History Skyrim / TropesDToG

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Unlike most humanoid enemies, the Falmer rarely wear boots or shoes, despite being capable of crafting armor.

* FindTheCure: Getting cured requires working with a Conjurer who will cure you in exchange for a filled Black Soul Gem. "Black" souls are those of sapient beings, and the ''Dawnguard'' DLC reveals that sapient beings who have been soul trapped are doomed to spend eternity in the bleak Soul Cairn. Essentially, you are dooming someone to a FateWorseThanDeath to cure yourself of the disease. Alternatively, if you are a member of the [[AdventureGuild Companions]], you can choose to [[spoiler:become infected with Lycanthropy, which clears the Vampirism]]. That may or may not be considered better depending on the circumstances.

* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: Aventus Aretino eventually calls the Dark Brotherhood against the abusive matron, Grelod the Kind. When the player character goes to seek out information on her, she's so utterly unlikable that [[KickTheSonOfABitch the only question is how to kill her in the most horrific way]]. The player may decide to kill her even without ever running into Aventus, because she's so awful!

* ADateWithRosiePalms: In the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, in the Benkongerike dungeon in Solstheim, there is a Riekling hut filled with copies of ''The Lusty Argonian Maid'' and a couple of rolls of linen...

* DecapitatedArmy: Downplayed and justified. Alduin is more than just the leader of the dragons; he's summoning them, as shown in the pre-Sahlokniir scene. Dragons are firm believers of AsskickingEqualsAuthority and MightMakesRight, so [[spoiler:Alduin fleeing his battle against the Dragonborn and Paathurnax atop the Throat of the World]] instead of acknowledging [[spoiler:the Dragonborn]] as both superior and morally right shakes some dragons' faith in his leadership. Most non-named dragons will still go after the Dragonborn as if nothing happened, though.

** Balgruuf the Greater, Jarl of Whiterun. He’s well loved and respected by his people and is always courteous and grateful to the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]], regardless of their race. He’s also the only Jarl who desperately tries to remain neutral during the Civil War, not wanting the war to destroy his hold or his people. [[spoiler: When Whiterun is attacked by the Stormcloaks during the Civil War quest line, regardless of which side you've joined, Balgruuf himself leads the defense of the city. [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking He won't go down without a fight.]]]]

* DecapitatedArmy: Justified. Alduin is more than just the leader of the dragons; he's summoning them, as shown in the pre-Sahlokniir scene. It demonstrates that he's not quite as almighty as he claims, which shakes some dragons' faith in his leadership.

** The '''only''' way to gain all fifteen Daedric artifacts for the "Oblivion Walker" achievement involves [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder stabbing your ally]] [[KickTheDog in the back]] in most of their associated quests, or else [[PermanentlyMissableContent losing the chance]] to gain the artifact involved. Understandable, since the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Princes]] are, for the most part, a collection of JerkassGods. The most brutal decision is probably the one in the quest for Vaermina, the Daedric Prince of [[YourWorstNightmare Nightmares]]. If you want her artifact and the achievement, you must [[spoiler:kill Erandur, an incredibly NiceGuy who is also one of the few followers in the game to actually level up with you]]. By saving this as the last Daedric quest you do, you can, through SaveScumming, get the achievement ''and'' keep [[spoiler:Erandur]] alive, but you lose out on the artifact.

** The Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks, though the latter's FantasticRacism admittedly paints them as a darker shade of grey in comparison to the Legion. The Legion's trying to hold the Empire together in the face of a great evil and treat non-human races with far more respect than their Stormcloak counterparts on average, but they're willing to kill unlucky bystanders (i.e. ''you''), oppress several Nord customs including their primary religion[[note]]which is given further weight in that according to the developers, Talos worship is actually a CosmicKeystone and if Talos goes without worship for too long, ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt reality will cease to exist]]''[[/note]] , justify their occupation of Skyrim with a range of controversial excuses including [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Appeal to Fear]] ("The Empire is the ''only'' thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim!") and straight-up CulturalPosturing ("Without the guiding light of the Empire, the people of Tamriel will fall into barbarism and anarchy, including Skyrim! ''Especially'' Skyrim!"). Some of their members also engage in war crimes, according to more than one testimony. The Stormcloaks want to be independent and restore their native customs without fear of persecution, but their leader killed a young and innocent king to begin the war (although he claims this was a lawful challenge according to Nord custom, which not everyone agrees on), and have a disturbingly reactionary and exclusionary attitude against any non-Nord races, with the Stormcloak capital of Windhelm being by far the worst offender. This racism also spreads with them -- if Whiterun is taken by the Stormcloaks, the Cyrodiilic blacksmith there bitterly notes that she'd probably be out of business if she wasn't already married to a Nord.

** The final story mission of the Companions has the Dragonborn set out with the rest of the Circle to [[spoiler: posthumously]] cure Kodlak Whitemane of his lycanthropy at the Tomb of Ysgramor. But as soon as you get there, Vilkas explains that he cannot actually enter the tomb with you because he is too ashamed of the actions he took at Driftshade [[spoiler: when the two of you exterminated the Silver Hand as vengeance for Kodlak's death]], but wishes you well. Then, after a few fights against the spirits of the original Companions further into the Tomb, Farkas decides he can go no further thanks to the way being blocked by giant spiders, of which he has a phobia, and he turns back, leaving only you and Aela the Huntress to finish.
** During the College of Winterhold questline, as you journey through Labyrinthian, you see the ghosts of the former arch-mage, Savos Aren, and his group of friends reliving their exploration of the tomb. The farther you go, the smaller their party gets, as they get picked off one by one by the dangers of the place. In the end, [[spoiler:only Savos and two companions are left, and he sacrifices them by enthralling them to seal Morokei in the tomb.]]
** In Avanchnzel and the associated quest "Unfathomable Depths," you can witness the ghosts of the explorer party going in there to loot the "treasure" at the end, which turns out to be a lexicon containing ancient Dwarven knowledge. Like the Labyrinthian quest, you slowly encounter the corpses of the explorers, usually being killed off by whatever is in the next room (although one died of a clumsy accident). Unlike the Labyrinthian one, though, not all of them are ghosts, as you get the quest from the one explorer who actually did escape. Unfortunately, she's been driven mad by the lexicon, which is why you have to return it.

