The SCIENCE! Behind Skyrim's World Eater

[@FirstnameLastname-ti8xh]

270 hours into Skyrim, still haven't finished the main story. Damn side quests are just too tempting.

[@AVelociraptor]

it took me till my 20th or so playthrough to have the want to complete I did it as fast as possible cause tbh it is kinda boring.

[@theduke3481]

JEEESUS i did every quest and discovered every location in the game in just 130hrs

[@bjoorin8955]

I did this + all of the trophies/achievements in 135.

[@xx_datmlgmemeboi_xx8748]

IKR and I feel u

[@randoprior4130]

@@theduke3481 bullshit. Every quest and every location would take a fuck ton longer than 130 hours. I have in combination from PC and console over 3000 hours logged in Skyrim. Yes I do alot of character builds and restarting, yet I still routinely come across new locations and side quests. Skyrim is fucking massive. You would have to comb through the entire province inch by inch and gather every quest available, them knock them out working on the long winded ones on route to completing other quests. Every factions playthroughs, which easily take 6 hours each. Don't forget about DLC's. Don't forget about talking to every man woman and child in Skyrim, including several who have multiple quests. I call absolute 100% bullshit on your claim. That is like 5 real time days which is NOTHING when talking about Skyrim.

[@Master_Therion]

Puts new meaning to the phrase "The world has gone to shit."

[@badegg4909]

+Master Therion that a man of letters star?

[@Master_Therion]

Taylor Di Angelo Yes and no. It's the Unicursal Hexagram, which has been around a lot longer than Supernatural.

[@badegg4909]

Master Therion I did not know it's name, so i did not know it's history. funnily enough I was actually half hoping you would tell me it's name. so thanks!

[@Master_Therion]

Taylor Di Angelo You're welcome. Thanks for asking ^_^ I practice Thelema occultism, so that's it's meaning for me. I've only just started watching Supernatural on Netflix (still on season 1).

[@badegg4909]

good choice! hope you like it!

[@johnjohnson3457]

if he retained all that mass and grew accordingly, it would be consumed at an exponential rate.

[@quippits3201]

That's not how that works. If anything, the more stuffed with dirt and rocks he was, the harder it would be for him to sustain the speed at which he eats.

[@Tengu125]

@@quippits3201 Yeah, but then again, being the literal son off the Dragon God of Time, and created specifically to devour the world, might just have given him the abilities that would be necessary for the task? There is magic in the Elder Scrolls world, so the idea shouldn't be too weird in context.

[@theyamiofalltrades9182]

Please don't make him a blackhole, or well we fucked

[@coops3600]

Alduin was the biggest disappointment of Skyrim for me. COLOSSAL LEGENDARY WORLD EATING DRAGON! *is the same size, has much the same appearance and fights the same as the other dragons.* What a fucking anticlimax.

[@trainershade1937]

Would have been cool if he had a warping mechanic. Like he would disappear for a moment, just to reappear behind you to chomp down. Would be meta if he was that of a more proper dragon and not that of a Wyvern. Lastly, it would have been funny if he was the only one who couldn't fly or was wingless.

[@coops3600]

+Trainer Shade he may as well have been wingless with how over-rated his abilities were. I was expecting him to be like Greek mythology Titan sized by the way Bethesda talked him up.

[@lordofskin]

*what a legend

[@hirocheeto7795]

Would've been great if we couldn't even attack him directly. Like him being 50 times larger than a regular dragon and having to shoot arrows or launch magic into his eyes and then slash his wings when he's down so he can't fly.

[@MizanQistina]

They should have made him bigger, with unique model like having big horns, four legs, armored body...

[@smilfusii4191]

When they called him the world eater, I thought they meant he ate every person, not chunk of planet.

[@SketchyHippopotamus]

+Grim Gamer Actually, lore scholars are pretty adamant that yes he is literally supposed to swallow the world

[@daikoncash]

+SketchyHippopotamus Perhaps based off Ungoliant from J.R.R Tolkiens work?

[@samuel1468]

+Cash64 nah it's a Nordic religion that a giant snake eats the world in on bite

[@walfalcon]

+sam mccoy Kinda? The main thing I can think of that Alduin would be based on is Jormungand. Jormungand is a giant serpent that encircles the world biting its tail, who will at the end of the world fight Thor, which will end in both of their deaths. There are also some dragons who chew on the roots of the world tree, but they don't actually eat the world, they just mess with some other realms..

[@nick012000]

+Grim Gamer Nope, he eats the world itself. He just grows to a gigantic size in the process, far in excess of the size he appeared at in Skyrim. It's possible that this is because in Skyrim, he's trying to rule the world, rather than destroy it like he's supposed to do.

[@AnneFrankthe2nd]

None of the Elder Scrolls games except Daggerfall are to scale which is why Nirn ended up so small using Skyrim as a measurement

[@Spacefrisian]

+Anne Frank the 2nd What he/she said, Skyrim ingame is not the same size as Skyrim should be, heck many cities and vollages were actually left out the game if you check Skyrims map from Arena.

