Skyrim’s Geography Problem- World Building

I like your cuddy i’ve always thought that a lot of the world building in skyrim made no talos damn sense just ask my friend in fifth grade i wouldn’t stop hating on skyrim and loving on morrowind because i thought it made me cool well truthfully skyrim is exciting and action-packed

Morrowind really isn’t either of those two things so today i’m gonna look over the geography of the cities in skyrim run through their geopolitical situations and roast the stormcloaks at the end i’ll show you what i think skyrim would look like if the province suddenly shattered into pieces look down

There and subscribe or you’ll miss out on my epic reddit humor and 8th grade editing skills then join the discord patreon only fans and the world building minecraft server in game solitude is the real capital of the skyrim province it’s the seat of the high king and the

Empire uses it as a base for their imperial legion it hosts a warehouse to the east empire company and it has the bards college whatever that is does it deserve to be the biggest city in skyrim well it is built on this big rocky cliff but for rock arch this thing is thinner

Than my shmeet but you gotta admit like damn if it doesn’t look dope up there however it has a deep water port that’s situated at the mouth of the qarth river so if the rivers in skyrim were navigable which they aren’t in game but let’s kind of ignore that

Solitude could trade and project power over morthal markarth and the villages of dragon bridge and karthwaistan solitude is also a big port city for the seasonal summer trade that happens in the northern ocean above tamriel so it’s linked to coastal cities in high rock like johanna farun north point and maybe even

As far down as daggerfall this trade and cultural contact could serve to make solitude incredibly rich and cultured though this depends insanely heavily on the seasons and the weather as the winter brings impossible conditions to traveling on the sea with sea ice and mist that obscures the coastal rocks

Do i hear a solitude evil storm god associated with night fog mist rain who hates lighthouses disruptions to trade could bring the whole system to a grinding halt and here’s why i’d bet my right ass cheek and left testicle that solitude itself doesn’t grow much food i know that there’s some forests

And ponds around but look at this land its rocky is [ __ ] that means solitude would either need to buy all their food or invade the lowland towns around them sorry morthal i think you’re just gonna have to give yourself to ivan moneybags here and a few fishing boats yeah i’m busy

Doing the fish stick it’s a very delicate state of mind solitude also has an excellent position to defend from land attacks as it has a mountain ridge on its northwest side and a river on the other it could easily fortify the choke points and bridges and it would be all set

Try getting us way up here nerd but i bet if i took a trebuchet to that rock arch general tullius would be calling me captain mommy by the way i’m doing this geographical analysis using rules that i lay out here so check it out if you want it

Boiled down to tamriel as a whole with solitude we were talking about not being able to produce your own food at least solitude has a nearby marsh and planes which can exploit for food resources but holy [ __ ] mark garth you’re doing so much worse markarth’s diet is limited to rocks and more

Rocks it’s surrounded entirely by mountains and rocky hills capable of nothing more than a cute garden this place does have a bunch of silver mines surrounding it though so it can trade its shiny little pebbles for food with the surrounding villages on the map it’s at the very end of the qarth river

Oh mark i just got that it’s like whatever martin karth okay that’s cool etymology here there’s a giant river island in the middle being surrounded by mountains and having this extra island that it has easy access to is a defensive gold mine its whole western southern and northern side are

Surrounded by rocky mountains which would be impossible for infantry to invade through it would definitely be able to hold out for a long time if it had food stored up the island of card spire should definitely have a fort on it which the military of markarth would not

Give to the force warren like it is in game [ __ ] idiots with marcotte’s geography like it is on the map any hoy 4 player could hold off the invaders except the force worn who are indigenously familiar with rough mountain terrain and if you don’t see why that’s a

Problem for marc garth you might be a falmer or worse an argonian me if markarth needs trade with surrounding settlements for food it could only be transported in through a few mountain passes and the whole place is crawling with force worn reachmen it would take like 30 dudes to cut the

Whole city off from shipments and starve them out i honestly see mark arth as a scenario in which it has to get bailed out by its big neighbors which would ultimately end in its subjugation oh but you could use dwarven robots to kill other guys that’d

