The Elder Scrolls series is well-known for giving its players the opportunity to play as they wish, either as characters who are good, bad, or somewhere in between. Skyrim is a game that offers the player an abundance of decisions that are often morally ambiguous, allowing them to shape their characters in whatever way they see fit. Very often there is no right or wrong action to take in Skyrim, as it is entirely up to the player to interpret each action and its consequences.

However, a handful of the choices that players are allowed to make are downright evil, cruel, or just disgusting. Players get many options to delve into the darker side of the human psyche; not simply by slaughtering low-level NPCs, but by doing far more unsettling, deplorable things too. What often makes this even more macabre is Skyrim's NPCs usually do not care how awful these actions might be.

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"Taste of Death" is one of the best-known quests in Skyrim, as it sees the Dragonborn turn to cannibalism. Players can join the Coven of Namira, a cult that both worships a Daedric goddess and consumes human flesh. Markath’s Hall of the Dead has been closed by a priest named Verulus due to the fact that someone has been defiling the corpses therein, and the Dragonborn can volunteer to investigate further. Players will meet Eola, a member of Namira’s cannibalistic cult, and if the player chooses to do so they have the option to lure Verulus to the cult’s lair as their newest sacrificial victim. Players that follow through with this are rewarded the first bite of Verulus’ flesh and can acquire the Ring of Namira: a valuable item that increases the Dragonborn's stamina by 50 points and allows them to consume corpses to regain health. It is possible to kill Eola and the rest of the cult at any point, but for those who do go on to complete the quest, this is perhaps the most gruesome storyline in the game.

Beyond the "Taste of Death" questline, alchemy in Skyrim also gives players the opportunity to consume just about every “consumable” item they find in the game. This allows the Dragonborn to eat some very questionable things, such as human flesh, Daedra hearts, and parts of different beasts.

Players who install Hearthfire and build a house are given the opportunity to adopt children from Honorhall orphanage, and subsequently other orphanages in the game. This is undoubtedly a noble action, but it is also possible for players to take a much darker route in the adoption process. Some children in the game who still have living families can be sent to an orphanage if their parents are stealth-killed, and it is entirely possible to murder a child’s family in order to adopt them. This is one of the cruelest things any player can do in Skyrim.

If murdering the child’s family was not dark enough, Hearthfire also gave players the option to adopt a pet and then kill it in front of their child. The child will hate the Dragonborn, but will eventually return to normal after a few in-game days pass as if nothing happened. While there are no long-term consequences to killing childrens' pets, it is easily one of the most heartless things permitted in the game.

Soul gems are a regular commodity in Skyrim, and something a lot of players do not really think twice about using. In Oblivion, black soul gems were known to be evil, but Skyrim allows players to buy them easily. They are necessary for those who seek to enchant items, and two of the easiest ways to acquire the souls they needed are by either casting the conjuration spell called Soul Trap on a target before killing them, or by slaying targets with a weapon enchanted with the Soul Trap effect.

After being captured in a soul gem, the soul of the person or creature killed is sent to the Soul Cairn for the rest of eternity. The Soul Cairn is a realm in the Dawnguard DLC. Most players did not question what actually happened to the souls until going to the Soul Cairn themselves, where it becomes apparent that those captured within soul gems are not fully dead - just imprisoned in another dimension. The Soul Cairn is one of the most intriguing locations in the entire game, a mystical location on a plane of Oblivion. There is no question, therefore, that trapping people with black soul gems is extremely dark, and one of the most villainous actions undertaken in Skyrim.

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Necromancy deals with the enslavement and utilization of dead corpses. Spells like the “Raise Zombie” conjuration spell allows players to bring a fallen being back the dead and enthrall them for a limited time. Conjuration is an extremely powerful magic in Skyrim, but this is by far the most macabre of its branches. Players use these reanimated corpses as pawns in combat in order to distract their opponents. As their proficiency in this field of magic increases, they are able to reanimate larger and stronger corpses to do their bidding. Necromancy is ethically immoral, and is therefore another dark action players can take in Skyrim.

Going to the location known as the Dead Body Cleanup Cell is not immoral or cruel by itself, but it is downright creepy. This is hidden room in Skyrim that can only be accessed via console commands. Instead of disappearing forever, the countless NPCs in Skyrim that wind up dead are sent to a macabre room called the Dead Body Cleanup Cell. Players who have mastered necromancy, as indicated above, can even resurrect NPCs if they wish to do so. Again, there is nothing evil about going to this room, but it is thoroughly unsettling to visit and can lead to worse things.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available on PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

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