A little girl who is beaten by her family, who is a fledgling apprentice in magic, and who is having prophetic dreams? Well, if that is not a dropped quest hook, then i don't know what is.
I am a guy, and I'm attracted to guys, so I've never felt much interest in playing a female character, nor have I ever played a nord because they are such thugs - but after watching this I am committed to making my character for Elder Scrolls VI Sissel the Seer of Rorikstead who travelled to the province of ??? following a vision.
Rorikstead always struck me as kind of weird. It's just... there. And nothing really happens. Everything about it smells of incomplete stories and cut quests.
I love the thought that everyone there is living their lives and the Dragonborn is running around bothering them with a paranoid theory of them being apart of a sort of sacrificial cult.
Poor normal village people There good at farming and had a few sad deaths and here This Big scary Dragon born saviour of men Running around ( YOUR ALL EVIL SACRIFICING DEMON WORSHIPERS ) ripping up there Grass and Following there kids around 😹😹😹😹
This theory doesn’t hold much water. The healer and the Altmer are probably having a tryst. 40% of the women die of childbirth otherwise there would be loads more children around. A culture like this should have a growing population not a stagnant one. The shrine to Akatosh with the dragon scale above the village is most intriguing with Sissel’s vision of a kindly old grey dragon. The blessings of PartySnack?
Rorikstead is stuck in a time loop. Some are aware of it, others are not. The war Rorik talks about is a far more ancient one. The reason why Erik's father doesn't want Erik to leave is because he's aware of the time loop, and Erik is not. He left, as Erik wants to, and came back after years of adventure to find the village reliving the same year that he left. Erik leaving means he'll find out about the time loop. It's also why he's packed away his armor: It's from a far more ancient time, and would give away the fact that the town is actually millenia old. Oh, and let's not forget the whole "stay on for one more season." All he has to do is keep his son there for one more season and the year will reset. As for the soil? The pact was made during a particularly fertile year. Clavicus Vile is known for screwing people over in his deals. "I wish the soil was this fertile every year" and Clavicus Vile makes it that year over and over again. He's known more for the downside of the deal being built into the boon than he is for demanding things in exchange. His masque made its wearer paranoid, he "cured" a man's daughter of lycanthropy by giving him an axe, giving a scribe a quill that everything he wrote a work of inspiration but eventually drove him to suicide, etc.
I believe that this is the correct theory. While Camel does have a few good theories, they never really come together; they're ingredients that don't mix. The theory that you have is much more overlying and leaves fewer loose ends. Sorry this is 9 months later
Dr _wombo_ Or maybe a whole cut or unfinished questline ? It would explain the exterior of the shack outside of rorikstead, as level designers probably start with designing the world with the hills, rocks and mountains or something similar.
@@henrikschunk5732 Yeah, I kinda dislike how Camel-boi here chalks everything up to conspiracy when it's more likely just shenanigans of the developers without any other meaning.
Someone else speculated that Clavicus may have also put Rorikstead in some sort of time loop, explaining the strange inconsistencies with the timeline.
When a guy spends 2 weeks punching children in Skyrim to answer our much needed questions on the extended lore of Skyrim, you know he's the man we need for this kind of content. you did this all for us. and you are a legend.
It's Parthaanux he is a grey dragon and he is friendly. Runil in Falkreath dreamed of the coming of the Dragonborn he wrote it in his Journal and Esbern dreamed of both Alduin and the Dragonborn too.
I like that thought. Especially with how her sister and father are so mean to her, he probably has a soft spot for her. If he was training her to take his place, that kind of water breathing magic doesn't seem to fit.
@@acidrat420 so maybe he’s teaching her magic skills to survive on her own. This way, when she comes of age (I’m guessing when she hits puberty or something) he’ll tell her the truth and to run away from the town before the sacrifice can happen…leaving only her bitchy sister…
What makes you so certain that they'd canonically kill off Paarthurnax? I doubt Bethesda would go out of their way to confirm the killing of such a beloved character from Skyrim.
So, the ancient Nords worshipped Dragons, and there is a shrine to Akatosh just north of Rorikstead up on a ridge that overlooks the town. It is also east of Lund's Hut. at this shrine you will find Dragon scales as an offering. Something that should not be, given that dragons are just returning. This could be connected to the girl's dream of Paarthurnax. Maybe something of the old Dragon cult (or their practices) survived?
Or if we want to go the other way, the real answer to Todd Howard's mystical-like streak of "just working" is directly lied to sacrifices in the name of Daedric entities.
Cuz the thieves in the rift are always hard, come talking that trash and we'll torch your bar. Knowing nothing in life but to be legit, don't quote me bard I ain't said shit!-EZ Enthir
Chillin out relaxin maxin all cool picking some nirn root outside of school when a couple of bandits who were up to no good started making trouble in my neighborhood i got in one little fight an my ma scared she said your movin with you auntie and uncle to Markarth
Lemkil: "I spend every day tending the fields, and what do my daughters do? Nothing! Complain and caterwaul! Sleep and eat! Useless!" The Dragonborn: "I uh.... I got some potatos."
I adopted Sissel the moment she said she's having dreams about a dragon that is strangely similar to Paarthurnax. In my head-cannon, this girl is potentially a Dragonborn as well.
Reading about Clavicus Vile's realm of oblivion, and guess what it's supposed to look like? Verdant farmland that smells like perfume and rotting flesh. Something nice on the surface but gets stinky when you look deep enough. Like Rorikstead. and the color of the sky? Greenish grey.
@@Haidonomus_Rex thats just stupid... every high elf in existence hates talos because he unleashed the Brass God on the Altmer and caused all sorts of bizzare events far worse than Death or slavery !!! altmer hating Tiber Septim is literally the most righteous thing ever specified in the entire franchise of elder scrolls !!!
22:20 I believe this happens because there's a radiant quest where, should someone watch you kill something, they may send you a letter asking you to attack someone they hate in return for coin. In the creation kit, we can see that Lemkil hates his children, so the quest is just a quirck of the quest system. I know I'm like, 5 years late, but I have the urge to binge all the old videos again.
It could be that the reason Lemkil is so obnoxious towards his daughters is that he knows what the future holds for them, and is forcing himself not to become attached to them by any bonds of anything resembling love.
oh, you know, that's a really good theory. Or, maybe if he's mean enough to them, they'll leave and never come back? It's a hell of a way to protect yourself from the future pain.
I love how he said that Meridia’s description in The Book of Daedra implies a relation to necromancy, when she hates them specifically with a literal burning passion
I like the idea that Jouane genuinely wants to help out Sissel with helpful spells and the Dragonborn is plastered against the window screaming about sacrificing women. Also, if that's the truth, bet that Sissel is staring at Britte waiting for the day she grows up and gets pregnant. 'Finally, hey Britte, remember how you used to say I smell like a pig?'
@@kimmehamehaaa7241 "WE AREN'T SACRIFICING FAIR MAIDENS." As the title, lol. "HI everyone I'm Rorik, at Rorikstead. Do not BELIEVE THESE LIES YOU'VE HEARD, everything is absolutely fabulous, we don't sacrifice members of the female species, the town isn't 4000 years old, I simply just rebuilt it with funds I got from Belethor and Ennis, and the secret to the crops is really just- *video cuts* "
Yeah, also don't forget he says they don't have money for armor as an excuse. But he has one. It would make sense if his armor is a type he didn't want his son to be seen wearing.
I've noticed that Juanne and sometimes Rorik will meticulously walk around town and watch people farm. It kind of makes sense. They're just seeing how the town is doing. But there's something creepy about it.
Todd Howard to developer: "Hey did you finish making rorikstead?" Developer: "oh yeah I did take a look!" Todd: "dude, it's a tiny Town with nothing in it and one quest. You had so much time!" Developer: "I dunno, what's wrong with a simple town that has fertile soil? (Nervous laugh)
I always come back to this video. But I do appreciate the 10 year gap between each sacrifice. Think of it, the soil turned amazing 20 years ago. Erik - around 20 years old. Britte and Sissel - around 10 years old Present day - Lund's wife. 10 years into the future - bye Britte
If the pact with Clavicus Vile is true then this fertile soil thing in Rorikstead would have been a far better part of the Daedric quest then going to a cave to kill off a necromancer to get the Runeful Axe.
The Elder Scrolls games have tons of lore that's never explained. While it's possibly cut content, there's so many stories from the older games that intentionally leave it a mystery that chances are it is "complete" in the devs eyes. I like the idea in some of the other comments that this might have intentionally been left to re-explore later in the series. I would love it if we encounter a book on the mage Sissel, who burned her cursed village to the ground before leaving to become an oracle!
