This is a sub-page of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Originally, every city in Cyrodiil was meant to feature an arena, not just the Imperial City. In the city concept artworks, arenas are depicted as amphitheaters. While this idea was either never meant to be taken literally, or couldn't be done due to technical issues, all arenas were at one point transformed into the closed off cells we see in the final game's Imperial City Arena. Still, most arenas got pretty far into development, with established characters getting developed as part of the cities, and special dialogue for them getting recorded. However, at one point it was decided that keeping all the arenas in the game wasn't feasible. In part one of The Bethesda Podcast: Episode 8, celebrating Oblivion's fifth anniversary, Lead Writer Emil Pagliarulo shared the following:

Emil reiterated on this removal in a 2018 interview done with Noclip:

Lead Artist Matthew Carofano also stated the following in a 2006 PC Zone interview talking about Oblivion's development:

Presumably, when Pagliarulo refers to "800 lines of dialogue", he refers to 800 unique lines, which could then possibly be recorded by the 11 voice actors. So there were more likely about ~9000 voiced lines removed. If not, then this seems to be a strangely low number. Especially because, as you'll see, quite a bit of the dialogue that was supposedly cut out, actually remains in the game. That, and, there are quite a few more lines that take up space in the files without any reason at all, basically. Carofano's claim about time constraints makes more sense, especially seeing as the developers had already started cutting down on the game's dialogue in general.

Whatever the case, in the final game, portions of Chorrol's Arena were moved over to the Imperial City, while all other arenas received the axe entirely. With this hasty removal of the other arenas, a lot of NPCs got affected in different ways, ranging from getting cut entirely to losing big chunks of their AI schedule or dialogue. This page will cover all the cuts and changes made to accommodate the removal of the other arenas, not necessarily every minor cut made to the final game's Imperial City one. There'll be plenty to talk about anyways...

Arena Locations

Logistically speaking, removing a piece of architecture as big as an arena from each city left a big hole in the city layout. In most cases these holes were then plugged with a statue, a second city gate, or maybe both.

Anvil#

There are quite a bit of remnants of the Anvil Arena location left in the files. In the Tamriel worldspace (containing any bit of nondescript wilderness, basically), there's a cell known as AnvilArenaMain. While it contains nothing other than rocks, shrubbery, and castle walls, it shows us that Anvil's Arena extended well beyond its walls established in the final game. This cell is directly north of the pond with the mermaid statue in the final game. Another cell in the same worldspace is AnvilExteriorArenaA, once more showing how much further the city walls extended. This cell is almost directly east of Castle Anvil, to the south of Fort Strand's exterior. Inside of the AnvilWorld worldspace, there's also another cell known as AnvilArenaCenter. This is the cell which actually contains the mermaid statue and its surroundings, heavily implying it was added there to cover up the arena's removal. The cell AnvilMainGate also holds a marker called AnvilArenaGateMarker, located due southwest of the boardwalk of the pond at the mermaid statue. Very near to this marker are also two guards that patrol here, one during the day and one during the night. In the final game, it makes little sense to have these guards patrol at this statue, but their AI packages make their original purpose quite clear: AnvilGuardPatrolDayArenaToWestEnd, AnvilGuardPatrolDayWestEndToArena, AnvilGuardPatrolNightArenaToWestEnd and AnvilGuardPatrolNightWestEndToArena. They were originally meant to be stationed outside the arena, and their AI packages still check the gate marker's distance to function.

When looking at the available concept art, one might see that the main differences being scale and the relationship between the main street and the waterfront. Originally there wasn't such a distinction between the docks and city proper and the streets wrapped around an enclosed harbor. The retail Anvil seems to have generally been compacted inwards, with the road sweeping south-east with the arena and Chapel absent. The existence of the AnvilExteriorArenaA cell located roughly where the arena would be per concept art suggests this more open and expansive Anvil was at one point being worked on in-game. This earlier iteration of the arena shouldn't be confused with the final arena that was cut, however, which would have been where the mermaid statue is.

Bravil#

The cell BravilSouth01 in the Bravil worldspace holds the only remaining marker of Bravil's arena: BravilArenaPatrolMarker. It's placed right in front of the entrance to the Lonely Suitor Lodge, and equally far away from a statue to the Divine Zenithar. Once more suggesting this empty space was filled with a statue after the arena's removal. The marker is still used by guards using the BravilGuardPatrolDayArenaToSouthBridge and BravilGuardPatrolNightArenaToSouthBridge packages.

Bruma#

The cell BrumaExterior02 inside the Bruma worldspace holds the marker BrumaArenaGatekeeperMarker. Sadly, it does nothing to help reveal their identity. This marker is placed right in front of the city gate that's north of Castle Bruma, suggesting it was added after the arena's removal. Exceptionally, we actually know exactly where the arena was once located, because it appeared in Oblivion's E3 2005 trailer, showing that it indeed took the place of the other Bruma gate. It also seemingly featured a second entrance.

