When the first images forThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredsurfaced, probably all of us wondered why it’s called a remaster and not a remake. There’s no doubt that the game was rebuilt from the ground up. Eventually,Bethesda revealed that it’s called a remasterbecause every aspect of the game besides the visuals had been kept the way players remember it. Down to thehilarious jank and famous voice over mistakes.
While there have been some changes that the devs were probably forced to make, they ensured that they were as close to the original as possible. However, over two months after launch, fans have finally spotted a major difference between the classic title and the remaster. It seems that the mermaid statue in Anvil was very different in the original release.
Oblivion Remastered’s Mermaid Statue Used To Be A Selkie In The Original
While it looks like a mermaid, the statue placed in Anvil in the original was actually a Selkie. According to Celtic and Norse folklore, a Selkie is a creature that looks like a seal, but can shed its skin on land to resemble a woman. Perhaps the devs at Virtuous didn’t spot the difference while making the remaster, and probably thought it was a mermaid.
As pointed out byAutomatedMiner, “This statue in Anvil depicts a Selkie in the original game, a half-woman, half-seal creature from Irish folklore (note the split-ended seal tail and smooth skin), whereas the remaster shows a mermaid - her seal half is clearly now a fish tail, with visible scales.”
While many in the comments argued that it’s just a mermaid statue that looks like that due to the graphics of the time, it seems there’s actually evidence that it’s a Selkie. Onpage 355 of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Official Game Guide, there’s a map of Anvil along with an index for all the points of interest.
The one for the statue in question is named ‘The Selkie of West Skerry’, and even has a short description:
This seal-maid’s lover stole the selkie’s seal skin, hoping to keep her from leaving him for the sea, but the lover’s wife had secretly cut the skin in two, leaving one part so the selkie might find it. The selkie donned her partial skin, and discovered herself neither seal nor maid, but halfseal and half-maid. She fled the land but is said to guide lost mariners to land in the dense fogs of the Gold Coast.
So, it seems that the statue was actually that of a Selkie in the original, but devs behind the remaster simply mistook it for a mermaid. It’s an easy enough mistake to make, considering they were probably focussing on more important aspects of the remaster.