[@TheKolboShow]

B-BUT NIRN IS BIGGER IN-LORE THAN IT IS IN-GAME. THEREFORE ITS SIZE IS COMPARABLE TO EARTH'S SIZE. GOSH. also >"Alduin possibly created by Akatosh" Possibly? POSSIBLY? Dude, Alduin himself says at one point that he is the firstborn of Akatosh.

[@MrVault87]

+Kolbeinn Máni Hrafnsson He could be pulling a 6-year old kid, y'know like "My dad works at Nintendo"

[@Dushess]

Absolutely, game is so simply, in addition you cannot fit the whole country in area, that covers LA or similar megapolis.

[@blank6165]

Kolbo no Alduin, Akatosh, and Auriel are all aspects of Aka. Alduin says he is the “son of Akatosh” as he believes thats what mortals call Aka the time god.

[@laimonassileika2285]

but dragons are seriously powerful and each have their own personalities, so for Alduin to become unquestionable king of all dragons he would have to be able to easily fight and win against uncomfortably large amounts of dragons for them to never disobey him. But that power has to come from somewhere, so naturally he should be constantly absorbing it to be able to deal out more than hundreds of others in a single breath and resist almost damage done by hundreds of other dragons plus having to fly through the sheer amounts he outputs himself. So if he had the ability to absorb that energy floating around in the form of heat and dish it out in a level of heat capable of tearing apart atoms, protons neurons and electrons and send them flying in all directions whilst emitting enough heat to stop them form re bonding, Alduin could be tearing apart the surroundings and consuming the energy emitted from particles hitting each other, he would be fundamentally consuming the world.

[@laimonassileika2285]

Also if he was able to consume and hold insane amounts of energy, he would be basically immune to pressure. so if he was to tear apart the atoms with enough heat and compact them in his mouth, he could make his own black hole, he could actually eat the world. And because he is also said to rebuild worlds, he would be able to rebuild them by sending the particles back out by releasing some of the pressure.

[@flamethekid]

laimonas šileika alduin is an greater aspect of akatosh he is literally a god if anything and all the other dragons being inferior lesser gods and he can devour souls the only reason why the entire kalpa still exists is because someone or something kept getting in his way till the last dragonborn eventually nuetralized him

[@sirpendergast1575]

+flamethekid and that something is called.... "plot"

[@flamethekid]

^what he said

[@daltoneudy7148]

laimonas šileika shouts are words of power their fuel is magic not energy in the surrounding area. Though I can appreciate the work you put in.

[@XianTheRetiredYoutuber]

Maybe Alduin has a similar setup to many Wendigo legends. According to many sources, the Wendigo grows in size proportional to what it just ate, making it always hungry as it can never have enough food. If Alduin grows each meal, he'd be able to consume the world at an increasingly terrifying rate.

[@CodeAndGin]

i always imagined it as him eating all the souls of men and mer (and those pesky cats and lizards) and then amassing enough power to essentially fus ro dah the planet out of existence

[@zennim125]

i know this was made for laughs, but i can't be at peace if a don't say this. the heart of lorkhan, alduin just needs to get powerful enough eating souls (what he was doing) and then dive the red mountain and eat the heart, then boom, end of the nirn. alduin was created after nirn was, so he should kow where the heart still is.

[@phk590207]

+Lucas Melo The heart was destroyed before Dragons returned to Nirn. xp

[@zennim125]

+phk590207 but was the heart trully destroyed? i though that it was sunked inside the vulcano in the end, after all one does not blow up the heart of the planet so quickly. well the eye of magnos would be very nutritive too

[@matheusmterra]

+phk590207 The heart was tossed in the molten heart of Red Mountain. For all purposes it is destroyed, but I don't think that a simple volcano can destroy the heart of a god.

[@zennim125]

***** wasn't the vulcano created by the heart to begin with? i mean it was found buried in the red mountain, wasn't?

[@phk590207]

***** It was quite a special place, Red Mountain... Created by the force of Auriel himself, to bury the heart. Let's not forget it was Nerevarine that made so the heart was . Nerevarine was in turn backed up by the blessings of Azura, another god. All this was part of a prophecy after all, and that prophecy was a sub prophecy of a bigger one. Kagrenac's tools were part of the Nerevarine prophecy, of how Red Tower aka Heart of Lorkhan would be destroyed. Why it would break, I'm pretty sure it's for the Nirn to end, a prophecy, or a deciding fight between continuous Nirn coming up in... Elder Scrolls 5... e3e Why it does have to end, is nothing mortals can understand (unless they achieve CHIM... blah blah blah. :p), but it's the mortals' role to decide if it shall. Dragonborn prophecy tells of the Heart of Lorkhan gets destroyed along with other intensely important stuff such as Amulet of Kings and Septim Dynasty, the start of the Skyrim Civil War and not very unified nords, and Numidium is roaming somewhere free, over the rainbow, and a mortal hero (Dragonborn) can decide if Nirn will continue, through killing Alduin, the Nordic conception of the Apocalypse. [Hero] vs [Destruction] But what I personally think thanks to the Wheels of Lull questline mod that opened my eyes, is that Dragonborn only made the end further away from Nirn by killing Alduin. Alduin maybe was maybe the first assault? Oh my god I took this far. e3e

