A thought occurred to me as I was placing yet another set of high-powered boss armor on a mannequin, and a high-powered boss blade on my wall: "Really? What am I doing?"

So here I am, the Dovankiin, getting close to end-game on a character again and becoming way OP, with this huge collection of very powerful artifacts -- deadric items, Miraak's gear, dragonscale and dragonbone stuff, Auriel's bow... you know, like basically all the super-powered artifacts a person can collect in the game. Now, if I were really my character, I would also know I can't live forever, and there are a lot of bad, stupid people out there who would love to get their hands on this stuff and put it to bad use. I would also know that I am gone from my home more than I am there, so having this collection of unsecured yet potentially very dangerous stuff is actually pretty darn stupid.

So, really, what would be a responsible way to handle all these artifacts we can collect in the game? Where would you leave it, knowing you can't live forever? How would you insure it stays safe and out of the wrong hands? Or would you? Any thoughts?

well, in the case of Aedric or Daedric artifacts you wouldn't have to really worry, as they literally have minds of their own.. the Daedric ones usually return to their lord after awhile, and Aedric ones seem to magically re materialize elsewhere fairly commonly (as thats the only way Auriel's Bow can bounce around as much as it does)


as for non-god related artifacts, i suppose if I wanted to keep them out of the hands of others after my passing that Sky Haven would be the best location.. its fortified, only one entrance that would be easily defensible by a small group (or, you could just reseal it and since there will be no further Dragonborns they would have to knock that stone door down entirely), and its location isn't known by many..

What Funnybunny said, plus High Hrothgar or Fort Dawnguard. If I was a vampire character, castle Volkihar.

Sell them to my good friend Belethor for a tidy sum, trusting that he will wisely keep them from falling into the wrong hands.

My story for this is that the agents for the redistribution of Daedric and other artifacts is the Thieves Guild (in particular the Nightingales) acting under direction from Noctunal, their patron. She ensures that they they go back to their creators, or are safely disposed of.

You may have noticed that "destruction" of a Daedric artifact in Martin's ritual for opening a portal to Mankar Cameron's Paradise (TES 4) didn't actually do so. It just sent it back to be reused later in Skyrim (TES 5). So any attempt to do so in Mundus can be considered futile.

WHich is why I dumped several of the more dangerous over the side of the Whalebone bridge........

Martin never says that his ritual will permanently destroy the artifact: "Remember, the Mysterium Xarxes ritual will consume the physical form of the artifact in order to release its daedric power... It won't be seen again on Tamriel for many years." He essentially needs to crack it open like a walnut to get at the essence of a Daedric lord (from which all Daedric artifacts are formed) for the ritual.