Unremarkable and odd places in Skyrim

#liminalspace #skyrim #weird #elderscrolls #whiterun #unremarkable
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[@SleepyLyric]

the entire northern shore of skyrim makes me feel like I’m in a fever dream. feels like I’m at the top of the globe, and if I sailed off into the horizon I’d eventually fall down an infinite waterfall into the void

[@stadbab]

hard same. i’ve avoided exploring it for well over a decade because it makes me feel like i’ve fallen off the map

[@Trevor_NewJerusalem]

If you know the fate of Atmora this becomes haunting and poetic.

[@DovahFett]

It _is_ called the Sea of Ghosts after all, and the only thing that lies on the other side of it is the continent of Atmora, where everything is frozen and dead.

[@megamocha2334]

“Feels like I’m in a fever dream” is more accurate than you would think….

[@LordVader1094]

@@DovahFett Despite Atmora once being heavily inhabited.

[@pinkcupcake4717]

Honestly, I actually didn't linger in the glaciers because I found them uncanny. The whole area around Winterhold gives me the "this place is weird" vibe.

[@pinkcupcake4717]

Though I actually spent a lot of time in Whiterun's plains, I would RP as a hunter who would track game for food and pay. It's surrounded by mountains so it feels cradled and warm. Add in some mods for more grasses and flowers and it's *chefs kiss*

[@DovahFett]

That might be because canonically, the geography around that area _is not_ natural. It was hit by a huge earthquake of unknown origins called the Great Collapse, which sunk most of the city of Winterhold into the sea. That whole area looked completely different 79 years prior to the the start of the game, and as there have been no efforts to rebuild what was lost in the disaster, it's kind of just frozen in time.

[@xytrius8194]

Yeah the whole stretch from Winterhold to Windhelm is creepy

[@azrixael]

ironically most of my time i spend when i play skyrim are usually spent in the glaciers and winter-y area

[@shint8160]

perhaps a lack of life

[@cowbraiin]

my favorite skyrim liminal space is near falkreath where the path goes off the map. you're stopped by an invisible wall, but the path very clearly goes on for some time. during the day, it's so inviting, but it turns a little sinister when you hit the wall, almost like your character is too scared stray further away from civilization. i think part of what makes it so eerie is the massive, old graveyard in falkreath. it almost feels like there could be ghosts and ghouls in the woods waiting for you.

[@DovahFett]

Well, you know what's over there if you've played Oblivion. It's Cyrodiil. Lots of greenery and very strange people.

[@InhabitantOfOddworld]

I know the one. I like the equivalent path near Riften that leads to Morrowind.

[@donniemorgan350]

One time I encountered a glitch that disable that particular invisible wall, and man lemme tell you it's even more liminal than you think Because for a while the path to cyrodiil continues but as you get further the environment becomes less and less detailed but there still is some detail for a while. And eventually you end up in this low textured valley with trees and you're pretty much stuck there

[@bernardoblanchetramirez6032]

I remember that if in Xbox 360 you didn’t have one of the DLC (I believe it was Dawnguard) those invisible walls were not there and you were able to walk either to Morrowind or Cyrodiil

[@theblah12]

Really everywhere in Skyrim that’s close to the map borders feels a bit weird. They’re usually deliberately not very interesting looking places to discourage players from getting too close to the invisible wall, and although you can see the environment continue into the distance there’s usually a lack of set dressing compared to the in-bounds areas that makes it look a bit off. Plus the fact that the invisible wall exists at all and the game makes no in-universe attempt to justify why you can’t go further is very immersion breaking.

[@TheIncredible2IC]

That line about how as a kid, you have limited options and need to explore every inch of the games you're allowed to play, is so incredibly true.

[@Jelboo]

Very true. I had really one PS2 game for a time, Ratchet & Clank, and I spent hours and hours revisiting worlds I'd already explored just to... walk around, listen to the music, do some obstacle course for the hundredth time. All before eventually beating the final boss.

[@SpaceCattttt]

Not for me, it isn't. I grew up in the 80s and played my games on a Commodore 64. Those games were stored on cassette tapes, and I had hundreds of them. Dirt cheap. And none of them encouraged exploration because they were all linear corridor games.

[@dylansporrer1198]

As requested, a list of things said in the video that don't mean anything: 2:27, 4:02, 5:00 "Meta immersion" 3:51 "Bought into the implied environment" 5:21 "You expect some sort of symmetry in video games ya know cause they're all like... computers n stuff" 6:18 "It's just a big giant set for something to happen in later. Which I suppose is what life is" 6:48 "Places just exist, and then things happen in them. And then the things that are happening go happen other places" 7:05 "Immersive duality" 9:02 "being down and around here felt incidental" 11:01 "Feeling like everything that matters is above you is a fun cool feeling" 11:20 "Santa Claus!"

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

_Insert Megamind 'He did it' meme_

[@thing674]

I disagree with "Brought me into the implied environment" and "being down and around here felt incidental". The first, he's saying that you 'feel like you're in the place that the developers were intending' such as Siberia as he mentioned. The second, he's saying "there's no reason for a player to be here unless they happen to get there for other means (travel, personal objectives such as surveying civilians)". Even "immersive duality", where he is saying that it's simultaneously obvious that you're in a video game, but suspension of disbelief allows you to also place yourself into that world. It's on the cusp of breaking your suspension of disbelief, but really doesn't QUITE get there - thus immersive duality. One type of 'immersion' being Mario 64 style and the other being realistic, like you personally are in the scene.

[@kevinmcdonald6560]

a dirty job but someone had to do it

[@BloomnBruin]

Thank you for your sacrifice 🙏

[@the10ofdiamondscard]

wdym santa doesnt mean anything

[@screamspink]

One of my most favorite odd and unremarkable places in Skyrim is the stump near the mill in Riverwood that’s covered in ants. As a child I would just sit there for a minute watching the ants crawl around wondering where they were going or what they were doing.

[@CaptainZark]

"As a child" Oh my skyrim has been out for a while

[@annaferguson5711]

I have no idea what this stump is but I’m about to go look😮

[@CarlWidegrip]

Somehow it just blows my mind that there are people that played this game as a child.

