Line #58 Literature/TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks


1	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skyrim_books_3102.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:For whenever you get tired of adventure.]]
3
4	Tropes that apply to any ShowWithinAShow and InGameNovel in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' verse. Some are pure fiction, others tales based around historical events, while a select few are historical documents. Some people mentioned actually exist in one or more of the games, often as high-level skill trainers.
5
6	All texts can be found at [[http://www.imperial-library.info/ The Imperial Library]] fansite, as well as at [[http://www.uesp.net The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages]]. There's even a smartphone app containing them.
7
8	And yes, there are ''so goddamned many of them'' that they warrant their own. Just look at that list.
9
10	----
11	!!''The Elder Scrolls In-Universe Books'' provide examples of:
12
13	%%zce* TwentyFourHourArmor: Hallgerd's Tale (see below)
14	* ActionGirl: Matilda, slayer of Ragnar the Red.
15	* ActionSurvivor: Decumus Scotti of ''A Dance In Fire.'' He is just an ordinary businessman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets put through hell over the course of the seven volume book series, but comes out of each of his trials mostly unharmed by the end.
16	* AmbiguousGender: Whoever first told the story of Weedle the Beggar Prince went to great lengths to avoid specifying Weedle's gender.
17	* AppropriatedAppellation: 'Renrijra Krin' is a derogatory expression, but it amuses them so they have adopted it as their name.
18	* ArtificialHuman: Well, Artificial Dunmer: Vivec's second mother, which was built by Dwemer.
19	* AscendedGlitch:
20	** In ''Arena'', there is a city called Rockcreek that has an equipment store sitting directly in front of the town entrance, due to a hiccup in the game's town generation. The ''Daggerfall'' devs decided to poke fun of this in ''Ius, Animal God'', which explains that the store was placed there by a nature deity enacting their revenge on the town's royal family for abusing one of their sacred animals.
21	** Sermon 17 of ''The Thirty-Six Lessons of Vivec'' describes Vivec and the Hortator encountering "spiked waters at the edge of the map", a reference to the "jagged water" glitch in ''Redguard''
22	* AssholeVictim:
23	** The uncle in ''The Axe Man''.
24	** The King in ''The Mystery of Talara.'' His arrest is very satisfying once you know all the facts.
25	* AwesomeButImpractical: Sirollus Saccus in ''The Armorer's Challenge'' forges a suit of ebony platemail and a fire-enchanted dai-katana in order to win a contest with another blacksmith. It looks impressive when the gladiator wearing it first puts it on, but when he has to fight in it in an arena that's been partially flooded to resemble swamp terrain (because the duel is meant for picking army equipment for a campaign in Argonia), the water extinguishes the fire magic on the blade and the combination of heavy armor and mud makes it almost impossible for him to move, resulting in an easy victory for the opposing gladiator, whose gear [[BoringButPractical is less fancy but takes the terrain into account]].
26	* BawdySong: Both ''Rude Song'' and ''A Less Rude Song'' are all about how much fun it is to have sex and engage in various perverted activities with others. You'll find it all in Morrowind ''indeed.''
27	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: ''The Legend Of Haman Forgefire'' tells the story of a great blacksmith named Haman who could craft amazing weapons better than anyone else. A rival smith grows ever more jealous of him as time goes on and ultimately [[DealWithTheDevil enlists the help of Molag Bal]] who promises to grant her wish of becoming more famous than Haman could ever hope to be. [[spoiler:After killing him as per her agreement she does indeed become more famous than he could ever hope to be just as she had wanted... during the moment of her execution for Haman's murder.]]
28	* BigBookOfWar: ''The Art of War Magic'' by Imperial Battlemage Zurin Arctus, which consists of a series of proverbs dealing with magic and military strategy coupled with commentaries on the proverbs by other mages. It has lots of paraphrases from ''Literature/{{The Art of War\|SunTzu}}''.
29	* BlackComedy:
30	** Essentially the entire point of the seven-volume story ''A Dance In Fire''. A clerk from Imperial City is fired and, desperate, heads to Valenwood to sell building contracts to the Bosmer so they can fix their infrastructure after a war with the Khajiit. While he's there, horrible things happen to him and everyone around him on a regular basis. Among other things; he loses all his money very quickly, the war starts up again so he's constantly narrowly dodging bands of rampaging Khajiit, he encounters an ex-pirate who's miserable about the war having driven him into ''honest work'', various things try to eat him (and there's a RunningGag about the cannibalistic Bosmer), and he's accosted by [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a poet unjustifiably convinced that he's found a fellow scholar of Bosmer verse and won't shut up about it]]. (Said poet is the source of the title.) Even when he survives and gets home safely with a new and more lucrative job in hand, the story has [[TwistEnding one more thing]] in store. After ''that'', there is a four-volume sequel, ''The Argonian Account'', where the clerk gets sent to Black Marsh.
31	** In ''[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Jokes Jokes]]'', when asked by the judge why he killed his unfaithful wife, the Dunmer in question replies, "I considered it better to kill one woman than a different man every week."
32	* BlessedWithSuck: When Weedle begged at the feet of Namira for 33 days in a row, Namira 'rewarded' Weedle with the ability to manifest diseases with visible symptoms, to invoke pity in others and to make them disregard Weedle's presence.
33	* BluffingTheMurderer: Helseth bluffs a spy into revealing themselves in ''A Game at Dinner''.
34	* BoringButPractical: Hazadir from ''The Armorer's Challenge'' forges a rusted suit of scalemail, a simple spear and a soft shield without a metal trim for a gladiator to fight with; nowhere near as fancy as what the opposing gladiator wears, but, as the fight between them demonstrates, very effective in swamp terrain and as a counter to Argonian battle tactics.
35	* BreakoutCharacter:
36	** Originally a minor sidequest in Morrowind, the ''The Lusty Argonian Maid'' appears frequently, even the subject of some dialog, in ''Oblivion'' due to the MemeticMutation it received. By ''Skyrim'', an equally filthy sequel has been published.
37	** The ''Dawnguard'' DLC to ''Skyrim'' adds ''The Sultry Argonian Bard''. It takes the same concept, flips the genders so the Argonian paramour is male. And it's even more of a SelfInsertFic than the original.
38	* CallingCard: The Night Mother in ''Sacred Witness'' gouges out her victim's eyes and replaces them with two stones, one white and one black.
