Have you ever sat down inside of a restaurant while you were just north of starving, then proceeded to order way more food than you could possibly fit inside of your stomach? Apparently that's what it's like building a game as big as Skyrim, because the amount of content that wound up cut from the game is outstanding. Peeling through the game's files reveals an absolute treasure trove of inaccessible content.

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Of course, some of it's totally understandable, such as testing areas utilized by developers to hammer out bugs and such. But there's just as much partially completed content that seems to have been fully intended for inclusion in the game, but simply never got there for one reason or another. Today, we're going to look at just a little bit of both. Keep scrolling and join Game Rant as we check out five inaccessible locations alongside five quests that were cut from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

10 INACCESSIBLE LOCATION: Castle Dour, Tower

This unused locale is more or less complete and furnished, and seems to have fallen victim more to some last minute alterations to the Civil War quest line, if speculation from the UESP Wiki is to be taken at face value. Given the evidence, it probably should be.

Some unused bits of code in the game's files would seem to show that initially, if the player had sided with the Stormcloaks, the tower would have served as an emergency escape through which General Tullius would've fled, and it would've culminated in an epic rooftop standoff with the General himself as the battle raged below.

9 CUT QUEST: Research Thief

The Mage's College in Winterhold saw a great deal of content cut from it, which is a shame, because it's certainly one of the more lacking factions in Skyrim. For this quest, the Altmer sorceress Nirya would've tasked the player with performing a little magical espionage to steal notes from her colleague, Faralda.

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Once the player had performed the dirty deed, they would've arrived at a moral crossroads. They could, of course, follow through and deliver the notes to Nirya for a small sum of gold. Alternatively, they could've fessed up and tattled on Nirya in order to feel a little better about themselves.

8 INACCESSIBLE LOCATION: The Mind of a Madman

The Mind of a Madman certainly exists and is accessible in-game, as most will remember from the memorable quest entitled "The Mind of Madness." However, there is a series of areas connected to it, the entrance to which still technically exists, but is placed behind an impassible barrier and thus inaccessible to players.

It leads to a very strangely designed off-scale house that sits on a gigantic table, which in turn leads to an even more puzzling area. It would seem to be a Nordic tomb that the laws of gravity have totally abandoned, with bits of architecture spread about a large, open area, disjointed, sitting at odd angles or outright floating in mid-air.

7 CUT QUEST: The Missing Apprentices

The items, locations, and NPCs that were supposed to be used in "The Missing Apprentices" still exist in game, and chances are that you've stumbled across them in your travels. Originally, Phinis Gestor of the Mage's College would've tasked the player with finding his missing apprentices, Borvir, Ilas-Tei, Rundi, and Yisra, and returning items belonging to each of them.

The corpses of each student, and the associated items, are intact and can be found in game. Rundi, for instance, can be found southeast of Winterhold, slain near an altar and surrounded by Frost Rune traps, and his unique dagger can be taken. However, since the quest isn't implemented into the game, it's nothing more than a curiosity.

6 INACCESSIBLE LOCATION: Bleak Falls Barrow

Bleak Falls Barrow in Skyrim

Bleak Falls Barrow is in the game, sure, but this alternative version of it isn't. But the ID that was utilized for this unused version of the first dungeon most players find themselves tackling, "E3demoBleakFallsBarrow," more or less solves the mystery quite immediately.

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During Bethesda's initial E3 demonstration of Skyrim, this was the early version that was utilized to show off the game. It's largely similar despite a few key differences, such as much higher level NPCs and loot. It also condenses all of the individual areas therein into a singular, persistent zone.

5 CUT QUEST: Collecting the Edda

Considering how lackluster most players found the Bard's College in Skyrim, a little more content and some more quests couldn't have done them much harm. Nonetheless, here we have a perfectly good quest involving them totally scrapped from the final release.

"Collecting the Edda" would've seen the Dovahkiin scrapping together the Poetic Edda, something of a lyric historical account of Skyrim, from the various bards encountered during their travels. As a fun fact, the Poetic Edda actually exists in the real world, as a collection of Norse oral literature that was passed down in Iceland.

4 INACCESSIBLE LOCATION: Dead Body Cleanup Cell

Over the course of your constant murder-questing across the province of Skyrim, have you ever wondered where all the poor NPCs you've laid to rest go after you've bashed them, stabbed them, or shouted them off of the edge of a cliff? You might've assumed they simply despawn, never to be heard from again. And you'd be woefully mistaken in that assumption!

This bizarre, purple-and-green lit hallway intersection is where most, though not all, NPCs wind up after they've been killed. If you ever decide to visit this cell utilizing console commands and happen to find it very well populated, you may want to sit down and have some quality time with your conscience.

3 CUT QUEST: Animal Pelt Collection

Granted, it's really just another radiant quest, and the community at large has a few reservations about their latent over abundance in Bethesda's flagship titles. Still, it's not as if it would've hurt anything. It's something to do, after all, and who doesn't want another excuse to interact with the foxy Aela? Or wolfish, rather.

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Simple and to the point, this little fetch quest would've had the Dovahkiin hunting down randomly selected wildlife for a few of their pelts and returning them to Aela for a small sum of coin. It's not like we missed out on a whole lot here, though, given that the Companions' existing quests are some of the better ones.

2 INACCESSIBLE LOCATION: Windhelm Pit

 

The Windhelm Pit is easily one of the most fascinating and well fleshed-out things cut from the game as a whole. The Pit was obviously intended to host gladiatorial fights, much like Imperial City's arena in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It would've been an incredibly cool inclusion, and to salt the wound, it seems pretty near completion, complete with unique NPCs, dialogue, and the works.

Perhaps even cooler is the fact that it would've been connected to the Windhelm jail, as cut dialogue and NPCs seem to indicate that players finding themselves imprisoned in Windhelm would've had the option to fight for their freedom, as opposed to the comparatively droll criminal justice system featured everywhere else in Skyrim.

1 CUT QUEST: Boethiah's Bidding

This quest, or follow-up quest as it were, really would've pleased anyone thinking that Skyrim simply doesn't afford players enough opportunity to be truly evil. It would've followed the quest "Boethiah's Calling," wherein the Dovahkiin becomes the champion of the one and only Daedric Prince of Plots, Boethiah.

The player would've been tasked with overthrowing the Jarl of Solitude, Elisif the Fair, by means of assassination. Afterwards, she would've been succeeded by Erikur, her Thane, who would've promptly pardoned them for it. More daedric meddling is always a welcome sight in an Elder Scrolls game, as are quests that have a visible or meaningful impact on the gameworld, so we definitely lost out here.

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