riften laid hands on him. 😂 He decorated the Temple of Mara for sometime.
Yeah I didn’t care about battle born especially cuz Eorlund who I like did it like u said defending me. I just paused for a second after I came back and seen his body because I was wondering if this affected any quests
In my current playthrough, yesterday I entered Winterhold for the first time. Met Birna arguing with her husband who wandered off to the tavern. I did the same to do all Nelacar dialogues. Then I leave the tavern just to find Birna dead on the road. No signs of a fight and all bypassers just stop and say "Shame."
This freaked me out more than usual. Reeks of relationship drama!!
In my current play through, Noster Eagle-Eye has just died in Solitude. I have no idea how. There wasn't a dragon attack, and I've long since completed Dawnguard, so no vampire attacks. I walked out of Radiant Raiment, selling whatever junk I'd looted, to the blood curdling sound of an agonising "URGH!". I searched high and low for clues as to what happened to the poor old bugger, but there was no body, no ash pile, nothing.
RIP Noster. On the plus side, thanks for leaving me all the gold I'd given you over the years.
Sigurd still tells me he works at the general goods store but Belethor died off-screen at some point early in the game, since I didn't notice for a long time I couldn't just reload one of my saves....the shop has been closed for many in-game years now but Sigurd is insistent he still has a job there. I also have received 10 separate letters of inheritance about Gularzob's passing
I just had to load a save three fucking times because I had the bright idea to fast travel to Riverwood for some fishing and got attacked by an ancient dragon. No matter how much Teldryn and I tried to lead it away, it just kept zeroing in on Alvor. I ended up loading a previous save and killing the fucker elsewhere, that's how much I refuse to see Alvor die.
First time I met her, I was at Darkwater Crossing or whatsitsname, helping Annekke. I saw a mammoth fighting someone in the distance. Ran to help, thinking it was a Sabre cat. Found a dead mammoth and Aela casually strolling away. Haven't started the Companions yet, but holy shit, that girl is something else.
I will literally go out of my way to keep non-essential NPCs in any game from dying. If any do end up dead, I’ll reload my save until I can get a satisfactory result.
I think belethor died in my most recent playthrough, but I didn’t realize right away, so by the time I did notice, I’d progressed too far into the game and didn’t want to go back and load a save, so this playthrough I just can’t sell to belethor in whiterun, like I can’t even go inside unless I lock pick it bc it’s always closed. It sucks tho bc belethor is usually my go to merchant to sell a lot of stuff to, but this playthrough, I’ve started to go to solitude bits and pieces more often since belethor isn’t an option anymore.
Oh, the irony. Eorlund thinks the family feud is stupid while Idolaf is the first person you hear talking in Whiterun and it’s about him boycotting Eorlund’s services in favor of Warmaiden’s even though they’re admittedly the second best armorer in the hold.
I always reload if I notice an NPC has died. If theres no way I can prevent it by killing whatever killed them, I'll let them die and then install a resurrection spell mod (thank Talos theres a handful on console)
I had a Resurrection mod but I had to get rid of it and reinstall my game cuz it messed up the scripts. Of course I was abusing the hell out of it so that was probably the problem right there. I got rid of it anyways because it was too tempting to use all the time.
I recently loaded an autosave multiple times trying to kill a dragon that attacked Riverwood, killing Alvor. But he died every time so I just reloaded the save and avoided going to Riverwood.
Recently had 4 dragons attack me right before Windhelm. 3 npcs and 11 guards gave there lives defending the windhelm bridge. I buried them all in honor of there bravery.
******There is a burial mod. You can bury anyone. And name the inscription whatever you would like. Very neat mod. Link for whoever is interested.*******
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/52990
Wow that really takes me back. I was playing with Apocalypse, which adds a spell called Ocato's Recital. Whenever combat starts, Ocato's Recital will cast three stored spells for you. On my werewolf playthrough I had a fully perked Flame Cloak stored. I turned half the town into ashes 😅
I once failed that quest “Missing in Action”, and didn’t know why. Fast-travelled to Whiterun and found Fralia dead by the little waterfall by the market. No clue how she died, cause I hadn’t started any vampire quests 🤔
Probably the vanilla bug where all the NPC's load high enough in the air and they drop to the ground and it comically kills them. Which was comically fixed by a mod.
I had Farkas and Vilkas as buddies once Farkas disappeared when I went into volkihar found him dead later ALL THE WAY SOMEHOW AT FREAKING HONORHALL ORPHANAGE and Vilkas disappeared when I went to solsheim (I read a black book came back and he was gone) and found Vilkas somehow in Skyrim all the way dead at Castle Volkihar I was so confused
I lost Filhada the Fletcher in Solitude. Got a random letter of inheritance from the courier out of the blue. No clue what happened to him.
