Highlights
- A hilarious Skyrim bug causes a player's adopted children to fly into the sky, seemingly leaving the player behind forever.
- Adoption was added to Skyrim due to player demand, but subsequent Bethesda games did not include this mechanic, despite its popularity.
After leaving their house in Whiterun, the Dragonborn loses both of his daughters under bizarre circumstances. While marriage in Skyrim existed since launch, players frequently requested an adoption system, until the developers acquiesced and added the feature in Hearthfire. Despite being a beloved part of Skyrim, adoption as a mechanic was abandoned in subsequent Bethesda games – and though the omission made sense in Fallout 4 due to the events of the main quest, Starfield would likely have benefited from adding the ability to adopt a child.
It's safe to say that Skyrim remains the most popular Bethesda title on Steam, as it currently has more concurrent players than Starfield by a significant margin. Though considered a simplified version of previous titles from The Elder Scrolls franchise, Skyrim's biggest strength lies in its accessibility and insane replay value. Bethesda handcrafted a dense open world experience, and arguably set a trend for future roleplaying games such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Skyrim Gets First New Update of 2024
Bethesda releases a new update for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, marking the game's first update of the new year.
However, not even twelve years have been enough to iron out Skyrim's most notorious bugs. A player named ThoseAreNiceShoes shared an amusing incident of their character leaving Breezehome, only to find Lucia and Sofie ascending to the heavens. The reason behind this bug is that Skyrim has a fixed limit of NPCs with AI for every cell in the game. Adding Lucia and Sofie to the already packed Whiterun, especially if mods are involved, can cause the last loaded NPCs to float into the sky.
Thankfully, a Skyrim mod solves this problem by manually increasing the limit. Though floating NPCs eventually fall to their deaths when reaching maximum height, children in Skyrim cannot be killed without the use of certain mods. While Lucia and Sofie should be safe, given their essential status, it's certainly an annoying bug to deal with.
How to Adopt Children in Skyrim
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Players who are interested in adoption must have an eligible house or homestead in Skyrim before being allowed to engage with the feature. Namely, they must first furnish a room that has a child's bed. The total number of children that the Dragonborn can adopt is two, and the game initially has eight children available for adoption.
Name | Location |
|---|---|
Alesan | Dawnstar Mines |
Blaise | Katla's Farm |
Lucia | Gildergreen |
Sofie | Gray Quarter |
Runa | Honorhall Orphanage |
Hroar | Honorhall Orphanage |
Samuel | Honorhall Orphanage |
Francois | Honorhall Orphanage |
What makes Skyrim's adoption system so robust is that new children can become eligible in the event of their parents dying. Upon becoming orphans, children are sent to the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften, and the Dragonborn has to complete the quest "Innocence Lost" before being allowed to adopt from the institution.