The cell simply known as BrumaExterior also holds the marker BrumaArenaPatrolMarker. It is located right in front of the stairs behind the Bruma Fighters Guild and is still used by quite a few patrol packages in the final game: BrumaGuardPatrolDayArenaToCenter, BrumaGuardPatrolDayArenaToCenter, BrumaGuardPatrolNightArenaToNorth, BrumaGuardPatrolNightNorthToArena, BrumaGuardPatrolNightArenaToCenter, and BrumaGuardPatrolNightChapelToArena.

E3 Trailer	Final

Cheydinhal#

The location of Cheydinhal's arena is also pretty easy to decipher. In the Cheydinhal worldspace, there's a cell known as CheydinhalExterior10Arena which, in the final game, contains the House for Sale, Tivela Lythandas' House, Willow Bank and the Cheydinhal Fighters Guild. Something it also holds is... a statue. As is par for the course with these removed arenas. Markers found in this cell also include CheydinhalBeggarAtArena and CheydinhalArenaGatekeeperMarker. No guard patrol packages refer to the arena in Cheydinhal. Also of note, in the Making of Oblivion documentary, Cheydinhal's arena exterior can briefly be seen in the Construction Set, where it does indeed look to be placed right behind the House for Sale. It also featured a second entrance, like Bruma's.

Making of Documentary	Recreated Construction Set Shot

Chorrol#

In the cell ChorrolExterior05, the last remaining marker referring to the Chorrol Arena can be found: ChorrolBeggarAtArena. This marker is placed right in front of the north city gate, showing that it was added after the arena's removal. This is also where it's shown on concept art, and the art similarly only shows one entrance gate to the city.

However, most of the Chorrol arena actually stayed in the game, it was just moved to the Imperial City. The cell you enter when spectating an arena match is internally known as ChorrolArena, it was entirely lifted from Chorrol. Inside there are numerous markers still prefixed with "Chorrol". Plenty of these are quite interesting. Next to the rightmost table with a knocked over bottle of wine is a marker called ChorrolArenaBarMarker. It does not get used by any packages, but may imply that there was a way for spectators to get a drink during the match. an unused script may possibly reference this as well.

While you can normally enter only one balcony to spectate from, there's actually a second one that is completely inaccessible through normal means. It seems a bit unfinished, with see-through meshes and floating planters, but is generally a prettier place to spectate from, featuring wall hangings. This balcony seems to have been intended for the upper class citizens, so they wouldn't have to intermingle with the plebs. The doors where you normally enter are prefixed with GamblersArea (with another marker referring to it as the ChorrolArenaGamblersPit01) while these are prefixed as RoyalEntrance. They also aren't linked to any other cells, but do display the text "Arena Entrance" when hovering over them. This inaccessible "royal" balcony most notably features a raised platform with two Chorrol thrones. Presumably Countess Arriana Valga would've watched from this portion of the Arena when she visited.

There's also an unused AI package known simply as GoToChorrolArenaX. This seems to be a testing package made so NPCs would simply go over to the arena when the player is near, without any duration set. A test NPC also uses a script by the name of Arenatest which contains the following:

   
Scriptname Arenatest

Begin GameMode

;this is just a test to get the Chorrol arena guys fighting
; COMMENTED OUT BECAUSE REFS HAVE BEEN DELETED
;if (ChorrolArena01ref.GetCurrentAIPackage != 5)
;   ChorrolArena02ref.Startcombat ChorrolArena01ref
;   ChorrolArena01ref.Startcombat ChorrolArena02ref
;endif

End

Showing us that in all likelihood, the Chorrol Arena was further along, or being used as a test for other arenas' functionality. Chorrol was the first town added to the game, presumably due to its relevancy to the main quest.

Imperial City#

While we know for certain that the interior of the arena was reused from Chorrol, other bits and pieces for the exterior were similarly reused. The Bloodworks and exterior cells were created separately and not carried over, but they do include numerous recycled assets, such as the exterior reusing ChorrolArenaGate01mini, ChorrolArenaPiece01mini, ChorrolArenaImperialBanner01, and the Bloodworks basically consisting of (meaning the whole layout is basically a single mesh) two large architecture pieces known as ChorrolBloodworks01 and ChorrolBloodworks02.

