During one of my many playthroughs of Skyrim, I named my character Mulder. You see, he wasn’t really there to just save the world and end the rebellion like so many Dragonborn had before him. No, he was there to find the answers to the true mysteries that haunted Tamriel. He was going to see what was really out there.

That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t going to wander around Skyrim unprepared - of course not! Skyrim is a dangerous place, and if you can’t defend yourself from bandits, bears, and random dragon attacks, you’re never going to get to the bottom of anything except a shallow grave.

Lockpick was naturally essential, as was some speech skills so I could weasel the truth out of reluctant NPCs, and some light armor so I could beat a hasty retreat when the Daedra-worshipping cult finally found me. And, of course, a few illusion spells so I could make my way into places where I didn’t belong. Getting the facts often involves breaking and entering, after all.

But even though I was everywhere and saw everything, I still had so many unanswered questions that I couldn’t help but think there was some kind of conspiracy that was keeping me from some greater knowledge not meant to be known by mere mortals.

My search continues, but in the meantime, here are some of the mysteries that confound my every waking thought, and sometimes my dreams.

15 Who Killed Reyda?

Reyda
via elderscrolls.wikia.com

My travels first took me to Ivarstead, where a raving lunatic by the name of Narfi accosted me and demanded I find his sister, Reyda. Apparently, she’d been missing for over a year, and although he was desperate to find her he seemed utterly incapable of leaving his family's ruined home.

At first, I thought she may have been abducted by one of Skyrim’s many cults, or perhaps was the cult leader herself, but then I went to a nearby stream to wash and found a skeleton with a distinctive necklace. Narfi confirmed the necklace belonged to her (right before wailing like a banshee), and I knew that my cult lead was a dead-end.

But who could have killed such a sweet and innocent girl in a small farming village? I never was able to find any leads, and am sad to report that it remains an unsolved murder mystery to this very day.

14 Who Wanted To Kill Narfi?

Narfi
via Monkeys Are Fun on YouTube
Narfi

Sometime later, after my considerable prowess for intrusion and silent murder had gotten me into the Dark Brotherhood, I was contracted to kill Narfi, the insane beggar from Ivarstead whose dead sister I’d found.

Killing the poor sod was never a problem, as I already knew Narfi was completely incapable of self-defense. But one question kept ringing in the back of my mind: who would want Narfi dead? The man, if he could be called that, was totally harmless. Strange, yes, but otherwise inoffensive.

As I wrung the life out of him, the question seemed to burn deeper into my mind. Unfortunately, I was never told who had performed the black sacrament, and even my powers of persuasion and stealth weren’t enough for me to ever find out.

13 How Do Courriers Always Know Exactly Where I Am?

Courrier
via pinterest
Courrier

I’d been traveling for days now, avoiding bandits and bears alike. My archery skill wasn’t yet high enough to rely on as a form of defense, and I had forgotten to acquire the spell that would render my invisible. Instead, I stalked from dark bush to even darker shrub so that not a single soul would be able to see me.

And then I felt a tap on my shoulder, followed by a man shouting, “Got something I’m supposed to deliver.”

If I had been able to run I would have bolted like a jack rabbit. Instead, I accepted his letter without comment and watched him run off. How did he find me? How could anyone find me?

That night I checked my backpack for tracking spells. I didn’t find anything, but I burned the bag anyway, just to be sure.

12 Who Is Rune?

Rune
via tespostcards.wordpress.com
Rune

At one point I was contacted by the Thieves Guild to become their latest protégé. It seemed that the Guild had fallen on hard times and could use anyone with even an inkling of the thieve’s art, of which I had an entire flask full.

In the Cistern the Guild called home, I met a man named Rune who said that he was an orphan and had spent the better part of his adult years trying to find anything about his past. He says he was found by a local fisherman, and despite spending every coin he had on informants he was never able to locate any information regarding his parents or where he came from.

Neither could I, but I suspected I knew the truth: he was an alien, planted here to observe and report on me. I left the next day and only returned when the Nightingale quest forced me to. But even then, I kept a close eye on Rune.

11 How Could Rorikstead Be Mentioned In Ragnar The Read?

Rorikstead
via skyrimming.com
Rorikstead

Rorikstead was a small town with barely a few villagers living there. I found myself passing through on my way to another Dwemer ruin and stopped to get supplies and see if the locals knew anything about the disappearance of the dwarves hundreds of years ago.

