I saw people comparing them to paddles but legitimately they are nowhere near that wide or thick. Though there are some things to note about the size which I will mention later in the post.

The weapons of Skyrim are mainly based on viking weaponry but also roman and other ancient pre-medieval cultures and time periods.

And swords and weapons in general back then were much wider and heavier and slowly over time all the way to the the 19th century the progressively got more thin.

It's like people forgot that wide broadswords are a thing and were a thing in the past since tons of one handed broadswords are just as thick if not even more thick in several cases.

But even with all that aside the swords in the game honestly are not that thick but they are altered by the devs to be a bit more visible to the player.

To give you context Skyrim was designed for hardware from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era. And old school TVs and monitors. HD TV was the biggest format at the time.

At those original resolutions a realistic blade could easily become a narrow gray line especially during movement or against snow, stone, fog, and dark interiors etc.

Therefore the models if they were truly realistic could not be read properly by the screen and the player. The would look like paper swords.

This is especially clear when you download mods like "Believable weapons" as not only do they make the weapons more generic it also feels like you are fighting with sticks because the "realistic designs" simply do not translate well into the actual game.

You see a real sword feels substantial because you experience its depth, weight, reflections, changing angles, and three-dimensional shape. On a flat screen much of that information disappears. Making the blade wider and the guard larger helps restore the visual presence that would otherwise be lost.

First-person perspective exaggerates this problem. The weapon is held forward and viewed at an angle, so foreshortening makes it look narrower than it does in the inventory model. A sword that seems oversized when viewed from the side can look perfectly reasonable while actually being used in gameplay.

Bethesda knew all this so they made them "more wide and bulky" so it would look good on the screen. Especially back then.

And even now it still applies since the realistic weapons mods often feel like butter knifes and lack the needed weight.

Again, it's fine if you don't like these designs but hearing people say that Bethesda designed the swords badly, especially because of the size and width is just not true.

It was designed incredibly well but it had to use size trickery so it would look and feel better for the players.

Tons of other devs do this, for example the FromSoft games like Dark Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring all have oversized swords (even the realistic designs have this) so it looks and feels better for the player.

And those designs would also be considered "paddles" by the people who hate the Skyrim swords.

So yeah, they are not "too wide or bulky" like some people claim, they are exactly the right size and width for the player to fully recognize them in game and feel in them in the actual combat.

EDIT: I saw some people in the comments claiming that I said that these weapons are realistic. I never said that. I did say that the width and scale was done both as an inspiration and also it was done so the models look better and be more visually noticable in the game.

The actual models are not intended as literal scale drawings. Their dimensions are partly visual compensation. Exaggerated models that produce the correct perceived weight and presence on screen.

Essentially it is done so it looks and feels better even if the size may be a little adjusted.

No matter what happens, TES will always be one of those games that people always come back to, time and time again. Gives me hope for the future that they have never “missed” with a mainline game.

From /r/videogames

We know that Pelinal Whitestrake was a time-traveling cyborg from the future, sent back in time to kill the elves and further the cause of the Alyssian rebellion, but I still had a question about something in particular, namely:

Why did he shout Reman Cyrodiil’s name?

Theory:
In the alternate timeline, Reman Cyrodiil, a slave under the future elven empire, fought against the Akaviri invaders; in battle, the Akaviri recognized him as Dragonborn, swore loyalty to him, and helped him lead a rebellion against the elves. By help of the gods, alternate-future Alyeid magic, and Akaviri time-travel, Pelinal Whitestrake was created (possibly being Mk.3)under commission by Reman Cyrodiil, to be sent back in time for revenge for Reman Cyrodiil’s Nede ancestors and win the war before it even started. 

Might get flak for this, but this shit is annoying to see every month.

I get that those who've only played Skyrim may not know TES is (or used to be) an RPG before it was turned into an RPG-lite action adventure, but this conversation is so dead and redundant.

Protags can be whatever the fuck you want them to be. Your canon protag can be a 8 foot tall, time-traveling mudcrab femboy with knives for legs, that's sick as fuck. They can be whoever you want them to be, who cares.

I feel like we have all grinded enough in a game where accumulating massive amounts of gold was a waste. I don't think there was any items in Skyrim besides in the Heartstone DLC that were worth spending much money on after leveling a bit. Oblivion had some with a cool staff and some other weapons but not much.