Leyawiin#

In LeyawiinExterior14, the LeyawiinArenaGateMarker can still be found. This is the only remaining marker related to the Leyawiin Arena. The marker is floating in mid-air, just next to the stone stairs next to the Blackwood Company Hall. In the concept art, Leyawiin's arena is placed at the bottom northeast corner of the eastern island. However, in the final game, the marker and placement of a statue more so imply that it was to be found at the southwestern bottom corner of town. In the concept art, the arena appears beneath the chapel, which still lines up as the Chapel was similarly swapped sides at some point in development. As is to be expected, the gate marker still gets used by 10 variants of guard patrol packages. Interestingly, these packages make mention of a "NewGate", referring to the Leyawiin's rework while showing that the arena still existed even after said rework.

Skingrad#

In the final game there's a path between Lazare Milvan's House and the Skingrad Mages Guild which leads up to a statue. This empty space originally held the Skingrad Arena. Right in the middle of this path (in the cell SkingradExteriorCC) the marker SkingradArenaGateMarker can be found. This is the only marker leftover of the Skingrad Arena. A very short glimpse can be caught of the Skingrad Arena in the early menu screen video. Also of note is that the Arena is shown to be present at this exact spot in the concept art, showing just how little Skingrad was changed at a structural level.

Kvatch#

Kvatch was always designed as a destroyed city. However, it still followed the design principle of "each city being designed with an arena". For Kvatch, this was easier, as the arena was just meant to appear destroyed. When the other arenas were cut, the destroyed one in Kvatch stayed, and the developers instead decided to acknowledge this in-universe as Kvatch having the only arena outside of the Imperial City. There's only a single NPC who acknowledges the existence of the arena, this being refugee Guilbert Selone. When asked about Kvatch after being saved from the chapel, he says: "Maybe we can rebuild. But things will never be the same. We had everything here. Beautiful gardens. Fresh mountain air. Did you know Kvatch had the only Arena in Cyrodiil outside the Imperial City? All gone now, though. Just smoke and mud and rubble." Guilbert, being a Breton, originally had his dialogue voiced by Wes Johnson before Ralph Cosham was brought in to voice for male Bretons. His greeting and initial Kvatch topic before getting saved, voiced by Wes, can still be found in the voice files. However, his second topic mentioning the Arena can not be found. This topic has the "REC" note attached, showing it was re-recorded at some point. And in all likelihood, it would've contained pretty different information originally.

Sutch#

While the city of Sutch was completely removed from the game (to the best of the developers' abilities, at least), we do know that concept art of the city featured an arena/amphitheater as well. So, at some point, based on how far the city got in development, Sutch was also meant to have an arena. Based on what we can make out from the concept art, the chapel would've been on the west side of the city, the arena in the southwest corner and the castle covering the north.

Arena Gatekeepers

The Arena Gatekeeper of the Imperial City's Arena in the final game is Hundolin. He's responsible for taking bets as well as paying them out. Each city was to have an Arena Gatekeeper, and we know who these NPCs would've been due to a shared goodbye line by them; "Have a good day now." Said line is still kept in the overarching Arena quest and is conditioned to only play between 9am and 9pm, the standard Gatekeeper work hours, even if it doesn't really make sense for most of these NPCs. All the following lines are used, besides the last Wes Johnson variant, but they are included here for completion's sake.

Shared Dialogue#

Some other lines normally used exclusively by Hundolin in the final game are also present in the files, recorded in voice types befitting the other Arena Gatekeepers. Again, Hundolin's used versions are included here to compare and contrast.

The unused lines here differ slightly, instead of saying "You can bet on either the Yellow Team or Blue Team", the line is read as "You can bet on either the Yellow Team or the Blue Team".

Anvil#

The Arena Gatekeeper of Anvil was to have been Didier Aumilie. Didier is just an inconsequential NPC lounging around town in the final game. Of note is the fact that because he's a Breton, his greeting isn't voiced, as it wasn't re-recorded by Ralph Cosham. It was originally recorded by Wes Johnson, however. It's possible that Didier was originally an Imperial NPC, as his ref bears the name Imperius Vercetii and while his Anvil topic was re-recorded by Ralph, his Anvil topic in the final game seems to have been rewritten, with the original line having been entirely deleted.

Bravil#

Bravil's Arena Gatekeeper was Andragil, who was repurposed as the Master Trainer of Block in the final game. Besides her shared goodbye, another thing pinning her as an NPC tied to cuts is the fact that she lacks any unique dialogue that isn't quest-related.

Bruma#

Istirus Brolus was originally Bruma's Arena Gatekeeper. In the final game, he's an inconsequential NPC without any unique dialogue. Only his wife ever acknowledges his existence. Like Didier in Anvil, Istirus' goodbye isn't voiced due to him being a Breton. Although why exactly he's a Breton, despite his Imperial name, is unknown.

