The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim/Tropes H-M

H
"Havdar: "Dragonborn" huh? Was it your ma or your pa that was the dragon?"
 * Hammerspace: The player and NPC's which can s/he can pickpocket. The player can carry dozens of broadswords and battle-axes and still sprint. Some NPC's can have their entire inventory removed via pickpocket save for one item. If caught, the NPC may draw a weapon which was never in their inventory.
 * Handicapped Badass: Hakon One-Eye.
 * Harmless Freezing: The Ice Form shout freezes opponents and does some frost damage, but they thaw relatively unharmed in about half a minute.
 * Headless Horseman: You may encounter a headless horseman's ghost riding along the roads at night; he's harmless, though, and can't be interacted with. If you manage to follow him, he'll lead you to  which is likely where his mortal body is buried. Going there on your own will often result in you finding him already there (occasionally, even during the daytime).
 * Healing Factor:
 * Argonians are partially immune to all disease and can recover to full health with their Histskin ability.
 * Spriggans with their ability to recover all their health in an instant.
 * Trolls will quickly (though not instantly) regenerate any damage done to them, unless you Kill Them With Fire.
 * Here There Be Dragons: A mural shows a lot of dragons breathing fire on the humans down below.
 * Here There Were Dragons: Fans that pay attention to the background lore raised some eyebrows when their presence was confirmed, as dragons were said to be an endangered species few in number, kept alive by the Empire only in return for helping them in war. The game eventually explains this and the fact that they're returning is mentioned from the start;
 * Heroic Mime: Normally you talk to people but you can play completely silent throughout the Dark Brotherhood storyline.
 * He Who Fights Monsters:
 * Skyrim marks the return of werewolves.
 * A book on Oblivion has an introduction that is also a Shout-Out to the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche, saying "He who enters Oblivion allows Oblivion to enter him."
 * In the Laid to Rest quest in Morthal, the player discovers that a clan of vampires is planning to conquer the city. Their leader is Movarth, who was first mentioned in Oblivion in the in-game book Immortal Blood as a vampire hunter who fell victim to the author who himself was secretly a vampire.
 * He Who Must Not Be Heard: Three of the four Greybeards cannot even whisper as their voice has enough power to cause earthquakes. Arngeir, thus, speaks for them.
 * High Dive Hijinks: The "Bard's Leap", which consists of a bridge leading up to the edge of a waterfall. You do the math.
 * Hit Scan: There are three types of destruction spells: fire, frost and shock. Fire is the cheapest and most damaging, while frost has additional negative effects on the enemy. Shock, being the most expensive and least damaging, would look like a loser... except its attacks hit instantly, negating the need to Lead the Target and making it much easier to hit flying/fast targets.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: In one quest dungeon, you can release a trio of captive vampires, who will ignore you and run into the next room to kill their captors.
 * Hollywood History: You get to participate in creating a bit of this for Solitude. The copy of Olaf and the Dragon you find is too badly damaged to present to Elisif so you suggest to the bard that you can make up the missing parts. The Bard basically goes along with whatever you suggest if it sounds cool. ("Olaf was the dragon. What a twist!")
 * Home Run Hitter: It is in your best interest to make sure giants never get within melee range. At least not for more time than is needed for a quick swipe on your part.
 * Honey Trap: In Morthal, there's a female vampire who seduced a man into being her guardian while she and her Master, Movarth, plan the town's destruction. Her seduction is so thorough that if you try to convince him that she's evil, he'll fight you to the death before letting harm come to her. With the way she dresses, it's not hard to see how the poor guy got hooked in.
 * Honor Before Reason: Pretty standard fare for any traditional Nord. They fancy themselves a Proud Warrior Race, with customs and laws that they won't bend for anybody. In fact, this is pretty much what started the war, especially since there's proof that the Thalmor were manipulating things from the start.
 * Played even more straight in regards to dragons. On two separate occasions (first in a flashback with Alduin and then with Odahviing), humans have lured dragons to an obvious trap just by calling its name with the Thu'um. The dragons see this as a challenge, and will come straight away.
 * In Odahviing's case, he says he was specifically curious about the Dragonborn, the one who had bested Alduin (however temporarily), but he may be rationalizing.
 * Horned Humanoid: Orcs apparently have some of this going on.
 * Horny Vikings: The hero can opt to be the classic "horned Viking".
 * Hot Amazon: Most of the female companions, including Lydia, Aela (see below), and Mjoll the Lioness, among others.
 * Aela the Huntress. Seriously, she has both the looks and the attitude. And that armor she wears? Made of dragonskin, according to fluff in the game, so it's heavier and tougher than it looks by a large margin. Ancient Nord Armor, for those interested.
 * The Dovahkiin, if you so chose.
 * Improbable Species Compatibility:


 * Of course, dragonness is recessive, so it's a logical conclusion.
 * Hotter and Sexier: Nothing terribly explicit, but there's definitely a lot more blatant sexual references and suggestive dialogue than Oblivion and Morrowind.
 * Hot Springs Episode: A watery area in Eastmarch near the border of Whiterun consist of naturally heated water, and at the south eastern tip of it is a permanent camp set up by a few hunters who lounge in the hot water with all their armor taken off and set aside. Subverted though in that there's no quest involved here, and it can be visited any time. It does however make for some Video Game Perversity Potential.
 * Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: A certain stable master outside of Riften did this when he was drunk one night. It didn't end well.
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Hircine has you hunt down a Werewolf that stole from him.
 * Hybrid Overkill Avoidance: Lycanthropy and vampirism are mutually exclusive, with vampirism being a disease and werewolves having total immunity to all diseases.
 * Hyperactive Metabolism: Coming out second best in a fight? Just scoff down 6 bowls of soup, 9 salmon steaks and 4 cheese wheels - you'll be fresh as a daisy. Don't worry, your foe will wait.
