The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of those games where every nook and cranny seemingly has something new for the player to discover. Whether that’s a new item, an interesting piece of background lore or an interesting conversation with an NPC who has lived in the land of the Nords all their lives.

Now, we’ve all heard tales of the Whiterun guard who took an arrow to the knee more than a million times, so much so that it has become arguably one of the most famous memes on the internet. Outside of that, one of the most well-known pieces of information about the game is the supposed “7000 Steps” leading around the Throat of the World and up to High Hrothgar.

This is the official count given to us by the game, apparently taking the player from the village of Ivarstead, all the way up to the top of the mountain. Shockingly, arguably the most famous staircase in video games has been lying to us all along.

Skyrim Lied To Us All

If you head over to Skyrim yourself and start counting the steps that lead around the mountain, it will quickly become apparent that the game has been lying to us, and there are nowhere near 7000 steps in reality.

In fact, if the player starts at High Hrothgar and continues for that number of steps, carrying on in a straight line from the bottom of the stairs, you’ll actually end up in Whiterun’s very nice town center. It’s a huge lie, and one that brings the wider lore of Skyrim crashing down around our ears.

Next they’ll be telling us that The Elder Scrolls games aren’t actually a prequel to the Fallout series or something.

How Many Steps Are There To High Hrothgar Really?

Bethesda Entertainment

As first noted in one of the bigger posts on the official Skyrim Reddit page, a dedicated player counted every single step up to High Hrothgar, and it clocks in at a paltry 748 in total, or around 10% of the supposed total dictated in the game’s lore (and by Todd Howard, on several occasions).

Unfortunately, it seems that the scale of the game simply makes including the actual number of steps impossible, and we all have to suspend disbelief at the physical representation we get to see in Skyrim. Still, the idea of it taking ten times longer to get to the peak just to talk to the already ponderous Greybeards sounds quite boring.

Systems

Released

November 11, 2011

ESRB

M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes

Engine

Creation

Expansions

Skyrim: Dragonborn, Skyrim: Hearthfire, Skyrim: Dawnguard