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98 free Skyrim trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
55 free Skyrim trivia questions with answers. Skyrim has been re-released on almost everything with a screen, and fifteen years on millions of people are still walking the Seven Thousand Steps. This quiz is for them. Fifty questions cover the game's story and world (Alduin, Paarthurnax, the nine holds and their jarls, the guilds and Daedric artifacts), the three add-ons, and the real-world side: development at Bethesda, Jeremy Soule's barbarian choir, the voice cast, the patches, the memes, the mods that got their creators hired, and the sales figures. It starts with things any Dragonborn knows (which shout you show the Greybeards, who asks about the Cloud District) and works up to questions for people who have read every loading screen: how many masks unlock Konahrik, which Daedric Prince taught Miraak, and what Bethesda last shipped on a Nintendo console before the Switch port. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia article on the game or the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, and each question shows its source. Good for a gaming quiz night round or for settling arguments in the Bannered Mare.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released worldwide?
11 November 2011
Skyrim launched on 11 November 2011, a date Bethesda marketed as '11-11-11'; a leaked Xbox 360 copy let modded consoles play it about ten days early.
Q 02Which studio developed Skyrim?
Bethesda Game Studios
Bethesda Game Studios developed Skyrim with a team of roughly 100 people under director Todd Howard; its parent Bethesda Softworks published it.
Q 03Which technology, forked from the Fallout 3 codebase, powers Skyrim?
Creation Engine
The Creation Engine, forked from the Gamebryo-based Fallout 3 code, powers Skyrim; it brought dynamic snow, longer draw distances and an updated Radiant AI that lets NPCs farm, mill and mine.
Q 04Skyrim is set how many years after the events of Oblivion?
201
Skyrim is set in 4E 201, 201 years after the Oblivion Crisis of 3E 433; in between, the Empire lost the Great War and signed the White-Gold Concordat.
Q 05What is the name of the World-Eater, the dragon prophesied to destroy the world?
Alduin
His name breaks into Al-Du-In, 'Destroyer-Devour-Master' in the dragon tongue, and he calls himself the First-Born of Akatosh.
Q 06How many playable races does Skyrim offer at character creation?
10
Skyrim offers 10 playable races: Altmer, Argonian, Bosmer, Breton, Dunmer, Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orc and Redguard; race sets starting skills and a racial power but never locks out quests.
Q 07Skyrim's 18 skills are divided evenly among which three schools?
Combat, magic and stealth
Skyrim's 18 skills fall evenly into combat, magic and stealth, six each; characters level by raising skills, and the class system of earlier Elder Scrolls games was dropped.
Q 08Traditionally, into how many holds is the province of Skyrim divided, each governed by a jarl?
Nine
Skyrim has nine holds, each ruled by a jarl: Whiterun, Eastmarch, the Rift, the Reach, Haafingar, Hjaalmarch, the Pale, Falkreath and Winterhold; each was hand-crafted to feel topographically distinct.
Q 09Which deified human general do the Nords worship as a ninth god, in defiance of the White-Gold Concordat?
Talos
Talos, the deified Tiber Septim, is the Nords' ninth divine; the Thalmor forced the ban on his worship into the White-Gold Concordat, and it helped ignite Ulfric's rebellion.
Q 10Who is the last known dragon, secretly protected by the Greybeards atop the Throat of the World?
Paarthurnax
Paarthurnax, whose name breaks into Paar-Thur-Nax, 'Ambition Overlord Cruelty', was once Alduin's lieutenant; he lives atop the Throat of the World and the Blades demand his death.
Q 11What is the name of the pacifist discipline practised by the Greybeards, founded by Jurgen Windcaller?
The Way of the Voice
The Way of the Voice, founded by Jurgen Windcaller, holds that the Thu'um should serve worship rather than war; Ulfric Stormcloak trained in it with the Greybeards, which is why he can Shout.
Q 12How many words of power make up a complete dragon shout?
Three
A complete shout has three words of power; each is unlocked by spending an absorbed dragon soul, and holding the shout button longer releases more of the three.
Q 13Which shout, forcing a dragon to land by making it comprehend mortality, must the Dragonborn learn to fight Alduin?
Dragonrend
Q 21Which of Skyrim's three add-ons revolves around a battle between vampire hunters and Clan Volkihar?
Dawnguard
Dawnguard pits the vampire-hunting Dawnguard against Clan Volkihar; it adds the Soul Cairn and the Forgotten Vale, and PS3 performance problems delayed it there by eight months.