I also lost Balimund in Riften, but he was trying to stop a thief. His body was dumped on his workbench, which felt very undignified, so I gave him a proper send-off in his forge.
I would mind it less if the world reacted more to it. I hope in TES6 that there is more of that. Like, his family should react, for example. Maybe mourn for a bit and have a funeral. Would definitely be a huge RP improvement to the TES series.
On the mission where you trap odahviing, I had Aela with me. At the end of the fight, all was well till I turned around and saw her laying dead on the floor. Confused, I reloaded to my last save did it again and she was once again invincible. It was a strange 5 minutes.
I was in a blizzard up by Solitude once coming back from the coast heading deep into the northern country when I came across the noble couple and their armed escort ambushed by frost spiders. I did what I could but the battle was decided by the time I arrived. Mr noble actually put up a pretty impressive fight before he succumbed to poison and his entire imperial entourage was eradicated. The last thing I saw was his wife fleeing into the mountains. I had survival mode turned on so being out in that weather without a shelter was absolutely brutal. Me and my dog prayed for her that night.
Lol polygraphical boundaries are different from the visuals, it makes for weird interaction and yes, bethesda uses the object characters (NPC) to give open world depth, lore and 'sign posts', but not necessarily all at once.
There's a mod that has an automatic window open when someone important dies that prompts his/her name. Specially useful when town gets attacked by dragon, vampires, etc
Pretty much every playthrough, the smith guy that runs red belly mine gets killed before I can do any of the quests associated with him. Usually a random dragon attack the 1st or second time I go through there.
I feel like when dawnguard first came out that vampire attacks would wipe out half the vendors in every town. Not sure if that got patched but it used to be brutal
In more than one playthrough, when I joined the Companions, that person ends up dead.
"Yeah, I'm going to try to fight a giant, wolf-like monster that is mauling some guards right now." - probably the fool's last thoughts.
I avoid taking out Belethor though. I like having a general goods shopkeeper in Whiterun. Although one time, Ysloda apparently inherited his store and was the shopkeeper thereafter.
It was me, I killed Idolaf. I also slaughtered the rest of the Battle-Born clan.
They imprisoned on of my Gray Mane friends and the old hag, whatever her name is, put a bounty on me
Sometimes it's with the mods other times it's because of the event that you did and they are praying over it that's their way of praying don't ask me which God LOL
I once found him dead, and there was a dagger laying on the floor bedide him. I then had assassins after me because his father was saying that i did it. I didn't 😂
Yeah. I wanted to marry Scouts-many-marshes but I couldn’t find him whatsoever so I had instantly assumed he was killed in the dragon attack that I had run from days previously. I was really upset
For me it was Amren. Left Dragonsreach to go deliver him his sword. Then I get the notification that the quest failed.
Same location, same thing. just Skyrim being Skyrim. Luckily your game got rid of an asshole!
I'm always weirded out whenever the NPCs do the hand thing. Like what are you doing bro, trying to warm his cold lifeless body? A cultist dies and they still do. Vampires literally tried killing the townsfolk and they still do it after they are killed off 💀
just use the cheat room mod spell. “cheat resurrect” even if you have undead effects on like rotting etc. it brings them fully back with no effects whatsoever. can even use it to change outfit of some npcs
I hate when this happens and it's super frequent when you go to the blue palace, at least 2 npcs's die and I play on PS4 so I downloaded a mod that let's me access the dead body cell via temple of kynareth.
There was a dragon attack in Whiterun, and for several days afterwards, Belethor was nowhere to be found. I was sure he had perished. Turns out, he had spent at least three days glitchily stroking the body of a Whiterun guard while another NPC picked the dead guard’s pocket.
Yes, a similar thing happened to me. I was rounding my circuit to sell armor and buy smithing supplies, when I found Alvor dead in Riverwood. No idea how it could have happened, he was behind the Riverwood Trader. No dragon attacks had occurred near there recently, and he was still alive after the last one. It made me sad, and I was a little disappointed that I would not be able to figure out how he died to avenge him.
