Life in Skyrim can be pretty stressful for NPCs, especially if a certain Dragonborn is nearby and intent on getting up to the kind of trouble that might attract the attention of the guards.
After all, would you snitch on a prophesied hero that regularly battles dragons for breakfast and takes on fierce bandits for dessert?
That said, sometimes things go the other way, and Skyrim’s mighty warriors end up bearing witness to an NPC doing something totally unexpected at the wrong moment, as one player on Reddit has recently found out.
Have you ever been left speechless by a Skyrim NPC’s actions?
The thread on this incident in the Skyrim subreddit began with a post from the player in question, user Defy_all_0dds, who refused to keep quiet about Karliah’s strange behaviour, sharing a clip of the legendary thief dancing her way through a very serious scene in the Thieves Guild questline and captioning it: “(I) downloaded a mod that made NPC idle animations more ‘dynamic’.... I'm crying.”
Their fellow players seemed to find the display equally interesting, with user LittleShiningLuma alluding to the line that Karliah had chosen to boogie through by saying: “If words can't express, then surely a little dance can.”, while FatPigeons suggested that the dance was an occasion appropriate “sad little jig.”
User CallMeUrsi managed to identify the source of the unique animation as being the Dark Brotherhood’s Cicero, saying: “He's the only NPC that does it. This mod adds it to a few more people it seems.”
Unfortunately, user Menination was seemingly able to confirm this, lamenting: “Same. Bro, I was in Molag Bal’s shrine and Serana started dancing!”
Meanwhile, a few helpful players tried to come up with lore-friendly explanations for Karliah’s sudden change of demeanour, with user Killertoma11 suggesting: “I mean she's been (pretty) solitary for 20 years. That changes someone…”
On the other hand, user newtownmail took the opportunity to air a minor criticism of the questline being played, saying: “(It’s) kinda funny that the same guy who voices Enthir also voices Mercer. Feels like they should've had two different people for that considering they're both involved in the same storyline.”
Regardless of whether you’ve ever seen Mercer Frey and Enthir in the same room at the same time, make sure to follow us for more updates on The Elder Scrolls 6 and the wacky world of Skyrim modding.