The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Development Info Prerelease Info Bugs Unused DialogueBethesda removed the other arenas and around 800 lines of dialogue because they had problems with disc space. So what's all this, then?! The Arenas"The best techniques are passed on by the survivors." And boy, were there ever a lot of victims here... Unused ItemsA considerable number of items are unused in the game. Unused MapsToo much to list them on the main page. Unused IconsQuivers you'll never equip, Darkness you'll never cast. Unused NPCsUnused or completely removed NPCs that do not appear anywhere in-game. Unused SoundsSounds for casting Frost Damage? Unused, Replaced & Altered QuestsSimplified or completely removed quests and questlines. Testing ContentA ridiculous amount of testing content that really should've been removed from a project with disc space issues.

Add-ons#

Shivering IslesUnused content found in the game's second expansion pack. Official DownloadsUnused content found in the game's minor DLC.

Early Menu Screen#

Watch on YouTubeAn early version of Oblivion's menu screen can still be found in the files, known as "CreditsMenu.bik". This menu screen differs from the final version in a number of ways. Most notably, it features an earlier version of Cyrodiil's world map which still includes the later-removed city (and county) of Sutch. This map also features differents fonts and has some waypoints that don't appear on the final version. The other cities that are shown (Kvatch, Skingrad, the Imperial City, and Cheydinhal) also sport different looks, with the Imperial City and Kvatch appearing a lot larger and Cheydinhal having an almost completely different shape altogether. This version of the menu screen also has in-game footage layered over the map scroll, which is something the final version completely got rid of.

This early menu was first seen at the E3 2005 showcase Bethesda did of Oblivion. There it was accompanied by an earlier rendition of the game's main theme. At a further point in the presentation, the fast travel map was shown to be the same early map that's used for this early menu screen.

Unused Animations#

NPCs#

NPCs have two unused lockpicking animations, for lockpicking objects on the floor and at waist level respectively.

Creatures#

Flame Atronachs, Storm Atronachs and Imps have unused spellcasting animations for self-targeting spells. These creatures normally don't have any spells cast on self, but these animations would play properly if they are given spells.

Unused Models#

WIP

This section should be for unused models that aren't tied to anything in-game. Models that are only found in the files

Copious Coin Purse Sign#

There's an early model for the Imperial City store The Copious Coin Purse in the game files, suggesting it originally was going to have a more unique sign, unlike the more generic one they went with in the final game.

Scamp Switch#

Inside the games data for citadels in the realm of Oblivion, consists of a switch with the untextured head of a scamp inside of it.

It possibly would've summoned scamps when interacted with.

Unused Textures#

Store Signs#

There's also an early texture for Renoit's Books store sign in the files.

Unused Objects#

Rice Plant#

The Rice Plant is the only unused Flora plant in the game, picking it would've, as expected, provided you with the Rice ingredient.

Five of these were added to the game (in the alchemy garden of Frostcrag Spire) as part of the Wizard's Tower DLC.

Basement Piece#

The model named "Ungrdexit1room" has another duplicate model not used in the game, named "Ungrdexit1roomTEST" looks like an early version of the same object with untextured floors and pillars, with part of the final model merged inside the untextured faces. This models lacks any collision and was most likely used to test objects.

Statlila Stables#

The cut Statlila Stables still have their store sign defined as an object in the game's data.

Grave Models#

These two grave models are defined in the game's data, but they're not placed anywhere in the world. The first model is a platform with stairs leading to a grave surrounded by soil while the second is identical, save for the grave which has been dugout.

Given the nature of the quest Unfriendly Competition, these were probably meant for that quest.

Unused Race#

A vampire race, found only in the Construction Set, with red eyes and very pale skin. The Vampire race has no attributes, skills, or traits for either gender. Only two NPCs are Vampires in the standard game, although neither can be met in-game unless spawned by console commands – one is called Dead Meat (ID: TestDeadMeat), while the second has no name (ID: TestErikNpc). This race was likely made to test the functionality of the Vampirism gameplay.

Unused Settings#

To do: Many more need to be added.

Settings (not to be confused with the actual in-game settings) handle certain aspects of the game, they either consist of a numeric value (used in calculation formulas that deal with things like detection chances or multipliers for item costs or sneak damage) or a string value (used for text that appear in the top left corner of the screen or your character menu)

Every single setting is loaded into the game as part of the Oblivion master file, but some of them are not used by anything. In most cases, they're leftovers of cut features.