EmceeProphIt reminds me of The Walking Dead when that blond little girl killed her sister to try to taim her as a zombie (not sure if you know what I'm talking about tho)😂😂😂
sissel send me letters after killing their father and sister, i adopted her and put this little psychotic project as my follower and make entire db quest for only her pleasure :)
Rorikstead was always interesting to me because when you arrive there the man named Rorik says he established it. Yet you know, when you look at the ancient book that Farengar Triangle Face gets from our Blades friend at the start of the game, you see Rorikstead listed among the villages of Whiterun Hold back in that ancient era. That's what made me wonder about Rorikstead myself as the idea of this ancient village and presumably on the face of it, a guy who just happened to have the same name settling in the same spot eras later to start a similar village just seemed... odd to me. Funny enough I never pegged some conspiracy about soil however. When Rorik himself says "We just work hard" I believed it. Because.. that's a common line in Skyrim. "Only a Nord is stubborn enough to work the soil here" and all as several sources point out. And growing up as a farmer myself I know a good deal of progress can be made by the standard of sheer stubbornness even with inferior land. But I always wondered about that time and name situation. If there was some sort of time loop as I've seen suggested? That time loop goes back to the era of the Dragon War at the very least. The "Rorik" you talk to in there is technically thousands of years old pretending to have just settled that place a couple of decades ago. What amazes me however is that no one else in game picks up that. "What do you mean Rorikstead was settled 2 decades ago after the Great War? My Grandpappy got cabbages from there!" is something you'd think would be pointed out. Sadly I always figured the truth was Left Hand not knowing what the Right Hand was doing. The designer who filled in that ancient book referring to a Rorikstead during the Dragon Wars didn't know the person designing the settlement in game came up with a story that the settlement was only 20 years old. They just saw a mention of a Rorikstead in the game and filled that in for the book.
POTENTIALLY IMPORTANT: When you got to the part about lund's hunt I was literally there during my playthrough IRL and noticed something interesting. You mentioned how he had a possible wife who was sacrificed.... Well the thing I noticed might had some merit to this theory... In the chest next to lund's corpse yielded a boy's yellow tunic! Why would lund have children's clothes unless hehad a wife who was expecting? Don't know if this has been pointed out lol
DarkDragonDave I forgot about lucian being in skyrim, I'm going to bring him along with me next time I do sheogoraths quest so the hero of kvatch can see his old friend, doubt either of them will say anything though.
I always just assumed lokir was lunds son that left because going off this video all the women that are being sacrificed had kids first so lunds wife has lokir then is killed and after lund becomes a drunk and lokir grows up and leaves which causes Lund to adopt skeevers cuz hes lonely and he either drinks himself to death or kills himself. Maybe he got a inheritance letter or some word of his son being killed first or maybe he just did it because he didn't think lokir would come back who knows
I think Lemkil giving you gold for attacking his daughters is an oversight that occurs because he is set to have a negative disposition towards them. I've never had it happen, but apparently it's basically a radiant quest that can occur if an npc sees you attack someone else. They'll send a letter asking you to attack people they have negative dispositions towards, and they'll also sometimes send a letter thanking you, and giving you gold, if they see you kill someone they don't like.
My first reaction to the water breathing spell instead of the fire spell is that in medieval times Witches would be tried by weighting them or throw them in water. If they would float they would be burned at the stake or maybe in this case be sacrificed. If they would sink they would drown instead. A water breathing spell would certainly be able to save her life one day as the townsfolk are suspicious of magic and mages and would maybe not tolerate a young spellcaster within their mids. Jouanne noticed her talent for spellcasting and wanted to protect her instead. What is maybe suspicious is that an Altmer living far away from summerset and is only interesting in farming. I wonder what her backstory is. To bad this little town was probs one of those areas that got cut and the quest was never written.
That is an interesting thought about the breathing spell. Makes a fair bit of sense. As far as the Altmer is concerned, I think their society is very much caste and hierarchy, and so there are low caste altmer who may indeed be farmers. And if she dislikes the Thalmor or the whole Aldmeri dominion stuff, she'd best be far away from the homeland until things change. But I agree, she is suspicious.
I think it could also be related to Kynareth. Kynareth is the goddess of nature and harvest which good explain the good soil. Sissel is able to dream about parthurnaax who taught men the voice, as instructed by Kyne. Perhaps the town is blessed by Kynareth and Sissel is a seer
@pabbylink Nice catch! It might not be the only explanation but it could very well have something to do with what's going on. It would certainly explain what's happening with Sissel as far as her having visions of Paarthurnax.
also probably unrelated there is a shrine of akatosh overlooking the town but akatosh doesnt really seem to relate anywhere here besides maybe being the father of dragons hence why the girl knows about paarthurnax
I think they didn't have enough time to make Rorikstead. It is ripe for numerous quests. And the conversations between Jouane and the little mage girl are so intriguing and somewhat sinister, you'd think there'd be numerous quests.
In about my second *serious* playthrough of Skyrim, I did a bit of “sleuthing” and I figured the reason their soil’s so great might be because they were sacrificing all the women in town in order to keep their farmland so fertile, explaining why the only girls in Rorikstead, are just children.🧐😔 And based on how she was treated by her family, they might’ve had plans to have Sissel sacrificed next.😒 Sooooo I sniped her dad from the hillside while he was farming, Aaaand immediately adopted Sissel.☺️ Also her bully of a sister got sent to the orphanage. So they were both spared from the potential fate of sacrificial doom.👍🏻
Another weird thing about Lund's Hut; if you have the Spectral Assassin gift from the Dark Brotherhood (Lucien LaChance, from Oblivion!), you can summon him inside Lund's Hut, and he will say "I smell murder in the air". He says it every time. So. This MIGHT mean that Lund did not commit suicide; it may be that he was murdered, and it was made to look like a suicide by...Jouane? Raldith? Maybe Lund knew the secret of Rorikstead, because his wife was sacrificed, and he was about to blow the whistle?
That's interesting. I always thought Lund and Lokir were married and Lokir left after discovering the weirdness going on. So maybe he poisoned Lund before leaving because he was so angry, I mean Lund hasn't been dead very long as the Skeevers haven't eaten all of the meat yet.
@@elizabethtrudgill3567 Why would Lund and Lokir be married? Scandalous milk-drinking lovers maybe, but gay marriage wasn't exactly a thing until very recently.
@@elizabethtrudgill3567 That's so weird, I definitely finished that comment but it somehow got cut. I forgot what I wrote in that final sentence, so it's a mystery to me aswell.
You know over a decade of playing this game, I just realised that all the high elves in Skyrim except for those associated with the Thalmor (except one) and Taarie's sister, they are all for the most part just lovely, nice people who just happen to have a brutally honest trait, something that as a woman with autism, I can relate to 😂
That's why I liked Altmer women (except the Thalmor). They were very honest when it came to their opinions. There was no second guessing what they liked and didn't like. They have also completely mastered the art of sarcasm.
He could be teaching her how to survive executions, putting out fires (surviving burning at the stake) and surviving being drowned. It makes sense that she would need to survive if they thought killing her would save the women.
that does seem like it would make sense. plus it seems like it would be better to teach her conjuration if its just for the reason of taking over for him in sacrificing the women. alteration and healing don't really seem useful for that purpose.
A note about Lemkill and asking you to hurt his daughters: I've heard it explained that if you show violence in front of a character (such as killing someone in sight of Lemkill), they have a small chance to request you hurt/kill someone they dislike. So basically, it's a small chance for anyone to offer money for that service, and he simply is scripted to dislike his children. Nothing special about that interaction being tied to Rorikstead.
Crow I have had this happen I attacked rorik and was arrested, while in white run a courier approached me with a letter to see lemkil I visit and he pays be to hit one of his girls (not sissle) I do and he pays me 50 gold
Just wondering why in all the many remastered versions of the game they've never finished out this story line. It seems like someone laid the groundwork for a good deadric side quest.
Been going through a bit of an episode of depression recently, dove headfirst into Skyrim and it helped like always. I’ve been constantly feeding myself your content and it’s done a lot too. I can actually plug into it, enjoy it, laugh at it, and shut everything off for a little while. I love how you present the lore and how it all ties together. You deserve more views than you get. Your content is very appreciated and worthy of multiple watches.
Now I want to see a video like this where finds that he forgot to tgm after trying endlessly to trigger dialogue, only to be killed by a giant or something mid-scene.
This whole thing -- especially the bit at the end with the inaccessible green exterior -- is genuinely spooky, and beautiful, and weird. Like it depicts the psychological reality around the physical house of the suicide. "Cut quest" or no, it feels very artful. I love that it was just left in this state as an ominous and fascinating series of implications for players to draw what conclusions they will. Feels like Twin Peaks. Subscribed.
«Drinking ale, Sissel approaches» Sissel: I wish I could be an adventurer like you. Me: «Drinking, into mug» Mmmm-hmmm. «glug, glug» Sissel: I've been having dreams about a friendly gray dragon-- Me: «pppppffffftttttt» «gag, cough, splutter, cough, cough!» Wh- whaat?
if you read Runil's journal (its a quest item given to you by Runil the priest of Arkay in Falkreath) he also talks about dreaming of dragons and possibly the dragonborn without ever seeing either. and he mentions how weird it is he dreamt of both. maybe something to look into
I was just wondering about this the other day. I usually don't read his journal but I did this time and I saw this reference to dragons and dragonborn.
