Skyrim talk:Whiterun

Alik'r Mission

How about the Alik'r mission?

Spoiler Warning You encounter a pair of Alik'r harassing a redguard woman outside the town. Turns out they're looking for a specific redguard woman. Head to the Bannered Mareand talk to Saadia.You have choice of turning her over to the Alik'r or helping her out. If you elect to help you need to visit the jail and talk to the Alik'r prisoner there. ??? Haven't progressed any further. 118.208.92.184

Fallout 3 Reference?

A Whiterun Guard threw a remark: "Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll". Could that be passed as a blatant Fallout 3 reference? — Unsigned comment by 143.167.227.180 (talk) at 22:09 on 12 November 2011

There are sweetrolls in almost every game in TES, and he's a guard, so he deals with crimes, like theft. Seems like a normal thing fora guard to say. — Unsigned comment by 58.7.162.39 (talk) at 06:35 on 13 November 2011

It also could very well be referencing character creation in past games where a moral question involves someone attempting to steal a sweetroll. E. Snowmane 06:37, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

I originally thought it was a reference to that Bosmer, Fimmion... the one in Bliss (Shivering Isles) who is disturbingly obsessed with sweetrolls. In hindsight though, Eric's explanation makes more sense. ~ SotiCoto (talk) 20:42, 19 February 2013 (GMT)

The Fallout 3 comment is a reference to the elder scrolls series not the other way around. This is likely a tongue in cheek reference to that.Jeancey (talk) 20:44, 19 February 2013 (GMT)

Destroyed player house?

After completing the Stormcloaks quest line, I return to Whiterun to find that my house has been destroyed. I'm guessing this is a 'city interior version changeover' type bug, or perhaps your house is supposed to cease existing? Seems rather pointless - I also got a letter of inheritence when my housecarl was supposedly killed. Very odd - the Jarl still acts as though things are fine and I still have my house - he made me go through the conversation line of doing things for cityfolk and buying a house, then the quest updated itself as though I'd just bought it though the building is still ruined. Anyone else having this problem? 124.169.59.48 10:18, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

I've had similar problems but its other buildings in Whiterun that do this. Some of them I have quests inside with the markers still pointing to the door blocked by rubble. — Unsigned comment by 174.97.194.85 (talk) at 22:37 on 23 November 2011

Like the reply, Breezehome is fine for me but the circular area near the Shrine of Talos has broken fences and one of the houses there is completely blocked by rubble for me. I know this is caused by the Imperial/Stormcloak quest line, but I've finished that now and I thought I read that the town is supposed to end up rebuilt then? Also I have the added annoyance of Hadvar following me around the town every time I go there, and I go there often as it's the only place I personally know of that has 3 vendors in close proximity to each other with 2000g+ (the guy in the armor shop by the forge and stuff, the woman outside the armor shop (she only counts as a different shop if she's outside, if she's inside then selling stuff until all her money is gone also means the guy in the shop has none oddly enough. And then the guy at the Skyforge) --Lyco499 (talk) 04:44, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

any idears if the city dose actuly repair after time or is this something fixed by a patch or what?The sorrow 22:33, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Since it's not covered here, the rubble is cleared after either 3 or 10 in-game days. This includes Windhelm and Solitude, too. 98.198.118.224 06:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Unable to enter Whiterun

I ave been unable to enter Whiterun because the guard who unlocks the gate is not there. I think that I may have killed him in one of my guard killing sprees. If so, is there a way around this? — Unsigned comment by 211.31.6.86 (talk) at 10:25 on 17 November 2011

Start a new game and don't kill the guards? --Sencilia 11:15, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Just get arrested by guards somewhere around Whiterun and you'll get sent to the dungeon. — Unsigned comment by 70.187.179.113 (talk) at 00:00 on 21 December 2011

There's a glitch where if you get out of whiterun without using the gate, the rest of the world is not updates because it assumes you're still inside the city. Then you can go through the wall next to the skyforge from the outside and loot the secret chest.

