The Elder Scrolls: 7 Weirdest Skyrim Enemies (And What They Represent)

The similarly named Will-o'-the-Wisps in folklore are ghostly lights that appear in swampy land to lead travellers astray in the dark, often drawing them from the beaten path and to a watery grave at night.

Whilst many speculate that they are spirits attempting to lead their victims to water in an attempt to baptise them, science has concluded that the lights are a natural phenomenon caused by organic decay in marshy areas.

The in-game counterpart of the Will-o'-the-Wisp stays particularly true to this latter, more benign quality, presenting them as a spectral light that can be followed and interacted with, but packs a punch should you get on the wrong side of their chilled out floating. Their mothers, however, are far less inviting.

Taking on the more classic depiction of a ghost to accompany her ghost lights, the Wispmother could be a further extension of the Will-o'-the-Wisp legend as heard of in Colombia.

There, La Candileja is the myth of a grandmother that was condemned to live the afterlife surrounded by flames, due to raising immoral children - meaning her spirit appears as a shining, ghostly, aggressive beacon, not dissimilar to Wispmothers (though these are blue and frosty instead).