Trivia / The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

• Acting for Two:
  • The first example of this happens if you go with Ralof in Helgen. He and his brother-in-law, Hod, are both voiced by Michael Gough. In fact, Michael Gough voices over half the male population of Skyrim.
  • In the final Dark Brotherhood mission, the player can opt to have the ghost of Lucien Lachance kill the Emperor, both of whom are voiced by Wes Johnson. Johnson also voiced Moth Priest Dexion Evicus and Daedric Princes Hermaeus Mora and Sheogorath.
  • Stephen Russell voices both Clavicus Vile and Barbas. Of course, considering that they are two aspects of the same entity, this works pretty well.
  • Keith Szarabajka voices both Erandur and Veren Duleri in the Waking Nightmare quest.
  • Niane Salinger voices every female orc in the game, and Noah Nelson voices every male orc. As a result, any and all dialogue in an orc stronghold between two orcs of the same gender is an example.
  • Popeye Vogelsang voices Stenvar the mercenary, who can be hired as a follower at Candlehearth Hall in Windhelm; after he's been a follower, he becomes a possible spouse. Vogelsang also voices Argis the Bulwark, who is appointed housecarl to the Dragonborn if they become Thane of the Reach. Should the Dragonborn marry Stenvar, then move him into Vlindrel Hall in Markarth along with Argis, the two can sometimes be heard arguing with each other - usually about dropped items.
  • Paul Eiding showed immense variety in his voice-acting talent by lending Galmar Stone-First, Felldir the Old and Septimus Signus distinctive tones of voice.
• Actor Allusion:
  • One can't hear Max von Sydow's narration and not think of King Osric from Conan the Barbarian (1982).
  • Delphine is as gruff as Pamela Landy, and both work as an acting Grandmaster/Director of a shadowy organization (except Delphine is more hands-on).
  • Vladimir Kulich is once again playing a badass Viking leader.
  • Mercer Frey, the leader of the Thieves' Guild, is voiced by Stephen Russell, the voice of Garrett, the infamous protagonist and master thief from the Thief series of games.
  • General Tullius is a gruff, no-nonsense officer who is practical-minded and does deep down care about his men and Skyrim itself. He shares these traits with one of Michael Hogan's other roles - Saul Tigh in Battlestar Galactica. Unlike Colonel Tigh, however, Tullius doesn't seem to have alcohol problems. He also looks extremely similar to Captain Bailey, another one of Hogan's roles. He's found inside Castle Dour, and Hogan is known for playing dour characters.
  • Tullius's second-in-command, Legate Rikke, was also a serious female military officer... on a certain space station.
  • Erandur's a repentant holy man who once acted like a monster and betrayed his friends, who's voiced by Keith Szarabajka, using the exact same voice he used for Captain Apollo Diomedes. Sadly, there's no BROTHER, I AM HIT!
  • Paarthurnax teaches the player one of the words of fire breath. He's also voiced by Charles Martinet, who's far better known as Mario.
  • A very subtle one: In Farkas's bedroom in Jorrvaskr is a lute, which he presumably knows how to play. In Markarth, the Dragonborn can encounter Yngvar the Singer, an accomplished bard. Both characters (among others) are voiced by Michael "Popeye" Vogelsang, the guitarist and lead singer of the somewhat obscure band Your Favorite Train Wreck.
  • Serana, the female vampire necromancer who accompanies you throughout most of the Dawnguard questline, is voiced by Laura Bailey. This isn't the first time she's voiced a vampire or a magic user.
  • Miraak is voiced by Peter Jessop, who's best known as the voice of the Reaper Sovereign. Guess what happens when you touch the pillars without proper magic?
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
  • The famous quote from the guards actually goes "Then I took an arrow in the knee", not "to the knee" as it's often quoted.
  • The equally memetic "Must have been the wind" quote is commonly associated with Skyrim's NPCs, making fun of their Artificial Stupidity. However, this line is never actually said by any character in the game in this context. Instead, this line actually originated from the previous game in the series, Oblivion.