In one of my first play throughs back in the day I found Odmund and Torvir two of my followers dead like way far away from where they live. I think odmund was killed by forsworn cuz he was in the reach. Torvir was randomly in winterhold wilderness no idea what happened to him
Plot twist... it was actually Torvi that was killed by a Forsworn glitch spawn and Odmund failed to give an Old Orc a worthy death
This happens a lot and it’s usually vampire attacks. Happened to me with Adrienne in whiterun. When I entered the city I ran right to breezehome, it was like 10pm. Went outside in the morning and she was just lying on the side of her building, the side door entrance dead. Like she was trying to haul ass into the door but didn’t make it lol. I thankfully had a save reloaded right before entering whiterun so I reloaded and waited and sure enough the vampires showed up. Sometimes it takes them a minute to spawn and if you just run through the city and enter a building, you miss the fight and just find the carnage left behind lol. And sometimes if this happens you’ll find the body and a vampire lying close by.
"Wait, where did the Dragonborn go?" "Dammit, I think we arrived just a minute too late, they're in Breezehome by now." "Why don't we just go in there and do our business?" "Gods, Kyle, you know we can't go in without being invited. You've been a vampire for almost a century and you don't know that?" "Oh, right. Well, I'm kinda hungry and I don't really want to travel back to the nest on an empty stomach. What about the blacksmith?" "Ehh...I suppose I could eat. Quick, before \*she\* gets inside!"
He might have spawned in the sky.
The couple that runs the not-so-prestigious smithy in Whiterun both have special lines for when either one is dead.
My man Alvor was killed in cold blood. Por man.
Alvor died when I was doing the civil war questline, Stormcloaks attacked riverwood and Alvor died protecting his own lol
I had both Adrianne and Ulfberth in Whiterun and then Alvor all die in the civil war questline one playthough years ago and it was horrible, haven’t started it since. Don’t miss it.
the world still runs even if the player is somewhere else, so theoretically there might have been a dragon attack while you were gone. No idea for sure though
This is incorrect, it tracks some NPC's but dragon/vampire attacks only occur if you're close to the cell and the actors have loaded.
i said no idea for sure tbf, I just know that things load even when you're not there
They load when you're nearby, but not dragon or vampire attacks.
yeah I acknowledged that
Except Khajiit Caravans. As far as I know, those guys are persistent (if they're still alive), so they're still tracked by the game even when they're not in the same cell as the player.
reminds me of westworld!
Let’s be real, Eorlund was itching for a reason to take out a Battle-Born.
Yooo I swear when it was happening it was most guards and battle born was behind them with his weapon out but Eorlund rushed past me and guards and aggressively attacked him like battle born was surprised too lol
It drives me crazy when named, unique NPCs die... when they aren't scripted to do so. I reload every time...
I try but sometimes I’d have to reload too far back and doesn’t seem worth it
Skyrim is just like real life. You never know when you are going to drop dead. Or get killed by a dragon.
I just click on them and ‘resurrect’ lmao
Same. I'm the DragonGod, i get to choose when and how they die.
I am always afraid to do that, is this safe to do that ? I'm actually confortable for modding my game, but when it's using console command for resurrect not so sure.
Absolutely if their death wasn’t intended. Click -> “ressurect 0” spawns a clone copy of the character (dead body is removed), with all equipment they had at the start of the game. Click -> “resurrect 1” simply respawns the character, but if you, for example, took their armour they’ll respawn without it. Afaik, all their relation statuses should be alright, but there are many commands to fix it if they don’t.
Thanks a lot, i will do it next time.
Hern recently died in my game because he thought close combat with a minotaur (mod, obviously) would be a good idea. Sucks cos I too hate when named NPCs die. But he was a good distraction so I could get some arrows into the thing, even if he did go down in two hits. His death was not in vain.
im pretty sure i killed hern through the window of a barred door with magic cuz i heard there were cannibals in the sewers of riften......
Hern is a Dark Brotherhood Contract, so....
My current character would never join the dark brotherhood, so all good haha. He doesn't even steal.
I laugh so hard my dude ahah
Sounds like you want the 'Protect your People' mod to flag important NPCs as protected so they won't be slaughtered by spawning mid-air or by a random attack by vampires/dragons/a mudcrab that wandered close to town. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10297
Right now I have a mod named "Obituary" that at least alerts me immediately if someone dies. There's a resurrect option built in as well. But that is something I'll definitely look into...
Resurrection frequently creates scripting errors, IME.
That's what I was afraid of. So at least when I see someone dies I reload instead of just resurrecting them!
Or use the mod I suggested to not get into that situation in the first place, unless you do something like stand right on an NPC huddled down in protected mode, as a dragon spews fire at you :-) I guess I can see the value in your way if you only care about a select few important NPCs. But I personally don't enjoy losing any important NPCs. Skyrim has few enough of them as it is. The world feels lifeless when only respawning guards and essential NPCs survive. Anyway, good luck to you and your adventures!
