Reviewing Monsters: The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim, Part 4 [Dragonborn DLC]

Skyrim received a mini-DLC between Dawnguard and Dragonborn, Hearthfire... but that just added housing and a bunch of fun fluff mechanics. It's neat, but it's definitely not my thing -- I built a house once and didn't really revisit the mechanic all that much. 

It's kind of tradition in the more RPG-oriented Elder Scrolls games that their final expansion be the biggest, and take place in a completely separate overworld to the original game. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind takes the protagonist to the island of Solstheim in the Bloodmoon expansion, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes the protagonist to the daedric realm of madness, the Shivering Isles, in the eponymous expansion. Skyrim's final expansion, Dragonborn, takes the protagonist back into Solstheim again.

And Solstheim's flora and fauna is completely bizarre, taking a lot of cues from the unique, alien lands of Vvardenfell seen in Morrowind. Unlike the snow-capped tundra that is Skyrim, the island of Solstheim is partly blanketed in volcanic ash (magic volcanic ash!), and there's a fair amount of creatures imported from the land of Morrowind. Moreover, a good chunk of the game also throws the protagonist into the realm of Apocrypha, a Cthulhu-inspired eldritch realm filled with seas of black ink, gigantic tentacles, and gigantic structures made entirely of books as you, the Last Dragonborn, is tasked with restoring the peace of Solstheim's multiple denizens and prevent the return of the First Dragonborn, Miraak.
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Ash Hopper

When we start off with vanilla Skyrim, we started off with some boring-but-obligatory monsters like your rats skeevers and wolves and bears. Well, not so for the isle of Solstheim! See, Solstheim has its own relatively unique fauna, and one of the most common enemies in the ash-covered southern part of Solstheim are the Ash Hoppers, which are gigantic dog-sized cricket-like monsters with squat abdomens and an elongated, Xenomorph-esque head. It's a pretty awesome-looking bug monster, especially for what basically amounts to the weak, animal-like enemies of this place. Ash Hoppers actually sort of behave similarly to wolves, hunting in packs and surrounding you while they jump and bite at you. Ultimately it's a pretty simple creature behaviour-wise, but I really do like this design!

Ash Spawn=

Likewise, replacing the draugr of Skyrim are the Ash Spawn. Draugr still appear in Solstheim, but they are specifically only found in Nordic ruins and temples, which, y'know, make sense since the Nords have unique burial practices that involve putting their dead in family crypts. The Dunmer (dark elves) that populate Solstheim tend to go for cremation, though, and a combination of this practice and the volcanic eruptions of the volcano called the Red Mountain has ccaused the rise of these Ash Spawn, creatures born of volcanic/cremated ash. In combat, they rise up all zombie-like from piles of ash or from cremation pots, and when they die they go through a pretty metal-looking disintegration. The three variants (vanilla, Skirmisher and Immolator) wield daggers seemingly made up of volcanic rocks, and cast a bunch of unique ash-themed destruction spells.

And look at that face! The Ash Spawn's face just looks so tortured, and the texture really makes this look like some sort of bizarre creature born of volcanic ash. Even more interestingly, there are some rather contradictory reports as to the nature of the Ash Spawn, and their nature is called into ambiguity when neither Detect Life nor Detect Dead will register them. Playing through some of the Dragonborn quests will reveal that the mad necromancer Ildari Sarothril is responsible for weaponizing the magical, volcanic rocks called Hearthstones Heart Stones to empower the Ash Spawn in an imitation of Skyrim's Forsworn Briarhearts, which is pretty neat! Definitely a pretty interestingly flavoured enemy for this new location!

Ash Guardian

Ash Guardians are fairly more rare than the Ash Spawn, and they're basically just reskinned Storm Atronachs with ash around them instead of lightning. At least the Ash Guardians have more distinct faces, which goes a long way to improving how neat they look. I've always personally found these things to be pretty bland, and there's not a whole ton of them anyway.

