History Skyrim / TropesHToM

** The ''Dawnguard'' DLC takes the trope UpToEleven by giving the Dragonborn a ''castle'' - but only in certain circumstances. [[spoiler:Should you take the vampire path through the DLC, after you defeat Harkon, you are proclaimed the new lord/lady of Castle Volkihar. Serana's ancestral home and everything inside it is now yours, and all the vampires who live there are your devoted followers. If you take the Dawnguard path, you don't get the castle.]]

** Taken UpToEleven in regards to dragons. On two separate occasions (first in a flashback with Alduin and then with Odahviing), humans have lured dragons to an obvious trap just by calling its name with the Thu'um. The dragons see this as a challenge, and will come straight away. In Odahviing's case, he ''says'' he was specifically curious about the Dragonborn, the one who had bested Alduin (however temporarily), though he admits he was overly eager.

*** Take UpToEleven in ''Dragonborn'', where you can disintegrate the target with the proper bonus. Y'know, like what every guard in Skyrim claims Ulfric did to Torygg.

*** After you summon him to fight for you, [[spoiler:Durnehviir]] [[UpToEleven will summon a pack of undead minions to help him help you]].

* LoveFreak: Maramal and Dinya Balu, the priests of Mara in Riften. They task you with playing TheMatchmaker for three couples in love and handing out love pamphlets to the people of Riften, the content of which TastesLikeDiabetes if you read one yourself. Additionally, their interactions with each other (they're married and Dinya is pregnant) border on SickeninglySweethearts.

** ''Dawnguard'' also adds two weapons which have this effect. The Rune Shield of the Dawnguard creates an aura of sunlight that damages undead over time while one blocks, and shield bashes cause a spark of light that deals more damage to vampires. Auriel's Bow is a super-powerful bow which, when equipped with sunhallowed arrows, turns every shot into an explosion of light. (Conversely, it can also turn the Sun into a KillSat if used with a very different kind of special arrow.)

* LightAndMirrorsPuzzle: ''Skyrim'' more or less subverts this in the "Discerning the Transmundane" quest. There is a "challenge" in which you must orient a set of lenses to shine light on a massive dwarven sphere to gain access to an Elder Scroll, but in fact all you have to do is [[spoiler:press the leftmost button repeatedly until the next one to the left becomes usable]], and rinse and repeat until you are on the last button.

--> What must you say to stay alive?
--> [[spoiler: "You will slay me with a sword."]]

** As a Vampire Lord, your powers improve by killing people with your bite attack at low health, or using the Vampire Drain move. Since low level enemies are weaker and appear more frequently when you yourself are low level, Vampire Lord becomes incredibly fast and easy to level at low level: Most enemies die in 1 or 2 shots of the vampiric drain, and gaining Vampire Lord perks do not cause your character level to rise. This means there is also no danger of doing it too much and finding yourself facing enemies too tough for you to handle because you leveled too fast. Contrast that with doing it at a higher level, where leveling Vampire Lord is a chore, since the un-upgraded drain and melee attacks take forever to chip at higher level enemies' health.

** A more mundane version is Dwarven Metal; no blacksmith currently living knows how to recreate it, meaning the only way to make more of it is to melt down things like Dwemer cogs, gears, and the like.

** A more mundane version is Dwarven Metal; no blacksmith currently living knows how to recreate it, meaning the only way to make more of it is to melt down VendorTrash like Dwemer cogs, gears, and the like.

** Every dungeon is crawling with random coins, precious gemstones, and minor enchanted apparel. You'll probably leave any given dungeon with several thousand septims of VendorTrash.

* LightAndMirrorsPuzzle: ''Skyrim'' more or less subverts this in the "Discerning the Transmundane" quest. There is a "challenge" in which you must orient a set of lenses to shine light on a massive dwarven sphere to gain access to an Elder Scroll, but in fact all you have to do is [[spoiler:press the leftmost button repeatedly until the next one to the left becomes usable, and rinse and repeat until you are on the last button.

** By the events of the game Delphine and Esbern are the last surviving members of the Blades, however in the questline ''Rebuilding the Blades'' the Dragonborn can help recruit three new members.

* By the events of the game Delphine and Esbern are the last surviving members of the Blades, however in the questline ''Rebuilding the Blades'' the Dragonborn can help recruit three new members.

** The Wabbajack, obtained from Sheogorath, casts a RandomEffectsSpell on targets. Sure, it might heal an almost-dead enemy or turn a harmless Mudcrab into an angry Dremora, but most of its effects are detrimental to the target, ranging from powerful Destruction spells to [[BalefulPolymorph turning them into harmless critters]]. There's also a chance of [[OneHitKill changing the target into a sweetroll or a shower of coins, or just making them drop dead on the spot]]. Finally, the Wabbajack is surprisingly reliable against Dragons as it will only cast Destruction spells against them, which also happen to ignore all kinds of resistances.

** The ability to create extremely powerful gear via crafting ultimately inverts the trope, since better weapons and gear allow you to hit harder with physical attacks (up to insane levels), but options for increasing magic damage output are not only very limited, but much smaller in scope - the game mostly focuses on reducing the ''Magicka cost'' of spells instead of ''increasing damage''. Increasing weapon skills also scales weapon damage up, whereas spells do not scale with increasing skill. The lack of spell creation in Skyrim also means that you can't reduce the cost of spells and then create more powerful ones that you wouldn't normally be able to cast. And to make things even worse as if the above wasn't enough, the master level spells are extremely slow to cast making them mostly unusable in combat. Getting a sword that does twice the damage? No drawback at all.

** '''[[LightningBruiser SU GRAH DUN]]:''' Elemental Fury. Increases the rate as which you swing your weapons to truly ludicrous speeds. [[AwesomeYetImpractical Doesn't work with enchanted weapons, though.]] [[MundaneUtility Also useful for mining quickly.]]

** Paarthurnax calls the Dragonborn out on this; regardless of whether you are playing as a heroic figure, by being of the same kith as the Dragons, you possess [[NotSoDifferent the same urge]] to destroy and conquer as they do.

* MedievalPrehistory: Although it is a fantasy world with medieval Norse inspiration, most of the land is made up of snowy regions with some prehistoric Fauna such as Woolly Mammoths, Sabertooth cats and Cave Bears co-existing with the fantasy creatures such as Dragons, Werewolves and Draugr.