The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim/Tropes 0-G: Difference between revisions

** The Emperor himself, Titus Mede II, though to a lesser degree than Olaf. While not the victim of a effigy-burning ritual like Olaf (possibly because he's still in power), very few people, if anyone at all seems to have anything positive to say about the emperor. Even those supposedly loyal to him are more loyal to the Empire as a whole than they are to him. {{spoiler|Then there's the fact that the one who hires the Dark Brotherhood to have the Emperor killed is a member of the Elder Council}}. The reason for this hatred is because he surrendered to the [[Evil Overlord|Thalmor,]] but when you meet him he comes across as a supremely [[Reasonable Authority Figure]], as well as a perfect example of {{spoiler|[[Face Death with Dignity]]}}, so the hatred seems somewhat undeserved.

** The Thalmor, the fascist High Elf government. The number of non-Thalmor in Skyrim who support them can be counted on one hand. There are quite a few High Elves who dislike them for their extreme ways. The only reason the Thalmor even came to power in the first place was due to the chaos caused by the Oblivion Crisis.

 

== A ==

** One of the random lines the draugr occasionally say, "Unslaad Krosis", means "Eternal Sorrow". {{spoiler|Paarthurnax}} uses Krosis as "Sorry".

** An amusing meta-example from the developers: the dragon lair of Shearpoint also contains a Dragon Priest tomb, and if you don't watch your step, you'll often have to simultaneously fight off him and several hundred tonnes of angry lizard in one of the toughest battles of the game. This priest's name? Krosis.

* [[Armour Piercing Question]]: When {{spoiler|the Blades}} "ask" you to kill {{spoiler|Paarthunax}}, he says that they are right in thinking that it is his nature to be evil, but he struggles daily to suppress it. He then finishes with "What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?".

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]:

** '''YOL TOOR SHUL''', once acquired, is one of the single most damaging shouts in the game, hits over a huge area, and staggers enemies. Good as a support power for a mage whose magicka is low, excellent for a warrior who needs a devastating area effect, and a great panic button for a thief who needs to burn everything and run. Plus, belching out a massive wave of fire just ''looks so awesome''.

** Most of the Daedric artifacts. Volendruug is a powerful hammer you can get early-game if you can manage to kill a few giants and if you specialize in it, you can use it for the duration of the game (not to mention effectively infinitely charge into enemies with power attacks due to its effect). The Mace of Molag Bal can help you harvest Soul Gems for either itself or enchanting and can incapacitate most spellcasters easily. The Black Star can be combined with the Mace for infinite charges. The Ebony Mail can harm anyone trying to close the distance and detect nearby enemies for you. Namira's Ring gives you a substantial Stamina Boost and lets you recover HP faster. And so on.

 

== B ==

* [[Battle Butler]]: Any of your housecarls, should you choose to take them on your quests.

* [[Battle Couple]]: The Dragonborn is capable of marrying one of his/her traveling companions and going on adventures with them.

* [[Beat Still My Heart]]: In a case of [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|the dev team thinking of everything]], if you pickpocket a briarheart from a Forsworn Briarheart, they instantly die and a gaping hole appears on their chests. This is because Forsworn Briarhearts have had their real hearts replaced with the briarheart you have just ripped from their bodies.

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: A wizard sets up a [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]], masquerading as the guardian spirit of a Nordic burial ground to keep superstitious locals from discovering that he's attempting to loot the tomb. After six month of failing to solve a puzzle-locked door, he goes insane and becomes convinced he's an actual guardian spirit. The irony in his attempts to keep the locals away from the burial ground is that the local innkeeper actually held the key to unlocking the door. Unlike a certain other Dunmer, however, he probably didn't know about its existence.

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Some of your possible spouses are downright rude to you.

** Some of them want to marry you after you've beaten them in a brawl. Of course this is Nord culture.

* [[Beware the Silly Ones]]: Right on the border of Whiterun Hold and The Pale, you can find a jester who seems to be a textbook [[Cloudcuckoolander]] who needs help getting his wagon fixed. {{spoiler|Turns out he's a member of the Dark Brotherhood. If you take the farmer's advice and slander him to get him dragged off by a guard, you'll find said farmer dead later on}}.

** And on top of that, this jester isn't ''just'' {{spoiler|a member of the Dark Brotherhood. He's The Keeper, and The Night Mother herself is in his wagon}}.

* [[Big Bad]]:

** Alduin, the {{spoiler|first offspring of Akatosh}}.

** The Orcs as a whole. Not even a decade into the Fourth Era, they are forced at swordpoint by the Bretons to officially renounce Orsinium as a province and allow themselves to be assimilated into High Rock. By the time of ''Skyrim'', most Orcs are little more than indentured servants to the Bretons, and those that aren't are forced to live in "strongholds" that are almost universally rundown, destitute and scorned by all.

** The Dark Elves too, what with Red Mountain erupting, Vvardenfell's destruction and Morrowind being sacked by Black Marsh have left the province pretty much in ruins, even years later, leading to a mass exodus of Dunmer away from their home province. The ones who settled in Windhelm are left second-class citizens, and only one supplicant remains at the Shrine of Azura they constructed after their exodus. Hadvar even notes should you play a Dunmer character at Helgen that the gods really HAVE abandoned your people.