[@brcsephina]

@@CarlWidegrip i was first introduced to it in 3rd grade and i’m a senior in high school now still playing 😃

[@CarlWidegrip]

@@brcsephina I get it. It's just that I was already an adult when it came out, so I have a very different relationship with the game.

[@FUJIIDEW]

I remember back in 2012 playing Skyrim at 13. We were poor so it was a miracle I even got the game, but being poor we had no internet, no cable TV, so when I would play Skyrim it felt like the entire world was gone, it was just me and this fantasy realm I was in, it got me through everything, no matter how bad my day was I could always hop on and explore and forget my problems. The lonely "forgotten" areas of the game are my most favorite because nowadays I can boot up Skyrim and travel back to those areas and it fills me with those same emotions I had all those years ago and it shows me how far I've come. I know it's stupid but I think that's one of the many beautiful things about video games, they're like a time capsule of your emotions and experiences. I'm not sure where I would be without this game.

[@kawadashogo8258]

I don't think it's stupid at all. I play Skyrim and I remember feelings I had playing it years ago. Video games are an experience, like anything else in life.

[@BakedPotatoYT1]

Kinda same here except I pirated Skyrim instead of buying it because I was a 13 year-old kid. We didn't have internet either so I wasn't really hooked in Multiplayer games but I get the same feeling you stated whenever I play Singleplayer games because it makes you forget everything in the real world at that moment and just focus on your "life" in this fantasy video game world. I also got the same feeling whenever I play Singleplayer Minecraft back in the days even tho most of the time the world looks empty.

[@FUJIIDEW]

@@BakedPotatoYT1 Oh man, there isn't a lot that could beat those nights of just you and minecraft. There's a reason its soundtrack brings so much emotion to so many people. Same goes for Skyrim.

[@kevinthefabulous1118]

I went through a very similar experience except I played it at age 7 or 8 when it first came out (20 now). We were very poor and all I did was read library books and wander around in the woods by myself, but I have a brother 15 years older who'd grown up playing videogames, and he bought it the day it was released. All I did for what was probably months was wander around this icy digital world, in a house that had no heating with curtain-less windows that looked into the equally haunting inky darkness of the wilderness outside. The only sound the lonely piano melody of secunda, emanating from the television screen. Hearing secunda to this day brings me back to that innocent, peaceful sort of loneliness.

[@FUJIIDEW]

@@kevinthefabulous1118 Wow hearing your story gave me chills. That lonely soundtrack somehow brings comfort to everyone it seems.

[@melanielyn852]

An odd place that comes to mind is the balcony in Volkihar Castle just outside of the alchemy lab. It has a nice view of the ocean and it's really high up, but it doesn't serve any purpose other than to quickly step outside and fast travel away when you're done with the Soul Cairn.

[@DottoreSM]

the entire castle volkihar (inside and outside) is creepy as hell

[@lucasimmons075]

It has it's own fast travel icon as well. Took me out of the game when I first discovered it but makes sense for quick access to the soul cairn

[@chrisdetky]

The amount of remarks you are able to generate from allegedly unremarkable places is truly a remarkable talent.

[@ImNotFine44]

That’s quite the remark

[@leshi3489]

buddy is my favorite professional yapper

[@DanielGonzalez-tk8oc]

@@leshi3489 professional yapper is such a fire compliment

[@Doncornuto]

On the northwestern shore you can find some relatively large islands, they are completely devoid of purpose, but there are some mudcrabs and the occasional birds nest to find. I've always loved exploring these places close to the edge of the worldspace. Even underwater there is more details than you would expect.

[@__-be1gk]

Devs are always going to put a little somethong around the map borders because its the very edge. The true forgotten filler parts of a map are the random spots scattered around it with nothing in them that you dont remember because they're just there to fill out geography

[@yveltalsea]

@@__-be1gk True, and the opposite can be said for the very obviously taken path. Between helgen and riverwood, or the ways up to bleak falls barrow or the greybeards' retirement home. Manufactured adventure, in a good way of course. Giving those experiences and perfectly detailed areas to first time players (or even 12th time players) is the reason I got into 3D modeling, even. Sometimes I just google "Elder Scrolls 6 release date" cause I legit cant wait.

[@wizardlizard55555]

⁠@@yveltalsea “greybeards’ retirement home” loool

[@TrevinoZen14]

I love the icebergs north of Winterhold near the jail and where you meet that guy for the Oghma Infinium. Just...nothing

[@earthwormcd]

I love the moment when you get teleported to the Misty Grove during Sanguine's quest. If you just stand still, the environment and ambience feels unlike anything else in the game. The lanterns glowing low on the ground. And the gentle stream flowing amongst the ferns, beneath a small stone bridge. Even though Sanguine is a weird daedric prince, his dimension is beautiful and I kinda just want to stay there for a while.

[@thejunktownsheriffkilliand4800]

Sanguine has no set dimension, he has a dimension separate for every one of his worshippers, which is why they're called the Myriad Realms of Reverly. I absolutely love that concept, and yes, Misty Grove is beautiful

[@pinkcupcake4717]

I love the Misty Grove! It's a serene tea party, whoever that little plane is for has perfect taste.

[@earthwormcd]

@@thejunktownsheriffkilliand4800 I didn't know that, that's cool

[@anormalstreetlamp6878]

Agree, as well as for crazy dementhia wabbajack dude, that dream place is awesome as well

[@anormalstreetlamp6878]

Also for the hunters quest, the one in which you have to hunt down a werewolf in that ... Closed forest, beautiful

[@Liggliluff]

(8:50) LOD stand for "level of detail" because an object have different LODs from highest to lowest. "low object density" just means there's few objects in a given area.

[@smokymountaintime]

This series is lighthearted and entertaining but also somehow soothing and insightful. I don't know how to explain it, but this is the exact combination of qualities that an anxious person is looking for in a youtube video.

[@shenanikenz]

Same, my quality of life has improved since finding this channel.

