Skyrim Composer Accused of Rape and Abuse

Another prominent industry figure is embroiled in controversy. Jeremy Soule, renowned composer of the Elder Scrolls series, has been accused of rape by Nathalie Lawhead, an award-winning independent game designer. Lawhead claims that Soule raped, manipulated, and abused her when they worked on a project together about a decade ago. Soule has yet to respond.
Skyrim Composer Accused of Rape and Abuse

Skyrim Composer Accused of Rape and Abuse

Not long ago, we reported on a respected voice actor in Fire Emblem: Three Houses being brought down due to numerous allegations of sexual assault. Unfortunately, a similarly situation has arisen again, this time involving the famed Skyrim composer, Jeremy Soule. On August 26, award-winning artist Nathalie Lawhead wrote a blog post entitled “calling out my rapist,” in which she accuses Soule of raping her during a project they worked on together.

In her post, Lawhead claims that she and Soule first met when they were both working at a game company in Vancouver, Canada. While they were initially solid friends, Lawhead claims that their relationship soon turned hostile. In her own words, she was desperate to break into the games industry and was determined not to lose her spot in this project. It wasn’t long before Soule allegedly took advantage of this.

I desperately needed this job. I needed the resume item, the opportunities, everything about it seemed amazing.
This job was set to be my “big break”.
Jeremy knew this, and knew the situation that I was in, and took advantage of his position to do what he did to me.

-Nathalie Lawhead, “calling out my rapist”

Lawhead goes on to accuse Soule of exploiting her desperation to abuse and manipulate her. She describes him as being obsessed with sex, claiming that sex was necessary for his compositions. Soule was also close friends with their company’s CEO, and before long, Lawhead claims that Soule would threaten her job if she didn’t give in to his every whim. This soon led to the alleged rape incident, which was followed by other abuses such as delaying Lawhead’s paychecks and making it difficult for her to leave the company, despite numerous attempts on Lawhead’s part. This all ended with Lawhead being suddenly and unceremoniously fired.

I was emotionally used, creatively used, and professionally used. It was very hard to pick myself up after that.

-Nathalie Lawhead, “calling out my rapist”

Both Soule and Lawhead are respected figures in their field. Soule has been responsible for some of the most iconic video game soundtracks of all time, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Guild Wars, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Prey, and more. Lawhead, meanwhile, is a noted artist and avant-garde game designer best known for forming the Tetrageddon independent studio. She has already produced games based on her experiences with harassment, such as 2017’s Everything is Going to Be OK.

Neither Soule nor the company he and Lawhead worked for have commented on these allegations.

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