  • Mirmulnir's "Dovahkiin! No!!" line is often misquoted as "Dovahkiin!? No!". This misconception is because of the commonly used Unofficial Patch, which altered the subtitle to match the newly voiced version of the line added by the mod.^note The line is left unvoiced in the English language versions of the game.
• Christmas Rushed: It is very possible that this game suffers from it. When fans looked at the game-files with the Level Editor, it was revealed Bethesda had more expansive plans for the game than what was seen in the final product, most notably some complex quests and scripts that sadly did not make the final cut. Examples are a dynamic civil war, an arena in Windhelm, and a questline to help Mjoll the Lioness bring down the Thieves' Guild. Many of these were probably cut because the game had to be released on November 11, 2011, so the developers did not have enough time to implement all of their plans. As a result, many of the storylines were underdeveloped or outright aborted. Fortunately, though, modders came to the rescue for PC players, and many of the cut quests have been restored, most notably the civil war and arena.
• Creator-Driven Successor: The Dragonborn expansion is one to Bloodmoon, a DLC for Morrowind. They both take place in Solstheim, both have quests involving Falx Carius and Fort Frostmoth, and both expansions are the only times you'll run into the Skaal.
• Development Gag:
  • Many features and ideas seen in Skyrim's DLC expansions and the Creation Club were repurposed from a developer game jam done after the game was released, which was shown to the public at DICE 2012. These features included buildable houses, Vampire Lords, rideable dragons, Goblins^note While the models seen in the game jam were colored blue and used for the Rieklings in Dragonborn, actual Goblins wouldn't be seen until 2019 with the Creation Club, and many more.
  • The appearance of the Elytra Nymphs seen in the Saints and Seducers Creation appears to be based on this piece of concept art◊ originally meant for the fully grown Elytra seen in the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion.
  • The Ring of Khajiit artifact was originally meant to be obtained in the base game, but it was scrapped, leaving behind only a model in the game's files. The Fishing Creation later added the Ring of Khajiit as one of the many artifacts the player can fish up, using the exact same model that was left in the files.
• Dummied Out:
  • Serana's voiceset includes a dying scream, despite Serana being forever flagged essential, even after full completion of the Dawnguard questline. This hints that, at some point in the game development, her death was possible.
    • The child voicesets also include dying screams, despite also being essential. This is left over from an earlier point in development when children could die onscreen.
  • One loading screen mentions that users of the Lady Stone "regenerate their health and stamina much faster for a while." This implies that the Lady Stone was initially planned to grant an active ability instead of a passive, permanent buff.
  • The Amulet of Articulation has 7 different versions, and the fact that the stats are different suggests it was originally going to be leveled, but for whatever reason, it's instead randomized.
  • For whatever reason, most NPCs have the line "Oh, I don't believe those rumors, my friend. Besides, who would ever want to harm such beauty?" - while most of these suggest that someone else was supposed to take Asta's place during the Eldergleam quest at one point, or it would've been your follower who would make the comment, for whatever reason it also includes some unique NPCs, such as Brynjolf and Malacath, who shouldn't have any reason to comment on the tree.
  • Although Nazeem and his wife Ahlam lack a house in the final game, if one pickpockets them and opens up their inventory, both are carrying a key to a non-existent house called Wintersand Manor (and both belong to a faction associated with said location^note factions for housing are used so NPCs can report the player trespassing), suggesting that was the location both were originally going to live - while the mod Cutting Room Floor restores the mod, the location file suggests it was going to be inside Whiterun, whereas the CRF mod puts it next to Chillfurrow Farm. Strangely, Acolyte Jensen from the Temple of Kynareth also carries a key to this non-existent manor (and he would've also been a member of the custom faction as well); this, combined with Nazeem and his wife having a strained marriage, suggests that Jensen and Ahlam would've been having an affair^note although it's also possible - but rather unlikely - that it was Nazeem that was having the affair, given that he's Ambiguously Bi. This quite possibly explains the fact that Ahlam seems to spend a lot of time at the Temple of Kynareth.