[@cabbeille]

how come every other abby also has anxiety

[@smokymountaintime]

@@cabbeille abbxiety 😂

[@cabbeille]

@@smokymountaintime 💀

[@Scarabola]

I feel seen. This guy is amazing.

[@HumanPerson_final]

12:30 I remember that spot. One night, walking along the path in the dark (using a mod to make night darker), I saw two specs of red eyes watching me. I freak out a bit and approach slowly ... then I realize it's a vampire. The vampire doesn't attack right away ... But the surprise vampire behind the first vampire does and honestly I've never felt a jumpscare in Skyrim until that moment. Hundreds of hours and that was the one moment that scared me.

[@MerkhVision]

Lololol the second hidden vampire attacking after the first vampire gave u kind of a false sense of security is really funny

[@Gingrnut]

I had almost the same encounter! Skyrim with a good dynamic lighting mod is an incredible game. Base game is so overlit it removes all the atmosphere & mystery from the game. But speaking of those vampires, they come from a cave nearby that path, and I had a similar encounter to you that led to a hellish descent into an underground stronghold that ended with a battle on a bridge over a huge waterfall with a master vampire. Skyrim can, sometimes, be pretty great.

[@Platinum-db8rc]

My favorite spot in skyrim is the road that exits skyrim to the southeast. Just past Riften. It won't let you go that way at all but it would lead to Cyrodill. If you were to clip out of the barrier in the far far distance you can even see an extremely low poly version of the White Gold Tower.

[@Wilkins325]

I love when games pay homage to past games in subtle ways like that. When I played Oblivion for the first time not too long ago, I would go to Bruma just to try and look past the mountains and imagine Skyrim, which I eventually started playing soon after.

[@cats-and-crows7224]

This comment made me go start my game and find this for myself, since I never knew that was even in the game. Unfortunately, my game decided it was going to snow while I looked, and I was starting to doubt it was even out there at all (the snow did not help since it reduced visibility), but I found it. Its very far away from the playable area, and I'm not even sure if you can see it during normal gameplay, but its there. It is in fact very low poly, in-fact I travelled all the way up to it and I don't even think it has an actual texture, its just grey, and not even modelled all the way around, its essentially a cardboard cutout. If you look at it from the side furthest from skyrim you'll see its not even modelled on that side (which makes sense since there's no reason for it to be). Despite this, its a cool little hidden detail that wasn't even needed since again, I don't even think you can see it without the use of the tfc or tcl command, but that fact that they went to the effort to put it there, and also model quite a large amount of the land surrounding it (with minimal detailing of course) is really neat. Just wanted to return here and thank you for making me learn something new about one of my favourite games :)

[@Pinekiwi]

The bridge to windhelm is such a space for me, there are all these pathways and stairs that are in the walls on the brdige, that I dont think even get used during the civil war quest. They feel odly forgotten and the cold weather around windhelm really sells it.

[@Irisverse]

There are rooms in there with tables and chairs and stuff, and I've seen the guards use them occasionally.

[@hyenagore2982]

The bridge is like that on purpose ! It's a place where the nords lined up all the snow elves who rebelled and used it to disorient them to make them easier to kill

[@Blockinstaller12]

I think "meta immersion" is exactly the kind of term I always needed to describe the feeling I get when I play a 3D game. I don't feel like I'm really in Skyrim, I feel like I'm in a video game, and I love that feeling.

[@Geeler]

I think that's just normal immersion. Because if you *actually* feel like you're in a video game, I think that's kind of concerning lol

[@ao9688]

@@Geeler I get my itch to play skyrim when the weather gets cold. So usually about late November to early February. I suppose I subconsciously crave that immersion of feeling the cold of the northern environment.

[@VikingSloth]

I don't think most people want genuine realistic immersion in a video game. I played an indie game project someone was making where the open world was realistically scaled and it was so boring walking through a field for like 3 hours to get to the next village. If Skyrim was made to be realistic you'd be playing in a world the size of Poland and getting to Riverwood from the cave would have taken you an hour and a half. It would be very immersive if the flora and fauna were also accurate but I think Skyrim did so well in part because it's not trying to be realistic. The region you're in is 1/20th the size it's supposed to be and it's basically perfect for a single player RPG

[@matts9871]

​@@VikingSlothhonestly, i always wished skyrim was like, at least 2.5x bigger. i always found it sad that it takes just an in-game day and some change to walk from one end of the region to the other. i want more environment! i love traveling in games, especially if they are beautiful and full of animals and such.

[@crystalbluepartain3434]

i do want future bethesda and rpg games in general to push farther into real immersion but i think older games like oblivion and fallout 3 have meta immersive details that make "a little goes along way" feel more immersive then some way more realistic newer games. like i feel like im in those worlds but at the same time like the play analogy austin made.

[@cogspace]

My favorite weird place in Skyrim is the Pinewatch house. It has dungeon ambiance because it's actually the entrance to a dungeon, but it looks like a normal house. A note on the wall hints that there's a secret passage behind the shelves downstairs. Despite searching all over I couldn't figure out how to get behind the shelves, so I was just hanging out in this creepy house for a while with an obvious dungeon entrance that I couldn't figure out how to open. Eventually I opened up the console and deleted the shelf to get down there. Very weird experience.

[@connivingkhajiit]

it was a book in the shelf btw

[@O_acelippy]

There’s a button near/behind the shelf on the right side when looking at the shelf. It’s hidden behind a few buckets and baskets too. Hopefully this helps.

[@20jumps]

​@@connivingkhajiitno it wasn't

[@connivingkhajiit]

@@20jumps i may have been thinking of another area

[@ChargingPirates]

this video (and channel overall) really changed how i play skyrim. ive been doing a 100% run the last couple months and i find myself slowing down and appreicating little details of the environment a LOT. ive decided my favorite thing in skyrim is when theres a section of a dungeon or cave where the ceiling opens/breaks and you can look up and see the sky even though youre in what is programmed as an 'indoor space'. less 'unremarkable' but when you defeat alduin if you dont leave Sovngarde right away after he dies it starts to softly snow, and something about that gentle falling snow in the afterlife made me FEEL something

[@2gamerzone7]

One of the strangest places for me was behind The Winking Skeever in Solitude. For some reason, there's just a random stone wall connected to the back of the building; no decoration, nothing of top of it, no attempt to try and hide it whatsoever. I tried my hand at modding in a staircase and a few barrels back in the day as sort of a stock room to make it more immersive, but I don't think I have the file anymore.

