The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is the fifth entry in the extremely popular Elder Scrolls series, in which you play as the Dragonborn or Dovahkiin – a person bestowed with the ability of killing dragons by absorbing their souls and using their powers. Oh, and it turns out they're back. And causing a whole load of trouble.

Quick Start
There is a simple debug option in the script data for the introduction quest ("Unbound") to skip it in various ways, for ease of testing. Look in the script for Unbound (MQ101) for a variable called MQQuickStart. By default it is set to 0, but changing the default state of this variable will alter the state the game begins in.


 * 0: The game starts normally. Default.
 * 1: The game attempts to start after the cart ride, but something appears to be broken.
 * 2: The game starts at the very beginning of the Helgen Keep dungeon, right after you've chosen who to follow.
 * 3: The game starts at the very end of the Helgen Keep dungeon with a basic set of equipment pre-set to your character.
 * 4: Seemingly the same as option 2?

Options 2-4 will pop up a dialog box on game start asking whether you want to follow the Imperial (Hadvar) or the Stormcloak (Ralof).

Debug & Unused Rooms
You can use the console command  to teleport to these areas.

Windhelm Pit
Area Code: WindhelmPitEntrance

This is the entrance to the unused Pit arena. Entering the Pit spawns Argonian, Nord, Dark Elf and Imperial NPCs called 'Pit Fans', who just wander around, but are obviously supposed to be spectators of some sort.

Editor Smoke Test Cell
Area Code: qasmoke

An item testing room. The chests contain every inventory item in the game. Opening any enchanted chests may crash the game due to the sheer amount of enchanted items. Note that having Dawnguard & Dragonborn installed expands the room; Dawnguard adds a room with two chests holding inventory items specific to that DLC, whereas Dragonborn adds a room with chests full of Dragonborn items, as well as a cage with buttons that spawns enemies from Solstheim.

M'aiq The Liar's Room
Area Code: Elsweyr

A small grey room where the Khajiit wanderer M'aiq the Liar is stuffed away (when he's not roaming around Skyrim). The developers decided to use the name of the Khajiit homeland as the area code.

Do Not Delete - Not A Test Cell
Area Code: ThievesGuildHoldingCell

There seems to be a lot of Thieves' Guild related things here, unsurprisingly. In the corner is a disabled woman NPC with Vaermina's name and voice, as well as chests for all the Thieves Guild fences, the Stones of Barenziah, notes and books relating to Thieves' Guild quests, drinks, levelled and special loot, and Mercer Frey's Chillrend sword.

Main Menu Cell
Area Code: MainMenuCell

Entirely blank. Sort of self-explanatory...?

Unowned Cell
Area Code: UnownedCell

All this contains is a chest with an Amulet of Mara. Not sure what it'd be used for.

Voice Cells
All of these cells are small stone rooms carrying NPCs with IDs relating to disembodied Daedra voices.


 * Area Code: AzuraVoiceCell – Holds a female Dark Elf with the ID DA01AzuraVoice.
 * Area Code: MalynVarenVoiceCell – Empty.
 * Area Code: MolagBalVoiceCell – Holds a male Imperial with the ID DA10MolagBalVoice.

E3 Bleak Falls Barrow
Area Code: E3demoBleakFallsBarrow

Pretty much identical to the final game, except in the final game, the location is split into two separate loading cells. This version is both cells clumped together; presumably to show off combat at an E3 expo.

Helgen Unused Cells
These cells all lead back to or reference Helgen in some way, the town that Alduin ravages at the start of the game. Perhaps Helgen was to be rebuilt at one point in the game?


 * Area Code: HelgenHomestead – This is one of the houses destroyed by Alduin at the beginning of the game. Normally you jump through this on your way to the keep with Ralof or Hadvar, but it exists as a partially coded room with a table, two chairs, a floating bed and a exit back to the destroyed house in Helgen.
 * Area Code: HelgenTheLostMansReprieve – Going off the name, one could guess this was an inn, though all that is left is a table and a door that goes nowhere.
 * Area Code: HelgenTorolfsMill – This is pretty much the same as the Lost Man's Reprieve.

Hoarfrost Grotto
Area Code: HoarfrostGrottoOLD

An unfinished ice cave which just houses a Frost Atronach and some Ice Wraiths. There's no exit.

Obscured Passage
Area Code: CidhnaMine03

The ID suggests this was a scrapped part of the Cidhna Mine. It's mainly full of corpses and gates, and has Dwemer architecture throughout.

