Who Is Nazeem REALLY? Skyrim's Most HATED Character - Elder Scrolls Detective

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:23 - Who Is Nazeem Really?
00:04:33 - The Merchant Lord Of Whiterun
00:07:42 - Punching Nazeem For Money
00:09:38 - Arkay Says No
00:10:02 - Nazeem's Daily Routine
00:11:45 - What Actually Is The Cloud District?
00:13:19 - Nazeem Is A Delusional Liar
00:14:56 - Chillfurrow Farm
00:15:57 - Wilmuth, The Elemental Mage Farmer
00:20:13 - Is Nazeem Secretly Bankrupt?
00:22:12 - King Of Cabbage
00:22:58 - Pompous Renter
00:25:46 - Nazeem's Wife Ahlam
00:28:33 - Unhappy Marriage
00:31:06 - Wintersand Manor
00:34:21 - Nazeem's Cut Content Big Plans
00:35:48 - Ahlam Cheating On Nazeem With Jensen
00:40:49 - Danica & Ahlam Are Fake Healers
00:42:47 - Nazeem Is Attracted To Men & Only Men
00:48:07 - Nazeem's True Love
00:49:46 - The Yarl's Children & Family Are Fake
00:54:00 - Who's Children Are They?
00:56:29 - Yarl Balgruff Is Romantic With Nazeem
00:58:02 - Conclusion
01:00:03 - Outro

[Camelworks]

The secret life of the King Of The Cloud District



TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:03:23 - Who Is Nazeem Really?
00:04:33 - The Merchant Lord Of Whiterun
00:07:42 - Punching Nazeem For Money
00:09:38 - Arkay Says No
00:10:02 - Nazeem's Daily Routine
00:11:45 - What Actually Is The Cloud District?
00:13:19 - Nazeem Is A Delusional Liar
00:14:56 - Chillfurrow Farm
00:15:57 - Wilmuth, The Elemental Mage Farmer
00:20:13 - Is Nazeem Secretly Bankrupt?
00:22:12 - King Of Cabbage
00:22:58 - Pompous Renter
00:25:46 - Nazeem's Wife Ahlam
00:28:33 - Unhappy Marriage
00:31:06 - Wintersand Manor
00:34:21 - Nazeem's Cut Content Big Plans
00:35:48 - Ahlam Cheating On Nazeem With Jensen
00:40:49 - Danica & Ahlam Are Fake Healers
00:42:47 - Nazeem Is Attracted To Men & Only Men
00:48:07 - Nazeem's True Love
00:49:46 - The Yarl's Children & Family Are Fake
00:54:00 - Who's Children Are They?
00:56:29 - Yarl Balgruff Is Romantic With Nazeem
00:58:02 - Conclusion
01:00:03 - Outro

[springheeljak]

So Nazeem sleeps 12 hours a day then spends the rest wandering around insulting people? Truly living the life

[cstains]

I personally saved Nazeem in a Companions quest once. He was being held by a group of vampires. The thought of Nazeem possibly becoming immortal as well as a pompous jerk was too great a risk to not save him from.

[woodslurker]

An hour long deep dive into Nazeem is something I always knew i needed, though never expected to get

[charredolive]

In my current playthrough, Nazeem has been on some very good behavior. I’ve run into him at least 5 times, and not one mention of the cloud district. He sees another day.

[Your-Least-Favorite-Stranger]

Best guess: Nazeem and his wife used to be moderately affluent. As the war took off, Nazeem tried to profiteer by buying up a local farm and hiring an elemental mage farmer to enhance the crops he grew ("mine are twice as fresh"); this fell apart when the mage turned out to be a terribly inept farmer and the Jarl largely discouraged either side from setting up shop within his walls (lack of thalmor, empire, or stormcloaks means no way to profit selling magically enhanced crops which stay fresh longer). Nazeem spent a great deal of time early in the war trying to convince the Jarl to allow Empire, Thalmor, or Stormcloaks to resupply in town but he never made it that far - he got turned away at the gates but made such a big fuss about it to his wife and anyone who would listen, he got deep in the delivery and had to lie about the results (the jarl listening to his input on matters above our heads).
As the farm continued to sap his investment, he held out hope to turn a profit - he tries to convince people in town how great his crops are while snubbing his nose at everyone else's products.
The owner of the bar he and his wife sleep in either owed his wife a favor or took pity on them - the fact Nazeem continues to snub his nose at his landlord leads me to believe it was his wife who made the arrangements and out of respect for their arrangement, the landlord doesn't take Nazeem's stupidity seriously.
So in the end: Nazeem is an entitled, delusional little man who lost everything on a bad business venture. His wife kept a roof over their head while he fettered away the money they had and he spends his days sauntering around town being a general menace, but everyone takes pity on him for his circumstances and just treats him like a mildly annoying fly - they let him play aristocrat, let him talk big, then gently dismiss him and he goes on his way. He fails to acknowledge the extent to which his greed and poor business skills have affected his marriage, he lacks self-awareness so he thinks people not only respect him but his condescending attitude is impressive/a comfort to his wife, and he's so caught up in his desperation that he fails to appreciate how blatantly destitute they are because of him. Any other person might see this setup as a wrong step and buckle down to scrape out a living, but he's content clinging to his past wealth and status thinking either one is still intact - this is a temporary set back at worst, he's still on top of the world, others just cant see the big picture he has going on behind the scenes, he's playing the long game and will come out in top in the end.
Nazeem certainly has his head in the cloud district