39	* CanonName: The dead brother in the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' quest "Missing Prince" has a random name every time the game is played. ''Night Falls on Sentinel'' gives the victim's name as Arthago.
40	* [[CantHoldHisLiquor Can't Hold His Fermented Pig's Milk]]: Poor Scotti has barely finished half a flagon of the titular drink before becoming drunk off his ass. He then passes out shortly after finishing it and finds himself about to be eaten alive by a giant insect. Luckily, he survives. Unluckily, this is only the second volume of ''A Dance In Fire'' and he still has five more volumes of misfortune to suffer through.
41	* CentipedesDilemma: Dagoth Thras from ''Death Blow of Abernanit'' is an absolute master of defensive combat, reflexively blocking every blow Rangadil tries to land on him. But when Rangidil asks him to explain how he learned to block so well, Thras realises he can't put his skill into words, and is cut down in a moment of confusion.
42	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: ''The Four Suitors of Benitah'' is about a man who yearns for his childhood crush, whom he once defended from bullies. With the help of a healer, he enhances himself with magic to outperform rival suitors.
43	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[spoiler:Inzoliah]] from ''A Hypothetical Treachery'' manages to successfully backstab the three other adventurers in the party to claim the entire treasure at the very end of the story.
44	* CleanFoodPoisonedFork: The famously paranoid Prince Helseth invites [[FlockOfWolves everyone he suspects of being a spy]] to a banquet. [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow Suspecting that he might suspect them]], and aware that the prince had recently met with a renowned alchemist, several invitees (including the narrator) choose to feign eating the food. Unfortunately for them, Helseth anticipated that, and poisoned the spies' cups and cutlery instead. [[spoiler:Except [[SubvertedTrope that was a lie]] -- the whole thing was a bluff, and the poison was actually in the "antidote" he offered to anyone who would confess their treachery.]]
45	* CombatPragmatist:
46	** The [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Renrijra Krin]] are all about this, as described in the ''Ahzirr Traajijazeri'':
47	--->''If an enemy is facing us, we might consider our options, and even [[KnowWhenToFoldEm slip away if his sword looks too big]]. If his back is to us, however, I personally favor knocking him down, and then jumping on his neck where the bones snap with a gratifying crunch. Of course, it is up to you and your personal style.''
48	** ''Vorgrosh Rot-Tusk's Guide to Dirty Fighting'' espouses this trope, dismissing the idea of honor and advocating such tactics as [[AHandfulForAnEye throwing something into your opponent's eye]], going for a GroinAttack, and trashtalking your opponent to provoke them into making a mistake.
49	* ConspiracyTheorist:
50	** The author of ''Tribunal—Living Lies'', who calls themselves "Disordinator", is one. They claim that the [[PhysicalGod three Living Gods]] mentioned in the title are in fact actually all one giant soul-stealing monster, who controls people's minds through chanting and bees with magical pollen. They even have an obligatory WaterSourceTampering accusation.
51	* CuttingTheKnot: {{Discussed\|Trope}} in ''[[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Proper_Lock_Design Proper Lock Design]]'', a skill book for lockpicking. The author notes that he's come across several chests with intact Dwarven locks, but emptied of all contents. The thief smashed the wood ''around'' the lock and just reached in.
52	** This may be a callback to Arena and Daggerfall, where those not skilled in lockpicking or magic could just pummel a locked door or chest until it opened.
53	* DavidVersusGoliath: In ''16 Accords of Madness - Volume VI'', Sheogorath and Hircine challenge each other to summon beasts that will duel to the death; Hircine creates a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot mutated lycanthropic daedroth]] while Sheogorath chooses a songbird. The songbird perches on the daedroth's snout and tricks it into [[EyeScream blinding itself with its own claws]], then proceeds to taunt it with cheerful song as it tears itself apart trying to find and kill its prey. The story is a WholePlotReference to one of Literature/AesopsFables, with the bird standing in for a fly and the daedroth for a lion, though it leaves out the part where the fly buzzes off bragging about its triumph and runs into a spider web.
54	* DeathByIrony: In ''Breathing Water'', the protagonist asks an Alteration mage to teach him a spell of waterbreathing, and plans to use the spell to loot a recently wrecked ship. While exploring the ship, he finds a sturdy locked box lying amongst all of the gold and treasures. He figures that whatever is in there must be ''really'' valuable, so he ignores everything else and spends a lot of time trying to open it, only to be massively disappointed when all it contains is two bottles of what appears to be wine (as well as the shattered remains of what were most likely more bottles). At that moment, his waterbreathing spell wears off because he was too focused on opening the box to pay attention to how long he was spending underwater. He can't make it up to the surface in time, and he drowns. When his body floats to shore a few days later, everyone is mystified by how he managed to drown while holding two waterbreathing potions.
55	* DecapitationPresentation: The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Therris]] in ''The Real Barenziah.''
56	* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: ''Song of Hrormir'' concerns a warrior who makes a DealWithTheDevil with Nocturnal, but [[ExactWords words his oath of loyalty in such a way]] that the first part of his oath exempts him from adhering to the rest of it.
57	* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: ''Songs of Skyrim'' contains the lyrics to the game's theme, "Dragonborn", in both Draconic and English.
58	* DisguisedHorrorStory: ''A Gift Of Sanctuary'' starts out like a common children's book any parent might read to their child but takes a really dark turn at about the halfway point.
59	* DoorStopper:
60	** 36 Lessons of Vivec. 'Nuff said. There are 36 volumes of this holy text, with a [=37th=] added in ''Online''.
61	** Honorable mention goes to ''2920, Last Year of the First Era'' (12 volumes), ''The Real Barenziah'' (10 volumes, later cut down to 5) and ''King Edward'' (12 volumes, incomplete).
62	* DoubleEntendre:
63	** In ''The Lusty Argonian Maid''. Spear polishing, indeed.
64	** And with volume 2 in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' we can add "bread baking" to this.
65	** One of the Lessons of Vivec as well, describing his encounter with Molag Bal.
66	** ''The Sultry Argonian Bard'', as befits a (''in-universe'') gender-flip self-insert fanfic of ''The Lusty Argonian Maid''. Private performance, indeed.
67	* DoubleMeaningTitle:
68	** ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader'': The author/narrator is a Khajiit who is a fur trader, but [[SapientFurTrade he also trades in Khajiit fur]].
