Recent Entries

  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 10

    In this part of the Adventures of Sandaro we are going to talk about levelling. The purpose of levelling changed in Elder Scrolls Online with the release of the One Tamriel patch in 2016. Up to that point, game content was levelled in the various zones in the game. So, for example, Auridon was for...
  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 9

    There are a few different types of dungeon in Elder Scrolls Online – but since this a guide about playing solo there is just one that we will talk about…. Delves.   What are delves? A solo delve in ESO is a small cave, ruin or dungeon that is specifically designed for one person....
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  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 8

    Back in Chapter 5 of this guide, we discussed how to spend those first few precious skill points to make your character viable in combat and adventuring around Tamriel. Essentially, my recommendation was that the first ten or so skill points should be spent in acquiring the class skills and c...
  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 7

    In this part of our ESO Beginners Guide we are going to have a quick look at ‘Ultimates’, what they are and how to use them in gameplay.   Let’s start with some of the basics   Ultimates start to become available when your class skills reach Level 12 - although Armo...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 6

      Food glorious food? Like all Khajiit, San-daro enjoys her food and drinks – especially if sweetened with moon sugar. Right from the very start of the game, she has been collecting ingredients, picking up any recipes that are not nailed down (and a few that were…) and taking ad...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 5

    ‘Where should you spend your skill points?’ It’s one of the most common beginner questions that gets asked on ESO forums. There no hard and fast ‘right’ answer, but there are a few principles that should be born in mind.   Without a grasp on these foundational ...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro; Chapter 4

      You’re not going to get far into Elder Scrolls Online without being forced to fight. Yes, you can get around in Tamriel without getting into too many scrapes – but there is no way to avoid combat altogether. I know people have done pacifist playthroughs in Skyrim, but I wouldn'...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro: Chapter 3

    If you’ve been following along with this guide we’ve covered character creation – including race and class choice – and the very beginnings of getting to grips with the basics of the game once you step out into Tamriel.   Our titular character, San-daro has survived th...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro: Chapter 2

      During the course of the tutorial you are going to start levelling up – you will go from level 1 to level 2 by something an innocuous as picking the lock on the slaver hut on Firemoth Island. This will give you your first major choice after starting the game – namely where to p...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro: Chapter 0

    This one does not to look in mirror to know that she is pretty One of the questions often asked is: ‘Does race matter in ESO?’. In most cases, what people mean by that question is whether the choice of race (which is made at character creation and then locked in) will negatively affec...
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  • The Adventures of San-daro: Chapter 1

    This one thinks that Fonten might come to regret drinking so much happy juice, no?   ...and, may San-daro be bold enough to opine 'Look what the cat dragged in..'?   Firemoth Island is small crescent-shaped outcrop just off the coast of Seyda Neen in the Inner Sea. If you played ...
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  • Truth and Cleverness need not be enemies

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  • What the Tamriel Vault has meant to me?

    Hello all, Todd here.  Over the last five years, The Skyrim Blog / TamrielVault has been home to many wonderful members. Over that time we have all contributed to this community in our own way (even you, Lurkers!) and we've all helped make this community the wonderful place that it is. I thought tha...
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  • Stories, tales and poems: Five years on...

    It makes perfect sense to me that a site that was called 'The Skyrim Blog' would include the opportunity for people to blog. And the switch to Ning in October 2011 opened up that possibility - with the chance for every single member of the site to have their own individual blog to record their stori...
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  • The Evolution of the Roleplay Group

    The roleplay group here on the site has a long and illustrious history with tons of great content and a whole slew of dedicated hosts over the year. Thank you to current host, Legion, for penning this retrospective ----------------------------- The foundation of the Role Play group is strongly roote...
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  • Introducing 'The Gateway'

    Hot News! As part of our 5th Birthday Celebrations we are pleased to announce the launch of The Tamriel Vault's newest and freshest Group... The Gateway This group is mainly the brainchild of Edana, and so I can't do better than have her tell you what its all about in her own words Keep your finge...
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  • Five years of the Lore Group

    Thanks to Phil, Karver, Matt and Tom for this excellent retrospective ======================= The fact that the Lore Group is the oldest Group on the site is not its main claim to fame. Rather, I think that honour goes to how it has acted as a resource for builders and bloggers over the years. Indee...
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  • The Best of Tips and Tricks 2011-2016

    One of the enduring features of our site over the last five years is our Tips and Tricks group. Many of you will not remember that it was first called 'Skyrim Glitches' and the very first host was our erstwhile Overseer, Todd. Anyway, Albino has trawled the archives and picked out his personal favou...
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  • Character build Group: Five Year Retrospective

    While it isn’t the longest-running group (that honor belongs to Elder Scrolls Lore), Skyrim Character Building has been a feature of the site for almost as long as the site has been on Ning. With over a thousand builds counted amongst its ranks, the CB Group continues to be at the forefront of qua...
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  • 10 things you probably didn't know about this site

    Five years is a long time on the Internet, and there have been lots of twists and turns along the way with The Skyrin Blog / Tamriel Vault. So, just for fun, I thought I'd delve back into history and take a look at some of the things that many of you newer people might not realise about the history ...
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  • BIRTHDAY POLL Why do you still come to the site?

    When a site has been around for five years we inevitably end up with a mix of people who have been around since the year dot - together with loads of folks who arrived at some point along the journey. But the one thing that unites all of us is that we are all still here! So the topic of this birthda...
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  • How did you come to the site?

    With the 5th birthday Celebration Weekend underway it got me wondering how you came to find the site and get started here? So I thought I'd start this up as a topic because.. well... I'm interested to know... How long have you been here on The Skyrim Blog / Tamriel Vault? How did you come to find th...
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  • Birthday Celebrations - Be a Bard for the Day

    April the 1st is Tamriel Vaults birthday. Its 5 years old….. It really is a standing testament to Paul who first founded it and to everyone who has helped form the blog. From Todd to the humble lurkers who walk in the shadows. Hircine bless you all. In respect and honor of this, we at Tamriel Tales ...
  • We are FIVE today

    Yes, its true! The original Skyrim Blog was launched on April 1st 2011 - which means that today is our fifth birthday. To celebrate this not-inconsiderable achievement, we are going to be having a few days of special features here on the site. There will be a special forum topics, mini-events, a bir...
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  • Member Spotlight: Golden Fool

    Interview conducted by Albino  While we have plenty of members deserving of a spotlight, few deserve one more than Golden Fool. With contributions spanning multiple site groups he’s certainly one of the Vault’s more active members. Today we’re going to shine the spotlight on him and learn more about...
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  • Member Spotlight: Sotek

    Prolific wordsmith. Argonian enthusiast. Die-hard werewolf fan. Aela's devotee. If you've spent any time around the Vault you'll have no doubt made the acquaintance of the Tamriel Tales host, Sotek. With over 200 chapters written on his namesake character, it's a wonder he hasn't had his moment in ...
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  • Fallout 4 Launch News and Reviews

    The waiting is almost over - and Fallout 4 is literally just around the corner. So that we can collect together all the hot-off-the-press launch news and reviews in one place, I have created this special blog post.  UPDATE #1 Here are the first ten video reviews from YouTube IGN Gamespot VideoGamer ...
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  • Member Spotlight: Curse Never Dying

    Prolific builder, helpful CB host, and a talented artist to boot..? Can you guys seriously believe that our own Curse Never Dying hasn't had a spotlight yet? When I scrolled through the list of previous Spotlights, I was beyond shocked to find that one of our most active members (let alone the thin...
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  • Member Spotlight: Elysium

    This month we're going to shine a light on one of our resident CB hosts whom ShinJin has dubbed: The Builder’s Builder. Shin did an amazing job of showcasing her incredible array of builds and you should definitely check out his Spotlight for an in-depth look at, in Shin’s exact words, "phenomenal w...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Mirage

    The sands of time come for us all… Welcome, one and all, to this week’s hidden gem spotlight! This week, we have a speed demon up for show (And not the Michael Jackson kind) - Raidriar’s Mirage The Mirage even boasts the ability to perform a dual wield power attack four and a half times faster than ...
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  • POLL Which creatures do you like to kill most in Fallout?

    No matter how high your Speech and Sneak skill in Fallout, there will come a time when you have to kill creatures. But which is the creature you like to kill the most? That's the topic of this poll. I've listed most of the feral creatures that can be found roaming the Wastelands. All you need to do ...
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  • LORE Forced Evolutionary Virus

    Our Fallout Lore Group is really only just getting started, and many, many articles will be added over coming weeks and months. But there's already some great stuff there, including a full explanation of the Forced Evolutionary Virus courtesy of Mr Edd. The FEV plays a key part in the lore that supp...
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  • NEWS 10 things we learned about Fallout 4 from QuakeCon

    Today, QuakeCon attendees were treated to a brand new Fallout 4 demo chock full of new information. While there’s no footage of this panel, with thanks to Kotaku we have a round up of the most interesting details for you. There will be about a dozen possible companions, including Dogmeat, Mr. Han...
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  • DISCUSSION How to make the front page of the site better

    Mason has kicked off this forum post to provoke discussion and ideas sharing about how to make the front page of our site more exciting and enticing Obviously we have some limitations from Ning 2.0 - not to mention my scratchy understanding of HTML, let alone CSS. Fortunately we have Vazgen on han...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Lightbringer

    Greetings everyone and welcome to this week’s Hidden Gem Spotlight - Soulless’ Lightbringer, now some of you may already be familiar with this build due to HeroicXCV’s video which featured it. There are a few reason’s that it has been chosen for both a Spotlight and Heroic’s video. First of all thi...
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  • SITE NEWS A million reasons why The Tamriel Vault is alive and well

    On June 17th, The Skyrim Blog morphed into being The Tamriel Vault. It wasn't universally well received - change never is! But the vast majority of people understood and appreciated the reasons, and the site has been building and moving forward ever since. Today I can tell you, via the wonders of ...
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  • POLL: Which is your favourite town in Elder Scrolls and Fallout?

    Here is another poll that spans the worlds of Fallout and Elder Scrolls... Which town in Fallout or Elder Scrolls do you most like to visit? Now, as I'm sure you will all leap to tell me, I have missed out some (perhaps I missed out your favourite?). There are, of course, too many to include - but...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which build should survive the Deathmatch?

    Here we go again with our weekly Deathmatch, as we offer up low ranking Character Builds in a desperate battle for survival. This week Elysium has plumbed the depths of the Bloodworks to find six combatants for the Deathmatch - and here they are: The Black Panther by Nihilismind Constantine by Th...
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  • VIDEO Bethesda releases 'gameplay exploration' video

    Don't think there's anything new here, but its good to see it brought together in such a cool and evocative video..
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  • WANTED Writers and Hosts for our Fallout Content

    Unless you've been living in a vault these past few weeks, you'll have noticed that we have shifted the focus of our site in the direction of Fallout 4, whilst also strongly supporting Elder Scrolls. Now that the rosy glow of E3 is over, we need to start planning and preparing for the release of F...
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  • TOPIC Seven Reasons Fallout New Vegas is better than Fallout 3

    After running head-to-head for a while, Fallout New Vegas has pulled ahead in our poll to find our favourite Fallout game. That got me pondering the question ‘why’? So here are my Top 7 Reasons why Fallout New Vegas is better than Fallout 3…. 1. Better world map Bethesda specialize in ‘open world’ g...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Way-Maker

    (The Picture works as a Link for once) Have you heard the the Story of the Way-Maker? I thought not, few have. They say that when the End Times begins, the great and all-powerful HoonDing shall arise once again. Arise to carry the star children into the next Cycle. The HoonDing has always lead us ...
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  • VIDEO Let's play The Heretic

    Keen followers of PCOutcast's excellent 'Let's Play' series will already be aware of this, but for those who need a prompt I thought it would be good to mention the latest play through is The Heretic by Mason.  Many of you have been asking me to play this build for over a year, so here we go. I'm pl...
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  • DISCUSSION Player bases and settlements

    Emer has kicked off this discussion in Vault 111 Today I found myself thinking about possible benefits of having customizable bases and/or settlements in FO4. I'm already considering the possibility of having a trap-laden base that I use to lure enemies to their deaths, but obviously I'm still not s...
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  • VIDEO Can't wait to play Fallout 4?

    Those of us of a certain age will recall the venerable power ballad 'Can't fight this feeling' by 1980s band REO Speedwagon. Now, I cannot imagine what would inspire someone to make a parody of this hair-metal classic based around the burning desire to play Fallout 4. But someone did... I've been w...
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  • POLL Which is your favourite Fallout game?

    It's time for another poll and we are turning the spotlight onto Fallout this time - and asking Which is your favourite Fallout game? We have the contenders in the poll, going right back to the venerable third-person game back in 1997 (sadly I am old enough to have played it when it first came out.....
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  • ARTIFACTS WEEK Oblivion Artifacts

    We're coming to the end of Artifact Week, in fact this is the last day. But before we wrap up we have one more feature for you.. This time we have something fresh and written especially for this theme - its a thoroughly comprehensive and very enlightening guide to the Artifacts of Oblivion from Karv...
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  • POLL Time to choose our new site background

    As you know from previous announcements we have been inviting people to make a new background for our new site. Well, the Photoshop geeks have been at work, and now its time to choose... Here's what we have. There are no less than eleven potential backgrounds for the site, each taking elements of El...
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  • POLL The Artifact Poll of Polls

    Over the course of Artifact Week we have had a series of polls about Daedric, Aedric, Legendary and Classic Elder Scrolls Artifacts. Almost 2000 votes have been cast and we now have our finalists for a 'Poll of Polls' to determine the absolute favourite This poll is going to run over the weekend (so...
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  • ARTIFACT WEEK Hidden Gem

    It's Artifact Week here in the Tamriel Vault, and what better build is there to shed light on than the wielder of everyone's favorite daedric artifact, the Ebony Blade. This week we're casting the spotlight on the Web Spinner by MoLoLu. The Web Spinner is a clever agent of Lady Mephala, the daedric ...
  • Thursday in Artifact Week: Classic Artifacts

    Well, we have reached Thursday in our special week of 'flash polls' for Artifact Week. And today we turn back the clock, and turn the spotlight onto those classic artifacts from Elder Scrolls lore that, for one reason or another, didn't make it into Skyrim. I've chosen a bunch of artifacts from Obli...
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  • ARTIFACT WEEK Roleplay

    Want to go down the roleplay route AND have some fun with Artifacts? Well, how about making your own artifacts? Borommakot, one of our roleplay hosts, has just started a brand new thread on this theme, and is now inviting YOUR contributions. As he comments One of my favorite things about Skyrim is t...
  • ARTIFACT WEEK Tips and Tricks

    Albino, host in our Tips and Tricks group has been in touch with a tasty little tidbit for Artifacts Week. This is nifty glitch called  Dawnguard Rune Shield Without Stamina Drain. As Albino comments, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Check it out!
  • Wednesday in Artifact Week: Legendary Artifacts

    Thanks to everyone for voting in yesterdays 'flash poll', as we saw The Staff of Magnus and Auriel's Bow make it through to the Poll of Polls next weekend Today we are looking at what I've termed 'Legendary' Artifacts. Yes, its a bit of made up name, and perhaps somewhat controversial as I've hand-p...
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  • NEWS Fallout wins Best New Game at E3

    Hot off the press news just in... (hat tip to Mason)  Fallout 4 has won 'Best of Show', 'Best PC Game' and 'Best RPG Game' at the recent E3 event.  Our switch to a hybrid Elder Scrolls / Fallout site right not have pleased every loyal Skyrim Blog member, but this is surely further evidence that we a...
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  • Tuesday in Artifact Week: Your favourite Aedric Artifact

    Well we had a few technical gremlins yesterday, which stopped us really getting Artifact Week off to the flying start we had hoped. Thankfully they seemed to have been resolved by the boffins at Ning so here we are back on the front page A reminder that this week only we are having 'flash polls' - t...
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  • Artifact Week starts here in the Vault!

