"It looks like High Rock should own this part." The Forsworn: "Our thoughts exactly!"

Can you do a worldbuilding:Wyoming? Ever since the dark elves invaded Wyoming, they made the state border dynamic and detailed.

Step 1: draw out the tectonic plate lines Step 2: draw the continents and maybe some fault lines Step 3: draw mountains on tectonic lines on continents where they meet, ravines in the ocean, plateaus or hills descending from the mountains and hills descending from the plateau. Step 4: draw rivers descending from the mountains following the path of elevation downwards, water always flows downhill and almost never branches off creating a distributary. Step 5: establish water currents and where warm water will go, as well as where winds will go. These will help determine the weather along with the mountains Step 6: when rain flows to a mountain, the rainy side should be more lush than the opposite side. If lakes equivalent to the great Lakes exist (ones created by glaciers) then mountains won't matter much. Places that don't receive much rain because of dry winds will be deserts and probably will lack many rivers and lakes. Step 8: now with all this information, you can start placing down towns and cities. Towns on rivers, cities on low coast to act as ports, or on navigable rivers. And villages can be scattered, just make sure any large settlement has water and a road connected to it, roads should lead to the capital but not always, they can lead to major cities instead. Without roads that town or city would be pretty independent Step 7: now you can draw the country borders. Think of power dynamics and how they've changed. Don't just give land to a country for sexy borders, make sure there's a legitimate reason the country has that land. Either because it's rich in resources or the leader wanted to expand the nation's influence. That's all I can think of

The idea that rivers are always natural borders is a bit of misconception. Rivers are typically easy to cross with a boat or a bridge (not true with mountains, which are used as borders much more often). Add to that the inherent value of rivers for trade and transport, as well as river valleys often being great farmland, and it makes owning the whole river much more valuable than just half of it. For example, the Nile, Tigris/Euphrates, Ganges, and Indus river were almost never used as borders for the aformentioned reasons. So rivers = borders is by no means a hard rule.

“Skyrim likes to be simple.” Truer words were never spoken.

15:09 Actually they do use the Pale Pass. It's mentioned in a letter at the Falkreath fort if the Stormcloaks have it that the Pass is currently covered in an avalanche and the Empire has been digging it out.

“Most people start with an outline of the continent, then add in mountains and rivers and stuff” “You should start with the coasts, and mountains and rivers”

Mountains are the more logical natural borders. Rivers are secondary.

Stoneworks: Skyrim is so well designed! Me: Wait. Takes a map of Ireland, rotates it 90 degrees anti clockwise. “Breathes in through nose and exhaling, carries on with day”

Mountains are better borders than rivers, Because huge mountains are harder to cross and claim than water. If you can't reach the river, you can't have the river

The way I went about shaping continents and regions was by importing a rule from OC creation, it was a tip for creating uniquely designed characters (though I think the rule breaks down with more realistic characters.) Make the silhouette distinct. If your region's silhouette is put into a group with other silhouettes of blobs and regions, tilted, flipped n resized, and you can find it quickly then you're on the right track. Kinda like how Australia is really recognizable as an arc with horns and a lil crescent shaped island close by.

15:14 the Imperials do in fact use Pale Pass for cargo/reinforcements, as implied by a note you can find in a Stormcloak controlled fort in which the author is worried about a Legion massing at Pale Pass

When he started drawing lines I was like he’s making shit up now

The mountain ranges of skyrim and Tamriel annoy me so much as a geography nerd. I know from a purely game mechanic sense, they're there to serve as the walls to the world space, but the fact that the three of them are almost at right angles to each other makes no sense from a geological sense. Almost all mountain ranges form along tectonic boundaries of fault lines. I could buy the Jerall Mountain being formed from the Skyrim and Cyrodiil plates meeting and the Velothi Mountains as a side effect Red Mountain and of the Morrowind plates dragging along. But the High Rock Druadach Mountain make no sense and I hate them! *angry geology noises*

When he was speaking about High Rock "claims" to the West of Skyrim, I remembered that when the Nords arrived from Atmora and eventually took Skyrim for themselves, there were already Men living in the region. In fact, in the 4th Era there's still people fighting against this Nord occupation, per say. The Reachmen even look more like High Rock men (not speaking of Bretons here) than anything else.

