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My character in Skyrim is a terrible smither who unbelievably still killed Alduin. But now repenting for his inexperience, he wants to learn from the best, Eorlund Gray-Mane. But having searched far and lo for him in Jorrvaskar and Whiterun as a whole, I finally got tired and used the console command player.moveto and put Eorlund's reference ID.

Now I'm here: a strange tunnel with various rock textures on the wall

Where am I and why is everyone in tanning poses? Some of the dead guys are here such as Vittoria Vici, and Eorlund was among the pile too.

TLDR: What is this place and is Eorlund dead?

Malborn is the one standing there and in the Thalmor mission he escaped. Also I have no mods.

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Nikhil Eshvar
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    Are the downvotes from people who actually thought I was in a dim-lit dungeon? – Nikhil Eshvar Mar 26 '18 at 07:42
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    I originally downvoted because I thought you were lying and installed mods. I have hundreds of hours in Skyrim and never once, even through mods saw a place that looked like this. I changed my vote after researching what this place was. Mind. Blown. – FoxMcCloud Mar 26 '18 at 17:48
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    @NikhilEshvar I think the downvotes were from people who were thinking "you used console commands, you should expect bad things to happen" - i.e. god said "don't eat the apple" and you listened to the snake :P – Pharap Mar 26 '18 at 18:52
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    @FoxMcCloud I was originally reading about inaccessible areas in Skyrim a while back and recognize the place immediately for some odd reason. – The Mattbat999 Mar 27 '18 at 01:04
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    This would have freaked me out if I did this. – Cave Johnson Mar 27 '18 at 05:16
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    How is this question getting so many up votes?! – Nelson Apr 02 '18 at 02:20
  • @Nelson because it is an Elder Scrolls question :) – The Mattbat999 Apr 16 '18 at 18:39

1 Answers1

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You are in the Dead Body Clean up Cell, an area in the game's files used to store dead bodies. When a dead body has stayed in a spot for so long, it disappears and is sent here. You will have to use console commands to resurrect Gray-Mane. He somehow died and his body was sent there.

The Mattbat999
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    It's most likely a vampire attack. They tend to kill a lot of merchant NPCs. – Nelson Mar 25 '18 at 17:25
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    @Nelson I have read on bugs (on Gray-Mane's wikia page) where he can die at random due to him falling out of the Whiterun Cell. – The Mattbat999 Mar 25 '18 at 19:33
  • Eorlund wouldn't be close enough to the gate to get caught up in a vampire attack. – IG_42 Mar 26 '18 at 00:39
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    He can eat at the The Drunken Huntsman and get attacked on the way out. – Nelson Mar 26 '18 at 01:43
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    Well, since Eorlund is now dead, Adrianne Avenicci is finally the best blacksmith in Whiterun, right? – John Hamilton Mar 26 '18 at 06:13
  • @JohnHamilton Long Live the King! ;) – Nikhil Eshvar Mar 26 '18 at 11:51
  • @NikhilEshvar it is queen, if you were referring to Adrianne. – The Mattbat999 Mar 26 '18 at 11:53
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    @NikhilEshvar If you are on PC, I would recommend the mod "When Vampires Attack" (or something similar) that makes non-essential, non-guard characters run inside when vampires spawn, to help prevent annoying glitches in the game. – TylerH Mar 26 '18 at 16:34
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    Well, considering the huge pileup of bodies there... I believe I'm a little too late :D – Nikhil Eshvar Mar 26 '18 at 16:35
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    His method of death is quite obvious: "Bethesda" – Pharap Mar 26 '18 at 18:54
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    I'm really confused why such an área would exist in the first place! – T. Sar Mar 27 '18 at 19:52
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    @T.Sar to get rid of dead bodies, so they aren't piled up all over town. – The Mattbat999 Mar 27 '18 at 20:03
  • And they obviously thought it was a good idea to just sling them in a hidden room rather than just delete them. – The Mattbat999 Mar 27 '18 at 20:10
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    Wild speculation: Seems like that room might be a hack to avoid having a separate logical condition for death. For example, player.moveto doesn't need to check for a dead condition and implement an alternate behavior when encountered. I wonder if the game checks for death by seeing if an NPC's location is within bounds of that room? For example, if it'd be possible to get the game to test-true for an NPC's death by simply moving their character to that location? – Nat Mar 27 '18 at 21:50
  • @Nat that actually makes sense. – The Mattbat999 Mar 28 '18 at 00:21