Be cool i guess god bethesda should have leaned into that more imagine if mark garth had dwarven robot guards that’d be [ __ ] awesome rifton is kind of a [ __ ] not gonna lie the thieves guild inhabit a surprisingly nice place in the sewers the guards are corrupt as [ __ ] and

Honestly a lot of it looks like it’ll fall apart as soon as your massive dragonborn [ __ ] weighs down on those rickety boards but it has a nice personality and we’ve been dating for four months now geographically this place is pretty set grifton is great for agriculture it’s surrounded by

Temperate forests and fresh water so plenty of food resources the rift hold is small but has two villages and a city so it has a large pool of manpower rifton may even be important to supporting the population of wind helm which gives it significant power over the whole eastern basin

It also has overland trade with morrowind through the mountain pass which fort dawnguard sits in which means riften probably gets some money from trade and is able to recruit from the dark elves defensively riften’s doing all right it would have to keep a garrison in that morrowind mountain pass but it

Could still be attacked from over the western mountains and from up north through the basin riften could try to secure helgen but that’s pretty far away uphill and demolished so then it could be attacked from the north but there’s this large rocky hill in the middle of the basin

That acts as a lookout point for any incoming attackers so while riften isn’t impenetrable it has its strategic options if it had its heartland firmly secured riften could project its influence over windhelm using a powerful river navy to control the eastern trade of skyrim that being said

Windhelm would be pretty angry at this windhelm is funny because it has the economic capabilities to support the entire stormcloak rebellion yet the slums are the most aesthetic part of it being on the estuary where the trevor river meets the sea windhelm could probably control the trade between the capital of morrowind

Winterhold and up the river to whiterun and rifton honestly i think that the morrowind trade would be a hugely important aspect of the city’s economy and therefore the fact that ulfric stormcloak and the nords of windhelm are persecuting the dark elves is dumb dark elves familiarity with destruction

Magic would be an amazing boon to the cause but hey xenophobia and bigotry aren’t rational reactions anyways so how could i project my superior ben shapiro facts and logic onto it windhelm’s kind of in the same food situation as solitude but a bit worse they could

Probably get a good amount of its own food from fishing and absorbing the more fertile lands to the south but it would need to import food if it’s such a large city i also think windhelm would hire mages from winterhold so it could be somewhat dependent on both cities to its north and

South maybe you’d get an eastmarch confederation here eh maybe plus windhelm has a natural enemy in whiterun as whiterun could super easily control the river corridor between the east and the west basins of skyrim so the eastern cities may all gang up to deck white run in the schnoz

Windhelm gives me a defensive bonner though it has the river to itself and east and mountains to its north west and east so where does the invading army come from not the east windhelm would need to work some to secure the passes in the north and would probably work a lot securing

It south especially since it’d rely on that area for food for trade and as a political buffer between itself white run and rifton and that being said i think winterhold would become windhelm’s little [ __ ] boy god winterhold once again skyrim food problems it’s an icy shore surrounded by icy islands

And icy rocks and ice this city is super small so fishing might actually be able to support the population but having a college of high level magic and intellectual training that doesn’t contribute anything to the food economy just kind of eats up resources although it’s so cold up there that maybe having

A few people with fire hands is worth it without the college winterhold is just a small village on the rocky coast of skyrim it’s dawn star with the college it can export valuable magic users and scientists both of these add up to winterhold as a valuable asset

And not large enough for it to super defend itself the mages usually don’t come from winterhold i don’t think they’d fight for the city they just try to make sure that the college isn’t destroyed i’d put my money on windhelm saying it’ll play nice with the college of mages

But then not stopping when winterhold says the safe word the safe word by the way is odaving white run white run brings together many of the economic positives held by the other cities white run exists on a massive plane that runs from the center of skyrim

All the way to the northwest and it has access to the river that connects the center and to the east being in the very middle of these connecting factors it serves as the central overland trade hub for the rest of skyrim’s cities which is nerd language for money money money money money money

White run could absolutely have a large agricultural output too as its relatively temperate climate and possible river irrigation would allow for large-scale agriculture with these economic prospects whiterun could project immense power over a lot of skyrim especially since they invested all of their skill points into horse riding

