History Fridge / TheElderScrollsVSkyrim

* The fact that King Olaf's tomb in Dead Men's Respite is crawling with draugr (including himself) seems to indicate one of two things: Either that made-up story about him making a pact with Numinex [[AccidentalTruth isn't that far off]], or the ancient dragons have ways of turning Nord corpses into draugr despite the victim [[ReforgedIntoAMinion having never served them in life.]] And then there's the revelation that Alduin has been consuming the souls of the newly dead in Sovngarde. Perhaps this allows him some degree of control over the bodies originally belonging to those souls? On the other hand, you meet Olaf himself in Sovngarde, and he seems no worse for wear, and a lot nicer than his draugr counterpart. So what exactly is inhabiting his corpse back in the real world that would account for the personality change?

* The fact that King Olaf's tomb in Dead Men's Respite is crawling with draugr (including himself) seems to indicate one of two things: Either that made-up story about him making a pact with Numinex [[AccidentalTruth isn't that far off]], or the ancient dragons have ways of turning Nord corpses into draugr despite the victim having never served them in life. And then there's the revelation that Alduin has been consuming the souls of the newly dead in Sovngarde. Perhaps this allows him some degree of control over the bodies originally belonging to those souls?

* There is some debate over whether ''Dovahkiin'' means "Dragonborn" (as used by everyone who doesn’t use the "''Dovahkiin''") or "Dragonkind Hunter Born" (which uses three words, just as with dragon names, and every dragon seems to view you as another dragon). But it actually makes perfect sense for the word to mean ''both''. A "''Dovah''" (Dragon) is also a "''Dov Ah''" (Dragonkind Hunter), because dragons are constantly struggling for dominance over each other, and the only thing that can hunt a dragon is another dragon. The army of mortals cannot hurt the dragon, so they can't really hunt it either. All they can do is weaken it so it is easier for an actual threat to come and slay it. The Dragonborn is described as having the soul of a dragon, so they essentially ''are'' a dragon.

* The rightmost skill in each of the FighterMageThief categories in the skill perk constellation screen is a skill in one category, but may be highly useful in the archetype purview directly to the right; Alchemy is in the Thief purview but is often also a Mage discipline, Enchanting is useful for Warrior types who want magic effects but not spells, and Archery gives warriors range power otherwise available only to Mage ranged casters, but is also useful for the Thief purview since you can strike hidden from afar. This also goes for the leftmost skill as well, Light Armor is an acceptable alternative to warriors who want protection but not the negative effects on Heavy Armor, Smithing not only creates weapons and armor but also jewelry as well so you can use them for enchanting as well as most mages in game carrying a dagger as a backup weapon for mages who have to recharge magicka, and Illusion includes muffling sounds and invisibility, something handy for thieves.
* You may notice that you can't fast travel to any of the Hold capitals, even though they're marked on your map, until you have actually been there once. This may seem strange to players of ''Oblivion'', because in that game you not only knew their locations, but you could fast travel to the main cities. This is because the game begins shortly after you first crossed the border from Cyrodiil, where you have been for perhaps your entire life, and it's entirely possible that you've never once been to Skyrim. Of course you wouldn't know how to get anywhere! Kudos, Bethesda. That, and there's the other, teeny-tiny fact that the entire province would be under ''martial law'', and aside from the regular troubles regular overland travel of that scope likely broke down, what with the fighting and the searches the two sides would logically have to search for and stop any unwanted guests. This, by extension, forces the player to actually get in the hard way. After all, if fast travel was enabled for the Hold capitals and the like, what'd prevent a card-carrying and ''well known'' member of the Legion from walking up to Ulfric's doorstep for whatever reason (and vice-versa with a Stormcloak in the areas under Imperial control). Even at the height of the Oblivion Crisis, it was always characterized as an external invasion with the help of a handful of quislings from the Mythic Dawn, and by and large anybody with a pulse was welcome. The civil war in Skyrim is a good old fashioned war in Mundus, and so there's far more incentive to take security precautions against infiltrators.
* One thing that's raised a few eyebrows is the way the Smithing perk tree works. Dragon Armor requires a Smithing skill of 100 to forge, even though it's statistically inferior to Daedric armor, which only requires 90. Turns out there's probably a good reason for this: because dragons are so rare in Tamriel, and have only recently begun to appear in mass numbers, hardly any smith has any experience working with dragon bones and scales! The most recently known case of such an armor was the Dragonbone Cuirass forged near the beginning of the Third Era, about 600 years before the events of ''Skyrim''. Your character needs to effectively invent the technique on their own, and to do that, they need to be a master smith!

