ASkyrimfan has kicked off a debate among fans about the state of the economy in this slice of the fictional Tamriel. Despitehow immersiveThe Elder Scrolls 5is, with some mods helping out on that front, the epic RPG is certainly lacking in a lot of realism. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Fans are expected to suspend their disbelief when it comes to gaming, especially for fantasy titles, but it doesn’t stop the community from debating the merits of things being more realistic.
As one person has shown recently,Skyrim’s city of Whiterun has a substantial unemployment rate, bigger than the US and UK combined. The state of the in-game economy is probably not something the average Dragonborn thinks about as they mill about their day, earning gold through missions or stealing. However, once it becomes obvious that a lot of people are begging in the streets, not to mention the ongoing civil war, it can be hard to not think about how society has yet to crumble in this land.
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That’s what Twitter user bailey trappe has been wondering recently. A series of tweets uploaded a couple of days ago dives into some of the questions she’s been having about how the economy ofSkyrimhas yet to collapse in on itself. This has caused a few other people to join in on the debate, with some positing the idea of the province having a rather significant deficit when it comes to export, while others suspect that the number of civilians in each capital city could well have an effect.
The original debate started by bailey trappe taking into consideration the fact thatSkyrim’s workforce seems to consist largely of guardsor bandits, which suggests not many civilians are left to actually put something into the wider economic system. A follow-up tweet says the added stress put on supply lines caused by the civil war is almost certainly going to affect how much food the people have. While there are farms, there doesn’t appear to be many for the entire population ofSkryim.
Speaking of food and drink, the debate goes on to ask where all of the ale and mead comes from.Skyrim’s Honningbrew meaderyseems to be the only business that actually makes the honey beverage, which calls into question how townsfolk are able to acquire it in the first place if it only comes from one location. In short, it seems as though the people living in this land are either on the brink of societal and economic collapse, or there’s some mystical force that’s stopping everything from breaking down around them.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Anniversary Editionis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
