Skyrim talk:Shadowmere/Archive 1

This is an archive of past Skyrim talk:Shadowmere discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Gender

Lucien's ghost calling Shadowmere "old friend" implies that it's the same horse from Oblivion. However, in Skyrim Shadowmere is referred to as male, while in Oblivion it was female. Any explanation for this? --Koden 05:57, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

No clue to be honest maybe it's a slight error.....I'd go so far as to say Shadowmere is some sort of Undead Horse like a Nightmare. I mean it isn't too far fetched to think it's the same horse from Oblivion. — Unsigned comment by 174.18.35.198 (talk) at 03:18 on 26 November 2011

I have two theories on this: Shadowmere is probably genderless. The fact that Shadowmere was not only essential in Oblivion, but now unkillable with low damage in Skyrim makes me think it's not a real horse at all. This is just speculation, of course, but the fact that it came out of a pool of bubbling dark water (not to mention the glowing, red eyes) makes me think Shadowmere is probably a literal creature of Sithis.

The other theory is that it actually has a gender, only that nobody's actually checked. Lucien refers to it as a female, possibly because Lucien is male (It's like how men sometimes refer to their cars as "her"), and Astrid (it WAS Astrid that called it "him," right? I forget) does the opposite. I like my creature of Sithis theory better, though. -TheScathed

What about changing it to ungendered pronouns? I heard Shadowmere referred to in speech and in the subtitles as a "he" (by Astrid) though given the horse's ...origins and Lucien's remark, perhaps it truly is beyond gender. Irene Metrick 16:22, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

I've just changed it to not specify a gender throughout the article, at least until we can come to a conclusion. --GK^talk2me 00:22, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Another way to look at it is this: The shadowmere in Skyrim is just the spirit of the one from Oblivion, its gender changes dependant on its owner. I believe it to be simply a spirit since the pond it comes out of is only ankle deep on my Khajiit character.--Dro'Bakha 07:12, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

I think it's pretty clear that it's the same horse, as confirmed by Lucien Lachance. — Unsigned comment by 109.78.250.54 (talk) at 22:31 on December 1, 2011

I like the theory of being a creature of Sithis but to be honest it is probably just a developer oversight/mistake. We should just use whatever gender is given in Skyrim. The ghost of L.L just says old friend which could be male or female.RIM 22:45, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

I always associated the "mere" part of its name with "mare", but that's just me. Do we really need to use a gender-specific pronoun? "It" should be fine for animals. Kotekzot 17:24, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

The "-mere" is a suffix, originally from the Greek meros, which means "a part of." Thus Shadowmere = "part of the shadow," which certainly makes it sound like a creature of Sithis. --174.6.51.17 07:54, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Horses - Shadowmere Dragon souls bug

Had this happen to me when Frost attacked a dragon too, just for the record. Only time I haven't gotten a dragon soul from killing a dragon. — Unsigned comment by 50.34.242.90 (talk) at 10:54 on November 30, 2011

If you have previously killed a dragon that spawns at a particular location (e.g. Elderblood peak) you do not get the soul a second time. This bug needs confirming, a single instance isn't enough to document it as fact --Billw 13:09, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

I don't see how this relates to Shadowmere? but no you cannot get a second soul from any dragon, it is not a glitch/bug. — Unsigned comment by 174.107.149.105 (talk) at 13:49 on December 5, 2011

Are you sure? I've received souls from dragons I've killed before many times. In fact I've never not received a soul even with Shadowmere tanking the dragon (which he/she seems to do quite well.) Zoeymithra 22:14, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Sorry I wasn't clear, my point is that the supposed bug where if Shadowmere attacks a dragon you don't get a soul from it could actually be the player not getting a soul because they already killed that Dragon once. i.e. they miss identified it as a bug when it wasn't, it was simply the one soul per "fixed" dragon feature. I say this because I have played about 50-100 hrs with shadowmere always at my side, and s/he has attacked numerous dragons and I have never been denied a soul because of it. I just want more confirmations of this bug basically. --Billw 13:55, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps Shadowmere needs to get the killing blow? (for you not to get the soul) I can't test because I don't own skyrim yet lol. If that doesn't work then I'm sure your first theory, that they simply have killed the dragon before is correct. 108.92.176.211 22:27, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Shadowmere Is Vulnerable To Attacks From Hard Hitting Foes?

Shadowmere can and will defeat most lower-level to mid-level enemies, but is vulnerable to attacks by hard-hitting foes (such as Snow Bears).