[kitmoore]

The funniest thing about Nazeem is that if you kill him during one of the quests (either Dawnguard or DB, I can't remember) that require a high profile victim and planting notes on the body, you will fail the high profile part of the quest. So apparently, he's just talking out his bum.

[gamingcultist]

Danica openly hoping Nazeem bites it in the siege actually made me laugh out loud at work, well done.

[mattiepunk]

Weird statement here but...

I always thought Jarl Balgruuf would make the better High King of Skyrim. He allows Heimskir to preach the word of Talos. He negotiates with and supports the Empire which protects his peoples freedoms from the Thalmor Incursion. He is the only Jarl to openly and fully support the Dragonborn from the get go. So much that he hastily makes the Dragonborn a Thane and allows the dragonborn to capture a dragon in his castle. Even before all that he has his court wizard studying the dragons and is in contact with Delphine well before the Dragonborn even arrives.

While all the other Jarls are pretending to rule to squabbling over their ideologies. Jarl Balgruf the Greater is actually ruling his Jarldom and bringing money in. He's likely adopted children to give them a better chance and to have heirs...

I'd vote for him.

[gilmadreth]

The whole "combat elemental mage as a farmer" thing is very easy to explain once you realize that the guy just lied on the resume he gave Nazeem and our favorite egotist was too busy getting off to the sound of his own voice to realize he'd been duped.

[rangopistacho]

I love how a single key being In an Npcs inventory tells us so much about what is happening between nazeem and his wife this is the kind of story telling i love

[goliathxanatos]

Delphine is the most hated character in my opinion. Cause she questions you at everything you do when you first meet her, boss you around as though you owe her, constantly doubt your abilities to slay dragons even though at this point you’ve killed at least two, forces you to do her bidding with no input from you to object, decides that she’ll only help you if you abandon the Way of the Voice training, she demands Paathunax death otherwise she won’t allow you to be a part of the Blades even though she said herself the Blades are at the service of the Dragonborn.

This is just a very very small sample of all the things I hate about her. Nazeem doesn’t even compare. All he is, is a bigot, narcissist and ignorant. He has three lines that annoy people whenever you meet him and he’s a absent husband. Bad qualities for sure, but nowhere near the mountain of bad Delphine is.

[BlazeBurnBlade]

While I have always wondered who Nazeem is, what I really want to know is whether you go to the cloud district very often? Oh what am I saying, of course you don’t

[Zenlore]

The contrast of Nazeem’s face and the super detailed background makes him look like an Oblivion character.

[sirreginaldfishingtonxvii]

The _deep Nazeem lore_ we didn't know we needed!

I never realized how professionally and Anoriath managed to deal with Nazeem. Quick wit and no visible offense taken.
Kinda gained respect for a fictional elven meat salesman there.

[nicolautorgal]

I must say. Didn't click on this expecting a long analysis of how Nazeem and the Jarl might be polishing their swords together under the sheets, but I loved every moment. I love it when people go deep down the speculation hole.

[mr_grey]

Have you heard about Balgruff going slumming occasionally and getting drunk? They occasionally chide him for that in the throne room. If Nazeem doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain comes to Nazeem.

[MarrockV]

I use a mod that, every time Nazeem mentions the cloud district, flings him about 50 feet straight up into the air... sometimes he survives, sometimes he doesn't... but it's always funny to see.

Also, the skeleton by Dragonsreach belong to someone Maven Blackbriar had killed, you can find letters that hint at that.

[mesektet]

We know that frost magic and potions can be used to preserve crops; What if Wilmuth was employed by Nazeem to keep his crops fresh but somehow, Wilmuth gained control of the farm as the default boss in everything but paperwork?
Though that begs the question, what could Wilmuth possibly know to have that sort of leverage over Nazeem to keep him out of his own farm?… hmmm…

[norielsylvire]

On a more serious note, I do believe that Nazeem is telling the truth when he says he visits the Cloud District and advices the Jarl, based on the fact that in vanilla Skyrim he doesn't visit the farm but he does own it, his wife also mentions him constantly spending more and more time with the Jarl and less with her, which means he does really visit the Jarl he was just not programmed to do so.