This whole plane and the surrounding area can solidly be white runs using some speedy horses this makes me think that white run would do well to raid the flatter lands of skyrim up by more fall falkreath and the eastern basin whiterun would probably also control the

Main pass between the east and the west of skyrim which could isolate windhelm and rifton but the city would have to be super aggressive to do any of these things at one point in a fortuitous situation of geopolitics i think it would get super aggressive though a great white run

Empire would have to have a massive military presence supported by its agricultural output and trade money since white runs defensive position is pretty dog [ __ ] without having a massive military system patrolling everywhere the city could be attacked from all directions except from the immediate south east and southwest there’s not many

Passes near whiterun for them to lock down so they’d have to engage with a lot of enemies in open battle just to give themselves some distance between the city and its attackers being right in the middle it’s surrounded on all side by potential enemies so hopefully the other cities would be

Too busy fighting each other to pay little old white run any attention all of this means that whiterun’s imperial success is dependent on good agricultural output good trade and crafty diplomacy with other cities they can’t go around being a dick to everyone on site so maybe it’d be best for whiterun to

Maintain a modest state with a few enemies here and there the best part is this reflects how whiterun was actually written in the game i applaud yarl bulgra for wanting to stay neutral and maintain his good relations baby that’s what i’ve been waiting for that’s what it’s all about

Morthal more fall more fall more fall i want to like you i want to give you an a on your report card for being a good student cause you produce a good amount of food and i’m a sucker for some pretty deadly docs but you’re on the marshes which means disease

And you’re directly in the shadow of solitude so i’m sorry that solitude is gonna come in and give you a greasy swabbing of the poop deck i put dawn star in jail here because it’s just the worst tiny village all it has going for it is this little inlet which would definitely

Freeze over really quickly its main thing is fishing and mining so honestly i think it should be downgraded to village status that’s your pun i think you’re free to go ah but don stark smuggled a secret weapon gj he could probably come out and mud wrestle somebody do you see how

Useless this place is seriously though with dawnstar’s position i think it would be at the center of smuggling between the stormcloak and imperial sides of the skyrim civil war oh dude then there could be this quest to smuggle out the mysterium zarksies as a weapon to your side

That would be dope but as to this video is my writing resume to you tbh honest i love fall grief it doesn’t get enough attention at the southern rim of skyrim i think it could be a pretty legit source of power it has a lot of fertile forest land a temperate climate

And several fresh water springs around it it’s also comfortably sat in a small mountain pocket meaning it only has to defend a few passes into its own territory it’s self-sufficient and highly defendable however falkreath’s geography limits its expansion opportunities falkreath is like the nice elderly man of skyrim

But if it decided to break out the old world war ii guns and go for laban squam it could probably push up to riverwood white run and mark i imagine white run would be its main rival as it could cut it off from any river trade

And it would vie for riverwood and the pass between the mountains however there’s one more important aspect the only mountain pass between the province of cyrodiil and skyrim comes out in fall grief hold if the cities in skyrim were in a battle royale falkreath would definitely utilize the

Pale pass for support and trade from the insanely powerful people in cyrodiil falkreath would probably commit a lot of labor to keeping the mountain pass clear perhaps they can trade some of v log’s helgen famous juniper berry mead for some high quality imperial equipment i don’t think faulk

Reef would be the city to go out and conquer the whole province but it would definitely be a regional power that’s difficult to dislodge that being said i really want to burn it down like watch those thatched roofs just go up in flames and falling logs topple the stone foundations

I am stoneworks al qaeda edition so which city would be the capital of skyrim if bethesda came out and said no one won the skyrim civil war the whole province fell apart well that would be a win for the thalmor so thanks stormcloaks personally i would draw the map out like this

I had a whole total war fan fiction written out depicting the battles and leaders and but it’s about seven o’clock at night swahili time so this is all i’ve got the geography of skyrim makes for a super interesting arena and if we got a total war tamriel my balls would tingle

And eventually vibrate if you mate stop it balls if the end point of this scenario were a unified skyrim which city do you think would come out on top let me know in the comments this has been jack from stoneworks if you leave your minecraft username in the comments

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