Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Lore: The Eye of Magnus Lost and Found

Tags: #Skyrim  #Lore  #Saarthal  #Eye of Magnus 
  • March 15, 2017
    Why does a song have a refrain? Answer that question. :)
  • March 15, 2017

    Huh... to remind you that you are still on the same song?

  • Member
    March 15, 2017

    Justiciar Thorien said:

    But now I want to know what could mage X. and mages A., B. and C. have seen when they looked there. And who put the amulet that we found on that door. And why Brelyna Marion couldn't find any trace of wards in there. Etc, etc. That's what makes the story whole, no?

    I get you, but it is the same reason as to why there are fresh fruit and vegetables inside these Nordic ruins, and why all these things are happening now. It is metaphysical and meta-game.

    The PC is a Hero. A Prisoner. The setting exists for him/her. The Psjics tell you that you alone can help. As much as you may want to RP as an average Joe and as much as the setting lets you have that freedom, you are actually someone very special indeed. Sure, there are NPC Heroes of the past and present who make things happen, but ultimately everything there is for you, the Prisoner inside the Tower.

    The Eye may have been there when Gauldurson was entombed, but there was nobody who could see it. Or the Eye was not there because it wasn't its time to be there. All the things needed for the Eye to be there happen at the same time as the Hero happens.

    "Each event is preceded by Prophecy. But without the hero, there is no Event."

    So those question, who put the amulet on the door? Why wasn't the Eye spotted before? They are irrelevant. These things happened and exist now for you. By your presence they are there. This is the Event, proceeded by prophecy. And you are the Hero.

    It is not satisfying to a historian's eye. There is no cause and effect beyond the story. The story dictates that a Hero is needed and so there you are as needed.

    The whole thing is a song and at this moment you are the conductor of the orchestra.

  • March 15, 2017

    Basically this means that all these things are open for our speculation and there is no determined answer. Still I think the answers can be deduced. For instance I strongly suspect that the Psijics were the ones who installed the amulet on the wall as it looks a lot like when you take it they immediately know that someone entered that part of Saarthal)))) And so on.

  • Member
    March 16, 2017

    That is very true, and the real beauty of TES lore. It's all open to interpretation and the gaps are begging to be filled. You could even say that Archmage Geirmund knew about the Eye and so created that amulet to prevent access to Jyrik Gauldurson and the other power hidden away. Interpretation is fun, and you know mine :) I think the Psijics mention that they had already been watching you. For me that is because I normally access the College via telling Faralda that I am Dragonborn. I like to hold off until that point because it's pretty cool to waltz up and say, "hey, Handles, lemme in coz I is Dovahkiin."

  • March 16, 2017

    Hmm, I've never done it. My character, being an Altmer, wouldn't boast such a thing around even if at this point he knew about it)))

    I like to think that the Psijics, that wise and cunning bunch of mer, are silently watching over all the important things in Tamriel. Such a thing as the Eye just couldn't be unwatched. And I suspect that the Thalmor are trying to do the same.

    Oh, but the amulet never prevented Jyrik from entering Saarthal. Actually Jyrik used the Eye! When we enter the room with Tolfdir, he uses the Eye and it grants him invincibility. Or maybe the Eye is using him as its protector, which I personally find more likely, he's been sealed there for milennia after all. It had probably messed his mind up completely. And now I have to do that quest just to learn all the possible detailsXD

    When I think of it, there are so many such obscure things... And less obscure too. Just today I talked with a guy about the economical relations between the Companions and clan Grey-Mane))

  • Tom
    Member
    March 16, 2017

    Methinks the old Nords knew better than to mess with it, and they made use of Jyrik by sealing him in as the Eye's guardian.

    You stumble upon an ancient device of unknown origin and purpose that elves once tripped over themselves to get before Ysgramor taught them a permanent lesson. You leave that alone and, renew the wards, and pretend you never heard of it.

  • March 17, 2017

    Sounds a bit too perfect to be true. Too, you know, logical))) And knowing that Nords were never big fans of books...

    It can be, though, that desperation, as he struggled to flee and hide from the punishment, drove Jyrik into the ruins of Saarthal where an ancient evil was known to dwell (who knows what exactly it did with that buddy of Ysgramor's, may as well something quite creepy that the centuries of Nordic oral tradition turned into a real horror legend). Harald's mages, who also had heard about it, drawing courage from their duty to overcome their fear, followed him there and when they stepped into the deepest depths of Saarthal, they confronted Jyrik. May it be that he already gave his mind to the Eye? Or he still retained some of himself and hoped to use the Eye to defeat his enemies? Or he didn't have time for either before they came after him? Anyhow, he was defeated and they left the place, and his body, and the paper they wrote, and sealed the entrance behind them, relieved and murmuring a quiet prayer of thanks to Shor/Stuhn/Kyne/whatever Aedra they revered for escaping this cursed place alive and whole. And never told anyone about what they saw there.

    It's a possibility)))

  • Tom
    Member
    March 23, 2017

    Justiciar Thorien said:

    Sounds a bit too perfect to be true. Too, you know, logical))) And knowing that Nords were never big fans of books...

     

    Personally, I'm rather sick of this whether it was meant jokingly or not. The Nords weren't stupid and still aren't. They're one of the oldest and most successful civilizations of man on Nirn.

    One game. One game portrays them as hating wizards. Wizards, not books, not education. They hate magic, and their hatred of magic stems entirely from the events of the Great War some twenty years prior in that game. Nords are a warrior culture. This does not mean they are an anti-intellectual or stupid culture. Warrior does not mean imbecile.

    Nords are not a cosmopolitan race or society. They are traditionalist, martial, and imperialistic. While these are incredibly despised quality in the real world at the moment, these are not synonymous with stupid or illogical.

     

  • March 23, 2017

    I never said they were stupid. At least no more than the humans who live on Earth right now. And those particular Nords would be especially unlikely to hate wizards, since they were ones themselves. But even in the modern world where people hsve books and internet such situation could happen, when people find something the knowledge about was lost long ago. They didn't have internet and didn't have even printed books. And it's a known fact that Nords prefer oral tradition to written chronicles. 

    Actually if they actually did leave the Eye alone, it means they are smarter then us the modern humans, we in our endless certainty that we know everything would never do so. Also people always fear the unknown, and that is totally a case thry encounter unknown, because it's highly unlikely that Ysgramor had studied the thing through and through and wrote a detailed manual. Seems more like he just said "that thing is evil and no one must touch it".