** Winterhold was once a grand, vibrant city that rivaled Solitude and Whiterun in sheer glamor and splendor. Then an earthquake sent 99.9% of the city (and indeed, the Hold itself) into the ocean. No one knows what exactly caused what became known as the Great Collapse, but many people, including the current Winterhold Jarl, believes that the Mage College is connected somehow. Ironically, the College itself is now the only reason anyone still cares about Winterhold. The replacement Jarl (if the Imperials win the Civil War) recognizes the reality of the situation and wants to foster good relations with the College.
** Ivarstead. One man is reluctant to allow his daughter to go to Riften with her new paramour partly because Ivarstead will have no future if more of the younger generation leaves. The main attraction of Ivarstead is that it is the closest settlement to the mountain where the legendary Gray-beards reside.

** Anyone who played the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' two games ago will be in familiar territory. Solstheim, the island where that expansion took place, was basically a mini-Skyrim, full of Nords and mead with werewolves and deadly spriggans running about. The actual Solstheim returns as the setting for the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, and its southern half is now a mini-Morrowind, with ash fall, netches, and Redoran and Telvanni settlements with their associated architecture.

** The Dwemer ruins return in full force with plenty of great examples, many of which have been taken over by their former SlaveRace, the Falmer. The Falmer are also shown to be capable of constructing elaborate networks of suspended bridges and platforms. Blackreach used to be an entire city, spanning ''three'' surface holds, but it fell into disuse when the Dwemer disappeared. Traversing them can take the better part of four hours even if you're trying to pass as quickly as possible, and you have to fight your way through a small army of Falmer, Automatons, and other nasties on the way. Easily five times as big as any of the regular barrows you'll see, they're positively packed with items, and have THREE different access elevators plus three more through various Dwemer ruins. There's a reason why [[spoiler:Blackreach might have been the Dwemer capital.]]

** In the DLC ''Dragonborn'', we've got Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha. Aside from the AlienSky filled with enormous tentacles (which may or may not belong to Mora himself), it's flooded with acidic green water, all the structures are either made of a vaguely organic-looking webbing or gigantic stacks of books, and, thanks to several tunnels and rooms that can move/contract/rotate, [[AlienGeometries it can get really disorienting]].

** Various enemies have resistances to one type of elemental spell damage, but are also weaker to another. Dragons that use Fire Breath and Flame Atronachs, for example, have a resistance to fire spells, but are also weak to frost spells, while the opposite is true Dragons that use Frost Breath and Frost Atronachs.
** A more specific version of destruction magic is it each element is designed to overwhelm a certain class, Archers can be easily dispatched by fire due to the fact they like to get into shooting matches and is thus ripe for being burned alive for additional damage. Warriors should be kept away with Frost Spells which reduce their movement and stamina while Shock spells excel at killing mages with mana burn and the off chance to hit nearby enemies in the rear.

** And two more from ''Dragonborn'': the Dremora Butler and Merchant. The Butler in particular snarks about you asking him to carry things for you.
---> "I always dreamt of being a pack mule."

*** The Bretons of High Rock are an eclectic mix of medieval England and France, though their home province actually being a loose collection of feuding city-states is more reminiscent of Renaissance Italy than anything else. Meanwhile, the Reachmen are firmly Celtic in terms of animistic beliefs and clashing with the "civilized" invaders of their ancestral lands, though their naming conventions oddly seem to predominantly be Native American in inspiration (i.e., the King Arthur figure for the Reachmen was named "Red Eagle").
*** The Redguards of Hammerfell are a mix of Persio-Arabic and North African influences in overall design, to the point where the wandering Redguard soldiers met during "In My Time of Need" look like they've been essentially lifted straight out of ''Literature/ArabianNights''. However, their famous curved swords are actually based after the famed curved scimitars used by the Islamic peoples of Central Asia.

*** In ''Dragonborn'', the Skaal are like standard Nords mixed with the Inuit peoples.

*** The Altmer are based on Nazi Germany; the Thalmor treat anyone not Altmer as inferior beings, and are mentioned as ruthlessly practicing eugenics in their home provinces. They hunt those that worship Talos, and the dissidents either are being hunted by them in their homeland, help the persecuted secretly, or immigrate to other provinces to help stop the Thalmor.
*** The Dunmer have some similarities to the Jewish people in that, having lost their homeland, they are now scattered throughout Tamriel with some areas making them forced to live in ghettos.
*** The Orcs, weirdly enough, have more than a little in common with Native Americans this time around. They had their land of Orsinium stolen from them under the threat of violence by more advanced neighbors, and now live in rather limited communal dwellings, resembling something similar to reservations.
** The Khajiit are pretty clearly based on the Romani people, as further emphasized with their similar vocal patterns and trade caravans.

** "No Stone Unturned" is considered by many to be the [[ThatOneSidequest most infamous]] of all Skyrim fetch quests, if not all quests in general. The stones are [[CollectionSidequest numerous]], quite small, and almost always hidden away in some nondescript dungeon or sitting on a desk in some random NPC's house amongst various bits of junk. And once you pick up a stone it can't be removed from your inventory until you've found all 24 of them and completed the associated quest, which is a problem since the stones each have a 0.5 weight value (most other quest items are weightless). Worse still, one of the stones was placed in a spot that becomes completely inaccessible after a certain point, rendering it {{Permanently Missable|Content}}. Until the stone was moved by the 1.4 patch, it wasn't uncommon for players to reach the end of the game with up to 11.5 pounds of dead weight taking up space in their inventory. And unlike most quests in the game. You don't get map markers for them, so you have to travel the entire country completely blind searching every single nook&cranny in the ENTIRE game. Unless you use a walk-through or a map marker mod. [[note]] the map marker mod for the stones is one of the highest-rated Skyrim mods on the Steam Workshop [[/note]]

** The three archetypal builds are present even without classes, as each skill is one of six in each purview. In the astrological lore of the series, these three are the names of three "Guardian" constellations in the zodiac which "watch over" lesser constellations devoted to these three builds. The new skill tree system's visible appearance is a direct callback to this, with the three "Guardians" as huge nebulae over the warrior, mage and thief skill trees that appear as constellations in the sky. (The old constellations like "The Atronach" and "The Shadow" have been moved to the standing stones dotting Skyrim.)
** Many of the Jarls have one of each archetype (though "thief" may be a bit of a stretch, that is the constellation that includes Speech) for advisors: The Housecarl for the more strength-at-arms-tinted advice, the Steward for the voice of discretion, and the Court Mage for advice on any arcane matters.
** The three heroes of ancient Skyrim also fit into this trichotomy.