Unused Magical Effects#

Image	Name & ID	School	Commentary
	Lock LOCK	Alteration	A buggy spell effect that locks (almost) any container or door it is cast on. Base magicka cost is 30. Some doors don't seem to be affected for some reason, and it doesn't work on any door that is already locked. Can be cast on already-open interior doors, though they can be closed without being lockpicked, after which they will no longer be locked. It can also lock containers that aren't found normally locked, like sacks. The interesting thing to note is that it has several warnings in the Construction Set saying "DO NOT USE", though there are two unused spells using it, detailed below. It was previously available as an effect in Morrowind, but likely removed from Oblivion due to being buggy, having the potential to mess with the AI, and the possibility of locking yourself in a building with no way to unlock it, and general lack of use other than training your security skill.
	Darkness DARK	Illusion	Makes the area around the target darker, like an opposite version of the Light spell effect. Base magicka cost is 0. Like Lock, there are "DO NOT USE" warnings present for it, though unlike Lock there are no pre-made spells in the construction set that make use of it, requiring you to mod your own in if you want to see it in action. Casting it will leave the target black and shadowy even after the effect wears off, and this visual effect will remain until the game is restarted. Oddly, it's considered an offensive spell effect. The effect has an icon in the game files, though it's not assigned to it, instead using the Chameleon icon. Probably intended as a Sneak aid, but removed due to the presence of the two more useful and less buggy Chameleon and Invisibility effects.
	Resist Water Damage RSWD	Restoration	Gives you resistance against damage dealt by the Lava in Oblivion planes. Base magicka cost is 0. Same with Darkness, there aren't any pre-made spells with this effect. No icon, visual effects or sounds are assigned to it either. On the bright side, it's the only effect out of the three that works as intended with no bugs.

Unused Spells#

To do: Rearrange as a table, add icons, make it look nice. All the necessary icons and information are in the source.)

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Document the "Script Effect" spells. Using the console to add all spells "psb", you can obtain a few spells that aren't in the Construction Set AT ALL, but DO appear in-game. (i.e One unnamed spell has an ability to freeze all NPC's but isn't listed in the CS.)

This list contains spells and magic effects that are listed in the Construction Set but are not available in-game. They can still be obtained via the console, but since these spells are not available for use for a reason, they may cause various issues like crashing to desktop due to undefined animation and particle files.

Alteration#

Image	Name & ID	Effects	Commentary
	Easy Lock A9805	Lock 25pts on Touch	Journeyman-level spell. Creates an easy lock.
	Average Lock A982D	Lock 25pts on Touch	Expert-level spell. Creates an average lock. Has several warnings not to use this, just like Easy Lock.
	Minor Frost Shield 6EF34	Frost Shield 15% for 45sec on Self	Journeyman-level spell. This spell would have been given to you by Carahil, but she gives out scrolls instead.

Conjuration#

No concrete clues have been found in the Construction Set about these spells, nor is it known why they were cut.

Image	Name & ID	Effects	Commentary
	Reanimate 4A98B	Reanimate for 30sec on Target	Apprentice-level spell, with the same usage as Staff of Worms.
	Superior Bound Armor C7628	Bound Helmet, Bound Greaves, Bound Cuirass, Bound Boots, Bound Gauntlets for 40sec on Self	Master-level spell, can be learnt with Spell Tomes DLC installed.

Destruction#

Image	Name & ID	Effects	Commentary
	Corrode Armor 5DCC6	Disintegrate Armor 20pts on Target	Novice-level spell. There is a "on Touch" version of this spell, with a different form ID.
	Damage Agility 3C3FD	Damage Agility 1 pt on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Damage Endurance 3C3FE	Damage Endurance 1 pt on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Damage Intelligence 3C3FF	Damage Intelligence 5 pts on Target	Journeyman-level spell.
	Damage Luck 3C400	Damage Luck 1 pt on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Damage Speed 3C401	Damage Speed 3 pts on Target	Apprentice-level spell.
	Damage Strength 3C402	Damage Strength 5 pts on Target	Journeyman-level spell.
	Damage Willpower 3C403	Damage Willpower 3 pts on Target	Apprentice-level spell.
	Drain Agility 3C3DF	Drain Agility 5 pts for 20 secs on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Drain Endurance 3C3E0	Drain Endurance 5 pts for 20 secs on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Drain Intelligence 3C3E4	Drain Intelligence 14 pts for 25 secs on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Drain Luck 3C3E1	Drain Luck 5 pts for 20 secs on Target	Novice-level spell.
	Drain Speed 3C3E2	Drain Speed 10 pts for 20 secs on Target	Apprentice-level spell.
	Drain Willpower 3C3E3	Drain Willpower 10 pts for 20 secs on Target	Apprentice-level spell.
	Drain Skill: Light Armor 84B14	Drain Light Armor 5pts for 20sec on Target	Novice-level spell.

