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I Investigated Every Racist NPC in Skyrim. It Got Dark...

TomiGames

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I investigated every racist and xenophobic NPC in Skyrim — from petty prejudice all the way to the Thalmor Justiciar planning a genocide. This is a gaming essay examining how Bethesda built a world where fantasy racism isn't just background noise, it's baked into the characters, the dialogue, and the politics.

In this video I rank and analyze Skyrim's most racist NPCs, starting with casual xenophobia and escalating to the Thalmor's documented plans for the Nords, the Argonians, and the Khajiit. This is a video game analysis piece — a deep dive into Skyrim's dark lore and the characters that make Tamriel feel uncomfortably real.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:53 - C tier
6:46 - B tier
15:18 - A tier
23:13 - S tier
35:13 - DARK tier

🎮 This is a gaming essay on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
All content discussed is fictional and part of Bethesda's game world.

🔔 Subscribe for more Skyrim deep dives, game logic investigations, and lore breakdowns every other week.

🎥 Big thank you to these videos for helping me with my research and clips:

All Characters' Reactions to Your Race in ...

Ulfric's opinion on racism in Skyrim...

Who Is The Most Racist Nord In Skyrim?

#skyrim #elderscrolls #tamriel

20 Comments

@tomigamess Creator 2 months ago Pinned

Which NPC did I miss? Drop your own Skyrim racism encounters in the comments — I'll read every one.

@revol_000 2 months ago (edited)

I have a possible explanation for Melka.
She's a Hagraven, living in the Reach. The Reachmen (Forsworn) share their direct ancestry with Bretons. Bretons are hybrid between humans and elves. Hagravens, who spend their entire lives surrounded by Reachmen (= "Bretons") might therefore conclude that all the elves and humans are some variation of the same kin, being Bretons.
Then, likely the only non-reachmen race that Hagravens living in the Reach meet constantly and know them well are Orcs. So oblivious Melka upon meeting a Khajiit or Argonian, not knowing their species, could conclude "Hmm... It's not a Breton, so.. hm, well, therefore it must be a weird Orc"

@WierdArtistMarcell 2 months ago

Delphine. Racist towards dragons

@spacedrake8364 2 months ago

"Oh yes.... well you all look the same" and proceeds to get your race wrong, lmfao I love that Hargraven

@Mochicat-91412 2 months ago

“Next, the cat!”
“Oh I am 100 hoping that she gets karma- oh hey a convenient time-eating dragon!”

@pixelheresy 2 months ago

Yeah, compared to Morrowind, these are rookie numbers.

You get called an n’wah from the onset and the main antagonist wants to drive the “mongrel dogs of the Empire” out of Morrowind.

You see slavery everywhere, Argonians are considered farm tools, and one quest you can inadvertently aid smugglers with a Khajhit drug mule, who will likely be cut open and killed when all is said and done.

@Koth_TV 2 months ago

"Elite ranked Racist" I didn't know there was Ranked, high elo racists. Do they queue up and compete against eachother?

@XenoTheCatLord 2 months ago

Lydia will sometimes scream "Vampire! kill the vampire!" when you play as a vampire lmao

@galenburghardt3272 2 months ago

I'll never forget the first time I did that quest for the tree in Whiterun - I was an Argonian, and after going through all kinds of nonsense I'm in the Temple of Kynareth, giving the priestess this one-of-a-kind sapling. Walking out I pick one flower from one of the flower pots and she immediately shouts "YOU FILTHY LIZARD"

@angiemay5747 2 months ago

Man I woulda swapped Gianna and the old lady at the beginning. The whole "why can't things go back to how they were BEFORE" is wild, Gianna just seems kinda surprised at worst over your race. But that's just my take

@AB-gh5be 2 months ago

i feel like ulfric should get bonus points for the markarth incident. also! fairly minor, but when colette marence isn't ranting about the validity of restoration magic, she has some really suspect dialogue with urag gro-shub. on paper it reads as patronizing and vaguely racist, but in game it is also weirdly flirty, which feels worse in a way i can't fully articulate.

@picahudsoniaunflocked5426 2 months ago

2:40 I’ve read too much about sx violence in racist dynamics, bc I find Rolf’s threat to a woman to “visit her in the night” to find out “if she’s a spy” shockingly dark every time I hear it.
It takes my breath away every time. & kudos to the VA bc the voice work really helps make it as effective as it is. There’s real menace in the line. While in a lot of his other line deliveries, you can write him off as a drunk blowhard just yelling + hate-dancing (lol that was good), this exchange makes him feel legit Oooooh Ooh Wow He Does Bad Things.

@predatitor4183 2 months ago

Meanwhile, when you do this in morrowind:
Where is the racism?
Everywhere

@Roger-Maxson 1 month ago

Its crazy that everybody Treats argonians like that even when dremora tried to invade blackmarsh and the argonians just Uno reversed that stuff and invaded them

@writingnerd9897 2 months ago

24:42 A casual racist? Nah. He's a ranked, competitive racist

@AliceHealer 2 months ago

Lydia considers you "One of the good ones"

@oofoof5750 1 month ago

The worst part of Gianna assuming the gourmet is a wood elf is that their entire religion is based off of not hurting plants, and wouldn't even use herbs in their cuisine, also they're cannibals

@lordjellybean1622 2 months ago

I think the hagraven needs her own sub group called little bit confused but have the spirit

@captainrumia2607 2 months ago

To be fair to Galmar, you were with Ulfric at Helgen, so he likely knows you were arrested for crossing the border.
Assuming you're a foreigner even if you're a Nord may or may not be accurate, but it's understandable that he'd come to that conclusion.

@shayanalenejhad6563 2 months ago

In defence of the hag ravens, i believe they have face blindness (Prosopagnosia) and cannot tell the difference between faces. Therefore they try to tell the difference by other features that people have. For example, Argonian: this guy's green, maybe an orc then. Khajiit: A lot of fur, maybe an orc wearing animal fur. Other races are usually clothed in different fashion's that, as another comment said, the foresworn are not familiar with so they think they're just a different variation of the Breton.