 * Notable in that entering the items interface completely pauses combat, so you can eat that four hundred kilograms of Eidar Cheese in less time than it takes your opponent to swing his sword.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Like Oblivion, the encumbrance/fatigue mechanic attempts to avert this, but the PC is still capable of carrying several armor pieces and weapons, as well as other items, all at once.
 * Hypocrite: Several Khajiits, notably caravan boss Ri'saad and Nord trader Ysolde, will lament that the Khajiits are not allowed inside cities, because "some" are thieves and the Nords have unjustly stereotyped them all... Except that every Khajiit in the game, except walking Easter Egg M'aiq the Liar, are thieves or involved in illegal activities. Generic Khajiit appear as bandits and Dark Brotherhood assassins. Even J'Zargo, of the College of Winterhold, confesses to being a thief upon first meeting him.
 * Paarthurnax calls the Dragonborn out on this, regardless of if you are playing as a heroic figure, by being of the same kith as the Dragons, you possess the same urge to destroy and conquer as they do.

I

 * If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: To join the Dark Brotherhood, you have to figure out which one of three potential victims has a contract on their head, and murder them. After you've done the deed,
 * I Gave My Word: Many Nords believe in this, particularly shown with Ulfric Stormcloak.
 * Paarthunax comments that  suggest this might be unusual, however.
 * I Know Your True Name: Played with. Twice in the game dragons are summoned from anywhere in the world by speaking their names as a Shout, but not because it holds any power over them, it's because to speak a dragon's name as a Shout is considered a personal challenge, and humans being humans, they of course accept. Eventually.
 * I Love the Dead: Arondil's journals implies that, after being kicked out of Dawnstar, he discovered that he was a necrophiliac. After initially being hesitant to indulge in his urge to screw the dead, he apparently gave in.
 * Far worse than real necrophilia, however, since he is having sex with their souls and just not their dead bodies!
 * The topper is, there are Red Mountain Flowers (Read: Rose petals) scattered on and around his bed, in which you find a sleeping female ghost.
 * There's more. Since these female ghosts are under his thrall, it means they're being held against their will. And you factor him having sex with them in such state, it amounts to rape. And considering being under thrall can also mean they are still conscious and aware of what's happening (like the Apologetic Attacker ghosts located at another tomb), it's no surprise that if the player breaks his hold on them by stealing a particular soul gem, they go berserk and kill him.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Namira's followers have... exotic tastes.
 * Impossible Thief: With the proper perks, you can pickpocket the armor people are currently wearing as well as the weapon they are currently holding. With the Shadow Warrior perk, you can even do this while they are engaged in combat with you, causing enemies to become naked and unarmed as they are taking a swing at you. You can also pickpocket the briar hearts from Forsworn Briarhearts, and they die. Meaning you actually stole the (magical replacement) heart out of their chest.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: The Falmer don't have much better or worse aiming with their bows than any other enemy, which is pretty damn impressive considering they're all blind.
 * This may be Justified, given that the game states right out that the Falmer have adapted to their loss of sight, but the degree to which it has been done is not given. They may benefit from heavy use of this trope, or may have honed their non-sight senses over the millennia to the point where they can smell your breath and hear your heartbeat.
 * Actually, the extent of Falmer senses zigzags a bit. If they don't know you're there, you can sneak up on them just like any other opponent (muffled footwear helps a lot), with the main difference in stealth mechanics being that you can backstab them from the front since they can't see you. If they do know you're there, then they act much like any other enemy in terms of knowing where you are. However, the level of Super Senses required to fire an arrow at a muffled moving target from long range would make it impossible to even come close to backstabbing them, so this may come under Acceptable Breaks From Reality.
 * Indo European Fantasy Language: The Tongue of Dragons. Seeing as how the series usually averts this, it was probably done because it needed to double as a Cipher. It also has nearly no case-marking at all. Although it seems to be almost entirely monosyllabic, and that it doesn't differentiate or past, present and future tense (although considering the nature of Alduin and the dragons, that makes a fair amount of sense). It has the excuse of apparently being created by a composer, rather than a linguist.
 * Fictionary
 * The written form is interesting, in that all its runes can be easily carved with claws of one dragon forepaw simultaneously.
 * Infant Immortality: Though rarely, child deaths occur in the storyline - a man in Morthal has recently lost his child as well as his wife to a house fire, and in Falkreath a little girl was mauled to death by a werewolf. However, it never happens onscreen, and children are invincible to any of your in-game attacks.
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The Dragonbane, potentially. It changes attributes depending on your level when you find it, and at maximum strength it has the same base power as a Daedric weapon, does 40 extra damage to dragons, and 10 shock damage to everything else.
 * Valdr's Lucky Dagger. It has a 25% critical hit chance, but doesn't count as an enchanted weapon for purposes of spells and the like. Combine it with Elemental Fury, which at level 3 fully doubles attack speed, and you'll quickly slice apart most anything in seconds. And for stealth characters, sneak attacks and critical hits are separate multipliers, so with Assassin's Blade it does 30x normal damage, on top of whatever other damage-boosting perks you have.
 * Informed Attribute: Balimund in Riften says he feeds his forge fire salts so the flames burn hotter, and it's common knowledge among Whiterun and the Companions that something about the Skyforge makes the steel it turns out stronger. Forging weapons in these two forges offers the same weapons with the same stats as any other forge, though the Skyforge blacksmith forges unique weapons from it.
 * Informed Flaw: Walk up to a guard, any guard at all. Some time you're bound to hear them say "I used to be an adventurer like you... then I took an arrow in the knee". In no way, shape or form, does this inconvenience their patrolling or even fighting skills. Presumably it just made them more averse to taking risks rather than being a permanent injury.
 * This line was included in the game as a reference to the lack of any armor covering the knees.
 * Insistent Terminology: The description of High-King Torryg's death. Pro-Stormcloak characters are quick to point out that Torygg was killed in a duel that met the requirements of Nord tradition while pro-Imperial characters consider it to be murder and argue that Ulfric's use of the Thu'um prevented it from being a fair fight.
