OK, I've only played Oblivion and Morrowind (95% Oblivion though), and I recall that I haven't seen anyone smoking anything. Maybe there are drugs that can be smoked but is there anything in Tamriel that's the equivalent to a cigarette according to lore?

In Morrowind there were Skooma pipes but I dont think there are any cigerettes but in Oblivion there are Tobacco leaves

I'm not really sure about cigarettes, but Skooma (made out of Moonsugar) is quite a popular (and highly addictive) drug, which is smoked, I believe (Skooma pipes seem to suggest that). Though it looks like it is also possible to drink Skooma potions

I don't recall anyone ever smoking and I don't think bethesda would ever actually depict anyone ever smoking in any of their games, but I have found tobacco in Oblivion, and you can "eat" it so I guess in a way thats like chewing tobacco. And there is a mention of the Bosmer smoking bugs through pipes on the UESP, but I don't know if that counts or not.

edit - I actually found the reference to Bosmer smoking habits in the Imperial Library. Here is the quote:

""The Wood Elves, of course, cannot smoke anything of a vegetable nature. Bone pipes are common, however, and are filled with caterpillars or tree grubs."

I thought that skooma was drunk through a skooma pipe. I always thought of it as a filtration device that purified the skooma to make it more potent. If I remember correctly skooma was identified as a potion in Morrowind so therefore it has to be a liquid which makes it rather difficult to burn.

Yeah i've noticed that too. Just like there are absolutely no obese/fat/overweight/etc. people anywhere. Everybody is in shape. I find this to be very odd.

I'm not really an expert in smkoing department, but the form of skooma pipe and it's closest counterpart in RL suggest that the potion itself is poured into the pipe, then possible the pipe is somehow lit to boil skooma and the user smokes its vapour

So the skooma pipe is some sort of waterpipe?

There is NO WAY that Tamriel has cigarettes. That would be an anachronism. We don't really see any tobacco-smoking, but it would doubtlessly be done with a good old pipe, maybe (and that's a big maybe) with a full-size cigar. But definitely NOT a cigarette.

How come? In the middle ages there aren't as many fat people as there are now... I think.
Especially since food now is packed with chemicals, fats and sugar people can't seem to stop eating because it tastes so good. Yum!

There isn't much mention of smoking in Tamriel.
If they do, it probably have something to do with the skooma pipe but I'm not sure if it's the same as smoking...
But I really doubt they have cigarettes, it just doesn't really fit it. Perhaps something close to smoking.

Yes, they smoke.

Skooma is smoked through a hookah-like thing.

And people don't have freckles, scars or moles either. I'm going to let you on a secret -- one of the most closely-guarded secrets of the lore elite: to have obese people in the game, you need to make obese people models. To have people with different skins (so that they can have freckles, scars, moles, etc.), you need to make these textures. And you need to code the game in a way which allows you to arbitrarily give models and textures to specific people, rather than to an entire race at once. And all that is work that takes up time, time which could be used instead to put more loot and monsters in the game. Guess which choice the developers are going to do?


Tamriel is one thing. Earth's Middle Ages are a completely different thing. There are some superficial resemblances to all eras of the real world from the antiquity to nowadays in Tamriel. It's not supposed to be the past of our world, thankfully! It's a different world altogether. And aesthetical considerations rank much higher than historical reconstitution as far as concept design is concerned.

And there were fat people anyway, the difference between now and then is that then it was mostly the rich people who were fat, and they caught the gout; while now a lot of lower- and middle-class people are obese too.

Oblivion is pretty obviously based on a quasi-feudal collection of medieval architectural styles, weapons, names, and armour types.

Oh yes, obviously.

I don't remember giant robots and spaceships when I was reading about medieval Europe.

Technically you don't get them in Oblivion either.

They're in in-game books and part of recent history and mythology. And an entire armor set is basically supposed to be scrapped robot parts. Oblivion definitely leaned towards the stereotypical fantasy setting more than Morrowind did, but it's still hard to argue that Tamriel is supposed to be medieval Europe.

Oblivion the game is supposed to be medieval europe, not even cyrodiil :brokencomputer:

Fire Atronachs smoke too.

???

You serious? Back then, even then there were lots of obese people. Lots of farmers wives, maids, brothel owners, nobles and the like.

And please explain the height situation...

Well, like most drugs it can probably used in several different fashion (rel world example, haschih can be smoked, but also eaten (space cakes) ). Maybe with skooma you're boiling the liquid and ihnaling the fumes. which probably gets you a quicker and more intense high than simply drinking as it passe straight into the blood through the lungs.