  • As evidenced by how she greets the player ("It's a fine day with you around") after putting her husband's war horn at the Shrine of Talos in Whiterun Hold, at one point, the player would've been able to marry Elisif the Fair. Presumably, Bethesda scrapped this idea because it would've made the Last Dragonborn High King of Skyrim if they sided with the Imperials. Similarly, the fact that Ingun Black-Briar says the same line after her miscellaneous ingredient-collecting quest is completed hints that she might also have been a candidate for marriage at some point. This was likely scrapped because having Maven Black-Briar for a mother-in-law might have required entirely too much special coding and voice acting. Alternately, the fact that they both have the line might simply be because Elisif and Ingun have the same voice actress and voice set (and the line may have been attached to them by accident, since said voice set is also used by a dozen of other female NPCs, some of them being actual potential spouses (Ysolda, Camillia Valerius, Jordis...).
  • There exists unused, unimplemented code in the game for an alternate ending to the DLC which a modder finished that allows the player to earn Miraak as a follower by using the bend will shout on him during the battle, causing him to become an ally as Hermaeus Mora sends multiple enemies to fight both of you. Rather than being killed after the fight, Miraak will move to his temple in Solstheim.
  • Game files show that Aela the Huntress has dialogue for the mission "Proving Honor", suggesting that either she was originally going to be the one who would accompany the player on said mission instead of Farkas, or it would've been random between the two.
  • An unused quest of Phinis involves tracking down his four missing students, all of whom got themselves killed in a ridiculous fashion because they were just that incompetent. (For example, one died from trying to use ice magic to cool his mead.) You can find their remains and figure out what happened to them, but you never get an option to inform Phinis about the discovery.
  • Mjoll was originally going to be more active against the Thieves' Guild, and potentially help you destroy it, a la "Destroy The Dark Brotherhood," but the questline was removed from the game due to time constraints. (This is actually the reason she is Made of Iron; she was to be flagged essential until the end of her questline, and you can't complete her questline because you can never start it.)
  • When asked about the dangers of her job, Irileth will mention that sometimes it feels as if even the Jarl's own children are planning to murder him. This is just dark humor in the final game, but in the game files there are vestiges of a different ending to an existing quest that would have culminated in the children falling under the influence of a Daedric prince and doing just that.
  • As revealed in the "Opening Scene Overhaul" mod (which for the most part brought out many unused assets from before the game's release), Lokir had a different personality (and a different voice type, having Stephen Russell's "MaleSlyCynical" voice rather than Richard Epcar's "MaleCowardly" voice), chewing out Ulfric and Ralof for being the reason they all are set for execution and is much sturdier with his composure at first. However, this composure breaks when he is incorrectly accused of being a Stormcloak, and attempts to run while shouting that all he did was steal a horse, only to be killed. His personality was changed greatly for the final game, among other things, to avoid confusing a new player.
  • The Greybeards' unique robes have female models in the game files that are normally unused, since no female Greybeards appear in the game, nor has the existence of any ever been mentioned in lore. They also were never meant to be worn by the player.
  • An unfinished quest called "Boethiah's Bidding" would have had you kill Elisif, the Jarl of Solitude, who would subsequently be replaced by Erikur (according to unused lines of dialogue).
  • There are a few items (naturally), as well as a faction — there is an Arena faction in the files that has the framework for quests done (just the framework, no actual quests), as well as faction ranks.^note This isn't something all the joinable factions have, so the Arena was probably abandoned relatively early in development
• Killer App: Despite being released on a bevy of platforms during and after launch, it sold the best on Xbox 360, only being rivaled by PC sales. The Xbox 360 version was even bundled with consoles during the holiday season of 2012, and during launch week, it made up for 59% of the game's overall sales.
• Memorial Character: The game has a retroactive example. Erik the Slayer, an inhabitant of Rorikstead, was based on Erik West (internet alias Immok the Slayer), a visitor to Bethesda's headquarters that surprised the creators for his knowledge of Oblivion. He passed away from cancer in May of 2011, before he had the chance to see his character in-game, making his presence in the game all the more meaningful.
