Skyrim is a deep game. One that tries to encapsulate what it may have felt like to exist in a world of fantasy. It is at the same time beautiful, tragic, inspiring, and even scary. Just like the real world, all these factors are experienced by the player through the actions of the Dragonborn.
But it is the element of surprise, dismay, fright, and unease that I wish to pursue. It is tough to create truly disturbing scenarios in a narrative, without being goofy or cliche. Bethesda has found a way to bridge that gap and create some truly chilling scenes.
We are gonna be spending a lot of time speaking about Daedric Princes, but what would you expect when most of them are the patron gods of assault, murder, and suffering. Nevertheless, the mortals of Skyrim can be a brutal foe as well. These people can be just as cruel and conniving as the demonic Daedra.
What are your favourite moments? Hit me up in the comments and let’s talk some Skyrim.
I hope to reveal to you the twist, macabre, and genuinely scary nature of Skyrim, and demonstrate how a seemingly silly story of a talking dog, could keep you up thinking about Spot at the foot of the bed… Could he be a servant to a being of nefarious intent?
25 Farm Fresh… People?
The Dawnguard DLC is a story of vampires and vampire hunters, so we’re bound to run into some truly disturbing stuff. And the story doesn’t make you wait. Soon after you’re approached by the Dawnguard, you are sent to the Sea of Ghosts to the vampire stronghold: Castle Volkihar.
This is one of the more memorable moments I had in Skyrim. You are immediately made witness to a bloodbath. The dining hall is covered in blood. Complete with organs, bones, and flesh strewn about the room.
The intact human bodies lying on the tables are ominously named “Vampire Cattle.” You heard that right, the vampires of Castle Volikhar are farming humans for their blood. Which seems to be taken very seriously, as there is a dungeon attached to the kitchen which houses the cells—or stables—for the cattle, and kegs of blood.
24 Innocence Lost
As you go about your business in Windhelm, you will hear rumours of a child who is attempting to summon the services of the Dark Brotherhood. To perform this action, you need to perform the Black Sacrament, in which the summoner is made to create an effigy of the intended victim. An effigy made of actual body parts… That’s right, we have a child building a meat puppet out of cadavers, to summon a group of magical assassins to kill someone else. Seems to me this kid is up for the task himself.
Once you get into his home, a child named Aventus will greet you. He wants the headmistress of an orphanage—Grelod the Kind—to be killed. Of course, you accept, and you perform the deed, in front of cheering children no less.
I mean, the creepiness is completely self-explanatory.
23 You Can’t Ever Bring Her Back… Or Can You?
Something unsettling is happening during the night in Windhelm. “Women murdered, time and again. And all the guards care about is the war,” complains a frightened woman of Windhelm.
A mysterious man, known as “The Butcher” stalks the streets at night. Bethesda lays out the disappearances through a series of journals, where we can get into the Butcher’s mind. He dehumanizes his victims, referring to the cities inhabitants as prime sources of blood, flesh, and bone. Why the obsession with these body parts?
The Butcher turns out to be Calixto Corrium, who was driven mad by the death of his sister. In Calixto’s home, you can find body parts, embalming tools, and necromancy tomes. The Butcher’s twisted obsession with “the most exquisite tendons” is a desire for Calixto to reconstruct his sister from the disparate parts of Windhelm’s women.
22 Poisonous Faith
Far to the South, in the mountains of the Rift, there is an ancient Nordic tomb known as Forelhost. This place has quite the dark history, even by Skyrim’s standards. Forelhost used to be the stronghold of a dragon cult, led by the Dragon Priest Rahgot. As you make your way through the tomb, its disturbing tale is gradually laid out for you.
The whole place is riddled with weapons, fortifications, and corpses. Clearly, this place was under siege. Moving deeper you come across a laboratory and a few notes describing measures to create large amounts of poisons. Further in, you come to a garden full of poisonous flowers and half-buried corpses… of children.
It turns out Rahgot ordered his cultists to commit suicide rather than be captured by the sieging Nords. The cultists put their own children to the sword and poisoned themselves. And there they remain, awaiting Alduin’s return.