 * Insurmountable Waist High Fence: There aren't many of these, but Skyrim is a little bit more forceful than its predecessor in keeping you from going where you shouldn't - no more jumping over city walls, for example.
 * Most of the offenders in this trope have been avoided, though. Especially fences can be gleefully jumped over.
 * If you use cheat codes you'll find that some walls have an invisible barrier that extends some distance above the actual wall (the Thalmor Embassy for example, which you're supposed to infiltrate as a party guest), but if you jump high enough you can get in and break the quest.
 * Interface Spoiler: Dragon Shouts are captioned for players with subtitles on in the same way that any other utterance is, with the name of the dragon shown as well. Which can rather spoil the main questline if one happens to catch the name of.
 * being more than she lets on can be spoiled if one has the subtitles on, if one returns with the Dragonstone to Dragonsreach and finds her talking with Farengar.
 * Quest objectives are always indicated on the map, even if there's no way the player character could know where the next objective is. However this falls under Acceptable Breaks From Reality, as many quests otherwise would be Guide Dang It quests due to how obscure their objectives would be.
 * Internal Retcon: The Thalmor have arranged it so that they look like the ones who stopped the Oblivion crisis, not the Champion of Cyrodiil, at least within the Aldmeri Dominion. It's unknown how well this has taken.
 * According to various books written outside the Dominion, Martin is mainly credited with stopping the invasion and the Champion has all but faded from memory.
 * Interspecies Romance: Play as a Bosmer or Khajiit, and get married, as there are no available spouse of either of those species. This will almost inevitably be the result. Whether human/elf relations count is up for debate.
 * In story, Faendal, a Bosmer, is in love with Camilla Valerius, an Imperial. Also, Karliah (Dunmer) and Gallus (Imperial).
 * There's also Bolli, a Nord in Riften who owns the fishery there, and his wife Nivenor, a bosmer who married him for his money and will proposition any male Dragonborn who speaks to her, regardless of race.
 * Vantus Loreius, an imperial, and Curwe, a high elf, two minor NPCs in a farm near the Whiterun/Pale border. They're involved in the minor sidequest where you may encounter Cicero transporting his "Mother" in a carriage that busted its axle right in front of their farm.
 * You can come across a couple near some mountains.  The man is a dark elf and the woman is a human, and they were in the middle of eloping.
 * In the Hood: Most of the hoods in the game seem designed to invoke this, obscuring the wearer's face and hiding their eyes.
 * Intoxication Ensues:
 * Invulnerable Civilians: Averted, like all Bethesda RPGs. Towns are part of the world map, and are all potentially subject to random monster attack. This mostly manifests as dragon attacks. Unlike Fallout 3, though, monster spawn points no longer occur inside or near the towns themselves, so it's less likely for a Deathclaw to wander into town and murder everyone (although some of the smaller settlements do have monster spawn points very close by and therefore potentially subject to monster attack).
 * I Own This Town: Maven Black-Briar basically controls Riften, the Silver-Bloods by and large own Markarth, and Kjeld may as well run Kynesgrove. The latter two hold their sway by virtue of owning the mines their respective cities depend on for their prosperity, and the former because of her close contact with the Thieves' Guild, the Jarl of Riften, and the Empire. In Maven's case, while the Silver-Bloods.
 * Irony: There's a Game Breaker bug involving Hermaeous Mora's Daedric quest. Upon completing it and gaining the Oghma Infinium, the player is allowed to gain five levels in any one skill tree of their choosing (Thief, Mage, Warrior). However, by opening a bookshelf, reading it in the menu, picking a class, and placing it on the shelf, the player can pick it back up from the shelf, not choose a class, return it to their inventory, and repeat this ad infinitum until they're maxed out in all stats. Bethesda has tried to patch this bug out a few times, with little success. So that's right--the Daedric Prince of Things Man Was Not Meant to Know was the catalyst of a Bug the Player Was Not Meant to Use!
 * I Surrender, Suckers: Nearly dead opponents will frequently plead "I yield! I yield!" but don't fall for it. They're only hoping for a breather so they can murder you as soon as relent in your attack.
 * Spriggans in particular can restore themselves to full health, though they don't bother pleading in any comprehensible language. Also, see Reviving Enemy below.
 * Also  You are tasked to hunt him down through his blood trails, and finally you find him lying on the floor and bleeding. You have the choice to spare him or kill him, after he explained his reasons, and that he had no more fight left in him; his fate is in your hand. And then you chose to attack him - at which point he immediately stood up, and gave up a decent fight before going down.
 * It Amused Me: Pretty much the only reason behind the mess you find yourself in during Sanguine's Daedric quest. In fact, that quest is so strange and crazy one would think Sheogorath was involved, rather than Sanguine.
 * It Got Worse: According to the plot it has 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.'
 * It's Up to You: Averted, in the Civil War storyline, anyway. If you delay, your side can and will take control of cities without you, although confusingly they will act as if you were there.
 * It Got Worse: According to the plot it has 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.'
 * It's Up to You: Averted, in the Civil War storyline, anyway. If you delay, your side can and will take control of cities without you, although confusingly they will act as if you were there.

J

 * Jackass Genie: Clavicus Vile takes an unholy glee in twisting whatever somebody wishes for to the greatest possibility of homicide possible. Somebody asks for a cure for their daughter's Lycanthropy? Give 'em an axe. A group of vampires want an end to their undead misery? Have somebody appear and slaughter them all. Somebody wants an end to the Civil War plaguing Skyrim? Do absolutely nothing and let the dragons kill both sides of the fight. The only thing that keeps him honoring a deal at all and not just killing everybody is Barbas, the manifestation of his conscience.
 * Jerkass: A fair number of characters qualify, what with Fantastic Racism abound. Rolff Stone-Fist certainly does - you know you're dealing with a Jerkass when their Establishing Character Moment is plain old Fantastic Racism. Fortunately, you can beat the crap out of him.
