Being a Bookworm in Skyrim
As of this November, it’s been six years since Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out, and it’s still a staggeringly popular video game. I love Skyrim, as well as the other Elder Scroll games, and have wanted for a while to talk about my favorite thing about Skyrim. And it’s not:
- The Nordic-inspired fantasy environment
- The fun, quirky, and thoughtful quests
- The endearing NPCs
There is a LOT to read
Okay, technically, most of the “books” are more short stories. But it’s still impressive what a humongous amount has been written for the games.
For example, The Real Barenziah, a scandalous biography of Queen Barenziah of Morrowind, has over 20,000 words when all volumes are combined.
The writers really put their hearts and souls (and, frankly, a little bit of craziness) into this chunk of game.
You can learn a lot about a character by what they read
We all know you can get a good picture of what a person is like by what books they leave lying around the house. Well, a nice perk of Skyrim’s freedom is you can check out a character’s house and see what they’re reading! Either by being invited in, or…more likely…using a handy lockpick. Hey, it’s your journey, friend. Occasionally you can find a book that really speaks volumes about its owner:- Someone in the Temple of Mara, the Goddess of Love, is keeping a copy of A Kiss, Sweet Mother. But here’s the thing: it’s a book on how to summon assassins from the Dark Brotherhood to kill someone. Oh…
You get a lot of flavor (and useful info) about the world
The real benefit of these books, though, is they convey lore and facts about Tamriel in an organic way for curious players. Read The Great War by Legate Justianus Quintius to learn about the Great War between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion. Or for the more practically minded reader, find Troll Slaying. The author, Finn, gives some actually useful tips on facing trolls in the game. One example is that trolls are weak to fire. Another is how to identify a troll: “The creature’s large mouth is filled with jagged teeth, all the better to crunch the bones of foolish hunters who didn’t purchase my book.”
You can even meet the authors!
It’s complicated meeting authors in real life. Probably the biggest hurdle is meeting them at all: authors usually don’t work around your schedule, so you have to depend on stupid old serendipity. But not so in Skyrim! You can easily arrange bumping into authors of the books you’ve been reading in a manner of minutes. At your own convenience!
Travel by carriage to Markarth and visit Calcelmo, author of Dwarves! Or get admitted to the College of Winterhold and meet Sergius Turrianus, author of Enchanter’s Primer!
Shoot, you’re even given a quest to specifically go to Nightgate Inn and chew the fat with The Gourmet, author of the wildly popular cookbook Uncommon Taste.
…True, the quest is for the Dark Brotherhood of assassins…but that’s neither here nor there.
(Note: The Gourmet’s recipe for “Sunlight Souffle” calls for “A Cupful of Ground Nutmeg.” As the Elder Scrolls wikia points out, “Ingesting this much nutmeg would kill you.”)