Illusion#

Image	Name & ID	Effects	Commentary
	Chameleon 5DCC0	Chameleon 10% for 12sec on Self	Novice-level spell.
	Minor Invisibility 5DCC1	Invisibility for 6sec on Self	Novice-level spell.

Restoration#

Image	Name & ID	Effects	Commentary
	Respite 5E155	Restore Fatigue 20pts on Self	Novice-level spell.
	Heal Minor Wounds 27442	Restore Health 10pts on Self	Novice-level spell. The Heal Minor Wounds spell that the player starts out with is a weaker (8pts) version with a different form ID

Unused Diseases, Abilities, and Powers#

To do: Tons. I'm mostly going by usage count in the CS for Oblivion.esm to determine what's unused for this section, but there are also abilities and powers and such that are used... by unused creatures, scripts and NPCs, or ones that only appear in test maps. As a result, I'm probably only scratching the surface here since I only remember a few of those. I also haven't included unused content from DLC other than Shivering Isles just yet. For that matter, might it be worth moving some of this content over to the Shivering Isles subpage? Some nicer formatting also couldn't hurt. Lesser powers still need to be added. Help would be welcome.

Like the spells above, you can add these to yourself or any other target with the addspell console command followed by the associated Form ID. Diseases and Abilities are always active, while Powers must be cast, though they are immune to Silence. Greater Powers can be cast once a day, but Lesser Powers can be cast as many times as you want and may or may not cost magicka. Neither will increase any skills when cast.

Abilities#

• Atronach Frost - A script effect that would have added magic frost shaders to Frost Atronachs, much like the other Atronachs. For whatever reason, it's unused. Form ID: 0008DAA6
• Blade, Sneak, Security, Marksman, Acrobatics +2 - Judging by the Editor ID (DarkNightBless) and the fact that its effect name is Night Mother's Blessing, it was probably related to the Dark Brotherhood. Despite the name, it's set to use a script effect but does not point to any script, so it does nothing. Form ID: 000CBF18
• Chameleon (Chameleon 10pts) - Again, the Editor ID (DarkNightMotherFade) suggests a relation to the Dark Brotherhood, but it's not used by anything. Form ID: 0006BC17
• Dremora Powers (Fortify Magicka 50pts, Reflect Damage 30pts) - No Dremora have this ability, thankfully. Neither does anything else. Interestingly in Morrowind, the Dremora Lord variant of the Dremora creature has similar spell reflection ability. Form ID: 0003E9AC
• Elytra abilities (Water Walking, Weakness to Magic 20pts) - The Editor ID (SEAbElytraHatchling) indicates this was intended for Elytra Hatchlings as a weaker version of the identically-named ability that all Elytra possess, which works the same way but also includes 50% poison resistance. Form ID: 0004418C
• End of Order (Paralyze) - The Editor ID (SE13AbParalyze) indicates it was meant for the Shivering Isles quest The End of Order, but it's not used there or anywhere. Form ID: 0001A7EB
• Ghost Resistances (Resist Disease 100pts, Resist Normal Weapons 100pts, Resist Poison 100pts) - Intended for the Shivering Isles quest Ghosts of Vitharn, though ultimately unused. Pretty standard resistances for ghosts to have, though the disease resistance is a bit strange since only the player can catch diseases. Form ID: 00050C8C
• Ghostly Immobility (Burden 1000pts) - Also intended for Ghosts of Vitharn, to keep the player from moving when Hloval Dreth attacks. This ended up being accomplished by forcibly equipping the player with a 1000 pound ring with the same name, rather than this ability. Form ID: 00097146
• Gnarl Health (Fortify Health 50-100pts) - Actually 3 abilities, one with a magnitude of 50, one with 75, and one with 100. Form IDs are: 00081D5A, 00081D5B and 00081D5C for the 50, 75, and 100pts versions respectively.
• High Elf Weakness to Fire/Frost/Shock/Magic (Weakness to Fire/Frost/Shock/Magic 50pts) - Again, actually multiple abilities. The final game has High Elves getting all of their weaknesses (25 to each element) from a single ability. Notably, these abilities are all at 50pts magnitude, which is twice that of the 25pts weaknesses that High Elves have in the final game. They also don't have a general Weakness to Magic in the final (though they did in Morrowind, as well as 50pts of Weakness to Fire), so these are possibly leftovers from a time in development when their weaknesses were closer to Morrowind's. Form IDs: 00047ADA for Fire, 00047AD9 for Frost, 00047ADB for Magic, 00047AD8 for Shock.
• Immune to Water Damage (Resist Water Damage) - This one is particularly notable in that it uses the Resist Water Damage effect, which doesn't appear in the game at all. "Water Damage" is actually damage from lava, though the effect doesn't appear to grant outright immunity as the name of the ability implies, despite the effect itself not having a magnitude. Form ID: 00066C43
• Light Self (Light 100pts) - Intended for Namira's Daedric quest, probably for the Priests of Arkay before being replaced with simple torches. Form ID: 0005C020
• Mead Allergy (Paralyze) - Intended for the Dark Brotherhood quest A Matter of Honor, but the quest uses a different ability which does the same thing. Form ID: 0006555C
• Resist Magic (Resist Magic 50pts) - Its Editor ID of AbImpResistMagic shows that it was meant for imps. Not much else to say about it. Form ID: 0002B53F
• Resist Magic 25% (Resist Magic 25pts) - This one was for boars. Form ID: 0002B54E
• Shadowmere's Invisibility (Chameleon 5pts) - Apparently Shadowmere was supposed to be invisible at one point. Despite the name claiming Invisibility, it's actually a fairly weak Chameleon effect. Form ID: 00064F48

