History Skyrim / Tropes0ToG

[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Main Page]] | Tropes 0 to G | Skyrim/TropesHToM | Skyrim/TropesNToT | Skyrim/TropesUToZ
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[[folder:0-9]]
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating:
** King Olaf. Solitude has a festival where he is burned in effigy. He seems to have had a better approval rating in the other Holds, but his reign was so long ago that it is hard to say for certain whether it was ''good'' or merely not bad enough to inspire annual effigy-burnings. [[spoiler: He's also actually the same person as Olaf One-Eye, who has a HundredPercentHeroismRating, meaning he got both a HistoricalVillainUpgrade and a HistoricalHeroUpgrade at the same time.]]
** And speaking of long dead reviled rulers, Wolf Queen Potema. Unlike Olaf, however, there is absolutely zero dispute over how evil and how reviled she was. Apart from some crazy necromancers trying (foolishly) to bind and enslave her, and some vampires living in her catacombs, ''no one'' has anything positive to say about her. At all. [[spoiler: Also unlike Olaf, her ghost is not found in Sovngarde, either before or after the two quests concerning her, so there truly is no silver lining with her. (However, that may be because she's an Imperial.)]]
** The Emperor himself, Titus Mede II, though to a lesser degree than Olaf. While not the victim of a effigy-burning ritual like Olaf (possibly because he's still in power), very few people, if anyone at all, seems to have anything positive to say about the Emperor. Even those supposedly loyal to him are more loyal to the Empire as a whole than they are to him. [[spoiler: The very one who hires the Dark Brotherhood to have the Emperor killed is a member of the Elder Council.]] The reason for this hatred is because he surrendered to the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor,]] but when you meet him he comes across as a supremely ReasonableAuthorityFigure, as well as a perfect example of [[spoiler: FaceDeathWithDignity]], so the hatred seems somewhat undeserved.
** The Thalmor, the fascist High Elf government. The number of non-Thalmor in Skyrim who support them can be counted on one hand, and even those seem mostly to be paid-off agents. There are quite a few High Elves who dislike them for their extreme ways. The only reason the Thalmor even came to power in the first place was due to the chaos caused by the Oblivion Crisis (and their successful ''lie'' in their home territory that it was ''them'' who resolved the crisis).
* TwentyFourHourArmor: Not only is the player character free to wear the same set of heavy plate armour all day and every day, the guards of holds can be seen sleeping in their armour in the hold's barracks. They don't even take off their full-face helmets. (This is actually a game bug; all characters who have a "sleep" routine were given outfits to wear when sleeping, but the "lie down and sleep" part of the script doesn't call on them to change clothes.)
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[[folder:A]]
* AbhorrentAdmirer:
** Apparently you and [[spoiler: a hagraven named Moira]] spent a magical evening together while you were drunk. She doesn't handle rejection well.
** In Windhelm, Captain Lonely-Gale and Viola Giordano. Viola frequently comes on to the Captain, and his thoughts on the matter, well...
--->'''Elda Early-Dawn:''' So what's the news on the streets, Captain?\\
'''Captain Lonely-Gale:''' [[FantasticRacism The dark elves are uneasy]]. [[SerialKiller There's a killer on the loose]]. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And Viola Giordano won't leave me alone]].\\
'''Elda Early-Dawn:''' Would you like a drink?\\
'''Captain Lonely-Gale:''' Oh, ''[[INeedAFreakingDrink very much so]]''.
* AbnormalAmmo: Hilariously played with in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC. You can use live spiders as thrown weapons; some of them even explode!
* AbortedArc: Numerous important plot threads and apparent quest hooks go nowhere.
** If you speak to the Thieves' Guild member Rune, he will tell you his backstory and the reason for his peculiar name and you can offer to keep your eyes open in order to help him discover his origins. And then... nothing. It's never brought up again in the Thieves' Guild questline and there is no quest having anything to do with Rune's backstory.
** There's Mjoll, a former adventurer trying to clean up the corruption in Riften. You never get a chance to help her deal with either the Thieves' Guild or Black-Briar family. This option was originally planned, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen but was cut for time during development]].
** It's mentioned when you talk to people in the College of Winterhold that the previous mage group before yours [[ChekhovMIA went missing.]] You can happen upon their bodies by chance, and pick up unique items of theirs, but you can't do anything for them, find out whether the deaths were connected, or bring anyone any closure. This is actually a glitch, as Phinis Gestor was supposed to offer you the quest, but never does.
*** The "Cutting Room Floor" mod, which restores content that was removed from the final game, includes the meadery near Dragon Bridge that two of the missing apprentices were supposed to be running. This obviously conflicts with the unfinished quest in which you were supposed to find all four dead, so the meadery is run by two unrelated people now.
** One quest has you tracking a man's wife who was kidnapped by bandits, but it turns out that [[spoiler:she's taken over the band and enjoys her new life, so she asks you to lie about her fate to get rid of him]]. When you do, she says she owes you a debt and will see you again someday because she means to repay it. She doesn't; you two never meet again.
** In ''Dawnguard'', if you side with the vampires, it's a plot point that two of Harkon's top lieutenants are feuding, and both are plotting to overthrow Harkon. The end result of this is that each of them sends a guy to kill you during your first quest for Harkon. After this, the plot is never mentioned again, even after [[spoiler:you kill Harkon and take over as lord/lady of the castle. Presumably you keep around two guys who are trying to kill one another, and really want ''your'' job.]]
** One that was thankfully cut was that Mephala's quest would result in ''all'' of Jarl Balgruuf's children seeking him out and committing patricide. The scripts are completely finished and in game, but unused. It's probable that the testers felt this was an undignified end for the Jarl and would take away a major moral dilemma of the Civil War arc.
* AbsoluteCleavage:
** The Daedric Lords Azura and Nocturnal both wear robes split from shoulders to navel. While Azura is only depicted through statues, Nocturnal appears in person (if you complete the Thieves' Guild questline). Her robes are unobtainable barring console commands.
** Ancient Nord Armor, when worn on females (Aela the Huntress has a set as her default), is comprised of a deep-V halter-top and [[SexyBacklessOutfit no back]] ([[{{Sideboob}} or sides for that matter]]). For FanDisservice, [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Draugr]] who were female in life wear this armor.
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Before patch 1.9, maxing all skills to 100 would get you to the level cap of 81. Patch 1.9, however, added the Legendary feature, which resets a skill from 100 to 15, returning any perk points spent on that skill in the process. Through this mechanic, there is no limit on level, though you'll have the points to unlock every single perk by 261.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Ratway, most definitely. The Thieves Guild has set up their main base down there -- said base covers maybe 10% of the total area. In fact, it's clear that it's too big for them to patrol on their own, as evidenced by the fact that the Thalmor get in there without much trouble during their hunt for Esbern.
* AbusiveParents:
** Lemkil from Rorikstead. He beats his daughters Britte and Sissel, and loudly complains in public that his children are good for nothing but caterwauling and complaining. His abuse causes Britte to turn around and abuse Sissel as well, so poor Sissel has it doubly bad.
** There's also an ambiguous example with Golldir, the Nord warrior found outside Hillgrund's Tomb with his own personal quest. According to Golldir, his father, whom he calls "Da", locked him in the tomb when he was young; but the note you can find from his Aunt Agna claims that it was his brother who locked him in there instead. Nothing in the game explains the discrepancy, so Golldir may or may not fall under this trope, although other comments he makes about his father seem to imply that he does.
** Probably every other example in the game pales in comparison to Serana's family from ''Dawnguard''. [[spoiler:Her mother Valerica locked her away in a stasis-like sleep in a stone coffin for centuries. Before that happened, her father Harkon arranged for Molag Bal, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Daedric Prince of Domination (or if you prefer, the "King of Rape")]], to bestow the "gift" of vampirism on himself, Valerica, and Serana. How this was given to Harkon is unclear, but [[RapeAsDrama Serana describes what she and her mother had to endure as "degrading," and refuses to go into further detail than that]].]]
* AbusivePrecursors:
** Dwemer weren't well-liked by other races in the distant past, and we see a few good examples of why in this game. They twisted the Falmer (Snow Elves) into the morlock-like forms you see today and used them as slaves. Whatever the Dwemer did changed the very nature of their souls: Sentient creatures (like the various races of elves, humans, etc) have black souls. Subhuman creatures and beasts have white souls. Falmer souls are white, meaning that they fall into the second category. It's not really known for sure whether this is an intentional feature or not, though in ''Dawnguard,'' a [[spoiler:non-corrupted Snow Elf]] mentions that the Falmer became what they are over centuries.
** Dragons and the dragon cults worshiping them are another example. Alduin disregarded his divine mandate to serve as the World-Eater and established a vast theocratic dictatorship over early Nord society. The legacy is still felt in modern Skyrim with the Draugr ruins scattered across the landscape, as well as the dragon mounds where the bones of the old dragons are buried.
* AcceptableBreaksFromReality:
** Death by exposure to the cold is non-existent, regardless of race or blood. Even swimming naked in freezing waters topped with ice floes off the northern shoreline has no ill effects. One dungeon requires you to explore and loot an underwater ship in just such conditions. The Nords that populate Skyrim do have a canonical inherent resistance to cold that protects them, but that's it. Ironically, the [[CatFolk Khajiit]], who are covered from head to tail in fur, are the only race to actually ''complain'' about the cold, though they have the excuse of being native to a desert region. [[LizardFolk Argonians]] are sometimes described by characters in the game as vulnerable to cold, but the race doesn't actually have a weakness to the element. It's also worth mentioning the extremely popular ''Frostfall'' GameMod, which addresses this break from reality.
** All currency, even that found in ancient Dwemer or Nordic ruins, is represented by septims to avoid inventory and exchange hassles. Similarly, any lockpick-like item (bobby pins, smith tools, etc.) is just represented by the same lockpick item. For that matter, all locks, whether they're on wooden doors or Chaurus Chitin chests, all have the same metal-in-wood interface.
** Individual septims, lockpicks, and arrows have no weight, leading to scenarios where you're potentially carrying around with you a million gold pieces, thousands of lockpicks, and a small army's worth of arrows. There's an achievement earned if you are able to carry 100,000 gold pieces on your person.
** All potions in the game weigh half a unit, no matter the weight of the ingredients. Possibly {{justified|Trope}} in that it may be only a small part of an ingredient's whole which is used in brewing the concoction. We don't see the mixing process in any actual detail, which is another case of AcceptableBreaksFromReality in itself.
** You don't need bottles when performing alchemy, and venom and essence looted from Frostbite Spiders and Ice Wraiths are conveniently stored in vials despite presumably being extracted from the corpses.
** All tombs and caves, even those that have been sealed for centuries or longer, have candles and torches burning to light the way. While players can still use torches and spells to light the way, the innate lighting saves them from being unable to see in battle if they want to wield a shield or an off-hand weapon, and the light-producing spells make it next to impossible to Sneak.
*** This one may actually be [[AllThereInTheManual explained]] for draugr tombs by the in-game book ''[[http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Amongst_the_Draugr Amongst the Draugr]],'' which says they get up and clean the tombs occasionally. This would presumably include changing the lighting.
** The way food consumption occurs is one of the most egregious examples. Your character can consume any amount of food, of any kind, in a single instant, leading to absurd scenarios where the Dragonborn downs literally pounds upon pounds of meat, cheese, apples, and assorted soups to recover all of their health during combat. The "acceptable breaks" part comes in the fact that if it were handled realistically, food items would just be worthless junk (a lot of them are anyway, but still), and consuming them would just be a novelty action that the player takes once or twice and then never again.
* ActionBomb:
** Summon your own with the "Flaming Familiar" conjuration spell.
** Atronachs and some Dwarven Spiders have the explode-upon-death variant.
** J'zargo's "Scroll of Flame Cloak" spell is designed to be extra effective on the undead. [[spoiler:A pity they are also effective on the user...]]
** There are also "small" spiders in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC that jump at the player to attack, exploding in the process. You can even find a machine to craft your own to throw at enemies (and they come in fire, ice, lightning, and poison varieties to boot).
** Also introduced in ''Dragonborn'' is Ahzidal's Ring of Necromancy, which causes the wearer's reanimated undead to explode in a blast of frost the first time they take damage. If you have multiple undead, the explosion of one can trigger the others.
* ActionGirl: A female Dragonborn and nearly all female followers. Delphine also qualifies, despite being in her fifties, as do the female housecarls standing guard over Jarl Balgruuf and Jarl Igmund. And of course, Gormlaith Golden-Hilt takes a close-up approach to dragonslaying.
* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse:
** The Bannered Mare, The Winking Skeever, The Sleeping Giant, and The Stumbling Sabrecat (a tiny one in Fort Dunstad) in the main game proper.
** Also, the tavern found in in the Dunmer port town of Raven Rock when visiting Solstheim with the ''Dragonborn'' DLC is called The Retching Netch. In the cases of The Retching Netch and The Winking Skeever, you can remark on the name to the owner and he will explain how he came up with it.
** It's not a tavern, but the [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Pawned Prawn pawnshop]] in Riften follows this same naming convention. Like the Skeever and the Netch, you can ask the proprietor where the name came from.[[note]]He used to own a fishing boat called ''The Prawn'', but pawned it to buy the shop.[[/note]]
* {{Adorkable}}:
** Farkas is a {{hunk}} of greatsword-wielding [[spoiler:werewolf]] muscle. And he's a big old teddy bear!
** All of the apprentices at the College of Mages.
** A few of the bards could be considered this as well.
** Calcelmo has his moments too, especially during the "Book of Love" quest.
** Farengar becomes this at the mere mention of dragons.
* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: Each of the Dwemer ruins; Blackreach in particular.
* AdventureArchaeologist:
** In addition to the Dragonborn themself, there's Katria, from the quest "Lost to the Ages" in the ''Dawnguard'' expansion. Notably, the fact that she's dead and a ghost doesn't actually stop her from helping you through a Dwemer ruin and then helping you track down leads on various Aetherium Shards all over Skyrim before trying to locate the Aetherium Forge so she can complete her life's work and prove that her apprentice (who stole her theories on the Forge and appropriated them as his own) is a fraud.
** There are plenty of other, more minor examples as well, most of whom have [[RealityEnsues already fallen prey to the places they're exploring]] by the time you happen across their bodies.
* AnAdventurerIsYou: By and large, this trope never comes into play, but most of the schools of magic have the qualities of one of the archetypes.
** Destruction is the Nuker.
** Conjuration is the Summoner.
** Illusion is the Mezzer.
** Restoration is, of course, the Healer.
** Alteration and Enchanting are different types of utility magic.
** Apart from magic, the player could be the Tank when using a ranged-oriented follower, or The Archer or a Melee DPS if using a heavy-armored melee-oriented follower.
* AerithAndBob: The members of Clan Battle-Born: Olfrid, Bergritte, Idolaf, Alfhild... and then Lars and Jon.
** Character names in general run the gamut from the mundane (Lydia the Housecarl, Adrienne Avenicci the blacksmith) to the odd, archaic, or very Scandinavian (Delphine, Ulfric) to the purely fantastical (Irileth, Belethor, Farengar).
* AffablyEvil:
** Calling most of them evil is a stretch, but all of the Khajiit you meet are some degree of amoral self-serving crooks. There's Vasha, heavily involved in organized crime; J'zargo, who is willing to steal relics from the College to further his experiments; and the caravan merchants, who become fences for the Thieves' Guild transporting their goods across Skyrim. At the same time, all of them are soft-spoken, polite and friendly.
** The Dark Brotherhood themselves are very much a family and treat each other with a great deal of respect and even friendship. They're so nice, in fact, that you might forget that they're all ruthless murderers.
** Lord Harkon in ''Dawnguard'' is this, right up until you either refuse his offer to make you a vampire or turn against him.
** The Daedric Prince Clavicus Vile is this due to being a LargeHam. The same goes for Sanguine, although he is more amoral than outright evil.
* AfterTheEnd:
** Of Morrowind, the eponymous setting of the third game, and by extension many parts of Solstheim. If you played ''Morrowind's'' expansion ''Bloodmoon'', then exploring the island in ''Dragonborn'' can be very depressing indeed, since much of it has since been devastated by Red Mountain's eruptions; the Imperial Legion and most other non-Dunmer inhabitants packed up and ran off during the initial eruption two centuries before. You'll recognize quite a number of familiar locations - many of which are now crumbling and long abandoned ruins.
** Tamriel as a whole is in this state as of the game's time-frame, since the continent has been hit by multiple disasters and devastating wars in the last two hundred years, including the [[Videogame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion Crisis]], [[ColonyDrop the Red Year]], [[GreatOffscreenWar the Great War]], and [[Literature/TheElderScrolls the Umbriel Crisis]]. Cities that should be glorious and beautiful like Winterhold are husks of their former selves, and even the great trade cities like Whiterun are showing signs of breakdown and disrepair. The weakening of the Empire's power has left many Imperial fortresses as crumbling ruins inhabited by bandits, and the wilds are filled with outlaws and monsters.
* TheAgeless:
** Dragons by nature, and also vampires.
** [[spoiler: In ''Dawnguard'' you meet up with a Snow Elf named Gelebor. While his brother is explicitly a vampire, Gelebor is a normal Snow Elf. Considering the events and situation, this would make Gelebor older than Serana (who is already implied to be older than the current Empire). He still looks to be in his prime. Divine protection is implied to be responsible.]]
* AirborneMook: Dragons, when they're not attacking you on the ground.
* AlasPoorVillain: This can happen a few times, most notably with:
** [[spoiler: Astrid,]] at the end of the Dark Brotherhood quest. She just wanted her family to be happy. [[spoiler: Too bad that family didn't include you.]]
** Ulfric Stormcloak, if you join the Legion.
** [[spoiler: Miraak]] in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, due to how horrifying his death is.
* TheAlcatraz:
** Cidhna Mine in Markarth, owned by [[IOwnThisTown the Silver-Blood family]]; prisoners are used as slave labor in mining the silver.
** Winterhold has "The Chill," which is their prison, but is really just a cave with some cells in it. However, it's far to the north, pushing up against the map boundaries, in the middle of the frozen sea, guarded by Frost Atronachs, and in a region home to bears and horkers.
* AlienHair: The Argonians, the closest thing the game has to a playable alien race, can have feather-like hair, fins, crests, spikes and horns.
* AlienSky:
** Tamriel's skies have two moons, which are actually the rotting remains of the god who created the planet. The phases they go through are ''technically'' impossible, but the sky only looks that way because [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith that's the only way mortal minds can interpret it.]] [[note]]The sun is actually a hole punched in the fabric of reality by Magnus to escape being bound to Nirn, and each star is a lesser hole created by those who followed Magnus (known as the Magna-Ge) escaping from being bound to the planet. The other eight planets in the sky are the planes occupied by the Aedra who chose to stay and remain bound to Nirn.[[/note]]
** A more pronounced example would be [[spoiler:Sovngarde]]. The sky there looks like a giant Boom Tube with nebula walls and unearthly lighting.
** ''Dawnguard'' gives us the [[spoiler: Soul Cairn]], whose sky is dominated by an enormous whirlpool-like void.
** '''You''' can be responsible for an AlienSky yourself if you shoot the sun with Bloodcursed Arrows from Auriel's Bow. This turns the day into night, helpful if the Dragonborn is a vampire or a stealth user, but what it actually does is turn the sun into a creepy black and red hole in the sky which fills the land with an eerie blood-colored light.
** In ''Dragonborn,'' there's also [[spoiler: Apocrypha]], whose sky is a sickly green with masses of floating tentacles... which are nothing less than good 'ol [[spoiler:Hermaeus Mora himself]].
** The Special Edition updated Sanguine's "Misty Realm" to have this as well and further changed Apocrypha, the Soul Cairn and Sovngarde from the normal sky.
* AllThereInTheManual: The official game guide contains a lot of information that isn't present in the game, particularly details about the various {{Non Player Character}}s. For example, Delvin Mallory's description claims that he was raised in Honorhall Orphanage and was later taken in by Gallus, and when he accidentally killed someone during a robbery, Gallus sent him to stay with the Dark Brotherhood for a year (where Delvin became Astrid's lover) until people forgot about it.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: A couple of faction bases are assaulted by their nemeses during the associated questlines.
* AlmightyJanitor: Liar's Retreat, a bandit hideout overrun by the Falmer, has a corpse in the very last room of a bandit named Rahd, with his weapon -- The Longhammer, a modified Orcish warhammer that can be swung faster -- by his side. There is also a dead Chaurus in that room, implicitly killed by Rahd. Unlike other bandits, Rahd wears work clothes instead of armor, and this is explained when, upon going back to the dungeon's entrance, the Dragonborn meets some bandits who ask that "Longhammer" fix them a drink. This guy, who owned a custom weapon that cannot be crafted by any means or found anywhere else in Skyrim, who managed to take down a Chaurus (a creature far more powerful than most common bandits) while wearing nothing but a set of common clothes, was just the bandits' '''bartender'''.
* AlmostDeadGuy:
** Gavros Plinius, in Mzulft. The only way to get into the ruin is using a key found on his body, and he only appears once you're far enough along in the College questline, at which point he dies immediately after you talk to him.
** Kyr in Frostmere Crypt is similar. You can talk to him and he dies immediately.
** J'Kier, whom you meet upon entering Bloated Man's Grotto during "Ill Met by Moonlight". His party tried to take down Sinding in werewolf form and [[CurbStompBattle failed miserably.]] After assuring you that more hunters will come, he instantly keels over.
* AlreadyUndoneForYou: Some of the dungeons, partially.
** Mzulft is scattered with destroyed automata and the dead wizards who tried to access it before you, and Avanchnzel similarly shows the handiwork of the team of adventurers who stole the Lexicon. Both allow you to follow and eavesdrop on the ghosts of the party who went before you as you venture deeper into the ruins. Labyrinthian has a similar ghost show going on as you make your way through it.
** Folgunthur, under the giant rock arch that is Solitude (right under the Blue Palace in fact), has the remains of the warlock seeking the Gauldur Amulet part of the way in; you'll find a few dead bandits at the site of some traps, and a couple totem puzzles already completed.
** Ustengrav has some evidence that Delphine somehow managed to pry the "back door" open to get at the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller: a few draugr inside the chamber with Windcaller's tomb already lie dead.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** An in-universe example crops up during the quest "In My Time of Need." Saadia claims that she spoke out against the Thalmor, and that the Alik'r are Thalmor mercenaries sent to kill her. Kematu, however, claims that Saadia sold out a powerful family in Hammerfell to the Thalmor, and the Alik'r are trying to take her back to Hammerfell alive so she can face justice. There is plenty of evidence for both claims, but you never learn who exactly is telling the truth. The only thing both sides agree on is that Saadia's real name is Iman.
** King Olaf is revealed to be Olaf One-Eye, the creator of Dragonsreach. Even the head of the Bard's college is slightly aghast at this revelation since he himself couldn't believe that they were one and the same (King Olaf was apparently a tyrannical ruler, while Olaf One-Eye was a folk hero for capturing Numinex). This puts the last entry into King Olaf's Verse into question, since if the details revealed within it are true, it means a lot of historical records were wrong (such as who attacked whom). Nonetheless, the head of the Bard's college is a lot more eager to spin it against Olaf, since he needs to convince the Queen to keep up the effigy burning. When you do meet Olaf in Sovngarde, all that's confirmed was that he knew the poet that slandered him and thinks said poet is a worthy opponent.
* AlternateIdentityAmnesia: To the Dragonborn, when they first turn into a werewolf.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Falmer, who were twisted into hideous Morlock-like beings by centuries of enslavement and rendered blind by eating toxic fungi, are the only mortal humanoid race with no non-hostile members. Every single Falmer seen in-game is an evil monster who wants to kill and eat you. ''Dawnguard'' messes with this formula by introducing the single remaining uncorrupted Snow Elf, who is attempting (without apparent success) to redeem the race. However, it also switches things around with the introduction of another, more savage strain of Falmer, who are perfectly happy to kill everything - including their own kind. The uncorrupted Snow Elf does mention that, rather than being "evil", the Falmer seen in the game are more or less feral; he refers to them as "the Betrayed." According to him, they are slowly (over hundreds of years) regaining their sentience and may be able to communicate in several hundred more years.
* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair:
** ''Skyrim'' rewards the explorer who checks behind waterfalls, and pays attention to those little cracks where things can stick out or which might be a side-passage you just can't see properly unless you look from the right angle.
** In many dungeons, the switch or pull chain to open a door or gate is often in plain sight. In other cases, though, they're very, very well hidden, and sometimes there's a trick switch that triggers a trap while the real one is hidden.
** In most dungeons with Frostbite Spiders, there will be a wall of the thick, cut-able web. Behind that web is usually a chest.
** There is a skeleton floating under the bridge leading to Dragonsreach in Whiterun, with a few septims in it.
** For a literal example, there's a particular Nordic ruin ([[spoiler:Ironbind Barrow]]) the Dragonborn can explore with two [=NPC=] adventurers looking for treasure. The dungeon's final boss -- a leveled draugr -- rises from his throne and attacks when his chamber is entered. Behind that throne, mounted to its backrest, hangs a battleaxe which bears the Fiery Soul Trap enchantment, the one and only item that's guaranteed to spawn with this very useful ability.
* AmazonBrigade:
** A female Dovahkiin with a female follower brought to Miraak's temple will have [[BadassPreacher Frea]] join them and kick much ass.
** If a female Dovahkiin has all women join the Blades, they can have up to four powerful women attack a dragon lair.
* AmazonianBeauty: A female Dovahkiin/Dragonborn with the weight slider set to the maximum will most likely be this. Bonus points for being a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Nord or Redguard]].
* AmbiguouslyEvil: The dragons, [[spoiler:who are following Alduin's orders to wage war on humanity]]. While most dragons in the game are hostile, the devs have said that more than a few just want to be left alone. As you play through the main quest, you learn that dragon politics aren't nearly as cut-and-dried as you might have thought, and even dragons who follow Alduin generally don't seem to like him much. Indeed, you may now and then encounter a dragon that just flies about overhead, not antagonizing anyone, and then heads off. May also be a case of BlueAndOrangeMorality, since dragon culture and instinct is so heavily built around power and domination; to dragons, there is no distinction between being powerful and being right. Battles between dragons are actually deadly verbal debates in the dragon tongue, with the 'winner' of the debate the victor of the battle. Indeed, Arngeir seems to think that whilst all of the dragons (including [[spoiler:the Greybeards' benevolent leader Paarthurnax]]) were Alduin's allies in the Dragon Wars, there was nothing else they ''could'' have been, since Alduin was the most powerful and therefore deemed morally just also.
* AndIMustScream: One Dragon Priest is encountered by unlocking his sarcophagus with two keys shaped like skulls. Nothing suggests he was "dead" before the unlocking or even unconscious (Aura Whisper clearly shows him inside before the unlocking). He was most likely trapped in there since the last war against the dragons, which was a couple thousand years ago. Little wonder he is called Otar [[GoMadFromTheIsolation the Mad]]. The backstory found in various in-game sources reveals that [[spoiler: Otar had gone insane before he was imprisoned, and the two draugr you have to kill to get the keys to release him were, in their day, heroes who managed to imprison him and were given the task of guarding his tomb so he wouldn't escape. Of course, they were only "heroes" from the perspective of the Dragon Cult, an unremittingly evil group in the first place.]]
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The credits never roll. Instead, the main questlines for the story, the civil war, and the four guilds end this way, with everyone congratulating you... then getting back to work.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing:
** When Alduin is dead, [[spoiler:the dragons and the heroes of Sovngarde]] cheer the feat, and the Greybeards and Blades are happy as well.
** Both sides of the Civil War engage in a bit of this when the faction they approve of takes over the Hold, or at least the faction they dislike is ousted by the other. In particular, at the end of the Imperial side of the quest when Ulfric is killed and Windhelm is turned over to Imperial control, the general reaction of the Dunmer in the city is "good riddance".
* AnnoyingArrows:
** Arrows visibly stick in a target for awhile after finding their mark, but unless the shot kills/slows/paralyzes or at least flinches the target, they are otherwise unhindered for it and can continue acting normally, despite the large missile lodged in their leg/arm/cranium/[[GroinAttack waist]]/knee/wherever. This applies regardless of whether it's a weak arrow from a low-level bandit (of which you can endure several, even without armor) or a deadly arrow from a master archer (which can potentially kill you in just one or two shots, even through heavy armor). Special mention regarding the latter goes to high-level Draugr Deathlords toting Ebony Bows and Ebony Arrows (one of the highest-grade materials).
** Dwarven Ballistas (primarily seen in the ''Dragonborn'' add-on) are effectively walking crossbows, plus their large arrows can penetrate armor.
** And then there's the city guards, every one of whom seems to have had an earlier adventuring career ruined by "an arrow in the knee"...
** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] when you get a kill-shot; [[ArrowCam the camera zooms in on the arrow as it strikes its target]] and he goes ''flying'' backwards, dead before he even hits the ground... but wait, wasn't he just hit in the upper arm? How did ''that'' kill him instantly?
* AnthropomorphicPersonification:
** Alduin, Akatosh and Auriel are all ''Draco''morphic personifications of different aspects of Time, although Akatosh and Auriel may be different names for the same thing.
** Daedra (particularly the Princes) are also all abstracts of various concepts, but have a much easier time rendering themselves into physical form (doing so inside the Mundus is a different matter), due to not having given parts or the whole of themselves over to creating the Mundus.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** There are two ways to get into the College of Winterhold legitimately: demonstrate a spell, which, for characters with low magicka, can be difficult to cast (or prohibitive to "no magic" playthroughs), or demonstrate you are Dragonborn, which is available to all player characters. Just pay a visit to the Greybeards, which you have to do anyway for the main story, and you're in.
** Lockpicks, arrows, and money do not take up any of your carrying weight, which is fortunate for wealthy or archery-inclined players. Ingots and ore, while not weightless, conveniently take up one weight unit no matter what (even gold!), though items you forge with them will frequently be heavier than the total ingots used.
* AntiGrinding: ''Skyrim'' does nothing to go out of its way to prevent the player from doing as they wish, even using exploits to get ahead, but there are a few measures in place. Scaling enemies, for example; those bandits will suddenly be boss level should Dragonborn be made strong enough. Perks can be kept for later use, but the player must upgrade one of their three primary stats if they choose to access the level-up screen, thus no keeping multiple restores on hand. And the player's equipment and abilities are taken into account and the game will react accordingly, even throwing out high level enemies earlier because the armor, weapons, etc. add up to Dovahkiin being strong enough even if they aren't level wise.
* AntiquatedLinguistics:
** Most residents of [[spoiler:Sovngarde]] speak in a poetic manner more suited to a Creator/JRRTolkien soliloquy. Most noticeable are the three heroes who [[spoiler:banished Alduin during the first dragon war.]]
** This seems to be a condition of death, since you can meet people that died in-game who suddenly develop these characteristics when you meet them in Sovngarde. These may include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e218wzG13xo Ulfric]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO3TNaS35V4 Galmar]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2s4mTd3qYI Kodlak]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd2TpQypVjs Rikke]]. In addition, the three ancient heroes speak normally in the vision provided by the Elder Scroll, although it is unclear whether or not that was a case of TranslationConvention being performed by the Scroll.
* AntiVillain: Rikke seems to regard her old friend Ulfric Stormcloak as one of these, and some Imperial-aligned players likely will too. Others just loathe him.
* ApocalypticLog:
** Several dungeons, particularly Dwemer ruins, have the bodies and journals of previous adventuring parties scattered throughout them. Choice bits you're likely to read are tales of the group being unable to leave somehow, one or more of their group mysteriously going missing, and odd noises and shadows from the lowest depths they've explored so far. The location called Japhet's Folly has the eponymous man's desiccated corpse in its basement, along with a journal that tells about how he tried to create a fortress on the island. The cold and harsh weather drove away most of the people that came with him, and eventually he starved to death. The journal ends with the words "OH GODS HELP ME."
** There is also the strange case of Arondil, who was a Necromancer working on experiments to enslave the dead in Dawnstar. After people noticed his experiments and realized he was a complete weirdo, they kicked him out of town and he found refuge in an ancient tomb... filled with female Draugr, whom he successfully enslaved and used as servants. His 4 journals describe in great, creepy detail how he is literally falling in love with a bunch of mummified, dried out corpses. In the latest entries, it's discovered that he murdered several women from Dawnstar as well to have additional ghost servants, and upon finishing the dungeon the player can find a pile of dead women near the exit. Although Arondil is still alive when the player finds the journals, he has lost his mind entirely and won't remain alive for long after meeting the Dragonborn.
** North of a remote shipwreck on an otherwise unremarkable sandbar is an unmarked, deserted fisherman's camp. A logbook on a table nearby reveals that it had previously been inhabited by two fishermen, Advald and Skeggr. Advald, the writer, thought his buddy was an idiot for thinking they could catch anything of value and planned to leave the next day. A short distance away is a capsized rowboat with two skeletons floating beneath, surrounded by [[PiranhaProblem Slaughterfish.]] Most skeletons don't have any description beyond "Skeleton", but these two are named Skeggr and [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Advard.]]
** A particularly tragic example is the family who moved into Frostflow Lighthouse. According to their journals and other notes, the parents thought it was their dream retirement home, but the kids were kind of bored. Gradually they began to notice strange sounds coming from their basement. [[spoiler:Turns out that the underbelly of the lighthouse was a massive nest of Falmer and chaurus. The mother and son were brutally massacred; the father was eventually fed to the chaurus broodmother; and the daughter committed suicide in her prison cell to avoid the torment. Many players take a great deal of satisfaction in annihilating everything they find down there as revenge for the innocent.]]
** Really, this trope is so tremendously common in Skyrim, it often seems the largest cause of misfortune and death is "Victim started a diary."
* ApologeticAttacker:
** Several ghosts in Rannveig's Fast dungeon, due to being enthralled by a necromancer. "Run! I don't want to kill you!"
** One of the random lines the draugr occasionally say is "Unslaad Krosis", meaning "Eternal Sorrow". Dragons use "Krosis" as as an apology.
*** This is seen in an amusing meta-example from the developers; the dragon lair of Shearpoint also contains a Dragon Priest tomb, and if you don't watch your step, you'll often have to simultaneously fight off him and several hundred tons of angry lizard in one of the toughest battles of the game. This priest's name? Krosis.
* AppealToFear: The main line of attack against the Stormcloaks used by Empire-sympathetic characters is that Skyrim cannot hope to stand against the Dominion alone in a war and needs the Empire's presence to deter invasion. However when Hammerfell was sold out to the Dominion as one of the terms of the White-Gold Concordat, the Redguards were soon able to kick the Dominion out of the country in a short war, casting some doubt over this argument.
* AppealToTradition: Another common argument is that Talos was the founder of the Empire and would surely prefer to see it endure rather than crumble, even if he isn't worshipped as a god by its people anymore. Anyone who has beat ''Morrowind'' might remember the old Imperial soldier named Wulf, who is heavily implied to be a mortal avatar of Talos - Wulf can be derived from one of his constituent personalities, Wulfharth, the legendary Nord king and mortal champion of Shor. When questioned on the topic, he more or less tells you that his Empire's time has come and gone and maybe it is for the best that something new takes its place, but what that "something new" is exactly he can't say. At best, it can be inferred that Talos is indifferent to the fate of his empire. That said, the Stormcloaks, being sticklers for Nord traditions, also fall victim to this fallacy often as well.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: One quest involves a talking dog. The player has the dialogue option to say, "A talking dog. Now I've seen everything." The dog in question proceeds to hang a lampshade by pointing out that compared to dragons and walking cat-people, talking dogs are not that weird. [[spoiler:Of course, he's also not really a dog...]]
* ArmorPiercing: Perks available to maces and warhammers allow them to ignore a portion of an enemy's armor rating, making them more effective against heavy armor than other weapons. Dwarven Ballistas also fire powerful crossbow bolts that can bypass armor entirely (and the player is informed of this when taking such a hit), as do the crossbows you can acquire in ''Dawnguard''.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** When [[spoiler: the Blades]] "[[WithUsOrAgainstUs ask]]" you to kill [[spoiler: Paarthurnax]], he says that they are right in thinking that it is his nature to be evil, but he struggles daily to suppress it. He then finishes with one of these: "What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
** In the ''Dawnguard'' DLC, if you side with the eponymous vampire hunters, Harkon attempts this, but fails due to not understanding how relationships work: "And what happens when you've slain me? Is [[MamaBear Valerica]] next? Is [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Serana]]?" The answer to this is, of course, no.
