Everyone loves a walkable city, even an Argonian, I’m sure. But, according to one Skyrim fan and geographic information systems (GIS) graduate student, Tamriel has some serious geospatial issues.
The grad student, Henry, recently conducted a study they posted on Substack analyzing how walkable Skyrim’s major cities Solitude, Windhelm, Riften, Whiterun, and Markarth are. After converting each city’s map into a graph and performing statistical analysis Henry came to a conclusion: not very walkable.
“Overall, it appears that while most of Skyrim’s cities are walkable from a connectivity standpoint, they fall short at providing direct, efficient routes between residential locations and amenities,” Henry observes. “I think the clear winner here is Solitude, given that it has the median Beta index and much lower average circuity. I guess the Imperial legion knows how to plan a city better than the Stormcloaks (or at least pick a better place for their headquarters)!”
I just don’t know how the Stormcloaks plan to lead an insurrection without decent sidewalks…