69	** ''The Importance of Where'' is about a warrior learning where to strike blows; he must [[AttackItsWeakpoint strike the monster's weakpoints]] in order to kill it, but he also needs to chase it to his village before landing the final blow so he gets all the glory.
70	* DualWielding: In ''2920, Morning Star'' the Akaviri Potentate's son Savirien-Chorak uses a katana and wakizashi in an exhibition match against Emperor Reman's son Juilek.
71	* DyingCurse: A pretty brutal one happens in ''The Woodcutter's Wife'' after [[spoiler:the titular character decapitates a helpful traveling mage in her paranoia, forcing her to haunt the woods surrounding her home in death for her terrible crime.]]
72	* EarlyBirdCameo:
73	** The Daedric Lord Jyggalag has been mentioned in the lore since ''Daggerfall'' (in the book ''On Oblivion'', where he was listed along with the other Daedric Princes), but we didn't learn anything about him apart from his name until the ''Shivering Isles'' expansion pack of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' not only established him as the [[LightIsNotGood Prince of Order]], but provided his on-screen debut in an ''Elder Scrolls'' game. According to game designer Ted Peterson, Jyggalag's name was added to that book in case Bethesda needed to introduce another Daedric Prince in a future installment.
74	** Movarth, the vampire hunter in ''Immortal Blood'', appears in ''Skyrim'' [[spoiler:as the lord of a vampire clan. It seems the book's narrator decided to turn him instead of killing him.]]
75	* ElixirOfLife: In ''The Sage'', the titular character manages to create a potion that gives him immortality. Unfortunately, it took him a long time to notice the effects since they were so subtle, so he doesn't know the exact recipe, but it does seem to involve certain plants.
76	* EnforcedTechnologyLevels: The 3-volume story of ''Feyfolken'' is used to explain why this is the case for enchanting tools. Apparently, if the tools are too easy to use, anyone can craft items with powerful enchantments without being aware of the potential ramifications. The story tells of a quill pen enchanted with such tools, which drove its user insane [[spoiler:and eventually, to suicide]].
77	* EvilIsNotAToy:
78	** ''Palla'' provides an example for why one better double-check the facts before attempting necromancy.
79	** ''A Tragedy In Black'' begins with an inexperienced young mage summoning a dremora to do his bidding. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, he never learned that accepting a gift breaks the conjuration and frees the dremora when he is given a black soul gem. Naturally, the story ends with him sealed inside that exact gem while the dremora is free to hunt down his mother, noting that he has an extra black soul gem to use...]]
80	* EyeScream: ''Another Grim Jest'':
81	--> What do you get when you catch a Wood Elf thief?\
82	The pleasure of pressing a searing hot poker through his eye and into his brain!
83	* FakeUltimateHero: Ragnar the Red. Reportedly a hero of great renown with an ego the size of a bull netch. Eventually, a female warrior got sick of his arrogance and challenged him to a duel. He didn't even last a minute.
84	* FancyDinner: ''The Feast of Saint Coellicia'' describes how an emperor famous for his DecadentCourt antics decided to commemorate a saint who died of starvation with a huge feast that lasted a full twelve hours and included 40 exotic dishes, such as birds drowned in fortified wine and eaten whole while the diner wears a cloth draped over their head (ostensibly to trap wine vapors, but really to prevent all the juices and viscera from spraying everywhere)[[note]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting This is based on a real life French dish and the only difference is the name of the bird]][[/note]], swans stuffed with so much filling that some ''exploded'', beehives roasted whole, pottage with duck eyes (the emperor is said to have only told them about this ''after'' they were done to invoke IAteWhat), and bread rolls stuffed with some sort of surprise, like huge pearls or a live dove.
85	* FantasticRacism: ''The Pig Children'' paints Orcs as violent savage brutes that are a blight on all of Tamriel.
86	* FearfulSymmetry: In ''The Mirror'', the protagonist is an expert at shield based combat. No matter who he fights, he can block and deflect their attacks almost indefinitely, until they slip up and he kills them. Until one day he meets someone with exactly the same fighting style as him, with the same skill level. [[spoiler: He loses... and it turns out they were brothers, separated while young. The surviving brother apparently never finds out the truth.]]
87	* FieryRedhead: Barenziah, according to ''The Real Barenziah''. She ends up dying her hair black after she runs away with Straw, offering an explanation for why she's a brunette when she appears in-person in ''Daggerfall''.
88	* FirstInjuryReaction: In ''The Hope of the Redoran'', Andas is impervious to disease, poison and magic, and "his blood shall never drop on the ground." When he is injured for the first time in his life [[LogicalWeakness by an opponent armed with a simple club]], he's so stunned that he drops his sword.
89	* FlockOfWolves: The author of ''A Game at Dinner'' considers the possibility that every one of Helseth's 'trusted' servants could be a spy in the service of another master.
90	* ForcedTransformation: The evil wizard in ''A Tale of Kieran'' turns the princess and queen-to-be into a loathsome grub. The only way to switch her back is to have someone perform an incredible act of kindness.
91	* FramingDevice:
92	** ''Hallgerd's Tale'' consists of three fighters discussing who the greatest warrior in history was. The title character comes up with the tale of Pasoroth, a man who was more capable while wearing heavy armor than he was out of it.
93	** ''Vernaccus and Bourlor'' begins with a man grieving over the death of his cousin. This inspires one of his friends to ponder the nature of legacy, as a setup for a tale about a cowardly daedra whose dodging abilities became greatly exaggerated.
94	** ''Bone'' starts with two friends arguing whether great events and innovations happen suddenly through pure chance or gradually through hard work. A third friend offers his own position that they occur through extreme circumstances and tells the story of the invention of [[HumanResources bonemold armor]] as an example.
95	** ''Feyfolken'' is presented as a parable a teacher delivers to his two students, who stay after class to ask questions about magical tools.
96	* FriendlyEnemy: When Menegur in ''The Rear Guard'' successfully defends a besieged castle for several months singlehandedly, the soldiers in the besieging army line up to shake his hand once a truce is called. They've gained tremendous respect for him and his skills over the course of the campaign, and were only trying to kill him because it was their job.
97	* {{Gamebook}}: ''Kolb and the Dragon''.
98	* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: One of the longer books is "The Wolf Queen," and it's about Potema, a ruthless woman who did everything she could to elevate herself and screw over everyone else. During the last part of her reign, she resorted to hiring tons of necromancers and daedra conjurers. One of her final acts was giving future emperor Pelagius III (then, just a boy) a small charm which would slowly erode his sanity as an adult, just to screw over him and his family after she was gone.