• Newbie Boom: Skyrim is the best-selling Elder Scrolls game of all time, and introduced an entire generation of gamers to Bethesda's style of open-world RPG. It created an even bigger newbie explosion in TES than Morrowind did.
• No Export for You: The Collector's Edition was essentially this for Australia, selling out within hours of being put up for pre-order due to the incredibly small number of copies allocated to the country. As something of a compromise, Australia had its own exclusive Limited Edition, as a free upgrade for EB Games pre-orders.
• Playing Against Type: As noted elsewhere, Paarthurnax is voiced by Charles Martinet. Yes, MARIO.
• Port Overdosed: Was initially ported to most sixth generation consoles. It later got an Updated Re-release dubbed The Elder's Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition which is just the base game remastered using the updated version of Creation Engine that was used for Fallout 4. The Special Edition was later used as a basis for the Nintendo Switch edition and the VR edition, the former allows you to place the Link amiibo from BoTW, where you can obtain an exclusive item that gives you Link's attire for that game and the Master Sword alongside the Hylian Shield. Then it was rereleased again for eight generation consoles in 2021 as the Anniversary Edition, and then the Switch version received the Anniversary Upgrade in 2022 that added the official content from the eight-gen version (though modding is currently impossible on the Switch port). The amount of times that Skyrim has been rereleased has become a meme in and of itself.
• Referenced by...: The Forced Meme that all the town Guardsmen are retired adventurers who got shot in the knee is referenced by the manga The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee. (Phew, what a mouthful).
• Screwed by the Network:
  • The original 32-bit Skyrim is, as of 2017, delisted from Steam. While it can still be bought for those who don't own it, it isn't eligible for price cuts at all and must be bought with the DLCs separately.
  • On the console modding side, while the PS4 does allow mods, Sony only allows them if they don't use any new textures^note The Xbox One allows them as long as they are under a certain file size; the Switch port, on the other hand, doesn't allow mods at all, meaning that a large number of very popular mods can't be ported to the console. Strangely, this ban only applies to mods downloaded off of Bethesda.net, since content from Bethesda's Creation Club has no such problems, possibly because Sony considers them DLC.
  • Updates to the base game break mods that make use of DLLs due to inaccurate version numbers. This especially stung with the Anniversary Edition updates to the Special Edition in 2021 as it was the first update to the game in years, effectively locking out the use of mods whose authors were uninterested or unable to update to the newest version.
• Sequel Gap: Five years between The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) to this game, and then the longest gap in the series between this to The Elder Scrolls VI, which is still unreleased as of 2021 (ten years after Skyrim). That said, the gap is filled up with the ridiculous number of times that Skyrim has been rereleased, including the Legendary Edition (2013), the Special Edition (2016), VR versions for the PlayStation 4 (2017) and PC (2018), and the Anniversary Edition (2021).
• Similarly Named Works:
  • Hircine's Daedric quest shares its name with the 1957 film Ill Met By Moonlight, based on the novel of the same name. They're unrelated, but all have the same origin; the phrase is a quote from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
  • The quest "The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal" (from the Creation Club content The Gray Cowl Returns!) shares its name with a Skyrim mod; the mod actually predates the DLC by a few years (the mod's initial release happened in 2015, the DLC was released in 2019). Both consists in tracking the same artifact and feature it as a reward.
• Updated Re-release: Twice, in both 2013 and six years later in 2016. The former is a standard "Game of The Year" edition called Legendary Edition that includes the base game and expansions while the latter is the Special Edition which does the same as the Legendary Edition as well as porting the game to Fallout 4's version of the Creation Engine as well as letting console players use mods (including "mudcrab armor" [that one has to buy no less]).
• Urban Legend of Zelda: One story that floated around social media for a while was that "taking an arrow to the knee" was an old Norse euphemism for getting married, meaning the guards were really just saying they'd settled down. This started life as a joke, but thanks to being widely shared it quickly got out of hand.
