The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion:
 * One can't hear von Sydow's narration and not think of King Osric from Conan the Barbarian.
 * Vladimir Kulich is once again playing a Viking leader.
 * Mercer Frey, the leader of the Thieves' Guild, is voiced by Stephen Russell, the voice of Garrett, the infamous protagonist and master thief from the Thief series of games.
 * General Tullius is a gruff no-nonsense officer who is practical-minded and does deep down care about his men and Skyrim itself. A trait he shares with one of Michael Hogan's other roles as Saul Tigh in Battlestar Galactica Reimagined. Unlike Colonel Tigh however, Tullius doesn't seem to have alcohol problems. He also looks extremely similar to Captain Bailey, another one of Hogan's roles. He's found inside Castle Dour, and Hogan is known for playing dour characters.
 * A repentant holy man who once acted like a monster and betrayed his friends, who's voiced by Keith Szarabajka.
 * Complete the Companions quest line, and listen to Athis address you as the Companions' Harbinger. Sound Familiar?
 * Using the exact same voice he used for Captain Apollo Diomedes. Sadly, there is no BROTHER, I AM HIT!
 * Paarthurnax teaches the player one of the words of fire breath. He's also voiced by Charles Martinet.
 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: The famous quote from the guards actually goes "Then I took an arrow in the knee", not "to the knee" as it's often quoted.
 * Doing It for the Art: If you no-clip past the borders of Skyrim, you'll find you can walk all the way to Morrowind and Cyrodiil. They're not at all detailed, just height maps with generic textures and a few landmarks (like the White Gold Tower), but they're still there... even though you'll never be able to reach them without cheats or, theoretically, Game Mods.
 * Much of it is there for a reason: it can be seen from some point within Skyrim's actual area, without any use of no-clip or game mods, and so needs to have height maps with (generic) textures and the larger, more easily seen from far away landmarks. Other parts, however, can not be legitimely seen from any part of Skyrim, and so would not require height maps.
 * Or, as brought up in the article, it could be placeholders for future DLC (it's not like Bethesda hasn't put in some fairly expansive DLC before...).
 * Word of God confirms that its there for those instances when you can see beyond Skyrim from within the game's proper map. Though it doesn't rule out DLC. There are plenty of places inside Skyrim that do this too. If you no clip through the walls of a city, you'll see a partially detailed map of the city again to provide the detail you'd see from certain vantage points even though the city interior is a different map. Likewise, when you're within a city, the exterior of Tamriel is all detailed this way, again to provide what you'd be able to see from within city walls. There's a mod called "Open Cities" that moves some of those cities into the Tamriel map.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: And the Fandom Rejoiced, as Skyrim got a much larger voice-acting budget. See the UESP and IMDB articles for full listings of voice-actors and their roles.
 * Max von Sydow provides the narration for the trailer and voices the player's mentor figure, Esbern. You Might Also Remember Him As Antonius Block, Father Merrin, Vigo the Carpathian or Sir Walter Loxley.
 * Arngeir is Christopher Plummer.
 * Claudia Christian is once again second banana in a military hierarchy, but she also goes by the name Helga Sinclair.
 * Delphine is Pamela Landy.
 * Gormlaith Golden-Hilt has had the voice of Nords since Morrowind, but her best claim to fame was when she was Wonder Woman.
 * General Tullius has been Doc Mitchell and Captain Bailey recently, but you probably remember him as Colonel Saul Tigh.
 * Unfortunately for the Imperial Army, Ulfric Stormcloak is The Beast. And this isn't the first time he's played a powerful Norseman.
 * Yancy Westridge is an Orc librarian at the College of Winterhold.
 * And every other male Orsimer you meet.
 * Colonel Campbell takes his turn as the Nord Galmar Stone-Fist in Windhelm's Palace of Kings, and as Felldir the Old.
 * It feels very strange when random Dark Elf NPCs have Joshua Graham's voice, especially as he slips in and out of an accent that is completely unidentifiable.
 * Any time one of his characters gets angry, they immediately start channeling Kamal Re'x.
 * One of the daedric prince quests has you helping a Dark Elf clear out a ruin and remove an artifact that is affecting the sleep patterns of a nearby town. He is constantly referring to you as "my child" and the like (like a priest would). If that doesn't make you think of Graham, I don't know what would.