Skyrim: *exists* Stoneworks: *notices bulge*

Solitude makes sense as an Imperial trade port, though. By the events of Skyrim, Tamriel is in the midst of a Cold War. The Aldmeri Dominion isn't going to provoke a premature war by interfering with Imperial shipping. They could demand payment for passage or take the opportunity to spy on the Empire through their trade traffic, seeing how deeply entrenched the Thalmor are in Imperial life in the game. Hammerfell wouldn't want to rock the boat either. They may not like the Empire for throwing them to the wolves, but the Thalmor are as big a threat to them as the rest of Tamriel and they know it. Messing with Imperial trade doesn't help them at all.

As a Logistics Engineer, I'd like to add a few: About the lore stuff at the end, namely why the Empire doesn't choose to use Pale Pass for trade route instead shipping across two enemy domains' water is simply a matter of money & tech. You see, when you want to move a whole lot of things (preferably heavy stuff or highly valued, like provisions for a war), big ships like galleons are way better than a line of carts. Cheaper. Maintaining a ship and it's crew is much cheaper than maintaining all those horses, carts, guardsmen along the road, outposts along the road and inns, carpentry and blacksmiths along the road (for repair purposes), animal handlers (for changing horses, etc). Out on the water, it's rather hard to ambush a trade caravan, yet on land it's like walk in a park, so it's about a matter of security too. Also not forget, that aren't just the opposing forces have to deal with, but bandits too, so there's a whole lot more danger along the road (not to mention the hostile fauna). Weather is also a factor, on sea, there's only about two kind of weathers that a sailor has to deal with: calm (can't go with no wind) and storm (probability to turn over or washing ashore). While on the road: too much heat (animals, people need more water), too cold (animals and people need more frequent stops to warm up), blizzards (visibility goes out the window, cold, wind and snow makes it difficult to steer or climbing up the hills), rain (makes quagmire out of the dirt, or slippery the road). And do not forget the basic technology of transportation and roads. Yes, Romans had high quality roads, but they too preferred the waterways when they could choose between the two (today also preferred to use water ways instead of roads). Because those roads, unfortunately aren't fit for high density trade routes. And the technology of transport vehicles? A cart with a wooden wheel (maybe an iron plate running across as "tire"), with no suspension (that technology is yet way away in time), on rocky road. And do this in a middle of a civil war. Add that together and you'll have a logistic nightmare. So, yes even today, with all the tech, we still prefer using water ways to haul the huge stuff (=huge in volume), because the cost/weight (or cost/profit) ratio is a whole lot better.

"Every dm goes coast, river mountain, which sucks, so now I'm going to focus on how Skyrim makes everything cool out of coasts, rivers and mountains." ... What? Am I missing something?

Although I really like these worldbuilding summaries, this sounds far too subjective.

Nobody: Stoneworks World Building: "You guys want some map bones?!?"

It is typically easier to travel by sea than across land, especially through sub-arctic mountain ranges. But more importantly, imperial administration is not about establishing a foot-hold after-the-fact when a rebellion starts. It is about actually administering the empire. In its glory days, the Empire was not particularly concerned about rebellions in Skyrim, as it was among its most loyal provinces. Solitude was the capital of Skyrim, and is a natural center of trade due to its location at the mouth of a river. It is the largest city in Skyrim, and the where the King of Skyrim reigns, so naturally, it is where the legion has its base. A rebellion king is more of a threat than a rebellious Jarl. The trade routes would not really go through Skyrim, but rather, along the coasts and through the ocean. So, Solitude would be a natural main trade hub.

