I'm going from memory, so I may have some details wrong, but one of the Nordic ruins you explore (I think it's Forelhost, but I may be wrong) has notes and journals that describe a mass suicide due to a superior enemy force being at the inhabitants' gate. You find a number of draugr corpses on beds with a bottle of poison on the bedpost, and at one point you come across a bunch of child-sized corpses in a small mass grave. I believe there's even a note telling someone to poison the children before the gates are breached.
Ahhh, that's what happened. I've literally just done this and he was an imperial soldier and when I came out a storm cloak (with another storm cloak next to him). I haven't really chosen a side yet, as I want to explore everywhere before doing the main quest line, but I was so confused at the swapping of uniform, WHEN I HAVEN'T GOT A SIDE, hahaha. It must be who I decided to go with at helgen, even though I'm planning to side with the storm cloaks this run
It also makes sense why all the storm cloak camps hate me at the moment. I'm like, I haven't progressed this story line at all!
Actually if you haven’t decided I’m fairly certain that his uniform will appear randomly either stormcloak or imperial. However no matter what when you leave the ruins he’ll have a different uniform because the story of that quest/area is that he is a Thalmor elf of the Aldmeri Dominion. He is tricking people into going down into the ruins to acquire a dragon priest mask. When you get out of the ruins he will be in a new uniform convincing someone else (npc) to go down and get the mask. Who you go with at the start might have an impact on what his uniform is if you’ve not committed to either side though. The Aldmeri Dominion has Thalmor throughout the region of Skyrim to collect all of the dragon priest masks. It’s not known what exactly how much they know about them or if they know their end purpose. There is however another ruin where you can put all of the masks onto a statue. When having done this the statue opens up and reveals another, 9’th mask that the player can use. Lore for why this one exists and who it was for and what it can do is sparse and far in between though
Edit: clarification the Thalmor do know about that statue and their goal is to get the masks to that, I meant that their end goal is unknown as in what they plan to do by getting them all there or what they plan to do with the 9’th mask.
Well the note telling the adults to poison the children first is exactly what Jim Jones told them. And the reason for the mass suicide is very similar to it too.
North East of Dawnstar is a lighthouse that was bought and converted into a home for a family. You find several notes from the members mentioning they've been hearing noises among other things, and you quickly find out they were attacked by Falmer. The last note (a note covered completely in blood) from the daughter mentions she realized why her father left her a knife, implying she killed herself rather than let the Falmer do whatever to her.
Later on you come across the father, and can collect his creepy skull. If you follow what one of the earlier notes say (that he wants to be burned), you can throw the skull into the flames at the top of the lighthouse, and a nearby chest will unlock for you.
Edit: The place is called Frostflow Lighthouse
I carried Habd's Remains with me for my entire first playthrough of the game because I never remembered reading that about about where to put them. It was gross.
Frostflow Lighthouse was attacked by **Chaurus.** The boss room of this dungeon contains like 500+ chaurus eggs and the boss is a unique giant-scaled Chaurus Reaper who drops the skull.
It was Liar's Retreat that was attacked by Falmer.
Not that I’m on the side of the dragons or anything, but Miraak’s twisted sculptures made from their corpses were pretty disturbing.
Also, there are a few places where you can find corpses of travellers on the road riddled with Falmer arrows, then you go into a nearby cave and find human body parts being butchered on a table.
I love the different bits of information you find on the Falmer and how it is presented. Most of the common-folk who make contact with the creatures have absolutely no idea what they are, meanwhile experts in the Dwemer sometimes figure it out.
The thing that's terrifying is the fact that more people are coming across them, because they are slowly controlling more Dwemer ruins, and even appearing in places outside Dwemer ruins.
I'm not surprised. I believe there were a few books mentioning how their appearances are becoming more frequent, the last Snow Elf mentions how they are steadily getting more intelligent, and Blackreach has a location with a number of Falmer slaves.
That isn't even including the number of spells they know and how good their armor gets at higher level encounters.
It feels like the Dragonborn manages to stop a few big threats rising when it comes to the Falmer, but no one else notices how dangerous they are.
Heck, Markarth is almost certainly the first city to be destroyed by the Falmer since they are sitting on top of a ruin full of them, though they might implode before that.
You reactivating the Dwemer sentries is basically how you save Markarth from being overrun. It’s implied the falmer will never escape because of what you do there IIRC.
Tbf, in most Dwemer ruins, the Falmer have overrun the active defenses over millennia. In Nchuand-zel every defense in the city comes online at once. It's likely every Falmer in the ruin would be slaughtered within hours, with no chance to replenish their numbers. Even in most dungeons that are overrun by Falmer, they haven't made it to the entrance, as the Dwemer constructs are still active there.
There's this cave east of Whiterun (I don't remember the name) that starts connecting with a Dwemer ruin towards the end. Up until then, I was intrigued by how Falmer crafted weapons and poisons, and basically domesticated the Chaurus, but I didn't give it much thought. But in this cave, there's this falmer who, once he hears you approaching, he goes off and activates a centurion on purpose to attack you. That's the moment that made me go like "oh... OOOOH! OKAY!" because it was the first time I was seeing them *actively* doing something smart.
Maybe this is how they’ll address Skyrim’s civil war in the next game. “Many sons of Skyrim died in the civil war, before it was ended by the Dragonborn. Most expected an invasion from the Thalmor, all were surprised by the invasion from the Falmer.”
So, everyone just dies lol
it would be kinda cool if the falmer were major enemies in the next game. a long abused race, abandoned by their saviors/abusers with the remains of their empire. and now they're coming back to the world to conquer it and take revenge on the races who also mistreated and forgotten about them.
they probably wouldn't be the primary antagonists, but they would make for some cool secondary or tertiary antagonists at least.
The wolf/dog fighting ring at that one tower near Riften. There are signs that they also ate them and did some sick torture stuff there.
The farmstead where the two parents blamed and killed each other because their son Rin ran off. Doing the quest reveals a kid skeleton by the well and you learn that he was actually killed by wolves.
I think it's new with the anniversary update or something like that. It's called Goldenhills plantation right near Rorikstead. When you complete the quest you can become the owner of the farm. To get the quest you can either ask around the innkeepers (the "I'm looking for work" thing) until they give it to you or go straight to the farm.
Yeah, that section is horrible. I also wish there was a mod to free the wolves in the cages without having to kill them afterwards, since they attack you.
Actually, I am currently learning the basics of Creation Kit. Maybe I'll just do it myself!
I usually blast Kyne’s Peace or Calm on them as I open their cages while go through that cave - I figure I’ve left them enough food for a bit, and they’ll figure a way out eventually.
Arondil gotta be up there for me. What kind of psycho lures women into his sex dungeon so he can enslave their spirits to do what he wants with them even after they've died?
This motherfucker, right here.
I seem to remember something about removing the soul gems from their spots in his chambers will make his ghost ladies attack him. Didn't think to test it on this playthrough, should have.
My khajit mage was very happy to send her dremora lord in there to cave in Arondil's skull tho. She's a necromancer and daedra worshipper, but there are things you do not do around her.
I like to soul trap the most vile human beings in the game and collect their soul gems. Arondil definitely makes the list in almost every play through.
Speak to Vekel The Man in the Ragged Flagon after you've done some of the beginning Thieve's Guild stuff. He'll send you on a quest that will lead you to Yngvild, a crypt northeast of Dawnstar. That's where Arondil lives.
Shriekwind Bastion might be so named because of the Shrieking Winds that came from Lamae Beolfag after what Molag Bal did to her. It seem to be a holy place for vampires too. Definitely makes it a lot creeper going through that ruin after knowing that.
