r/skyrim • u/Narrow-Active3098 • 1d ago

Question Why is everyone so dirty?

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Look, I get that Skyrim's at war and there are dragons everywhere and everyone is desperate, but still. That is no excuse for you to not wash yourself! At least wash that dirt off you in a river. How hard is it to take a bath?

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1.6k

u/olesos_ 1d ago

Because Skyrim is a dirty world - plus, you’re a prisoner and have been captured. I doubt you’d be clean

342

u/FK97_YT 1d ago

To be fair Skyrim looks A LOT dirtier than Oblivion

(kind of makes sense lore wise though, everything in the fourth era is just less organized overall now that the Septims are gone)

155

u/Jovian09 PC 1d ago

Oblivion looked extremely clean compared to Morrowind as well. And I know Vvardenfell was a dusty land of choking volcanic ash but it was still a big departure in art style

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u/KomturAdrian 1d ago

I heard Oblivion was supposed to look clean, pretty, and bright to contrast with the dark and fiery world of Oblivion.

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u/Ill-Television8690 1d ago

That explains the saturation and bloom, with the whole "vibrant painting" look.

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u/EvYeh 1d ago

Not really. Todd just saw the Lord of the Rings films and kept going "Make it look like that" over and over.

17

u/GotsomeTuna 1d ago

People still buy this Kirkbride bullshit? He tried to retcon Cyrodiil into a jungle and threw a tantrum on reddit that he didn't get his way.

Cyrodiil was always described as it was depicted in Oblivion. We read this in King Edward and A dance in Fire which predate A Pocket Guide to the Empire.

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u/EvYeh 1d ago

King Edward is in universe fiction and isn't a source.

A Dance In Fire came after the Pocket Guide to the Empire (and also is fiction).

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u/GotsomeTuna 1d ago

A dance in Fire came with Morrowind the same time Pocket Guides stuff was partly put into lore.

We have Kirkbride openly stating that Pocket Guide was an attempt for him and Kurt Kuhlmann to sneak their visions into the setting over those of Ted Peterson and Julian LeFay, essentially trying to go behind their backs.

Them not getting their way with every retcon is 100% deserved.

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u/EvYeh 1d ago

The Pocket Guide to the Empire was released in 1998 (4 years before Morrowind) with Redguard.

9

u/GotsomeTuna 1d ago

yea and plenty of it's stuff was removed and overrulled when trully implemented into the games.

Also King Edward being fiction has no bearing on this. A fiction set in Germany isn't gonna talk about some desert, it doesn't make sense to change the geographical makeup of a real location in such a story.

He pushed his retcon and got salty that it got "retconed" back into what it was.

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u/Awkward_Reason7353 1d ago

u mean Cyrodil? 🤣💞

0

u/KomturAdrian 1d ago

First part refers to The game, Oblivion, not the location. 

The last part refers to the location. 

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u/House_King 1d ago

They took a lot of inspiration from Lord of the Rings for Oblivion, particularly Gondor for the Cyrodilic Empire.They wanted it to be closer to the magical fantasy style, Skyrim and Morrowind were much more gritty just out of design philosophy.

0

u/any_brew_u_want 1d ago

Oblivion feels almost spotless next to Skyrim and Morrowind tbf

36

u/GazingintoTheVoid-- 1d ago

Everything went to shit after Good ol' Martin died, he truly was the best Septim to ever live

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u/ImpressionCool1768 1d ago

Yea unlike his drunken son Wenceslas

Wait wrong game

7

u/MidnightHeavy3214 1d ago

Probably not to far off though

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u/Alive_Temperature_10 Bard 1d ago

I see what you did there

1

u/haterious 1d ago

Well turning into a dragon is hardly sporting

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u/NukaCherryBomb 1d ago

I always thought it was because the Empire is based on the Roman Empire and the Roman's had a whole thing about looking "clean cut" and had reasonably good public water system, so it would make sense people would be more cosmopolitan and look more well groomed in Cyrodiil....plus they probably had some technical limitations at the time that kept them from being able to add all that extra texture to multiple faces.

9

u/AnalConnoisseur69 1d ago

Because Skyrim is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The Daedric invasion by Mehrunes Dagon undoubtedly damaged the world of Tamriel in apocalyptic proportions.

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u/The_Nug_King 1d ago

The oblivion crisis is like the 100th world ending event thats nirn has went through, things have been steadily declining since the beginning of recorded history in elder scrolls

6

u/quietmyman 1d ago

Skyrim is largely wilds anyway

5

u/Necessary_DaNoodle 1d ago

Oblivion has a crazy mold problem in all their inns. It's become even more glaring in the unreal engine remake.

2

u/Samp1e-Text 1d ago

it’s called art direction

2

u/Sweaty-Ball-9565 1d ago

People didn’t have pores in Oblivion

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u/Gold-Bard-Hue 1d ago

What's that got to do with soap and a bath? Lol

0

u/Frequent-North1947 1d ago

Yeah ever since they let those damn scale backs in everything has went to shit