Skyrim is a game filled with great heroes, twisted villains, and a lot of normal folk trying to just get by. Many players will know Ulfric Stormcloak, Brynjolf, Delphine or Ma’iq, but plenty of characters get completely overlooked, whether it’s because they run a shop players don’t visit, or they met them once in quiet Rorikstead.
Between all the dragon attacks, bandit raids, and vampire hunts, some NPCs are bound to go missing, or have such legendary statuses that they rarely reveal themselves. Not everyone who has played Skyrim, even for hundreds of hours, can say they have met all the NPCs, and here are some of the ones players are most likely to have missed.
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Most Skyrim Players Have Never Met These NPCs
Skyrim’s various immersion systems, like random encounters, are a great way of making the world feel alive, but sometimes it causes some NPCs to be quite hard to find. A few are even rarer, with one completely unknown to most players.
A big gourmet fan and food fanatic, Balbus will find the player randomly after the decoy emperor is killed. He will ask them if they are the Gourmet, and if the player has the Writ of Passage, then he will gleefully offer them a load of ingredients, including a rare Daedra Heart.
Appearing between 10am and 4am, the Headless Horseman will ride along Skyrim’s roads past everyone on his way to Hamvir’s Rest. Being a ghost, he can’t be attacked and will refuse to interact with the Dragonborn, no matter how much they try to pester him. Amusingly, there is a bug that causes the Headless Horseman to spawn on his feet, causing him to chase after his horse until morning.
Sond and Bottar are a unique pair of merchants that sell rare Dwemer metal artifacts to the player. What makes them so special is that they are the only children to be merchants in Skyrim, and upon first encountering them, they will mark the location of Deep Folk Crossing. However, they can only be encountered randomly, and after that they will migrate to the closest settlement, so finding them again can be quite difficult.
Another random encounter, Faldrus can meet the Dragonborn on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Azura, but is not guaranteed to spawn. He will make his way to the shrine, and his dialogue will not change, but Faldrus is stranger than most random encounters. If the player kills him when meeting for the first time, it is possible for Faldrus to reappear again at a later date with no animosity to the player, which is an incredibly rare encounter.
Snorreid has achieved something that some players will be quite envious of - he gets to spend his entire life asleep. Tucked in the back of the East Empire Warehouse in Solitude, he lies on a bedroll, which he won’t even get up from when talking. Otherwise, Snorreid will not do anything at all, and as there aren’t many reasons to be in the Warehouse, most players have likely never noticed him. His commitment to staying horizontal feels quite appropriate given his name sounds a lot like snore.
Many Skyrim players will have heard of the Ebony Warrior, but most of them have likely never managed to level up one character enough for him to appear. He presents the last challenge to a Dragonborn that has done everything, and remains one of the toughest fights in the game. Clad in full ebony armor and towering over other NPCs, the backstory of the Ebony Warrior is unknown, except that he is a Redguard who wishes to die a good death, and, strangely, go to Sovengarde.
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Other Highly Missable Skyrim NPCs
Brand-Shei
While Brand-Shei is easy to find, and tied to the popular Thieves Guild questline, it is because of what happens to him that grants him an honorable mention. Brand-Shei is a merchant in Riften with a small quest attached to him, and he has a surprising amount of unique dialogue. However, the very first mission for the guild has the player planting a stolen ring on Brand-Shei, which gets him locked up in Riften jail for the rest of the playthrough, locking the player out of the quest as well as bartering.
Narfi and Reyda
There is a lot of tragedy to this pair of NPCs, as Narfi is a beggar who is completely dependent on his sister Reyda. Unfortunately, her skeleton can be found underwater not far away, and the Dragonborn can take “The Straw That Broke” quest from Narfi in order to find his missing sister. His childlike nature, paired with his destitute life, makes Narfi incredibly pitiable, which makes it all the more strange that this whole interaction can be missed by players doing the Dark Brotherhood questline, as for some reason, poor Narfi is a target.
Plautis and Salonia Carvain
Walking the long road to Solitude, the Dragonborn can encounter Plautis, Salonia, and their bodyguard, who are all on an ill-fated journey to Vittoria Vici’s wedding. The player can ask them where they’re going, and even rob them on the spot, but if they complete the Dark Brotherhood quest Bound Until Death, then they can be found again, except grumpier, more ragged, and missing one of their party. Ironically, they never made it to the fateful wedding before they were robbed by bandits, and their guard was eaten by a dragon.
The Rarest NPC in Skyrim: Keeper Carcette
Keeper Carcette has the dubious honor of being possibly the rarest NPC in Skyrim, but that isn’t her fault. Before the Dawnguard expansion, she could be met at any time, tending to the Hall of the Vigilant. However, having the expansion active causes vampires to destroy the Hall of the Vigilant at level 10, so it is very easy to miss her forever unless a player gets there early, which is made doubly hard as it is impossible to deactivate Dawnguard on many modern versions of the game. It helps to remember the rhyme: Every time a character hits level 10, Keeper Carcette dies yet again.
- Released
- November 11, 2011
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
- Engine
- Creation
- Expansions
- Skyrim: Dragonborn, Skyrim: Hearthfire, Skyrim: Dawnguard
- Franchise
- The Elder Scrolls
