Fans of Skyrim's many hilarious glitches and oddities have kept players entertained for over a decade now, with NPCs bearing the brunt of quirky animation bugs and other miscellaneous issues.
Nazeem is one of those NPCs that players love to hate. A familiar face to all Skyrim players, he is usually encountered early on in the game when the Dragonborn first enters Whiterun on their way to see Jarl Balgruuf. The Redguard can typically be found wandering the marketplace, inspecting the wares while treating his fellow patrons with derision. The Dragonborn is no exception to this, with Nazeem looking down on them for their perceived class difference. This attitude has led to many players labeling him one of Skyrim's worst NPCs and attempting to kill him as a result.
It isn't uncommon for a playthrough of Skyrim to see Nazeem die at some point. However, as reported by kill Skyrim's annoying NPC themselves.
It seems likely that Nazeem died relatively early in the game's run, which would explain why jomarii had never seen him, but the actual reasons for his death are unknown. Comments on jomarii's post have suggested a range of possibilities for Nazeem's death, although most theories revolve around the common theme of him being killed by another NPC. Random attacks by enemies like vampires and dragons are a part of the game, although these are fairly rare occurrences. Another possibility suggested by strange occurrences and bugs in Skyrim observed in the past, but randomized NPC deaths is certainly one of the more unusual concepts to come up.
It is impossible to say for sure why exactly Nazeem died in this playthrough. Whether he was the victim of a random encounter, a glitch, or even an obscure NPC-killing function of Skyrim, jomarii was not a witness to it. As such, the truth will in all likelihood remain a mystery. However, that does not mean that it is not fun to speculate on what may have killed Nazeem this time around. Being so gleefully disliked by the community means that there is little love lost for him, after all. Considering that there are many players who would quite happily use this particular Skyrim NPC as a golf ball, perhaps this incarnation has unknowingly escaped an even worse fate.
Sources: jomarii/Reddit (via Game Rant), MyStationIsAbandoned/Reddit