There is content that explains markarth belonging to Skyrim. There was apparently a lot of fighting over it years ago, and during the empire/dominion war there was a rebellion by the native bretons and they were sovereign for a little bit until they were again brutalized and subjugated by the nords with the help of ulfric stormcloak. Later on the former Breton king would rebel again and he was captured by the markarth jarl, and held prisoner in cidna mine. His followers would be driven into the mountains and become who we call the forsworn, becoming more tribal and shamanistic in nature as they allied themselves with hagravens in hopes that their old magicks would help in getting revenge against their Nordic subjugators

This video is such a mess lol. I clicked it hoping to watch an in-depth video that connects Tamriel's landscape to real world anthropology, human migration, and logistics... instead he just says that "this area looks good visually on a map because its a well defined basin between rivers etc". Near the end of the video he seems to get the right idea but doesn't fully understand why Skyrim's landscape works just as fine as in real life. First of all, rivers being borders in the real world is the exception, not the norm. Regions are not defined between rivers, but *around* rivers. Just look at ancient civilizations; Ancient Egypt was centered along the Nile River. The Nile did not split Egypt into "West Egypt" and "East Egypt", Egypt *was* the Nile river valley. Same with Babylon and Sumeria on both sides of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, or the Indus River Valley civilization on both sides of the Indus River, or the Yellow River which is the cultural center of China. Man has always defined their areas between mountains and not between rivers. Think about how much easier it is to herd livestock, grow crops, live along and cross a river, as opposed to crossing mountains. Even today it is easier to construct a bridge than to bore a tunnel. Mountains are natural barriers while rivers are natural providers of food, water, and transportation. It is easier for Skyrim to thrive on the West bank of the Karth river than it is for High Rock to defend it. There is an almost impassible mountain range between Karth and Iliac Bay, while the Nords could just build a bridge. Also, Solitude makes complete sense to be Skyrim's capital because it's on a peninsular cliff next to a fucking bay, and bays are well known to be the perfect place for a port. And without a port your country loses most of its trade. Not to mention a place to garrison your navy. Windhelm is located on a smaller river delta and does not sit on a well defensible cliff, nor is it on a peninsula. Windhelm is like Rome while Solitude is Constantinople. It's also the same reasons why the capital of the U.S. is on one of its coasts and not located smack dab in the middle of Kansas. There's more I could say but overall there is no problem with Skyrim.

Tell me if you're a glorious imperial or a virgin stormcloak Also- join the discord for worldbuilding and life advice from your internet grandfathers: discord.gg/bncqFy5

A video on Morrowind to be interesting. Morrowind is so weird and different, I want to know what your take is on it.

“My ancestors smile upon me imperial, can you say the same?”

Your main concerns seem to be aesthetics....I am sure, the people living there cared more about defensible borders and availability of resources...

The people that designed the Skyrim map: "Oh shit yeah bro you figured it out ha ha ha ha..."

This guy managed to say sentences that make sense in the English language but at the same time say literally nothing at all for 15 minutes

I think it makes plenty of sense for Solitude to be the imperial capital in the civil war. Obviously it’s not what they would choose if they were naming a capital at that time, but Solitude in the lore was the historic capital of Skyrim, and the locus of power had been there for centuries. It never mattered before because there was no Aldmeri dominion to contest it. In order for that not to be the capital, the Empire would have to change the royal residence of the monarchy of Skyrim and additionally move the entire government South. Also Solitude seems to be the most well defended settlement and one of the most loyal to the Empire. There isn’t much reason other than potential pressure from the Aldmeri Dominion for them to move the capital, and it’s not remotely clear the Aldmeri Dominion wouldn’t want them to be able to keep their armies supplied.

“I’m not saying this part should be owned by Morrowind” You N’wah!

wtf is this, maps dont form due to visual aesthetic, they form due to geopolitics.

Dang. You don't seem to know very much about historical nation-building. Dude, rivers generally don't make borders. Mountain ranges do. Virtually all civilizations of any note exist along rivers. It's just obvious, mate. These centers of civilization or regions expand their influence outward until they reach a geographic boundary. Usually a mountain range or forest. The only times that real world nations demarcate their borders along major rivers is when these rivers are so far away from the center of power that it is irrelevant. But in Skyrim, every hold is situated along a river/water source. And their influence extends until it reaches a geographic boundary. Skyrim's team did more research than you did, buddy.