I do not know if you are aware but... Rorikstead has also very nearby a lair full of vampires... too close that they would be oblivious about it. Would they perhaps have anything to do with this village? I always wondered about that, to be honest.
There is a fourth place to find Spirit of the Daedra. MY FREAKING CHILD'S CHEST IN BREEZEHOME! I KID YOU NOT, that kid has ONLY brought home books about Daedra! The first one was about Azura I believe, and the second is the Spirit of the Daedra! My children in Skyrim terrify me.
@@amenthegreat3761 that's not stated anywhere in TES lore,hell there even is a female mesh for the greybeard robes despite them being unobtainable in vanilla.
44:25 Maybe that was part of the quest that was meant to be about Rorikstead's soild, but was left in when they presumably ran out of time. Maybe entering through a secret door in the hut led to a horrifying nightmare version of Rorikstead. The arrangment of the rocky crags are quite similar to those near Rorikstead, after all.
I thought it would be really nefarious, but after hearing the possible conclusion... it sounds more-so sad rather than sinister. Jouane wanted to help his village, may have come across the Daedric book one time and was desperate for anything. He most likely contacted Clavicus Vile and made a pact with him, not realizing Clavicus Vile's sinister nature until it was too late. As for Reldith's input, I don't think it may just be a copout. She's an altmer, and altmer tend to be very boastful, arrogant, and prideful of themselves and their work.
Dude you’re a genius this is one of the most interesting Skyrim videos I’ve ever seen n it kept blowing my mind every lil thing n even the dialogue it truly is more interesting then any other towns npc dialogue, anyway, great video, 10/10, keep up the good work 💯
Sounds good man looking forward to it, I hope to also see sum content from u when elder scrolls 6 comes out whenever that may be, n hopefully the creators will be nice enough to leave us more Easter eggs on the whole rorikstead ordeal @camelworks
Camelworks Ik this May sound dumb to u n u prolly already looked into it, but there’s a small fort not too far from rorikstead called bleak wind bluff, it’s guarded by the forsworn n a Hagraven n I think it’s possible that the location might be involved in the daedric rituals that go on in rorikstead, when u go in u see bones, blood, skulls of deer n humans, ur normal creepy ritual stuff n the stones in there look very familiar to the one outside of Lunds hut n there was also a dead skeever in bleak wind as well, it could be possible they killed it while they were there for sum rzn n he felt bad for it n grown attached to em for that rzn, Ik it sounds stupid n u prob already looked into it but if u didn’t I strongly suggest that u do, knowing u if there’s anything important there, Ik you’ll be able to find it 👍🏼
I feel like the hut, the unfinished exterior of the interior, the real age of the stead, the futility, and Sissel are all unfinished/cut content. Has to be. Just think how amazing these quests would have been if they decided to continue with it. I mean… Amazing. And what if they make little nudges at it in the next game? That'd be neat. But seriously, with the unfortunate dead ends on some parts of this, it really seems like it was cut content.
"See those guards over there? Cause any trouble and you'll have them to deal with" Me: *looks at the corpses next to the dead dragon* Um... Yeah, about that...
I think this is the original Clavicus Vile quest. Or at least a competing one that wasnt chosen for whatever reason. And that it was completed enough to leave in the game as an interesting stop.
I think Rorik is secretly a demi-prince (which is why he appears human) who works with Clavicus Vile. Whenever he "dies" just like any other Daedra he returns to Oblivion and then comes back to re-establish Rorikstead. He secures souls for Vile and in return gets to live a cushy live of farming.
Fertility for fertility, it does sound like it was supposed to be the Daedra quest for Clavicus Viles that they were planning early on, but cut it in favor of the (less intriguing) quest we have today. It could help explain why there was something so close to being this awesome mystery, but never touched upon in game.
I'm almost sure of this. I've recently seen a documentary on Bethesda and they routinely bite off more than they can chew, so I suppose this questline got scrapped later in the development for a less time-consuming one. It's a pity as well, since had they not added the current Clavicus Vile quest, they could've patched this in later, or include it in Dawnguard or something. This way they blocked themselves in and can't just remove another questline to make this work. It'd be interesting if you could find Sissel or Britte later in the Honorhall orphanage, depending on how the quest would go.
The "rorikstead" mentioned in older texts could refer to different rorikstead than the one we visit. its not unheard of for more than one place to share the same name, at least IRL
For some reason, I can't get it out of my head that Sissle may be influenced just a bit by Hermaeus Mora, dadric god of fate, past, and future who also has infinite knowledge and memory; then we have little Sissle who is having dreams of an old, grey nice dragon. Or alternatively, her birth was affected by Clavicus Vile due to her being the younger sister and was closer to her mother during the time of death and was granted some power by Clavicus Vile.
Except she's not that clever with her wordage. If she wanted to know how to raise the dead she'd ask if she could be taught to raise the dead. She'd probably ask if she could be taught to bring a butterfly or chicken back to life.
Something that caught my attention was when Camel was reading about the book of the daedra, some of them actually described very specific personalities within Rorikstead. Hermaeus Mora: Knowledge of fate, past/present, and treasures knowledge. Sounds like Sissel, who sees visions of a friendly dragon. Mehrunes Dagon: Change, Revolution, Energy, Ambition. Sounds like Erik, who wants to break out and demands he be set free and wander the world. Namira: Spiders, Insects, and other creatures that are repulsive to man. Lund kept skeevers as pets, a lot of them. No one else does this. Also, Namira is all about the ancient darkness and is the spirit daedra, which clipping out of Lund's hut puts you in this strange ethereal realm not like other areas in the game, except some areas of Blackreach (there are small patches of faint green tint.) I would throw a wild theory out there that it isn't necessarily the fertile women offered up, but the children of the fertile women, and the women are killed in the process as the children become champions for the daedric princes. Oooor.... Jouane _IS_ Clacivus Vile/Mephala, just fucking with everyone.
"Lund kept skeevers as pets, a lot of them. No one else does this." Hamelyn bred skeevers into venomfang skeevers. Corpulus Vinius had a pet skeever when he was a boy. Your adopted son can bring a skeever into the house and ask if he can keep it as a pet.
I think the thing about Sissel thanking you for killing Britte is a quirk in the programming, since Sissel and Britte most likely, in the game files, have low disposition towards each other and it is a random event that someone may thank you and give you a gift if you kill someone they don't like. The part with Lemkil wanting you to beat up his daughters is most likely a similar quirk in the programming.
Clavicus Vile's deals usually are double sided with a tragic undertaking by the victim such as Sebastian Lort's slaying of his lycanthropic daughter, or cause and effect such as with his vampire underlings becoming immediately cursed by the pact they made with him. I think that the deal made with him in the case of Rorikstead was not a sacrificial pact, but a cause and effect pact. Its not that Jouane sacrificed these women, or that Reldith is an accomplice. Rather, when these women gave birth, Vile took them, and Jouane couldn't stop them. Reldith wasn't an accomplice to a sacrifice, but rather the midwife during delivery that witnessed the Daedric influence take its due from the twisted pact.
12:45 lol! "I need you to help me, just one more season". Thats definitely from the first star wars. Uncle owen telling luke he needs to help him on there farm for "just one more season".also a wise man once said when it comes to parenting. " Would you rather your kids be safe or competent? The answer is competent because incompetence is dangerous but there's nothing safer then competence".
Personally I think the issue with the age of Rorikstead can be explained rather easily. Whenever you hear them talk about the village from three thousand years ago they say Ol' Rorikstead, not just Rorikstead. They are two different towns and the first one is long gone by now. The reason the owner makes it a point to say this town was named after him was cause people would think he just copied the name from a famous long gone town and he wants to be clear why it has the same name. Just my theory though.
Basically my thoughts, also, he said that he got the land WHILE his kindred where to the south fighting, so BEFORE the end of the war, not at or after it.
He could also be talking about a family name. Maybe he's Rorik, son of Rorik, son of Rorik etc and he feels it's named after 'him' because of his ancestors
Or you know, maybe it's a family name. Yk like in the old times, they used to have the same first name and went on marking it as fourth fifth whatever. So maybe what he really means is that Rorikstead was named after one of his ancestors who was also named Rorik.
The problem with the books thing is that Rorik isn't am uncommon name. So there could easily be many Roriksteads. Like the thousands of places called Springfield, Newstead or Manchester. Like it's incredibly incredibly unlikely that a village would endure the passage of time untouched some place like Skyrim.
