While adventuring in the world of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it's impossible to miss out on the province's main city Solitude. Eventually, the player is bound to make their way to what is no doubt the most breathtaking and powerful city in the entire game, either to take it from the Empire as a Stormcloak or to join the Legion.
Like any other city in Skyrim, Solitude has a bunch of basic shops and services, as well as a gorgeous house the player can purchase after reaching the status of Thane. There are also a bunch of cool quests ranging from defeating Potema to turning off the light in the lighthouse. While the city is full of accessible lore and cool NPCs, there's still many unanswered questions that leave fans scratching their heads.
10 Why Aren't People Protesting Against Solitude?
In comparison to all the other cities of Skyrim, Solitude is extremely powerful. Not only does its natural geographical location make it one of the safest cities in the entire province, but it also sees a lot of trade coming through, allowing its economy to flourish.
Moreover, many of the leaders of Solitude have often come from the Imperial family that rules the Empire from Cyrodiil. Therefore, they have quite a say in who gets to rule Solitude, but also who gets to be High King. As such, it's a bit strange that other cities aren't raising their voice on the favoritism that Solitude enjoys.
9 Why Does Solitude Hate Olaf So Much?
The character of Olaf One-Eye is a controversial one. Due to him being dead for years, it's impossible to say whether High King Olaf truly was a hero or just someone who's tales were exaggerated by bribed friends and writers. However, chances are the stories are actually true.
If Olaf really is a hero, then it's a bit weird for Solitude and its College of Bards to regularly burn an effigy of him and call him a traitor. All that aside, he fought hard to ensure Skyrim's well-being and trapped a dragon in Dragonsreach, which gave the place its original name. So, why exactly is it justified to continue putting his name down?
8 Why Isn't The Thalmor Embassy Inside The City?
It's no secret that Solitude is controlled mostly by Imperials, and Imperials are desperate when it comes to keeping the peace with the Thalmor. Although Imperials may not like the Thalmor, they'll often claim they're ready to do anything in order to ensure peace prevails.
With that said, it's odd that General Tullius hasn't arranged for Elenwen's Thalmor Embassy to be inside the walls of Solitude. Although it could be argued that the Thalmor have secrets to keep even from the Empire, it would allow them to keep an eye on the Imperials and the most powerful city in Skyrim from up close. So, why hide in the surrounding mountains instead?
7 How Has No One Noticed The Vampires?
Solitude might be one of the safest cities in Skyrim, but like any city in the game, it isn't immune from various threats. Namely, vampires are a bit of an issue in this city, and yet there isn't much talk about this being a problem, no doubt due to the ongoing civil war.
Moreover, some fans have noticed vampires even living in the court of the Blue Palace as well. How is it possible that no one has grown suspicious by now of the presence of these creatures? With so many guards and even Imperials around, it's hard to believe they've gone unnoticed.
6 Why Has No One Entered The Pelagius Wing?
The Pelagius wing is the long abandoned wing of the Blue Palace, and is tied to a very funny and amusing Daedric quest. Successfully completing the questline rewards the player with the Wabbajack, which is definitely a unique, though somewhat inconvenient magical staff.
Given that the Blue Palace is full of people at all hours of the day, it's unlikely that no one would have ever gone into the Pelagius wing prior to the Dragonborn and tried to investigate around. For the sake of a quest and the story itself, it makes sense, but lore-wise, it just doesn't.
5 Why Is The Lighthouse So Poorly Guarded?
Solitude's docks are a topic of their own, due to how important they are to the well-being of Solitude and arguably the entire province. With that in mind, everything depends on the ships being able to arrive to the docks safely, without crashing into any of the rocks located near the shore of the Sea of Ghosts.
Some ships have already suffered this fate, but the lighthouse of Solitude is what keeps ships from getting lost. That is, until someone turns it off. It's a bit crazy how easy this is to do, too, since the Dragonborn can simply walk in during the side quest "Lights Out!" and turn the fire off. One would think such a crucial light would be guarded at all times.
4 How Does Elisif Still Hold Power?
Out of all the Jarls in Skyrim, no one is quite as weak as Jarl Elisif. That isn't even due to the nature of her as a character. For all players know, she could have great potential to lead, but simply fails to take responsibility at a tough time after losing her husband.
The main problem is that she's incredibly eager to leave important matters for other people to handle, which means she's not actually in charge. Technically by law she is, but with Tullius around there would probably be a way to make her give up the throne and have someone more qualified sit on it. Why this hasn't happened already is a bit of a mystery.
3 Why Is The Port So Far From The City?
As mentioned before, the docks of Solitude are incredibly important. This is where most of the trade from the Empire arrives to Skyrim, since passing through the southern mountains is far too dangerous, leaving sea routes as the best path.
With that in mind, it's quite inconvenient that Solitude's docks are separate from the actual city itself. One would imagine a better path or route would have been built to access the port, but instead traders will have to climb up the hill to make it within the city itself. Why, exactly, is it built like this? No one knows for certain.
2 Why Isn't Solitude Snowy?
One of the most debated topics among fans has been the fact that Solitude has such a different weather from the rest of the area around it. Rather than being covered in snow like its surrounding mountains and lands, it's quite a temperate and green area.
Although some theories have been offered to explain why this might be the case, many of them aren't quite satisfactory or rely on rare weather phenomenon, the existence of which in Skyrim is highly debatable or completely unknown. And so, to this day, the weather of Solitude remains a mystery.
1 Why Would A City Be Built On An Arch?
There are many places to build a city on steady grounds that could be flattened out to house hundreds of people. And yet, for some reason, someone looked at the cliffs and the arched stone formations where Solitude now stands and thought it would make a fine place for a big, safe city.
Given that everyone knows what happened with Winterhold when catastrophe struck hard, this seems like an extremely poor decision. Although the rock looks sturdy, it still remains the last place any sane man would build a city on. So, why exactly was it built here? Nobody knows.