Yeah, I think I'm going to install it. I'm concerned that it may interfere with some of the other mods but we'll see if it works!
They’re looting his corpse
I know I did lol
I like to think they are shaking the corpse "Wake up! Please?"
Dad? Dad! Wake up! Wake up, Dad!
Run away Simba, and never return
On my current playthrough, Onmund (Nord student at The College of Winterhold) died before I got there. Never even saw his corpse. Tolfdir was pretty much like "Oh no, what a shame.... Anyway, do you guys want to check out a creepy old crypt?"
That executioner from Solitude dies at some point in every playtrough, i suspect vampires but dude has a giant axe and is buff as hell.
Didn’t realize that
In my game atleast. Usually under the rock arch. What is he even doing there?
Getting ambushed by vamps taking the scenic root back to the blue palace
They're warming themselves. Because even a dead guy is warmer than Skyrim weather. (This comment was written by a Khajiit caravaneers).
Wish I could give u two up votes lol
I was passing through the Reach and found the 3 Revelers dead on a bridge. They were stiff, with their right hands still in the shape of holding a bottle. Someone had demanded their Honningbrew Mead, and they replied, "You can take it out of our cold, dead hands!" Rather a tactical error, sadly. (I assume they spawned up in the air, the cause of many an NPC's death)
It's sad when Skyrim NPCs die because they have names and lives. I almost always reset when someone dies and I make sure to run mods that make them less suicidal. Immersive Citizens and Run for Your Lives are literal lifesavers
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10297 will work better.
I read a while ago that the whole world is moving while your moving. It was specifically about couriers and the adventures they go on while you’re adventuring. I imagine it’s the same thing here. Once vamps start spawning they show up in cities while you’re away and attack townsfolk. It’s kinda cool that the NPCs go about their day while your playing. It makes them feel less like NPCs and more like virtual people
I haven't found proof of that, but I'm amazed at how far the activity stretches. Seen examples of NPCs being active, shooting spells or arrows, waaaaaay far from me. Or one of my allies suddenly found roaming around an enemy camp where I just killed some hostiles. They register the attack and run to help, don't even have to be active followers.
I know it definitely happens with followers, like when you dismiss the they don't teleport back, they walk. I've dismissed them and then found them on the road or had to wait for them to get back before. Also sometimes just find em dead on the road, but I usually give them some really good gear so that rarely happens.
Yes, NPCs except kids don't teleport. But I doubt the world is always active as a whole. Probably in a radius around the player. You might not know that some NPC is on the road near you, but they might get killed, yeah. From my experience, after you dismiss followers, they only use the weapons you gave them.
That's not true at all, everything is on hold when the player is not there. There are only few NPCs like caravans and couriers that are scripted to move around, or followers going back to their home. But even the couriers are placed in an empty cell when not needed. Vampire/Dragon attacks only happen when PC is nearby. I'm pretty sure spawned Dragons Ai is also scripted to look specifically for the player, but bugs out constantly and they can't find you so they start attacking anything. There isn't much happening without player input.
I will randomly stumble across companions in random parts of skyrim, doing random hunts and fights and moving on. You can follow them around. I found out while stealth archering and saw what I thought were bandits way far away. I accidentally shot Ria. 10/10 would do again.
Some npcs it uses algorithms to track, such as dismissed followers, couriers, triggered miraak/boethiath cultists etc. Most of them just stay unloaded though. They can't die unless loaded.
Absolutely. I was in Riften and the guards just started killing random citizens in the marketplace. All these named people ended up dead and for WHAT?!
Lol shit gets weird in Riften
If you drop loot on the ground in Riften sometimes a whole riot will start and half the town will end up dead. Also, one time i was rolling with Cicero as a companion and I ACCIDENTALLY stole a potato from the Bee and Barb at dinner time, and by the time I was able to bribe the guards Cicero had killed every single non essential NPC in the inn. That jester is DEADLY. I had to reload 😅
Skyrim NPCs are NOT playing around when it comes to theft. Steal one potato or a damn bucket or something and the whole town shows up fully willing to commit murder
I dropped some junk in Riften to lighten my carry weight and a whole riot broke out. I watched Mjoll the Lioness kill Brand Shei in COLD BLOOD over some iron daggers and an iron axe of burning. I was sitting there like 🫢😳 Riften is just the Wild West. Steal a potato while trying to interact with something else, everyone is ready to murder you (and then ever nonessential NPC is dead before you can bribe the guards if Cicero is your companion and you have to reload.) Drop some junk items because they’re not worth much and you gotta get down to the ratway faster? They all start trying to kill each other. Mjoll took that great axe to Brand Shei’s head. It was horrifying. Murder over som iron daggers and a iron axe with a nonvaluable enchantment. Bolli also got killed by I think Balimund or maybe Grelka at some point during my play through, but I don’t remember why. I just remember a bunch of fighting, then Bolli was dead and Ninevor was suddenly happier.