** The '''only''' way to gain all fifteen Daedric artifacts for the "Oblivion Walker" achievement involves [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder stabbing your ally]] [[KickTheDog in the back]] in most of their associated quests, or else [[PermanentlyMissableContent losing the chance]] to gain the artifact involved. Understandable, since the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Princes]] are, for the most part, a collection of JerkassGods. The most brutal decision is probably the one in the quest for Vaermina, the Daedric Prince of [[YourWorstNightmare Nightmares]]. If you want her artifact and the achievement, you must [[spoiler:kill Erandur, a companion and one of the few followers in the game to actually level up with you]]. By saving this as the last Daedric quest you do, you can, through SaveScumming, get the achievement ''and'' keep [[spoiler:Erandur]] alive, but you lose out on the artifact.
** The quest for [[JackassGenie Clavicus Vile]] is a particularly dark example of the trope, because Vile ''himself'' tells you to use the Rueful Axe and kill Barbas, the talking BigFriendlyDog who has accompanied you on the quest. [[spoiler:Doing this is the ''wrong move'', because the Rueful Axe is not his true artifact. Instead, you have to replace the Rueful Axe in the statue, enabling Barbas to return to his rightful place as Vile's conscience. You are then rewarded with the true artifact, the Masque of Clavicus Vile.]]

* GreatGazoo: Sanguine, the Daedric Prince of [[FunPersonified Debauchery]] and [[TheHedonist Hedonism]]. He mostly plays with and, at worst, annoys mortals while attempting to drag them into sin with various vices. He is definitely one of the less serious Daedric Princes. His "[[EldritchLocation Myriad Realms of Oblivion]]" constantly reform to become the [[HappyPlace pleasure paradise]] of whoever is visiting. In ''Skyrim'', his idea of fun time is going out on a pub crawl with some mortal he just met and getting them in more and more stupid scenarios until they wake up with a splitting headache, a brand new wife, and their old wife lying dead with her skull split open like a watermelon. The Dragonborn got off lightly in "A Night To Remember", having stolen a goat to sell to a giant to pay for a ring to marry a ''hagraven'' in Markarth, and wreck a temple to Dibella.

** The Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks, though the latter's FantasticRacism admittedly paints them as a darker shade of grey in comparison to the Legion. The Legion's trying to hold the Empire together in the face of a great evil and treat non-human races with far more respect than their Stormcloak counterparts on average, but they're willing to kill unlucky bystanders (i.e. ''you''), oppress several Nord customs including their primary religion[[note]]which is given further weight in that according to the developers, Talos worship is actually a CosmicKeystone and if Talos goes without worship for too long, ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt reality will cease to exist]]''[[/note]] , justify their occupation of Skyrim with a range of controversial excuses including [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Appeal to Fear]] ("The Empire is the ''only'' thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim!") and straight-up CulturalPosturing ("Without the guiding light of the Empire, the people of Tamriel will fall into barbarism and anarchy, including Skyrim! ''Especially'' Skyrim!"). Some of their members also engage in war crimes, according to more than one testimony. The Stormcloaks want to be independent and restore their native customs without fear of persecution, but their leader killed a young and innocent king to begin the war (although he claims this was a lawful challenge according to Nord custom, which not everyone agrees on), and have a disturbingly reactionary and exclusionary attitude against any non-Nord races, with the Stormcloak capital of Windhelm being by far the worst offender. This racism also spreads with them - if Whiterun is taken by the Stormcloaks, a Cyrodiilic blacksmith there bitterly notes that she'd probably be out of business if she wasn't already married to a Nord.
** There's an added element of importance to the civil war that goes beyond simply whose beliefs will dominate in Skyrim. If the Empire wins, the political situation re-stabilizes and the Empire can resume rebuilding to face the inevitable Thalmor aggression more effectively, and ''possibly'' repel a second assault and ultimately reestablish the old pantheon. But if the Stormcloaks win, free and open worship of Talos can resume ''immediately'' in Skyrim. The Stormcloaks then ''might'' be able to reunite fractured elements of the Empire like Hammerfell and Morrowind, and reforge the Tamrielic Empire under Skyrim's leadership into a stronger force than the current Empire. Regardless, however, Ulfric does make it a point to take immediate steps to ensuring Skyrim is self-sufficient by increasing the power of its army if he wins.
** Both sides also have a relatively even amount of "corrupt Jarls" (Siddgeir and Maven Black-Briar for the Empire, Skald the Elder and Thongvor Silver-Blood for the Stormcloaks) and "good Jarls" (Brunwulf Free-Winter, Balgruuf the Elder, Kraldar, and Brina Merilis for the Empire, Dengeir of Stuhn, Vignar Gray-Mane, Korir, and Sorli the Builder for the Stormcloaks). Most of the Jarls for either side have their merits and flaws, however, driving this trope even further.
** On another front, there's [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the Forsworn]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the Silver-Bloods]] (and the rest of the inhabitants of the Reach by extension). The Forsworn are [[BloodKnight bloodthirsty]] and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] Breton guerrillas who esteem Hagravens, make pacts with and worship [[JerkassGods the Daedric Princes]], practice HumanSacrifice, and murder anyone unlucky enough to run into their patrols... and they've also been enslaved and persecuted by the rulers of Markarth and the Silver-Bloods for at least the last few generations, with many Forsworn being pushed into their current extremism by the actions of their oppressors (who in turn see the Forsworn's enslavement as the best option possible for civilizing the region). As one Forsworn says, "There are no innocents in the Reach - just the guilty and the dead."

** The Blades and the Greybeards. The Blades want to defeat Alduin and the dragons, but they aren't very nice to the Dragonborn, while the Greybeards are kindly mentor figures but invoke YouAreNotReady to explain why they don't just teach the Dragonborn every Shout they know when the player first meets them. The two are also not fond of each other - the Blades order you to [[spoiler:kill Paarthurnax for being a dragon]], and Delphine says the Greybeards fear the Shout's misuse and so do not use its power for good, but ignore how all power risks being abused and their knowledge is worthless if it isn't being put to use. By contrast, the Greybeards consider the Blades meddlers in things they don't understand, and claim that their mission to serve the Dragonborn is a lie they use to hide the fact they want to ''control'' the Dragonborn.[[note]][[JerkassHasAPoint This actually has some element of truth]]; you're basically forced to join the Blades as Delphine took the horn and you need to get it back, and throughout the whole questline, Delphine remains dismissive towards you. For instance, when you first meet her, you can ask "Why should I trust you?", a valid question since she stole the horn and is yammering about Thalmor conspiracies; she replies, "If you don't trust me, you were a fool to come here." What exactly does she expect as a non-foolish response, then? Show up and murder everyone in the Inn to get it? Shrug and walk away from the main quest?[[/note]] Ultimately, you can be loyal to only one of the two factions, depending on how you feel about [[spoiler:killing Paarthurnax]]. Overall, it's an argument [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment of based practicality/caution versus idealism/loyalty:]] Despite being a generous and helpful ally who has done ''nothing'' to slight you, [[spoiler:Paarthurnax still ''is'' a dragon, and even though he tells you that he's reformed, he also makes it clear that he fights to retain control of his aggression ''every single day,'' it's wise not to trust him, and he almost certainly deserves death for the numerous atrocities he committed against mortals in the distant past prior to his HeelFaceTurn.]]