Wonder what yall think.

😑

Artwork by me

A year ago, Julian LeFay, 59, Danish video game designer (The Elder Scrolls, Dragon's Lair, The Terminator 2029), died from cancer.

RIP to the Father of The Elder Scrolls..

Ok, so hear me out. Mechanically wise, Altmers have a bonus to enchanting and conjuration in Morrowind and Skyrim. In Oblivion, they have Mysticism instead of enchanting, but considering this is the school of the soul trap spell it actually helps my case here.

You have a race of magically talented people with vulnerability to elements and magic who have talents and skills with the best combination to create enchantments. Summon, soul trap, kill, enchant, repeat. They could mass-produce enchanted weapons, and considering they have no talent for armor or combat, they are better at long-distance shooting enemies.

They should be creating staffs of long-ranged spells and using alteration (another school they have talent for) to build trenches and the like. Instead of bows and arrows or flinging spells, they use the equivalent of magical rifles and their reserves for digging trenches and summoning daedra (both for battle and for recharging their staffs), or using illusions to turn armies against themselves.

The entire philosophy of this combat doctrine is quite simple. Kill your enemy as far away as you can. A race that has a vulnerability to magic being thrown at, should certainly create it.

Heck, they should have had special operations forces with how the Thalmor were moving in Skyrim. At this point the Altmer still fight traditional warfare out of "following the old ways/tradition" is ridiculous. It makes them look stupid rather than arrogant. It would also be the perfect excuse for how they became a militaristic superpower so suddenly.

At this point, I am just venting, but they should have made the Altmer more like the British Empire in terms of warfare. It fits them perfectly since they are an island nation. More than that in terms of capability they are the only race that could pull this off. The Breton dont have the national unity needed to produce enchanted weapons in large scale nor the culture that would allow for a shooting formation when they are all individually seeking glory. They also had the perfect incentive for that, war. They need to innovate a form of warfare that would allow their paltry numbers to conquer Tamriel. The idea that they are clinging to the traditions being the only thing preventing them from moving foward is bullshit holding them down at this point.

It would also make for a unique distinction for the Altmers. Imagine everyone else fighting like in medieval times, while the Altmers are there using what amounts to a gun powered by magic. That would look awesome, and I say that as an Altmer hater myself.

Those are three of the most famous queens in the history of Tamriel (including Almalexia, she was a Chimer queen before the battle of the Red Mountain). However, I can't say they were kind people (maybe except for Barenziah in her early years), they are contradictory at best.

Again, the art is made by Insant

I’ve played a fair share of both Skyrim and Morrowind and am interested in jumping into Oblivion (the 2006 version). My only issue is that the modding scene there seems dead compared to other Bethesda games (even Fallout 3 seems to have more via TTW) and I find it hard to play Bethesda games without mods. I’ve considered just waiting for Skyblivion to drop, but the longer it’s delayed the longer I wonder if it would be better to just play it now. If I do, would most mods still work with the 2006 version of the game? At the same time, are there any Oblivion mods even worth playing? Skyrim has a ton of stuff and Morrowind has Tamriel Rebuilt, but Oblivion doesn’t seem to have something comparable. Even Daggerfall seems to be a bit more active with interesting stuff

This one was out for a night stroll with Jareth, a Templar and Fluffy who is an absolutely adorable werewolf puppy this one found. Then the guard starts complaining about werewolves RIGHT IN FRONT OF FLUFFY!

Fluffy is a good boy!

Mi idea principal sería la siguiente: elegir la raza, la apariencia y el equipamiento del personaje que aparece en los promocionales de Morrowind, Oblivion y Skyrim, y completar cada juego junto con todos sus respectivos DLC. Ahora bien, necesitaría ayuda para determinar con mayor precisión qué clase sería cada protagonista. ¿Se uniría a algún gremio o actuaría por libre? ¿Qué decisiones encajarían mejor con la imagen que muestran los materiales promocionales?

(FIXED AUDIO ISSUES, Sorry for Repost)

I'm on a journey to play games I've never played before, and that journey starts with Skyrim.

I've spent years playing first-person shooters, but it's time for something different.

This series is about exploring games I've never played before starting with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. No nostalgia, no prior knowledge, just a genuine first playthrough and the experience of discovering these worlds for the first time.