Skyrim is still an all-time great for asset reuse: this hunk of human flesh could be some poor guard's glute, or probably just a piece of repurposed beef

A whopping 13 years have passed since Bethesda Game Studios released The Elder Scrolls' most monumental entry to date, Skyrim, and fans are still uncovering the RPG's mysteries – with "human flesh" being no exception.

Yes, that human flesh – the very ingredient you salvage from the bodies of dead Falmer, only to chuck it out of your inventory as it takes up 0.3 of your carry weight and isn't worth many Septims. A recent Reddit thread has sparked interest in the meaty item, with the poster simply writing that fans "need to talk about Human Flesh," because "what cut of human" is it, really? "There appears to be a bone protruding at an odd angle, maybe a rib?"

There does indeed, but fellow players don't think it indicates the ingredient is part of a human rib. "Looks like a shoulder tbh," speculates one fan. Another echoes a similar thought, stating that it could be "maybe thigh or shoulder" as "the protruding bone looks like it connects to a ball-and-socket joint." Elsewhere, someone comments that the human flesh "looks like a pectoral muscle, a shoulder and the beginning of an arm bone."

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We need to talk about Human Flesh from r/skyrim

Despite the disgusting visual, they've got a solid point, and they're certainly not alone in the shoulder guess department. Not everyone is sticking to theorizing what kind of cut of human meat the ingredient could be, however. "How about the fact it looks near identical to raw beef," questions one player, posting a side-by-side comparison of the flesh and beef in-game – and yep, they might as well be the same exact item.

So, are Skyrim markets in the business of cannibalism, selling human meat off as raw beef – or are the people dying for the human flesh ingredient simply suspiciously cow-shaped? I'm going to go with neither and say Bethesda repurposed its meat asset for both, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love the deep-dive into human flesh and what part of the body it's from. As for myself, I'm going to go with glutes.

After 12 years, the modders merging Morrowind and Skyrim say their project would "come out faster" if "we were all working with Bethesda," but it would be "much worse"