Weirdest Unused Spell in Skyrim

Weirdest Unused Spell in Skyrim

This spell is called Polymorph Skeever its an Unused spell found in the game files, it makes you take on the form of a Skeever. Reminds me of using Possession power on rats in Dishonored.

#skyrim

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[dorothyjosefina]

"You can't return to your old form"


Reject man and mer, return to skeever

[robotboy]

Imagine stealth playthroughs running around as a lil rat to sneak past bandits and guards like corvo. Could've been pretty neat

[XxNightmarexX]

Interesting. My guess is this is either cut content or tied to the Wabbajack. Either way, cool find!

[nightterror]

Perhaps there was gonna be small skeever sized tunnels in dungeons that would lead to hidden treasure or shortcuts. Or maybe it was just a test spell to see how transforming into different creatures would effect the game while they were creating the werewolf and vampire lord forms.

[thelivingfossil]

I think this is supposed to be that experimental spell that dark elf in winter hold turns you into a bunch of animals.
Tho I might be mistaken

[markgallant]

I'd use it in the thieves guild quest to poison the mead for Maven. instead of doing the whole quest just show up as a skeever(proving the infestation) and the meadery gets shut down...

[afrikasmith]

Thief: I will disguise myself as a Skeever to sneak passed the bandits.

Bandits: Oh boy! I haven't had chard Skeever in a while 😋

Thief: 😱

[Galimeer]

Probably part of cut content. Given that the "skeever" is specified in the name, it was probably going to be part of a shapeshifting spell family. Knowing Bethesda, my guess is they couldn't figure out how to fix all the bugs with being in skeever form, so they scrapped the spell family. You find all kinds of things like that by poking around in Skyrim's game files -- content cut because they couldn't get it to work.
For example, the Storm Call shout hits both allies and enemies alike with lightning. But the thing is, there are conditions embedded in the lightning bolt's magic effect data that should prevent friends from being hit, yet they are anyways. So, unable to figure out why the shout wasn't working properly, they must've just decided to leave it the way it was and adjust the shout's description instead.

[trolllife]

1:26 If I had to guess the plan might've been originally for you to be able to find secret chests that you can only get via using the spell though that's just speculation as I can't imagine the spell being very useful it being very useful in combat.

[alansmith]

they removed it because they knew it would be too overpowered

[cannibalistictendencies]

That would be cool to have more transmogrify spells for ourselves and to transform others that could add a whole new depth to combat, puzzle solving, and quest scenarios altogether

[grunt]

Simple. It's a test-spell for a potential transformation talent which wasn't developed completely and didn't get deleted from release version of the game.

[valen.barreiro]

Really cool look, I love that Illidan vibe, if that was what you were trying to replicate, you gave me some character ideas there haha

[PichDextro]

Would be really awesome if they implemented druid like spells in the next game. Like in WoW where you can turn into a bear or panther and they give you different abilities.

[WedCraftLP]

My theory would be, that Bethesda once thaught of a quest in wich u needed this spell as a Part of a puzzel quest, Like you need to fit in a small hole or something, but seeing how buggy it is they might not have been able to Program it to the Release of the game. And for that they cut it, but its still in the game, similar to the light beam you could get with console comands from the Tempel of merida

[TeutonicRoom]

I wonder if there were going to be places inaccessible to the player unless they used this spell

[JBC_]

Dragon: attacks town.
Everyone: run for your lives.
Skeever: Hold my cheese wheel

[Dewelwield]

If I was to guess, I’d say it was probably tied to a cutscene in some quest that was later cut. There are other spells in the game that appear to be unused, but are actually used as environmental effects (ie Miranda’s beacon light beams or whatever it’s called, that does damage when you walk through it, is considered a spell, and yes, through console, you can use it.) now I’m pretty sure this wasn’t used as an effect, but I wouldn’t rule out that maybe it was supposed to be used by an npc at one point.

Another possibility is that it was added as a workaround to an engine limitation. Often in development, if you want to do some fancy scripting but your engine isn’t set up for what your trying to do (in this case, turn an npc into a skeever) one workaround devs will often do is add an item (or spell) in to be used with that specific script as it’s easier than taking apart your engine to allow for one scene to work as intended. If this is the case, then the spell might not actually be unused, but just called upon in one part of the game that we don’t know the location of. One area I could think of is that quest at the college of winterhold where you get turned into various animals by a student. The camera is fixed to 3rd person during the sequence which would explain why the camera is glitched when used normally. Only problem is… well I don’t think you get turned into a skeever ever during the quest.

Now I’ve never modded Skyrim (or worked with creation engine at all, for that matter). I’m just theory crafting on what might be the reason why this exists with what little background I have in development. Either way, it shines some light on a pretty interesting part of game development, so hopefully someone found that rant interesting.

[wertzuuu]

No one talks about how neat his character is owo

[manen.]

Your dovakhin looks like he's ready to bust out a headbang induced guitar riff