The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim/Scrapped Quests

This is a sub-page of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Altered Quests

These quests still appear in the final game but have had one or more elements removed.

Delayed Burial

Originally, this quest could've been started by overhearing a conversation play out between Skulvar Sable-Hilt and Uthgerd the Unbroken at the Whiterun Stables. Because the scene is deliberately disabled, the quest can only be started by encountering Cicero at the Loreius Farm.

Dungeon Delving (Caves)

Originally, Ghorbash the Iron Hand would've sent you to retrieve an item known as "Ghorbash's Ancestral Axe" before agreeing to become a follower. In the final game this is merely reduced to talking to him.

Lights Out!

This quest originally gave the player the option between aiding Jaree-Ra, only to end up betrayed like the final game, or help Ma'zaka and the Solitude guard. Ma'zaka is the Khajiit that lives in the Solitude Lighthouse, but he never plays any significant role in the final game. If the player chose to help him and the guards, Captain Aldis would appear during the quest, and help the player fight the Blackblood Marauders at the Wreck of the Icerunner. With this path, Deeja could end up arrested, unlike the final game where she always ends up dead.

Tolfdir the Absent-Minded

While this quest normally has you searching for an alembic misplaced by Tolfdir, it seems that it was intended to also have the player search for a book that Tolfdir had lost. The quest would randomly select one of these objectives, but only chooses the alembic in the final game.

Waking Nightmare

Unused items seem to suggest that the player originally had to create Vaermina's Torpor rather than just finding it during the quest Waking Nightmare.

With Friends Like These...

The original Dark Brotherhood initiation quest had the player kill one of their friends, instead of Grelod the Kind. Unused quest data, dialogue notes and an NPC are all left in the files pointing to this. Bethesda also referenced the act of killing your friend in pre-release texts.

The Whispering Door

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.

Remaining Info

These quests actually still exist as a quest entry and are set up as such.

A Bad Trade

A cut quest in which Birna of Winterhold would request that the player return a burial urn back to Yngol Barrow. This quest seems to be an early version of the quest "Yngol's Barrow".

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, unsurprisingly.

Boethiah's Bidding

This was to be a second part of Boethiah's quest which involved assassinating Elisif the Fair, it would've started where the quest in the final game ends.

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.

Filling Soul Gems

Sergius Turrianus of the College of Winterhold would request that the player fill a grand soul gem for him, that's it.

Haunting

This quest is known internally as WIKill02. It has also been prefixed with " - CONDITIONED NOT TO START - ". This quest would make NPCs with family relations react to a loved one's passing by the deceased relative returning as a ghost, and haunting the other relative for a set amount of time.

Lod's Lot

Earlier in Skyrim's development, Falkreath's blacksmith Lod would've been a struggling farmer. To make ends meet, he took up graverobbing and offered the player a book. The player could either choose to accept the book and receive more gifts from him or turn him in to Kust, the gravekeeper. Nothing more is known.

Mourning

Mourning, internally known as WIKill01, shares the same naming convention as the inheritance letters similar to Haunting. This quest would make NPCs with family relations react to a loved one's passing by mourning for a set amount of time. The quest, however, has been prefixed with " - CONDITIONED NOT TO START - ".

NarzulburFreeFormWifeQuest

This quest has no name, and therefore uses its editor id. It would've revolved around Chief Mauhulakh of Narzulbur and his bad luck concerning wives. The player would speak to him and he would mention an old mate named Uglarz. They would then head out into the wilderness and bring Uglarz back to Mauhulakh.

Research Thief

Another cut College of Winterhold quest, this quest revolves about Nirya and Faralda. Nirya would request that the player steals Faralda's research notes, they would then have the option to alarm Faralda or go through with the theft. Nirya would reward the player with gold while turning her in doesn't reward anything.

Rogue Wizard

A quest in which you are sent out to deal with a Rogue Wizard. The wizard could appear in any dungeon throughout the entire game, and the player would have to report to the local Jarl. The quest is still mentioned in the official game guide as one of the College of Winterhold's completable quests.

Runil's Dark Past

Runil, the priest in Falkreath, would've been able to tell about his dark past in this quest. The player would overhear that people think he's troubled and could go ask Runnil about it. Runil would reveal that he was a powerful Thalmor mage that killed many and the player would then get the option to either keep it secret or tell his friends.

Supply Line

In this quest, you would help deliver mead to various taverns around Skyrim for twin brothers Rundi and Borvir, it would have been repeatable. In the final game, however, both brothers end up dead.

The Missing Apprentices

Another College quest, this quest had the player asking Phinis Gestor about the missing apprentices spoken of in a scene, this can still happen in the final game and advances the quest to a specific stage, but it never goes further than that. The apprentices; Borvir, Rundi, Ilas-tei and Yisra also still appear in the final game albeit without purpose.

Trius' Trinket

This would have been a quest where upon meeting a man 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. The editor ID for this quest is dunShipwreck04QST.

No Remaining Info

These quests no longer exist in the form of a quest entry, their existence is only proven by remaining items, scripts, or other such traces. None of these quests have remaining names.

Favor Quests

Favor quests are small tasks requested by NPCs such as slaying a giant or stealing an item. There are 23 of these in the final game, originally, there were at least 258... Yeah.