Netch

Making a return from Morrowind are the Netch, which are giant floating jellyfishes... who behave like bovine! Morrowind has some really bizarre creatures, and that's honestly the biggest draw that Morrowind has for me. The Netches come in three variations -- Netch Calf, Betty Netch and Bull Netch, and unlike most monster variations, these actually inform their size, because the little Calfs are tiny and adorable, while the adults are far larger. In Morrowind, the dunmer farm the Netch for their leather. I really do find the Netch pretty adorable, and they are actually pretty non-hostile creatures that won't bother you unless you attack them first, and upon which they'll shock you with electrical-charged tentacles. Definitely a pretty fun bunch of creatures!

Riekling

Solstheim's humanoid population are mainly the native Skaal tribes (basically back-to-nature Nords) as well as the Dunmer refugees that have set up a city in Southern Solstheim after evacuating the eruption of the Red Mountain. But in addition to those two, there is another set of creatures that live on Solstheim, the... kinda-sentient Rieklings, who are these blue-skinned "ice goblins" of sorts. Originally looking more like chunky dwarves more than goblins and apparently the original concept of Falmer before Skyrim's release, I really do like the Rieklings and their insane babbling. "Belifakathooo-kawa" indeed.

Three variants exist, the Scout, the Hunter and the Warrior, and they tend to fight with spears. Tiny spears that your character picks up and uses as arrows, which I always found to be hilarious. The thing is, though, unlike Oblivion's goblins, the Rieklings are clearly sentient, just not particularly smart. Depending on your choices, you are able to befriend and ally with a tribe of Rieklings on Thirsk Mead Hall, and become chief of that tribe of Rieklings. I certainly did, because the little buggers are hilarious.

Various Riekling tribes have basically taken up refuge in many of the caves and ruins that dot Solstheim's icy northern half, and while they're ultimately just funny-talking goblins, I do like them a fair bit. Hell, in their bases, they even sometimes hide in barrels and burst out while shouting their nonsense words!

Bristleback

Boars are one of the few generic RPG wild beasts that Skyrim doesn't actually have, but wild boars, named Bristlebacks, appear in Solstheim. They're basically just generic enemies that charge you, and are often kept around by Rieklings. And boars are neat and all, but they just pale in comparison to the Ash Hoppers and Netch...

Mounted Riekling

...if not for the fact that the Rieklings gloriously ride the Bristlebacks into battle. I really don't have much to say here, because these are just basically faster, tougher Rieklings, but look at that shit. It's an ice goblin riding a wild pig. I like the Rieklings, is what I'm trying to say.

Spiders

While the Frostbite Spiders play upon the tropes of the huge, thick-legged hairy Tarantula, the Spiders of Solstheim are far tinier. They're larger than most real-life spiders, of course, but their legs are lanky, their pedipalps and fangs aren't quite as prominent as the Frostbites, and they look more like orb weavers or recluse spiders that have skinnier legs.

The spiders are mostly involved in a single dungeon, the White Ridge Barrow, where apparently there's a mechanism to create these spiders! In order from top to bottom, these are the Albino, Flame, Frost, Poison, Shock and Mind-Control Spiders. They initially show up as enemies and you have to cut your way through them, until you discover ancient magical mechanisms that allow for the crafting of these magical spiders. For all of the first five types, "Cloaked" and "Exploding" variations exist, and they do pretty much what you expect them to do with those adjectives. 

Probably the most unexpected and most disturbing are the Mind-Control Spiders, who have embedded themselves to the base of a group of poor Reavers' skulls, turning them into mindless minions that fight and guard the spiders' territory. I think they're implied to be the creations of the dragon priest Dukaan, who you fight at the end of the dungeon? Regardless, though, after slaying the inhabitants of the barrow, you gain access to the magical shrine that allows you to create scrolls that allow you to sic these horrors at your opponent. Pretty damn cool concept for a spider-themed horror dungeon, I must say, although I sort of wished that these spiders have been incorporated as enemies in more than one dungeon. 

