Card art from the "Iliac Sorcerer"
The existence of Gunpowder or a gunpowder like substance in The Elder Scrolls is a contentious issue: few titles in the main series directly mention or feature cannons, firearms or non-magical explosives of any kind. However, instances scattered throughout the games and through various supplemental texts hint at its reality.
In-Game References[]
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall[]
- The book "Jokes" written by Butha Sunhous contains the following line:
Why was the Sentinel army so useless during the War of Betony?
The cannons were too heavy, so all three garbage scows sunk.
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard[]
- Cyrus can find barrels with visible wicks in the The Goblin Caves beneath Stros M'Kai. Lighting them with a torch creates a delayed explosion.
- In a cutscene of the quest "Attack on the Palace," the sounds of explosions can be heard between dialogue with Amiel Richton and Dram during the events of the Second Battle of Hunding Bay. Richton exclaims “It’s the Restless League! They’re blowing up our ships!”
The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal[]
- During the events of the quests "A Show of Power" and "The Blade of Nerevar," the Nerevarine will acquire an item called the Dwemer Satchel Pack, which creates an explosion used to clear debris while exploring the dwemer ruin of Bamz-Amschend.
- Within the Forgotten Sewers of Old Mournhold can be found "Strange Devices" that are effectively Dwarven proximity mines.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim[]
- In "Rise in the East," The East Empire Company bombards the island of Japhet's Folly with "fire pots".
The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard[]
- In "Ancient Technology," the Dragonborn can acquire schematics for creating explosive crossbow bolts.
The Elder Scrolls Online[]
- In "Broken Bonds" and "The Serpent's Beacon," the Vestige is tasked with creating a firebomb using fire salts and kindlepitch.
- In "Disorganized Crime," Red Rook bandits set explosive traps.
- In the book Auridon Explored VII recounting the Sack of Skywatch, Fenlil the Wayfarer writes:
The city finally fell when a Sload Warcaster filled his voluminous gullet with volatile alchemical reagents and threw himself at the base of the cliffs. The resulting explosion toppled much of the extended rock face, and plunged the ruins into the sea.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends[]
- Card art for the Iliac Sorcerer clearly depicts a ship with cannons aboard.
In texts[]
Kyne's Challenge: A Hunter's Companion[]
What Ingjard hadn’t shared with us was the additional gift she had been saving for this special occasion: a small charge of explosive powder quarreled away since Windhelm
Lord Vivec's Sword-Meeting With Cyrus the Restless[]
The locals have never seen fireworks, and we stole plenty from Ko.
Tiber Septim's Sword-Meeting with Cyrus the Restless[]
I never thought I would live to see a chapter mark; priming the cannon, our sunbeam is already up.
See our chaser’s cannon all moved out and forward? They’re about to fire and I haven’t set to order our move to change course
Sunbeam charge reroute to main engine move to intercept the remains of our prey they are glass’d for cannon fire what was that eruption report
Gallery[]
