History NightmareFuel / TheElderScrollsVSkyrim

** And the inversion of that for the dragons. Dragons are eternal, immortal, unchanging... and here comes this puny human that uses your own language against you, scrambling your mind so you can't even escape. You fight back, but for naught; something happens to you that ''never'' happened to dragonkind before. You die. And then it gets ''worse''. [[spoiler:''He '''eats your soul''''.]]

** And the inversion of that for the dragons. Dragons are eternal, immortal, unchanging... and here comes this puny human that uses your own language against you, scrambling your mind so you can't even escape. You fight back, but for naught; something happens to you that ''never'' happened to dragonkind before. You die. And then it gets ''worse''. [[spoiler:''He [[CessationOfExistence ''eats your soul''.]]]]

** And the inversion of that for the dragons. Dragons are eternal, immortal, unchanging... and here comes this puny human that uses your own language against you, scrambling your mind so you can't even escape. You fight back, but for naught; something happens to you that ''never'' happened to dragonkind before. You die. And then it gets ''worse''. [[spoiler:''He [[CessationOfExistence '''eats your soul'''''.]]]]

** And the inversion of that for the dragons. Dragons are eternal, immortal, unchanging... and here comes this puny human that uses your own language against you, scrambling your mind so you can't even escape. You fight back, but for naught; something happens to you that ''never'' happened to dragonkind before. You die. And then it gets ''worse''. [[spoiler:''He '''eats your soul'''''.]]

** By the way, the house itself ''completely matches the description of a place in-game.'' It's an abandoned house in Cheydinhal...and that house just happens to contain the local Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.

** Turned into further NightmareFuel [[spoiler:for [[TheBaroness Astrid]]. If you play it right, the one she went to trouble to kidnap all the way from halfway across the continent, is not only the Dragonborn, but they also could be Nightingale of the Thieves' Guild, Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, possible Thane to most if not all of Skyrim's Holds, the one who singlehandledly cleared ''lots'' of raiders and bandit caves, and if you finish the main storyline, the defeater of the '''the dragon heralding the World's End itself'''. The Dragonborn can have magic and shouts powerful enough to kill Astrid a hundred times over. Not only that, this 'victim' can also summon atronaches, wraiths and freaking '''[[PhysicalGod Daedras and Dragon Priests]]'''. It is not yet clear to Astrid, but is very clear to ''you'' that you are not trapped by Astrid with the 3 would-be victims, but [[RussianReversal she has trapped]] ''[[MuggingTheMonster herself]]'' [[MuggingTheMonster with]] '''[[MuggingTheMonster you]]'''. Should the player decide, all hell can and ''will'' break loose on the Dark Brotherhood (that's why the much-understated [[RealityEnsues 'Destroy the Dark Brotherhood' quest is immediately started once you show Astrid her folly]]), which outright ''annihilates'' the centuries-old guild for good with merely ''two'' survivors, who only escaped death because they weren't there at the time. And if the player accepts Astrid's offer, then she slowly realizes it herself just ''whom'' she made [[OhCrap the latest Dark Brotherhood recruit]], which is why she tries to have the Dragonborn killed once they become too useful, but to no avail.]]

*** [[Film/TheEmperorsNewGroove "Touch the orb, Athazdir!... WRONG OOOOOoooooorrrrrrrrrrrrbbbbbbbb!"]]

* If one plays while having deactivated ''only'' the voice acting among the possible sources of sound, some characters, such as Meridia upon her crystal being acquired or Helgi's ghost, will still have some fully voiced lines. Such characters are few and far between enough for the voiced lines to catch the player off-guard and incidentally remind them that the character is no random mortal.

* If one decides to deactivate ''only'' the voice acting among the possible sources of sound, some characters, such as Meridia upon her crystal being acquired or Helgi's ghost, will still have some fully voiced lines. Such characters are few and far between enough for the voiced lines to catch the player off-guard an incidentally remind them that the character is no random mortal.