[@159tony]

you're wrong, Nirn is about as big as earth. can't take skyrim or oblivion into consideration because bethesda fucked up big time with constructing the map in size. the Illiac bay and vvardenfell (which is 3 times as big as skyrim) size is what you should look at when doing the math. and you end up with a number just barely bellow earths size. So the math you're using is wrong based on inconsistent world building on bethesda's part, i checked. twice. also alduin does not need to just eat the world, he only needs to eat the standing towers and nirn falls apart since it's far from being stable, after that alduin just needs to devour the energies that made it, which is literally the blood and life force of the gods themselves. and when the kalpa ends and another begins, it's a new dawn era that comes to pass, where some of the daedra and aedra possibly switch places. The current daedra were Aedra at some previous kalpa and vice versa, the world of nirn is created from the life essence of the gods themselves, their blood forms into crystals or stone when it falls to nirn. and it is lorkhan that creates the world, not alduin, akatosh and lorkhan are the two constants in the kalpas because they are Space and time incarnate. which means that their aspects, ysmir and alduin are also constants in the universe.

[@Narthe.]

+John Blood Thiiiiisss all of thiiss. The maths is so fecking wrong. You can walk the length of ingame skyrim in like 4-6 hours or some shit.

[@emmakirby8979]

+John Blood Actually, the one who represents Akatosh can change. Molag Bal was once an "Akatosh" in a previous kalpa for the Dreugh.

[@jimmycryptids]

+Robert Elven Deservingly. His voice is far sexier.

[@159tony]

Robert Elven I'm not sure if that's the case, we just know that he was an aedra in a previous kalpa, we don't know for sure if he was the "akatosh" back then.

[@emmakirby8979]

As far as I can remember, he served the exact same purpose as Akatosh, though that may only be in a cultural sense.

[@Gutenbergler]

Shoddycast, I've got you covered. Fenrir from the Norse religion is said to spread his jaw, with two bottom touching the ground, and the top scraping the sky. That could have been their base idea.

[@afox5319]

There is a dildo called fenrir

[@Gutenbergler]

A Fox Amazing XD

[@Gutenbergler]

***** Yes, but he's not a god. Well, he's the son of Loki, so actually, you might technically be right.

[@alexmariner7478]

+SpectrailityGaming Loki's father was a giant but was treated as one of the Aesir which means that his children wouldn't be Aesir or Vanir (the 2 types of Norse god) and so Fenrir wasnt a god

[@erikonthefloor]

Another comparison could be with Nighogg, the dragon who eats the roots of Yggdrasil, the world-tree. And therefore Alduin would eat the world more methaphorically, like by eating/killing all the Aedras or something like that....

[@RaawHax]

For there to be a force of gravity on Nirn that makes the life portrayed in the games believable Nirn must have an incredibly absurdly heavy core o.O Like pure condensed osmium or iridium

[@alexmariner7478]

But... but what about Todd's first law? "All the weird shit in our games is because magic"

[@RaawHax]

Alex Mariner But if there could be no life because they'd float away and be absurdly atrophile, who did the magic?

[@Conthegodoffire]

It just works.

[@godisalie92]

Let's do TES Lore. Long story short, during the Dawn Era there were spirits, they came together to create the Mundus, the stronger the Spirit was the more of their power was drained from them what was the reason Auriel was pissed on Shezzar and ripped his heart out. The weakest Spirits were relatively unharmed and just became Mortals, the divines got as dead as one can be without being actually dead and the spirits in between became earthbones that govern the "laws of nature" of Nirn. So there is no reason for Nirn to be spherical or have a core.

[@RaawHax]

godisalie92 Just because the Bible says God created us from clay or whatever, created light with a word and created everything out of nothing instantaneously doesn't mean that's necessarily the case. The vikings believed we lived in a gigantic tree that housed our world, the worlds after and even more worlds unrelated to us beyond that, so yeah :P

[@grle7407]

But in game Skyrim isnt as big as "real" Skyrim, for example, in Oblivion som argonian tells you some place is 3 hours walk away, in game you get there in 1 minute. So thats not the real mass of Nirn.

[@bobmarine7392]

+TheTiGeR792 Thank

[@ontologicallyaxiomatic]

I thought so too. obviously bethesda would have to downscale the map sizes otherwise exploring and stuff would literally take WEEKS in reallife time. I always thought that lorewise the size and mass of nirn would be the same or at least very similar to earth's, and tamriel would be as big as maybe africa?

[@TheTendermen]

And in DaggerFall it takes literal week to cross the map

[@grle7407]

more i think

[@grle7407]

Two weaks, the map is the size of cambodia.

[@ChrissieBear]

He should've used Daggerfall's map for scale to determine Skyrim's actual width rather than its TESV width, the modern TESV games are not to scale any more than Fallout 3 and 4 are.

[@voxbury]

Yea but Daggerfall being procedurally generated, it could be argued to use Skyrim for consistency but your point is taken

[@JonesyMcDanes]

AH HA I HAVE FOUND A GIANT HOLE IN YOUR ARGUMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We never see the dragons eating but we see their cousin eating, THE DRAGON BORN! and how fast does he eat? He/she eats in an infinate abount in a time so fast that time does not even pass while he or she does it and he or she never gets FULL!!!!!!!! BAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAAHAHAHA

[@XRonor98]

That makes a disturbing amount of sense. Since all Dov are related to Akatosh in some way (wether as his children, his creations, or aspects of him is never outright stated), along with be both more attuned to the flow of time then the Joor, and having a thu'um which literally tells time to slow the heck down, it isn't too crazy to assume that they have something similar to the Dovahkiin's ability to stop time and consume something that can only be described as an ungodly amount of food.

[@lotmyle5465]

+JonesyMcDanes You have revealed a potentiality which easily explains the mechanism of the process.

[@thefinest7574]

+JonesyMcDanes or......you guys are looking way too much into a simple game mechanic

[@lotmyle5465]

The game mechanics are part of the reality of the game realm.

[@thefinest7574]

no it's a game mechanic it has no actual lore significance

[@SkeeterMcBeater]

in skyrim lore, there is nothing beyond the moons and sun. stars are just pricks of light

[@DarkMarsGaming]

+binocular bard lol that's not even close to accurate. The moons could be the two halves of lorkhans divinity, the plane(t)s are the 8 divines, the sun and the stars are holes into aetherius.

[@SkeeterMcBeater]

Enigmas The Guy ok

[@diablo.the.cheater]

there are more things, there is oblivion, you know, oblivion is not just some kind of unholy dimension, oblivion planes are actually planets that orbit around nirn, and the sun and the stars are not pricks of light, they are holes, beyond those holes is the aetherium, that is basically raw magicka. the divines also got their own planets

[@DeathTheManiac]

I think i remember someone from Bethesda saying that Alduin can change his size to so big proportions that swallowing Nirn would not be a big deal.

[@12345arno]

One theory: What if he doesn't shit anything out, but instead grows continuously? That would also cause the amount he could eat to increase exponentially over time!

[@IGameChangerI]

What if Alduin grew about 10% larger with every bite of Nirn he took? I figure that at some point he'd be able to swallow a moon whole.

[@tribunalcustodian3989]

Or just you know, magic

[@inferno7181]

+Fat Shit Donald trump card!

[@crappycondor8022]

+Fat Shit I kind of have some pent up aggression towards magic in media. It's just used as an excuse, an undefine-able ex-machina. For example, in Harry potter all of their problems are solved by magic. Not bad on paper, but it really makes for a bit of a boring plot (at least for me) When the only way the characters overcome their challenges is by using the same thing over and over. While certain plots use it well, i feel like certain plots would benefit by making magic some kind of element-altering force, instead of some one-word explanation that clears it all up. Plus, magic creates tons of plotholes in certain stories as well. For example, say you have a story where the hero must retrieve an item, but there is in-universe magic which allows one to conjure up items. Why don't you just use that? sorry for the essay.

[@tribunalcustodian3989]

yeah, but magic

[@crappycondor8022]

+Ace of Jake I just got shrekt.

[@Lightscribe225]

+CrappyCondor People use 'because magic' here because the actual process can be a real mind bender. A more complex explanation is that because he is a shard of the Aedric oversoul that is Aka-Tusk, he is still technically a god, and thus not bound to conventional rules like a single body size. When he consumes the world, it isn't 'because magic' that he can eat it all in a day, but rather time no longer has meaning as he devours the basic principles of reality with the world, rendering time nonlinear. Meaning the end could happen in a thousand years as it could in a day.

[@fabayshedora6095]

>Alduin >possibly created by Akatosh >wakemeupinside.png >CANTWAKEUP.png

[@randomguy4167]

Lol,Alduin was made by a god for the sole purpose of eating nirn to start the next kalpa,you can't expect him to operate logically or mathematically.

[@pondrthis1]

8:07 "Paarthurnax did say that Alduin wasn't just destroying our world, but creating a new one." ...And this is why he's the World Eater. Not because he'll destroy the world, but because his hunger will reshape it into something unrecognizable (i.e., lacking humanity and cows and mammoths, and maybe having some outhouses).

[@ShoddyCast]

How much is the most food have you eaten in one sitting? And while you're down in the comments, leave other science questions about games you'd like answered. Follow us on Facebook | Facebook.com/ShoddyCast Follow us on Twitter | twitter.com/ShoddyCast Follow Austin | twitter.com/arhourigan Support the show | www.patreon.com/ShoddyCast

[@TheGreatTitanor]

Typo on the thumbnail Austin :)

[@Ahourigan]

+TheGreatTitanor Sigh. Yeah. Thanks. It's been fixed, but KZbin takes approximately 100,000 years to update thumbnails. EDIT: I MEAN WHATEVER DO YOU MEAN THAT WAS DONE *ON PURPOSE*!!!!

[@TheGreatTitanor]

+Twenty-Something Nerd Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu........ ........uuuuuuuure.

[@MasterMahan-qm8hu]

Thanks for the video. How about one on the Adamantine Tower and the Highelf Clan Direnni? The Adamantine Tower has depths that hold I'm sure some fascinating stuff

[@MrWolfoyote]

+ShoddyCast How much it would cost to create one synth? And, yeah, how in the hell the Institute manage to make them whereas we don't really see any kind of excavation operations going on?

[@riverfoster7404]

nirn is a lot bigger in arena, it's just small gameplay-wise in the modern games because they're it's now expected everything be handcrafyed

[@jedihorjus]

Doesn't Alduin eat souls? I feel like Alduin eats souls. I mean, I might be totally wrong; but if it were the case, eating the "world" would mean eating the souls of the entire population, which can't be too large on such a small planet that hasn't industrial revolution'd yet.

[@DUSKF1RE]

Not to mention that the civilisation that was industrialised dissappeard into Oblivion

[@Dopplejager57]

Shoddy, bless you for putting so much work into these crazy ass concepts. The amount of effort you've put in for this is insanely awesome. Your videos are awesome. Keep it up:)

[@theDoctorwitTardis]

Well Jormungander wasn't going to eat the world bit by bit he was going to grow into such a size that he would be done with earth in a single bite granted such a big snake would probably fuck up the gravitations field of the earth and what not BUT at the hight of his/her/its size he was big enough to encirle the earth several times - that's why Odin was like: "Ah man fuck this shit" and stuffed its own tale into its mouth so it would stop growing couldn't Alduin just grow in size - not gradually but all at once - you remember Martin Septim, he turned into an aspect of Akatosh big as a frikin castle in a few seconds - surely the first born of Akatosh could do the same (magic yo)

[@azazel166]

Or he can simply grow in size and devour Nirn.

[@UnpredictableSB]

Seeing as Old Norse describe Aduin as a great serpent and not a dragon, it wouldn't surprise me if he shape shift.

[@zeonthefox]

+A Ghost Without a Past or he eats like a black hole just sucking up land

[@jaredwilliams5076]

+zeonthefox I would go that theory.

[@Halvo45]

+Michael Grayson because thats not when the world was supposed to end. To completely kill a dragon u would need to devour its soul but u never devoured alduins soul

[@praetoriangamin8166]

+A Ghost Without a Past #exponentialgrowthandeatratio

[@apex2000]

how about the biosphere, leaving the mineral but consuming all the animal & plant life etc, down to the germ... that be easier... I'd assume would count as eating the world?

[@ZackRToler]

To be honest. I think a lot of us thought he would "eat" the world like he does souls. MAGIC

[@weaponizedpizza8825]

what I want to know is how alduin vaporised me, while doing nothing to paarthurnaax, even though hitting alduin with my super poison did nothing and hitting paarthurnaax with it got me a nice OHKO

[@Killbot224]

Or he just consumes every living thing on Nirn?

[@kaidon39]

+Q Including bacteria?

[@Killbot224]

Ok, mabye not to that level. But he can still burn the bacteria

[@kaidon39]

Q Q could do that ... if you know what I mean!

[@Killbot224]

hahahaha

[@diablo.the.cheater]

actually what alduin eats is the time itself, it eats the whole universe that has happened sience time started, not just a planet, basically alduin is the biggest ctrl+z

[@rouzbeakhlaghi3038]

Great math, terrible magic! You completely ignored the magic!!!

[@Aristocles22]

When people are resorting to this for more information, it's a sign that we need Elder Scrolls VI.

[@InEpicinium]

That CinemaSins plug oh my fuck I'm dying xD Brilliant.

[@edisyuksel-kilic7463]

Alduin is a deity/god so I don't think him eating Nirn would be a massive task, since apparently he already ate the previous world to create Nirn.

[@cythera3240]

Question: How much energy would it take to cast spells in skyrim? For example, perhaps, the energy requirement of sustaining a gout of flames. Furthermore, how much would one have to eat to gain this energy?

[@madcat789]

So basically Alduin is Jormungandr?

[@thegentleman8453]

Yep.

[@sabertoothedminecrafter4411]

appearantly lol

[@d___a__n_]

+madcat789 and the Dragonborn is Thor then

[@garret2684]

yes but with wings and smaller

[@darcraven01]

+Captain Dan i did make a nord named thor on my second play through on the 360 version.. had a double lightning enchant on my glass hammer thx to notched pickaxe and my armor, ring and necklace gave 25% lightning resist and lowered the cost of destruction by 25% each so i had free lightning casts and was immune to lightning.

[@jessiemoore6649]

Dear, Shoddycast Magic, it's all magic.

[@GwaetherBloom]

Wouldn't Alduin get his own atmosphere at that rate?

[@porpoise1318]

I always just imagined it as Alduin would grow really big, and just suck up the world and swallow it whole.

[@HunhowsShadowStalker]

Alduin: **Opens inventory, goes to food, selects Nirn, eats it.** Time passed: NONE.

[@Chud_Bud_Supreme]

Remember when Shoddycast started out doing great Lore videos that weren't annoying to watch?

[@ZarPof]

Thumbs up for Morrowind Jumping mechanics. Also, when mentioning that Alduin eats 2.17 times his body weight a day you have to account for the fact that Alduin doesn't defecate (otherwise he'd have to eat his own crap). So every day his body weight over doubles and he has to over double what he eats every day then. Thus cutting down the time to eat the world by quite a bit. Following Using ShoddyCast's math and just doubling what is eaten every day I get Nirn eaten in just over 64 days.

[@MrVault87]

+ZarPof Wow, now that is like Scary fast

[@warmbreadsticks2529]

+Maxwell ∞ you know what else is scary fast? this settlement that needs your help, here I'll mark it on your map.