    This week is a theme week - and this time we are looking at Elder Scrolls Artifacts There will be a series of posts, features and events around the theme of Artifacts. Look out for blog posts, polls, videos, pictures and posts from our archives. To kick things off we have our poll - but this week is...
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  • SITE NEWS Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

    If you want to keep right to date with The Tamriel Vault then why not follow us on Facebook and Twitter? The Tamriel Vault Facebook page is regularly updated every time there is something new on the front page of the site. All you need to do is add a 'like' to our page and the updates will appear in...
  • HIDDEN GEM The Evoker

    The Evoker seems to be one of Paul England's least appreciated builds. However this build represents the focus on a single skill that is only boosted by other skills. Welcome to the Evoker. A build based around the destructive power of, well Destruction magic.  As always I like to take a little bit...
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  • CONTEST Design the new background for this site

    Hopefully you all have realised the current site header (the banner across the top that says 'The Tamriel Vault' with two guys suited up in Power Armour) is temporary. It was put there just for the Fallout 4 Announcement and E3 hype. We now need something more permanent. And this is where you guys c...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which faction in Elder Scrolls or Fallout is the most interesting?

    With more than 200 polls now posted on this site its pretty tough to come up with original ideas, but I think the site changes have allowed a fresh approach to polls. So I am proud to present the very first poll that is about BOTH Fallout and Elder Scrolls... This week we are looking at factions (or...
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  • SITE NEWS Update for week commencing June 29th

    Greetings Tamriel Vault dwellers! This post is a follow up to my blog from last week called Wanted: your ideas for taking the site forward, which attracted over 100 comments. Thank you! It has been suggested that I might 'round up' the comments, signalling where the Admin Team are leading the site a...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay on this site?

    Here we go again with our weekly Deathmatch, as we offer up low ranking Character Builds in a desperate battle for survival. This week Albino has plumbed the depths of the Bloodworks to find six combatants for the Deathmatch - and here they are: Royal Assassin by Michael The High King's Ranger by ...
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  • CONTEST Design a new header for our site

    As you all hopefully have realised the current site header (the banner across the top that says 'The Tamriel Vault' with two guys suited up in Power Armour) is temporary. It was put there just for the Fallout 4 Announcement and E3 hype. We now need something more permanent. And this is where you guy...
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  • SITE NEWS Wanted: Your ideas for taking the site forward

    A week ago we transitioned the site from The Skyrim Blog into The Tamriel Vault. It's time to take a moment to take stock, reflect on things, look at how we are doing - and get some ideas for moving forward... I know that for some people the 'end' of The Skyrim Blog was painful. I'm sure all of us l...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which new race for Elder Scrolls VI?

    In amongst the understandable frenzy over Fallout 4, we are all still excited for Elder Scrolls VI. OK, so it might be a couple of years away (at least) but its still fun to speculate... So here is a poll that asks an interesting hypothetical question: If Bethesda were to add another playable race t...
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  • CLASSICS Why you should still play Morrowind and Oblivion

    Here's a nice little feature from our Elder Scrolls Classic Group. It's a post from The Lone Prisoner, one of the Hosts, extolling the virtues of the older Elder Scrolls games. Now, you may have noticed that we aren't the most active of groups, and that's partially on us, but that's also partially d...
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  • WORKSHOP SUCCESS The Drunken Mage

    That's right folks, it's back again. Welcoming a new entry into the Workshop Success Story for the first time in a while. And to kick things back up is Golden Fool's  Drunken Mage.  I'll be starting off with a word from Golden Fool himself,  By using the Workshop the members that commented not only ...
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  • SITE NEWS Fallout Groups are rolling out

    Greetings Tamriel Vault dwellers Now that we've transformed the site into The Tamriel Vault it is time to start putting the building blocks in place for the eventual release of Fallout 4. As well as regular news features and our Fallout forum, that means setting up groups to hold Fallout content. We...
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  • BLOG Shinbira: Journal of a Survivor by Idesto

    It's time to feature another of our excellent stories and I've chosen Shinbira: Journal of a Survivor for this front page showcase. Idesto has uploaded 13 parts so far - and he's still in Riverwood, so this is a sedately-paced and detailed story! Goodness only knows how many parts there will be if...
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  • Fallout Shelter crushes Candy Crush Saga

    Todd Howard pulled a proverbial rabbit out the hat with his announcement about Fallout Shelter - with the kicker at the end that it was available in the App Store right away. Well, it turns out that Fallout Shelter has been a runaway success. Right now it is #1 in the Apple App Store, and threatens ...
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  • SITE NEWS The new site name

    Greetings faithful site members As you know from my previous posting, we are making a lot of changes to move the site from being a Skyrim-centric site to one which is focused on the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises. Part of that is to give the site a new name to reflect the new direction. We did...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Bloodthirster

    Hello everyone, today I bring you yet another build that never escaped the clutches of the lower ranks but deserves hire. A build that flew under a lot of people's radar and is back for more.  The Bloodthirster by Borommakot is a Vampire Beast, by that I mean he will rip through any and all prey t...
  • NEWS Xbox One will support Fallout 4 modding

    Stellar news has been revealed at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference: Fallout on the Xbox One console WILL support user made mods! Yes, you read that correctly. People who play on Xbox One will be able to load and play mods made on the PC, for free. Isn't that amazing?  Here is the footage from the M...
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  • E3 Presentation stokes the anticipation for Fallout 4

    Well, you've got to hand it to Bethesda. They know how to fan the flames of anticipation for their major releases.... From the minute that Todd Howard walked out onto the stage last evening for their pre-E3 Presentation in front of cheering and hollering fans and game hacks, the whole event had the ...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay on the site?

    Here we go again with our weekly Deathmatch, as we offer up low ranking Character Builds in a desperate battle for survival. This week Elysium has plumbed the depths of the Bloodworks to find six combatants for the Deathmatch - and here they are: The Night Witch by Cheshire Darwin Torres Priestess ...
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  • A Leap into the Future...

    Over the past couple of weeks, behind the scenes, we have been thinking and talking about the likely impact of Fallout 4, and the future of the site. It's now time to open up this discussion to everyone - and your views are welcomed on this important topic. I think quite a few of us held out some h...
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  • MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Raidriar

    Call me biased if you will, but Raidriar's spotlight has been both long overdue and well deserved. He's a well rounded and highly respected member of the blog, whose contributed to just about every major group the blog has to offer. From character builds, stories, and even live role play, nothing Ra...
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  • POLL: How do you react to the Fallout 4 reveal?

    So, the rumours are true. Fallout 4 is almost here... But how do you react? Brimming with excitement or completely turned off? Somewhere in the middle. This is your chance to give your instant reaction to this hot-off-the-press news, revealed just an hour or so ago. Vote in our poll and give your re...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which is your favourite dragon type?

    The past week has been Dragon Week on The Skyrim Blog. It's time to wrap that up now - but, before we go, here is one last dragon-themed poll Which is your favourite type of dragon in Skyrim? I've listed all the various types (source: Elder Scrolls Wiki) that appear in the game. Vote for your favour...
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  • Let's talk Dragons

    It's the weekend here on the Skyrim Blog - and as Dragon Week draws to a close here are some threads around the site where we are talking dragons... How do your characters react to becoming Dragonborn? This venerable thread is from the role-play group and discusses what happens to your character s...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Dragon of the West

    Greeting Skyrim Bloggers, and today we have a Hidden Gem for Dragon week, and we have the aptly-named Dragonborn1421 to introduce it... Hello everyone this week I bring you not just a great build, but a build from perhaps the most under-rated builder of all time. I'm talking about Deathmetus and his...
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  • POLL Which is the coolest and most useful Dragon Priest Mask?

    Hey Skyrim Bloggers! We have a special bonus for Dragon Week - as we unveil our second poll of the week! As promised we are celebrating Dragon Week by wrapping up our Dragon Shout Poll (results now posted on that thread) and opening up a second poll - as we ask 'Which is the coolest and most useful ...
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  • VIDEO The Dragons of Skyrim

    An oldie - but a goodie 
  • LORE The Dragon Cult Re-examined

    Time for a bit of lore to give everyone something to read for Dragon Week. The Dragon Cult Re-examined, written by Phil, is a post from October 2014 that subverts the accepted lore about the dragon cult - and examines it in a fresh and interesting way. With 56 posts in the comments, this is a post...
  • TIPS & TRICKS Unlimited Shouts

    Here's a quick tip from Albino, one of the Tips and Tricks hosts here on the Skyrim Blog.  How you would you like to have unlimited shouts? Pretty much every build I've seen that uses unlimited shouts relies on either the Equipment Stacking or Fortify Restoration glitch to do it. With this simple ti...
  • POLL Which is your favourite Dragon Shout in Skyrim?

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers - and welcome to 'Dragon Week' on the site. During the week, there will be all manner of Dragon-related content being featured. And to kick things off we have the first of two polls for the week. Yes, you read that right - there will be TWO polls this week. The first will r...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay on the site?

    Here we go again with our weekly Deathmatch, as we offer up low ranking Character Builds in a desperate battle for survival. This week ShinJin has plumbed the depths of the Bloodworks to find six combatants for the Deathmatch - and here they are: The Frost Maiden by Cheshire Darwin Torres The Hito...
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  • TIPS & TRICKS The Luck Debate

    We have an nice feature today from our Tips and Tricks Group - a debate called Feeling Lucky Teccam has kicked off this discussion about the lack of a luck attribute in Skyrim.  In this thread, we invite all members to discuss the Luck attribute that was featured in previous TES games, but left out ...
  • CHARACTER BUILDING Evolution Event

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers! There's a special event unfolding right now in our Character Building group - the Evolution Event. Not sure what this is all about? Let's hear from (former) CB Host, Noodles: Evolution is all about making event builds that utilize glitches, exploits and / or the infamous m...
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  • Next Week is Dragon Week

    Following the success of our first theme week - when we focussed the site on Argonians for a week - we are pleased to make an announcement. Next week - starting on Sunday May 24th - will be 'Dragon Week' here on The Skyrim Blog. Vazgen is already slaving over a hot laptop to create a totally awesome...
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  • WEEKLY POLL The State of Play with Elder Scrolls

    Well, this weeks poll won't win any points for originality, as it has been done - in varying iterations - on at least three previous occasions. But, nonetheless, it is useful for us to periodically ask the question: 'Where are we with Elder Scrolls?'.  You'll see that this is a poll where multiple...
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  • CHARACTER BUILD DEATHMATCH

    After a break last weekend, the Deathmatch has returned! Each week a motley collection of builds from the dark bowels of the Bloodworks are pitted against each other in an all-out 24 hour battle for survival. The winner gets to live to fight another day, but the losers are terminated by the blood-th...
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  • Introducing the Art Group

    You'll have seen that this weeks poll is based on the latest event in our Art Group. As we are featuring this poll, I thought it would be good to have an introduction to the Art Group - so that those who are not members, and maybe have never even thought about it, might be encouraged to find out mor...
  • Vote in our 'Art Bonanza' Contest

    Something a little different for the poll this week, and we turn the spotlight on our active and growing Art Group here on the site. Members of the group have been busy creating drawings and artwork for the contest and I am pleased to offer up the contestants Asudor Foremaw - Cloak and Dagger Asudor...
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  • The most popular Argonian NPC

    Well over 1300 people took part in our poll to find the favourite Argonian in Skyrim, and it was Dark Brotherhood member, Veezara, who took the spoils with a 31% vote. Behind Veezara were Riften market vendor, Madesi and the only possible Argonian follower in the game, Derkeethus. Thanks to all who ...
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  • Argonian Lore Video

    Want to know a bit more about the obscure and largely-hidden lore behind the Argonians? Then be sure to watch this video by Shoddycast, and added by Kyrielle to the Video section on our site
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  • A little light reading for the weekend

    Searching around for a good story to highlight for Argonian Week, I came across the very wonderful 'Dragon of the East' by Okan-Zeeus. Here we have something that goes beyond the usual category of 'story' into the realm of 'epic'. A fully fleshed-out series of writing with highly-developed character...
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  • Workshop Success Story: Namiara's Basilisk

    Another contribution to our Argonian week - this time we have an example of how our Workshop can help transform builds from mediocre to magnificent. Time for another workshop success story and this time we have Namira's Basilisk by Halifax. I couldn't resist doing one for Namira's Basilisk, because ...
  • HIDDEN GEM The Hist Mage

    Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! Just about everything surrounding The Hidden Gem Spotlight for this week is a bit... different. First off, in honor of Argonian Theme Week, we have chosen a build that is specifically geared for all you lizard-lovers out there. Second, we’re featuring a build that has ...
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  • Modding Argonians in Skyrim

    Do you play Skyrim on a PC? Want to mod Skyrim in ways which will greatly enhance your enjoyment of Argonians? Then you need to head on over tothis incredible collection of Argonian-themed mods that has been put together in the Modders Conclave Here you will find an amazing collection, with mods tha...
  • Roleplaying an Argonian

    Have you ever thought about role-playing in Skyrim as an Argonian character, but never quite figured out how to do it? Then, take a look at this post from our Role Play group, where this question is explored. There are already three pages of posts from our members looking at this - but the thread i...
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  • Test your knowledge of Argonians in our Quiz

    How much do YOU know about Argonians? Phil has started up a special Argonian Quiz in the Lore Group, where you can test your knowledge of the race and their background. Head on over to the Lore Group now, and see how you fare against those who have taken the Quiz so far.
  • WEEKLY POLL Who is your favourite Argonian in Skyrim?

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers It's Argonian Week here on the site, and what better way to kick it off than with an Argonian-themed Weekly Poll! This week we are asking: Who is your favourite Argonian NPC in Skyrim? I've made a poll with the likely contenders over in the right sidebar. If you need a refr...
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  • Theme Weeks come to The Skyrim Blog

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers Today we are announcing a brand-new feature here on the site : Theme Weeks. Once every two or three weeks (it will vary) we will be having a special week where lots of activity on The Skyrim Blog will tie into a special theme.  This all starts next week (week commencing May...
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  • Wiping the slate clean

    Greetings fellow Skyrim Bloggers! Over the past 24 hours, Emer and myself have made a start on setting  a course for this site going forward. There will be exciting announcements to come in the next day or so, keep an eye on the front page for developments! One of the things we are all too aware abo...
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  • Announcing major change in site leadership

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers. Yes, its me - Paul, with an important announcement for the future of The Skyrim Blog. A couple of days ago Emer reached out to me to enquire whether I would be interested in becoming involved in the site leadership again. Interestingly, I was, at the same time, approaching...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Where in the world are you?

    Here is a poll that has been done before - but with a constantly changing membership it is always interesting to see how things shift over time So... where in the world are you? Vote from the options in the poll - and tell us in the comments below about your location
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay on the site?

       Greetings everyone!        I, Flameo Instant Noodles - The Melon Lord, along with my ruthless Character Building Group co-Hosts, Albino and ShinJin, are proud to welcome you to The Arena! Take your seats, place your bets, enjoy the view and get thrilled for the massacre that is to come!        W...
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  • TIPS & TRICKS Dovahkiin the Double Agent

    Another Tips & Tricks feature, and this time its Dragonborn 1421 suggested one - its the Dovahkiin the Double Agent discussion from the group. The thread was originally started by Albino, and in the opening post he notes As it turns out, there are a lot of opportunities for you to switch between...
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  • FORUMS Skyrim Hide and Seek

    I don't think we've EVER had a forum thread as a featured post - so its high time that changed... A couple of people have suggested to me that the Skyrim Hide and Seek thread, started by Twisted Orthus would benefit from a 'feature'. This is a forum game - but not a mindless or silly one, as these t...
  • ROLE PLAY The Northwing Sisters

    Time for a front page feature from our active Role Playing Group, and Host Chris Diokno, has pointed me to a profile for this feature. He comments  My choice for an RP feature would be MarkusMasterThief's Northwing Sisters, a well written (In my opinion) profile. From the introduction to these prof...
  • TIPS & TRICKS Combat Discussion

    New Tips and Tricks Host has been in touch to ask for a feature for the 'Combat Discussion' thread in the Group. Here's the intro  The Tips and Tricks group is great if you're looking for answers on a specific topic, but to all you newcomers you might just be looking for some general combat tips. Wh...
  • VIDEO Lego Skyrim

    Thought this was well worth a front page feature. Absolutely brilliant!
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which do you think is the best fantasy world in gaming or literature?

    As I mentioned in a thread in our forums last week, this weeks poll takes a slightly different slant - and moves away from being strictly about Elder Scrolls. Since we have the 'Cross Worlds' Event going on in the Character Build Group, which is all about creating builds inspired by non-Elder Scroll...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay on the site?

