Skyrim's mannequins have a deeply disturbing secret I wish I could unlearn

There’s always something to learn about Skyrim. Just when we think we know all the secrets and quirks of this stellar RPG, we find out some new information.

Though, this latest nugget is something we wish we could unlearn, and it involves the mannequins you find across Tamriel, often holding armour.

Skyrim is the game that keeps delivering secrets and fun facts even this long after release

So, those mannequins. Get this. They’re actually NPCs with a mannequin skin applied and the game’s code just tells them to stand still. That’s weird, and honestly, quite creepy.

According to a post on Reddit, one player notes that “sometimes if you load the room up the code doesn't load right and the mannequins forget they're not supposed to move.”

That just makes it worse. Imagine coming home and finding your armour strolling around the place, making itself comfortable.

This is one nugget from a long list of ‘Fun facts about how Skyrim works under the hood.’

Another gem comes from a different user who says, “All the bodies of killed/slain/murdered NPCs end up in some hidden ‘underground’ room.” This piles them up in a stack to remove them from the world, but not the game itself.

It’s a truly fascinating list of facts. This one is a favourite of mine and involves the fertile soil plots from the Hearthfire add-on.

“For each fertile soil, there exists a strange NPC in an inaccessible room who just stands around waiting for you to shove your canis root and swamp fungal pod into them.” Also very weird and very gross.

Lastly, there’s this gem, “This one's more common knowledge because of the Dawnstar chest, but I like how every character's inventory is just a chest somewhere, under the ground or in the walls.” It’s honestly no wonder Bethesda’s games can get very screwy and buggy when they’re just shoving chests and piles of bodies under the map.