[@ZarPof]

I don't know what my username should be -_- lol I used to be an adventurer like you but there's a settlement that needs your help.

[@rhyzvanic3660]

Skyrim's day and night cycle is 20 times faster for game play purposes. If we were to apply that to Nirn's size how would that affect things?

[@guailou5851]

I don't think it'll change at all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since many things are sped up in the game or pause the game entirely(eating, sleeping, trading, etc.), that probably accommodates for the 20x speed up in Skyrim. And I'm assuming the game universe is operating in Skyrim years. So if everything operates faster in Skyrim, then it should proportionally balance out.

[@nathanielphillips2576]

"Our little alduin wolrd eater here" I laughed so hard I fell out of my seat! Great video Austin keep it up!

[@aamirhamja1118]

When you realize that Akatosh is preventing mortals from getting technologically advanced by making Alduin destroy it everytime

[@vaxsinthefox7203]

Damn... how fat would Alduin be after eating a world? He needs to go on a diet I say.

[@HamilcarBarcaa]

+EchoTheDragon He would be as fat as a regular Tumblr user

[@vaxsinthefox7203]

Hamilcar Barca XD

[@dudeistpreist5721]

maybe he was resurrecting rhe others dragons so they would speed up the process

[@TSCTH]

+EchoTheDragon Fat shaming is bad on its own, but fat shaming a world-consuming dragon will likely prove fatal, because even if he can't run after you, burn you and have fingers too fat to grab you, he'll just need to shift his weight to annihilate the continent you're on.

[@SparklingWalrus]

I don't really think he would actually eat the world it's a figure of speech for the bad guy

[@JO3COUP3R]

This whole nirn being fucking tiny would surely destroy your theory of skyrim being after fallout?

[@Dante_Eydel]

Have you done a thing on skyrim horse physics yet? If not, go rant about that please.

[@mcgoldenblade4765]

Or the lit torch in a chest at the bottom of a lake

[@Dante_Eydel]

MetaKnight64 Or how the whole argonian race works... I've read somewhere they're al connected to a tree somewhere in blackmarch but I've got no clue how that works.

[@mcgoldenblade4765]

Danté DeViant_ Bro, watch the lore videos, on this channel.

[@Dante_Eydel]

MetaKnight64 Ohh yeah... I forgot about those...

[@kingedgelord4726]

about that Alduin actually has a dragon shout that allows him to level continents with meteors it's just that in skyrim he's at his weakest moment so it's gonna take time until he's at Max strength but good theory

[@ShadwSonic]

That mod at the end gave me an idea... what if, instead of pooping, his waste forms another Alduin? Then they BOTH eat, both make another Alduin, etc., until we're basically dealing with a massive horde of the same dragon. I bet that exponential growth in consumption rates would cut down the time needed immensely.

[@skylandersgiants5504]

Alduin eats the world by magic. SIMPLE

[@legendspug6625]

Hammad Ali nah dude he scorches the world just like his special move that rain meteorites

[@diablo.the.cheater]

Actually not by magic, but because the TES Physics work that way, alduin eating the world is ineviable, not even alduin can stop it, it just work that way

[@thesupersonicstig]

What if Alduin ate Nirn and shat out Earth?

[@adampalcek6382]

"you piece of shit" would get a whole new level of meaning...

[@obsidianv3]

thesupersonicstig that would make sense

[@Nekonanda8]

He would still need to consume a lot more mass, though.

[@EnthuGamerush]

I think they meant that Alduin'd eat all people of the time, or all ancient Nords since they prophesied this, and prophecies are vague.

[@Lightscribe225]

+Balomew It still ties in to Yokudan myth where the world is consumed by their version of Alduin. Only where Alduin poops out the new world, theirs just 'sheds his skin' to make the new world.

[@EnthuGamerush]

The way I see it, their world ending means their deaths, and the world being reborn would mean a new big era. That's just the way I took it.

[@Lightscribe225]

Balomew Nah, TES is much more literal about that sort of thing.

[@Terkontar]

+Balomew Alduin's 'eating' is basically a reset of the world, as I understand it. I've read somewhere that one place on Nirn stays intact - Throat of the World, if I remember correctly, though I'm not sure if it's a legit info.

[@EnthuGamerush]

Terkontar If true, that would be interesting, for the Throat of the World is supposedly one of the Towers.

[@kylebaryonyx9478]

I'm so glad that you use the metric first and show the imperial second, it makes it so much easier for literally everyone outside the USA to understand the quantities you're talking about. Also, the metric system is objectively superior. Carry on

[@gaymare6236]

Alduin: sees a small moon Finally, some good fucking food

[@glue3850]

*Exhales air slightly*

[@ARGHouse504]

Not very good judgement when it comes to the nine divines. That's why I worship daedra, you can rely on them to destroy the world faster.

[@CreamCrushed]

Alduin is just a reaper

[@pieman1237]

What if he's not eating the world himself? Like h's reviving the dragons so they can help eat the world?

[@tabithasdumb-dumbs5890]

So it would be like a dragon pizza party with mass genocide. I can get behind that.