Chorrol#

The Arena Gatekeeper in Chorrol was actually... Hundolin. Yes, Hundolin. While he appears as the Arena Gatekeeper in the Imperial City in the final game, he was originally meant to do so in Chorrol. Hundolin also has a variable set up for him inside of the ChorrolNQDScript. This script normally contains variables set up for people that have rumors about them. And indeed, there are actually rumors set up for Chorrol NPCs about Hundolin that go completely unused. These are incomplete and can't trigger, however, as they are replies to NPC dialogue that no longer seems to exist:

A second type of completely removed question could also ellicit two more unused responses:

Cheydinhal#

The Arena Gatekeeper here was meant to be Shelley, yet another person that ends up as an inconsequential NPC without any unique dialogue in the final game. Like Hundolin, Shelley has a variable in the overarching CheydinhalNQDScript. Also like him, there are two lines of response dialogue present for NPCs to talk about her, but the initial question to trigger said dialogue is no longer present. Apparently, the citizens of Cheydinhal faced some blowback from the Chapel against partaking in Arena activities.

Leyawiin#

The Arena Gatekeeper here was to have been J'bari, an NPC who, like Bravil's Andragil, was turned into a Master Trainer instead. J'bari is the Master Trainer for Light Armor, and just in Andragil's case, J'bari completely lacks any unique dialogue outside of his Master Training quest. J'bari is also mentioned inside of the LeyawiinNQDScript, but unlike the previously mentioned NPCs, though, J'bari's rumors actually still get used in the final game. This may be because in one line, the word "bets" was mistakenly written down as "debts" instead, or because J'bari often gets mentioned in rumors about Tsrava as well. Whatever the case, the rumors are included here for completion's sake. No Leyawiin rumors were recorded by Michael Mack, voice actor for the male Redguards, and as such, he is omitted here.

An interesting thing that these lines showcase is the fact that the Arena Gatekeepers were meant to be fleshed out characters besides their Arena-related job as well. Hundolin, in the final game, doesn't really have any personality traits besides his job. But J'bari's love for dogs comes up in both dialogue about him, as well as Tsrava. These lines also imply that originally, the two Khajiit were meant to be neighbors, instead of housemates as they are in the final game. No dogs ever figure into either of their lives in the final game, either. Also of note is the fact that neither J'bari or Tsrava ever leave their house due to both only having three AI packages. They each have a unique sleep package, but they both have a generic eat and a generic wander package. Either their schedules were never created, or, what seems to be more likely the case, their original packages were related to the Arena and got cut alongside it.

Skingrad#

Skingrad's Arena Gatekeeper was to have been the Orc Graklak gro-Buglump. Graklak got off relatively unscathed when compared to the others, he's a pretty well-integrated NPC, lacking only a unique greeting. Graklak gets mentioned in the SkingradNQDScript, but more interestingly, his work AI package GraklakgroBuglumpWork still remains unused in the files. It follows the same naming scheme as Hundolin's, as well as the same work hours from 9am until 9pm, although Graklak's doesn't have a specific location defined, instead just using his Editor ID. A single unused line of NPC conversation dialogue remains in the files, but once again, the statement meant to trigger it was seemingly deleted.

Imperial City#

With Hundolin getting moved over, he seemingly replaced the intended Arena Gatekeeper of the Imperial City, a Breton woman by the name of Victoria Delacroix. Victoria no longer exists in NPC form, and her gender and race are presumed, based on the Elder Scrolls race naming convention. She has just a single trace of her left in the files, her work AI package ArenaVictoriaDelacroixWork. Which is set up similar to Hundolin and Graklak's.

Arena Blademasters

Owyn is the only Arena Blademaster you encounter in the final game. Once again, every city was supposed to have their own Blademaster, but unlike the Arena Gatekeepers, the excess Blademasters were all completely deleted from the game files. None still exists in NPC form, although some have more leftovers than others.

Anvil#

Anvil's Blademaster was an NPC with the first name Andrus. Their full name is unknown, and they were presumably a male Imperial. Their first name is mentioned in the AnvilNQDScript, but no rumors of any kind still remain in the files. There are also two AI packages bearing their name that still remain in the files, unused: AndrusStand and AndrusSleep. The former is not configured to do anything (as indeed, it would just result in the user standing), while the latter is set up as a find package, not a sleep package, that would've activated for three hours at 2am. These packages were in all likelihood never finalized, although the behavior displayed is identical to how Owyn functions in the final game. There are also two more packages that seem to be even earlier iterations called AnvilBlademasterStand and ArenaAnvilBlademasterStand. Both packages function identically, they just don't contain any NPC-specific name.