[@FUJIIDEW]

Also on top of the Solitude walkways for the guards. There is nothing up there at all besides a hawk nest. Feels like an area we shouldn't be able to reach.

[@4nem0ne]

Oh reminds me there is a roof in Solitude I think you are supposed to get up to, there's a bow and arrows on it I think near bard's college, but no stairs just parkour

[@genesiscda4847]

I always thought the random health potions laying around solitude are strange. There’s one on the ground near the winking skeever, or at least in that area of shops. There’s another on some rocks in the second area of solitude where the houses are and there’s one on the wall that’s hard to get to.

[@MerkhVision]

IIRC The health potions and the bow and arrow up there are part of an unfinished or removed quest, or an unlikely or old way of doing an existing quest where I think you have to assassinate someone and then escape from the city.

[@Negasilver]

My favorite was that little rowboat full of gems in that one river. I haven't played the game in like over a decade but I still remember finding that and going "nice".

[@ellie-za-bif]

i love how many random unexplained ruined small locations there are like the boat with the gems and the lockbox and that ruined little house near the path that leads to whiterun in the middle of the planes. it's always mysterious to me how we aren't given any journals to read or npcs to talk to about it either and how both those locations are left unexplained

[@thejunktownsheriffkilliand4800]

hh, the one in The Reach? THE place to go to to start the peryite quest, love that little area

[@amasterofone]

I literally just found that today. Have explored every inch of the map and am still finding stuff like this, so cool.

[@bluesbest1]

@@ellie-za-bif Or how about Lund's house? We can assume he was a Skeever breeder, or at least kept them as pets, but we get no knowledge whatsoever, unlike at Meeko's Shack, which also features a dead Nord man who left a pet behind.

[@morgastic23]

What I love most about this video is that I have been to all of these places and in each one I felt.. uneasy. There's a few more places like this, up in the mountains but between two peaks. Where there's just nothing notable at all and it's just you in the environment.

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

Uneasiness is how I feel when travelling in New Vegas. The feeling of a monster around every corner.

[@veryrare432hz]

Liminal space but in Skyrim hit different

[@Komotau4691]

Back in the day when Skyrim wasnt a thing I had a dreams about deserts thats looks like a Morrowind DLC. When I first played it I said to myself wtf thats my dream lol

[@goodzillo]

If you ever do a playthrough where you can only fast travel by boat/carriage, you get to know these spaces very well. That desolate stretch of tundra west of Whiterun gets run back and fourth a lot for early quests, and if you get anything on the northern part of the Solitude peninsula, you’ll likely take that path under the bridge to come back. It’s not perfect - in a way it can make it obvious how much of skyrim was designed for fast travel, like if you just feel stuck in the icebergs around Winterhold - but it really gets you inhabiting the game world in unique ways

[@bluesbest1]

I decided in my current playthrough to make the Morthal House my Alchemy base, which means I swim under Solitude ALL the time. Especially since there's that little door that leads directly up to the market.

[@daed1819]

The ambient music in this game always immediately makes me wanna start a new play through

[@MODIGSOFFICIAL]

I just thought the same thing!

[@kateweed579]

I have literally been to all those places and just stood there, haha. But I'm also someone who doesn't do a lot of fast travel in Skyrim because I like to snoop in every corner. The fact that Skyrim has those places that don't have a lot going on improves my immersion - especially when I'm in the mood to just walk around Skyrim and enjoy the scenery. Thank you for this video and for putting me in the mood to go on a Skryim 'nature walk'.

[@DitDotDan]

The last time I played Skyrim, I did exactly as you said, with little to no fast travel, and found the experience so much more immersive and rewarding. It felt good to just follow a path and see where it took me - finding hidden nooks and crannies, collecting potion ingredients and mining the ore veins dotted around the vast landscape.

[@collapsedlung_]

That's what I love about Morrowind so much among many other things. I love the exploration and I miss when games were so explorable

[@danafah9539]

I loved doing little fast travel, it was so much more immersive and rewarding. I got to the point that I could ride to markarth from riften without looking at the map. Its how I found the chicken wizard too!

[@bluesbest1]

This is part of why I like Survival Mode. It forces me to actually experience the landscape rather than just fast travel everywhere with no care for the environment.

[@mlq1718]

One of my favorite places in Skyrim is the hillside north of Nilheim, a small nordic ruin near Iverstead. There is a tree spanning a river, a couple small ruins, but that area kind of feels like a hiking trail you'd find in real life, winding up a hillside.

[@DuskArgentum]

You know what, I was going to comment about the same area! The series of waterfalls between Nilheim and Darkwater Pass is a truly beautiful area. The Rift has a bunch of nice places like that, but the waterfalls truly take the cake.

[@PrismGenesis]

funny I read this comment literally right after exploring and spending some time in that area myself. one of the relatively few corners of skyrim i hadn’t spent much time looking at until now.

[@magnekalinsen1185]

Weirdly enough, this video explains my excitement with this game, that sense of mystery that never goes away. Those empty places are just very cozy to be at. Add a camping mode and you can just chill with your companions by the fire. Thank you for bringing up that feeling again!

[@melonskall]

This is some of the most creative and genuinely interesting content ever produced for Skyrim. Please keep making this.

[@jetroid]

Dive Rock is an area in TESIV Oblivion. The developers clearly wanted you to take in the view of their game or have fun jumping off, but I always found the area behind the rock, in the opposite direction to feel a little weird and empty

[@RustyNips]

A few spots up north edge lookin out in snowy mountains are interesting I also remember one spot on the right side where you can get off the map into the wasteland of nothingness and the top of the hills looking at that sure was a vibe Plenty odd spots in oblivion specially around the edges of water I spent so many hours in oblivion just wandering around I could never get into skyrim though only spot I recognized was the field at the end lol

[@anonymone453]

I think one of my favorite places in Skyrim is where the Solstheim fast travel marker is. Like, if you go to the part of the map where the marker is located, it'll show up on your compass, but nothing's there... just an iceberg. You're at the edge of the world. You're not really supposed to be there, because the map marker takes you somewhere else in the game if you fast travel to it. The fact that you can physically be where the marker is seems almost like an oversight.

