medieval – Gamer Peak

How Historically Accurate is Skyrim? Part 4

There’s lots of things I enjoy about over-analysing Skyrim, and the responses I get are a big part of that. There are a pleasingly small number of people that misread the title and my intentions (“Oh sure, the game with dragons is veeery accurate…”), and a fantastic number of readers willing to add their own knowledge and join the discussion. Sometimes, one of you lovely people will step in and flesh out something I have mentioned or correct a minor mistake, which is awesome to see. Learning should be a two-way exercise after all. And there’s still a lot of untapped History within The Elder Scrolls.

If you’re joining this gaming/history blog at Part 4, hello and welcome. I started playing Skyrim for the first time last November, and I’ve been climbing every tower and turning every rock for signs of History. Sometimes real life Historic details are the clear inspiration for a detail in the game, and sometimes the game appears to stumble into a historic comparison. And in one particular situation, History actually helps to explain one of the most famous lines in the game…

How Historically Accurate is Skyrim? Part 2

You know, the more I play Skyrim, the more I begin to realise that historical accuracy isn’t the main point of the game… and I’d be very disappointed if I wasn’t too busy Fus-Ro-Dahing the local wildlife across the landscape.

A few weeks ago I began to play Elder Scrolls V, and almost immediately began to spot the many ways that History has influenced the game. The Vikings are the main inspiration, whilst other ideas are taken from various points in the middle ages. Three weeks ago I shared these observations. Some parts of the game show accurate references to historic details, whilst other features were based on misunderstandings of the past. The majority of readers seemed to enjoy the makeshift history lesson, so here we are at Part 2.

How Historically Accurate is Skyrim?

I began to play Skyrim for the first time last week. After finally jumping onto the bandwagon the game loaded me into a much more literal wagon, and announced that I was to be executed; a bad way to start a Wednesday evening. I was then told that another passenger was the true ‘High King’ of Skyrim. “That’s convenient!” A cynical voice in my head crowed, “Fancy being in the same cart as the contender to the throne!”

“Well… it’s not that unlikely.” A more grown-up voice remarked, “Think of all the times that usurpers and pretenders have challenged the order of succession.”