We are so lucky to have someone like you that puts all those hours into skyrim, investigating, so that we can enjoy another one of your stories. And oh boy, what a story. This one is my fa favorite! Thank you for all your hard work! 💗
This is one of the best vids I've seen for Elder Scrolls. The atmosphere and script were fantastic and you went through as much as you could, well done
I know I'm very, very late, but I have some insights that may help explain the myths about beating up and killing Sissel and Britte: If I remember correctly, very character in Skyrim has either a positive, negative, or neutral disposition towards each other's in the game's files. Most people are neutral to one another, but if a character has a positive or negative disposition towards another character, there can be some interesting interaction that happen. Lemkil has a negative disposition towards Sissel and Britte, and Sissel and Britte have a negative disposition towards each other in the game's files. This means that, if you attack or kill one of them, there is a small random chance that they will thank you and reward you with gold for doing so. It's just a part of the game's natural code, the developers just didn't turn if off for this family. This explains why you couldn't get it to trigger- it's a very small, random chance to occur. It's not a myth, it's real, but I don't think it has any lore implications.
A little girl who is beaten by her family, who is a fledgling apprentice in magic, and who is having prophetic dreams?
Well, if that is not a dropped quest hook, then i don't know what is.
I am a guy, and I'm attracted to guys, so I've never felt much interest in playing a female character, nor have I ever played a nord because they are such thugs - but after watching this I am committed to making my character for Elder Scrolls VI Sissel the Seer of Rorikstead who travelled to the province of ??? following a vision.
Thaumatomane Nice!
His name is actually an anagram for Kill me.
@@thaumatomane what does you being gay have to do with anything? It's like that stereotype about vegans
Makes me think of the Shining
Rorikstead always struck me as kind of weird. It's just... there. And nothing really happens. Everything about it smells of incomplete stories and cut quests.
vsGoliath And secret Daedric murder cults.
And the sanguine quest
I slaughtered everyone there to fuel my ebony blade, that’s how useless it is as a town
My thoughts too. This is very obviously a case of cut content syndrome.
yeah can't help getting hackdirt like vibes from this town
I love the thought that everyone there is living their lives and the Dragonborn is running around bothering them with a paranoid theory of them being apart of a sort of sacrificial cult.
He sounds like Glarthir in this video
Poor normal village people There good at farming and had a few sad deaths and here This Big scary Dragon born saviour of men Running around ( YOUR ALL EVIL SACRIFICING DEMON WORSHIPERS ) ripping up there Grass and Following there kids around 😹😹😹😹
This theory doesn’t hold much water. The healer and the Altmer are probably having a tryst. 40% of the women die of childbirth otherwise there would be loads more children around. A culture like this should have a growing population not a stagnant one.
The shrine to Akatosh with the dragon scale above the village is most intriguing with Sissel’s vision of a kindly old grey dragon. The blessings of PartySnack?
@@michaeltelson9798 doesn't hold much? you mean like your head. did not think they made people this stupid anymore.
@@LemonSoulz I mean, this seems like quite a few leaps in logic.
Lemkil is actually an anagram for "Kill Me."
You pointing this out only just make me see it
No, that's Nazeem :D
not now
Well he asked us.
Or KILL 'EM
Rorikstead is stuck in a time loop. Some are aware of it, others are not. The war Rorik talks about is a far more ancient one. The reason why Erik's father doesn't want Erik to leave is because he's aware of the time loop, and Erik is not. He left, as Erik wants to, and came back after years of adventure to find the village reliving the same year that he left. Erik leaving means he'll find out about the time loop. It's also why he's packed away his armor: It's from a far more ancient time, and would give away the fact that the town is actually millenia old. Oh, and let's not forget the whole "stay on for one more season." All he has to do is keep his son there for one more season and the year will reset.
As for the soil? The pact was made during a particularly fertile year. Clavicus Vile is known for screwing people over in his deals. "I wish the soil was this fertile every year" and Clavicus Vile makes it that year over and over again. He's known more for the downside of the deal being built into the boon than he is for demanding things in exchange. His masque made its wearer paranoid, he "cured" a man's daughter of lycanthropy by giving him an axe, giving a scribe a quill that everything he wrote a work of inspiration but eventually drove him to suicide, etc.
Whoa, this is such a great theory, wish your comment had more likes so more people would see!
I believe that this is the correct theory. While Camel does have a few good theories, they never really come together; they're ingredients that don't mix. The theory that you have is much more overlying and leaves fewer loose ends. Sorry this is 9 months later
Rorik clearly states that he was impaled by an Aldmeri though.
sshhhhhhh thats not important
there have been other aldmeri dominions though, with the current one being the third, I think.
It just feels like rorikstead has like 4 incomplete quests
Dr _wombo_ Or maybe a whole cut or unfinished questline ? It would explain the exterior of the shack outside of rorikstead, as level designers probably start with designing the world with the hills, rocks and mountains or something similar.
Chast yay it was mostlikly was adungs
@@henrikschunk5732 Yeah, I kinda dislike how Camel-boi here chalks everything up to conspiracy when it's more likely just shenanigans of the developers without any other meaning.
Dr _wombo_ Someone needs to make a mod that builds a new quest line that ties this all together. I like the type loop hypothesis.
@@fuzzydunlop7928 I'm not sure but I think there was to be a Daedra quest in Rorikstead that got cut in the final product.
That really does sound just like a clavicus vile deal. Fertile soil for fertile women.
Someone else speculated that Clavicus may have also put Rorikstead in some sort of time loop, explaining the strange inconsistencies with the timeline.
I'm thinking Mehrunes Dagon. Blood for prosperity and all that.
Honest pay for honest work
Pretty much
A soul for a soul
When a guy spends 2 weeks punching children in Skyrim to answer our much needed questions on the extended lore of Skyrim, you know he's the man we need for this kind of content. you did this all for us. and you are a legend.
"I had a dream about a old Gray dragon,he wasn't scary he was friendly" You wot mate
It's Parthaanux he is a grey dragon and he is friendly. Runil in Falkreath dreamed of the coming of the Dragonborn he wrote it in his Journal and Esbern dreamed of both Alduin and the Dragonborn too.
Bannanaskin666 plays surprised Dragonborn face
It's Paarthurnax
YoU wOt MaTe???
@@joynelbonetdelgado4952 yeah I don't think they were actually confused bud
"Wow Rorik, what is the secret ingredient that makes your soil so potent"
"The blood of the virgin"
"What?"
"Mammoth Fertilizer"
Fertile, not virgens. Two of the victims were mothers.
@@BNK2442 "virgens"
solidraven how virgins?
Super Sweet Sweetrolls dripping with hot sticky glaze. :)
you see the joke is that the mammoth fertilizer is actually of the brand blood of the virgin
I love how when the video is halfway through, Camelworks starts to really sound like someone who has studied this mystery for 200-hours.
Not really
I feel like the kid is being raised as a sacrifice, but Jouane has grown fond of her, and so is secretly teaching her magic survival skills.
I like that thought. Especially with how her sister and father are so mean to her, he probably has a soft spot for her. If he was training her to take his place, that kind of water breathing magic doesn't seem to fit.
@@acidrat420 so maybe he’s teaching her magic skills to survive on her own. This way, when she comes of age (I’m guessing when she hits puberty or something) he’ll tell her the truth and to run away from the town before the sacrifice can happen…leaving only her bitchy sister…
I definitely think that's what's going on
What if drowning is the sacrifice?
@@FullMetalAmerican oooooh that’s good. That’s an interesting idea. 🤔
Sal'aad, daedric prince of cabbage.
He is a patron to all farmers.
Preston Garvey wouldn't it be aedric then? (Or however how spell it)
Are you here to tell the Dragonborn that another settlement needs his help? Is it Rorikstead? Shor's Stone?
Preston Garvey My cabbages!!!
Master NP dAMN YOU XD
Preston Garvey praise be him. Praise be sal'aad
I hope that, wherever Elder Scrolls VI is set, we hear a rumor of a farm girl who scaled The Throat Of The World.
i'd like her to be a recurring character, as an old mage or something.
You can always adopt sissel if Lemkil her abusive father dies.
What makes you so certain that they'd canonically kill off Paarthurnax? I doubt Bethesda would go out of their way to confirm the killing of such a beloved character from Skyrim.
The main questline is over, so the canon fate of paarthurnax is left for the next game to decide.
Aidan Keogh Perhaps he will be another Dragon Break.
*Snicker*
"I can teach you how to put out a candle". You mean like blowing it? 😳
No, like thaumaturgy
Or smushing it with your finger. I tried that to see if it would hurt, by my finger just got covered in wax :/
@@firstname4097 put a cuban out like wolverine if you want a sting.
I do that once a week
So, the ancient Nords worshipped Dragons, and there is a shrine to Akatosh just north of Rorikstead up on a ridge that overlooks the town. It is also east of Lund's Hut. at this shrine you will find Dragon scales as an offering. Something that should not be, given that dragons are just returning. This could be connected to the girl's dream of Paarthurnax. Maybe something of the old Dragon cult (or their practices) survived?
It is Paarthurnax who probably placed that scale himself, and when Sissel saw him.
