With a franchise as large as The Elder Scrolls, there are tons of secrets, easter eggs, and in-depth lore fragments that make this series seem like a living universe. From NPCs having real schedules to the multiple continents of Nirn, The Elder Scrolls series has an eye for detail that is hard to match in the RPG genre.
Many fans know of Skyrim's dragon language or that game's Shadowmarks, but there are many interesting facts from both Skyrim and the other games that don't get mentioned as much. Whether it is new technology Bethesda made or some interesting pieces of trivia about the universe, here are some crazy facts you didn't know about The Elder Scrolls franchise.
Updated October 20th, 2020 by Hayley Mullen: The Elder Scrolls as a series continues to have many dedicated players and fans to this very day, and will certainly gain more as time goes by and new titles in the franchise are released. For fans who just can't get enough of Tamriel, Mundus, or Aurbis itself, here are some more fascinating facts about the ways of the universe and the people and creatures inhabiting it.
15 The Wild Hunt
Though many Elder Scrolls players will know of the Bosmer (or Wood Elves), these Valenwood natives have quite an astonishing ritual called the Wild Hunt. It is part of the oath known as the "Green Pact," meaning it's connected to the main god of the Bosmeri pantheon, Y'ffre.
Bosmer are capable of transforming into animal forms, which is believed to be possible due to some Bosmer holding "knowledge of the chaos time." Many Bosmer will transform into "horrifc beasts, tentacled toads, vaporous beings with the face of gods" and other forms, destroying absolutely everything it comes across. Once they destroy everything in their sight, they have been known to turn on each other.
14 Falmer & Snow Elves
After being defeated by The Atmorans in the Merethic Era, many of the surviving Snow Elves fled underground, asking the Dwemer for help and protection. Unfortunately, the Dwemer distrusted the Snow Elves, and fed them toxic fungi native to their new dwelling, Blackreach. This, combined with many years of living underground, rendered the Snow Elves blind, and eventually became known as the Falmer.
Snow Elves who did not go underground were often hated and killed, and many eventually agreed to the Dwemer's cruel offer of slavery. The few Snow Elves who still exist in modern Elder Scrolls history are Knight-Paladin Gelebor and the Snow Elves who sought refuge in the Chantry of Auri-El, which remained a spot of worship secret from both the Dwemer and Atmorans until the Falmer attacked, leaving only Gelebor and his brother.
13 Khajiit Forms
The primary inhabiting species of Elsweyr, Khajiit are one of the ten playable races of the game and are shrouded in much mystery and intrigue. There are seventeen known species of Khajiit, though there are rumored to be over twenty that have not been recorded by outsiders.
The strangest aspect of the species is that all forms of Khajiit are able to mate with each other, including an Alfiq and a Senche-Raht, or a Dagi and a Cathay. The form of Khajiit isn't even determined by its two parents, rather what form it is will depend on the Lunar Lattice of both Secunda and Masser when the Kahjiit is born. Quite the peculiar species mechanics, to say the least.
12 Imperial Mananauts
Many players of the Elder Scrolls will recognize the series' focus on magic and fantasy elements, but the people of Tamriel have also attempted to reach beyond the boundaries of their world, somewhat like science fiction. During the Merethic Era, the Reman Dynasty made efforts to travel to the realm of Aetherius, the Immortal Plane that is the source of creation and magic in Mundus. It is made of pure magicka, and much harder to reach than the Void of Oblivion.
Only two trips have succeeded, one being the Sun Birds of Alinor, and the second were the Royal Imperial Mananauts of the Reman Dynasty. Unfortunately, not only did the Oblivion Crisis wipe out much of civilization and order, but according to the Pocket Guide to the Empire, both groups that reached Aetherius were eventually disbanded due to "the untenable expenditures required."
11 CHIM
The fascinating concept of CHIM is a state where a being can break free from all of the known laws of Oblivion. It is the last stage of the Psijic Endeavor and can only be gained by viewing the Tower, the secret structure of the Aurbis. By achieving this state, a being will experience time being bent outward and inward into a constantly unique shape, able to perceive all of creation itself.
If a mortal being fails to keep a grip on their individuality while near the Tower, they will be erased from the universe, an event called a "Zero Sum." Very few people are achieved CHIM, one being Lord Vivec the Warrior-Poet. Interestingly enough, CHIM is often correlated with Love, calling on the idea that God is the embodiment of Love itself.
10 Paarthurnax's Voice Actor
If you have ever talked to the wise Paarthurnax at the Throat of the World in Skyrim, you might have felt a sense of deja vu when talking to him, almost as if you've heard his voice somewhere.
You probably have! Paarthurnax is voiced by none other than Charles Martinet, the same actor who voices Mario and Luigi from the famous Super Mario series of Nintendo games. This isn't the first time The Elder Scrolls series have seen a highly-renowned actor voice a critical character, either. The Emperor in Oblivion was voiced by Patrick Steward, showing Bethesda's dedication to making key characters sound distinct from everyone else.