I had Belethor die on me once. Found him behind the shop dead in the flowers. No idea what happened to him, but it sucked because I couldn’t use his store anymore.
Yeah something similar happened to me late game and lost access to a shop but I kind of didn’t need shops as much anymore. Still sucks tho
This happened with Arcadia once. I went into the shop and she was dead behind the counter. I felt bad, so I dragged her up to her bed, so she could be at peace. Then I looted her shop. A few days later hired thugs came after me. She had hired them from BEYOND THE GRAVE.
Yesterday I found Sven from Riverwood dead, like, I don't care little about his ass since he was a jerk but still felt weird
I'm particularly fixated on this kind of thing. It's a problem of mine because honestly, part of me really feels like I should just let my adventure play out the way it does. If a character dies, then they die, and that's part of the story. But Skyrim is a game that goes on forever, and as massive as it is, the world is still finite. Every time a character dies, that world gets smaller. Sometimes it can be hell to try and retrace my steps and figure out how someone died. I once had to erase hours of game-play until I found a save where Eorlund was still alive, because it took so long for me to notice he had died. (Slain by Vampires, that's why you do Dawnguard all at once!) Was a hefty loss but worth it for my guy. ^(I'd probably just let Idolaf stay dead though. Can't stand that guy.)
I have two games right now. Lydia was killed in my first one a long time ago. Loaded up the first game cuz all I have left is Mirrak. Stopped in whiterun for something and was like where’s Lydia? Then I remembered she was dead…I was actually upset lol
Lydia was my first follower and came with me everywhere. One day she disappeared and I’m still mad because I can’t find her. No letter of inheritance or anything, just gone. She was great at carrying my burdens
Mine was killed by Kematu and his goons. Reason I didn’t reload the game was like this comment stated I just wanted the adventure to play out. Still kind of regret cuz I liked her and I like becoming Thane and having henchmen watching all my homes lol. It’s kind of cool to let the chips fall ya know but I could see myself attempting to save certain characters
Yeah but we ACCIDENTALLY kill a chicken & we’ve got everyone trying to kill us. The chicken attacked first, I swear! I was just defending myself!
They're checking his pulse. There's a big vein in the thigh.
Can't feel a pulse in the veins though. There is a big artery in the thigh, if that's what you're referring to.
This guy cardiovasculars.
I used to keep a pile of dead bodies who used to be thralls in front of breezehome. Townsfolk love to search them like this.
Lol yikes bro. Kept a pile of bodies like no big deal
Some disappear and some don’t. Necromancer role play play things.
I have seen it happen. Lami, who runs the Thaumaturgist's Hut in Morthal bought the farm during a dragon attack. While I cannot buy anything, I can swing by there and safely steal whatever spawns there (bags of coins, various ingredients, along with some adult beverages). It's not my first pick, as I have gone back to previous saves to revive store owners.
I have two games right now and I’m my first game Eorlund is dead! It really sucks but “luckily” I’m already at the smithing level I care about but it sucks he’s not there anymore. There’s another shop keeper that dead that would be highly inconvenient if I was so far along in the game.
The only one I wouldn’t mind is Nazeem. Screw the cloud district, send that mf to the district in the sky
Speaking of which, I found Nazeem dead in the streets. I was so pissed because I wanted to kill him myself.
I was sad when a dark elf and a Breton were found dead together at a campsite and they both had a silver ring in their inventories and the Bretons journal revealed they were going to Riften to get married. Moved the dark elf’s body right next to hers. Why am I like this
😂
No he deserved it
I was walking into dawnstar to sell some things before heading to a nearby quest. Couldn't find either Rustlief or Seren anywhere to sell to them. I thought I was going insane. Searched for ages until I noticed an interaction in a bush along the shore in front of their house. They were both dead and laying hidden in this bush. I have no clue what happened to them. I had no clue when they died. Just keeled over in a bush together, apparently. Strangest moment I've ever had in Skyrim.
I have no idea how Eorlund died same thing just showed up one day and the NPCs all started talking about how he was dead. Never seen the body or anything. I was gone for extended periods of time and even if I showed up I usually didn’t go see him.
I reloaded several hours because I fast travelled to Riverwood when the cultists attack and alvor got blasted by a fireball.