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: The Equip, Take, Take All and Give buttons never seem to stay in the same place between different sorts of inventory management screen - for example taking things out of containers, putting things ''into'' containers, personal inventory, swapping with companions, and trading. It's not uncommon to forget this and accidentally take everything inside a container when you intended to put one thing away - and if it was the container you use as your main storage, this will probably mean enough weight to make you overencumbered several times over and enough items that it will take you a long time to get them all put back. In most cases you're better off reloading an autosave.
** This becomes especially annoying when dealing with ingredients: the key to take ingredients out of a container becomes, when trying to put them back, the same as the key that is used for consuming ingredients. So, whilst you think that you have put away all of your ingredients, what you have actually done is consumed them, and you will only realise your mistake when you close your inventory and suffer the effects, including severe poisoning.

* DarknessEqualsDeath: In one area in Hermaeus Mora's realm, straying from lit areas causes damage that will boot you out in short order (as you can't actually die in Apocrypha barring one boss fight). Inverted with the Twilight Sepulchre, which has a gauntlet where you have to stay ''out'' of the light if you don't want to be burnt to a crisp.
** They're also the only areas immune to ''[[NoSell god mode]]'', so while you can shrug off {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, swim through an ocean of toxic sludge filled with tentacles, and let loose [[MakeMeWannaShout dragon shouts]] as easily as normal speech, these areas will still deal the same amount of damage regardless of whether or not god mode is enabled.
* DarkReprise:
** The ''Dragonborn'' trailer is an entire ''trailer'' of Dark Reprise -- the theme is a darker, more foreboding version of the original teaser trailer track, shows the new gameplay areas, and just like the original trailer it ends with a dying dragon having its soul absorbed... as the camera pans up its body to reveal that [[ThereIsAnother the absorption isn't being done by you]]. At the end of the trailer, we hear what initially sounds like "The Song Of The Dragonborn," but with changed lyrics and a darker tone: it's [[VillainSong a version of the song dedicated to the First Dragonborn, and what will happen when he returns.]]

* DaywalkingVampire: Vampires are debilitated by sunlight, but not burnt.

** What ''exactly'' happens to the varying heroes of the Elder Scrolls games when they die, after owing their souls to a number of Daedra and other beings, is something of a running joke amongst the fanbase.

* DeathOfTheOldGods: The Nordic pantheon is utterly ancient and includes several gods that were [[CompositeCharacter merged]] with the Aldmeri pantheon to create the Eight Divines. The gods in this pantheon were Shor (a Nordic WarGod version of Lorkhan and the chief god), Kyne (Shor's warrior-widow and goddess of storms), Tsun (a shield-brother of Shor who died defending him from the Mer gods, possibly the precursor of Zenithar), and Stuhn (the Nordic precursor to Stendarr), as well as Mara, Dibella, Jhunal (a Nord precursor to Julianos who fell out of favour with the rest of the pantheon), Orkey (Arkay or "Old Knocker") and Alduin (a grim and frightening version of Akatosh). By the Fourth Era there are very, very few Nords who worship the old pantheon; Froki Whetted-Blade, the elderly hunter, vehemently rejects the Eight, dismissing them as impostor gods.

* DeathTrap: You gotta watch your step in pretty much every dungeon if you don't want a spiky grate embedded in your face, or a side full of poisoned darts. There is a perk which prevents you from triggering pressure plates, but it does not stop trip wires or trapped chests and doors, nor does it apply to [[ArtificialStupidity your followers]].

* DecapitatedArmy: Justified. Alduin is more than just the leader of the dragons; he's summoning them, as shown in the pre-Sahlokniir scene.
** Not to mention that demonstrating that he's not quite as almighty as he claims shakes some dragons' faith in his leadership.
* DecapitationPresentation: Pre-game, the Great War began when the Thalmor delivered the Emperor an ultimatum - along with the heads of [[spoiler:every Blade serving in the territories controlled by the Aldmeri Dominion]]. General Tullius also seems rather fond of threatening Ulfric with this fate.

* DemBones: While most ruins are filled with zombie-like Draugr, you'll still run into walking Skeletons from time to time in various ruins. Their bones make a very satisfying clatter when they fly apart upon getting killed.
** Skeleton Dragons too. These are encountered in [[spoiler:Labyrinthian]], or if [[spoiler:you interrupt Alduin's resurrection of a Dragon at any of the dragon burial sites]].

* [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells Depleted Enchantment Bolts]]: You can find the schematics for enhanced crossbow bolts in the ''Dawnguard'' DLC. Basically, just mix a few bolts with some elemental salts, and you've got exploding fire, exploding ice, and exploding lightning bolts!

* DisneyVillainDeath: Using [[BlownAcrossTheRoom Unrelenting Force]] on someone so that they fall to their doom is a very convenient way of getting rid of your enemies, including [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd88xgZFaOs Mercer Frey]]]].
** It also affords a bit of LoopholeAbuse, if for some reason you want to kill someone but can't find a way to do it stealthily. Just get them into a place where you can blast them off a high-enough ledge to kill them; their death as a result of the fall will ''not'' be held on you. Thus, you can literally get away with murder as long as you don't mind paying a 40 septim bounty for assault.
** Oh, and the physics are a lot less forgiving than they were in the previous games. Remember how in previous games an enemy you knocked over a railing would suddenly teleport back up, or fall 3-5 stories and take only a sliver of damage? Not here. Now even a gently sloping path can mean certain death.

*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in this setting, since people living in small farming villages probably do rely on their chickens and other livestock as a major source of income and/or food.

*** Or, the same concept reversed: If you're angry enough about [[spoiler: the deaths of your 'family' in the Dark Brotherhood questline,]] you can take it further by not only [[spoiler: murdering the Emperor,]] but also joining up with the Stormcloaks and kicking the Empire and the [[spoiler: Penitus Oculatus]] out of Skyrim entirely.
* DisproportionateReward: Due to the way favors work, several can turn into this. You can do a menial task for someone such as chopping wood or giving them a drink, and from that point on, you can sleep in their beds and take almost anything not nailed down.

* [[SequelHook DLC Hook]]: [[spoiler: Both Tsun's and Parthunaax's parting words after you slay Alduin basically say that the Dragonborn's end is yet to come and that they will be leaving more indelible marks in history. However, this has been proven to be something of a false hook, since Bethesda has stated that there will be no further DLC and the Dragonborn's ultimate fate currently remains unknown.]]

