History YMMV / TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs:
** ''The 36 Lessons of Vivec'': Whiskey, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, a single-session read of Alistair Crowley's ''The Book Of The Law'' (of which the 36 Lessons contains several direct references such as "I am not of the slaves that perish") and being naked in a dark room lit only by the glow of a word processor on a computer screen is the apocryphal account of how Kirkbride came up with it, but it's unknown whether this is true.
** ''Ruminations on the Elder Scrolls'' in ''Skyrim'' was actually written by an author who ''was'' on something. An actual Elder Scroll is, apparently, one ''hell'' of a drug. [[spoiler: If you use the Elder Scroll you get during ''Skyrim'' any other time besides learning the Dragonrend Shout, you find out that it is indeed one ''hell'' of a (fortunately brief) trip.]]

* ParanoiaFuel: ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader'' ends with the VillainProtagonist stating he has a lock-pick, stating how poorly maintained the door to his prison cell is, and threatening the reading the reader. Especially if you're playing as beast-race. The only consolation is that if you're reading it in ''Skyrim'', the Fur Trader is probably long dead. If you're reading it in ''Online'', on the other hand...

* CompleteMonster:
** ''[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Horror_of_Castle_Xyr The Horror at Castle Xyr]]'': [[AristocratsAreEvil Sedura Iachilla Xyr]], wife of the preeminent lord of Castle Xyr and seemingly TheGhost at first, turns out to be a TortureTechnician with a scientific interest in Destruction magic. In correspondence with a fellow necromancer, Iachilla purchases innocent slaves and magically [[CruelAndUnusualDeath tortures them to death in every way imaginable]]. Castle Xyr's cellar is bloated with victims melted, frozen, electrocuted, torn apart and sewn back together, and among her victims is her own maid Anaram whom Iachilla slowly poisoned to death so [[KillAndReplace she could impersonate her]].
** ''[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Khajiit_Fur_Trader Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader]]'': [[AntagonistTitle The Fur Trader]] was a former Khajiit vagrant and robber who [[FromNobodyToNightmare became something much worse]] after a botched heist. Discovering that a Trader would pay much more for his deceased brother's pelt, the Fur Trader took that trade to an art form, [[SapientFurTrade killing countless others to sell their skins for profit]]. Eventually, the Fur Trader had managed to gather enough gold to hire others to do his work for him, stalking the alleys and forest roads to harvest innocent people's skins. Despite being captured and tried for execution, the Fur Trader intends on breaking out of his prison and continuing the trade, not intending to stop until his demise and leaving behind a horrific legacy.

* OlderThanTheyThink: InUniverse. ''The Sultry Argonian Bared'' seems like a RuleSixtyThree adaptation of ''The Lusty Argonian Maid'', and it is...of the original, ancient play who both where based on and whose script has seemingly been lost to time. ''The Sultry Argonian Bard'' predates the Crassius Curio play by 800 years.

** ''The 36 Lessons of Vivec''. Somebody must have found some interesting substances before writing those.
*** Whiskey, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, a single-session read of Alistair Crowley's ''The Book Of The Law'' (of which the 36 Lessons contains several direct references such as "I am not of the slaves that perish") and being naked in a dark room lit only by the glow of a word processor on a computer screen is the apocryphal account of how Kirkbride came up with it. Unknown whether this is true.
** ''Ruminations on the Elder Scrolls'' in ''Skyrim'' was actually written by an author who ''was'' on something. An actual Elder Scroll is, apparently, one ''hell'' of a drug.
*** [[spoiler: If you use the Elder Scroll you get during ''Skyrim'' any other time besides learning the Dragonrend Shout, you find out that it is indeed one ''hell'' of a (fortunately brief) trip.]]

* ParanoiaFuel: ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader'' ends with the VillainProtagonist stating he has a lock-pick, stating how poorly maintain the door to his prison cell is, and threatening the reading the reader. Especially if you're playing as beast-race. The only consolation is that if you're reading it in ''Skyrim'', the Fur Trader is probably long dead. If you're reading it in ''Online'', on the other hand...