• What Could Have Been: It is quite evident that quite a lot of the content was planned for Skyrim didn't end up in the final version of the game. Some of it even made it to a more or less finished state, but was ultimately Dummied Out, most likely due to the game being Christmas Rushed.
  • If the file names seen in the editor for their equipment are any indication, the Stormcloaks were originally going to be called the Sons of Skyrim, with their officers being called the Sons of Talos.
  • Examining the core game modules with the PC Creation Kit reveals a vast array of abandoned-in-place functionalities that would have made the Civil War much more complex and involved than the straightforward affair it is in-game. For example, viewing of the exterior cells in the Tamriel worldspace around the gateways to Markarth and Riften in the Creation Kit shows that they were originally meant to have large-scale battles in the course of the Civil War like Whiterun, Windhelm, and Solitude do, as the region is strewn with various in-game invisible markers meant for civil war combatant maneuvers.
  • According to rumors, there was going to be a Dark Brotherhood sidequest where Erikur commissions you to assassinate Elisif so he can become Jarl of Solitude. Thankfully, it never made it past the cutting board. An alternate take on that sidequest, "Boethiah's Bidding," was supposed to be a sequel to "Boethiah's Calling" and involved the same task. Some of the code is actually in the game, but the fact that it was never fully implemented makes the quest Unwinnable even if you force-start it with the console.
  • According to Todd Howard, shortly before working on Skyrim, Bethesda were in talks to make titles based on A Song of Ice and Fire; but, despite some heavy interest, they ultimately turned it down in order to continue developing The Elder Scrolls and their own lore. The return of the dragons and the Civil War in Skyrim (plots that feature heavily in both works) may also have been partially inspired by this, although this has yet to be confirmed by any official sources.
  • Miraak, from the Dragonborn DLC, had a bunch of lines cut from the final game. These lines make him more of an Anti-Villain (such as regretting having to kill you), and even hint that he was originally slated to live at the end of the main quest.
  • Mephala's Daedric Quest has some cut content that implies that Jarl Balgruuf would have been killed by his own children, with his brother Hrongar taking over as Jarl. Remnants of this are still hinted at within the quest, and the plot of Balgruuf's son having been corrupted by Mephala is never resolved.
  • Considering the dropped Balgruuf and Elisif murders in game, Skyrim as originally written would have been much more pro-Stormcloak, ultimately leaving the Empire with only one Reasonable Authority Figure Jarl^note Idgrod of Hjaalmarch, who's probably going to die of old age soon, with the remainder being scheming backstabbers. While Elisif's murder was dropped early in development, Balgruuf's made it all the way to early beta testing. It was ultimately the beta testers who pointed out that killing off reasonable authority figures on the Imperial side, especially the one who trusts the Dragonborn from the start of the game, made choosing to go Imperial a Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story and would ruin the moral ambiguity of the Civil War storyline that's loved today.
  • Mjoll the Lioness was going to have a lengthy questline in which the Dragonborn helped her take down the Thieves' Guild, along the lines of "Destroy the Dark Brotherhood," but this was scrapped for time. This is probably the reason that Mjoll has an essential flag - like many quest-giving NPCs, she was to remain unkillable until after the completion of her quest, and you can't complete her quest because you can't ever begin it. As with a lot of unfinished content modders also worked to implement this into the game though the final result is slightly buggy.
  • There is an absolute metric ton of lines and dialogue cut from the game, and it's not just a matter of them being taken out, as they are all still there and easily put back in with mods. Instead of the standard "arrow in the knee" and Welcome to Corneria comments, followers and NPCs can have full conversations with you, and each other.
  • Michael Kirkbride said in a Reddit post that the banning of Talos would have a very devastating cosmic effect on Nirn. Namely, any attempt to depict the Red Diamond emblem in any form will have horrific consequences. A painter who paints it will have his painting turned into that of a 2D explosion. A blacksmith who forges it will have his work crumble after a while. A singer who describes the symbol in a song will cause anyone who listens to it to have their head explode. Apparently, this was going to become a minor plot point, with Talos worshipers trying to figure out how to safely depict his emblem. Though the effect didn't make it into the game, the cracked Red Dragon symbol is a nod to this, and Kirkbride confirmed that the effect might appear in future titles.