This dude's just drawing random lines on a map and calling it a "skeleton" lmao the reason the structure is "ambiguous" is because it's some nonsense you made up

2:14 " So here's really the shape of Skyrim, and now you can notice that the shape isn't really of anything." Belgium: "Am I a joke to you?"

listening to you talk about country shapes having "flow" and being shaped "well" is so interesting to me as a history major. like my immediate reaction is "what are you talking about? borders dont form based on what looks pleasant!" and then I remember that its a fantasy map drawn specifically TO look good

7:36 So glad that you mention that geographically, it looks like the Reach and Haafingar should be part of High Rock... Because they absolutely should. The Reachmen are Bretons. The Nords just took the land in the days of Tiber Septim. Also, if you look at Solitude, the architecture is distinctly Breton compared to the rest of Skyrim.

To me, Solitude always sounded like the "Foward Base" of the Empire, like a central point to use to keep dominion over the Northern Region and have a port city there. Sounds far from the lore reason though. Also, just noticed Windhelm makes WAY more sense as a port/trading city than Solitude.

This is one big reason I love KZfaq. I get to watch 20 minutes of highly nerdy high-Quality analysis of the map, of a country, from a fantasy RPG (I love BTW) and learn interesting things that make me see things from the real world in a different light. You sir are amazing! Great job. I love your fascination of worldbuilding. Truly great content! I've enjoyed it all the way to the end.

Yeah, you hear all these tales of Nords who made their living sailing the rivers of Skyrim, even the companions who sailed up the river from the sea and came upon the Skyforge where they decided to convert their ship into Jorvaskr... how the hack did they sail a ship the size of Jorvaskr up the narrow and shallow White River, even if it didn't have the waterfalls? ... I believe that the Land we see is a very small representation of its size in Lore, and certain aspects were likely exaggerated to make the land seem more dramatic

13:30 this is even funnier because your character is caught on a road between cyrodil and skyrim

This was frankly rubbish. All this stuff about the look and "motion" of the map is just nonsense. There is no realistic geographic analysis here.

Skyrim to me always looked like Iceland but with land borders

Skyrim has shape very similar to borders of Poland during Boleslaw I The Brave reign. For most of the history the rivers did not divide, they connected, the more sense is that the river passes through the center of the region because the region was probably formed in the basin of this river and all those waterfalls are not problem because they're really far from one another taking the size of world in lore and even if rivers are not navigable all the roads would be build along them .

You should have attended the Berlin Conference in 1884 and just ranted at those leaders for drawing all the weird and straight lines

There is ingame lore that Pale Pass has been blocked off due to an avalanche and the Empire is simply waiting until summer when the snow melts to bring in a proper army to crush the Stormcloaks. The Imperial Legion that you see in the game is mostly just militia and that's why general Tullius was sent to lead them, as the Empire viewed him as being capable of using the local resources to buy time until the Empire could truly start fighting. The Empire never expected the current forces to win the war, much less to lose. Solitude is the Empire's main hold as that's where General Tullius entered Skyrim (on boat) because Pale Pass was blocked off. Also I think they sometimes go around Blackmarsh to avoid the elves. It's partially explained in the "Imperial Missive" if you're interested. This technically means that no matter which side the dragonborn sides with, the Empire ends up winning as soon as the snow melts. elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Pale_Pass#cite_note-1

Aldmeri Dominon is wanting Skyrim to split up. Stormcloaks are stupid. Oh, I see you're man of culture as well.

I think Solitude has more imperial influence also because of it's proximity and ties to High Rock. And the other imperial holds in skyrim are such aligned because they have economic ties to Solitude and direct trade routes to Cyrodiil. Also about the Pale Pass, there's a note in game at a fort somewhere near there that states it's avalanched over at the time of tes5. But they are apparently massing a legion on the cyrodiilic side, so they should definitely have some engineers to clear it had they not already. Also really nice video bræh

Wayne Gretzky, the famous world building guru. I have long waited for you to use one of his majestic quotes.