** With ''Dragonborn'', Miraak may show up and steal the soul of the dragon that you just killed, followed by a taunt. One of the taunts questions the morality of killing countless dragons just to get more power. ''"[[YouBastard Do you ever wonder if it hurts? To have one's soul ripped out like that?]]"''
* ArrowCam: Landing a killshot with a bow often results in the camera chasing the arrow to its target in slow motion. Amusingly, this can happen even if something causes the shot to miss. Irritatingly, it can also cause the shot to miss by making it collide with an object when otherwise it would have gone straight past it.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** In the city of Markarth, you meet an Orc in the Cidhna Mines prison by the name of Borkul the Beast. When questioned about why he's in prison, he replies, "Murder, Banditry, Assault, Theft, and Lollygagging." This doubles as a riff on the town guards' random conversations, one of which is, "No lollygagging."
** "[[PsychoForHire Here's all you need to know:]] I'm a {{werewolf}}. [[BloodKnight I like killing things.]] [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes I love Astrid.]] I hate annoying people. [[WeaksauceWeakness And the color blue gives me a headache.]]"
** According to Sheogorath, the Emperor Pelagius Septim hated and feared many things, including assassins, wild dogs, the undead, and pumpernickel.
** The three keepers of [[spoiler: the pieces of Mehrunes' Razor]] can be seen as this. First there's [[spoiler: Drascua, a Hagraven who leads a group of Forsworn]], then there's [[spoiler: Ghunzul, an aging Orc so dedicated to protecting his piece of the razor he keeps it locked away in a vault full of traps]], and finally there's [[spoiler: Jorgen, a woodcutter living in Morthal]].
* ArtifactCollectionAgency: The Synod, an order of mages from Cyrodiil. NPC dialogue and in the lorebooks suggests they might be doing it in preparation for the next war. There are several [=NPCs=] in the game (such as General Tullius, just to pick one) who mention point-of-fact bluntly that another "Great War" between the Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire is expected by both sides. And, both sides are doing what they can to strengthen themselves and weaken the other side in preparation for it. Thus, the Synod's actions in trying to gather powerful magic artifacts plays right into the notion of the Empire trying to prepare themselves for this war. They're also doing it to suck up to the Emperor.
* ArtifactTitle: Finally subverted, as it's the first time in the series that an Elder Scroll plays an important part of the main plot. Not only that, but [[spoiler: ''Dawnguard'', its first DLC, utilizes ''three'' Elder Scrolls in its main questline, including the one mentioned above.]]
* ArtificialAtmosphericActions: There's still some, but it's ''much'' better than in the previous games. It was mentioned that it's actually quite hard to make the AI act ''completely'' realistic, but they won't talk about nothing but mudcrabs this time. Still, like in ''Oblivion'', you can play the AI for laughs.
** If you pick up a goblet or sweet roll, they interpret it as "stealing". However, they may only say "Watch what you're doing!" if you jump up on their table and kick all their plates and goblets everywhere. This makes it quite funny if you trash the Jarl's dining hall and they still sit down at the table at a designated mealtime when ''all the plates and goblets are on the floor''.
** A glitch sometimes causes these, such as [=NPC=]s patrolling the swamp waters.
** The 'cinematic kill' system means that sometimes, when killing an enemy (notably with a handheld weapon or your fists, although it happens with arrows and spells too), the camera will pan out and your character will perform a predefined animation to dispatch the enemy. However, any line of dialogue that a character has started will continue to play up until the end of the animation (when the character ragdolls and becomes lootable). This can result in some strange and amusing moments, such as characters mentioning that they're sure that they heard something as your dagger pierces their throat, or continuing to mock you even as you stab them through the chest.
** All of the characters in Riften will riot if you drop items, from Daedric artifacts to a common sweetroll. This includes those who consider themselves to be above all this, like Mjoll the Lioness, who are more than happy to join in on the riots. If you return Mjoll's lost sword Grimsever, and then start committing crimes in front of her, like other residents of Skyrim she will attack until a guard comes by to talk to you - but she'll attack your attackers, not you.
** In an improvement to the previous games, starting a dialogue doesn't stop time, allowing for a more fluid conversation. Unfortunately it doesn't stop certain important events such as ''dragon attacks'' taking place in the background, either. And the [=NPC=] just keeps on calmly talking as the village is being burned behind them. Makes for a FunnyBackgroundEvent when they calmly talk about the rebellion... and the town guards are shouting "Slay the dragon!" in the background. This can be fatal when [=NPCs=] initiate a scripted conversation with you in the middle of combat.
** If you have spells readied, you'll be told to "Go cast your fancy magic someplace else." The fact that there is a freshly-slain dragon burning up in front of you is irrelevant.
** You'll get different greetings from guards depending on your status with a given faction. However, as you advance, you'll still hear the old greetings in addition to the new ones. So one guard will be saying what an honor it is to meet the Harbinger of the Companions while another asks if your job as newbie of the Companions is to fetch the mead. Likewise, guards can hail you as the Dragonborn, Harbinger, Archmage, etc., and then immediately tell you they're watching you because they know you're a thief.
** The miscellaneous trader in Falkreath is pleasant and friendly. But he ends every single transaction by warning you that you'll regret it if you steal anything from his shop... even if you have the Investor perk and have contributed money to the shop, and are thus able to help yourself to almost anything there.
** Sometimes the game loads dialogue meant for citizens onto enemies, resulting in you shooting a bandit in the face and killing them, only to have the corpse bark "watch it!" at you as it falls to the ground.
** Guards will occasionally look at the body of another NPC who was killed by a dragon - often ''while they were present'' - and ask out loud who could have done such a thing.
** Serana is the first follower to actively partake in various activities while idle, ranging from using the alchemy table to sitting down. However, while she is programmed to ''do'' activities, the devs never gave her a specific set. This results in her doing stuff she shouldn't be, like meditating with the Greybeards, performing the Black Sacrament at the Aretino residence, or working the Skyforge when it becomes [[spoiler: Kodlak's funeral pyre]].
** Bryling and Falk Firebeard will often talk to each other about their affair and how they need to keep it a secret from Erikur... often right in front of Erikur (and the entire Blue Palace court).
*** For an added layer, Sybille Stentor will pipe up about how obvious they're being... even while sleeping in the next room.
** [=NPC=]s are coded to look at you when you're within a certain distance. This, however, gets a bit silly when either 1) they're enemies and are looking for you and their AI doesn't register that they've seen you (so they stand there gawking at you, despite still "looking" for you) or 2) when they're walking past you while you're supposed to be talking about something hush-hush. (A good example is in Haelga's Bunkhouse in Riften, where a sidequest has you go on a plot to humiliate her by grabbing incriminating evidence; she should have no idea you've been tasked with this, but can easily wander between you and the quest-giver during the conversation.)
** While escaping from Helgen with either Hadvar or Ralof, you can murder either the torturers or the Stormcloaks right in front of Hadvar or Ralof respectively, and they won't even care.
*** Subverted with Hadvar; right before going into the torture room, he lets you know that he doesn't have a high opinion of this particular room or its hosts. Sometimes upon killing them, he might even say, ''"These bastards call themselves Imperial Legionnaires..."'' Strangely, that still doesn't stop Hadvar from trying to save them from their impending deaths at the hands of the dragon or the Stormcloaks. Ralof of the Stormcloaks, on the other hand, plays the trope straight.
** In marketplaces, [=NPCs=] wander around market stalls and sometimes stop in front of one, like they were shopping. They do this even if there's no merchant in said market stall.
** Townspeople have a tendency to stop and stare at the skeleton of a recently defeated dragon. If you blow the skeleton away with a fireball staff while they're doing this, they'll all run after it.
* ArtificialBrilliance:
** If an enemy is being attacked by a foe they cannot reach or attack with ranged weaponry, they will run for cover until said foe can be attacked.
*** Note that the same thing sometimes happens if your sneak skill is so high (and, sometimes, the lighting so dark) that they simply cannot find you, despite being right next to you. A lightly-wounded enemy in this position who simply can't find you sometimes loses their cool completely, screams "I cannot best you!", then runs away and hides for a while. It's particularly amusing when Draugr do it; their "fleeing shuffle" is hilarious yet surprisingly swift.
** Steal that guy's stuff, and then get ambushed by thugs a few days later? Search the bodies, there's a connection. (Oddly, however, ArtificialStupidity can be at play at the same time, with the thugs being hired by someone who is ''dead''.)
** Arrows become AnnoyingArrows in more ways than one. In the previous games, enemies would just dead-zone you or stand there and fire. If you try to shoot them with a bow (or magic) and they know you're there, they will strafe left or right so you'll miss. They will also pluck your arrows out of their own bodies and equip them, if they have bows.
** It can be surprising when enemies block. It can be more surprising when an enemy shield bashes you right when you start a power attack, knocking you to your knees.
** If you manage to jump up somewhere a melee equipped enemy can't reach, they will retreat behind cover. They are pretty good at it too; if you move a little bit so you can get a shot off, they will adjust their position to better conceal themselves.
** Sneak into a room with bandits and drop something valuable on the floor, like a gemstone. The bandits will argue with each other over the object, and eventually attack each other.
** Scare a vampire off by overwhelming force or magical fear effects? They might use an invisibility spell while retreating.
** Preparing a powerful shout to launch at a high-level mage? When he hears the first word, he raises a magical shield to protect him from it. You can trick him... if you ONLY use the first word instead of adding the other two, his Shield won't be ready to intercept it, since it takes a bit of time.
** With ''Dawnguard'', enemies and allies are now much smarter. They'll grab better weapons if someone nearby drops them, including staves, and will set ambushes in mid-battle. Melee-armed enemies will actually retreat into cover and let archers/mages blast you, and then wait for you to get close before jumping out and attacking you in close-quarters.
** With the addition of ''Hearthfire'', you're welcome to wait inside a store until the storekeeper falls asleep, but you'll find that half of their stock sitting on the counter has gone with them. They now put their counter stock away when they close up shop, making it harder to steal.
** Certain quests, most notably the Courier quest in the Civil War storyline, require you to find a traveling NPC. Savvy players might try to intercept the NPC by fast traveling to the nearest major location. However, when they do so, the quest marker will advance by an appropriate distance relative to how fast the NPC can move during that time. The only way to avoid this is to actually chase down the NPC on foot, as the game intended.
** Try sneaking around an area with Frostbite spiders; if they have an inkling there's someone nearby or get agitated they'll rear up with their front legs acting as antennas, just like real spiders when they get disturbed or aggressive.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** Allied [=NPC=]s have no compunctions about wading into melee combat while you're swinging about a huge, slow warhammer, blasting the area with spells, or shooting at enemies with a bow. This frequently results in their death from accidental friendly fire.
*** When helping you battle Alduin, Paarthurnax will often fly a little too close to him when you're trying to bring him down with Dragonrend, resulting in him getting hit with it a few times.
** Non-combat [=NPCs=] such as villagers will only run about in a panic when a RandomEncounter is spawned near them, [[TooDumbToLive rather than seeking cover]] (or, even worse, [[SuicidalOverconfidence go up to the enemy and attack them with an iron dagger]]). This includes dragon attacks, the "Winterhold Under Siege" phase of the college questline, and the vampire attacks from ''Dawnguard'', leading to PermanentlyMissableContent if a quest giver or merchant NPC gets killed. This particular example is so egregious, one of the most popular mods changes the AI so that civilian characters will run to safety in a building instead of throwing their lives away.
** You can steal just about anything by putting a cauldron or bucket on the owner's head. This is an especially effective technique to use on shopkeepers, since they often don't move at all behind the counter. Just put a bucket or cauldron on their head and you can loot everything in the store without the shopkeeper noticing. You can even murder other people in the store without him detecting it.
** If you kill a member of a group without being detected, the other people in the group will "discover" the body and [[FailedaSpotCheck declare that they will find the killer]].
** Overall, most foes in ''Skyrim'' are quite inept against sneaking attackers. No matter how many times you shoot them and their allies in the face with a bow from the shadows, [=NPCs=] will typically not go any further than taking a quick look around before dismissing the threat with a "Must have scared'em off" or "I guess it was just my imagination". Additionally, if your enemies are not too high level and it is not daytime, it is sometimes possible to stand crouching in full view of an enemy just a few steps away from you [[HiddenInPlainSight without having them detect you]], even when they're looking your way and there's nothing to conceal you from their sight.
** When going after the Eldergleam Sap, Maurice Jondrelle is smart enough to ask to go with you for protection to see the Eldergleam Sanctuary. He is not smart enough to avoid running up to any bear, bandit or dragon you stumble across on the way and flailing at it with his bare, unarmored hands. Worse, if you fast-travel, ''you can't bring him with you'' and you have to wait for him at the sanctuary... and hope nothing kills him along the way. The ''only'' way to get him there safely is to walk with him, the entire trek, saving frequently and reloading as necessary. Fortunately you ''can'' hire a cart to take you to Windhelm at least, which shortens the trek a bit, but the hardest part is still to come (in particular, the dragon nesting near the Sanctuary requires a ''wide'' detour to get around).
** Some followers will treat all people who draw their swords against you [[LeaveNoSurvivors the same way.]] Good luck explaining to Balgruuf why a 25-septim bounty resulted in the deaths of half his town.
** The traditional dragon greeting (as shown by [[spoiler: Paarthurnax]]) is breathing fire on the other dragon. The traditional reaction of a follower is trying to kill the (very friendly) dragon.
** Shouting enough in the back of a jail cell can result in a guard opening the cell door.
** If you have a high enough pickpocket skill, you can steal an NPC's clothes. [[https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/09/skyrim-naked-friday-in-whiterun/ Said NPC will then just walk around in their underwear and go about their daily business as if nothing's different.]] No other NPC will comment on this, despite the fact that every NPC will comment if the player character is in a similar state of undress.
** Your follower's greatest enemy is boulders; unless they're [[MadeOfIron flagged essential]], they can easily kill themselves by carelessly walking into fallen rocks and stubbing their toes on them.
** When exploring small rooms, followers and summoned creatures/animal companions have a habit of standing right inside a doorway, preventing you from leaving until they back up. Sometimes they do it right away; other times they just stand there looking at you, and probably wondering why you're running into them. It makes shouting "Fus Ro Dah!" at them very tempting when they do this.
*** A patch remedies this problem letting you push [=NPCs=] back a short distance by running into them.
** Dragons, one of the most feared creatures in-universe, will sometimes disengage from fighting you, and fly off far away to engage a random mudcrab or goat. While hilarious at times, it can make killing them a chore if you don't have the Dragonrend shout (or forget to use it/miss) to keep them from flying off.
** Guards really don't have a well-developed AI for prioritizing which enemy to kill first if they are fighting multiple targets. If you and a number of hold guards are engaged in a fierce battle with a dragon, for example, accidentally hitting a guard with an arrow results in an immediate bounty on your head and all guards will drop what they are doing and attack you, while the dragon gleefully flies around and attacks everyone.
** If you join the Thieves' Guild or have the appropriate Speech perk, you can bribe guards to erase your bounty. Oddly, doing this also causes any [=NPCs=] who became hostile due to witnessing the crime to immediately become friendly again. A good example of this is the Dark Brotherhood quest "Bound Until Death", where you can incur the wrath of [[spoiler: all the wedding guests of the bride you just murdered]]; but as soon as you successfully yield to a guard and bribe them, all the people who just witnessed you murder a woman in cold blood will sheathe their weapons and move along like nothing had happened.
** Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to bring followers into Nordic tombs or Dwemer ruins. NPC pathfinding rarely, if ever, takes pressure plates and such into account, meaning they will inevitably set off every trap they come across. Hilariously, this also applies to the enemies that inhabit those places; in Bleak Falls Barrow, for instance, it's possible to bait the Draugr in the first burial chamber into the swinging spike wall on the far side, causing it to unceremoniously slap them across the room.
** The Soul Cairn from ''Dawnguard'' is inhabited by little wisp things that are completely harmless and invulnerable. Unfortunately, the enemies there didn't get the memo and will attack them to absolutely no effect.
** If there's a ledge on their way, your followers will never jump it, even if it's a non-lethal height. Instead, they will walk all the way around the ledge until they find a "safe" route to you. This can be extremely annoying on some occasions. It's not just ledges, either; some dungeons also give the AI fits. The Temple of Miraak in ''Dragonborn'', for instance, often leads to followers disappearing for most of the dungeon because they decided the only way in is through the back door.
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry:
** Steel in real life is an alloy of iron and usually carbon, though also occasionally using manganese, chromium, vanadium and tungsten. In ''Skyrim,'' it is an alloy of iron and corundum, which is an oxide of aluminum. Then again, corundum looks nothing like it does in real life, and the NonindicativeName is in full force in this setting; see below.
** Also, Ebony is a wood, not an ore. However, this one has been in effect throughout the ''Elder Scrolls'' franchise.
** "Quicksilver" is an alternative name for "mercury", which is ''liquid'' at the conditions of pression and temperature you normally encounter in-game. Anyway, while "natural" mercury can be extracted from metal ore veins, its liquid properties means that you won't earn nuggets of pure solid mercury ore after digging ore veins with a pickaxe.
** In a cooking example, the Sunlight Souffle calls for a cupful of nutmeg, yet such an amount is lethal to normal humans (and given that the recipe never specifies how many portions you're supposed to make of it, nor states it's not for consumption by the races of men, it's likely as potent in-universe as it is in real life).
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Whiterun, Eastmarch, and territories north of these areas are described in-universe as being a tundra environment. However, the presence of trees, high grass, and good farming land in places like Rorikstead indicate the opposite. Permafrost would prevent the growth of trees and most tall plants and severely inhibit farming. In fact, the Pale is largely coniferous forest and Hjaalmarch is a tree-covered swamp, both of which don't occur beyond the tree line that marks where tundra begins.
* ArtisticLicenseGeology: A number of ores that can be mined have real-life names, but are actually fantastic metals that bear little resemblance to that which they were named after:
** Corundum is depicted as a greenish ore that can be melted into opaque dark gold ingots. RealLife Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide best known as "Sapphire" and "Ruby" when they are gem-quality. If you were to melt it, it'd turn into alumina, which is white.
** Ebony is depicted as a rough black ore which can be melted into dull, malleable ingots, which can in turn be crafted into either glassy black armor or dull grey-black weapons. In the lore, it's said to be a super-durable glassy substance with mystical and holy properties. Real life ebony is a type of wood.
** Malachite in real life is a glassy greenish mineral, much closer to its appearance in ''Skyrim'' than the other examples listed here, and is actually an ore of copper. However, it's fairly certain that actual malachite armor wouldn't work very well.
** ''Skyrim'''s moonstone is in a similar situation to the malachite -- it is fairly close in appearance to the real-life counterpart (a gemstone), but is noticeably more useful for making practical armor.
** Quicksilver is another name for mercury, which is a liquid at room temperature.
* ArtShiftedSequel: ''Skyrim'' gave elves very deeply wrinkled and creased faces with ridged foreheads.
* AscendedFanboy: Erik the Slayer. He's a young farmer's son from a rural town that wants to be an adventurer just like yourself. You have the option to help him live his dream by paying for or talking his father into paying for a weapon and set of armor. You can then hire him one time to make him an adventuring companion.
** The character is based on real life fan Erik West, known as Immok the Slayer online, who was immortalized in the game after sadly dying of cancer. That makes Erik the Slayer a product of PromotedFanboy as well.
* AscendedGlitch: [[WordOfGod Producer Todd Howard said that they would leave in any bugs or glitches]] [[RuleOfFunny that were funny]] as long as they didn't [[GameBreakingBug break the game]].
** One bug found during development featured chickens reporting the player's crimes to guards. Sadly, it would have made the game unreasonably difficult to players who weren't aware of it, and so it was removed.
** Shortly after release, it was discovered that you could safely steal stuff as long as you placed a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5aUdijAN8 bucket]] over the head of nearby [=NPC=]s so they couldn't see you do it.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Oso_mmhvm-Y The Giants' national sport - adventurer-ball]].
** Various clipping and animation bugs can cause a leader to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVzPMXmaEGs&context=C298a8ADOEgsToPDskIweYq8ykyY-m_GYIxTeRaq begin dancing]] during an important speech.
** If you are on friendly terms with a faction like the Dark Brotherhood or the Companions, you can take quite a few free shots on them without them going hostile. This leads to some odd scenarios where you are happily greeted by someone with whom you [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnTJEHQr__E just shot with three arrows]].
** Fortify Skill enchantments on armor are classified as Restoration-type spells, and drinking a Potion of Restoration temporarily boosts their effects. By drinking a Potion of Restoration, equipping a piece of armor that boosts Alchemy, using that to brew a better Potion of Restoration, and repeating ad nauseam, one can create ludicrously powerful potions that heal millions of hit points, boost ItemCrafting skills by over ten thousand percent (thus allowing one to create ridiculously overpowered weapons, armor and enchantments) and basically break the game difficulty into little pieces - though repeating the loop too many times can cause an overflow and crash the game. It's an amusing, if unintentional, nod to ''Morrowind'', where something similar could be done.
** The thieves that randomly spawn in Riften sometimes do things that break their AI, and then they spend a few minutes just [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4dYekH0Aow keep taking their weapon out over and over]]
** One fairly regularly reported situation is that the player's in-game spouse seems to be cheating on them (suspicious people may be found in the player's house when they're left alone, etc.), which has at some point been acknowledged by the developers. In some cases, it's merely down to lingering scripts associated with a specific spouse, as is the case if you marry Camilla Valerius - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx9EI23Ztlg Faendal, a suitor of hers at the start of the game, will continue to stay close to her even if you move her out of Riverwood]].
** The Oghma Infinium book normally vanishes after choosing one path from it by reading it once for upgrading your stats (i.e. it's supposed to be one-time use only). But this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhDhPKF1lBY bug involving the use of a bookshelf]] prevents it from vanishing, letting you read the book repeatedly to LevelGrind as high as you want for free. Sadly, this one did get patched.
** The Hidden Chest glitch, which often has respawning (after a certain time period) loot (resulting in infinite gold and other supplies if you're patient). The most notable one being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtEKEKcZ3jw this one in Dawnstar]], which is invisible, and can only be found if you sneak, and its contents refresh (though with random quantity) every 48 hours in-game. These hidden chests are actually Merchant chests, and their contents match up to a certain merchant's inventory. The one in Dawnstar, for example, belongs to the Kahjiit traders on the outskirts of the city.
** [=NPCs=] have been seen swimming through the air in the town of Morthal.
** In ''Dragonborn,'' once you have acquired Severin Manor in Raven Rock, you have access to everything inside the house - including the four mannequins in the basement. Equipping items onto these and then removing them will sometimes trigger a bug in which the mannequins spawn duplicates of the items in question, allowing you to farm a continuously replenishing supply of shields, tunics, and so forth.
** Likewise, you can collect infinite amount of arrows from guards who are practicing archery by picking them up from the target dummies. For better results, you can pickpocket the default arrows and replace them with a better one (like Daedric Arrow) and you can get infinite supplies of them.
** Using the setrace command will change your character's race but will not change their faces to the appropriate race. This can result in a human character with a Khajiit head. At least one person has used this opportunity to recreate King from ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''.
** Using Aura Whisper may give your character semi-permanent glowing eyes, and the only downside is that they only come in light blue. Removing them requires you to spend a 1000 coin for a facial resculpting, however.
** The fact that giants knock things really high into the sky, which is now part of a quest.
* AscendedMeme: Sheogorath's line "Cheese for everyone!" from ''Shivering Isles'' is referenced during his quest.
** On UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade, one can get an "Arrow in the knee" accessory for your avatar, referencing the now memetic line "I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow in the knee."
* AssassinationSidequest: The [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] offers you a series of sidequests that involves killing specific people. It isn't always necessary to kill stealthily, but in order to avoid incurring a bounty, it is recommended to eliminate your target through stealth. In some cases, bonuses are offered should your remain undetected and/or kill your target in a specific fashion (MakeItLookLikeAnAccident, for example).
* AssholeVictim:
** Most Dark Brotherhood targets, in contrast to some of the targets in ''Oblivion''.
*** Grelod the Kind is a horrible, horrible woman who runs an orphanage. She treats the kids as slaves and tells them all to their faces that they're never going to be adopted because nobody wants them. Small wonder, then, that one of the kids is trying to contract the Dark Brotherhood to eliminate her (and you may feel very little heartache for doing her in). Not only will the children cheer for you upon discovering her corpse, [[spoiler: you will receive no bounty for murdering her in plain sight.]]
*** Vasha is a self-confessed thief, murderer and rapist, who is disappointed if a day goes by without the bounty on his head getting bigger.
*** Alea is a {{Jerkass}} single mother of six children who freely admits that she's made her fair share of enemies due to her attitude and talks to you like dirt, [[UngratefulBastard even if you spare her.]]
*** [[IronicNickname Fultheim the Fearless]] is a Nord mercenary who's killed many, yet [[DirtyCoward turns into a blubbering mess when his own life is threatened.]]
*** Lurbuk is a {{Jerkass}} DreadfulMusician.
*** Ennodius Papius is a somewhat [[LonersAreFreaks insane freak]].
*** Beitild is a {{Jerkass}} foreman who apparently treats her workers like crap.
*** Vittoria Vici [[spoiler: is not just quite a bitch herself, but even before her marriage, you can see she has been sleeping with someone else. She also is revealed to be in league with Ja-ree and Deeja with the creation kit.]].
*** Hern and Hert are vampires, who prey on travelers that visit their mill. (However, it is still possible for the player to feel bad for Hert, as outside of the Dark Brotherhood questline, she is pretty much AffablyEvil.)
*** Safia is a pirate, who also smuggles Balmora Blue.
*** Alain Dufont is probably the worst of them -- he seduced Muiri, whose friend is part of a prominent family who lost a daughter to Windhelm's resident SerialKiller. He then robbed said family blind and pinned the blame for the theft on Muiri to save his own worthless hide. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday There's a good chance you've already killed him outside the Dark Brotherhood questline]] without even realizing it.
*** Narfi is a subversion, since it is a MercyKill.
*** [[spoiler: Astrid. She's technically not a target, and she asks you to kill her, but she's one of the last kills in the questline, and she did try to sell you out to the royal guard to save herself and her group...]]
*** Quests outside of the Dark Brotherhood questline make [[spoiler:Clan Shatter-shield]] very unsympathetic. [[spoiler:They are a corrupt family that hires bloodthirsty pirates to harass their competition and treat their foreign workers as little more than slaves.]]
*** When you first join them, Babette (a child vampire) regales her friends with the tale of how she lured a creepy old man (possibly pedophile) into a dark alley and killed him horribly.
** Pretty much everyone in the Markarth questline. You can side with the Forsworn, who are [[spoiler:genocidal racists]], or the Silver-Bloods, who are [[spoiler:using petty criminals and political opposition as slave labor in their mines]].
** Every single Thalmor you kill. ''All'' of them. Even Bethesda says that those jerks deserve it, and the guards in the game agree.
** Roggvir, the guard who opened Solitude's gates to help Ulfric escape and was beheaded for it, was this according to Sorex Vinius. Vinius claimed that as a child, Roggvir mocked him for liking a girl, and would humiliate him physically or verbally as much as possible, to the extent that Roggvir once put a beehive in his bed. As an adult, Vinius says, he never outgrew his immaturity, or his cruelty. That being said, others in Solitude, including the man who presided over his execution, consider him to have been an honorable man. And he certainly wasn't executed for an actual crime; Ulfric killed Torygg in a proper duel, meaning he wasn't escaping, just going home.
** During the quest "The Forsworn Conspiracy," you'll run into Betrid Silver-Blood at the Treasury House. She is quickly established to be a stuck up, gold-digging bitch who shamelessly admits to the Dovahkiin that she only married her husband for his money. It's really hard to work up sympathy for her when [[spoiler: a Forsworn kills her after you talk to Thonar]].
** The [[NoNameGiven Imperial Captain]] from "Unbound" is either presumably killed by Alduin (if the player chooses to follow Hadvar) or definitely killed by Ralof and the Dragonborn (if the player chooses to follow Ralof). Considering she ordered the Dragonborn's execution despite their name not being on the list, it's hard to feel bad for her.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority:
** Dragons ''strongly'' believe in this. [[spoiler:So much so that, when you defeat Alduin once and force him to run away, the other dragons question his leadership as a true dragon would either submit to the victor or fight to the death. One of them even answers your challenge, loses, and does a HeelFaceTurn to pledge his UndyingLoyalty to you.]]
** Ulfric attempted to bypass Skyrim's political system with this logic by killing High King Torygg, claiming that if Torygg couldn't protect himself, he couldn't protect Skyrim. Trial by combat is an honored Nord tradition, but the manner in which he did it created a schism that erupted into civil war.
* AsYouKnow: Beautifully averted. The Dragonborn is a foreigner to Skyrim, even if they're a Nord (which is handwaved as them returning to their homeland under the worst possible circumstances after spending an extended period of time away), so they actually learn about the ongoing events (the Civil War, the Thalmor's influence, etc.) at the same pace as the player.
* TheAtoner:
** One possible way to read Ulfric Stormcloak. He believes (falsely) that [[spoiler:information he gave up under torture led directly to the capture of the Imperial City and (by extension) everything that happened afterwards]], so it's heavily implied that guilt plays a significant role in his desire to overthrow the White-Gold Concordat and ensure that all the deaths during the Great War were not in vain.
** [[spoiler:Erandur. Once a priest of Vaermina, daedric prince of nightmares; now one of Mara, goddess of love and compassion.]]
** Illia from the Darklight Tower who [[spoiler:once worked for the hagravens and now wants to stop her mother becoming one.]]
** [[spoiler: Paarthurnax. At one time, he apparently served the Big Bad, and killed a bunch of people. Now, he wants to stop Alduin, and teach other dragons "The Way of the Voice."]]
** This can be you, too, if you wrong one of the guilds. The Dark Brotherhood, Thieves' Guild and College of Winterhold have quests for making restitution if you wrong them. Of course, they're also the only ones that have legitimate things to do after their questline is over...
* AttackAnimal:
** The "Conjure Familiar" spell summons a magical wolf to attack enemies. Banning in Markarth also gives you the option to buy an attack dog.
** The ''Dawnguard'' expansion adds Death Hounds, undead canines that accompany vampires. Joining Clan Volkihar lets you bring one along.
*** Alternately, joining the Dawnguard instead gives you access to a pair of adorable battle hounds which look like huskies, and also ''armored attack trolls''.
** And in the ''Dragonborn'' expansion, you can craft elemental attack spiders (which appear as usable items in your Scrolls inventory) to use on enemies.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny:
** Dragons seem to exhibit this. Due to their lofty view (and general tendency to constantly fly around while fighting), they tend to aggro (or get aggro'd by) pretty much everything, and get distracted from the walking divine intervention attempting to devour their soul to go attack a random mudcrab.
** Some followers will draw attention to certain locations ("Looks like one of those Dwemer ruins") when you get near them... but it doesn't matter whether you're approaching them from outside or ''inside''. Lydia wondering out loud what's inside that cave you just came out of is... slightly odd.
* AutomatonHorses: [[http://i.imgur.com/Xaoka.jpg Well, how's this for starters?]] The only nods to reality are that the horses cannot ''gallop'' non-stop and may die if you ride them off cliffs.
* {{Autosave}}: The game has a variety of autosave options, all of them enabled by default (but you can switch them on or off as desired):
** Saving any time you use the Wait/Rest command.
** Saving after every LoadingScreen between areas (this also starts to become SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity after a while, as many dungeons utilize a loading sequence just before you approach the boss room).
** Saving at timed intervals (every 15/30 minutes, etc.), which includes time spent dying and reloading from the last autosave.
** When you start a new game, the game makes an autosave to a specific save slot just before you design your character; this allows you to start a new character without having to sit through the entire opening sequence.
** On rare occasions, the game may make an autosave right before approaching a boss battle, even if there's no loading screen (or other autosave) taking effect.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** The world map is very beautiful, but not very helpful as a road map since it shows no roads, and if you mess too much with your analog while on the map screen, the orientation can be completely screwed up, making it hell to find the desired location on the map.
** Smithing. Depending on how fast you can manage to level it, you can get some of the best armor in the game well before it starts turning up as random drops, as well as improve your equipment to outperform standard issue gear that should be superior (and that's not even getting into the enchanting exploits). Unfortunately, the resource cost to level it that high is ''enormous'', and the only alternative is spending a lot of money to train it up. Further, none of the perks affect your combat skills directly. Lastly, with armor in particular, it's fairly easy to reach the hard cap for damage reduction, meaning that all the effort you put into tempering it is largely wasted. [[SubvertedTrope Weapons, however, have no such cap]], so if you're playing on Legendary and at high levels, maxed-out Smithing is pretty much a requirement if you want to be able to so much as '''scratch''' dragons and other powerful foes.
** Alchemy has a similar problem. In addition to the large amount of necessary resources, you have to figure out which combinations do what, which takes time and testing ([[GuideDangit a strategy guide]]). [[DifficultButAwesome If you can manage to get it up to full, though, you can use it to concoct potions to enhance your smithing and enchanting (and the latter can in turn be used to boost your alchemy skills)]].
** Enchanting requires you to A) destroy enchanted items you could otherwise have sold or used in order to learn their enchantments, B) have a massive supply of Soul Gems, which takes either a lot of searching or a lot of money, and C) killing a lot of creatures with the appropriate soul size to fill these gems. Unlike smithing or alchemy, the amount of experience you gain by enchanting is not really affected by the power and value of the item you create, so you don't really need to bother with the wildly expensive Grand Soul Gems until you start creating items for yourself, but it also means there's no fast track to leveling either.
** Speech. Sure, it's nice to be able to talk down some people, but there simply aren't that many of them and without investing in the perks for it, you are likely to fail many such examples before speech gets up to a respectable level. The only other reliable way to increase it is to sell things, which is extremely difficult because merchants carry very little money in comparison to the amount you need to sell to level up. This skill and the above two are prime examples for why skill trainers are in the game; it's simply much more efficient to pay these guys to teach you rather than try to upgrade it yourself.
** Any good weapon which lies outside your skill set counts as this. That Volendrung is pretty slick looking; too bad you only took one-handed and not two-handed, meaning that even weak one-handed weapons are more powerful in your hands than it would be.
** The master-level spells have numerous drawbacks. They cost more magicka to cast than most characters will likely have, requiring gear to be equipped that reduces the cost. They can't be cast while moving, require both hands (meaning you can't equip a shield to block with while casting) and have a very long animation. In some cases, this can be somewhat countered by the shout Become Ethereal or an invisibility spell.
*** The Destruction spells have it particularly bad. Blizzard deals paltry damage even compared to the Expert-level elemental walls and uses the element resisted by most enemies in the game. Fire Storm is a short-range area-effect, meaning you have to get in melee range to use it, and most armed humanoid enemies are likely to bash you and interrupt your charge while you're trying to cast it, making it mostly just a cool way to blow up some wolves. On top of that, it's likely to kill your follower. Lightning Storm is the most useful of them all, boasting a massive range (which somewhat mitigates the cast time problem) and okay-ish damage, but even then you can deal more damage just by spamming a dual-cast Thunderbolt (which also comes with the ability to endlessly stun-lock opponents if the perk is taken, since each shot staggers the enemy). The problem with Thunderbolt is its heavy Magika cost, which makes Lightning Storm slightly more practical if only due to the cost factor. When you reach 100% Reduce Magika Cost on your clothes/armor these is ''no reason'' for you to use Lightning Storm because Thunderbolt does more damage, can be cast faster, and abuses the Impact perk.
*** Mass Paralysis, a Master Alteration spell, falls into the same trap as Fire Storm. Downplayed a bit with Dragonhide, which can be quite useful if cast before a combat you initiate (provided you have the necessary perks to extend its duration past the base 30 seconds), but just about worthless if the enemy attacks you before you can cast it due to the long cast time. Meanwhile, the Restoration spells are mostly only useful against the undead. Fortunately, the Illusion Master spells have a massive range while the Conjuration-level Master spells summon permanent servants, so the cast time for those is not really a problem at all.
