One might remember Elder Scrolls games such as Skyrim in a fun and favorable light since the graphics and the animation are quite wacky and outdated even for their time. Beneath that surface-level imagery, however, is a game teeming with the stuff of nightmares. Because shockingly, Skyrim actually comes with a "Mature" rating.
Since it was never for kids anyway, it decided to push the boundaries of what it can show and even adults might find themselves disturbed at some of the game's ideas. Once players get past the epic Nordic adventure facade, they'll be bombarded by quests that involve slavery, cannibalism, borderline necrophilia, sadism, and more, making Alduin look like a small problem by comparison.
10 Namira's Cult's Cannibalism
Oh, it's cannibalism, nothing big, right? Lots of other games feature that and let players kill cannibals. Too bad this is different in Skyrim as players not only get to witness the cannibals in their favorite endeavor but are also compelled to dig in. It's all thanks to "The Taste of Death" quest.
It's where players are tasked by the Cult of Namira to lure an unsuspecting poor victim so that they can feed the whole organization. Players are also invited to partake in the buffet and most end up giving in to peer pressure since there's a good ring as a reward. At least the cult was kind enough to share food.
9 Getting Molag Bal's Mace
Molag Bal's mace is one of the most powerful one-handed bonk sticks in the game though it has quite a high tax. Before players get to acquire the sweet weapon, they have to partake in some of its owner's pastimes. It just so happens that Molag Bal is the Daedric Prince of Domination and Enslavement.
So he not only enslaves the player's soul eternally, but he also asks the players to dominate a priest by whacking him dead with the said mace. That's not enough, of course, the priest's soul was also imprisoned within the mace.
8 Aventus Aretino's Black Sacrament
All quests involving the Dark Brotherhood have several layers of twisted but one of the earliest ways to connect with the assassin organization is quite spine-chilling. Because there's a literal child in Windhelm named Aventus Aretino who even performed an elaborate bloody ritual just to summon the Dark Brotherhood.
Granted, Aventus' is well within his sanity to demand old lady Grelod's death since she's a nasty orphanage caretaker. But the whole Black Sacrament and the kid's nonchalant approach to having someone murdered doesn't exactly make his future look bright or promising.
7 Astrid's Charred But Living Body
Speak of the devil and it shall appear. The Dark Brotherhood has no shortage of violent and bloody quests but most of the traumatizing stuff tends to happen near the end of the questline. It's when the whole organization starts playing Among Us with itself due to the paranoia of rooting out a traitor.
Astrid got the short end of the stick as her fate was macabre. By the end of the questline, she had been burned to a crisp except she didn't outright die. Players can still talk to her and see her breathing and talking through the barbecued skin. While she did deserve her fate, some players likely felt regret as they wanted to marry her since they find Astrid smoking hot, figuratively; not so much now that it's literal.
6 Cicero Cleaning The Night Mother
An assassin organization that listens to a rotting dead woman's "whispers" doesn't sound like a safe group of friends, and it isn't. Nearly all the Dark Brotherhood members are deranged. The creepiest among them, however, is Cicero who takes his task of cleaning up the Night Mother too enthusiastically.
He talks about oiling the Night Mother's decomposing body with glee and at times, even meticulously worries about the "hard-to-reach places." It seems this "love" is one-sided though since the Night Mother doesn't want to talk to Cicero. That doesn't stop Cicero from carrying out his "duties."
5 The Apocrypha Field Trip
The Apocrypha is a plane of Oblivion governed by the Daedric Prince of knowledge and memory. That sounds tame compared to the other Daedric Princes but Hermaeus Mora has a different idea for what knowledge entails. He often appears as an incomprehensible Lovecraftian being whose facade poses more questions than answers.
Hence, his plane of Oblivion reflects that trait. The Apocrypha is a hellish version of a library where the librarians are out to kill the Dragonborn and the books lead the mind astray into the depths of madness. At least Mehrunes Dagon's plane of Oblivion is dumb and straightforward. Hermaeus Mora's is just outright nauseating.
4 Marriage To Moira
Skyrim has a homage to The Hangover comedy film with its quest "A Night to Remember." It's where the Dragonborn got too drunk and supposedly proposed to a woman named Moira, giving her a ring, before blacking out doing Talos-knows-what. So the task is to retrieve the ring, much to the woman's dismay.
The problem? Well, the woman isn't one of the playable races. Moira's a hagraven. What's worse is that the Dragonborn has no recollection of what took place that night or what led to a marriage proposal to Moira. Think of that selective amnesia as a blessing. What the Dragonborn doesn't know can't hurt him. Moira, on the other hand, wasn't too pleased with the retraction.
3 Clavicus Vile's Talking Dog
A talking dog isn't exactly creepy— it's often a family-friendly staple! Still, Skyrim's version of that super dog. This one has an out-of-place accent and talks like a boomer resident of New Jersey. Barbas is the name and even the dialogue options with him reflect just how shocked the Dragonborn is upon meeting a talking dog.
Turns out Barbas has some employment issues with Clavicus Vile and needs the Dragonborn's help to convince his master to reinstate him. Of course, there's always the option to kill the dog who might be lying and setting up a trap.
2 Frostflow Lighthouse Murder
Frostflow Lighthouse is one of the scariest and most interesting places players can visit in Skyrim, and it's situated near the coast of Winterhold. From afar, it looks like an innocent dwelling except inside, it's a haunted house horror story with a Redguard family as the victims.
Upon entering the lighthouse, players will find the interior in a mess decorated by signs of what appears to be a lethal altercation. There are several corpses on the floor and it looks like the family was brutally murdered or assaulted by the Falmer and their chaurus pets. It looks like a standard job for the Dragonborn, though not so much for the poor family.
1 Daedric Princes
Several Daedric Princes were mentioned above but really, all of them deserve to be on this list. They're the most demented beings in Elder Scrolls and they're usually up to no good. Even someone as seemingly jolly as Sheogorath (who's tucked away in the city of Solitude) has sinister allegiances or whims.
Meanwhile, the others are just unapologetically cruel or sadistic. That's why quests involving them typically revolve around killing or harming others or doing something absurd at the very least. Suffice to say, they make up the bulk of the disturbing stuff in Skyrim, along with the Dark Brotherhood.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