To defend high rock a bit: About that mountain chain, keep in mind skyrim's boarders changed a lot over the years. At one point the proto high rock borders (when it was direnni owned) was high rock + all of the reach + (and i quote) "most of skyrim and hammerfell". Also terrain retcons are very much a thing in tes. Originally, there were the dragon tooth mountians that cuts through eastern high rock through eastern hammerfell, western cyrodiil, and down to northern valenwood. As an example

Also, keep in mind elevations. The Rift has its borders because it's high up above Eastmarch, so even with the rivers flowing through there the two lands are very different. That's a big thing throughout Skyrim: differences in elevation from region to region. You only really saw that in Cyrodiil in the north. The rest was roughly the same elevation and was delineated more by rivers.

No, the Empire DOES use Pale Pass in lore, the developers just didn't want to program a path to Cyrodil, for obvious reasons. You got to use a little imagination instead of just using what the game gives you because it can only tell and show you so much.

That entire area of that you were referring to with High Rock laying claim is more so the Reach, which was its own Kingdom at one point between High Rock and Skyrim owned by the Bretons. So yes and no.

"The yellow are the mountains and the green are the basins" Me, a colorblind person: "oh FUCK"

Maps and elder scrolls, recommendation system is working

Skyrim reminds me of the outline of Poland. And you know what, I find Poland to have some of the most pleasant looking boarders despite the cultural challenging it faces with those same boarders.

Morrowind > All other peasant nations

It's hype as fuck that you still find the time to release these. Your biggest fan, keep up the good work

It's 2 in the morning, I have insomnia, and KZfaq recommended me a video of a guy putting bones in Skyrim's map

I always thought Skyrim was missing a river. Like, there's just way too much empty space between the White River and Karth River systems. If you look at the topography of the map then there's clearly a third drainage area that extends south from Dawnstar, but it doesn't have a stream in it. I think the game should have added a stream flowing north through The Pale and emptying into the bay at Dawnstar. Then again Skyrim also has some pretty inexplicable endorheic basins (Falkreath, why are you in a hole?) and a stream that flows out of Lake Ilinalta when it really should be flowing into it so methinks they didn't quite understand how rivers work. Don't even get me started on the random streams that start and then stop after about 100 meters.

This video is honestly just rambly nonsense, please no more videos like this

Whiterun: Trade within Skyrim Solitude: Exports other provinces via ships Windhelm: Exports to Morrowind. And Black Marsh via sea Also Morthal has to port at Solitude or Windhelm to export to Tamriel via sea.

The lore reason why Solitude is the Imperial HQ is because it's both the Capital of Skyrim and where the High King resides. Being that Skyrim is a province of the Empire and the High King cooperates closely with Imperials, it makes sense they would have a strong presence there. I do think it's interesting to note that the start of the Dragonborn's journey is in Helgen and the Imperials have a developed military outpost there right until the dragon attack.

I have learned that the aesthetics of maps is important

This is my favorite style of your videos, I still appreciate the scripted / highly edited feel of the others but this casual style is great.

12:25 There's a small line of dialogue that actually explains that the mountain pass from Falkreath to Bruma is impassable due to a rock slide/avalanche. Tulius is the Emperor's best General, and was sent to the Capital of Skyrim to muster the Imperial forces already stationed there. He's merely buying time while the main Imperial force clears the mountain pass and marches north.

In response to the border feeling in a weird place between High Rock and Skyrim: It's not just visual. They worked that into the worldbuilding; that region was conquered during the last years of the 2nd era, and the Forsworn in the area are the native Bretons who wish to reclaim their rightful land. It's not just an interesting thing on the map; it plays into major historical events.

Why doesn't the empire go through the pale pass? I think that's what Helgen was for...

The subconscious compartmentalizing of the map into areas really works and even overpowers the Hold borders to some extent. When I cross the White River, it feels like I've left Whiterun. And further north, that road works as the border in my mind so that Lake Yorgrim is Eastmarch to me. Rorikstead on the other hand feels like a border town. The border between Whiterun and The Pale is also very blurry (in my mind, not the map). The Rift is definitely my favorite, always has been but this analysis really cements its position further. It feels like its own little nook when you look at the mountains and lakes, Shor's Stone is like a little border town and Ivarstead is like a little Satellite Riften. And no waterfals in the Treva (only river in the whole country like that) means that water transport works in The Rift.