But you can only do this starting from inside the city, so this probs doesn't help at all. — Unsigned comment by Astrosteve (talk • contribs) at 17:20 on 28 December 2011

(←) I also cannot enter Whiterun, but I haven't killed a single guard. I've restarted my game, but I still can't. When I got myself arrested and sent to the dungeon, the city didn't render at all when I exited. — Unsigned comment by 72.192.248.130 (talk) at 22:42 on 29 December 2011

Sometimes, despite completing the quest In My Time of Need, two Alik'r warriors will remain in Whiterun at the gates, and do not appear to serve any purpose or do anything. While this bug is known, I've found that if you kill these two warriors and leave, returning to Whiterun causes the game to freeze at the end of the load screen. This is on an Xbox 360. — Unsigned comment by Vessix (talk • contribs) at 23:04 on 4 December 2012

khajiiti merchants

i'm assuming everyone has encountered the khajiit merchants outside of whiterun, but has anyone else encountered a glitch where their tents are there, but they aren't? --Halfstache 03:40, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

---update: now the people appeared without the tents. --Halfstache 06:55, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Neither are there for me. I thought they moved on as travelling merchants. You mean they're supposed to stay?NickTyrong 01:29, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

They just came back. So yeah, do they travel, or do they "travel"? As in the game takes them away and moves them to another city/location, or do they "'return to Elswyer"? — Unsigned comment by NickTyrong (talk • contribs) at 07:12 on 9 January 2012

They travel between cities, I think they are Solitude, Whiterun and Windhelm. Before they start to go to the next city their tents diappear. This is all supposed to happen. — Unsigned comment by 68.0.156.177 (talk) at 22:59 on 5 March 2012

Symbols on Houses?

I've found a number of symbols on the houses and buildings in Whiterun. At first I thought they were references for which district the building is in, but the symbol on the Halls of the Dead doesn't match the rest of the symbols from the Wind District. Generally the symbols are near the front door of the building, though some are on posts (Hall of the Dead) at the back door (Wind District Residence) or near the NPC's general location (Carlotta's stand in the market). Does anyone know what these symbols mean? — Unsigned comment by 72.12.160.8 (talk) at 04:56 on 24 December 2011

See this book. Minor Edits 05:06, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

They're most likely thieves guild markings. The guild marks buildings to tell other thieves what to expect in security and loot. Not sure what each one means though. — Unsigned comment by Astrosteve (talk • contribs) at 17:15 on 28 December 2011

Possible glitch.

Alongside House Grey-Mane, on the right side by the road, there is a spot in the middle of one of the single corner wall where you fall through and remain there about a person tell, abl to walk around under the town. just go around to the front and you should be able to hop back up. Just thought this should be here, or better yet on the page (don't know how to make new sections) for information.NickTyrong 01:32, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

litter patrol guards

i dont know if this happens with all guards but a guard came up n told me of cos i happend to drop a wepon infront of him got a fine of 10 gold for it at the end of his little lecture to...do all guard do this or is it just whiterun thats gone green? The sorrow 15:46, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

No, I've had it happen with a Windhelm guard, and I assume the same goes for every other guard. Wolok gro-Barok 16:59, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

I dropped a helmet and Idolaf Battle-Born ran up to me and asked if he could have it. I said sure, he left it on the ground and after that if you pointed your cursor at it, taking it would count as a theft. I also tossed a few items in view of Idolaf using a different character, just to see what he would do. Idolaf picked up the torch and asked, "You wanted to keep this, right?" The guards have never said a thing when I "litter" within city limits.(Magskall (talk) 20:37, 3 September 2012 (EDT))

This is a random event that can happen with many NPCs. — ABCface^◥ 06:22, 28 September 2012 (GMT)

Unwanted Glitch Exploit

Discussion moved to Skyrim talk:Eorlund Gray-Mane#Merchant Chest

Quest: A Night To Remember?

This quest should begin in any pub when you reach lvl.14. Why should this quest listed in "Quest starting here"? Perhaps it's because most players reach level 14 near Whiterun?— Unsigned comment by FelixH (talk • contribs) at 18:55 on 23 January 2012

The quest is listed here because you have to find Ysolda in Whiterun, not because the quest could potentially start here. Wolok gro-Barok 18:38, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Bounty

At the Gray-mane house,there is a cow.I used Fus ro da on it and i got a bounty for Falkreath.I did this in Whiterun.Why did i get the bounty for Falkreath instead of Whiterun? — Unsigned comment by Natsu (talk • contribs) at 09:25 on 29 April 2012

Either you are mistaken or it glitched out. I just tested it myself and I got 45 bounty in Whiterun.--Grim765 06:00, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Impossible Intimidation

I noticed that the first time you approach the Whiterun gates a guard steps up to you and blocks your way. You then have multiple choices to have him unlock the gate, including an intimidation option. Unfortunately that option never works, not even when I modded my intimidation success rate by 1000. Is this a glitch or intended? Do other people have this happening? 92.226.90.169 01:11, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Guards don't talk at all

