A magic experiment gone wrong in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered led to a player paralyzing themself for 66 years, “longer than Uriel’s reign”

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In role-playing games (RPGs), we’ve all blundered at some point, but have you ever found yourself stuck for an astounding 66 years in reality? Amazingly, a player in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered managed to do just that, and the gaming community is now puzzled about how.

On Reddit, a screen capture demonstrates a game character who has been afflicted with a paralyzed status for more than 2 billion seconds, which is approximately 66 human years.

I paralyzed myself for 66 years (longer than Uriel’s reign) from r/oblivion

The individual who self-imposed this curse observes that sixty-six years is considerably longer than the rule of Emperor Uriel Septim VII, who was assassinated and reigned for fifty-five years. If you add in the ten years he spent in the realms of Oblivion, his reign extends to sixty-five years.

To put it simply, how can you remain immobilized for a duration longer than an Emperor’s rule? It seems that much like the character who honed their agility and strength skills to an unprecedented 15,000, the solution may involve repeatedly applying weaknesses to magic spells upon oneself.

As a gamer, I stumbled upon an interesting workaround for the supposedly patched self-stacking weakness to magic. Instead of casting it directly onto myself, I’ve found that I can first cast a reflection spell on a summon or NPC, then let the debuffs I inflict on them bounce back to me. This way, I can still benefit from the weakness to magic without triggering any potential patches.

The impact multiplies, which means that an initial 100% magic effect escalates to 200%, then 400%, and so forth without stopping. Furthermore, when a paralysis spell rebounds off them, it results in you being incapacitated for a period of 66 years.

The power amplifies, making a 100% magic effect grow to 200%, then 400%, and so on endlessly. If their defenses reflect a paralysis spell, it will cause you to be immobilized for 66 years.

It seems uncertain if you can escape from there, as it may lead to a situation where progress cannot be made. This state is referred to as softlocking. The debuff can only be removed after 66 in-game years have passed, but this method would only work if you could wait while your character remains paralyzed within the game. Therefore, I strongly advise creating a backup save before attempting this, so you can revert to a previous state if needed.

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2025-05-21 13:40