* ''Apotheosis'' is, like Darkend, very Dark Souls-inspired, and it ''shows''. You play as a lost soul from the Dreamsleeve, a realm of the lost dead who eats away at its inhabitants, who has to venture out across the realms of Oblivion to reassemble the Heart of Lorkhan. While it may sound like a standard series of fetch-quests, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwWrYm-GZxM announcement trailer]] plays up the horror angle, depicting terrifying and bleak realms of oblivion set to a haunting tune and text repeating the creation myth of Nirn, but warped to present Sithis and Lorkhan as the true gods.
-->''Anui-El made friends. And they called themselves the Aedra. They enslaved everything. And created realms of everlasting imperfection. Thus are the Aedra. The False Gods.''

* One mod replaces with the skeleton noises with the skeleton screams from ''Daggerfall''. Sweet dreams.

* ''Apotheosis'' is, like Darkend, very Dark Souls-inspired, and it ''shows''. You play as a lost soul from the Dreamsleeve, a realm of the lost dead who eats away at its inhabitants, who has to venture out across the realms of Oblivion to reassemble the Heart of Lorkhan. While it may sound like a standard series of fetch-quests, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwWrYm-GZxM announcement trailer]] plays up the horror angle, depicting terrifying and bleak realms of oblivion set to a haunting tune and text repeating the creation myth of Nirn, but painting Sithis and Lorkhan as being in the right.

* The quest in [[LighthousePoint Frostflow Lighthouse]]. If the dead horse outside doesn't tip you off that something's not right here, you enter the lighthouse to find furniture overturned, with blood everywhere and a dead body. Your quest message flashes across the screen: find the murderer. By reading the journals, you find that it was the couple's dream to retire to a lighthouse, even though their nearly-adult children didn't like the idea much. They've been hearing noises in the cellars, and assumed it was just skeevers. Then the husband comes home from a shopping trip to find his wife dead and children missing, and locks himself in the basement to either kill whatever did this or die trying. Turns out the cellar opened up into a large ice cave swarming with Falmer and Chaurus. Along the way, you find the rest of the family members' bodies - the son being the first body you find, the daughter having ''[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled killed herself]]'' to escape the horrible things the Falmer did to her father and others they dragged down there, and the father's remains being [[spoiler:''inside a Chaurus Reaper'']]. For bonus points, the cavern beneath the lighthouse is literally the largest Chaurus nest ''in the game'', containing over 500 egg sacs. This one cavern somehow manages to house almost a ''third'' of all the Chaurus egg sacs in the base game.

* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20699_the-6-creepiest-easter-eggs-hidden-in-video-games-part-2.html The secret death room.]] Just imagine ending up in a place like this one day by accident and realizing you're completely trapped. The entire "room" is just four tiny hallways connected to doors that wrap around to each other, so there is no escape and you're stuck there. Forever. The whole place really, REALLY manages to combine the SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere, FateWorseThanDeath, and EldritchLocation tropes all too well... Which isn't even to mention the fact that, occasionally, the bodies will walk around the room.
* One [[AnimateDead Conjuration Spell]], Dead Thrall, is a pure horror for NPC. Its function is resurrect any NPC for 60 days in-game with the equipment and weapon the NPC had when they died. Imagine you area bandit in a camp or soldier in a fort and you see the Dragonborn, their housecarl, and their undead legion (usually wearing steel armor or better) marching to your position, slaughter your band, and revive you as their [[ShapedLikeItself Dead Thrall]].

* ''The Horrors of Castle Xyr'' is an in-game book, written in style of a play, about two Imperial Officers investigating the eponymous castle and its master due to some unpleasant rumors, and they seem to have found what they were looking for when they discover that the basement is full of dead bodies and they conclude that Xyr is a necromancer. Then, an Argonian delivery girl arrives with a letter and a package to Xyr, which the officers take, and [[spoiler: it turns out that Xyr isn't a necromancer: he's a Destruction mage with a fascination of using his craft to inflict CruelAndUnusualDeath on anyone he gets his hands on. The book then details some of said deaths, which include burning someone alive, dousing someone in acid over extended periods of time, and slowly killing someone by inflicting numerous frostbites on them. [[FromBadToWorse Worse yet,]] Xyr is basically pen pals with a wizard from the Mages' College who sends him suggestions for his "experiments", and even subjects, as the Argonian female was supposed to be a new victim for Xyr. ''Then'' [[PlotTwist it turns out]] that the woman who was supposed to be Xyr's maid ''was'' Xyr, who then puts out all the lights and starts throwing lightning bolts at the heroes with the intent of using them as her newest victims. [[AmbiguousEnding The book/play ends there.]]]]