* It's rather confusing at first, in both ''Skyrim'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]],'' to find that Skooma has no negative effects on the player when used. That is, until you meet an Argonian fisher in Riften who needs a healing potion to break the crippling habit the drug causes. No wonder [=PCs=] never get addicted to Skooma -- they drink healing potions like mead.

* Mercer Frey gets through doors that need keys despite not having the keys himself - he even picks open an ancient Nord puzzle door that would normally require a special sculpted dragon claw. Well, he's the Guild Master of Thieves, and so it's just plot-related NPC superpowers, right? Wrong. ''He's using the Skeleton Key,'' and ensures you don't find out by tossing off remarks about the locks just "having a trick" to them that you're too inexperienced to know.

* The battles in the Civil War questline are disorganized melees involving a few dozen participants that don't much resemble the massed-formation fights of real medieval warfare. This is, of course, due to engine limitations... But then you remember that this is a setting in which battlemages and Voice users can kill dozens of men at once with area-of-effect attacks, and god-like champions could wipe out an entire army if too many troops were committed to a single attack. It might very well be that this is just how war is conducted in Tamriel.

* Most, if not all, of the Silver Hand wear fur armour. What kind of fur is never specified, but given what goes on in their strongholds... it doubles as Fridge Horror.

* Why does the Dark Brotherhood never show up to answer Aventus Aretino's Black Sacrament? Simple - no Listener to learn of it from the Night Mother. Adults would know well enough to try contact the assassins in a more personal manner, but Aventus is a child so he'd be more inclined to believe the old tales on how to summon the Brotherhood.
** While they may not have been able to respond at first due to not having a Listener, Astrid confirms that the Brotherhood did become aware of Aventus. They simply choose not to respond since he couldn't pay.
* Since the Dark Brotherhood are no longer in contact with the Night Mother, they no longer have a divine all-seeing being around to tell them when a ritual has been performed; instead, they have to rely upon word of mouth now to get contracts, so getting decent work is much harder. The Night Mother is the one who tells the Brotherhood when somebody murders someone too, so without her around it's much more difficult to recruit new members. Then there's all the ChronicBackstabbingDisorder going on at the same time. Thus, taken together we see exactly why the Brotherhood is in sharp decline during the time of the game as opposed to previously.
* When creating your character, scars mostly go on the left side of the face. Most people in Skyrim are right-handed, and so any blow struck by them would inflict wounds which then leave scars on the left side of their opponent.

* You're charged for assault if you directly attack Thalmor, but the guards won't charge you for murder if you kill Thalmor. That's because ''everyone in Skyrim hates the Thalmor'', but they have to charge you for ''something'' for attacking them. The guards also won't raise a finger if the Thalmor attack you first (unless you're Thane, in which case they ''help you'') - again, because the guards really hate the Thalmor.
* Notice that after you deliver Klimmek's supplies to the chest outside High Hrothgar, they never seem to be removed by the Greybeards? Well, that could be because the Greybeards are using the chest (which is outside in the snow) as a fridge.