[@SilverDragonJay]

are you telling me that Bethesda didn't think through and test the mechanics of their game fully to be sure that they worked and were consistent?

[@acespade5997]

Yes! When I wanted to play the meridian beacon quest, I needed to use clairvoyance to track the beacon and it took me to that weird corner where it was just ice caps and glaciers and then the spell wasn’t able to find a path anymore. I was so confused until I looked at where I was on the map and I was near the solthsteim mark and realized I had travel there to get the beacon

[@abeldigiorno4836]

"Skyrim doesn't have any cutscenes" He says in the place where like one of two cutscenes happen

[@CorvusAI]

My favorite part of this series is the abstract commentary you have on the environments. I think the way you convey the sentiments you have is really unique and refreshing. Please continue boldly.

[@eyegrinder94]

I used to inspect fire alarm systems for a living, and my favorite part of that job was the amount of places you get to go that most people don't ever get to see. All kinds of weird attics, crawlspaces, and runt rooms. And you put it beautifully at the start: Man, this place is WEIRD. My favorite would usually be schools, which we would only inspect during the summer break when everybody is gone for like three months, so I'd get to run around these utterly massive buildings completely alone. You start to realize just how much administrative and maintenance space is required for a building that's essentially just a place for people to sit down.

[@MaskedImposter]

I love that everything in these videos is odd and unremarkable, and it's a good thing. I feel like the stuff you do with your hair is also odd and unremarkable, but it's also a good thing. It makes me happy. It's like this is Austin, and he is a good person who brings me joy with his videos.

[@TheItalianoAssassino]

What's up with the hair thing? Not judging, just curious. It looks like he got metal bars on his head lol

[@AncientSlugThrower]

There is something very genuine in Austin's presentation. I like it too.

[@mastermarkus5307]

Yeah, I was wondering about the hair too. I thought it was a joke because he's just got those big metal clips in that I really don't see outside of a barber/hairdresser's place.

[@avelinedressus6477]

One of the places that has always stuck out to me was in Solitude at the Bard’s College~ the area right outside of it with the steps where you finish the College’s quest line and burn the effigy of King Olaf. When you visit while it’s empty, there’s just something so eerie and unfinished about that courtyard that has always made me slightly uncomfortable. Looking over the edge at the surrounding empty landscape did nothing to help 😭 I suppose when I watched your previous “Unremarkable” videos this place always came to mind.

[@SerpiaXerma]

Might be a strange pull, but the entire DLC area in Skyrim always made me feel so much more isolated and alone than anywhere in the mainland (possibly helped by the first person you meet asking you to kill them in a death match) Being far from the homeland in an unexplored wilderness, with sparse dungeons only barely littered with enemies. I'm not sure where it falls in terms of good game design but it sure as hell nailed the vibes it was trying to give off

[@nangsanbhalangblah333]

Dragonborn or Dawnguard? Both?

[@SerpiaXerma]

Dragonborn 100%, I remember completing that one

[@haileybaez59]

Words any_austin said that mean nothing: 1. Meta-immersion 2. Immersive-duality 3. Reverberations of all the quests trickle into the end 4. Liminal ambience 5. Desolate Siberia 6. It’s a place that is a place 7. Threading the needle between proper immersion and meta immersion 8. Places just exist and things happen in them 9. Barren oddness (Thanks so much for this video! I love your content)

[@choiie]

Also list of post-rock albums from 2010

[@drjdharrisphd10712]

Low object density. I’m too immersed to accept the concept

[@DouglasThompson]

I think all these things makes sense.

[@yveltalsea]

Desolate siberia definitely makes sense xD

[@SECONDQUEST]

Barren oddness is just that the specific quality of oddness or strangeness that barren places have. It's just flowery language for a specific thing that could be described in a sentence. Flowery language can still mean stuff.

[@drolemem]

One of my favorite little places in Skyrim are definitely the gates that signal the edge of Skyrim, they are certainly unremarkable and very odd.

[@CGFillertext]

List of things that mostly don’t mean anything/make sense 1:29 “video gamey thing that has its own sort of immersion to it” 2:00 this part about ‘seeing the brush strokes’ 2:35 “meta immersion” 3:13 “liminal ambience” 4:02 “weird meta immersion” 4:13 this part about seeing props on a stage play 5:01 “meta immersion” 5:42 “dedicated table aligner” 6:16 this whole bit, specifically “just like a place that is a place” 6:23 “which i suppose… is what life is” 6:32 “there’s some people coming up here to do some stuff” 6:50 this bit talking about things happening in places 7:05 “immersive duality” 11:21 “…Santa claus” 11:24 this bit Also I did like this video

[@yveltalsea]

The reason it feels off in the glacier/fjord area is not because it's polygonal or claustrophobic, it's because there's nothing there to interact with or to look at, like you said a bit later. I noticed it first in Breath of the Wild, that there's a huuuge map to explore, but it feels like no one put anything in the map. It's just large empty areas put there only to traverse through. Nothing to interact, no gameplay, nothing to actually explore. I think that's why it felt so different from Elder Scrolls game, and how we get a cave or a bandit camp or a stronghold or an abandoned house around every corner. It's just those areas left with no interaction possible that feel wrong.

[@SilverDragonJay]

Personally, I love it when that happens. When you're going through the game and find a random hole in the wall where the game just kind of ceases to exist. There's nothing to do there, there's no reason to hang around, that space just is. The most magical thing to me is when, despite there being no gameplay reason to be there, there's still detail, there's still things to look at. That's why I loved BOTW, because I could wander and find little places like that. Its kind of like life. In real life places don't exist for you to do things in them. They exist incidentally; regardless of if you are there or not. You are merely a visitor. And I think its neat when games replicate that feeling.