Hauntings
A quest exists with the editor ID of WIKill02 which was named "Haunting" but has been prefixed with " - CONDITIONED NOT TO START - ". Based on the quest ID (which shares the same scheme as the quest for inheritance letters) and some leftover dialogue, it seems as though at some point in development, an NPC who died could come back and haunt a loved one.

Boethiah's Bidding
There are several leftovers from a quest where Solitude's Jarl Elisif (the widow of High King Torygg) was supposed to be murdered to appease the Daedric Prince Boethiah. The quest still exists with the editor ID DA02KillObj, but as Elisif is marked as essential to the game, she cannot be killed and the quest is never triggered.

If by console Elisif is made unessential and killed, the quest will still not activate, but guards will make the following comments:-


 * "Even the nobility of Oblivion seem to favor our cause." – Stormcloak guards
 * "Damn Stormcloaks. First Torygg, and now Elisif. Let's hope Erikur fares better than they did." – Imperial / Solitude guards

The second line shows that Erikur, Elisif's brother, was to ascend to the throne if Elisif was to die.

Trius' Trinket
This would have been a quest where upon meeting a guy called Trius outside a shipwreck, he would ask you to search it for a jewelry box. Returning it to him would have given you a new spell. However, Trius doesn't actually exist in the game code. The editor ID for this quest is dunShipwreck04QST.

Collecting the Edda
An unused Bard's College quest which seems to logically follow after the Festival of Burning King Olaf. The Poetic Edda is what Viarmo says is a "living history of Skyrim", written by bards studying at the Bard's College.

Animal Pelt Collection
An early Companions quest with very unfinished journal entries and references to Aela the Huntress. This quest would've made you hunt animals for their pelts, funnily enough.

Winterhold Rogue Wizard
A quest in which one is sent out to deal with a Rogue Wizard. The NPC is unused, so it never triggers, nor is there a reward once asked to return to Tolfdir. The Rogue Wizard in question exists with the BaseID 0005AE91, and is a High Elf, but never actually appears anywhere in the game.

Killing Jarl Balgruuf
A lot of unused scripts and dialogue, when viewed with the Creation Kit, show that Hrongar was meant to initially replace Jarl Balgruuf during the quest The Whispering Door. Not just Nelkir, but all of Balgruuf's children were meant to fall under the influence of Mephala, and the three of them would commit patricide. The scripts remain unused and thus, Hrongar cannot become Jarl.

Alternate Dark Brotherhood beginning
An NPC male Nord exists called PlayerFriend with the BaseID 0002001F, and is supposed to appear in Candlehearth Hall in Windhelm (albeit naked without weapons or gold). He is friendly towards you, but otherwise has no other scripts. That said, the NPC is called in the quest "With Friends Like These", the initiation Dark Brotherhood quest. It's presumed that instead of killing Grelod the Kind, you were to kill a friend of yours - something which was referenced by Bethesda in pre-release texts.

Drahff & Hewnon Black-Skeever
These two bandits appear in the entrance corridor to the Ratways in Riften, in which they attack you on sight. However, recorded dialogue not used implies that originally the two were supposed to demand money off you before they'd let you pass. Intimidating them would allow you to pass without a fight.

Killing Children
If the "setrace" command or mods are used to allow the player to kill child characters, their death noises are voiced. Furthermore, if the player uses these methods to kill Braith, then Lars Battle-Born will run up to the player in Whiterun, thank the player for killing her, and then give the player 50 gold. These lines are all fully voiced. This suggests that the player was originally going to be able to kill children, and the voiced dialogue suggests that this was probably cut late in development.

Inaccessible Keys & Nonexistent Areas
A handful of keys exist in the code that are either unobtainable or open doors that are never found in-game.

Irontree Mill House Key
Object ID: 00098b7a

This unobtainable key is supposed to be carried by two characters named Steirod and Trilf, neither of whom are found in the game.

Key to Traillus's House
Object ID:	00065659

This key is unobtainable.

Key to Longhouse
Object ID: 0009e2a4

This key is carried by Jesper, Swanhvir, and Teeba-Ei, NPCs who can be found in Stonehills. Though it is obtainable, The Longhouse it's meant to open doesn't exist.

Key to Wintersand Manor
Object ID: 00093b14

This key is carried by the NPCs Acolyte Jenssen, Ahlam, and Nazeem, who can be found in and around Whiterun. Though it is obtainable, Wintersand Manor doesn't exist.

Key to Argi's Hut
Object ID: 0009e2a6

This key is carried by Argi Farseer, who can be found in Stonehills. Though it is obtainable, Argi's Hut doesn't exist.