* The first part of his name is "Ambition", which seems kinda odd in that he doesn't have any sort of desire for anything other than sitting on his mountain top teaching old men. However, this is perhaps the most ambitious act of all dragons: to defy the traditions laid down by the Firstborn of Akatosh and to train the very enemies of his race in their own tongue. Quite ambitious from a Draconic perspective. Moreover, he has the Ambition to eventually become the leader of all Dovah, which would require killing Alduin. He openly works with three warriors hell-bent on killing dragons in ancient times, and later the Dovahkiin who could kill him and eat his soul, and FromACertainPointOfView, manipulates all of them into defeating Alduin for him, since he cannot win by himself. MagnificentBastard indeed...

* A minor one happens right at the introduction: while riding the cart to Helgen, Lokir begs the Divines to help him. As soon as he gets off the cart, though, he tries to flee and gets shot down by Imperial archers. Not ten minutes later, Alduin shows up and destroys Helgen; had Lokir not ran, he might have had a chance to escape Helgen alongside the Dovahkiin and Hadvar or Ralof, or even General Tullius, who also survived the attack. Considering the Dovahkiin was in Helgen mostly through divine intervention - a case of being exactly where they were needed when they were needed - one could argue that the Divines **didn't** abandon Lokir and did try to save him, but [[TooDumbToLive he died because he made a stupid decision]] - there's only so much divine intervention can do to protect you from your own choices, and the Nine act in much more subtle ways than the Daedra, rarely, if ever, directly intervening.

* A minor one happens right at the introduction: while riding the cart to Helgen, Lokir begs the Divines to help him. As soon as he gets off the cart, though, he tries to flee and gets shot down by Imperial archers. Not ten minutes later, Alduin shows up and destroys Helgen; had Lokir not ran, he might have had a chance to escape Helgen alongside the Dovahkiin and Hadvar
/Ralof, or even General Tullius, who also survived the attack. Considering the Dovahkiin was in Helgen mostly through divine intervention - a case of being exactly where they were needed when they were needed - one could argue that the Divines **didn't** abandon Lokir and did try to save him, but [[TooDumbToLive he died because he made a stupid decision]] - there's only so much divine intervention can do to protect you from your own choices, and the Nine act in much more subtle ways than the Daedra, rarely, if ever, directly intervening.

* Some of the things you'll be able to loot from Bandit camps after getting ''Hearthfire'' include children's clothes and toys. [[AdultFear Think about that for a second...]]

* While most games have autosaving as just a stock game mechanic, there's an in-universe explanation for it in ''Skyrim''. The dragon blood is a gift from Akatosh, the Divine of Time, and he gave it to you because he needs you to use it. If you do end up dying, either by chance or by doing something catastrophically stupid, Akatosh will use his power to turn back time so the Dragonborn can try again, while preserving the memory of what went wrong the first time in the hopes of it not being repeated. Manual saving works on a similar principle: the Dragonborn is giving a quick prayer to Akatosh, asking for his protection.

* Upon entering Riften, you'll be stopped at the gate by a pair of guards giving you a shakedown. However, particularly cunning players can avoid this by either sneaking in through the dock side of the meadery or getting arrested elsewhere in the Rift. The brilliance comes in when you consider that this means you can get into the city with the Thieves' Guild for free by being persuasive (talking to the guards), a sneak, or getting caught in a crime, all of which fit in pretty well under the Thief playstyle.

** This goes a way in explaining why no matter what, Brynjolf will decide to approach the Dragonborn and offer them a position in the guild: no matter how you got into Riften, you demonstrated a sharp mind that could be used for thievery. Whether the Dragonborn persuaded, intimidated, or paid their way past the guards, they always point out that it was a clear shakedown. If they bypassed it by going through he meadery, they still proved themselves to have a sharp mind by thinking to do so in the first place.

* The dungeon to which you're sent is randomly selected, but that doesn't detract from the Fridge Horror-ness of it any, when you think about what bandits or warlocks could do with that spell. Bandits would probably use it to make people hand over their money. No point risking their lives when they can just get it for free, and it leaves no physical evidence of their crimes. Their money and their... "dignity". They are bandits, after all.

