Many fans of The Elder Scrolls series enjoy each main title’s focus on exploration and player freedom. Players can do whatever they wish in Skyrim and Morrowind, which is a far cry from many narrative-driven RPGs.
That doesn’t mean The Elder Scrolls lacks interesting stories, however. The Elder Scrolls has some of the deepest lore out of any intellectual property. That said, much of it is buried under many mind-bending concepts that are downright nonsensical. From small towns to Dragon Breaks, here are ten things that make little sense about The Elder Scrolls universe. Story spoilers from the mainline Elder Scrolls games are mentioned in this article.
10 Rorikstead
Rorikstead is one of the most forgettable locations in Skyrim. No unique quests or NPCs are stationed here. What’s strange is that this otherwise desolate town has some of the most fertile soil in Tamriel, which is so rich in nutrients that the inhabitants are planning to sell the dirt to other towns.
Needless to say, this is rather fishy. Players can find soul gems in every house in Rorikstead and, even stranger, a man named Rorik that runs the town. The latter wouldn’t be strange if it wasn’t for records indicating that a man named Rorik originally build this farmstead a few eras ago. Old Rorikstead also had a magical surge in value with its soil, resulting in the farmstead making a large sum of money. Why could this be? Did the townsfolk turn to necromancy to bring Rorik back from the dead? Are all of Rorikstead’s inhabitants Daedric worshipers?
9 The Disappearance of the Dwemer
The disappearance of the Dwemer is one of The Elder Scrolls’ largest mysteries. According to records from the Battle of Red Mountain, the Dwemer race vanished after interacting with the Heart of Lorkhan.
Well, all except Morrowind’s Yagrum Bagarn. He was in the Outer Realm when the event happened, resulting in him being the only known Dwemer to survive the incident. Yagrum has studied the incident ever since to no success. What exactly caused the Dwemer people to vanish? Some speculate that the Dwemer transcended mortality and became the skin of the Brass Tower Numidium while others believe the Chimer caused their extinction.
8 Nords Worship Talos Instead Of Shor
Nords were depicted as having a separate pantheon of gods they followed in previous Elder Scrolls titles. When Skyrim brought players to the snowy mountains of the province, some lore enthusiasts were shocked that nearly every Nord worships Talos instead of Shor.
What happened? Ysmir is Talos’ name in the Nordic pantheon, so why do Nords seldom refer to Talos as Ysmir? Has Imperial colonialism affected Nordic culture that severely, or was this a means of simplifying the pantheon of gods for Skyrim?
7 Argonians And The Oblivion Crisis
Just before the Oblivion Crisis occurred, the Hist from Black Marsh called all Argonians back home. It is believed they were all mutated by the Hist to become massive in size and strength. According to the novel The Infernal City, the Argonians were so strong they rushed into the Oblivion Gates in such large numbers that Mehrunes Dagon was forced to close the gates.
Why did the Hist only enact such strength during the Oblivion Crisis and not during any other conflict in the past? Couldn’t Mehrunes Dagon send an infinite supply of Daedra through the gates until the Argonians submitted? Argonians have a long history of being enslaved and losing battles, so it’s strange that the Hist would grant them enough power to overrun the realm of a Daedric Prince. The most likely explanation for all of this is that the text is exaggerated. Otherwise, most of this story seems hard to take at face value.
6 The Levitation Act
As a means of explaining why levitating spells were absent in Oblivion, certain NPCs will mention the passing of The Levitation Act. In 3E 421, the Empire banned the use of levitation magic for unknown reasons. It was most likely passed as an explanation for the absence of levitation magic in Oblivion, but this just feels like a lazy copout by Bethesda. From an in-universe perspective, what made the events during the late third Era require the enactment of such a law?
5 Fourth Era Books Exist In The Second Era
The Elder Scrolls Online and Daggerfall take place during the second Era in The Elder Scrolls timeline, yet both titles have books that were written during the third and fourth Era. It somewhat makes sense in Daggerfall as the game takes place during a Dragon Break—when parallel realities occur simultaneously and coalesce into one. Evidence shows ESO isn’t in a Dragon Break, so that is unlikely the reason these books exist.
Assuming it isn’t, the only explanation the game gives on this is a loading screen tip that suggests a cultist of Hermaeus Mora brought books from Apocrypha into the material realm because she loved them so much. No one makes note of these books at all in the game, not even the Mages Guild.
4 The Birth Of Malacath And Orcs
Legend states that Malacath was once the great Aedra Trinimac who was turned into the exiled Daedric Prince after being swallowed whole and excreted by Boethiah, Daedric Prince of deceit. This event turned the once-powerful Aedra into an Orc. All of Trinimac’s followers supposedly also turned into Orcs after this occurred. If eating gods can downrank their power, why isn’t this done more often? It should be rather apparent how eating a person whole and turning them into another species is a far-fetched idea.
3 CHIM
CHIM is The Elder Scrolls’ unique take on spiritual enlightenment. In essence, those that achieve CHIM realize that their existence is part of a godhead or dream. Everything is interconnected in this dream and most are oblivious to it. Those that achieve CHIM reach one of two revelations: their existence is futile and individualism is a lie or their actions make them an individual and, therefore, capable of great change. Those that fall in the former category manage to “zero-sum,” removing themselves from existence and recorded history. Anyone in the latter effectively turns into a god.
If all of The Elder Scrolls is in a dream, can that entity be part of another godhead? Does reality have a definition in The Elder Scrolls since CHIM exists? Is the fourth wall canon because of this? CHIM raises so many questions about The Elder Scrolls lore that it becomes a disorienting philosophical exercise that leads down some strange rabbit holes.
2 Dragon Breaks
To make every ending in Daggerfall canon, Bethesda decided to invent the concept of Dragon Breaks. Dragon Breaks are when the universe undergoes multiple parallel instances simultaneously that people experience at the same time, even if events in each instance contradict one another. Daggerfall’s Dragon Break is called the Warp in the West, and documentation on the event is sparse at best.
Suspending any disbelief on the logistics of a Dragon Break, how have the denizens of Tamriel not focused on researching these breaks? This seems like the perfect setup for a Mages Guild or College of Winterhold guild quest in an Elder Scrolls title, yet so few NPCs mention this phenomenon it’s rarely explored.
1 Canon Is Relative
In an effort to unify lore theorists in The Elder Scrolls fandom, Michael Kirkbride—considered the godfather of TES lore—created C0DA in 2014. This document presents the theory that lore is relative to its beholder. In other words, the player’s experience in each Elder Scrolls game is canon.
Does that mean that mods are canon? If players install Thomas the Tank Engine dragons in Skyrim, does that mean that Alduin is canonically a train? What if Bethesda decides that the Stormcloaks win the Civil War in the next Elder Scrolls game but players sided with the Imperials? Kirkbride’s strides to unify the Elder Scrolls mythos are admirable, but they immediately fall apart when Bethesda chooses the canonical series of events in their next Elder Scrolls game. C0DA just makes discussing the lore of The Elder Scrolls even more confusing than it already is.
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