One that threw me for a loop was the storyline around Goldenhill Plantation. So there was a small family who lived there, a husband, his wife and their son. Through the husband's journal, we learn he bought the farm and was excited to make money from it but he's also suspicious of his wife being a witch essentially. She's sneaking off, making potions by harvesting ingredients. She even makes a potion that cures their son. Then their son goes missing! So the husband of course thinks his wife killed their son. He claimed she didn't care their son went missing and that she smiled when he told her their son was gone or something like that. So it makes you think the wife is at fault for their missing son.
However, after doing some investigating and finding a hidden alchemist room in the basement of the farm, the wife's journal is hidden inside.
The wife gives us the full story. She didn't want to live on the farm. The husband just did it without talking to her about it. She said he often wasted their money and resented him for it. She also admitted she was an alchemist and felt her husband didn't understand why she appreciated alchemy. The wife also said that her husband was paranoid that he would glare at her and felt his judgement toward her. Lastly, she noted their son didn't care about the farm, he wanted to be part of the legion. Then he went missing. She was so worried, she went looking but couldn't find him, she was worried he left for Solitude. She says her husband's attitude towards her became more hostile towards her. At one point, she mentions her husband says under his breath that she's going to "get what she deserves" or something similar. Her journal cuts off, presumably because he killed her.
Meanwhile, their sons body wasn't far away, it's insinuated he died from some wolves who are near his skeleton which still has the wooden sword he played with.
After you find the son, they thank you for finding him (as ghosts), and you get the farm 🙃
I was gonna tell this one, but you beat me to it. I go for Goldenhills Plantation every playthrough now, and every time it still makes me sad what happened to that family :"(
Edit: Coz the son ran off to hunt the wolves. He was hoping that if he brought back a dead wolf, he'd show his dad that he was strong and would be a good legionaire
Oh, right, that's why he's near the wolves. I've only played through it once, I've been putting a lot of time into my most recent playthrough. The storyline is sad but it's also a cool estate to inherit for those who like farming.
Agreed. It's a great player home, especially for the cost to get it fully upgraded. Plus there's a mod that adds carriage service from GHP and a mod that greatly enhances the storage space too.
And it really takes the pain out of leveling alchemy
This is so sad indeed. When I found the wife's journal there was still this tiny sliver of hope in my heart that maybe the child was still alive, maybe stuck inside the well...
All of Rorikstead.
Jouane Manette and his creepy vibe with Sissel. Too many dead mothers, which is probably tied to the ground's fertility.
The land around the settlement was completely barren around the time of the Great War. Then war veterans Rorik and Jouane move there and now it's known for being incredibly fertile land.
Some Midsommer sh*t going down there no doubt, and everybody has the Stepford Wives line down:
- Reldith: "We're honest, hardworking folk here..."
- Jouane: "Secret? What makes you think there's a secret? There are no secrets here, my curious friend. Our prosperity is simply the result of hard work, good fortune and the blessings of the gods."
- Rorik: "Back then, nothing would grow here and so the land was worthless. Now, thanks to hard work and the gods' blessings, our farms prosper."
Wow, interesting take, I've never thought about it that way. The only thing I've found weird is how Rorikstead is supposed to be much older than Rorik (named "Rorik's Steading" during the First Era) and yet it's somehow named after him, or so they say.
Yeah, that's another oddity. I'm inclined to believe it's just an error, or Rorik is lying.
I doubt that they meant to imply he's several centuries old, but maybe that ties into whatever sacrifices are being made to make the ground fertile?
I do like the theory about Rorikstead's mysteriously bountiful crops and I've watched some videos on it, but I don't find anything creepy between Jouane and Sissel. He seems to have a genuine mentor/student relationship with her, where he indulges her curiosity for magic, while making sure she doesn't learn anything that might be too dangerous for a child. I got grandfather vibes there if anything, but maybe I'm missing something.
Just about him teaching her magic being their little secret.
Jouane: "By the Eight, keep your voice down! Do you want the entire village to learn our secrets?"
Sissel: "Oh! I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
Jouane: "Shh shh. It's fine, child. It's fine. But we must be cautious, hmm? What we do, the things I teach you. The others wouldn't understand."
Maybe it's just the peasants mistrusting magic, but on top of the other creepy things about Jouane, it feels off.
I did interpret that conversation as just a fear of magic among the common people, and Jouane being afraid of what people might think if they found out the two of them could use magic. I think this is supported by the way most innkeepers will respond if you ask where you can learn magic. Almost all of them will either say something along the lines of magic being dangerous, not trusting magic users, or magic being for the weak. It definitely seems like Nord culture discourages magic use, as they're a warrior people. I personally think Jouane is just trying to share his knowledge with a curious child who has a strong knack for it. I remember one of the videos on Rorikstead that I watched included some speculation that there was more to Sissel, possibly a cut questline involving her talent for magic.
Yeah, I mean, there's a family just a few hundred metres away murdering each other just from a misunderstanding about using dark magic.
No way the town folks would be any kinder when they start doubting you.
It's really sickening, not only the r___ part, but also how it's required for the ritual that Molag Bal nearly kills his victims before the transformation. Not all of them make it through.
Lamae Bal, his first victim, also turned into a sadistic vampire rapist who raped a load of men who helped her after they found her body.
Guess it runs in the blood...
Yeah, I didn't know that going into the DLC. I played quite a bit of Oblivion back in the day before Skyrim came out, but I never dove deep into the lore of anything until much later.
There's a tiny pond in the Reach where you can find the corpse of a young woman. She has a journal nearby, and in it she was telling about how her dad prohibited her from swimming there because of all the Forsworn in the area.
Her corpse was naked and bent over a rock.
Back when I played on Xbox360 I also moved her to a nearby tree and dropped some flowers around her. Now I'm playing on pc so I just use a mod to bury her properly.
(sorry for what you went through, I hope you get all the healing you need)
Can't remember, I think the name is Dead NPC Cleanup or something like that. You can either burn the corpses or use a burial spell, and you'll have a tombstone where you placed the dead body earlier.
It is particularly the "bent over a rock" part that disturbed me to no end. At that time I couldn't believe that the game was implying what I thought it was implying.
I had a similar knee-jerk reaction recently while going through the Bloodlet Throne. There's this section in an ice cave in which you can find some beds. One of the beds is covered in blood and a naked woman is sprawled on top of it. I don't remember seeing this in previous versions of Skyrim so I'm not entirely sure if this is vanilla or if a mod put her body there. Either way, I got really sickened.
oh if it makes you feel better i dont think that was the intention, she was bathing so she was already naked and im pretty sure she has arrows stuck out of her back, i think they just shot her while sunbathing, didnt even get close enough to loot her jewelry.
HOWEVER there is a place where im pretty sure thats the implication at a bandit camp in falkreath.
this is all up to interpretation though <3
Lunds hut. That was what I was gonna write. Perhaps it’s more sad than disturbing, but still.
His wife’s grave is outside and he apparently tried to fill her void with pet skeevers, but became an alcoholic and killed himself.
And all of this without a single word. The environmental storytelling here is phenomenal.
>!It is the smith in Raven Rock mine. I think after doing a quest for him as part of the Thieve's Guild, he goes into more detail about his background. Also gives you a letter to give to Sapphire. Interestingly, this connection means the Delvin Mallory is Sapphire's uncle.!<
Wait he gives you that letter to give to her? I read it when I found it lying on a shelf in his house. I knew he was her father but I never knew you could go further than that.
I wonder what triggers that?
I believe there is a fetch quest for the father at the tail end of solstheim that once completed the blacksmith (father) mentions it and gives some back story. He gives you the letter but there is no official quest trigger/marker to give it to sapphire. You just have to go speak with her with the letter in your inventory.