* If you start wandering Skyrim before completing "Dragon Rising" you may be wondering why all the talk of dragons when you've only seen the one (or none, if using Alt. Start mods). Dragons will not spawn at all until "Dragon Rising" is completed. While this is likely to keep things from getting broken, there is an in-universe reason why. Alduin's fatal flaws are hubris and cowardice, which is what leads him to try to enslave Nirn rather than eat it, as he is supposed to do. It stands to reason then that, since he's the one who brings the dragons back to life, until you kill a dragon and eat it's soul, Alduin is content to mosie about without having to fight all the other dragons for power. Once he's sure that you ''didn't'' die at Helgen, then he starts bringing the dragons back hoping one of them kills you.

* When the Dragonborn summons Odahviing and Durnehviir, the Dragonshout is simply calling out their names, because Dragons are so prideful they ''cannot'' fail to respond to someone issuing a challenge. Now remember what Paarthurnax said about the Dragonborn being subject to the same innate urges as Dragons? When the Greybeards summoned the Dovahkiin to High Hrothgar for training, they did the exact ''[[NotSoDifferent same]]'' thing!

* Paarthurnax says in the end that he'll urge other dragons to follow the Way of the Voice: seclusion, non-violence, quiet meditation. It makes dragons safer (and, arguably, better) creatures, since they won't be attacking holds or travelers, but it comes at the cost of suppressing their natural hunger for domination every single day. Odahviing warns that not every dragon will follow the "tyranny of the Voice", and that's when it hits: the conflict the dragons face is peace and prosperity at the cost of denying their own nature, versus being true to themselves and causing violence and destruction. [[NotSoDifferent Where have we seen this conflict before?]]

This is also reflected in the changes to the mage classes' skill trees, specifically the removal of mysticism. The other skills are practical skillsets that could be used for the purposes of a career. Mysticism more aligns with religion and spirituality, so naturally the various mage organizations would disconnect from them if they're concerned about their careers, since they're more likely to work in intellectual pursuits or combat applications (such as battlemages or clerics). If the latter goes away, they need mages to be more TheSmartGuy and less TheHeart, especially since the Thalmor managed to get Talos worship outlawed! How long until another divine is on the chopping block? Mages are being practical: [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything don't get a degree in religious studies or philosophy, learn a trade!]]

* The reason for Wyndelius' insanity. While it's possible that his own concoction of invisibility potion was responsible for his insanity, another more terrifying possibility might be the cause. He spent a year in Shroud Hearth Barrow, slowly forgetting his motivations for being there (the Dragonclaw), but finding himself unable to leave, before eventually becoming consumed with a need to protect the Barrow against all intruders. Sound familiar? It's also the same behaviour that the draugr display! While the assumption is that the draugr are cursed for being allied with Dragon-Priests, the game states that this is ''only'' a theory and it's not fully understood how they became what they are. The possibility that they might be capable of slowly brainwashing anyone who enters suddenly makes barrows exponentially creepier to visit.

* There is a book in the game called the ''Red Kitchen Reader''. It talks about how the writer, as a boy, once wandered into an abandoned house in Cheydinhal. Hearing a sound and thinking some bullies had followed him in, he ran outside and escaped into a well right beside the house. At the bottom of the well he found an entire sub-basement with a "red painted kitchen", where he discovered some unknown chunks of meat roasting on the oven, and ate it all. He considered staying to ask the owners of the subbasement what the delicious meat was and what their secret was, but decided to leave. He never found that house again, but became a famous food connoisseur, traveling around Skyrim and sampling local cuisine. People who have only played ''Skyrim'' and read the book probably thought nothing of it, but ''Oblivion'' players will no doubt cringe upon realising that the boy had stumbled into a Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, that the "red paint" was probably blood and that he might have just eaten cooked human flesh. The author has no idea how lucky he was...