The map drawing you did reminded me of a good JIPOE (Joint intelligence preparation of the environment) map, showing major terrain features and how they affect the battlespace. It's the first step in preparing for a conflict, and i think you did a rather good job there.

Rifton is geopolitically a part of Skyrim but culturally it's Morrowind, the centerpiece is even an establishment owned by a couple of Argonians who were more than likely born there. Not to mention the Dunmer population that isn't just refugees. The only population of Nords from the city are all cops there to protect the ruling family, the rest are either business owners from out of town or the blacksmith who arms said cops.

I thought Skyrim's shape was boring before and after watching the video, I also think it looks better without High Rock- and Morrowind parts.

Feels like most of this is opinions walked back to reason, rather than good design principles informing opinion.

Palepass was covered by a recent landslide, this tiny bit is discovered during the civil war questline when you take Fort Neugrad (or something) It also tells that general Tulius doesnt have a proper legion cause its busy clearing the pass.

Regarding the Cyrodiilic Sea Travel: An important thing to note is where the Imperial Legion is concerned, most of their strength is drawn from Colovia ( the region that comprises Anvil, Kvatch, Skingrad, and Chorrol). It is far more likely that military launches their craft out of Anvil, which would allow them to hug the Hammerfell Coast ( which isn't hostile to The Empire, just neutral) and swing up towards High Rock ports and later Solitude. They would still be close to the Dominion, but those ships are likely keeping their distance from the Redguards ( who ARE hostile to the Dominion).

ugh. I don't really like Tamriel as a whole, geographically speaking. It just feels fake af.

Nobody: Stoneworks: the Skyrim map is thicc

I might add that there is a significant altitude difference between the Whiterun basin and East March that is not shown on the maps but are in-game making the regions very different and have an obvious border in-game. Same between The Rift and Eastmarch

Can you make one for the Tamriel please? Because Skyrim is part of it.

Skyrim sounds like my friends. They get high, then they dip.

13:20 They're working on clearing it, it collapsed, that's what they used to do. That's why Whiterun became a trade hub, also in arena Falkreath was part of Cyrodiil. Also the best route isn't down the river and around the dominion, Hammerfell and Highrock, you can avoid the dominion by trading out of Anvil and Hammerfell won't mind, they're still *allies* of the Empire, they may even rent out their warships for extra protection.

The Pale Pass is normally a major transport route from the Empire to Skyrim, but the destruction of Helgen and a series of avalanches have "all but closed" that route. The Empire is not technically at war with the Aldmeri Dominion at present, though they are very much getting ready for a war; thus ships can navigate past the Summerset Isles in relative safety. It's also possible to transport cargo a LOT more efficiently by sea than overland in a pre-industrial society; heck, even today with internal combustion engines, 90% of world trade is carried by sea. Solitude is a fantastic port for Skyrim. It's ice-free (for some reason), with a wide, sheltered inlet that makes a perfect natural harbour. Windhelm, meanwhile, is icebound throughout the game, and while we do see a number of trade ships there, we also find a lot of wrecks just off shore. So the layout makes a lot of sense - Whiterun is the first big town one comes to after passing through the mountains, so overland trade stops there; Solitude is the best harbour in the province, so most sea trade goes there; and Windhelm is an accessible-but-risky port, so some sea trade goes there. Of course, realistically there should be a lot more river traffic. Smaller settlements would exist around waterfalls with jetties to unload river vessels and portage the cargo around the waterfall. Still, I can live with that unrealistic detail.

Hammerfell doesn’t hate the empire

This is satire, right? I can't see how you're being serious

The other lore reason could be that it is a good defence because as you said the thalmor have solitude on the front lines and against any races trying to invade from on sea if they land in skyrim they can form a war to stop them without it reaching cyrodil

On water travel, we know Riften/Lake Honrich used to be a big trade hub so they’re getting around those waterfalls somehow. Some vikings used to drag their boats onto shore and carry them around waterfalls. But anyway, the issue with Dominion territorial waters is why I think the Imperials sail east around Morrowind to reach Solitude. We know they established and maintained Fort Frostmouth on Solstheim for hundreds of years, so presumably the Sea of Ghosts is navigable unless you sail north toward Old Atmora. But also, both from the game world and sea’s name we know sea ice and storms sink a lot of vessels.

