I was recently made aware of pacifist runs in Elder Scrolls games. I have only played 1, 4, and 5, but this apparently extends to all of them. The core challenge is pretty self-explanatory: you must complete a major questline without engaging directly in combat. 

The only “weapons” allowed are staves that cast calm or fear spells. Maybe you can use a shield, but some people choose to not use any armor. Potions and enchanted clothing that enhance stealth are also allowed, letting you sneak your way around enemies or pickpocket important items from bosses. The pacifist run is concluded once the questline ends, and the player’s stats say that they killed 0 enemies.

In a game where the POINT is combat, this is challenging. At any given moment, you are a target. Wild animals, bandits, vampires, and the occasional necromancer can attack you at any time while you’re travelling to your next destination. Eventually, enemies will become too strong for calm or fear spells, and your only option will be to run away. Another layer of challenge is added when followers are involved. Most followers’ kills get added towards your own kill count, even if you didn’t do anything. There are only a few followers in the games that don’t do that, since they aren’t flagged as “followers” despite them following you. You can opt to not hire a follower, but some questlines give you temporary followers, like Martin Septim or Serana, and they’ll attack any hostile in range unless you paralyze them. 

The most glaring issue with this challenge is that some NPCs NEED to die in order for a quest to proceed. For instance, the main quest of Skyrim doesn’t end until the player deals the killing blow to the final boss. Pacifism is doable in the questline’s scripted dragon fights, since you’ll have other people fighting for you. Random encounters with other dragons can be avoided by just running away. But, as many people discovered, Alduin can have all your temporary followers wailing on him at once for minutes upon minutes. But, he’ll cling to a tiny sliver of health and keep fighting until he either regenerates enough health to start flying again, or until the player hits him one more time. This sets the player’s kill counter to 1, nullifying the run.

For the above reason, and a few more to come, some argue that it is impossible to be an actual pacifist in an Elder Scrolls game. These are people who take the word “pacifist” to its most literal, saying that the player should not fight, even pushing an attacker away. A true pacifist would prevent others from fighting when they see it, too. This means that non-follower followers or summons couldn’t be used to defeat enemies, since you would be ordering someone to kill for you. You wouldn’t FUS someone attacking you off a building or down a mountain, even though environmental kills don’t count. You couldn’t use frenzy spells, either, since that makes enemies fight each other.

This “true pacifism” could be done for partial questline completion. Oblivion’s Thieves’ Guild quests don’t require anyone to die until your encounter with The Pale Lady. The Mages’ Guild questline can be completed as a true pacifist until the recommendations portion is done. There are also a number of Daedric Artifact quests that can be completed as a pacifist, like for the Sanguine Rose in Oblivion, or the Wabbajack in Skyrim. But, in general, players will only consider a run successful if all quests in the line are finished. 

So, I’m inclined to agree with the “true pacifism” people. It’s impossible to finish a full questline, gather all the daedric artifacts, or become the leader of any guilds without causing harm, directly or indirectly. I guess that’s why some people call no-kill challenges “coward runs.” Technically, you don’t have blood on your hands by the end, but you’re still running from fights and orchestrating the deaths of dozens by making others kill for you. 

On a semi-related note, I’m doing a Skyrim genocide run on my Twitch channel! *cough cough shameless plug*