99	** She is mentioned in several other books, and (in undead form) shows up in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. By all appearances, she actually ''was'' that bad, although some of the specific things (such as arranging for Pelagius III's insanity) ''The Wolf Queen'' implies or outright says she was responsible for do not appear in other sources.
100	* HappilyEverAfter: Certainly seems to be the case with the author of ''A Scholar's Guide to Nymphs'', who journeys into the wilderness to find, and subsequently falls in love with a nymph, describing nymphs as the "wisest, most wonderful creatures in Tamriel." The editor remarks the author has vanished from the civilized world after depositing the manuscript.
101	* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Although Weedle hated the [[BlessedWithSuck "gifts"]] granted by Namira, they still figured out how to use them to learn the important secrets of others, and eventually became a semi-legendary figure, "The Beggar Prince".
102	* HeelRealization: ''The Lure of the Camonna Tong'' is an account of how one Dunmer decided to leave the [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang Camonna Tong]] after an attempt to intimidate an up-and-coming Argonian seamstress goes too far. He urges others to leave too, before they start SlowlySlippingIntoEvil.
103	-->''So next time you think of the Camonna Tong, of the glamor and the gold? You think of how easy it is for your crooked morals to slip away entirely. How big talk and some drink can lead you down a darker path than you ever realized you were capable of. How easy it is to say nothing, and how much easier to just join along.''
104	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
105	** In ''Three Thieves'', an assassin partners with two thieves in order to heist a vault with them. To gain their trust, he teaches them some of his favorite methods for killing someone without giving them chance to scream or covering yourself in incriminating bloodstains. When he tries to scam them out of their shares after the heist is over, they use one of his own techniques to murder him in his bed.
106	** In the twelve-parter ''2920: The Last Year of the First Era'', Emperor Reman Cyrodiil III's paranoia that almost everyone he knows is plotting against him (which, frankly, [[ProperlyParanoid isn't necessarily a bad assumption]] if you rule a DecadentCourt) [[spoiler:leads him to commit actions that eventually trigger a successful plot to get him assassinated]].
107	* HoardingTheProfits: In "Three Thieves", Lledos pulls off a heist with the assistance of two accomplices, but tries to scam them out of their shares after the heist is over. They track him down to his home, claim their shares for themselves and murder him in his bed.
108	* HonorAmongThieves: ''Confessions of a Thief'' and ''Honor Among Thieves'' both espouse this trope, pointing out that members of the ThievesGuild help keep other members out of prison, warn them of dangers, provide training and supplies, and otherwise help each other out. The former book also describes the guild as a crime-regulator, cracking down on thieves who become greedy.
109	* HumanResources: ''Bone'' is a gruesome account of the invention of bonemold armor, by a smith who was trapped in a besieged fort with his lord and a gang of slaves. At first he has to forge iron armor from anything metal in the fort not holding it together, then leather armor from the rotting carcasses of livestock, then bonemold armor from the hunks of muscle, fat, blood, and bone not used in the leatherworking. When the lord demands still more armor, the smith resorts to dismembering the slaves and using their bones and organs to create more bonemold.
110	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: ''The Posting of the Hunt'' describes a ritual in which the Daedra hunt mortals using the Spear of Bitter Mercy. According to ''Spirit of the Daedra'', all dremora regard themselves as huntsmen, with mortals as their prey.
111	* IAmWho: ''The Mystery of Talara'' is a whole 5 volume series of this. [[spoiler:The ending pulls a fast one on the reader and reveals JYLLIA is Talara, not Gyna. Gyna is actually the real ''Jyllia'']].
112	* ImmortalsFearDeath: The Dremora interviewed in ''Spirit of the Daedra'' claims that even though daedra just resurrect in Oblivion every time their physical body is killed, the process of resurrection is apparently quite horrifying to go through and so they would prefer to avoid it as much as possible. He also claims that daedra [[ImmortalApathy simply cannot comprehend]] how it's possible for mortals to be aware that their deaths are both inevitable and permanent but not [[DespairEventHorizon constantly be in despair]] because of it.
113	* ImpossibleThief: ''Purloined Shadows'' chronicles how Emer Dareloth stole the Gray Cowl from Nocturnal, the goddess of shadows, and became the first Gray Fox.
114	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Just about every book that raises the player's Archery skill when read features this trope.
115	** ''The Black Arrow'' ends with the revelation that this is how someone has been placing an ebony arrow in the heart of a painting of the villain every day, without fail. [[spoiler:From a tree, across some distance, ''through the keyhole'' and into the painting.]]
116	** ''The Gold Ribbon of Merit'' features two men practising archery together, one of whom is acting like an insufferable {{Jerkass}}. He spends the whole story alternating between bragging about winning a gold ribbon of merit for archery and criticizing the other guy's technique and skill. After the other guy makes one last shot that goes ''way'' off-target and the {{Jerkass}} gets in one last condescending comment, the two of them call it a day and go home. The {{Jerkass}} then arrives home [[ExactlyWhatIAimedAt to find his window broken and an arrow sticking out of his beloved gold ribbon]].
117	* InsultToRocks: The author of ''Confessions of a Thief'' argues calling a dishonest merchant or priest a thief is an example of this trope, because thieves (or at least those in the ThievesGuild) at least have sense of honor.
118	-->''Thieves got a perfect right to exist in the Empire. People say we're dishonest. Of course, those people are usually either merchants or priests, which really slays me. Sort of the snake calling the worm legless.''
119	* InterspeciesRomance: This is the main focus of the ever popular ''The Lusty Argonian Maid'' and its sequels/spin-offs, which are about the lewd encounters between a wealthy guy and his Argonian servant girl.
120	* {{Irony}}: ''The Dragon Break Re-Examined'' by scholarly skeptic Fal Droon argues that the 1008-year TimeCrash known as the Middle Dawn is nothing more than a fanciful legend created by ignorant scholars who misinterpreted the dates on documents from the relevant periods, and that any "temporal anomalies" in history are just the result of scholarly errors. The problem? ''His book is proof that temporal anomalies exist'' -- its first appearance is in ''Morrowind'', during the 3rd Era and the rule of the Septim Dynasty, yet it refers to both of those things as being a part of a distant, primitive past.