* There is a book in the game called the ''Red Kitchen Reader''. It talks about how the writer, as a boy, once wandered into an abandoned house in Cheydinhal. Hearing a sound and thinking some bullies had followed him in, he ran outside and escaped into a well right beside the house. At the bottom of the well he found an entire sub-basement with a "red painted kitchen", where he discovered some unknown chunks of meat roasting on the oven, and ate it all. He considered staying to ask the owners of the subbasement what the delicious meat was and what their secret was, but decided to leave. He never found that house again, but became a famous food connoisseur, traveling around Skyrim and sampling local cuisine.
* People who have only played ''Skyrim'' and read the book probably thought nothing of it, but ''Oblivion'' players will no doubt cringe upon realising that the boy had stumbled into a Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, that the "red paint" was probably blood and that he might have just eaten cooked human flesh. The author has no idea how lucky he was...

Spears and polearms in general are not encountered in Skyrim, and there's actually some very good reasons for this:

* How does Babette survive the destruction of the Dark Brotherhood in both scenarios, aside from Bethesda's policy of [[InfantImmortality no child killing]] in any of their games? It's possibly foreshadowed by one of conversations with the Dragonborn if they join, where she recites a rehearsed story about how her parents were killed by the Dark Brotherhood and she was taken captive, before laughing at how easily people fall for her [[BeneathSuspicion innocent little girl]] routine. Yet with the numerous purges that the Brotherhood have suffered in the three hundred years she's been a member, it makes sense that Babette's probably had to use that story more than once already, allowing people to think she was merely a captive and give her a chance to escape.

The spear is also a weapon used by levies of poorly-trained civilians and militia. While historically there certainly were professional spear units in various armies, by and large the spear was the weapon of the quickly-assembled and quickly-trained levy of peasant militia. Units of soldiers armed with swords, axes, maces, and the like were usually professional soldiers and mercenaries who were trained in their use through long practice. But the Empire's military ''isn't'' a force of civilian militia - it's a disciplined, well-trained Legion of light and heavy infantry based on the Roman Legions, which were a heavy infantry force. And in Skyrim, ''everyone'' knows how to fight, because of how harsh and dangerous their homeland is, and how torn with internal strife it often tends to be. By a combination of environment and culture, the Nords of Skyrim formed a society with a strong martial tradition built from the ground up, and not dominated by the nobility as medieval armies were (and see the above point on cavalry; historically, heavy cavalry dominated through the medieval and Renaissance periods, which would further cement noble dominance, but that hasn't happened in Tamriel - especially in Skyrim - due to terrain and government factors). Lightly-trained peasant militia don't exist, and therefore the typical medieval infantry made of peasant spearmen wouldn't manifest, simply because everyone in Skyrim is battle-ready and usually well-armed to begin with, and Imperial doctrine doesn't use peasant levies.

* Spears and polearms in general are not encountered in Skyrim, and there's actually some very good reasons for this.
The primary use for a spear, in war, is against cavalry. If you look at Skyrim's terrain, you'll likely notice that it's very mountainous, and where there's no mountains, there's either thick woods, marshes, or rocky plains. None of this is terrain where cavalry would be very useful, and is definitely terrain where you're much more likely to see infantry combat. That's why swords, axes, and hammers/maces are the favored weapons of the Nords. This terrain is also reflected in the Nords' horse breeding, as the Skyrim horses are bred not for power and speed but endurance and ability to navigate rough terrain. These are horses bred to move around in hard ground, not for cavalry charges.

* Spears and polearms in general are not encountered in Skyrim, and there's actually some very good reasons for this:

* The rightmost skill in each of the FighterMageThief categories in the skill perk constellation screen is a skill in one category, but may be highly useful in the archetype purview directly to the right; Alchemy is in the Thief purview but is often also a Mage discipline, Enchanting is useful for Warrior types who want magic effects but not spells, and Archery gives warriors range power otherwise available only to Mage ranged casters, but is also useful for the Thief purview since you can strike hidden from afar.