One of the things I love about Skyrim is that the world is full of little stories that have no related quest but add depth to the world. For instance, I found a husband and wife who, in a note, were concerned about dragons and considering moving away. This is how I found them (sorry for the crappy shot, 360 doesn't have screen capture):

http://i.imgur.com/vB7Og.jpg


If I were a modder and had a computer capable of playing this, I would add more of these stories in!

Giant and his dead mammoth.

The saddest thing I discovered is when I was casting a fi..fir..fi..fir.e.fire...fireba...ball.ball..fireball and oops! my game crash.

Meeko is pretty sad.

The saddest thing that I've discovered is that if you enter a certain cave before a certain quest, then you'll lose the chance to become thane of Riften. Just kidding. The saddest thing that I've seen in game is for the quest by the Riften docks where you have to return a lexicon for an Argonian lady. Felt really bad for them after going through the ruin.

a charred corpse on its knees grasping its throat with a distressed look permanently charred on its face in a field with a flame shell tome...i guess they got the incantation wrong poor soul must have died an excruciating death...

How the blades want you to kill a dragon and lose the graybeards trust with a really weak reason

I think the fate of the family at Frostflow Lighthouse is sad. Especially the girl in a way ... her brother left her an iron dagger, to "use" before the nasties came back. Dead, all dead. And one by her own hand.

It was especially sad because they clearly all loved one another. They had a good backstory and their personal diaries, even among their frustrations with one another at times, showed they cared.

Too bad.

In a way, its kinda frustrating that there is too much sadness, in the sense that its always easier to have no survivors and to have less NPC objects around, from a game resource perspective.

I also feel bad for lots of living NPCs, like the lady at the shop in ... is it Solitude? Or Markath? The one whose shop is named after her husband's father ... both of whom are dead. Poor gal. I wish you could marry her. Maybe you can, but my character is already married.

This poor fella.

http://i39.tinypic.com/1zyhcaa.jpg

This too.

Skyrim is a sad place. I like it.

The saddest I've found is a whole family slaughtered in a very remote location, reading their diaries and notes and seeing their pathetic effects. It made me want to destroy every trace of the Falmer in Skyrim, and utterly wipe them from the face of the planet, along with their spitting "pets". There is a small revenge quest associated with this particular location and event.(Oops, noted by above poster, Frostflow Lighthouse).

That the dogs you buy at Markarth aren't Permanent Companions and go back to the Stables if you dismiss them

that morthal needs its own hold when you literally see the Blue palace from there
plus it doesnt have a blacksmith, general store, or stables...

When I heard the story of one of the imprisoned men in the silver blood mine during the Forsworn quest I felt pretty sad. He was accused of a crime he didn't commit (I think, I can't remember entirely) and was sentenced to death, then his daughter volunteered to take his place, so they killed her and then through the poor man in the silver blood mine for the rest of his life.

the ruins of helgen

On my warrior who uses all ebony, the Boethiah quest was glitched so I couldn't get the Ebony Mail.

On my mage who's a dwemer scholar who uses spells and a dagger, the Arniel's Endeavor quest was glitched so I can't get Keening!

Cone on Bethesda, it's like you didn't even try to fix the bugs.

ya i wish there was an option to let the vampires go all 30 days of night on that rundown excuse of a city.

Wasn't sad for me, we nearly die there.

The family inside the lighthouse, the story of narfi and his sister... and some others... can't really pick a top one ._. ( altough i did feel kinda of sad and reliefed to bring the dad's head to the lighthouse when i got his head from the chaurus...)

thats another thing that if your a vampire other vampires cant be like welcome friend sit down and have a drink.
no theyre like dunmer from morrowind and dont recognize there own kind...

The story of the man in the mines as well. It was really sad; his daughter sacrificed herself for him, but he was still sent to the mines. Pretty cruel.

I also stumbled across burned houses and burned corpses many, many times, poor people burned alive by dragons ( I suppose, at least )

Meeko was also sad if you think about it.

And the guy who was studying deep down beneath a glaciar where the Falmers lived and you found his corpse - I don't know why, but I imagine that it'd be horrible to die alone in a place like this :c

The Dark Brotherhood betrayal. Why must they always make the DB quests so dramatic, ugh. It was terrible to see how everyone died, burned and suffered.

There are so many other sad things, but I can't recall them ...

Astrid betrayed me. I was extatic when I killed "The emperor" but it was a trap.. That made me angry but I pitied her.

I haven't had any sad moments yet that wasn't part of a major questline. I hadn't had any sad easter egg moments like the above.

But there was one moment that made me sad. It was a glitch, pure and simple, but it happened. I lead a giant to Whiterun Stables and hopped inside the little gate area next to the house. One of the men took out his dagger to fight the giant...only nothing happened. The both of them just stood there, a mere few feet from me, looking at each other. The giant's mournful gaze was a stark contrast from the man's furious snarl.

Then my mind made up a weird-ass scenario that likely couldn't happen in TES universe: What if the giant had once raised the man from infancy. Y'know, like the old "raised by wolves" thing, only this time it's a giant doing the rearing. The giant's face literally looked like he didn't want to kill this man, as he remembered him from a time long ago, when he was a lost wild boy living with giants.

Again, I know, it couldn't happen in TES lore at all, but thanks to my imagination this glitch of man and giant staring at each other turned into a tragic moment where the adoptive giant and adopted human met one last time in a horrible way.

Result? I fled the scene.

The saddest thing is probably all those poor guards who took an arrow to the knee...

I was kinda sad when I found the remains of my old alchemy mentor Sinderion from Oblivion; having apparently been shot twice in the back by a dwemer guardian sphere