Some of the most commonly reoccurring characters in The Elder Scrolls series are the Daedric Princes, but this can't necessarily be said for all of them. Jyggalag is perhaps the most underutilized of the Daedra, appearing physically in only one game of the franchise and only getting a small handful of in-universe references otherwise. Yet the events of Oblivion seemed to lay the foundation to allow him to have a more prominent role moving forward; so why was he then excluded from Skyrim?

In most Elder Scrolls games, there are sixteen Daedric Princes of varying prominence, which represent the most powerful of the Daedra and rule over specific planes of Oblivion. Beginning with Daggerfall, though, references were made in-universe to a seventeenth Daedric Prince known as Jyggalag, who functions as the Prince of Order. Morrowind and later The Elder Scrolls Online also added books that made reference to Jyggalag's existence, but his fate and the reason why he was physically excluded from the series was left relatively vague.

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This changed in Oblivion, more specifically with the introduction of the Shivering Isles DLC. The main questline of this expansion featured Jyggalag as its primary antagonist, and revealed that the other Daedric Princes cursed him to spend the majority of his time as the fan-favorite character Sheogorath due to their fear of his power. The end of the questline seemingly saw him returned to his proper form full-time, though - which made it confusing when he was then absent from Skyrim, the next game on the timeline.

Does Skyrim Explain Why Jyggalag Doesn't Appear?

Why Skryim Doesn't Feature Jyggalag

While there's no concrete answer either in-universe or outside of the games to explain why Jyggalag doesn't appear in Skyrim, there are a few likely explanations as to why this might be the case. At the end of the Shivering Isles questline, Jyggalag himself seems to imply that he intends to keep to himself for a while, likely looking to re-consolidate his power and roam the planes of Oblivion freely as he's been unable to do for millennia. Additionally, the Daedric Princes primarily only appear in Skyrim during quests to obtain Daedric Artifacts. Although Jyggalag does possess an Artifact - the Sword of Jyggalag - it's yet to make an appearance outside of the Shivering Isles expansion (other than in a Creation for Skyrim Special Edition called Saints & Seducers), which seems to imply that it isn't typically handed off to mortals in the way many other Daedric Artifacts are. This could help explain why the Dragonborn isn't given the opportunity to engage with Jyggalag, and could mean there's room for this to change in the next Elder Scrolls release.

Other players have speculated that his absence could hint that Jyggalag may have been entirely unable to return to his proper form after all, although this is slightly more unlikely given that Sheogorath's dialogue when he's encountered in Skyrim seems to indicate otherwise. At the end of the DLC, it's strongly implied that the Champion of Cyrodiil effectively becomes a new Sheogorath, presumably leaving Jyggalag to remain in his original form rather than being forced to again take up the role of the Mad God. Sheogorath's Skyrim dialogue arguably hints towards this further.

However, Sheogorath isn't necessarily known for its reliability. Despite the assumption that the presence of a new Sheogorath in the form of Oblivion's player character could theoretically return Jyggalag to his proper identity full-time, as of right now the lore isn't entirely concrete. Mantling - the process of a mortal being taking up the roles, powers, and identity of a god - is still a relatively vague concept in-universe. It seems likely that the question will lack a proper answer unless more information is provided in The Elder Scrolls 6.

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