User blog comment:Thedoucheinthenorth/Should a city-sized Winterhold have been in Skyrim?/@comment-3492791-20121104193943

The Great Collapse was established in the lore while Skyrim was still in development. It was established in some book released between Skyrim and Oblivion. So they had to do it, and there is only some much that can be done with a city that has canonically had most of the cliff it's placed on fall into the ocean.

It is explained by those in and around Winterhold that the area truly has very little to offer. It simply isn't worth people's time to make such a huge effort to rebuild the city. And don't forget, most of the land mass is gone. There is very little that can be done about that. They have literally no where to place a rebuilt city even if they choose to build it.

I personally don't mind Winterhold being mostly destroyed, at least it has a shop. It provides...perspective. Keep in mind that in its heyday the the College was actually a part of the city. Everything between the city and the College used to be part of Winterhold. That made it pretty big, and makes you feel the immensity of what Winterhold has lost. I just wish they had shown that better than just putting a few burned out buildings and having everyone complain alot.