There were live dragons in the third and second eras, and scales dont necessarily come from a living beast.
Dragons never completely disappeared
The real mysterious answer to the Rorikstead fertile crops?
"It just works." -Todd Howard
Very true.
Mystery solved, case closed, time to go home!
You mean OJ's attorney and the Chewbacca defense?
You just saved me almost an hour cheers!
another mystery is where was rorikstead during TES: Arena or Online?
Or if we want to go the other way, the real answer to Todd Howard's mystical-like streak of "just working" is directly lied to sacrifices in the name of Daedric entities.
West end of Whiterun, born and raised. On the Rorikstead farm, I spent most of my days. -Erik the microphone slayer
This comment is underrated lmao
@Seppy and yet it only had 70 likes
Cuz the thieves in the rift are always hard, come talking that trash and we'll torch your bar. Knowing nothing in life but to be legit, don't quote me bard I ain't said shit!-EZ Enthir
Erik the Player
Chillin out relaxin maxin all cool picking some nirn root outside of school when a couple of bandits who were up to no good started making trouble in my neighborhood i got in one little fight an my ma scared she said your movin with you auntie and uncle to Markarth
Lemkil: "I spend every day tending the fields, and what do my daughters do? Nothing! Complain and caterwaul! Sleep and eat! Useless!"
The Dragonborn: "I uh.... I got some potatos."
Glad I killed him.
HONESTPAYFORHONESTWORK
@@ryokohonda4619 ok so i know the answer is probably yes but PLEASE tell me Sissel is adoptable via hearthfire if you kill her shithead dad
@@finn_in_the_bin5263 yeap. I adopted her actually. And left her evil sister alone
@@ryokohonda4619 welp.i know what i'm doing next time i boot up skyrim lmao
I adopted Sissel the moment she said she's having dreams about a dragon that is strangely similar to Paarthurnax. In my head-cannon, this girl is potentially a Dragonborn as well.
You can adopt her?
@@magentuspriest yeah if you kill her parents you can
@@crad778
You have to make sure that they don’t see you or they’ll hate you.
God I hope you can take her to meet Paathurnax
I think she's being called to be a Greybeard
Reading about Clavicus Vile's realm of oblivion, and guess what it's supposed to look like? Verdant farmland that smells like perfume and rotting flesh. Something nice on the surface but gets stinky when you look deep enough. Like Rorikstead. and the color of the sky? Greenish grey.
Very, very good find.
Amazing find
I said a similar thing barely a minute ago. but, I was only going off what I saw on a clip on CZcams of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.
I wonder what terrible price he will exact in exchange.
Camel: "by the Nine..."
Thalmor Justicars: ಠ_ಠ
Thalmor: **screaming**
I played a high elf who worshipped Talos and sided with the stormcloaks... the thalmor love me.
By the ten!
Every Elder Scrolls fan ever: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
DON'T YOU SEE ? ELVEN SUPREMACY IS THE ONLY TRUTH !
@@Haidonomus_Rex thats just stupid... every high elf in existence hates talos because he unleashed the Brass God on the Altmer and caused all sorts of bizzare events far worse than Death or slavery !!!
altmer hating Tiber Septim is literally the most righteous thing ever specified in the entire franchise of elder scrolls !!!
22:20
I believe this happens because there's a radiant quest where, should someone watch you kill something, they may send you a letter asking you to attack someone they hate in return for coin. In the creation kit, we can see that Lemkil hates his children, so the quest is just a quirck of the quest system.
I know I'm like, 5 years late, but I have the urge to binge all the old videos again.
Well, I’m here too.
I do that often 😁
It could be that the reason Lemkil is so obnoxious towards his daughters is that he knows what the future holds for them, and is forcing himself not to become attached to them by any bonds of anything resembling love.
Actually I like to think the dress part IS him being attached since he himself wants to get them a dress
Eh he prolly doesn't know or if he did he would be trying to ship them out....something tells me that if they did have kids....😶
oh, you know, that's a really good theory. Or, maybe if he's mean enough to them, they'll leave and never come back? It's a hell of a way to protect yourself from the future pain.
“I wish I could be an adventurer like you...”
*Flurry of arrows suddenly appears from nowhere to kneecap little girl.*
At least she can be a guard
I wanted to be an adventurer like you but then I took an arrow to the knee
Morphs into tall armored Nordic man.
"Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll"
The comment "arrow to the knee" isnt a loteral arrow. Its an old norse euphemism for marriage
@@daruphir Can you link a source for that?
"Their twins that's why they look identical" every godamn child in this game looks identical
No shit. That's the joke
*they're.
They're all twins
David Komar I love how I only recently realised Braith is a Redguard. You can really tell by her skin colour.
I love how he said that Meridia’s description in The Book of Daedra implies a relation to necromancy, when she hates them specifically with a literal burning passion
I like the idea that Jouane genuinely wants to help out Sissel with helpful spells and the Dragonborn is plastered against the window screaming about sacrificing women. Also, if that's the truth, bet that Sissel is staring at Britte waiting for the day she grows up and gets pregnant. 'Finally, hey Britte, remember how you used to say I smell like a pig?'
wonder if rorik will make a response video
chaser seven Drama alert interview probably
Cookie Captain it’s FAKE news
It's just gonna be a cheesy promo video for Rorikstead 😂😂
@@kimmehamehaaa7241 "WE AREN'T SACRIFICING FAIR MAIDENS." As the title, lol.
"HI everyone I'm Rorik, at Rorikstead. Do not BELIEVE THESE LIES YOU'VE HEARD, everything is absolutely fabulous, we don't sacrifice members of the female species, the town isn't 4000 years old, I simply just rebuilt it with funds I got from Belethor and Ennis, and the secret to the crops is really just- *video cuts* "
Sissel is so going to sacrifice her sister within the decade. Talk about getting revenge for all the bullying, right?
Bluemilk92 yeah but it’s more likely gonna be the other way around...
I find it strange that mralki locks his armor up its almost like he may have been a BLADE
Yeah, also don't forget he says they don't have money for armor as an excuse. But he has one. It would make sense if his armor is a type he didn't want his son to be seen wearing.
Where is this malki,chest
I've noticed that Juanne and sometimes Rorik will meticulously walk around town and watch people farm.
It kind of makes sense. They're just seeing how the town is doing. But there's something creepy about it.
M'aiq has had cabbage from Rorikstead. M'aiq will never have cabbage from there again.
Umm... Stalin? Why are you speaking like M'aiq the liar, you are an evil dictator not a wise, potentially divine cat-person
Fiskmaster yeah your M’aiq 😂😂😂 yeah right and you feed your people
Captain Aldis I'm sorry but i have no idea what you're trying to say.
Fiskmaster dude, really?😂
Great Comrade Stalin Really hope M'aiq has a line like that in TES 6.
Todd Howard to developer: "Hey did you finish making rorikstead?"
Developer: "oh yeah I did take a look!"
Todd: "dude, it's a tiny Town with nothing in it and one quest. You had so much time!"
Developer: "I dunno, what's wrong with a simple town that has fertile soil? (Nervous laugh)
Maybe Sisel is chosen by Akatosh to be Partunax Wife
@@darienschnucker2453 wtf
Hey is a fantasy world
A little girl marring an old dragon
Whats wrong with that???
Steven hiller that was awesome 😄👍🏻
I always come back to this video. But I do appreciate the 10 year gap between each sacrifice. Think of it, the soil turned amazing 20 years ago.
Erik - around 20 years old.
Britte and Sissel - around 10 years old
Present day - Lund's wife.
10 years into the future - bye Britte
Yep. Juane likely think that Sissel will likely feel little compunction in sacrificing her terrible sister for the good of the village.
This fits the hypothesis so well...
Elder Scrolls Skyrim: The Tale of Four Voice Actors
Seven, Seven voice actors
They did a decent job of it though.
I- I think y'all mean oblivion right...?
Skyrim had over 70 voice actors are y'all okay?
@@xkohaiwolfx9588 you can’t lie tho it’s easy to find like 5 ppl with the same voices in a city or even more some times 😂
My guess is that this was cut content. There was probably a quest that revolved around exposing the dark secret of the fertile soil.
Something like "A Shadow Over Hackdirt", perhaps?
I think that not as creepy as Hackdirt. But yes, I can't help but think on this quest while passing through Rorkistead
If the pact with Clavicus Vile is true then this fertile soil thing in Rorikstead would have been a far better part of the Daedric quest then going to a cave to kill off a necromancer to get the Runeful Axe.
The Elder Scrolls games have tons of lore that's never explained. While it's possibly cut content, there's so many stories from the older games that intentionally leave it a mystery that chances are it is "complete" in the devs eyes.
I like the idea in some of the other comments that this might have intentionally been left to re-explore later in the series. I would love it if we encounter a book on the mage Sissel, who burned her cursed village to the ground before leaving to become an oracle!
