So the other day I noticed that Solitude was completly resting on a stone slab being held up by a rock pillar comming out of the ocean/lake thing

what would happen to solitude if the rock slab were to crumble apart in the middle of the town or if the rock pillar were to be eaten away by the water ?

how would you respond if this happend while your character was in the middle of shopping at the particular town ?


(I havent played through alot of skyrim so if this does in fact happen during the main quest or one of the guild quest o.0)

I thought the same thing when I first walked up to Solitude.
You have to admit though, its one amazing sight.

I would suppose that the people that live there are aware of this too and take steps both mundane and arcane to prevent a disaster.

Should it happen I'd imagine the Jarl would move her/his palace to the fortress, and Solitude in general would lose a lot of people and suffer for it. It might just even turn into the next winterhold because of it.

Winterhold 2!

Hmm. Magic is probably preventing that from happening. Still, pretty dumb ass idea to build a city up there.

I was in Christchurch NZ for the big earthquake, what I did was go back to my game of Neverwinter Nights that was rudely interrupted.

I assume that the settlement that became Solitude was built rather long ago.
Therefore it would be a village or a small fort at best. From there they got a good view to the Sea of Ghosts, and a good defensive spot.
They probably didn't thought that the city would once be the biggest in Skyrim and made out of mostly stone.

In the real world, I would never never live in Solitude because it's just out there in the air, just hanging there. Well, that's how it looks anyway. There must not be earthquakes on Nirn because it's such a magical place.

could say the same about the settlement atop Machu Picchu...fact of the matter is if anyone marched on Solitude / machu picchu they would not have a hope in hell of taking it.

providing there's an arcane barrier around Solitudes weak points there not going anywhere the people marching on them would just drop like flies, or rather ant having boiled water poured over them, its a pretty smart choice really considering theres magic in use aswell in the game world im sure there protected from any collapse.

on that note though i doubt any thought of the defences etc went into it i bet someones head exploaded with that idea when they where writting there lore whenever that was.

i hope it doesnt get destoryed! i love it!

Wait, I took it twice with the Stormcloaks.
GAAAAH BETHESDA Y U NO FOLLOW THE LORE???!!!11!11!1!!!!

Well yeah, when magic comes into play you could say it was a feasible location to build a city. Still, even if Solitude started out as a small hamlet/village/settlement I'm sure the locals could tell big chunks of rock were missing, and could therefore infer that more would come loose in the future. Also, judging by how some modern Nords view magic one can assume ancient Nords were even more close-minded about it. I doubt they'd take too kindly to living in a place that's solely held together by the supernatural force they hate.

Machu Pichu is entirely different. It's sitting on a mountain top. They're often rather steady. Solitude, howeever, is sitting on a rock arch. It's onl a matter of time before errosion causes it to collapse.

And if I were to lay siege to Solitude, I would take my siege engines up the hill towards the Thalmor Embassy. That'd give them a hieght advantage and allow me to rain stones down on top of the city.