Am I the only one here thinks that it's bizarre for NPC's to start caressing dead bodies? I just finished saving a few stormcloaks from a fort by invading it. After finishing the quest http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g322/Raidensama/Skyrim/TESV2012-03-0600-49-07-47.jpg.


What is the meaning behind caressing dead bodies?

Perhaps theyre trying to steal his stuff?

They are checking for a pulse to see if they are still alive. Just like in real life.

you dont check a pulse by waving your hands around the body.

This happens with the second murder in Windhelm too. I believe it's a non-verbal way to express grief or sadness over a death. I don't know how else they might done it. Lots of NPCs just stand around but this was a real expression of emotion. Many of the people in a civil war are fighting their own family members, not outsiders.

They're not caressing. They're fondling.

It's kinda the same thing, but not really.

They're not really caressing.
I mostly see it as them giving the body a poke to see if they're still alive.

Isn't that homeopathy? No, that's "like treats like." What's that other quackery where you don't actually do anything to help heal somebody, other than wave your hands around and steal their wallet? Aroma-therapy? Prestidigitation?

Uhm ... I always assumed they were checking for loot? They also do it with animals, and I'd think those npc's must all have quite a soft heart to be caressing the ones they killed. Not to mention how horribly wrong "caressing a dead body" sounds ... xP I honestly thought this thread would be talking about that necromancer who loves his victims a tad too much.

Done on guys, it's call "looting". Otherwise, it's call "coping a feel".

Psycic surgery qualifies, although that usually involves some slight of hand where you produce blood and some sort of gristly chunk you claim you removed via your tool-less, non penetrating "surgery".

But what you are probably thinking of is Reiki, which is a perfectly valid guided meditation technique (when advertised as such).

Both of these techniques can produce real healing. Expensive (in terms of time invested or cash, either way) placebos are provenly more effective than cheap ones, and often more effective (and safer) than over-marketed medications whose main claim to optimal effectiveness is that their patent has not yet expired.

Or maybe you were referring to politics? That involves a lot of hand waving and theft, but can't produce any real healing...

They must be friends with Falanu. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Falanu_Hlaalu

Ivory (and I with her) was scarred for life after murdering a particular Khajiit in the middle of the Riften market.
...All of the merchants took turns.