121	* ItsBeenDone: [[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Argonian_Maid%E2%80%94An_Oral_Tradition "The Argonian Maid—An Oral Tradition"]] indicates that "The Lusty Argonian Maid" is older than Crassius Curio of the Third Era, as study is from Telenger of 2E 582:
122	--> '''Telenger the Artificer:''' According to my research, "The Lusty Argonian Maid" has its origins in a long line of tales told by traveling bards, each with a slightly different title and premise, but the same end result: a female innocent succumbs to the charms of a dominant, married male character.
123	* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: How the author of ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader'' got started at [[SapientFurTrade his profession]]. He and his brother tried to rob a caravan full of animal pelts and hides, and his brother died in the process. He couldn't take the whole body with him before the guards showed up, so he skinned it and took his brother's pelt to take home and bury later. When he went to fence the stolen merchandise, the fence spotted his brother's pelt and offered him three times what she paid for everything else combined. He had a brief moment of disgust, which soon gave way to greed, and it all went downhill from there.
124	* KilledMidSentence: Three of the authors of ''Exposing a Terrible Evil'' were killed by a [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] assassin while writing about the group. The first author condemned them as the worst of the worst in his city's WretchedHive and managed to at least get their name down before getting killed. The second author was his brother, who was not so lucky; [[HisNameIs he was murdered mid-word while writing down the name of assassin cult's deity.]] The third was the brother's wife, and this time around, the killer tries to complete the passage she was writing, attempting to convince the reader the group doesn't exist.
125	* KnowWhenToFoldEm: The Renrijra Krin.
126	-->''Do not ally yourself with the Renrij if you yearn to be part of a mighty army, marching resolutely forth, for whom retreat is anathema. We will laugh at your suicidal idiocy as we slip into the reeds of the river, and watch the inevitable slaughter.''
127	* LadyMacbeth: The person running the torturer chamber in ''The Horror of Castle Xyr'' turns out not to be the [[EvilSorcerer Telvanni mage]] who owns the castle it is in, but rather his wife.
128	* LaserGuidedKarma: The uncle in ''The Axe Man'' beats and abuses his nephew, Torik, for every little thing, particularly when he doesn't satisfy the former with his chores (which includes sweeping the shelves, ringing the bells, and cleaning the floors). Torik eventually murders him and cleans up the evidence using all the skills he learned during his time with the uncle.
129	* TheLegendOfX: ''The Legend of Haman Forgefire''
130	* LoveAtFirstPunch: Fjori and Holgeir met on the battlefield, and became lovers.
131	* MadnessMantra: Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack. Wabbajack.
132	* MadOracle: In ''Chance's Folly'', the eponymous thief enlists the help of the strong but insane warrior Ulstyr Moresby to get through a tomb filled with traps and monsters to get the treasure at the end. He agrees and then rattles off a series of seemingly nonsense phrases. One by one, they start coming true, and at one point Ulstyr even addresses her as "Chance", even though she introduced herself by her real name and not her alias. Chance starts getting worried and wonders if the rumour that the insane are in communion with [[MadGod Sheogorath]] is true, and if he was feeding Ulstyr information. [[spoiler:He was]].
133	** "Chitin": [[spoiler:Ulstyr showed up the next day wearing chitin armour. On the way to the tomb there was a massive rainstorm that soaked Chance but Ulstry stayed perfectly dry in his waterproof chitin]].
134	** "Hot steel": [[spoiler:Ulstyr used a sword enchanted with fire damage, which was effective against the Frost Atronachs in the tomb]].
135	** "Fifty-three": [[spoiler:When they reached the treasure room, there were fifty-three sacks of gold inside]].
136	** "Walls beyond doors": [[spoiler:When Chance entered the treasure room, the door slammed shut automatically. From her side, it was indistinguishable from the wall and thus couldn't be opened from that side. She was trapped]].
137	** "Two months and back": [[spoiler:Ulstyr left and came back to the tomb after two months, when Chance had long since starved to death]].
138	** "Prop a rock": [[spoiler:Ulstyr used a rock to prop open the door and stop it from slamming shut on him too, and took all the gold for himself]].
139	* MindScrew: Applies to the metaphysics and finer theological points of the ''Elder Scrolls'' universe anyway, but special mention has to go to the mysterious concept of CHIM briefly (and sketchily) outlined in ''The 36 Lessons of Vivec''. Even mentioning it is certain to provoke hours of heated philosophical discussion in certain corners of the Internet. The idea can mostly be likened to achieving [[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} Nirvana]], but the specifics are often debated.
140	* MultipleChoicePast: The Night Mother, founder and leader of the Dark Brotherhood, has at least three different versions of her back story, told across three different works:
141	** Pellarne Assi, author of ''The Brothers of Darkness'', believes the Night Mother to be a LegacyCharacter - there is no one immortal Night Mother from the Brotherhood's origin to the present day, rather it is a title passed from one leader to the next [[SheIsTheKing regardless of gender]].
142	** Ynir Gorming's ''Fire and Darkness: The Brotherhoods of Death'' proposes that the Night Mother is an aspect of Mephala, Daedric Prince of Strife. When the Morag Tong were banned from practising her worship, she engineered a schism that caused the Tong to split into two, with those still willing to worship her becoming the Dark Brotherhood.
143	** The author of ''Sacred Witness'', Enric Milres, claimed to have been personally granted an audience with the Night Mother, and by her own accounts, she started out as a low ranking member of the Thieves Guild who strangled her marks to make robbing them easier, and left to found her own guild when she decided that murder was more profitable than theft. He was found dead shortly after the work revealing this was published.
144	* MyopicArchitecture: Discussed in "Proper Lock Design" -- Don't make your lock out of cheap, flimsy materials or else thieves will just smash the lock. At the same time, don't make it out of anything ''too'' strong either, or else thieves will just give up on picking it and smash open the thing it's locking instead.
145	* NeverMessWithGranny: ''The Cake and the Diamond''. [[spoiler:While she never resorts to physical violence a master alchemist effortlessly outwits a group of thieves, steals most of their diamond, and makes her escape before they can even figure out what is going on.]]
