Skyrim players are more than familiar with the Giants that roam its lands. These hulking creatures are likely to slam unwelcome visitors in their path or near their makeshift camps, but they are as intriguing as they are menacing, which is why it’s so disappointing that Skyrim never quite explores them in a meaningful way. With The Elder Scrolls 6, Bethesda could hone in on these enigmatic beings, making them an enriching part of its narrative and world-building.
First introduced in The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, Giants didn’t begin to get truly fleshed-out until Skyrim. In Daggerfall, Giants are fairly uninteresting enemies that will appear in dungeons, their deeper culture and history only gestured at through the Giantish skill, which establishes that they do indeed have their own language. From this narrative seed sprouted the Giants of Skyrim, which, in addition to being more visually interesting, are also a bit more alluring from a lore perspective. Some light is shed on their background, with records suggesting that they share a common origin with the Nords, and their intelligent nature is communicated through their in-game behavior. They clearly have some sort of community, culture, and sentience, and these facets warrant additional exploration.
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The Elder Scrolls’ Giants Are Hiding a Deeper Culture and History
A cursory glance at the Giants roaming the frozen lands of Skyrim may lead a player to think of them as no different from many of the other mindless hostile beasts that may cross their path, but this is simply untrue. Even without deeper knowledge of Skyrim‘s lore, a number of inferences can be made by simply observing the appearance and behavior of Giant NPCs:
- Mammoth herders: Giants are shown to have domesticated mammoths, even making cheese from their milk—a clear indicator of intelligence and civilization.
- Use of tools: though rudimentary, Giants’ weaponry and apparel are signs that they can use tools in a manner similar to humans.
- Decorations: Giants are shown to have decorative scarring on their torsos, as well as braids and ornamental animal bones on their clothing, suggesting some form of culture, possibly even religious expression.
And this is all without taking into consideration the history of Giants, as it is communicated in Skyrim. As previously mentioned, some in-universe scholars believe that Giants descended from Atmorans, a proto-Nordic race that also spawned many playable races, including Nords and Imperials. In-game texts like Giants: A Discourse and Songs of the Return offer greater insight into the Giants, shedding light on their mating and burial rituals and referencing half-Giants, suggesting that they are able to breed with the races of men (a detail that may be best left to the realm of imagination in future games).
How Giants Could Show Up in The Elder Scrolls 6
A big part of why Giants are so intriguing in Skyrim is because of their loosely defined history. Competing sociological beliefs, coupled with the prejudice expressed by many figures of state toward Giants, make for a complex cultural dynamic that’s ripe for dissection and interpretation. Thus, The Elder Scrolls 6 shouldn’t strive to necessarily clarify the history and lifestyles of Giants, but rather to add new dimensions to it.
The easiest way to do this would be to embed one or more Giant-centric quest chains in the game. Since Daggerfall establishes a precedent for non-Giants learning Giantish, perhaps the protagonist of TES 6 could do the same, allowing them to communicate with Giant NPCs, learning about their culture from their perspective rather than from historical accounts. This wouldn’t introduce objectivity, as these would still be subjective accounts from thoughtful beings with their own personalities, prejudices, and the like, but it would allow for greater exploration of the dynamics hinted at in Skyrim. Such an approach would supplement Elder Scrolls lore, making it messier in the best way.
- Released
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2026
- Developer(s)
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Bethesda Softworks
- ESRB
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