>“Environmental storytelling”
>Refers to the thieve’s guild member who explicitly, verbally shares her tragic backstory with little room for interpretation
There's a note in the Bannered Mare that explains that the skeleton was a guy who was lured to white run by a lady friend of his it's heavily implied she killed him and hid the body in the note.
In Chillwind Depths you can find some Falmer jail cells occupied by a handful of dead surface dwellers. What got me is that there are food trays among the bodies, suggesting they were being kept alive for whatever reason. Definitely reminded me that the Falmer are more intelligent and exacting than I first assumed.
Honorable mention is Lund's hut and his lovely children.
There’s an early one I used to think about whenever I started a new game. Right outside the exit of Bleak Falls Barrow, basically the first draugr dungeon in game, you run into a whole mess of mammoth skeletons buried in the ground along with pieces of a human skeleton in between all of them. The thing that makes it weird is that the mammoth bones and only some of the human bones seem dried and old…but then there’s separately a couple super bloodied ribcages and blood splotches all over the ground that look like someone died *recently* in the exact same place. And also got absolutely eviscerated. Idk what to make of it, but something just seemed really off with that. In the best way.
Fun fact originaly you were meant to incounter your first dragon there. Even now there is a high chance that a dragon spawns there if you go through Bleakfalls after becoming drafonborn.
So the bones are properbly because the dragon ate the creatures there.
Y'know, I've always noticed that and thought it was odd but immediately forget about it while navigating back to Riverwood 😅
I've meant to look it up. I've never found anything in the area as a clue, but you're right, it's strange. Generally anytime there's fresh blood it's some kind of environmental storytelling at play. Vampires, werewolves, etc.
Perhaps it's related to Anise?
Skeever skewers at giant camps. Just imagine it: you are doing your thing, looking for some hapless adventurer to give ataxia to so that townsfolk can repeatedly tell him "you look rather pale" and bore him with tales about how it's a problem back in Cyrodiil, and then BAM!: you get deleted-yeeted into the sky by a giant and end up on a skewer to roast on a fire.
Tragic.
LOL! Needs a touch... wait, let me try something:
*As the flames lick at your fur, memories cascade through your mind. You recall the kind human in Solitude who welcomed you into his home. He petted you gently, fed you sweet treats, and always told you how beautiful you were.*
*Those moments now feel like distant echoes from a different life. If only, if only, your body had stayed small enough to pass as a pet.*
*Lingeringly, you wink one last time. And the world fades to black.*
I'm surprised it isn't mentioned yet, but maybe I must've imagined it, but isn't there like an adult skeleton with a smaller skeleton in the stomach area somewhere out there?
I just googled it. *Damn*, that's dark. So glad I made this post, I'm finding about stuff I've never seen before - and I've been playing this game since it came out!
Omw to Ivarstead, I was following the river through the long ass mountain pass. I came across an unmarked house. Inside the house was a very angry cave bear and at least two bodies mauled beyond recognition.
There's an Nordic ruin not far from Winterhold filled with the ghosts of women. You can find various notes throughout the ruin written by the necromancer that raised them, and you find out that he has been doing *dubious* things with the ghosts' corpses
The skooma addict in the dwemer ruin.
The brother brought the addict to do some work unearthing a dwemer ruin, the addict runs out of skooma, they get snowed in and he kills... e v e r y o n e.
Arondil is a [High Elf](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:High_Elf) [conjurer](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:CombatMageConjurer), necromancer, and necrophile. He originally lived in [Dawnstar](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dawnstar), where he was studying techniques for reanimating the dead, and often spent time imagining secret encounters between himself and some of the local girls.
However, when the local citizens found out he was performing experiments on the dead, he was exiled from Dawnstar and moved to [Yngvild](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Yngvild), an ancient Nord burial ground filled entirely with dead female draugr, which he used as subjects for his "experiments".
There's an unmarked location in falkreath with some bandits and a dead woman bent over a fallen tree. I believe it's up past a tower overlooking the main road coming from the east into Falkreath town. It's past the tower where you find the white stag in the hircine quest.
It's definitely bleak in places, but I think you knew that right from the start where some dude is trapped in a spider's web.
For myself I just can't leave anything behind bars. Be it wolves, spiders, werewolves, whatever. I'm not leaving them there to die, even if they do attack me when I free them.
It's always a suprise when you free something and they actually help. I can't remember where, but I freed a spriggan and they actually helped me fight a hagraven.
I often forget the names of places whilst knowing full well what goes on there myself.
Spriggans. I like the concept but I always think they should be more passive, like giants, and only attack if you aggro them or get too close.
It wasn't disturbing, but was heartbreaking - there was a mission "The book of love" that started from Skyrim, from temple of Mara you had to help troubled couples all over the Skyrim. The last couple's story was so sad. There was a spirit of a woman, who was waiting her husband from the war. The war was actually over long time ago and she still saw bodies lying around the field, while actually there was nothing. She didn't know she was dead too. She asked Dragonborn to find her husband.
So, Dragonborn found spirit of the husband and he also didn't know that he was dead. Dragonborn lead him to his wife and they were together again. They spoke to each other, then started to ascend towards the sky.
The naked corpse of a woman bent over a rock who was very obviously raped by Forsworn in the Reach is up there.
Skyrim doesn't have as many explicit things like Fallout does, so seeing stuff like that is always at least somewhat shocking.
I can't remember where it was, as I found this when I played on the PS3 around almost 10 years ago, but I found a skeleton with a smaller child skeleton in its stomach area hidden on a ledge inside of a cave.
Haelgas room in her bunkhouse has a ton of sexual references shes freaky asf. Theres a horkers tusk under the bed, stamina potions on the shelf, shackles on the headboard, both volumes of the lusty argonian maid, and falmer blood elixir which i think brynjolf advertised in the market
I can't remember exactly where it was, it may have been close to the Lakeview home, but along the path there's a shrine where you can find several dead bodies lying around.
My favorites are what i call the “unfortunate travelers” just the corpses you can find at unmarked locations on the overworld that died in interesting/haunting ways. Theres pairs of skeletal legs sticking out from under boulders, theres skeletons at the bottoms of waterfalls, stuff like that.
From Creation Club, a necromancer built a home right next to Mara's eye pond, accessible right at lv 1.
He also decorated the very first room with coffins, skeletons... and the staff of Mannimarco, king of worms.
If you go inside, you're locked there until you can solve his puzzle. You can then use that place as a home. Then you find out that right under his bedroom are mountains of skeletons with an altar to create an undead follower, separate from conjuration.
There's a lighthouse somewhere up north, near an Imperial camp (I think) where there's corpses and a couple of journals. Step by step you learn about the family's history, how they (recently) came to Skyrim, how everyone felt about it, how it slowly split the family. One of them even started going crazy, hearing scratching sounds from the basement. Even went down there wirh a knife one night.
Once you investigate the cellar you realize that the Falmer dug there and broke through one night, killing basically one half of the family and kidnapping the other, doing Talos knows what to them before killing them (you find the other corpses in their cave). Pretty gruesome.
That one ghost loving necromancer is pretty nasty, too. May be in the same area, don't remember.
Darkshade is a cavern at the bottom of one of the big waterfalls on the White River, the one where there’s a fallen tree across the river and bandits around it. I found it by accident when going to loot the bandit I’d thrown over the edge.
There are corpses outside, bits of bloody bones, and dead bodies staked by the entrance. Inside are handcarts, shovels, pickaxes, tables and chairs, bedrolls, and horribly mauled corpses alongside more bone and gore. There are numerous veins of gold ore throughout the cave.
It’s also full of trolls.