 * Jerkass Gods: The Daedric Princes again. In fact, the Molag Bal's quest, while named "House of Horrors" is anything but scary (unless you are really that afraid of the Forsworns), and only there mainly there to show you how much an asshole Molag Bal is (and of course Logroff is also a jerk too). Mocking Molag Bal at the end is optional.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind:
 * Justified Tutorial: Quite a lot of them in rapid succession, but broken up into logical portions. Shortly after the dragon interrupts your execution by roasting the garrison, you're ordered to run for it (movement tutorial), followed by jumping off a ruined tower into a nearby inn (jump tutorial). You run inside the keep with a companion who tells you to arm yourself (inventory tutorial), you fight off some hostile enemies in the basement of the keep (combat tutorial), you find a storeroom and search it for potions (looting tutorial), you see some goodies locked inside a cage in the torture chamber (lockpick tutorial), and near the end of the caves leading out there's a sleeping bear you can either sneak past or stealth-attack with a bow (sneaking and/or bow tutorial).
 * After making good your escape, you can follow your cohort (either one of the two you can side with) to the village of Riverwood, where the local Blacksmith can offer to teach you some basic metalworking skills if you ask for work (Smithing tutorial). Failing that, the smith at Whiterun walks you through the process step-by-step.
 * You can also get an alchemy tutorial at the inn in Riverwood or at the apothecary's shop in Whiterun, and an enchanting tutorial when you talk to the Jarl's wizard in Whiterun.

K

 * Kamehame Hadoken - Combining two of the same Destruction spells into one, overcharged shot, right down to the pose. Lightning Storm and Incinerate especially invoke the Trope Namers in performance.
 * And this sound mod even adds a very hammy attack call that literally invokes the trope.
 * Kangaroo Court: In the opening, the Imperial Captain orders your execution even though you aren't on the convicted list. This alone gives the player plenty of motive to side against the Empire. Note that in this case, there isn't even a "court" involved; the Empire is executing everyone involved (be they Stormcloak, random horse thieves caught in the cordon, or roaming Dovahkiin) without bothering with a trial.
 * In the Empire's defense, they caught the player in an ambush meant for the leader of the Stormcloaks, so it makes perfect sense that they would mistake you as one of them. Hadvar, holding the aforementioned list and telling the captain you aren't on it, also clearly dislikes the decision, says he's sorry to you, and assures you your remains will return to your homeland. Once, Hadvar helps you through some stages of the initial tutorial, and is one of two options as guide through the majority of the tutorial that follows.
 * Should you choose to follow Hadvar, during the journey back to Riverwood, he will state that he believes your aid in helping him escape Helgen alive is more than enough to earn you a pardon, despite his belief that you were still wrongfully arrested in the first place, even vowing to straighten the matter out with General Tullius and vouch on your behalf if you wished to join the Imperial Legion.
 * Karma Houdini: The Black-Briar family. Their head, Maven, is connected to the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood and the Empire, and runs a powerful mead-brewing plant. She's so rich and powerful she's untouchable by authorities, and the Thieves Guild mentions that anything that occurs in the city only does so if she allows it. If you side with the Empire she gets named Jarl after they conquer the city, and she even says the title is a formality and that she's always been the one running the city. Said city, Riften, is a Wretched Hive, since even the city guard are in Maven's pocket. The Houdini part is that she's marked as essential, so you can't kill her, and there's no quest to bring her to justice. The worst thing you can do to her is steal a horse, and she genuinely doesn't care about that; if you choose to rat out the man who asked you steal it, she'll tell you to go on with the theft.
 * The rest of her family isn't as horrible but are still carrying out her will. Special note though goes to Sibbi, who is in prison for a measly eight months because he killed his fiancee's brother. Why? The siblings found out he was having an affair and confronted him about it. Then when you visit him in his nicely furnished jail cell he tries to hire you to find his fiancee and kill her too.
 * Karmic Death: The Imperial guard captain mentioned below is the first NPC you get to fight and kill if you go with Ralof. It stands to be ironic as well that you're now the one sending her to her death.
 * Ulfric Stormcloak used a Dragon Shout to kill High King Torygg in the backstory. If you side with the Imperial Legion, you are given an opportunity to kill him. While Tullius gives you his sword to do the deed, you are perfectly free to shout Ulfric to death if you wish.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: The Dragonbane is a unique weapon with the unique enchantment of doing bonus damage to dragons, and is very obviously based on katanas.
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: You can steal but the game makes a distinction between stolen and taken goods. Stolen goods are harder to resell (you need a fence) and if you're caught by anybody, it will add to your bounty and often get you attacked. The friendlier you are with a particular character, the more goods you can take without it being considered stealing.
 * Keystone Army: Mild case. Sometimes you'll find a Necromancer leading around a couple of bandits. If you kill the necromancer, the bandits all fall over, dead.
 * Kick the Dog:
 * A quick glance around the bases of the Silver Hand will clue you in that they don't just hunt werewolves, they capture and torture them, then display their remains as trophies. They also seem to have a hatred for normal wolves as well, as many can be found gruesomely slain in their bases.
 * Dragons are hostile to everyone, including neutral wildlife like elk, foxes and even rabbits, and will descend from on high breathing fire and ice to murder them if you stay out of their sight when they approach.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: Aventus Aretino says hello, Grelod. Goodnight.
 * When you first meet the other members of the Dark Brotherhood, Babette is a telling a story about luring a pedophile into a dark alleyway and feeding on him.
 * Kill It with Fire: Still the most effective way to kill trolls. Shoot/hit with enchanted weapon, fwoosh with destruction magic, heck, shout fire at them, and their Healing Factor gets negated. Keep the heat on them though...
 * It's also, by far, the most damaging of the three types of magical damage (not least because enemies set on fire take not only damage over time, but additional damage from any source, most definitely including more fire), plus a whole lot of creatures are vulnerable to it, particularly draugr and vampires (and draugr are one of the most common enemies in the game, so...)
