I believe I found a resonable explination as to why there is a child skeleton in cursed mine in oblivion. I believe the reason for this skeleton being in this mine is told in the "The legend of nackles" from the fiction book "fools ebony". Now before you dismiss my idea, for this being my first time posting, this is just a preliminary evaluation.fools ebony is fiction it say so even in the play it's self. but no mention is made as to wether The legend of nackles is fiction or not. I believe that the skeleton found in cursed mine is proof that the legend has some basis in fact. I will now anolyze excerpts of the legend and point out my conclusions.

1.)"Anyway, Old Nasty Nackles is supposed to wander under our Tamriel, in dirty deep dark dwarven tunnels. Everywhere under the lands, if you can believe that! Rides in a rusty squeaky old mine cart, on old mine tracks ..."

This makes mention of mines but also of a mine cart and mine tracks which are both near the to the child skeleton. These tunnels are said to be everywhere under the land. this would include cyridil.

2.)"Now if that little brat has been very, very bad then Nackles grabs the brat. Pops him or her in his dirty great sack. Hauls the sack off down the holes and cracks, down to his rusty old mine cart! And away they go!"

This makes mention of him takeing children from their homes. this supports the reasoning for the child skeleton being in the mine.

3.)"But, as the story goes round here anyway, often the brat is just put to work, digging out lumps of Fools' Ebony, shoveling dirt, bagging it. Extending the tunnels of the Nackles. After a while, Brat is pushed back up to where it came from. Seems that Brat might think it's spent a year down there, but only a day has passed up top ... Brat comes back real thin and dirty though, covered in black mess ... You know, come to think of it -- on the day past Witches' Festival, I've often seen some little brats, scrawny, real dirty black mess on them, looking terrified, too. Parents drag them into Temples to get blessed and cured, if they have the gold. By the Beard of Sheogorath, the wailing and noise! Enough to drive a priest to ... er ... well, never mind ... that's our problem ..." "Well. Sometimes, so I've heard tell, the brat never comes back."

This is the most controversual part. this makes mention of fool's ebony. which contridicts the truth since fools ebony does'nt exist. these execerps also state that someimes the kid doesn't come back which I take as sometimes the kid dies.

4.)"Anyway, that's the short of it, this Nackles legend up around here. I recall now, it's widespread all over Tamriel ... and knowing the place, probably more than a grain of truth in the tale, much, much more ... "

this makes mention of the tale being widespred all over tamriel so this is not just from high rock.

5.)"So, I guess some of the ... er, darker Dark Elves sort of identify with this Nackles. Take on the persona, so to say ..."

this statement mentions that some dark elves take on the persona or try to be like him and I speculate from these words that someone in cyridil took on the persona of nackles, either from the legend or desided to take it on from the play, and kidnaped children and put them to work in this mine.

What do yall think? plausible?
later I will be presenting a reason for the three unknown curses of the seven curse.

its a joke on how there are not any kids in the game

I thought the child was in Fort Cuptor.

like I said this is just speculation. and there are two child skeletons in the game

as i said ummmm wrote it is a joke by bethesda

It is a well known occurence on earth for tales of punishment to be told to children. Such as Santa claus giving presents to good kids and coal to bad ones. The tales mainly seem to exist to reinforce the idea of punishment for taking negative actions. I'd imagine that on a cultural level, its nothing more then that.

How can you be so sure it's a joke from Bethesda?

It's a dead child, guys. A simple roleplaying dungeon prop.

And it works, because it made me rush the bastards and fall into the sewer tunnels to be trapped with a broken sword.

I'm glad they actually had the testicular fortitude to do THAT much.

And for the record, I'm not bashing gamesas with that statement.

Also, I don't even know how that could BE a joke...

"HAHA!!! A kid DIED down here. HOW HILARIOUS!! THAT STUPID SUM'B***H!!!"

...yeah...that's a great joke...

Yeah, it sounds like one of those cautionary, "you'd best behave or else" tales that are so popular to tell to children. Like Jenny Greenteeth or that hag that takes naughty children, skins them to turn said skin into leather and eats their flesh; I don't remember her name. Ah, the innocent tales of youth...

And Santa gives coal? Huh. I thought he gave switches to the bad ones.

A twisted joke?
Why not?

...Because it doesn't seem funny...at all...in ANY way....

The only way I feel it could be a joke is if it was poking fun at the fact that there are no kids in the game, as someone has suggested...but that doesn't really make any sense. At least not enough to be a real joke.

You mean the one from theif deadly shadows that kills children and wears their flesh as a disguise to infiltrate the keepers?

its a freaking joke by the devs about how there are no children in the game! like ha ha there are no children in the game because this is what happened to them

But...there is really no basis for that, because as far as I know...those are the only skeletons you see....

Someone please oblige the ignorant: what are the particulars of their deaths?

None given.

Ah...as I expected.

Eh, I can kinda see more how it could be seen as a joke, but it still seems pretty weak to me.

isnt there a childs skeleton in the si somewhere

Perhaps they are just runty Bosmer that you really really want to be children...?

they dont look like bosmer bones and i know what bosmer bones look like

Indeed you do...they look just like ours, I'm sure...

...uh...ok...

But in all seriousness about the best excuse you are going to find for childesque bones in game is:

A) the aforementioned runty Bosmer (which is what I would put my money on)

B) an optical illusion

C) A really bad joke by The Dam Dog on a slow day, who will then probably tell you that they are spacemen from Baan Dar

...choose whichever you like but they can't be children cause we all are well informed that children do not exist in the TES world...

...edit: the sunglasses emote was supposed to be a "B", but somehow unexpectedly fits in nicely with the whole optical illusion thing...

No, it's an old fairy/folk tale. The hag has a name and I want to say it's Mag Mell but it's probably not. She took children who wandered at night (or took them from their beds, it's been years since I read the story) and ate them after skinning them. If I remember correctly, she either wore the tanned skins or hung them on her walls like tapestries.

What is thief deadly shadows? I've never heard of that.

Its a game. The hag in that was named something that started with a G, and killed people, devouring flesh and using glyphs to steal their appearence. She also stole their skin. In reality she was a hulking monster of glyph magicks that became immortal at the price of becoming a monster who need the skin of mortals and glyph magic to appear human.

i don't get it you'r saying that they are trying to teach the player to be good or he'll wind up a skeleton? is that it?