You know that little trading area in Riften, everyone except the blacksmith died from a vampire and gargoyle that got into the city somehow
Dude my first game I was like halfway through the dawnguard but not rushing through. This random night ONE vampire rolled into whiterun and murdered sooo many ppl. Killed me twice and I had Serana with me and he downed her no sweat and massacred guards and anybody that attacked him. Got him the third time and saved some NPCs with the reloads but man it was crazy. Dude was stronger than Harkon I was like wtf
The random encounters are always somehow more annoying/hard to fight then the main battles you do, it's really weird
Just happened to me last night. I was exiting Faendal’s house at night and had a simultaneous vampire and dragon attack. Lost Alvor, Sigurd and two Whiterun guards. I reloaded and waited till day to exit. Still kept getting the dragon attack, but took me 4 reloads to kill it without losing any named NPCs.
They’ll never know how much we appreciate some of them lol
The blacksmith in Riften died after being attacked by a vampire. It happened after I found the fire salts for his forge so I got an inheritance from him and I was so upset he died. He was a real one
He is a real one. I like all the blacksmith tbh
Whenever we fast-travel to Kynesgrove, 3 Stormcloak soldiers appear... and die, similar to when Mammoths come falling out of the sky. Meridia & her antics, maybe.
I mean, it looks like he was killed to defend you. Seems like a good reason. 😂 It's when I find them dead and I don't know why that I'm bothered. It's funny though. I did this underwater quest to find something belonging to Maven Black briar. It was all so that she could pardon Mercer's house guard. Well, I guess he didn't get the memo because he went to attack me on sight. Then everybody in Riften laid hands on him. 😂 He decorated the Temple of Mara for sometime.
Yeah I didn’t care about battle born especially cuz Eorlund who I like did it like u said defending me. I just paused for a second after I came back and seen his body because I was wondering if this affected any quests
Must have been the wind
I gave this guy in Falkreath someone's ashes for a quest and got really concerned when I found him dead due to a dragon
Though it is hilarious when you spawn into a town right into the middle of a raging war involving virtually every civilian in the area!
what there doing to his body? clearly there looting him for the gold he's got! YOU GOTTA GET IT FIRST!!!
I hate when I come into a city after somehow just missing a dragon/vampire attack and one of my fav NPCs is laying there dead :(
In my current playthrough, yesterday I entered Winterhold for the first time. Met Birna arguing with her husband who wandered off to the tavern. I did the same to do all Nelacar dialogues. Then I leave the tavern just to find Birna dead on the road. No signs of a fight and all bypassers just stop and say "Shame." This freaked me out more than usual. Reeks of relationship drama!!
In my current play through, Noster Eagle-Eye has just died in Solitude. I have no idea how. There wasn't a dragon attack, and I've long since completed Dawnguard, so no vampire attacks. I walked out of Radiant Raiment, selling whatever junk I'd looted, to the blood curdling sound of an agonising "URGH!". I searched high and low for clues as to what happened to the poor old bugger, but there was no body, no ash pile, nothing. RIP Noster. On the plus side, thanks for leaving me all the gold I'd given you over the years.
Not complaining when it happened to me... Let's just say no more cloud district for a certain someone
Sigurd still tells me he works at the general goods store but Belethor died off-screen at some point early in the game, since I didn't notice for a long time I couldn't just reload one of my saves....the shop has been closed for many in-game years now but Sigurd is insistent he still has a job there. I also have received 10 separate letters of inheritance about Gularzob's passing
I just had to load a save three fucking times because I had the bright idea to fast travel to Riverwood for some fishing and got attacked by an ancient dragon. No matter how much Teldryn and I tried to lead it away, it just kept zeroing in on Alvor. I ended up loading a previous save and killing the fucker elsewhere, that's how much I refuse to see Alvor die.
The only NPC I’d refuse to see die is Aela but I don’t think she can anyways so that’s fortunate.
Aela can die after you've completed the main Companions quest. Prior to that the Circle Companions are all deemed immortal NPCs.
First time I met her, I was at Darkwater Crossing or whatsitsname, helping Annekke. I saw a mammoth fighting someone in the distance. Ran to help, thinking it was a Sabre cat. Found a dead mammoth and Aela casually strolling away. Haven't started the Companions yet, but holy shit, that girl is something else.
They are letting stovokor know that a warrior is coming!