 * Oil Slicks are abundant in early dungeons, so if you're clever enough to shoot them with fire, it can often kill several enemies at once. The slick burns for quite some time and deals moderate damage without you having to cast the spell, so you can just jump in and start slicing people. This can be a very effective way to clear a whole room of hostiles, even if they're not undead.
 * Kill It with Ice: Ice destruction spells, doing damage, slowing foes, and depleting the target's stamina. Unfortunately, this can be a little Awesome but Impractical as a mainstay offensive spell, since undead (a common enemy type) are resistant to cold, as are Nords (who are understandably over-represented in the region of Skyrim,) leaving only certain subset of enemies vulnerable to it.
 * Klingon Promotion: Stronghold Orcs choose their leaders this way.
 * In fact, when you visit an Orc chieftain, he expounds that he got his position by challenging his father in open combat. He's waiting for the day that one of his sons will do the same, and succeed. An Orc Wise-Woman adds that Malacath firmly believes in this.
 * Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Nord mages. Onmund at the College and Farengar Secret-Fire in the Whiterun court have to put up with this attitude. Conversely, Thalmor soldiers get this treatment from their mage ruling class too, never mind that even a grunt Thalmor in armor knows attack magic.
 * Kneecapping: Try counting how many guards used to be adventurers like you, then took an arrow in the knee.
 * Knight Templar:
 * The Guard Captain in the opening orders your execution despite not being listed, purely on the basis that you were captured with the Stormcloaks (the other soldiers seem to think it's a bad idea, but can't do much about it).
 * Arguably the Silver Hand.
 * Definitely the Vigilant of Stendarr, who despite serving the god of mercy, believe that Vampires, Werewolves, and especially Daedra are inherently and irredeemably evil, and deserve nothing more than death.
 * In their defense, they are generally correct on that. And they reconcile their faith with their methodology by arguing that as said creatures are merciless towards mortals on average, they are thus enemies of the God of Mercy.
 * Meridia, while one of the least evil of the Daedric Princes, is apparently a hardcore undead hater.

L
"Stendarr Vigilant: Stendarr have mercy, for the vigil has none to spare."
 * Language of Magic: The Dragon language.
 * Large Ham: The priest of Talos at Whiterun, who spends the whole day preaching to the town and Chewing the Scenery
 * Dremora lords too. If you have the perk to summon two of them, you better be ready for a hamfest.
 * Subverted by General Tullius. Complete the Imperial Legion quest and he will give a rousing speech to his troops celebrating their victory, followed by muttering "I hate giving speeches".
 * Esbern in the trailer, particularly when he slips into Trailing Rs. "And when the truth finally dawns...it dawns in FIYAAAH!"
 * Like many modern representations, Dragons are creatures of ham, prone to sparta-ing.
 * And just like he was in Oblivion
 * Lethal Chef: Part of a Dark Brotherhood quest has the player become this.
 * Lethal Joke Item:
 * Leave No Witnesses: One option you have. Commit a crime within sight of a law-abiding citizen and you get a bounty added to your head. Kill the people who saw you do it and the bounty disappears.
 * Left Hanging: The political plotline is considered by both leaders to be a mere distraction before the inevitable second Great War, but that story peters out after one side wins the civil war.-
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Fair hand-to-hand brawling is an actual mechanic in this game. Many towns contain someone looking to brawl with you if you put up a wager, always with the rules of no weapons or magic, just fists.
 * Subverted if you specialize in heavy armor and have the Unarmed Combat Boost. Turns this into a Curb Stomp Battle.
 * Also subverted in that you can use healing and other defensive magic, just not destruction spells or weapons.
 * Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Said word for word in the Mage's college after an experiment with another student's spell turns the PC into a string of different animals - after turning them green the first round.
 * Level Grinding: You can buff your Sneak by attacking Ralof/Hadvar in the bear cave at the beginning - he's a critical NPC, so he can't die. Be warned: this will take forever because the leveling is based on how much damage each attack does.
 * A bit quicker: due to a glitch, you can get your Speech to 100 by repeatedly asking for the Black-Briar Meadery bartender's opinion of Maven (the Persuade option never goes away).
 * Level Scaling: The scrappy mechanic from Oblivion is back, but it's done in the much better received manner of Fallout 3. Essentially, each type of enemy has an average of somewhere between four or five types. Once you reach certain thresholds, the new higher level enemies appear as bosses, the old bosses become mid-bosses, the old mid-bosses become Mooks, and so on. There are no enemies that scale past 50, so you are free to widen the gap after that mark. Still, there are some enemies with set levels, so be careful if you think you're going to go on any low-level challenges. One thing that makes it easier in Skyrim than it was in Oblivion is the elimination of stats beyond Health, Magicka, and Stamina; you can no longer gimp yourself by failing to level up the right skills as you go, although perk selection can still leave you at something of a disadvantage if you opt for noncombat perks early on.
 * Level Up Fill Up: but only when you go into the Skills screen and choose an attribute to increase. It can be to your advantage to ignore a level-up early in a fight, and process it later on when you're in rough shape.
 * Light Is Not Good: Like the Daedric Princes, several of the Divines are portrayed in a darker light.
 * The Vigilants of Stendarr, despite being knights of the god of mercy, gleefully murder any man, woman or child that so much as looks at a Daedra, much less consorts with one.


 * If your character is male, then a group of Dibella priestesses strong arm you into a quest by threatening you.
 * The most notable priest of Mara.
 * Alduin, the Big Bad of the game, is  an "aspect" of Akatosh. The explanation is fragmentary at best. One fan theory says that the dragons are "fragments" of Akatosh based on a line from a developer in-Universe text, and that he was the first to split making "sons" of Akatosh just the way they explain it to humans.
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Inverted. Dedicated combat builds are far deadlier in terms of raw damage output than spellcasters, while the Destruction tree, supposedly dedicated to damage-dealing, does not scale at all with your skill level and its spells get progressively more Awesome but Impractical at higher expertise levels (especially the Master-level spells). Magic does give you a great deal of flexibility and utility, but by far the easiest way to beat the game is to dress up in heavy armor and swing a big stick.
