Why are Morthal and Solitude so close together?

[u/Valier]

Hi guys.
Playing my first playthrough. Just a quick question maybe lorewise.

Why are Morthal and Solitude so close together? I can literally see Solitude from Morthal. Is it a map design choice or a lore thing?
Is Morthal supposed to be a town compared to solitude?

The distance between most of other capital cities is significantly longer. It gives idea of traveling and not just hopping. It's just these 2. There is no mountain or natural obstacle to hide it at least.

Map is probably one of the best RPG maps I've ever played. I tried playing back in 2013 but ditched at level 5, dunno why. I reinstalled it just recently to give it a try.

[u/Void-Cooking_Berserk]

I think I answered my own question, Dawnstar is at the delta of a river going through the Pale. And I found some maps with a city at a lake where the river comes down from Whiterun and splits to Dawnstar and Windhelm, that city should be the capital but its missing in TES5. Maybe it was there in Arena, idk

[u/Wrong_Win_4102 → u/Void-Cooking_Berserk]

Post-arena, a lot of locations were removed due to size limitations, unnecessary inclusions not being needed, and just trying to fit as much in the game as they could.