Uploaded on 2023 Oct. 7th

One of the more interesting mysteries of Skyrim is the Ebony Warrior. The Player meets after him after they reach level 80 - the Warrior will appear the next time we visit a major city. Then he asks the Player for a duel to the death. Apparently, the Warrior achieved everything that could be achieved - completed all the quests, slain all the villains, faced all the challenges. Except for the Player, the Warrior's last challenge, who is the only one capable of sending him to Sovngarde with honor.

The Warrior could well be the Player's last challenge, though. Especially in the original release of Skyrim, where the Player had a level cap of 80 and thus a limit on their attributes (unless they used glitches). The Warrior also had a level of 80 and enchanted armor, weapons, and abilities comparable to the Player's, as well as some special attributes that made him even more difficult to deal with. In the end though, he falls and with his last breath sighs: "At last. Sovngarde..."

Before I continue, here's the video where I got the idea for my theory from. I highly recommend that you watch it, but it's not necessary since I will go over the ideas presented there briefly anyway.

According to lore Sovngarde can only be reached by true Nords who die valiantly or in battle, regardless of personality...which is a problem, because after we unmask him it's revealed that our mysterious Warrior is a Redguard.

Assuming that this isn't an oversight from Bethesda and that the Ebony Warrior is fully aware of who goes to Sovngarde, why is he so sure that he will end up there? Yes, he died valiantly, in battle, but he isn't a Nord. He could have been adopted and led a Nord lifestyle, but that's not very likely.

But what is he? Besides what I've described above, he is two important things:

• One of only two (human) NPCs in the game whose height is scaled by a factor of 1.25, the other being Tsun
• The only non-Nord NPC who can use Dragon Shouts

Both of these hint at the fact that the Ebony Warrior is not a normal NPC, the first fact more than the second actually. There are several characters in history, as well as in the game itself, who have learned to Dragon Shout but aren't Dragonborn or related to anything divine. There is only one other character who is scaled by the same factor, and that one character is divine.

One possibility mentioned in the video is that the Ebony Warrior is the current wielder of Umbra - a somewhat sentient sword of divine origin. Unfortunately, while the sword has explicitly appeared in TES III: Morrowind and TES IV: Oblivion, the Ebony Warrior's blade is a generic one-handed ebony sword. There is a Creation which adds Umbra to the game, and places it very close to the Ebony Warrior's Last Vigil in the hands of a character that resembles the Warrior to an uncanny degree, but that just confirms that it's not present in the base game.

Another possibility mentioned is that the Ebony Warrior is a manifestation or avatar of Reymon Ebonarm, a Yokudan deity, which itself is a manifestation of another deity: HoonDing (somehow). This fits a bit better than the Umbra theory, but doesn't answer why the Warrior is so obsessed with Sovngarde.

Yet another possibility is that it's one of the protagonists of the previous Elder Scrolls games, but we have no clues in this direction. The protagonist of Oblivion mantled Sheogorath and is present in the game as said character, and the Nerevarine has left on an expedition to Akavir and hasn't been heard since. This theory also wouldn't explain the obsession with Sovngarde.

A theory that I haven't seen discussed online, although maybe I haven't dug deep enough, is that the Ebony Warrior may be an incarnation / manifestation / avatar of Shezarr (also known as Lorkhan or Shor) - a Shezarrine. This would neatly explain his power as an NPC, potential divine status, and obsession with Sovngarde. It would be neat if this was the case since Tsun, the other character with the same height scaling, was (is?) a Shield-Thane of Shor.

The fact that he's a Redguard could also be explained by proposing that he is the combination of the Nordic and Redguard aspects of Lorkhan (Shor and Sep), but that's getting into another discussion altogether. Regardless, that's not the main issue with this theory. The question is why is a divine avatar around at this point in time?

According to Lore they appear during times of desperate need to aid mankind. Both the Civil War and Alduin's reappearance could be considered a crisis, but the Warrior isn't involved in either storyline.

So ultimately we're back at the start, and I really doubt that we will ever know who or what the Ebony Warrior was. Perhaps he will appear in the next game, perhaps Bethesda will add a book or mission to The Elder Scrolls: Online, but we will probably never know.