    What do you want? Blood and Piles of Corpses! And what will you stand witness to? Death and Destruction! Fifteen Character Builds taken from The Bloodworks will fight for their lives and for your amusement! Those who gain your favour in the form of 20 likes will be granted freedom to pass into the h...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Magna-Ge Spellslinger

    Welcome, one and all, to the Hidden Gem Spotlight! This week we've got an amazing magical glass cannon for you. Gotta love those glass cannons... the epitome of balance: a beautiful dance  between power and fragility that is an absolute blast to play. So, rolling with that concept of glass cannon bu...
  • ART A Guide to Perk Spreads

    Have you ever wondered how people create those cool looking perk spread graphics that are now pretty much compulsory in Character Builds? Well, wonder no more. Golden Fool has created a very helpful Guide to Perk Spreads using MS Word and Paint. Here is Golden Fool's intro Golden Fool here to explai...
  • MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Chris Diokno

    Now a long time member of the Blog, Chris Diokno has a lot to show for his time here, and seems to have every intention of continuing to offer his upbeat and frequent feedback, commentary and his own quality content. Lets get to know our latest spotlight member a bit better! As it turns out, Chris...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which is your favourite temporary blessing in Skyrim?

    Well folks, last week we had a good response to the poll about blessings. With well over 1000 votes cast, it was a decisive win for the Blessing of Talos Inspired by that poll, I've shifted the focus slightly this week and made a poll about the various temporary blessings that can be gained in the g...
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  • HALL OF FAME #12 Battlemage

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts Flameo (Instant!) Noodles, Albino and ShinJin are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 12 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we'r...
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  • ROLE PLAYING Roleplaying a thief

    Want to roleplay in Skyrim as a thief? Then you need help to figure out the subtle nuances of role playing in that style. And we are here to help. Gave Miniaci has written a really excellent Guide to Roleplaying a Thief, which goes into many issues that you'll need to consider. Even experienced play...
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  • ES CLASSICS New overhaul released

    Exciting news for fans of the venerable Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - our very own The LordArchCanon has released a fantastic new overhaul of Morrowind over on the Nexus. Here the lowdown on this amazing project MNEM is a complete overhaul of Morrowind. Though it focuses primarily on immersion, MNE...
  • STORY CORNER A month of short stories

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers. Here is some front-page news from Okan-Zeeus... Hey folks! Month of Short Stories is back with another installment for the month of February! Just like last time, we're calling on all writers to participate in a month-long writing fest. The challenge is simply: try and wri...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which is your favourite blessing in Skyrim?

    As you all know, there's a whole bunch of temporary buffs that can be obtained in the form of 'blessings' throughout Skyrim. But which is the best? The most useful? Or are they all basically a waste of time? That's what this weeks poll is all about... I've listed all of the blessings that you can ob...
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  • HALL OF FAME #11 Ravager

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts Flameo (Instant!) Noodles, Albino and ShinJin are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 11 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we'r...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Has the news about ESO changed your opinion?

    Last week we had some very important news with the announcement that Elder Scrolls Online is to dump its much-derided subscription model in favour of a 'free to play' policy (albeit with an in-game shop). In one fell swoop, the most common 'objection' to this game has been removed. Or has it? Does t...
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  • HALL OF FAME #10 Vampire

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts Noodles ( Melon Lord! ), Albino and ShinJin are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 10 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we're ...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which is your favourite magical trap in Skyrim?

    Well, last week we had a poll about physical traps - and the winner turned out to be the Spinning Blades. So I guess it was inevitable that there'd be a follow up poll on magical traps. (In fact Ben called it, the smarty pants ) This week we have the various types of magical traps in the game (some ...
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  • HALL OF FAME #9 Defender

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts Noodles ( Melon Lord! ) and Albino are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 9 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we're picking th...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Magicka Blocker

    Welcome to the Hidden Gem Spotlight! This week is the historic beginning of featuring builds that you nominate. The theme, Crossworlds, was in anticipation of the similarly titled upcoming event, and features a build that brings characters from a different universe into Skyrim. While it turns out th...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Which is your favourite trap in Skyrim?

    Hello Skyrim Bloggers - welcome to the latest weekly poll.  With well over 150 polls in the archives, it's hard to come up with fresh ideas for polls - but we've got one this week that's never been done before. Inspired by a thread in our forums, this week we ask: Which is your favourite trap in Sky...
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  • HALL OF FAME #8 Lycanthrope

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts Noodles and Albino are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 8 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we're picking the best Lycanthro...
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  • WEEKLY POLL What games are you looking forward to in 2015?

    As you know we had our annual 'Game of the Year' poll over Christmas, with Dragon Age Inquisition edging out Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor in a close fought battle. This week we have our other annual tradition - a poll that asks about the games that you are most anticipating for 2015. Now, I must ...
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  • HALL OF FAME #7 Thief

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts Noodles and Albino are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 7 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we're picking the best 10 Thief ...
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  • END OF YEAR POLL What is your 'game of the year'?

    It has become the custom on The Skyrim Blog for the final poll of the year to be a 'game of the year' poll. It's our chance to chew the cud over the various games that have thrilled - or disappointed - during the course of 2014. I've selected a bunch of games that are a reasonable fit with The Skyri...
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  • HALL OF FAME #6 Mage

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts, Noodles and Albino (now re-branded as Ben A, Prime of the Order of the Ben), are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 6 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on T...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Elder One

    Welcome to the Hidden Gem Spotlight! This week we’re featuring a build for people who want something a bit… different. You’ve slunk around and stolen everything in Skyrim; you’ve assassinated an emperor; you’ve sworded and boarded; you’ve unraveled the mysteries of Aetherius and have become Archmage...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Grand Favourite Quest Shoot Out

    Well, we've finally arrived at the Grand Shoot Out in our long running saga to find our all-time favourite quest in Skyrim. Over the past six weeks we have held a series of polls to find favourite quests in all the various guilds, factions, the main quests, DLC and side quests. Each of the winners...
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  • HALL OF FAME #5 Assassin

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts, Noodles and Albino (now re-branded as Ben A, Prime of the Order of the Ben), are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 5 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on T...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Aedric Spear

    Good afternoon to all of you, Ben B here with a great Hidden Gem Spotlight never seen before.  This week I’m pointing you all in the direction of a Heavily Armored, Spell flinging, Two-Handed Sword wielding badass. The Aedric Spear by Nalcarya. This build is one of the most interesting builds to com...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Ebony Shadow

    Greetings, all! This is Lazy Rocktime speaking, your resident EXOtic and all-around cute guy here with this week's Hidden Gem Spotlight. I think you all know very well that there are some great builds (and builders) out there that sadly do not obtain the recognition they deserve. It is for this reas...
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  • ART Tutorial for making custom text

    Dedicated to housing all forms of Elder Scrolls art, the Art group strives to catalog the best and brightest pieces both created by our talented members and collected from around the net. To showcase the many features of the group, the Host of the Art Group Alice, brings us a tutorial about making E...
  • WEEKLY POLL Favourite Skyrim Quest #6 Side Quests

    Greetings fellow Skyrim Bloggers, and welcome to the sixth and final elimination poll in the process to find our all-time favourite Skyrim quest. This week we look at the many and various side quests - those found in towns, dungeons and the wilderness of Skyrim and Solstheim. Thanks to those who nom...
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  • HALL OF FAME #4 Ranger

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts, Noodles and Albino, are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 4 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. This time, we're picking the best 10 Rang...
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  • TIPS & TRICKS Host Opportunity

    Hello Skyrim Bloggers, here's an opportunity for someone looking to get more involved with the site. Twisted Orthus, who is the Admin responsible for hosts and groups, has been in touch to say I am in the process of searching for a new Tips and Tricks host at the moment. While I could just ask peopl...
  • WEEKLY POLL Favourite Skyrim Quest #5 Daedric

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers Our long-running saga to find your all-time favourite Skyrim quest continues - and this week we are looking for your favourite Daedric quest. The poll lists the Daedric quests available in the game (with the exception of the one for the Skeleton Key which you could have vot...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Avatava

    Howdy, and welcome to this week’s installment of the Hidden Gem Spotlight! Honestly, I’m not sure what series of unfortunate events kept this build from going Mythic the week it was released . One way or the other, we felt it was high time this gem was brought back into the light of day where it bel...
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  • HALL OF FAME #3 Crusader

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts, Noodles and Albino, are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 3 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. So, let's get cracking! Which builds dese...
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  • WEEKLY POLL Favourite Skyrim Quest #4 Dawnguard and Dragonborn

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers and welcome to week 4 of our ongoing attempt to choose our all-time favourite Skyrim quest. This week, the focus turns to the DLC, and the poll lists the various quests available in the Dawnguard and Dragonborn add-on packs. Vote for your favourite quest in EACH (yes - yo...
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  • HALL OF FAME #2 Nightblade

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that CB Hosts, Noodles and Albino, are re-building the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 2 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. So, let's get cracking! Which builds dese...
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  • HIDDEN GEM The Crystallurgist

    Ladies and Gentlemen may we have a drum roll please: I, Dragonborn1421, am proud to introduce the Hidden Gem Spotlight. Yes, that's right it's back! ShinJin, Lazy Rocktime, ThePuppetMan and of course myself are proud to bring you a new Spotlight every single week. So enough showboating and let's mov...
  • ELDER SCROLLS CLASSICS A New Sheogorath

    We have fresh front page content today - and for the next couple of days! Today we present, courtesy of The LordArchCanon, an offering from our Elder Scrolls Classics group. We present The New Sheogorath. It's the prime entry in the Event Build held in the Classics Group, and obviously its meant to ...
  • WEEKLY POLL Favourite Skyrim Quest #3 Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild

    Hey Skyrim Bloggers. We continue our series of polls to find YOUR favourite quest in Skyrim. This week we are looking at the quests offered by the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild. I've listed all the quests in two polls in the right sidebar. You can vote in BOTH, so please do so and let's see...
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  • THE HALL OF FAME #1 Witchhunter Builds

    If you have been following the discussion in our Character Build Group, you'll know that new CB Hosts, Noodles and Albino, are starting a major re-build of the 'Hall of Fame'. This is week 1 in the whole series of polls which will run across the weekends here on The Skyrim Blog. So, let's get cracki...
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  • Favourite Skyrim Quest #2 Companions, College and Civil War

    Three polls for the price of one this week! In our ongoing quest to discover the most well-loved Skyrim Quest we are looking at three of the faction this week. Take a look to the right and you'll see three separate polls. Vote once in EACH poll! I've listed the quests for The Companions, The College...
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  • POLL: A month of short stories

    Some weeks ago I posted up a feature about a competition over in our Story Corner called 'A month of short stories'. This has now resulted in a list of stories to read and choose from - and a poll... This poll will run until Monday - yes, just 48 hours to read the stories and cast your vote. Think o...
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  • POLL Which is your favourite quest in Skyrim? 1: The Main Quest

    OK Skyrim Bloggers, we are going to find out our favourite quest in Skyrim! There are a LOT of quests in the game, so this is going to take us a while. Here's how it will work... We'll have six weekly polls that will look at different categories of quests e.g Factions. Town, Daedric, DLC and so on. ...
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  • POLL: Which parts of the site do you use?

    Hey Skyrim Bloggers. I'm just about to disappear off for the next week or so on holiday (or 'vacation' as I believe you Americans say!). So here's a poll to chew over whilst I'm gone... I thought it would be interesting to get a sense of which parts of the site people use on a regular or even irregu...
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  • TRICKS & TIPS

    Good morrow, ladies and gents! Your friendly, neighborhood Trickmaster Al here with another gem from the T&T Group. Today's feature is Soneca's Advanced Melee Corner Soneca compiled an extensive list of cool tricks for you melee enthusiasts! This guide covers a wide range of close-combat abili...
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  • ROLEPLAY A Guide to Creating a Character Profile

    Here's the next feature from our ever-active Roleplay group. This time we have the Guide to Creating a Character Profile. Penned by Borommokot, this definitive guide tells you not only on how to make a character profile, but why you should! It even includes a template to get you started! As the intr...
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  • ES CLASSICS New Morrowind Overhaul

    I've got something interesting for you to chew over today. Our very own Lord ArchCanon, the host of our Elder Scrolls Classics group has been working on a Morrowind Overhaul. It's called the MNEM Overhaul and it appears that it is very well progressed in its development. It aims to balance Morrowind...
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  • POLL: Which is your favourite bard song in Skyrim?

    With over 100 polls created on this site its getting pretty hard to come up with brand new poll topics, but we've got one this week.. Which is your favourite bard song? It's a simple choice. Which of the five vanilla bard songs in the game do you like the most? Or do the songs just drive you to di...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds deserve to survive this week?

    Hi, Billy Mays here. Welcome to the Character Build Deathmatch!  We have 7 builds for you to judge.  They have 24 hours to reach 20 likes or receive the most votes.  Those that fail to do so will be deleted.  Who should stay? The Dragonpaw Monk Savagekin Deathstroke The Temporal Warrior The Daedra W...
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  • LIVE ROLEPLAYING: Fallout LRP ready to roll

    Last weekend we announced the brand new Fallout Live Role Playing game here on the site. Worked on for a number of months, and kept top secret by the creators, this promises to be an exciting new feature here on The Skyrim Blog. I've got to be honest, I've never played an LRP game myself, and don'...
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  • CHARACTER BUILDING Expanded Races of Skyrim

    Ben has been in touch to draw my attention to something that I guess most fo you will have completely overlooked in the Character Build Group. Ir's a post called 'The Expanded Races of Skyrim' Xianix tried to make up his own versions of how to play as other TES races. Its a great post with a lot of ...
  • TIPS A complete guide to Shouts

    Alastor brings us the latest feature from our Tips and Tricks  group. Good day, fellow bloggers! Alastor here with another fantastic post from the T&T Group. Today we're featuring Ponty's Complete Guide to Shouts! Ever wondered what was actually happening when you 're endlessly screaming those e...
  • ROLEPLAY Unorthodox race choices, classes, skills and playstyles

    Here is Borommokots latest suggestion of an interesting and perhaps overlooked article in the Roleplay Group - its about Unorthodox Race choices, classes, skills and playstyles by Henson An interesting discussion on taking races, classes, and abilities out of their comfort zone to keep your playthro...
  • LORE Races Quiz

    Today we have the latest in the series of Lore Quizzes from Kirella, this one is based around the races of Tamriel. How much do YOU know about the many races in Tamriel? Take the Quiz and find out!
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  • POLL Who would be the best rulers of Skyrim after the events of the game?

    As we all know, a large part of the plot and quests of Skyrim are based around the ongoing civil war and wrangling over the future of the province. We find ourselves inexorably drawn into this in the game - but what do you think should happen after the events of the game? Do you think the best way...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay?

    Hi, Billy Mays here. Welcome to the Character Build Deathmatch!  We have 7 builds for you to judge.  They have 24 hours to reach 20 likes or receive the most votes.  Those that fail to do so will be deleted.  Who should stay? Steel Mystic Priest of Namira The Merchant Thief Aspect of the Spider Shad...
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  • VIDEO Skyrim 'Hardly Working'

    Here is a video that popped up in the feed for our video section here on the site. 'Hardly Working' is a whole series of parody videos that cover a range of subjects, not just gaming - although they have a decent selection of gaming-themed videos.  As with all 'humour', its purely subjective as to...
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  • TIPS An Argument for Unarmed Combat

    Hey guys, Alastor here with a blast from the not-so-distant past! James's Argument for 'Unarmed Combat' is a fantastic guide that offers 7 different ways to boost your unarmed damage and dissects the mechanics of it all in layman's terms! If you haven't read anything from James yet, you probably are...
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  • QUIZ Another Lore Quiz

    Following the interest shown in our previous Lore Quiz, I'm pleased to let everyone know that there is now a second Lore Quiz available. Phil has messaged me to ask me to feature the Quiz, and - of course - I am happy to do so. This one is by a new-ish member, KIralla - good to see a new member arri...
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  • REVIEW Ponty Reviews 'Elder Scrolls Online'

    I'm grateful to Wave for pointing me to this post in the General Gaming Group. Hello Paul! This was quite thought out, but I don't think it got the attention it needed, so here's something you can put on the front page. ESO in review: is it worth it? "Ponty delves into the world of Elder Scrolls: On...
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  • ROLE PLAYING Mathias Wickcroft: Witch Hunter

    Borommokot has pointed us to a particularly good example of a role playing profile. If you've not delved into profiles in the Role Playing Group then hopefully this one will spark your interest. Mathias Wickrofts profile (by Mathias Wickroft ) has a unique and interesting style, that showcases the c...
  • POLL: When was the last time you played Skyrim?

