Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Gelebor, Knight Paladin

  • June 28, 2012

    Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  Upon my exploration of the Dawnguard DLC for Skyrim, I was something that was in the same breath surprising and awing.  Note, that this has MAJOR spoilers, so if you insist on not wishing to gain this knowledge, then cease reading at this point.

    Now the actual thing that I'm posting about is very well-known among Skyrim players:  the Falmer.  It is widely known that the Falmer were Snow Elves abused by the Dwemer.  There's very little lore on the matter, and less still any evidence except for the Snow Elf statue you find during the Thieves Guild questline.  Well, very simply put, there are still Snow Elves.  During Dawnguard, you have to retrieve Auriel's Bow (the Elven form of Akatosh) from a certain "Forgotten Vale".  Upon exploration of the vale, you encounter various opponents, mostly frost trolls, Falmer, and chaurus.  The usual, generally.  But then, at the seemingly end of the cavern you first end up in that leads to the vale, you meet a Snow Elf, Gelebor.  An actual Snow Elf, who calls the Falmer "The Betrayed".  From Gelebor, there was quite a bit of insight derived from his actions and place in Snow Elf society.

    Firstly, I want to go over what he looked like.  He appeared to be like all the other Elves; tall, same facial features, same hair style, and all the general skeletal structures and such that makes an Elf an Elf.  The differences laid in his armour, his skin colour, and his hair colour.  As many of you have perhaps guessed, the skin is white, as is the hair.  Gelebor's hair was a bit spikey towards the back.  The armour though, was very "skimpy" I suppose you could say.  It wasn't a full-body steel plate armour sort of deal, but a very shiny, well-tended armour piece with various gaps.  Imagine how much of the body is covered with Imperial light armour and you have the general idea, though it was a bit more skimpy than that.

    Now, Gelebor had a very specific role in Snow Elf society.  He was a "Knight-Paladin" as he put it.  He guarded the Temple of Auriel with other Snow Elves.  When he dropped that, when he was saying "I gathered other Knight-Paladins to assault the Temple when the Falmer took it, but there were too many" (general limbo of what he said), you immediately understand he wasn't the only one.  Unfortunately, the other Snow Elves were dead at that point from the battles and the only one you see is Gelebor and Vylthur (I believe is the name).  Regardless, Gelebor, Vylthur, and the ghost Snow Elves you encounter are very much into their belief in Auriel (which makes sense since their priests...) but that could be a reflection on all of Snow Elf society.  Note that all the Snow Elves wielded "holy" magic.  Also, all of the Snow Elves had those sort of "churchy" titles:  Arch-Prelate, Knight-Paladin, Prelate, those sort of things.

    On the Temple of Auriel, the entire structure was of Snow Elf architecture.  It was a beautiful white stone, with curving arches and VERY graceful statues.  Also, there were holy shrines the player had to visit to get to the Temple.  They were tall, and also flowing of architecture.  They also had their own shrines to Auriel, who did NOT look like a dragon in their depiction.

    The other Snow Elf I mentioned, Vylthur, had been "corrupted" as Gelebor put.  I won't say what is his problem, but Vylthur was the leader of the Snow Elves guarding the Temple.  Obviously, that would warrant him having some impressive powers, which he did.  As a matter of fact, he retained the ability to freeze various enemies with ease and cause massive explosions of ice (especially when he blew the roof off of the Temple ;P)  When you kill Vylthur, you get to keep his armour, which is the same as Gelebor's which is awesome, but I don't know the stats with it.

    There are undoubtedly others who can deign more from their encounter with the Snow Elves, who were impressive in their low moments.  I hope I didn't ruin some of Dawnguard for those who read on, but I found this highly interesting and couldn't bare to keep it to myself.  Cheers!

    -Arnen

  • Member
    July 1, 2012

    Tbh, THAT was the highlight of the DLC, no question.....Keeping my mouth shut till everyone playes it.