21 Screaming In The Night
“This Hagraven was horrifying, almost human but more an abomination of woman and creature [crow] fused together, nothing more than a husk of humanity surrendered in exchange for possession of the powers of dark magic.” - Herbane (Elderscrolls.wikia)
I couldn’t agree more. Encountering these creatures actually makes me uneasy. Every time I walk through forests at night, I hope not to hear them screeching in the distance.
These abominations were once witches but gave up their humanity to become more powerful in the magical arts. They have become a misshapen avian humanoid with wiry hair, talons, gangly arms, and protruding feathers.
They have a severe disdain for nature and actively hunt spriggans—guardians of the forest—in order to sacrifice them to make their own twisted creations: the Forsworn Briarheart.
20 A Dark Ritual
The Hagravens certainly are repulsive. However, the bird-witches unnatural existence is worshiped by a group of individuals known as the Forsworn.
These men are half-Breton and half-Nord and have been in a power struggle with the Nords of Northwest Skyrim for centuries. They can often be found escorting Hagravens, or the dreaded Forsworn Briarhearts.
The Briarhearts were former zealots of the Forsworn who undergo a dark ritual. Hagravens sacrifice spriggans to collect their taproot hearts. These hearts are used to magically replace their hearts of the Forsworn zealot. The result is a lifeform that is not exactly dead, nor really alive.
The heart is crudely held in place with twigs. This perversion of nature is unnaturally powerful and a serious threat. Especially when accompanied by their Hagraven creators.
19 What’s That Sound?
Upon entering the Frostflow Lighthouse, it is immediately apparent that something isn’t right. As you approach you see a dead horse near the lighthouse. Then you come across the corpse of Ramati.
Ramati was the wife of Habd, a couple who bought the lighthouse for their family to begin a new chapter of their lives. However, something tragic happened to the family to end those dreams.
A note can be found near Ramati speaking about strange scratching noises coming from the basement. As you explore the depths of the lighthouse, you will discover the fate of the family.
It turns out that a Falmer colony laid beneath the basement. The son was put to the sword, the daughter committed suicide with her father’s dagger, and Habd’s skull can be found inside the remains of a Chaurus Reaper.
A disturbing end for what could have been a bright future.
18 Shattered Lives, Shattered Family
The Dark Brotherhood certainly lives up to their name. In the quest Mourning Never Comes, you are asked to decimate an entire family.
You are recruited by Miuri to assassinated Alain Dufont, a con-man who used Miuri to rob the Shatter-Shield family. It is Miuri who took the fall for the robbery, and now she wants revenge. However, Miuri has a spiteful heart, and wishes Nilsine, the only surviving Shatter-Shield daughter, to meet a horrible end.
If you choose to kill both Alain and Nilsine, you will be rewarded well. However, the other daughter was killed by the Butcher, and with Nilsine dead as well, the matriarch of the Shatter-Shield family is inconsolable and commits suicide as she has nothing more to live for.
Skyrim really loves rewarding you for being a monster!
17 Prosperity, Enslavement, And Extinction
The Snow Elves were a once proud and prominent race of Tamriel. During the Merethic era, the Snow Elves had a highly advanced society in Skyrim that rivaled that of the High Elves in the Summerset Isles. However, the Snow Elves were constantly at war with the Nords.
The Snow Elves suffered greatly at the hands of the Nords. At one point the Nords used them as slaves to construct Winterhold. The remaining pockets of Snow Elves would turn to their underground dwelling kin—the Dwemer—for help. Alas, this assistance would come at a terrible price.
They would be made into the slaves of the Dwemer in exchange for their safety. In addition, they were made to eat toxic mushrooms which blinded the Snow Elves. Thus making the once proud Snow Elves into the twisted race of the Falmer. Aside from Gelebor Vyrthur, the Snow Elves no longer exist as a race.
16 Every Scheme Has Its Price
If you head to Riften’s docks you will find a very disturbed Argonian named From-Deepest-Fathoms. He is in possession of a book known as the Lexicon. He pleads with you to return it to where he got it from. This will begin the quest, Unfathomable Depths.