[@Mister_Cakes]

There's a spot in the volcanic swamps in the east of skyrim where a bunch of hunters just hang out in the water. It wants to be clever, but because NPCs are mostly silent and inactive its just strange feeling.

[@guldobean1217]

I'm actually power levelling my conjuration skill in Skyrim right now while I watch this, and realized I was able to at least identify the hold each place was in. One of my personal favorite places is the path up to High Hrothgar, specifically on a cloudless, clear night. I often stop my march upwards to snap a quick screenshot on my switch of the view, couple with the gorgeous sky.

[@shyguy54321]

"its just a big giant set for things to happen in later, which i suppose is what life is" i was not mentally prepared for that

[@atmaweapon2803]

It's 5:04am, I have to go to work, everything is the sucks, except for the fact that I just discovered this video and its soul shattering vaporwave camcorder video transitions. 5:04am is a liminal space in between worlds, and so is this channel. I am so happy for it. Subscribed and thank you.

[@any_austin]

I know the feeling

[@growthought8670]

One of the most remarkable unremarkable places is an underused Nordic ruin space deep in the mountains of the Rift, totally unrelated to any quests, totally unmentioned by any other people. I had to look it up to find the name again. Arcwind Point. I stumbled on it by accident. Besides the high-level enemies, there isn't much there to explain what this particular site meant to the people who once lived or were buried there. Definitely causes some meta-immersion.

[@pinkcupcake4717]

My favorite quiet spot is the waterfall across the river from Riverwood. It's easy to pass by when on the road to Whiterun or up to Bleak Falls Barrow, but it's a lovely little spot to visit.

[@glowingsquib9380]

I feel a similar way about Falkreath and Blackreach. I know it's not the same because they're both detailed places instead of random locations, but the immersion always hits me hardest there. I also desperately want to take a nap in both locations. Either in a (relatively) safe corner of Blackreach, or in a nice shack in Falkreath while it lightly rains on a foggy day. Both places feel so remote and cozy to me.

[@eveandaedrul]

These truly are unremarkable places yet somehow I was able to recognize all of them. Probably because I also like to venture around in Skyrim and hang out in unremarkable places. It's interesting how each area really stands out and if you're familiar with the game, you can pinpoint where it is just from the first glance.

[@islaamSama]

Well my Monday just got better! :] I never played Skyrim~ but this Unremarkable and Odd places episode really reminded me of when I was smaller. Play time would be just about up for the day and so me and my older brother would just save the game and stare at the scenery for a bit, zoning out in Metroid Prime or watching Mario take a nap in Sunshine before Mom sent me to bed. Good times! :D and speaking of Metroid Prime maybe an Unremarkable and Odd places there cuz the game just got Remastered! Have a good day.

[@Jordaninspace]

This video reminded me of an assignment I had to do back in Highschool. We were supposed to go sit out in nature and describe our surroundings in as much detail as possible. I didn't want to go outside so I did it in skyrim lol

[@Robin_Goodfellow]

I really like the gates that go to Cyrodiil and Morrowind. It always feels like you could walk right into the previous two games if you could just get through, but at the same time you know that the game map ends just past where you can see.

[@johnleecooper8520]

yessss, dont get me wrong i like the unenployment videos, but this is my favourite any austin series and i love all the observations and philosophizin you get up to in them

[@pauulthefair]

Another place that could replace the plains of Whiterun is the plains of Morthal; they're pretty close to each other, but bot being able to see the comforting beacon of Drsgonsreach for miles around leaves you feeling alone, like the watchful eyes of the Jarl have abandoned you and something else's eyes have replaced them...

[@JT-hs6hc]

I really like these videos. You have a very calming speaking style that makes me feel safe and happy and less anxious. I love strange places and games and I'm glad you make a lot of these. I would love more!

[@mutecryptid]

This video was made for me I hang out in these spots and explore exactly like this 💀😂 Also “meta-immersion” is my favorite experience and that’s the first time I’ve seen someone explain that sensation with words so it is entering my vocabulary forever

[@Wulfjager]

I play an argonian character. Literally last night at like 4am I was swimming at the bottom of the ocean looking at each and every kelp I swam by, focusing my attention on specific unassuming branches of kelp thinking about how it was placed there and how, despite the popularity of this game, there has probably never been someone who focused so heavily on that one individual kelp before. I gotta say skyrim's oceans are my favorite liminal space in the game, they were so undeveloped yet still so "existing". I go there sometimes just to say I went to the place the devs allowed and expected you to go, yet also never expected for you to focus so heavily on given the lack of stimulus it provides

[@Red-rb5ek]

Behind (and under) whiterun theres a bandit cave. I was playing on survival and I slept there for over 30 in game days (I was wanted in whiterun) while moving around the plains. That cave is a really interesting place its almost right below the balcony in the video

[@kevinquiroscanales6240]

I always felt a cognitive dissonance with these videos, and I never quite grasped why until you arrived to Skyrim: you titled this series odd and unremarkable places. But the thing is, these are indeed remarkable places because of how unremarkable they are! I think most of us with +100 hours on Skyrim instantly recognized all those places, because they are unique in how un-unique they are. The tundra, the absolute emptiness of Dragonsreach balcony, underneath the gian rock at Solitude. I wanted to compare it to real life, how a simple and unremarkable mango tree could have been where an entire human being's childhood was spent; but I think we all clicked these videos because that's exactly what we feel from all of them. Good job, I love these series and can't wait to hear more complicated nonsense. Or not, it's your video and I will enjoy them nonetheless.

[@ZtotheMills]

I'm reminded of the strange giant mudcrab carcass in a small pond near whiterun. From what I recall, it serves no purpose in any quest or anything... no NPC mentions it....its just there... and thats what makes it so memorable to me. The little pond helps too, cuz I sorta just love water and areas near water.

[@romansongen6284]

Actually i think there is a quest where you have to fight the spirit of the giant mudcrab...

