I have been in Markarth for a few days now, and I am certain that the town smith (not her brother in the Jarls palace, the lady by the waterfall) and her apprentice are not there.

I have tried reloading old save files, but entering the city anew for the first time does not make them appear any more than before...

Does anyone know if this is deliberate?

Is there a reason for them not being there?

Are they somewhere else, only to appear later?

Are there any quest for the duration of which they are nowhere to be found?

If none of the above is true, would I be able to spawn them in using player.placeatme, and then have them function as they should?

Will they go about their daily routines if spawned in this way, or will they just stand around and be helpful to no one?

Thanks.

Perhaps they were killed by vampires?

I'm guessing they're either dead or bugged out and teleported outside of Markarth. I've had a couple merchants from Solitude fast travel with me out into the open world. They then try to walk back to their city.

I'd use-

prid 00019906

player.moveto

just to see where she actually is. Then if she isn't around one of her scheduled locations (the forge, walking around town, Understone Keep), reload to the previous save and enter:

prid 00019906

moveto player

to get her where she's supposed to be.

Make a save before tinkering with console commands though. Also Tacitus' refid is 00019907

Valid idea, but I've had no vampire attacks in Markarth...

I'll try this out after dinner.

I don't fast travel though, so they'd have to have bugged out in their own ;P

Thanks to you both (:

I have had NPCs disappear if they are in close proximity to other NPCs that are scripted to dissapear. For instance, the smith in Whiterun that stands outside her shop near the gate disappeared in one of my games after the redgaurds looking for the redguard woman disappeared after I spoke with them. She was standing nearby them, and when they walked off and disappeared, so did she, never to be seen again.

A differnt time, I had a follower who I asked to wait near one of the NPCs that you encounter on the way up to high hrothgar. I made the mistake of hitting the wait button near the lady who is sitting at one of the monoliths about half way up the trek. I waited there for a few hours and the sitting NPC disappeared (presumably because it was getting dark so she went home) but my follower disappeared right along with her, never to be seen again.

Many times I've seen the results (dead NPC's) of vampire attacks that occurred during the night when I was asleep. They usually happen right when you enter a city but not always.

Well, maybe...
But I have found no other proof to support the hypothesis...

You could also check the Markarth hall of the dead for their remains, though that will start a quest if you haven't done it already. Maybe enter, check it out, then load a previous save.

Okay, using player.moveto I was able to find their location...

http://i.imgur.com/OpuCnS4.jpg?1

I'm going to attempt to move them home now and see if they can have a normal life after this whole experience.

Thanks guys (:

Any idea how they got there?

None whatsoever, my friend xD

Probably just a glitch...

Wouldn't be the first xD

One should always be ready with the console when playing in case something go wrong ;P

That's actually pretty funny.

And hot damn, do you have a lot of quests selected.