Ten years after it initially launched, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is once again getting re-released in a grander package, but is everything being added in canon content? In 2016, the Special Edition included all three major expansions that had been released for Skyrim over the previous five years. Now, Skyrim Anniversary Edition will add Creation Club content - 500+ Creation Club elements (according to official marketing), officially sanctioned and curated - to celebrate the perennially successful RPG's tenth birthday. This is a bold step for The Elder Scrolls and its rich lore, one that once again throws into question what can and cannot be considered canon to the in-game universe.
Bethesda's vast fantasy universe was born in 1994 with the release of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Ever since, the fictional world has grown to include everything from its many pantheons of gods, to famous leaders of the Thieves Guild in just one of Tamriel's nine provinces. Content added to Skyrim through the Creation Club, however, occupies a gray area on the edge of what might be considered canon. Though the additional content downloadable from the Creation Club is officially sanctioned, approved, and selected by Bethesda, its inclusion in official lore seems to be something of an unanswered question.
Some Creation Club content comes from Bethesda developers, while the rest is made by officially partnered Creators. Joining the Creation Club requires an application process, and even once accepted, content pitches have to be approved by Bethesda before being developed and listed on the Creation Club marketplace. This sounds like a process designed to make sure new content aligns with the lore - which is certainly part of it - but Bethesda seems apprehensive about outright claiming that its Creation Club add-ons are canon.
Skyrim's Current Canon Is Extremely Confusing
A post on fan wiki staple Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages has a quote from Cartogriffi, a Bethesda community content manager and Discord/forum moderator. According to the UESP, Cartogriffi broached the subject in a Discord discussion where it was made apparent that "[Creation Club] content is both 'official' and 'lore-checked' to some (uncertain) degree" - parenthetical presumably added by the UESP writer, Enodoc. This aligns with Bethesda's stance on Creation Club content at large, which places these add-ons a step above generic mods (along with vehement denial that the Creation Club is actually just selling "paid mods").
This would seem to indicate that Bethesda at least gives Skyrim's Creation Club content the benefit of the doubt when considering its status in regards to The Elder Scrolls canon. It's officially sanctioned by Bethesda and supposedly vetted for lore conflicts, so it's got a go-ahead from the developers to be considered canon even though there's no hardline stance on where to draw the canonical line - and indeed, UESP seems to have come to the conclusion that such content can't be trusted for canonicity. Bethesda's inability to provide a definitive answer on the subject is perhaps best exemplified by its senior vice president of global marketing and communications Pete Hines, who - when asked on Twitter in December 2020 whether or not Skyrim Creation Club content was canon - replied, "Sorry, I don't know."