 * Conjuration scales much better -- you get the overwhelmingly powerful ability to summon two things at once later on, and necromancy naturally scales up as long as you have more powerful things to revive. And its master level spells last forever (or until the summon / undead is killed, at least), which makes them Awesome Yet Practical since you can cast them far in advance.
 * Loads and Loads of Loading: Transitions can take a long time between the overworld and city locations, or when exiting buildings, and for some bizarre reason the length of the load screen seems to depend on which image is displayed while you wait. Further, all versions of the game experience longer loading times as you progress because the save file keeps track of objects, like dropped weapons, loose arrows, etc., that accumulate as you play and aren't deleted.
 * Loophole Abuse: If a guard ever tries to arrest you for crimes, often you have the option to bribe them or talk them out of it, or submit and pay off the bounty or go to jail. Alternatively, you can just press the Escape key to exit conversation, and most of the time they'll just let you leave.
 * If you somehow knock someone off a high ledge and the fall kills them, guards and the bounty on your head only register it as assault on your part, you aren't blamed for the death. Provided you can get them in the right place to kill them by the fall, you can use Unrelenting Force (FUS RO DAH) to kill NPCs for a measly 40 coin bounty, then can loot them freely. As a bonus, this also means the loot items don't count as stolen and can be sold to normal merchants.
 * Lost Forever: I hope you remember to grab the Stone of Barenziah while you were at the Thalmor Embassy cause you ain't going to be able to go back there again. To add insult to injury, if you collected 23 stones but miss that one, you're stuck with carrying a whole bunch of non-redeemable Plot Coupons with no option to remove them from your inventory, aside from cheating to clip your way back inside. If you identified them as Stones of Barenziah before picking up more than one, none of them stack.
 * This was fixed in the 1.4 patch. The stone now appears in Reeking Cave, a short tunnel that you travel through during your escape, and you can reenter it.
 * Conversely, if you found all of them before getting them identified, the quest won't properly progress, so you still can't turn them in. At least then they only occupy one line in your inventory.
 * A Word Wall containing part of the Call Storms shout is located in the final dungeon of the main quest. If you didn't get it before  too bad; there's no way to get back to the dungeon.
 * The Nahkriin Mask can also become Lost Forever if you forget to loot it from Nahkriin's remains or if you  since, again, the dungeon becomes inaccessible after the main quest. To further add insult to injury, if this happens, it will also become impossible to obtain the Konahrik mask, since getting it requires you possessing all 8 Dragon Priest masks.
 * If you summon the ghost of after joining the Dark Brotherhood, be careful against enemies who can use the Disarm shout. If you drop a weapon which is better than the one  is using, he'll take it, and since he cannot be looted after death, there is no way to get it back.
 * The second part of the quest centered around is triggered by your character leveling up. Doing the first part of the quest at level 81 (the maximum level) will stop the courier from visiting you and may prevent you from doing the quest.
 * Fixed since Bethseda added the ability to infinitely level up.
 * Louis Cypher: Keep a look out for one Sam Guevenne.
 * Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Block skill has a lot of surprising utility once you level up its perks. Among the most useful is one that grants you a resistance to magical damage when blocking, so your shield-guy can stand up to dragonfire now. Another lets you charge opponents with your shield and bash them out of the way. Still another slows time if an enemy starts a power attack (which will slam through a block if it lands) while your shield is up; see Bullet Time above.

M

 * Magic Pants:
 * Fun fact: dead werewolves often seem to have "ruined trousers" in their inventory, when looted....
 * Magical Society: The College of Winterhold is the primary Magical Society and can be joined by the player, but the  also make a few appearances during quests that involve the College.
 * Magitek: Dwemer technology is half "steam engine," half "magical Golems," evidently, as nearly all of their robots run off of soul gems rather than conventional power sources (and the steam appears to be generated magically).
 * The Dwemer have developed technologies that have reality-bending powers (or outright reality-breaking powers in the case of Numidium), so much so that they can use magitek apparati to Just casting magic is a quaint thing to them, but they were extraordinary enchanters, and that's the part that makes the "magi" in their Magitek.
 * It's actually implied by some writings that the soul gems are not involved in the basic operation of Dwemer animunculi. Those soul gems are linked to the shock attack of non-worker spiders, and may otherwise be involved in high-powered attacks, but whatever makes the animunculi move has never been unraveled by anyone since the Dwemer vanished.
 * Meaningful Name: Vilkas and Farkas, two of the Companions, whose names mean  Also, a mad skeever (rat) controlling mage you encounter is named "Hamelyn"
 * The inn in the first town you encounter is named The Sleeping Giant Inn.
 * Mega Manning: A variation. You learn Words of Power simply from hearing someone speak it or reading it on Word Walls, but you can't "decode" them without using the knowledge in a dragon's soul. So it's a two-part deal: steal their voice weapon, then steal their ability to use it.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout: "Dragonshouts", the highlight of the game, and of your character, the Dragonborn. In the franchise's expansive lore, it's also known as the Thu'um, the power of the Voice. A variety of alternative magical effects invoked by shouting words in the ancient Dragon language; to use a computing metaphor, you're using root-level commands to reality to achieve these effects. Here's a list of all the shouts.
 * IIZ SLEN NUS: Ice Form. A shout that flies through several foes, freezing all of them in the shout's path.
 * FO KRAH DIIN: Or the regular variety of frost breath, sans freezing them where they stand, more akin to Fire Breath below.
 * RAAN MIR TAH: Animal Allegiance.
 * KAAN DREM OV: Calms them so they don't fight at all. Useful for dealing with angry bears or wolves.
 * FUS RO DAH: Unrelenting Force. A basic shout, its effect simply staggers or completely bowls over whoever you shout it at. Already has reached meme status since it was the first shout whose words were revealed to us. Awesome Yet Practical, since strategic use allows you to bowl your foes right over ledges and such. However, it requires full power to truly blast someone off their feet. Lower strengths will send them reeling but not off their feet, but are still enough to interrupt a dragon's breath attack.