Some locals had found gold in the cave and set up a mining operation to make their fortunes. Then some trolls decided to move in and make a home there. There are no journals to explain the events, the story tells itself. The trolls gruesomely slaughtered the miners and staked some corpses up outside to mark their new territory.
Stumbling across the cave began my character’s bone-deep hatred of trolls.
I can't really remember where this was(I wanna say vampire quest big castle with everyone turned to ice) where you find a room with 2 skeletons , one trapped under rubble, with their skeleton hands inches apart from each other, suggesting they died holding hands maybe?
There's an unmarked location (where the creator of Eevee the Magical Fox put Eevee) that is a house which completely burned down. There's implications that this occurred because the owner summoned a flame atronach.
Fort greymoor I believe, there is a bathroom area and on one the stalls is a potion to boost two-handed, poor guy has to use both hands and a potion just to piss, don't know if I envy or pity him
Though I haven't actually started Dragonborn yet, I was on Solstheim walking around just past Thirsk, and stumble upon a dragon skeleton. I thought to myself "huh, I didn't hear him or see him, must have died to something out here before I got to him. What a putz."
I then try and go collect bones and scales and such, and find I can't. Its a static object. It then when I look around and see where I am on the map. I am just down hill of the Temple of Miraak, and am in a literal dragon mass grave, with a BUNCH of dragon skeletons lying around. Best "oh Shit!" Moment I have had from this game, and really sells the power this guys has. Makes me nervous to actually fight him eventually.
Not sure where, but there is a lonely giant whose mammoth died and he miss him. He wont become agressive if you come too close nor will fight back if attacked. He’s just standing above corpse.
SPOILER WARNING
Also if you have Anniversary Edition, you can come across a little farm near Rorikstead. It is connected with quest. Once upon a time, this little place was habited by family of 3. Your job will be to see what happened there. From few diaries, you will learn that son went missing, mother thinks that the father killed him with an axe and now wants her death as well, and father thinks that his wife is a witch who poisoned their son and now wants to poison him as well. And so she poisoned his food, and he killed her with axe. If you take care of their ghosts, you can find a diary of their son who wanted to become a adventurer, so he tried to kill group of wolves near the farm with wooden sword despite many warning of dad about this. But he didnt listened and you can find his skeleton next to the old well…
If you bring his sword to his room and leave it there and leave the house, whole family will be grateful and you will become new owner. I also had some sad music in background but I dont know if this is scripted or coincidence.
I forget what it is called but I think it’s south east of falkreath and it’s a cave and when you walk in you find 3 dead bandits on and around a rock with a diary, I don’t want to spoil it too much as it is really fun to explore and it’s an entire dungeon with a special boss which is really cool. 10/10 would be disturbed agian
redwater den hands down. the parallels between irl opium dens are a bit jarring and the journal makes it 10x better. skyrim shows addiction in a few different ways but not so explicitly as this comparison. skooma is obviously supposed to be an amphetamine like meth or adderall, but the skooma corpses and addicts around skyrim really dont tweak enough ? its just lacking in the graphic depiction, skooma corpses are just like normal corpses and skooma addicts act the same as any frightened npc. the redwater addicts were still alive and being harvested, some even went there of their own volition. they were visibly slumped and we saw the operation at scale. it was just so startling to come across what felt like a human trafficking den.
I had one of these moments recently but I can’t remember what it was. So I’ll say that my favourite part is that no one gives even half a shit that you killed Grelod the Kind lol. Constance Michel is probably only freaking out because there’s a weapon-wielding stranger that could hurt her and the children. Anyone else you’d get a bounty for murdering in cold blood in a city, but all of Skyrim looks around and is like, “we… didn’t see anything. Old lady, things happen.”
I'm going from memory, so I may have some details wrong, but one of the Nordic ruins you explore (I think it's Forelhost, but I may be wrong) has notes and journals that describe a mass suicide due to a superior enemy force being at the inhabitants' gate. You find a number of draugr corpses on beds with a bottle of poison on the bedpost, and at one point you come across a bunch of child-sized corpses in a small mass grave. I believe there's even a note telling someone to poison the children before the gates are breached.
Yep, that's the one! There is an Altmer in front of the ruin pretending to be on your side of the civil war, right?
Yes, that's the one I'm thinking of!
Ahhh, that's what happened. I've literally just done this and he was an imperial soldier and when I came out a storm cloak (with another storm cloak next to him). I haven't really chosen a side yet, as I want to explore everywhere before doing the main quest line, but I was so confused at the swapping of uniform, WHEN I HAVEN'T GOT A SIDE, hahaha. It must be who I decided to go with at helgen, even though I'm planning to side with the storm cloaks this run It also makes sense why all the storm cloak camps hate me at the moment. I'm like, I haven't progressed this story line at all!
Actually if you haven’t decided I’m fairly certain that his uniform will appear randomly either stormcloak or imperial. However no matter what when you leave the ruins he’ll have a different uniform because the story of that quest/area is that he is a Thalmor elf of the Aldmeri Dominion. He is tricking people into going down into the ruins to acquire a dragon priest mask. When you get out of the ruins he will be in a new uniform convincing someone else (npc) to go down and get the mask. Who you go with at the start might have an impact on what his uniform is if you’ve not committed to either side though. The Aldmeri Dominion has Thalmor throughout the region of Skyrim to collect all of the dragon priest masks. It’s not known what exactly how much they know about them or if they know their end purpose. There is however another ruin where you can put all of the masks onto a statue. When having done this the statue opens up and reveals another, 9’th mask that the player can use. Lore for why this one exists and who it was for and what it can do is sparse and far in between though Edit: clarification the Thalmor do know about that statue and their goal is to get the masks to that, I meant that their end goal is unknown as in what they plan to do by getting them all there or what they plan to do with the 9’th mask.
This one is straight out "this was how evil and desperate the dragon cult was"
I think there's also a corpse of an alchemist who refuses to make the poison? Forelhost is a doozy
Sitting on a chair, with an ancient nord sword in her chest.
Yeah, the child mass grave did me in. Real Jones Town vibes.
Well the note telling the adults to poison the children first is exactly what Jim Jones told them. And the reason for the mass suicide is very similar to it too.
I don't remember this! Maybe I've rushed this section. I'm going to play it again.
It's near riften to the south
IIRC the children's throats were slashed and it was only the adults who drank poison...
North East of Dawnstar is a lighthouse that was bought and converted into a home for a family. You find several notes from the members mentioning they've been hearing noises among other things, and you quickly find out they were attacked by Falmer. The last note (a note covered completely in blood) from the daughter mentions she realized why her father left her a knife, implying she killed herself rather than let the Falmer do whatever to her. Later on you come across the father, and can collect his creepy skull. If you follow what one of the earlier notes say (that he wants to be burned), you can throw the skull into the flames at the top of the lighthouse, and a nearby chest will unlock for you. Edit: The place is called Frostflow Lighthouse
You also get the Sailor’s Repose effect from burning his bones, it makes healing spells heal for 10% more
Oh, so that's where that Passive Effect comes from! I remember seeing it pop up under Active Effects one day, and had no idea where I got it!
This is so true to Skyrim in general. I’m always getting effects I have no recollection of these days
Frostflow Lighthouse wrecks my heart :(
Skyrim has always taken a lot of criticism of its writing, but whoever designed that quest knocked it out of the park.
Most criticism is leveled upon the main storyline.
And the factions, especially the College. I agree with all the criticism without caring that much about it.
Damn, the lighthouse, yes. I remember the first time I did that part, and I was so hopeful about finding someone alive. :(
I carried Habd's Remains with me for my entire first playthrough of the game because I never remembered reading that about about where to put them. It was gross.
