We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but it seems we've been incorrectly believing that the 7,000 Steps up to High Hrothgar in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim are actually made up of 7,000 steps.
While most of us blindly accepted that there are 7,000 Steps like the sheeple we are, some sceptics took it upon themselves to count all the steps up the treacherous mountain just to check if Todd Howard didn't have another sweet little lie up his sleeve. Unfortunately, our worst fears have indeed been confirmed.
We have Redditor flair to thank for taking the time and effort to do this extremely unnecessary thing out of both "boredom and curiosity." And what did they find?
It turns out that the 7,000 Steps to High Hrothgar are more like the 748 Steps to High Hrothgar. Doesn't have quite the same impact, does it?
Flair set out their methodology for clarity sake, seeing as "steps" could refer to anything from the total number of strides the player takes during the climb, to all the actual visible stairs on the mountain. Flair interpreted it as the latter, and "counted only the steps that were actually visible." Any steps along the way that went downhill were also counted.
They also accounted for the stairs that seem to be buried under the snow, of which they estimated between 100 and 150 to be hidden along the trail.
The starting and ending points would also make a difference to the total number of steps. This player said they "started from the very first step over the Ivarstead bridge right up to the front door of High Hrothgar," which seems fair enough.
Flair rounds off their report with the enlightening point that if the 7,000 Steps were actually made up of 7,000 steps, the trek up the mountain would be approximately 10 times longer, meaning the mountain would have to be about 10 times bigger too.
So somewhat understandably, the devs didn't opt for building an Everest-equivalent mountain in their game. Rather, they clearly banked on the assumption that fans likely wouldn't bother counting the steps anyway.
Silly Bethesda.
Source: Reddit