    This weeks poll is one of those that is a mixture of sheer curiosity mixed with planning the future of the site. Very simply we ask this question: When was the last time YOU played Skyrim? With Skyrim fast approaching its three-year anniversary, its important for the Admins to know just how many p...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds should stay?

    Welcome to the Character Build Deathmatch!  We have seven builds for you to judge.  They have 24 hours to reach 20 likes or receive the most votes.  Those that fail to do so will be deleted.  Who should stay? The choice is YOURS - so get voting and commenting... The Legendary Corsair The Shadowhunte...
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  • TIPS The Speech Skill's Greatness

    I spotted this post by Ben in the Tips and Tricks group earlier this week, and felt it deserved the wider attention that a front page feature can give. In this post, Ben explores the benefits and gameplay advantages of the oft-overlooked speech skill in Skyrim. There are certainly some gameplay mech...
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  • STORY CORNER A month of short stories

    The Story Corner is calling on all writers to participate in a month-long writing fest! The challenge is simply to try and write a short story within the month of October. However, there is a catch: we're asking for original stories to be written! That means tales of your own imagining within the T...
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  • SPECIAL FEATURE Ponty's D20 Roleplaying game

    Something a bit different for the front page today, as we take a look at something genuinely unique. Our very own Ponty, Character Building guru, long-time Host and all-round Skyrim Blog stalwart has put all of his talents and energy into creating a Skyrim D20 roleplaying game. Now, if you followed ...
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  • ROLE PLAYING A guide to lycanthropy

    Bryn brings us another excellent contribution from our Roleplaying Group This guide can seriously help you when RPing your werewolf. Be it in how you act as a human... Or as the beast inside of you. Adam "Snacks" Gould made a brilliant post here and if any of you love werewolves half as much as me,...
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  • LORE Nords vs Nedes

    Lore host Phil brings us another contribution from the Lore Group, and a blast from the past... It is always good to remind ourselves of our origins so I thought revisiting a classic from Vix, Human Origins: Nords vs Nedes, would be a good idea this week. Please contribute to the group by sharing yo...
  • ELDER SCROLLS CLASSICS

    The Lord Archcanon has been in touch to tell us about something special that's happening over in our Elder Scrolls Classics Group. For those who haven't been there yet, this is the place to talk about previous Elder Scrolls games such as Oblivion and Morrowind. The LordArchCanon is putting a lot of ...
  • LIVE ROLEPLAYING Character of the Week

    This week's Live Roleplaying Character of the Week is Trace's character, Delmar Anthian. One of our group's most well-spoken GMs, Christopher Perigoe, has written this week's Character of the Week from the perspective of one of his characters, Peryn Gaerhart.  This week I have been called upon by th...
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  • POLL Where do you want Elder Scrolls VI to be set?

    Well here is a poll we've certainly had at least once before But since I have been asked for it, then I've decided to go with it once again - its always a fun poll and will hopefully provoke lots of comments. So... where would you like The Elder Scrolls VI to be set? Yes, I know it hasn't been anno...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds deserve to escape the guillotine?

    Welcome to this installment of the Character Build Deathmatch!  We have 7 builds, from the Bloodworks, and their fate rests in your hands.  They have 24 hours from now to either get the most votes or at least 20 likes to be saved or they will be deleted.  Who deserves to be saved? Conan The Barbaria...
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  • HIDDEN GEM Dibella's Beautiful Blade

    Greetings fellow bloggers and welcome to the Hidden Gem Spotlight. Each week we unearth a true gem of a build, buried beneath the mountain of other other builds, for your viewing pleasure. This week we present perhaps the most beautiful gem of all, Dibella's Beautiful Blade by Shin Jin!  The Beautif...
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  • DISCUSSION How can we make the site better?

    Greeting Skyrim Bloggers! As you've probably noticed the site has been pretty quiet lately. The Admin team have been trying think of ways that improve things - but I thought it would be good to widen this out to the membership! Obviously, Skyrim has been out now for almost three years. So there will...
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  • VIDEO Three ways to enhance your Skyrim Character Builds

    It's always interesting to see a video that ties-in to our massively successful Character Build group here on The Skyrim Blog. This video was posted by one of our own members, Heroic XCV, and gives a personal opinion about how best to roleplay character builds. I'm sure some of you will have a few...
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  • LORE: The Dread Father and his legacy

    Wanna brush up on Skyrim Lore? Lore Group host Phil points us to another of the many excellent articles in the Group. I thought The Dread Father and his Legacy by former member Big Chris would be a good topic for discussion. While I disagree with a few of his interpretations, I think Big Chris' arti...
  • ROLEPLAY The Travellers Backpack

    Big thanks to Roleplay Host Borommakot for alerting us to another excellent post in our Role Playing Group The Traveler's Backpack is an excellent guide by one of our old members on improving role play by making more realistic use of Skyrim's carry system. What are the essentials for your travels? W...
  • TIPS Ponty's Fun Facts

    Tips and Tricks Host Alastor reminds us about an awesome thread in the Tips & Tricks Group Ponty's Fun Facts is filled to the brim with tons of useful information for any Skyrim adventurer. It boasts way more information than any other T&T discussion with 34 pages of random knowledge! I guar...
  • DEATHMATCH Which builds deserve to survive?

    Welcome to this installment of the Character Build Deathmatch!  We have 7 builds, from the Bloodworks, and their fate rests in your hands.   They have 24 hours from now to either get the most votes or at least 20 likes to be saved or they will be deleted.  Who deserves to be saved? The Divine The Sh...
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  • QUIZ How much Lore do you know?

    Something a little different today! Lore Host Phil has prepared a quiz for you all... It's pretty simple really. Head over to this link and answer the questions. They are all about well-established Elder Scrolls lore. Some of pretty easy, but there are some tricky ones in there ... so watch out! T...
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  • CONTEST Yet more contest news!

    Hot news from the Modders Workshop! A new contest.... with a twist! Twisted Orthus tells us more... Attention all modders!  We are in need of a new modders workshop host(s), and YOU could be just the person we are looking for! However, rather than just take in applications in the normal manner, we t...
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  • POLL: What consoles or platforms do you use for gaming?

    Now that we've sorted out who has the best profile page, its time to crack on with main poll for this week, and the question is a very simple one: Which consoles or platforms do you use? The first thing to note is that this poll, unlike the majority of polls on the site, allows multiple answers. You...
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  • ROLE PLAYING The Black Market

    Greetings Skyrim Bloggers - today we have a feature from the Role Playing Group. This is a thread from Oddball called 'The Black Market'. Here is what RP Host Borommokot has to say Oddball's interactive RP thread. A clever idea for bringing some fresh fun to Skyrim, whether for old or new players. W...
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  • POLL Who has the coolest Profile Page?

    OK, here we go. This is the poll to find the coolest and funkiest Profile Page on the site. Thanks everyone who nominated people in my post last week. I've been through them all and picked 10 for poll, and here they are... Billy Mays Borommkot Emer Dareloth Gathar Skaldurson Miraak Nixrune Raidriar ...
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  • DEATHMATCH Which builds deserve to survive?

    Hi, CB Host Billy Mays here with today's Deathmatch!   This time, we have 8 builds to fight for your approval.  If a build doesn't get at least 20 likes or the most votes, it will be deleted from the site.  Remember, you can give a like to more than one build.  Here are our lovely contestants! The B...
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  • GROUP Introducing the General Gaming Group

    In this first of an occasional feature on the many fine Groups that populate The Skyrim Blog we take a look at the General Gaming Group. Host Batman (aka Charlie) has given us a quick intro to the group: The gaming group is all about sharing the joy of gaming with others. From the latest news and gr...
  • HIDDEN GEM The Visionary

    Welcome to the Hidden Gem Spotlight! This week Vazgen has chosen the Visionary by Matt Feeney. The Visionary features one of the most prominent deities of Redguards (if not the most prominent) - HoonDing, in an unusual character, detailed in the corresponding RP Profile. The build features two "fo...
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  • CONTEST Nominations needed for Profile Page Content

    As flagged up last week, we are having a contest to find the best and coolest Profile Page here on the Ning 2.0 iteration of The Skyrim Blog. The contest will be next week's poll  - and I need nominations for participants! I don't have the time (or the inclination, frankly) to trawl through thousan...
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  • VIDEO: Let's Play Skyrim Character Builds

    Today I thought it would be good to draw attention to something I think is pretty amazing. When the Character Build Group started back in December 2011, none of us knew if people would actually make builds, still less want to actually play them! The incredible success and stellar popularity has been...
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  • CONTEST: Want to design a new welcome banner for the site?

    Here is something for those more creative types to get cracking with! We are looking for a new 'Welcome Banner' for the site... and YOU could be the person to have YOUR work showcased at the top of the front page. This contest will be hosted by Art Group Hosts Alice and Curse Never Dying. I'm sure ...
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  • LORE: The Artifacts of Skyrim

    Lore Host Phil delves into the archives of our Lore Group to pluck out a hidden gem that certainly escaped my attention the first time around. So, I'm pleased to be able to bring your attention to 'The Artifacts of Tamriel' series by Premier Eden. Describing the series as 'a series of well researche...
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  • POLL Which race have you created the most characters with in Skyrim?

    This weeks' poll was an idea that came from a thread on the Forums here on the Skyrim Blog Now that Skyrim is almost three years old, I'm sure that we have all created many characters within the game. If you got a bad case of 'restartitus' (like me) then you'll have made MANY... But which race hav...
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  • Donations to The Skyrim Blog

    Ok, those of you who have been here for a while might remember that we had a fund raising drive last year. This successfully provided the funds to pay for The Skyrim Blog for the remainder of 2012, since when I have been paying for the site out of my own pocket. The bare facts are that is costs abou...
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  • New Video Host

    You may remember when I announced new Photo Hosts that I said I had asked TZ to take on a different role on the site. Well, today I can announce that TZ has agreed to be the Video Host for The Skyrim Blog. As you all know, TZ has been the video making guru of the site, and combined with his self-adm...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Stalhrim Master

    It's time for another Showcase, and this week Ponty has chosen The Stalhrim Master by Twisted Orthus. TwistedOrthrus' Stalhrim Master is a powerful, defensive magic-wielding juggernaut utilizing a number of  features from the Dragonborn DLC. No combat plays out in the same way, as the Stalhrim Maste...
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  • We've hit the 5000 member milestone!

    We've reached a very significant milestone in the life of The Skyrim Blog today as we reach the milestone of having 5000 members. A big welcome to Tim from 'down under' in Australia, who has just been validated as our 5000th member of the site. I can still remember the angst we had on the old site, ...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    OK kids, here we go again with another Character Build Deathmatch. Ponty has made the selection this week and here are the six builds Mistress of Pain by Just Call me Rilez Queen Potema by 1legassassin The Blade by Albino The Volunahdov by Volunahdov Thorin Oakenshield by Roman King The Sloadmer by ...
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  • New Photo Hosts

    Thanks for the interest shown in the position of Photo Host on the site. Sorry its taken a while to get to this, but I was away for four days over the holiday weekend and I've been playing catch up with real life stuff ever since. I've decided to appoint Dragon and Skalvar to the role. They were bot...
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  • Video of the Week

    HT to Brynjolf for finding this and posting it in the video section. I think this is a series that could be worth keeping an eye out for...
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  • The Tips & Tricks Showcase

    Here's something brand new here on The Skyrim Blog. For the very first time we are having a Showcase from our Tips and Tricks Group. Ponty will be using this feature to showcase some of the best content over in the Group - so if you like what you see here, then by all means head on over to Skyrim Ti...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Dungeon Runner

    Ben has scoured the lower ranks this week to find a build that is sorely underrated - certainly its one that had slipped under my radar anyway. Allow us to draw your attention to The Dungeon Runner by Zulfir.  Political upheaval threatens the Empire's grip over the land, and old legends are proving ...
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  • The Friday Poll Round Up

    It's time for another round up of the weekly site polls that we have each week on the site. What I've done is choose four of the more recent and interesting polls, and made graphs to show the results that came from those polls. Hope you find them interesting! Which Guild gave you the most fun? We'...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    It's time for another 'Blog of the Week', and this week Charlie has chosen Collector's Quest by Auroness Here is Charlie's introduction to the series. "I think the opening paragraph best sums up what this story is about. There are many side quests in Skyrim that leave me feeling unsatisfied that the...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    No, you haven't fallen asleep and missed an entire day....its NOT Thursday  But we are having the Deathmatch on Wednesday this week as my schedule doesn't really allow me to handle the Deathmatch poll later in the week. Ben has chosen his 6 builds and here they are: Morgoth Bauglir by A Highly Evolv...
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  • Video of the Week

    We seem to have a lot of Argonian fans on the site (and few haters too) so maybe this will be of interest to many. HT to Kyrielle for posting it up in the Video Gallery
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Nightblade

    This week the Showcase has been chosen by Mason, and he's gone for The Nightblade by No Snakes Alive. As No Snakes opines: The Nightblade: because assassinating and raising the dead are both supremely awesome things in their own right, and combined they only serve to reenforce each other's strengths...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    Here goes with another Character Build Deathmatch, where we pit six of the lower ranked builds on the site into a desperate fight for survival. Mason has chosen this week and here is the selection The Morag Tong Bounty Hunter by Mitch Konahrik Reborn by Spence The Honest Farmer by AASamurai The Arac...
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  • The Video of the Week

    Slightly bizarre, but funny 
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Keerilth

    Here goes with another Character Build Showcase and Ponty has chosen The Keerilth by longstanding and valued site member, Matt Feeney Matt has pulled together a variety of lore and gameplay elements into his build, the Keerilth. A bound weapon wielding Bosmer vampire, the Keerilth combines support m...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    OK kids, here goes with another Deathmatch. your job is to decide which of these following under-performing builds deserves to stick around on our site. The Obsessed Scholar by Ulysses The Ecriture Blade by Maghini The Crow by Deathstroke The Elemental Summoner by Michael Lowe Champion of Attrition ...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    This week's Blog of the Week has been chosen by Charlie, and she has gone for Myth-Maker by Shor This tale is a little different then most we start at the beginning of where most tales end. Gram Myth-Maker, Thane of all the holds, Arch-Mage, Harbinger, Listener, Slayer of Alduin the World Eater and ...
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  • The Video of the Week

    Well, with the news we've been hearing, it just had to be this 
  • The Character Build Showcase: The Lamp Knight

    Here we go once again with the weekly Showcase, and this week Ben has chosen a build that had certainly slipped under my radar - The Lamp Knight by Sanctus The Lamp Knight is a lore based Battlemage who acts as a protector of te Mages Guild. They have a strong defense with fierce offense coming from...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    Resident executioner Ben has chosen the combatants for this weeks Deathmatch - so any builds that don't make the grade can expect a speedy and brutal resolution! Here are the builds: The Qahnaarin - Vanquisher of Evil by Crybon The Na'Zga by Carter The Daedric Justicar by Malekezeppo The Forsworn Ou...
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  • The Video of the Week

    A hat tip to Matt Feeney for posting this up! It's quite long - almost 20 minutes - but if you really want to get started on Elder Scrolls lore, then this new series of videos is a must....together with our own Lore Group here on The Skyrim Blog of course
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Fearmonger

    OK here goes with yet another Character Build Showcase, and this week Mason has selected a truly awesome build in the shape of The Fearmonger by Henson. Henson created one of my personal favourites due to it's distinct playstyle, The Fearmonger combines two of the games most powerful effects to an e...
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  • The Deathmatch

    Hey kids, here goes with yet another Deathmatch. Here we pit six of the lower ranked builds on the site in a desperate battle for survival. These are the combatants for this week: The Jahgut by Donny The Arrancar by Aporo The Paralyzing Shadow by Cazzlor Mathmeldi, the Exiled by 1legassassin The Mad...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    Here goes with another Blog of the Week selection, and this time Charlie has made the choice Hey guys  for this week The Adventures of Gwyneth Hawkwing by Christopher Perigoe has been chosen for blog of the week by various members who nominated for it at the Story Corner Spotlight I have just starte...
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  • Video of the Week: The Top 5 'Fus Ro Dahs' Ever...

