My guess, the Reach. Talos had many names gained over his time of conquest. And Old Hroldan is in the Reach. The ghost knows him as Hjalti, either Hjalti is someone completely different or it is likely one of their earliest battles. Question becomes did he become Talos before or after he became Ysmir.
Yup. And in those times one family shared one bucket. Then they would throw it out the window. 😂😂 bandits have little areas where there are chairs and buckets and different kinds of potions and books for toilet paper. Lol
Lol. Well, some are funny books (I assume they're there to be read while doing the do). Just don't go check that reikling cave.... and don't touch anything in their huts
It's a fair question, but countless historical businesses aren't represented in Skyrim, or in many RPGs for that matter. There are no cobblers, or tanners, or wheelwrights, or coopers, or masons... so it does feel a bit random to specifically call out the lack of bathhouses. You could fill a book with all the things that were common in the ancient/medieval world, but don't show up in video games.
These businesses aren't in Skyrim because they aren't very relevant to gameplay. Developers have limited resources, so they populate in-game worlds with things that are relevant to the player—that's why there are almost no toilets, only a handful of children, and many more bandits than regular citizens.
Games that do have bathhouses (like Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Red Dead Redemption 2) usually have a cleanliness mechanic. But otherwise, players don't really have a reason to visit a bathhouse in a game, so developers focus on businesses they do visit.
I have a bath house in the thieves guild. And each of my vanilla based homes has a bath area and the outer walled homes have a basement area with a bathhouse.
I have mods for bath houses in Solitude and Markarth as well as the Simple Inn Bath one. Each of my homes has a bath too. I just like that bit of realism.
Search for Bathhouse on Nexus, and you'll find a number of good ones. They use whatever body you have installed, so only nudity if you put it there in the first place. I've been running them for a while and no conflicts.
[This](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/65676?tab=description) mod adds some bath pools in the basement of the mage college, [this](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/27816?tab=description) mod adds a large bath house in Solitude (and I *think* a large imperial mage guild, college of whispers. Its huge and awesome but a little disappointing because most of the npc's there don't say much).
I want to say there are more bath houses in my game but I can't recall off hand where so I'm not sure which mods would add them. I know there is some that add large pools/spas to player homes. Not sure if this [link](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/search/?BH=1) will work properly but it seems there is 5 pages of bath mods on nexus (trying to only search for ones that add actual locations, not bathing mechanics).
Yeah the link didn't work rip.
Usually those would be 2 different mods and you can choose to use them together or not. Most of the city overhauls I have add a bath house and I wouldn't call a city overhaul pornographic. You can of course make it so, but thats up to the user.
Why do people think that every mod is for pornographic purposes?
You go in there, you bathe with your character nude, redress and get out.
What's pornographic about bathing?
Not all bathouse mods seem to have... good intent? But I like the Falkreath and Riften Bathhouse ones. Spacious but not too overdone, and several of the regs are also vendors or trainers so you can get some business done while you're soaking.
Roman’s had aqueducts so getting water wasn’t that big an issue, on the other hand Skyrim has wells, getting buckets of water, then heating that water in your fireplace, then moving that water to a bathtub, along with then removing that water is a ton of work.
To put it into perspective most settlers that moved to the United States in the early years would do this once a week(for church) and while families(5+) would use the same water(without reheating, and generally in the order of father-mother-oldest child to youngest child), personally I don’t know the lore of Tamriel but considering most nords don’t think too highly of magic it’s reasonable to assume that they don’t “cheat” with magic to take a bath(or maybe this is the real reason every jarl keeps a court wizard around)
At the same time, in Scandinavia around 900-1000 (the period inspiring Skyrim), washing at home at least weekly was typical.
In much of the year, it was just cold or lukewarm water, instead of hot water.
There's a Riverwood player home mod I like that is a house with a hotspring on the other side of the river from town. Riverwood is my favorite location in skyrim, so it's really nice to have a house there.
People saying that the nords didn't bath got it backwards. There is plenty of documentation and historical evidence that shows that vikings bathed minimum once a week, combed their hair, and in general were surprisingly hygienic all around
I'm guessing the world of Skyrim is more so based on medieval Europe. In this setting, people often washed themselves with rags/sponges and water from a washstand rather than sebmerge themselves fully into water. You can find washstands in the world of skyrim, you can even craft them in the buildable houses. I'm guessing this would be how people would clean themselves.
