Playing any fantasy RPG requires a measure of suspended belief, a willingness to accept a certain amount of the absurd and the illogical, and one Skyrim fan recently decided to take the rose-colored glasses off and take a look at how the Skyrim economy functions – or doesn’t, as it turns out. Dragons and wars are the least of that nation’s worries.
“I have no idea how the economy/society of Skyrim functions,” Twitter user Bailey Trappe begins, before making a fundamental observation. To the average Skyrim tourist and dragon fighter, it seems like at least 75 percent of the country’s population consists of guards and bandits.
The number is (probably) exaggerated, but there’s no denying bandits and guards vastly outnumber the number of farmers, workers, and tradesfolk who you’d expect to keep Bethesda‘s fantasy land running.
“Adding in the stress put on the supply lines from the civil war and I just don’t understand how Skyrim’s population has enough food to eat,” they continue. “There aren’t that many farms in the game and the ones we do see are barely subsistence-level operations.”
where the hell is all the ale and mead being made?? we see two meaderies in the entire game. are we to believe that the taverns themselves are making their own? even then there isn’t nearly enough supply. plus to my knowledge there’s only one honey farm in the entire country!
— bailey trappe (@dirtbagqueer) October 24, 2022
That also raises the question of where Skyrim’s mineral resources and weaponry come from. As Bailey Trappe pointed out, the government owns precious few resources. Bandits control most of the mines and are apparently plentiful enough that they can just sweep back in after you clear out the resident ne’er-do-wells.
“Idk if the bandit groups in Skyrim are organized in any way but if they are, they probably have a more legitimate claim to government than anyone else,” they said. “They control all the forts, most of the mines, and have approximately one million outposts just in Whiterun Hold alone.”
They concluded the thread with a humorous proposal for a Skyrim roleplaying experience, that of a harassed bureaucrat desperately trying to take an accurate census and appraise the country’s material wealth. Maybe in The Elder Scrolls 6, eh?
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
