Skyrim Easter Egg: Metal Guitarist Honored

Apparently, a few of the folks at Bethesda Softworks are big fans of Swedish metal bands. For the uninitiated, there's a quest in Skyrim called "Darkness Returns" in which the player is sent out to retrieve Nystrom's journal -- a reference to Katatonia's guitarist Anders Nystrom. Within the text, it reads, "He also mumbled some nonsensical phrases like 'night is the new day' and how he was the 'ghost of the sun.'" Night is the New Day is actually the title of the band's most recent album, while "Ghost of the Sun" is a featured track on another one of their albums, Viva Emptiness. A new album, Dead End Kings, is set to hit US stores on August 28th.

Since this connection was first discovered, many fans have wondered just how this in-game nod came to be. Recently, IGN spoke with Nystrom to discuss how he initially found out about the reference.

"Yeah, it's so bizarre. I have no idea, actually," Nystrom said. "One day I just logged on to the computer, checked the emails and everything -- and I think it was one of our fans on Facebook that had posted something on our wall, directing us to the Wikipedia describing the whole mission [for 'Darkness Returns']. I just started reading it, not really knowing what I was reading, until I actually discovered it was from Skyrim. I didn't put two and two together because it was so bizarre with the whole character/riddle thing and how they intertwined the titles. Then when it dawned on me that it was actually an objective inside the game, it was just like, 'Wow, how cool is this?'"

As a post script, Nystrom said that he eventually got in touch with the Bethesda developer who had written the journal. "The writer who put me in there, he contacted me," Nystrom continued. "He turned out to be a big fan of Katatonia. He said our music had helped him through a lot of working hours late at night, and this was just his way of paying respect and giving something back, which was totally cool."

It just goes to show you that if you ever want to get the attention of your favorite band, just throw 'em into your video game. Luckily, Nystrom was -- and still is -- a huge gamer himself. "I try to keep track of the video game industry -- I've had [IGN] bookmarked for ages," he said. "My favorite game ever -- it has to be a tie between Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the first couple of Silent Hills. I was also really, really into the Syphon Filter series. I loved that one, with Gabe Logan... So many great games."

But the real question still remains: is Nystrom a fan of Skyrim? "I haven't had the time yet actually, but [Bethesda] sent me the game... As soon as we go back on tour, there's a lot of time for that kind of stuff. I think I'll just buy another copy and bring it with me and dive into that. I can't wait to play the section with me in it!"

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com