Werebear

Lots of Elder Scrolls' in-universe books hint at various forms of lycanthropes like were-bats, were-sharks and were-crocodiles (!!!!!). Previous lore books have noted that Skyrim's local strain of lycanthropy is supposed to be werebears, but the actual Skyrim game doesn't actually have them, because, y'know, werewolves are far more 'classic'. There's always expansion packs, though, and while Werebears never actually show up in Skyrim proper, they do show up in Solstheim. You're able to meet Werebears in their transformed form or in their original humans forms, similar to werewolves, and while you're unable to transform into a werebear yourself, it's definitely a pretty fun little re-skinned enemy.

Serpentine Dragon

Regular dragons still appear on Solstheim, because Alduin's return has kind of awakened dragons everywhere, I think, but a unique sub-species of dragons, the Serpentine Dragon, shows up in Solstheim. They are jet-black, and have long, tapering necks that look more like an eel or a snake, and a gigantic underbite. They also have distinctively less reptilian spikes and crocodilian scutes, which makes them look genuinely different! This is what I'm talking about. Sadly, though, Serpentine Dragons are only found in Solstheim.

Several named Serpentine Dragons serve as the minions of the main villain, Miraak, who has developed the ability to mind-control and subjugate dragons. One such dragon, Sahrotaar, ends up being dominated by you, but unlike Odahviing and Durnehviir, Sahrotaar never becomes a permanent part of your arsenal because Miraak kills and eats his soul at the climax of Dragonborn's storyline.

Dwarven Ballista

There are a bunch of Dwarven Ruins in Solstheim, and in addition to the three original Dwarven automatons, the expansion throws in the Dwarven Ballista, which is basically a gigantic dome-shaped ballista with spider legs. It's basically the dwarven automatons' long-ranged variant, something that they severely lack. I'm pretty sure that they also show up in the Skyrim dwarven ruins as well, although I'm kind of foggy on that. I think their attacks are also programmed to deal fixed damage, under the logic that the ballistae bolts will ignore armour. It's a neat-looking mechanical contraption, if nothing else. 

Burnt Spriggan

I normally don't include 'repeat' enemies, and likewise I didn't include the Spriggan variant back when reviewing Dawnguard monsters, but Dragonborn introduces the Burnt Spriggan, and holy shit, these are actually cool! A burning wood spirit, that have been transformed by the local climate (or, as your morally-ambiguous mad mage buddy Neloth implies, by magic) into an avatar of flame, the Burnt Spriggan populate the volcanic-torched dead forests of Solstheim, and I've always found them to be a genuinely surprising addition to the game. The Burnt Spriggans still have their healing ability, but have traded in their invisibility and their beast-summoning abilities for fire spells. Pretty neat little variation for sure!

Hulking Draugr

In homage to a similarly-named enemy in Bloodmoon, the Hulking Draugr are basically just bigger Draugr exclusive to Solstheim, but have unique sizes and armour. They're... they're neat! I always approve of anything that adds variation to the game, and while I also kind of wished that they had imported the Hulking model to the rest of Skyrim, it's kind of nitpicking on my part.

Silt Strider

I have to include this giant thing here. See, back in Morrowind, to travel from city to city you don't ride by carriages. The Dunmer of Morrowind ride in style, using the positively GIGANTIC Silt Striders to walk through the dunes of Morrowind. These gentle giants are basically gigantic, Godzilla-sized fleas with pretty straight and load-bearing feet, and the Dunmer use them as glorified buses. Badass!

Sadly, though, the eruption of the Red Mountain has driven the species into near-extinction, and the only one you can find in Solstheim by the time of Dragonborn is a single species that just lurks near the town of Tel Mithryn, under the ownership of a travelling trader. Still, a pretty awesome looking monster even if it's the last of its kind.

Reavers

We're sort of jumping around enemy types here. I'm not going to cover every single humanoid enemy in Dragonborn, because they're not very interesting, so I'll take this opportunity to handwave most of them. There are Pirates and Morag Tong Assassins (rightmost), which are basically just Dunmers or Nords using some of the new armour pieces included in the expansion. And it's cool and all, but, y'know, they're ultimately just bandits. Ditto for the Reavers, who even use the same ranking system as bandits. Neat that they get new names, but I don't have much to say about them.

