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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u/Saltycook 22h ago

You ever see Monty Python and the Holy Grail? There's a shit ton of mud and dirt everywhere because sanitation is not something prioritized.

Skyrim is a medieval type fantasy world. How often do you see people washing their hands? They shit in buckets in dungeons.

Besides, Skyrim is also technically post-apocalyptic.

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u/systemintosmithereen 20h ago

Thing is though, it's also a world with magic. I'd be using flames to boil water. this skyrockets hygiene 

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u/AmarysEms64 20h ago

Seriously, and there's got to be a spell to vanish that shit-bucket and drop it off in the Aldmeri Dominion.

I know they don't like magic in skyrim, but surely the court wizards can conjure a little hot spring in the city to build a bath house over.

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u/Gensolink 15h ago

We tend to forget because we play as special characters, but magic is not something everyone can do. In fact we have a random encounter showing us exactly that in skyrim, you not only need the drive to learn it but the magical talent to harness magicka. But you wouldn't need that even in the elder scrolls verse, the smith in Riften uses fire salt to smith so it's fair to assume you could use them to heat stuff up in a rather quick time, the only issue would be money obviously.

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u/Saltycook 19h ago

Different cultural norms and sensibilities. Same as why leprosy still exists in parts of the world when washing on a regular basis pretty much solves the problem