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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Songbird

    Happy Easter guys - and here goes with another of our Character Build Showcase features. This week, Ponty has chosen The Songbird by new builder Zach. Here's Ponty's blurb about this build: The Songbird is the first build by Blog member Zach, a relatively new builder that sets an impressive standard...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    Holla everyone, and welcome to this week's Deathmatch - a little late this week as I've been out of the house all day on work-related stuff. Here are this week's contenders as chosen by Ponty The Orsimer Witch Assassin by NobodyBeast Knight of Infamy by Mitch Orsimer Warmaster by TwistedOrthrus The ...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Revenant

    Ben has been a bit under the weather this week, but has still emerged from sickness to send me his selection for this weeks Showcase. And he's gone with one of the most respected and revered builds on the site, in the form of The Revenant by Mason. And we also have a mean and moody video from TZ to ...
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  • The Friday Poll Round Up

    It's been a while since we last rounded up poll results - in fact we've got more to roundup than can reasonably be put into one blog post. So I've chosen what I think are the four most interesting recent polls! OK here goes then... Favourite Elder Scrolls Game I asked you to nominate your favourite...
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  • The Deathmatch

    This weeks Deathmatch selection comes from Ben. As usual 6 builds from the lower reaches of the Character Build Group ranks are pitted against each other in a desperate battle for survival. OK, so here goes.... The Red Priestess by JoDaro The Holy Imperial Crusader by Robin Westerbeeke The Orsimer A...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    Charlie has made the selection this week for 'Blog of the Week' and goes for The Dockworker by Clement Bilhorn. Clement tells the tale of an Argonian with a very pragmatic view of the world. From how he deals with Noses, Dragons wolves and everything in-between will have you eagerly reading every ch...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Cryptstalker

    This week's Showcase is a collaborative effort of Mason with TZ. Mason has selected The Cryptstalker by the aptly-named Cryptstalker, whilst TZ has worked his magic with his videomaking skills. So, without further ado lets have our mean and moody Showcase Video Introduction And a blurb from Mason ...
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  • The Deathmatch

    Here goes with another Character Build Deathmatch, and Mason is in the hot seat for this week. This is what he has chosen for the match up Bane by Disciple The Magic Thief by Seth C. Yokudan Dragonbane by Tom Cureton The Vengeful Khajiit by Dagda Storm Swordsman by fatmanmagik Blood Knight by M. E. ...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    This week Guy has chosen the 'Blog of the Week' and he's gone for a relatively new addition in the form of 'Revenge' by one of our many Antipodean members, Lightspire. Here's the link to the page where you can start reading. It's up to part 4 - and appears to be ongoing. Hopefully there is plenty to...
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  • The Character Build Showcase : The Toxicologist

    Hey guys, time for our regular Sunday blog in the form of the Character Build Showcase. This week Ponty has nominated The Toxicologist by Skalvar. Here's Ponty's introduction The Toxicologist by Skalvar is a great build based around Alchemy, as well as a variety of content from the new(ish) Dragonbo...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    Once more we have our Thursday Weekly Deathmatch, where we pit lower ranking builds from the Character Build section of the site into a fight for survival. Here are the ones that Ponty chose this week The Time Mage by Arian The Dragon Slayer by Rafael Arthou The Pale Master by Disciple Jarlaxle Baen...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    Here goes this with this weeks Blog of the Week selection, courtesy of Charlie Hey guys, for Blog of the Week this time I decided to go back through the archives for my choice. I've chosen The Imprisonment of Gaz Gro-Shurgak by RuneRed A very well written but short story, showing that it doesn't hav...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Akulakhan

    Here we go with another Showcase and once more we have a collaboration between Ben and TZ.  Ben has chosen The Akulakhan by NobodyBest. Here's is Ben's blurb on the Build The Akulakhan by NobodyBeast is an example of good mix of roleplay and gameplay. He uses powerful enchanted Warhammer attacks, ar...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    Here we go kids - its Thursday and time for the Deathmatch  Six more builds this week, all needing a minimum of 20 'likes' to survive the executioners axe wiedled by Ben. Here are the combatants: Velothi, the Dark Prophet The Spinner Twilight Sparkle   The Monk The Orc Vanguard The Wild Hunt As alwa...
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  • Blog of the Week: Friessa Adventure

    Guy has sent me his selection for 'Blog of the Week'. He's gone for Friessa Adventure by relative new guy Jack Craven. More proof that we're more than happy to encourage new talent here on The Skyrim Blog. Here is what Guy has to say: The blog that I have enjoyed the most this week has been Jack Cra...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Volkihar Lord

    Mason has chosen a Dawnguard-themed build this week for the Showcase. Here goes with The Volkihar Lord by Reblazed. Let's allow Mason to introduce the build "This is one of the more underrated builds in the group.  The Volkihar Lord by Reblazed is a character that embraces the Dawnguard dlc in fiend...
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  • Video of the Week: Elder Scrolls Online Update

    Spotted this on YouTube last night. It's got a decent summary of what we know thus far about The Elder Scrolls Online with a couple of snippets of new information. Tell us what you think in the comments below
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  • Blog of the Week: Heart of Darkness

    This week's Blog of the Week nomination comes from Charlie, and she has chosen Heart of Darkness by new-ish member Armathyx. Follow Cassandra's fall into Darkness, from honourable warrior to ruthless assassin you'll be glued to your screen as Armathyx expertly weaves a tale of glory, death and reven...
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  • The Character Build Showcase:

    Its time for this weeks Character Build, and Ponty has chosen The Order of the Twin Serpents by Vix. Not surprisingly, with it being Vix, this is lore-heavy and the build is an absolute joy to read through in its attention to detail.  Here is Ponty's introduction: The second outstanding build by res...
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  • Group Spotlight #2: Girl Gamers

    This week we are featuring Girl Gamers, and original group pioneer Imeera kicks off by telling us a bit of background about the group In the early days of The Skyrim Blog there were many girl gamers out there, but we were being swamped my our many male gamer friends on the site and, bar a few, I nev...
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  • The Deathmatch

    Hey everyone, now that the purge in the Character Build group has just about been completed, we are back into our Weekly Deathmatches each Thursday. Ponty has picked six builds for this week: The Nord Warlord by JoDK The Sorrow-Gale by Skyler The Skald by WaeRae Son of the Wolf by Filius Lupum The ...
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  • Blog of the Week: 'Retribution' by Master Zixx

    Guy has let me know this week's selection for 'Blog of the Week' I'm going to nominate Master Zixx's Retribution series. He posted up like ten chapters all at once. I havent got through them all yet but the first few chapters are extremely well written. Focusing on a Brother and Sister that set off ...
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  • Video of the Week: Ponty vs The Ebony Warrior

    Emer has chosen Ponty's videos about his attempts to fight the Ebony Warrior on Master difficulty. It turned out to be somewhat different to what was expected! Ponty writes This was my second attempt at the Ebony Warrior on Master. The first one failed since Reflect Blows kicked in and 1-shotted m...
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  • Time to 'raise the bar' on The Skyrim Blog?

    Everyone knows that websites, forums and blogs attract their fair share of spammers, trolls and - frankly - just plain stupid people. When you start a website I suppose you accept that it kinda goes with the territory.... However, I think that it has become far too prevalent on this site. And the ti...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Windhelm Butcher

    Once again, we have a Showcase treat for you this week - with an unique role playing build and a fantastic video, courtesy of TZ. Let's allow TZ to introduce us to The Windhelm Butcher by Constantine: Here's what Ben C has to say about the build: We all know about the Butcher but you cannot truly ...
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  • Having fun in Skyrim

    We've recently completed an interesting series of polls here on The Skyrim Blog. Over the course of three weeks, I asked our readers which skill had given them the most fun in Skyrim - with separate polls dedicated to each of the three skill schools in the game What made this interesting was the sub...
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  • Blog of the Week: The Ebony Warrior

    This week's 'Blog of the Week' nomination is Ponty's Path to the Ebony Warrior Charlie writes: A parody about one man and his paladin on their quest to reach 81 and confront the Ebony Warrior. They will steal, enchant pointless weapons, train in schools of magic they wouldn't normally touch and expl...
  • 4000... and counting

    I've just validated a guy from Fresno, California called Gustavo Mendoza as a new member to the site. 'So what?' I hear you say. Well, it just so happens that he was the 4000th member of The Skyrim Blog. We've had a tough couple of the days on the site with all the troll shenanigans - but putting th...
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  • Video of the Week: Blocking and Bashing Perks

    Emer writes I would like to nominate Ashi's video regarding Blocking and Shield Perks. It is a great way to show people exactly what they are missing when it comes to the Block tree. It goes through all of the perks and shows the benefits of each, and even tells you what's wrong with some of them....
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  • Taking out the trash

    Well, it seems we had a little troll-issue overnight on the site.... I've now done the necessary trash removal - banning two people, blocking their IP addresses and reporting them to their ISPs. I believe that other members are going to report these individuals to Facebook and possibly take other ac...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Whet Fang

    Mason has chosen the Showcase for this week, and has gone with The Whet Fang, a specialist Argonian build from Emer Dareloth. First we have the video from the talented TZ, then Mason's blurb: The Whet Fang is a rather nasty argonian battlemage with a penchant for the dark arts... Emer has done a w...
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  • Group Spotlight #1 Blackwood Crossing

    This is the first in an occasional series where we turn the spotlight onto one of the many wonderful groups that we have here on The Skyrim Blog. To kick things off, we're taking a look at one of the most active and hard working groups, namely 'Blackwood Crossing'. Whilst the head honcho over in Bla...
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  • The Blog of the Week: Adventures of an Argonian Warrior

    We're back with our 'Blog of the Week' feature, with a highlighted blog on Wednesdays. This week Charlie and Guy chose the wonderful 'Adventures of an Argonian Warrior' by the equally wonderful Argonian Fangirl. We are currently up to Chapter 10 and if I tell you that the last part ended on a cliffh...
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  • The Video of Week : Gopher's Skyrim Books series

    New Video Host Emer has sent through the selection of this weeks 'Video of the Week'. And he's taken a shine to the new 'Skyrim Books' series by Gopher (of 'Let's Play' fame). The premise is very simple - Gopher simply reads books from Skyrim! But its strangely compelling. Here we have one of my fav...
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  • Hosting Changes

    OK, first of all I want to thank each and everyone of you that offered any kind of help with the hosting team revamp. It's always pleasing that people care enough about the site to want to help! Obviously, not everyone can be chosen. But not getting selected shouldn't be taken personally! All I woul...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Strafer

    This week Ponty has chosen The Strafer, a ranged combat build from Henson. Let's allow Ponty to introduce this build: A short and sweet build by experienced builder Henson, the Strafer offers a very fast paced playthrough centered around pure ranged combat. This is a build that rewards the players' ...
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  • Hosting Jobs Available

    Every so often we like to freshen up the Hosting Team by bringing in some fresh people (and, in some cases, removing inactive ones). That time has arrived once again. Below is a list of current positions that are available. To be considered for one you will need to be: a member of the site for a fe...
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  • Friday Site News Roundup

    Hello everyone, from snowy England. Here we go with a site news update: CHARACTER BUILD DEATHMATCH Yesterdays Deathmatch pitted 6 builds from the Bloodworks in a fight to the death. The winner of the poll was The Wild Hunt build by 1Legassassin - but three other builds nudged over the 10 'likes' cut...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Treasure Hunter

    We're back with the first Character Build Showcase of the new year, and something of special treat  The featured build is The Treasure Hunter by beancounter - but we have the bonus of a fantastic video from TZ to complement the text. Here is the video: New guy Ben introduces the build for us The n...
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  • The Character Build Deathmatch

    We're back again with our Character Build 'Deathmatch' where we pit four builds from the Bloodworks in a desperate fight for survival. Here are four builds that have garnered less than 10 'likes'.  The Fire Lord by Boss Battle E The Lusty Argonian Maid by Talen-Maht Queen Potema by 1LegAssassin The ...
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  • Skyrim Video of the Week

    I noticed that one of our members uploaded this the other day, and I thought it deserved the Video of the Week props... There's actually a whole series of videos made by the same people, and they're well worth a look. Go here for the whole collection in one place. Meanwhile, our monster thread on ...
  • Getting back into it.....

    Last night I finally got chance to boot up my PC for the first time in a couple of months (its been disassembled and in storage whilst I've been re-decorating and re-vamping our house) and play Skyrim again. It made me realise that its been about two months since I last set foot in Tamriel... the St...
  • POLL: Which game are you most looking forward to in 2013?

    Our most recent poll looked at our favourite games of 2012, so it was perhaps inevitable that we'd then move on to looking at our most anticipated games of 2013... This week's poll offers up a selection of the most anticipated games for the coming year. Now, I realise I'm laying myself open to load...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: The best game of 2012

    We're almost at the end of 2012 now, and most gaming sites are talking about what they think is their 'Game of the Year' The Skyrim Blog is no different - but rather than having an editorial choice, we believe in letting our faithful members and readers make the choice! So, this week we have a poll ...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: It's Christmas....

    Well, its just a couple of days to Christmas, and taking up the spirit of the season here is the question for this week's roundtable discussion What are you getting for Christmas? Yes I realise its not exactly Elder Scrolls related (unless, that is, you are getting Skyrim for Christmas!) but it ju...
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  • The Friday Roundup

    Welcome to another Friday Roundup, as we collect together the news from this week on the site, and lay out the plans for Christmas and New Year on The Skyrim Blog Elsweyr finds favour in massive poll Last week we had another poll on which province you'd like to see utilised for The Elder Scrolls VI....
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    Hey folks, here we go with yet another Deathmatch, pitting 4 builds from the dark depths of the Bloodworks into brutal mortal combat. Here are this weeks builds, selected by Ponty Archmage Vanus Galerion by Narmis The Rogue by Andrew Austria The Pure Warrior by Chase Cunningham The Nightingale by Da...
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  • POLL : The highlight of your Skyrim year.