Cultists

The minions of the enigmatic Miraak, the Cultists basically are reskinned Conjurers, but they show up with these fancy-looking armour! I really do love their mask, which copy that of the Seeker's Cthulhu-esque face, but with fancy 'cracked' aesthetic for their eyeholes. Also a fan of the scalloped, dragon-scale-esque asymmetric armguards they have. The Cultists will appear on Skyrim's cities and attack you for being a 'false' dragonborn, leading you to explore Solstheim in the first place, and investigate the mysterious happenings in the island. 

Lurker

You eventually discover some ancient dragon cult ruins and some mysterious, gigantic Black Books, which are actually portals to different segments of the realm of the daedric prince (a.k.a. not-nice god) of forbidden knowledge, Hermaeus Mora. And Mora's realm is just one huge shout-out to Lovecraftian horror, with Mora himself being a pretty talkative version of an Elder God.

Some of the denizens of Mora's realm are the Lurkers, patterned after the Deep Ones from Lovecraftian horror. The Lurkers are these tall, gaunt humanoids with disgusting scaled armour and the face of the ugliest fish you could think of. They mostly patrol the inky waters of Apocrypha levels, but at some points, Miraak's cultists summon some of these into Solstheim. The Lurkers are fun little enemies, because in addition to mauling you with their nasty claws, they also stomp the ground and create inky black tentacles to lash around, and sometimes just vomit out tentacles from their mouths. Pretty fun and ugly monster, even if I do think that they really could've done more with a fishman enemy.

Seeker

Decidedly more Cthulhu-esque than Lurkers, the Seekers are, well, the main denizens of Apocrypha. They have a pretty neat design, not content at just being humanoids with an octopus face. They have no legs and float around like wraiths, have two pairs of skeletal hands, a fanged zipper-like mouth on their "stomach", and squinty eyes deep in the brows of their octopus face. The Seekers are implied to be seekers and cultists of Hermaeus Mora that have stayed too long in Mora's realm, and have lost themselves in knowledge. Indeed, most of the time, you see the Seekers just wandering around the giant libraries that make up Mora's realm (those towers in the background of the Seeker picture are literally made up of books), and reading books.

The Seekers are pretty fun enemies to fight, too, able to turn invisible and teleport around the area, unleash several unique spells that are able to even hone in on stealthy enemies, and stronger variants (Seeker Aspirant and High Seeker) will summon weaker clones of themselves, which make sniping them particularly difficult to do.

Dragon Priests

The main boss of the Solstheim expansion is Miraak, the First Dragonborn. He's basically a Dragonborn who was born in the era where dragons ruled Skyrim, but rebelled against them and actually consumed the souls of a bunch of dragons before being forced to hide away in Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha, where he is trapped for the past couple of centuries. Not going to go into full detail of the story, but he's the one on the right with the unique armour, and I do find Miraak's look to be pretty cool! While the conclusion is kind of iffy, I did find Miraak to be a pretty fun antagonist and probably the most personal one out of the 'main' big bads of Skyrim. 

There are three masked Dragon Priests in Solstheim -- Ahzidal, Zahkriisos and Dukaan -- and a non-masked one, Vahlok the Jailor. All four Dragon Priests are actually the subject of relatively memorable quest chains, and while none of them relate to the main quest, I really do enjoy how the lores of the four non-Miraak dragon priests are told through their respective quests, in stark contrast to how it's a coin flip on whether a given dragon priests in vanilla Skyrim had a backstory or just happened to be around. Anyway, not much to say here. I do like that they new dragon priests have different masks. 

Overall, that's about it for Skyrim! I tend to get negative at times, but that's because Skyrim is a pretty big game and the same couple of enemies with similar AI did tend to sort of make the journey somewhat more boring than it should be at times. It's been fun, though! Sometime in the future, expect a similar article on Oblivion monsters!