 * There's one part in the game where Athis says the word "Harbinger".
 * Hello, children! This is Nazir, reporting to you from the Dark Brotherhood's fortified sanctuary in the Skyrim hellhole!
 * Haruko is dishing out jobs in the Thieves' Guild.
 * The leader of the Thieves Guild, Mercer Frey, is voiced by none other than Garrett!
 * Many of the Thieves Guild-related NPCs speak with Stephen Russell's distinctive "Garrett" voice in one huge Actor Allusion. Apparently, he also teaches lockpicking, serves as the Winterhold College's resident shifty-goods-dealer and works at a meadery for a boss that he hates (the picklock teacher wears a hood that covers his right eye, leaving his pale blue left eye to gleam in the dark as a visual reference). He's also several male townspeople.
 * Several "curmudgeonly" NPCs, including Festus of the Dark Brotherhood and the Court Mage in Windhelm, are Disney's Pete and Tigger, Jim Cummings.
 * Snapper Carr and Duke show up quite a lot, particularly as Sven in Riverwood and Mikael in Whiterun.
 * Fenris has now enlisted in the Imperial army.
 * Alternatively, Balthier gave up on his life as Sky-Pirate and settled into simply kicking ass.
 * Mario himself even shows up as the master of the Greybeards. No, his Thu'um is not "It's-a me!".
 * Alduin used to be a spear-weilding elven hero who tried to stop a plague from invading his homeland.
 * Stay a while and listen, for Ralof of Riverwood is Deckard Cain.
 * And I guess he's now working for Mephisto, who voices Galmar Stone-Fist.
 * Ivy apparently became a Dunmer when she came to Skyrim. At least she still has white hair, sometimes.
 * The male Argonians are voiced by Number 5.
 * It appears Karliah has gone from reffing obstacle courses to becoming an agent of Nocturnal.
 * Knight-Commander Meredith has become a Daedric Lord.
 * Or the local face of the Thalmor.
 * It looks like Medic is now a member of the Thieves' Guild and is hawking snake oil in Riften now.
 * You may find Rosh Penin in various places.
 * King Bumi now has hair all over instead of just his armpits. And a tail. And a catface. And he sells fantasy cocaine.
 * Ariane has become the Jarl of Solitude.
 * The Space Core... well, actually, it really is the Space Core. How the hell was Nolan North not already in this game?
 * The German dub has Dr.Cox as every human male guard.
 * No Export for You: The Collector's Edition was essentially this for Australia, selling out within hours of being put up for pre-order due to the incredibly small number of copies allocated to the country. As something of a compromise, Australia had it's own exclusive Limited Edition, as a free upgrade for EB Games pre-orders.
 * Playing Against Type: Paarthurnax was voiced by Charles Martinet. Yes, THAT Charles Martinet.
 * Talking to Himself: Averted due to a much larger cast of voice-actors, though amusingly in the final Dark Brotherhood mission the player can opt to have kill off, who are both voiced by.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * If the file names seen in the editor for their equipment is any indication, the Stormcloaks were originally going to be called the Sons of Skyrim, with their officers being called the Sons of Talos.
 * It could be that they did call themselves that originally. The term "Stormcloak" started as an epithet that was adopted by the rebellion. History is full of examples of members of a cause being named after that cause's champion as an epithet only to have it be adopted by the people it was intended to insult.
 * If it's worth anything, Stormcloak NPC's have 'For the Sons of Skyrim!' as a battlecry. Though, that could just be referring to the people of Skyrim in general. Although, they are referred to as the Sons of Skyrim in certain quest log entries.
 * You Sound Familiar: Obviously generic NPCs have this, although they're not keyed to the races as in Oblivion so Talking to Himself is usually avoided. But...
 * Wes Johnson voices both the ghost of Lucien Lachance and Emperor Titus Mede II. This is really the only case where Talking to Himself potentially occurs, since.
 * Lynda Carter voices the Nord hero Gormlaith Golden-Hilt in Sovngarde and the Daedric Prince Azura.
 * Craig Sechler plays the Daedric Princes Hircine and Peryite.