Everytime i try to talk to a guard or pass by him, none of them will say anything. All of the guards in whiterun are mute (this pretty much breaks the quest where we need to convince a guard to free someone from jail) — Unsigned comment by 109.65.151.98 (talk) at 14:52 on 3 August 2012

That sounds like a one-off type problem. Try starting a new game or re-installing and see if that fixes the issue. – Robin Hood↝talk 20:41, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Entering Dragonsreach without first discovering Whiterun

I decided to start a new character, and got a pickpocketing bounty in Riverwood shortly after arriving there with Hadvar (I was trying to get Faendal's fake letter back from Sven). At this point I hadn't discovered Whiterun yet. Since I didn't want to kill anybody but there were no guards in Riverwood to whom I could surrender, I just ran away. At the gate outside Whiterun, I was stopped by another guard and ordered to surrender. I picked the "go to jail" option and ended up spawning outside (and discovering) Dragonsreach with Whiterun still undiscovered. I ran back down to the entrance area near the blacksmith, and found that the walls were glitchy and only partially there. I could easily pass through large gaps in them and walk around a landscape similar to what you find if you use the wooden bowl glitch to get outside a city. I eventually got sick of this and "left" Whiterun again by clicking on the main gate, then reentered. At no point did I go through the usual "the city's closed" conversation with one of the guards. Did anyone else have this happen? 69.132.179.20 23:05, 21 October 2012 (GMT)

Forsworn Conspiracy quest bug

In the PS# version of the game I took the side of the Forsworn and killed the guards in Markorth. There seems to be one person that is not dying that is a mage. I cannot be pardoned and every time I enter Markoth all of the guards attack me. I cannot find the leader of the Forsworn and he is not yet at the camp. It seems like this mission is still in progress and I cannot find a way to end it. help. I have tried surrendering to the guards but they arrest me and I cannot get past the gate to get to the cave in the back. HELP!.. 76.252.153.137 00:59, 10 December 2012 (GMT) Uh..this is the talk for Whiterun, you know. You should probably put this on the MARKARTH discussion page, not the Whiterun one.

Disentagle this text and add (some of) it to the page?

I cut the following from Whiterun (Hold). The writing style is not reader friendly, in my opinion, and I don't have the time to think too much about whether some or all of it should be placed on the article page here, so I leave it to someone else, or to the dustbin of history:

The hold's capital, Whiterun City, is one of the oldest cities in Skyrim, founded as the Great City by the crew of the Jorrvaskr, who accompanied Ysgramor shortly after the Night of Tears in the late 1st Era. The city is east of the center of the hold, while of the two towns, Rorikstead lies to the west, and Riverwood to the south. --JR (talk) 13:40, 8 March 2013 (GMT)

"To" Somewhere

When exploiting the glitch to jump outside the city walls of Whiterun, there is a spot where the player can go... somewhere. Running along the walls will bring up a prompt that says "To".

Continuing to walk forward will bring up the loading screen, then the screen will go black. Turning the volume up will reveal the sounds of a waterfall, and some general nature playbacks. Jumping will end with the sound of landing on rocks. What is this?

The location is north-northwest of the House of Clan Battle-Born, and, again, is just outside the city walls. — Unsigned comment by 76.219.117.185 (talk) at 19:29 on 18 May 2013

Considering it's found outside the normal game boundaries, it doesn't mean anything. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:31, 18 May 2013 (GMT)

when i found this location i discovered very quickly that i would not be able to simply load back as the pause menu is disabled in this pitch black area. — Unsigned comment by 98.226.86.18 (talk) at 01:24 on 28 December 2014‎

Unexplained Whiterun NPC hostility

There seems to be a common bug with many Whiterun NPCs: the one where you enter Dragonsreach, or the Bannered Mare, or Jorrvaskr, and one or several of the named NPCs attack you for no apparent reason (see this article and this article as examples). A little playtesting shows that at least some of the time, when one of these NPCs behaves this way, all of them will do it. Could there be something unique about CrimeFactionWhiterun or TownWhiterunFaction that could be causing this?

