Featured Image Credit: Bethesda
Topics: Skyrim, Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls
Have you ever been halfway through a playthrough of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and thought, “Hey, how come all the dragons are dudes?”
Yeah, me neither, but someone has… and it turns out Bethesda actually explained why this is the case in-game.
Over on the r/skyrim subreddit, one user had a very simple question: “Why there aren’t any female dragons in Skyrim?”
“So from game dev standpoint it makes sense. It’s at least one more VA, double the lines to record, etc,” wrote user nothinkybrainhurty.
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“But from the lore perspective, is there a reason? Are dragons just a single gender species? How do they reproduce? Do female dragons just have the same voice as male, sort of 'dwarven women also have beards situation?”
Well, as several users in the thread pointed out, there is a reason, and it’s hidden in a book that you can find inside the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood.
When will The Elder Scrolls VI finally be re-revealed?
The book, titled “There Be Dragons,” explains that dragons are “eternal, immortal, unchanging, and unyielding” and that “they are not born or hatched".
“They do not mate or breed,” states the book.
“There are no known examples of dragon eggs or dragonlings. The Iliac Bay area has stories of such things, but so far all have proven false. The eggs turned out to be eggs of other reptiles. The small dragons were merely oversized lizards and no relation to true dragons.”
So, there you have it. Dragons are neither male nor female. Due to the fact that they don’t reproduce, they’re actually genderless.
I suppose in a sense, that kind of makes them like the Asari in Mass Effect. Although they’re all voiced by one gender in real life, that doesn’t detract from the fact that they’re still a genderless species.
Still doesn’t really answer the question of how dragons are born in the first place though, but hey, maybe we’ll find out the answer to that question in the next Elder Scrolls game.