** Turned into further NightmareFuel [[spoiler:for [[TheBaroness Astrid]]. If you play it right, the one she went to trouble to kidnap all the way from halfway across the continent, is not only the Dragonborn, but they also could be Nightingale of the Thieves' Guild, Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, possible Thane to most if not all of Skyrim's Holds, the one who singlehandledly cleared ''lots'' of raiders and bandit caves, and if you finish the main storyline, the defeater of the '''the dragon heralding the World's End itself'''. The Dragonborn can have magic and shouts powerful enough to kill Astrid a hundred times over. Not only that, this 'victim' can also summon atronaches, wraiths and freaking '''[[PhysicalGod Daedras and Dragon Priests]]'''. It is not yet clear to Astrid, but is very clear to ''you'' that you are not trapped by Astrid with the 3 would-be victims, but [[RussianReversal she has trapped]] ''[[MuggingTheMonster herself]]'' [[MuggingTheMonster with]] '''[[MuggingTheMonster you]]'''. Should the player decide, all hell can and ''will'' break loose on the Dark Brotherhood (that's why the much-understated [[RealityEnsues 'Destroy the Dark Brotherhood' quest is immediately started once you show Astrid her folly]]), which outright ''annihilates'' the centuries-old guild for good with merely ''2'' survivors, who only escaped death because they weren't there at the time. And if the player accepts Astrid's offer, then she slowly realizes it herself just ''whom'' she made [[OhCrap the latest Dark Brotherhood recruit]], which is why she tries to have the Dragonborn killed once they become too useful, but to no avail.]]

** The worst part? She contacts by performing the Black Sacrament, [[spoiler:to put a contract ''on herself'', by using ''herself'' as the effigy. Remember what must be done to the effigy for the ritual to carry through, with the candles and the Nightshade, and a dagger through a heart? Not to mention that her soul is to go to the Void at any range for serving Sithis... Except not as his agent anymore, but as a target, a slave to him. [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves A slave thrice damned]] for betraying the Five Tenants and for almost dooming the last hold her God had on the mortal plane!]] And she ''[[{{Determinator}} done]]'' it, nevertheless!

*** Even worse is when you know what happens to dogs who are raised eating that kind of meat - [[spoiler:they tend to become highly unstable, and very vicious. If you thought CarnivoreConfusion was bad in most fictitious settings, imagine taking commands from a person who smells like your favorite meat.]]