I did some console testing and found that Irileth's aggression right before she attacked me was 1, and that Balgruuf and Proventus only turned hostile immediately after she did. I was able to prevent the Dragonsreach members from attacking by using setav aggression 0 on Irileth. However, this didn't stop 3 of the residents of Jorrvaskr from attacking me when I went there, or Uthgerd from attacking me when I entered the Bannered Mare. The only thing that worked to clear all the NPCs aggression was committing a crime and then clearing my bounty. I did not have any bounty in any hold at that time, but I had ambushed and killed a random 3-man Imperial patrol 1 or 2 in-game days before that, but the game said that I had killed the last witness and cleared my bounty. Anybody have any insight into what might be causing this? --Xyzzy ^Talk 03:45, 6 June 2013 (GMT)

Loading glitch (Whiterun)

I recently completed the quest (From deepest Fathoms) Once I exited the place, I tried to fast travel to whiterun. The loading took longer then it should, and I kept waiting... it never loaded, so I restarted my Xbox 360. Once I got back to my save, I headed to Riften. It loaded, so I thought mabye it would work now, so once again I tried to fast travel to whiterun. Same results. So I traveled back to the stables near whiterun and I went to the castle door by foot. I tried to enter and again same results. I don't know how it got messed up. Any Ideas on how to fix this? — Unsigned comment by 97.127.178.119 (talk) at 05:28 on 10 July 2013

Just tried going to jail and sleeping, same results. Next I'm going to load a older save, once again please help. — Unsigned comment by 97.127.178.119 (talk) at 05:40 on 10 July 2013

Okay just tried the old save same results, really don't know what to do... — Unsigned comment by 97.127.178.119 (talk) at 05:45 on 10 July 2013

Could this be an issue with your Xbox or the game disc? It seems odd that old saves would start glitching. --Xyzzy ^Talk 05:51, 10 July 2013 (GMT)

How old was the old save? If it was from a previous update of Skyrim, there are sometimes glitches when you transfer saves from one version of Skyrim to another. --Morrolan (talk) 01:55, 30 September 2013 (GMT)

Quest outside whiterun but no person is there

During the quest "rescue mission" as part of the companions I have to save Idolaf Battle-born . U already saved him from the camp but he wasn't there, now when I am in whiterun it says I need to talk to him at a giant camp (on the map) and there is also a quest marker saying to go into whiterun when I am outside. Please help I want to be a companion!!! — Unsigned comment by 58.169.45.112 (talk) at 01:28 on 30 September 2013 (GMT)

I would recommend you read Skyrim:Rescue Mission, particularly the bug section. There are a lot of ways this quest can break, and few ways to fix it. If you have a save convenient from before you took the quest, I'd would suggest you reload. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 01:28, 30 September 2013 (GMT)

No Guards in Whiterun

So i got in the middle of a dragon attack in Whiterun, against a legendary dragon. ALL the guards died there, but nobody else. The freaky thing is, the guards dont spawn in again. The silence it eerie, and i hate it! I tried to spawn in 30 guards, but they despawned after a while.

If any of you have solutions, please help. — Unsigned comment by ‎ 50.68.39.56 (talk) at 05:39 on 13 November 2013

Black Square in Local Map

It is possible for all areas of the Whiterun local map to be revealed-discoverd, until approaching the pathway around Jorrvaskr just below the Skyforge, or, Underforge according to the label. A large portion of the middle section of the local map of Whiterun then reverts to black-undiscovered.--Lmstearn (talk) 14:40, 4 January 2014 (GMT)

Ysolda as General Goods

On this page it states that Ysolda is the back up for Hulda and Belethor. Hulda is correct, however, I have also read that Ysolda will go in Belethor's shop but you cannot trade with her because she shouldn't be there. Thanks! Tandil (talk) 19:33, 10 January 2014 (GMT)

That's correct. Despite it being a bug, she is Belethor's backup, and another bug stops her working properly. It is correct to list her here. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 21:02, 10 January 2014 (GMT)

Farkas Glitch

When I visited Whiterun recently I went over to the companions building to try and glitch under the map when Farkas ran over to me he had his weapon out as if he was about to attack me but when he got to me it opened a chat menu i closed out of it and it opened again I started to run around and Farkas continued to chase me and open the chat menu 'WarriorDamo 11/12/2014' (I encountered this glitch on Xbox 360) — Unsigned comment by 72.227.81.239 (talk) at 19:12 on 9 November 2014

A note on Farkas' Page states "Farkas is in the faction GuardFaction (makes an actor a guard). This makes him chase you on sight when you have a high bounty in any given hold." I think your problem is a simmilar one: You're having a bounty, and Farkas runs after you to speak to you, but since he doesn't have any of the guards voice types, the guard dialogues are not available. Clearing up any bounty you have might fix that. -- SarthesArai ^Talk 19:41, 9 November 2014 (GMT)