** It has been speculated on the forums before that the reason they don't wear shoes is because of their blindness; the prevailing theory is that they sense the player moving around not just by sound, but by feeling the vibrations of the floor with their feet.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Thalmor's plan is nearly identical to that of the [[Series/DoctorWho Time Lords]] - both plans were to destroy reality to ascend as gods, and the plans were mainly instigated by the higher-ups while most of the rest simply wanted peace.

* TheDogBitesBack: You can invoke this trope against Arondil, a necromancer who [[ILoveTheDead uses the undead spirits of women as sex slaves]]. [[spoiler:If you steal the soul gem from the pedestal behind him,]] you can rob him of control of his undead servants, which results in two of his slaves murdering him.

* DoorToBefore: A lot of dungeons have passages at the end of the dungeon that will lead back to the beginning of the dungeon. Sometimes it's a barred door or a false wall; other times, the dungeon simply takes you over a bridge or ledge overlooking the earlier chambers, and you can jump down as a shortcut.
** Occasionally inverted -- in Kagrenzel, for example, the dungeon begins by dropping you deep into the center of the dungeon, then you have to fight your way out.
* DoppelgangerSpin: Sigdis Gauldurson in Geirmund's Hall has the ability to create two clones. The clones die in one hit, but all three can shoot arrows and use Unrelenting Force. If you destroy them, he teleports and does it again, forcing you to keep picking them off until he's dead. The second time around, he has three times as many, but the platforms are easy to reach so you can run up and melee them.
** They're not identical, however; the real one's helmet has different horns. This makes it easy to pick him off if you pay attention. Also, his health bar will show damage while the clones are always at full health.

** [[spoiler: However, both Frea and Neloth say otherwise, on a lighter note. It should also be pointed out that Mora has little to no power outside his realm; Miraak's mistake was trying to betray Mora ''within'' his realm. The note is ultimately ambiguous as to the Dragonborn's fate.]]
* DownloadableContent: A high-res texture pack was released in February 2012. There are also two bigger expansions, ''Dawnguard'' (June 27, 2012; the Dragonborn is given the choice to join or fight a group of vampires), and ''Dragonborn'' (December 4, 2012; it involves the very first Dragonborn on the island of Solstheim). A more minor DLC, ''Hearthfire'' (September 4, 2012), adds the ability to adopt children and build houses.

* DragonHoard: There are often treasure chests near dragon dens.

* DragonRider: [[spoiler:Dovahkiin]], atop Odahviing to find the portal to Sovngarde.
** [[spoiler:Expanded on in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, where this becomes a game mechanic once one gets all three words of Bend Will.]]

* TheDreaded: The Dragonborn is this to Dragonkind, for a [[YourSoulIsMine very good reason.]]

** Tova Shatter-Shield if [[spoiler: you kill her remaining daughter.]]

* DummiedOut:

* DugTooDeep:
** Taken to an absurd degree in one ''Dragonborn'' DLC sidequest, which uses this trope ''four times'' on the '''same mine'''. During the quest, you help fund a mining expedition, which awakens the Draugr and gets them slaughtered, and you need to clear it out so another team of miners can be sent in. Then it happens again. The third time around, your partner hires mercenaries, but this means that only some of the miners are alive when you get there. Keep in mind, you have to pay increasingly steep prices to hire people willing to mine the place where the last group got massacred. The fourth time, you finally kill the Dragon Priest causing all these problems.
** Two smaller examples appear in the settlements of Soljund's Sinkhole and Shor's Stone. In the former, the two miners inhabiting the area had dug into a draugr crypt build beneath and mine, forcing them to abandon it. In the latter, spiders have taken over the local mine in town. However, no explanation is given as to where the spider came from.
** Liar's Retreat is a bandit lair that unfortunately happened to intersect a Falmer colony. Most of the bandits have been slaughtered, save one who barred himself in a room. Once you've cleared the place, the bandit chief and some flunkies show up, shocked by the massacre.

** Anyone who played the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion for ''Morrowind'' two games ago will be in familiar territory. Solstheim, the island where that expansion took place, was basically a mini-Skyrim, full of Nords and mead with werewolves and deadly spriggans running about.
*** The actual Solstheim returns as the setting for the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, and its southern half is now a mini-Morrowind, with ash fall, netches, and Redoran and Telvanni settlements with their associated architecture.

* EasterEgg: Of the undocumented feature variety. If you click and drag with your mouse (or move the sticks on the console versions) during the loading screens, you can move the model around.
** Doing this with inventory is actually vital to using dragon claw keys, as they have the combination to the door on their palms. This is a case of GuideDangIt for many players.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Practically all Dwemer ruins. Blackreach used to be an entire city, spanning ''three'' surface holds, but it fell into disuse when the Dwemer disappeared.
** Blackreach and its upper level, Alftand, are a little more than "elaborate". "''Absolutely freaking huge''" might be a better way of putting it. Traversing them can take the better part of four hours even if you're trying to pass as quickly as possible, and you have to fight your way through a small army of Falmer, Automatons, and other nasties on the way. Easily five times as big as any of the regular barrows you'll see, they're positively packed with items, and have THREE different access elevators plus three more through various Dwemer ruins. There's a reason why [[spoiler:Blackreach might have been the Dwemer capital.]]

* EldritchLocation: Also in ''Dragonborn'', we've got Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha. Aside from the AlienSky filled with enormous tentacles (which may or may not belong to Mora himself), it's flooded with acidic green water, all the structures are either made of a vaguely organic-looking webbing or gigantic stacks of books, and, thanks to several tunnels and rooms that can move/contract/rotate, [[AlienGeometries it can get really disorienting]].

* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Subverted in Sheogorath's quest. At first it looks like you're supposed to win such a battle with the help of an atronach (Fire Atronach beats Ice Atronach, who beats Storm Atronach, who beats Fire Atronach) but then it turns out that the battle will actually go on infinitely until you [[spoiler: [[CuttingTheGordianKnot turn Wabbajack on Pelagius's guards]]]].

** See CrapsackWorld above for details on exactly how the "World as We Know It" has ended. Natural disasters in a remote province or two, political unrest in a few more provinces...

** This can happen when fighting almost any type of enemy in the overworld, and not inside of a dungeon that is populated solely by that enemy type. Since there are so many different enemy factions (mages, bandits, animals, vampires, draugr, giants, etc.), just leading one type of enemy to a group of another will often make your job considerably easier.
*** Special mention goes to the plains area west of Whiterun due to the great prevalence of giants and mammoths there. If you get jumped by a sabre cat, no problem; odds are there's a giant/mammoth in sight from wherever you are that will gladly kill it for you.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: One tribe of bandits has the leader's uncle as a guard at the entrance to their cave, even thought he's blind and not that bright. One of the bandits outside has a note on him from the leader lecturing his men about playing tricks on his uncle and threatening them with imprisonment if they don't leave him alone.