They knew nothing of course - I honestly shouldn’t have expected anything from them. But I did notice something quite odd.

After speaking with the town’s Mayor, a man called Rorik who claims to have founded the hamlet, I found a bard in the local tavern singing a song called Ragnar The Red. In it he mentioned Rorikstead, but I knew that Ragnar was a legendary hero from the First Age. How could this Mayor have founded the town if it had been here all along?

It was impossible - unless Rorik was actually immortal. I never did find out, however; I was attacked by a dragon the following morning and had to seek shelter in a nearby cave. I suspect the town is but fire and ash, but I have never returned to find out.

10 Why Put Bugs In Jars?

Bugs in Jars
via nerdicvikings.com
Bugs in Jars

Sometimes mysteries are found by accident. I was searching for clues in a cave, when I came across an odd jar. Inside was a luna moth and a small inscription at the bottom with strange markings. I originally put it down to some bizarre yeti's hobby, but then while looting a cottage near Riften for supplies I found another jar, this time with a bee inside. The same strange markings covered the bottom of the jar. Neither insects seemed all that perturbed for being held captive in glass.

In my travels, I discovered three more jars and three more mysteries. Who put these bugs in jars? To what purposes? Was it some kind of prank? An entomologist’s project long since forgotten and abandoned? Or were these insects actually the souls of Daedra trapped forever in transparent prisons?

I still have them in my bag, but I’ve never been brave enough to open the jars to find out. I’m terrified of bugs.

9 Was Saadia Telling The Truth, Or Was Kematu?

Redguard
via nexus mods
Redguard

In Whiterun I met a pair of Redguard thugs who told me they were looking for a young Redguard woman. They said there was a bounty on her head, and I would be rewarded for finding her.

I ignored them - my quest is to find the truth in Skyrim, not some runaway slave. I then went to a local inn for a pint when I spotted the Redguard woman who immediately took me into the back room and threatened me with a dagger. I tried to explain I wasn’t here to turn her in, but she then told me to kill the Redguard that were after her, saying she was a political refugee or some such nonsense.

I left the inn, not really caring one way or another. Then a week later spoke to another Redguard named Kematu who said he was looking for this woman named Saadia. I had never gotten the innkeeper’s name, but he said she was actually a traitor to the Redguard people, having opened the gates of Hammerfell for an invading army.

His story was clearly at odds with Saadia’s, if that was her name, but I never found out who was telling the truth. I told the man where to find his woman and collected the bounty.

8 Who Keeps Sending Those Assassins After Me?

Assassin
via skyrimtravels.com
Assassin

After unsuccessfully trying to find a hidden cult amongst the far more obvious cult of the Dark Brotherhood, I left their employ to track down another conspiracy I had heard in Markarth. Along the way, an assassin caught up with me, jumped out of the bushes and tried to stab me.

I was taken aback - the Brotherhood assured me that I wouldn’t have to worry about random Assassins trying to eliminate my pension until after I had officially retired. That meant someone had actually put a price on my head.

Who could it have been? Was I getting close? Was the truth just around the next corner? I couldn’t believe it! Rather than kill the assassin I thanked him profusely, cast my invisibility spell, and left him standing in the middle of the road with a dumbfounded look on his face.

7 Why Are There No Female Giants?

Giants
via nexus mods
Giants

Skyrim’s countryside can be a beautiful thing to look at. I’d often sit atop one of its many rolling hills and just watch the wind blow across the fields and the trees sway back and forth. It’s a moment’s peace before the siren’s call of truth beckons me ever onward.

At one point I noticed the dull, distant thump of a tribe of giants leading their mammoths to new pastures. As I sat and stared at their bearded and grizzled features I couldn’t help but wonder: why had I never seen a giant woman?

I’d seen their encampments, and not once had a buxom giantess made an appearance. Could it be that the entire species is monosexual? Or was it something more sinister, such as an entire culture that keeps their women locked up underground for nefarious purposes?

I never did find out, but it was something that I speculated on frequently by drawing many a large woman in my journal. 

6 What Happened To The Dwemer?

Dwemer
via elderscrolls.wikia.com
Dwemer

Everyone had heard the stories: the Dwemer were an ancient subterranean empire that stretched all across Tamriel, that their mechanisms could perform feats greater than magic ever could, and that they’d all disappeared thousands of years ago, leaving only ruins behind.