** When you reach the final location in the questline, Morvunskar, you find a group of hostile mages who are nonetheless in the midst of drunken revelry, as befitting a gaggle of Sanguine worshippers. But delve deeper into the fortress and you'l find a room filled with the scorched and burnt corpses of captives, who were murdered by a psychotic mage named Naris who was indulging in ''his'' darker desires. And just up the hallway from this sadistic mage is another room, with a shrine to Dibella (whose temples and shrines Sanguine worshippers love to defile) alongside potions of paralysis, invisibility, and leather strips. It's not hard to figure out what other depravity these daedra worshippers were engaging in with their prisoners, and why Sanguine ''isn't'' all fun and games.
* The moment when you find Meridia's Beacon. So you stumble across a chest and find some goodies as well as some weird prism. "Hmm? Never seen anything like this before..." You take it out, close the chest, and are immediately treated to one HELL of a JumpScare by this otherworldly voice commanding you to return the beacon to her statue. Mercifully, Meridia is bar none the ''nicest'' of the Daedric Princes, but she's still downright terrifying when she wants something from you. You might be surprised that [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII Knight-Commander Meredith]] has suddenly started demanding something of you in a totally different game; no one will blame you for freaking out.
* In the city of Falkreath, you will meet parents mourning their deceased little daughter in the cemetery. Speaking with them will allow you to initiate the "Ill Met by Moonlight" quest, in which you will meet the girl's murderer, Sinding. When talking to him, he will tell you, full of remorse, that he indeed killed the girl: [[spoiler:he is a lycanthrope, and is under a curse from the ring he possesses which turn him into a werewolf at random. He explains that he was unable to control himself and his impulses, leading him to find the ring which was supposed to help him control his inner beast, but it only made the situation worse. He needed to hunt, and the frail little girl was a perfect prey. His story is spine-chilling, to say the least]]. In the end, you will be given by Hircine, the Daedric Lord of the Hunt, the choice to spare him or to kill him, but even if you decide to spare him, and despite his promises to stay away from civilization, he will appear once again randomly in cleared bandit camps, [[spoiler:feeding on corpses]], or fighting a guard from the local hold. In the end, he will never be able to [[spoiler:control his beastblood]], and [[DownerEnding the player will have no choice but to put him down before he kills another human being.]]
** Ill Met By Moonlight deserves some more elaboration. The second half takes place in Bloated Man's Grotto ([[SarcasmMode charming name]]), which normally is a relatively well-lit, open-topped cave that's a bit maze-like, a possible site of a Blade's last stand against the Thalmor, and home to a frankly unhealthy amount of bears and Spriggans. All in all, not too frightening, especially during the day when everything’s bright and green and colourful. All of that changes during Hircine’s quest. When you visit the grotto as part of the quest, the in-game clock automatically jumps to nighttime, and the sky turns blood-red with a [[BadMoonRising huge moon]] hanging low over the environment, making everything much, much darker and harder to make out. You pass by a group of grievously wounded hunters, clinging to life and barely able to tell you that they were no match for the werewolf they were chasing. So you carry on, into the red shadows, [[NothingIsScarier not a spark of life around you]], until eventually you come to a tiny clearing. And there it is – silhouetted against the Bloodmoon on an outcropping high above you, the werewolf sits, waiting. And then it speaks. [[DissonantSerenity Its voice is not too deep, not too loud, and terrifyingly human]].

---> '''Mirmulnir''': [[OhCrap Dovahkiin?!]] ''[[BigNo No!]]''

* The [[EldritchLocation Soul Cairn]], a plane of Oblivion to which human souls that have been captured in Black Soul Gems are sent after the soul gems are used up. The piles of bones everywhere are to be expected of what is essentially a graveyard dimension, but the true horror is the fact that all of these souls are in a permanent AndIMustScream state. If you talk to any of the unnamed souls, they will occasionally say that they feel like they are constantly being drawn and quartered... Though, if you soul trapped Grelod the Kind, [[spoiler:Mercer Frey]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Nazeem]], or any other asshole character, you might take comfort in the fact that they didn't get out of punishment that easily.