[@SunnyBlam]

I've always found the western part of Haafingar interesting. Everything west of Dragon Bridge. In the sense that except for a few quests, like the one taking you to the Forgotten Vale, (Maybe some shout walls too) there's no reason to go wandering around there. It's a bit too far out of the way. Though that's just my experience. There's probably a few places there I've never seen before all this time.

[@amasterofone]

I think the Peryite quest is in that direction

[@nicolepierce9063]

I think stopping to enjoy to scenery is one of the small pleasures of such an immersive game. Really rounds out the experience and make you feel like there’s little pockets where you can create your own narrative in. Keep the videos coming

[@KyleLawley]

7:20 "indulge in a little therapeutic self-hate" means nothing yet so much at the same time.

[@kookoosilas5874]

This is my favorite type of video, simple, not clickbait, and honestly just relaxing content. Bro never misses with his Skyrim vids

[@ar_xiv]

Maybe it’s not quite in the spirit of the vid but if you ever turn off the out of bounds barrier in the ini file, there’s an unbelievable amount of weird stuff to see. The mountains just outside of bounds are always interesting. ALSO if you go out of bounds in the weird dream world where you get the wabbajack there’s a random door out there with a lot of very weird unfinished rooms that I assume were planned for more sheogorath shenanigans

[@KeirAnderson1991]

I used to do this often whilst playing 'Shenmue' as a youth. It'd be a superb game for this series!

[@MYuee]

I always had this fondness for the whiterun tundra area. I once installed a camping mod and I was literally just walking around setting up camp in random places, looking at stuff. It has this weird, eerie serenity. Same goes for the morthal swamps.

[@gaIexy]

i love this whole series!! i too love weird and liminal spaces in games AND real life, so this the perfect series for me. it's my exact niche of interests. i also find your voice very relaxing. i often like to put a playlist of your videos in the background as I do work. i can't concentrate otherwise

[@ElEstudiodeSanti]

Hi Austin, I just wanted to say that I love how your videos have this sort of relaxed and down-to-earth feeling, they have helped me to cope with anxiety and stress, specially the Unremarkable and odd places and Skybox appreciation series. Thank you!

[@b13ach__420]

the most unremarkable / pretty place for me is the docks in solitude and the path past it. inside the city itself, theres this like tower thing and if you go down it it leads you out to the open world and you just spawn a bit away from the docks by the water. its really peaceful at night, with some lampposts along the road / path but it is kinda weird at the same time, almost like its missing something. also the solitude sawmill has a little area by it with a small fire, table, cooking pot, and dock that looks over the water that is really pretty. i wonder if they made it a fishing spot now that they added fishing as something you can do ? edit: okay so i just finished the video and realized he covered the first area at the end of the video lmao whoops

[@UniverseofDominion]

Former patron here and I've always dug your content, but honestly my only what I think valid gripe is that your channel is about these odd and unremarkable places that are great to visit alone for the vibes, but then you never actually leave us alone in silence to appreciate them. I think it would stretch your content and give us a bit of a chance to enjoy the atmosphere of the odd little places you find. Just stop talking for a moment lol, wander around and let us get what you get. That goes for your music too, let those bad boys play for a bit longer. This one especially is fantastic! Reminds me of Trever Something vibes. Cheers!

[@riverpascual7592]

i love how you mentioned the bit about when you're a kid, you only have a few choices of games and you truly inspected every single aspect of it, so you end up having a stored knowledge of deep facts and information about it, and it's really amazing when, as an adult, you find one that you missed for me, those games are final fantasy 7, legend of mana, super mario world, and harry potter philosopher's stone

[@Greaseus]

You create the things I never knew I needed to see, thank you for making such peaceful little corners of this hellish website

[@NotForLongNFL]

I am begging for a half-hour episode of this

[@rpgtalkout8793]

I think one thing that just absolutely sells just wandering around skyrim is the music. Its just so incredible. And literally makes the entire experience IMO

[@mygetawayart]

my favourite spot in Skyrim has to be the top of the orc stronghold in the far east of the map, between Eastmarch and The Rift. That stronghold is tucked away in the mountains and at its top, it has a forge. If you climb above the forge, on a clear night, you get to enjoy probably the best auroras in Tamriel. I distinctly remember going there with the bard mod and playing a delicate elven tune overlooking the landscape. I felt a special type of peace and tranquility that i rarely get to enjoy even in real life.

[@rinomander]

all of the unremarkable and odd nooks and crannies of the world that you can happen upon... I'm not exactly sure what would be the best way to go about it, but it makes me wish that there was a Pokemon Emerald-like mechanic: being able to set up small bases as you please, if an area can support it. just little campsites where you can have those *"ah. this place is weird"* moments. maybe there's a mod that already does that/something similar that I don't know about.

[@mrmosty5167]

One jaw dropping moment I had was in Solstheim, just off of Raven Rock. It was a beautiful sunset and I swam out towards some Netches. Just floating there, listening to them bleat with the sunset was a moment

[@Hartbreak1]

One place I like is in the cliffs that separate Riften from windhelm. In one place of those cliffs there’s a lonely pond, it isn’t connected to a river or anything, it’s just there. Also there’s nothing going on there, no signals of any activity or anything else. Just a place to relax and look at the scenery.

[@wileyprior3933]

I love that he's already aware of his audience overlap with Jacob Geller and didn't have to clarify who he was

[@LittleBoxOfWeird]

Obsessed with this series. I've always loved weird lil places like this too. I love Skyrim and its bizarre far-northern landscapes but I'm BEGGING you to do Oblivion. It has SO many strange little nooks and crannies. I've played it near-constantly between other things since it came out and I keep finding stuff.

[@electronkaleidoscope5860]

I'd love to see a similar video to this for Oblivion, I've been playing it for the first time recently and nearly everywhere in that map has this "odd, unremarkable" vibe you keep mentioning here

[@nick15684]

LOD is the "level of detail" which scales with the distance the object is from the camera. Essentially, it makes it so objects closer to the camera's view are rendered at higher detail, while distant objects are gradually reduced in quality. It's a way of conserving resources, especially in a massive open world. It's rather aggressive in Skyrim because it was made for the Xbox 360 and PS3, so it had some severely limited hardware to work with. It's better in Skyrim Special Edition, which features a farther render distance and much less aggressive LOD scaling because it was made for newer consoles with a lot more power. It's most noticeable with grass, which has a very short render distance in the original version of Skyrim, even at ultra settings.

