Everybody has memories that we all cherish and hold dearly to our hearts. Some people have voicemails from years ago. Others have artifacts belonging to the deceased.
Lastrogu3, a user on Reddit, has a different way of remembering his brother Taylor, a frequent Skyrim player who drowned in 2013 less than a month after his marriage. His brothers memory is preserved in a Skyrim shrine thanks to a mod created by Sjogga.
“It was a tragic accident where he was hanging onto a rope and using a wake board to ride the waves that were created by the river under a tree.” he wrote in a blog post. “He had used another rope that comes with the board to attach it to his ankle to prevent him from loosing it if he was washed downstream. Unfortunately that rope caused the accident and got caught in the roots of the tree under the water holding him down.”
Lastrogu3 and his brother had always been avid gamers. They would scour yard sales for games since they got games primarily, for birthdays and Christmas.
The siblings gamed on the SNES and many other platforms, including Xbox 360, Sega Genesis, and PC. It was a pastime they both enjoyed together, even the little things such as trading off as being Sonic or Tails
Taylor was a bigger fan of Skyrim but that didn’t stop the siblings from playing together and maintaining a bond. After Taylor’s death, his brother logs onto his Skyrim account, never moving the character, never saving, but always preserving.
” I never move his character, save, or do anything since it wouldn’t be his character anymore. He is frozen in time just like my young brother was.”
Taylor’s character, Bear, stands near Solitude, just outside of Riften just past the watchtower with his sidekick who watches over him in the afterlife.
“if anything ever happened to his followers, he would always load back from a save point to make sure they made it.” Lastrogu3 remembers.
The modding community of Skyrim have created something that will, not only preserve Taylor’s memory, but his spirit. Skyrim modder, Sjogga, made a mod to commemorate the life of Taylor, called Bear: In Memory of Taylor for his brother in mourning.
This mod adds a small shrine where Bear’s last save was. According to the description, “The ghost of Bear and his sidekick still visits the place from time to time. Bear also appears in Sovngarde.”
the mod is currently at version 1.1 with 662 Endorsements.
Many players visit the shrine to pray, or leave flowers for Bear. For those who linger, who visit the shrine regularly on travels, Bear is not completely gone. His ghost looks after all of the players, bringing them all together in harmony as one in the world of Skyrim.