* CompleteMonster: "[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Horror_of_Castle_Xyr The Horror at Castle Xyr]]" InGameNovel: [[AristocratsAreEvil Sedura Iachilla Xyr]], wife of the preeminent lord of Castle Xyr and seemingly TheGhost at first, turns out to be a TortureTechnician with a scientific interest in Destruction magic. In correspondence with a fellow necromancer, Iachilla purchases innocent slaves and magically [[CruelAndUnusualDeath tortures them to death in every way imaginable]]. Castle Xyr's cellar is bloated is victims melted, frozen, electrocuted, torn apart and sewn back together, and among her victims is her own maid Anaram whom Iachilla slowly poisoned to death so [[KillAndReplace she could impersonate her]].

** A Scholars Guide to Nymphs: A relatively obscure [[Videogame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]] book which is a standard academic paper on a scholar finding and befriending a nymph. It all seems to be well... until you reach a particularly scary addendum where [[spoiler: the story ends with an editor's note stating that said scholar vanished from civilization shortly after writing the paper, where his current whereabouts are unknown. Just what happened to him, did the Nymph kill him? Or did something worse happen...]]

** In the second book of ''The Feast of Saint Coellicia'', the first course includes a dish referred as "drowned garnetbeaks", which consists in an unspecified kind of animal (presumably birds) killed by being drowned in wine, then plucked and eaten whole while weearing a cloth draped around your head (to trap the alcohol's vapors from the meat, and to prevent organs and juice to be spilled while eating them). The whole entry is a completely accurate depiction of a real life French delicacy cooked from the ortolan bunting, a small species of European passerine bird. The last sentence, stating this practice has drove the garnetbeaks to extinction, also refers to the fact that the ortolan bunting is now legally classified as a threatened species.

* GeniusBonus: The narrative in ''Hallgerd's Tale'' appears to be inspired by something that [[https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/55717-the-7-weirdest-sex-stories-of-the-ancient-world.html reportedly happened]] between [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Emperor Marcus Aurelius of Rome and his queen Faustina]].

* CrazyAwesome: Vivec in ''The 36 Lessons of Vivec''.

* CompleteMonster: "[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Horror_of_Castle_Xyr The Horror at Castle Xyr]]" InGameNovel: [[AristocratsAreEvil Sedura Iachilla Xyr]], wife of the preeminent lord of Castle Xyr and seemingly The Ghost at first, turns out to be a Torture Technician with a [[ForScience scientific interest]] in Destruction magic. In correspondence with a fellow {{necromancer}}, Iachilla purchases innocent slaves and magically [[CruelAndUnusualDeath tortures them to death in every way imaginable]]. Castle Xyr's cellar is bloated is victims melted, frozen, electrocuted, torn apart and sewn back together, and among her victims is her own maid Anaram whom Iachilla slowly poisoned to death so [[KillAndReplace she could impersonate her]].

*** Whiskey, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, a single-session read of Alistair Crowley's ''The Book Of The Law'' (of which the 36 Lessons contains several direct references such as 'I am not of the slaves that perish") and being naked in a dark room lit only by the glow of a word processor on a computer screen is the apocryphal account of how Kirkbride came up with it. Unknown whether this is true.

*** Whiskey, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, a single-session read of Alistair Crowley's Literature/TheBookOfTheLaw (of which the 36 Lessons contains several direct references such as 'I am not of the slaves that perish") and being naked in a dark room lit only by the glow of a word processor on a computer screen is the apocryphal account of how Kirkbride came up with it. Unknown whether this is true.

*** Whiskey, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, a single-session read of Alistair Crowley's TheBookOfTheLaw (of which the 36 Lessons contains several direct references such as 'I am not of the slaves that perish") and being naked in a dark room lit only by the glow of a word processor on a computer screen is the apocryphal account of how Kirkbride came up with it. Unknown whether this is true.

** ''Ruminations on Elder Scrolls'' in ''Skyrim'' was actually written by an author who ''was'' on something. An actual Elder Scroll is, apparently, one ''hell'' of a drug.

*** Whiskey, cigarettes and being naked in a dark room is the apocryphal account of how Kirkbride came up with it. Unknown whether this is true.

* FridgeHorror: ''The Red Kitchen Reader'' becomes a lot creepier when you realize the author's description of the "Red Kitchen" in Cheydinal [[spoiler:closely matches the Cheydinal Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.]]

** ''Ruminations on Elder Scrolls'' in ''Skyrim'' was actually written by an author who ''was'' on something. An actual Elder Scroll is, apparently, one ''hell'' of a drug.