[@vktrlndwll95]

I remember my most important skyrim experience happened when I was experimenting with the frostfall survival mod. I was about to die from hypothermia in a snowstorm when I got my campfire going and rested during the night. This was a very tense moment. It happened right on the edge of the north-western border by the cliffside, and I remember it clearly because when I woke up in the game I was greeted by the sunrise. I thought it was a very nice reward for making it through my (self-imposed) challenge.

[@Parakasha0]

From TES to BDO, I always got into complicated arguments with friends about the necessity of emptiness in different areas, and it always felt like there was a part I couldn't explain. I feel like you got it here, though. Calling these spaces liminal makes a lot of sense because there's no reason to be there than to use them to transition into other areas that hold more to do, but I feel like if you only view these spaces in a liminal sense, you end up missing out on a big part of the adventure. The meta immersion of being immersed in an area of a game despite its redundancy plays into the themes of the Elder Scrolls, to begin with. So, don't worry about coming across as pseudo-intellectual. The game lore already does that for itself, including even the fact that all of existence is just a dream. I've done multiple playthroughs with no fast travel, using the roads and seeing parts of the world I always failed to see more than once. One of my favorite areas to traverse is Falkreath Hold, arguably the most beautiful place in the game. I love walking West-Northwest from Helgen, down the slope toward Falkreath, and watching as the top of the treeline begins to match the level of my vision before I quickly go below. The art direction of Skyrim is immensely beautiful, even if some of the standalone parts like different textures and models look weird.

[@Ashley_Graves_1]

I think my favorite place to go in Skyrim is on the Throat of the World and just look out to see the whole map of Skyrim. If I was in Skyrim, I'd sit down up there, chat with Parthanax and just look at the beauty of Skyrim.

[@bloodexgle]

YES i’m so glad you mentioned the plains west of whiterun, that’s my absolute favorite place in all of skyrim. always loved how open it felt.

[@voldevader1qaz949]

“Places just exist, and then things happen in them, and then the things that are happening go happen other places, and it goes back to just being a place” Realest shit I ever heard

[@kcleahrose]

I’m 99% sure that the only cut scene in the game does occur in that room at 6:18! Good catch! If you play the main storyline you’ll see the set is actually used in a really cool way

[@Toesty5]

This is a really wonderful video. I love the feeling of finding a quiet, contemplative place in a game, and your description of being able to see the brush strokes, or meta-immersion was something I had sort of thought about in the past but never had the words for it. Thank you!

[@orbo4438]

2:34 so true, I completly agree with the metaphore here. A videogame is not a painting yeah but, the cool thing is that paintings are made with brush strokes, videogames are made with algorithms and computer stuff (idk I'm no programmer). They are two different media, yes, but stopping to look at a weird texture of a tree or the sharp model of a rock (or just finding a space where it's not that detailed) it's really like zooming in on the brush strokes of a landscape painting.... and that's really cool to me too

[@darkjapan]

2:40 I'm so glad that the "video essay" of video game KZbin is evolving into some strange post-post-modern thing of just enjoying looking at video games. Thanks for leading the way Austin! This kind of self awareness is what I love about your videos!

[@erurainon6842]

You just made a best description of Skyrim graphics😮 Yes, from closer look you can see low detailed textures, "brush strokes" etc. but the whole picture looks fking amazing.

[@dirtcollector]

picking the argonian class for water breathing is OP for finding unremarkable places. like you mentioned in the first spot, the entire north east ocean is one unremarkable mass of land and water i went looking for fish to collect in my house, and went swimming in that part of the map. it goes pretty far from the coast for no real reason, and also gets so deep the only thing you can see is the murky water color

[@endermage77]

I find the most fascinating spaces in skyrim to be way up high in the mountains, around the edges of the map. There's not much to say about them, being unremarkable and all, but the way some of the land up there is shaped... *almost* feels intentional, like something *almost* is supposed to be there.

[@PinkStink69]

I know exactly what you mean. It’s like you’re running and then somethings angle makes you go ??? I always go back and look. This is deep deep Skyrim content and I’m living

[@Roesguard]

I love that little, broken farm shack between Whiterun and the one large outpost bandits have taken over. There's no fire in the hearth. No crops in the soil. It's all open to the elements. Yet the bed is free and there's a chest under the floorboards to store stuff in for a bit. I love using it as a place to rest when going to and from Whiterun.

[@FingerSpazm]

Your unremarkable and odd place videos give me life. I spend so much time finding places like this in games and I have since I was a child. You being able to articulate what I always thought about these places is just amazing, I know I couldn't do that for others. I love you 💕

[@daisysmart8874]

It's a weird experience exploring games like this because the world is a stage for quests to happen rather than somewhere that just exists. So everything feels oddly lifeless until you start a quest and then the npcs jump to life, saying unique dialogue instead of the same repeated lines over and over. And you come across locations that seem a little out of place, with things arranged so specifically they must have some sort of purpose, and later you come back to the location during a quest and realise how it's supposed to be experienced. It's like the world is a huge penny arcade machine waiting for you to put a coin in the slot and bring it to life. When you take a moment to look closer at the world, it's like peering behind the curtain. Is the world of Skyrim the one you explore, where npcs have a daily path cycle and eat a loaf of bread for 2 hours or is it the one that you experience during a quest, where people talk to each other and have drama and their actions actually have consequences on the world?

[@Wh0NeedsFr1ends]

I often find myself coming for the insightfully nostalgic commentary on the classic games of my youth, but getting surprised by how much I like the little musical jingles between skits. Now that I know that you are writing those, I recommend dropping some full length tracks, maybe paired with footage from some of the games you cover, but cut together as a music video, rather than the regular segment.

[@TricksOfLoki]

Your voice is very soothing and I think it goes really well with these videos. Feels like I'm hanging out with a friend who's showing me this cool place they found