146	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Shy, unambitious Decumus Scotti from ''The Argonian Account'' isn't a villain, but he's happy to do no more work than required of him. When Imperial do-gooders hear about the tragic circumstances of the backwards province of Black Marsh, they're happy to contribute large sums of money to build and improve roads, schools, and plantations. [[spoiler:Scotti pockets their money and does utterly nothing about the requests. Within a year, the Imperial infrastructure in Black Marsh has decayed to the point of uselessness, the Argonians have switched back to their much more efficient native methods of transportation and farming, crime and slavery have dried up since there are no more Imperial caravans to rob and no more plantations that need slave labor, and Black Marsh is better off than it has been in forty years.]]
147	* NoManOfWomanBorn: Andas in ''The Hope of the Redoran'' is the subject of a prophetic vision which declares that he shall never suffer pain or injury from blades, magic, disease, or poison, and not a drop of his blood will ever spill on the ground... none of which helps him when his cousin Athyn beats him to death with a club.
148	* OffWithHisHead:
149	** In ''[[http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:2920,_Hearth_Fire_%28v9%29 2920, Hearth Fire]]'' Emperor Reman Cyrodiil has his mistress beheaded for treason (she was innocent). Here it actually takes two strokes, with the first hitting the back of her head.
150	** In ''[[http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hallgerd%27s_Tale Hallgerd's Tale]]'' Pasoroth beheads the man cuckolding him [[OutWithABang during the act of cuckolding]].
151	** Ragnar The Red's fate at the hands of Matilda.
152	--->And the braggart named Ragnar was boastful no more!\
153	As his ugly red head rolled around on the floor!
154	** [[spoiler:Gerhild Coldheart]] in ''The Legend of Haman Forgefire''.
155	** [[spoiler:The unnamed traveling mage]] in ''The Woodcutter's Wife''. Unlike most of the other examples of this trope karma ''immediately'' catches up with the murderer and they suffer an appropriately horrific curse for their wicked deed.
156	* OhMyGods: Common.
157	* OneWordTitle: ''Feyfolken''.
158	* OurProductSucks: ''Fools' Ebony'', the script of a play, repeatedly gives tongue-in-cheek apologies for how low-quality it is, and assures its readers [[RefugeInVulgarity that it's bawdy as a small consolation]].
159	* OutscareTheEnemy: ''The Art of War Magic'' describes a battle between the Chimer and the Nords; the Nord shamans send a windstorm to confuse and dismay the Chimer army, but a crafty Chimer sorceror summons an ice demon and orders it to hide out of sight behind the Chimer army. When the Chimer try to retreat from the storm, the ice demon reveals itself and the Chimer, more scared of the demon than the storm, charge back towards the Nords and eventually win the battle.
160	* OutWithABang: In ''Hallgerd's Tale'', Pasoroth sneaks up behind his adulterous wife and her lover and beheads him in the act, then takes over where the dead man left off. [[RefugeInAudacity All without taking his armor off.]]
161	* ParanoiaGambit: In ''[[http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Myths_of_Sheogorath Myths of Sheogorath]]'', Ravate, an archmagus, seeks out Sheogorath to beg for untold magics; Sheogorath says that if Ravate is still sane in 3 days' time, then those powers will be granted. Sheogorath then proceeds to sit back and [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing do absolutely nothing]] while Ravate drives ''himself'' mad imagining all the horrible things Sheogorath could possibly have in store for him.
162	* PayEvilUntoEvil: "The Lopper" in ''Last Scabbard of Akrash'' is a SerialKiller who exclusively targets people who are heavily involved in Morrowind's slave trade.
163	* PressurePoint: Described in ''Night Falls on Sentinel'', which raises a reader's blunt weapon skill.
164	* PricelessPaperweight: A traveling troupe of acrobats in ''Realizations of Acrobacy'' unknowingly stole Mehrunes' Razor, an powerful dagger that can instantly kill people, from a Telvanni lord who bilked them of their pay. What do they use it for? Cutting reeds. Granted, they showcase how it can make some amazingly thin sheets of papyrus, but they're still under the impression it's just a "simple ebony blade", not an ArtifactOfDoom created by a god of destruction.
165	* ProfessionalGambler: ''Banker's Bet'' features an old lady named Petuva Smethworthy who makes her living off strange bets. She makes one with a banker where she bets twenty-five thousand gold that in 24 hours, his balls will be covered in feathers. [[spoiler: Despite his paranoia, he manages to keep his balls feather-free and proudly allows the old lady to inspect his testicles for any feathers. Ultimately, though, while he has won the bet, she has the last laugh, because she made a even larger one hundred thousand gold bet with her son that she'll have the banker by his balls.]]
166	* PuffOfLogic: In ''The Four Suitors of Benitah'', the protagonist, thanks to his magically-augmented intelligence, makes a rival suitor disappear by writing a formula that proves the suitor does not exist.
167	* RealPersonFic: ''The Real Barenziah'' is an InUniverse example, being an unauthorized {{dramatization}} of Barenziah's life until about the middle of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena''. The official ''[[http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Biography_of_Queen_Barenziah_%28Daggerfall%29 Biography of Queen Barenziah]]'' is a much drier read.
168	* TheReveal: In ''Immortal Blood'', [[spoiler: the narrator is a vampire]].
169	* RightThroughHisPants: [[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hallgerd%27s_Tale Hallgerd's Tale]] involves the implication the heavy armor master had sex with his armor still on, and was in fact more, ah, skilled than he was with it off. [[HeadTiltinglyKinky The mind boggles]].
170	* RotatingProtagonist: ''2920, The Last Year of the First Era'' is told like this, with the historical (and likely embellished) accounts of nearly a dozen different characters.
171	* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: InUniverse example with ''The Real Barenziah'':
172	** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', Barenziah calls the book "cruel and defamatory," says she suppressed its publication and had the author executed, and has attempted ever since to prevent its reemergence.
173	** In ''Tribunal,'' however, a character with the alias Plitinius Mero claims to be the author, and that Barenziah herself protected him from the Imperial family's retribution by reporting him dead while secretly offering him sanctuary. He suspects this was because she not only knew his account was true but found it enjoyable and amusing.
174	* RuleSixtyThree: ''The Sultry Argonian Bard'' is a gender-flipped version of ''The Lusty Argonian Maid''.
175	* RulesLawyer: Menegur in ''The Rear Guard'' uses a long-forgotten law to claim the title of Count of Cascabel (The law, devised in 3E 246, states that any man without a liege who occupies a castle for more than three months is granted the rights and titles of that estate, and Menegur was Cascabel's sole defender during a siege).