I've personally seen Shadowmere kill off no less than 10 snow bears. Does anyone play on a higher difficulty and have problems with Shadowmere dying, because the ONLY time that horse has ever died is if I ride off a cliff with it.Rip-Saw 19:34, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Shadowmere just tanked a random spawn Elder Dragon for my assassin, and they hit considerably harder than any bear, so I say s/he can hold his/her own. AwesomeDave 15:22, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

My Difficulty was set to novice and Shadowmere took down a Blood Dragon but died after two hits from a frost troll. I believe it depends on the type of attack (ice/fire) and also how accurate those attacks were (if you hide behind say a tree or a rock you take less dammage in general). Azure_King 07:30, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

I have my difficulty set to adept, and Shadowmere seems to be quite potent against dragons, but will run from certain trolls, and giants eventually. I agree with the 'kind of attack' comment. Zoeymithra 22:15, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh here is a thought, I wonder if shadowmere, and other companions level up with you a la Dog Meat in fallout. What level were you when Shadowmere was killed by a dragon, and or survived dragon attacks? 50-54 for me on survived dragon attacks at adept difficulty.Zoeymithra 22:18, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

My Shadowmere dies regularly. I've had an arrow kill him out from under me while riding. The big pain in the ass is that I'm attacked by dragons every other time I map travel, and usually Shadowmere gets wiped out in the process. This is the default difficulty, with character around level 40. So, if he dies, I can leave him there, and eventually he'll respawn and join me on map travels, right? -173.45.198.159

Perhaps Shadowmere has some amount of health regen that only hard hits like from a frost troll (or perhaps a really good archer) could overcome where dragon fire doesn't? That's just my guess on the matter. Guess we wont know for sure until the Creation kit comes out... Redninjakoopa 15:13, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Strangely I'm able to one shot him now with both a sword and bow. While on my husbands game with a higher archery, higher damage bow and more archery perks, he barely damages him. I'm starting to think there is some glitch where he loses health. — Unsigned comment by 69.113.191.22 (talk) at 23:07 on January 7, 2012

You probably hit her with Marked For Death. Either that or she's leveled and has the same leveling bug that Followers do, and you got her earlier than he did. At 41, she's got 887 Health, which would take a pretty serious weapon to one-shot her with. Aliana 01:59, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

(←) I find the above statement about being vulnerable to attacks by hard-hitting foes to be incredulous based on multiple tests using hard data from console commands. First of all Shadowmere is level 50 and does not level with you. I tested that by spawning him at various levels side by side with spawning Lydia. The former always had 887 Health while the latter's Health scaled with my level. The 887 Health alone makes the statement about snow bears, which hit for 45 normal damage, extremely questionable at best, but the additional fact that Shadowmere regenerates Health at an extreme rate (approximately 40 per second) robs the assertion of any credibility. I have pitted Shadowmere on his own simultaneously against 2 Giants and 2 Mammoths and the horse simply does not die and does not give up. Occasionally he appeared to retreat but would reengage them in combat in mere seconds. This went on for well over 15 minutes and probably would have gone on indefinitely if I had not eventually interceded (he was not killing any of them because of the frequency with which he would switch targets). The only thing I can speculate with regards to those posting about Shadowmere dying with such ease is that he was glitched for them. Some have stated that Marked for Death glitches him but if it does it is not the same glitch as that which affects followers. Followers are permanently weakened by Marked for Death because there is no recovery from the armor rating debuff but Shadowmere's normal armor rating is 0. I am going to edit this article accordingly--DagmarH 06:30, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Just a thought about the armor thing: According to the Marked for Death information, that shout also affects creatures with zero armor rating. It is described as being particularly effective because it can take the armor rating into a negative number. This then causes the creature to be more susceptible to attacks. Since armor rating is used to determine how much melee damage is reduced, a negative armor rating causes melee damage to be increased. I cannot verify if this applies to Shadowmere, but if it permanently affects creatures and NPCs, it probably includes Shadowmere. Someone should check. Personally, I think it would be best to state the facts, such as you indicated with health level being 887 and regeneration being 40/sec. That is very useful information, and not subjective. It's also possible that people are losing Shadowmere because she/he might be effected by poisons, increasing her susceptibility. Or, what about death due to falls that are not the player's fault? If hit by a giant, can her body fly into the air, like a person? If so, the fall would kill her. Since she runs off to fight absolutely everything, it's even possible a fight might cause her to be pushed on a ledge or she might even walk off a ledge. Who knows? The horses are crazy in this game. Just adding some points for consideration. --Amsuko 07:00, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