** Darkfall Passage may be worse. The primary light sources through most of it are glowing pink flowers that retract when you come near, leaving you in darkness. In addition to the Falmer running around, you have Chauri, including several Hunters and Hunter fledglings, hidden in the carcasses of dead ones that you don't notice until you ''step on them and they burst out'' and you can barely see them in the dark as they're flying around you, so they're hard to hit. And then there's Darkfall Grotto, which gives us Feral Falmer - a naked, blood-splattered, more animalistic variant of Falmer that kills their own kind. On the upside, once you're done, you are rewarded with the (relatively) more serene, absolutely ''gorgeous'' Forgotton Vale, and no longer have to brave the cave to visit there again.
* Bringing Serana to the beginning of the "House of Horrors" Daedric quest is VideoGameCrueltyPotential at its finest. Not only the FridgeHorror and [[RapeAsBackstory her horrifying backstory with Molag Bal]], but she will, like the Dragonborn inside Molag's cage, [[BreakTheCutie crouch and place her hands on her head while the Daedra speaks]].
* ''Dawnguard'' ramps it up to eleven with the ability for the Dragonborn to shout and rip out a person's soul and raise them as an undead thrall. The shout in question, Soul Tear, is quite possibly the single most powerful in the entire game. To elaborate, it deals around 300 damage, which means a human opponent is pretty much [[OneHitKill instantly dead when you]] [[UnblockableAttack use it on them.]] If the enemy dies by the Shout, [[YourSoulIsMine their soul is trapped]] ''and'' they are instantly [[BackFromTheDead revived]] as [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy fight for you,]] [[NoBodyLeftBehind becoming ash piles once the effect is over.]] To a player, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday it might be nothing more than a tool,]] but imagine how horrifying it must be to an enemy. Let's take as an example soldiers from the opposing faction, who generally don't attack unless provoked, unlike bandits. Now imagine you're a soldier from said faction. You're calmly walking down the road with your buddy from years back (or worse, your sibling), who decided to join the Empire/Stormcloaks at around the same time you did. (You heard of the Dragonborn giving your troops hell, sure you did, but since reports vary on the Dragonborn's appearance, you have no idea what they look like.) You're making idle talk with each other as you walk when suddenly you spot a person walking in your direction. They are heavily armed and armored, and their face is obscured by a helmet. You don't know who this person is, nor have you ever seen them. There's something off about them, so as they silently walk towards you, you ask them if you can help them with anything. In most of the cases, the enemy will attack the Dragonborn regardless of how 'pacifistic' they are at the moment, but their KillingIntent is perceivable even to the dumbest mooks. You're feeling a bit creeped out, so you back off instinctively, and so does your friend. But before any of you can really do anything, this person is suddenly shouting... something, in a strange language, at you, and you know it does ''something'' because while you don't feel anything other than a strange wave of energy, your friend immediately goes limp and collapses for no reason. They're not dead, you can see them breathing, but there's something... off about them. And then your friend is getting up, and now you definitely ''know'' something is wrong with them because their eyes look... ''dead''. And before you can ask them what happened, they're ''attacking you''. As you desperately dodge their attacks, trying to make them listen to reason, the person in armor starts to attack you as well, and as you struggle to keep up the pace to avoid their combined attacks, you're utterly confused as to ''why'' this person did this to you or ''what'' exactly they did to your friend, and then it dawns on you... you heard one of the soldiers who survived the Dragonborn's attack on one of your forts swear on his mother's life that he saw the Dragonborn rip one of the soldiers' soul out of their body using nothing but words... and you realize this is exactly what happened. You and your friend were unlucky enough to cross paths with the Dragonborn, and they did the exact same thing they had previously done to another soldier, with your friend as the target this time. These are your final thoughts as your friend stabs you in the throat with an attack you weren't fast enough to dodge. You stay alive long enough to see your friend literally crumble into dust in front of you as the Dragonborn calmly walks away after having just murdered you both, entirely unprovoked (or if they attack you for mugging or are AlwaysChaoticEvil like the Thalmor, vampires or enemy Draugr or necromancer), [[CruelAndUnusualDeath completely deserved]].
* While the werewolf form attacks are brutal, the [[SuperForm Vampire Lord]] form is pure nightmare fuel. Around 8 feet tall, built almost as sturdy as a troll, the Vampire Lord simply glides around while either draining your very life essence or raising your buddy as an undead thrall. Oh, and if you survive his magical onslaught? He lands and proceeds to introduce you firsthand to his claws which are every bit as brutal as a werewolf's. There's another thing that makes a Vampire Lord Dovahkiin all the more terrifying - nobody can recognize you while in Vampire Lord form, assuming they have not seen you transform, which means you can kill as many people as you want and not get any bounty on your head unless you're seen changing in or out of human form. This opens up a whole new array of possibilities for an [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential evil-inclined,]] [[AxCrazy murderous]] Dovahkiin, and a whole new source of ParanoiaFuel. One night a terrifying bat-beast can glide silently into your city, mercilessly slaughtering anyone in its way, draining them dry of blood, raising corpses to fight by its side, and summoning nightmarish gargoyles. Eventually it mercifully escapes into the night. The next day, the legendary Dragonborn walks into town, receiving greetings fit for a hero. Sure, there is something ''off'' about him... a sort of paleness, an eerie light in his eyes [[note]] the eerie light is allowed for the Dragonborn only, no other non-vampire NPC can detect any other vampire[[/note]] ... but this is the Dragonborn, savior of Skyrim, vanquisher of dragons! [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Surely someone so virtuous cannot have evil intentions deep within, right?]] '''Right?'''