** Sadly, and related to the above, the entire Destruction and Alteration schools fall under this category once the high-level enemies begin to spawn. Neither the damage output of the former nor the damage mitigation of the latter scales with the Dragonborn's level, which means as soon as you've acquired the top-tier spells, you're basically stuck while the enemies only continue to grow tougher and meaner. Even the most powerful Destruction spells do pitiful damage against the likes of Draugr Deathlords or Ancient Dragons, whereas a properly upgraded bow or melee weapon can shred these monsters in just a few hits (with the added benefit of weapon-centric builds being ''a lot'' tougher than mages thanks to their armor and much higher health). There are a couple of mods available that try to balance things out by attaching noticeable buffs to the novice, apprentice and so on perks of all magic schools, but even with them, mages will never be able to match the ungodly amounts of damage that warriors and especially sneak builds can dish out.
** In some cases, followers. They tend to get in the way, get hit by your area-affect spells, make stealth harder by alerting nearby enemies, [[LeeroyJenkins get themselves killed]], and can make it much more difficult to progress through trap-filled tombs and tight-spaced caves because they're too [[ArtificialStupidity stupid]] to avoid the traps you tried so hard to evade or are too slow to get out of your way. This extends to Thralls, too; Thrall summons have no time limit, which makes them basically another follower. It gets worse if you also have the Twin Souls perk, which means you're bringing a small army of Leeroys with you and making friendly-fire an ''inevitability''.
** [[ActionBomb Flame Atronachs explode upon death]]. Unfortunately, they attack at a distance, and the explosive damage counts as having originated ''from you''. This means that if one dies, anything around it will suddenly think you've just attacked them, and promptly turn hostile (if they weren't already). This can cause you to lose followers mid-combat, aggro nearby friendly [=NPC=]s, get bounties placed on your head, and other shenanigans. It doesn't help that they're Leeroys as well. And to top it all off, the explosion damage itself is minuscule, barely enough to kill a mudcrab if that even.
** Certain traps are placed ahead of their triggers so you could not simply outrun them. Unfortunately if you happen to wait at a certain point for your follower to catch up, they would trigger the trap, and you'd be the one ending up kissing a spiked wall at Mach 2.
** Being a werewolf was this for a while, due to a bug that removed nearly all of your damage protection while transformed. Fortunately, said bug was patched, and ''Dawnguard'''s perks tree skews it the other way; now, your biggest issue will be where to wait out all that extra time you got from one-shotting everyone and eating them.
** Being a Werewolf or (with the ''Dawnguard'' DLC) a Vampire Lord can be this outside of combat, since people are instantly hostile to you and you can't pick anything up without mods. The Vampire Lord is slightly better than the Werewolf in this regard, since you can switch in and out of it at will instead of only being able to use it once a day and having to wait out the transformation to change back.
*** Both forms fall into ClippedWingAngel on a high level character. The Vampire Lord's main spell never deals over 150 damage (and cannot be dual-cast), while with smithing, alchemy, weapon skills and enchanting, you can hit for over 1000 damage with a weapon, plus hundreds more with a Chaos enchant and relevant perks for it. But if you want to off someone in plain sight without getting the blame for it...
*** The Vampire Lord, however, has Vampire's Grasp, which lets you repeatedly throw enemies into the air (or off a steep cliff, or into traps...) basically acting like a much more spammable and directable version of the Unrelenting Force shout.
** Many Shouts fall under this, but [[WeatherManipulation Storm Call]] is probably the most notable. Acquiring all three words is made particularly difficult by the fact that all three of them are guarded by powerful [[OurLichesAreDifferent Dragon Priests]] and one is in an area that's unreachable after clearing the main quest. Your reward for collecting all three is a terrifically powerful Shout that can and will kill almost anything around you... including any followers, friendly [=NPC=]s, or random villagers. It can only be used outside, and boasts the longest recharge of any Shout at ''ten minutes'' (though at least you can improve that part with an Amulet of Talos and, if you have the Unofficial Patch, the Morokei mask).
*** Dismay and Disarm don't fare much better. The two shouts only affect enemies that are below a certain level (the exact level depending on how many words are used), and while the stronger versions of the Shouts can be useful at lower levels, they aren't much help after level 30 or so; most enemies at that point are too strong for the Shouts to affect or weak enough that it isn't worth disarming or fearing them. Dismay becomes even more impractical for those who choose to invest in Illusion magic, as the fear spells of that school can end up becoming stronger than the Shout depending on the Dragonborn's perk choices.
** Specialized arrows (Daedric, Dragonbone, etc.) are a huge improvement over generic arrows, doing three times the damage, but this is on the scale of single to double digits. With enough smithing skill, your bows can do three digit damage, rendering that little bit extra completely pointless. If you haven't gotten to that point, however, it can be worth the investment if you know the trick to duplicate them for free. Not to mention that after ''Dawnguard'' is installed, arrows are craftable and can be easily produced in large numbers (except maybe Daedric Arrows, which require a Daedra heart).
** The armor that the Dragonborn wears in the trailer also counts, in a meta sense. Armor fits into one of three classes: clothing, light, and heavy. Light and heavy armor each have associated perks which are designed to award benefits for sticking to one category. The Dragonborn in the trailer is wearing a combination of light studded armor and heavy iron armor, which looks cool but would be impractical in gameplay.
** It's possible to craft the Ancient Nord Armor worn by Draugr Deathlords after completing the Companions' questline. On the one hand, it looks pretty cool and is appropriately Viking-esque. On the other hand, the armor is little better than standard Iron Armor, the ''weakest armor'' in the game, and for whatever reason benefits from the ''Daedric Smithing'' perk for improvements; by the time you get that perk, you're better off just crafting Daedric armor rather than bringing the Ancient Nord stuff to a work bench. To top it off, the version of the helmet with the upwards pointed horns are not available as a craftable piece; it's only available as a named helmet as a piece of loot in an out of way place, with a pitiful 10% frost resistance bonus and does ''not'' count as a piece of the armor set (robbing you of any set bonuses).
** Most Daedric artifacts have no smithing perks that apply to them, which effectively means they can only be upgraded half as much as most items. This makes them fall behind pretty quickly, even the ones that do have useful enchantments.
** The entire lockpicking perk tree falls victim to this. The mastery perks are useless because lockpicks weigh nothing and cost practically nothing, so it's trivially easy to amass hundreds and brute-force any lock in the game. This also makes having unbreakable picks a novelty at best. The silent lockpicking perk is useless because sneaking has the same effect, and there are very few occasions where you can't get away with sneaking to pick a lock, even if your Sneak skill is abysmal. Wax Key creates a key to a lock if it has one, but if you can pick the lock in the first place then it's irrelevant (not to mention wasteful, if you want to grind the skill on locked doors in a city). Finally, the Golden Touch and Treasure Hunter perks increase the chance of finding gold/rare loot, which is nice, but gold is easily earned through other skills (like alchemy or enchanting) and whatever extra loot you do get is likely going to be inferior to what you're using by the time you've earned enough points to get the perk in the first place.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: All the Dragon names translated are intimidating and scary.
** Many Nords have badass clan names or sobriquets, like Ulfric Stormcloak, Aela the Huntress, Mjoll the Lioness, Galmar Stone-Fist, Ulfberth War-Bear, Oengul War-Anvil...
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: If you complete the main questline and [[spoiler: let Paarthurnax live]], you will return to the top of the Throat of the World to witness [[spoiler: dozens of roaring and Shouting dragons who are acknowledging Paarthurnax as their new leader.]]
** [[spoiler:However, this scene can also be interpreted as those dozens of Dragons acknowledging '''you''' as their new leader. You don't get anything for it, but you did prove that your Voice was stronger than Alduin's.]]
** The formal recognition of the Dragonborn by the Greybeards counts. They basically say you now have rights to two [[AwesomeMcCoolname Awesome McCoolnames]] used by a previous legendary Dragonborn, the illustrious Tiber Septim: "Stormcrown" and "Ysmir, Dragon of The North". And they do it by blasting you with the ritual words of recognition in the dragon tongue, making the ground quake as they do it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:B]]
* BackStab: Both thieves and assassins do their best damage from the shadows, and getting the Assassin's Blade perk allows you to do 15x damage with a dagger sneak-attack. Slightly subverted in that you don't actually need to be behind your target - either Invisibility or the Shadow Warrior perk can allow you to "backstab" foes '''right in the face'''.
** Couple that with the shrouded gloves you get, which DOUBLES that, and you can one-shot most enemies in the game. A vampire wearing muffled boots with either the invisibility spell or the invisibility power can slay almost any enemy in the game in one hit. The ONE exception is Alduin, who will always see you when you approach.
* BackToBackBadasses: You and Serana against the army of [[spoiler: Frozen Falmer in Auriel's Chapel.]] Also, you and the [[spoiler: Heroes of Sovngarde against Alduin.]]
** You can also invoke this with other followers when faced with superior numbers throughout the game.
* BadassBaritone: Ulfric and Alduin
* BadassBeard: For the first time since ''Morrowind'', [[note]] unless you count Sheogorath from ''Oblivion'' [[/note]] characters with facial hair appear. There are at least fifty different beards to choose from. It's lampshaded by M'aiq the Liar, who notes that 'everyone in Skyrim is all about beards' and speculates that humans must be compensating for the lack of manes.
* BadassBookworm: Urag gro-Shub, the Orc librarian at the College of Winterhold. Don't mess with the Arcanaeum; it's his BerserkButton. On the other hand, give him the [[spoiler:Elder Scroll]] from the main quest after finishing it, and you can hear an orc {{squee}} for the first time in TES history. (Or probably any Orc in anything period!)
* BadassBystander:
** Random travelers on the roads may occasionally come to your aid against the wolves, bandits, bears, or trolls that populate the wilderness. Some of them are surprisingly tough (Talsgar the Wanderer is a notable example, at least at low-to-mid player level).
** During the final battle [[spoiler: in the afterlife, some of the Honored Dead, such as Ulfric Stormcloak or Legate Rikke (if they died during the game), may randomly wander into the battle and help you fight the final boss.]]
** During dragon attacks, some civilians will run around screaming, but others will join in the fight (as will guardsmen), even if they haven't got the slightest hope of defeating it. [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9237-The-Dragonslayer Parodied in this strip]].
* BadassCape: The [[spoiler:Nightingale armour]] from late in the Thieves' Guild questline has one. It's also pretty much the only cape in the game.
* BadassCrew: The Dovahkiin and about any group they chose to join can end up being this.
* BadassLongcoat:
** Invoked with the Thalmor mage uniforms. They look more like a [[PuttingOnTheReich standard longcoat than a robe,]] [[ANaziByAnyOtherName which makes sense given the very obvious Gestapo parallels.]] Their design makes it impossible to close the robe's front, meaning this trope is always in effect.
** The robes of the Psijic monks follow the same open-front design, but rather than the Thalmor's imposing black and gold, they use vivid, ornate primary colors. Given that the Psijic Order was founded long before the Thalmor's emergence, this implies that the Thalmor used the Psijic design for inspiration.
** The various Fine Clothes, as well, can serve as more noble-looking longcoats, especially the ones blinged-out with fur around the collar.
** Ulfric Stormcloak's clothing includes one of these made of chainmail worn under an animal-pelt cloak. Despite this and the breastplate the clothing seems to include, it only counts as normal clothing if you get your hands on it, despite it looking like it should be light armour.
* BadassPreacher: A few examples are shown, though interestingly enough the player can become one themselves by working for any of the Temples.
** Frea, after [[spoiler: her father Storn is killed, becomes shaman of her village]] in ''Dragonborn''. She has no level cap, and prefers DualWielding War Axes.
** Erandur was raised worshiping Vaermina. Then he was forced without a choice to kill his fellow cult members and abandoned his worship of her to worship Mara instead. Why he is badass? Because he outright defied Vaermina, the daedric prince who once trapped a wizard in hellish nightmares for all eternity because he stole one thing from her. He's also basically a [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] Cleric, wielding a mace and healing magic.
* BadGuyBar: The Ragged Flagon, although since the player can join the Thieves' Guild, it's more of a VillainProtagonist Bar.
* TheBadGuyWins: In ''Dragonborn'', [[spoiler:Hermaeus Mora]] gets everything he wants in the end.
* BagOfHolding: All the containers in the game can hold far more than any container ought to be able to, including objects that should be too large even alone. You can fill one chest with more items than should be able to fit in an entire ''house''.
* BanishingRitual: In the backstory, a group of heroes were trying to wage war against [[BigBad Alduin]], but they didn't have the assistance of a Dragonborn, [[OnlyICanKillHim the only mortal who would stand a chance of defeating him]]. So they used an Elder Scroll to banish Alduin in the hopes he'd be lost forever in the flow of time. Unfortunately it didn't work and Alduin reappeared, setting off the events of the game.
* BarbarianHero: Not in the traditional sense, but aesthetically speaking Skyrim runs in this direction what with the primary inhabitants being an homage of real life HornyVikings. Contrast the KnightInShiningArmor aesthetic that was prevalent in ''Oblivion'' just prior.
** Of course, there's nothing stopping you from having it in the traditional sense by making your character one of these. In fact, thanks to the aesthetic, it's easy.
* BarBrawl: You can "persuade" some NPC characters by brawling with them rather than intimidating or negotiating. Not surprisingly, a lot of these take place in taverns. You even get the option to just fight some patrons for coin. At the extreme, you can ''marry'' a woman after you [[BestHerToBedHer brawl with her and win.]]
* BareFistedMonk: It is entirely possible and viable to play through the game with just your fists, as demonstrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iOxbZu7lV0 here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw here]]. Unlike previous ''Elder Scrolls'' games, however, there is no "Unarmed" skill - the trick is to train up your Heavy Armor stat and unlock the "Fists of Steel" perk. Khajiit are particularly suited for this; all told, the cats do 22 damage per punch. There is also a "Fortify Unarmed" enchantment obtainable in the Ratways of Riften, which can be disenchanted and applied to gauntlets and rings.[[note]]Fortify Unarmed maxes out at +14 damage, times two for ring and gauntlet enchantment. Fists of Steel takes the ''base'' armor rating and adds it to Fortify Unarmed; the best gauntlets in the game, Daedric, have 18 base armor. That totals 50 for any human or elf, 56 for an Argonian, and a whopping '''68''' for a Khajiit.[[/note]] Unfortunately, such a powerful offensive with insane swing speed and maneuverability lacks a ranged option (but then, that's what bows are for), can't block blows, and can't use weapon enchantments.
* BarrierChangeBoss: The first boss you fight in the Mage College quest line is a powerful Draugr that keeps shifting between frosty, electrical and fiery forms, and he's pretty resistant to physical attacks, so you'd better make sure you know at least one damage spell of each type when you face him.
* TheBartender: Each tavern and inn has a non-generic NPC filling this role. Beside selling food and drinks, they can be asked for rumors (sometimes related to local quests) and work (official bounty hunting quest).
* BatScare: Flocks of bats are startled into flight by certain trigger-events such as when they enter the final chamber of Bleak Falls Barrow.
* BattleButler: Any of your housecarls, should you choose to take them on your quests.
* BattleCouple: The Dragonborn is capable of marrying one of their traveling companions and going on adventures with them.
* BeastlyBloodsports: Never witnessed firsthand but heavily implied to have been carried out in a skooma den the player visits during the "Thane of Riften" questline. Several iron cages (some still containing pit wolves) can be found throughout the area and a lone dead pit wolf appears inside a makeshift arena.
* BeatStillMyHeart: In a case of DevelopersForesight, if you pickpocket a briarheart from a Forsworn Briarheart, they instantly die and a gaping hole appears on their chests. This is because Forsworn Briarhearts have had their real hearts replaced with the briarheart you have just ripped from their bodies.
* BecomingTheMask: A wizard sets up a ScoobyDooHoax, masquerading as the guardian spirit of a Nordic burial ground to scare away people from the nearby village while he loots the place clean. When he comes across a locked door, he spends over six months scouring the whole tomb looking for the key but can't find it. His failure drives him insane and he becomes convinced that he really ''is'' the guardian spirit of the tomb. [[spoiler:The innkeeper in the village had the key all along, and he happily gives it to you as a reward for dealing with that pesky spirit that's been scaring everyone]].
* BeefGate: There are several placed encounters that are designed to force the player to be sufficiently leveled and geared to overcome them. These include several early dungeon bosses and, most notably, a Frost Troll on the path to High Hrothgar. Unlike other games, however, you can just go around the troll or run past it and get the Greybeards to deal with it for you.
* BeingGoodSucks: In full force. Playing a moral Dragonborn will result in missing out on a lot of rewards. Choosing to destroy the Dark Brotherhood awards only a bit of gold, while joining offers a plethora of rewards, including a recurring radiant assassination quest that yields 1000 septims for ''each contract.'' There is not even a quest to destroy the Thieves' Guild at all. Likewise, you will miss out on any Daedric artifact that requires you to kill innocents, which is a lot of them. ''Dawnguard'' averts it somewhat, as joining either the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Volkihar vampires]] or the [[VampireHunter Dawnguard]] will result in unique and useful rewards. You can even become a [[OneWingedAngel Vampire Lord]] through both paths, though it's only mandatory for the former and will lock you out of the latter's quests until you get it cured.
** Being good also sucks on a meta level, as there are several achievements/trophies which can only be unlocked by joining the Thieves' Guild and Dark Brotherhood, and a number of others for being a werewolf or vampire. The worst is "Oblivion Walker," which requires the collection of fifteen Daedric artifacts; as noted above, some of these require outright murder (and [[ImAHumanitarian worse]]). Bonus suck points if you force yourself to do the evil things you don't want to do in order to get the achievements, only to have one or more of them glitch and fail to unlock.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Some of your possible spouses are downright rude to you.
** Most noteworthy is probably Njada Stonearm - she even complains when you heal her ("You think you're better than me because you can do this?!"). Should you marry her, however, [[{{Tsundere}} she is all honey talk]].
** Some of them want to marry you after you've beaten them in a brawl. Of course, this ''is'' [[ProudWarriorRace Nord]] culture.
* BeneathTheEarth: The derelict dwarven city of Blackreach, which houses tribes of Falmer, [[FungusHumongous giant glowing mushrooms,]] [[RagnarokProofing still-functioning lifts to the surface and other contraptions]], a dragon and [[spoiler: an Elder Scroll]]. Not to mention the Crimson Nirnroot is found there.
* BerserkButton:
** Keeping secrets from Hermaeus Mora is not a good idea. Nor is betraying him.
** Calling a Nord a "milk-drinker" is something not recommended unless you want a fight.
** The outlawing of the worship of Talos has a lot of Skyrim's people up in arms, especially given the Thalmor's penchant for dragging people off in the middle of the night just for doing this.
** Messing with the Arcaneum is not recommended unless you want to bring down the wrath of Urag gro-Shub on your head.
** Getting too close to a giant or messing with one of his mammoths is a very good way to get sent into low orbit.
** Ulfric utterly ''loses it'' when Elenwen, ambassador of the Thalmor, crashes the peace talks during the "Season Unending" quest.
* BestialityIsDepraved: In a conversation between Cynric Endell and Thrynn, Cynric asks Thrynn if it's true that bandits get real... ''friendly'' with the wildlife. Thrynn calls him an idiot.
* BestKnownForTheFanservice: InUniverse: A new book in ''Skyrim'' is one of the few in Elder Scrolls history to be a sequel to a book from another game. It has survived both the Oblivion Crisis and the destruction of Vvardenfell. That book is ''The Lusty Argonian Maid''. And as of ''Dawnguard,'' it has a spinoff: ''The Sultry Argonian Bard.''
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Hermaeus Mora's voice makes him sound grandfatherly, and his behavior to you is friendly and respectful (as long as you don't say anything to provoke or antagonize him), and he will keep his bargains with you; but anyone who crosses him learns a very painful lesson about how bad an idea that is. This generally pleasant demeanor is sharply contrasted with his chosen appearance both on Mundus and in his realm of Apocrypha - that of a giant mass of pulsating, duplicating eyeballs and black, slick tentacles.
* BewareTheSillyOnes:
** Near one of the first towns you can find a jester who seems to be a textbook {{Cloudcuckoolander}} who needs help getting his wagon fixed. [[spoiler:Turns out he's the Keeper for the Dark Brotherhood. The Night Mother herself is in the wagon. If you take the farmer's advice and slander him to get him dragged off by a guard, you'll find said farmer dead later on.]]
** Sheogorath also certainly counts. His behavior is jovial and frivolous, but like all Daedric Princes, he's not opposed to a little random mortal-slaying, so long as it's all in good fun.
* {{BFG}}: The robotic Dwarven Ballistas fire huge bolts that can ignore your armor.
* {{BFS}}: The greatswords. Of special note is the Stahlrim greatsword, which is taller than your character.
* BigBad:
** Alduin, the first offspring of Akatosh.
** For the civil war subplot, either General Tullius (if you're a Stormcloak) or Ulfric Stormcloak (if you're a Legionnaire).
** Also the Silver Hand for the Companions, [[spoiler:Mercer Frey]] for the Thieves' Guild, [[spoiler:Ancano]] for the College Of Winterhold, and [[spoiler:Commander Maro]] for the Dark Brotherhood.
** Lord Harkon for ''Dawnguard'' [[spoiler:regardless of whether you side with the Vampires or the Dawnguard]].
** Miraak for ''Dragonborn'' [[spoiler:but his master Hermaeus Mora twists Miraak's plans to his advantage.]]
* BigFancyHouse: Proudspire Manor is the largest and most expensive of the in-city homes the player can buy. Assuming you have a spouse and kids, it's also the only one all three will have no complaint about. With ''Hearthfire'' installed, the player can build three of their own. These are bigger and arguably even fancier than Proudspire and come with a lot of benefits, but may not be universally liked by your family members.[[note]]It partly depends on who you marry and what their general personality is. Some spouses will express contentment in almost every residence, while others are much pickier.[[/note]]
* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: Normal Trolls resemble Bigfoot, while Frost Trolls resemble Yetis.
* BigFriendlyDog:
** Being the external representation of a Daedric Prince's conscience, the talking dog Barbas is naturally this.
** Skyrim is inhabited by big Irish Wolfhound looking dogs, and most of them are nice towards you, save a few trained by bandits. In particular, Meeko and Vigilance can follow and help the player in a manner similar to Dogmeat in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''.
** If you pick the Vampire path in ''Dawnguard'', you can take a Death Hound with you, although the "friendly" in this case applies only to you. Similarly, the Dawnguard path lets you take an armored dog companion.
* BilingualBonus:
** Many of the Companions have names that, in Eastern European languages, translate to "wolf" or "werewolf". This includes Vilkas (Lithuanian), Farkas (Hungarian), and Kodlak (Serbian/Slovakian).
** Combined with UnfortunateName, Faendal. In Norwegian, "faen"[[note]]Not literally, but it carries the same meaning as a swear word[[/note]] means fuck and "dal" means valley.
** ''Jarl'' is the Old Norse word for "chieftain" and the root of the English word "earl".
** Heimskr means "stupid" in Old Norse.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Saadia, according to the Alik'r.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Oh, where to begin...
** ''Skyrim'': Alduin has been defeated, Sovngarde is safe, and most of the remaining dragons now recognize Paarthurnax's authority. However, Alduin's soul isn't absorbed, meaning that it's only a matter of time until he comes back again; it's just that now he'll come back when Akatosh intends it, and no one has any idea when that will be.
** The Civil War sidequest ends like this either way. The Thalmor are still in power, and Skyrim's only hope to repel them is either a powerless empire or some upstart rebels. Who now have a walking DivineIntervention among their ranks, so it's not as bad as it could be.
** ''Dawnguard'': Lord Harkon has been killed, the sun is still shining, and it seems the Falmer are actually becoming more sapient. However, they're still a far way off from returning to their former glory, and one of the only two non-regressed Falmer has been killed, leaving one left.
** ''Dragonborn'': Miraak has been stopped, Solstheim is safe, and Hermaeus Mora is finally leaving the Skaal alone. However, the leader of the Skaal is dead, Hermaeus finally got what he wanted, and it's implied that the Last Dragonborn will simply become another pawn in his schemes.
* BiTheWay: Every marriageable character in Skyrim will marry the Dovahkiin regardless of gender. It could also be a case of EvenTheGuysWantHim or EvenTheGirlsWantHer.
** One of the quests involves your character getting drunk and (among various other things) fondling a statue of Dibella, no matter your gender.
* BlessedWithSuck:
** The Greybeards. On one hand, they're masters of an ancient and powerful magic art that takes most people years to study. On the other hand, they're forced to take a vow of silence because of it, or they risk accidentally killing outsiders with a single word.
** Vampirism. You get cool powers like night vision, invisibility, life drain, and bonuses to stealth and illusion but your stats are lower during the daytime, and to get the really cool powers you have to go days without feeding, which breaks your {{Masquerade}} and provokes attacks. To keep it under control, you have feed on people in their sleep, which diminishes the powers and the drawbacks but also has a chance of getting you caught. ''Dawnguard'' tweaks it a bit by adding an entirely new transformation mechanic, alternate ways to feed, making villagers no longer break out the torches and pitchforks, and ''the ability to put out the sun''.
** Being a werewolf is considered this InUniverse by Kodlak Whitemane, who would prefer to go to Sovngarde upon his death, but is bound by his curse to spend eternity in Hircine's hunting grounds instead. A quest involves breaking the curse for him -- and you can later do it for yourself and two of the other remaining members of the Circle.
* BlatantLies: When you first arrive at Markarth, one of the Guards outside will tell you that this is the safest city in The Reach. However when you enter the city, you will witness a public murder with the guards trying to cover it up.
* [[BlindWeaponmaster Blind Swordsmith]]: Dexion, in ''Dawnguard,'' can sometimes be found at a blacksmith forge even after he's lost his sight.
** This, however, is a JustifiedTrope. Dexion is a Moth Priest, and they spend their entire lives preparing for their inevitable blindness, including learning how to read and navigate with their fingertips, and he had been to the two locations where he can wind up in-game before then - Castle Volkihar and Fort Dawnguard.
* BloodMagic[=/=]ThePowerOfBlood:
** The blood of a Dragonborn is necessary to open the entrance to Sky Haven Temple, the home base of the Blades in Skyrim.
** In the ''Dawnguard'' DLC, a little blood is required to release Serana when you first find her. [[spoiler:Also, Vyrthur specifically needs "the blood of a daughter of Coldharbour" in order to fulfill his plans. If you have Auriel's Bow, you can blot out the sun for a day using arrows that have been dipped in Serana's blood.]]
* BloodStainedLetter:
** A letter smeared with blood is found near the corpse of a woman whose family was captured and killed by Falmer. Bloodstained diary entries are found near her daughter's body.
** Another one is found in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC near the body of a man who was killed in his lover's house.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom:
** Similarly to ''Oblivion'', [[RagdollPhysics gravity seems to have less effect]] on dead bodies than on living ones, meaning the kill shot of a bow or spell will shoot the target backwards 5 to 15 feet. The reason for this is that when a killing blow is delivered (and one of the finishing move animations doesn't kick in) the excess damage (i.e. anything that would reduce the target's health below 0) is converted into momentum in the game's physics engine. So if an NPC with 10 HP left is hit by an arrow which deals 50 points of damage, then the first 10 points of that damage would reduce them to 0 HP, killing them, and the remaining 40 would be converted into 40 points worth of momentum to knock back their ragdoll. This is also the reason for the giants' MegatonPunch (see below).
** And of course, you can invoke this trope with the Unrelenting Force shout at full power. So can higher-level draugr.
** Likewise, the Vampire Lord spell Vampiric Grip will allow you to grab an enemy from a distance and choke him very slowly, but the true power is when you release, and he is flung violently away with tremendous force. Launching enemies straight upward will send them far enough up that the fall is, if not fatal, then at least severely damaging.
** Sword and shield fighters can do it with Auriel's Shield from ''Dawnguard''. Block 15 blows with it, and then you can blast someone right off their feet with a ShieldBash.
* BodyguardCrush: You can invoke this by marrying your housecarl after you become a thane.
* BodyguardingABadass: When you become a Thane in some of the holds, you're given a housecarl. What you had to do to earn the title sometimes makes it a clear case of this trope. In fact, the very first Housecarl you get, Lydia, is earned for becoming Thane of Whiterun, a title you earn for killing your first dragon, learning the first word of your first shout, and being revealed to the world as a Dragonborn. If that's not ascent to badass, nothing is.
* BodyHorror: What happens to [[spoiler:Astrid. It seems that having the player's Dark Brotherhood mentor die with a mundane form of this is a series tradition.]]
** Also present for some monsters, the most prominent being the Falmer, who [[spoiler: were Snow Elves once. In their original forms, they did possess eyes and had no fangs or claws... these days, not so much.]]
* BonusBoss:
** In Blackreach, there's a dragon hidden in the artificial sun, which is released by using your '''FUS RO DAH''' on the orb. You can get away with only one word of the shout if you make your way to the platform overlooking the orb, which puts it close enough for the first word to reach it.
** ''Dragonborn'' adds another notable example in the form of the Ebony Warrior, who only appears once the player reaches level 80. He has enchanted equipment which grants him 50% resistance to all elements, LifeDrain, increased melee damage, and increased regeneration. He has Heavy Armor perks which may reflect damage back to you and paralysis perks for both his weapon types. He has both healing magic and potions. He is immune to falling damage outside of a possible glitch. Finally, he has access to the full-powered Disarm and Unrelenting Force shouts. ''[[OneHitKill On top of a mountain.]]'' It says something that even if you have a full set of heavy armor and weapons which you've enhanced to legendary quality and enchanted, he can still easily kill you.
** Karstaag, returning in spirit form from ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Bloodmoon]]''. This is the ghost of a frost giant, who has [[MagicKnight both powerful destruction spells and sheer physical size]] on his side.
** Only one Dragon Priest is actually required to be killed in order to complete the game's main quest, and that's assuming you don't simply [[SequenceBreaking sprint past him before he closes the path]]. For good reason too - Dragon Priests are easily some of the most deadly enemies in the game, even more than Dragons themselves, but you really have to go out of your way to find them.
* BoobsOfSteel: As the weight slider increments on a female character in character generation, muscle mass and body frame size increase... and so does breast size. Also a literal case with certain armors that add breast cups when used by female characters, such as the Wolf Armor of the Companions.
* BookEnds: The first and final acts of the Dark Brotherhood storyline begin with a Black Sacrament being performed.
* BoomerangBigot: Sybille Stentor, the Court Wizard for the Jarl of Solitude. She sends you on a quest to destroy a "disgusting" nest of vampires, but detect life/detect death and a quick peek at the faction code shows she's actually a vampire herself. Speaking with Melaran at the Palace entrance implies that her condition is a well-kept secret in the palace, and she gets most of her nourishment dealing with the more "troublesome" prisoners kept in the dungeons. It seems her disgust is for their living conditions, not their vampirism, especially considering the reward she gives you.
* BoringButPractical:
** The Transmute spell means you'll never need to search for gold ever again. You can take the plentiful and cheap iron ore, turn it into silver or gold, smelt the results into ingots, then craft jewelry over and over, providing easy Smithing levels and tons of treasure.
** The Enchanting skill similarly takes time and patience to level, but unlike Smithing, all you need is Soul Gems to enchant with and a Soul Trap-enchanted weapon to fill them (or the spell Soul Trap). They don't even need to be powerful souls for the purpose of leveling. Just run out shanking all the critters wandering around Whiterun and you'll gather dozens of weak souls per hour. Soul gems, especially the smaller ones, are extremely common and dirt cheap to buy. As for the equipment that you're enchanting, you can easily get that from all the excess you have leveling up Smithing, or by just enchanting all the garbage you loot from the bandits that are absolutely everywhere, since experience is gained at a constant rate regardless of what it is or is used on. Once you've got it to 100, you can craft gear that is far more powerful than the best equipment available elsewhere in the game. You can also make powerful fortify enchantments for other skills that let you overcome the initial low skill problems.
** Simple, brute melee combat is more than enough to overcome any non-scripted challenge the game has to offer, once you max your skills. Only a very few quests ''require'' you to be sneaky or use magic. It's especially deadly when mixed with a good Enchanting skill; siphoning life is a popular choice.
** Marked For Death. Other shouts create fire, throw enemies through the air, call down lightning storms, or slow down time. '''KRII LUN AUS''', however, just hits the enemy with a shimmering wave of energy that otherwise has no visible effect, but in fact drains their life and reduces armor to the point that a couple hits with a warhammer will drop nearly any boss.
** Look at all those unique racial traits! Dark Elves can cloak themselves in fire for a cool effect, Bretons can give themselves ''dragon''skin, Nords can shout and make their enemies flee before them... and High Elves get 50 permanent extra magicka. Boring, but ''this trait alone'' makes High Elves excellent candidates for ''any'' build that plans to actually use magic, whether a [[MagicKnight spellsword]] (wards and destruction spells can be costly), an assassin (muffle and invisibility increase stealthiness exponentially and are appropriately costly to cast), or any variety of mage. (That said, High Elves also ''do'' get an active, pretty cool ability - Highborn, which increases magicka regeneration).
** Bretons get 25% magic resistance. This applies to all magic effects: Dragon Shouts, Spells, Vampiric powers, etc... And it's always on. In fact, for a Breton, it's possible to reach the cap for magic resistance (85%) without using ''any'' enchanted items.
** The most valuable skill or ability for a stealthy spell-slinger (or a spell-slinging stealthmaster)? It's not the illusion magic that makes them undetectable. It's not the rune traps, or summoned allies. It's not the damage multipliers, even. It's the Illusion 50 perk, Quiet Casting. All it does is keep your spells from breaking your stealth... on a character likely specced to live or die based on whether enemies ever detect them. It veers into RequiredSecondaryPowers territory since it's so indispensable.
** It's very tempting to spend those lovely perk points you've just acquired on a cool new ability, next to which all the "Skill X is Y% more effective" and "Spell A costs B% less magicka" options look rather dreary. But ignore them and your leveling enemies will soon start curb-stomping you with impunity.
** Horses. They may not look flashy (well, except one) and they usually can't take much punishment, but they are a godsend for any dungeon crawler. Since horses don't obey the same physics rules you do, they allow you to bypass tedious winding roads to discover or reach new locations simply by climbing the mountains in the way. After you've looted the dungeon and come out weighed down five times past your max carry weight, you can climb up and use the horse to bypass the fast travel restriction normally applied to overencumbered players, meaning you only have to take one trip instead of five (assuming you're willing to walk out of the dungeon at a snail's pace).
** Become Ethereal. All it does is make you ethereal, and thus render you ''completely untouchable''. Pretty much ''the'' Shout for when you're getting attacked and need to buy a bit of breathing room. Dragons, bandit chiefs, bears, wizards, it doesn't matter. Shout those words and they can't touch you, letting you either escape, wait for backup, run through their companions to the enemy you need to take out, or get ready to chop them with a power attack or ready a powerful spell in peace. With the Blessing of Talos and a Talos Amulet (let alone Fortify Restoration), the basic version of this shout will almost recharge before you're done being ethereal in the first place. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And since it nullifies]] FallingDamage, [[MundaneUtility you can also use it to jump off of high places instead of climbing down them.]] (There's a hint of this in the fact that one of the words is found on a wall at the top of a giant waterfall, and another word is found at the base of a different waterfall.)
** Whirlwind Sprint. It allows you to bypass the maddeningly slow pace you get stuck with when overencumbered, is great for traveling cross-country or moving quickly through dungeons or barrows where your horse can't follow, and can be used to cross gaps or jump rivers in a single shot (with all three words). Melee-focused characters can also use it to close on enemies in a big hurry.
** There are many Daedric artifacts scattered across Skyrim. Among them are things like a skull staff that eats dreams to power itself up, another staff that can do just about ''anything'' (at random), a ring that lets its wearer devour the dead, a dark katana that steals life and feeds on the blood of your friends, a shield that generates a magical ward when raised, and a mace that would not look out of place in [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron]]'s hand and that steals its victims' souls. So, which Daedric artifact is usually considered as the most valuable? The Black Star. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast With a name like that, it must have power of apocalyptic proportions!]] Nope, it's just a reusable Black Soul Gem for enchanting. Black Soul Gems function like normal Grand Soul Gems, but while Grand Soul Gems can only hold animalistic souls (and Grand animalistic souls are only found on bosses and [[BossInMookClothing mammoths]]), Black Soul Gems can hold humanoid souls - which are automatically Grand quality, so any old bandit will do. The thing is, Grand Soul Gems can be purchased easily and are relatively common, while Black Soul Gems are incredibly rare, so having one on hand at all times is extremely valuable. Not helping is the fact that many Daedric weapons are for some reason relatively weak despite their cool-sounding effects, and can be rendered obsolete very fast by better weapons. The Black Star, on the other hand, is here to stay, whether you are level 1 or 100.