Bravil#

The Bravil Blademaster would've (presumably) been someone whose name contained "Wears" as the first word. This name snippet appears in the BravilNQDScript. It seems likely that this was part of a hyphenated Argonian name, like "Wears-Silk" or "Wears-Silk-Robes". Other Argonians like Kud-Ei or City-Swimmer are referred to as "Kud" and "City" inside of the script. A single NPC conversation reply remains in the files, but the question triggering it no longer exists. It confirms that "Wears" would've been male, and seemingly talks about him looking for new Arena fighters, although this can't be confirmed 100%. This rumor was not recorded for Redguards. A basic AI package by the name of ArenaBravilBlademasterStand still remains unused in the files.

Bruma#

Bruma is the only city of which the Blademaster's identity is completely unknown. No unused name appears in the related NQD script, and no specific markers or AI packages exist that identify them. Only a standard ArenaBrumaBlademasterStand remains of them.

Cheydinhal#

The only remnant of Cheydinhal's Blademaster comes in the form of their stand package: ArenaCheySavureStand. "Savure" is a Dunmer first name, typically female, although the name has been used for a male NPC in Morrowind. Their last name is unknown.

Chorrol#

Although unconfirmed, it's quite likely that Owyn originally served as Chorrol's Blademaster. While there is no conclusive evidence of this, based on their Form IDs, we know that he and Hundolin were created concurrently, so it makes sense they would've been created to fulfill roles at the same Arena.

Leyawiin#

Leyawiin's Blademaster would've been Vanashti. This name still appears in the LeyawiinNQDScript, and NPC dialogue lines still exist about her, although they can't be triggered as the question no longer exists. Also, one of the two lines contains an error, as Vanashti is incorrectly referred to as Vashanti. A basic unused ArenaLeyBlademasterStand also remains in the files.

Skingrad#

The Skingrad Blademaster would have been Luc Thierault. Presumably a male Breton. Luc's first name is mentioned in the SkingradNQDScript, but no rumors exist about them. Their stand package still remains in the files: ArenaSkingradLucStand. But their full name is only known due to a specific Skingrad-related quirk. A lot of NPCs in town don't have finalized AI schedules. This is usually denoted by the packages having "XXX" in their name, instead of a specific location. A finalized AI package would usually be titled like so: SkingradFalanuHlaaluSleep, while an unfinalized one more so looks like this: XXXFalanuHlaaluExplore3. In most cases, these earlier packages were completely removed from the files. Some may pop up here and there, and Chorrol also has quite a few, but the amount of these for the citizens of Skingrad is drastically higher than the average. Even an NPC that was completely removed from the files like Luc, still has four packages with their name on them: XXXLucThieraultSleep1, XXXLucThieraultEat1, XXXLucThieraultEat2, and XXXLucThieraultExplore1.

Arena Mouth#

Arena Mouth is an NPC used by the game behind the scenes to play the Arena announcer's dialogue lines. While this isn't that interesting in and of itself, Arena Mouth is actually a fully customized NPC, with factions, a unique face, and a unique inventory. Notably, he's of the Blademaster class, and is leveled to be 5 levels above the player, just like Owyn is in the final game. His armor consists of a set of iron boots, alongside some matching iron greaves, an iron cuirass, and a spare set of leather boots. He's also armed with an iron longsword. Again, a loadout pretty similar to Owyn, although lacking any kind of gauntlets and general loot.

But what's more interesting is the fact that Arena Mouth is in the "Anvil Citizen" and "Arena" factions. That, and he actually uses the aforementioned AnvilBlademasterStand package. This is all to say that it seems very likely that Arena Mouth was copied over from Andrus' NPC data, giving us a glimpse of how he was meant to appear in-game, at least to some degree.

Based on the consistencies between him and Owyn, it seems like all Blademasters could have shared theri specific leveling and class, factions, as well as general armor and weaponry. Also, while in the final game, Owyn only stands in place, he has unused AI packages; OwynExplore1, OwynSleep1, and OwynEat1. While the "explore" package seems to just be a differently named "stand" package, the other two packages imply that Owyn would have also taken the time to actually eat and sleep, similar to what's shown by Luc's early schedule. This also implies that all Blademasters may very well have had generally "normal" schedules originally.

Arena Champions

While the Arena Gatekeepers all stayed in the game, and all the Blademasters were fully removed, the other Champions ended up somewhere inbetween. There are two NPCs besides Agronak gro-Malog still present in the "Arena Champions" faction. These are Skingrad's Vandorallen Trebatius and Bravil's Jean-Pierre Lemonds.

Jean-Pierre is a sharpshooter class and carries five steel arrows, alongside a 50% chance of carrying random enchanted arrows. Despite this, he does not possess any kind of bow. Besides the fact that he's an inconsequential NPC with no unique dialogue, and his inclusion in the faction, there's one more leftover of arena content related to Jean-Pierre. He uses an AI package called ArenaJeanPierreSaturday. What exactly the original purpose of this package was, is unknown. In the final game, it makes him sandbox around a marker in the Lonely Suitor Lodge on Loredas (Tamriel's Saturday).

Vandorallen is mentioned in the SkingradNQDScript but no longer has any rumors about him, as they were seemingly all deleted at one point. He's of a knight class, and similar to Jean-Pierre, chooses to go through daily life unarmed. He's also set at level 10, the same as Agronak gro-Malog, although it's unknown if this holds any significance at all, as Jean-Pierre does not share this detail. While Vandorallen uses a whopping 7 unique AI packages, there's an eighth one that goes unused: VandorallenTrebatiusBloodworks. The "Bloodworks" is an arena's underbelly, and the place where the members train. This package is set as an "use item at" type package, so it's very likely that this package was meant to make Vandorallen train by attacking a dummy of some kind. In the final game, Vandorallen does not have any kind of unique dialogue, but he does not get acknowledged in-game, as he lives inside Rosethorn Hall, which is the house you can buy in town.

We may also have a very slight idea of who the champion in Cheydinhal was. A rumor about publican Dervera Romalen in the final game goes as follows: "Dervera Romalen is sure proud of the Newlands lodge. I think she's especially happy that the Red Queen drinks there." However, no "Red Queen" can be found anywhere and this rumor is the only mention of them. It's possible that this "Red Queen" had a nickname similar to the "Gray Prince", and that she was of some local renown due to being an Arena Champion. Inside the CheydinhalNQDScript, there's a mention of the name "Hallgerda". Based on the naming convention, they would have been a female Nord. At one point they were noteworthy enough to have rumors about them, but in the final game this script mention is the last remnant of their existence. They may have once been the "Red Queen", although this is purely speculation.

Then there's also Tunengore. Their only remaining trace in the files are two AI packages bearing their name: TunengoreFight and TunengoreArenaExplore. Based on the naming convention, they'd be a male Altmer. A male Altmer with this name did in fact appear in Morrowind. The way these packages are conditioned (the latter being used when an Arena fight isn't happening and the latter when it is) implies you would have fought them in a match. Whether this was as a champion match or just a specific, named opponent, is unclear.

Removed Visitors - Minor

Just like the Imperial City, each arena was meant to have some dedicated arena betters as well. While every city presumably had these, not every city has traces of theirs remaining in the final game's files.

• Bravil: Most of the Thieves Guild quests that involve the Guild Doyen S'Krivva have something along the lines of the following text as their first journal entry; "A beggar reminded me that I can find S'krivva in the Lonely Suitor Lodge, or at home." However, the first entry for the quest Lost Histories instead reads: "A beggar reminded me that S'krivva can be found at the Lonely Suitors [sic] Lodge and at the Arena." This is the only quest stage where the arena gets mentioned, and it doesn't actually get named in the dialogue by beggars. Also, no AI packages or markers remain that actually corroborate S'Krivva going to the arena.

• Cheydinhal: Altmer nobleman Voranil still uses a package by the name of VoranilArenaSpectatorSunday9x12 in the final game. However, the package just points to his Editor ID, effectively turning it into a basic sandbox package. Had the Arena remained in-game, then Voranil would have been found there every Sundas from 9am to 9pm, enjoying the blood sports.

• Skingrad: Religious Sword aficionada Else God-Hater has a very basic schedule in the final game. She wakes up at 7am, spends the entire day walking around the West Weald Inn and then eats from 10pm until 1am at which point she heads to bed again. This major gap in her schedule was originally filled by a package known as ElseGodHaterExploreArena8x12. This would make her leave the inn for the local arena at 8am and stay there for a whole 12 hours until returning to wind down for a drink. This would see her actually leave the building and give a bit more purpose to the character.

Removed Visitors - Major

Removed visitors with a bit more meat (and a lot of NPC dialogue) on their bones.

Bruma#

Advanced Alchemy trainer Brotch Calus spends most of his day lounging around his house. This behavior is caused by his AI package TrainerBrumaArenaDailySpectator9x12. As its name implies, the package would've made Brotch hang out at the arena daily, from opening at 9am until no more bets are taken at 9pm. The retiree was such a well-known face around the arena that unused rumors about him would have mentioned his love for the place just as much as his training abilities. Brotch is actually the only person mentioned in the BrumaNQDScript whose rumors didn't make it into the final game, which is pretty remarkable. As is par for the course, the replies still exist but the NPC dialogue meant to trigger these lines does not.

Another question could've resulted in these two replies.