Possibly for a rival farm
Come to think of it, Sissel is likely going to sacrifice her own sister within the next ten years. She'd probably enjoy it.
Damn Bethesda.
EmceeProphIt reminds me of The Walking Dead when that blond little girl killed her sister to try to taim her as a zombie (not sure if you know what I'm talking about tho)😂😂😂
sissel send me letters after killing their father and sister, i adopted her and put this little psychotic project as my follower and make entire db quest for only her pleasure :)
Or maybe the girl is unlocking her ability of magic so that sacrificing her makes it so they do not need to sacrifice any more Women
Kill the father, save sissel hopefully she gets adopted.
Guess it is time to kill their father so they are sent off to Honorhall and not sacrificed. I also gotta kill Grelod so they aren’t treated worse.
Rorikstead was always interesting to me because when you arrive there the man named Rorik says he established it. Yet you know, when you look at the ancient book that Farengar Triangle Face gets from our Blades friend at the start of the game, you see Rorikstead listed among the villages of Whiterun Hold back in that ancient era. That's what made me wonder about Rorikstead myself as the idea of this ancient village and presumably on the face of it, a guy who just happened to have the same name settling in the same spot eras later to start a similar village just seemed... odd to me.
Funny enough I never pegged some conspiracy about soil however. When Rorik himself says "We just work hard" I believed it. Because.. that's a common line in Skyrim. "Only a Nord is stubborn enough to work the soil here" and all as several sources point out. And growing up as a farmer myself I know a good deal of progress can be made by the standard of sheer stubbornness even with inferior land.
But I always wondered about that time and name situation. If there was some sort of time loop as I've seen suggested? That time loop goes back to the era of the Dragon War at the very least. The "Rorik" you talk to in there is technically thousands of years old pretending to have just settled that place a couple of decades ago.
What amazes me however is that no one else in game picks up that. "What do you mean Rorikstead was settled 2 decades ago after the Great War? My Grandpappy got cabbages from there!" is something you'd think would be pointed out.
Sadly I always figured the truth was Left Hand not knowing what the Right Hand was doing. The designer who filled in that ancient book referring to a Rorikstead during the Dragon Wars didn't know the person designing the settlement in game came up with a story that the settlement was only 20 years old. They just saw a mention of a Rorikstead in the game and filled that in for the book.
POTENTIALLY IMPORTANT:
When you got to the part about lund's hunt I was literally there during my playthrough IRL and noticed something interesting. You mentioned how he had a possible wife who was sacrificed.... Well the thing I noticed might had some merit to this theory... In the chest next to lund's corpse yielded a boy's yellow tunic! Why would lund have children's clothes unless hehad a wife who was expecting? Don't know if this has been pointed out lol
According to the wiki, when entering Lund's hut with the Spectral Assassin, he'll say, "I can smell murder in the air."
DarkDragonDave I forgot about lucian being in skyrim, I'm going to bring him along with me next time I do sheogoraths quest so the hero of kvatch can see his old friend, doubt either of them will say anything though.
@@GordonGarvey you can't bring followers with you, and only the Wabbajack works in the Mind of a Madman.
Ya' missed something,Camel: Lunds hut is full of empty wine bottles. He was drinking away his grief. More evidence he is pining for his dead wife.
Mcchuggernaut wife?! But I don't find any note or else at his house!
Husband not wife it’s the Horse theft from the beginning of the game
I always just assumed lokir was lunds son that left because going off this video all the women that are being sacrificed had kids first so lunds wife has lokir then is killed and after lund becomes a drunk and lokir grows up and leaves which causes Lund to adopt skeevers cuz hes lonely and he either drinks himself to death or kills himself. Maybe he got a inheritance letter or some word of his son being killed first or maybe he just did it because he didn't think lokir would come back who knows
I think Lemkil giving you gold for attacking his daughters is an oversight that occurs because he is set to have a negative disposition towards them. I've never had it happen, but apparently it's basically a radiant quest that can occur if an npc sees you attack someone else. They'll send a letter asking you to attack people they have negative dispositions towards, and they'll also sometimes send a letter thanking you, and giving you gold, if they see you kill someone they don't like.
My first reaction to the water breathing spell instead of the fire spell is that in medieval times Witches would be tried by weighting them or throw them in water. If they would float they would be burned at the stake or maybe in this case be sacrificed. If they would sink they would drown instead. A water breathing spell would certainly be able to save her life one day as the townsfolk are suspicious of magic and mages and would maybe not tolerate a young spellcaster within their mids. Jouanne noticed her talent for spellcasting and wanted to protect her instead. What is maybe suspicious is that an Altmer living far away from summerset and is only interesting in farming. I wonder what her backstory is. To bad this little town was probs one of those areas that got cut and the quest was never written.
That is an interesting thought about the breathing spell. Makes a fair bit of sense.
As far as the Altmer is concerned, I think their society is very much caste and hierarchy, and so there are low caste altmer who may indeed be farmers. And if she dislikes the Thalmor or the whole Aldmeri dominion stuff, she'd best be far away from the homeland until things change. But I agree, she is suspicious.
I think it could also be related to Kynareth. Kynareth is the goddess of nature and harvest which good explain the good soil. Sissel is able to dream about parthurnaax who taught men the voice, as instructed by Kyne. Perhaps the town is blessed by Kynareth and Sissel is a seer
You'd think that in that case they'd have some shrines to honour her, since she's one of the devines and not the forbidden deadra
What if Kynareth blessed Sissel to stop the sacrifices
@pabbylink Nice catch! It might not be the only explanation but it could very well have something to do with what's going on. It would certainly explain what's happening with Sissel as far as her having visions of Paarthurnax.
also probably unrelated there is a shrine of akatosh overlooking the town but akatosh doesnt really seem to relate anywhere here besides maybe being the father of dragons hence why the girl knows about paarthurnax
AnubisGaming I'm pretty sure that's Dibella's area
what conditioner does Erik use tho
The real secret is how Erik sacrifices fertile women to maintain his glorious locks.
Wyn B. *though
Lore'al
Mods
@@alpeshabhijitchowdhury6895 Lol Rore'al
I think they didn't have enough time to make Rorikstead. It is ripe for numerous quests. And the conversations between Jouane and the little mage girl are so intriguing and somewhat sinister, you'd think there'd be numerous quests.
In about my second *serious* playthrough of Skyrim,
I did a bit of “sleuthing” and I figured the reason their soil’s so great might be because they were sacrificing all the women in town in order to keep their farmland so fertile,
explaining why the only girls in Rorikstead, are just children.🧐😔
And based on how she was treated by her family, they might’ve had plans to have Sissel sacrificed next.😒
Sooooo I sniped her dad from the hillside while he was farming, Aaaand immediately adopted Sissel.☺️
Also her bully of a sister got sent to the orphanage. So they were both spared from the potential fate of sacrificial doom.👍🏻
Actually, if you adopt britte she becomes less of a bully
@@Dovah_Slayer perhaps she just needed a loving family
@@boney2982 yes
I tried to do that. I was busted every time. 😕
Another weird thing about Lund's Hut; if you have the Spectral Assassin gift from the Dark Brotherhood (Lucien LaChance, from Oblivion!), you can summon him inside Lund's Hut, and he will say "I smell murder in the air". He says it every time. So. This MIGHT mean that Lund did not commit suicide; it may be that he was murdered, and it was made to look like a suicide by...Jouane? Raldith? Maybe Lund knew the secret of Rorikstead, because his wife was sacrificed, and he was about to blow the whistle?
That's interesting. I always thought Lund and Lokir were married and Lokir left after discovering the weirdness going on. So maybe he poisoned Lund before leaving because he was so angry, I mean Lund hasn't been dead very long as the Skeevers haven't eaten all of the meat yet.
@@elizabethtrudgill3567 Why would Lund and Lokir be married? Scandalous milk-drinking lovers maybe, but gay marriage wasn't exactly a thing until very recently.
@@elizabethtrudgill3567 That would make no sense, because Lokir couldn't have possibly bean the body inside the memorial. At the
@@Jake_Sherrell Sorry what? You didn't finish.
@@elizabethtrudgill3567 That's so weird, I definitely finished that comment but it somehow got cut. I forgot what I wrote in that final sentence, so it's a mystery to me aswell.
"Seems like a good man until you poke around town for 200 hours" Lol! We appreciate the work you put in! xD
You know over a decade of playing this game, I just realised that all the high elves in Skyrim except for those associated with the Thalmor (except one) and Taarie's sister, they are all for the most part just lovely, nice people who just happen to have a brutally honest trait, something that as a woman with autism, I can relate to 😂
That's why I liked Altmer women (except the Thalmor). They were very honest when it came to their opinions. There was no second guessing what they liked and didn't like. They have also completely mastered the art of sarcasm.
Brutally cringe you mean.
Perhaps Lund's hut is a scrapped Daedra mission that involved this Rorikstead conspiracy
He could be teaching her how to survive executions, putting out fires (surviving burning at the stake) and surviving being drowned. It makes sense that she would need to survive if they thought killing her would save the women.