Birthsigns#

There are four unused birthsign abilities which each share two notable distinctions: 1) They are all internally suffixed with "UNUSED", showing that their removal was a deliberate choice on the developers' part. And 2) They're carryovers from Morrowind. In each case, these unused abilities would have made the birthsign basically function like it did in the previous title. However, the developers clearly decided against this, opting to rebalance the abilities instead.

• Beggar's Nose (Detect Life 60pts for 120sec on Self) - Its Editor ID of BSTowerBeggarsNoseUNUSED shows that it was once meant to be a spell received from the Tower birthsign, just like it was in Morrowind. Form ID: 00022A6D
• Blessed Touch (Turn Undead up to level 25 for 45sec on Touch) - Its Editor ID of BSRitualBlessedTouchUNUSED shows it was meant to be a part of the the Ritual birtsign, like it was in Morrowind. Seeing as all abilities related to this particular sign were changed, this one ended up on the cutting room floor as well. Form ID: 00022A3B
• Lady's Grace (Fortify Personality 20pts) - An unused (as is made known by its Editor ID: BSLadyGraceUNUSED) version of the Lady birthsign, which normally grants +10 to Willpower and Endurance. Of note is that the Morrowind version of this birthsign had 2 separate abilities as its components - Lady's Favor (which granted 25 Personality) and Lady's Grace (which granted 25 Endurance), so it seems that the Oblivion version was originally going to behave this way as well. Form ID: 00022A3F
• Mooncalf (Fortify Personality 20pts, Fortify Luck 20pts) - While its Editor ID of BSShadowMooncalfUNUSED shows it was originally tied to the Shadow birthsign, Mooncalf actually appeared as an ability tied to the Lover in Morrowind. This would have given a whopping 40 extra attribute points, 20 of which would have been to Luck. That's even more than Thief birthsign gives! No wonder it got nerfed. Form ID: 00022A4A

Diseases#

• Ticklebritch (Drain Endurance 5pts, Drain Personality 15pts) - While this is not used in the base game, the official DLC Mehrunes' Razor adds one rather obscure way to catch it - by picking up a certain Hoe in Sundercliff Mines. The name of the disease and the fact that you catch it from a "hoe" (not to mention the name of the hoe's associated script: DL9DirtyHoeObjectSCRIPT) is probably a developers' joke implying that it is a sexually-transmitted disease. Form ID: 000CB5F5
• Elytra Hatchling Disease (Drain Fatigue 50pts) - Presumably would have been caught from Elytra Hatchlings in the Shivering Isles, but goes unused. Form ID: 0004418B

Greater Powers#

• Nirn's Breath (Detect Life 100pts for 120sec on Self, Fortify Fatigue 200pts for 120sec on Self, Fortify Health 100pts for 120sec on Self) - This was to be the power granted by the Nirn Stone, a Doomstone that does not appear anywhere in the game. Form ID: 0006B6B1

Obscured Textures#

Female Upper Body#

In the final game, when having no armor or clothes equipped, male characters appear with a loincloth on while female characters have both a panty and bra on. Many games from this era had the underwear as part of the skin texture, however, this is not the case here, as the breasts are actually fully textured.