9 Originally Focused On Arena Combat
Most Elder Scrolls fans know that the first game was titled The Elder Scrolls: Arena, but why was it named Arena instead of any other title?
That is because Arena was going to focus on just that: arena combat. Bethesda intended for the game to be about fighting for various arenas around Tamriel, but they began to incorporate side missions into the world to give players some much-needed variation from combat. This ended up becoming the focus for the game instead, hence the title The Elder Scrolls being added to it so the game sounds more like a proper RPG than a dungeon crawler.
8 Radiant AI
Every main Elder Scrolls entry has included massive innovations to the series, both in terms of mechanics and technology. The changes to AI in Oblivion have to be one of the largest changes.
Bethesda spent much of Oblivion's development cycle reworking the way AI for NPCs behaved. They named this new system Radiant AI with the goal of making NPCs feel like real people. NPCs have actual schedules where they sleep, eat, go to work, socialize, and behave like real people. Well, that was the idea. It didn't pan out well in Oblivion thanks to unnatural dialogue and behaviors, spawning thousands of memes instead. Fortunately, the system was much more refined and well-received in Skyrim.
7 Procedural Generation
While knowledge on how Bethesda develops their more recent games isn't as well known, the previous Elder Scrolls entries all utilized procedural generation to create massive worlds.
Instead of hand-crafting areas for players to explore, Bethesda used procedural generation to create massive landscapes in Arena and Daggerfall that are hundreds of times bigger than the future installments in the series. More modern titles like Skyrim might not have procedural worlds, but they do have procedural quests called Radiant Quests. If you ever had to go to a location, recover an item, then return to an NPC, you likely played a procedurally generated Radiant Quest.
6 No Children In Oblivion
Some Skyrim fans found it strange that some NPCs were unkillable, mainly characters tied to the main story and children. Having children be unkillable makes sense to keep Skyrim under an Adults Only rating, but how about Oblivion?
Well, Oblivion doesn't have children at all. The developers thought about this issue before with having killable children, debating if the immersion it would add to the world would be worth sacrificing accessibility among rating boards. In that game, the solution was to exclude children from the game entirely. They changed their approach with Skyrim, but the absence of children in Oblivion is jarring when compared to its sequel.
5 Erik The Slayer
Visiting Rorikstead in Skyrim will yield a few quests for players to complete. One of them involves helping a man named Erik convince his family to purchase armor so he can become an adventurer.
Once this quest is complete, he is renamed Erik the Slayer and can accompany you as a follower. What is so interesting about Erik is that he's based on a real person. Erik West, also known as "Immok the Slayer" on Bethesda's forums, was so knowledgable on Oblivion's lore that Bethesda let him tour their studio. Unfortunately, Erik died of cancer 6 months before Skyrim released, so Bethesda decided to honor him by creating a character named after him.
4 Morrowind's Redesign
Morrowind is considered by many to be the best RPG of all time. With its in-depth lore, fascinating factions, and alien landscape, it is easy to see why.
But did you know that Morrowind was going to be much larger? Originally, the game was going to encompass both Vvardenfell and Morrowind's mainland, letting players join one of the five main Dunmer Great Houses instead of the final game's three. Instead of Dagoth Ur being the antagonist, a mysterious blight would dynamically destroy towns and affect the population. The idea was considered so ambitious in scope that it was completely redesigned into the Morrowind fans know and love today.
3 Fishy Sticks
Every Elder Scrolls game has a slight reference to fish sticks. Morrowind has a book about them, M'aiq the Liar mentions them in Oblivion, and Sheogorath mentions them in Skyrim.
This is an inside joke among the Bethesda community. Originating from the Bethesda forums, a certain member would reward users with an image of a fish stick being held by a pirate. Other members began to take on the practice and it became so widespread Bethesda caught wind of it, including it in every main Elder Scrolls game since as a nod to the community meme.
2 Size of Daggerfall
Thanks to procedural generation, the map sizes of The Elder Scrolls: Arena and Daggerfall are massive compared to the more modern games.
Daggerfall, in particular, still has one of the largest game worlds of all time. The game map spans out over 160,000 kilometers, roughly two-thirds the size of Great Britain! It makes the size of Oblivion and Skyrim's maps feel insubstantial in comparison.
1 Nirn's Continents
Many fans of the Elder Scrolls series know of the various provinces in Tamriel, but Tamriel isn't the only continent on the planet of Nirn.
While most of the planet is unknown and not fully explored, Nirn contains the continents of Tamriel, Akavir, Pyandonea, Atmora, Thras, Yokuda, and potentially the unexplored Aldmeris islands. Each province contains the homeland of the more exotic factions like the Dunmer or Redguard, with the Akavir continent, in particular, being home to a race of tiger people and the Akaviri people, famous for Alduin's Wall and Tamriel's various ruins.