    We're in the final run up to Christmas now, and inevitably you start to get the end-of-year lists coming out In the spirit of these 'best of the year' lists, I thought we'd have our very own here on the site. So the poll for over the Christmas period is 'What is your Skyrim highlight of 2012?'.  Now...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Marauder

    It's time for another iteration of the Character Build Showcase, where we turn the spotlight on some of the best examples from the Character Build Group. This week, Mason has chosen The Marauder by Sanctus. Here's what he has to say: Sometimes you just open a build and it draws you in and gets you e...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Getting Started

    What's the best opening to a game that you have played? Now, before you answer, allow me to clarify! By 'opening' I'm not really talking about the opening 'cut scene' or credits, or even necessarily the hand-holding tutorials that inevitably seem to clog up the start of games these days. No, what I'...
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  • The Friday Round Up

    Poll Results We've got two polls to round up this week as we didn't have a Friday Roundup last week. First up we have last weeks poll about the future direction of the Elder Scrolls series, bearing in mind the announcement of The Elder Scrolls Online. Well, it turns out that most of you think that B...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    OK folks, its time for the Weekly Deathmatch once more.... This week, Mason has chosen four builds from the depths of the Character Build Bloodworks. Remember these are all builds that have less than 10 'likes'. It might be because they've been overlooked in the crowd - or it might be because they a...
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  • The Blog of the Week

    It's Wednesday, and that means its time for the Blog of the Week. This week, Kynareth has chosen Titan of Tamriel's "Deal with the Dagon."  Here is here introduction: The entire series is written in rhyming couplets, along with fantastic screenshots displaying Titan's modded character, the son of Me...
  • Skyrim Video of the Week

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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Talking about the next Elder Scrolls game #2

    Last week we talked about how Bethesda might approach the next Elder Scrolls game, and the poll that went with that discussion showed that the majority of people wanted them to ignore the fact that The Elder Scrolls Online will be set across the whole continent of Tamriel That begs the question abou...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    Here goes with yet another Deathmatch. Thanks go to Mason for this week's nominations. These are four builds from the Bloodworks section of the Character Build Group - all those builds with less than 10 'likes'.  The Vagabond by Fallen Elf Grey Prince by Agronak Gro'Malog The Dwemer by Atesaki Marus...
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  • Blog of the Week #8 Rune Red's Short Stories

    Once again, I am indebted to Kynareth for taking time from a busy family schedule to nominate another selection for 'Blog of the Week' I would like to nominate Rune Red's two short blog posts.  They both are concise and memorable for their perspective.  They are an excellent example of quality writi...
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  • Skyrim Video of the Week

  • The Character Build Showcase: The Heart of Pellitine

    We're back with another superb example of character builds that we showcase each week. This week, Ponty has chosen the Heart of Pellitine from Vix. Here's what Ponty has to say The Heart of Pellitine, a superb build by resident loremaster Vix, brings in-depth roleplay, background and gameplay to the...
  • The Weekend Roundtable : Thinking about The Elder Scrolls VI

    We've had plenty of discussions before - and even a poll - about the likely or desired setting for Elder Scrolls VI. But I was thinking the other day that the ground has shifted considerably with the announcement and reveals about The Elder Scrolls Online, and I wanted to hear your views. Up until t...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    Here we go with this weeks Deathmatch - a chance to either promote or cull Character Builds from the Bloodworks section of the site (for builds with less than 10 'likes') Mason has given us the selection for this week: The Bastion by Teh Gargoyle The Street Urchin by Piper Jo Zeus/Jupiter by Lady ...
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  • Blog of the Week #7 Bilal's Photo Blog

    Time for 'Blog of the Week'.... Kynareth is out of town this week, but, never fear, she gave me the Blog of the Week in advance, and she's picked a really incredible piece of work that new members to the blog might have missed, and definitely need to check out I would like to offer Bilal's Photoblog...
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  • Skyrim Video of the Week

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  • The Character Build Showcase:The Draugr Revenant

    Time for yet another in our series of Character Build Showcases - where we turn the spotlight onto those high quality character builds on the site that you might be interested in trying out. Ponty has made the selection this week, and has chosen The Draugr Revenant by Nobody Beast. This is an undead...
  • The Weekend Roundtable: Skyrim Collectibles

    One of the features that seems to have increasingly come into modern video gaming is the whole concept of 'collectibles'. Whether it is the ever-present 'Achievements' or 'Trophies' (depending on your platform), or whether it is in-game collectible items, they seem to be getting almost universal. Th...
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  • The Friday Round Up

    We've got a lot to round up this week so let's get cracking... Nine Divines Poll Last weeks 'Nine Divines' poll attracted a fair bit of lively discussion, as well as just under 1100 votes. The results were interesting to say the least, and here they are So why the controversy? Well, some people ar...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    Here we are with another Weekly Deathmatch, where we pit four of the lesser known builds from the Bloodworks section of the Character Build Group against one another. These are the four that Mason has chosen for this week: The Clan Lord by TheClanLord Doctor by DogInAFancyHat The Black Swordsman b...
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  • Blog of the Week #6

    Hey everyone, its time for the Blog of the Week This time Kynareth points us in the direction of the story of Velothis, an evil Dunmer by our Brazilian friend, Ricardo. I'll let Kynareth explain the background and give the links. Ricardo, a loyal reader and fan of the blogs, submitted his own story ...
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  • Skyrim Video of the Week

    This week we have the first in what has been an ongoing series of Skyrim Cops Videos See the Video Section for the other vides in this series
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  • POLL: The new site banner

    It's going to be a bit of a different poll this week, because we need to choose a site banner. For the avoidance of any doubt thats the long strip at the top of the page where we currently have a dragon perched atop Bleak Falls Barrow. The Skyrim Art Group have been hosting a competition for the new...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Blackguard

    It's Sunday, so its time for another Character Build Showcase. This week Ponty has chosen the Blackguard. It's a build that might interest those looking to go down the evil route in Skyrim Here's what the author has to say about this guy: The great shadow, master of evil, commander of the undead, th...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: What are you hoping for from the Dragonborn DLC?

    The next and potentially most awesome Skyrim DLC hits in a couple of weeks. Thus far we have actually had very little hard information, apart from what can be gleaned from the trailer (below) So for the Roundtable this week, let's talk about our hopes, dreams and even our plans for the new DLC. Ar...
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  • The Friday Round Up

    Last Weeks Poll A whopping 1429 people cast votes in last weeks mega-poll about Daedric Artifacts. Here are the results of your voting: As you can see, the convenience of having an inexhaustible soul gem pushed Azura's Star into first place. Of course that also included many people who took the op...
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  • The Weekly Deathmach

    This week we have another offering from Ponty, an amended version of the matchup that didn't quite work out last week. Anyway, the contestants this week are: The Scavenger Brothers by Erik Eastop The Storm Wielder by Grixis The Holy Imperial Crusader by Robin Westerbeeke The Bloodseeker by Atesak...
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  • Blog of the Week #5: Piper Jo's Luciana Henriette

    Big thanks to Kynareth for another nomination for Blog of the Week. Here goes: Hello again!  This week I would like to suggest Piper Jo, in honor of the first anniversary of Skyrim.  Her story about Luciana Henriette, an adopted Orc, seems to be the iconic blog for this site.  It has been extremely ...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Red Mage

    OK, time for another Character Build Showcase. Mason has made the selection this week, and here is what he has to say about The Red Mage by Zandt Now here is a build that I have happily dredged up from the bowels of the CB group! This is the ultimate example of a diamond in the rough and the reason ...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Do you 'role-play' or 'power game'?

    One of the things I notice from trawling around the site is the dichotomy which exists between those who roleplay in Skyrim and those who do not.  And I thought it would make an interesting Roundtable topic. Let me explain (and apologies for the caricature I make to illustrate my point!). There are ...
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  • The Friday Round Up

    Here we go with another Friday Round Up of what's new and happening on The Skyrim Blog Elder Scrolls Online Poll Result & Analysis Last weeks poll on The Elder Scrolls Online sparked a lot of debate! The results are in, and this is how the poll ended up. Now, there are quite a few comments that ...
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  • First Official Taster Video of The Elder Scrolls Online

    Here is the first 'official' video of The Elder Scrolls Online—a documentary-style introduction to the game, presented by members of The Elder Scrolls Online Development Team. This video covers the basics of ESO, including a first look at the game’s Elder Scrolls-style combat system, massive PvP b...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch (Updated)

    Bit of a false start this morning, but here is this weeks actual Deathmatch  Apologies to established members, but since we are constantly adding new people I think the rules need to be explained once more.... This weekly event is a way of thinning out the less popular builds in the Character Build ...
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  • Blog of the Week #4: The Story of Razzelas

    This week Kynareth has chosen the epic story of Razzelas, penned by resident loremaster Vix. Who's to say what spark lights the flame of avarice in man's heart. How far might one go to possess what they covet? Would that desire span the seas, climb the tallest mountains, descend into the deepest pit...
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  • Dragonborn DLC Announced

    Watch the trailer for Dragonborn, the next official game add-on for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Dragonborn will be available for download for 1600 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE on December 4. Give your views here, and dissect this trailer to see what we can learn HT to Dieter for pointing me to t...
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  • POLL : Which the coolest Daedric Artifact in Skyrim?

    This weeks poll pulls us back into Skyrim and asks for your favourite Daedric Artificact As you all know there are 16 of these one-off items placed around the land of Skyrim, all can be obtained via their relevant Daedric Quest. But which is the coolest and most useful? Vote in the poll and tell us ...
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  • The Character Build Showcase: The Swordthane

    Here we go again with the Character Build Showcase, and this week Ponty has chosen The Swordthane Build by Paul England. Ponty writes: A high quality RP build inspired by the Beowulf legend, Paul England has brought us a character that both plays well and fits perfectly into the world of Skyrim. It...
  • The Weekend Roundtable: What are you looking forward to playing?

    In a few days we will hit the one year anniversary of Skyrim Our recent poll showed that the game is still amazingly popular, as a tested by the continued growth of this site. Inevitably, however, people are increasingly turning to other games. We've already had a thread about 'Dishnored', and someo...
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  • The Friday Round Up

    Blog readers opt for Psiijic Order for new DLC Faction Just over 1000 people voted in our poll about adding a brand new faction to Skyrim via a DLC. Here is a chart of the final result It was a close run thing most of the way, but the Psiijic Order pulled clear of the Thalmor over the last couple ...
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  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    OK folks here goes with this week's Deathmatch.  We pit four Character Builds from the Bloodworks up against each other in an all-out fight to the finish. Only the winner is guaranteed to survive, although any other builds that make it to 10 'likes' will also be saved from the chop. These are the co...
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  • The Blog of the Week #4 : The Eye of the Wind

    This week the Blog of the Week is 'The Eye of the Wind' by Kyrielle. Now I'd better start with a warning: if you're going to read this series, then you'd better brew a large pot of coffee and make sure you have plenty of free time. At the present time, the series - which is still ongoing - runs to ...
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  • The Character Build Showcase : The Revakriid

    Welcome to this week's Character Build Showcase ,where we turn the focus on some of the high quality builds that you can find in the Character Build Group. This week, Ponty has made the selection, and turned the spotlight on The Revakriid, a dragon hunter build by Easily Remember Here's what Ponty h...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Let's talk about Elder Scrolls Online

    OK, its time to talk together about The Elder Scrolls Online? For one thing we need to decide whether this game will be covered extensively (by which I mean actively seeking out content, rather than just allowing members to mention it). For this reason I am going to start a poll - today, rather than...
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  • The Friday Round Up

    Welcome to the Friday Round up, where we gather the various bits of site news together in place each Friday. Weekly Deathmatch This weeks Deathmatch is now over, and resulted in a conclusive win for the Dark Warden. Additionally the Mystic Paladin attracted enough attention to get over the 10 'like...
  • The Weekly Deathmatch

    Welcome back to another of our Weekly Deathmatch feature - where we take four lesser known Character Builds from the Bloodworks section of that Group, and pit them against one another in a deadly fight to the finish. This week Mason and Ponty have both sent me match ups.  So this week we're running ...
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  • Blog of the Week #3

    Big thanks to Kynareth for sending through another 'Blog of the Week' nomination - once again turning the spotlight on one of our many talented writers on the site. This week we focus turns onto one of my favourite Antipodeans, in the guise of Charlie. Not is she a regular contributor to the site, s...
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  • POLL: A new or expanded faction as Skyrim DLC?

    This week, the poll is about factions in Skyrim.  Let's just suppose that Bethesda were going to either develop one of the lesser factions in the game - or even introduce one from a previous Elder Scrolls game - then which do you think it should be, and why? The 'why' is question that really interes...
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  • The Character Build Showcase : The Agent

    For this week's Character Build Showcase, Mason has chosen 'The Agent' by Rune Red to put into the spotlight Here is a melee fighter that carries no weapon and wears no armour! Impossible, you say? Not at all. Read the role playing notes that Rune Red provided with the build You have unswerving loya...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Where next for Elder Scrolls?

    Welcome to the 'Weekend Roundtable', the weekly feature where we discuss important Elder Scrolls related matters over the weekend. This week, I'm still playing 'catch up' after being away all week - not only with the site, but also emails, work stuff, phone messages, as well as piles of washing, iro...
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  • POLL : Are you still playing Skyrim?

    This weeks poll is one that we've actually had before - but its also one that we need to do periodically, if no other reason than to check that this site still has a purpose! So we are asking 'Are you still playing Skyrim?' Look over the options in the poll and choose the one that most fits your cu...
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  • Poll Result #5 : NPCs

    We had a lot of fun with this final poll in our week long recap of poll results. We asked 'Which NPCs do you most want to punch in the face?'. Here are the results: What we talked about on this thread were the NPCs that were just soooo annoying that you just wanted to smack them hard! And, as we c...
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  • Poll Result #4: Followers

    As we continue recapping poll results this week, we turn to the topic of 'followers'. Of course not everyone is in favour of carting around what sometimes can be a very annoying 'follower' - and indeed that option came top in the poll as we see in these results: So, just over a quarter of you don'...
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  • Poll Result #3 : Weapons

    Of all the polls we've had in past months the one that attracted the most attention was one that posited this question: 'If Bethesda were to add another weapon type to Skyrim via DLC, then what would you like it to be?'. Discussion was lively, and 1435 people voted in the poll. Here are the results:...
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  • Poll Result #2 : Creatures

    As we continue our series on recent polls, we come to a recent poll which asked the question 'Which creature do you hate most in Skyrim?'. Just over 1100 people voted and here are the results. The first point to note is that only 4% of you voted for all the other creatures combined, so I obviou...
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  • Poll Result #1 : Races

    This week, whilst I am away on holiday, front page content will be a series of scheduled posts that give the results on some of our most recent polls. I've selected five polls that received huge numbers of votes for us to have a look at. I hope you enjoy these posts, and remember that the new weekly...
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  • The Character Build Showcase : The Akaviri Bloodlord

    Time for another of our weekly Character Build Showcase, where we turn the spotlight on one of the high-quality builds that are in the Character Build Group. This week Mason has selected the Akaviri Bloodlord. Here's what he had to say The Bloodlord has nearly everything I look for in a character. S...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Is Skyrim 'dumbed down'?

    Way back on the old Skyrim Blog site we had 'weekend roundtables' as a matter of course - and they proved popular. So I thought it would be cool to bring them back onto the site. Remember these 'roundtables' are for sensible and intelligent debate. One-word replies, ill-considered responses or any ...
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  • A week on The Skyrim Blog.... starting October 21st

    I've now introduced all of the weekly features that will make up the rolling program of content to be on the front page of the site. For anyone who wasn't really keeping up, this is the weekly menu Sunday    The Character Build Showcase Monday   The Weekly Poll Tuesdays   Adventures in Modding Skyri...
  • The Thursday Deathmatch #2

    Last week we introduced the new Thursday Deathmatch series - a fun and interactive way to highlight forgotten builds in the Character Build Group - whilst also thinning out some of the builds that really aren't worth keeping around. This week the Thursday Deathmatch pits four lesser known builds fro...
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  • Blog of the Week #2

    Last Wednesday I introduced the new 'Blog of the Week' feature, with recommendations by our avid blog reader Kynareth. This week the selection is one of the older blogs, in that the story finished some time ago and won't be added to. That's a good way to remind people that we have had blogs here on ...
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  • Adventures in Modded Skyrim

    Did you know that somewhere around 10% of Skyrim players who play on PC will never use mods? That's a pretty strange statistic, given that lots of people buy Skyrim on PC specifically to create, use and experience a modded version of the game. Why the small number of people using mods? I think one r...
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  • The Character Build Showcase

    As you already know, Thursday on The Skyrim Blog will now be the day for the Character Build Deathmatch - a fight to the finish between two of the unheralded builds that reside in The Bloodworks section of the site. But I wanted to have a way to feature those quality builds that have risen up throug...
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  • The Saturday Video

    Here's the first of new series for Saturdays.... 'The Video of the Week' It's the weekend. Time to chill. And time to enjoy some of the amazing creativity of those who have put Skyrim into the artistic blender and come up with funny, crazy and just plain bizarre videos. This is my choice for this we...
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  • Friday Quiz - plus the return of Chat!!

    I've got two pieces of news for this Friday... Firstly we have a brand new Quiz up and running. This one is all about Magic. Yep, we've all used plenty of magic in the land of Skyrim - but how much notice have we taken of what is going on?  Head on over to the Quiz - or just click on the link in th...
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  • New Feature: The Thursday Bloodmatch

    Everyone knows that the Character Build Group has been one of the stunning successes of The Skyrim Blog. Originally conceived by The Nexus, it has been turned into a veritable art form by Mason and Ponty - so much so that Google stats show that the vast majority of people find this site via the Char...
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  • Introducing a new feature : 'The Blog of the Week'

    Today I'm bringing news of a brand new feature on the site. Every Wednesday we'll turn the spotlight on the creativity and imagination that is displayed by the various bloggers and story writers here on The Skyrim Blog.   I hope it will help to showcase a part of the site that doesn't get as much at...
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  • 3000 and counting....

