Of the things The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is known for, its litany of bugs and glitches is among the most notable, and one player's experience with finding an NPC doing chores with most of her body missing is yet another reason this reputation has been earned. Despite the lack of polish, Skyrim's influence is still felt today, while its bugs are perceived as just another part of a game that cemented itself as a landmark.
With how Skyrim manages its armor pieces, there are 4 categories it splits into: boots, chest, gloves, and helmet. Each piece appears on every character independently of the others, with the chest piece making up someone's arms, chest, and legs. This means that any given character can mix and match various armor sets, but if the game fails to load in one of these pieces, it will cause the respective body part to vanish.
A Reddit user who goes by plantyplant559 came across this glitch happening to the NPC Narri, whose body almost entirely vanished because her chest piece failed to load into the game, something that can happen if game files are conflicting. This leaves her as nothing more than her head, hands, and boots that are invisible from the inside which creates an effect that is funny and unsettling in the way that Skyrim's possessed potato can also be both of these things. While she may lack any limbs to connect her head and hands, plantyplant559's post shows Narri sweeping the floor with her broom, showing that she is simply carrying on with her day as though everything was fine.
Skyrim has no shortage of bugs of any degree, with some going on to be famous for how funny many found them to be, and others because of the eerie feeling they bring while still being enjoyable. The most renowned of these were of mannequins that came to life, something Bethesda patched out, but a fan restored the Skyrim mannequin bug afterward, showing that at least some view the unnerving bugs as a part of the game's identity alongside the more traditionally funny ones. Narri's body vanishing while she does mundane tasks might not be as creepy as the mannequins, but it carries a similar appeal given how something is clearly very wrong, yet only the player can acknowledge this.
The everlasting appeal maintained by Skyrim has gone on for a multitude of reasons. An Skyrim's extensive modding scene is one of the largest, but the bugs are too. These can tie hand in hand since mod files can conflict with the already erratic base game, and while that could explain what is going on with Narri's invisible body, that moment is one of many that help to define Skyrim's strange charm.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - Anniversary Edition is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.