 * One Bonus Boss capable of FUS RO DAH use it from a distance. Expect to spend half the fight airborne.
 * ZUN HAAL VIIK: Disarm. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * TIID KLO UL: Slow Time. Allows you to go to town with a melee weapon, or to easily dodge deathtraps.
 * LAAS YAH NIR: Aura Whisper. Allows you to see the energy of other beings, even through walls, and detects any form of mobile creature, alive or dead (unlike spells of the same effect, which discriminate). Surprisingly long range and short cooldown (though not short enough to maintain constantly). Very handy for sneaky types, and also useful at determining if there's an ambush in the next room. Indispensable in draugr ruins for figuring out whether those coffins have active undead waiting to hop out or are really empty.
 * WULD NAH KEST: Whirlwind Sprint, which allows for a sudden yet brief burst of speed. Useful for bum-rushing a Squishy Wizard, dashing through a pendulum blade gauntlet, or crossing over drops too long to simply jump over (with careful aim).
 * ZUL MEY GUT: Throw Voice. Throws a projected voice that utters off a quick infantile insult, distracting guards to where it originated from.
 * YOL TOOR SHUL: Fire Breath, creating a burst of flame across a wide swath that does a ton of damage and staggers most enemies. Even just the first word has the range and width of FUS RO DAH at full power, with a staggering effect, and hits with enough whammy to make most bosses sit up and take notice.
 * SU GRAH DUN: Elemental Fury. Increases the rate as which you swing your weapons to truly ludicrous speeds. Doesn't work with enchanted weapons, though.
 * JOOR ZAH FRUL: Dragonrend. Since Dragons have no concept of transience, the three words that make the shout (Mortal, Finite, Temporary) are like Kryptonite to them when used in Thu'um. Utterly confused by the words they hear, dragons promptly faceplant into the ground. Also useful for interrupting dragon breath attacks even moreso than Unrelenting Force due to its quick cooldown at the first tier of the shout. This is also
 * FEIM ZII GRON: "Become Ethereal". Renders you completely immune to all harm, but you can't hit enemies either. Deathtraps, foes... not even Fall Damage will hurt you. Attacking will end the effect prematurely; you will never feel the "can't hit enemies" restriction beyond that.
 * ODAHVIING:
 * STRUN BAH QO : Is that dragon flying too high for you to score a hit? No problem, Storm Call turns the weather to your advantage and strikes the dragon down with lightning. (And anything else nearby, for that matter, use responsibly).
 * LOK VAH KOOR: An inversion of the above, clearing away clouds, fog, rain, snow, or anything else so you can see clearly. Do it at night and odds are you'll also summon an aurora as well
 * KRII LUN AUS: "Marked For Death." Weakens armour and life force periodically.
 * FAAS RU MAAR: "Dismay". Causes enemies to flee.
 * SLEN TIID VO: Alduin uses this one to resurrect the dragons. Only Alduin can use it... At least, for now.
 * VEN MUL RIIK: Conjures a thick fog around the landscape. Again, only Alduin uses it.
 * FIIK LO SAH: What could have been used as a sort of decoy attack to get pressure off of you ends up being just an unplayable shout used by the Graybeards to produce target practice dummies for your Thu'um lessons from them. Oddly, there are still player voice files for the shout in the game's content archives.
 * Not a Thu'um Shout, but while you're a werewolf, hitting the "Shout" button causes you to let out a blood-curdling howl that makes enemies around you run away in fear. Useful for crowd control while a werewolf so you can better focus on savaging your foes one at a time.
 * Malevolent Masked Men: Dragon Priests.
 * Master of None: Using only two words in Unrelenting Force is completely counterproductive. Fus staggers your enemies and has a quick recharge time. Fus Ro Dah sends your enemies flying and has a slow recharge time. Fus Ro makes them take one or two steps back and has a somewhat long recharge time.
 * Megaton Punch: Giants. Mainly because of the sheer amount of damage their clubs do to low level players. See the entry on Blown Across the Room above for more infomation.
 * Melee a Trois: Dragons have a tendency to charge into the middle of existing battles and attacking everyone. The other two sides usually put aside their differences to deal with the massive fire-spewing immortal god-monster assaulting them, but not always.
 * Memetic Outfit: the horned helmet worn by the PC in the trailer.
 * Mercy Kill: If you kill a bandit who has been raised from the dead by a necromancer, he will thank you as he disintegrates.
 * This is one way to view.
 * Mickey Mousing: The gameplay trailer matches cuts of action to music in a dramatic, manly fashion.
 * Mighty Glacier: Dwarven centurions. You can outrun them without even having to sprint (unless you get caught in its steam cloud), and their only ranged attack is fairly easy to dodge from a distance, but they resist magic, arrows bounce off their armor (if not completely harmlessly), and that's not taking into account their huge HP pool. And if you try to fight it head-on, you'll have to dodge everything perfectly or be willing to down a ton of potions, since its hammer and axe hit quite hard and the steam blast hurts a LOT.
 * Miles Gloriosus: The eponymous braggart in the song Ragnar the Red, who meets an untimely end at the hands of an unimpressed shield maiden.
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: A fortune teller in town says she might tell your fortune by several standard methods (Horoscopes, card readings) and then chuckles and mentions Trepanning.
 * Mind Rape: Dragonrend does this to dragons by forcing them to experience mortality, something their minds literally cannot comprehend.
 * Mind Screw: The nature of Alduin.
 * Also, in-world, Dragonrend. Basically, you're telling the dragon that they're, "Mortal, Finite, Temporary", something that they don't have a word for or understand in their own minds since, before man, they've never had to deal with the concept of life ending for them. What it does is mindscrews the dragon so badly that they don't have the mental capacity to fly, or Shout, for a few seconds.