** On the topic of Daedric artifacts, the Oghma Infinium also counts. It's a book that grants you 5 skill points in each skill tree of your chosen path (Mage, Warrior or Thief) before vanishing. Not particularly flashy, but it comes down to a total of '''30''' skill points earned in one go (a normal skill book gives ''one''), and you are nearly guaranteed a level up or several from reading it unless very overleveled. In addition, the book was once involved in a duplicating bug that allowed gaining infinite levels, though this has since been patched.
** Skyforge Steel weapons are this combined with DiscOneNuke. They look just like and weigh just as much as the bog-standard steel weapons, but they have the same damage potential as the heavier Elven-tier weapons three tiers higher than Steel. Because they rely on the Steel smithing perk, you don't need to invest in more smithing perks to improve them. Oh, and all you need to do to get them is become a regular (not just probationary) member of the Companions. You get one freebie right off the bat from Eorlund Grey-mane (the UltimateBlacksmith that makes them) once you're vetted, and can buy more for a song from him afterwards. Many players tend to hang on to their trusty Skyforge weapons for quite some time, even when "higher tier" weapons are readily available.
--->'''Eorlund Grey-mane''': Skyforge Steel is all the Companions will use, for good reason.
** [[SuperSenses Aura Whisper]] does absolutely nothing in combat, but it makes an excellent scouting utility in dungeons. Not only can you use it to find out if there's a dozen mobs awaiting you in the next room, it can be used to instantly reveal potential ambushes - if there's a Draugr lying in wait inside a coffin, Falmer waiting to pop out from the chitin tubes, or Dwarven automatons about to crawl from the vents, Aura Whisper will reveal them.
** The Restoration school of magic[[labelnote:*]] which is indeed [[BrokenRecord a perfectly valid school of magic, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!]][[/labelnote]]. The most basic part, healing spells, are incredibly useful in the early-to-mid game, and with the appropriate perks, can basically function as a full restoration of all reserves (sans magicka) on demand. A skilled enough healer is essentially invincible against anything that can't one-shot you, and if you find yourself relying on this, the Restoration skill will go up ''very'' quickly. Additionally, wards are useful anti-mage tools, and while ''Turn Undead'' isn't too useful against any major threat, there always seem to be a few mooks it'll work on nearby.
** The Speech perk Merchant, obtainable at 50, simply allows you to sell anything to any vendor, regardless of what they would normally traffic in (court wizards don't buy armor, smiths don't buy potions, etc.). This lets you dump all the garbage equipment and potions you craft onto any vendor you want, not only making back any money you spend but getting rid of the excess in the process, allowing you to level Speech a lot faster. Speech is one of the more difficult skills to level, but if you've been selling all that junk anyway, you should get there eventually.
** ''Dragonborn'' allows werewolf players to purchase magic rings that power up their beast form: one [[GlassCannon increases the damage you both deal and take]], one makes your Howls last longer, one [[BulletTime allows you to slow time upon transforming]]... and one gives you RegeneratingHealth when in Beast Form. It's the least flashy of the bunch, but it allows werewolves to no longer be dependent on eating corpses to restore health and allows them to restore health when fighting against enemies that can't be fed on, like undead and non-humanoid enemies prior to unlocking Savage Feeding.
* BossInMooksClothing: Several examples.
** At higher levels, Draugr Deathlords, normally boss-level draugr, are now part of the rank and file. And they've lost none of their stats; Shouts, hard-hitting weapons, [[DamageSpongeBoss damage sponge-level health]]. Taking over for them in some dungeons (in the absence of Dragon Priests) are their new bosses, the [[spoiler: Draugr Death Overlords]].
** ''Bears''. No matter what level you are, they will ''always'' be a threat if you don't have good enough armour. Some of the fandom consider them stronger than ''dragons''!
** Trolls, especially of the Frost variety, may be even worse than bears. Not only are they fast and hit like a truck, they have moderate health regeneration.
** Giants and mammoths. Sure, they look intimidating, but they're also everywhere all around Whiterun (which you're likely to reach pretty quickly). How tough can they be? Well... giants will kill you in one hit unless you have a ton of armor and health, while mammoths hit somewhat less hard, but are even deadlier, because they move faster and their attacks are not incredibly telegraphed.
* BossRush: At the end of the Forbidden Legend questline in the tomb of [[TheAce Archmage Gauldur]], his three [[{{Patricide}} patricidal]] sons will rush you, each fighting in the same manner as before: [[FlunkyBoss Mikrul]], [[BarrierChangeBoss Jyrik]], and [[DoppelgangerAttack Sigdis]]. After you defeat them all again, they attempt to attack you at once, only for the vengeful ghost of their father to rise up and strike them down.
* {{Bottomless Quiver}}s: [=NPCs=] get an infinite supply of arrows (although you can only loot a finite number of arrows from corpses). Combine this with the fact that arrows which get stuck in someone will then be usable by that someone, and it means that hitting a bandit with a good arrow and failing to kill him will result in him returning the favor several times over (yet another reason Daedric arrows are TooAwesomeToUse). Fortunately, this also applies to your followers, meaning that you won't have to constantly resupply them with arrows.
* BraggingThemeTune: The ''Skyrim'' theme song, towards the Dragonborn.
* BraidsOfBarbarism: Nords do like their braids. Almost as much as their beards.
* BrattyHalfPint: A lot of Skyrim's children are obnoxiously rude to you. Special mention goes to Braith of Whiterun, who tries to pick a fight with you even if you're wearing armor made of dragonskin and covered with the blood of your enemies, and Nelkir in Dragonsreach, who sneers that you're likely there to suck up to his father. [[note]] In Nelkir's case, though, it might be due to his [[spoiler: being manipulated by a Daedric artifact]]. [[/note]]
** Braith, with the addition of ''Hearthfire'', can be hit. She will huff and exclaim she never thought you had it in you.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Gabriella of the Dark Brotherhood enjoys "moonlit nights, taking long walks on the beach, knitting, and unicorns." She then notes that she "once took a seaside stroll, on a moonlit night, and discovered a unicorn... which [she] proceeded to stab in the throat with a crochet needle."
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Mercer Frey of the Thieves' Guild has a shopping list in his house: milk, goat cheese, turnips, eggs, flour, cheese, and cauterizing agent.
** A fortune teller in one town says she might tell your fortune by several standard methods (Horoscopes, card readings) and then chuckles and mentions [[BackAlleyDoctor Trepanning.]]
* BreakingAndBloodsucking: Similarly to ''Oblivion'', once you've contracted vampirism, you can only feed on sleeping people, though in ''Skyrim'' it's [[SequelDifficultyDrop much easier]]. Vampires in this game have a +25% bonus to both stealth and illusion magic, including invisibility, and vampiric feeding is one of a very, very few actions that a PC can perform while invisible that won't break invisibility. Sufficiently sneaky vampires can turn themselves invisible and feed off of a sleeping NPC in a crowded room with no one the wiser.
* BrickJoke:
** After hours of hearing guards tell you "No lollygagging", should you follow the quest which lands you in Cidhna Mine, you'll meet Borkul the Beast, who is in prison for "Murder, banditry, assault, theft, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking lollygagging]]."
** In White River Watch, one of the first dungeons you're likely to come across, you can find a few notes talking about a group of bandits who were kicked out of their clan due to a "conflict of interest". [[spoiler:Three of those bandits ended up getting brainwashed by a Draugr mage and sacrificed themselves to him. The fourth escaped to join another bandit clan, only to get kicked out of ''that'' one after desecrating the Pale Lady's tomb.]]
* BrokenBridge: Thanks to the open-world nature of the game, you can visit several locations that are important to quests without actually having taken the quest. While some just let you run through and trigger the quest when you pick up the relevant item (or at least force you to keep the quest item until you learn what it's for), others solve the problem by blocking off access to the relevant section, if not the entire dungeon, until you find the quest. This is particularly annoying when doing the Gauldur amulet quest, one-third of which is locked in a quest-specific dungeon with literally zero hint as to where the quest-giver is. (The site is being excavated by the College of Winterhold, and you can only get to it by joining the College and starting their questline.)
* BrownNote: In an interesting twist, the brown note in question is harmful to Eldritch beings while harmless to mere mortals. [[spoiler: It's the Dragon Shout "Mortal, Finite, Temporary", since dragons are effectively demigods of Time. Humans are naturally mortal and thus unaffected.]]
* BulletTime[=/=]SuperReflexes:
** The "Steady Hand" Archery perks, which slow time by 25-50% (depending on what rank the perk is at) when using the bow's zoom feature.
** You can also invoke bullet time with a block perk: if you have your guard up, and the enemy performs a power attack they slow down temporarily, allowing you, if you time it right, an excellent opening to slash them into ribbons. You can also use the opportunity to shield-bash, interrupting the pending power attack, or simply jump out of the way, if you don't think you could kill them before their attack goes through.
** Vampire Lords in ''Dawnguard'' can learn a spell that does this too.
** The "Slow Time" shout is halfway between this and TimeStandsStill. While you are also slowed down by the shout, you are much faster than everyone else, meaning you can shred your foes as if you were using an actual timestop.
* BullyingADragon: It doesn't matter if you're clad in full [[SpikesOfVillainy Daedric armor]] with a bloodstained Daedric war axe in one hand and the gleam of a lethal fire spell in the other and a [[SummonBiggerFish storm atronach]] following you around, Braith will ''still'' petulantly cry that she's not afraid of you.
-->'''Random guard''': Let me guess, somebody stole your sweetroll?
** A bottom-tier bandit wearing little more than a FurBikini and wielding Iron weaponry (the weakest in the game) will saunter right up to you ''in werewolf form'' and demand a 40 gold toll to pass.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Wylandriah, the Jarl's mage in Riften, is so completely wrapped up in her own experiments that she fails to realize that none of what she's saying about them makes sense to anyone else.
* BurningTheFlag: One of the Thieves' Guild quests has you assassinating the leader of a rival guild, the Summerset Shadows. You're given the option to set fire to a banner while in the Shadows' headquarters; if you do so, the quest giver will compliment you for sending a message that the guild won't be trifled with.
* BuryYourGays: ''Dragonborn'' gives us Hrodulf, who became fascinated with the Dwemer ruins under his house despite his lover Bjornolfr's warnings, and got killed as a result. He had sent Bjornolfr a letter warning him to stay away from the ruins. [[ShootTheShaggyDog Bjornolfr ignored the warning, rushed to the house in an attempt to save Hrodulf, and got himself killed too.]] This coming in the third DLC is the only evidence of a non-straight NPC couple in the game.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: The Last Dragonborn can pull this on ''dragonslaying''. Miraak may call them out on this, saying ,''"[[ArmorPiercingQuestion Do you think it hurts to have their souls ripped out]]?"''
* ButThouMust: Played straight and averted. The player usually must follow the quest objectives to the letter, regardless of any possible alternatives. However, the player never ''has'' to do any quest, so if they feel like doing something else they can just put it off, or never complete the objective.
** Played with near the end of the Thieves Guild questline when you're required to [[spoiler: become a Nightingale and commit to spending time (in life and in death) to serving Nocturnal.]] On one hand, it isn't really necessary because [[spoiler: Mercer Frey]] can be defeated without using the armor or powers you acquire. However, on the other hand, [[spoiler: the final battle with him takes place in a chamber beneath a lake and his actions cause that chamber to flood after the battle. Luckily, part of the ceiling breaks away allowing you and the other Nightingales to escape.]] If one looks at [[spoiler: becoming a Nightingale as receiving Nocturnal's blessing, and her sphere including the idea of "luck,"]] this one can be considered justified.
** The Dark Brotherhood questline, so, so much - when they decide someone has to die, they have to die. All you get to choose is how it's done for optional objectives. You're never given the choice of [[spoiler:siding with Astrid and agreeing with her decision to lead the Brotherhood away from the Night Mother]], and when the time comes to [[spoiler:kill Astrid]], you have to do it; even if you try to heal her, it will kill her.
** The Forsworn Conspiracy is one of the worst examples of ButThouMust in the game, with nearly every last objective being arbitrary and done because, well, ButThouMust. But the particularly egregious part is that in order to move the questline forward, you have no option but to be framed for murder by the Markarth guards and be sent to Cidhna Mine. Killing them doesn't help - no matter what, you still have to be framed by them, and then you'll finish the quest only to be greeted with a several-thousand-septim bounty for all of the murders.
** In a variation, when speaking to the Thalmor you can run into around the world, you basically get asked if you worship Talos. You get three options of response, and the closest one to saying you don't worship Talos is silence - and no matter which response you give, the Thalmor turn hostile.
** At the end of the main questline, you must capture and then release Odahviing in order to reach Skuldafn, the final dungeon. The game forces you to do this because you need to fly in order to get there... except that there is no reason given why Paarthurnax couldn't take you there. This gets even worse if you complete the ''Dragonborn'' DLC questlines before getting to this point in the main game; having learned the appropriate Shout, you can literally command ''any'' dragon you find to land and let you ride it, not to mention being able to summon a dragon anywhere you like who could also fly you there.
*** Odahviing himself lampshades this in dialogue, saying, "It is wise to recognize when you only have one choice." Even though realistically you ''could'' ask Paarthurnax to do it, "But Thou Must" - the game only permits this course of action.
** In the ''Dawnguard'' expansion, you join an order of vampire hunters, walk into a crypt killing vampires left and right, open up an ancient casket to reveal another vampire, and... escort her home after some polite conversation? In most other questlines, you can somewhat avert ButThouMust by simply refusing to continue the required course of action; for example, you can stop doing the Companions' quests if you're not interested in [[spoiler:becoming a werewolf]]. Serana, however, is a walking case of ButThouMust. You can't kill her (she's flagged Essential), you can't tell her you'd like to part ways (well, you can, but she replies "I disagree"), and you can't ignore her request to take her home because she will follow you around and complain about the sunlight until you do what she wants.
* ButtMonkey:
** The Orcs as a whole. Not even a decade into the Fourth Era, they were forced at swordpoint by the Bretons to officially renounce Orsinium as a province and allow themselves to be assimilated into High Rock. By the time of ''Skyrim'', most Orcs are little more than indentured servants to the Bretons, and those that aren't are forced to live in "strongholds" that are almost universally rundown, destitute, and scorned by all.
** The Dunmer. The combination of Red Mountain erupting, Vvardenfell's destruction, and Morrowind being sacked by Black Marsh have left the province pretty much in ruins, even years later, leading to a mass exodus of Dunmer away from their home province. The ones who settled in Windhelm are left second-class citizens, and only one supplicant remains at the Shrine of Azura they constructed after their exodus. Hadvar even notes, should you play a Dunmer character at Helgen, that the gods really HAVE abandoned your people. [[note]] That line is a CallBack to ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' where the [[PlayerCharacter Nerevarine]] killed one of the Dunmer gods and found another dead by the hand of the first.[[/note]]
** For a sect devoted to fighting Daedra and their influence, the Vigilants of Stendarr are ''really'' bad at it. As of the ''Dawnguard'' DLC, all of their expeditions you see end in miserable failure: the Ruunvald excavation gets mind-controlled, the guy who meets you at Dimhollow Crypt is dead by the time you get there, the guy investigating the Abandoned House gets turned against (and inevitably killed by) the player courtesy of Molag Bal, and the Hall of the Vigilant gets destroyed by vampires. In general, every named Vigilant you come across will inevitably end up dead. There's even a random encounter with a bunch of vampires dressed as Vigilants, standing over the naked corpses of the same Vigilants they killed for their disguises.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* CallARabbitASmeerp: Skeevers are giant rats. Odd thing is... Giant Rats DID exist in all previous ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games (and in fact were part of a running joke involving the fighters' guild), and were called such.
** ''Skyrim'' is inconsistent by itself: you can catch dragonflies for use in alchemy, but they're listed as "dartwings" in the menu screen. Similarly, ''Dragonborn'' has "bristlebacks," but the loading screen calls them boars and they drop Boar Tusks.
** Many monsters in Skyrim are replacements for monsters from the previous games. Skeevers--Giant rats, Falmer--Goblins, Draugr--Zombies, Hagravens--Harpies.
* CallASmeerpARabbit: And yet, the four-tusked mammoths are still called "mammoths".
* CallBack:
** The mural for the game depicts several key happenings from the prior games, all of which are explained as having been part of the prophecy of to Alduin's return; the in-game book ''The Book of the Dragonborn'' spells out the prophecy which references all of these:
*** The [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Staff of Chaos]] being shattered.
*** The reassembling of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Numidium]], and the resulting Warp in the West.
*** The [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Red Mountain]] where Dagoth Ur made base.
*** A gate to [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]], the reason for the weakening of the Empire.
** As with most Elder Scrolls games, the player starts as a prisoner and/or going through a starter dungeon. However, this game ups the ante by leading players to their ''execution'', right up to having their head on the chopping block.
** During the Thieves' Guild's missions, you can come across [[spoiler:a bust of the Grey Fox]].
** The Dark Brotherhood questline has several of these:
*** A power you gain during the questline is the ability to summon [[spoiler:Lucien [=LaChance's=] ghost]]. You also acquire several artifacts associated with him from his previous appearance, including ''[[CoolHorse his horse]]''.
*** You may recognize the blade Astrid has. It's the one the Night Mother enhanced for you at the end of the Dark Brotherood quest in ''Oblivion''.
*** The quest to decorate the new sanctuary is titled "Where You Hang Your Enemy's Head..."; in ''Oblivion'', the orc assassin described "home" that way.
*** The scene wherein you kill [[spoiler:the Emperor]] is highly reminiscent of Uriel Septim VII's acceptance of his imminent death in ''Oblivion''.
** Emperor Titus Mede II's attire resembles that of Uriel Septim VII from ''Oblivion'' (purplish blue with red and gold down the front, white fur on the shoulders and at the end of the sleeves). Apparently, this is centuries-long high fashion, because King Helseth in the expansion for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' also wore similar robes.
** Sinderion (the Nirnroot guy from ''Oblivion'') makes a [[spoiler:posthumous]] appearance during your search for [[spoiler:the Elder Scroll]].
** A comment by the Alchemist Elgrim suggests that Rythe Lathandas, a painter encountered in ''Oblivion'', is still alive and producing Painted Troll Fat (an alchemy ingredient that could only be acquired during the quest related to him).
** Discussing the Elder Scrolls themselves: [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion "The greatest thief in the world couldn't lay a finger on them!"]] [[spoiler:The fact that nobody would know of the theft of an Elder Scroll is a consequence of the Cowl of the Gray Fox. It was stolen by someone not wearing the Cowl. Then, the owner of the Cowl read the scroll to reveal his own identity, creating a paradox that would allow him to transfer ownership to the person who ''did'' steal the scroll, and... well... it gets complicated.]]
** One of the random bard instrumentals is a slower, softer version of ''Daggerfall'''s shop music.
*** With the ''Dragonborn'' DLC installed, seven of the random background songs on Solstheim are tracks taken directly from ''Morrowind''.
** Another reference to ''Daggerfall'' are the three guardian nebulae, which made their first appearance during ''Daggerfall'''s character creation. Their shapes have remained unchanged.
** The Imperial Shield and the Imperial Light Shield look very much like the Shield of the Crusader and the shield of the Knights of the Nine, respectively.
** Speaking of the Knights of the Nine, you can find what appears to be their final stand off the coast of Haafingar.
** The Imperial Legion armors resemble Roman armor, just as it did back in ''Morrowind''.
** Ulfgar the Unending, from ''Bloodmoon,'' [[spoiler:makes an appearance in Sovngarde.]]
** You get to kill another Uderfrykte.
** The final contract for the Dark Brotherhood requires you to sneak into a boat, and make your way from the cargo hull all the way up to the main cabin to assassinate someone there. [[BookEnds Just like]] the very first contract of the Dark Brotherhood in ''Oblivion''.
** When starting the game as a Breton, Hadvar will guess the player is from Daggerfall (which is only one of High Rock's five kingdoms) and how it is rife with political intrigue. Daggerfall, is of course, the primary setting of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall,'' and much of the plot is spent dealing with and untangling the various court intrigues behind the death of King Lysandus of Daggerfall.
** Sheogorath is loaded with callbacks:
*** When guessing who sent the player, Sheogorath mentions King Lysandus from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'' and Passwall from ''Shivering Isles''. Passwall was originally a spell from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'', so basically it's a callback to a town which in turn is already a callback.
*** Sheogorath makes a comment or two implying that he's [[spoiler:the Champion of Cyrodiil, since the player becomes him]] at the end of the main quest of ''Shivering Isles''.
*** He tells the player that he shouldn't have left Haskill (his long-suffering ServileSnarker Chamberlain from ''Shivering Isles'') in charge of his realm for as long as he has, and should they ever find themselves in New Sheoth, they're free to pop round to the palace.
*** He's still threatening to use mortal entrails as a skipping rope, and going on about cheese.
*** The guy who starts Sheogorath's quest is a Bosmer called Dervenin, much like the High Priest of Mania, and the two may or may not actually be the same character.
** An artifact from the main quest of ''Morrowind'' figures into a sidequest of the Winterhold College and can be acquired by the player. Unlike in ''Morrowind'', it can be held without its counterpart, which is not in the game, with no ill effects. Interestingly enough, it still gives a ''message'' about you receiving a mortal wound when you first hold it; it just doesn't actually ''do'' anything.
** College of Winterhold players get to visit Labyrinthian during that faction's finale. Labyrinthian was the dungeon in Skyrim where a piece of the Staff of Chaos was held waaaaaay back in ''Arena''. [[spoiler:In even more of a Call Back, you go there to find ''yet another'' incredibly powerful magical staff, this one intact - and in both cases, a visit to Winterhold's mage guild prompts you to go to Labyrinthian.]]
** The smuggler ship ''Red Wave'' in Solitude shares its name with a magical Cutlass (Redwave) found on another ship in ''Oblivion'' (The ''Serpent's Wake''). Coincidentally, the Dark Brotherhood is involved with both the ''Red Wave'' and the ''Serpent's Wake''. [[spoiler:You have to kill the captain of the former, while a Dark Brotherhood Assassin murdered everyone on the latter.]]
** [[spoiler:Cicero's journals]] mention that he once posed as an obnoxious fan to murder the Arena Champion back in Cyrodiil. Does this remind you of anyone?
** Remember ''Immortal Blood'' and how it ended? Remember Movarth, the vampire hunter? [[spoiler:The book was non-fiction, Movarth existed, and he's still around. But he's not a vampire ''hunter'' any more.]]
** One of the books Esbern wants to take with him is the ''Annotated Anuad'', which first appeared in ''Morrowind''.
** One Dark Brotherhood client is named Amaund Motierre. He's a relative, possibly a direct descendant, of François Motierre, a client in ''Oblivion''.
** The quest to find [[spoiler:Mehrunes' Razor]] involves working with [[spoiler:and killing]] a descendant and enthusiast of the [[ReligionOfEvil Mythic Dawn]], the cult which served as the primary antagonist of ''Oblivion.'' He keeps a museum of Mythic Dawn memorabilia, including the ''Commentaries''' one and only surviving page of the [[ArtifactOfDoom Mysterium Xarxes]], and his notes on the bloodlines holding the pieces of [[spoiler:the Razor]] note that none of the parties involved were involved with the failed expedition that the Champion of Cyrodiil stumbled upon in the ''Oblivion'' DLC quest in which said artifact appeared.
** There is a book giving advice on being a better thief that seems to have been written by the player character from ''Oblivion''. Actually, the Elder Scrolls Wiki prefers to suggest that the writer (named Wulfmare) is a liar who stole credit from The Hero of Kvatch. He IS a thief after all.
** The location where the main character was captured by the Imperials while crossing the border into Skyrim is likely Pale Pass, which is a pass through the Jerall Mountains between Cyrodiil and Skyrim (this isn't explicitly confirmed in the game, but it makes sense given its proximity to Helgen). The Cyrodiil side of the Pale Pass could be visited during a side quest in ''Oblivion'', which tied heavily into how the Second Empire defeated the first Akaviri invasion and the Akaviri pledged their loyalty to Reman Cyrodiil and his descendants. The follow up to those events (Sky Haven Temple, Alduin's Wall, the Blades) factors greatly into the adventure of the ''Skyrim'' PC.
** There are many references to Queen Barenziah, an NPC appearing in ''Daggerfall'' and ''Tribunal,'' featured in the Thieves' Guild. Barenziah's crown is the object of a long, long quest chain. The term "Nightingale" in conjunction with Queen Barenziah dates to the events of ''Arena'', where a bard under that name gets the location of the Staff of Chaos by seducing her. ''The Nightingales Vol. 2'' reveals that this was not Jagar Tharn as previously thought, but [[spoiler:one of Nocturnal's Nightingales, and that current Nightingale Karliah is Barenziah's granddaughter through this union]].
** In ''Dawnguard'', you can meet Jiub, the first NPC the player meets in ''Morrowind''. He prefers to be called "Saint Jiub, the Eradicator of the Winged Menace", referencing the rumor in ''Oblivion'' he was given a sainthood for destroying the Cliff Racers.
** In ''Dragonborn'', the Dragonborn travels to the island of Solstheim from the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion of ''Morrowind'', and encounters a massive swarm of nods to that expansion. The player can visit Raven Rock and enter the mine (and find the Bloodskaal Blade again too), Stalhrim equipment is back, Fort Frostmoth and Skaal Village can be visited, and even a couple characters return.
*** ''Dragonborn'' also contains a very random, rather odd CallBack to ''Morrowind'' in the form of the Wizard, who has no other name. He can be randomly encountered muttering about how he can "touch the sky like a dragon," and as you approach, he suddenly activates a levitation spell which launches him into the sky. According to the [[http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Wizard_(Dragonborn) Elder Scrolls Wiki]], he's a CallBack to the ''Morrowind'' character Tarhiel, who had similar notions. [[spoiler:Sadly, neither character put much thought into how to ''land'', with the expected lethal results.]] It is possible to cushion his fall with Unrelenting Force, and despite him becoming hostile, he does nothing besides flinching when attacked.
*** One of the quests on Solstheim tasks you with locating Torkild, a lost Skaal hunter who has become a werebear. When you find him, it turns out his condition has [[SanitySlippage taken a toll on his mind]] and he only speaks gibberish before attacking you. This is a reference to how generic werewolf [=NPCs=] in ''Bloodmoon'' were likewise mentally unstable and had names like "Gibbering Lunatic" and "Insane Wanderer".
** In ''Dawnguard'', the three common types of [[DemBones skeletal foes]] in the Soul Cairn are the Boneman, Mistman, and Wrathman... just as they were named in ''Battlespire''.
* CallingYourAttacks: Justified when it comes to the Dragon Shout powers -- the dragons aren't using traditional {{Breath Weapon}}s, they are using the "Thu'um" to call elemental attacks into being. So they don't just breath fire and ice, they shout words relating to fire and ice and will them to manifest as attacks. The player's Thu'ums likewise require them to call out the words of a Thu'um to call on its powers. As stated by the game's own lore: "A battle between two dragons is actually a deadly verbal debate."
* TheCameo: Thanks to collaborative DLC from Valve and Bethesda, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWWiIy4zyEY the Space Core]] from ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' can be picked up as an item just outside of Whiterun. You can also spot Wheatley from the same game floating about in the Skills Menu.
* CannibalismSuperpower:
** Werewolf perks are unlocked by eating the hearts of the humans you kill. Taking the Savage Feeding perk extends this to animals. Feeding also heals you, since werewolves don't regenerate HP, and extends the duration of the transformation by 30 seconds.
** The Ring of Namira also allows the wearer to feed on corpses to obtain a bonus to health and regeneration thereof.
* CanonImmigrant: Many concepts in the "Obscure Texts," which were originally posted on the message boards by Michael Kirkbride and others, made it into the game:
** [[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/seven-fights-aldudagga The idea that the current timeline is but one "kalpa" brought about after the previous one was eaten by a world-eater.]]
** [[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/five-hundred-mighty-companions-or-thereabouts-ysgramor-returned Ysgramor and his 500 companions.]]
** [[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/nu-mantia-intercept-letter-4 The concept of "towers" and their effect on the stability of the world.]]
** The Dwemer were very much into music and tuning reality.
** [[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/many-headed-talos Heimskr recites part of the Obscure Text describing how Talos transformed Cyrodiil from a jungle to a forest.]]
** Not outright stated, but the [[OmnicidalManiac Thalmor's]] actions fit all too well into the goals laid out in an "[[http://www.imperial-library.info/content/forum-archives-michael-kirkbride Altmeri Commentary on Talos]]".
* CantCatchUp:
** Most followers are level capped somewhere, meaning that regardless of how far you level up, eventually they'll stop growing along with you, making them cannon fodder. Most also level up more slowly than you do. [[SubvertedTrope You can change the code to raise their Cap, and even remove it altogether.]]
** Spells, of all things, fall into this. Warriors have a steady gain of strength where wizards spike in power and then plateau, then spike again until they reach master-level spells. Spells don't level with the player the way everything else does. This means that your spells eventually stop being useful even when you have perks to boost their damage by a quarter/a half as everyone else has pools of hitpoints that let them shrug off a blast. Frost spells are hurt the most because you'll be facing a lot of Nords, undead, and mages (as well as Bretons in the Reach) throughout the game, all of whom have resistance or ways to resist the spells.
** Conjuration spells last longer than other Schools because you can summon two Daedra warriors or Storm Atronachs for as long as you want, but they too are stuck at a set damage.
** Bound weapons, a sub-set of Conjuration, are very strong (they are Daedric weapons, after all), but since you're "borrowing" them they can't be upgraded or enchanted, meaning they are stuck at their set damage.
* CareerEndingInjury: The infamous "arrow in the knee" incidents, to the guards.
** There's also Angrenor Once-Honored, who used to be a Stormcloak soldier before getting stabbed through the chest by an Imperial soldier.
%%
%% Do NOT add that the quote is an old Nordic saying for getting married. That's just a Wild Mass Guessing from Tumblr. It is not canon and no official sources have ever acknowledged this.
%%
* TheCasanova: Mikael in Whiterun. He's apparently generally successful but has set his latest sight on a widowed single mom raising her daughter, who very much wants him to ''leave her the hell alone''. You can offer to make him back off, which can be done by beating him senseless or persuading him. He'll offer the PC some relationship advice (women love sonnets). He's even written a book, ''A Gentleman's Guide to Whiterun'', which mostly goes on about the women that live there and whether they are available or not, how to court them, et cetera. The book even makes special mention of said widowed single mother, requesting that the reader not approach her because he wants her for himself!
* CassandraTruth: One of M'aiq the Liar's comments is a thinly-veiled complaint about this. Made more funny when you realize he actually is (semi-)right about some things he says ([[spoiler:like some of the dragons just hiding, as documents from the Blades reveal]]).
* CastFromHitPoints: 'Equilibrium' is a hard-to-find Alteration spell that converts Health into Magicka. Its description openly warns that casting it from low HP can kill you, but there are a few ways to mitigate its health drain (such as the Argonians' racial power Histskin, the Avoid Death perk, or simultaneously casting a healing spell).
* CatsAreMean: The game features Sabre Cats (essentially Sabre-toothed tigers), quite possibly some of the meanest cats in video gaming outside of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''. They're large, quick, powerful enough to take you down in a flash at low levels, and they still prove to be a challenge once you've grown your character. Occasionally they team up with said [[BearsAreBadNews bears]].
* CentipedesDilemma: The in-game book 'Death Blow of Abernanit[[note]]With Explains by the Sage Geocrates Varnus[[/note]]' details the siege of the fortress of Abernanit and how its commander, Dagoth Thras, slew near an entire army by blocking every single blow that came at him and then killing his foes when they grew tired. The leader of the attackers, Rangidil Ketil, upon realizing that his death was imminent, asked Thras as a last request to explain how he could so perfectly predict every incoming blow. Thras chose to oblige, but upon opening his mouth to explain, realized ''he didn't know.'' Upon this realization, Rangidil was able to slay him easily.
* ChainLightning: The middle level lightning destruction spell, which will bounce off the target to other nearby targets (which unfortunately includes any followers you may have). It can also bounce off walls onto enemies, which is a good way to deal with enemies blocking your spells with wards, or who just won't hold still.
* ChainMailBikini: Some types of Light Armor act as this, especially the female Forsworn Armor. The skimpiest of the four Fur Armor models would count too -- literally giving women a fur bikini top, but only because women can't go around walking shirtless like the men do in the same piece of armor.
** Slightly subverted in that skimpy armor (especially Forsworn) looks skimpy on ''both'' genders, and generally has a low armor rating to boot.
** Falmer armor (a Heavy variety) does this as well... a "chitin-mail" bikini, if you will.
** Heavy armor zigzags it. While almost every suit of armor completely covers the skin, some suits of armor do have very prominent boob-curves, such as Steel Plate armor, while other suits have them but they're not very noticeable, such as with Iron armor and Daedric armor. Steel and especially Dwarven armor completely avert it, by giving women the same armor models as the men have, only smaller to make them form-fitting (which isn't saying much in the case of Dwarven armor--form-fitting or not, you still walk around in a suit of armor the [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} Brotherhood of Steel]] would be proud of).
** The armor that's most played straight with the trope is Ancient Nord armor. The armor for men consists of heavy steel or iron plates around the torso with a fur under layer. The gauntlets, helmet and boots look similar for women, but the chest piece consists mostly [[HellBentForLeather tight leather]], with a few much smaller steel plates protecting the shoulders and crotch. There is [[SexyBacklessOutfit no back of the armor, either]], and you can tell that their [[VaporWear bra must have been removed]] when they put the armor on. It also includes AbsoluteCleavage, SideBoob, and [[MinidressOfPower a miniskirt]].
* ChainOfDeals: A few times. Especially funny in Cidhna Mine where [[spoiler:the final deal can be trading your shiv to the guard rather than killing him with it]].
* ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction: Since accessing your menu pauses the action, you can change your armor on a moment's notice, even in between enemy weapon swings.
* ChangingGameplayPriorities: Early on, players are likely to spend lots of money grinding and doing menial tasks to acquire potions that restore stamina, magic, and health. That's because at those levels, you'll likely be doing a lot of fighting and find it hard to survive against swarms of enemies without being prepared. Later, priorities will shift into spells and gear that can help you carry a greater load; that's because once you start finding good weapons/armor/valuables, you're going to want to bring ''everything'' out of the dungeon with you so that you can sell it or use it for crafting.
* CharacterCustomization: Choose between ten races, [[PurelyAestheticGender two sexes]], and numerous facial biometric options to customize your look, and you're ready to go. Oh, and if you want to change it later, you'll need the ''Dawnguard'' expansion, which adds an NPC in Riften who can offer you the service (for 1000G, and not if you're a vampire).
* ChargedAttack:
** The difference between "Fus!" and '''"FUS RO DAH!"''' Every shout has three words, and speaking only one word has a minimal effect, with correspondingly short cooldown time, but speaking all three words has a massive, dramatic effect.
** "Power Attacks" are melee attacks that occur when you hold down the attack button. They tend to do more damage and can break through an opponent who's blocking, but it burns up your Stamina meter.
** Archery is influenced by how long you hold down the trigger when nocking an arrow. Quickly firing arrows before fully drawing the bow back will not be as powerful or have as much range.
** Most spells need to be charged briefly before releasing. Once the dual casting perk is unlocked, charging the same spell in both hands results in a massive boost to the individual spell's power (though it comes with a boost to the spell cost as well).
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Theoretically, anyone can use the Thu'um; they just need to be trained by the Greybeards, as Ulfric Stormcloak was. What makes the Dragonborn so special is not merely that they can do it, but that they can do it ''instinctively'', without (years of) training.
** There are also perks in the warrior and thief skill trees that allow you to do things that shouldn't be possible, like block destructive magic with your shield, steal peoples' clothes while they are wearing them, ignore or reflect damage, vanish in plain view, slow down time when aiming and so on. None of these things are explicitly referred to as magic.
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: The first dragon that you see (the one who attacks Helgen) is in fact [[BigBad Alduin]] himself, there to assassinate you before you gain the power to fight him and his minions.]]