I just tested damage on Shadowmere after debuffing his armor rating with Marked for Death. His armor rating predictably debuffed down to -4500. Apparently negative armor rating will result in an exponential increase on damage (at least for Shadowmere). Prior to being debuffed, a normal attack from my tempered Blade of Woe did 80 damage. After being debuffed a normal attack from the same Blade of Woe did 597 damage so it seems like your first theory is correct which could explain why an arrow attack could kill Shadowmere. Notwithstanding that, normally Shadowmere is extremely hard to kill, so I stand behind my edit to the article.--DagmarH 07:19, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

I think the statement sums up the facts well. I'm not familiar with the CK, but if 40pt/sec regeneration is standard, I think someone should add that into the note as well. If you're interested in any more testing, maybe you could find out if Shadowmere has weakness/resistance to certain magic types. :) If anyone is interested, the horses page also doesn't list any specific facts about standard health or stamina for horses. --Amsuko 17:01, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm reluctant to put in a quantification of Shadowmere's regenerative abilities because there is a margin of error for the methodology I used. The timer I was using wasn't synched to the game's inworld clock so it's an approximation, but sufficient for an analyzing the variance in assertions about Shadowmere's durability in combat.--DagmarH 18:17, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

lost

If you buy a horse from white run stables and misplace him, she returns to whiterun stables, but where does Shadowmere go if you misplace him/her? — Unsigned comment by 184.34.32.81 (talk) at 18:25 on December 20, 2011

Why would you buy a new horse in the first place? I believe Shadowmere will return to the Falkreath sanctuary. --Shm0key 02:42, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

No, I accidentally pick up a lone horse, then kill this horse and come to old sanctuary, but can't find him at the pool. Maybe need to wait a few days too? Foxdie 22:45, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Actually Shadowmere will stay where you last left him. I just found her at Black Briar Manor after losing her due to Promises To Keep. He'll stay in the same general area. — Unsigned comment by 74.82.64.144 (talk) at 01:33 on January 15, 2012

I killed Shadowmere TWICE! I fell of a cliff to the right of the Winter Hold. I thought that the water was deep until I made contact. I was like: "What in the world!" They need to up date the this months game informer, u know. So I have a question: can I buy a different horse then for 15-20 days and STILL get Shadowmere? I will be looking at this again in 5-10 days tops. today is Feb 21st. — Unsigned comment by 75.241.116.128 (talk) at 21:50 on 21 February 2012

No, I don't think thats right. Because I lost Shadowmere near a fort full of bandits, but, I would fast travle to, lets say, Riften and he would be at the stables and walk to.... Whiterun, and I don't bring him, he will be at WHITERUN Stables. Though, it might be a glitch. — Unsigned comment by 75.219.83.54 (talk) at 01:22 on 22 February 2012

After getting Shadowmere i went to the dawnstar sanctuary and there was a dragon there. I went inside the sanctuary not caring about the dragon and when i come out shadowmere was gone. when i fast traveled shadowmere wouldn't fasttravel with me. how do i get him back? Simsas999 13:22, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

The same thing happened to me as with Simsas. Dragon attacked at Dawnstar sanctuary, I went inside to escape and when I came back out there was a dead dragon and no Shadowmere. I've tried going back for a respawn but no joy.--50.46.148.42 04:17, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

moved note

"*In Skyrim, Shadowmere is referred to as male, while in Oblivion the horse is stated to be female. This creates a continuity error, as Shadowmere is implied to be the same horse in both games. This, however, could also be an indication that Shadowmere is daedric in origin, as certain Daedra Lords also change gender from time to time. "

I removed that last part about Shadowmere being daedric-- its highly unlikely, to me its like sithis gave one of his servants a new body, after all he did let lucien continue to serve him. (Eddie The Head 04:36, 20 December 2011 (UTC))

What the hell do you think Shadowmere is then? It's clearly got an immortal spirit (unkillable in Oblivion; resurrects itself in Skyrim) and the glowing red eyes make it clear the horse is some sort of damned beast or demon, I can only think daedric lords were involved, namely Nocturnal, who the Brotherhood practically embodies.--Ravage 01:48, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

... ah the dark brotherhood embodies sithis, the dread lord, the void... nocturnal is the thieves guild... — Unsigned comment by 71.192.69.212 (talk) at 00:32 on January 4, 2012

The Night Mother might be Mephala, though it is uncertain whether this is true or not — Unsigned comment by 80.198.14.59 (talk) at 21:35 on January 23, 2012

I agree. Wait, Mephala is in that quest where the Jarl's evil kid calles this the Whispering Door...no wait...was it lady? Yea i'm right. She sounds just like the Night Mother. — Unsigned comment by 75.219.83.54 (talk) at 01:24 on 22 February 2012

I've found a way to find Shadowmere by using the console on PC simply type player.moveto 0009ccd8 in the console. It will teleport you to Shadowmere. Work'd for me! GamerDuQuebec 19:51, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Best way to keep him safe?