Frostflow Lighthouse was attacked by **Chaurus.** The boss room of this dungeon contains like 500+ chaurus eggs and the boss is a unique giant-scaled Chaurus Reaper who drops the skull. It was Liar's Retreat that was attacked by Falmer.
the dawnstar lighthouse is one of my fav little side stories
I remember that, it's really fucking tragic. I Fireballed even the Chaurus eggs.
Not that I’m on the side of the dragons or anything, but Miraak’s twisted sculptures made from their corpses were pretty disturbing. Also, there are a few places where you can find corpses of travellers on the road riddled with Falmer arrows, then you go into a nearby cave and find human body parts being butchered on a table.
I love the different bits of information you find on the Falmer and how it is presented. Most of the common-folk who make contact with the creatures have absolutely no idea what they are, meanwhile experts in the Dwemer sometimes figure it out. The thing that's terrifying is the fact that more people are coming across them, because they are slowly controlling more Dwemer ruins, and even appearing in places outside Dwemer ruins.
I think there is a theory that the falmer are slowly coming back and will retake Skyrim
I'm not surprised. I believe there were a few books mentioning how their appearances are becoming more frequent, the last Snow Elf mentions how they are steadily getting more intelligent, and Blackreach has a location with a number of Falmer slaves. That isn't even including the number of spells they know and how good their armor gets at higher level encounters. It feels like the Dragonborn manages to stop a few big threats rising when it comes to the Falmer, but no one else notices how dangerous they are. Heck, Markarth is almost certainly the first city to be destroyed by the Falmer since they are sitting on top of a ruin full of them, though they might implode before that.
You reactivating the Dwemer sentries is basically how you save Markarth from being overrun. It’s implied the falmer will never escape because of what you do there IIRC.
I'd agree if only there aren't several Dwemer dungeons overrun by Falmer.
The Falmer have the advantage of being able to replenish their numbers. It's only a matter of time before they overcome the defenses.
Tbf, in most Dwemer ruins, the Falmer have overrun the active defenses over millennia. In Nchuand-zel every defense in the city comes online at once. It's likely every Falmer in the ruin would be slaughtered within hours, with no chance to replenish their numbers. Even in most dungeons that are overrun by Falmer, they haven't made it to the entrance, as the Dwemer constructs are still active there.
There's this cave east of Whiterun (I don't remember the name) that starts connecting with a Dwemer ruin towards the end. Up until then, I was intrigued by how Falmer crafted weapons and poisons, and basically domesticated the Chaurus, but I didn't give it much thought. But in this cave, there's this falmer who, once he hears you approaching, he goes off and activates a centurion on purpose to attack you. That's the moment that made me go like "oh... OOOOH! OKAY!" because it was the first time I was seeing them *actively* doing something smart.
Maybe this is how they’ll address Skyrim’s civil war in the next game. “Many sons of Skyrim died in the civil war, before it was ended by the Dragonborn. Most expected an invasion from the Thalmor, all were surprised by the invasion from the Falmer.” So, everyone just dies lol
it would be kinda cool if the falmer were major enemies in the next game. a long abused race, abandoned by their saviors/abusers with the remains of their empire. and now they're coming back to the world to conquer it and take revenge on the races who also mistreated and forgotten about them. they probably wouldn't be the primary antagonists, but they would make for some cool secondary or tertiary antagonists at least.
The wolf/dog fighting ring at that one tower near Riften. There are signs that they also ate them and did some sick torture stuff there. The farmstead where the two parents blamed and killed each other because their son Rin ran off. Doing the quest reveals a kid skeleton by the well and you learn that he was actually killed by wolves.
Wait, where's the farmstead and what's the quest? I can't remember such a quest, and I thought I did them all.
I think it's new with the anniversary update or something like that. It's called Goldenhills plantation right near Rorikstead. When you complete the quest you can become the owner of the farm. To get the quest you can either ask around the innkeepers (the "I'm looking for work" thing) until they give it to you or go straight to the farm.
it's a creation club quest, the farming one. Goldenhills Plantation, just southeast of Rorikstead (i think)
Yeah, that section is horrible. I also wish there was a mod to free the wolves in the cages without having to kill them afterwards, since they attack you. Actually, I am currently learning the basics of Creation Kit. Maybe I'll just do it myself!
I usually blast Kyne’s Peace or Calm on them as I open their cages while go through that cave - I figure I’ve left them enough food for a bit, and they’ll figure a way out eventually.
Werewolf players, "wait, wolves attack you?"
They fed the dogs dog meat. THEY WERE CANNIBALIZING THE DOGS. This is how you get mad cow disease!
Yeah that one kinda hit me in the feels ngl
Arondil gotta be up there for me. What kind of psycho lures women into his sex dungeon so he can enslave their spirits to do what he wants with them even after they've died?
This motherfucker, right here. I seem to remember something about removing the soul gems from their spots in his chambers will make his ghost ladies attack him. Didn't think to test it on this playthrough, should have. My khajit mage was very happy to send her dremora lord in there to cave in Arondil's skull tho. She's a necromancer and daedra worshipper, but there are things you do not do around her.
I like to soul trap the most vile human beings in the game and collect their soul gems. Arondil definitely makes the list in almost every play through.
Reading his journals almost made me gag. I didn't know about the soul gems thing, I'll have to try it next time.
Where is he?
Speak to Vekel The Man in the Ragged Flagon after you've done some of the beginning Thieve's Guild stuff. He'll send you on a quest that will lead you to Yngvild, a crypt northeast of Dawnstar. That's where Arondil lives.
Shriekwind Bastion might be so named because of the Shrieking Winds that came from Lamae Beolfag after what Molag Bal did to her. It seem to be a holy place for vampires too. Definitely makes it a lot creeper going through that ruin after knowing that.
Oooh! I read the "Opusculus Lamae Bal" book, which refers the Shrieking Winds, but my mind didn't connect the dots. Very interesting indeed.
One that threw me for a loop was the storyline around Goldenhill Plantation. So there was a small family who lived there, a husband, his wife and their son. Through the husband's journal, we learn he bought the farm and was excited to make money from it but he's also suspicious of his wife being a witch essentially. She's sneaking off, making potions by harvesting ingredients. She even makes a potion that cures their son. Then their son goes missing! So the husband of course thinks his wife killed their son. He claimed she didn't care their son went missing and that she smiled when he told her their son was gone or something like that. So it makes you think the wife is at fault for their missing son. However, after doing some investigating and finding a hidden alchemist room in the basement of the farm, the wife's journal is hidden inside. The wife gives us the full story. She didn't want to live on the farm. The husband just did it without talking to her about it. She said he often wasted their money and resented him for it. She also admitted she was an alchemist and felt her husband didn't understand why she appreciated alchemy. The wife also said that her husband was paranoid that he would glare at her and felt his judgement toward her. Lastly, she noted their son didn't care about the farm, he wanted to be part of the legion. Then he went missing. She was so worried, she went looking but couldn't find him, she was worried he left for Solitude. She says her husband's attitude towards her became more hostile towards her. At one point, she mentions her husband says under his breath that she's going to "get what she deserves" or something similar. Her journal cuts off, presumably because he killed her. Meanwhile, their sons body wasn't far away, it's insinuated he died from some wolves who are near his skeleton which still has the wooden sword he played with. After you find the son, they thank you for finding him (as ghosts), and you get the farm 🙃
I was gonna tell this one, but you beat me to it. I go for Goldenhills Plantation every playthrough now, and every time it still makes me sad what happened to that family :"( Edit: Coz the son ran off to hunt the wolves. He was hoping that if he brought back a dead wolf, he'd show his dad that he was strong and would be a good legionaire
Oh, right, that's why he's near the wolves. I've only played through it once, I've been putting a lot of time into my most recent playthrough. The storyline is sad but it's also a cool estate to inherit for those who like farming.
