It's been more than ten years since The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim hit the shelves, and yet it still seems to be going strong. As a game that players can sink hundreds of hours into, it can take a very long time to finally see and do everything that's possible. And that's before anyone starts using mods to expand it even further. Alongside this, fans love to tinker with the visuals of the game or create new interpretations of the epic RPG's assets, which include some of the game's most notable characters.
In an image uploaded to the Skyrim subreddit recently, user chauzi attempted to make a more realistic version of a well-known NPC, the mad jester Cicero. The image features some text which says that the neural network struggled to process the photo of him correctly, so the user utilized Photoshop to improve what the AI had already done. The result is a pretty spectacularly realistic version of the eccentric assassin.
For those who aren't aware, Cicero forms a significant part of the Dark Brotherhood questline. Some may see him as one of the most standout aspects of the guild, while others will see him as a perhaps more irritating character. In any case, his role is prominent, being the carrier of the Night Mother's coffin, and he also has an interesting backstory that seemingly explains his descent into madness. Players don't even need to join the Dark Brotherhood to encounter him, as it's possible to spot him on the road to Whiterun, where he asks for help repairing his cart.
Although it still looks pretty to this day, there's no denying that the game has aged over the years. Fortunately, over such a long time, many have created mods that make Skyrim more realistic, either in terms of the visuals or the overall experience. This Reddit user's more realistic portrait of Cicero is just one of many ways that fans look to improve the vanilla version of the game, even if chauzi's edited image is not technically a mod that makes the actual character look more real. It's still impressive, all the same.
Given how immersive the world of Skyrim is, it's hardly surprising that it's still as popular today as it was back in 2011. Though the fact that Bethesda continues to re-release upgraded versions of the game probably explains some of this continued popularity. Fans can only hope that The Elder Scrolls 6 enjoys a long shelf life as well, whenever that finally gets released.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.