If a female NPC (or a player character) stands behind a waterfall in third-person while wearing the Dark Seducer armor, the breasts will appear fully exposed. This works for all races, even for the unplayable Dremora. Bretons, Nords, High Elves and Wood Elves use the Imperial textures with different hues.

The discovery of these textures, alongside some gore-related content, led to Oblivion being re-rated by the ESRB.

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Early Names#

Various NPCs in the final game have leftover data attached to them, in various forms, showing their earlier name. Sometimes this even implies a race change during development:

• Ulfgar Fog-Eye's AI packages all bear the name Uthmund Fog-Eye instead.
• AI packages for Bradon and Erline Lirrian imply their names were once Serge and Therese Lirrian instead.
• Didier Aumilie's ref bears a more Imperial-sounding name, Imperius Vercetii.
• Janonia Aurunceia's ref bears the name Julitta Aurunceia, which is either an earlier name, or they mixed up her name with another Leyawiin resident, Julitta Plotius.
• Some of Eilonwy's AI packages bear the name Elamonwe instead. While the pronounciation would be pretty similar, the latter name is more in-line with Elder Scrolls naming conventions.
• One of Lyra Rosentia's AI packages bear the name Selina Pisentia. This was either Lyra's earlier name, or she got the package from a removed NPC with this name.
• Some old topics and other leftovers spell Martin Septim's first name as Martyn instead.
• All internal references to Dro'nahrahe use the name Dro'nahrah instead, which may imply the final name is a typo instead.
• Schlera Sestius's ref bears the name Schlerus Sestius instead, implying she was originally male. Her hairstyle, which is almost exclusively used by males as well, corroborates this.
• Multiple internal instances refer to Malintus Ancrus as Murgakh gro-Ushag instead, implying he was originally a male Orc.
• Mug gro-Murgak's editor ID in the Construction Set uses the feminine gra-Murgak instead of the correct masculine name. This could mean that he was originally intended to be female.
• A lot of internal references to Dion refer to him as Dionne instead. This is a leftover from when he was a female character.

Early Name Oddities#

In some instances, early names managed to sneak into the final game, visible to the player, leading to some confusion.

Barash Key

• Two NPCs that live at the Waterfront District, Uzul gro-Grulam and Myvryna Arano, share Myvryna's house. Despite this, both NPCs carry a key known as "Barash House Key". No NPC with this name appears in the game, making the inclusion of the key very weird. However, it seems to have been tied to another Orc at one point, namely Umog gra-Marad. In the script MS31Script, she is referred to as UmogGraBarash. This means that the key was originally tied to her. This doesn't explain why it is in the possession of Uzul and Myvryna, though. While Myvryna is a semi-important NPC, Uzul isn't, and no-one ever mentions him. His dialogue also doesn't make sense, as in one line he mentions courting Myvryna, while in another he claims to be in love with Umog. It's possible that Uzul once lived together with Umog and her husband Graman, rather than Myvryna, or that he had a key to visit their house. Although this cannot be confirmed.

Bralin's Key

• Cheydinhal residents Rythe and Tivela Lythandas carry a key simply known as "Bralin's Key", which is actually their house key. Internally, this key is known as LythandasKey. This establishes that the last name still lines up with the characters. Bralin seems to have been an earlier name for Rythe which was never changed.

Derics

• In Leyawiin, rumors speak of a couple known as the "Derics". This actually refers to an Argonian couple known as Mahei and Numeen in the final game. It seems that at some point they were a Breton couple with the surname "Deric", with their early first names being unknown. The key carried by the couple also still bears the early name, but nothing else does, weirdly enough. Despite this, the Countess will seek out the couple and spend time with them, despite her dislike for beastfolk. The internal names for these packages already use Numeen's final name, so either the developers simply renamed the package at one point, or reused the same role for the Argonian couple as was planned for the Breton couple, despite that not making sense.