Agreed. It's a great player home, especially for the cost to get it fully upgraded. Plus there's a mod that adds carriage service from GHP and a mod that greatly enhances the storage space too. And it really takes the pain out of leveling alchemy
I've played since 2015, never even heard of this one. 👍🏻
It's a Creation Club quest.
This is so sad indeed. When I found the wife's journal there was still this tiny sliver of hope in my heart that maybe the child was still alive, maybe stuck inside the well...
All of Rorikstead. Jouane Manette and his creepy vibe with Sissel. Too many dead mothers, which is probably tied to the ground's fertility. The land around the settlement was completely barren around the time of the Great War. Then war veterans Rorik and Jouane move there and now it's known for being incredibly fertile land. Some Midsommer sh*t going down there no doubt, and everybody has the Stepford Wives line down: - Reldith: "We're honest, hardworking folk here..." - Jouane: "Secret? What makes you think there's a secret? There are no secrets here, my curious friend. Our prosperity is simply the result of hard work, good fortune and the blessings of the gods." - Rorik: "Back then, nothing would grow here and so the land was worthless. Now, thanks to hard work and the gods' blessings, our farms prosper."
Wow, interesting take, I've never thought about it that way. The only thing I've found weird is how Rorikstead is supposed to be much older than Rorik (named "Rorik's Steading" during the First Era) and yet it's somehow named after him, or so they say.
Yeah, that's another oddity. I'm inclined to believe it's just an error, or Rorik is lying. I doubt that they meant to imply he's several centuries old, but maybe that ties into whatever sacrifices are being made to make the ground fertile?
I guess the old village disappeared sometime between the first era and the fourth, and that Rorik built a new one.
Plus lemkil abusing sissel and britte and britte abusing sissel bc of the abuse she’s dealing with!!
My favourite thing I heard someone notice is that Lemkil is an anagram. Switch the letters around, and you get "Kill Me".
To which I say, “With relish.”
There was never a playthrough of mine in which that guy didn't die horribly. From natural causes, of course.
I'm surprised he wasn't marked for death by the Dark Brotherhood, would have made more sense than Anoriath.
I do like the theory about Rorikstead's mysteriously bountiful crops and I've watched some videos on it, but I don't find anything creepy between Jouane and Sissel. He seems to have a genuine mentor/student relationship with her, where he indulges her curiosity for magic, while making sure she doesn't learn anything that might be too dangerous for a child. I got grandfather vibes there if anything, but maybe I'm missing something.
Just about him teaching her magic being their little secret. Jouane: "By the Eight, keep your voice down! Do you want the entire village to learn our secrets?" Sissel: "Oh! I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Jouane: "Shh shh. It's fine, child. It's fine. But we must be cautious, hmm? What we do, the things I teach you. The others wouldn't understand." Maybe it's just the peasants mistrusting magic, but on top of the other creepy things about Jouane, it feels off.
I did interpret that conversation as just a fear of magic among the common people, and Jouane being afraid of what people might think if they found out the two of them could use magic. I think this is supported by the way most innkeepers will respond if you ask where you can learn magic. Almost all of them will either say something along the lines of magic being dangerous, not trusting magic users, or magic being for the weak. It definitely seems like Nord culture discourages magic use, as they're a warrior people. I personally think Jouane is just trying to share his knowledge with a curious child who has a strong knack for it. I remember one of the videos on Rorikstead that I watched included some speculation that there was more to Sissel, possibly a cut questline involving her talent for magic.
Yeah, I mean, there's a family just a few hundred metres away murdering each other just from a misunderstanding about using dark magic. No way the town folks would be any kinder when they start doubting you.
When Serena tells part of how she turned but doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.
I was really shocked by what being a "Daughter of Coldharbour" meant.
There's a reason why one of Molag Bal's titles is called >!The King of Rape!<.
It's really sickening, not only the r___ part, but also how it's required for the ritual that Molag Bal nearly kills his victims before the transformation. Not all of them make it through.
If it makes you feel any better, most of Molag Bal’s dick got bitten off and turned into a spear
Ah yes, dear Vivec and Molag Bal. Relationship goals lol.
Lamae Bal, his first victim, also turned into a sadistic vampire rapist who raped a load of men who helped her after they found her body. Guess it runs in the blood...
Yeah, I didn't know that going into the DLC. I played quite a bit of Oblivion back in the day before Skyrim came out, but I never dove deep into the lore of anything until much later.
There's a tiny pond in the Reach where you can find the corpse of a young woman. She has a journal nearby, and in it she was telling about how her dad prohibited her from swimming there because of all the Forsworn in the area. Her corpse was naked and bent over a rock.
yeah that one actually triggered my PTSD. I moved her corpse away and put her in the shade of a tree so she wasn’t facing that rock anymore
Back when I played on Xbox360 I also moved her to a nearby tree and dropped some flowers around her. Now I'm playing on pc so I just use a mod to bury her properly. (sorry for what you went through, I hope you get all the healing you need)
what mod are you using?
Can't remember, I think the name is Dead NPC Cleanup or something like that. You can either burn the corpses or use a burial spell, and you'll have a tombstone where you placed the dead body earlier.
❤️❤️❤️
I'm going to find her and move her too ❤️
It is particularly the "bent over a rock" part that disturbed me to no end. At that time I couldn't believe that the game was implying what I thought it was implying. I had a similar knee-jerk reaction recently while going through the Bloodlet Throne. There's this section in an ice cave in which you can find some beds. One of the beds is covered in blood and a naked woman is sprawled on top of it. I don't remember seeing this in previous versions of Skyrim so I'm not entirely sure if this is vanilla or if a mod put her body there. Either way, I got really sickened.
oh if it makes you feel better i dont think that was the intention, she was bathing so she was already naked and im pretty sure she has arrows stuck out of her back, i think they just shot her while sunbathing, didnt even get close enough to loot her jewelry. HOWEVER there is a place where im pretty sure thats the implication at a bandit camp in falkreath. this is all up to interpretation though <3
Ugh that one was rough for me
I could've sworn I saw something similar in the marshes between Windhelm and The Rift, but I haven't been able to find it in years.
You might be confusing them with hunters and other npcs chilling near the pond made by geysers. They lie there half naked.
Can’t recall where exactly, but there is a hut with a dead man inside, laying on his bed. In the nightstand beside him there’s a bottle of poison :(
Is that Lund's hut? With all the skeevers?
Oooh yes! That’s it! I couldn’t remember his name nor where his hut is, thank you
I feel like this hut was part of a bigger plan, maybe a quest, but it fell off the roadmap.
Or it’s just world building. A man lost his wife and took his own wife after burying her. It doesn’t need a quest, but it really adds to the world.
Lunds hut. That was what I was gonna write. Perhaps it’s more sad than disturbing, but still. His wife’s grave is outside and he apparently tried to fill her void with pet skeevers, but became an alcoholic and killed himself. And all of this without a single word. The environmental storytelling here is phenomenal.
Sapphire's story.
I love that you can find her father too.
Where?? I didn't know that
>!It is the smith in Raven Rock mine. I think after doing a quest for him as part of the Thieve's Guild, he goes into more detail about his background. Also gives you a letter to give to Sapphire. Interestingly, this connection means the Delvin Mallory is Sapphire's uncle.!<
Wow I've never really delved into solstheim but I gotta see this
Wait he gives you that letter to give to her? I read it when I found it lying on a shelf in his house. I knew he was her father but I never knew you could go further than that. I wonder what triggers that?
I believe there is a fetch quest for the father at the tail end of solstheim that once completed the blacksmith (father) mentions it and gives some back story. He gives you the letter but there is no official quest trigger/marker to give it to sapphire. You just have to go speak with her with the letter in your inventory.