The quest leads you to the Dwemer ruins of Avanchnzel. Here you will be greeted with the orange apparitions of From-Deepest-Fathoms companions. This is a memory of the ill-fated expedition into Avanchnzel. As you move through the ruin, these apparitions with speak of their fears of being stalked by Dwemer automatons.
The further you go, you more you learn. Until you find each expedition members corpses, one-by-one. A disturbing tale of a get rich quick scheme gone wrong.
15 An Old Lady In The Woods
Early in the game, just outside of Riverwood, you come across a small cabin in the woods. Here you will find a little old lady named Anise. She seems innocent enough — reminds me of an alchemist
But as you explore her home, things become a bit suspicious. First off, she has a soul gem on a cabinet. What is a humble alchemist doing with a container for souls? She also has a cauldron sitting outside of her home. More mysteriously though, there is a cellar door hidden under some straw…
Upon entering the cellar, things begin to fall into place. She has been cooking up a variety of poisons, there is an enchanting altar, and even human skulls on shelves. There is also a letter, where Anise is urging another woman named Helgi to join a “proper coven.” She’s a witch! Be careful though, she wants to protect her secret and attacks you on sight. A neat taste of creepier things to come.
14 A Menacing Addiction
If you go to Redwater Den in the Rift, you will be greeted by a dilapidated hut with a trap door. Once you enter, you will find yourself in a secret skooma den.
The place is right creepy, complete with dosing booths, strung out at hacking addicts, and shady drug dealers. Make your way through the miserable place to the rear, and you will find the skooma production operation, which is overseen by vampires. Interesting, let’s see where this goes.
It turns out the cave system houses an artifact known as the Bloodspring. This spring is actually an unnatural source of blood. While it invigorates vampires, it provides them with no sustenance. However, it is highly addictive to mortals… addictive like skooma. It turns out Redwater Skooma is in fact bottled Bloodspring water. The vampires here attract people to their den with skooma, they overdose, and they keep the sedated mortals as a food source.
Those vampires sure are enterprising.
13 The Shadows Are Watching
Approaching the Statue of Meridia in the mountains West of Solitude, you will be greeted by a pleasant feminine voice. This is, of course, Meridia, Daedric Prince of Life and Lady of Infinite Energies. She demands you to cleanse her temple of darkness.
A necromancer named Malkoran is defiling her shrine and using her artifact—the blade, Dawnbreaker—for his own ends. When you enter the temple, you will be stalked from the shadows by fire-eyed figures. These shades aren’t overly difficult, but the pursuing red eyes in the darkness is quite chilling. It is a real shame that this is the only dungeon you can find them in.
Once you purge Meridia’s shrine of Malkoran, you are rewarded with the Dawnbreaker. This sword wrecks undead enemies. This quest is a nice change of pace from the usual doom and gloom of other Daedric quests. But those shades still give me the creeps.
12 A Realm Of Horror And Forbidden Knowledge
The Dragonborn DLC houses one of the more creepy locales in the Elder Scrolls series: Apocrypha. This plane of Oblivion is the domain of Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of fate, knowledge, and memory.
Apocrypha is an ethereal library, filled with endless shelves of books, too forbidden to be held by man. Such as the Oghma Infinium, which is rumoured to be bound in human flesh.
The caretakers of this labyrinth are known as Seekers. These Cthulu like monstrosities are a collection of limbs, hands, and tentacles. They pursue the Dragonborn, intent on robbing your mind of its secrets, and to store them on the endless shelves of Apocrypha.
11 A Family Murdered, A Town Held Hostage
In Morthal, at the Moorside Inn, you hear rumours of a fire that destroyed the nearby home of Hroggar, killing his wife and child. Some believe the ruins to be cursed. When you investigate the burnt down house, you find the ghost of Helgi, Hroggar’s daughter.
Helgi’s ghost speaks of waking up really hot. “Then it got cold and dark,” she says, “I’m not scared anymore.” God dammit… Tragic.
We discover that Hroggar was made into a thrall by Alva, a woman known for questionable morals by the people of Morthal. Visiting her home, we find that she sleeps in a coffin! She’s a vampire! Examining her home leads you to a letter about a vampiric coven… The plot thickens.