** If you travel on the road from Whiterun to Winterhold, you may come across a jester named Cicero whose carriage has broken down, leaving him stuck in the middle of nowhere with the coffin of his mother. This leads to a quick quest where you can either get a nearby farmer to fix his carriage or get Cicero arrested for possibly transporting something illegal. It turns out that [[spoiler:Cicero is a member of the Dark Brotherhood and his "dead mother" is the Night Mother, a major figure in the lore of the Dark Brotherhood]]. This can be subverted by never meeting him before [[spoiler:joining the Dark Brotherhood, by never joining the Dark Brotherhood, or by destroying the Dark Brotherhood]].
* TheChessmaster: Hermaeus Mora. The Daedric Prince of secrets and forbidden knowledge manipulates both Miraak and the player character, so that [[spoiler: he can finally gain the secrets of the Skaal, something that was kept from him for ages, and determine which of the two Dragonborn is more worthy to be his champion.]] And he does all of this with just a few brief conversations and two well-executed tentacle attacks.
* ChestMonster: Sleeping [[BigCreepyCrawlies Chaurus]] [[EliteMooks Reapers]] curl up in a shape similar to that of a Falmer Chest and can be accidentally mistaken for such.
* ChillOfUndeath: All undead enemies resist ice magic, some have a weakness to fire, and almost all of them besides the most basic mooks can use ice magic against the player very well. This also extends to the player should they contract vampirism.
* TheChosenOne: The last known Dovahkiin is set to turn the tide against the evil enveloping Skyrim. [[IAmWho You are playing as this fabled hero, by the way.]]
** The Cyrodiilic word for the Dovahkiin, "Dragonborn," was used in reference to previous agents of massive change in the past: Saint Alessia, the slave queen who led the revolt against the Ayleids; Reman Cyrodiil, the first real "Emperor" of Tamriel; and then later Tiber Septim, the one who managed to unite Tamriel under one banner again after a dark age since Reman's empire. Additionally, Jauffre referred to Martin Septim as "the Dragonborn" after the defeat/banishment of Dagon; it is, though, unclear whether this became widespread. The PC of ''Morrowind'' might also have been Dragonborn, if you trust Azura's word on the matter.
** Goes UpToEleven if you do enough different sidequests. You will learn that no matter which group it is, or what the requirements are, your character is destined to be their new Chosen One. (Examples: [[spoiler:Harbinger of the Companions, Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, Champion of every single Daedric Prince, Nightingale/Guild Master of the Thieves' Guild, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood.]]) You don't even have to be very good at their respective disciplines (like you did in ''Morrowind'') - just good enough to survive whatever quests they give you.
* ChromaticArrangement: The constellation perks reside in color-coded nebulae. Warriors are Red, Mages are Blue, and Thieves are Green. This matches the color-coding of your health, magicka and stamina.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Likely the player character, especially if they do any Daedric quest. In particular, you'll need to do a lot of it if you want to [[spoiler:power up Mephala's evil katana]].
* ChunkySalsaRule: Reanimation spells (Raise Zombie, Reanimate Corpse, Revenant, Dread Zombie, and Dead Thrall specifically) will not work on decapitated targets, no matter how powerful the spell is.
* ChurchMilitant[=/=]WarriorMonk: The Vigilants of Stendarr.
* CityGuards: As per ''Elder Scrolls'' game tradition. Their AI has improved further over ''Oblivion'''s dull-witted guards, but they're still prone to some ludicrous behavior...
* CityNoir: Windhelm has the imagery of the setting down. The city is a maze of streets, FantasticRacism is allegedly official government policy, and there's a SerialKiller on the loose. Banditry is apparently common in the countryside, and unless the victims are Nords, Ulfric allegedly refuses to assist (although banditry is fairly common problem throughout Skyrim, so Eastmarch isn't singled out or anything). [[NiceGuy Brunwulf Free-winter]] is one of the only men around looking for ways to change the city for the better. Also, while commerce is still existent in Windhelm's Merchant Quarter, Free-winter [[spoiler: (upon becoming Jarl if Ulfric is killed)]] states that the coffers are short on funds, implying that, for Ulfric, the war against the Empire previously took precedence over the proper administration of the hold. This, while arguably justifiable, has interfered with the Hold's prosperity.
*** It's also revealed at one point that Skyrim's been under heavy taxation since the war ended. So, a state of disrepair is the norm for many cities aside from Solitude. (Whiterun's crumbling walls are a prime example.) By comparison, Windhelm's structural integrity is doing surprisingly well - probably because, as the capital of the Stormcloak rebellion, it's unlikely the Empire sees any tax from it.
** Markarth is also no slouch in this respect. You walk in and witness a murder (or take action and thwart it), right next to a guy selling dogs for fights, and another guy who is selling very suspicious meat. It is revealed to be a broken society in which an urban underclass is brutally oppressed by a corrupt elite, the architecture is virtual art deco, and there are oh so many dark secrets lurking within its walls.
** Then there's Riften, a perpetually foggy city of canals whose seedy underbelly arguably houses its most thriving industry. You drop even the cheapest of items - a cabbage, for instance - and it causes a riot. Thieves roam the streets, and all of the street merchants can be killed. On top of it all, the person who is tasked with fixing this madness, Maven Black-Briar, is in with the Guild, and has the Jarl (if she herself is not the Jarl, which may happen at the end of the war) wrapped around her finger by pretending she is working on taking down the Thieves' Guild. If you hang around Laila long enough while she is still Jarl, you can see Maven threaten to take her Meadery, Riften's biggest 'legit' business, elsewhere if Riften doesn't pay up.
* CivilWar: One of the central plot points, between the Stormcloaks and the Empire. Before the events of the game, Ulfric Stormcloak the Jarl of Eastmarch invoked an ancient Nordic custom to challenge High King Torygg (who Ulfric saw as an ineffectual puppet) in a DuelToTheDeath, and won. The "Old Holds" in eastern Skyrim (Eastmarch, the Rift, the Pale and Winterhold) where Nord values still hold much sway by and large supported Ulfric, whereas the civilized and Imperialized holds in western Skyrim (Haafingar, Falkreath, Whiterun, the Reach and Hjaalmarch) do not recognize Ulfric's legitimacy and see him as a criminal; Torygg's wife Elisif is the replacement Jarl of Haafingar supported by the Imperial authorities and thus technically High Queen of Skyrim. The player may at any point in the story side with either the Empire or the Stormcloaks to (respectively) bring Ulfric to justice and restore Imperial control or to win Skyrim's independence and install Ulfric as king, and BothSidesHaveAPoint.
* CleavageWindow: Female versions of the Vampire Armor.
* ClimaxBoss: Alduin serves as one of these not only for this game, but for the entire ''Elder Scrolls'' Series up to this point. As Alduin's wall in Sky Haven Temple shows, the events of the four chronological games behind it (excluding ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' as it hadn't been released yet) were all precursors to the return of the dragons, the Skyrim Civil War, and the coming of the Last Dragonborn. The events detailed on the Wall are;
** The eight broken segments of the Staff Of Chaos that Jagar Tharn used to imprison Uriel Septim VII In Oblivion (''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena'')
** The Warp In The West and the activation of the Numidium (''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall'')
** The Severing of the Tribunal from the Heart of Lorkhan and the subsequent Eruption of Red Mountain following the descent of the Ministry of Truth (''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'')
** The Oblivion Crisis, the attempt by Mehrunes Dagon to conquer Nirn (''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'')
* ClippedWingAngel: Both the Vampire Lord and Werewolf forms become all but obsolete once you max out your alchemy, smithing and enchanting, as you can make weapons hit for hundreds of damage. Without exploits, you can have a weapon with over 1000 damage, plus from 0 to about 1400 damage from a Chaos enchant.
* CoffinContraband: Discussed. Cicero is trying to transport a coffin containing the remains of 'his mother' to a new crypt, but the wagon loses a wheel outside Loreius' farm. Loreius refuses to help Cicero repair the wagon, citing as one of the reasons that he thinks Cicero could be using the coffin to smuggle weapons and skooma.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
** Imperial soldiers dress in red and Stormcloak soldiers dress in blue.
** Dragons are different colors based on how powerful they are. Additionally, [[spoiler: the "good" dragon, Paarthurnax, is whitish-grey]], whereas [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Alduin the World-Eater]] is jet black with [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]].
** Deep in a Dwemer ruin? Anxious to know what's going to try and kill you next? Look at the lighting: areas that are better-lit with warm-toned (yellow or orange) light will have automatons dominate. Poorly-lit areas with cool tones (bluish-greenish-greyish) are the lairs of Falmer and chaurus.
** The three girls walking the streets of Whiterun (two without ''Hearthfire'' installed) wear blue (Mila Valentia), red (Braith), and green (Lucia) clothes, as an easy way to tell them apart since children in Skyrim tend to all look the same.
* CommonplaceRare: All over the place with Alchemy ingredients, several of which are far rarer than they should be.
** With how many random bandits the player kills, Human Flesh and Human Hearts should be in abundance. They're actually quite rare since no merchant sells them, leaving random loot to find more. In addition, you cannot harvest them from human corpses, even ones that you've killed.
** Powdered Mammoth Tusk is very rarely sold by merchants. With all the mammoths in the game, you can collect dozens of tusks, but there's no option to grind them down into the alchemy ingredients. This one, however, is [[JustifiedTrope explained]] during The White Phial sidequest: apparently the tusks are so hard that only giants are able to grind them down.
** Corundum ore is only found in a handful of dedicated mines, and very rarely out in the world. It's required to make Steel Ingots, making steel literally ''rarer than gold''. No surprise a very common element in crafting mods is alternate ways to turn iron into steel (usually involving charcoal).
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Sometimes the enemy can sidestep pretty quickly to dodge your arrow (or spell) when you fire one at them. ''[[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615804-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/66610034 Even if they haven't detected you first.]]''
** The pitch darkness in the [[ThatOneLevel Falmer caves]] of ''Dawnguard'' cannot be penetrated by night vision or light spells, even if you have them.
* TheComputerIsALyingBastard:
** The loading screens occasionally mention that bears are docile, and will not attack unless provoked. This is completely untrue, as bears are not only hostile on sight, they will often chase you down before you even see them.
** [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools In a good way here.]] You are told that the Black Star (obtained by giving the Broken Azura's Star to Nelacar instead of to Azura) can only absorb black[[note]]Sentient humanoid creatures[[/note]] souls, but it can actually absorb white[[note]]animals and certain lesser Daedra[[/note]] souls as well.
** The in-game book ''Notes on the Lunar Forge'' hints that weapons with the Lunar enchantment can be made at the titular Lunar Forge if the moons' phases are right. However, the Lunar Forge is mechanically identical to every other common forge in the game, and the only way to make weapons with the Lunar enchantment is to disenchant one of the Lunar weapons found around the Forge and then placing the enchantment on ready-made weapons. Not only that, but the enchantment itself is bugged without unofficial patches and doesn't actually increase the weapon's damage output as it should.
* ConLang: The Dragon language is a ReLex of English.
* ContinueYourMissionDammit: Prior to the game's v1.6 update, after picking up Meridia's Beacon, she would give the player daily reminders to go take it to her shrine at Mount Kilkreath.
* ContinuityNod:
** The song "Ragnar the Red" has a verse in which a shieldmaiden says, "...I think it's high time you lie down and bleed!" before chopping off the titular character's head. The verse makes fun of the line "ThisIsThePartWhere you fall down and '''[[LargeHam bleeeed]]''' to death!" often used by [=NPC=]s in combat of the series' previous entry, ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]''.
** Sometimes, in combat, Sven (one of the companions you can hire) shouts [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion "This is the part where you fall down and bleed to death!"]] Erik the Slayer shouts it as well.
%%** The wandering Khajiit M'aiq the Liar is an endless source of continuity nods.
** The Blades play a big part in the story and the Thalmor want them dead. As Cloud Ruler was the main base of the Blades, it gets a mention as having been almost completely destroyed giving that little sub-plot a DownerEnding.
* ContractOnTheHitman: [[spoiler:Emperor Titus]] gets posthumous revenge, not by having his assassin killed, but by [[spoiler:asking his assassin to kill the man who wanted him dead]]. On a side note, being a member of the Dark Brotherhood doesn't prevent random "Assassin" encounters (complete with a written letter bearing your name and Astrid's signature, [[spoiler:even after Astrid's death near the end of the questline]]) in the wild.
* CoolHorse:
** A certain horse from a certain previous entry ([[spoiler:Shadowmere]]) makes a comeback, complete with an awesome introduction.
** Frost, the only other horse obtained from questing, is not invincible; but he's stronger and even more aggressive than regular horses, and won't hesitate to charge enemies. His grandsire is named [[Myth/NorseMythology Sleipnir]], the name of the [[Myth/NorseMythology eight-legged steed of the Norse god Odin]], and his sire is Grane, the offspring of Sleipnir and the horse of Sigurd, the legendary dragon slayer of the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'' and ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheVolsungs''.
** Arvak, the [[TechnicolorFire purple]] [[IncendiaryExponent flamed]] black skeletal horse from the ''Dawnguard'' expansion. He's not invincible either, but since he's a summoned creature instead of a regular mount, you can just conjure him right up again.
* CoolOldGuy: The Greybeards, Esbern, and Felldir the Old.
** Special mention must be given to the leader of the Greybeards, [[spoiler:Paarthurnax: he's old even by dragon standards]], and doesn't even hesitate to try and buy you some time by taking on [[spoiler: Alduin]] himself. In ''single combat''.
** Although he's not as old as the above examples, Brunwulf Free-Winter is an aging, wary war veteran who happens to be the nicest guy in Windhelm. [[spoiler:He ultimately becomes its Jarl should you choose to side with the Empire against the Stormcloaks; even while not Jarl, he's actively (though quietly) trying to improve things for the disenfranchised minority races in the hold.]]
** Vignar Gray-Mane is a former Companion, was a commander in the Imperial Legion for thirty years. [[spoiler:If the Stormcloaks take over Whiterun, he becomes the new Jarl and he rules quite competently and with the wellbeing of his citizens in mind]]. Even though he looks in his late sixties, he looks like he could still pick you apart in a sword fight.
** Even Emperor Titus turns out to be pretty cool. Even if you disagree with the way he runs his empire he does turn out to be the one person in the world who isn't scared of [[spoiler:the Dark Brotherhood]]. That's not to say that he doesn't ''respect'' them... in fact, he knows better than his advisors that [[spoiler:once the Brotherhood accepts a contract, there's no hiding from them]].
** Kodlak Whitemane, Harbinger of the Companions, is also rather cool. He takes the Dragonborn under his wing almost immediately and offers heartfelt advice and words of encouragement.
** Galmar Stone-Fist may be an old man, but he'll kick down those damn walls of Whiterun's with his bare feet anyway. He's also the one of the best warriors in the Stormcloak army aside from a Stormcloak Dragonborn and Ulfric.
** Tolfdir, though very forgetful, is among the friendlier members of the College of Winterhold, constantly showing you respect and support.
** Calcelmo, in Markarth, is about as forgetful as Tolfdir, but nevertheless a nice guy and appreciative of your efforts - especially if you help him with his secret love for Faleen the housecarl.
* CoolVersusAwesome:
** Yes, you can become a werewolf, and yes, you can kill a dragon in wolf form. Have fun!
** The CivilWar is essentially UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire versus HornyVikings.
** Once in a rare while you may encounter a dragon fighting a giant. At lower levels, dragons will typically lose[[note]]Giant level range is set at 32, while dragons level up with you[[/note]]. But at higher levels, typically 35+, they will generally make mincemeat out of giants unless they get repeatedly [[ArtificialStupidity distracted fighting mudcrabs]]. In any case, it's usually a good idea to take potshots at them and finish off the winner shortly after they defeat their opponent.
** Even better than killing a dragon as a werewolf: join the Dawnguard as a werewolf and then you can get Werewolves vs. Vampires!
* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: While it's mostly averted, the inns in the smaller villages generally look exactly the same, save for placement of tables.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot:
** According to characters in Solitude, Ulfric's killing of Torygg was unnecessary, considering that Torygg looked up to Ulfric and would have been willing to declare independence had Ulfric simply encouraged him. Of course, from Ulfric's point of view, he needed to send a message to the other Jarls.
** It gets worse with the knowledge that the main reason for the rebellion, the Talos ban, is poorly enforced at best by the Empire, and in fact the only "enforcement" is that the Empire has no power to stop the Thalmor from doing anything. Jarl Elisif, whom the Stormcloaks consider an Imperial puppet, asks the player to take a memento of her husband to an altar of Talos as part of his burial. Whiterun, a city with a Jarl who is staunchly pro-Empire, has a shrine to Talos in its park with a preacher who openly evangelizes all day long without a single comment from the guards. Even the Empire looks the other way if you dispatch a Thalmor right in front of an Imperial Legion soldier, only slapping you with a paltry 40 gold fine.
** Miraak sending assassins after the Dragonborn before he had truly escaped to the Mundus could be construed as this. He does make a comment about absorbing the PC's soul, which suggests it might have been a requirement for escaping, so....
** Delphine interrupting the Dragonborn's FetchQuest for the Greybeards and asking that they accompany her to slay the Dragon about to be resurrected in Kynesgrove, before she will properly introduce herself and explain precisely what she wants from them. She does, however, justify this by admitting she was afraid that the Thalmor were using the rumor of a Dragonborn as SchmuckBait to lure any ex-Blades from hiding. For her own protection, she conspired to steal the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, knowing that the Greybeards would send the Dragonborn to retrieve it, and she needed to witness the Dragonborn actually slaying and absorbing the soul of a Dragon before she knew she could trust them.
* CoupDeGraceCutscene:
** If you have the perks for it. Also, finishing moves which randomly trigger.
** Special mention goes to one-hit stealth kills. Against a humanoid enemy who's not doing anything special (sitting, doing alchemy, etc), backstabs, at least with a bladed weapon, will reliably trigger the player reaching up from behind, covering the victim's mouth and slicing said victim's throat. Somehow, this works even with a giant shield on one hand and a big glowing Bound Sword in the other.
** In the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, you end up having to dispose of [[spoiler:Master Neloth's previous apprentice, whose heart he replaced with a Heartstone. It drove her mad and she has it out for Neloth now. When you kill her, you get a surprising killcam animation of ''ripping her Heartstone out''.]]
* CowardlyMooks: Human enemies such as bandits will sometimes get scared of you and run away if you inflict enough damage.
* CrapsackWorld: Two centuries later, Tamriel has still not recovered from [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion the Oblivion Crisis]]. The Empire is falling apart, the Nords are in civil war, Elsweyr and Black Marsh have seceded, and what parts of Morrowind that weren't destroyed following the eruption of Red Mountain and the fall of the Ministry onto Vivec have been invaded by the Argonians. The Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves' Guild pervade Skyrim to the point of being the de facto government in some cases, and it should be pointed out that ''both'' organizations are suffering from a slow decline. Oh, and the world's about to be eaten by dragons.
** In the game itself, you'll run into multiple situations which show you Skyrim is no fun place to live. Many of the cities you visit either have an incompetent or, even worse, corrupt ruler. As a result, more than a few cities are {{Wretched Hive}}s plagued by large amounts of crime, FantasticRacism, and in some cases even government conspiracies. To make matters worse, in many of these cases, there is nothing you (the player) can do about this. Also, many people like to remind you that the civil war is ruining their lives in at least some way.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: With a touch of LaserGuidedKarma for good measure. Beneath the earth of Skyrim dwell a race of hideous monstrosities, [[TheMorlocks the Falmer]], who grow bolder and more dangerous; experts in-game fear they are massing to attack the Nords - the surface dwellers of Skyrim - in genocidal hatred. Where did they come from? They're the devolved, degenerate SlaveRace of the extinct [[AbusivePrecursors Dwemer]], once a [[WasOnceAMan thriving elven civilization on the surface]]. How did they become slaves of the Dwemer? They all fled to the Dwemer... after the ancient Nords began slaughtering them all. (There's plenty of [[UnreliableNarrator in-universe controversy and mystery]] surrounding whose "fault" it is that the ancient Falmer and Nords were at war with each other in the first place, but that the Nords won and forced them to turn to the Dwemer is firmly established.)
* CreatureHunterOrganization:
** The Dawnguard, in the DLC ''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Dawnguard]]'', is an organization of {{Vampire Hunter}}s.
** In the main game, the Silver Hand are a mercenary company dedicated to wiping out werewolves in Skyrim. Unfortunately, they use ruthlessly inhumane tactics, turning what might have initially been a well-intended purpose into a virtual bloodbath. They will notably attack the Dragonborn whether or not they're a werewolf, so it appears that whatever its purpose might have once been, the group is now little more than a bunch of bandits who just have a predilection for hunting down werewolves (or that they have grown so paranoid that they will attack anyone on the mere shadow of a suspicion that the person may be a werewolf).
** Also in the main game, the Vigilants of Stendarr count, since they [[DemonSlaying hunt everything]] related to [[OurDemonsAreDifferent daedra]]. In addition to dremora, atronachs, witches, and various other cultists, this notably includes both vampires (the spawn of Daedric Prince Molag Bal) and werewolves (created by Daedric Prince Hircine), so there is overlap with the former two organizations. Sadly, they are woefully unprepared to fight vampires, as shown when their Hall is razed by the Volkihar. Additionally, if the player is a vampire, they will not recognize that, while the Dawnguard will. (They will also not attack a player for being a werewolf, unless they witness the player transforming, while the Silver Hand will; but since the Silver Hand will also attack a player who is ''not'' a werewolf at all, it's hard to give them any credit there.)
* CreepyChild:
** Babette, a cheerful, joke-telling little waif who has the most adorable lisp... because she's a vampire. Oh, and she's a member of the [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood.]] She even jokes about how her appearance helps her. The first time you enter the Sanctuary after joining the Brotherhood, she's telling a story about how she led a creepy old man into an alley for dinner.
** Aventus Aretino. Though his tone is a perhaps a little too whiny, the fact that he's going through with the Black Sacrament (using his mother's flesh) speaks for itself. The way that the rest of the kids from the Honorhall Orphanage cheer on the Dark Brotherhood following their headmistress's assassination might make them all qualify for this, except that Grelod is undoubtedly an AssholeVictim and the kids are justifiably relieved to be free from her abuse and cruelty.
** Nelkir, Jarl Balgruuf's son, at first simply seems to be a little moody or angsty, behaviors one might consider somewhat normal in a child. You later discover, however, that he's like that because he's discovered personal, corrupting secrets floating around Dragonsreach. It all being [[spoiler: Mephala's]] doing sums it all up.
* CreepyUncle: Astrid of the Dark Brotherhood had one of these, who made certain "unwanted advances" toward her. He became her first kill.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Some enemies will stop and kneel down when at low health, but otherwise enemies will continue acting as normal until their health hits zero, at which point they stagger away and collapse in a heap. This can be particularly amusing in a handful of scripted events where enemies are attacked and killed; the first such instance is in Bleak Falls Barrow, where a bandit triggering a trap will flick the switch, stand up and hold still as arrows rain down on him, then suddenly fall over when they kill him.
* CriticalHit: Perks available to bows, swords/greatswords, and daggers (as well as certain items in specific) have chances of doing bonus damage -- and their effects generally stack. A "critical strike" message will appear any time one happens in combat. With a very specific combination of the Shrouded Gloves, equipped daggers, stealth perks, and the Critical Charge perk, it's possible for a critical stealth attack to do up to 60x the damage of a simple swipe.
* CrosshairAware: Enemies both human and animal are quite aware in this regard. Wild animals like deer and elk will zigzag as they run away to avoid arrows and spells, and enemy archers will move back and forth between shots to dodge return fire. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard It's also not uncommon for an enemy to suddenly FlashStep as you fire a spell or an arrow, moving to the side in a split second to avoid your attack. This can happen even if you're in Sneak and the opponent hasn't spotted you.]]
* CrossOver:
** For the opening of the ''Skyrim'' Steam Workshop, Valve released a mod featuring the ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' [[MemeticMutation Space Core]].
--->"Archery, hmhmm. Smithing, hmm. Don't need 'em, yep, yep. Go to space. Space. Only skill you need."
** The UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch version of ''Skyrim'' allows players to obtain items from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series using that line of Toys/{{amiibo}} figures. They can still be found elsewhere in the game, though.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Lord Naarifin, the Thalmor general who occupied the Imperial City, was apparently kept alive for thirty-three days, hanging from the White-Gold Tower.
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Many of the Daedric Prince quests are examples of this. In order to get several of the artifacts, you have to: beat a man to death ''twice'' while he begs for his life, sacrifice one of your followers, and murder and cannibalize an innocent priest. Not all of the quests have requirements like these, though, and some which do also have alternate methods of obtaining the artifact. In one case, you get it only by ''not'' killing the person you're asked to kill.
* CrueltyRichLeather: Forsworn are suspected to craft things out of the bones and skin of their victims. Also, a book seen in the ''Dawnguard'' DLC, ''Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader'', details the life of one who made a shiny septim off a business of it.
* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: ''Dragonborn'' adds the Lurkers, which look like ten-foot-tall Deep Ones, and Seekers, which look like miniature (but still bigger than the player) floating Cthulhus. Miraak's mask is also shaped to look like it has tentacles.
* CuffsOffRubWrists: If you go to third person mode right as your hands are being untied at the start of the game, you can glimpse the Dragonborn doing this.
* CultureChopSuey:
** The Nords are primarily based on the Old Norse, but they have sprinklings of other cultures here and there: their burial rites are reminiscent of Egyptian mummification, their warriors go into battle with Celtic-looking face painting, and their ancient religion (correctly) posits that time goes in cycles like real life Hinduism.
** Redguards are based heavily on the Arabs and the Moors, down to their dress and their curved scimitars[[note]][[MemeticMutation CURVED! SWORDS!]][[/note]] but they have African-American accents and some Redguards also have western names. As their culture is built around a warrior noble class that values skill with the sword, it can also be argued that they also have elements of Japanese samurai as well.
** Bretons are a mishmash of medieval France and England, with some elements of Renaissance Italy - they have vaguely French names and it is said that High Rock is a hotbed of cutthroat medieval politics and ceaseless warring between noble houses (which would explain why it is the WildCard province of the Empire, only tangentially aligned with them at the very best of times).
** The Blades armor set is a mishmash of Japanese ''lamellar'' and Roman ''lorica segmentata''. The helmet especially illustrates this: the front looks more like a Legionnaire's helmet while the back cowl evokes something like a Japanese samurai's. This is quite likely an ''in-universe'' example -- the Blades are descended from an Akaviri (i.e., superficially Japanese-ish) group based in Cyrodiil (i.e., the heart of the Empire, with a centuries-long history of being Roman-ish). ''Of course'' their armour would have influences from both cultures.
* CurbStompBattle: Due to the way the game's LevelScaling works, the enemies in an area will be scaled to the level you were when you first visited that location. Returning to one of these areas at a much higher level means you can run around killing the now-laughably-easy enemies in this fashion. It can be [[CatharsisFactor incredibly cathartic]] to OneHitKO a bunch of weak foes after spending hours battling much more difficult enemies. This can also serve a practical purpose if you are trying to increase weak combat skills.
* CursedWithAwesome: There is one -- ''one'' -- statistical downside to being a werewolf: you can't get the minor "rested" bonus to skill progression by sleeping in a bed. That's it. Immunity to disease and the ability to turn into a 300-pound killing machine are pretty nice benefits for such a downside. The fact that Hircine has claim on your soul after you die helps explain why it is still a curse, although since those thus claimed become his chosen servants and hunting companions, it's a matter of opinion more than anything. There's also reason to believe that the Dragonborn's soul cannot be claimed by any of the (d)aedra but Akatosh. [[spoiler:And at the end of the main quest, whether you're a werewolf or not, Tsun himself says the Dragonborn will be spending eternity in Shor's Hall. So it remains to be seen.]]
* CutLexLuthorACheck:
** The bandits at Halted Springs Camp are trying to use magic to make money. The camp is an iron ore mine, in the mine you find one of their numbers is a mage, and on the nearby table is a Transmute Ore tome (turns iron ore into silver and then silver into gold) lying next to a piece of iron ore and a piece of silver ore.
** In Ansilvund, a group of necromancers have taken over, and their leader's journal notes they raised the draugr they found earlier to excavate deeper into the ruins. The journal further comments that if the Stormcloaks had the sense to use draugr to fight, they'd have an army plenty large enough to kick the Empire and Thalmor out of Skyrim. Considering you can't swing a battleaxe in the game without hitting some ancient tomb infested with the beings, not a bad idea, the ethics of such aside.
** In Ustengrav, another group of necromancers have killed a gang of bandits and are resurrecting their corpses over and over to have them excavate the ruin.
* CuteAndPsycho: Muiri, a Breton living in Markarth and working as an assistant at The Hag's Cure, turns out to be this in an early Dark Brotherhood quest. She asks the Dragonborn to kill a bandit leader who took advantage of her to rob Clan Shatter-Shield in Windhelm, as Muiri was close to the family until Alain used her and they cut off all ties with her and cast her out of Windhelm. In addition to wanting revenge on the bandit leader, she also tasks the Dragonborn with the optional assignment of killing Nilsine Shatter-Shield as well, partly out of revenge for the Shatter-Shields turning their backs on her, and in the hope that maybe this will cause the family matriarch Tova to bring Muiri back after both of her real daughters are dead. [[spoiler: If you kill Nilsine, Tova commits suicide instead, but Muiri doesn't actually seem to have a problem with this, as making Tova suffer is just as good. She also becomes eligible for marriage this way, so she must REALLY appreciate the Dragonborn's efforts.]]
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: At least one instance when Karliah takes you down. You could be maxed out in console with GodMode enabled but she's going to take you down for plot purposes.
* CuttingOffTheBranches:
** Sheogorath's dialogue implies that he is [[spoiler:the Champion of Cyrodiil, so ''Shivering Isles'' was canonically completed. Some of his other pieces of dialogue imply that he became both the Gray Fox (completed the Thieves' Guild chain) and the Listener (completed the Dark Brotherhood quest chain).]]
** The player found 100 nirnroots for Sinderion, according to [[spoiler:the journal you find on his corpse.]]
** Given that [[spoiler:Clavicus Vile is in a weakened state at the time of the game]], it can be inferred that [[spoiler:the Champion of Cyrodiil ignored Barbas' warnings and gave Umbra to Clavicus in exchange for the Masque.]]
* CycleOfHurting:
** Staggerlocks, in melee or magic (with the Destruction perk Impact), will allow the Dovahkiin to inflict the cycle on their enemies.
** Skuldafn can throw several high-level Draugr at you all armed with full-power ''FUS RO DAH''. If there are others with bows and arrows, you can find yourself being endlessly thrown around like a ragdoll and turned into a pincushion as you try to get up. Your best bet is to try to aim your helplessly flying corpse in a direction away from the shouters, and attempt to flank them.
** The apogee of locked-into-damage sadism comes with ''Dragonborn'' and the Ash Rune spell. It's the only guaranteed paralysis effect in the game - no RNG or magic resist checks, so as long as the enemy type is not immune to paralysis, they're going down. To keep this from being too broken, the enemy cannot be harmed until the effect wears off--but this can still be bypassed: Cast the Ash Rune at the enemy's feet, so they trigger it instantly, then cast another straight-damage rune trap under the enemy's immobilized body. They won't trigger the spell until the paralysis wears off - and once they do, and take the damage, immediately cast Ash Rune as they're getting to their feet, where they will immediately trigger it again. Rinse and repeat until dead. It will take [[GradualGrinder a very long time]] to kill higher-level opponents this way... but that's [[TheJoysOfTorturingMooks part of the fun]].
** Because [[BrownNote Dragonrend]] has such a short cooldown timer even for the full three-word [[MakeMeWannaShout Shout]], using just one word can stunlock dragons. They can't take off, keeping them on the ground and within reach of melee weapons, and every blast sends them reeling in a stagger, disrupting any of their own Shouts that they may be in the midst of bellowing.
* CypherLanguage: Most of the fantasy languages in written form, are this. The text itself is in English, only substituting appropriate characters for the English letters. Justified to an extent, as all books/notes use individual fonts for each style/language.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:D]]
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: The Equip, Take, Take All and Give buttons never seem to stay in the same place between different sorts of inventory management screen - for example taking things out of containers, putting things ''into'' containers, personal inventory, swapping with companions, and trading. It's not uncommon to forget this and accidentally take everything inside a container when you intended to put one thing away - and if it was the container you use as your main storage, this will probably mean enough weight to make you overencumbered several times over and enough items that it will take you a long time to get them all put back. In most cases you're better off reloading an autosave.
** This becomes especially annoying when dealing with ingredients: the key to take ingredients out of a container becomes, when trying to put them back, the same as the key that is used for consuming ingredients. So, whilst you think that you have put away all of your ingredients, what you have actually done is consumed them, and you will only realise your mistake when you close your inventory and suffer the effects, including severe poisoning.
** The keys for changing from first-person to third-person view and drawing/sheathing your weapon are reversed. Ditto for jumping and interacting with objects.
** And while simply selecting an item takes it out of containers, selecting an item while a container is open will use it (unlike ''Oblivion'', where it put it away). This can range from a minor annoyance (wearing the armour you were giving your companion) to a major one (accidentally eating the daedra hearts you wanted to save for armour, without even noticing). This does not apply to the trade interface, even if you might want it to (e.g. you bought some spell tomes and want to use them, but also want to sell off some of the moderately-expensive skill books you've acquired, and you bought the tomes first so the merchant would have enough money for this).
* DarkerAndEdgier: The atmosphere of this game compared to ''Oblivion''. To make a short list: the overall world design is much more DungAges than the high fantasy style of ''Oblivion'', two large towns are {{Wretched Hive}}s, there is much more FantasticRacism going on, more GrayAndGreyMorality, and more bloody/gory bits in dungeons.
* DarknessEqualsDeath: In one area in Hermaeus Mora's realm, straying from lit areas causes damage that will boot you out in short order (as you can't actually die in Apocrypha barring one boss fight). Inverted with the Twilight Sepulchre, which has a gauntlet where you have to stay ''out'' of the light if you don't want to be burnt to a crisp.
* DarkReprise:
** The ''Dragonborn'' trailer is an entire ''trailer'' of Dark Reprise -- the theme is a darker, more foreboding version of the original teaser trailer track, shows the new gameplay areas, and just like the original trailer it ends with a dying dragon having its soul absorbed... as the camera pans up its body to reveal that [[ThereIsAnother the absorption isn't being done by you]]. At the end of the trailer, we hear what initially sounds like "The Song Of The Dragonborn," but with changed lyrics and a darker tone: it's [[VillainSong a version of the song dedicated to the First Dragonborn, and what will happen when he returns.]]
* DarkSecret:
** Between Falkreath and Helgen, there's a place called Half-Moon Mill where you can find the local lumberjack Hert; she is extremely friendly towards you and even say that you can stay over for the night. Everything's all right, until you decide to look in a shack near the mill and find that there's a lot of [[ImAHumanitarian bloody human bones]] in there. Some quests may reveal that [[spoiler: Hert and her husband are vampires who pretend to be common folk to eat unwary travelers]].
** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but, if you enter the cave in the Sleeping Tree Camp, you may find a note in the body of an Orc (killed by a nearby giant) which reveals that Ysolda, the friendly wanna-be merchant from Whiterun, has been buying Sleeping Tree Sap from him and selling it (and she also mentions a "Skooma trouble"). Considering that both are [[FantasticDrug fantastic drugs]], Ysolda may be considered to be a drug dealer in secret.
** And there's also Markarth, which is a city full of those. See TownWithADarkSecret in the tropes list.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: In the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, in the Benkongerike dungeon in Solstheim, there is a Riekling hut filled with copies of ''The Lusty Argonian Maid'' and a couple of rolls of linen...
* DayOldLegend: A slight example. Items have several levels depending on the quality, the highest level being "Legendary". So with a high enough smithing skill, you can forge a weapon or piece of armour, then immediately take it to a grindstone or workbench and make it legendary, despite being literally seconds old.
* DaywalkingVampire: Vampires are debilitated by sunlight, but not burnt.
* DeaderThanDead:
** [[spoiler:Malyn Varen]] has his soul destroyed by the Dragonborn to purify [[spoiler:Azura's Star (or corrupt it to turn it into the Black Star.)]].
** What happens to the dragons you kill ... [[spoiler: except Alduin. This also extends to when a Dragonborn takes down another Dragonborn, as Miraak threatens to do to you.]]
