The night sky inSkyrimis truly one of the most beautiful scenes rendered in a video game. At times it’s pitch dark so you can barely see in front of your own face, but others it’s a gorgeous Northern Lights display, filled with so much color it brightens the night. It’s the perfect back drop to my midnight skullduggery since I never get ambushed by bears. And if I do get ambushed by bears they’re at least pretty bears.

God, I hate bears.

Sometimes I prefer not to murder by twilight. Sometimes I just like to lie down, watch the virtual night sky, and think. Think about where I am and what I’m doing with my life - which is, admittedly, mostly nothing if I’m not leveling up every few hours. But sometimes you just gotta stop and watch the pretty colors, y’know?

It’s the thinking that really gets me. Or, more often the questions those thoughts create. Questions like why am I here? What is my purpose? I mean, besides slaying dragons and saving the world. And why is that bear charging down the hill to eat me when I’m just lying here looking at the stars?

Ugh. I have to get up and kill a bear again. At Least they’re worth a lot of leather, but I never learn why all these bears keep charging me. Friggin’ bears.

Here are 15 more unanswered questions inSkyrimthat keep me up at night.

15 What Do Spectral Horses Eat?

In the events of theDawnguardexpansion, you eventually meet a nice dead man who gives you a quest to find a horse’s skull. The horse was named Arvak, and after you find it, you gain the Summon Arvak spell which allows you to summon an undead horse. Named Arvak.

He’s super useful and all, but I take my animal husbandry very seriously in these games, and I never knew how to take care of him. I mean, what do undead horses eat? Do they eat souls? Do they eat hay? Do they eat small woodland creatures, like birds or squirrels?

Arvak isn’t any help in the matter either. Every time I give him a sweet roll or an animal’s corpse, he just stares at me with those burning eyes of his. Lord knows he needs to eatsomething. I mean, he’s basically a skeleton.

14 Was Saadia Lying Or Telling The Truth About The Red Guard Assassins?

I hate the In My Time Of Need quest. Both sides are so convincing! First Saadia says she’s being pursued by Alik'r assassins for speaking out against the Aldmeri Dominion, but then Kematu says that she’s actually wanted by her government for betraying Hammerfell during the war, selling out her own people.

There’s no way to verify who’s telling the right story, and it all comes down to which face do you trust - the visage of a scared and vulnerable woman, or the stony countenance of a hardened killer?

I always side with Saadia, since looting the Alik’r’s corpses is a much more profitable outcome than just turning Saadia in for the bounty, but I always wonder if I’m doing the right thing. Then I could my coin and move on.

13 Who Keeps Shooting All Those Arrows Into Guards’ Knees?

It’s a saying that’s become so timeless it’s a meme, but it really begs the question: who exactly is shooting all these arrows at guards? And why do they go for the knees?

On my latest foray through Whiterun I actually put on my detective’s cap, which is difficult since I’m playing a Khajiit, and the ears get in the way, but whatever. I interrogated everyone, from Adrianne Avenicci’s forge to the Jarl himself, and none of them seemed to have any reason to shoot an arrow in a guard’s knee.

Then it hit me - Dagny, the unassuming daughter of Balgruuf the Greater. Her lust for sweet rolls and fancy dresses had finally gotten the better of her, and she’d taken up archery to sate her frustrations. No, no guard is safe from her wrath.

12 What Happened To The Dwemer?

It was an interesting thing when I took a few perks into smithing and suddenly “remembered” I could forge ancient armaments from a race of dwarves called the Dwemer. I mean, I hadn’t ever seen them, and the closest I’d ever come to one was when a long-forgotten robot came at me spewing oil and fire. But it got me thinking: whatever did happen to the Dwemer?

It’s really hard to say. Even after I tumbled down an old mineshaft ass-over-teakettle and wound up in an ancient Dwemer ruin, there wasn’t a lot of evidence left to tell me what happened.

