Non-player characters can have a surprisingly busy schedule inThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Bethesda prides itself on creating a living world whose inhabitants follow a schedule and go about their day with or without player involvement. This was an often-mentioned feature ofOblivionthatSkyrimexpanded upon by significantly increasing NPC’s abilities to interact with their environment.
However,SkyrimNPCs often do things that don’t make sensein context, as many players noticed the first time Serana randomly started working a forge or swinging a pickaxe. Recently, aSkyrimplayer noticed another odd behavior, with a pair of smelter workers who appear to be faking their job.
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Reddit user CanadianAndroid was walking around the lower part ofSkyrim’s city of Markarthwhen they spotted two NPCs working with the city’s ore smelter. However, “working” may be a strong word for at least one of them. While the man shoveling coal might be doing something productive, his buddy can’t be accomplishing much by striking the side of the smelter with a hammer. In fact, it almost comes across as a cartoonish attempt at looking busy. CanadianAndroid points this out themself, saying, “When The Jarl is around and you have to look busy.”
This is obviously the result of some oversight on Bethesda’s part, allowing the animation to play where it doesn’t make sense. For example, the man with the hammer isn’t even lined up correctly, leaning on thin air as he bangs on the smelter’s stone shell. It’s hard to tell if his hammer is even making contact. However, it is funny to imagine that the workers were slacking off and hastily grabbed whatever tools they could to look busy. One Reddit user commented that the smelter is right outsideMarkarth’s infamous Cidhna Mine, and the workers probably don’t want to be sentenced to forced labor for taking an unauthorized break.
A different Reddit user hypothesized that the worker was trying to use the smelter as a musical instrument. Another said that if the singularity comes,SkyrimNPCs will probably be the first to develop self-awareness. All joking aside, there is no denying that the game’s NPCs tend to engage in unusual behavior. The hammer animation seems to be particularly buggy, as in April, another player recordedtwoSkyrimNPCs taking turns hammering a mast.
Ultimately, between AI mistakes, pathfinding issues, and bizarre physics glitches, Bethesda NPCs have a knack for bizarre shenanigans. Still, there is something uniquely funny about the idea of non-player characters going off-script to slack off. Perhaps Bethesda might include some NPC’s “looking busy”whenThe Elder Scrolls 6eventually comes out.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis available on PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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