Chorrol#

The move of the Chorrol Arena to the Imperial City causes quite an interesting bug with the schedule of Acrobatics trainer Ida Vlinorman. Ida lives in the Imperial City, but she's a traveling NPC, an NPC that lives in the capital but has (an) AI package(s) that makes her visit another city in Cyrodiil. Ida has one main travel package, and then another secondary package that would make her stop at another spot in town. However, Ida would have visited the Chorrol Arena, and has the distinction of being the only known NPC that would've traveled from the Imperial City to another town to visit the respective arena. She does this because of her AI package IdaVlinormanVisitChorrolArena. Whereas in most cases, the respective markers these kinds of packages used got deleted alongside the arena cells, this specific marker (ArenaGalleryMarkerRef) stayed, as the Chorrol Arena cell was just moved, rather than deleted. However, since the package expects Ida to be in Chorrol, but the marker she's sent to is now in the Imperial City, her AI makes her travel back and forth.

Countess Arriana Valga herself was also supposed to be a main stay at the Chorrol Arena, with her citizens supposed to have dialogue about seeing her there. Once more, the initiating dialogue for these quotes no longer exists:

Two more response lines exist that don't even have entries in the Construction Set, they only exist as dialogue lines in the voice directory.

In the final game, there's an inconsequential Orc barbarian known as Gaturn gro-Gonk. While he is in no way remarkable in the final game, he actually has a script attached bearing the nondescript name gaturnScript. This script may very well be one of the most interesting leftovers of original NPC behavior we have. Inside the script, the following can be found:

 scriptname gaturnScript

short GaturnDay
short GaturnState   ; 1 - Gaturn lost gold betting at Arena today  [set in results]; 2 - Gaturn won't talk about Chorrol for a day; 3 - Gaturn won gold at Arena today; 4 - Gaturn offered you a drink; 5 - Gaturn goes hunting [set in results]

begin gamemode

If ( GaturnState == 1 )
    set GaturnDay to gamedayspassed
    set GaturnState to 2
endif

If ( GaturnDay < gamedayspassed && GaturnState == 2 )
    Set GaturnState to 3
endif

end 

These values contained within state that if Gaturn lost money betting at the arena, he would lose his "Chorrol" topic for a day. If he won money, he would offer you a drink, possibly from the bar that might have once been intended to be there. He would also apparently go hunting. There are no AI packages left over for this behavior, and in the final game there are only a handful of NPCs that go hunting. One of which being the aforementioned Jean-Pierre Lemonds, former Bravil Champion. NPCs that visit the Imperial City arena make mention of betting, but they don't actually do so, as they have no such intricate AI set up. They just head over and watch a match. There is however, an unused AI package that would see Gaturn head to the arena by the name of GaturngroGonkArenaGallery16x4. Apparently, Gaturn would visit the place daily, from 4 to 8pm. It's actually a good thing that this package goes unused, as it checks for the same marker as Ida's package, mentioned above. Since said marker still exists, if this package was in Gaturn's AI schedule, he would unexpectedly leave to head to the Imperial City.

Imperial City#

Notably, the Thieves Guild-related NPCs, Myvryna Arano and Methredhel both have unused AI packages that would have made them go to the Imperial City Arena. MethredhelArenaSS14x4 would have made her go to the Arena in the weekend for 4 hours starting from 2pm, and MyvrynaArena would make her visit daily, from 12pm to 6pm.

Also, for some reason, the NPC Gwinas has an unused line that he was meant to use when spectating an arena match in the Imperial City. However, there are absolutely no leftovers implying he was ever meant to go there besides this line, and Gwinas himself is only enabled after speaking to Phintias during the Main Quest "The Path of Dawn". This implies one of three things:

• 1) He was meant to have a more elaborate schedule after the quest was done. In the final game, he just has some very basic shared packages, not really a unique schedule to speak of. In fact, upon quest completion, Gwinas will never again leave the Tiber Septim Hotel at which he's staying.

• 2) He originally was meant to appear in the game before the quest and could be found elsewhere, rather than just the Hotel and First Edition. Besides the fact that his Editor ID isn't prefixed with the quest ID, there's nothing that would imply this to be the case.

• 3) The line may have been accidentally attached to Gwinas, and the person alphabetically before him, Hagaer might have been the intended speaker. Hagaer is very similar to Gwinas, both being upper class Bosmer men who are crazy about books. However, Hagaer is always present and has a house in the Imperial City. However, just like Gwinas, there is absolutely nothing left over that would imply he was intended to visit the Arena either. It's impossible to tell which Bosmer was meant to visit the arena for sure, but as Gwinas has the line, his odds look more favorable.