Magrum gra-Orum's House

• Magrum gra-Orum's House appears in Cheydinhal, despite there not being an NPC with this name present in the game. It is instead inhabited by Dulfish gro-Orum and Magub gro-Orum, two male Orcs. In the final game, the relations between these NPCs is unclear. Magub gro-Orum's internal name is Magub gra-Orum, indicating they were originally female. It seems that Magrum was the original name for Magub. The game's Official Prima Game Guide states the following about the house, seemingly explaining the whole ordeal: "Home also to her husband, the gangster Dulfish. (Is it any wonder the place is in his wife's name?) Ms. Orum can put you on to the locations of two ruined Imperial forts that have been taken over by the undead."

Renote's Akaviri Katana

• Many internal references to the Blade Captain Renault use the name Renote instead. While the pronounciation is identical, "Renault" is a more fitting French/Breton alternative. While most of the in-game instances of her name were altered, her katana which you can retrieve still uses this early name.

Sevarius-Severius

• Severius Atius is an NPC living in the Imperial City. Despite his name being what it is, everyone else always refers to him as Sevarius instead. This is the case for in-game references, as well as internal ones. Only his NPC itself and the key he carries use "Severius", and even then, their internal names still use "Sevarius".

Oddities#

A game like Oblivion is bound to have some oddities present. Most of these don't necessarily point to cuts, but are strange leftovers of development nonetheless. Dialogue lines which refer to cut content aren't classified as "oddities" like these and will be mentioned on their relevant dialogue and quest pages.

All Things Alchemical #2#

All Things Alchemical is an alchemy store in Skingrad. As is the norm for stores in Oblivion, it has a unique sign hanging outside of the building. On the southeastern shore of Lake Rumare, however, there is a ruined building also having the same sign. This building is never mentioned by proprietress Falanu Hlaalu, nor by anyone else in-game for that matter. It's unknown whether this building was to have some background reason for existing, or whether using that sign was even a deliberate decision at all.

Baeralorn the Necromancer#

Anvil's castle mage Baeralorn is a Necromancer: His class is Necromancer, he's a member of the NecromancerFaction faction, and is equipped with a set of leveled Necromancer spells. Furthermore Baeralorn has an AI package named BaeralornNecrmoancy where he'll sit at a table in his quarters upon which sits a chunk of Mort Flesh. In his inventory is a bone and shears. His personal chest also contains one of the only copies of N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis! a book written by a Necromancer, and also a random Necromancer alchemy ingredient. Yet despite all of this, Baelorn's Necromancy is never brought up in-game by other NPCs. There's an unused cell named Anvil Castle Caverns consisting of a 2x2 castle room with a door, a candelabra, and an X marker. Its Editor ID is far more intriguing though; AnvilCastleNecromancerLair. It's hard to imagine this cell being linked to anyone but Baeralorn. Ironically, Carahil, the head of the Anvil branch of the Mages Guild is a notoriously outspoken critic of Necromancy and Baeralorn has an AI package to seek her out specifically.

Beggar Voice Inconsistencies/Beggar Holger#

Oblivion's beggars have infamously inconsistent dialogue, but the reason for this is actually quite interesting. Originally, the beggars all sounded like normal Cyrodiil citizens without any sort of particular accident. However, at some point it was decided that this needed to change, and a lot of the dialogue was re-recorded. The lines that were up for replacement were all given a recording note stating: "More quavery/weak/infirm. This is a frail beggar." The original dialogue can still be heard in the Xbox version of the game, where the re-recorded dialogue was seemingly never put in place. Besides the fact that it appears not every line was consistently re-recorded or correctly added to the game, the beggars can still engage in many generic topics and conversations, which just use the generic shared race dialogue, leading to wildly differing performances coming from the same character. Another very weird quirk of this re-recording process is that Brother Holger, an NPC related to the Thieves Guild quest "Turning a Blind Eye", randomly got affected as well. His original line reading had an error in it, and it was presumably re-recorded alongside all the beggar lines by accident, presuming he needed to have the accent as well. Once again, this results in quite a jarring transition.

Blood Potion#

In random Oblivion Plane 6, there is a single Blood Potion placed neatly behind some tall rocks east of the entrance to the Blood Well. It weighs nothing and serves no purpose or function. It cannot be used by vampires for feeding purposes either. It is the only Blood Potion available in the entire game.