* EveryoneIsBi / EvenTheGirlsWantHer / EvenTheGuysWantHim: All eligible marriage candidates can be wed regardless of sex and/or race.

* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Vampires in Skyrim usually make their home in icy caverns and/or ice-covered fort ruins, and are fond of using frost magic. Draugr are also known for hitting you with a frostbite blast from their hands. Of course, the native Nords are all highly resistant to cold damage; they're used to dealing with this crap, apparently.
** This is actually a CallBack to existing canon, which established the clan of vampires living in Skyrim as having an affinity with frost. They also have the power to phase through ice and frost, though it's never demonstrated in-game.

** Alduin also counts, as does Sahloknir.

* ExposedToTheElements: You can find bandits wearing little more than a loincloth in the middle of a snowstorm. The PC can also fall under this trope by wearing skimpy Forsworn or fur armor in screaming blizzards – if they're female, it's little more than a fur loincloth and bra; if they're male, it's [[ShirtlessScene little more than a fur loincloth]].
** [=NPC=]s will, however, comment on this if a character is walking around in their underwear.

** {{Averted|Trope}} if you use the extremely popular [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11163/ Frostfall]] GameMod, which adds a cold weather survival element to the game. [[NintendoHard Skyrim's cold will kill you long before the monsters and bandits do if you are unprepared]]. Travelling at night is risky, being caught in a blizzard can easily spell your doom, and Talos help you if you fall into freezing water and can't dry off.
*** The Survival Mode option available from Creation Club does something similar, by forcing you to worry about elemental conditions as well as getting sufficient food and rest.

* ExpositoryThemeTune: "The Song of the Dragonborn" (the song at the main menu screen) is this, if you can understand the Dragon language. The full lyrics, with translation, are included in one of the in-game books, but it has more lyrics and verses than are included in the official rendition of the song. Instead, it actually matches up with the track heard in Sovngarde - the original version of the song, perhaps.
** Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn, / To keep evil forever at bay. / And the fiercest foes rout / When they hear triumph's Shout / Dragonborn, for your blessing we pray!

* EyeScream: One of the finishers for one-handed swords on dragons is to climb onto the head of the thrashing dragon, and then stab them right in the eye.

*** That being said, if that Stormcloak warrior chose to defy this trope and made a scene instead, Alduin would have arrived and interrupted proceedings just as ''his'' head was going on the block and he would have lived.

* TheFaceless: Miraak's face is never shown. Even after you kill him, [[spoiler: you eat his soul, so his flesh dissolves, meaning you still can't see his face even after looting his gear.]]
** [[spoiler: Console commands, however, reveal that he's a Nord, with receding hair and BlackEyesOfEvil. The latter is presumably a side effect of either learning too many of Hermaeus Mora's secrets or spending too much time in Apocrypha.]]

* FetchQuest: The game is ''filled'' with these, and in fact the "Radiant Story" system was built for this. It does, however, ''usually'' have the decency to point to locales you have yet to visit, making the journey as bountiful as the destination when you clear out a new dungeon.

* FighterMageThief: The three archetypal builds are present even without classes, as each skill is one of six in each purview. In the astrological lore of the series, these three are the names of three "Guardian" constellations in the zodiac which "watch over" lesser constellations devoted to these three builds. The new skill tree system's visible appearance is a direct callback to this, with the three "Guardians" as huge nebulae over the warrior, mage and thief skill trees that appear as constellations in the sky. (The old constellations like "The Atronach" and "The Shadow" have been moved to the standing stones dotting Skyrim.)

* FinalBossPreview: As noted above, [[spoiler:the dragon that so handily interrupts your beheading at the start of the game]] is actually Alduin, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain trying to kill you.]]
** You actually get at least three encounters with him before the actual final battle. The third one [[spoiler: subverts the usual expectation of getting curb stomped. You actually have him on the run and news of his refusal to submit to you after defeating him and instead fleeing shakes the confidence the other dragons have in Alduin's leadership.]]
* FinishingMove: Born from the popular ''Oblivion'' GameMod "Deadly Reflexes" and as an extension of the predecessor Fallout 3 engine's VATS kill-cam function, we have Finishers - flashy animations where characters kill others in a spectacular manner. Every weapon in the game has at least two finisher animations for every enemy type in the game, and projectile weapons have a few as well.
** Particularly satisfying is one of the unarmed Finishers, [[spoiler:a chokeslam]]. Have an axe? Your character doesn't need it as they're quite happy to headbutt a foe to death.
* FireBreathingWeapon: While its predecessor ''Oblivion'' only featured spells that fire a single bolt of elemental energy, ''Skyrim'' also features spells that fire a stream of energy. These tend to require less magicka than the other variety, but deal less damage.
** In addition, the player can learn to breathe fire (and frost) in the same way the Dragons do.

** Another example happens at the end of the ThievesGuild quest "Speaking with Silence," when Karliah shoots the Dragonborn in a scripted cutscene. You're lying on the floor, vision blurring and darkening, unable to do anything, and then [[spoiler:Mercer]] tops it off by stabbing you - all of that from a lovely first person POV. When the screen goes black, you could be forgiven for thinking the Dragonborn just got KilledOffForReal. Nothing of the sort happens, of course, and the quest line proceeds one loading screen later.

* ForTheEvulz: The ghost of [[spoiler:Lucien [=LaChance=]]] acts like this, often advocating murder for petty reasons.
* ForebodingArchitecture: Gets especially obvious in Nordic ruins. Yes, the sarcophagi will bust open dramatically the moment you try to take the loot or the MacGuffin, and yes, the [[GiantSpider Frostbite Spider]] will drop down through the giant hole in the ceiling.

* ForestOfPerpetualAutumn: The Rift seems to be in autumn, even though other regions on the same latitude seem to be in spring.

* FromBadToWorse: According to the plot, things in Tamriel have indeed gotten worse during the 200-year gap between ''Oblivion'' and ''Skyrim''.
** Keep in mind that ''Oblivion'' involved an invasion from a hell realm with demons erupting out and causing mass death and destruction... those are now seen as the ''good old days.''

* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: Killing Grelod the Kind can result in one of the orphans taking a very dark interest in assassination and its ability to "solve people's problems."
* FungusHumongous: Blackreach has glowing mushrooms that reach all the way to the top of the cavern.