* In ''Dragonborn'', you get to know more about [[GreaterScopeVillain Hermaeus Mora]] and [[spoiler:go to his real Apocrypha, filled with all sorts of Lovecraftian horrors.]] Not only that, but his appearance changes to a series of voids that have tentacles coming out of them and eyes that appear and disappear. It gets worse. That series of voids with tentacles emerging from the depths and eyes phasing in and out of Nirn are rendered as two-dimensional objects, much like death sprites in ''Doom'', an effect which causes the image to shift its orientation whenever the camera moves about. [[spoiler: That's right. Hermaeus Mora isn't interested in the Dragonborn, he's interested in ''[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou you]]''.]]

[[/folder]]
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!!Skyrim Lore and Sidquests

-->[[ThisIsGonnaSuck I don't like where this is going.]]

-->'''[[spoiler:Sinding]]:''' Never thought I'd see you again.

-->[[ArcWords "The many shall suffer for the sins of the one." ]]

* The quest in [[LighthousePoint Frostflow Lighthouse]]. If the dead horse outside doesn't tip you off that something's not right here, you enter the lighthouse to find furniture overturned, with blood everywhere and a dead body. Your quest message flashes across the screen: find the murderer. By reading the journals, you find that it was the couple's dream to retire to a lighthouse, even though their nearly-adult children didn't like the idea much. They've been hearing noises in the cellars, and assumed it was just skeevers. Then the husband comes home from a shopping trip to find his wife dead and children missing, and locks himself in the basement to either kill whatever did this or die trying. Turns out the cellar opened up into a large ice cave swarming with Falmer and Chaurus. Along the way, you find the rest of the family members' bodies - the son being the first body you find, the daughter having ''[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled killed herself]]'' to escape the horrible things the Falmer did to her father and others they dragged down there, and the father's remains being [[spoiler:''inside a Chaurus Reaper'']].

* The statues in Sovngarde move to follow the player, [[ParanioaFuel but only when the player isn't watching.]]

** At one point, you'll hear howling. This is of course meant to be creepy, but to this troper, it felt calming. After all, if a wolf is howling, there is at least ''something'' alive in this hellscape. And then you turn a corner and run into an undead dog.

** Most Dwemer ruins are generally fun to explore and not ''too'' scary. Then there's Kagrenzel, an out-of-the-way ruin in the eastern mountains. When you step through the front door of the place, you find yourself in a dark room; take a step forward, and a mysterious glowy orb will light up in the center of the room, on a pedestal surrounded by a couple of dead bandits. Approaching the orb [[SchmuckBait gives the prompt to touch it]]. You'd expect it to trigger some automatons or an easily avoided DeathTrap, right? ''Wrong''. [[spoiler:Touching the orb will cause walls to pop up all around you, trapping you completely, while the orb starts floating around the room emitting a [[HellIsThatNoise horrific screeching noise]]. After a few tense moments, the room goes dark completely... and then '''the floor flips over, dropping you down a hundred-foot shaft in the ground.''' Fortunately, there's SoftWater below to break your fall; unfortunately, there are protruding ledges that may very well kill you instantly on the way down. And even if you do survive, you're now trapped in a cave full of Falmer...]] It's almost like something that made its way out of a survival horror game and wound up in ''Skyrim''.

* ''Arachnophobia'' makes those Frostbites much worse. It starts with them webbing you up and having to try and escape. If you can't or a giant one does it, you're captured and hung to be eaten later while you have to work out the best way to break free. Fail and the spiders will devour you.