Northwatch Keep. It's a Thalmor Outpost, with a current garrison and apparently a somewhat active and ongoing mission. I won't tell you what about, but it doesn't matter. The point is, the Keep is currently in use by a (presumably) wealthy and/or powerful nation.

Why on earth is it so dingy in there? Why are there cobwebs everywhere? Why are the Thalmor skulking about like so many Falmer? Why is the furniture upturned, and there so much damage to the place? It's like an abandoned ruin inside there, even though it's not a ruin, nor abandoned.

In fact, many of the game's "fort" like locations are much the same. Bandit camps might be justifiably dingy, because bandits tend to hide out in places like that, but Stormcloaks, Imperials, and Thalmor all take up residence in ruined dusty old forts.

Why doesn't anyone ever clean the place up?

It seems to me like this game needs one more category of dungeon, in addition to the ruins and caves that already exist:

Occupied Fortification.

They should be lit, clean, and busy with people. None of this skulking about in some musty dungeon for the Legion/Thalmor/Stormcloaks.

For the Thalmor one, it's because Elenwen blew the budget on all her parties. The Stormcloaks are not very wealthy, and are using their money on the war effort, not to make soldiers comfortable. And the Empire thinks the forts are too far away to send lots of goods from Cyrodiil so they're all furnished from what's available locally.

Who cares??

They're 2nd era forts that have been left to ruin. They've simply been re-used as is by other factions.

Man .. you guys take this to serious ...

who cares about the thalmor fort.

As long as it is A THALMOR fort, i will wreck the entire place, so if they had cleaned it and made it as pretty as elenwen's prostitution centre, i mean party, it will still get dirty later on by my hands.

Actually shouldnt this thread go to spoilers?

I get where you're going with this but isn't this a tad bit "mundane" of a issue to ponder with? :S

Its all redundant as the forts are RUINS.
That's why they're knackered.

I think most of you are missing the point. You'd complain too if the houses and buildings in the cities were as dingy and broken up as the dungeons. I'm just saying that active, garrisoned forts should seem about as well kept as the garrisons in the cities.

And as for people complaining that I'm nitpicking, what exactly is the point of your post? Bethesda developers pay a lot of attention to detail, that's one of the selling points of their games.

I kinda understand what the OP means. Everything is just so disorganized.

It's not a question of understanding, it's a question of who the [censored] cares?

OP cares. I kinda care.

What it is, is you barged in while they were still consulting the Thalmor Outpost Decorating Guide.

Not you, so why are you here? I do.

I care, like some others in this thread. If you don't, then take yourself to a thread where you do care.

This makes me chuckle.

The Empire should be the most "expected" to tidy things up a bit, the Stormcloaks could care less or most important spare the resources and the Thalmor well i think the Thalmor just go with "i'm not cleaning-up this dump"

I saw few forts which were sort of fixed with wooden structures..

I was under the impression that it was more time-efficient to simply use the old fort system Reman Cyrodiil (late 1st Era) constructed to ward of Aakaviri invasions, rather than construct a whole new system of fortifications for a petty local uprising.

I honestly think the forts are done pretty well. They look hastily re-occupied and retrofitted (wooden barriers constructed over broken wall segments, etc) while still looking like they were from almost 2,000 years ago.

The Forts look amazing.

Seems to me there was a war recently that devastated the Empire, with the Thalmor-led Aldmeri Dominion the victors. The Thalmor are basically occupying Skyrim with Imperial forces. They have no interest in rearming or restoring them. Go talk to Ondolemar in Understone Keep, Markarth. He'll tell you what's what.

Oh, and toilets, hah. Never heard of a chamber pot? In the basemant of the house I'm building as a mod, I placed a bucket in an alcove with a couple of shelves. The shelves have minor stamina and healing potions (probably should add a resistance-to-fire one, too, but I don't suppose Skyrim cuisine is all that spicy) and a stack of ruined books. As a finishing touch, I placed a hidden chair marker over the bucket.

Exactly, same reason all the forts in Cyrodill are knackered.

Actually there many toilets in game. Just sayin'

What concerns me the most is the damp environment in most places...
Why the people living is this places don't catch a pneumonia is a mystery to me.

Especially the thief guild (i know, not a fort), it's raining water (i hope its water) all the time in there.

Someone made similar complaints about Fallout 3.

The Brotherhood's Citadel remains dirty as hell despite being inhabited.