Skyrim has this amazing ability to immerse me in an environment that feels so real that sometimes the emotional stories I happen to run into - apparently by accident - make me do things that seem silly... mostly because I know it's just a game... and nobody really got hurt. For some reason though, I'm compelled to "right" the wrongs that have happened.

There are numerous examples of this, but the most poignant for me so far (spoilers ahead) is when I was running around in the wild just minding my own business; I was checking out various locations that popped up on my radar that I have yet to have discovered. On the way, I helped myself to hunting the various game and fauna I ran into, along with the alchemical ingredients I required for my potions. Out of nowhere, I find a dead young Breton woman... with a single arrow near her body. I thought to myself, "Damn... another random NPC hit the dust before I could even get there." I went to check her body.. and found a single note.

"If you are reading this letter, I'm probably already dead..." She tells a sad and inspiring story about how her house was looted recently by a gang of bandits. She didn't care much about the stuff they took, save for one thing: her family heirloom pendant. Almost all of her family was dead already; that was the last thing she had of theirs. Feeling like she had nothing left to live for, no memory to hang onto, she says she's going to go after the gang of bandits and try to get her family pendant back, even if it takes her last breath.

Seeing the way how she died... and that she died alone... in the cold, harsh climate, and knowing what transpired to lead her up to that point... feeling how helpless a person in that situation would be... I couldn't help but feel really sorry for her. She was only an NPC character, yes, but I can't help it. I couldn't be there to save her from the bandits, but there was one thing I could do for her: I carried her body with me all the way back to Largashbur, an Orc village that I recently helped defend giants from. There was a shrine there, for their deity, but it seemed like it would be a good memorial site for her.

I debated whether I should've posted this, but it has been on my mind ever since that night.. so there it is.

PS: I go there once in a while. Her body is still where I left it, lying on top of the shrine.