I came in here expecting you to not be very knowledgable on Elder Scrolls lore but you completely proved me wrong.

I hope there are gonna be jokes to as how High Rock sucks in future videos. Or is it already has?

With your talk of how interesting the Western border of Skyrim is with the river and all, it just reminds me of how different, and therefore awesome, the Reach feels compared to the other holds of Skyrim. :3

One interesting thing for consideration about all the waterfalls on the rivers; you said earlier on in the video that the Imperials are based on Rome and of course the Romans had a lot of big civil construction works done... one pretty notable one being aqueducts for transporting water. The UK has a huge canal network, large portions of it are based on existing rivers but we do have SOME canals based on aqueducts when trying to transport boats over valleys. Bare in mind that initially the canal network was meant for transporting things, competing at the same time with the rail network (rails existed before trains did as they simply pulled the carts along with horses, just like canal boats were pulled along with horses on the tow-path). Aside from aqueducts, the canal network also uses locks which allow two sections of the network to be on different elevations, and they don't use that advanced technology to be honest, its simply two gates that can be shut and water is then drained into/out of that middle section to raise/lower the water level to match the next part of the network. Its hard to say for a fantasy game exactly what level of technology they are at, especially when you start throwing in things like magic, but given we have Dwemer technology being somewhat similar to industrial revolution era technology (lots of steam-power and machinery), I don't think that having a canal lock here and there is too out of the question. The waterfalls in the game aren't always the biggest and could easily be overcome with a few innovative applications of Dwemer technology.

You're talking about ***bulges*** a lot. You dog whistling to furries, bro?

I cannot play the stormcloak side of the civil war unmodded just because of how much the mountain pass issue bothers me. Pale pass and the unnamed one in southern Falkreath should be *the* reinforcement points for the legion, followed up by Solitude (with its exclusive land and sea access to High Rock). The road through that bandit camp east of Dragon’s Bridge is so critical to all movement through the western region that even a basic patrolling soldiers mod will clear it on a daily basis. That it has a bandit camp on it is so frustrating I have never stopped my quest to find a way to replace it with an inhabited fort since I first plugged in the game... what, 7 years ago now? Also, the resistance camps need to be reorganized for my sanity. I let the stormcloak camps in the Reach, Falkreath, Morthal and Whiterun stay, but I have my game spawn extra camps in each of the stormcloak territories. The legions gets camps in all their held territories but none in stormcloak land unless it’s the next quest location, but get extra strength road patrols. It just... I can’t play the game and fail to notice that unless I have mods to make it work that way.

You also have to realise that the planet of Elder Scrolls is literally built from the corpses of gods on myth and magic. A dev once said "it wasn't formed with tectonic plates and march of the penguins." This place doesn't run on the same laws we experience in the real world by any means, it started off as an amorphous magic mess and only had any semblance of form because the gods decided to become the laws of nature. Things like climate, geography, and nature are basically spiritual in function, not scientific.

There’s a book in the game called Holds of Skyrim which explains that Falkreath is extremely useful for importing supplies and goods from the empire.

"Also it looks like a pig," killed me XD

I downloaded and stopped watching because your thumbnail implied that you are critiquing the Skyrim map. But when I got here there's no critiquing of the map

First Rule of Mountains. A mountain never stands alone

In a note in the fort near Whiterun after the battle for Whiterun, there is a note that states that the pale pass got bodied by an avalanche. So the supply chain got rekt until they can move it and the note says that the empire is assembling a legion on the other side for when it's cleared.

Now I have to redo my maps? You're killing me. Also- Who joins the imperials? The people who literally just said; "He's not on the list? Eh, chop his head off anyway." I know that with precolonial/fantasy political powers, you're less likely to get linear boarders, but they do exist; typically in neutral lands with large sprawls of wilderness.