Chainmail Stockings#

Both the official concept art, as well as the menu icon for female chainmail greaves, depicts them as stockings. However, when wearing them, they look like normal greaves. It's very likely that someone at some point decided that the stockings didn't fit, or were too sexual, and had them altered. When looking at the final model, they still look like stockings with garters, albeit with the parts normally showing the thighs using the chainmail texture as well.

Female Dremora#

In the final game, there is a very small chance you might encounter a female Dremora Markynaz in the Oblivion planes. This Dremora, Dremora5MarkynazMissile3, is only used by a leveled list spawning Markynaz archers, so you may very well never encounter her at all, as her appearance is randomly determined. She is the only female Dreomra to exist in the game. Seeing as a female Dremora voice does not exist, she doesn't make any noise when attacked or killed. If you use a high level charm spell to make her talk, she displays the default error trap message "I HAVE NO GREETING" instead. In all likelihood, her being marked as a female (it's a simple box you tick in the Construction Set) was accidental, as there is no evidence of female Dremora ever being meant to exist, and the dialogue and character creation options are all limited to males exclusively.

Fin Gleam#

Fin Gleam, the unique enchanted Glass Helmet underwater amongst a pile of bones near Anvil, was originally a Dark Brotherhood-linked item. Its Editor ID is DarkFinGleam, the "Dark" being a prefix for Dark Brotherhood items and its enchantment is internally named DBenAppFinGleam (DarkBrotherhoodenchantedApparelFinGleam). Furthermore, the next armor piece in the Construction Set sorted by FormID are the Hands of Midnight sold by M'raaj-Dar at the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary, suggesting he might have sold Fin Gleam too.

Fish at Fingerbowl#

In the second zone of Fingerbowl Cave, the Servant Crypt, there's an inaccessible section that contains slaughterfish enemies. There is no water present, however, and the fact that these enemies are present in this portion of the cell suggests that it was either a portion of the dungeon which wasn't finished, or that it was replaced and to be deleted, but never was.

Gemstones#

Many of the gems in the game do not use icons that match their actual model files, and a small number of those icons are unused. Whether this was a deliberate design decision or an oversight on the developers' part, is unknown. All varieties of the Pearl, the Flawless Ruby, the Flawless Sapphire, Flawless Emerald, and Flawless Diamond items don't share in these issues.

Gemstone	Used	Intended	Note
Topaz			The Flawed Topaz icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.
Flawed Topaz			The regular Topaz icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.
Flawless Topaz			The Flawed Topaz icon is used here once again, making the proper icon go unused. The proper model is used, however.
Ruby			The Flawless Ruby icon is used here. The used model is also wrong, being the Flawed Ruby model instead.
Flawed Ruby			The regular Ruby icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.
Sapphire			The Flawed Sapphire icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.
Flawed Sapphire			The regular Sapphire icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.
Emerald			The Flawless Emerald icon is used here. The used model is also wrong, being the Flawed Emerald model instead.
Flawed Emerald			The regular Emerald icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.
Diamond			The Flawless Diamond icon is used here. The used model is also wrong, being the Flawed Diamond model instead.
Flawed Diamond			The regular Diamond icon is used here. The used model is similarly wrong.

Kvatch Shopkeep#

One of the people you may come across in the Kvatch refugee camp is the Wood Elf Athrelor. He greets you with the following line:"Welcome to Kvatch. We've had a spot of trouble, as you can see. But I'm open for business." While this implies he was meant to be a merchant of some sort, there is nothing besides the dialogue that would imply this. He has no relevant AI packages, merchant container, or anything one would expect a vendor to have.

Lazare's Basement Rat#

Inside the basement of Lazare Milvan's House in Skingrad, one can encounter a rat. This rat is remarkably weak, and lacks any kind of loot. This is because it is actually a test creature internally known as TestBasementRat. Besides the loot, this rat also lacks any and all factions, and the usual diseases. Presumably, this rat was meant to be removed at one point, but never was, as this is the only instance of such a test creature being present in the normally accessible world, especially inside of an NPC's house.

Nerastarel's House#

There is an abandoned house called "Nerastarel's House" located in Skingrad, within which resides all manner of undead. No NPC named Nerastarel exists anywhere in the game and they never get mentioned by anyone. The only time the house's existence gets acknowledged is when Amusei mentions it during the quest "Lost Histories". Despite being abandoned, entering the house is considered trespassing.