Q 22The Hearthfire add-on lets the player build houses and adopt up to how many children?
Two
Hearthfire lets you adopt up to two children, who can live in any of the three new homesteads you build from lumber and clay that you gather or buy.
Q 23The Dragonborn add-on takes place on which island belonging to the province of Morrowind?
Solstheim
Solstheim, an island off Morrowind's coast with the Dunmer settlement of Raven Rock, hosts the Dragonborn add-on; its antagonist Miraak is the First Dragonborn, and the DLC lets you ride dragons.
Dragonrend forces a dragon to land by making it comprehend mortality; Arngeir refuses to teach it, so you learn it by reading an Elder Scroll at the Time-Wound where Alduin was banished.
Q 14Which captured dragon flies the Dragonborn to the Nord afterlife in exchange for freedom?
Odahviing
His name Od-Ah-Viing means 'Snow-Hunter-Wing'; after the main quest you can call him down with a shout that is simply his name.
Q 15Which composer wrote Skyrim's score, having also scored Morrowind and Oblivion?
Jeremy Soule
Jeremy Soule, who also scored Morrowind and Oblivion, wrote Skyrim's music; his 'Dragonborn' theme is sung in the invented dragon language and reworks the series' 'Nerevar Rising' melody.
Q 16Bethesda's Adam Adamowicz created the Draconic language and a runic alphabet of how many characters?
34
Adam Adamowicz's dragon alphabet has 34 runic characters; new words were added to the lexicon, in designer Bruce Nesmith's words, every time the studio 'wanted to say something'.
Q 17Which Academy Award nominee voiced Esbern, the Blades loremaster?
Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow, twice Oscar-nominated, voiced Esbern; the cast of more than 70 actors also included Joan Allen as Delphine, across over 60,000 lines of dialogue.
Q 18Which actor voiced Arngeir, the spokesman of the Greybeards?
Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer, who won an Oscar for Beginners, voiced Arngeir, spokesman of the Greybeards; he was 81 when Skyrim shipped in November 2011.
Q 19Which Japanese magazine gave Skyrim a perfect 40/40, the first Western-developed game to earn it?
Famitsu
Famitsu's four editors each gave Skyrim 10/10 for a 40/40, the first perfect score for a Western-developed game; reviewers elsewhere criticised the 'floaty' melee combat.
Q 20Roughly how many units of Skyrim had been sold by June 2023, according to Todd Howard?
60 million
Todd Howard put Skyrim at over 60 million units sold in June 2023; it had shipped 7 million copies in its first week of November 2011, earning about $450 million.
Q 24Which Daedric Prince taught Miraak, the First Dragonborn, to control dragons?
Hermaeus Mora
Hermaeus Mora, Daedric Prince of knowledge, taught Miraak to control dragons; Miraak slaughtered his winged overlords, the dragons razed his temple, and Mora spirited him away to his own realm.
Q 25Which city is the capital of Skyrim, seat of the High King, and built on a natural arch over the Sea of Ghosts?
Solitude
Solitude's Jarl Elisif the Fair, widow of the murdered High King Torygg, rules from the Blue Palace; the Bards College and the Legion's Castle Dour are also in the city.
Q 26Which city is built inside an ancient Dwemer city, with much of it carved into the surrounding rock?
Markarth
Markarth sits inside the Dwemer ruin of Nchuand-Zel in the Reach; its Silver-Blood family owns half the city and Cidhna Mine, said to be Skyrim's most secure prison.
Q 27The Thieves Guild inhabits the sewers beneath which city?
Riften
Riften's guards demand a 'tax' at the gate, which you can pay, talk your way out of, or pickpocket the key for.
Q 28Which family, headed by Maven, controls the Rift's meadery and has ties to the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood?
Black-Briar
The Black-Briar family, led by Maven Black-Briar, runs the Black-Briar Meadery outside Riften; if the Imperials take the Rift, Maven replaces Laila Law-Giver as jarl.
Q 29Windhelm's Dark Elf refugees are confined to a cramped slum called what?
The Gray Quarter
The Gray Quarter, formerly the Snow Quarter, houses Windhelm's Dunmer, who fled Morrowind after the eruption of Red Mountain; Ulfric turns a blind eye to their plight.
Q 30In Skyrim, which Whiterun citizen, who claims to advise the Jarl, famously asks whether you get to the Cloud District very often?
Nazeem
Nazeem owns Chillfurrow Farm and claims to advise the Jarl, but never sets foot in Dragonsreach and sleeps at The Drunken Huntsman.