The universe of The Elder Scrolls is practically bursting at the seams with the fantastic and impossible phenomenon. The rich lore an RPG fan can glean from this series will have them falling down wiki rabbit-holes for days on end. Elements of the strange and bizarre range from world-changing events and objects to seemingly mundane cultural practices.
Whatever the case, there can be no doubt that all of them are interesting, no matter how simple they may appear. Here are ten crazy things most people do not know or understand about the world of The Elder Scrolls.
10 Dragon Breaks
As the title suggests, Dragon Breaks are preposterous and undoubtedly one of the most complicated things in the lore. To put it as simple as possible, a Dragon Break is an event where a powerful magical act causes the shattering of a timeline. The timelines eventually reconverge into one, rendering a particular Dragon Break "over," yet everything that transpired in each timeline is considered canon, even if the consequences of events are not seen in the newly created, unified timeline.
It was first used as a way to explain how each of the multiple endings of Daggerfall was canon, and yet, a new story could be created off of one timeline rather than multiple ones for Morrowind.
9 The So-Called Moon Corpse
Imagine if the moon was actually the last remaining remnant of a god that used to watch over the Earth but was now dead. Well, that is exactly the idea for the moons of Nirn, known as Masser and Secunda. It is believed, in Tamriel, that the moons are actually split pieces of the corpse of Lorkhan, the primordial god who tricked the Aedra into creating Nirn and the mortal realm of Mundus.
There is much about the story of Lorkhan that could be delved into, even just the amount of names he possesses across cultures is mind-numbingly dense. Nevertheless, the idea of these moons being his corpse certainly feels insane.
8 The Mysterious Village Of Hackdirt
In the east of Cyrodil, south of Chorrol, sits the settlement of Hackdirt. Immediately when a player enters, they will remark on various strange attributes. The town is large, but many buildings are burned down or in disrepair. The residents who reside there are unfriendly and rude. Lastly, every home has a mysterious trapdoor that leads to a network of tunnels underneath the town.
Hackdirt is a populace who have been ensnared under the control of entities known as the Deep Ones. If a player explores the caverns and kills all of the hostile villagers within, a mysterious rumbling can be heard periodically. It is believed to be caused by the Deep Ones, but as of this writing, very little is known about the entities, nor why they did this to the village of Hackdirt.
7 The Green Pact Of Valenwood
For those who enjoy playing as Wood Elves, one would be remiss to gloss over one of the more fascinating qualities of their culture, the Green Pact. A deal made with their chief deity, Y'ffre, the Green Pact forbids Bosmer from eating, injuring, or killing any form of vegetation. It's quite the restriction for people who typically live surrounded by vegetation.
This taboo has led to cultural practices that seem alien to other races. The most prominent practice is the allowance of ritual cannibalism. It is not unusual for Bosmer to fast right before a great fight, only to eat the corpses of their enemies. They believe that eating the corpses, even of their own kind, allows them to absorb their power. They even share the "meal" with their families sometimes.
6 The Khajiit Manes Of Elsweyr
The Khajiit are no strangers to the bizarre as well. The leader of the diverse Khajiiti people is known as the Mane. Khajiit believe that the Mane is a single soul that is constantly reborn throughout history, but only to one who was born under the alignment of the two moons, Masser and Secunda.
When the Khajiit were not as numerous, it was common practice for members of the Mane's tribe to remove their own manes and braid them into the mane of their leader. However, as the Khajiit population exploded, the practice quickly became impractical, and as such, Manes would need aid just to move around and turn their heads because of the weight of their massive amounts of hair.
5 The Hero-God, Phynaster
Phynaster is a hero-god of the Summerset Isles who sees worship from the High Elves, Bretons, and even the Snow Elves once upon a time. Phynaster loved to go on adventures. Because of this, he was constantly looking for and creating ways to extend his own life.
His most famous exploits in this endeavor include creating a ring that does exactly that, while also offering minor resistances. The other exploit is finding out that if one simply shortens their walking stride, it can easily add one hundred years to the life-span. Phynaster apparently shared this secret with the Altmer and no one else.
4 Sun And Stars
With any magical setting, people would normally assume there is a point where the creators keep select aspects of the world consistent with our own. Weather, fundamental physics, and outer space, for example, would all be relative to that of our own universe. Even the sun and stars of a world are usually meant to be just the gravity contained spheres of plasma they are in our reality. But not in The Elder Scrolls universe. According to lore, when Lorkhan tricked the et'Ada (Original Spirits) into making the mortal realm, most were displeased by this revelation.
Eight of the et'Ada chose to remain and finish the project, becoming the Eight Divines. But those who did not remain left the mortal realm and pierced its heavens, allowing light and magicka to flow into Mundus from Aetherius. Magnus, the god of magic and chief architect of Mundus, left the greatest hole in his flight. His hole is Mundus' sun while all the other holes are the stars, created by his followers, the Magne Ge.
3 The Time-Traveling Knight, Pelin-El
Out of the many characters in Tamriel's history, few figures have left a mark quite like Pelinal Whitestrake. To give the briefest overview, he was a powerful knight that has appeared throughout history, wandering into world events and leaving a distinct mark upon history each time he passed. There is a theory that he is an artificial time-traveler. For one thing, it is shown that Pelinal did not possess a heart, but rather, was sustained by the Amulet of Kings, which resided in his chest. Next is a comment he makes after winning a duel.
After brutally killing an Ayleid, he praises Reman, who would be the Emperor of the Second Empire several hundred years from then. The last two references that suggest this are his death and name. When Pelinal was killed, he was dismembered into eight pieces. Despite this, his head remained alive for quite some time, and spoke with several people. His name, Pelinal, was derived from the Elvish "Pelin-El" which means "Star-Made Knight."
2 The Black Marsh Subway
Black Marsh possesses a reputation for being an alien place, but one feature of the landscape only cements that fact further. Natives of the province have learned how to access a kind of subway system that allows for leagues of travel to be done in minutes. This transportation method, unfortunately, involves being swallowed by a large, translucent worm that speeds through the thick mud of Black Marsh.
Migration patterns have been learned over generations and the worms' digestion is too slow to kill immediately, so most Argonians use the system at their leisure. To escape a worm, one simply needs to spot an air bubble and push themselves upward. The worm is too weak to truly trap passengers.
1 Mananauts And Sun Birds
The final crazy fact about the world of The Elder Scrolls is that Tamriel went through a space race in the First Era. The Reman Empire created the Mananauts to compete with the Altmer's Sun Birds program. Both groups were tasked with going through the stars or sun to explore the realm of Aetherius just beyond. Both groups have successfully entered the realm at least once, but "officially," efforts ceased due to the immense danger and cost it takes to get there. Neither group has reported what they saw there either.