The dragons in Skyrim are some of the most powerful foes in the game, and they have an alarming habit of showing up randomly to attack the player. They can use the same powerful Dragon Shout abilities that the player can, and their large size makes them even more dangerous. However, Skyrim is well known for its glitches, and sometimes dragons have their usual behavior patterns derailed.
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Redditor Hyli-oS shared a short video of themself observing what they describe as a very rare passive dragon. In the clip, the player is shown walking in first person POV around a massive black dragon that slowly turns its head to keep them in its sights. This isn’t the first time Skyrim players have encountered dragons that don’t attack immediately, but it may be one of the few times the dragon didn’t attack at all.
Not only does the dragon not attack, it doesn’t even move as the player walks in circles around it, clambers over uneven terrain, and gets up in its face. The only movement the creature makes is to slowly turn its head so that it’s looking at the player. According to Hyli-oS, the dragon dropped out of the sky in front of them but never attacked. This may make this incident the opposite of that time a player was haunted by a teleporting dead dragon.
Hyli-oS went on to explain that after realizing the dragon wasn’t going to attack first, they quicksaved and attacked it to see what would happen. As it turned out, the dragon had extremely low health for an unknown reason, and it presumably perished. Hyli-oS reloaded the save and decided to leave the dragon alone since it wasn’t hurting anyone. It’s unclear why the dragon appeared already near-death or why its low health prevented it from attacking. One user replied by drawing a parallel with the passive wolves that werewolf players can encounter in the same game.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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