Maybe the Falmer killed the Dwemer? Maybe their robots all gained sentience and turned on their creators,Matrixstyle? Maybe they all fell down the same hole I did, but didn’t land as gracefully (I am, after all, a cat)? The answers may be lost to the sands of time.

11 Just Who Is The Ebony Warrior And How Did He Get So Strong?

Sometime after defeating the final dragon and ending the main quest, a mysterious warrior in black armor will approach you and challenge you to a duel to see who is the strongest Warrior in Skyrim. Naturally, I accepted, thinking I’d plunk a few arrows in his skull like everyone else.

After several brutal defeats that ended with me charred, crushed, and eviscerated, I decided to let him have the title. He could never take my Dragonborn-ness at least.

Where did he come from? How did he get so strong? Was he playing the game before me? Is that armor enchanted eight ways from Sunday to the point where a single blow takes half my health?

One day I’ll defeat you, black warrior. One day.

10 If Ulfric Knew How To Shout, Why Did He Never Actually Use The Voice?

Right at the beginning of the game, you meet Ulfric, leader of the rebellion. He’s bound and gagged since apparently he knows how to Dragon Shout, just like you do (or will, shortly) and he used that power to kill the former Emperor. It’s a pretty scary thing.

Afterward, that was pretty much it as far as his shouting goes. Which seems quite odd, considering how powerful a weapon the shout can be, especially if he knows a few of the better shouts like Disarm or Bend Will. He could just wake right up to the center of an Imperial formation, shout and have them all mind controlled. I know this because I’ve done it, and it’s highly effective.

But why doesn’t he use it again to turn the tide of battle in his favor? He only shouts again during the assault on Windhelm, and by then it’s far too late since you can shout better than he ever could.

9 Is Mammoth Cheese As Awful As I Think It Is?

I’m lactose intolerant like most cats (by the way, don’t feed your cats milk unless you want to be cleaning the runs for a week) so I’m naturally averse to most cheese, but I’m still fascinated by their creation. Get some milk, leave it out in the hot sun for a few days, and then take the lumpy stuff that’s floating on top and roll it up into a ball. Voila, a delicacy.

Skyrim’s nomadic Giants famously herd mammoths and make cheese from their milk, which I guess also proves that mammoths can be milked. But what does the cheese taste like? By the way, the Giants seem to guard their cheese you’d think it was the sweetest ambrosia, but I have a hard time believing that curds left in animal hide in the sun could be anything other than vile.

8 Why Are There Only Male Giants?

Why are there only male giants? I know I’m making a bit of an assumption in that there only male giants represented inSkyrim- it could be there are both female and male giants present, there just aren’t as many differences between the sexes as there are with regular people. Maybe female giants have beards?

Or maybe there aren’t any genders in giant physiology, and they all reproduce asexually? Or maybe they’re all clones, each one a carbon copy of the other? Or maybe there are just male giants, and what they do in the bedroom is nobody's business. Don’t ask don’t tell, as the giants say.

7 Just Which Daedric Prince Ended Up With My Soul?

Naturally, you can never find out since inSkyrimyou never actually die, just reload from the last save point, but you do sell your soul to an awful lot of demon lords. Just which one manages to snag it before your ascent to Sovngarde?

Will it be Nocturnal, the demon of the night whom you pledge your soul to during the events of the Thieve’s Guild quest? Or maybe Molag Bal, the Daedric prince of enslavement? Makes sense he’d not want any soul to escape his grasp.

I’d like to think of it being more like a conference, with all the Daedric Lords all gathered 'round a table debating who has claim.

6 Who Killed Reyda in Ivarstead? And Why did Narfi Have To Die?

Ivarstead is home to many mysteries, but none are so infatuation as who murdered Narfi’s sister, Reyda.

And yes, I said murdered. It’s simply not possible for her to have tripped and fallen to drown in a river. Mundane deaths like that don’t happen Skyrim. You die from getting your arms ripped off by a Yeti, or being cooked alive by a dragon, or someone performs the Black Sacrament on you, and you’re murdered in your sleep by an assassin.

