Have you ever seen an ancient ruin? Doubtlessly you must've encountered a trap of some sort. From tripwires to pressure plates, they were extremely common in the ancient times.

The first known recording of a trap was in the early Merethic Era, from the journal of the Aldmer soldier Ithranis (though traps in Adamantine Tower suggest that they date to the Dawn), in which he speaks about luring Sload invaders into a rockslide triggered by a pressure plate. The use of traps became very common in Aldmeri society, and the traps in the royal treasure vaults of King Elthron were so said to be dangerous it was said that only the architect of the palace and the king knew how to retrieve anything and survive. Elthron cut off his architects tongue so that he may never tell anybody how to enter it, his hands so that he could never write the way down, and his feet so that he may never go and steal it for himself. Many years afterwards, King Alinor IV commanded his servants to go and retrieve the relics from the vault, lest they be forever lost behind the fiendish traps. Thirty elves died in trial and error attempting to claim them.

The Dwemer were renowned as master trapmaskers. One of their most cruel sports was to get some slaves, and throw them into a dungeon filled with many traps, betting on how many would escape. The Dwemer distrusted everyone, especially other Dwemer, and it was regarded as foolish to not install at least one trap in one's home, similar to how we regard it as foolish not to install locks on our doors. The Spider Animunculi still repair the traps, much to the annoyance of adventurers.

Men had many devious traps as well. In folklore, the paranoid Jarl Ivar of Winterhold commissioned a magical door that would curse anybody who attempted to open it without using the exact proper key, afraid of being murdered while he slept. A cunning assassin managed to steal Ivar's key and replace it with an almost identical one, resulting in Ivar having the life svcked out of him when he sought to go to bed. King Louis of Wayrest was said to have a portrait of himself that breathed fire on anybody who attempted to steal it from his art gallery, though this is just myth.

The age of traps was not to last. Versidue-Shaie, believing traps to be a public danger, banned placing them in public and use of them by civilians, a practice that continues to this day. Morrowind still has trapped locks on doors and chests, as it was part of the Armistice. In the modern day, the only men who use traps are criminals and nobility. This is a much more enlightened age, and such dangerous practices are no longer permitted.