The dark secret of Morthal is that a master vampire named Movarth has the intention of infiltrating the Morthal and slowly converting it into a blood farm for his coven. Combined with the ghost of Helgi, this is one sad and scary quest.
10 A Random Act Of Violence
After adhering to the Black Sacrament and killing Grelod the Kind, you will be approached by a courier. He hands you a note, sent from a man wearing black robes. The letter contains an handprint and reads, “we know.”
Upon receiving this letter, the next time you go to sleep, you will wake up in an abandoned shack. There will also be a Dark Brotherhood member in the corner, her name is Astrid. You will be made an offer.
You are shown three individuals who are hooded and bound. Only one of them has a contract out for their death. You are asked to choose. However, it doesn’t matter which you kill. It is a test, simply made to test your willingness to kill.
Bethesda certainly likes its existentialism.
9 A Fight To The Death In The Sky
To begin this quest, you need to find and read the book, Boethiah’s Calling. Doing so will send you to her shrine in the mountains, the Sacellum of Boethiah. Here you will find a significant amount of cultists fighting in an arena.
As the Daedric Prince of deceit, murder, and treason, she wants you to prove that your tongue can wield a lie. To be exact, she demands that you gain someone’s trust and sacrifice them upon Boethiah’s altar. A familiar Daedric trope.
Once you find your victim and sacrifice them, they will be reanimated as a conduit for Boethiah. She will then inform you and the other cultists that she has a special task for the last one surviving. So begins a bloodbath.
Once the dust clears, you will be asked to defeat her champion. Deceit, mass murder, and selfish reward… It’s hard out here for a mortal.
8 It’s All In The Mind Ya Know
This quest is equal parts goofy and disturbing, probably intentional considering the twisted nature of the Daedra involved. Sheogorath is the Daedric Prince of Madness, and he is on vacation… in the mind of a long dead Nordic High King… How quaint.
You are approached by Sheogorath’s servant Dervenin. He wants you to bring his master back to this plane of existence. He will then give you the High King’s hip bone, and just walk away… riiiiiight?
Making your way into the abandoned Pelagius Wing of the Blue Palace in Solitude, you are transported into the mind of High King Pelagius. The king and Sheogorath can be seen sitting at a table reminiscent of the Mad Hatter’s tea party from Alice in Wonderland.
Sheogorath sets you on a series of odd and creepy tasks to free the King of his disturbing nightmares. This one is weird, but witness a disturbed mind from the inside is certainly a troubling endeavor.
7 A Betrayal In The Dark
The Brotherhood has been betrayed from within. Upon returning to the sanctuary, you fend Festus dead outside. He has been nailed to a tree with arrows —so many, that his face is completely unrecognizable.
Moving through the sanctuary you find the Imperial soldiers sent to destroy the brotherhood. You will see the corpses of many other Brotherhood members until you come upon the Dark Brotherhood’s leader: Astrid, and she is burnt to a crisp.
It turns out it was Astrid who betrayed you to the Imperials, but they betrayed her and attempted to eradicate the entire order. She has performed the Black Sacrament on herself and demands you kill her and rebuild the order.
This was one of my favourite quests, not only because of the disturbing events, or the reveals but for the fact that Festus’ corpse remains pinned to the tree for the rest of the game. This is a grim reminder that death comes for all, even assassins.
6 A Voice Made Me Do It
As you walk through the streets of Markarth, you may come across an individual name Vigilant Tyranus. He asks if you have noticed anything strange going on around this abandoned house and asks you to accompany him.
When you enter, you will discover that you are both trapped. You begin to hear a voice speaking to you. “You will kill, or you will die!” Tyranus attacks as he does not want to die, but he is no match for you. Molag Bol, Daedric Prince of domination and enslavement has forced your hand and wishes to reward you.
A mace can be found in the basement. However, Bol wishes you to punish his oppressor. Once you find a man named Logrolf, and bring him to the basement altar. You are made to torture Logrolf into pledging his soul to Bol. Once he does, Bol demands his death. That’s twice Molag Bol made you his pawn.