** Presumably what happens to any mortal souls Alduin devours.
* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Apparently High Rock's aristocracy is like this, from what Hadvar has to say if you choose Breton as your race.
* DeadlyEnvironmentPrison: The Chill, a prison in the Winter Hold runs on this. They do not confiscate your swag, they do not guard your cage, but it is located in an icy cave on a small island in the middle of the local Arctic. If you beat the ice elementals on the island and swim through the frigid ocean to freedom, no one is going to object.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** While the game largely lets you choose your character's personality, more than a few quest-related dialogue lines have single-choice replies that give the distinct impression that your character is a DeadpanSnarker; you can also purposefully play it this way.
--->'''Jarl Baalgruuf''': So you were at Helgen? You saw this Dragon with your own eyes?\\
'''You''': Yes. I had a great view while the Imperials were trying to cut off my head.
** ''You, during a Civil War action'': I've got a better idea. You wait here, I'll take care of it.
** Corpulus Vinius.
--->'''You''': Why is this place called the Winking Skeever?\\
'''Corpulus''': Well, as it turns out, I had a pet skeever when I was a boy, and he used to wink.\\
'''You''': You kept a skeever as a pet?\\
'''Corpulus''': They were smaller back then.
** Belethor in Whiterun. Try asking him why a Breton like him is in Skyrim.
--->'''Belethor''': "Isn't it obvious? Why, the [[GrimUpNorth wonderful weather]], and the [[FantasticRacism hospitable people]], of course! Not to mention my great fondness for [[EverythingTryingToKillYou dragons]] and [[GreatOffscreenWar petty power struggles]]. Ah, but without a doubt, the most compelling feature of this frozen wasteland is the volley of inane questions leveled at me on a regular basis."
** Nazir of the Dark Brotherhood. He comments on it himself.
---> '''You''': Narfi is dead.\\
'''Nazir''': Congratulations. You killed an emaciated beggar in cold blood. You are truly an opponent to be feared.
** Marcurio, a follower-for-hire found in Riften, has a vague case of this.
--->'''Marcurio''': These ruins might be interesting... if I weren't already an expert on Nordic history!
--->'''Marcurio''': Don't make me wait too long... I get bored very easily.
** Uraccen, one of the prisoners in Cidhna Mine, has almost all of his dialogue lines full of snarky comments.
---> '''You''': Skooma? What's that?\\
'''Uraccen''': Bottles of Moon Sugar. Khajiit use it as a... pick-me-up. Good way to pass the time. Prisoners smuggle the stuff in. Only currency we have down here.
---> '''You''': Borkul the Beast?\\
'''Uraccen''': Madanach's guard. Big, even for an Orc. Heard he ripped a man's arm off and beat him to death with it. He's old-fashioned like that.
** And of course, Lydia. Her delivery of the line "I am sworn to carry your burdens" makes it pretty clear that she does ''not'' enjoy being your pack-mule, and she only gets snarkier in ''Dragonborn'', especially if you [[spoiler:start using the Black Books of Hermaeus Mora]].
** ''Dragonborn'' follower Teldryn Sero from Raven Rock is a walking being of Deadpan Snark.
** And two more from ''Dragonborn'': the Dremora Butler and Merchant. The Butler in particular snarks about you asking him to carry things for you.
---> "I always dreamt of being a pack mule."
* DeathOfAchild: A few child deaths occur in the storyline. A man in Morthal has recently lost his child as well as his wife to a house fire; a man in Cidhna Mine was forced to watch his young daughter [[OffWithHisHead be executed]] before [[KickTheDog he was thrown in]]; and in Falkreath, a little girl was mauled to death by a werewolf. Modding in the PC version. All the child voice actors recorded death screams as part of the base game, and there are DummiedOut scripts in the code that are triggered by causing children to die, all implying that attacking children was a WhatCouldHaveBeen feature.
* DealWithTheDevil: There are numerous pacts to be made with the Daedric Princes throughout the game. By the end, you can owe your soul to at least ten different entities, most of which are unquestionably evil and the least of which are dangerously amoral.
** What ''exactly'' happens to the varying heroes of the Elder Scrolls games when they die, after owing their souls to a number of Daedra and other beings, is something of a running joke amongst the fanbase.
* DeathByChildbirth: Happened to the mother of Sissel and Britte of Rorikstead. Their father treats them badly partially because of it.
* DeathByGenreSavviness: [[spoiler:Alduin]] is actually smart enough to try to kill the Dovakhiin at the start of the game. Ironically, this actually ends up ''saving'' the Dovakhiin; if he'd just let the Empire do their thing, he'd have won (and the game would've been very short).
* DeathSeeker: There's an Old Orc who wanders around Skyrim surrounded by corpses who will ask you for a good death.
** The Ebony Warrior, whom you will only be able to battle when you hit level 80. He tells you he has no more quests, no more battles, and only wishes to be sent to Sovngarde with honor in battle.
* DeathTrap: You gotta watch your step in pretty much every dungeon if you don't want a spiky grate embedded in your face, or a side full of poisoned darts. There is a perk that prevents pressure plates from triggering, but it does not stop trip wires or trapped chests and doors, nor does it apply to [[ArtificialStupidity your followers]].
* DecapitatedArmy: Justified. Alduin is more than just the leader of the dragons; he's summoning them, as shown in the pre-Sahlokniir scene.
** Not to mention that demonstrating that he's not quite as almighty as he claims shakes some dragons' faith in his leadership.
* DecapitationPresentation: Pre-game, the Great War began when the Thalmor delivered the Emperor an ultimatum - along with the heads of [[spoiler:every Blade serving in the territories controlled by the Aldmeri Dominion]]. General Tullius also seems rather fond of threatening Ulfric with this fate.
* DefeatMeansFriendship:
** Most people you can beat in tavern brawls become considerably more friendly to you afterwards. Some can be recruited as followers. [[SlapSlapKiss You can even marry one!]]
** Dragons regard the Dovahkiin this way. Both Odahviing and Durnehviir join your side after you defeat them.
* DefectorFromDecadence:
** [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]].
** [[spoiler:Serana]] from ''Dawnguard'' if you don't join the vampires.
** You, from the Thalmor, if you play an Altmer.
* DeflectorShields:
** The ward spells from the Restoration school block magic spells directed at you. It even forms a [[PowerGlows glowy hemisphere of light]] in front of you. It also disrupts a '''[[AC:Fus Ro Dah]]''' shout by directing the force around the caster, so if you see a mage throw up a shield like that, don't bother with Unrelenting Force until they drop it.
** The Spellbreaker is a physical shield that projects a {{Deflector Shield|s}} when defending. While blocking, Spellbreaker creates a ward that protects against spells for up to 50 points. At first, it may seem weak compared to other more powerful ward spells like Greater Ward which can negate up to 80 points of spell damage. However, it stacks with the Elemental Protection perk, which reduces incoming fire, frost, and shock damage by 50% while blocking, and any leftover damage will be absorbed by the shield's ward effect. The best part is that it costs no Magicka. This makes the Spellbreaker one of the best shields to be used against mages and dragons.
* DegradedBoss: Dragons. At the beginning of the game, every time you encounter a dragon it feels like an adequately epic battle, especially with the music that accompanies it. By the end of the game (or some levels into it, considering that this game doesn't actually "end") you will be able to force dragons to the ground and kill them with a few hits in under 10 seconds before the music even has a chance to kick in. They become more of a nuisance than an epic battle... at least until you start meeting the Elder and Ancient Dragons (which, in turn, only lasts until you start outleveling them too). ''Dawnguard'' adds even higher-level Revered and Legendary Dragons to help balance things out.
* DemBones: While most ruins are filled with zombie-like Draugr, you'll still run into walking Skeletons from time to time in various ruins. Their bones make a very satisfying clatter when they fly apart upon getting killed.
** Skeleton Dragons too. Encountered in [[spoiler:Labyrinthian]], or if [[spoiler:you interrupt Alduin's resurrection of a Dragon at any of the dragon burial sites]].
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The game's lighting engine desaturates somewhat during cloudy or rainy weather, and goes almost entirely grayscale during snowstorms (such as when climbing the Throat of the World).
* [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells Depleted Enchantment Bolts]]: You can find the schematics for enhanced crossbow bolts in the ''Dawnguard'' DLC. Basically, just mix a few bolts with some elemental salts, and you've got exploding fire, exploding ice, and exploding lightning bolts!
* DestroyerDeity: Alduin, who has already eaten the world over and over. However, he isn't the BigBad because he's trying to do his job, but rather because he decided to ''shirk'' it and TakeOverTheWorld instead of waiting until the right time to destroy it. The series also has Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction, the Big(ger) Bad of ''Oblivion;'' if the Mythic Dawn questline is followed in ''Skyrim'', he puts in an appearance at the end.
* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: Aventus Aretino eventually calls the Dark Brotherhood against the abusive matron, Grelod the Kind. When the player character goes to seek out information on her, she's so utterly unlikable that [[KickTheSonOfABitch the only question is how to kill her in the most horrific way]]. The player may decide to kill her even without ever running into Aventus, because she's so awful!
* TheDeterminator: If you have a high enough bounty (1000G or more), city guards will attack/arrest you on sight, and if you try to run, they will chase you all the way across a hold if they can. Some players have been chased by them all the way up the Throat Of The World.
* DevelopersForesight: See [[DevelopersForesight/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim here.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The Dragonborn does this by definition with their ability to kill reality-warping immortal abominations and eat their souls. In the main quest, [[spoiler:you go to Sovngarde and have to beat Tsun, an avatar of Zenithar, to proceed.]]
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: [[spoiler:Mercer Frey]] stole an artifact from a Daedric Prince. There is no requirement for the player to return the key themselves, and it's perfectly possible to survive without the gifts you get from it, so you can use the key for the rest of the game, basically doing the same as [[spoiler:Frey]].
* DirtyOldMan: Delvin Mallory in the Ragged Flagon has at least once attempted to peek at Vex taking a bath in the lake. He can also be seen swing-and-a-miss flirting with Vex in a random conversation.
* DisintegratorRay: Shock-based spells can be upgraded to eventually reduce their targets to piles of dust if the target is at low health. This is good for one simple reason: enemy necromancers can't revive a pile of dust!
* DiscOneNuke: The series [[DiscOneNuke/TheElderScrolls has its own page]]. In general, provided you know where to go and what to do, there's nothing stopping you from heading out and getting late-game gear the moment you leave Helgen.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Using [[BlownAcrossTheRoom Unrelenting Force]] on someone so that they fall to their doom is a very convenient way of getting rid of your enemies, including [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd88xgZFaOs Mercer Frey]]]].
** It also affords a bit of LoopholeAbuse if for some reason you want to kill someone but can't find a way to do it stealthily. Just get them into a place where you can blast them off a high-enough ledge to kill them; their death as a result of the fall will ''not'' be held on you. Thus, you can literally get away with murder as long as you don't mind paying a 40 septim bounty for assault.
** Oh, and the physics are a lot less forgiving than they were in the previous games. Remember how in previous games an enemy you knocked over a railing would suddenly teleport back up, or fall 3-5 stories and take only a sliver of damage? Not here. Now even a gently sloping path can mean certain death.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** People put a bounty on you similar to assault for ''killing a chicken''.
*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since people living in small farming villages probably do rely on their chickens and other livestock as a major source of income and/or food.
** People you steal from might send thugs after you; the thugs' contract says they don't have to kill you, but the person who hired them won't mind if they do, and they certainly do try. This can happen even if you just stole an incredibly cheap book from them and paid off the bounty.
** The Dragonborn can respond to the clerical error that nearly resulted in your execution by joining the Stormcloaks and driving the Empire out of Skyrim. [[spoiler: If you join the Dark Brotherhood, you can take it a step further and kill the Emperor.]]
** If you're angry enough about [[spoiler: the deaths of your 'family' in the Dark Brotherhood questline,]] you can take it UpToEleven by not only [[spoiler: murdering the Emperor,]] but also joining up with the Stormcloaks and kicking the Empire and the [[spoiler: Penitus Oculatus]] out of Skyrim entirely.
* DisproportionateReward: Due to the way favors work, several can turn into this. You can do a menial task for someone such as chopping wood or giving them a drink, and from that point on, you can sleep in their beds and take almost anything not nailed down.
** Occasionally ''inverted'' as well, when you are given a Herculean task with a disproportionately small reward. Jarl/Steward wants you to go kill an Elder Dragon on a nearby summit? That's fine... but the 500 gold bounty may not even cover the cost of the arrows and potions you used to kill it. (At least there's usually a Word Wall to somewhat make up for that, and Dragons usually drop decent loot.)
** Due to the way rewards scale with you, sometimes you can do a simple task (such as fetching a few ores) and be rewarded with an ''Enchanted Daedric Battleaxe''. Other times you could be asked to collect some gems for someone, only to have them reward you with gems or jewelry worth several times the value of what you turned in.
* DistantSequel: ''Skyrim'' takes place several centuries after the events of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', following a number of wars, political upheavals and a massive eruption that devastated ''Oblivion''[='=]s setting.
* DivideAndConquer: A tactic of the Thalmor, and one that the Empire's secessionist movements risk playing right into.
* [[SequelHook DLC Hook]]: [[spoiler: Both Tsun's and Parthunaax's parting words after you slay Alduin basically say that the Dragonborn's end is yet to come and that they will be leaving more indelible marks in history. However, this has been proven to be something of a false hook, since Bethesda has stated that there will be no further DLC and the Dragonborn's ultimate fate currently remains unknown.]]
* DoesNotLikeMagic: Distrust of mages is common among the Nords, for several reasons. Past wars fought against the magically-inclined Falmer and the current situation with the Aldmeri Dominion has led to magic being seen as the tool of cowardly and effete elves, whereas Nords [[ProudWarriorRace rely on their martial prowess and valour]]. After much of Winterhold was destroyed and the College was left miraculously unscathed, many people believed that the mages were at least partly responsible. Jarls will often keep a CourtMage handy to advise on matters magical, but these experts are still accorded little respect. One student at the College mentions how his family ''disowned'' him for wanting to attend. However Nords do usually show respect for healers (Skyrim being a place where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou means their skills are often called upon) and enchanters (Nords scoff at spellcasters but have little issue with using magical weapons and armour), as well as practitioners of the Thu'um. [[spoiler:Ancient Nords on the other hand recognised the importance of magic: their stories tell of "Clever Men", mighty {{Magic Knight}} heroes who supplemented their formidable swordplay with arcane arts, just as adept at hurling a shard of magic ice they were at summoning a magic blade into their hands and expertly carving through enemies. When you visit Sovngarde in the main questline, the heroic Nord afterlife is home to a fair few honoured dead wearing wizard robes, and one person even is clearly wearing the robes of the Archmage of the College of Winterhold!]]
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Unlike most humanoid enemies, the Falmer rarely wear boots or shoes, despite being capable of crafting armor.
** It has been speculated on the forums before that the reason they don't wear shoes is that they sense the player moving around not just by sound, but by feeling the vibrations of the floor with their feet.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Thalmor's plan is nearly identical to that of the [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lords]] - both plans were to destroy reality to ascend as gods, and the plans were mainly instigated by the higher-ups while most of the rest simply wanted peace.
** The Dwemer were almost impossibly technologically advanced, lived in isolation from the rest of the world, and quite possibly poked the boundaries of reality just a little too hard, causing the disappearance of their race from the whole of Skyrim (if not all of Tamriel). They left behind a gigantic settlement which has become little more than a rarely-heard legend. Blackreach and the Dwemer are basically the Tamrielic equivalent of the lost continent of Atlantis and its people.
* TheDogBitesBack: You can invoke this trope against Arondil, a necromancer who [[ILoveTheDead uses the undead spirits of women as sex slaves]]. [[spoiler:If you steal the soul gem from the pedestal behind him,]] you can rob him of control of his undead servants, which results in two of his slaves murdering him.
** There's also the advent of the An-Xileel Empire that took place in the 200 year gap between ''Oblivion'' and ''Skyrim'', where the Argonians of Black Marsh invaded what was left of Morrowind in vengeance for the hundreds of years of slavery that the Dunmer had put them through.
* DoomedPredecessor:
** While exploring the abandoned Dwemer city of Blackreach, you can find the corpse of Sinderion, an alchemist who previously appeared in ''Oblivion''. His journal indicates that he undertook an expedition into the city in order to investigate a new subspecies of nirnroot that had mutated within the caverns, and expresses his hopes that [[TemptingFate the monsters that now live in the city would allow him to gather samples unhindered]].
** During the quest "Darkness Returns", you explore the Twilight Sepulcher, a temple to the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Prince]] Nocturnal, and learn that two of the last visitors were a pair of thieves named Anders and Nystrom, who posed as Nocturnal cultists while planning to heist some treasure. Nystrom's corpse is found near the entrance, with a journal advising you on how to proceed through the sepulcher safely, while Anders is found in a dry well near the sepulcher's end, along with a note revealing that he slit Nystrom's throat and starved to death because he couldn't escape the well without Nocturnal's artifact, the SkeletonKey (which your character has acquired during the previous quest).
** The ''Dawnguard'' DLC adds the quest "Lost to the Ages" in the Dwemer ruins of Bthalft and the [[{{Unobtanium}} Aetherium]] Forge within. Inside, you encounter the ghost of Katria, an adventurer who died trying to locate the forge. She will act as a guide throughout the quest. Humorously, you can find her dead body in the ruin. If you take Katria's clothes when you examine her corpse for her journal, she will comment about her lost dignity.
* DoorToBefore: A lot of dungeons have passages at the end of the dungeon that will lead back to the beginning of the dungeon. Sometimes it's a barred door or a false wall; other times, the dungeon simply takes you over a bridge or ledge overlooking the earlier chambers, and you can jump down as a shortcut.
** Occasionally inverted -- in Kagrenzel, for example, the dungeon begins by dropping you deep into the center of the dungeon, then you have to fight your way out.
* DoppelgangerSpin: Sigdis Gauldurson in Geirmund's Hall has the ability to create two clones. The clones die in one hit, but all three can shoot arrows and use Unrelenting Force. If you destroy them, he teleports and does it again, forcing you to keep picking them off until he's dead. The second time around, he has three times as many, but the platforms are easy to reach so you can run up and melee them.
** They're not identical, however; the real one's helmet has different horns. This makes it easy to pick him off if you pay attention. Also, his health bar will show damage while the clones are always at full health.
* DoubleStandard: Invoked by a secessionist at the wedding of Vittoria Vici. He asks a loyalist what the difference is between the Empire's dealings with the Thalmor compared to Skyrim. She claims they had to fight back because the Thalmor were foreign invaders who threatened their way of life. His response? "My point exactly." He does gloss over the fact that Skyrim is still technically Empire territory though, but he most likely meant how the Empire's ban of Talos Worship is "invading" their way of life.
* DoWellButNotPerfect: If you want to completely root out the [[spoiler: cannibal coven]] from Markarth, you have to take a few "immoral" actions during the questline: [[spoiler: you have to help the cannibals eradicate the Draugr from their hideout, agree to deliver Brother Verulus to them as a "dinner guest", convince him to follow you to Reachcliff Cave (which most likely will require either lying or bribery), allow Eola to hypnotize him, and ''then'' finally turn on the gathered cannibals and kill them all.]] By contrast, if you simply [[spoiler: choose to kill Eola outright]] during your first meeting, [[spoiler: the other cannibals]] will still be free to wander the city and there's no way for you to (legally) take them out.
* DownerBeginning: You awaken to find yourself on a prison transport with a few Stormcloak rebels, having been caught while trying to cross a border, and are on your way to be executed alongside the Stormcloaks. [[FromBadToWorse Then a dragon shows up...]]
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:''Dragonborn''. Sure, Miraak's defeated, but Hermaeus Mora, the true instigator of the conflict, not only gets away scot-free with his crimes, but [[ButThouMust forcibly]] makes the Dragonborn his "champion". The Skaal's leader is dead, the secrets they've spent centuries guarding from Mora are gone, and the Dragonborn is left with the knowledge that they were nothing but Mora's CosmicPlaything all along and that they will likely end up suffering the same fate as Miraak once Mora no longer needs them.]]
** [[spoiler: However, both Frea and Neloth say otherwise, on a lighter note. It should also be pointed out that Mora has little to no power outside his realm; Miraak's mistake was trying to betray Mora ''within'' his realm. The note is ultimately ambiguous as to the Dragonborn's fate.]]
* DownloadableContent: A high-res texture pack was released in February 2012. There are also two bigger expansions, ''Dawnguard'' (June 27, 2012; the Dragonborn is given the choice to join or fight a group of vampires), and ''Dragonborn'' (December 4, 2012; it involves the very first Dragonborn on the island of Solstheim). A more minor DLC, ''Hearthfire'' (September 4, 2012), adds the ability to adopt children and build houses.
* {{Dracolich}}:
** Skeleton Dragons. Subverted, though, in that they are a lot less powerful than their living counterpart, and incapable of flying.
** Durnehviir is implied to be one, after staying in the Soul Cairn for too long.
* TheDragon:
** Alduin's got a literal one in [[spoiler:Odahviing]].
** Legate Rikke for General Tullius.
** Galmar Stone-Fist for Ulfric Stormcloak.
** [[spoiler:Odahviing post HeelFaceTurn as another literal example]] for the Dragonborn.
** After completing the Stormcloak quest chain up to right before the Battle for Solitude, Ulfric himself declares you the mightiest of the Stormcloaks and as close to him as kin. You are thus dubbed his personal champion: Stormblade.
* DragonHoard: There are often treasure chests near dragon dens.
** On a metaphysical level, your inventory. Combine the fact that the Dragonborn is on a spiritual level a dragon, and the classic player propensity to have huge amounts of crap in their inventory...
* DragonRider: [[spoiler:Dovahkiin]], atop Odahviing to find the portal to Sovngarde.
** [[spoiler:Expanded on in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, where this becomes a game mechanic once one gets all three words of Bend Will.]]
* TheDragonsComeBack: Dragons have been extinct for over a thousand years, and now they're being resurrected by Alduin.
* TheDragonslayer: The Empire's elite soldiers, known as "the Blades", got their fame from killing dragons. They, however, pale in comparison to the Dragonborn, who can kill a dragon and [[DeaderThanDead ensure it stays dead.]]
* TheDreaded: The Dragonborn is this to Dragonkind, for a [[YourSoulIsMine very good reason.]]
** The music that plays during Dragon-battles is titled, appropriately enough, "''The One They Fear''".
* DreamWeaver: As noted in the in-game book ''[[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Dreamstride The Dreamstride]]'', the potion Vaermina's Torpor allows people to enter others' dreams. [[spoiler:You get to use it in Vaermina's daedric quest.]]
* DressingAsTheEnemy:
** You can do this during the "Diplomatic Immunity" quest, where you infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy. With the help of a Hooded Thalmor Robe, you can get through most of the Embassy without having to fight the guards. This obviously works the best if you're an Altmer yourself. Characters of other elven races, and especially human races must keep their distance from the guards, or they will realize the PC is an intruder. Characters of beast races can't do this at all. If you're an Altmer, you can actually order other guards around, making your job immensely easier.
** Both "A False Front" and "To Kill an Empire" gives you opportunities to dress as an enemy soldier or a cook respectively. The only difference is dialogue options.
** Even enemies can try this tactic, such as bandits impersonating Imperials to extort you or vampires posing as Vigilants of Stendarr to get you to drop your guard. This is a fairly obvious ploy due to the fact that [[SpotTheThread the disguise will be wrong in more than one way]] and [[MuggedForDisguise the actual owners of the armor are visibly dead nearby]]. In the former example, you can even call them out as fakes (if Imperial-aligned) or taunt them (if Stormcloak-aligned).
* DrivenToSuicide:
** [[spoiler:Astrid]]. She sells the player out to [[spoiler:Commander Maro]] in order to save [[spoiler:the sanctuary]], but he sends his forces to attack anyway. Badly burned in the attack, she uses the last of her energy to [[spoiler: perform the Black Sacrament with her own body to [[SuicideByCop put a contract on herself]]]], [[HeelRealization acknowledging her failings]].
** Tova Shatter-Shield if [[spoiler: you kill her remaining daughter.]]
** Sudi, a member of the massacred Redguard family that owned Frostflow Lighthouse. She cut her wrists to avoid a FateWorseThanDeath at the hands of the Falmer.
* DroneOfDread: The Soul Cairn world theme. Some of the Tamriel Night world themes, to a lesser extent; especially Night Theme 6, which combines droning with ominous chanting and moments of OneWomanWail, yet still is more melodic than intimidating.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** Not really characters, but between ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' and this game, both lands from the previous two games have changed for the worse. Vvardenfell, the main setting of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind the third game]], has exploded, because it was a volcano and is hit by a huge floating rock (as a decades-later consequence of the game's events, no less). And Cyrodiil, the setting of the fourth game, is recuperating from being savaged by a war with Nazi elves. This can be a bit harsh to longtime players of the series, who helped save both lands and spent countless of hours in them, but it does well to prove that saving the world doesn't equate to saving the realm.
** [[spoiler:Skjor of the Companions]] and [[spoiler:Mirabelle Ervine of the College of Winterhold]] are both killed off behind the player's back without much of an explanation; and in the latter's case, no one really seems to remember them later.
* DualBoss: Naaslaarum and Voslaarum, the twin dragons in Forgotten Vale. Also possible if you accidentally get too close to the Word Wall at Shearpoint and wake up both the dragon and the dragon priest Krosis at the same time.
* DualWielding:
** Any one-handed weapon can be equipped in either hand, allowing for dual wielding or left-handed swordfighting - both firsts for the Elder Scrolls series (though ''Daggerfall'' had a rough version).
** This also extends to dual spellcasting as well: a spell in each hand. You can also use the same spell in each hand for a more powerful version of that spell, at the cost of a substantially higher cost in magicka - if you're worried about running out, using separate casts to machinegun the spells, without actually dual-casting, is [[BoringButPractical more magicka-efficient]], in some cases greatly so.
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** You could be the Slayer of Alduin, Thane, a high-ranking member in the Legion or Stormcloaks, Archmage of the College Of Winterhold and a full-fledged member of the Companions, and there'll still be the occasional dick guard taunting you about reporting a stolen sweetroll; never mind the fact that if you ''did'' steal a sweetroll and someone reported it, that same guard would be on your ass in a second. Don't expect any parades in your honor after the main quest, either - though oddly enough, you ''do'' get recognition for finishing the Civil War quest. This is due to a programming quirk; as you progress up the ranks of various organizations and perform various superhuman feats, the [=NPCs=] will start to say more respectful dialogue, but they will never stop using any of older dialogue from way back when you were just starting out. So a guard would end up complimenting you and insult you immediately after.
** Don't try assaulting Thalmor soldiers near any Imperial strongholds; they won't appreciate you attacking them purely out of spite due to an uneasy treaty declaration between them. ([[LoopholeAbuse If you provoke them into attacking you first, though, the Imperial troops won't raise a finger, and if you're allied with the Empire they'll jump to your defense.]]) On the other hand, Stormcloaks will happily help you kill any Thalmor you come across if they are nearby; being allied with the Stormcloaks just makes them all the more enthusiastic to bash elven skulls.
** Averted every time you kill a dragon, leaving any NPC witnesses to stand staring slack-jawed in awe... and then played straight once more when one of the guards picks up their jaw and tell you to "stop that... shouting", the very shouting you used to bring the dragon down. However, since those same bystanders will show the exact same awe if it happens again, they apparently don't find it all ''that'' memorable.
** Also when joining the Companions, Vilkas always says to Kodlak that he's never even heard of you, despite the fact you could be Thane of Whiterun after having [[spoiler:killed the dragon threatening the city, be Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, have destroyed the Dark Brotherhood, be a high-ranking member of the Stormcloaks/Legion, revived Whiterun's Gildergreen... and so much more.]]
** The Thieves' Guild - [[spoiler:you can be the ''Guild Master'']] and there will still be those who treat you like a brand new recruit, and a completely unpromising one at that. [[spoiler:In fact, during the ceremony of putting you in the position, Maven Black-Briar is there, and after you are awarded the position the first thing she says to you is "Now don't screw it up!"]]. The roadside muggings are an exception -- if you are a guild member, [[HonorAmongThieves they'll actually apologize for threatening you]], and if you finished the quest they'll recognize you as a Nightingale and give you a gift to thank you.
** Averted in the theft/friendship mechanic. The [=NPC=]s might not be much friendlier, but if you do something for them, you'll find you're allowed to take things from their house/store that would have previously been considered theft.
** In the ''Dragonborn DLC'', when Neloth tries to treat you like a servant, you can actually call him on this and he'll respond. That being said, he's a lot better about handing out rewards in this game than he was in ''Morrowind''.
--->'''Neloth:''' If you were my servant, you'd have my apple stew, wouldn't you? Very well, I suppose you want to be asked nicely. "[[SarcasmMode Oh great "hero" of Skyrim, please oh please would you do me this noble deed?]]"
** Bounties are ridiculously small given the effort involved. Defeat an entire bandit clan? One hundred gold reward. Take down a giant? One hundred gold reward. Killing a Dragon? You probably got more gold from the Dragon's remains than from the Jarl that sent you.
** Erikur in Solitude will snootily explain to you that he's a Thane, and why that's so wonderful and you ought to show some respect. Unfortunately, there's no option to respond to this with a list of all the holds across Skyrim of which you may have been made Thane by the time of your first conversation - which, if you don't speak to him until after it's done, can include Haafingar itself, meaning that you and Erikur are of equal standing in the Blue Palace court.
* DummiedOut:
** 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.
** 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 [[AllianceMeter faction ranks]].[[note]]This isn't something all the ''joinable'' factions have, so the Arena was probably abandoned relatively early in development[[/note]]
** 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).
** 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.
* DumpStat: While ''Skyrim'' does away with the series' traditional attributes, it does have a few Dump ''Skills'' that would be inefficient to waste perk points on. In particular, there is Lockpicking. Picking a lock is a [[LockpickingMiniGame mini-game]] based more on ''player'' skill. A high Lockpicking skill makes it somewhat easier (and saves you from breaking as many lockpicks), but a skilled player can easily pick even the highest leveled locks with a minimum Lockpicking Skill and the typical player will easily accrue well over 99 lockpicks anyway.
* DungeonBypass:
** It seems Delphine pulled off one of these in pilfering the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. She could not have gone the straightforward route, as there is a speed puzzle that can only be completed by one who can practically use at least one Word of the "[[FlashStep Whirlwind Sprint]]" Shout. There are subtle clues around the [[DoorToBefore dungeon backdoor]] and the room that the Horn is in that she pried the backdoor open: there is a soul gem caster turret that is lacking any soul gem on the front-end of the backdoor, and a few [[OurZombiesAreDifferent draugr]] around Jurgen's tomb have already sprung out of their sarcophagi and have been cut down. And of course, the most obvious clue: she swiped the Horn.
** Your search for an Elder Scroll in the main questline requires you to go to a Dwarven ruin called Alftand, from which you access Blackreach, through which you'll be crossing half of Skyrim to get to the place where it's held. Or you can access Blackreach from Mzinchaleft, which is ''much'' closer and lets you skip most of Blackreach.
* DurableDeathtrap:
** The Nordic necropoles and Dwemer ruins are filled to the brim with these. In the latter case, this has been {{Justified}} with the explanation that the Dwemer were so ridiculously advanced that [[RagnarokProofing everything they made was impervious to aging, in addition to having maintenance robots still running around]].
** You find out that at least one Draugr infested barrow actually has enslaved all of the Draugr to awaken at set intervals to perform maintenance duties, before returning to their crypts. Unsurprisingly, the ones who hint at this are often filled to the brim with traps (usually the giant axe and poisoned arrow kind).
* DugTooDeep:
** Taken to an absurd degree in one ''Dragonborn'' DLC sidequest, which uses this trope ''four times'' on the '''same mine'''. During the quest, you help fund a mining expedition, which awakens the Draugr and gets them slaughtered, and you need to clear it out so another team of miners can be sent in. Then it happens again. The third time around, your partner hires mercenaries, but this means that only some of the miners are alive when you get there. Keep in mind, you have to pay increasingly steep prices to hire people willing to mine the place where the last group got massacred. The fourth time, you finally kill the Dragon Priest causing all these problems.
** Two smaller examples appear in the settlements of Soljund's Sinkhole and Shor's Stone. In the former, the two miners inhabiting the area had dug into a draugr crypt build beneath and mine, forcing them to abandon it. In the latter, spiders have taken over the local mine in town. However, no explanation is given as to where the spider came from.
** Liar's Retreat is a bandit lair that unfortunately happened to intersect a Falmer colony. Most of the bandits have been slaughtered, save one who barred himself in a room. Once you've cleared the place, the bandit chief and some flunkies show up, shocked by the massacre.
* DwindlingParty:
** The final story mission of the Companions has the Dragonborn set out with the rest of the Circle to [[spoiler: posthumously]] cure Kodlak Whitemane of his lycanthropy at the Tomb of Ysgramor. But as soon as you get there, Vilkas explains that he cannot actually enter the tomb with you because he is too ashamed of the actions he took at Driftshade [[spoiler: when the two of you exterminated the Silver Hand as vengeance for Kodlak's death]], but wishes you well. Then, after a few fights against the spirits of the original Companions further into the Tomb, Farkas decides he can go no further thanks to the way being blocked by giant spiders, of which he has a phobia, and he turns back, leaving only you and Aela the Huntress to finish.
** During the College of Winterhold questline, as you journey through Labyrinthian, you see the ghosts of the former arch-mage, Savos Aren, and his group of friends reliving their exploration of the tomb. The farther you go, the smaller their party gets, as they get picked off one by one by the dangers of the place. In the end, [[spoiler:only Savos and two companions are left, and he sacrifices them by enthralling them to seal Morokei in the tomb.]]
** In Avanchnzel and the associated quest "Unfathomable Depths," you can witness the ghosts of the explorer party going in there to loot the "treasure" at the end, which turns out to be a lexicon containing ancient Dwarven knowledge. Like the Labyrinthian quest, you slowly encounter the corpses of the explorers, usually being killed off by whatever is in the next room (although one died of a clumsy accident). Unlike the Labyrinthian one, though, not all of them are ghosts, as you get the quest from the one explorer who actually did escape. Unfortunately, she's been driven mad by the lexicon, which is why you have to return it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E]]
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** Anyone who played the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' two games ago will be in familiar territory. Solstheim, the island where that expansion took place, was basically a mini-Skyrim, full of Nords and mead with werewolves and deadly spriggans running about.
*** The actual Solstheim returns as the setting for the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, and its southern half is now a mini-Morrowind, with ash fall, netches, and Redoran and Telvanni settlements with their associated architecture.
** The quest "Ill Met By Moonlight" is actually the Fourth Era's incarnation of the ''Bloodmoon'' event that made up much of the expansion's main quest (which is said to happen once an era).
* EatenAlive: Dragons tend to have pieces of armor when you loot their skeletons. Mirmulnir in particular will always carry a full set of Whiterun guard armor after being slain. No points for guessing where the armor came from.
* EasterEgg: Of the undocumented feature variety. If you click and drag with your mouse (or move the sticks on the console versions) during the loading screens, you can move the model around.
** Doing this with inventory is actually vital to using dragon claw keys, as they have the combination to the door on their palms. This is a case of GuideDangIt for many players.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Practically all Dwemer ruins. Blackreach used to be an entire city, spanning ''three'' surface holds, but it fell into disuse when the Dwemer disappeared.
** Blackreach and its upper level, Alftand, are a little more than "elaborate". "''Absolutely freaking huge''" might be a better way of putting it. Traversing them can take the better part of four hours even if you're trying to pass as quickly as possible, and you have to fight your way through a small army of Falmer, Automatons, and other nasties on the way. Easily five times as big as any of the regular barrows you'll see, they're positively packed with items, and have THREE different access elevators plus three more through various Dwemer ruins. There's a reason why [[spoiler:Blackreach might have been the Dwemer capital.]]
* EldritchAbomination: In the DLC ''Dragonborn'', we finally get a look at the real Hermaeus Mora. Or at least (as the loading screen text sometimes points out), how he ''chooses'' to appear.