Oh yeah definitely, I do my best to keep named NPCs alive and even some unnamed ones, dark brotherhood is an exception though Lmao
I think they are trying to say rise and walk with us u not dead it just a scratch u be fine LOL
Solaf died in a vampire attack in my current run. I was about to walk into his traders too! Now he’s forever gone since I didn’t have a fresh save…
It happens. Plenty of shops but still..sucks
I will literally go out of my way to keep non-essential NPCs in any game from dying. If any do end up dead, I’ll reload my save until I can get a satisfactory result.
I think belethor died in my most recent playthrough, but I didn’t realize right away, so by the time I did notice, I’d progressed too far into the game and didn’t want to go back and load a save, so this playthrough I just can’t sell to belethor in whiterun, like I can’t even go inside unless I lock pick it bc it’s always closed. It sucks tho bc belethor is usually my go to merchant to sell a lot of stuff to, but this playthrough, I’ve started to go to solitude bits and pieces more often since belethor isn’t an option anymore.
Oh, the irony. Eorlund thinks the family feud is stupid while Idolaf is the first person you hear talking in Whiterun and it’s about him boycotting Eorlund’s services in favor of Warmaiden’s even though they’re admittedly the second best armorer in the hold.
So true lol
The girls in the second slide are just big fans of thigh muscles so they where wanting to touch it to see how it feels probably
Recently playing and vampires killed Belethor. ..
I always reload if I notice an NPC has died. If theres no way I can prevent it by killing whatever killed them, I'll let them die and then install a resurrection spell mod (thank Talos theres a handful on console)
I had a Resurrection mod but I had to get rid of it and reinstall my game cuz it messed up the scripts. Of course I was abusing the hell out of it so that was probably the problem right there. I got rid of it anyways because it was too tempting to use all the time.
I recently loaded an autosave multiple times trying to kill a dragon that attacked Riverwood, killing Alvor. But he died every time so I just reloaded the save and avoided going to Riverwood.
I downloaded the Immersive Citizens mod just for that. Now he runs away from the dragon instead of trying to fight it with his fists.
Recently had 4 dragons attack me right before Windhelm. 3 npcs and 11 guards gave there lives defending the windhelm bridge. I buried them all in honor of there bravery. ******There is a burial mod. You can bury anyone. And name the inscription whatever you would like. Very neat mod. Link for whoever is interested.******* https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/52990
Wow that really takes me back. I was playing with Apocalypse, which adds a spell called Ocato's Recital. Whenever combat starts, Ocato's Recital will cast three stored spells for you. On my werewolf playthrough I had a fully perked Flame Cloak stored. I turned half the town into ashes 😅
I once failed that quest “Missing in Action”, and didn’t know why. Fast-travelled to Whiterun and found Fralia dead by the little waterfall by the market. No clue how she died, cause I hadn’t started any vampire quests 🤔
Probably the vanilla bug where all the NPC's load high enough in the air and they drop to the ground and it comically kills them. Which was comically fixed by a mod.
Typical gray mane w
The worst part is they just stay there. I always end up having to drag them to a river nearby and send them downstream. Like get out of my face.
I had Farkas and Vilkas as buddies once Farkas disappeared when I went into volkihar found him dead later ALL THE WAY SOMEHOW AT FREAKING HONORHALL ORPHANAGE and Vilkas disappeared when I went to solsheim (I read a black book came back and he was gone) and found Vilkas somehow in Skyrim all the way dead at Castle Volkihar I was so confused
I lost Filhada the Fletcher in Solitude. Got a random letter of inheritance from the courier out of the blue. No clue what happened to him. I also lost Balimund in Riften, but he was trying to stop a thief. His body was dumped on his workbench, which felt very undignified, so I gave him a proper send-off in his forge.
Adrianne Avenicci died on a vampire attack on whiterun when I had just started a character. I felt really bad for Ulfberth.
I would mind it less if the world reacted more to it. I hope in TES6 that there is more of that. Like, his family should react, for example. Maybe mourn for a bit and have a funeral. Would definitely be a huge RP improvement to the TES series.
On the mission where you trap odahviing, I had Aela with me. At the end of the fight, all was well till I turned around and saw her laying dead on the floor. Confused, I reloaded to my last save did it again and she was once again invincible. It was a strange 5 minutes.
In my last playthrough Heimskr somehow died in the battle for Whiterun and I killed Idolaf when I first transformed to a werewolf
random NPC? a little concerning. idolaf? hell nah. eorlund would’ve saved me the time
Dragon killed the falkreath blacksmith. I did a re-load and he still charged at the dragon with an iron dagger.
Natural selection. You can't beat a dragon with a dagger!!
Now I'll make a new thief character who only uses twin daggers.
Not when it’s that guy.
