I'm not talking about any essential NPCs since I imagine they're immortal. But what if a player decides they want to wipe out an entire village, or what if a bunch of NPCs are killed from a dragon attack. Will other NPCs come in to fill their places/roles? Or will the area turn into a ghost town?

I remember Bethesda talking about the whole Radiant Quest thing and how (this might have been a while ago) if the PC kills an inn keeper we might encounter the inn keeper's son arriving to fill his father's shoes.

I've been very curious because I'm playing a rather nasty PC and have had urges to purge a few settlements... but if that means I'll be left with an NPC-less zone then forget it.

Does anyone know how re-population works or *IF* it does?

I'm not sure, but I think it only happens IF the person has a suitable next of kin, like a son.

Bethesda said that if a shopkeeper has perished, a relative would take over. However, as far as I know, this is not in the game.

No one has seen that happen yet. Disappointing!

I've seen it mentioned alot... like the trader in Riverwood, if he's killed his daughter takes over.

I hope Riverwood has had a quite few deaths with all it's dragon attacks.

I'm thinking that their kin take over, but this is only in certain cases. The son/daughter/whatever already exists in the game. No new npcs actually join the village. Simply a switch of roles.

lad in falkreath was killed by a dragon and no one took over his forge they probably over exaggerated this feature too much

i will exterminate Marthal and report on my findings in a few days

I'm rather surprised from looking around the net that most of the opinions on this subject are still inconclusive and speculation; and it's a pretty common question. You'd think there would be *something* official from Bethesda suggests a definitive "yes" or "no" for re-population.


Looking forward to the findings of your case study.

FOR SCIENCE!

There are puppies in the game?