** The fight against Miraak in ''Dragonborn'' can be rendered unwinnable if you're too aggressive. Miraak is scripted to heal after taking enough damage, for a total of three times, and for the duration is rendered ethereal so you can't attack him. The problem is, each healing session is designed to only restore most of his health, the assumption being he'll have enough left upon going ethereal to cover the distance and restore him to full. If you damage him enough, though, the healing session will leave him at close to full health, while Miraak will only attack if his health is at full. Miraak will thus stay permanently ethereal, and the battle will be stuck. The only way to correct this problem is either to get him to leave combat (which not all character builds can do); otherwise, you're forced to reset and watch your damage output more carefully.
*** However, if you do get stuck in this manner, you can frequently fix it by shooting Hermaeus Mora (who floats above the battle in the center of the area, though often invisibly) with spell or arrow. Oddly, instead of getting peeved with you for nailing him, this triggers the stalled "death sequence" for Miraak and ends the fight.

** Speaking of Serana, her leave/wait commands can get bugged, causing her to never offer the option to get her to stop waiting or become a follower again, which can only be fixed by resetting parts of her character script using the console.

** Certain plot threads are handled separately, which leads to odd situations where doing quests in certain orders leads to {{facepalm}}-worthy dialogues. For example, while doing Thieves' Guild quests, the player is told by Maven Black-Briar that she has Dark Brotherhood contacts and she'll sic them on you. Thing is, if you completed the Dark Brotherhood questline ''before'' doing the Thieves' Guild, [[spoiler:you know exactly who her contact was - Astrid, through Delvin. And Astrid is dead. And ''you'' are the head of the Brotherhood]]. If you've done both the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild storylines, Maven's threats and posturing take on a new level of absurdity, because she's [[spoiler:''[[IneffectualDeathThreats threatening you with yourself,]]'' [[IneffectualDeathThreats seeing as how]] ''[[IneffectualDeathThreats you lead both organizations]]'']].
*** Another example is in the Civil War questline - Hadvar acts as if you escaped with them at Helgen if you join the Empire in the Civil War... even though it's possible to escape with Ralof and then immediately turn around and join the Empire (and vice-versa).

*** Partly justified, as apparently healing potions can take care of the addiction (or at least the withdrawal symptoms). Ordinary people might not use those very often, but the player probably drinks more than enough to counteract any negative effects.
** At a certain point in one quest, the player gets stabbed and passes out. An NPC will tell them that a certain paralytic venom kept them from bleeding out. In combat, the player never "bleeds out" at all, and in fact regenerates - not to mention that the player may very well be immune to poisons in the first place!

*** It's not just Meridia, for that matter. Practically every supernatural entity (such as Molag Bal, Alduin, Hermaeus Mora, and others) refers to you as a "mortal" too, ignoring your status as a vampire completely. It's somewhat explained by ''Dawnguard'' being a DLC and most of these being in the vanilla game (where you can't be a vampire lord); but even in vanilla ''Skyrim'' it's possible to be a regular vampire, and this gets completely ignored.

* GayOption: You can marry any marriage candidates, regardless of what character you're playing as. [[EveryoneIsBi None of the prospective love interests]] [[AnythingThatMoves care about race or gender either]].
** An attempt at handwave mentions how harsh the Nord style of life is in Skyrim, and people don't have time for nonsense such as "romance".
* GenderedOutfit: Every outfit in the game has a male and female variant. Armor becomes a BreastPlate when fitted onto a female character, and regular clothes have vastly different appearances between the sexes.

* GhibliHills: Falkreath Hold. The only settlement there (besides the ruins of Helgen) is the hold capital itself. The primary industry seems to be logging, and the land itself is unspoiled, teeming with forests and trees, and sparsely populated.
** Arguably Whiterun. The surrounding country side is tundra, but it's grassy and snow-free. The people in the city itself are mostly pleasant, as is the Jarl, and even the guards after you complete a few quests, so the place feels like {{Arcadia}}. Perhaps not coincidentally, that is the name of the city's resident alchemy merchant.

* GiantEnemyCrab: Mudcrabs, naturally, but not just the ones that annoy you every time you come near a river. Just southeast of Rorikstead, there is a mudcrab-infested pool of water that appears to be ridged on all sides with rocks. On closer inspection, it turns out the "rocks" on one side are the corpse of a mudcrab bigger than everything except mammoths and dragons!
** [[spoiler: And you can fight the ghost of said giant Mudcrab in a quest!]]
** [[spoiler: A truly massive crab (coincidentally also a ghost) was added as a boss fight at the end of the [[FishingMinigame Fishing Creation,]] which has since been added to the main game in the Anniversary update.]]
* GiantSpider: Though they appear to be based on solfugids rather than true spiders, the appropriately named frostbite spiders are one of the more common enemies you'll encounter underground, varying in scale from the size of a dog to the size of a small elephant.
* GlamourFailure: A meta-example. Several dungeons have you fight spectral enemies that appears as ghostly blue apparitions. However, they're just normal enemies with a particular visual effect applied to them. It often glitches up, particularly when they die, revealing their true nature.

** Werewolves. They cannot wear armor, use potions, or perform restoration spells while in beast mode. Their health does not regenerate over time either, although they can regain some by eating the hearts of their victims They can, however, paralyze and stagger any enemy, rendering even ''ancient dragons'' helpless, if they enter melee range. ''Outside'' of melee range is where one good archer will do them in. Subverted if the player puts in the work to raise the Dragonborn's health to levels high enough that even dragons need time to whittle it down; then the Dragonborn as a werewolf is pretty much an unstoppable death machine.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The dragon Numinex slowly went insane after being defeated and imprisoned by King Olaf. According to [[spoiler:Paarthurnax]], who used to visit him, he eventually even forgot his own name.

* GodzillaThreshold: Relying on the Dragonborn to save the world can become this: your character can be the leader of the Thieves' Guild and/or the Dark Brotherhood, have completed every Daedric quest that involves betrayal, torture, murder, and cannibalism, and have slain hundreds of innocent people before slaying even one dragon and being summoned by the Greybeards. And they'll still teach you to use the Voice, despite the fact that you're evil enough to be be measured in [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Kilonazis]] and will obviously abuse the power, because [[EvilVersusOblivion you are the only hope the world has]].

* GoldFever: Bandits can be fooled into killing one another if you drop a gemstone into the area they patrol; they squabble over it, then come to blows. Another case of DevelopersForesight.
** Hilariously, this can occasionally also create a dispute between the Dragonborn's spouse and housecarl, depending on whom you marry and which house you're currently occupying. It's strictly a verbal argument, but it still counts, and the item they both want doesn't even necessarily have to be anything valuable.

