There are some great stories in the Elder Scrolls franchise. Each game has its own main storyline along with some other quest-lines and stand-alone tasks with unique plots and characters. So far, the series includes five games and an MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online.
The games were always more on the dark side, but that seems to have amplified as the series progressed, introducing some of the more sordid Daedra and their equally grim rituals. Never mind the vampires, werewolves, and other various cultists wandering the hills and valleys already. Creepy things have happened in the Elder Scrolls franchise.
10 The Ancestral Tombs of Morrowind
These are an intrinsic part of the game’s overall lore, but they only appear in games that feature the region of Morrowind in some way. Of course, the tombs have the usual unsavory characters hiding in them, from undead to cultists, but there’s one thing here that’s really creepy. What sounds like a low hum at first eventually articulates as an array of disembodied, ghostly voices. Ironically, even though it’s harmless, it can be more unnerving than vampires or Namira worshippers.
9 Molag Bal’s House in Markath
Like these quests or hate them, everyone agrees that it’s one of the creepiest things ever to appear in a video game. The whole house is bone-chilling and hair-raising, with Molag Bal’s voice reverberating through the walls, and the quests offered are of an equally sinister nature. That chilling moment when the player finds that secret underground shrine holding a savage mace is unforgettable.
8 Vampire Dreams
Oblivion was a dark game for its time, giving players the option of being infected with Vampirism. Gruesome nightmares would mark the player’s transformation, and they were described by texts that they would see upon waking.
Not all of the dreams were about vampiric attacks, but all were visceral and gory. They take creepy to a whole other level with visions of rotting bodies, Necromancers, and autopsies.
7 Mathieu’s Mother
Several of the games in the franchise involve the Dark Brotherhood in some way. This dark assassin’s guild, which usually seeks out and fulfills contracts, becomes the target of one in this quest in Oblivion. A former member, Mathieu Bellamont, is carrying out a plan to take revenge on the people that beheaded his mother when he was a child. That’s creepy enough already, but it gets much worse when the protagonist discovers Mathieu still has his mother’s head, enshrined as a keepsake to inspire his quest for vengeance.
6 Rorikstead
This is the perfect town for a horror story as it is, but what makes it creepy are the nearby landmarks that include a Dragon Burial Mound, the caves of Orotheim, and a shrine to Akatosh in the nearby hills. One of the quests that start here, “A Night to Remember” is famous for its crazy and sordid storyline that takes the player all over Skyrim and involves a romantic trust with a Hagraven.
5 Benirus Manor
Ask a local guard about it, and he’ll call it a death trap and say he heard screams coming from the interior at night. So of course, the brave player buys Benirus Manor.
Being a hero, they can finish the quest and cleanse the house of spirits. Which is essential given how spooky the house is when the protagonist first buys it. Three ghosts occupy the manor, and the player has to spend a night in the house before they appear.
4 The Black Sacrament
Imagine walking past an otherwise normal-looking house and hearing a voice say, “the sins of the unworthy must be cleansed in blood and fear.” That’s scary enough, but then the player peeks into the window and sees a child performing a ritual with a dagger and bones meant to invoke a secret cabal of assassins. The Dark Brotherhood is a fixture throughout Elder Scrolls lore, but this is an actual quest in Skyrim, and it takes the creepy to a whole other level.
3 The Gatekeeper
This disgusting thing that inhabits the Shivering Isles is an amalgamation of several different characters, the Elder Scrolls version of Frankenstein’s monster, the mad doctor, in this case, being the Daedric prince Sheogorath. The player needs special weapons to kill it and after its death, can do a quest in which they have to collect certain body parts and make the monster all over again. Maybe not so creepy but really, really gross.
2 Arondil of Dawnstar
It’s easy to put a Necromancer on this list, but Arondil is something special. He’s not just toying with the dead, he’s also an Ice Mage who doesn’t only want to reanimate the dead but also enslave them.
That’s creepy enough as it is, but it turns out that Arondil has a sexual obsession with the local milkmaids. Put his to hobbies together and the player can see where this nightmare is going.
1 The Coven of Namira
Namira is the Daeric prince that rules the world of insects and carrion feeders, so where would her shrines be, and what kind of people worship at them? Various games in the franchise have quests or fights that involve followers of Namira, with a particularly gruesome one in Skyrim that ends with a cannibalistic feast featuring the player’s latest kill.
NEXT: Ranking All 15 Elder Scrolls Games From Worst To Best