[@seventhenothing4254]

And they're destroying cities and villages because they don't like their toppings!

[@tabithasdumb-dumbs5890]

freakin pineapple pizzas...

[@freyathedragon899]

It’d be like a birthday party! But with death. The world’s deathday party!

[@superspell1]

Take it from a wizard: Alduin uses the shout "Shrink Small Edible" a lot.

[@EtherDynamics]

Hah, this is like a cross between a Skyrim review and MythBusters. Excellent work, sir! :) You know, in the spirit of that show, you could devote some episodes to "what would it take to utterly blow the crap out of XYZ in Skyrim". Your base unit of equivalent explosive energy could be the Chicken Kiloton.

[@valeryval4660]

I thought he consume souls......

[@mikewarnke404]

Omg! Cinema sins Reference!

[@prestongarvey3025]

Fun fact : skyrims dragons are technically wyverns

[@nd7042]

Wyverns ARE a class of dragon... And don't go getting all eastern mythology butt hurt over me stating that fact. -_- You're basically saying a terrier isn't a dog due to the size. Get over yourself.

[@TheReason2Breathe]

Dude Austin, I loved this one. I don't normally comment, but the science take to a silly level made me laugh. Good work!

[@acetronautinspace_acm]

"In the hall of the mountain king". Fitting piece for a skyrim video

[@domquixote9975]

This was the most pointless episode in this series so far

[@peste2574]

+Dominic Pyles It is suposed to be funny. If you can't get it then dude...

[@victornunes900]

+Angry Shark910 You do realise that we have roughly 1 episode of this series for every 3/4 episodes of other series, right?

[@domquixote9975]

+Leonidas Pereira Yeah I know that, but in the others they usually have something with actual purpose or they're trying to prove a point. I don't see that in this one.

[@peste2574]

Dominic Pyles Dude, not every video gotta have a point. For an example, i just watched this one cause Austin have a sexy ass voice.

[@domquixote9975]

+Leonidas Pereira I agree completely with both points, Austin's voice is smooth like caramel, but this channel has up until recently made content with substance and watching it make videos like this is disappointing.

[@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human]

Can you really judge the science behind a magic dragon god? Doesn't seem you can, because the answer is always 'cuz magic'.

[@alexmariner7478]

Yep, Bethesda logic...

[@joshmartling]

It's for entertainment

[@jackparker8602]

does this remind anyone else of game theory?

[@boiledtaters5880]

yeah, but it is more focused than gt's variety of subjects sticking to Bethesda as far as I can tell

[@jackparker8602]

+Shane Friend true enough

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Do Exploding Chickens next. Actually, the world in Oblivion and Skyrim is very compressed so that travel times from one end of the map to the other is a lot shorter, and also to reduce the amount of space required for storing the textures. Because the distances between buildings and towns are actually a lot shorter in Skyrim than they would be realistically, hence why time passes 30 times as fast. The world of Tamriel is a lot more realistically sized in Daggerfall, so you should have been using Daggerfall widths.

[@AbsurdlyLudicrous724]

I really love it when the things he is talking about goes to such extreme measures, like Stimpacks, Rad-x, and Rad-away causes you to, and i quote: "SHIT YOUR PANTS"

[@sonnylummes3052]

Can I have the last 10 minutes of my life back ?

[@asterax101]

+Sonny Lummes No.

[@sonnylummes3052]

+Seignerr Asterax shame. Well it went to a good cause adding one single veiw to shoddycasts channel

[@sonnylummes3052]

+Seignerr Asterax and one other view in Austin's video

[@incarnationofimmortalityta6922]

Considering that nern has 8 giant continents that we gone exist, the four main continents, and their perpendicular counterparts. Using a calculation from how big Elderscrolls Arena's map is while all together as well as the maps of the neighboring continents of Akivar, and the other 2 on this side of nern, treat the entire surface area of what you just calculated and double it, that is the entire surface area, now take a measurement of the vary top of the world of skyrim to the sea level that would get you how high the Atmosphere gets. End then you would have a estimate of how larg Nern is. As well that would be a lot larger then those calculations actually stated I even checked that guys math he was calculating as if Tamreal was the only continent on Nern, which its not as stated in the Elderscrolls own lore.

[@208xx]

"the entire fucking universe would've died of boredom" made my fucking day

[@KatieK-OnYt]

What if Alduin acually eats the entire world, but instead of doing it at a steady pace, he uses the entire energy of the mass he cosumed to become larger und therefore take bigger bites each time. I tried to calculate it myself and BOY let me tell you; The "RESULTS MAY SHOCK YOU!"😂 So, I did two calculations with the base consumption of a blue whale (3600kg); 1. Nirn gets coverted into Alduin-tissue with 100% efficiency. Of course this is highly unrealistic but it made things a whole lot easier. 10000kg•1,36^x=94kg•10^21 Solving for x we get a result of slightly less than 143, which means Alduin consumes Nirn in approximately 143 days. 2. Taking into account that Alduin needs energy to stay alive and do all the world-eating stuff, I assumed (because it's easier) that the "Nirn to Alduin mass conversion" has an efficiency of 50%. 10000•1.18^x=47kg•10^21 -->x=260 Why 47kg•10^21 you ask? Because in the end, Alduin has to have half the mass of the original Nirn, since he only coverted half of its mass into himself. So 260 days, huh? Not so bad if I might say so myself...