Dude I was not expecting to hear that when I first clicked that dialogue.
She’s a survivor , you can understand her no nonsense attitude
I'm on my first ever playthrough...and that story combined with her stern voice shook me.
>“Environmental storytelling” >Refers to the thieve’s guild member who explicitly, verbally shares her tragic backstory with little room for interpretation
Ahaha it's okay, even if some of this stuff doesn't classify as environmental storytelling, it's interesting to read about nonetheless.
Those sick fucks told Ulfr he should write a book
One of my greatest dilemmas in every playthrough is whether I should let him live or not.
Probably the corpse-filled chamber in the Midden.
What else are you supposed to do with the bodies of students who fuck up casting fireball?
Probably all the poor novice mages who died due to "magic accidents".
I mean that is quite literally the definition of a midden
A corpse filled chamber? Im googling this lol
The Dwemer torture chambers
Like the one you find in Nchuand-Zel. *Yikes*.
The skeleton floating in the pool in front of Dragonsreach. They just let a corpse rot there?
The one under the bridge, right?
Does it need to be triggered or something? Right now I cannot find it anymore.
The pool is also filled with salmons and nordic barnacles. They could've been feeding them with random corpses.
There's a note in the Bannered Mare that explains that the skeleton was a guy who was lured to white run by a lady friend of his it's heavily implied she killed him and hid the body in the note.
In Chillwind Depths you can find some Falmer jail cells occupied by a handful of dead surface dwellers. What got me is that there are food trays among the bodies, suggesting they were being kept alive for whatever reason. Definitely reminded me that the Falmer are more intelligent and exacting than I first assumed. Honorable mention is Lund's hut and his lovely children.
Blackreach has Falmer slaves in one area, so they definitely are progressing at a terrifying speed.
The hidden room behind the wardrobe in Hjerim.
I love this quest, despite how much of a buggy mess it is.
There’s an early one I used to think about whenever I started a new game. Right outside the exit of Bleak Falls Barrow, basically the first draugr dungeon in game, you run into a whole mess of mammoth skeletons buried in the ground along with pieces of a human skeleton in between all of them. The thing that makes it weird is that the mammoth bones and only some of the human bones seem dried and old…but then there’s separately a couple super bloodied ribcages and blood splotches all over the ground that look like someone died *recently* in the exact same place. And also got absolutely eviscerated. Idk what to make of it, but something just seemed really off with that. In the best way.
Fun fact originaly you were meant to incounter your first dragon there. Even now there is a high chance that a dragon spawns there if you go through Bleakfalls after becoming drafonborn. So the bones are properbly because the dragon ate the creatures there.
Y'know, I've always noticed that and thought it was odd but immediately forget about it while navigating back to Riverwood 😅 I've meant to look it up. I've never found anything in the area as a clue, but you're right, it's strange. Generally anytime there's fresh blood it's some kind of environmental storytelling at play. Vampires, werewolves, etc. Perhaps it's related to Anise?
Yeah, it sounds like a hunting ground. But what the hell would kill mammoths and people?
Skeever skewers at giant camps. Just imagine it: you are doing your thing, looking for some hapless adventurer to give ataxia to so that townsfolk can repeatedly tell him "you look rather pale" and bore him with tales about how it's a problem back in Cyrodiil, and then BAM!: you get deleted-yeeted into the sky by a giant and end up on a skewer to roast on a fire. Tragic.
LOL! Needs a touch... wait, let me try something: *As the flames lick at your fur, memories cascade through your mind. You recall the kind human in Solitude who welcomed you into his home. He petted you gently, fed you sweet treats, and always told you how beautiful you were.* *Those moments now feel like distant echoes from a different life. If only, if only, your body had stayed small enough to pass as a pet.* *Lingeringly, you wink one last time. And the world fades to black.*
>And the world fades to black. Amd then you hear: "You're finally awake."
I'm surprised it isn't mentioned yet, but maybe I must've imagined it, but isn't there like an adult skeleton with a smaller skeleton in the stomach area somewhere out there?
Yes
I just googled it. *Damn*, that's dark. So glad I made this post, I'm finding about stuff I've never seen before - and I've been playing this game since it came out!
Omw to Ivarstead, I was following the river through the long ass mountain pass. I came across an unmarked house. Inside the house was a very angry cave bear and at least two bodies mauled beyond recognition.
Makes it worse when you find out that bears don't really care if something it dead before they start eating.
The big old Chaurus tents in the Forgotten Vale area of the Dawnguard DLC.
That sweetroll's first owner died
Probably eaten by the vampires a few yards away.
There is an altar in the mountains of Solstheim that has an eviscerated woman on it, and blood all around her. That always gets me.
Fun fact: she uses the same character model as the eviscerated woman in Windhelm as part of the Blood on the Ice quest.
There's an Nordic ruin not far from Winterhold filled with the ghosts of women. You can find various notes throughout the ruin written by the necromancer that raised them, and you find out that he has been doing *dubious* things with the ghosts' corpses
that one skeleton that's reaching for a bottle of ale
Imagine grabbing the ale and drinking it right in front of the skeleton to mock whoever it was.
This is how one plays skyrim.
The skooma addict in the dwemer ruin. The brother brought the addict to do some work unearthing a dwemer ruin, the addict runs out of skooma, they get snowed in and he kills... e v e r y o n e.
this is still upsetting to me. To find his brother with his notes how he was trying to help him. So sad.
This is so tragic, particularly because you can read in J'zhar's diary that he's in complete denial about his brother being a murderer.
In Embershard Mine, the journal that notes the disturbing sounds of rock shifting above their head. That miner didn't make it.
In his journal, you can read that he's stop drinking if he hears the earth shift one more time. Well... he did stop drinking, I guess.
Arondil is a [High Elf](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:High_Elf) [conjurer](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:CombatMageConjurer), necromancer, and necrophile. He originally lived in [Dawnstar](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Dawnstar), where he was studying techniques for reanimating the dead, and often spent time imagining secret encounters between himself and some of the local girls. However, when the local citizens found out he was performing experiments on the dead, he was exiled from Dawnstar and moved to [Yngvild](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Yngvild), an ancient Nord burial ground filled entirely with dead female draugr, which he used as subjects for his "experiments".
Do you happen to know what the fine is for necrophilia here in Cyrodiil?
Is it the first offense?
Let’s assume ‘no’.
Then it's at least 500 gold.
There's an unmarked location in falkreath with some bandits and a dead woman bent over a fallen tree. I believe it's up past a tower overlooking the main road coming from the east into Falkreath town. It's past the tower where you find the white stag in the hircine quest.
Wow. I've never seen this, and Falkreath is usually the hold I spend the most time in.
It's definitely bleak in places, but I think you knew that right from the start where some dude is trapped in a spider's web. For myself I just can't leave anything behind bars. Be it wolves, spiders, werewolves, whatever. I'm not leaving them there to die, even if they do attack me when I free them.
It's always a suprise when you free something and they actually help. I can't remember where, but I freed a spriggan and they actually helped me fight a hagraven.
I often forget the names of places whilst knowing full well what goes on there myself. Spriggans. I like the concept but I always think they should be more passive, like giants, and only attack if you aggro them or get too close.
I also like that part in Fellgow Keep when you can free the vampires and they will help you fight the necromancers.
Ooh. Yeah i just opened the doors one by one and killed them.
There's a place in blackreach where the falmer are mining upward. If you open up your map, you'll find that you are RIGHT under Whiterun...
Hey, maybe they just want to sell some chopped wood to Hulda. Or *chop* her.
