Ice Golems!

There are three types of golems that we know of: Ice, Stone and Iron. Whilst I am not sure whether we'll see all of them in Skyrim or not, it has however been revealed that Ice Golems will make an appearance. Be happy!

Having not been seen since Arena, the golems make a glorious return. I am sure that we all share great love for golems, similar to the love between Cruella De Vil and pelts, meaning that we take pleasure in murdering them and plundering their bodies. Over the years, there have been many different depictions and takes on what a golem is and looks like. One of the more creative ones have been the one given in Dragon Age: Origins, where golems are created trough transforming dwarves with some special anvil, but they can however be annoying and dull to fight, which they in fact are in most games. I do believe that Skyrim might remedy that, due to their combat system which is ever so enjoyable.

I don't have a picture of Skyrim's golem,
so enjoy this Pokémon one instead.

Unlike Dragon Age, golems here are created by taking a raw material, shaping it like a humanoid and finally sparking it up with some magic, which is nice, since most universes use mechanics for golems.

But hey, that is it for now - Ice Golems. Hopefully there'll be more, just for the kicks.

Mammoths!

Why didn't i write this months ago? Let me tell you now, mammoths are in the game! Knew that already? Well, pretend that you did not, just like Bush pretends that he has done nothing wrong.


Better known as the elephant with tusks among everyone, the mammoths will be travelling the tundras of Skyrim. Given their awesomeness, they are often herded by Giants, whom take the time to carve symbols into their tusks.

Should you come upon these magnificent bastards and their giant masters, travelling the tundra together, you may get the urge to hurt them, you know, just to see what is up - Well, don't! The entire group will turn on you like the other students turn on Britta at Señor Chang's command! So you might want to think twice!

I do have a theory that you find mammoths wandering alone, since an example of the world ecology, depicts a pack of wolves working together as a team in order to take down one of them. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be quite strange if Giants had tamed all mammoths? Yes, yes it would.

As I've mentioned previously, no, no arena

...Thus sounded the reply from Pete Hines, who were asked whether or not there would be an Arena in Skyrim. I've personally been aware of this fact for months, but evidently it ain't out there yet.

The arena in The Imperial City was one of the major Cyrodiilic attractions in Oblivion, allowing us to rise trough the different Gladiator ranks and eventually beat The Gray Prince and take his title as The Grand Champion. Maybe you performed his task as an easy way out of battling him, or maybe you stood up to him like a man and got your ass kicked - Never the less, you got there eventually.

After claiming championship of the arena, 2 things happened: first off, you could return each week to battle creatures and earn money for it, but more importantly you got an adoring fan; A small, chubby Bosmer with nothing but a need to be in your presence and follow your every command, most commonly resulting in having the player drag him to the top of a mountain, shoot him in the head with a well-placed arrow and watch with glee as he went all "rag-doll" down the mountain. Then we loaded and did it again.

Will we get an equivalent to the Adoring Fan in Skyrim? Who knows?! All we know so far is that there will definitely not be an Arena and I feel like maybe Pete Hines would appreciate it if people stopped asking. Just a guess, though.

Mudcrabs!

A Morrowind Mudcrap

The most deadly enemy of the prior games makes a return! Be it because the devs find them a decent excuse for a petty enemy for the low-leveled player, or because they have several fan-groups bigger than Johnny Depp's throughout the internet, Mudcrabs will be making a return! Of course we risk that dragons will seem puny compared to this, but I guess that's a risk we'll just have to take, isn't it? Yes, yes it is.


Making their debut in Morrowind, the Mudcrabs have since struck fear in the hearts of their enemies and have on occasion also been known to make children cry. The nerve. I guess that's why we like them.

Another reason as to why we like them is that there is usually special versions of them. In Morrowind there was a Mudcrap Merchant and in Oblivion there was both a giant Mudcrap and a Spectral Mudcrab!

An Oblivion Mudcrap

In fear of being the cause of a Mudcrap celebration parade, I shall write no more on this topic, but know that the Mudcrap have always been and will always be in our hearts. Mudcrap is Legion, for Mudcrap are many. Mudcrap is awesome, for Mudcrap just is.