Russet Felt Shirt#

The Russet Felt Outfit, internally known as MiddleShirt05 covers the upper and lower body in the final game. But it was meant to only cover the upper body, since there are unused icons for a matching set of pants. The generic enchanted versions of this shirt, "Security Russet Felt Shirt" and "Russet Felt Shirt of Blade Turning" still use the early name. The latter is also still set to only cover the upper body. The icon for the Russet Felt Outfit also only depicts it as a shirt, whereas most icons for "outfits" depict them as longer garments.

Strength of Alchemy Apparatus#

In the game, there are five sets of alchemy apparatus. The strength (both magnitude and duration) of your created potions depends, among many things, on the strength of your alchemy set.

For example, at 100 Alchemy and Luck 50, a potion of Chameleon created with a Novice set will have a magnitude of 17% and a duration of 63 seconds. Whereas a potion of Chameleon created at the same conditions but with a Master set will have a magnitude of 44% and a duration of 143 seconds. This is the highest possible strength for Chameleon in-game.

However, the maximum strength for an alchemy apparatus is not actually 100, but rather 255. Naturally, such a set with a strength of 255 doesn't exist in the game and is only possible through creating one in the Construction Set. Unlike most variables in the game, an alchemy apparatus strength is one of the few variables that actually work above 100. The previous example of a potion of Chameleon, when created at apparatus strength 255 will have a whopping magnitude of 100% and a duration of 304 seconds.

The strength of potions created at apparatus strengths above 100 is too powerful and any overpowered possible combinations may've been too unbalanced, and probably the reason why no set goes above strength 100.

Temple of the Emperor Zero#

Almost all of the cells outside of Fathis Aren's Tower, which you visit during the Thieves Guild quest "The Arrow of Extrication", refer to the location as "Temple of the Emperor Zero". The map marker also has this distinction, getting renamed at some point. The special weather type for this location, and the "world" set up to house these cells is even prefixed with "TG", showing that the Temple was originally also tied to the Thieves Guild, presumably the same quest.

The Emperor Zero, or Cuhlecain, is a character very rarely spoken of in the series. He was first mentioned in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and its supplemental booklet. He would then get named once in the book The Arcturian Heresy in Morrowind. In Oblivion, he's mentioned in the books Battle of Sancre Tor, The Legendary Sancre Tor, and Remanada. However, the cells related to Fathis' tower are the only non-lore reference made to him, implying that he (or at least his cult, or followers) might have been scheduled for a larger in-game role for the first time. In Skyrim, all 4 previously mentioned books would go on to reappear, but there's also a single dialogue topic intriguingly bearing Cuhlecain's name, while not mentioning him at all in the finalized dialogue. The Cult of the Emperor Zero has yet to make any major appearance in the actual main series games.

The player's default name#

Under most conditions (Unless caused by the "reference bug"), the player is unable to see what their name is before the start of the game. However the player does have a name, but the character creation screen takes precedence and the name field becomes blank. In the construction set, the player's name is "Bendu Olo", who was the old king of Anvil. The name can be seen in Oblivion's E3 demos, as well as some early Morrowind screenshots, hinting that it's a placeholder used by the devs.

Unused Door#

In random Oblivion Plane 3 (the plane of Oblivion with a broken bridge leading up to five towers with the main tower in the center with two gates on either side leading to two other towers), off the map to the west, there is a long island in the lava. The island doesn't have anything of interest except for a cave entrance, however, this door isn't linked to any other cells, so it can't be interacted with. As is the case with all these kinds of entrances, this door was presumably once meant to lead to the cave section of the Oblivion world, "The Molten Halls" in this case.

Wayside Tavern#

Inside of the AnvilWorld worldspace, there's a cell with a single placed farmhouse instance bearing the name "WaysideTavern". This is the only time that name is used in the files, but the model used (Farmhouse03), as well as the rough road present suggests this might have been an early layout test for the Brina Cross Inn.

Xbox 360 Save Loading#

The PC port includes code specifically for reading saves kept inside Xbox 360 STFS packages -- making it one of the very first PC-based applications to be able to read from these packages -- though without proper STFS hash table handling it'll likely run into invalid data & display as corrupt, unless the save file is fairly unused.

On the other hand if a tool with better support for STFS is used to extract the package beforehand (such as Velocity), the game can usually load it in fine (and vice-versa for moving saves from PC to Xbox)

Since there were never any official methods for transferring files between X360 and PC, this code was likely meant to aid with debugging/QA during the porting process.

References#