* EldritchLocation: Also in ''Dragonborn'', we've got Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha. Aside from the AlienSky filled with enormous tentacles (which may or may not belong to Mora himself), it's flooded with acidic green water, all the structures are either made of a vaguely organic-looking webbing or gigantic stacks of books, and, thanks to several tunnels and rooms that can move/contract/rotate, [[AlienGeometries it can get really disorienting]].
** In the DLC ''Dawnguard'', there's the Soul Cairn, a kind of limbo for creatures and people who have been trapped in soul gems and then used in enchanting. It is a place of [[TheNightThatNeverEnds eternal night]], full of tormented and/or confused ghosts, piles of bones, ruins, strange fungus, giant floating crystals that absorb your health if you get too close to them, and unique and hostile shadow-like creatures everywhere.
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Subverted in Sheogorath's quest. At first it looks like you're supposed to win such a battle with the help of an atronach (Fire Atronach beats Ice Atronach, who beats Storm Atronach, who beats Fire Atronach) but then it turns out that the battle will actually go on infinitely until you [[spoiler: [[CuttingTheGordianKnot turn Wabbajack on Pelagius's guards]]]].
** Various enemies have resistances to one type of elemental spell damage, but are also weaker to another. Dragons that use Fire Breath and Flame Atronachs, for example, have a resistance to fire spells, but are also weak to frost spells, while the opposite is true Dragons that use Frost Breath and Frost Atronachs.
** A more specific version of destruction magic is it each element is designed to overwhelm a certain class, Archers can be easily dispatched by fire due to the fact they like to get into shooting matches and is thus ripe for being burned alive for additional damage. Warriors should be kept away with Frost Spells which reduces their movement and stamina while Shock spells excel at killing mages with mana burn and the off chance to hit nearby enemies in the rear.
* ElephantGraveyard: There's a mammoth graveyard due west of Loreius Farm. It's an unmarked location where the Mammoth Guardian Spirit is fought.
* TheEmpire:
** The Aldmeri Dominion; they've taken over territories and have their eye on the rest of the world.
** The Cyrodiilic Empire once again. A great deal of conflict in the game comes from the fact that a foreign power controls Skyrim, and that they can and will make decisions that the provinces don't like. But much like in ''Morrowind'', the Empire is shown as being more tolerant than the provinces.
* EmptyLevels: The removal of stats actually makes this much ''less'' of a problem, as the leveling-up system in previous Elder Scrolls games made these in combination with the LevelScaling, easily resulting in characters with a couple ridiculously high stats and others that CantCatchUp. It still happens with the LevelScaling (making stronger opponents appear when you may not have the gear to face them). This usually only becomes an issue if you level up several times by power-leveling non-combat abilities while your combat abilities are still below par when the stronger opponents start to appear. Take note however that this is still played straight with some enemies that actually level up with you and has no level limit, such as Forsworn Briarhearts.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Considering the main villain is also known as 'the world eater,' many people make the obvious assumption.
** See CrapsackWorld above for details on exactly how the "World as We Know It" has ended. Natural disasters in a remote province or two, political unrest in a few more provinces...
* EnemyChatter: It seems the bandits of Skyrim mostly share a common tragic backstory in which their Da told them to go to a college but they were too dumb to figure out which college, and now they need [[FantasticDrug skooma]]--the imported stuff--just one last time. Or how after just OneLastJob they'll be able to pay off their bounty and [[{{Retirony}} walk into the city a free man]]. Occasionally one comes across more unique chatter, such as a disgruntled mage in Morvunskar complaining about having to work a forge.
* EnemyMine:
** Can happen when fighting dragons. Since they're free-roaming and hostile to everything that moves, the player can happen across them fighting anything from bandits to mudcrabs to giants (which have a good chance of killing a low-level dragon on their own!) and team up with the dragon's prey to kill the marauding beast. Though once the dragon's dead, all bets are off...
** In Blind Cliff Bastion, you are able to team up with a hagraven to take back her tower from another hagraven.
** In some areas the player can find enemies holding other enemy types captive, such as hunters that have trapped a wolf, hagravens holding a spriggan captive, and pyromancers experimenting on vampires. Releasing the captives in such instances will often have them help you kill their captors, after which they will be non-hostile.
*** Showing that hagravens themselves aren't AlwaysChaoticEvil, one hagraven will ask you to help her kill another hagraven who took over her tower. All she wants is to reclaim her tower, and will reward you with a nice magical staff if you insist upon being rewarded.
** This can happen when fighting almost any type of enemy in the overworld, and not inside of a dungeon that is populated solely by that enemy type. Since there are so many different enemy factions (mages, bandits, animals, vampires, draugr, giants, etc.), just leading one type of enemy to a group of another will often make your job considerably easier.
*** Special mention goes to the plains area west of Whiterun due to the great prevalence of giants and mammoths there. If you get jumped by a sabre cat, no problem; odds are there's a giant/mammoth in sight from wherever you are that will gladly kill it for you.
* EpicFail:
** While doing contracts for the Dark Brotherhood, you get one for a bard who is apparently so bad, and so many people want him dead, Astrid had to use a lottery to pick a client. At least, that's what Nazir tells you when he gives it to you. Keep in mind, at this point in the Dark Brotherhood storyline, they're still relying on ''word of mouth'' to get contracts due to being down a Listener.
** Can also happen to you if you get in Killer Camera mode but (due to low magicka or something throwing your aim off) fail to kill the enemy: a few seconds during which you'll be shown missing the shot or failing to cast the spell will allow your enemy to get a couple free hits on you.
** Because they are taught and unlocked directly by the Greybeards, [[BlownAcrossTheRoom Unrelenting Force]] and [[FlashStep Whirlwind Sprint]] are usually the first two shouts a player learns, and will be two of the most frequently used after that. Imagine, now, that you've got a tough enemy lined up along the edge of a cliff and it's a steep drop down to the bottom. You go to "FUS RO DAH" him off when suddenly, "WULD NAH KEST!" Whirlwind Sprint was the selected shout, you've zipped past the enemy, and now it is you whose corpse is tumbling to the bottom of the cliff...
** If you insist that Chief Yamarz should be the one to defeat the giant instead of paying you to do so, he will run up to it, warhammer in hand... and promptly get sent into low orbit.
** In one of Skyrim's many caves, you can find a unique staff called Gadnor's Staff of Charming, which by its name implies that it's supposed to cast a Calm spell or something similar. Given that you find its owner lying dead in the same cave surrounded by wild animals, and that the staff actually casts a ''Fury'' spell, it's safe to say that the staff didn't work as intended.
* EqualOpportunityEvil:
** Just like in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', the Dark Brotherhood is by far the most evil organization you can join in the game, and the second most diverse, after the College of Winterhold. Its members include a Nord, a Dunmer, an old man, a child vampire, a former Shadowscale Argonian, a Redguard, and a werewolf.
** In a more mundane sense, randomly-generated NPC enemies (most notably bandits) have a roughly equal chance of being any gender and any race[[note]]though there are exceptions, namely bandits never spawning as Altmer or as female Khajiit or Argonians[[/note]].
* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** Almost any time you enter the lair of a major faction leader, like a Jarl or the Thieves' Guild or Ulfric or Tullius, you find them involved in conversation with their advisers and can get a good idea of what they're like by hanging back and eavesdropping.
** After accepting Aventus's quest to kill Grelod the Kind, you might be questioning how a child would define "evil" at their age. Then you enter the orphanage and hear her lecturing the kids that if any of them shirk their chores, they'll earn an ''extra'' beating.
** Upon arrival in several (though not all) of the major cities, you're treated to a scene that establishes the troubles of that city. In Solitude, it's the execution of an otherwise good man who allowed Ulfric Stormcloak to escape the city after killing the High King. In Windhelm, it's racist Nords harassing a dark elf. At the Riften gates, a corrupt guard tries to shake you down and a mob tough just past the gate lets you know that the Black-Briars own the city. In Markarth, you witness the Forsworn murder a woman (and get a frigid reaction from the guard if you try to help them). In Whiterun, everything is on lockdown following word of a dragon being sighted, and when you get inside, you see a microcosm of the civil war itself: a smith unable to meet the intense economic demands of the war, demands which are caused by two feuding families' inability to reconcile their differences in the war.
** That the first major mission for the Thieves Guild has you performing a bit of [[InterrogationByVandalism Extortion By Vandalism]] upon a sympathetic shopkeeper who barely has any cash anyway helps establish right out of the gate that this iteration of the Thieves Guild is [[ContrastingSequelProtagonist a far darker, pettier, and more desperate beast]] than the Robin Hood-like Thieves Guild you worked for in ''Oblivion''.
* EternalEngine: Dwemer ruins are full of robotic golems, pumping pistons, hissing steam and scrap metal. It probably helped that their power sources were soul gems.
* EternalEnglish:
** [[spoiler:When you read the Elder Scroll at the Time-Wound, you see a vision of a couple thousand years back, only to find that everyone speaks the same sort of English they speak in the fourth era (albeit much more poetically). Of course, it's possible this is an effect of the Elder Scroll, and you should be glad that reading the thing at a place called ''Time-Wound'' didn't do worse to you.]]
** Serana in ''Dawnguard'' was imprisoned for centuries, yet somehow is perfectly capable of speaking modern Cyrodiilic/Nordic/whatever. Given how much time the Dragonborn spends in her company, however, this one probably qualifies for AcceptableBreaksFromReality.
* EternalRecurrence: The Nords believe in this. Alduin eats the world, and the next cycle begins.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: One tribe of bandits has the leader's uncle as a guard at the entrance to their cave, even thought he's blind and not that bright. One of the bandits outside has a note on him from the leader lecturing his men about playing tricks on his uncle and threatening them with imprisonment if they don't leave him alone.
** Another bandit leader sends money and letters to her father, even though he always sends the money back while urging her to leave banditry before it gets her killed.
* EvenEvilCanBeLoved: Serana the FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire does her best to humanize her father, the omnicidal vampire lord Harkon. Her tragedy is that even she realizes that the parent she once loved has long been consumed by his hunger for power, and there is ultimately no way of redeeming him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Thrynn, one of the Thieves' Guild members, was once a bandit. He said it was good life until the day when he raided a caravan, his leader ordered him to kill the defenseless women and children ForTheEvulz, and he refused and killed the leader instead.
** Mjoll the Lioness, when asked about the Thieves' Guild, denounces them soundly as a bunch of lawless crooks, while noting that even the Dark Brotherhood has rules that they abide by. [[spoiler:If you've actually been ''through'' the DB story arc, however, you'll know that this isn't true - it's ''supposed'' to be, but the Skyrim branch has gone somewhat off the rails. You will also know this is complete BS if you've actually played the Thieves' Guild questline, as Brynjolf repeatedly impresses upon you that killing is not allowed. Of course, not being affiliated with either group, Mjoll only has common knowledge on which to base her opinions.]]
** The elder Bolag of Narzulbur has been poisoning her nephew's wives together with her sister Yatul. If the Dragonborn happens to eavesdrop around them at the right moment, Bolag will reveal in conversation with Yatul that she refuses to harm a pregnant wife, and both of them seem to care about the chief's two children. Of course, that doesn't stop them from murdering the wives once their children are born...
* EveryoneIsBi / EvenTheGirlsWantHer / EvenTheGuysWantHim: All eligible marriage candidates can be wed regardless of sex and/or race.
** Some characters seem to have a ''slight'' preference, though this has no effect on when/if they become marriageable. For instance, Aela the Huntress has slightly different responses after asking the Dragonborn if they think they could take Vilkas in a real fight, and the player declines to boast:
--->''To female, in a warm, slightly flirty tone'': A woman who lets her actions speak for her. I knew there was something I liked about you.\\
''To male, in a condescending, slightly sarcastic tone'': Ah, a man of action.
* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies:
** Draugr are Skyrim's version of zombies: entombed ancient Nords who rise up to defend their crypts.
** You can revive anything killable as a zombie with the various Undead Raising spells. However they look exactly the same as how they died, the only difference is how their corpses dissolve into dust upon death (the Master version of the spell, Dead Thrall, prevents this, effectively giving you a second, immortal follower).
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Vampires in Skyrim usually make their home in icy caverns and/or ice-covered fort ruins, and are fond of using frost magic. Draugr are also known for hitting you with a frostbite blast from their hands. Of course, the native Nords are all highly resistant to cold damage; they're used to dealing with this crap, apparently.
** This is actually a CallBack to existing canon, which established the clan of vampires living in Skyrim as having an affinity with frost. They also have the power to phase through ice and frost, though it's never demonstrated in-game.
** Dragons can use ice breath in addition to the more traditional fire breath. The higher level dragons seem to prefer the former, such as with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Frost Dragons]].
* EvilIsHammy: In addition to slicing up your foes with their big ole daedric greatswords, conjured dremora will slice the ham.
** Alduin also counts, as does Sahloknir.
* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Played straight by the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, who both know of each other and will contract with the other when they need something done.
* EvilLaugh: Molag Bal's laugh is especially sinister and frightening.
* EvilOrphanageLady: Honorhall Orphanage in Riften is run by a terrible old woman called Grelod the Kind. She constantly gives speeches to the kids about how worthless they are and that they won't be adopted, ever. The kids themselves tell you that beatings are frequent, and snooping around the building reveals that there is a cell with shackles on the wall. The kind normally seen in prisons. Grelod also starves the children by giving them only ''one'' meal a day in the afternoon. ''She even keeps them from being adopted'' -- she's that much of a power-hungry ControlFreak. It's so bad that, when one of the kids escaped, he tried to recruit [[MurderInc the Dark Brotherhood]] to kill Grelod. [[spoiler:You can pretend to be from the Brotherhood and kill Grelod yourself. The children will ''cheer'' and praise the Dark Brotherhood. Needless to say, the Dark Brotherhood is not happy about this.]]
* EvilPaysBetter:
** While the reward money for choosing to destroy the Dark Brotherhood rather than joining it is impressive, it just can't match up to a unique mount, dagger and summon, plus the ''huge'' amounts of gold you will acquire from completing the questline. For reference: destroying the Brotherhood nets you 3000 gold. If you join them instead, their final quest alone earns you ''20000''.
** For a certain perspective of evil, you can choose between two rewards at the end of the Azura's Star questline. The canonical "good" path gets you a follower but gives you a soul gem that can only hold White souls. The "evil" path gets you a soul gem that can hold both White and Black (i.e., humanoid) souls, which is significantly more useful, if you accept that you are literally torturing the souls of sentient beings.
** Compare the rewards from the Companions' radiant quests to the Dark Brotherhood's radiant quests. For clearing a dungeon to retrieve a family heirloom, the Dragonborn will be rewarded with 300 gold. For killing one single contract target who is nigh on defenseless, the same-level Dragonborn will be rewarded with ''1200 gold''.
** There's also the nigh-limitless amount of money to be made by just stealing everything in sight. If you're willing to break into and clean out the valuable possessions of all the homes and assorted other buildings in the game's cities and towns, then pickpocket as much as you can from the inhabitants on top, you'll never want for cash. The only limit is your patience (and your skill).
** Seems to be a bit of a running theme with the Daedric artifact quests. Some of them require you to do immoral things (usually murder) to earn the artifact, but you're allowed to rake a less horrible course of action if you want, depriving you of the unique piece of equipment in the process.
*** To obtain Mehrunes' Razor, you must [[spoiler: kill the guy who gave you the quest.]] If you don't, he'll give you 500 gold as thanks for sparing him, which is literally less than the value of the Razor itself.
*** Namira's Ring requires you to [[spoiler: kill a priest of Arkay and eat his flesh.]] If you instead kill the leader of the cannibal coven as soon as you meet her, you only get whatever loot she has on her person. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] if you TakeAThirdOption and play along with the cannibals' plot up until the very end, at which point you can kill them all and loot their stuff. You'll also get a decent sum of leveled gold from the priest [[spoiler: whom you just saved from becoming cannibal chow]] and the keys to a few houses in Markarth, including the general goods store, allowing you to rob them with impunity if you wish.
*** [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment One notable inversion]] is Clavicus Vile. [[spoiler:If you choose to ignore Clavicus's demands and spare Barbas, you'll be rewarded with the unique Masque of Clavicus Vile. On the other hand, if you accept his offer and kill Barbas, who had previously trusted you to get him back safely, you get stuck with a crappy axe that doesn't even count as a Daedric artifact. Then again, did you really expect [[JackassGenie Clavicus Vile]] to ''not'' try and screw you over?]]
* EvilSorcerer: Arondil the Necromancer is a perverted creep who was exiled from Dawnstar because he became a StalkerWithACrush to the village's milkmaids. He went into hiding in some nearby ruins to perform his practices in secret, and when one of the adventurous girls went exploring in the ruins he killed her and raised her as a thrall to sleep with her. Now he sends undead draugr to capture Dawnstar's women and bring them back to Yngvild to ''create his own undead harem''. If you ever go into Yngvild, please do [[KickTheSonOfABitch waste him]].
* EvilVersusEvil:
** The Silver-Blood/Forsworn conflict. On one side, a family of murderous, filthy rich scumbags with their fingers in the city government and a penchant for having those who disobey them executed if they're lucky, and sentenced to forced labor in the mines if they're not. On the other side, a group of black magic-practicing terrorists who will not hesitate to kill anybody who gets in their way, even if they have nothing to do with the fight, and who are believed to both cannibalize their victims and use their skin and bones to make weapons and armor.
** The contract to kill Hern, a vampire who feeds on wayward travelers. He will lampshade this if you tell him you're there to kill him.
** Given how easy and lucrative playing a villain protagonist can be, often the player character versus any of the evil factions qualifies.
* ExactWords: After you kill Grelod the Kind, you will be kidnapped by Astrid and taken to a cabin out in the wilderness. Before you are three people: a cowardly Nord sellsword, a feisty Imperial housewife and a Khajiit murderer, thief and rapist (self-professed). Astrid tells you that for you to leave, "someone in this shack has to die". Refusing to play Astrid's game by killing ''her'' and pilfering the shack key from her body is a perfectly valid (and sweetly ironic) option.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller:
** When you meet [[spoiler:Delphine for the first time in her room under the inn,]] you can say, "I was expecting someone... taller."
** One of the Companions also says that he expected the new Harbinger to be taller, once you finish the Companions questline.
* ExposedToTheElements: You can find bandits wearing little more than a loincloth in the middle of a snowstorm. The PC can also fall under this trope by wearing skimpy Forsworn or fur armor in screaming blizzards – if they're female, it's little more than a fur loincloth and bra; if they're male, it's [[ShirtlessScene little more than a fur loincloth]].
** [=NPC=]s will, however, comment on this if a character is walking around in their underwear.
--->'''Random citizen to naked PC''': Ysmir's beard, you're going to freeze to death!
** {{Averted|Trope}} if you use the extremely popular [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11163/ Frostfall]] GameMod, which adds a cold weather survival element to the game. [[NintendoHard Skyrim's cold will kill you long before the monsters and bandits do if you are unprepared]]. Travelling at night is risky, being caught in a blizzard can easily spell your doom, and Talos help you if you fall into freezing water and can't dry off.
*** The Survival Mode option available from Creation Club does something similar, by forcing you to worry about elemental conditions as well as getting sufficient food and rest.
* ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: The game features almost no cutscenes (in fact, the only real ones appear at the very beginning of the game and right before the final dungeon, and in the first case you still have control of the camera). However, during certain important questlines (such as the Companions questline) the game will at specific points disable all movement or interaction for the player except camera movement as a scene unfolds nearby.
* EtTuBrute: If you side with the Stormcloaks during the Civil War questline, once you take [[spoiler: Whiterun, Jarl Balgruuf]] will finish his verbal beatdown of Galmar by turning to you and saying, [[spoiler:"[[WhatTheHellHero And you, a Stormcloak? I thought better of you than that.]]"]]
* ExpositoryThemeTune: "The Song of the Dragonborn" (the song at the main menu screen) is this, if you can understand the Dragon language. The full lyrics, with translation, are included in one of the in-game books, but it has more lyrics and verses than are included in the official rendition of the song. Instead, it actually matches up with the track heard in Sovngarde - the original version of the song, perhaps.
** Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn, / To keep evil forever at bay. / And the fiercest foes rout / When they hear triumph's Shout / Dragonborn, for your blessing we pray!
* ExtremeOmnivore: One way you can discover one of an ingredient's uses in Alchemy (more with a Perk) is to eat it. Fair enough when the ingredients in question are plants and berries. Bug parts, weird-but-technically-edible animal parts, and potentially poisonous mushrooms are strange and slightly risky, but the effects wear off and don't really hurt you in the amount you use. Teeth and horns of various animals, the toe of a dead giant, the oil that lubricated ancient Dwemer machinery, even ''pearls''?
* EyelessFace:
** Flame Atronachs have no eyes, as the top of their head above their facial armor is a mass of fire.
** Falmer have patches of skin growing over where their eyes should be, rendering them looking like tumorous lumps of flesh. Notably their helmets only open up from the nose down (however that does not prevent you from seeing when you wear it).
* EyeScream: One of the finishers for one-handed swords on dragons is to climb onto the head of the thrashing dragon, and then stab them right in the eye.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** A Stormcloak soldier at the beginning of the game volunteers to be the first to be executed and uses his last words to condemn the Imperials. The other Stormcloaks probably would have followed in his footsteps if a dragon hadn't shown up.
** Also at the beginning of the game, Ralof says this almost verbatim to the luckless horse-thief, Lokir of Rorikstead. Lokir disregards this advice, and gets a few arrows in the back for it. If he'd just gone along, he might well have survived after all...
** At the end of the civil war quest chain, if the player supports the Empire, [[spoiler:Jarl Ulfric will initially go down swinging, but once beaten he will calmly accept his defeat and ask for the Dragonborn to finish him off, because it would "be a better song."]]
** Topping them all though, is [[spoiler:the Emperor himself,]] whom you must kill at the end of the Dark Brotherhood chain, if you choose to join them. After welcoming you warmly and saying that this is just how things work, he then calmly turns his back towards you, ready for his fate. He does ask for a final request, which you can fulfill or not: to kill whoever it is who commissioned his death. Even then, he does not expect it of you; he asks it as a favor, nothing more.
** The Old Orc. He is too old to take a wife or become chief, but not too old to serve in battle. He refuses to die of old age (saying that to keep something past the point it is useful is unseemly, even more so if it is one's own life), and thus sets out across Skyrim to find a good death. He says he has received a vision from Malacath that he would die a glorious death at a certain point in Skyrim, and waits there for someone (possibly you) to deliver it.
** The Ebony Warrior. He's done it all. Done every "quest," fought in almost every battle, to the point where everything is trivial to him. But when he hears of your exploits (when you hit 80), he seeks the opportunity to be sent to Sovngarde with honor.
* FaceHeelTurn: The High Elves, who not only seceded from the Empire, but also forcibly conscripted the Wood Elves into their new nation, manipulated the Khajiit into becoming vassals, and threatened to destroy the Empire unless they banned the worship of Talos because, partially due to their [[FantasticRacism believed superiority]], they don't like the idea of a human ascending to godhood, much less one that ran roughshod all over their last nation.
* FamousLastWords: Quite a few, beginning with the Stormcloak soldier that gets executed at the beginning: "My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials. Can you say the same?
* TheFaceless: Miraak's face is never shown. Even after you kill him, [[spoiler: you eat his soul, so his flesh dissolves, meaning you still can't see his face even after looting his gear.]]
** [[spoiler: Console commands, however, reveal that he's a Nord, with receding hair and BlackEyesOfEvil. The latter is presumably a side effect of either learning too many of Hermaeus Mora's secrets or spending too much time in Apocrypha.]]
* FacelessGoons: The common Stormcloak soldiers wear face-concealing helmets; the same as most Hold guards. Averted with their Imperial counterparts, who wear open-face helmets.
* FailedASpotCheck:
** It's perfectly possible, as a stealthy assassin, to headshot a guard with your bow and hide, leaving his friend to have a brief look around before deciding he must have been hearing things. He will then [[TooDumbToLive go right back to his post, standing by his deceased buddy, and leaving himself open to another shot.]] Spoofed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0 this video]].
** A less serious example with Hadvar and Ralof. If the player follows one of them to Riverwood, they will make a pit stop at the Guardian Stones, where the player may choose their starting sign - [[FighterMageThief Warrior, Thief or Mage.]] They will approve of the warrior and be indifferent if the player chooses Mage, but will be outright disapproving if they choose the Thief stone. Of course, it's perfectly possible to choose the Warrior and then simply change to the Thief. Ralof[=/=]Hadvar will not comment on this, even if they're watching you while you do it.
** During the Companions quest "Proving Honor," Farkas may drop his Skyforge Steel Greatsword [[spoiler: when he transforms into a werewolf, then pick up the Silver Greatsword dropped by the Silver Hand afterward,]] allowing the player to pick up and acquire a Skyforge Steel weapon earlier than normal. When sending you to Eorlund Gray-Mane to legitimately acquire a Skyforge Steel weapon, Kodlak will comment about the poor quality of whatever weapon you are holding, even if it is the Skyforge Steel Greatsword acquired from Farkas. Put off the Companions quests long enough, and it's entirely possible for Kodlak to dismiss a ''Dragonbone'' weapon as "whatever ''that'' is." Doubly amusing if you're using a silver sword looted from the Silver Hand.
** During the Cursed Tribe quest, Chief Yamarz turns against you should you or he succeed in killing the Giants. If you happen to have the Calm spell from Illusion school and keep him alive, he follows you, and you can tell the rest of the tribe that Yamarz is dead... when he's still standing ''right next to you''.
* FakeCrossover: An official mod places [[VideoGame/{{Portal 2}} the Space Core]] into the game as an item. When you put it into the game, the poor guy falls from the sky [[spoiler:(guess where he was before)]], which makes one wonder if this really is a FakeCrossover...
* FakeUltimateHero: The eponymous "hero" of the ballad "Ragnar the Red". An oafish drunk and lying braggart of a man who continually boasted to everyone he met about his accomplishments and the gold he had made through battle. A [[ActionGirl plucky shieldmaiden named Matilda]] steps up to shut him up, and then Ragnar literally loses his head!
* FanservicePack: Nocturnal, the Daedric Prince of night and darkness, was just a woman wearing a cloak that covered her entirely in ''Oblivion''. Come ''Skyrim'', her statue is depicted in a scanty cloak with AbsoluteCleavage that opens up at the side of her thighs, fully exposing the legs.
* FantasticDrug: Skooma is still around, though it doesn't have negative effects like it did in ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion''; it's not even really illegal! One quest also features the more potent "Balmora Blue", which ''is'' illegal -- and is supposedly priceless, what with there not being a Balmora anymore.
* FantasticRacism: The Elder Scrolls was always unsubtle with this, but for ''Skyrim'', this is taken UpToEleven.
** Most prominent is racism between Men and [[OurElvesAreBetter Mer]]. The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Thalmor]] view the human races of Tamriel as inferior upstart savages. [[ScrewYouElves And the men aren't exactly fond of the elves either]], especially the Thalmor, who have forced the Empire to ban the worship of their patron god.
** If someone ever gives a reason for siding with the Imperials over the Stormcloaks in the civil war sidequest, this is often the main reason given. The Stormcloaks have very strong racist tendencies and they do ''not'' hide this fact. This darker side is easiest to see in [[WretchedHive Windhelm]]. Dunmer are forced to live in the filthiest, poorest part of the city, and abuse from the local Nords is an almost daily occurrence. The Argonian dock workers are paid a tiny fraction of what the Nord workers are paid; they are also not permitted to live within the city walls, and are '''physically beaten''' if they try. Ulfric Stormcloak will send guards to root out bandits if a Nord village is attacked, but won't lift a finger to help Khajiit caravans when they're harassed. On the other hand, they tend to make exceptions if it would be beneficial - non-Nord characters can ask when joining the Stormcloaks, and be told that it's loyalty that matters rather than blood.
** The two {{beast m|an}}en races get this the worst, by several lengths. Argonians are oppressed and hated throughout Skyrim, and if you choose to play as an [[LizardFolk Argonian]], you can be sure that they won't call you by that name, preferring less charming terms such as "lizard". [[CatFolk Khajiit]] will also be subjected to racial slurs, often stereotyped as thieves, drug-addicts and generally lowly scum ([[ThenLetMeBeEvil ironically forcing them to become these things to survive]]). This makes [[NaturalWeapon clawing]] the offenders to death much more satisfying.
** As for [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orsimer]], they're regarded as little more than disgusting, ugly brutes. The in-game book ''The Pig Children'' gives a rather nasty example of this.
** Even though the PlayerCharacter is the ChosenOne, they don't entirely escape the racist abuse. This is sometimes intentional and sometimes unintentional, but always very awkward. For example, playing as an Orc, to hear Lydia swear undying loyalty to you in one breath and then say, "Die, you Orc filth!" to an opponent of yours in the next sort of makes one wonder...
* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
** The four main human races have real world counterparts:
*** The Empire is heavily based on the [[AncientRome Roman Empire]]; the Imperial Legion armors have even taken on a much more Roman-like appearance this time around to reflect this, comfortably familiar to players of ''Morrowind''.
** Two of the elven races have real life counterparts:
*** The Altmer are based on Germany during the Nazi regime; the Thalmor treat anyone not Altmer as inferior beings. They hunt those that worship Talos, and the dissidents either are being hunted by them in their homeland, help the persecuted secretly, or immigrate to other provinces to help stop the Thalmor.
*** The Dunmer have some similarities to the Jewish people in that, having lost their homeland, they are now scattered throughout Tamriel with some areas making them forced to live in ghettos.
** The Khajiit are pretty much based on the Romani people. Their vocal patterns emphasize this.
** In ''Dragonborn'', the Skaal are like standard Nords mixed with Inuits.
** The Orcs, weirdly enough, have more than a little in common with Native Americans. They had their land stolen from them under the threat of violence, and now live in rather limited communal dwellings, resembling something similar to a reservation.
* FashionBasedRelationshipCue: Wearing an Amulet of Mara, the goddess of marriage and romantic love, signifies that you're looking for a spouse. Characters who are eligible for marriage will comment on the amulet if you speak to them.
* FastForwardMechanic: There is a wait function, allowing you to wait for a number of hours of your choice. The current time should be somewhere at the bottom-left corner of the box. It's useful for getting the shops to open (wait until after 8:00 am) and letting followers catch up. Sleeping, if available at the time, accomplishes the same thing and adds the Rested bonus besides.
* AFatherToHisMen: General Tullius of the Imperial Legion. [[spoiler:If the player sides with the Legion and captures Windhelm, he compliments his soldiers, doubles their pay, and also doubles the compensations to the widows of the dead soldiers.]] He seems to be based on Julius Caesar. Ulfric Stormcloak and Galmar Stonefist are this as well, as they love their men dearly and are deeply respected in return.
* {{Fauxshadow}}:
** Maurice, from the "Blessing of Nature" quest, practically screams sinister with his appearance, voice, and mannerisms. [[spoiler:Not only is he a genuinely good guy, but keeping him alive actually makes the final part of the quest ''much'' easier.]]
** Likewise, Mara [[spoiler:and former Vaermina]] priest Erandur in Dawnstar is a dark elf who seems to know a lot about nightmares and expresses genuine admiration when confronted with the ingeniousness of a Daedric Lord's work. You even get a message warning you that he plans to betray you. [[spoiler:He actually is truly redeeming himself, and stays true to his word to destroy the Skull of Corruption, becoming a rather powerful follower afterwards. The warning was a lie from Vaermina trying to turn you against him.]]
** Between his sly voice, deep interest in the Mythic Dawn cult, and the excited, even reverent way he speaks of Mehrunes' Razor, Silus Vesuius definitely feels less like a man trying to come to terms with the sordid past of his family and more like a barely-closeted Daedra worshiper. [[spoiler: He really doesn't have any ill intentions, only turning against you if you try to murder him, and only seems to want to reforge the Razor to complete his museum. If you spare him during the quest, he is grateful to you and perfectly content to just have the broken dagger on display.]]
* FetchQuest: The game is ''filled'' with these, and in fact the "Radiant Story" system was built for this. It does, however, ''usually'' have the decency to point to locales you have yet to visit, making the journey as bountiful as the destination when you clear out a new dungeon.
* FictionalDocument: As per Elder Scrolls tradition, there are hundreds that can be picked up and read. These range from potion recipes to a TomeOfEldritchLore.
* FighterMageThief: The three archetypal builds are present even without classes, as each skill is one of six in each purview. In the astrological lore of the series, these three are the names of three "Guardian" constellations in the zodiac which "watch over" lesser constellations devoted to these three builds. The new skill tree system's visible appearance is a direct callback to this, with the three "Guardians" as huge nebulae over the warrior, mage and thief skill trees that appear as constellations in the sky. (The old constellations like "The Atronach" and "The Shadow" have been moved to the standing stones dotting Skyrim.)
** Many of the Jarls have one of each archetype (though "thief" may be a bit of a stretch, that is the constellation that includes Speech) for advisors: The Housecarl for the more strength-at-arms-tinted advice, the Steward for the voice of discretion, and the Court Mage for advice on any arcane matters.
** The three heroes of ancient Skyrim also fit into this trichotomy.
** The three patricidal sons of [[TheArchmage Archmage]] [[TheAce Gauldur]]. Mikrul is a Warrior FlunkyBoss with a [[LifeDrain life-draining sword]], Sigdis is an archer with DoppelgangerSpin, and Jyrik is a mage and also BarrierChangeBoss.
* FilkSong:
** There are several by Gavin Dunne (Music/MiracleOfSound): [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BHKLVr_Cxw Sovngarde Song]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCHq0m67lq8 Nord Mead]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqEVCTMkBnI Khajiit Like To Sneak]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FLQ4rACE-0 Legends of the Frost]]
** Music/{{Dragonforce}} has one called "[[https://youtu.be/4-7xjtzIwbs The Last Dragonborn]]"
* FinalBossPreview: As noted above, [[spoiler:the dragon that so handily interrupts your beheading at the start of the game]] is actually Alduin, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain trying to kill you.]]
** You actually get at least three encounters with him before the actual final battle. The third one [[spoiler: subverts the usual expectation of getting curb stomped. You actually have him on the run and news of his refusal to submit to you after defeating him and instead fleeing shakes the confidence the other dragons have in Alduin's leadership.]]
* FinishingMove: Born from the popular ''Oblivion'' GameMod "Deadly Reflexes" and as an extension of the predecessor Fallout 3 engine's VATS kill-cam function, we have Finishers - flashy animations where characters kill others in a spectacular manner. Every weapon in the game has at least two finisher animations for every enemy type in the game, and projectile weapons have a few as well.
** Particularly satisfying is one of the unarmed Finishers, [[spoiler:a chokeslam]]. Have AnAxeToGrind? Your character doesn't need it as they're quite happy to headbutt a foe to death.
* FireBreathingWeapon: While its predecessor ''Oblivion'' only featured spells that fire a single bolt of elemental energy, ''Skyrim'' also features spells that fire a stream of energy. These tend to require less magicka than the other variety, but deal less damage.
** In addition, the player can learn to breathe fire (and frost) in the same way the Dragons do.
* FireIceLightning: Destruction magic has you covered for all three. Tactically, they have different uses: fire is cheapest and does after-burn damage, ice drains stamina and slows enemies, and lighting drains magic and is a HitScan projectile.
* FissionMailed: There's a minor example in the "Season Unending" quest. When attempting to write a temporary peace treaty between the Stormcloaks and the Empire, no matter what actions you take there will ''always'' be a moment where one or both of the factions will call the whole debate pointless and a waste of time and then threaten to storm out. This can make the player think they screwed up... until Esbern suddenly steps in and gives a scathing speech to both factions about the fact that ''Alduin will kill them all'' if they don't put aside their petty differences. The peace treaty negotiations then proceed from where they left off.
** Another example happens at the end of the ThievesGuild quest "Speaking with Silence" when Karliah shoots the Dragonborn in a scripted cutscene. You're lying on the floor, vision blurring and darkening, unable to do anything, and then [[spoiler:Mercer]] tops it off by stabbing you - all of that from a lovely first person POV. When the screen goes black, you could be forgiven for thinking the Dragonborn just got KilledOffForReal. Nothing of the sort happens, of course, and the quest line proceeds one loading screen later.
** There's also the moment in the "Dawnguard" questline when the Dragonborn and Serana cross a bridge only to have it collapse under them, sending them plummeting to a river far below. Like with the Thieves' Guild example, the player could be forgiven for thinking they just made a terrible mistake.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Grelod the Kind.
