Tharstan is an elderly scholar from the mainland who has spent nearly a year in Skaal Village on Solstheim (Dragonborn), studying the tribe and the island’s murky past. The Skaal find him a bit odd but treat him kindly and happily share their traditions with him. He is enthusiastic, polite, wonderfully wordy – and absolutely not an adventurer.
Where to find them
Until The Fate of the Skaal is resolved, he is one of the dazed villagers building around the Wind Stone. Afterwards he is back in the village, often telling young Nikulas stories of his travels across Tamriel. During his quest he waits for you at Vahlok’s Tomb.
Quests
Having heard from Deor Woodcutter how you went after Baldor Iron-Shaper, Tharstan decides you are just the brave sort he needs. In Lost Legacy he explains that an earthquake from the Red Mountain eruptions has exposed a new passage into an old tomb, and he will pay you to watch his back while he explores it.
Inside, he is the perfect puzzle companion: he reads out every dragon-language riddle, offers a gentle hint if you ask, and then wisely steps back while you do the dangerous part – tossing a draugr onto a fire, walking the pressure plates, racing across vanishing platforms over a chasm. He translates the walls as you go, which slowly reveals that the tomb belonged to a guardian who defeated the traitor Miraak. After you defeat the Dragon Priest Vahlok, he pays you as promised and stays behind to study the word wall, already picturing the book he will write.
Personality & relationships
Tharstan is a classic armchair academic: brave in theory, nervous in practice, and thrilled whenever history “comes alive”. He had sensibly concluded that the trance at the stones must be the work of a mighty mage or a Daedra, and after the tomb he theorises that the Skaal descend from ancient Nords who followed the Dragon Priests to Solstheim – while freely admitting it is only conjecture. When Storn Crag-Strider reads the Black Book, he is shaken enough to decide that moment will not be going in his book.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim/DLC game files, written in our own words.