** [[invoked]] The Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks, though the latter's FantasticRacism admittedly paints them as a darker shade of grey in comparison to the Legion. The Legion's trying to hold the Empire together in the face of a great evil and treat non-human races with far more respect than their Stormcloak counterparts on average, but they're willing to kill unlucky bystanders (i.e. ''you''), oppress several Nord customs including their primary religion[[note]]which is given further weight in that according to WordOfGod, Talos worship is actually a CosmicKeystone and if Talos goes without worship for too long, ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt reality will cease to exist]]''[[/note]] , justify their occupation of Skyrim with a range of controversial excuses including [[UsefulNotes/LogicalFallacies Appeal to Fear]] ("The Empire is the ''only'' thing keeping the Dominion out of Skyrim!") and straight-up CulturalPosturing ("Without the guiding light of the Empire, the people of Tamriel will fall into barbarism and anarchy, including Skyrim! ''Especially'' Skyrim!"). Some of their members also engage in war crimes, according to more than one testimony. The Stormcloaks want to be independent and restore their native customs without fear of persecution, but their leader killed a young and innocent king to begin the war (although he claims this was a lawful challenge according to Nord custom, which not everyone agrees on), and have a disturbingly reactionary and exclusionary attitude against any non-Nord races, with the Stormcloak capital of Windhelm being by far the worst offender. This racism also spreads with them - if Whiterun is taken by the Stormcloaks, a Cyrodiilic blacksmith there bitterly notes that she'd probably be out of business if she wasn't already married to a Nord.
*** There's an added element of importance to the civil war that goes beyond simply whose beliefs will dominate in Skyrim. If the Empire wins, the political situation re-stabilizes and the Empire can resume rebuilding to face the inevitable Thalmor aggression more effectively, and ''possibly'' repel a second assault and ultimately reestablish the old pantheon. But if the Stormcloaks win, free and open worship of Talos can resume ''immediately'' in Skyrim. The Stormcloaks then ''might'' be able to reunite fractured elements of the Empire like Hammerfell and Morrowind, and reforge the Tamrielic Empire under Skyrim's leadership into a stronger force than the current Empire. Regardless, however, Ulfric does make it a point to take immediate steps to ensuring Skyrim is self-sufficient by increasing the power of its army if he wins.
*** Both sides also have a relatively even amount of "corrupt Jarls" (Siddgeir and Maven Black-Briar for the Empire, Skald the Elder and Thongvor Silver-Blood for the Stormcloaks) and "good Jarls" (Brunwulf Free-Winter, Balgruuf the Elder, Kraldar, and Brina Merilis for the Empire, Dengeir of Stuhn, Vignar Gray-Mane, Korir, and Sorli the Builder for the Stormcloaks). Most of the Jarls for either side have their merits and flaws, however, driving this trope even further.
** On another front, there's [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the Forsworn]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the Silver-Bloods]] (and the rest of the inhabitants of the Reach by extension), though it arguably falls more into EvilVersusEvil in the grand scheme of things. The Forsworn are [[BloodKnight bloodthirsty]] and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] Breton guerrillas who esteem Hagravens, make pacts with and worship [[JerkassGods the Daedric Princes]], practice HumanSacrifice, and murder anyone unlucky enough to run into their patrols... and they've also been enslaved and persecuted by the rulers of Markarth and the Silver-Bloods for at least the last few generations, with many Forsworn being pushed into their current extremism by the actions of their oppressors (who in turn see the Forsworn's enslavement as the best option possible for civilizing the region). As one Forsworn says, "There are no innocents in the Reach - just the guilty and the dead."

* GrimUpNorth: Skyrim itself is this to the rest of Tamriel. Like Morrowind, it does have more geographical diversity but still, it is mountainous and very cold.
** Played straight, as Skyrim becomes nastier, in regards to weather and terrain, the farther north you go.
* GroinAttack: This is one of the finishers you can perform on a Dwarven Centurion.
** It's also one of the finishers for unarmed combat.

** Of course, you may also be struck by a bug where any murder, no matter how stealthy, renders the guards permanently hostile until you kill one and earn a proper bounty.

** When you have your first fight with [[spoiler:Alduin]], he decides TheBattleDidntCount and flees, sending shockwaves across the dragons and causing many of them to openly question his ability to lead them: being firm believers that AsskickingEqualsAuthority, dragons believe that you should either be DefiantToTheEnd or submit to the winner. [[spoiler:Later, you capture a dragon named Odahviing and he swears loyalty to you.]]

* DiegeticCharacterCreation: After the Dragonborn is taken prisoner and led to be executed, one of the soldiers notices that you're not on the list and asks who you are, at which point the character customisation menu comes up.

*** [=NPCs=] going through the Falkreath house's entrance sometimes get stuck in the out-of-bounds limbo surrounding the playable area inside the house.

** Particularly satisfying is one of the unarmed Finishers, [[spoiler:a chokeslam]]. Have AnAxeToGrind? Your character doesn't need it as they're quite happy to headbutt a foe to death.

** There is an early quest that involves giving a fake letter from Faendal (actually written by Sven) and giving it to a girl they both like. The player can then choose to tell Faendal about the letter, and can choose to deliver a similar letter from Sven (actually written by Faendal).

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: [[spoiler:As the Dovahkiin is tutored by the Greybeards and kills more of the dragons, s/he understands more of the Dragon Tongue, so [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall this extends to the player as well]]]]. It is also likely that dragons understand some amount of the language spoken in Skyrim and switch between this and their own language when speaking to humans, as many people unfamiliar in a language often do. [[spoiler:Dragons which actually speak to you - Paarthurnax and Odahviing - will swap midsentence; Alduin and a few of his named lieutenants will also do so, depending on to whom they're speaking.]]
** A lesser example involving Alduin himself. The first time you see him resurrect a dragon is at Kynesgrove. Afterwards, if you're quick/lucky and haven't completed too much of the main quest, you can stumble across him raising other dragons at various burial mounds.

* FanservicePack: Nocturnal, the Daedric Prince of night and darkness, was just a woman wearing a cloak that covered her entirely in ''Oblivion''. Come ''Skyrim'', her statue is depicted in a scanty cloak with AbsoluteCleavage that opens up at the side of her thighs, fully exposing the legs.

*** Or, the same concept reversed: If you're angry enough about [[spoiler: the deaths of your 'family' in the Dark Brotherhood questline,]] you can take it UpToEleven by not only [[spoiler: murdering the Emperor,]] but also joining up with the Stormcloaks and kicking the Empire and the [[spoiler: Penitus Oculatus]] out of Skyrim entirely.

* FantasticRacism: ''The Elder Scrolls'' was always unsubtle with this, but for ''Skyrim'', this is taken UpToEleven.