Skyrim Glitch Turns Lydia Into A Creepy Possessed Follower

While playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one player stumbled across a strange glitch featuring a seemingly possessed version of Lydia. Housecarl Lydia counts among Skyrim’s most memorable followers, especially since she’s the first follower that many users meet in-game. Players typically find these NPC allies while exploring the open world. They prove rather useful once recruited, too, capable of carrying extra items, fighting on the Dragonborn’s behalf, and performing a slew of other tasks.

Dozens of followers exist in the world of Skyrim, each of whom specializes in skills that range from stealth and magic to combat and smithing. Some are Housecarls like Lydia, glorified bodyguards who know their way around one-handed swords. Meanwhile, the likes of Mercenaries, fittingly, request payment for their services in gold. And quite a few followers can even marry the player character, an option that can prove pretty lucrative for the Dragonborn in the long run.

The various follower characters in Skyrim have their fair share of quirks, too, as discovered by Reddit user Cator3 (via GameRant). Recently, the Redditor found Lydia in a rather precarious position that saw the Housecarl levitating in mid-air, head tilted up, and legs flailing back and forth. She looks possessed and in desperate need of an exorcism. And, of course, commenters in the Reddit thread don’t fail to mention the suggestive nature of some gestures featured in this peculiar Lydia glitch.

Lydia and her fellow followers reentered the topic of conversation a few months ago when Bethesda Softworks and Bethesda Game Studios shipped The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Anniversary Edition, a release meant to celebrate Skyrim’s 10-year anniversary. The re-packaged experience added a host of new features to the mix, including fishing mechanics, Survival Mode, graphical enhancements, and hundreds of extra Creation Club elements.

The fifth mainline Elder Scrolls entry originally hit store shelves for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 platforms in November 2011, effectively laying the groundwork for many an open-world RPG that would follow in its stead. Most notably, the Bethesda Game Studios-produced adventure inspired the development of other seminal open-world titles such as CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Unfortunately, another numbered installment in the Elder Scrolls series won’t likely hit store shelves for quite some time, given the studio’s focus on its new sci-fi RPG Starfield, which comes to PC and Xbox later this year.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is available to play across Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: Cator3/Reddit (via GameRant)

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Brianna Reeves
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A Senior Writer on Screen Rant’s Game News team, Brianna Reeves graduated from Sam Houston Statue University in 2018 with a Master of Arts in English Literature. Brianna’s enthusiasm for games dates back to Mortal Kombat Trilogy on PlayStation 1, along with classics like MediEvil, Syphon Filter, and THPS2. However, Red Dead Redemption reinvigorated her love for the medium; hopefully, that passion reflects in the work she has contributed to Comic Book Resources, PlayStation LifeStyle, GVMERS, and Screen Rant.

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