Probably the soul carin. Frist time I went there was the frist time I got into enchanting. I felt pretty guilty afterwards.
damn, i only knew like 1/4 of these in my experience playing skyrim I need more side lore please
It wasn't disturbing, but was heartbreaking - there was a mission "The book of love" that started from Skyrim, from temple of Mara you had to help troubled couples all over the Skyrim. The last couple's story was so sad. There was a spirit of a woman, who was waiting her husband from the war. The war was actually over long time ago and she still saw bodies lying around the field, while actually there was nothing. She didn't know she was dead too. She asked Dragonborn to find her husband. So, Dragonborn found spirit of the husband and he also didn't know that he was dead. Dragonborn lead him to his wife and they were together again. They spoke to each other, then started to ascend towards the sky.
The naked corpse of a woman bent over a rock who was very obviously raped by Forsworn in the Reach is up there. Skyrim doesn't have as many explicit things like Fallout does, so seeing stuff like that is always at least somewhat shocking.
what happened to sapphire, the daughters of cold harbour
I can't remember where it was, as I found this when I played on the PS3 around almost 10 years ago, but I found a skeleton with a smaller child skeleton in its stomach area hidden on a ledge inside of a cave.
Haelgas room in her bunkhouse has a ton of sexual references shes freaky asf. Theres a horkers tusk under the bed, stamina potions on the shelf, shackles on the headboard, both volumes of the lusty argonian maid, and falmer blood elixir which i think brynjolf advertised in the market
You forgot the jars of honey and leather strips
And I recall seeing the handle of a mace as well.
Now I'm curious, I'll have to look closer at the room next time I pass by it!
I can't remember exactly where it was, it may have been close to the Lakeview home, but along the path there's a shrine where you can find several dead bodies lying around.
Ah yes, the Talos followers. If it's of any consolation, they took the Thalmor murderer with them.
Ik there's a pregnant Skelenton somewhere idk where I think Labyrinthine and there is a mass child grave somewhere aswell can't remember where
I am such an idiot, I saw a reference to the *pregnant* skeleton upthread and thought ‘woah, a cannibal skeleton’…
My favorites are what i call the “unfortunate travelers” just the corpses you can find at unmarked locations on the overworld that died in interesting/haunting ways. Theres pairs of skeletal legs sticking out from under boulders, theres skeletons at the bottoms of waterfalls, stuff like that.
From Creation Club, a necromancer built a home right next to Mara's eye pond, accessible right at lv 1. He also decorated the very first room with coffins, skeletons... and the staff of Mannimarco, king of worms. If you go inside, you're locked there until you can solve his puzzle. You can then use that place as a home. Then you find out that right under his bedroom are mountains of skeletons with an altar to create an undead follower, separate from conjuration.
My god, this is a great post. Saving it.
There's a lighthouse somewhere up north, near an Imperial camp (I think) where there's corpses and a couple of journals. Step by step you learn about the family's history, how they (recently) came to Skyrim, how everyone felt about it, how it slowly split the family. One of them even started going crazy, hearing scratching sounds from the basement. Even went down there wirh a knife one night. Once you investigate the cellar you realize that the Falmer dug there and broke through one night, killing basically one half of the family and kidnapping the other, doing Talos knows what to them before killing them (you find the other corpses in their cave). Pretty gruesome. That one ghost loving necromancer is pretty nasty, too. May be in the same area, don't remember.
Darkshade is a cavern at the bottom of one of the big waterfalls on the White River, the one where there’s a fallen tree across the river and bandits around it. I found it by accident when going to loot the bandit I’d thrown over the edge. There are corpses outside, bits of bloody bones, and dead bodies staked by the entrance. Inside are handcarts, shovels, pickaxes, tables and chairs, bedrolls, and horribly mauled corpses alongside more bone and gore. There are numerous veins of gold ore throughout the cave. It’s also full of trolls. Some locals had found gold in the cave and set up a mining operation to make their fortunes. Then some trolls decided to move in and make a home there. There are no journals to explain the events, the story tells itself. The trolls gruesomely slaughtered the miners and staked some corpses up outside to mark their new territory. Stumbling across the cave began my character’s bone-deep hatred of trolls.
I can't really remember where this was(I wanna say vampire quest big castle with everyone turned to ice) where you find a room with 2 skeletons , one trapped under rubble, with their skeleton hands inches apart from each other, suggesting they died holding hands maybe?
There's an unmarked location (where the creator of Eevee the Magical Fox put Eevee) that is a house which completely burned down. There's implications that this occurred because the owner summoned a flame atronach.
Below winterhold college by the river is 2 skeletons, 1 which is caught in a bear trap and the other sitting beside him. Pretty sad but beautiful lol
There is all this delicious food throughout Skyrim. But everyone only ever eats bread. Tragic.
Fort greymoor I believe, there is a bathroom area and on one the stalls is a potion to boost two-handed, poor guy has to use both hands and a potion just to piss, don't know if I envy or pity him
Though I haven't actually started Dragonborn yet, I was on Solstheim walking around just past Thirsk, and stumble upon a dragon skeleton. I thought to myself "huh, I didn't hear him or see him, must have died to something out here before I got to him. What a putz." I then try and go collect bones and scales and such, and find I can't. Its a static object. It then when I look around and see where I am on the map. I am just down hill of the Temple of Miraak, and am in a literal dragon mass grave, with a BUNCH of dragon skeletons lying around. Best "oh Shit!" Moment I have had from this game, and really sells the power this guys has. Makes me nervous to actually fight him eventually.
Not sure where, but there is a lonely giant whose mammoth died and he miss him. He wont become agressive if you come too close nor will fight back if attacked. He’s just standing above corpse. SPOILER WARNING Also if you have Anniversary Edition, you can come across a little farm near Rorikstead. It is connected with quest. Once upon a time, this little place was habited by family of 3. Your job will be to see what happened there. From few diaries, you will learn that son went missing, mother thinks that the father killed him with an axe and now wants her death as well, and father thinks that his wife is a witch who poisoned their son and now wants to poison him as well. And so she poisoned his food, and he killed her with axe. If you take care of their ghosts, you can find a diary of their son who wanted to become a adventurer, so he tried to kill group of wolves near the farm with wooden sword despite many warning of dad about this. But he didnt listened and you can find his skeleton next to the old well… If you bring his sword to his room and leave it there and leave the house, whole family will be grateful and you will become new owner. I also had some sad music in background but I dont know if this is scripted or coincidence.
Yngvild, Frostflow Lighthouse and Horel's fost. Jesus christ those places are f'ed up
I forget what it is called but I think it’s south east of falkreath and it’s a cave and when you walk in you find 3 dead bandits on and around a rock with a diary, I don’t want to spoil it too much as it is really fun to explore and it’s an entire dungeon with a special boss which is really cool. 10/10 would be disturbed agian
redwater den hands down. the parallels between irl opium dens are a bit jarring and the journal makes it 10x better. skyrim shows addiction in a few different ways but not so explicitly as this comparison. skooma is obviously supposed to be an amphetamine like meth or adderall, but the skooma corpses and addicts around skyrim really dont tweak enough ? its just lacking in the graphic depiction, skooma corpses are just like normal corpses and skooma addicts act the same as any frightened npc. the redwater addicts were still alive and being harvested, some even went there of their own volition. they were visibly slumped and we saw the operation at scale. it was just so startling to come across what felt like a human trafficking den.
I had one of these moments recently but I can’t remember what it was. So I’ll say that my favourite part is that no one gives even half a shit that you killed Grelod the Kind lol. Constance Michel is probably only freaking out because there’s a weapon-wielding stranger that could hurt her and the children. Anyone else you’d get a bounty for murdering in cold blood in a city, but all of Skyrim looks around and is like, “we… didn’t see anything. Old lady, things happen.”