The truth about the Dwemer collapse was something that had always called to me. I’d spent many a sleepless night considering their fate, and many a waking hour deep in some dangerous cavern seeking entrances to lost Dwemer cities.

I found one, once, but after several missteps, I had activated so many of their automated guardians I was forced to flee lest I be trampled by the very truths I sought. I vowed to one day return, and next time I’d bring men with me to sacrifice in the name of science.

5 What Caused The Winterhold Great Collapse?

Winterhold
via elderscrolls.wikia.com
Winterhold

I had trekked all the way to Winterhold to find some information on the lost Dwemer Civilization and found the College to have surprisingly unique geography.

It seemed the entire college was poised on a small island that seemed like an inverted mountain, connected to the mainland by a single bridge. The professors said it was due to something called The Great Collapse when Winterhold had been struck by a series of seemingly endless storms that eroded the land all around the College but left the school itself untouched.

When I asked what could have possibly caused the storms, the mages all equivocated, and I knew I was onto something big. But before I could find out what they were trying to hide, the Arch Mage approached me about some magical device called the Staff of Magnus. He insisted it was a matter of grave importance, but it seemed like a red herring to me.

4 Just Who Is Falion?

Falion
via TheStupidNorwegian on YouTube
Falion

In the marsh city of Morthal is a mage by the name of Falion. I had heard of him from my time at the College of Winterhold, who spoke of him in hushed tones and veiled whispers. I knew this was a man with secrets, and vowed to find him.

What I found was a Redguard mage of fantastic ability. He was able to cure vampirism, a disease I had thought to be incurable, as though it was nothing worse than the common cold. He also said he had met the Dwemer, a race that had been extinct for centuries - perhaps longer. If true it would make the mage unfathomably old.

I stalked him for a month, eventually finding him near the summoning stones, but he refused to tell me what his plans were. I suspected he was the leader of an ancient order of mages charged with eliminating vampirism, perhaps even an agent of the Daedric Prince Meridia. 

3 What Is The Truth Behind The Kagrenzel Orb?

Kegrenzel
via KarlMarklund on YouTube
Kegrenzel

In one of my many forays into ancient Dwemer lore, I located the ruin of Kagrenzel high up in the Velothi Mountains. The ruins were long abandoned, even by the horrible Falmer, so I felt no fear in foraying into the peaks of Skyrim in search of the immutable truth.

That is until I arrived and saw the dead bodies that littered the ground. Then I was a little concerned, but not enough to stop me from ascending the podium to stare upon the Orb of Kagrenzel. It was shimmering, beautiful, and mesmerizing. The bodies at my feet told me I should be far more careful, but I couldn’t help but reach out and touch the glowing sphere.

And then the ground fell out from under me and I fell hundreds of feet into a frigid underground lake.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I refuse to believe the orb is merely a trap to ensure visitors are properly bathed.

2 Who Is The Chicken Necromancer?

Chicken Necromancer
via Steam
Chicken Necromancer

Skyrim is a country with many secrets, but none seem as compelling as the many necromantic cults that litter the countryside. I had intended to find one to ask them why they insist on raising the dead from their graves, but every necromancer I meet immediately attacks me with undead minions.

One such necromancer went even a step further: he summoned a recently deceased chicken to aid in my destruction.

I killed him, naturally - I have a deadly terror of flying fowl, but after he’d been dispatched I couldn’t help but wonder who he was, where he’d come from, why he turned to the dark arts, and most of all, why a chicken?

His notes were not at all helpful, either. They seemed to be full of nothing but chicken scratch.

1 Who Is The Ebony Warrior?

Ebony Warrior
via MrRhexx on YouTube
Ebony Warrior

I had been in Skyrim for many years before I met the Ebony Warrior, a man clad in armor as black as pitch. He said that only I could release him and send him to Sovngarde with honor. I said then perhaps he hadn’t researched my combat methods adequately enough as I rarely fought with honor, but he insisted that I was to duel him high up on the mountains and that I must be victorious.

It was madness, but he insisted and I obliged. Only, he soon proved to be a far more able warrior than I, necessitating my hasty retreat. Since the first time we fought I have avoided the black knight, and instead tried to find as much information as I could regarding his origins.

All my searching has been for naught. It seems nobody in this thrice-cursed fjord has ever heard of the Ebony Warrior or can explain the source of his powers. But it’s no matter, for I will eventually find out.

The truth is out there.