Name	Explanation
Favor001	This is the finished favor "Delivery".
Favor002	This favor seemed to revolve about giving an NPC the food they wanted, including food not found in the final game such as grapes, corn, and oranges.
Favor003	Unknown. The remaining quest script has a variable for sending a relative home, but that's about it.
Favor004-007	Unknown. Only very basic scripting remains.
Favor008	This favor would've had the player heal an NPC with magic.
Favor009	Unknown. Only very basic scripting remains.
Favor010	This favor involved a debtor of some sort. The remaining scripting has variables checking for the removal of gold from the player's inventory.
Favor011	Mentions in other scripts seem to imply that this favor was a variation of "Delivery".
Favor012	Unknown. Only very basic scripting remains.
Favor013	This is the finished favor "A Few Words with You".
Favor014	Mentions in other scripts seem to imply that this favor was a variation of "Some Light Theft".
Favor015	Mentions in other scripts seem to imply that this favor was either a variation of "A Few Words with You" or "Fight! Fight!".
Favor016	Unknown. Only very basic scripting remains.
Favor017	This is the finished favor "Fight! Fight!".
Favor018	This is the finished favor "Some Light Theft".
Favor019	This is the finished favor "That Was Always There".
Favor020	Unknown. Only very basic scripting remains.
Favor021-28	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor029	This favor would've had the player use a sharpening wheel.
Favor030	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor031	Leftover data reveals that this favor got turned into "Dungeon Delving (Bandits)".
Favor032-33	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor034	This favor involved a locked chest. It's possible that NPCs would request the player to unlock their (or other people's) chests for them.
Favor035-52	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor053	This favor would've had the player attack a combat dummy. Specific attack types didn't yet work at the time of creating the script, indicating it was made probably very early on.
Favor054	This favor would've had the player track down and kill a bandit leader, this favor seemingly got repurposed into "Kill the Bandit Leader (Jarl)".
Favor055	This favor seemingly involved the player killing a prisoner, nothing more is known.
Favor056	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor057	This favor apparently involved a guard of some kind, the remaining scripting has variables for the player's health and bleedout state but nothing more is known.
Favor058-103	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor104	This is the finished favor "Kill the Bandit Leader".
Favor105	Unknown. The remaining script has variables tracking locations, but for what isn't known.
Favor106-108	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor109	This is the finished favor "Kill the Vampire".
Favor110	This is the finished favor "Rare Gifts".
Favor111	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor112	This favor involved a locked door and seems similar to the unused "Favor034". It's once again possible that NPCs would request the player to unlock their (or other people's) door for them.
Favor113-150	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor151	This is the finished favor "Kill the Forsworn Leader (Jarl)".
Favor152	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor153	This is the finished favor "Kill the Giant (Jarl)".
Favor154	This is the finished favor "Kill the Bandit Leader (Jarl)".
Favor155-56	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor157	This is the finished favor "Dungeon Delving (Jarl - Hagravens)".
Favor158	This is the finished favor "Dungeon Delving (Jarl - Caves)".
Favor159-203	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor204	This is the finished favor "Dungeon Delving (Bandits)".
Favor205	This is the finished favor "Dungeon Delving (Caves)".
Favor206-249	Unknown. Nothing remains at all.
Favor250	This is the finished favor "Thane of the Reach".
Favor251	This is an early version of Riften's thane quest "I Done Got Thaned!" which is the only thane quest that isn't counted as a favor quest.
Favor252	This is the finished favor "Thane of Haafingar".
Favor253	This is the finished favor "Thane of Whiterun".
Favor254	This is the finished favor "Thane of Eastmarch".
Favor255	This is the finished favor "Thane of Hjaalmarch".
Favor256	This is the finished favor "Thane of the Pale".
Favor257	This is the finished favor "Thane of Winterhold".
Favor258	This is the finished favor "Thane of Falkreath".

FreeformAngasMill

Not much is known, only that the quest revolved around an object called "Kordir's Skooma". "Kordir" being a misspelling of Anga's Mill resident Kodrir's name.

FreeformOldHroldanA

Nothing remains at all.

FreeformWinterholdB

Unknown, the only remaining script has a property to count collected books, but its purpose is unknown.

Markarth Freeform Quests

Markarth, like all other cities in the game, has a number of simple freeform quests. Although the city by far has the most removed ones. "FreeformMarkarthK" has nothing leftover. "FreeformMarkarthI" only has a message remaining, this being the item "Uaile's Sleeping potion". Uaile is one of the housekeepers working for Nepos the Nose. "FreeformMarakarthH" also only exists in the form of an item name, this being "Nana Ildene's Medicine". Nana Ildene is another maid who works in the Treasury House. "FreeformMarkarthG" has little remaining of its own, though it's likely very similar to Favor013 (A Few Words with You), as the two share a lot of scripting. "FreeformMarkarthF" has two remaining scripts, showing it revolved around a letter. "FreeformMarkarthC" only has a single remaining script, and it involved a scene of Talos worship. "FreeformMarkarthB" also has no leftovers. "FreeformMarkarthA" would've had the player selling Dwemer parts to Calcelmo, as shown by its remaining script. "FreeformMarkarthM2" would've had a scene play out between Nana Ildene and Bothela, though nothing else is known about it.

V01, V02 and V03

"V" stands for Vampire, these quests would've been related to vampire clans not present in the game's final release. V01 dealt with the player stealing an item known as the "Bloodfire Amulet" from somewhere. The second quest had the player travel to Solitude in order to murder an NPC known as DomnaMagia. The third quest involved an encounter with the leaders of the two vampire clans, the Cronvangr and Quarra clans. NPCs by the names of Vlkoslak and Jelkar appear to have been involved and the player could kill one of them.

WE19

"WE" stands for wilderness encounter, the random events that often happen on Skyrim's roads. This encounter would've involved one or more bandits and a chest.

WE21

The remaining script for this encounter implies that the player would encounter an NPC in bleedout state (on their knees) and they had to heal them.

WE26