Ouhh man. Really. Your a genius.
By the nine, you’re really onto something there!
that does seem like it would make sense. plus it seems like it would be better to teach her conjuration if its just for the reason of taking over for him in sacrificing the women. alteration and healing don't really seem useful for that purpose.
@@jakebamford3435 BY THE EIGHT YOU MILK DRINKING CINNAMON ROLL MISSING LOLLYGAGGIN KNEE
A note about Lemkill and asking you to hurt his daughters: I've heard it explained that if you show violence in front of a character (such as killing someone in sight of Lemkill), they have a small chance to request you hurt/kill someone they dislike. So basically, it's a small chance for anyone to offer money for that service, and he simply is scripted to dislike his children. Nothing special about that interaction being tied to Rorikstead.
Crow I have had this happen I attacked rorik and was arrested, while in white run a courier approached me with a letter to see lemkil I visit and he pays be to hit one of his girls (not sissle) I do and he pays me 50 gold
It's also fixed by Unofficial Skyrim Patch which he is most likely using. So no surprise he couldn't trigger it.
Just wondering why in all the many remastered versions of the game they've never finished out this story line. It seems like someone laid the groundwork for a good deadric side quest.
Been going through a bit of an episode of depression recently, dove headfirst into Skyrim and it helped like always. I’ve been constantly feeding myself your content and it’s done a lot too. I can actually plug into it, enjoy it, laugh at it, and shut everything off for a little while. I love how you present the lore and how it all ties together. You deserve more views than you get. Your content is very appreciated and worthy of multiple watches.
hey I hope you're feeling more like yourself and things are looking up
@@shandiana thank you! They definitely are! ❤️
I hope you are doing well, and still playing when you can! 😊
Why is no one commenting on the carry weight:1478/310 at 7:38 . Now i understand why it took him 200 hours to make this video.
Jack Osten it's called tgm
Dude i know camel uses console commands. My comment was meant to be taken as a joke.
Jack Osten he probably had god mode on
Now I want to see a video like this where finds that he forgot to tgm after trying endlessly to trigger dialogue, only to be killed by a giant or something mid-scene.
Must
Stay
Awake
Must
Watch
*CAMEL*
The Boulder love your name xD
The Boulder Atla!
I had a throbbing migraine when this came out. You describe my thought process verbatim.
The Boulder oh my god, its the boulder!! U got rekt by toph
also check out nazeem new dance from papa manslayer
I swear I don’t know what to do with myself when he says “a nice fertile woman” 🤣
This whole thing -- especially the bit at the end with the inaccessible green exterior -- is genuinely spooky, and beautiful, and weird. Like it depicts the psychological reality around the physical house of the suicide.
"Cut quest" or no, it feels very artful. I love that it was just left in this state as an ominous and fascinating series of implications for players to draw what conclusions they will. Feels like Twin Peaks.
Subscribed.
I'm more terrified of the floating cheese at 23:45. Sheogorath's left his mark.
SuperHellKnight666 I came looking for this comment, I was not disappointed lol
Uncle Sheo leaves his mark in the best places.....
SuperHellKnight666 no
He messed with the food on Gurdurs table in Riverwood aswell. *Worships*
What If Sheogorath Meets C' Thun.
RESPECT C' THUN AND SHEOGORATH.
«Drinking ale, Sissel approaches»
Sissel: I wish I could be an adventurer like you.
Me: «Drinking, into mug» Mmmm-hmmm. «glug, glug»
Sissel: I've been having dreams about a friendly gray dragon--
Me: «pppppffffftttttt» «gag, cough, splutter, cough, cough!» Wh- whaat?
Paarthurnax: "Krosis. I was stretching my wings, and did not expect the little joore to be up at two in the morning!"
Alduin: Really Paarthurnax!? You ruined my surprise for the citizens! I hate you, krosis. Well, there is always Helgen...
Haha, this made me laugh :'DD
cringe and french
What if the original comment of Sissel wasn't a gray dragon but a Gay dragon
if you read Runil's journal (its a quest item given to you by Runil the priest of Arkay in Falkreath) he also talks about dreaming of dragons and possibly the dragonborn without ever seeing either. and he mentions how weird it is he dreamt of both. maybe something to look into
I was just wondering about this the other day. I usually don't read his journal but I did this time and I saw this reference to dragons and dragonborn.
I do not know if you are aware but... Rorikstead has also very nearby a lair full of vampires... too close that they would be oblivious about it. Would they perhaps have anything to do with this village? I always wondered about that, to be honest.
In my current playtrough,there *_was_* a vampire lair nearby.
Isn't Clavicus the patron of a vampire group in Cyrodil? Hmmm...
There is a fourth place to find Spirit of the Daedra. MY FREAKING CHILD'S CHEST IN BREEZEHOME!
I KID YOU NOT, that kid has ONLY brought home books about Daedra! The first one was about Azura I believe, and the second is the Spirit of the Daedra!
My children in Skyrim terrify me.
Stardust_456 Getting a Children of the Corn vibe from that.
Obviously they know about the deals you've made for those Daedric Artifacts.
I may or may not of thought them the ways of lord Molag Bal
I'm trying to figure out how Lucia keeps getting plants that are only found on Solstheim, while living in Whiterun.
hey my kid has a black sacrament book in his chest bruh that's why I never go back to my home and have a whole new house away from him
Sissel could be blessed by Kyne. Her dreams a combination of her natural gift of magic, and a calling to High Hrothgar.
Sissel the Greybeard? That could work.
@@JoshSweetvale no it couldn't, a woman greybeard, shameful
@@amenthegreat3761 That's gonna be a yikes from me chief
@@amenthegreat3761 that's not stated anywhere in TES lore,hell there even is a female mesh for the greybeard robes despite them being unobtainable in vanilla.
Greyhair (but no beard)
46:15 i think this might just be a case of "if we remove the tomato the game will crash so we just left it in"
44:25 Maybe that was part of the quest that was meant to be about Rorikstead's soild, but was left in when they presumably ran out of time. Maybe entering through a secret door in the hut led to a horrifying nightmare version of Rorikstead. The arrangment of the rocky crags are quite similar to those near Rorikstead, after all.
*hears Lemkil's voice*
IF I HAD A SISTER, I'D SELL HER IN A SECOND
Too big game, but so few voice actors. :/
"I'm a synth"
Isn't the healer the same voice as the guy in Markarth studying the dwarves? Calcemo I think his name was...
yep, I think you're right
Kos4Evr It is George Coe he died few years ago
Damn we really got robbed of a nice quest. :/
I thought it would be really nefarious, but after hearing the possible conclusion... it sounds more-so sad rather than sinister. Jouane wanted to help his village, may have come across the Daedric book one time and was desperate for anything. He most likely contacted Clavicus Vile and made a pact with him, not realizing Clavicus Vile's sinister nature until it was too late. As for Reldith's input, I don't think it may just be a copout. She's an altmer, and altmer tend to be very boastful, arrogant, and prideful of themselves and their work.
Dude you’re a genius this is one of the most interesting Skyrim videos I’ve ever seen n it kept blowing my mind every lil thing n even the dialogue it truly is more interesting then any other towns npc dialogue, anyway, great video, 10/10, keep up the good work 💯
Thanks mate! Means a lot! Got plenty more very interesting Elder Scrolls videos coming over the next few months 😎
Sounds good man looking forward to it, I hope to also see sum content from u when elder scrolls 6 comes out whenever that may be, n hopefully the creators will be nice enough to leave us more Easter eggs on the whole rorikstead ordeal @camelworks
Camelworks Ik this May sound dumb to u n u prolly already looked into it, but there’s a small fort not too far from rorikstead called bleak wind bluff, it’s guarded by the forsworn n a Hagraven n I think it’s possible that the location might be involved in the daedric rituals that go on in rorikstead, when u go in u see bones, blood, skulls of deer n humans, ur normal creepy ritual stuff n the stones in there look very familiar to the one outside of Lunds hut n there was also a dead skeever in bleak wind as well, it could be possible they killed it while they were there for sum rzn n he felt bad for it n grown attached to em for that rzn, Ik it sounds stupid n u prob already looked into it but if u didn’t I strongly suggest that u do, knowing u if there’s anything important there, Ik you’ll be able to find it 👍🏼
I feel like the hut, the unfinished exterior of the interior, the real age of the stead, the futility, and Sissel are all unfinished/cut content. Has to be. Just think how amazing these quests would have been if they decided to continue with it. I mean… Amazing.
And what if they make little nudges at it in the next game? That'd be neat.
But seriously, with the unfortunate dead ends on some parts of this, it really seems like it was cut content.
The hut reminds me of that pinewatch house with a big cave built into it
"See those guards over there? Cause any trouble and you'll have them to deal with"
Me: *looks at the corpses next to the dead dragon* Um... Yeah, about that...