Besides that, once you join the Dark Brotherhood you’re tasked with murdering Narfi, someone so overcome with grief that he goes as bent as a Dragon’s tail. Someone has it out for that family, the only question is, who could it be?

5 Who Kept Sending Assassins To Kill Me? Especially After I Killed A Dozen Of Them?

Soon after your ascent to the savior of Skyrim, you’ll start meeting assassins on dark and lonely roads. They’re all from the Dark Brotherhood since they’re all wearing the Dark Brotherhood armor and also all have a handy note that says exactly who they are and where they came from.

I naturally dispatch them before they even come within 10 feet of me, but with every corpse I collect I wonder - just who exactly is trying to kill me?

It doesn’t make much logical sense; I am, after all, the only one who can stop Alduin and save the world. What makes even less sense is the Brotherhood just keeps sending more and more assassins to die by my hand after each one fails.

By the time I actually join the Brotherhood for their quest line I know exactly why there aren’t any more assassins left, but I keep my yap shut. It’s a room full of assassins after all.

4 Would Camilla Have Been Better Off With Sven or Faendal?

I love playing medieval matchmaker, but the first chance I get to hook up two love birds I’m torn. Neither birdie seems to be a good match, but I can’t get the quest out of my quest log until I choose.

Does Sven make a good match for Camilla, or does Faendal?

On the one hand, Camilla already seems kinda taken with Sven, and he is tall, blonde and handsome. Sort of theSkyrimtrifecta of man-whoring. On the other hand, Faendal has seen through Sven’s facade and knows that he’s a misogynistic ignoramus just out for a while lay. The only problem is he resorts to deception in order to prove it to Camilla.

Honestly, I think it’s best they just share Camilla as a weird love triangle. That can’t possibly go wrong.

3 Did Paarthurnax Truly Deserve To Die?

Later on in your travels, you become a member of the Blades, a secret organization tasked with defending mankind from the predations of dragons. Eventually they find out Paarthurnax, the oldest dragon, has been hiding at the top of the top of the world and send you out to kill him.

But before that, Paarthurnax helps you, teaching you more about the history of the dragon war, and while he admits he performed horrible atrocities during the war, he eventually sided with humanity, giving them the Thu’um and the power to banish his brethren for good.

Do one’s earlier misdeeds disappear once they turn to righteousness? Is it possible for a dragon to truly change? For any of us to truly change? I don’t know the answers, but I do know where to stick my sword in a dragon.

2 What Happened With The Rebellion?

In all the hubbub of world-ending dragon messiahs and encroaching apocalypse scenarios, it’s pretty easy to forget there’s a rebellion still going on. Sure, you can choose a side during the rebellion, but even if you do, it doesn’t seem like much changes in the world.

What happens after the rebellion is over? Does Skyrim throw off the shackles of an oppressive Empire, free to do whatever it pleases? Or does the Empire crush the rebellion and continue to oppress the population, forever hiding Talos from future generations?

Maybe another way happens, this time against the Aldmeri Dominion, and humanity uses the Dragonborn to defeat the elvish hordes forever? So many possibilities, so few answers.

1 Why Are There Chests Full Of Gold Literally Everywhere?

It was about the seventh cave I went spelunking in that it really struck me: just why are there chests full of loot and gold everywhere I look?

For some caves it makes sense - they’re bandit hideouts, and they have to have a safe space to store their booty. I get that, but there are plenty of caves in Skyrim that are just full of trolls or wolves or other monstrous creatures, and there’s always a chest full of gold waiting for me at the end.

Where do animals get all these fancy chests? Who do they trade with?Whatdo they trade with? Maybe if I just sheathed my sword and talked to the bears we could come to a mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services.

Anything to stop the big brown bastards from ruining my stargazing.