  • There was to be a small quest Nirya would give wherein the Dragonborn must steal Faralda's notes for some gold, or the notes could be given to Faralda. Similarly to the Love Triangle between Camilla Valerius, Faendal, and Sven in Riverwood, this would have allowed the woman you helped to become marriageable.
  • According to Todd Howard during an PAX East 2019 Interview, an original concept was for the Big Bad to be Emperor Uriel Septim V, having survived his supposed death in Akavir and returned to retake his throne and conquer the world with an army of dragons. It was changed due to wanting to keep Akavir mysterious.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • The idea that the Thalmor want to end Talos worship as part of a plot to destroy the mortal world and Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence doesn't actually appear in-game (beyond some strong hints from Esbern), but comes from forum posts by Michael Kirkbride. While responsible for a lot of Elder Scrolls lore (especially Morrowind) and the creation of the Thalmor originally (they are referenced in the first Pocket Guide to the Empire that was packaged with Redguard), he was not directly involved in writing the plot of Skyrim beyond the initial idea stages (that happened during Morrowind and early Oblivion).
  • The idea that the Champion of Cyrodiil is Sheogorath in Skyrim has been disproved by Michael Kirkbride in a Reddit post. However, Kirkbride said so based on the design documents of Oblivion, and stopped working for Bethesda after that game, so he didn't know if it still held true by the time of Skyrim and encouraged players to make up their own conclusions.
• You Sound Familiar: Obviously, generic NPCs have this, and while they're not keyed to the races as in Oblivion, Acting for Two can still happen under certain circumstances.
  • Wes Johnson voices both the ghost of Lucien Lachance and Emperor Titus Mede II.
  • Lynda Carter voices the Nord hero Gormlaith Golden-Hilt in Sovngarde and the Daedric Prince Azura.
  • Craig Sechler plays the Daedric Princes Hircine and Peryite.
  • Lani Minella is the Daedric Prince Nocturnal and the Night Mother. She's also the default voice for Female Dark Elves such as Irileth.
  • Popeye Vogelsang is the Male Brute voice, which includes Farkas of the Companions, the Riften blacksmith Balimund, the Markarth housecarl Argis the Bulwark, Maul, and a handful of other NPCs.
  • Michael J. Gough is the Male Nord voice, and he voices Vilkas of the Companions, Jarl Balgruuf, Brunwulf Free-Winter, Talsgar the Wanderer, and several other characters.
  • Claudia Christian is the Female Commander voice, and voices to Legate Rikke, Aela the Huntress, the spirit of Queen Potema, Faleen, and a few other characters.
  • Corri English voices Idgrod the Younger, Ingun Black-Briar, Nilsine Shatter-Shield, Brelyna Maryon, Camilla Valerius, Jarl Elisif the Fair and Elisif's personal maid, Erdi, the last two of which can be particularly jarring since they can be encountered in the same area.
  • Jean Gilpin voices Elenwen and the Daedric Princes Meridia and Boethiah.
  • There is one point in the Thieves' Guild questline where Mercer can follow the player all the way to the general goods store in Whiterun. It is almost startling to hear two characters with such differing personas sharing the same voice actor. Additionally, Mercer and Enthir share a voice actor (Stephen Russell). It's jarring to say the least during the Thieves' Guild questline, given that Mercer serves as the main antagonist, while Enthir plays a critical role in taking him down.
  • Gideon Emery is encountered twice in the Dark Brotherhood questline - he voices both Arcturus and Commander Maro's son Gaius. He also voices a few random Imperial archers who can be met on the road.
  • Colleen Delaney voices Housecarl Lydia, Falkreath's Steward Nenya, Ria of the Companions, Vittoria Vici, Keeper Carcette, and Aphia Velothi (from Dragonborn), among others.

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