Sweetrolls are a common item and conversation starter in Skyrim, and they're actually part of Bethesda's longest-running video game Easter egg.
Sweetrolls are one of the most iconic food items in Skyrim, even appearing in several lines of dialogue throughout the game and becoming something of a meme among Elder Scrolls fans. Skyrim isn't the first Bethesda game that sweetrolls have appeared in, by any means. The studio's history with the dessert hearkens back to Arena's release in 1994, and sweetrolls are likely to turn up again in both The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 when those are released later on down the line. They've even appeared in spin-off titles such as The Elder Scrolls: Legends and Blades. Exactly how far does Bethesda's sweetroll Easter egg extend?
Although casual Skyrim players may know sweetrolls best as an edible item, that wasn't actually their purpose until the release of Oblivion on consoles in 2006. Before then, they were only referenced in dialogue and even character creation in some early games. By the time of Skyrim, however, they'd been solidified as one of the food staples of Tamriel. In Elder Scrolls Online, they can be crafted by those in the provisioning skill line, and dedicated Elder Scrolls fans who purchased the official series cookbook can even recreate them at home.
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Sweetrolls followed a similar pattern in Bethesda's Fallout games. In both Fallout 3 and Fallout Shelter, they were merely referred to in lines of dialogue. In Fallout 4, they finally can be found as consumables throughout the Wasteland as a full-on crossover between Fallout and the universe of Skyrim. Their appearance doesn't come without some aesthetic changes from their Elder Scrolls counterpart, though. If Bethesda's next mainline Elder Scrolls and Fallout games follow suit, players can probably expect to spend a fair amount of time eating sweetrolls as they play. Even Starfield, a brand-new IP from the studio, might see the continuation of Bethesda's most iconic Easter egg.
In The Elder Scrolls: Arena, players are given the option to generate a class for their character by answering a set of questions that, in theory, help determine which is best suited for their particular playstyle, a mechanic that could possibly return as the class selection system for Elder Scrolls 6. One of these questions poses a dilemma: the player is presented with a sweetroll from the town baker, only to be confronted by a gang of children looking to take it for themselves. The question reappeared in Daggerfall and Morrowind, though this time to determine starting skill levels rather than character class.
By the time of Oblivion, sweetrolls had successfully wormed their way into the minds of many Elder Scrolls players. Arguably, they're one of the most notable video game memes. The food item began to pop up far more frequently in in-game dialogue. Salmo's sweetrolls are a must-have treat according to rumors players can pick up throughout Skingrad, and Fimmion, from the Shivering Isles DLC, will demand sweetrolls in exchange for any assistance. Additionally, players can find sweetrolls in containers and steal them from various houses and buildings throughout Cyrodiil. They can similarly be looted throughout Skyrim, where their presence in the game's dialogue is also far more notable. The standard line from Hold guards of "let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll" has turned into a well-known meme among Skyrim players, and Sheogorath's Daedric artifact, the Wabbajack, even runs a slight chance of turning enemies into a sweetroll.
The Easter egg is even more common in The Elder Scrolls Online. Sweetrolls are referenced both in-game and at times in the user interface - one of the horses that can be purchased comes with the preset name Sweetroll, for example. In the Dark Brotherhood DLC, there's an entire quest revolving around a murderer who leaves sweetrolls at the crime scene. One character will ask players, "let me guess, you're looking for someplace to buy sweetrolls," in reference to the Skyrim quote, and various other bits of dialogue throughout Elder Scrolls Online's vast map also mention the pastry. With the Dark Brotherhood DLC, sweetrolls can be looted from specific locations. Any character in the provisioning skill line can also craft sweetrolls from scratch.
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In the mobile spin-off The Elder Scrolls: Blades, sweetrolls can likewise be looted from different dungeons. The item even appears in the tactical card game The Elder Scrolls: Legends, occasionally being summoned when the Wabbajack card is used on a creature. A few other cards in the game can allow for similar transformations to occur. The sweetroll is such a prominent staple of the Elder Scrolls series that it even gets classified as a unique Pastry race within the card game. Another callback to the infamous Skyrim quote appears in the mobile spin-off game Fallout Shelter, in which characters may sometimes remark that someone stole their sweetroll. Clearly, The Elder Scrolls isn't the only Bethesda game series impacted by the Easter egg.
Of course, even mainline Fallout games - at least those produced by Bethesda - have their fair share of sweetroll jokes. Perhaps the most notorious of these appears at the start of Fallout 3 as a reference to the character creation questions from Arena through Morrowind. Players are gifted a sweetroll for the player character's birthday, and the local bullies try to coerce them into giving it away. Sweetrolls later show up as a Skyrim reference in Fallout 4, this time as an edible item that can be looted from areas around the Wasteland. Of course, seeing as they've been aged from the nuclear fallout, they look drastically different from the sweetrolls Bethesda fans might recognize from the studio's other games.
Although many other Easter eggs and in-jokes are scattered throughout Bethesda's games, the sweetroll is by far the most prominent of these gags. Now that Arena is approaching its 30th anniversary, it may also be the studio's longest-running bit. While it's difficult to verify whether the tradition will carry over into future Bethesda titles, given both Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6 are likely to remain in the early design stages until Starfield is fully released, it stands to reason that sweetrolls aren't going away any time soon. If nothing else, they'll continue to stick around in the minds of Skyrim players and fans of Bethesda's other RPGs.
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Ky Shinkle is a Senior Gaming Features Writer for Screen Rant as well as an overall avid gamer and writer. Her prior experience is primarily that of a narrative designer for video games, although her writing has covered all formats from screenplays and novels to stage scripts. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, when she isn't writing she works on digital media projects and other types of fiction writing. Ky currently works out of Ohio and enjoys spending her free time either playing RPGs or running with her dog.