Unending weird load screen

i used the glitch where you fall through the floor in the corner in whiterun, got out of the walls, only to land in a really deep hole. when i finally managed to get out, i began to run clockwise around whiterun, whereupon the scree went black and looked like a zoomed in version of the smokey black background on the loading screens. — Unsigned comment by 24.139.1.80 (talk) at 04:27 on 17 March 2015 (GMT)

First, please sign your Talk Posts with four tildes (~) at the end of your posts. Thanks in advance. Yes, there are a few areas of Skyrim where you can get into the "background" area and a few where you can get stuck. These are far fewer than Oblivion IV and Fallout 3 but they do exist. Its a good idea to save periodically if your out exploring (and have the auto-save off) and have the save on transition (I'm not sure the exact option text) turned on but basically save on Fast Travel or on exiting/entering an area like shops, dungeons, towns. It gives you 3 chances to "go back" so to speak. — Unsigned comment by Philbert (talk • contribs) at 05:38 on 17 March 2015 (GMT)

Population

I'm not the anon who keeps adding it, but isn't population usually listed in encyclopedias? I'm sure there's a viable reason why it keeps getting removed, but I was hoping somebody could extrapolate on why it's unneeded. --MetaCthulhu (talk)

We already list the population. Very few meaningful inferences can be gained from the stats provided by anon, considering there's less than 80 individuals in the city in-game. If the data belongs anywhere, it should go on General:Demographics. Anon has since removed most of it, but that NPC count is still far better off in the People section than in the leading sentence. —Legoless (talk) 00:25, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Would you be opposed to me putting the number of people in Whiterun (just the 77, not the breakdown by race) onto the bottom of the Whiterun People page you linked? That way a person who wants to know doesn't have to count each individual entry on the list. (I'll do a recount to make sure the anon's numbers are correct before I add anything) -- MetaCthulhu (talk) 00:43, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Seems as good a place as any to me, but I've never really dealt with those transcluded People lists. Might be better to place it above the table so as not to blend in with the footnotes. —Legoless (talk) 14:02, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

I've added it below the table (above the table it was too jarring for my liking, but feel free to move it; I'm not going to fight anybody over it), and I wrapped it in no-include tags because I didn't know if it should be transcluded to any other pages (If it should be, I can always remove the tags).

I also came up with different numbers than the anon, but I think it's because I didn't include guards and people who were added by quests. --MetaCthulhu (talk) 21:13, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Out of bounds dog meat and bones?

So this is something weird I can't find information on anywhere, but I was messing around with console commands in Whiterun and got pushed waay out of bounds by one of the spells and for some reason near the boundaries of the whiterun cell (around bleakwind basin on the world map) I found just a random skull and nearby was some dog meat. I am playing unmodded for the record, anyone else found this stuff? 101.185.224.157 14:51, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Harvestable Reagents

Wasn't really planning on doing a comparison, but since the list is there, and since I just spent a loooot of time doing other stuff in order for Whiterun to have a chance to respawn for once....
My numbers differ a bit from the ones in the article. I'll omit those that match.

52 blue mountain flower

31 lavender

87 purple mountain flower

29 red mountain flower

30 tundra cotton

Couldn't find the Bone Meal, though I'm guessing this would've been on the Skeleton in the moat the first time I came to Whiterun, and would either be random or not respawn on later visits.
Same goes for the Salt Piles, of which I only managed to find 6 of throughout every container in town.
This brings the total up to 267.
I believe I was pretty thorough in my sweep, weaving back and forth throughout the city, doing multiple passes everywhere, and a full repeat of it all whenever I found any flowers I had missed, finishing with a circling around each individual house, though there's still a possibility I may have missed some.
There's probably a more reliable way to find the accurate numbers here, such as methodically and meticulously using the console to [disable] every object in town, one after another, including plants (once harvested, of course), or to simply look at the game files and stuff to see how many are actually placed here and there.
Chances are I won't ever do this thorough sweep of Whiterun ever again (especially given the somewhat documented bug that renders harvested stuff (including rabbits, birds, fish, whathaveya) to be voided upon [save --> reload] in the event that they have previously been harvested at any point throughout the game).
All in all, this is rather negligible info, so I'll leave it up to someone more ventured in the realm of quality for the wiki to decide whether or not it's worth updating these numbers (as well as ensure they're truly 100% accurate, in the event that mine are off).--TTRM (talk) 18:07, 10 November 2023 (UTC)