I don't want him to die, and I especially don't want to worry about trying to remember where he died so I can go back later when he respawns. What can I do with him to keep him safe? Chris3145 16:52, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

He can tank well, I don't recall he gets killed by enemies, just death by falling.Foxdie 22:49, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

If he runs off to fight enemies will I have to track him down before I can fast travel without leaving him behind? Chris3145 00:15, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Shadowmere gets distracted easily, and there is no way to get him to stop attacking enemies short of hopping onto his back and riding him away from the fray. (Anonymous) 15 January 2012

Yep. Woe to the creature/monster/NPC that attacks that horse, because Shadowmere will hunt them to the ends of Skyrim. Unless you kill the target of his aggression first. Since Shadowmere was essential in the last game and I think he should be in this one as well (hey, he's supposed to be undead or something, judging by the intro...) I just use "setessential 9ccd7 1" to make him incapable of dying permanently. --dUc0N 03:18, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

It's a particular nuisance when you park him on the shore to go collect nirnroot or something and he decides to go slaughterfish hunting. You can't just end it quickly by diving in and using a knife or sword on the little nuisances since your weapons don't work under water. --174.6.51.17 04:50, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Try wearing the ebony armor in this case. deals with slaughterfish quite well — Unsigned comment by 92.26.181.173 (talk) at 16:03 on 17 June 2012 (GMT)

Shadowmere Glitch Fix

I use to have the where Shadowmere did not spawn during the quest The Cure For Madness. I tryed reloading and killing my previously-owned horse to no avail. Dissapointed, I continued on withuot a horse. After I had completed the Dark Brotherhood's Main Questline, I believed I left my Ebony Blade in the old sanctuary near Falkreath. To my surprise, Shadowmere stood at the entrance. I think that the solution is to kill your horse and finish the questline. Do you believe this may be the answer? — Unsigned comment by TaleGunner (talk • contribs) at 23:07 on January 10, 2012

I think that happened because shadowmere's original spawn point was near the entrance of the DB sanctuary, so when the game realized it had an error, it just spawned him again. It probably did the whole animation of black water, taking the shape of a horse and all that, but you probably just were not there to see it. — Unsigned comment by 75.73.95.34 (talk) at 04:32 on 21 August 2012

SHADOWMERE GONE! GUARDS TOOK IT!

Ok... I just got the Shadowmere horse and I had an EMTREMELY high bounty in Downstarr and the guard stopped me. Since I've already bought all the houses and just wanted to get on with the mission I payed off my bounty... Well when I came out my horse was gone!!!! POOF! WTF?! How do I get it back? — Unsigned comment by 99.38.7.70 (talk) at 21:03 on January 16, 2012

Shadowmere disobeys the laws of physics quite freely

Anyone else noticed how horribly easy you can get Shadowmere to glitch his way up/over/through impassable terrain? I went mountaineering behind Markarth this evening and it got pretty ridiculous, climbing 90% grades and stuff. He can't seem to pass over the invisible collision barriers BethSoft put in there to prevent you rediscovering the other provinces, though. I almost want to make this a sport, but in the meantime is it worth a mention on the actual page? --dUc0N 03:18, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

This is a quality of all Skyrim horses...not specific to Shadowmere.Yoshi71089 03:28, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Shadowmere Dissappearing

In Skyrim I had shadowmere for a long time, but the he randomly disappeared. I checked the sanctuarys, fast traveled everywhere. I never killed him (or even tried using a storm call with him around). Anybody heard of this bug? I play on Xbx360 so im guessing there are no good solutions. — Unsigned comment by 71.228.60.117 (talk) at 18:27 on 11 February 2012

same thing happened tome, shadowmere is just gone, but if I try to take a dog as a follower, I get dialog that I already have an animal follower Deanmakoma (talk) 22:42, 5 September 2012 (EDT)deanmakoma

PS3 Shadowmere Bug Invalid

I've been playing Skyrim on the PS3 for a couple months now, and I'd proudly like to announce that the bug is false. Shadowmere does respawn. You see, he died on me at Rimerock Barrow. (Or is it Burrow?) Well, I went there today, and there he stood. — Unsigned comment by 174.255.33.24 (talk) at 02:46 on 20 February 2012