    Let's crack open a barrel of the best Black Briar Mead - because The Skyrim Blog has just reached the milestone of having 3000 members. The milestone was reached today, almost one year into our existence as a membership site on the Ning Network. And to think how much agonised on the old site about ...
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  • Waking up from hibernation...

    Hello everyone  Those of you who've been here for a while will recall that I've been on a self-imposed hiatus from The Skyrim Blog for a few months. That came about because of some personal and family issues which needed to be my focus over the Summer. But now its time to emerge out of hibernation a...
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  • Target reached! Thanks for the support

    On July 1st we started our quest to collectively raise funds to support this site for the rest of 2012 - and just 16 days later I am delighted to announce that the target has been reached. If we take into account some donations made before the Chip In widget was created, a total of 23 individuals co...
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  • Contributing to The Skyrim Blog

    A few weeks ago, when we were talking about whether The Skyrim Blog would continue, I mentioned that my changed family circumstances meant that I was no longer able to fund the running of this site out of my own pocket. To help towards costs, I installed the Ning donate and, in the immediate afterma...
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  • 'Donation' feature added to site

    As I mentioned yesterday in my post, I have reluctantly added a 'Donation' button to the site. Why 'reluctantly'? Well, I've always thought of The Skyrim Blog as a hobby, and as such its not really fair to expect other people to pay for it. However, due to my well-publicised family issues I now find...
  • Important News : The Skyrim Blog WILL continue....

    "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated"  Mark Twain (1897) Big news to announce today people...The Skyrim Blog will not, after all, close in a couple of weeks. In fact we plan to be here for a long time to come. Following my announcement last week there was an outpouring of support, ...
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  • Paladin edges Volkihar - but Mason and Ponty are both winners in Character Build 'Shoot Out'

    The Character Build 'Shoot Out' has finally come to a close - and the winner was The Paladin build created by Ponty. After a weekend of polling, and 466 votes, the poll was locked at 50% each when midnight UK time arrived. Perhaps a draw would have been a fitting result, as the poll was never more t...
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  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - The Review

    A couple of weeks (in the Chat Room) ago I promised a review of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and - finally - here it is. Kingdoms of Amalur is an action RPG from Big Huge Games (formerly THQ), drawing on the design talents of Ken Rolston, one of the major people involved in Morrowind, with lore inp...
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  • Announcement of important site changes

    Last week we talked about making a few changes to the site, just to freshen things up a bit. I'm now able to announce what has been put into effect. Here goes.... GROUP CHANGES Skyrim Wallpaper has been deleted - you can now post wallpapers in the Skyrim Art Group so there's no need for the separate...
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  • Some thoughts about this site.... and a chance to add your own

    It's been a funny old week on The Skyrim Blog hasn't it? We had the 'Cicero incident' as it was called by one member. No sooner had that died down, than we plunged headlong into the whole dust up over in the Arts Group. Funnily enough, what happened seems to have galvanised people - we've had more p...
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  • Let's get a few things sorted out....

    Well, well, well.... It seems like there has been some shenanigans over in the Skyrim Art Group overnight. I got up and found that various threads have been deleted, permissions altered - and my Inbox is bursting open with messages about what has been going on. Generally, I prefer to keep Administra...
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  • One Year on The Skyrim Blog

    So here we are, one year after the site made its first faltering steps onto the Internet on April 1st 2011. What a journey it has been. When I started the site it was only ever intended to bridge the gap between then and the launch of Skyrim. It was constructed on a Wordpress installation on (very) ...
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  • Looking ahead

    Today I renewed the site for another month on the Ning Network and renewed the domain name (with GoDaddy) that - as Vix mentioned yesterday - was due for renewal. This means that we are definitely here for at least a further month, and most likely longer. I've been keeping a beady eye on the stats ...
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  • Christmas and New Year on The Skyrim Blog

    Christmas is a few days away - I don't know about you but my life is becoming very hectic!  So I've decided to change things a little for the next couple of weeks. Don't worry the site will still be here and open for business! However, after a run of something like 200 days when I've posted a new bl...
  • Poll shows most people still blown away by Skyrim

    Last weeks poll drew a line in the sand after one month of Skyrim and asked 'How are you doing with the game?' Just over 1200 people voted, and these were the results: As we can see, just under a third of you voted for the option that said you felt you'd barely scratched the surface of the game yet...
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  • More good news for Skyrim....it tops the Christmas chart!

    The great news for Bethesda just keeps on coming, with Skyrim confounding the odds and topping the charts for all platforms in the UK. This is the first year for eight years that a game from Activision or EA hasn't been the Christmas best-seller. And its the first year for four years that a game fro...
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  • Catch up on Elder Scrolls lore in less than two minutes

    Thanks to site member Craig for pointing out this awesome video Enjoy 
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  • Another month....

    We've now been here on the Ning Network for two months. This morning I paid the next monthly subscription, and so the site is here for another month at the very least..... However, I'm aware, from the stats that I can see 'behind the scenes', that site activity is falling away steadily as time goes ...
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  • Ker...ching! Skyrim has now shipped more than 10 million copies

    Yes, you read that right. Bethesda have announced that more than 10 million copies of Skyrim have now been shipped worldwide since its release on November 11th Here are some of the staggering facts that have been made known in recent news stories Bethesda has so far netted more than $650 million in...
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  • Want to play Skyrim online? Well, soon you might just be able to...

    I'm not really much of an online gamer myself, but I know that a lot of you guys really, really want Bethesda to make an Elder Scrolls game that you can take online. Of course, Bethesda just don't appear interested, and have repeatedly stated that they have no plans to include online or even co-op ...
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  • The way of the fist : Playing hand-to-hand in Skyrim

    The current site poll on 'things we miss in Skyrim' included 'hand-to-hand as a skill' as one of the options. Although it is trailing in the poll, a few people have mentioned it on the thread. I'm certainly puzzled by the severe downgrading of unarmed combat in Skyrim. I made a pugilist 'bruiser' ch...
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  • Skyrim provokes massive surge in PC game sales

    It's been a challenging year for game companies, with sales static or slightly declining in tough economic conditions.  But in November there was a statistic that totally bucked the trend - a 57% rise in sales of retail PC games. With PC games long in decline this was something that would seem to be...
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  • What's do you miss most in Skyrim?

    This weeks poll is asking the question 'what do you miss most in Skyrim?' This was a poll we ran some months ago, on the old site - but of course that was before we actually played the game. The general consensus then was that the new features and gameplay elements more than compensated for the thi...
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  • Todd Howard talks about DLC

    With Skyrim still riding high in the game charts, and patches still being released to fix glitches and problems with the vanilla game, thoughts are already turning to DLC. We've already started getting topics started here on the site about what might be included in future DLC. Well, Todd Howard has ...
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  • It's official : Skyrim is Game of the Year

    Last evening saw the annual Spike TV Game of the Year Award ceremony. And the hot news is that Skyrim was crowned with the biggest of all the prizes - the coveted 'Game of the Year' beating out competition from Batman: Arkham City; Uncharted 3; Portal 2 and The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword. Addi...
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  • One month since Skyrim arrived! How are you doing?

    Amazingly, it is exactly four weeks since Friday November 11th - and Skyrim was released to the eager Elder Scrolls fandom. So, how are you doing? I was interested to see, in the comments to the previous poll result, that quite a few of you didn't vote in the Guild poll because you either haven't st...
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  • NEW Quiz : How well you do know Skyrim NPCs

    It's time for the Friday Quiz  And its another 'odd one out' quiz, just like last week - but this time it is based on NPCs.  Each question gives you the names of four NPCs. Three of them are in Skyrim, and one of them was in either Oblivion or Morrowind. But can you figure out which one? Take the Q...
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  • New patch updates Skyrim to version 1.3

    When I loaded up Skyrim this evening, Steam updated me to version 1.3. At the moment this is only for the PC version, the XBox and PS3 iterations are being tested by Microsoft and Sony respectively, and will be along in the next day or so Here are the patch notes for 1.3 General stability improveme...
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  • Want to know everything about the Dwemer?

    Have you ever pondered about the Dwemer? We first came across them in Morrowind - in fact we actually met one. We lamented their complete absence from Oblivion. And, much to most people's delight, we came across their structures and technology once more in Skyrim. However, collecting together all th...
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  • Let's just be friends! This guy reached Level 9 as a pacifist character...

    Here's something really, really interesting I spotted. A YouTube user called WestSideLuigi has uploaded a video of how his character has got to level 9 as a 100% total pacifist. Yes, that's right - he hasn't killed a single creature, NPC or animal. He doesn't even kill undead. Nor does he use compan...
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  • Take a look at Groups

    It strikes me that many, many people have joined this site since we first got started - and started the 'Groups' 'Groups' on this site are the way in which people with common interests come together for discussion, sharing and interaction. Each Group has its own Wall, its own mini-Forum and its own ...
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  • Dark Brotherhood tops poll on Skyrim Guilds

    Last week our poll asked 'Which of the four main Skyrim Guild quest lines really delivers?' A total of 939 people voted (it seems our days of 2000+ people voting in polls are long gone, sadly) and it was a fairly close run contest until the vote for the Dark Brotherhood surged ahead. Here are the re...
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  • Skyrim mods and the future

    Bundled in with news that there'll be another patch next week was news that the much-anticipated Creation Kit will be released to hungry modders in January. Obviously that is excellent news! But more controversial is the announcement of the new Steam Workshop platform for mods. Let's have a look at...
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  • Last Skyrim tribute video from Harry Partridge

    They've been a lot of fun in the run up to Skyrim And now the game is out, Harry Partridge takes one last look into the world of Skyrim
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  • New Quiz: How much do you know your Skyrim locations?

    Here's a new Friday Quiz  It's an odd-one-out Quiz. Each question has four locations - three of them are in Skyrim, and the other one is either in Cyrodiil or Vvardenfell. But can suss out which is which? Take the quiz and see if you can work out which of the locations is NOT in Skyrim...
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  • Tell us your views on the new patch

    The 1.2 patch for Skyrim rolled out yesterday - and already I'm seeing a variety of opinions Some people have reported a significant improvement, others are saying that its actually made things worse and created problems where none existed before. I've already noticed one baffling change to the PC ...
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  • Most play Skyrim on the default difficulty

    The poll over last midweek was about the difficultly level that we most often use when we play Skyrim. Just over 1000 people voted and the results came out like this As you can see we got a very sweet, and almost perfect, 'bell curve' effects on this one  By far the most popular option was 'adept' w...
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  • 1.2 Patch coming Wednesday for all platforms

    Just posted on Bethesda Blog (so its 'official') that the plan is to post the patch on Wednesday. Here are the release notes which detail the main things that will be addressed by the patch UPDATE 1.2 NOTES (all platforms unless specified) Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long ...
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  • PS3 patch is out - apparently cures lagging

    Great news for Skyrim players on the PS3 platform. A new 92mb patch has been released that updates the game to version 2.01. Users are reporting that it fixes the much talked about lagging issues that have afflicted users of Sony's console. No definite news on the XBox and PC patches, but they are e...
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  • 50 ways to die in Skyrim

    This has already been posted in the video section, but it really needs to be made front page   
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  • Want more info on Skyrim? Here it is...

    Fan support for Skyrim is gathering pace, with news of two extremely useful tools... Game website Game Banshee has uploaded a fully annotated map of the province of Skyrim with every visitable location in the game clearly marked. Additionally, the site has made the map available as a downloadable P...
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  • New poll on the Skyrim Guilds

    There was a lot of speculation before the game released concerning the Guilds - especially as to whether they would be improved from their Oblivion counterparts Now that we've had a couple of weeks to play, it is time to ask whether Bethesda managed to deliver... Looking at the four main Guilds (yes...
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  • Whiterun is your favourite city, says poll

    Last weekend's poll asked which of Skyrim's five main cities was your personal favourite. Just over 1500 people cast a vote, and this was the result The result proved to be a comprehensive win for the city of Whiterun, taking just under half of the votes. Why? Well, it can't be a total co-incidence...
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  • Forum Discussion Guidelines

    We're still getting a lot of stuff getting posted in the wrong place - in particular things which should be in the Forum Discussion part of the site being made into 'Blogs'. We don't have the facility to move a blog into the forum, so we've either got to leave them there (which simply encourages mo...
  • Hating on Skyrim. What is it with some people?

    I took a trip to the official Bethesda forums in search of ideas for discussion topics or blog posts Big mistake  Page after page of threads complaining, whining and bitching about the things that should have been in the game, should have been different or were better in Oblivion / Morrowind / Dagg...
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  • Hear the Skyrim and Morrowind theme on piano and violin

    I don't know why this is so mesmerising, but it is   
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  • Could we be heading back to Cyrodiil and Vvardenfell?

    Gaming sites are buzzing today with speculation about a discovery by Finnish gamer 'Jesse' who discovered that Bethesda has already provided much of the landmass of the provinces used in Oblivion and Morrowind. How does this work? Well, if you go to the very bottom right hand corner of the Skyrim ma...
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  • New poll : What difficulty level do you play on?

    This weeks midweek poll is based on a suggestion from Brandon Longe, and is a poll about difficulty levels. Thanks Brandon! What difficulty level are you playing on? And, perhaps more importantly, why? Have you tried different levels and noticed any significant differences? Or are you one of those p...
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  • Mods are coming thick and fast

    Astonishingly there are already more than 700 mods for Skyrim uploaded to the new and bourgeoning Skyrim Nexus. It's astonishing for two reasons. Firstly, the fact that the game has only been out for just over a week. And, secondly, Bethesda haven't yet released their Creation Kit for the game. Yes,...
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  • There's a patch coming.....

    News from Bethesda via Pete Hines' Twitter, that a patch is coming - maybe by as early as the end of the coming week. Most of the angst that I've seen on forums is that the problems are principally on XBox and PS3 - and that is a surprise to me. I'd always thought that part of the attraction of con...
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  • One month on the new site

    Today marks the one month anniversary of when I first signed up for a Ning account and started to build this site. We've not been operating for quite a month yet - there was a few days of figuring things out, then a brief period of 'beta testing' before the site went live on October 24th. But this i...
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  • The Friday Quiz

    It's time for another QUIZ  This one has been submitted by Vix. Therefore it will not be a surprise that not only is it firmly rooted in Elder Scrolls lore, it is also very hard! Seriously, if you can get 10/10 on this one - and I mean without looking at UESP or the Imperial Library - then you reall...
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  • Strange but true! Couple name new baby 'Dovahkiin'!

    Earlier this year, Bethesda offered free games for life to any couple who produced a baby on 11.11.11... and named him or her 'Dovahkiin' It seemed a good publicity stunt at the time, but I wonder if they actually expected anyone to do it? Well, step forward game crazy couple Megan and Eric Kellerme...
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  • Latest poll shows high level satisfaction of Skyrim

    The results of our latest poll won't be any surprise to regular members of this site. I've always said that this is a Skyrim fan site - but not a fan boy site. We try to be positive about the game, even though we will be honest enough to point out the flaws. Before Skyrim was released I had this nig...
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  • Skyrim sales continue to go through the roof

    Following our earlier story about the early sales figures for Skyrim, we have news today that Bethesda is reporting that a whopping 7 million copies of the game have been sold. This figure means that Bethesda has so far racked up a staggering $450 million in global sales. Wow... It has also emerged ...
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  • NEW POLL : The Cities of Skyrim

    Time for our midweek poll, and we're asking for thoughts about the main cities of Skyrim. A lot was made in the build up to the game about how great care was being given to ensure that there was no repeat of the cookie-cutter cities from Oblivion. Did they succeed in your view? Are the cities suffic...
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  • How Skyrim's stellar sales can be broken down.

