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The Prima game guide states that a year ago Kodlak Whitemane "contracted the rot and his condition has rapidly diminished".

Question: how could he contract the rot all while having lycanthropy??

Is this a typical game guide embellishment or is there anything to this?

The guide also indicates on the same page that Skjor is called Skjor the Scarred which I do believe is never actually mentioned in-game. So, it does look questionable.

HOWEVER, if you read Kodlak's journal it does make mention of the "rot".

"It's apparent to me now that Terrfyg's choice to turn us was indeed a mistake. Magics and their ilk are not in keeping with the spirit of the Companions. We face our problems directly, without the needs of such trickery. I can only hope to guide us back to the true path of Ysgramor before the rot takes me."

But the Rot can mean SO many things.

* Brain Rot
* The Rot on the soul from Lycanthropy
* Brown Rot
* Blood Rot
* Rotbone
* Stomach Rot
* Swamp Rot
* Wound Rot

However, out of all of these only two are "technically" in Skyrim and for me only the Lycanthropy one makes sense.

I think by "before the rot takes me" he just means before he dies. Not any type of disease or anything, he just wants to see the Companions become a pure non-werewolf group again in his lifetime.

No it's definetly the rot on his soul, I'm 99.9% on this.

So the question is: how long has Kodlak had lycanthropy?

If the answer is one year (unlikely), then Rot on the soul from lycanthropy could be the answer.

If not, he contracted some Rot whilst also having lycanthropy. Maybe an extra bit of trickery by the Glenmoril Witches?

SpikeSpeigel wrote:So the question is: how long has Kodlak had lycanthropy?

If the answer is one year (unlikely), then Rot on the soul from lycanthropy could be the answer.

If not, he contracted some Rot whilst also having lycanthropy. Maybe an extra bit of trickery by the Glenmoril Witches?

If Kodlak was Harbinger back when Vignar was young enough to be a warrior I would say a looooooong while.

ever think it may just mean hgis body rotting form death?
As in before death takes him but a cooller sounding thing?

I think it means before he dies in general. Or it could be lycanthropy rotting his soul away.

Or werewolves are not immune to disease. It wouldn't be the first time in elder scrolls, or gaming in general, that things in game lore conflicted with things done for the sake of the player character. With cure disease potions easily within the budget of most non beggars it'd be hard to imagine how disease could be a prob in skyrim at all given those conditions.

The Loner wrote:I think it means before he dies in general. Or it could be lycanthropy rotting his soul away.

I thought this as well since there is nothing that suggests otherwise. If his soul was going to rot it would have happened already since he has been of hircine for a long time.

Redguard_Master wrote:Or werewolves are not immune to disease. It wouldn't be the first time in elder scrolls, or gaming in general, that things in game lore conflicted with things done for the sake of the player character. With cure disease potions easily within the budget of most non beggars it'd be hard to imagine how disease could be a prob in skyrim at all given those conditions.

Apparently a lot of common people consider potions to be evil, especially in Skyrim because of the hate for magic. Also there's the weird thing about money in TES where people say they only make like 5 gold a year. Even though cutting three pieces of wood makes you more money than that.

remember its a game, you dont really think that skyrim is the size in game right? it dont take one after noon to get form one side to the other way longer

same for gold.

And that the entire population of cyrodiill in oblivion (excluding bandits and stuff) wasn't even 1k.

Its just the fact that the guide says he "contracted" the rot.

Otherwise, "the Rot" could mean many things to the denizens of Skyrim with regards to getting old and sick. Cancer could be called The Rot.

Possibly, Kodlak has not transformed to a werewolf in a very long time due to his reflections about Sovngarde. Therefore, possibly, deteriorating his lycanthropy resist disease benefit.
Much like vampires' benefits depleting due to lack of feeding/use.

This is obviously not in the in-game lycanthropy. Just a theory.

SpikeSpeigel wrote:Its just the fact that the guide says he "contracted" the rot.

Otherwise, "the Rot" could mean many things to the denizens of Skyrim with regards to getting old and sick. Cancer could be called The Rot.

Possibly, Kodlak has not transformed to a werewolf in a very long time due to his reflections about Sovngarde. Therefore, possibly, deteriorating his lycanthropy resist disease benefit.
Much like vampires' benefits depleting due to lack of feeding/use.

This is obviously not in the in-game lycanthropy. Just a theory.

Not really related but.. Don't the benefits of vampirism actually increase with lack of feeding? Especially with Dawnguard so nobody attacks you at level 4 vampirism.

Whats the guide made by? I mean i know many "guides" that are offical yet still go aginst whats alredy set

(looking at you DbZ guides)

Imperfect Three wrote:

SpikeSpeigel wrote:Its just the fact that the guide says he "contracted" the rot.

Otherwise, "the Rot" could mean many things to the denizens of Skyrim with regards to getting old and sick. Cancer could be called The Rot.

Possibly, Kodlak has not transformed to a werewolf in a very long time due to his reflections about Sovngarde. Therefore, possibly, deteriorating his lycanthropy resist disease benefit.
Much like vampires' benefits depleting due to lack of feeding/use.

This is obviously not in the in-game lycanthropy. Just a theory.

Not really related but.. Don't the benefits of vampirism actually increase with lack of feeding? Especially with Dawnguard so nobody attacks you at level 4 vampirism.

Yeah, I probably have that backwards as I have never been a vampire in game. Yet.

It's the Prima guide. And as another poster pointed out, Kodlak's journal reveals he has the Rot as well.

It dont say he has "the rot" it says before the rot takes him, which could just mean death.

Wolfie wrote:Whats the guide made by? I mean i know many "guides" that are offical yet still go aginst whats alredy set

(looking at you DbZ guides)

Prima Games. It's as official as you can get. I own a copy of it. It mentions several lore snippets that don't actually appear in the game, but they're from Bethesda's lore writers. The same can be said of the art book that accompanied the special edition. The guides for Morrowind and Oblivion also contained some info that can't be found elsewhere.

It should be noted that the Guides do contain some quest and NPC information that was cut or altered in the finished game, though. That inevitably happens with games of this size and complexity.

I'd say since "the rot" was mentioned in Kodlak's actual in-game journal that he was actually suffering from some malady, although I'd call it a disease of old age and not a disease caused by contact with a diseased creature, since Lycanthropes are immune to such diseases.