[@gamebrains704]

A Moviesin reference AND a Spirited Away reference? You just got a fan.

[@heavyhitter3927]

I have something I'm curious about. Not too long ago you did a video on halo, the reason I brought that up is because my question have to do with the game How powerful is the halo sniper rifle? It have to punch through shields strong enough to withstand punches from people who can flip tanks, break through a thick titanium helmet, through the skull inside (which has been altered to be much tougher due to the fact that the armer would kill the person inside if it wasn't for this), through the brain, out the other side of the altered skull, and through the other side of the helmet which is still thick titanium, all while not deviating from it's original trajectory! Let alone the times to went through multiple spartan heads, and the fact that the angle it hits the helm it doesn't change anything! I would really appreciate it if you looked into it for me, besides, it would make for a very entertaining video.

[@ooftaZone]

Great video. Now video brings to question if the two moons are actually smaller or larger based on space and aspect. If the moons are equal to or bigger could explain the funky gravity in Skyrim too.

[@thomasjameson9583]

If you startle the Pygmy shrew, even a little bit, he'll immediately die of a heart attack

[@edgarallenpoe8380]

I've noticed that "in the hall of the mountain King" is in this series like clockwork, not that I'm complaining

[@JJ-fc6tn]

Can you do a "Science! Behind Subnautica" video? I absolutely love this game and would love to hear about your take on the SCIENCE portrayed in that game and it's lore. Granted the game isn't quite finished yet but it has progressed enough, and has enough lore implemented, to at least get started

[@ryandavis8000]

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for the spirited away reference.

[@ballooniecat]

Interesting video. One thought I had - what if Aldwin ate just the top layer of Nirn? After all, the "world" could be interpreted as "the place where people live" rather than the whole planet. I suppose he ought to eat down far enough that no dwarf or other miner would survive to argue with him, but I bet he could just eat the top 200ft or so. If /you/ survived that, are /you/ going to go up to him and say "excuse me - but there's still some world left"?? I think not.

[@LionofCaliban]

I'm wondering if you could touch on Anno 2205 for a podcast or two. Some interesting ideas in there, also some crazy ones. Namely wireless transmission of electricity down to the Earth from Fusion reactors on the moon. Namely, I have to wonder how practical moon mining really is.

[@UltimateDrawings]

"That's like eating all the stuff in your vacuum cleaner filter, which I do not recommend" Sounds like you have... personal experience, Austin. 🤔

[@jeremiahcampbell9052]

I just want him to tackle the Borderlands... Guns... Shields... Technologies... Such fun

[@benedictifye]

The mass of the Nirn-Alduin system would remain unchanged, but the atmosphere would stick to Alduin as he became more massive than the not-yet-eaten portion of Nirn

[@jefthereaper]

Pretty sure its just poetic tough. As destroying Nirn would be a lot easier by just destroying the towers, or the stones bound to them that are actually upholding the laws of reality for that plain of existence. Destroy every last one of those, and reality will quite literally crumble into a mess of warping chaos. (at least according to the lore) My guess is Alduin's job is to seek out and destroy all those towers/gems when the time has come. Perhaps its just as simple for him to just swallow those "stones" that form the heart's of those towers, severing their connection and causing them to shut down.

[@diablo.the.cheater]

I think is more like, alduin ending the world is one of the laws of reality, it cannot not happen as long as the towers exist, and what it actually eats is not nirn, but Time, it eats all the time that has happened sience the beggining and then, when he end eating the time, the time restarts. Alduin eating the world is not an action, is a reaction when the end of time is reached, he "eats" the "world" that has happened in that kalpa, but he is not eating the world itself, but the time that has created that specific world

[@verkoopprijs]

As far I understand the lore, Alduin is a fragment of Akatosh. Being partly devine, he is very powerful (ignore the disappointing fight with him) and restores his powers by consuming souls in Sovengaard. Could it be, that if he succeeded, he would become devine himself and transcend to a level where he could eat Nirn in a devine way; I don't know, maybe switching its mass for energy then consuming it? Cheers!

[@eloujtimereaver4504]

By the way the Skyrim Width measurement that guy made was incorrect, Nirn's actual size is based on the Daggerfall measurements, they admitted to shrinking things for convenience for the last 3 games.

[@hajodegeling4544]

Austin you made my day al lot better! Thanks

[@chaoticcramer9877]

I think it's probably more of a magical thing like he quickly sucks up nirn and it all goes into another dimension like Kirby or something

[@cavespider5719]

you guys should do a video about how effective fire, ice and lighting magic actually would work and which is the most effective

[@colterjohnson1525]

aww man that was freaking hilarious. definitely the best one I've seen yet.

[@gc9133]

Maybe it isn't literally eating? What "eating" just ment destorying, and he is pretty powerful. The thing can get neighboring meteorites and other rocks of the planet plumit towards one area, and even though they dont do any damage besides to living things and instantly break when hitting the ground. There has to be a way to do something similar to that which could possibly be deadly to the planet

[@joelberndtsson445]

I LOVE the way you use classial music!!!