* FoeTossingCharge: The top level tier for the Block perk tree allows you to go baddie bowling if you sprint with your shield up.
* ForebodingArchitecture: Gets especially obvious in Nordic ruins. Yes, the sarcophagi will bust open dramatically the moment you try to take the loot or the MacGuffin, and yes, the [[GiantSpider Frostbite Spider]] will drop down through the giant hole in the ceiling.
** In ''Dawnguard'', many of the Gargoyle statues contain living Gargoyles.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Bethesda loves to use this trope regarding in-game books.
*** You can find a copy of ''The Book of the Dragonborn'' in the dungeons while making your escape from Helgen - quite some time before you learn that ''you'' are the title character.
*** There's a copy of ''Nightingales: Fact or Fiction'' right next to Mercer Frey. [[spoiler: If you follow the Thieves' Guild quest line, you find out he is one. And you get the chance to become one yourself.]]
*** There's a copy of ''Wabbajack'' in the Blue Palace bedrooms. [[spoiler: Then you can receive the same weapon yourself in a closed wing of the very same palace.]]
** Certain dungeons have the spirits of people who've explored the dungeon before you (most notably the Labyrinthian). Their corpses and subsequent "visions" show you just how ''not'' to approach the next room.
** Near the beginning of the game, the Greybeards call out to you using the dragon word "Dovahkiin." [[spoiler: You shout in the same manner to call a dragon, Odahviing, to you in order to chase after Alduin near the climax.]]
** When you have your first fight with [[spoiler:Alduin]], he decides ThatBattleDidntCount and flees, sending shockwaves across the dragons and causing many of them to openly question his ability to lead them: being firm believers that AsskickingEqualsAuthority, dragons believe that you should either be DefiantToTheEnd or submit to the winner. [[spoiler:Later on, you capture a dragon named Odahviing and he swears loyalty to you.]]
** Vilkas of the Companions says, "I think I've killed one of every living thing in Skyrim. May be time for a trip to Morrowind." Fast forward to the ''Dragonborn'' DLC; while not in Morrowind, it does take place in Solstheim, the location of the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion.
** Upon escaping Helgen, when facing Frostbite Spiders, Hadvar says, "What next? Giant snakes?" Guess what new monster they introduce in ''Online''.
* ForestOfPerpetualAutumn: The Rift seems to be in autumn, even though other regions on the same latitude seem to be in spring.
* ForgedLetter:
** There is an early quest that involves giving a fake letter from Faendal (actually written by Sven) and giving it to a girl they both like. The player can then choose to tell Faendal about the letter, and can choose to deliver a similar letter from Sven (actually written by Faendal).
** Another example serves as the MacGuffin in one Civil War quest regardless of faction when the Dragonborn is tasked with acquiring a letter containing war intel from an enemy messenger. Their commanding officer then proceeds to... adjust certain details of the intel before returning the letter to the Dragonborn, who then delivers it to the enemy officer for whom it was intended.
* ForkFencing: [[DownPlayed Downplayed]] but possible with rare, EasterEgg versions of the common fork and cutlery knife that can be picked up and used as the worst two weapons in the game. They're semi-functional [[JokeItem joke weapons]] but you can enchant them to make them a bit more [[LethalJokeWeapon lethal]].
* ForTheEvulz: The ghost of [[spoiler:Lucien [=LaChance=]]] acts like this, often advocating murder for petty reasons.
* FriendlyFireproof: [[spoiler:In the corner of Apocrypha in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC accessed by the black book ''Winds of Change'', one of the "Insights" you can choose is Companion's Insight, which is this trope.]]
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires:
** [[spoiler:The Circle of the Companions are Friendly Neighborhood Werewolves.]]
** Nice vampires are few and far between, including only [[spoiler:Babette ([[MurderInc kind of]]), Sybille Stentor]], and in ''Dawnguard'', [[spoiler:Serana]].
** The guests at Namira's feast might count as Friendly Neighbourhood Cannibals if you choose to join them.
** Any player character that becomes a vampire and remains a nice person.
* FromBadToWorse: According to the plot, things in Tamriel have indeed gotten worse during the 200-year gap between ''Oblivion'' and ''Skyrim''.
** Keep in mind that ''Oblivion'' involved an invasion from a hell realm with demons erupting out and causing mass death and destruction... those are now seen as the ''good old days.''
** An [[InvokedTrope invoked]] example: Gunmar of the Dawnguard got the idea of putting armor on his trained trolls after he began to wonder what could be even worse than an ordinary troll.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: Killing Grelod the Kind can result in one of the orphans taking a very dark interest in assassination and its ability to "solve people's problems."
* FungusHumongous: Blackreach has glowing mushrooms that reach all the way to the top of the cavern.
** Tel Mithryn in ''Dragonborn'' is an absolutely enormous mushroom that serves as the home of the Dunmer wizard [[{{Jerkass}} Neloth.]]
* FurAgainstFang: Mentioned in passing by Lord Harkon in ''Dawnguard''. If you're a werewolf when he offers to make you a vampire lord, he regards it as filth in your blood, and his tone suggests he's genuinely disgusted by it. If you refuse his offer to join them, this applies as well.
* FurBikini:
** The female version of Forsworn Armor.
** The common Fur Armor looted off bandits has four variants (full-body with sleeves, sleeveless, barechested, and topless). When the minimal version is worn by a female character, this includes a strapless bikini top to replace the cloth brassiere they would otherwise be wearing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G]]
* GameBreakingBug: And what Bethesda release would be complete without them? It's to the point that the most downloaded mods are unofficial patches which do nothing ''except'' fix bugs. To wit:
** A patch that made the UsefulNotes/{{DRM}} for ''Skyrim'' actually require Steam to be running to play (as intended from release) also unleashed a host of stability problems and [[http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1284930-new-tesvexe-less-stable/ fan rage]].
** The 1.2 patch that was released broke all [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elemental resistances]], allowing, for example, [[ElementalEmbodiment Flame Atronachs]] to be killed by [[KillItWithFire fire attacks]]. This also applied to players, meaning those who relied on their resistances to [[StoneWall tank damage]] such as [[FighterMageThief melee warriors, mages or unsneaky thieves]]... are now magical CannonFodder. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Disease resistance has been screwed too, so you'll get diseases even if you're a werewolf.]]
** The 1.2 patch made dragons [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xCjK3BD6u4 fly backwards.]]
** At launch, the [=PS3=] version had a save issue that would cause the game to bog down the more you discovered and larger the save got. When the majority had been discovered, the game was nigh-unplayable. This still has yet to be rectified, though a patch was in the works; it's unknown whether such a patch was ever released, however, or ever will be given that the game was later ported to the [=PS4=] which had more processing power to handle the saves anyway.
** Numerous glitches exist that may lock a player out of an entire questline. Sometimes the glitch can be fixed with a patch (assuming one has an Internet-enabled [=PS3=]), but sometimes simply visiting a location prematurely is enough to disable a questline permanently.
** 1.3 had an unintended effect in that Werewolves' Beast Form now essentially has no armor value, making the form basically useless.
** Patch 1.5 tried to fix the infamous [=NavMesh=] bug that caused [=NPC=]s to stop moving in custom made areas. Instead of fixing it, it made the game horrendously unstable for mod users. Bethesda released another patch afterwards that reverted these changes.
** A rather annoying bug that hasn't been fixed involves the cutscene with Meridia. After talking with you, she might just drop you, leaving you to fall to your doom.
** The fight against Miraak in ''Dragonborn'' can be rendered unwinnable if you're too aggressive. Miraak is scripted to heal after taking enough damage, for a total of three times, and for the duration is rendered ethereal so you can't attack him. The problem is, each healing session is designed to only restore most of his health, the assumption being he'll have enough left upon going ethereal to cover the distance and restore him to full. If you damage him enough, though, the healing session will leave him at close to full health, while Miraak will only attack if his health is at full. Miraak will thus stay permanently ethereal, and the battle will be stuck. The only way to correct this problem is either to get him to leave combat (which not all character builds can do); otherwise, you're forced to reset and watch your damage output more carefully.
*** However, if you do get stuck in this manner, you can frequently fix it by shooting Hermaeus Mora (who floats above the battle in the center of the area, though often invisibly) with spell or arrow. Oddly, instead of getting peeved with you for nailing him, this triggers the stalled "death sequence" for Miraak and ends the fight.
** While this one doesn't break the game, it does make several quests unwinnable. If you have Barbas with you and enter Dragon Bridge, you may trigger a rare glitch in which Barbas might, for no reason, become hostile and attack the townspeople, eventually attacking a kid. Since Barbas and the kid are both immortal, he will end up chasing him forever.
** ''Dawnguard'' is terribly buggy in general, but some of the more notable ones are: Dimhollow Cavern not triggering properly, leaving you unable to even properly ''start'' the DLC story; being unable to speak to Serana after rescuing her; and either not being able to place the Soul Cairn ingredients in the bowl, or Serana never adding her blood to the mixture. All of those bugs render the player unable to progress, making the entire DLC being ''completely unplayable''. There's also a bug that cause random crash on the Visual C interpreter (and thus, the game) due to a major scripting bug on Jiub's quest in Soul Cairn, it can either solved by completing the tedious paper-collecting quest before exiting Soul Cairn or using console commands to complete the quest directly.
** Speaking of Serana, her leave/wait commands can get bugged, causing her to never offer the option to get her to stop waiting or become a follower again, which can only be fixed by resetting parts of her character script using the console.
** The block perk "Quick Reflexes" can get you stuck in bullet time. Fortunately there are unofficial patches that fix it.
** Quicksaving during combat is a game of Russian Roulette in that it doesn't always save right away. Sometimes it takes several seconds, long enough for the game to sneak in a cheaky death blow. Even in an advantageous position when you save, die before another save (but not right away,) then load and five times out of six you will be lucky for the game not to change the script and stick you in an endless death loop you cannot escape from. When it does happen your only recourse is to load an earlier save.
** A rare bug adds two firewood logs for each ore when you work on an ore vein; once it starts, each ore vein is affected. It doesn't break the quests or render the game unplayable, but it quickly becomes annoying, since firewood is rather heavy and its uses are limited (either to build a few things in your homestead, to craft arrows, or to gain low amount of money by giving them to specific traders).
** Sometimes, the guard which is supposed to unlock Whiterun's gate the first time you got there doesn't spawn, locking you out of the main quest early.
** One particularly annoying bug can cause the cutscene at the end of the Miraak fight in ''Dragonborn'' to not properly progress, leaving Miraak stuck [[spoiler:on Hermaeus Mora's tentacle]] and locking up the final quest. You can escape Apocrypha by reading the Black Book that got you there, but you won't be able to have any meaningful conversations with the Skaal for the rest of the game, and you also get screwed out of the quest rewards, including the ability to reset your skill points. Using console commands to fix the quest and clean up the aftermath is possible, but you still won't get the ability to reset skill points (although console commands let you do that too).
* GameGourmet: Played entirely straight for the first time in the series after being downplayed in ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion''. In those games, food items (both real and fantastical) are present and can be eaten directly for mild effects (mostly Restore Stamina). They are treated as standard [[AlchemyIsMagic alchemical ingredients]] and can be used to make potions with various effects. In ''Skyrim'', "food" and "ingredients" are separate. Food can still be eaten directly for mild effects (some fans have taken to calling food items "poor man's potions") while ingredients are used specifically for potion making. Food items can be combined at cooking stations to create higher quality effects.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: [[spoiler:As the Dovahkiin is tutored by the Greybeards and kills more of the dragons, s/he understands more of the Dragon Tongue, so [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall this extends to the player as well]]]]. It is also likely that dragons understand some amount of the language spoken in Skyrim and switch between this and their own language when speaking to humans, as many people unfamiliar in a language often do. [[spoiler:Dragons which actually speak to you - Paarthurnax and Odahviing - will swap midsentence; Alduin and a few of his named lieutenants will also do so, depending on to whom they're speaking.]]
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** For a race that was dying out, the dragons seem to have an awful lot of reinforcements. [[spoiler:And then [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration subverted]] when you meet Alduin while he's doing his thing.]]
** The player's race very rarely affects an {{NPC}}'s dialogue, even though racism against non-Nords is a major theme in the game. For example, the Khajiit traders are forbidden from so much as stepping inside city walls, but a player Khajiit can buy a house and get married without anyone so much as raising an eyebrow - and you can do this before you are even acknowledged as the Dragonborn.
** Characters that are wounded in gameplay-combat can be healed back to full in an instant with your "Healing Hands" spell. Characters that get wounded as part of the plot... not so much. Apparently you're just lucky none of those arrows you heal away so easily hit you in the knee...
** Certain plot threads are handled separately, which leads to odd situations where doing quests in certain orders leads to {{facepalm}}-worthy dialogues. For example, while doing Thieves' Guild quests, the player is told by Maven Black-Briar that she has Dark Brotherhood contacts and she'll sic them on you. Thing is, if you completed the Dark Brotherhood questline ''before'' doing the Thieves' Guild, [[spoiler:you know exactly who her contact was - Astrid, through Delvin. And Astrid is dead. And ''you'' are the head of the Brotherhood]]. If you've done both the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild storylines, Maven's threats and posturing take on a new level of absurdity, because she's [[spoiler:''[[IneffectualDeathThreats threatening you with yourself,]]'' [[IneffectualDeathThreats seeing as how]] ''[[IneffectualDeathThreats you lead both organizations]]'']].
** When you use the Thu'um in an area with [=NPC=]s, you're liable to receive an anonymous letter from a "friend" remarking on your usage of it at that location and the letter carrier lets you know where a Word Wall can be found. You'll receive these letters even if the location in question was a bandit lair where you murdered everyone, or your own home in one of the cities where the only people who would hear it are family members and personal friends, or even the ''Soul Cairn''.
** Skooma and Moon Sugar are narcotics. You will even meet addicts to the stuff. But in game, consuming them has no negative effects on you, even in large quantities. They also are supposed to be illicit drugs, but any merchants will buy them, as long as they accept potions and alchemical ingredients.
** At a certain point in one quest, the player gets stabbed and passes out. An NPC will tell them that a certain paralytic venom kept them from bleeding out. In combat, the player never "bleeds out" at all, and in fact regenerates - not to mention that the player may very well be immune to poisons in the first place!
** A lot of the Jarls are worried about dragon attacks, namely due to the fact that a lot of the structures in their city are flammable. In the game itself? Not so much. In fact, the structures are apparently so sturdy that they can withstand the force of a dragon landing on it... the same dragons that shake the earth otherwise.
** Children cannot be killed in gameplay, in spite of the fact that there are several instances of minor storylines that involve children being murdered (offscreen, of course). This particular example is [[JustifiedTrope justified]]; Bethesda was worried about possible complaints from irate parents if children could be killed in-game, so they made the children immortal. This can be particularly ridiculous in Windhelm, where the local serial killer can, at the conclusion of the quest, shank a child who suffers no ill-effects.
** The Skeleton Key. When [[spoiler: Mercer Frey]] uses it, it can open anything, including the sliding puzzle doors you need claws for, the [[spoiler: Thieves' Guild treasure vault]], which [[TwoKeyedLock requires two keys to open]], and [[spoiler:[[FullPotentialUpgrade his own inner potential]], allowing him to become [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower inhumanly strong]], fast and clever]]. When you use it, it's just an unbreakable lockpick. Of course, he's had the key for years and has learned how to use it.
** Several [=NPC=]s will give you sidequests that involve doing something underhanded or correcting a mistake of theirs against another person. This gets a little funny if the questgiver is "whispering" this to you while said other person is casually walking by (due to the game engine, said other person will also be looking straight at you, completely transfixed, but not saying a word). A notable example is the quest involving collecting ingredients for Ingun Black-Briar, who accidentally destroyed her master's collection of rare herbs and is trying to replace them before said master finds out. Since she works at her master's shop, she can be telling you all of this while said master walks right in between you two.
** Speaking of vampires - Meridia, Daedric Lord of Life, is a very powerful godlike entity with a burning hatred for the undead. Her Daedric quest revolves around press-ganging the Dragonborn into cleansing her temple from a necromancer who's set up shop inside. The segregation occurs when she doesn't give a flying f*** about the Dragonborn's own position in the lineup. You can be a fully leveled Vampire Lord riding a skeletal horse you summoned from a graveyard dimension, with a gaggle of undead thralls shuffling after you, an undead dragon watching your back, and a whole friggin' castle full of ancient vampires at your beck and call - Meridia couldn't care less in her interactions with you. It's not just her, for that matter, but practically every supernatural entity (such as Molag Bal, Alduin, Hermaeus Mora, and others) refers to you as a "mortal" too, ignoring your status as a vampire completely.
** In the live-action trailer for the game, a dragon is shown attacking a city with the crowd, guards and civilians alike, running in panic for their lives. In the game proper, as soon as a dragon lands inside a populated area, everyone in the vicinity will immediately stop what they were doing... [[SuicidalOverConfidence and run straight towards the dragon to attack it, sometimes with their]] ''[[SuicidalOverconfidence bare fists]]''. The results are [[CurbstompBattle predictable]]...
* GangstaStyle: A sneaking archer will hold, draw and fire their bow sideways.
* GayOption: You can marry any marriage candidates, regardless of what character you're playing as. [[EveryoneIsBi None of the prospective love interests]] [[AnythingThatMoves care about race or gender either]].
** An attempt at handwave mentions how harsh the Nord style of life is in Skyrim, and people don't have time for nonsense such as "romance".
* GenderedOutfit: Every outfit in the game has a male and female variant. Armor becomes a BreastPlate when fitted onto a female character, and regular clothes have vastly different appearances between the sexes.
** Because you're not technically supposed to be able to wear it, Nocturnal's robe has no male variant; males are simply made female (appearance-only), which reverts once the robes are removed.
** At the very least, most of the armors avoid becoming a ChainmailBikini. The only exception is Forsworn armor, but then it also looks very skimpy on the men too.
* GenderIsNoObject: You might occasionally hear otherwise, but gender makes very little difference (with the sole exception of the Imperial Legion, who has an oddly small number of female [=NPCs=] in it) when it comes to profession in this setting, both for the player character and for the non-player characters. The Companions, the manliest men in the game, have some womanly women with them; the Stormcloaks have both ranking-officer and grunt-level women; Jarls can be either men or women; and so on. There are plenty of ''other,'' more important things to be bigoted about in this setting (usually FantasticRacism).
* GenreBlind: The situations in which you stumble across dead bodies often suggest that this trope is the reason why.
-->'''Heddic's Volunruud Notes:''' I should have hired those sellswords in the first place. Perhaps there's no need. This place is just a tomb, after all, and there are no obvious signs of habitation. [[TooDumbToLive It isn't as though the thousand-year dead will mind if I have a look around.]]
-->'''Elf's Diary:''' I thought I just saw something moving beyond the barred door. It looked vaguely humanoid. I wonder if it could be an undiscovered automaton? I'm going to move my bedroll down here to see if I can catch another glimpse of it. This is all so exciting!
* GentleGiant: Subverted. Giants aren't immediately hostile, but they are fiercely territorial and won't hesitate to crush anyone that gets too close to them or their mammoths.
* GeorgeWashingtonSleptHere: The Old Hroldan Inn is said to be where Tiber Septim slept on the night before fighting the battle in which he earned the name Talos Stormcrown. [[spoiler:Sleeping there summons a ghost who sends you on a quest to grant him peace.]]
* GetBackHereBoss:
** When Dawnbreaker causes an explosion, any draugr that isn't killed by the blast will usually run away.
** The dragons can be this to a melee Dovahkiin until [[spoiler:they get Dragonrend to force them to land]].
** Some enemies (especially high-level Draugr) will suddenly remember that they're 800 years late for work and take off towards the exit of the dungeon you're currently in.
** Anytime you have to fight a enemy near a body of water. If they flee or take a wrong step, they will end up in the water. While unable to attack you due to not being able to draw their weapons, the same goes for you unless you have some sort of ranged weapon.
** Most of the boss fight with Harkon consists of trying to chase the obnoxious Vampire Lord down as he pelts you with Drain Life spells and summons gargoyles and skeletons to harass you, occasionally turning invisible to hide or into a swarm of bats to dodge your blows.
* GetItOverWith: Rather than wait for last rites, one of the Stormcloaks waiting with you to be executed at Helgen interrupts and claims, "I haven't got all morning!" He is immediately executed. Literally a minute later, a dragon attacks and the rest of the prisoners flee. If he had just let the priest finish talking...
* GhibliHills: Falkreath Hold. The only settlement there (besides the ruins of Helgen) is the hold capital itself. The primary industry seems to be logging, and the land itself is unspoiled, teeming with forests and trees, and sparsely populated.
** Arguably Whiterun. The surrounding country side is tundra, but it's grassy and snow-free. The people in the city itself are mostly pleasant, as is the Jarl, and even the guards after you complete a few quests, so the place feels like {{Arcadia}}. Perhaps not coincidentally, that is the name of the city's resident alchemy merchant.
* GiantEnemyCrab: Mudcrabs, naturally, but not just the ones that annoy you every time you come near a river. Just southeast of Rorikstead, there is a mudcrab-infested pool of water that appears to be ridged on all sides with rocks. On closer inspection, it turns out the "rocks" on one side are the corpse of a mudcrab bigger than everything except mammoths and dragons!
** [[spoiler: And you can fight the ghost of said giant Mudcrab in a quest!]]
* GiantSpiders: And we mean "GIANT". As in "bigger than freaking [[BearsAreBadNews grizzly bears]]".
* GlamourFailure: A meta-example. Several dungeons have you fight spectral enemies that appears as ghostly blue apparitions. However, they're just normal enemies with a particular visual effect applied to them. It often glitches up, particularly when they die, revealing their true nature.
** In vanilla ''Skyrim'', a vampire Dovahkiin would suffer this upon becoming Blood-Starved, with all [=NPCs=] becoming hostile until you fed again. This was removed in ''Dawnguard'', but it's still possible to suffer a GlamourFailure by accidentally triggering the [[OneWingedAngel Vampire Lord]] form instead of some other power (say, Whirlwind Sprint) in the middle of a populated city. The same can happen to a werewolf.
** One minor glitch in ''Dawnguard'' can leave the Dragonborn still sporting a halo of purplish glimmering light after returning from [[spoiler:the Soul Cairn]]. Although pretty, this is extremely annoying, as it makes it difficult for the player to see (especially in first-person view). The only way to fix it is to go [[spoiler:back to the Soul Cairn, find one of those life-draining purple crystals, and let it zap you briefly.]]
** Also in ''Dawnguard,'' Serana is a very powerful necromancer who will frequently raise the things you kill as her undead thralls. It's incredibly easy to mistake her thralls for actual enemies and kill them, unless you get close enough for the interface to identify them as "Serana's [whatever]."
* GlassCannon:
** Werewolves. They cannot wear armor, use potions, or perform restoration spells while in beast mode. Their health does not regenerate over time either, although they can regain some by eating the hearts of their victims They can, however, paralyze and stagger any enemy, rendering even ''ancient dragons'' helpless, if they enter melee range. ''Outside'' of melee range is where one good archer will do them in. Subverted if the player puts in the work to raise the Dragonborn's health to levels high enough that even dragons need time to whittle it down; then the Dragonborn as a werewolf is pretty much an unstoppable death machine.
** Dual-wielders. Potentially double the damage output of a sword-and-board fighter and can take perks that increase their attack speed, but are incapable of blocking.
** A variant on Dual Wielders are Dagger-wielders who use the Dark Brotherhood's ancient robes to massively increase damage. As expected of assassins, a stiff breeze will put a dent in your health, but you can murder ''dragons'' in just a few hits.
** Skeletons have roughly the same damage potential as rank-and-file Draugr, but are one of the most fragile enemies in the game.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The vampires in ''Dawnguard'' have these while human, and the Dragonborn can acquire them as well if they contract their strain of vampirism.
* GlowingFlora: Glowing mushrooms can be found growing in some caves. There is also the nirnroot, a plant which glows and makes a sound. Alson caverns the the Valley of the Falmer are lit by glowing flowers that can retract themselves to their shells.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The Dragon Numinex slowly went insane after being defeated and imprisoned by King Olaf. Eventually forgetting his own name.
* AGodAmI: It's eventually revealed that Alduin is actually [[spoiler:Akatosh's firstborn]], but he pretends to be an aspect of the Dragon of Time after he decided to exploit a misunderstanding. Well, maybe - given other available facts, it is possible that being [[spoiler: firstborn]] doesn't mean he ''isn't'' an aspect of the Dragon God of Time...
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: A quest you can get in Solitude has you [[spoiler:stopping the revival of Potema the Wolf Queen]].
* GodWasMyCopilot: Your drinking buddy in the quest "A Night to Remember" turns out to be none other than [[spoiler:Sanguine]] himself.
* GodzillaThreshold: Relying on the Dragonborn to save the world can become this: your character can be the leader of the Thieves' Guild and/or the Dark Brotherhood, have completed every Daedric quest that involves betrayal, torture, murder, and cannibalism, and have slain hundreds of innocent people before slaying even one dragon and being summoned by the Greybeards. And they'll still teach you to use the Voice, despite the fact that you're evil enough to be be measured in [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Kilonazis]] and will obviously abuse the power, because [[EvilVersusOblivion you are the only hope the world has]].
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the Greybeards in conversation. Whilst they are constrained by the Way of the Voice to use their Shouts only for divine purposes, the Dragonborn is under no such constraints. Since your power is directly granted by a gift of Akatosh himself, ''any'' use you choose to put it to must therefore be divinely ordained. No matter how depraved your actions, in the end you're on a MissionFromGod.
** Paarthurnax likewise helps the Dragonborn learn the [[BrownNote Dragonrend]] shout to help defeat Alduin, despite the fact that it could be used to kill ''him'' instead, especially since the Dragonborn is known to be allied with the Blades who want to kill him. Paarthurnax trusts the Dragonborn, and for the most part his trust is justified, as most players will immediately tell the Blades to shove it and remain friendly to Paarthurnax rather than give him a YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness moment.
* GoldFever: Bandits can be fooled into killing one another if you drop a gemstone into the area they patrol; they squabble over it, then come to blows. Another case of DevelopersForesight.
* GoneHorriblyRight:
** Arniel Gane in the Winterhold college wants to recreate the circumstances that led to the Dwemer being erased from existence. Once you help him set up the experiment, he tries it out and is erased from existence. Success! He then ends up in your spell list as a summon.[[note]]However, a glitch can cause him to also be a case of GoneHorriblyWrong - he will still appear in the spell list as a summon, but if you summon him, he doesn't actually do anything.[[/note]]
** If asked about the previous group of apprentices before yourself, Phinis Gestor mentions an apprentice called Yisra who was working on making the Flame Cloak spell work better in Skyrim's cold environment. If you know where to look, you can find her burned to a crisp, indicating that... well, it ''worked''.
* GoneHorriblyWrong:
** In the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, a team of Necromancers went into Fort Frostmoth to revive Falx Carius with a new form of Necromancy, which restores his flesh. But the process is messed up - he is successfully revived, but cannot be controlled by the Necromancers as he has total free will. Worse, the process warps his mind. He murders the head Necromancer, gains control of the Ash Spawn, and wages war on Raven Rock assuming they're enemies of the Imperial Legion (as he thinks it's still 200 years prior).
** Near Dayspring Canyon around the edge of the game map is a small cabin which apparently exploded and is still burning. Nearby is a burnt circle of candles, and a burnt corpse holding a "Summon Flame Atronach" scroll. One can safely assume he tried to use it, but couldn't control the Atronach, which either exploded or burned his house down and fled. Of course, the Dragonborn will never know why this person was doing so in the first place.
* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: In the volcanic springs of Eastmarch is a small band of hunters bathing, their clothes neatly set aside should the player choose to appropriate them. On the other hand, should the player drop[[note]](not just unequip, but actually drop from their inventory)[[/note]] their armor before taking a swim, nearby [=NPCs=] may pick up the items in the meantime (actually part of a standard NPC response to the player dropping valuable items -- they will ask if the player wants the item back, or if it's free for them to keep).
* TheGoodKing: Well, Jarls:
** Balgruuf the Greater, Jarl of Whiterun. He’s well loved and respected by his people and is always courteous and grateful to the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]], regardless of their race. He’s also the only Jarl to remain neutral during the Civil War, not wanting the war to destroy his hold or his people. [[spoiler: When Whiterun is attacked by the Stormcloaks during the Civil War quest line, regardless of which side you've joined, Balgruuf himself leads the defense of the city. [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking He won't go down without a fight.]]]]
** Brunwulf Free-Winter, the [[NiceGuy nicest guy]] in Skyrim, who replaces Ulfric Stormcloak as Jarl of Windhelm if the Empire wins the civil war. Within hours of assuming his post he meets with the local dark elves and promises to develop and renovate the ghetto-like Grey District they've been forced to live in, as well as working on a way to allow Argonians to live in the city instead of the single, drafty, cramped building on the docks. He also retains most of Ulfric's court staff since they know their jobs well enough and offers lodging to the Jarls that were deposed for supporting the Stormcloaks. He then takes charge of Windhelm and [[ModestRoyalty doesn't lose that sense of modesty or approachability]].
* TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: The Imperials and Stormcloaks are the Good and the Bad. Which one is which depends on which side you join, but one thing both sides agree on is that the Thalmor are the Evil.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: You can choose to "brawl" with some people in lieu of persuading, bribing or threatening. A few [=NPCs=] will ''only'' become your follower if you can beat them up!
** Khajiit are the only species that get a +15 boost to unarmed combat, because they're cat people and have claws. Argonians get a much lesser boost - they have a higher base unarmed damage, as do Khajiit, but not the additional damage boost from the Claws passive.
** The Heavy Armor perk "Fists Of Steel" boosts your unarmed damage by the default armor rating of worn gauntlets. If you're a Khajiit on top of that, your fists are lethal weapons.
** And to top it all off, there is a unique unarmed damage-boosting apparel enchant effect out there that you can disenchant and apply to your own armor. Combine with the Khajiit unarmed bonus and the Fists of Steel perk...
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw Unarmed Badass Viking!]]
** Combine the ''Fortify Unarmed'' enchantment with the ''Fortify Restoration'' glitch mentioned above, and you can [[MegatonPunch sucker punch]] ''[[TheDreaded Alduin]]'' into submission with ease.
* GratuitousLatin:
** Subverted for the first time in the series. While Cyrodiil and the Imperials are still [[{{Expy}} expies]] of the [[AncientRome Roman Empire]], their names are no longer always [[CanisLatinicus Latin-sounding]], but also Italian-sounding (Adrianne Avenicci being an example). This shows that the language of Cyrodiil and the Empire has changed in the last 200 years.
** "Penitus Oculatus" means "inward-eyed" in Latin ("penitus" [[http://archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=penitus can also mean]] "inside", "deep within", or, perhaps most appropriately, "thoroughly"). It's one of the few times that the actual language is used.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The recent Great War against the Thalmor provides backstory and motivation for much of the game.
* GreenHillZone: The game appears to begin in Falkreath Hold, a relatively peaceful region home to a vibrant arboreal forest, as opposed to the harsher tundra, swamps, and glaciers of northern Skyrim.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The Legion and the Stormcloaks. The Legion's trying to hold the Empire together in the face of a great evil, but they're willing to kill unlucky bystanders (i.e. ''you''), oppress several Nord customs including their primary religion, justify their occupation of Skyrim with a range of controversial excuses including AppealToFear ("The Empire is the ''only'' thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim!") and straight-up CulturalPosturing ("Without the guiding light of the Empire, the people of Tamriel will fall into barbarism and anarchy, including Skyrim! ''Especially'' Skyrim!") and engage in war crimes according to more than one testimony. The Stormcloaks want to be independent and restore the Nord customs, but their leader killed a young and innocent king to begin the war, although [[spoiler:he claims this was a lawful challenge according to Nord custom; and not everyone agrees]], and have a reactionary and exclusionary attitude against any non-Nord races, with the Stormcloak capital of Windhelm by far the worst offender. This racism spreads with them - if Whiterun is taken by the Stormcloaks, a Cyrodiilic blacksmith there notes that she'd probably be out of business if she wasn't married to a Nord.
** There's an added element of importance to the civil war that goes beyond simply whose beliefs dominate in Skyrim. If the Empire wins, the political situation stabilizes and the Empire can resume rebuilding to face the inevitable Thalmor aggression more effectively, and possibly repel a second assault and ultimately reestablish the old pantheon. But if the Stormcloaks win, free and open worship of Talos can resume immediately in Skyrim. The Stormcloaks ''may'' be able to reunite fractured elements of the Empire like Hammerfell and Morrowind, and reforge the Tamrielic Empire under Ulfric into a stronger force than the old Empire. Regardless, however, Ulfric does make it a point to take immediate steps to ensuring Skyrim is self-sufficient by increasing the power of its army.
** Both sides have a relatively even amount of "corrupt Jarls" (Siddgeir and Maven Black-Briar for the Empire, Skald and Thongvor Silver-Blood for the Stormcloaks) and "good Jarls" (Brunwulf Free-Winter, Balgruuf the Elder, and Brina Merilis for the Empire, Dengeir of Stuhn for the Stormcloaks). Most of the Jarls for either side have their merits and flaws, however, driving this trope even further.
** On another front, the Forsworn and everyone else in the Reach. The Forsworn are bloodthirsty Breton guerrillas who esteem hagravens and murder anyone unlucky enough to run into their patrols... and they've also been enslaved and persecuted by the rulers of Markarth and the Silver-Bloods. As one Forsworn says, there are no innocents, "just the guilty and the dead."
** If you eavesdrop on some of the random bandit tribes you find, it turns out some of them are normal, rational people. One cave is full of vampires leading to the shrine to one of the Daedric Princes, who laughs when you get there and explains that the vampires came to him seeking a ''cure'' for their condition, and he thinks it's poetic irony that you happened by to kill them. You will find yourself questioning the morality of your actions a ''lot'' the deeper you go.
** The Blades and the Greybeards. The Blades want to defeat Alduin and the dragons but they aren't very nice to the Dragonborn, while the Greybeards are kindly mentor figures but invoke YouAreNotReady to explain why they don't just teach the Dragonborn every Shout they know when the player first meets them. The two are also not fond of each other - the Blades order you to [[spoiler:kill Paarthurnax for being a dragon]], and Delphine says the Greybeards fear the Shout's misuse and so do not use its power for good, but all power risks being abused and their knowledge is worthless if it isn't being put to use. By contrast, the Greybeards consider the Blades meddlers in things they don't understand, and claim that their mission to serve the Dragonborn is a lie they use to hide the fact they want to ''control'' the Dragonborn[[note]]which has some element of truth; you're basically forced to join the Blades as Delphine took the horn and you need to get it back, and throughout Delphine remains dismissive towards you. Example - when you first meet her you ask ''"Why should I trust you?"'', a valid question since she stole the horn and is yammering about Thalmor conspiracies; she replies ''"If you don't trust me, you were a fool to come here."'' what does she expect as a non-foolish response, then? Show up and murder everyone in the Inn to get it? Shrug and walk away from the main quest?[[/note]]. Ultimately, you can be loyal to only one of the two factions, depending on how you feel about [[spoiler:killing Paarthurnax]].
** The Dark Brotherhood will come off as an antagonistic force and none of the quests you do for them are anything close to good, but some players can't help but feel sorry for Astrid, who seems to just want to hold together and provide for her surrogate family (the implication being that their primary means of income is death) and is initially horrified by the Night Mother's decree to go [[spoiler:assassinate the Emperor]].
* GrimUpNorth: Skyrim itself is this to the rest of Tamriel. Like Morrowind, it does have more geographical diversity but still, it is mountainous and very cold.
** Played straight, as Skyrim becomes nastier, in regards to weather and terrain, the farther north you go.
* GroinAttack: This is one of the finishers you can perform on a Dwarven Centurion.
** It's also one of the finishers for unarmed combat.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Pick any humanoid opponent, not even necessarily a guard. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0 From stealth, shoot them with an arrow, then avoid being detected when they come looking for you.]]
--> '''Guard:''' (with an arrow sticking out of his arm) Huh. Guess I was just hearing things.
** Of course, you may also be struck by a bug where any murder, no matter how stealthy, renders the guards permanently hostile until you kill one and earn a proper bounty.
* GuideDangIt: [[GuideDangIt/TheElderScrolls Skyrim is very large]].
[[/folder]]