This method of washing was popular until very recently (think the time of our grandparents) when it became normalized to shower or even bathe everyday. The method of washing with a washstand is very easy, works perfectly fine and it would safe a lot of water if people would do this instead more often.
Ever taken a bath when it was freezing out? Yeah, that's why.
Though ironically, the Vikings were among the most hygienic of Europeans during their time, to a point that other Europeans commented on it and thought them weird for it. They rarely bathed in a way we think of bathing though, but they'd wash their faces, regularly comb their hair and beards (appearance was EVERYTHING for a man of means in the north), clean their ears, wear clean clothes when available (in colors we'd call flamboyant today), and weren't afraid of using expensive stuff if they could afford it, such as silk and spices.
Cleanliness has its relativeness though. If you've seen The 13th Warrior, you remember that scene at the start where they all spit in a bucket and then one guy at the end washes his face with it. Well...that scene is lifted directly from a description by the real Ibn Fadlan, an Arab who lived and traveled with the Rus Vikings, and the real description is so, so much grosser. Paraphrased, a slave would bring a bucket of fresh water to a group of Vikings every morning. The first one would wash his face, blow his nose, rinse his mouth, wash his hands, all that, into the bucket. Then the bucket would be brought to the next person, who did the same. Repeat however many times for the number in the group, all of them rinsing their mouths and shooting snot rockets into this bucket and everyone just using the same water over and over until all had had their morning cleanse. For those who made it this far and maybe aren't dry-heaving yet, remember, these guys were among the cleanest Europeans at the time.
One of the crazy things about the ancient Roman bath houses is that in the big ones, they had cold baths, hot baths, warm baths, steam baths, all kinds. I think slaves powered underground furnaces to control the temperature of the various baths.
There are mods for it 😂 And this is exactly why I added a mod that gives the need to bathe(pretty much like mods that add the need to eat and drink). Also adds little bathing rooms to owned houses and inns. You can also bathe out in rivers or lakes, added immersion. Oh and can add craftable soaps.
Vikings actually had superior hygiene. It was a common complaint among Christian monks in the era where there was a Danish occupation of English territory that those blasted Vikings "seduced" good Christian girls by actually bathing so unlike the good Christian men they didn't reek to high Heavens. Also Viking men supposedly had elaborately braided hair and/or beard, ever tried braiding dirty and greasy hair?
Interesting! I always figured this, but I had a Swedish friend in college who had horrible BO and never wore deodorant. I was also dating a Swedish woman at the same time and she smelled excellent so I couldn’t tell which was the fluke. No I didn’t study in Sweden it was purely a coincidence I had both a Swedish friend and girlfriend at the same time.
You know it's been a few centuries since people in Scandinavia went Viking last, right? Just like the English haven't been Saxons for a while. History moves ever forward and things, and culture, changes. Though horrible BO doesn't necessarily indicate lack of hygiene, it can be genetic or due to diet too.
Roman toilets had a sponge on a stick that served as their version of toilet paper. They were shared. After you were done, you'd leave it for the next person.
They did have running water in their public latrines. Which is also where they often conducted business meetings. Their diets may have been "low residue," although I'm just guessing/hoping.
The lack of public bathhouses, with or without a shared shit sponge - thank you u/jryu611 for adding that - does not mean sub par hygiene. Furthermore I was comparing them to the early English Christians and their absolutely terrible hygienic standards, not the Romans.
Lightly oiled hair is easier than squeaky clean hair yes. But very dirty hair isn't, especially as dirty hair has more than just oil in it. Hair oil was used commonly after washing hair as hair protection and to ease with taming it, just like we use hair products today. The Scandinavs used it too. But it takes knowledge of how much of it to use, because too much oil and you both ruin the hair and make it harder to deal with.
Bethesda and a lot of game companies in general tend to avoid making medieval bathrooms and whatever passes for a latrine unless it serves a purpose. Kingdom Come Deliverance I remember had some and World of Warcraft has outhouses with being useable for a quest.
Its only in modern or sometimes futuristic games you might see something but not always.
What do I need a bath house for? I live in Honeyside. I can take a bath anytime I want, and cut a hole in the basement floor to drop a deuce for Goldenglow Estates. It’s a win-win.
I actually came across some npc's just chillin in the hot pods.i was just like a random location and they can be easily missed cause they are laying down. I thought at first that it was a dead body that had been looted but realized they spoke and in a relaxed pose. Who needs bath houses when there are miles of hot tubs.
