On the map of Skyrim that has been circulating (and which I'm probably not allowed to link to) you can clearly see numerous small red crosses dotted all around the map on small Islands, atop mountains, at the bottom of lakes and sat out in the middle of nowhere. According to my counting there are 24 in all which ruled out my initial thought that they might be daedric shines (although thinking about it there may just be more than one of each). What else could they be?

EDIT:
My thoughts: - Just plain old 'treasure island'-style treasure/loot
- Dwarven artefacts/ruins
- Ancient shines of some sort
- Bits or ancient ruin similar to the mossy head that was seen in the trailer.
- Imperial forts or encampments
- Some sort of cult shines

Etc. etc. etc.....

Could they be towns or settlements?

Dragon lairs maybe?

Also, is it bad if pirates were NOT the first thing that came to mind from reading the title/subtitle?

If you compare the leaked map to other maps that show the names and locations of all the smaller settlements the crosses seem to match up.

Probably not... Minor towns such as Riverwood are marked clearly with a sort of house/building shaped marker.

Theres also one thats a bit too close to Riverwood for it to be a town or village. And there's one in water which would have to be an argonian town which is a little far fetched (but possible).

the x's do not represent settlements i believe, as their are already icons that resemble a house. If this is true, then their are 9 major settlements ad 7 minor settlements. That sounds like a decent number to me.

Although, it's a bit strange that there are more major settlements than minor.

for me, the more the merrier honestly.

Example?

EDIT: I'm leaning towards them being the ruins in the style of Bleak Falls Barrow (explaining why one would be close to Riverwood as that would be BFB) which could suggest that they might all contain be Word Wall's: How many types of dragon shouts are there supposed to be?

They can be only houses or points of interest

Why those two things? Obviously they're going to be "points of interest", but that tells us nothing.

I loved the map that came with Morrowind cause it had Xs on it, they generally were shipwrecks.
I have no idea what the Xs on the skyrim map are for...Points of interest maybe

Looked it up in the urban dictionary....never heard of it used as expression for that before...

Werewolf locations ...Sorry ,had to say that. Anyway i have no idea,we'll find out soon enough. :thumbsup: