For the majority of the player's experience in Skyrim, Whiterun will be something of a central hub city throughout the Last Dragonborn's journey to defeat Alduin. Aside from the player having to return there multiple times throughout the main story, something they don't have to do with any other city, there are also many large side quests to be found within its armored walls.
Whiterun may be one of the more focused on cities in Skyrim, but that doesn't mean that everything about it makes sense. The Elder Scrolls series is largely known for having some incredibly deep lore and backstory behind many of its locations, Whiterun included, but several aspects of both the city and the Hold it resides in don't seem to add up.
10 Its Name In The Dragon Language
The majority of locations in Skyrim have different names in the dragon language, including Whiterun, which is Ahrol-Se-Dovah in the dragon tongue. Although very few people are probably fluent in the dragon language, the word "Dovah" is one that comes up a lot and means "dragon". Whiterun's full name in the dragon language means "of dragon", though that doesn't suit the city or the hold all that well. Whiterun is known for Dragonskeep, which is one of the few structures in Skyrim specifically designed for imprisoning dragons, but neither the city nor the Hold's history implies that dragons were ever involved in its creation, with the sole exception of Olaf One-Eye, who famously trapped Numinex within its walls.
9 The Companions Status
The history of Whiterun is a little hard to track down, but its originals can be traced back to Ysgramor and the 500 Companions, specifically Jeek of the River. After discovering the Skyforge, Jeek and his men constructed the mead hall Jorrvaskr out of their upturned ship and founded Whiterun from a single building. While The Companions are still revered throughout Whiterun and most of Skyrim, they don't hold anywhere near as much weight as one would expect considering they are the descendants of the founders of one of the biggest cities in Skyrim.
8 The Silverhand Assault
The Silver Hand had been a constant threat to The Companions for the majority of their questline, but the scale of the attack on Jorrvaskr during the final few quests was beyond anything that they had attempted before. While there were a few Silver Hand bodies lying around the city, many more were said to have escaped the wrath of Aela and the others of the Circle.
Whiterun is a fairly well-protected region and a small army of armed mercenaries wouldn't have gone unnoticed by the guards, so the fact that they managed to not only get inside the walls of Whiterun but also assault one of the most revered group of people in the hold without an issue brings the Hold guard's capabilities into serious question.
7 The Aftermath Of Jorvvaskr's Assault
The Silver Hand, while not a huge mercenary group, are known specifically for hunting werewolves, even by the Hold guards. The fact that they targeted The Companions so fiercely should have raised more questions in the hold about the nature of the warriors the citizens hold so dear and whether or not there was something else going on inside Jorrvaskr. Like vampires, werewolves aren't looked upon very fondly by the people of Skyrim, so any sign that the beasts were lurking inside a city's walls should have brought the guards down on The Companions.
6 Balgruf, Farengar, And The Ebony Blade
One of the later Daedric Artifacts that the player can get their hands on is the Ebony Blade, the artifact of Mephala with a fairly powerful enchantment. At some point before the events of the game, Jarl Balgruf and Farengar discovered the blade and, after trying and failing to destroy it, decided to keep it locked up where no one could reach it. While this is a sensible thing to do with a Daedric Artifact, the fact they locked it up inside the castle, close to the sleeping and working quarters of many people in Dragonsreach, brings their competency into question. This is especially the case considering that one of the Jarl's children discovers the blade and informs the player of it.
5 The Temple To Kynareth
The most common religious belief in Tamriel is the Imperial pantheon, which is the source of the majority of shrines in Skyrim, with the exception of Talos. In Whiterun, a predominantly Nordic settlement, there is a Temple to Kynareth, the Imperial version of the Nordic god Kyne. While it isn't uncommon for Nords to worship the Imperial gods, with Lokir praying to several of them on the cart ride to his death in the opening cinematic, it does seem out of place for Kynareth to be the main god worshiped in Whiterun as opposed to Kyne, especially when the priestess is Nordic herself.
4 The Gildergreen's Survival
The survival of the Gildergreen, the great tree at the center of Whiterun, is a simple side quest that players can do fairly early on in the game, with the end of the quest either bringing the tree back to life or a new sapling being planted to replace the dead Gildergreen. Despite its illness, the Gildergreen seems to be much more durable than it should be, especially during the Civil War quest.
If players take part in the Stormcloak and Imperial Civil War, Whiterun is attacked by the Stormcloaks as they try to retake it from Imperial control and seat their own Jarl to replace Balgruf. In the ensuing battle, the arches surrounding the Gildergreen are all burned and destroyed, but the tree itself survives as if nothing happened, even if the player hasn't healed or replaced it.
3 Rorikstead's Many Issues
There are many fan theories surrounding Rorikstead, with the most common involving the worship of Daedra and human sacrifice to keep the land fertile, but the struggle of the isolated town goes way beyond that. Rorikstead, despite being one of Whiterun's main sources of food, is without any protective walls and positioned near a giant's home, an old cavern overtaken by vampires, the Reach, and the Forsworn. Despite all of these things that should have destroyed the small town at one point or another, it still stands and no one seems to be questioning exactly why that is.
2 The Open Shrine To Talos
Between the events of the Oblivion Crisis and the return of the Alduin the world eater, the Aldmeri Dominion waged war on the Imperials, with the resulting White Gold Concordat serving as a "peace treaty" of sorts that prevented the worship of TalosNearly every other shrine to the Nordic man-god is out in the wilderness, dangerous to worship as the Aldmeri Dominion has outlawed his worship, but Heimskr is able to preach openly without being stopped by anyone.
1 The Rest Of Numinex
One of the most revered Jarl's of Whiterun was Olaf One-Eye, who famously battled the dragon Numinex before imprisoning him in Dragonsreach and hanging his head above the Jarl's throne in the main hall. Considering how valuable Dragon Bones and Dragon Scales are during the events of Skyrim, it would be safe to assume that someone in Whiterun Hold would have Dragon Bone or Dragon Scale gear, but no one does and the rest of Numinex's remains are nowhere to be found in the Hold.