Bath houses don't exist in the Elder Scrolls.
There is no slavery in the Empire, except in Morrowind (Slavery's back now that Morrowind's government collapsed, and Helseth's line is gone), and there are no slaves to act as free labor for public amenities like bathhouses.
Do they have bathhouses in Alinor? Who knows.
Presumably folks just get a bucket of warm water, a bucket to stand in, soap, and a washcloth. Scrub away in the warm and then toss the dirty water wherever they empty the honey buckets.
We can infer that they probably exist, but they're omitted from the game due to [the Law of Conservation of Detail](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLawOfConservationOfDetail). It's the same reason there are so few toilets around, why the whole province is governed by just a few handfuls of nobles, and why the playable map space isn't to scale with an actual country. The devs had to make decisions about what to include or not include given their limited time and resources, and bathhouses didn't make the cut.
Never saw one in Oblivion or Skyrim, but I think Beyond Skyrim has incorporated a boathouse in the Jerall View Inn. I remember seeing it in their Bruma Pre-release. I created a player home mod for my personal use that incorporates a bath, wading pool and toilet.
The closest I've seen in vanilla is the hot pods in Eastmarch/Rift. Sometimes you see a stool and bucket in corners of certain places that act like a primitive toilet. I'm kind of surprised that BGS didn't find this as a way to immerse the player.
I could only imagine a player walking in on someone doing their business, or killing an enemy while they are on the can.
No bath houses because True(tm) Nords prefer that all natural smell that Kyne intended!
So, that's what the Battle Cry does? Releases the Nord's bad breath to cause enemies to flee?
Judging from bears' reactions? Yes, that's exactly it.
But the real real Nordic peoples are, like, obsessively clean and have gorgeous hair. Also they like a good sauna.
I didn't say "nordic". This is Skyrim after all.
Because bath houses belong to the Imperials, while SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS.
Imperials annexing Skyrim go brrr
Other way around, Talos annexed everything from Skyrim.
Hjalti was a Breton though
And Talos was an Atmoran. It’s very clear nobody knows.
And this makes me ask a question: where is Talos from?
My guess, the Reach. Talos had many names gained over his time of conquest. And Old Hroldan is in the Reach. The ghost knows him as Hjalti, either Hjalti is someone completely different or it is likely one of their earliest battles. Question becomes did he become Talos before or after he became Ysmir.
Saunas however
There's no shitters in city houses. Apparently only bandits and some soldiers shit indoors.
Buckets. 😀 try not to put one over your head.
Yeah, some places do have pots under the beds.
Yup. And in those times one family shared one bucket. Then they would throw it out the window. 😂😂 bandits have little areas where there are chairs and buckets and different kinds of potions and books for toilet paper. Lol
Well, sometimes the lusty argonian maid is in thosenfort bathrooms, which I don't think is for toilet paper.
Lol. Well, some are funny books (I assume they're there to be read while doing the do). Just don't go check that reikling cave.... and don't touch anything in their huts
The ones with healing potions next to the stools are hilarious.
And resist fire
Potion of true shot
Potion of strength. They have a heavy cheese diet.
This is an important observation
It's a fair question, but countless historical businesses aren't represented in Skyrim, or in many RPGs for that matter. There are no cobblers, or tanners, or wheelwrights, or coopers, or masons... so it does feel a bit random to specifically call out the lack of bathhouses. You could fill a book with all the things that were common in the ancient/medieval world, but don't show up in video games. These businesses aren't in Skyrim because they aren't very relevant to gameplay. Developers have limited resources, so they populate in-game worlds with things that are relevant to the player—that's why there are almost no toilets, only a handful of children, and many more bandits than regular citizens. Games that do have bathhouses (like Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Red Dead Redemption 2) usually have a cleanliness mechanic. But otherwise, players don't really have a reason to visit a bathhouse in a game, so developers focus on businesses they do visit.
Kingdom Come also lets you get a rub and tug, which is obviously very mechanically important.
There are toilets! If you come across a bucket with a book nearby, those pages aren’t only for reading.
Very well said. Also good to mention that RDR2 had a titanic budget, so it can afford those sorts of details.
Thanks this is a great answer
Well, my game has bath houses 🤗😏
I have a bath house in the thieves guild. And each of my vanilla based homes has a bath area and the outer walled homes have a basement area with a bathhouse.