When spoken to during an arena match, the bookish Bosmer would let himself go a bit, revealing:

Beggars at the Arenas

One idea that was also shared between all the cities was that one of the two beggars in each city would have begged at the market, while the other would beg at the local arena. The package AnvilBeggarToArena goes completely unused while BravilBeggarToArena is used by Wretched Aia. Similarly, BrumaBeggarToArena is used by Fetid Jofnhild and CheydinhalBeggarToArena is used by Luckless Lucina. ChorrolBeggarToArena is used by Nermus the Mooch, but surprisingly a package for the beggars in Leyawiin simply does not exist. It was either never made or was deleted while the others stayed. Finally, SkingradBeggarToArena gets used by Nigidius the Needy. Of course, despite the majority of these packages still being used in the final game, they send the beggars to pretty random spots, as while the package seeks out defined markers like SkingradArenaGateMarker, said markers is now placed in the world without the context of an arena. Usually being covered up by another city gate or a statue of some kind.

Adoring Fans

The Adoring Fan is internally known as ArenaFan1. Usually NPCs like this don't get a numbered suffix, unless there are meant to be multiple of them. Therefore, it's possible that becoming the Grand Champion in any of the arenas could've resulted in an Arena Fan character with a varied personality.

Miscellaneous Notes - General

Other Arena-related notes that don't really fit in elsewhere.

• There are no leftovers of any kind implying that there were to be Battle Matrons in other arenas. This seems to have been a role specifically made for the Imperial City Arena. Ysabel Andronicus was not created alongside Hundolin and Owyn either, so did not come from the Chorrol Arena like them, but was created at a later date.
• This also goes for Branwen and Saliith, the Arena Hopefuls that spar outside the Imperial City Arena in the final game. They seem to have been made as supplemental background characters and were not carryovers from Chorrol. It's also unlikely that the other arenas had similar "hopefuls".
• There are two unused chests present in the files, known as AnvilBloodworksChest and LeyawiinBloodworksChest. These may have served a purpose similar to the unique cupboard present in the Imperial City's Arena. The cupboard contains some random loot and the Athletics skill book The Ransom of Zarek. Meanwhile, the Leyawiin chest contains the same random loot and the Marksman skill book The Gold Ribbon of Merit. Anvil's chest contains only the random loot, no skill book. It's possible that the other arenas had or were intended to have similar containers offering a specific skill book in them.
• Based on leftover early topics, we know that you could originally ask guards in each city for directions to the local arena. However, with the removal of the arenas, this dialogue option became obsolete.
• Inside of the ArenaAnnouncerScript, a developer note attached to the "Arena.CityAnnounced" variable states that "this plays the announcer sound file for the appropriate city" Of course, this functionality is irrelevant, seeing as there is only one arena in the final game, and no other city's voice files still remain. For some reason, another developer note explicitly name drops Chorrol in the script as well.
• The unused NQDAnvilNPCScript contains two interesting variables: "short ArenaPush" which refers to Anvil's Arena in an unknown capacity, and "short DumaniaInsulted". This latter variable is actually commented out and has the following developer note attached: "feature deleted when voice files were reduced" This voice file reduction does not seem to be related to the arena at all, but rather to the reworking of the city topic system. This lends further credence to the idea that Bethesda had already started cutting down on dialogue even before deciding on removing the other arenas as well.

Miscellaneous Notes - Cheydinhal

• In Cheydinhal, rumors about the Count's steward, Naspia Cosma, talk about how she'd rather fight in the Arena than work at the castle. Naspia even confirms this in her Cheydinhal topic. All these lines are vague enough that one might assume she's talking about the Arena in the Imperial City, but it might have once been intended to reference the Cheydinhal Arena instead. Two of Naspia's usual rumors seem to have gotten entirely deleted, presumably these would have mentioned the arena too explicitly and got deleted because they could not get repurposed.
• Also in Cheydinhal, the Fighters Guild Guardian Ohtimbar may tell you about how he competed in "the Arena". Once again, his greeting is vague enough that it could work in both contexts. In his Cheydinhal topic, Ohtimbar explicitly makes mention of the "Arena in the Imperial City", although this may very well be a line recorded at a later date. While it does not include the usual "REC" note, this isn't consistently used 100% of the time, and it's quite strange that his town topic does not make mention of said town at all. If he originally spoke about being a fighter at the local arena, then the line would need to be changed, but it would make more sense as a Cheydinhal topic.

Miscellaneous Notes - Chorrol

• Inside of the NQDChorrol quest's "Topics" section, there's a player topic known as ChorrolArenaTopic that would've simply read "Chorrol Arena". It has no dialogue attached, voiced or otherwise, and it's unknown where exactly it would've been used.

• In the ChorrolNQDScript, there aren't just variables for people or places like in most of these scripts, but there are also more general lines for the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, and... Arena. Two NPC dialogue lines remain, but the question triggering them does not: