The Skyrim Creation Club is a collection of pay-to-download addons for the game that all work seamlessly together, all of which are included in Skyrim Anniversary Edition. Everything from the Crusader Armor to the powerful artifact Umbra is included, though not a lot of these Creations are lore-accurate, to say the least.Because the history of Tamriel is written by a number of unreliable narrators, each with their own biases and experiences, the Elder Scrolls series has little in the way of certainty. There has been some talk of whether Anniversary Edition-specific lore is considered canon, but even though the series can be enigmatic, some addons should be ignored by Skyrim lore aficionados.Updated January 28, 2022 by Erik Petrovich: The Anniversary Edition of Skyrim comes with every single official creation club element released to date alongside a handful of never-before-seen addons exclusive to the upgrade. Most of these official Skyrim Anniversary edition mods make sense in a roundabout way and can be considered "canon" with a little suspension of disbelief. Some, though, are much harder to believe. For instance, how is a Khajiit merchant in Skyrim supposed to get their hands on the eye of a Watcher, or a Heart of Order unique to the direct servants of the dormant Daedric Prince Jyggalag? And how exactly is anyone in the fifth century of the fourth era supposed to re-create pieces to the Staff of Chaos, which was utterly shattered at the end of the first Elder Scrolls game?
10 Gallows Hall
The Gallows Hall creation included with Anniversary Edition isn't lore-breaking in and of itself. It's a necromancer's dream hideout located just outside Windhelm – totally within the realm of plausibility. What is less plausible, though, is that it houses the Staff of Worms, an incredibly powerful artifact belonging to the Necromancer-Lich Mannimarco from the second and third eras.
Mannimarco never really made it to Skyrim, at least not in descriptions of the necromancer's goings and coming in any Elder Scrolls game so far. He was featured in the Oblivion Mage's Guild questline, where players got his staff upon becoming Arch-Mage, but there's little to no explanation in this or other Skyrim Anniversary Edition mods as to how this ridiculously powerful artifact made it to the dank, gloomy cellars of Gallows Hall.
9 Rare Curios
While some creations break the lore of the Elder Scrolls series because of conflicts with established narratives, the Rare Curios creation's problems lie with items it adds to Skyrim. Most of the new alchemical ingredients in the Rare Curios creation could reasonably be in the hands of a Khajiit merchant, but some definitely could not.
The Heart of Order is one such item, one that in the lore can only be acquired from the Knights of Order, servants of the Daedric Prince Jyggalag. While Jyggalag makes an appearance, in a way, towards the end of the Saints and Seducers creation, it doesn't explain how such an alchemical ingredient made its way into the hands of merchant caravans. Much less so does it make sense for a Skyrim Khajiit to have a Watcher's Eye in their possession, which can only be harvested from single-eyed Beholder-like Daedra, except as a callback to Elder Scrolls Online.
8 Arms of Chaos
The Arms of Chaos are comprised of the legendary artifacts that have only ever been seen in the first Elder Scrolls game, Arena. The Eternal Champion, who the player takes the role of in Arena, reconstructed pieces of the Staff of Chaos to defeat Jagar Tharn, an Imperial Battlemage who imprisoned Uriel Septim VII and took his form for an entire decade.
The Staff of Chaos was eventually destroyed and its pieces lost to time, and until this creation surfaced nobody in all of Tamriel could have known where to start looking. Sure, players don't technically recreate the Staff of Chaos itself, but its derivatives (Arm of the Moon and Arm of the Sun) still ought not to exist at all given the ending of Arena.
7 Umbra
Umbra is a two-handed Greatsword that deals a good amount of extra damage to an enemy's health and resources on hit. However, Umbra was canonically destroyed towards the end of Lord of Souls, the second Elder Scrolls novel written by Greg Keyes.
It is described as an immensely corrupting Daedric artifact in the novels, and its destruction more than a century before the events of Skyrim raises questions about whether it's canon in Skyrim, and whether it should have been included among other Skyrim Anniversary Edition content at all.
6 Divine Crusader
The Armor of the Crusader can be found in the Divine Crusader creation, which was originally worn by Pelanial Whitestrake. The armor is central to the plot of the Knights of the Nine DLC for Oblivion, where the armor becomes useless if the player commits evil actions (a pilgrimage must be undertaken to restore it).
However, in Skyrim, the armor can be seen being worn by Bandits. It doesn't make any sense for a criminal to be able to wear the armor as it directly contradicts its nature as a piece of equipment only usable by good-aligned characters.
5 Sunder and Wraithguard
Sunder and Wraithguard are two of the three Tools of Kagrenac made to access the power of Heart of Lorkhan by the Dwemer architect of the same name. Keening is already available in Skyrim as part of a quest involving Arniel of the College of Winterhold. When this quest concludes, Arniel disappears just like the Dwemer did thousands of years ago.
According to lore in Morrowind, Sunder and Keening cannot be used without Wraithguard to temper the powerful artifacts' energies. The Dragonborn, though, can wield either without Wraithguard, though their effects aren't as powerful. Perhaps this is thanks to the sheer power of The Last Dragonborn, but then again, these tools have a history of making people... disappear.
4 The Gray Cowl Returns
The Gray Cowl is traditionally worn by the Gray Fox, the leader of the Thieves' Guild in Cyrodiil. At the end of the Thieves' Guild questline in Oblivion, the Hero of Kvatch becomes the new Guildmaster and takes the Cowl for themselves. It is then passed down to master thieves when the current Gray Fox retires (a bit like the title of the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride).
In the questline added with The Gray Cowl Returns, players are tasked with three beginner-level tasks by a mysterious stranger. Upon completion the player meets The Gray Fox, who hands over the Cowl to the new "master thief", though the player's trials are far from master-level.
3 Ghosts of the Tribunal...
In Elder Scrolls games that predate Oblivion (including Elder Scrolls Online) the Tribunal of the Dark Elves was made up of three Living Gods: Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec. In the events of the Morrowind DLC Tribunal, though, two of the Living Gods are murdered and the third, Vivec, disappears.
Ghosts of the Tribunal is a new element to the Creation Club that alters this historical timeline, insisting that the Tribunal never truly "disappeared" and yet wander Tamriel in some kind of spirit form. Because nobody knows what happened to Vivec, and the other two Living Gods died in mortal form, this doesn't make sense (even though it's cool to hear about the Tribunal again). Additionally, guards at the secret Tribunal temple north of Raven Rock will sometimes say "Azura be with you" which... just doesn't make any sense if they serve the Living Gods and not the Good Daedra.
2 ....And The Cause
The Cause is a Creation new to Skyrim with Anniversary Edition that seeks to continue the story of the Oblivion Crisis two hundred years after its conclusion. The Mythic Dawn still operates in some capacity, and players discover a new Oblivion Gate in Skyrim that the cult attempts to open.
The problem with The Cause is that it doesn't do a good enough job of explaining why this is somehow the only Oblivion Gate in the province, despite the Oblivion Crisis affecting all of Tamriel (and, by some accounts, beyond).
1 The Staff of Sheogorath
The Staff of Sheogorath is an artifact of the Daedric Prince of Madness that causes widespread paralysis that most enemies cannot break out of. In Oblivion, Sheogorath wielded this staff as his Symbol of Office and would use it against the Hero of Kvatch if they dared strike him (after which they were teleported thousands of feet into the air).
While players are able to find the Wabbajack in Skyrim, this is a Daedric artifact that Sheogorath would never let leave his side. The Wabbajack is seen in multiple Elder Scrolls games, but the Staff of Sheogorath is only seen in one – the Shivering Isles DLC for Oblivion – where it's plainly obvious that he would never bequeath it to a mortal. Of all official Skyrim Anniversary Edition mods from the Creation Club, this is one of the most egregiously lore-breaking.
Skyrim Anniversary Edition is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S