Critters!

Whilst it should have been an obvious pass-time since birth, I first became aware of the potential joy of hunting down critters once I started playing World of Warcraft - Even more once they made it an achievement to hug them. Of course I didn't hug them. I'm a pattern breaker; I killed them.

Hunting was always one of the more entertaining aspects of Gothic III, although it had loads of potential to be greater, as it had in Oblivion, where the deer were mostly just for show. Luckily, Todd's team has seen a brighter path, filling the land of Skyrim with magnificent, harmless moving targets - And a bunch of different kinds!

Of course they're not just for show! It'll be funnier and more rewarding to hunt them down and most importantly, they add to the ecological system crafted for Skyrim - As in the example of a fox hunting a rabbit.

But lets look at the critters of Skyrim, shall we?

Rabbits

The most obvious candidate, the rabbit, can be found various places throughout Skyrim, although I am guessing that they won't be hanging out in the Volcanic Tundra. These are mainly prey for all predators, which is why they'll be hunted down and killed by wolves, foxes and the like. Fun fact: Rabbits and Hares can see in a 180 degree angle - An ability they evolved (Look up evolution,) to be able to escape predators.

Foxes

Foxes may be a predator kind of animal, but they are nothing compared to the mighty Dovahkiin, therefore they count as nothing more than simple critters, which we hunt down for food and pelt - Like Kraven the Hunter, whom I just have to say, has a great mental stability.

Deer & Elk

Well, this is just gravy. My greatest wish is only to be able to loot the Elks' antlers and wear them as a weapon on my head - Can you guess what game I am referencing to?

Fish

This was a major issue for me in Oblivion - The only thing to find underwater were slaughterfish and that was just plain dull and stupid - Plus, they were unusually durable in spite of being fish. Skyrim's lakes and rivers will be filled with various kinds of fish, that you can catch with your hands and eat - might wanna cook them first, though.

Birds

Although I am fairly sure that they just are some animations you can see when you look up (not that I know that,) I guess they still deserve the title of being critters - I really hope you can shoot them down.

And finally you might claim that butterflies are critters too, but nay I say! Butterflies counts as ingredients in my book! Seriously, you can grab them and use their wings as ingredients. You might be able to do that with other bugs too. And I am not totally sure about this, but Horkers might be critters too.

Crafted by hand!

Closing in on 11.11.11 - Or as I've named it: Joyday, I'd like to emphasize the beauty of Skyrim's visual goodness, making our eyes shiny with tears and increasing our drooling rate by 5 times. The key to this beauty has been detailed hand-crafting throughout the world.

Whilst in most games, the team behind makes a generator, or copy previous textures and place them right next to each other (like the forests in Oblivion,) but now Bethesda says no! They've examined each are of the game and edited every tiny little detail to make the game as beautiful and immersible as possible! No longer will we pass by a row of identical trees and rocks! No longer will we be forced to endure the painful experience of walking the same plains over and over until we finally reach our long-awaited destination!

Everything is now beautifully hand-crafted! Every tree, rock, passage, dungeon, road, village, lake and castle! If it wasn't because it would be completely irrelevant, I'd shout "EUREKA!"

Ice Trolls!

It's scary, I know - Different kinds of Trolls. Kinda like different kinds of Justin Bieber, only dangerous, not annoying. Unlike their cousins from Oblivion, these guys are actually dangerous and live in the snowy regions of mighty Skyrim.

Fry dat Ice Troll, mon!

As far as weaknesses go, my logical guess is that this one's weak point matches the Cave Troll's - Fire! Which is great, 'cause who doesn't like breaking out your flamethrower spell and frying themselves some troll meat? No one. None at all.

Equivalents of elementary school aside, in spite of seeing a sole Ice Troll in the released video footage, Todd Howard mentioned that we could run into an entire nest of them, suggesting that they might be pack animals. Not much more to say on this topic, other than we should all look forward to fight them, 'cause it seems exciting!