    Earlier todayI reported on the awesome news that Skyrim is selling like hotcakes. But wouldn't it be interesting to know how those 3.4 million units can be broken down by platform? Well, wonder no longer my friends - because I have those figures to hand. Perhaps now we can see why there was such an...
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  • We're going to try opening up forum discussions

    I realise this might go horribly wrong, but I'm going to try something that will open up discussion. We now have the possibility for site members to initiate forum discussions. Here's how it works. Firstly, the discussion display on the front page of the site will stay the same. Those discussions ca...
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  • Skyrim sells 3.4 million copies in 3 days, and is fastest selling RPG ever

    Good news for Bethesda in wake of the release of Skyrim... Early sales figures indicate that the game sold 3.4 million copies at retail outlets in just 3 days after release. That does not count digital copies from Steam, which will add another chunk to the already stellar sales figures. By way of co...
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  • Finally, I got around to doing my own character backstory

    Prompted by Piper Jo, and with a pressing need to get a Skyrim character that I will love, cherish and - beyond anything - actually stick with.... here is my character backstory  Nasreen, a headstrong and determined female Breton I ‘Gar... a wasted journey’ muttered Nasreen under her breath. She too...
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  • Putting out the welcome mat

    The prophets of doom around on this site were telling me that this site would resound to the sound of tumbleweed once we got Skyrim into our sweaty hands. More than a few people told me 'Surely you realise that nobody will want to come on this site once the game has come out....' Of course, I took ...
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  • Help me cure my Elder Scrolls 'problem'...

    'Hello, my name is Paul... and I'm addicted to starting Elder Scrolls games over and over' I can't believe I'm only one with this problem. I start with a Khajiit, start playing the game. Then after a couple of hours I start getting the nagging feeling that I should have started with with a Nord. So ...
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  • NEW POLL : 24 hours into the post-release world of Skyrim

    Well, most of us will now have had chance to dip our toes into the world of Skyrim. I don't know about anyone else but I certainly feel that I've barely scratched the surface yet. But that's OK, because this game - together with DLC and mods - will be my main game for some years to come. I'm happy t...
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  • The Song of Skyrim

    Somehow this seems like an appropriate post for 11.11.11   
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  • Reviews flood in for Skyrim...all are positive!

    I was talking a look at Metacritic just now to see how Skyrim is doing in the ratings  A few minutes ago there were 66 reviews posted up from gaming magazines and websites. Skyrim is currently posting a rating of 96% across those reviews. The only game with a higher rating is the new Zelda game, alt...
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  • IGN reviews Skyrim and gives it 9.5

    Again, a massively positive review. No spoilers here, and a rating of 9.5  
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  • First Video Review Posted - and the reviewers LOVED Skyrim!

    Titan of Tamriel spotted this one and posted it, but I think it really needs to be on the front page This is the Destructoid Review and, you know what, they absolutely LOVED it. Enjoy   
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  • Blogging on this site! New Guidelines

    As most people realise one of the cool features on this site is that everyone - literally, EVERYONE - can post up their own content in the form of blogs. To date there have been well over 500 blogs posted. And as a result its all got messy and chaotic. Also a lot of you have been posting up stuff as...
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  • New Quiz added : How much do you know about Daedra?

    We know that there will be Daedra in Skyrim - but how much do you know about then? Take this latest Quiz and find out. Thank you to Matt Nicholson for researching and writing this quiz. I'll warn you now... this quiz is TOUGH  If you would like to contribute a quiz then send me 10 questions with fou...
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  • Put the Nords to one side, and poll shows we love all the Skyrim races...

    ...... that is the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the most recent and most popular poll on The Skyrim Blog. An incredible 3502 people voted on the poll (I can remember when getting 50 votes was the norm, we are now well on the way to getting 100 times that number!) and it was no great surpr...
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  • The animation of Skyrim

    Another in the pre-game series of Bethesda official taster videos. This time its a non-spoiler look at animations in the game. Enjoy  
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  • The World of Skyrim

    This has already been mentioned by Ssarrasum in his blog post, but we usually shove the Bethesda videos directly onto the front page. So here goes with this non-spoiler look at the World of Skyrim.
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  • Wow! Skyrim just a couple of days away

    In a weird kinda way, all the work that as been going on to establish and build up this site has somehow blinded me to the fact that the Skyrim clock is ticking right down... But, being away on my conference this week, and taking a bit more of a back seat on the blogs and forums here, I suddenly rea...
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  • Away for much of this week....

    I'm going on a conference this week connected with my job.  Supposedly the conference centre has wifi... it remains to be seen how stable or fast it will be (my experience with this places is that it tends to be slow and unreliable!) But we've got a plan... FORUM DISCUSSIONS :  Kevin and Titan have ...
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  • Poll shows we still like going to the store to buy Skyrim

    Our poll last week about how we plan to obtain Skyrim attracted a whopping 2516 votes, the highest number of votes that we have ever had on a poll! By the way, that is another indicator that, despite the recent site move, we are still attracting large numbers of visitors. I couldn't tell you exactly...
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  • Archery is the most anticipated combat skill, says poll

    Last weekend our third in the series of Weekend Roundtables on the skill sets looked at the combat skills. There was a poll that went with that discussion, and here are the results. In all honesty I expected that One-Handed would top this poll, so it was a surprise to me that Archery swooped into fi...
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  • Into the future

    I notice there have been quite a few blogs or posts in the Q&A about the future of this site once Skyrim is released.And I've had various emails and messages on the subject too. So I thought it would be good to say something about that. The honest answer is that none of knows what will happen. E...
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  • Chat Room Tonight

    Tonight on The Skyrim Blog we will be having our first ever Chat session. We have a built-in Chat facility on this site, but we've never had it functioning. That's going to change tonight because, as an experiment, there will be a Chat session between 8.00-10.00 pm GMT. You'll have to work out what ...
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  • Skyrim nominated for Game of the Year

    Yes, the nominations are out for the VGA Game of the Year. Batman: Arkham City The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Portal 2 Uncharted 3 : Drakes Deception Well, I think its pretty obvious which one I voted for  The good news is that its a public vote, os why not head o...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Changing races?

    I would imagine that, by this point, you've all pretty well settled on the race of your starting character in Skyrim. Of course some of you probably decided that almost a year ago when we first heard that there was going to be an Elder Scrolls 5. Then there'll be those who always play exactly the sa...
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  • Skyrim is officially 'gold'

    Hot off the press news from Bethesda blog. After four years of blood, sweat and tears, Skyrim has officially gone 'gold'. The team celebrated with specially brewed Skyrim Golden Mead (pictured above). Well done and congratulations to everyone at Bethesda 
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  • Here are the Site Hosts

    I am now in the process of setting things up for the Site Hosts. I'm giving out the necessary tools for the various Hosts to be able to do their jobs in their specific areas of the site. Before I announce who the Site Hosts will be, I need to say a couple of things. Firstly, I received FAR more appl...
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  • It's the Friday quiz

    How well you do YOU know your Elder Scrolls characters? Today's quiz tests your knowledge of the NPCs in the various games. I've chosen 10 reasonably well known characters from four Elder Scrolls titles - how many of them can you connect to the correct game? Take the Quiz and let us know your score ...
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  • Brand new Todd Howard Skyrim podcast

    Here's a new Gamespot podcast featuring the one and only Todd Howard. Thanks to Ssarrasum Blackscale for noticing this one. The HotSpot - 11/02/11 - And there are dragons, obviously by gamespot
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  • The Sounds of Skyrim

    Another official Bethesda video cast, this time looking at the music and voices in Skyrim. Some wonderful background information on how they created the sounds of the game, plus a few new in game shots. This is well worth the time to sit and watch!  
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  • Will you buy the Skyrim soundtrack?

    I've never bought or downloaded a game soundtrack, and it seems a bit of an odd notion to me - even though I am a massive music buff. News has come out today that the Skyrim Soundtrack is available for pre-order. It's spread over 4CDs so there's plenty of music there to fill up your iPod. As a bonus...
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  • 'My compliments to the Chef!' Food in Skyrim

    We seen loads of previews of Skyrim that talk about killing wolves, mooching around Riverwood and charging off to Bleak Falls Barrow. I must have read dozens! I came upon a slightly different take on Skyrim via a site called KillScreenDaily. This journalist focused on what he could eat in Skyrim. Ye...
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  • Postscript to a manic Wednesday...

    Things seem to have settled down a bit after the chaos yesterday.  I've needed to remove a bit of content, and suspend one member who obviously thought that the posting guidelines didn't apply to him - but generally everyone seems to have got back to being friendly and helpful. Hopefully it will now...
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  • The end of an (Oblivion) Era

    Earlier on today I had a spare half hour, and I fired up Oblivion. Although I've played for hundreds of hours, including dabbling in many of the fine mods that have come out since the game was released back in 2006. But for some reason, I've never completed The Shivering Isles. So I made it my goal ...
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  • Clarification on Spoilers and Leaked Content

    Hello everyone We are now, as expected, starting to find that people are coming up with site content based on the leaked game that has appeared.  This cannot continue, otherwise we are going to get a lot of people leaving this site. Therefore, I have amended the policy that I introduced yesterday. F...
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  • The Skyrim Blog reaches 1000 members

    We've now been 'live' as a site for just a few hours over nine days - and I have, within the last few minutes, validated our 1000th member.... It's been a hectic week or so on this site, with the challenges of getting things up and running on a software platform that I knew very little about when I ...
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  • How are you getting Skyrim? New discussion and poll

    For some reason I'm always leery about going into Gaming stores. I don't know whether its the nerdy kids with hoodies trying to negotiate their 'trade in' price to eke out enough to get the latest version of Call of Duty - or the even more nerdy guys behind the counter who look like they'd die of sh...
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  • So this is what the carriages in Skyrim look like then?

    Try hailing this and ask to be taken to the Throat of the World  photo courtesy of The Elder Council Facebook page
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  • XBox version of Skyrim leaked

    Two members of our site have contacted me with the news that the XBox version of Skyrim has been pirated and uploaded to some torrent sites. I have verified this story from various sources via Google. Apparently people with a modded XBox can get around the software protection and play the game. I su...
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  • Bethesda releases trailer for 'Making of' DVD

    Here is something new  Bethesda today released this trailer for the 'Making of' DVD that will ship with the Skyrim Collectors Edition. It lasts just short of three minutes and contains a bit of new footage (nothing spoilery) Thank you to Care for spotting this and posting it first - but I think some...
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  • Wow, you lot are a bunch of rebels aren't you?

    According to the latest site poll, more almost three quarters of you either plan to side with the rebel Stormcloak faction - or at least attempt to keep playing them along, even if you are also working with the Legion. More than 2000 people voted, showing that the site moving to a new home has done ...
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  • You never get a second chance to make a first impression

    Although I very briefly dabbled with Daggerfall my first real Elder Scrolls experience was with Morrowind. Somehow I picked up on Morrowind before release, and saw the trailer and previews on Gamespot. I bought it on the day of release. Loading the game, I woke on the prison ship to hear Juib's grav...
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  • Now recruiting 'Site Hosts'

    I am now starting the process of appointing a number of people to the role of 'Site Hosts'. I don't really like the whole Admins / Mods thing that you get on forums, I think its often divisive and hierarchical. So, we're going down the road of 'Site Hosts'... The idea is that different parts of the...
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  • Site News Update

    We have now being going for almost a week, and what an incredible week it has been - we currently have 842 members, with just under 200 blogs added to the site, daily forum discussions, and a whole slew of photos, videos, comments and posts. Inevitably things have been a bit chaotic, which was only ...
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  • Anyone feel insanely jealous of this guy?

     ....on the positive side it does show that the game Is Finished, and will be here on 11.11.11
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  • Bethesda release cool concept-art-to-reality video

    Hot off the press from the Bethesda website is this brand new concept art video, featuring new areas, armour and monsters not seen before. It even includes the first glimpse of the Greybeards in High Hrothgar. Watch and comment
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  • G4TV footage gets informed commentary

    Yes, I realise we are milking the G4 new footage for all its worth, but in the absence of new information so close to release it's all we have right now! YouTube user Culveyhouse has taken the new footage and added some informed commentary. He makes a few mistakes, but they are corrected with annota...
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  • It's time for the Friday Quiz

    We've got a quiz module on this site, so I thought we'd give it a spin. Welcome to The Friday Quiz. You can get there either by this link, or via the 'Quiz' link on the top menu bar. Today's Qui - seeing as it is Friday and on the old site was always about lore - is a quiz about Elder Scrolls lore....
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  • Want to see new gameplay?

    Here is the NEW gameplay that featured in yesterdays G4TV. But, here is the good news. Someone has edited out the stuff we've seen a zillion times before, and - praise be - has replaced that annoying commentary track with soothing music. Thanks to The Skyrim Blog member Chris for sending me this lin...
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  • Poll shows our members favour sneak skill for their Thief characters

    The most recent poll ended up as a bit of mess, as it was conducted across the old site and new site. No doubt some voted on the old site, others here on the new site - and quite a lot probably voted twice. What was interesting, though, was that the proportions across the two sites was almost exactl...
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  • New gameplay footage and preview

    New Skyrim footage and previews have started to emerge onto the Web, and some of you have been posting links to these on your profiles etc. But I thought people would want these on the front page. So here is the preview from G4, which mixes in new shots with some old stuff
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  • The Guilds of Skyrim #5 : The Stormcloaks and the Legion

    In this part of our series on 'The Guilds of Skyrim' I'm going to take the two sides of the civil war together - as they will clearly be inextricably linked in Skyrim. First news of the 'Stormcloaks' slipped out in one of the PAX play tests, as journalists quickly ran into the Stormcloak presence in...
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  • Here are the PC specs...hot off the press!

    These have just been released in the last few minutes by Pete Hines on Twitter MINIMUM Windows XP/7/Vista (32 or 64 bit), Dual core  2GB RAM, DX9c video card w/ 512MB RAM, Internet Access for Steam activation   RECOMMENDED Windows XP/7, Quad-core Intel/AMD CPU 4GB RAM, 6GB HD, DX compatible sound...
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  • What if you got a leaked copy of Skyrim?

    This video shows what would happen  
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  • Pondering the new site

    The brand new home for The Skyrim Blog has now been open for just under 24 hours. We're closing in on 500 members, who have already added 61 blog posts, uploaded 117 photos and made hundreds of comments on discussion topics, profiles and character stories. So its safe to say that things are going a...
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  • Bethesda release live action Skyrim trailer

    Watch and comment   
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  • Destruction destroys the other schools in our magic poll

    More than 2000 people voted in our Weekend Roundtable poll on magic, and arounsd 200 comments were made in a lively and provocative discussion. Here are the results: In retrospect, it was probably a bit of a mistake to ask the question in the form ‘which magic school will you use most in Skyrim?’ ra...
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  • The Weekend Roundtable: Let's talk about stealth

    In the final run-up to the release of Skyrim our 'Weekend Roundtable' is going through the three main character archetypes, and offering a free-form discussion on each. Last week we looked at all things magic - and it was a fascinating and enlightening conversation. This time around we turn the spot...
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  • The Story so far

    A couple of people have asked for one of our trademark The Skyrim Blog lore summary posts to help those who have not necessarily played previous Elder Scrolls games - or if they did - they paid little attention to the lore. Since it seems to be my lore posts that have piqued people's interest in thi...
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  • Brand new Skyrim gameplay is here

    I know that a lot of people have been super-excited by the prospect of new Skyrim gameplay being released as part of the Gametrailers show. Well, the day has finally arrived and here it is. This is the thread to talk about what we are seeing here. So let's get this started....
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  • Skyrim statue unboxing

    The video speaks for itself really... I'm already planning my break-in to our local "Game" store to steal one of those guys...
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  • Game Guide blurb reveals interesting tidbits

    The blurb for the forthcoming Skyrim Game Guide has now been posted onto Amazon. Much of it is the usual guff about how they detail every single item, the large number of maps and charts that they provide and how they have based it on hundreds of hours of play testing. However, tucked away within th...
  • Anyone for artifacts

    A couple of people have asked for a thread about artifacts, and here it is :) The problem with this subject is that it is absolutely HUGE. Depending on how strictly you define 'artifact' there can be an extremely large number of them scattered around Tamriel at any given point in time. UESP defines ...
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  • Read all this weeks previews? This one is the best of the lot!

    We've had a slew of game previews this week, and quite a few we have already linked to or mentioned here on The Skyrim Blog. But out of all the ones I have read, and I think I've now read pretty well ALL of them there was one that contained the most interesting, intriguing and downright exciting inf...
  • Getting around! Transportation in Skyrim

    Whatever turns out to be the exact answer to the debate about whether it is a bit bigger or a bit smaller than Cyrodiil, there's no doubt at all that Skyrim is a BIG place. And over the course of our adventures in Skyrim we are clearly going to be doing a lot of travelling around.... But how? That's...
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