 * You can accidentally get  arrested, if the player doesn't catch the subtle clues and goes straight to the authorities,
 * Money for Nothing: It's quite easy to make a fortune, simply loot everything and every one you see and know how to exploit the crafting system to make items more expensive than the materials used to make them. However, ingredients can be found in the wild, crafting materials can be mined for, and every equipment piece in the game aside from a handful of unique items can be forged, and those unique items can have their effects duplicated on crafted weapons. All you'll really need to buy regularly are potions, soul gems and ingots for crafting, and they're dirt cheap, and if you want player housing it's pretty expensive to outfit your homes with all the extras, but those are one-time purchases. Eventually the problem will come up that merchants just don't have enough gold to pay you for all the loot you want to unload on them, forcing you to travel from town to town selling off your stock.
 * Monologuing: It's common for an enemy to walk up and announce their intention to kill you. Sometimes, you can end the conversation quickly and kill them before they're even done speaking.
 * Monster Sob Story: The book The "Madmen" of the Reach is one for the Forsworn. Whether or not it justifies their long list of atrocities depends on the player.
 * Money Spider: Rarely, animals will have jewelry and gold coins in their carcasses. Yes, this includes the frost spiders.
 * Dragons drop valuable Bones and Scales, which are some of the most expensive loot in the game. In addition they usually carry coins on them...as well as armor. Three guesses at how the dragon got them, and the first two don't count.
 * Moon Logic Puzzle: The dwemer machine holding . Two buttons rotate a large globe on the ground with various rings and lenses on it, a third button rotates lenses hanging overhead, and a fourth button which can only be pressed when the alignment of the pieces are right and unveils the objective item in the machine. Attempting to understand what is actually happening as you press the buttons will likely just confuse you, you understand you have to align something, but what and how? The game developers appear to have assumed you won't understand and will just be pressing buttons at random, because that's actually the way to do it.
 * More Than Meets the Eye: Many characters. Some are not human despite looking human, some have murderous tendencies while being seemingly innocent on the outside. Babette appears to be a young girl but is.
 * Mugging the Monster: Unsurprisingly, the many thieves, robbers, bandits, and brigands of Skyrim share the traditional RPG thug deficiency in being able to tell that the guy they're about to accost is in fact, walking on a road made of the bodies of everyone s/he has mangled, even if they are wearing armour made of dragon bones and carrying a bloodstained greatsword. One random encounter even includes a dialogue option that says "I just don't have time for this." in response to getting mugged. Yes, you can essentially tell the muggers that you're too busy to be robbed right now. They attack anyway.
 * Mundane Utility: Dragon shouts are devastating against your enemies, but they can also be used to do things like freeze animals to make it easier to hunt them or knock objects off shelves and out of sight so you can steal them, or disarm traps by remotely triggering them. Or go fishing.
 * Unlocking all doors is apparently only the most simple use of Nocturnal's Skeleton Key. In the right hands it could be used to unlock metaphorical locks such as the ones that limit human ability.
 * The "Become Ethereal" shout lets you fall off of cliffs without taking fall damage.
 * Further evidence: You see it being used in such a manner in Markarth in one of the promotional vids before the game launched.
 * You can use the "Slow Time" shout to catch arrows out of the air, skillfully dodge deadly attacks by dragons and giants... or you can just use it to make potions last longer instead (normally fortify skills potions last for 30s, only enough time to enchant/craft/enhance one or two items unless you're fast. With a full duration slow time, you can extend that into nearly twice as long with no penalties since you are not slowed while browsing the menu)
 * Unrelenting Force is a mighty tool to destroy enemies, but it serves an equally useful purpose in that it can be used to swat butterflies out of the air to collect their wings.
 * Aura Whisper lets you locate your enemies to sneak around them or determine if the next room is filled with dozens of hostiles. It also lets you find people you're looking for in large buildings.
 * Dwarven ruins can be filled with flame vents set up to roast unwary intruders. However, bandits in Raldbthar have discovered another use for them: cooking.
 * One of the shouts the Greybeards use is Bex, which harnesses the awesome power of the Thu'um to open and close doors and gates.
 * Murder, Inc.: The Dark Brotherhood.
 * Murder Is the Best Solution: After you kill Grelod the Kind, one of the orphans notes that so many problems can be solved by killing just one person, and that the possibilities are endless.
 * My Country, Right or Wrong: Some Nords still loyal to the Empire, or at least the idea of it, shade into this: they hate the policies forced on them by the treaty with the Thalmor, acknowledge the Empire is not what it used to be and that they've suffered for their loyalty, but "the Nords have never been fair-weather friends".
 * My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
 * Even some high elves have an antipathetic attitude towards the Thalmor: a senior legion officer presiding over a camp near Riften is a high elf, and finds the Thalmor to be detestable.
 * The player can be any of the elven races without gaining favor or alliance with the Thalmor, and he or she can just as easily be a Nord serving the Empire or a Stormcloak-aligned Imperial. In fact, most of the playable races lack their cultural baggage from pre-Skyrim lore so the player will often be the odd one out of his or her people. This is pointed out directly when some non-Nord races ask Ulfric about whether the Stormcloaks will accept them - the line is something about how Skyrim is home to more races than just Nord and loyalty is what's important. Too bad his townspeople didn't get the memo.
 * Mythology Gag: It is heavily implied by Sheogorath that
 * There is also a book that gives help on thievery that has apparently been written by the player character of Oblivion (assuming that person completed the Thieves' Guild storyline).
 * M'aiq the Liar shows up... for about the third game in a row. He's a random encounter on the road, and will make commentary about some of the newer (or weirder) elements of the game. Listen to his sweet lies here.
 * There is also a book that gives help on thievery that has apparently been written by the player character of Oblivion (assuming that person completed the Thieves' Guild storyline).
 * M'aiq the Liar shows up... for about the third game in a row. He's a random encounter on the road, and will make commentary about some of the newer (or weirder) elements of the game. Listen to his sweet lies here.