😂
I think this is the original Clavicus Vile quest. Or at least a competing one that wasnt chosen for whatever reason. And that it was completed enough to leave in the game as an interesting stop.
And here I though "Cowflop" was a cow-tipping reference, lol
I thought Cowflops were carcasses of cows.
I think Rorik is secretly a demi-prince (which is why he appears human) who works with Clavicus Vile. Whenever he "dies" just like any other Daedra he returns to Oblivion and then comes back to re-establish Rorikstead. He secures souls for Vile and in return gets to live a cushy live of farming.
This makes about the most sense to be honest
So Clavicus smashed a mortal chick and made Rorik. Huh, interesting.
@@daughter-of-loki1062 A fertile one maybe hmm
What if the females are given to Vile so that he can make sons like Rorik.......
I don't know about cushy, have you tried manual farming?
Fertility for fertility, it does sound like it was supposed to be the Daedra quest for Clavicus Viles that they were planning early on, but cut it in favor of the (less intriguing) quest we have today. It could help explain why there was something so close to being this awesome mystery, but never touched upon in game.
C' Thun Meets Daedra Lords.
I'm almost sure of this. I've recently seen a documentary on Bethesda and they routinely bite off more than they can chew, so I suppose this questline got scrapped later in the development for a less time-consuming one. It's a pity as well, since had they not added the current Clavicus Vile quest, they could've patched this in later, or include it in Dawnguard or something. This way they blocked themselves in and can't just remove another questline to make this work.
It'd be interesting if you could find Sissel or Britte later in the Honorhall orphanage, depending on how the quest would go.
The "rorikstead" mentioned in older texts could refer to different rorikstead than the one we visit. its not unheard of for more than one place to share the same name, at least IRL
For some reason, I can't get it out of my head that Sissle may be influenced just a bit by Hermaeus Mora, dadric god of fate, past, and future who also has infinite knowledge and memory; then we have little Sissle who is having dreams of an old, grey nice dragon. Or alternatively, her birth was affected by Clavicus Vile due to her being the younger sister and was closer to her mother during the time of death and was granted some power by Clavicus Vile.
Teaching the little girl to snuff out a candle (light) is another way of saying he's going to teach her how to take a life.
Good observation!
Fitmikec And saying she wants to light candles us necromancy?
A Toaster Not sure about that, but throughout the history of literature and film, light and life have been used interchangeably.
I did not catch that the first time. Good catch.
Except she's not that clever with her wordage. If she wanted to know how to raise the dead she'd ask if she could be taught to raise the dead. She'd probably ask if she could be taught to bring a butterfly or chicken back to life.
Something that caught my attention was when Camel was reading about the book of the daedra, some of them actually described very specific personalities within Rorikstead.
Hermaeus Mora: Knowledge of fate, past/present, and treasures knowledge. Sounds like Sissel, who sees visions of a friendly dragon.
Mehrunes Dagon: Change, Revolution, Energy, Ambition. Sounds like Erik, who wants to break out and demands he be set free and wander the world.
Namira: Spiders, Insects, and other creatures that are repulsive to man. Lund kept skeevers as pets, a lot of them. No one else does this. Also, Namira is all about the ancient darkness and is the spirit daedra, which clipping out of Lund's hut puts you in this strange ethereal realm not like other areas in the game, except some areas of Blackreach (there are small patches of faint green tint.)
I would throw a wild theory out there that it isn't necessarily the fertile women offered up, but the children of the fertile women, and the women are killed in the process as the children become champions for the daedric princes.
Oooor.... Jouane _IS_ Clacivus Vile/Mephala, just fucking with everyone.
"Lund kept skeevers as pets, a lot of them. No one else does this." Hamelyn bred skeevers into venomfang skeevers. Corpulus Vinius had a pet skeever when he was a boy. Your adopted son can bring a skeever into the house and ask if he can keep it as a pet.
“no secrets here, my friend”
“you sus, bro”
I think the thing about Sissel thanking you for killing Britte is a quirk in the programming, since Sissel and Britte most likely, in the game files, have low disposition towards each other and it is a random event that someone may thank you and give you a gift if you kill someone they don't like. The part with Lemkil wanting you to beat up his daughters is most likely a similar quirk in the programming.
With the falling book in the inside exterior, i was kinda hoping for "Lusty Argonian Maid" :/
i was hopping for A Gentleman's Guide to Whiterun by Mikael The Bard
I was so waiting for that to come up.
We all wish for the lusty argonian maid when we see a book.. or, in general ;3
(‘ ^ ‘)
Lol
Clavicus Vile's deals usually are double sided with a tragic undertaking by the victim such as Sebastian Lort's slaying of his lycanthropic daughter, or cause and effect such as with his vampire underlings becoming immediately cursed by the pact they made with him.
I think that the deal made with him in the case of Rorikstead was not a sacrificial pact, but a cause and effect pact.
Its not that Jouane sacrificed these women, or that Reldith is an accomplice.
Rather, when these women gave birth, Vile took them, and Jouane couldn't stop them.
Reldith wasn't an accomplice to a sacrifice, but rather the midwife during delivery that witnessed the Daedric influence take its due from the twisted pact.
Chance Morey I like this one ❤
My theory is that the fertililty of the women went into the soil.
Leschwa89 BE A PART OF SOIL.
Just came across this place and instantly felt some eerie nature. So glad my impressions were correct, this whole story sums up why I love this game
12:45 lol! "I need you to help me, just one more season". Thats definitely from the first star wars. Uncle owen telling luke he needs to help him on there farm for "just one more season".also a wise man once said when it comes to parenting. " Would you rather your kids be safe or competent? The answer is competent because incompetence is dangerous but there's nothing safer then competence".
Personally I think the issue with the age of Rorikstead can be explained rather easily. Whenever you hear them talk about the village from three thousand years ago they say Ol' Rorikstead, not just Rorikstead. They are two different towns and the first one is long gone by now. The reason the owner makes it a point to say this town was named after him was cause people would think he just copied the name from a famous long gone town and he wants to be clear why it has the same name. Just my theory though.
Basically my thoughts, also, he said that he got the land WHILE his kindred where to the south fighting, so BEFORE the end of the war, not at or after it.
I like that theory
He could also be talking about a family name. Maybe he's Rorik, son of Rorik, son of Rorik etc and he feels it's named after 'him' because of his ancestors
Or you know, maybe it's a family name. Yk like in the old times, they used to have the same first name and went on marking it as fourth fifth whatever. So maybe what he really means is that Rorikstead was named after one of his ancestors who was also named Rorik.
Maybe he is immortal
I like how the only thing you can say to Lemkil after his rant is "I have potatoes to sell."
HONESTPAYFORHONESTWORK
etherraichu that’s why I killed him and only adopted one child.
@@tarabryant2909 I adopted both girls, gave a dagger to one and a doll to the mage one.
*Raids several homes.*
*Sells food to the farmers food was stolen from and those who bought from them.*
@@joynelbonetdelgado4952 The violent asshole gets a dagger....
(8) gold added
This Rorikstead conspiracy should be a questline. It'll be so interesting to see this actually go somewhere.
Sounds like there could've been a cut quest and it should be named "The Pact of Fertility"
"In Rorik's manor where Jouane and Rorik live, we can also find..."
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Phoenix X-7 I guess your now in the business of getting thick eyebrows.
i rekon that Rorikstead is where the original clavicus vile dedric quest was supposed to happen but they scraped the idea for a reason
The problem with the books thing is that Rorik isn't am uncommon name. So there could easily be many Roriksteads.
Like the thousands of places called Springfield, Newstead or Manchester.
Like it's incredibly incredibly unlikely that a village would endure the passage of time untouched some place like Skyrim.
We are so lucky to have someone like you that puts all those hours into skyrim, investigating, so that we can enjoy another one of your stories. And oh boy, what a story. This one is my fa favorite! Thank you for all your hard work! 💗
55 minutes long TES Detective video? hell yeah!
Kairos I thought the same :D
"It's not luck, mother-farmer"
I laughed more than I care to admit
35:18
This is one of the best vids I've seen for Elder Scrolls. The atmosphere and script were fantastic and you went through as much as you could, well done
I know I'm very, very late, but I have some insights that may help explain the myths about beating up and killing Sissel and Britte:
If I remember correctly, very character in Skyrim has either a positive, negative, or neutral disposition towards each other's in the game's files. Most people are neutral to one another, but if a character has a positive or negative disposition towards another character, there can be some interesting interaction that happen. Lemkil has a negative disposition towards Sissel and Britte, and Sissel and Britte have a negative disposition towards each other in the game's files. This means that, if you attack or kill one of them, there is a small random chance that they will thank you and reward you with gold for doing so. It's just a part of the game's natural code, the developers just didn't turn if off for this family. This explains why you couldn't get it to trigger- it's a very small, random chance to occur. It's not a myth, it's real, but I don't think it has any lore implications.