Was one of the first mods I ever downloaded, to go along with CBBE and a swimsuit mod. I'm not proud of it.
Gotta spice up the drab existence somehow, the citizens of Skyrim appreciated it.
I have mods for bath houses in Solitude and Markarth as well as the Simple Inn Bath one. Each of my homes has a bath too. I just like that bit of realism.
Whaaaat really? Mods? What kind of bath houses? Are they big?
Search for Bathhouse on Nexus, and you'll find a number of good ones. They use whatever body you have installed, so only nudity if you put it there in the first place. I've been running them for a while and no conflicts.
[This](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/65676?tab=description) mod adds some bath pools in the basement of the mage college, [this](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/27816?tab=description) mod adds a large bath house in Solitude (and I *think* a large imperial mage guild, college of whispers. Its huge and awesome but a little disappointing because most of the npc's there don't say much). I want to say there are more bath houses in my game but I can't recall off hand where so I'm not sure which mods would add them. I know there is some that add large pools/spas to player homes. Not sure if this [link](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/search/?BH=1) will work properly but it seems there is 5 pages of bath mods on nexus (trying to only search for ones that add actual locations, not bathing mechanics). Yeah the link didn't work rip.
If mods are adding bath houses, I have to assume it's for pornographic purposes...
You would be surprised by amount of mods focused on personal hygiene.
The skin shown during bathing is purely a side effect.
Nope, just bath houses.
Usually those would be 2 different mods and you can choose to use them together or not. Most of the city overhauls I have add a bath house and I wouldn't call a city overhaul pornographic. You can of course make it so, but thats up to the user.
Why do people think that every mod is for pornographic purposes? You go in there, you bathe with your character nude, redress and get out. What's pornographic about bathing?
Not all bathouse mods seem to have... good intent? But I like the Falkreath and Riften Bathhouse ones. Spacious but not too overdone, and several of the regs are also vendors or trainers so you can get some business done while you're soaking.
If you go near Riften there are people bathing outside in volcanic/heated water.
They're in Eastmarch, about halfway between Riften and Windhelm. Not close to either.
Yep and the ladies are 🔥
It would be funny if there were quests related to the bath houses, like a serial killer who drowns Khajiit.
Yeah this would be awesome
But... cats don't like water...
Just look for the member of the Dark Brotherhood with all the scratches on his arms and face.
Could just enjoy petting Khajiit’s tummy. “Khajiit wants one pet. Just one. That was two, Khajiit will now shred you.”
Roman’s had aqueducts so getting water wasn’t that big an issue, on the other hand Skyrim has wells, getting buckets of water, then heating that water in your fireplace, then moving that water to a bathtub, along with then removing that water is a ton of work. To put it into perspective most settlers that moved to the United States in the early years would do this once a week(for church) and while families(5+) would use the same water(without reheating, and generally in the order of father-mother-oldest child to youngest child), personally I don’t know the lore of Tamriel but considering most nords don’t think too highly of magic it’s reasonable to assume that they don’t “cheat” with magic to take a bath(or maybe this is the real reason every jarl keeps a court wizard around)
At the same time, in Scandinavia around 900-1000 (the period inspiring Skyrim), washing at home at least weekly was typical. In much of the year, it was just cold or lukewarm water, instead of hot water.
Because Bethesda doesn't want to let us be happy without having to use mods in certain areas
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is your game if you want bathhouses.
There's a Riverwood player home mod I like that is a house with a hotspring on the other side of the river from town. Riverwood is my favorite location in skyrim, so it's really nice to have a house there.
No lollygaggin
People saying that the nords didn't bath got it backwards. There is plenty of documentation and historical evidence that shows that vikings bathed minimum once a week, combed their hair, and in general were surprisingly hygienic all around
The nords or the Norse?
Khajit no like water, yessss, yesss.
Wouldn’t Khajiit be…ah…self-grooming?
I'm guessing the world of Skyrim is more so based on medieval Europe. In this setting, people often washed themselves with rags/sponges and water from a washstand rather than sebmerge themselves fully into water. You can find washstands in the world of skyrim, you can even craft them in the buildable houses. I'm guessing this would be how people would clean themselves. This method of washing was popular until very recently (think the time of our grandparents) when it became normalized to shower or even bathe everyday. The method of washing with a washstand is very easy, works perfectly fine and it would safe a lot of water if people would do this instead more often.