This bug is also invalid on the XBox 360. I've also killed Shadowmere (at Faldar's Tooth) and come back to find him alive and kicking. I don't know the number of days between his death and his respawn. Beez 05:31, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Shadowmere - Not Dark Brown

I was out riding Shadowmere in the daytime, and the sun was very bright out and I noticed that he's not very dark brown at all. He's more of a blood bay colour. I've got an image of him should anyone like to see it (I'll figure out how to post it eventually!) with this colour; he's really quite beautiful, and blood bay is an incredibly fitting colour choice for him, wouldn't you agree? ;)--MadameRed 20:34, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

He is dark-brown, when the sun hits him it does filter him towards a redder color. --kiz ^talk_email 20:35, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Follows you to odd places

After killing the Emperor, I went to settle accounts with Maro and fast-traveled to the East Empire Company docks in Solitude. To my considerable surprise, the game dumped Shadowmere right onto the dock with me. Shadowmere then proceeded to kick Maro to death, which was quite funny, all things considered. --174.6.51.17 08:07, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

All horses will do this. The docks lack a separate horse marker. --Killfetzer 10:15, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Dark Brotherhood hand print on Shadowmere's side?

I just noticed that Shadowmere seems to have handprints on his/her sides. Any one else see this as well? Should this be noted on this page? --Razorsoup 15:59, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah I noticed that too. I think it's worth adding. Tweaked the opening paragraph. --Theothersteve7 16:17, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Yet another Bizarre Shadowmere disappearance...

I went to Shadowgreen Cave for Noster's Helmet (Here I am playing a second game, on level 61 now, and I never even realized that Noster was that guy in Solitude...duh!), and on the way there, was attacked by about every kinda of Dragon, animal, and creature you can think of, including some Ice Wraiths. anyway, Shadowmere was a bit away from the entrance when i went into the cave, I cleaned house, exited, and fast traveled home to do a bunch of misc. busywork.

I fast travel Alftland (in the middle of "Discerning...") and SONUVA-VONDROOK, Shadowmere was not with us!

I've had Shadowmere die before (fell off a ledge during a dragon battle in Winterhold, so I waited 10 days in a hold, fast traveled to WH, and voila: my good ol' horsie was back), and I figured that is what had happened this time. To make sure, I fast traveled to Shadowgreen Cave and she wasn't there. So I waited for 10 days in Whiterun, fast traveled to you-know-where, and SON OF A VONDROOK, no Shadowmere!

I frantically ran around using Detect Life and there she was, chilling about 100 yards from the entrance...I'll dig through my saves and try to see if she actually died or if she was just stuck there, but...WTF?--76.121.163.168 07:46, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Shadowmere Sprint

On Xbox 360 Shadowmere sometimes bugs and loses the ability to sprint. Pressing the sprint button while on Shadowmere doesn't work at all. Reloading could work? (untested) Getting off the horse and back on doesn't seem to work and waiting and fast travel doesn't work either. Jumping from heights doesn't get the sprint back either. — Unsigned comment by 94.169.119.158 (talk) at 03:38 on 18 March 2012

This might be related to the glitch I always run into where I can't sprint (while on foot) or roll while sneaking. This seems to be a bizarre issue with the Xbox 360 version not always recognizing the Left Bumper being pressed. Worst I've ever had it is not working for a minute, though. Try turning your controller off and then on again. It might fix it. ?• JA^Talk 04:08, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

The wierd thing is, I can sprint with other horses, just not Shadowmere.— Unsigned comment by 94.169.119.158 (talk) on 19 March 2012

OMG I FIXED IT lol. I'm not sure what did it, I reloaded an old save but Shadowmere still couldn't sprint so I went to whiterun stables which autosaved, killed shadowmere and reloaded the autosave, I then went to sneak mode and mounted shadowmere, who could now sprint.— Unsigned comment by 94.169.119.158 (talk) on 20 March 2012

Arvak overrides Shadowmere?

Upon completing all the quests in the Soul Cairn, including receiving the spell to summon Arvak, I found that Shadowmere no longer followed me to wherever I fast-travel. I haven't really checked around to see if he returned to the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary or any city stables. For all I know, Shadowmere simply despawned from the game. This suits me fine, because it was getting annoying having him blow my cover. I'd much rather be able to summon a horse when I want one, then dismiss it when I don't. SonGoharotto 14:52, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Your last ridden horse follows you, so it's quite possible that Arvak overrides Shadowmere. Vely^►t►e 16:02, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

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