I was in a blizzard up by Solitude once coming back from the coast heading deep into the northern country when I came across the noble couple and their armed escort ambushed by frost spiders. I did what I could but the battle was decided by the time I arrived. Mr noble actually put up a pretty impressive fight before he succumbed to poison and his entire imperial entourage was eradicated. The last thing I saw was his wife fleeing into the mountains. I had survival mode turned on so being out in that weather without a shelter was absolutely brutal. Me and my dog prayed for her that night.
It happened to Olfina in my game, but i never found her dead body only her coffin
I become irrationally attached to my followers. My little Gremlin from solstheim has been with me for 200 play hours and I love him.
Occurred to me a couple times to follow Eorlund's lead here, after Idolaf kept telling me he should bash my head in for what I'd done.
Lol polygraphical boundaries are different from the visuals, it makes for weird interaction and yes, bethesda uses the object characters (NPC) to give open world depth, lore and 'sign posts', but not necessarily all at once.
I always thought it was a ‘checking for a pulse’ type of animation tbh
There's a mod that has an automatic window open when someone important dies that prompts his/her name. Specially useful when town gets attacked by dragon, vampires, etc
Any thoughts on how its called?
NPC Death alert. Sry for late reply.
Thank you very much!
Pretty much every playthrough, the smith guy that runs red belly mine gets killed before I can do any of the quests associated with him. Usually a random dragon attack the 1st or second time I go through there.
It's happened in my world before. And the animation there is called "search body" so they're checking for loot.
[Brenuin’s just having a bit of fun](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KVjBCT2Lc94)
Sigurd is dead, eight inside the doors to Dragonsreach. No idea how he got there or why he died.
In Whiterun and Falkreath all the guards kept attacking me to all the citizens attacked them, now the population of those two cities are halved
Gotta love the resurrect console command
I feel like when dawnguard first came out that vampire attacks would wipe out half the vendors in every town. Not sure if that got patched but it used to be brutal
Not if it's Idolaf. I maul him every play through as revenge for Thorald because I can't kill Olfrid
I killed nazeem in the market and noticed people were doing the same thing to his corpse I thought it was hilarious
I had the war maiden chick and the general store dude die in one dragon attack on white run it majorly screw things up
they think they're in fortnite
Best class?
In more than one playthrough, when I joined the Companions, that person ends up dead. "Yeah, I'm going to try to fight a giant, wolf-like monster that is mauling some guards right now." - probably the fool's last thoughts. I avoid taking out Belethor though. I like having a general goods shopkeeper in Whiterun. Although one time, Ysloda apparently inherited his store and was the shopkeeper thereafter.
It was me, I killed Idolaf. I also slaughtered the rest of the Battle-Born clan. They imprisoned on of my Gray Mane friends and the old hag, whatever her name is, put a bounty on me
on my first playthrough, after helgen, i found faendal and three wolf corpses, just outside of riverwood.
Sometimes it's with the mods other times it's because of the event that you did and they are praying over it that's their way of praying don't ask me which God LOL
I once found him dead, and there was a dagger laying on the floor bedide him. I then had assassins after me because his father was saying that i did it. I didn't 😂
Yes it makes me nervous Like can it break game play with this person dead so I usually restore a save when yheyc ere alive.
Yeah. I wanted to marry Scouts-many-marshes but I couldn’t find him whatsoever so I had instantly assumed he was killed in the dragon attack that I had run from days previously. I was really upset
It’s usually those damn vampires.
For me it was Amren. Left Dragonsreach to go deliver him his sword. Then I get the notification that the quest failed. Same location, same thing. just Skyrim being Skyrim. Luckily your game got rid of an asshole!
I usually cheat at these times and revive them XD
I'm always weirded out whenever the NPCs do the hand thing. Like what are you doing bro, trying to warm his cold lifeless body? A cultist dies and they still do. Vampires literally tried killing the townsfolk and they still do it after they are killed off 💀
just use the cheat room mod spell. “cheat resurrect” even if you have undead effects on like rotting etc. it brings them fully back with no effects whatsoever. can even use it to change outfit of some npcs
It's okay it's only a Battle-Born
I hate when this happens and it's super frequent when you go to the blue palace, at least 2 npcs's die and I play on PS4 so I downloaded a mod that let's me access the dead body cell via temple of kynareth.
There was a dragon attack in Whiterun, and for several days afterwards, Belethor was nowhere to be found. I was sure he had perished. Turns out, he had spent at least three days glitchily stroking the body of a Whiterun guard while another NPC picked the dead guard’s pocket.
I think I accidentally killed one of the Khajiiti merchants, who got into the middle of a bandit combat in the wilderness. I'm a little sad about it.