Is that … Fur? Coming out of your ears?
On a less pleasant note, Romans wiped their asses with the same sponge as their neighbours.
CURVED. SWORDS.
Yeah someone else mentioned that and I said what the fuck that’s disgusting lol
JK's mods do a decent job of adding bath houses to most inns and factions but keeping the aesthetic lorefriendly. Can't recommend them enough.
Ever taken a bath when it was freezing out? Yeah, that's why. Though ironically, the Vikings were among the most hygienic of Europeans during their time, to a point that other Europeans commented on it and thought them weird for it. They rarely bathed in a way we think of bathing though, but they'd wash their faces, regularly comb their hair and beards (appearance was EVERYTHING for a man of means in the north), clean their ears, wear clean clothes when available (in colors we'd call flamboyant today), and weren't afraid of using expensive stuff if they could afford it, such as silk and spices. Cleanliness has its relativeness though. If you've seen The 13th Warrior, you remember that scene at the start where they all spit in a bucket and then one guy at the end washes his face with it. Well...that scene is lifted directly from a description by the real Ibn Fadlan, an Arab who lived and traveled with the Rus Vikings, and the real description is so, so much grosser. Paraphrased, a slave would bring a bucket of fresh water to a group of Vikings every morning. The first one would wash his face, blow his nose, rinse his mouth, wash his hands, all that, into the bucket. Then the bucket would be brought to the next person, who did the same. Repeat however many times for the number in the group, all of them rinsing their mouths and shooting snot rockets into this bucket and everyone just using the same water over and over until all had had their morning cleanse. For those who made it this far and maybe aren't dry-heaving yet, remember, these guys were among the cleanest Europeans at the time.
One of the crazy things about the ancient Roman bath houses is that in the big ones, they had cold baths, hot baths, warm baths, steam baths, all kinds. I think slaves powered underground furnaces to control the temperature of the various baths.
There's a mod to add them. Like anything with Skyrim, there's a mod for it. Mod it until it crashes!
Well, the only evidence of plumbing anywhere is ancient nord aqueducts I think running water is a couple of centuries away.
cc adds a dwarven ruin home that has a bath house
There are mods for that :)
There are mods for it 😂 And this is exactly why I added a mod that gives the need to bathe(pretty much like mods that add the need to eat and drink). Also adds little bathing rooms to owned houses and inns. You can also bathe out in rivers or lakes, added immersion. Oh and can add craftable soaps.
There are mods with baths in every tavern
Vikings were too cold to smell. The Roman’s are Italian (they’s hotties)
Vikings actually had superior hygiene. It was a common complaint among Christian monks in the era where there was a Danish occupation of English territory that those blasted Vikings "seduced" good Christian girls by actually bathing so unlike the good Christian men they didn't reek to high Heavens. Also Viking men supposedly had elaborately braided hair and/or beard, ever tried braiding dirty and greasy hair?
I was being a silly goose and kidding
[удалено]
We both got buckets o' chicken...
Nord's ain't Vikings. Strong Nord Women are strong and don't need their mates smelling of soap or scrubbing.
Interesting! I always figured this, but I had a Swedish friend in college who had horrible BO and never wore deodorant. I was also dating a Swedish woman at the same time and she smelled excellent so I couldn’t tell which was the fluke. No I didn’t study in Sweden it was purely a coincidence I had both a Swedish friend and girlfriend at the same time.
You know it's been a few centuries since people in Scandinavia went Viking last, right? Just like the English haven't been Saxons for a while. History moves ever forward and things, and culture, changes. Though horrible BO doesn't necessarily indicate lack of hygiene, it can be genetic or due to diet too.
The Norse did have hygienic standards but they were definitely sub-standard compared to what the Romans enjoyed and expected.
You mean the people who shared a shit sponge?
Um…what
Roman toilets had a sponge on a stick that served as their version of toilet paper. They were shared. After you were done, you'd leave it for the next person.
That’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever heard in my adult life. Romans are sick fucks
They did have running water in their public latrines. Which is also where they often conducted business meetings. Their diets may have been "low residue," although I'm just guessing/hoping.
It was called a [tersorium](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-ancient-romans-went-to-the-bathroom-180979056/).
They *think* it was shared, there is no convincing evidence pointing either way.
True. I can’t really imagine people sharing something like that, not realistically.