 

== C ==

** Also with Esbern. {{spoiler|So you saved his life from the Thalmor. Used your blood to open a secret base of operation for him and Delphine. Recruited 20 new members for The Blades (who previously numbered at 2). But he won't lift a finger to help you, or allow the Blades to help you, unless you go and kill one of your allies because he asked you to}}.

* [[Durable Deathtrap]]: The Nordic necropoli and Dwemer ruins are filled to the brim with these. Though in the latter case, this has been [[Hand Wave|hand waved]] with the explanation that the Dwemer were so ridiculously advanced that [[Ragnarok Proofing|everything they made was impervious to aging, in addition to having maintenance robots still running around]].

 

== E ==

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: Anyone who played the ''Bloodmoon'' expansion for ''[[Morrowind]]'' two games ago will be in familiar territory. Solstheim, the island that expansion took place upon, was basically a mini-Skyrim, full of Nords and mead with werewolves and deadly spriggans running about. Funnily enough, ''Dragonborn'' has it all go full-circle by letting you go back to Solstheim.

* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: Practically all Dwemer ruins. Blackreach used to be an entire city, but it fell into disuse when the Dwemer disappeared.

** Blackreach and its upper level Alftand are a little more than "elaborate". "''Absolutely goddamn 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 be the Dwemer capital}}.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]:

** The Ideal Masters, who were [[Was Once a Man|once mortal wizards]] that transformed themselves into all-powerful, soul-snatching beings that look like sentient Soul Gems, but are so much ''worse'' than that. Just being in their presence or trying to enter their realm will cause you to slowly die.

** The Augur of Dunlain. What [[Was Once a Man]] is now a living mass of magical energy with prophetic knowledge of things to come and command over truly powerful magic.

* [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: Subverted in Sheogorath's daedra 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|turn Wabbajack on Pelagius's guards}}.

* [[The Empire]]:

* [[Everything's Deader with Zombies]]:

** Draugr.

* [[Evil Is Deathly Cold]]: 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 [[Call Back]] 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.

** The Argonians are harder to classify, but have a certain Southeast Asian or Pacific Islander feel, given their homeland, treatment by the people of Skyrim (particularly in Windhelm), and skill in guerrilla warfare.

* [[Fast Forward Mechanic]]: There is a wait function, allowing you to wait for a number of hours of your choice. The current time should be somewhere at the bottom-left corner of the box.

* [[A Father to His Men]]: General Tullius of the Imperial Legion. {{spoiler|If the player sides with the Legion and captures Windhelm, he compliments his soldiers, doubles their pay and the compensations to the widows of the dead soldiers}}. He seems to be based on Julius Caesar. Ulfric Stormcloak and Galmar Stonefist are this as well, as they love their men dearly. And in return are deeply respected by their men.

* [[Fauxshadow]]: Maurice from the Blessing of Kynareth quest practically screams sinister with his appearance, voice and mannerisms. {{spoiler|Not only is he a genuinely good guy, but keeping him alive actually makes the final part of the quest ''much'' easier}}.

* [[From Bad to 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'.

* [[Fur Bikini]]: The female version of Forsworn and Fur armor.

 

== G ==

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the Greybeards in conversation. Whilst they are constrained by the Way of the Voice to use their Shouts only for divine purposes, the Dragonborn is under no such constraints. Since your power is directly granted by a gift of Akatosh himself, ''any'' use you choose to put it to must therefore be divinely ordained. No matter how depraved your actions, in the end, you're on a [[Mission from God]].

* [[Gold Fever]]: 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 [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]].

* [[Good Bad Bugs]]: [[Word of God|Producer Todd Howard said]] [[Invoked Trope|that they would leave in any bugs or glitches]] [[Rule of Funny|that were funny]] as long as they didn't [[Game Breaking Bug|break the game]].

** One bug found during development featured chickens reporting the player's crimes to guards. Sadly, it would have made the game unreasonably difficult to players who weren't aware of it, and so it was removed.

** The main Thieves' Guild questline has a series of bonus items you can steal and sell to Delvin for profit.

** The No Stone Unturned quest, which involves [[Gotta Catch Em All|collecting 24 "unusual gems"]] (aka the Stones of Barenziah) which are scattered all over Skyrim. There are no clues ingame as to where each one is, and chances are you'll find at least one by accident. Their locations are fixed, but vary from caves and tombs to people's homes {{spoiler|(one is located inside Proudspire Manor, which you can only enter after buying it)}} to places of high restrictions like a Jarl's quarters (which require you to sneak in really well unless the said Jarl made you a Thane). One is even located inside the {{spoiler|Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, which can only be entered after starting the Dark Brotherhood questline, either to join them or destroy them}}. {{spoiler|And prior to patch 1.4, one of these gems was inside the Thalmor Embassy, which could only be visited during the Diplomatic Immunity quest; thankfully, after the patch it was relocated to a cave underneath, which is accessible anytime}}.

 

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