176	* SapientFurTrade: ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, written in prison by a Khajiit who stalks and kills other Khajiit as well as Argonians for the purposes of selling their pelts/hides for vast sums of money, the night before his execution. He ends the book declaring that he will escape from prison and continue his trade, and that someday he will sell even his ''own'' pelt for a king's ransom.
177	* SchizoTech: A specific example is used as a plot point in ''Chimarvamidium''; anyone familiar with the dwemer knows that they use SteamPunk {{Golem}}s as weapons of war, but the idea of a flesh-and-blood warrior wearing platemail armor all over their body is a relatively new concept.
178	* SdrawkcabName: Most of the characters in the ''Beggar'', ''Thief'', ''Warrior'', ''King'' quadrilogy. Also invoked by [[spoiler:the vampires]] in 'Surfeit of Thieves'.
179	* SelfDeprecation: InUniverse example. ''The Horror of Castle Xyr'' notes that the Clavides' response of "As, I hear, are all Telvanni," to the line "We're loyal Imperial subjects," should not be read sarcastically. It is also noted to get a laugh out of any audience, regardless of local politics. It also happens to be the trigger for a murderer to attack you when you step in for an actor in the ''Morrowind'' expansion ''Tribunal''. The director of the show apologizes and says the original actor was targeted due to banging a Telvanni diplomat's daughter.
180	* SelfInsertFic: ''The Sultry Argonian Bard'' to ''The Lusty Argonian Maid''.
181	* SequelEscalation: ''Arena'' only had one book, which was the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Oghma Infinium]] artifact, though that served more as a stat boost than something that you were allowed to sit down and read from time to time. Then ''Daggerfall'' introduced a couple dozen books and notes that could be obtained and read. As the series progressed, even more books were introduced. As of ''Online'', there are hundreds of novels, manuals, guides, scripts, songs, journals, letters, notes, scrolls, and other documents covering a vast number of subjects (both fictional and non-fictional) and chronicling thousands of years of history and backstory for the land of Tamriel and beyond.
182	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness[=/=]{{Magibabble}}: ''Liminal Bridges'' very much so.
183	--> A transliminal passage of quickened objects or entities without the persistant agency of hyperagonal media is impossible, and even if possible would result in the instantaneous retromission of the transported referents. Only a transpontine circumpenetration of the limen will result in transits of greater than infinitessimal duration...
184	* ShaggyDogStory: ''Of Fjori and Holgeir''. [[spoiler:Holgeir is bitten by a snake, and his lover Fjori journeys to Akavir to find a cure. As she brings the cure to Holgeir, ''she gets bitten by the same snake'', and the combination of venom and exhaustion kills her as she uses the antidote to save him. Holgeir orders the construction of a tomb for his lover, and [[DrivenToSuicide takes his own life]] in the deepest chamber so he can join her in the afterlife.]] And then, in ''Skyrim'', [[spoiler:their corpses are turned into Draugrs by an insane necromancer. Thankfully, though, the Last Dragonborn can free them and allow them to actually be together at last by defeating them.]]
185	* SheIsTheKing: Pellarne Assi, author of ''The Brothers of Darkness'', believes that the Night Mother is a title that gets passed from one Dark Brotherhood leader to the next regardless of gender.
186	* ShieldsAreUseless: Discussed by Potentate Versidue-Shaie in ''2920, vol 1 - Morning Star''. His people, the Tsaesci, value mobility over protection when fighting, and are confused by humans who use a "sword and board" fighting style.
187	-->"In our country, if you don't want to get hit, you move out of the way."
188	* SincerityMode: ''The Horror of Castle Xyr'' contains an exchange between Anara and the protagonist where she states that the Xyrs are loyal Imperial subjects; the protagonist replies, "As, I hear, are all Telvanni." The stage directions explicitly state that this line is meant to be read without ''any'' audible sarcasm, but also [[DeadpanSnarker that it never fails to get a laugh from the audience]] regardless of [[StrawmanPolitical local political leanings]].
189	* SinkOrSwimMentor: Arthcamu in ''The Locked Room'' tests his students' speed and skill in lockpicking by locking them in a room with a ravenous vampire; if they can't escape before sunset, the vampire wakes up and kills them.
190	* SlashedThroat: Discussed in ''Three Thieves'' (which is called ''Unnamed Book'' in ''Morrowind''), which features a criminal teaching his two accomplices various techniques for performing this trope. Played fairly realistically in that he warns them that slashing someone's throat will spill out a lot of blood and discusses a couple of methods for dealing with this. [[spoiler:Later, the two accomplices kill him using the very same techniques when [[NoHonorAmongThieves he attempts to betray the two.]] ]]
191	* SlippingAMickey: [[spoiler:Both the cake and wine are drugged]] in ''The Cake And The Diamond.''
192	* SmallNameBigEgo: Ragnar the Red
193	* SnowedIn: Happens to the woodcutter's family and a traveling mage in ''The Woodcutter's Wife'' when a sudden change in weather forces them to help each other out to survive. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this also leads to the titular woodcutter's wife going crazy from paranoia and murdering the mage in cold blood, earning her a horrible curse as punishment.]]
194	* SurpriseIncest: Almost occurred in the fourth book of "The Mystery of Talara". [[spoiler:Gyna, believing to be Princess Talara, is set to seduce the Prince who has a not-exactly-consensual BDSM fetish. He's all set to have at her before the paralysis spell does its work. Except that Gyna isn't actually Talara, but the identical cousin, Jylla, who would be the Prince's half-sister.]]
195	* {{Symploce}}: ''Five Songs of [[EternalHero King Wulfharth]]'' has the titular character asking his soldiers three WhereDoYouThinkYouAre questions at the face of Red Mountain that take {{Anaphora}} and turn it into symploce:
196	-->[[TimeCrash "Don't you see where you really are?]] Don't you know who Shor [[GodInHumanForm really is?]] Don't you know [[RealityIsOutToLunch what this war is?"]]
197	* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: ''Night Falls on Sentinel'' ends with female knight Haballa about to use the pressure points described by assassin Jomic on him.
198	* TigerByTheTail: The author of ''[[https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Sacred_Witness Sacred Witness]]'' sets out to learn more about the Night Mother, but she conscripts him into joining the Dark Brotherhood and forces him to assist them in committing unspeakable crimes. The book ends with the author admitting that the Night Mother will see the book's publication as him breaking his promise to her and that he fears for his life, followed by an editor's note stating the author was found dead with his corpse bearing the Night Mother's CallingCard.
