Where Do Skyrim's Rivers Come From?

#skyrim #hyrdology

[any_austin]

I started playing Fallout 3 for the first time. It’s good.

[lswan]

Somewhere out there, an environment artist is weeping for joy that someone took an interest in all the little streams & tributaries they designed.

[megancress]

I love the idea of a forest ranger mapping the local waterflow and getting interrupted by a dragon to which they sigh and slay it with the same enthuasithsm of moving a stubborn duck out of the way of their car

[Matt_M_again]

As someone who models groundwater flow for a living, this is the best meal you've ever prepared.

[reanaa]

I'm a forester and have spent many years out in the woods. And I'm happy to report that once in my life I was standing at a creek that did exactly what your Skyrim creek did. The water at my left foot flowed left and the water at my right foot flowed right. It was the strangest thing but it does happen on earth in the real world. As for the river that seems to pop into existence from the bank, that happens quite a bit. subsurface or spring water hits loser material or change of pressure and surfaces. It's essentially an underground river that reaches the surface and "pops" into existence. These sites are the headwaters of many a river system.

[ahaetulla]

Chuckled heartily at the idea of the dragonborn taking an intense interest in river cartography and having to look up from water saying "Ugh. God dammit" to kill a whole dragon before staring back down and pondering the weird videogame river split.

[xUNT]

Hi, hydrology engineer. So the Ivarstead split is not as unbelievable as you might think. Plenty of water sources are springs coming. from ground water sources. And the fact that it suddenly becomes a large river from a small creek could be due to runoff being a main source for the larger river. Although it does look funky there are stranger natural water features in real life. Thanks for the video it was fun

[moonkenzie]

Someone made a mod to create a source at Ivarstead and used this video as their inspiration. You're changing lives my dude

[Pluto.]

I did a project in college once analyzing the northern coastline of Skyrim as to whether or not it was geologically plausible and found that overall it really is so long as there’s a strong current in the sea of ghosts. It’s details like this that just make me happy in open world game design.

[RBarn]

"let's find the source"- immediately heads downstream

[cktgdqy]

I studied Hydrology in University, and might have an answer for why that little river at 8:30 turns into a massive one. Every stream/river is either "gaining", "losing", or "at equilibrium" (with other subcategories of course). It's possible that the ground underneath quickly becomes more permeable, allowing groundwater to seep into the river (given a high water table). This increases the amount of water in the river. Skyrim has lots of fractured, rocky terrain which often leads to the amount of groundwater seepage being varying heavily from place to place.

[lukesites]

A dragon attack being little more than a nuisance to our hydrologist dovakin had me stitches

[rachelm]

I … I thought I was the only person who looked for things like this. It’s so nice to be reassured that there is company in madness

[RylixBlizzai]

this video makes me feel so valid for having once spent several hours drawing up a detailed map of routes and sources for a fictional river network in my own fictional world

[gavinspace]

you know we’re deprived of a new elder scrolls title when we’re trying to decipher where water comes from

[andrewwelch]

You know this channel is for you when you've genuinely asked yourself this question in Fantasy titles.

[slitheen]

I don't know anything about hydrology but I was so ready to watch another 20 minutes of you just following rivers and water sources throughout the rest of Skyrim. Couldn't tell you why I enjoyed this so much, but I did

[Wildoutness]

7:49
As an avid paddle boarder, I can tell you that this is also found in nature. I have been paddling upstream and then came across a second current pushing in the opposite direction. A spring boil is responsible.

[NumberEntertainment]

I feel the same way with rivers/creeks in real life. Like, I've always had thin innate desire to follow them either all the way up or all the way down. It might just be a combination of the love of nature, and a primal urge to explore. I'm really not sure though. I'm glad someone else has this feeling.

[djdegracia]

Okay, but isn't it just a love letter to a video game to just explore for the sake of exploring? To look at every little detail possible for whatever reason possible?

Thank you for loving video games, Austin