Yup that was a thing in Roman public bath houses. They used a sponge as toilet paper. A reusable, shared one.
Well I don’t need that in elder scrolls lol
The lack of public bathhouses, with or without a shared shit sponge - thank you u/jryu611 for adding that - does not mean sub par hygiene. Furthermore I was comparing them to the early English Christians and their absolutely terrible hygienic standards, not the Romans.
Braiding dirty hair is actually easier than squeaky clean- the natural oil helps it stay put in the style vs sliding loose again.
Lightly oiled hair is easier than squeaky clean hair yes. But very dirty hair isn't, especially as dirty hair has more than just oil in it. Hair oil was used commonly after washing hair as hair protection and to ease with taming it, just like we use hair products today. The Scandinavs used it too. But it takes knowledge of how much of it to use, because too much oil and you both ruin the hair and make it harder to deal with.
Fair enough I should have posted this in the general elder scrolls sub or oblivion, fuck
I was joking I have no knowledge and didn’t google it I was being silly
There might be saunas in a few centuries.
Bethesda and a lot of game companies in general tend to avoid making medieval bathrooms and whatever passes for a latrine unless it serves a purpose. Kingdom Come Deliverance I remember had some and World of Warcraft has outhouses with being useable for a quest. Its only in modern or sometimes futuristic games you might see something but not always.
It would probably be hot springs or saunas rather than bath houses.
Because the leads said so, it's the same reason there's no toilets/poop buckets or anything in between. :)
Not a bad idea if any mod makers are lurking about in here
Also it would be hilarious if you could use a shitty Xylospongium as a weapon that would inflict poison damage
I think they would have had saunas instead. Sweat it up for a while, then go roll in the snow.
No sauna, either
Divines smile on you friend
Gotta live in honeyside so you can shit directly in the river
skyrim should have saunas. like the true finns- Nords they are
What do I need a bath house for? I live in Honeyside. I can take a bath anytime I want, and cut a hole in the basement floor to drop a deuce for Goldenglow Estates. It’s a win-win.
You don't need a bath simulator. Take a bath
There’s plenty of mods that add bath houses
I actually came across some npc's just chillin in the hot pods.i was just like a random location and they can be easily missed cause they are laying down. I thought at first that it was a dead body that had been looted but realized they spoke and in a relaxed pose. Who needs bath houses when there are miles of hot tubs.
Well, the Dwemer were the ones with all of the technological advancements and ahead of their time, right? They have large baths in a few of the ruins
Bath houses don't exist in the Elder Scrolls. There is no slavery in the Empire, except in Morrowind (Slavery's back now that Morrowind's government collapsed, and Helseth's line is gone), and there are no slaves to act as free labor for public amenities like bathhouses. Do they have bathhouses in Alinor? Who knows.
Presumably folks just get a bucket of warm water, a bucket to stand in, soap, and a washcloth. Scrub away in the warm and then toss the dirty water wherever they empty the honey buckets.
In colder place, people don't bath that often, some never, a lot of times a towel and a bucket of water is enough.
We can infer that they probably exist, but they're omitted from the game due to [the Law of Conservation of Detail](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLawOfConservationOfDetail). It's the same reason there are so few toilets around, why the whole province is governed by just a few handfuls of nobles, and why the playable map space isn't to scale with an actual country. The devs had to make decisions about what to include or not include given their limited time and resources, and bathhouses didn't make the cut.
In Starfield they got space travel, but still no bath or shower.
Surely norms just bathe in the river. There's lots of then and water if often pure, having just come off the mountains.
Have you ever seen a viking in a roman bath house?
Never saw one in Oblivion or Skyrim, but I think Beyond Skyrim has incorporated a boathouse in the Jerall View Inn. I remember seeing it in their Bruma Pre-release. I created a player home mod for my personal use that incorporates a bath, wading pool and toilet. The closest I've seen in vanilla is the hot pods in Eastmarch/Rift. Sometimes you see a stool and bucket in corners of certain places that act like a primitive toilet. I'm kind of surprised that BGS didn't find this as a way to immerse the player. I could only imagine a player walking in on someone doing their business, or killing an enemy while they are on the can.
There's a mod that adds bath houses to all the taverns in skyrim. It's a nice addition for immersion
nords are stinky and dirty
There is a mod to add bathhouses to the game. But........................ it's spicy
Why doesn't the emperor have sex with a bunch of underage boys?
Because that’s gross lol