199	* TitleConfusion: Oblivion contains ''The Horror of Castle Xyr'' as ''The Horror'''''s''''' of Castle Xyr'' for an In-Universe/meta/something example.
200	* TongueTrauma: [[spoiler:Straw's]] tongue is removed to keep him quiet in ''The Real Barenziah.''
201	* TortureCellar: An extremely nightmarish one shows up about halfway through ''Horror of Castle Xyr'' after being discovered on the other side of a hidden passage. Its description is pretty brief, but [[BodyHorror terrifying]] all the same.
202	* TrojanHorse: ''Chimarvamidium'', in which the {{golem}} the dwarves gave to the Chimer as a peace offering turns out to be a dwarf warrior wearing platemail.
203	* TwistEnding:
204	** Done wonderfully in [[spoiler: ''The Mystery of Talara''. Despite the book setting up Gyna as Talara, it's revealed she's actually Jyllia and Jyllia is Talara.]]
205	** In ''Palla'', it turns out [[spoiler: the mage did actually succeed in his attempts of resurrection, except that he had the names confused and instead of resurrecting the heroine he wished to meet, he brought back the monster that killed her.]]
206	** A marvelous one with [[spoiler: ''The Charwich-Koniinge Letters''. It appears at first that the titular Charwich had been murdered by a Daedric lord disguised as a mysticist, but those with a knowledge of the series (and especially Azura's Star) will find that very unlikely indeed...]]
207	** In ''Night Falls On Sentinel'', Haballa takes Jomic out back to show him who she wants removed. [[spoiler:Then a gust of air pushes back her cape, revealing that she's working for the King of Sentinel and Jomic just told her everything he needed to know to exact his revenge against him and his (now dead) companions, the last remaining element being Jomic's death. Haballa, with Jomic's advice on clubs and pain centers, starts beating Jomic in each center one by one.]]
208	* UltimateBlacksmith: Haman Forgefire from ''Legend of Haman Forgefire'' was stated to be the best blacksmith in the land and would forge for many great rulers and nobles. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, his widespread fame and renown inspired plenty of jealousy in his rivals... leading to one of them making a pact to murder him to steal his spotlight... which then proceeds to go ''very poorly'' for the both of them.]]
209	* UnEqualRites: ''Bero's Speech to the Battlemages'' and ''Response to Bero's Speech''. Bero is an illusionist who thinks poorly of the school of Destruction and makes a speech arguing that it deserves to be a subset of the Alteration school rather than a school in its own right. The battlemage Malvisor responds by pointing out multiple fallacies in Bero's arguments, claiming an illusionist has no place criticizing a school he hasn't studied for himself and taking a few snipes against Bero and his favored school of magic in the process:
210	-->"It certainly isn't a coincidence that a master of the School of Illusion cast this attack on the School of Destruction. Illusion is, after all, all about masking the truth."
211	* TheUnpronouncable: "Ayalea", a Nymph from the ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' in-game book ''A Scholar's Guide to Nymphs'' is, the author admits, merely "a poor phonetic transcription" of her real name, which is "a word that sounds more like a light wind blowing through a small crack in a hollow chamber."
212	* UnreliableNarrator: Sorting fact from fiction is a little hard here. Contradictory accounts are given in both the books themselves and in in-universe reactions to them.
213	* VaginaDentata: Inverted (and downplayed -- it's painful, but it apparently doesn't result in any lasting damage) in the ''Daggerfall'' version of ''The Real Barenziah'' where it is mentioned that Khajiit penises are barbed ([[ShownTheirWork like feline penises]] in RealLife). This passage was {{Bowdlerize}}d InUniverse in later ''Elder Scrolls'' games.
214	* WaxOnWaxOff: ''The Axe Man'' contains an unintentional example. An orphan used by his uncle for labor uses the skills learned to murder said uncle and clean up after himself.
215	* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing:
216	** Some of the ''Sixteen Accords of Madness'' and ''Myths of Sheogorath'' portray Sheogorath as being capable of driving his victims to madness or defeating his rivals by simply [[BatmanGambit letting them follow their own natures]] without him needing to lift a finger.
217	** In "The Argonian Account", Decumus Scotti is hired to overhaul the infrastructure of a trade network in Black Marsh, but his survey of the area shows him that Black Marsh is unsuited to roads, bridges, wagons or anything his Imperial backers expect him to invest in. So he quietly embezzles the stakeholder's investment for himself and leaves the network to collapse, and the Argonians return to their traditional methods of transporting goods which are more efficient and suited to Black Marsh.
218	* TheWisePrince: Prince Juilek, son of Reman III. He's a great warrior and intelligent statesman whose diplomacy skills earn him the respect of the Tribunal. His assassination is the first nail in the Reman Dynasty's coffin, with his father spiraling even further into paranoia as a result.
219	* WrongGenreSavvy: The wife in ''Cabin in the Woods''. She thinks she's in a DealWithTheDevil type of horror story and she's TheHero slaying the evil demon. She's in a horror story all right, but ''she's'' the AxCrazy villain who butchers an innocent mage and suffers a horrific curse of undeath as punishment.
220	* TheXOfY: Multiple books, such as:
221	** ''Sixteen Accords of Madness''
222	** ''36 Lessons of Vivec''
223	** ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader''
224	** ''The Horror of Castle Xyr''
225	** ''The Mystery of Talara''
226	** ''Myths of Sheogorath''
227	** ''The Posting of the Hunt''
228	** ''Songs of Skyrim''
229	** ''Spirit of the Daedra''
230	* YouAreNumberSix: According to ''Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st edition'', Altmer from the Summerset Isles don't have names, just combinations of numbers that sound like such to the few humans who visit the isles and hear them speaking to one another.
231	* YouDoNotWantToKnow: ''A Game at Dinner'' ends with the narrator informing their employer that, whatever horrors they may have already seen in their long existence, the manner in which Burgess died is something they ''do not want to know''.
232	* YouNeedToGetLaid: Played for laughs in ''Ahzirr Traajijazeri''.
233	-->"Life is short. If you have not made love recently, please, put down this book, and take care of that with all haste. Find a wanton lass or a frisky lad, or several, in [[ExtremeOmnisexual whatever combination your wise loins direct]], and do not under any circumstances play hard to get. Our struggle against the colossal forces of oppression can wait."\
234	"Good. Welcome back."

Context Literature / TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks