The Augur Of Dunlain - Skyrim's Most MYSTERIOUS Character Finally EXPOSED - Elder Scrolls Detective

[Music] welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the elder scrolls 5 skyrim special edition my name is camel but more excitingly however welcome back to the elder scrolls detective series a series in which we investigate curate speculate hypothesize theorize and quite often simply highlight and discuss interesting mysterious and hidden things that can be found within the elder scrolls games today we will be donning a magical mantle and entering the college of winterhold to investigate one of the most mysterious characters in the game he who can be found buried deep beneath the arcane institution i speak of course of an entity known as the augur of dunlain if you have done the college of winterhold's main questline you will have run across this ethereal being the augur of dunlain was once a man then through unknown means with unknown costs became what we find here in game a non-corporeal yet sentient orb of light who most notably has the ability to see into the future now while the elder scrolls universe is full of strange and wonderful magics farsight is not something to be dismissed as common magic examples of it within the games are incredibly rare and when you do find them they are incredibly vague too yet here we have the auger of dunlain who along with untold magical abilities and the gift of farsight also comes with almost absolutely no explanation we meet a timeless all-knowing being that gets brushed over in a matter of minutes sorry said order forget the eye of magnus i want to know more about this dude anyone else feel that same way well today's your lucky day because just like a good friday night we're going in deep we'll delve thoroughly into the questions of who was the augur of dunlain in life what happened to the augur of dunlain and at what cost aka did the augur of dunlain cause the great collapse of winterhold but most importantly of all who are nirn or an oblivion mundus or aetherius is the augur of dunlain as we find him here in the elder scrolls 5 skyrim is he alive is he a ghost maybe an illusion a daedra a demi prince a hag prince is he an aspect of an aedra maybe one of the old elno fey did he achieve chim well he's well let's find out just a quick heads up be prepared to explore some deep areas of the lore and some places that you will not be expecting to go now if this kind of stuff interests you be sure to check out my other elder scrolls detective videos that i have already done they can be found down in the description via the elder scrolls detective playlist link now down there in the old description you can also find all of my social media links be sure to follow me on instagram and twitter along with joining our brand new discord server that i've made for our community where we can further discuss what we're about to delve into i look forward to seeing you there and if you do wish to watch this video in intervals or experience a particular topic again i have also provided timestamps in the description and in the comments for now though buckle up with your most powerful belt of fortifier magicka because we're going to need it so when we set off on our kabbalistic odyssey join the college of winterhold and attend our first class eager to learn about the occult arts we'll soon be scurried off to an ancient atmoran ruin called sarthal while we are in here we will be visited by a sidgic monk called nerian hold mage and listen well know that you have set in motion a chain of events that cannot be stopped judgment has not been passed as you had no way of knowing judgment will be passed on your actions to come and how you deal with the dangers ahead of you this warning is passed to you because the psijic order believes in you [Music] you mage and you alone have the potential to prevent disaster take great care and know that the order is watching now we'll get onto the significance of the sigic order and their involvement much later on for now though on with the quest soon enough we'll enter the tomb of jurik golderson son of the breton first era archmage goldie in here we will find the etadan artifact called the eye of magnus this is a significant discovery for the arcane university and all of nirn for that matter it is swiftly transported to the college of winterhold for further investigation and research placed safely into the magical font of the college's magics a few quests later will be summoned to the archmages quarters as a sedging monk has arrived at the college actually in person this time curiously this isn't narian the monk we spoke to in southall this is a different monk named quaranier please do not be alarmed i mean you no harm it is good to meet you in person what's going on what uh happened to everyone i'd simply like to talk to you i've given us a chance to speak privately but i'm afraid i can't do this for long we must be brief the situation here at your college is of dire importance and attempts to contact you as we have previously have failed i believe it is due to the very source of our concern this object the eye of magnus as your people have taken to calling it the energy coming from it has prevented us from reaching you with the visions you have already seen the longer it remains here the more dangerous the situation becomes and so i have come here personally to tell you it must be dealt with if this is dangerous then why don't you do something about it i'm afraid it's not that simple you must understand the psijic order does not typically intervene directly in events my presence here will be seen as an affront to some within the order as soon as we have finished i will be leaving your college i'm also aware that my arrival has aroused suspicion especially in oncarno your form or associate nevertheless my order will not act directly you must take it upon yourself to do so so what exactly is the problem as you may have learned this object the eye is immensely powerful the world is not ready for it if it remains here it will be misused indeed many in the order believe it has already rather something will happen soon something that cannot be avoided what do you expect from me then we believe that your efforts should be directed towards dealing with the aftermath but we cannot predict what that will be i fear i have already overstepped the balance of my order but i will offer this seek out the augur of dunlain here in your college his perception may be more coherent than ours who is the augur of dunlain he was once a student here at the college now he is something different where can i find this ogre i i am unsure he is somewhere within the college surely one of your colleagues must know his location i am sorry i cannot provide you with further help but this conversation requires a great deal of effort on my part now i'm afraid i must leave you we will continue to watch over you and guide you as best we can it is within you to succeed never forget that i'm sorry what were you about what is the meaning of this i'm sorry i'm afraid i don't understand don't play coy you asked to see a specific member of the college here he is now what is it that you want there's been a misunderstanding clearly i should not be here i shall simply take my leave what what trickery is this you're not going anywhere until i find out what you're up to i am not up to anything i apologize if i have offended you in any way we will see about this hmm very curious indeed this sigic order the most powerful and ancient faction of sorcerers came here to the college of winterhold to see us showing face on nirn for the first time in just over 100 years and they specifically told us to seek out the augur of dunlain this augur must have some great significance especially if the psijic order is directing us to him for magical assistance that not even they can provide well we must investigate further and ask everyone we can about the augur of dunlain brelina have you heard of the augur of dunlain huh that sounds ominous are you getting yourself into even more trouble no did you ask mirabelle she runs things around here after all i'll see you tonight bring the talbani bug musk on mind have you ever heard of the augur of dunlain i've never heard of anything like that did you ask tolfd here he's been here a long time and seems to know almost everything almost everything his catchphrase is i have no idea i have no idea have you ever heard of the augur of dunlain the what of what no no idea if it is important maybe toff dear knows he seems to know a lot meow and carno you seem like a know-it-all have you ever heard of the augur of dunlain the what no no i'm quite sure i have no idea what you're talking about i suggest you mind your own business and return to whatever it is you do here charming as always arniel you're going to zero some soon better spill the beans while you can have you heard of the orga of dunlain what the augur oh no i'm quite sure that's he's nothing i'm involved in no no mirabelle irvine or tolfdir they're qualified to discuss him not me definitely not thanks and fear you sell date your hearts you surely can tell me about the order of dunlain oh no no that won't do it all not my problem not even a little take it to tolf dear he's supposed to be looking after you lot really not even you can hook me up niriah does the auger of dunlain ring any bells it's not enough that you've stolen the spotlight with this eye thing now you're looking for the orga i'm not sure what you're playing at but you do well to remember your place around here by period do you have pms post magical stress ferralda have you ever heard of the augur of dunlain the augur really well it's certainly not my place to say anything about it i think you'd better go see mirabelle irvine ah glad we got that sorted ah bloody hell it's like trying to get his sap from a sigil stone let's go to the big boss archmage you're here to impart knowledge have you ever heard of the orga of dunlain has toftia been telling stories again i thought i made it quite clear that this was a subject inappropriate for conversation please don't allow him to continue to discuss the subject worst archmage ever colette you're nice have you ever heard of the augur of dunlain the argo tragic story really at least the way i heard it but that was a long time ago it was some experiment gone horribly wrong ghastly results i was told and his ghost still roams the halls they say of course on further reflection that may have simply been an attempt to scare me hmm perhaps i'll ask tolfd here what really happened i understand he was here at the time huh interesting now let's talk to the remaining two that the rest of the rabble have referenced us to in regards to the order of dunlain mirabelle have you heard of the augur of dunlain that's nothing you need to concern yourself with mirabelle i'm not asking tell me where the orga is very well it's not something often discussed as it might be misunderstood by the locals the auger is down in the midden below the college i don't recommend going down there unless it's absolutely necessary thank you tolf dear i've been led to you tell me about the orgraft on lane please well now there's a name i haven't heard in some time my goodness it's been years since i've spoken with him i suppose he's still down in the midden but i haven't checked are you going to see him do tell him hello for me won't you where is the midden underneath the college it's not the nicest place so if you go down there please do be careful can you tell me more about the order of dunlain well i suppose he wouldn't mind it was all before my time you understand i've heard the stories the same as anyone else he was a brilliant student an accomplished wizard delved into magic in a way none had seen before but i think he became too focused on just how much power he could acquire that's what led to the accident what accident do you remember what i first told you about how not being able to control magic could destroy you i didn't simply mean it could kill you the august accident is another very real type of a life destroyed well it's been described as an accident i can't imagine it was intentional something must have gone wrong and he ended up in the state he's in now fused to the energies that flow through the college i've never felt it appropriate to ask him about it about how that must feel or i suppose if he can feel it all wow there's a lot to unpack there we'll get back to the implications of all of this dialogue in time for now we must delve into the midden and the mid-dark to find this augur of dunlain the midden is a grim twisted and still twisting nest of ice rock and stacked slabs dripping and slippery mossed and amazed obscure remnants linger in dark corners and lit hallways occult memories of odd activities that took place here many moons ago these finds are important but we'll get back to that a little later on as they reveal a great deal about our friend the augur of dunlain soon we'll pass deeper into the mid and dark a colder and further sunken sub-terrain entombed in ancient eyes here we will find what we seek there is no help for you here there is no solace in knowing what is to come your perseverance will only lead to disappointments still you persist very well you may answer so you're the organ of dunlain i am that which you have been seeking your efforts are in vain it has already begun those who have sent you have not told you what they seek what you seek and what is it i'm seeking you seek that which all who wield magic seek knowledge you shall find this knowledge will corrupt it will destroy it will consume you seek meaning shelter in knowledge you will not find it the valmer saw the same thing and it shall lead to his end as it has so many others i was told to find you indeed and so you have come looking though you do not know why like others before you you blindly follow a path to your own destruction the thalmur came seeking answers as well unaware they will be as undoing your path now follows his though you will arrive too late thou more what foul the one who calls himself huncano he seeks information about the eye but what he will find shall be quite leverage his path will cross yours in time but first you must find that which you need i'm not the first to come see you no though you may be the last the one who calls himself ankano has sought my knowledge as well through very different questions your path differs from most you are being guided pushed towards something it is a good path one untraveled by many it is a path that can save your college i will tell you what you need to know to follow it further what do i need you and those aiding you wish to know more about the eye of magnus you wish to avoid the disaster of which you are not yet aware [Music] to see through magnus's eye without being blinded you require his staff events now spiral quickly towards the inevitable center so you must act with haste take this knowledge to your archmage and then he simply vanishes now we do get to interact with the augur of dunlain on one other occasion when our restoration skill reaches level 90 we can speak to colette marens about mastering the school of restoration collette what else is there to be learned about restoration magic look at you such a devoted student of restoration it's comforting to see that not everyone has dismissed it as entirely as most members of the college truly comforting it looks like you're ready to speak with the augur you're always going on about it i thought you were the authority on this subject oh goodness no there are those far more skilled than i the auger was a brilliant mage truly inspired mastered spells others could barely comprehend he was especially gifted when it came to restoration he's well he's very particular about who shares the knowledge so you'll need his approval first go on go talk to him i'm sure he's been paying attention and we'll be expecting you so down we go back into the mid and dark to stand before the augur once again once again you have come seeking something the circumstances differ this time i have what you seek are you prepared i'm ready for anything except doing my taxes arrogance will serve you poorly your worth must be determined before knowledge can be bestowed upon you and so you shall be tested collette has already told you you must be tested before knowledge can be imparted to you you will rely on your skill as a mage out of your belongings out on your scrolls and motions only what lies within survive and you are worthy this is the test put before you will you accept what kind of test is this knowledge is power knowing spells can be powerful but applying that knowledge is key you will be called upon to rely solely on your restoration spells i'm ready for your test step into the light and your test begins this conversation will conjure a magical sphere that we must enter which will summon hostile ghosts that will attack us and that we must heal ourselves through upon doing so we'll simply complete the quest and we will never and can never interact with the orga of dunlain again or bring him up as a subject to any npc so that is quite actually that we cannot experience or learn about the augur of dunlain any further as there is no more content in regards to him but as the length of this video has surely given away there is plenty to unpack and deduce from what we have experienced there are clues in every syllable and stone that we have passed so in broad strokes in life the auger was a prolific student at the college of winterhold delving into magic in a way that none had seen before mastering spells others could barely comprehend and notably excelling in restoration magic then supposedly an obsession with gaining power led to what is assumed to be an accident which transformed him into what we find in modern-day skyrim a non-corporeal entity that takes the form of a large ball of light i mean at face value it's very strange and as we're going to discover beyond face value it's very very strange so firstly who was the augur of dunlain before this and i quote accident well the first clues to the answer to this question actually lie within the midden and the minidark as we know the midden is a grim dungeon that mantles almost all definitions of occult there are remnants of strange rituals beasts and skeletons and mythical creatures skulk through the frigid darkness olden corpses scattered through hallways oddities litter corners and queer effigies fetishes and totems decorate the dungeon all of which summon an uneasiness among visiting patrons and amp up a heightened state of awareness but the midden and its furnishings rub us in such a way because they are actually familiar if we look at the human skeleton with an animal head or the strange bone sculptures that form terrifying sigils they are suspiciously reminiscent if not entirely mimicking the same effigies that we can find within force-worn camps yes that's right the barbaric reachman tribes that inhabit north eastern high rock and western skyrim throughout the druadic mountains why would their cultural customs be present in something like the midden which is on the opposite end of skyrim and also found beneath an eons old structured and especially when compared to richmond tribes in their culture much more gentrified institution for magic the college of winterhold it seems rather weird right well the answer is quite interesting the augur of dunlain what does that mean the auger of dun lane well the word auger is a real word that means to foretell especially by way of omens to foreshadow to prognosticate to farsi to divine tell predict or to see the future it also means to give promise of for example the approaching storm clouds or go rain you know the storm clouds are a foretelling a foreshadowing of the rain to come along with these meanings an auger or augers were also religious officials in ancient rome that were considered diviners farseers foretellers soothsayers prophets and these orgas would auger and predict future events to come so it would seem that the auger part of the auger of dunlain is just literally this definition he foretells future events the augur of dunlain quite literally august we will get back to the significance of this later as far seeing in the elder scrolls is very rare and very powerful and not to be dismissed as a common magician's folly but before we move on from the word auger here is a very interesting discovery at skyrim's release there was only one other mention of an augur within the elder scrolls universe we will get onto the elder scrolls online a little later as that game came out years after the elder scrolls 5 skyrim's release and the elder scrolls online introduced another orga the augur of the obscure but for right now at skyrim's release the only other mention of the word auger is in the book the legend of red eagle which as you probably know is a term that re-tells the tale of a legend within the reachman's history a warrior named red eagle so the opening of this book reads and i quotes long ago a child was born in the sundered hills they named him phelan which means red eagle in the tongue of the reach for the screeching bird called he greeted his birth and the crimson blooms on the autumn hills thus begun his legend rich child born under auspicious skies his very name the color of blood ten kings ruled the reach in those days and though men were free the people were scattered and ward amongst themselves the augers foresaw the boy's destiny a warrior without peer first and foremost lord of the reach chosen to unite all under his name now the book goes on to tell red eagle's tale and that is all well and good but that last part of the passage we read the augers which again at skyrim's release is the only mention of an orga or august within the elder scrolls as history and these augurs were a rank or a position within the reachmen's culture and society so the only known group of people with anyone called augers within their society is the reachmen who just happen to already be on our minds no thanks to the primal effigies found within the midden where the auger of dunlain is but the reachman connections are about to bolster their ranks so we've figured out the auger bits of his name but the auger of where dunlane but what's done lane well dunlane locally known as dunlain falls is actually a township within the province of high rock it was only present in the elder scrolls one arena and is not found or mentioned in any other game although in the elder scrolls online there is a rare flower that grows in north eastern high rock called the dunlain daisy which curiously completely off topic some people are allergic to and can ignite pollen allergies anyway in arena we can see that much like the rare flower the dun lane daisy the township of dunlane itself is located in the north eastern section of high rock which has been known as many things but most commonly it is referred to as rothgar the north eastern half of rothgar is known as the western reach so you know the reach in skyrim well that same region the juradic mountains just on the other side now do you know who comes from this area the reach that's right the reachmen which you'd likely know better as the force warn who are actually one of the many tribes of reachmen now the reachmen are an offshoot population of ancient bretons despite both bretons and reachmen claiming they are not related they are in fact of the same stock descending from the keptu clan of needs so even though the reachmen are sometimes referred to as a separate race they are in fact threatened by blood now these reachmen keep tribalistic traditions and root their culture in ancient magics which have been forgotten by most of tamriel but we'll get back to their magics in a minute so the orger of dunlain originated or is at least associated with dunlain to a point where it's become part of his name no doubt he had a normal name in his human life but since his transformation he is now simply known as the augur of dunlain so he has the title of a reachman and comes from a place within the western reach which is where the reachmen come from also in the game files the augur of dunlain is marked as a breton which even further cements the fact that he is from high rock but more specifically from dunlain now you might just be starting to see why we can find all of these strange occult and frankly familiar totems that remind us of the force-worn or reachman culture down in the middle as we know the auger of dunlain was pushing beyond the boundaries of academically known magics so it seems like the midden was where the augur of dunlain conducted experiments and rituals in his human life away from the prying eyes of his peers at the college of winterhold so i do believe that the augur of dunlain in life was a prodigal sorcerer as both tolfty and colette inform us of his accolades he was a brilliant student an accomplished wizard delved into magic in a way none had seen before the auger was a brilliant mage truly inspired mastered spells others could barely comprehend he was especially gifted when it came to restoration as he was and i quote a brilliant student an accomplished wizard he delved into magic in a way that none had seen before the auger was a brilliant mage truly inspired mastered spells others could barely comprehend so this guy the augur of dunlain was no average mage the way he is spoken about you might as well be talking about one of the famous mages from the elder scrolls histories so while we gain a clear gauge of his prolificacy and the well-defined effect that he was a wizard capable of great and unfamiliar magics what we don't get explained is this line he was a brilliant student an accomplished wizard delved into magic in a way none had seen before well what does that mean the magics least understood are forgotten ones ancient ones lost to time or used by unstudied cultures given the auga's apparent reachman roots it could be very possible that he had training or access to these widely forgotten primal nature magics passed down and taught to him by the magically inclined ranks of the reachman tribes the shamans the orgas the witchmen the grave singers or most likely of all the source of their power the hag ravens now the reachmen are primitive and tribal in culture they have no real societal systems you know like governing bodies or institutions as we know them in modern-day tamriel so trying to define their magics in a modern day tamrielic lexicon is difficult because no one really knows what it is in an academic sense the reachman's magics is often referred to as an advanced hedge magic a kind of self-taught homemade or informal study and understanding of the magical arts academics have observed the reachman magic and given it broad and unspecific definitions reach magic strikes me as wild and unpredictable whereas the reachment shamans don't even consider it magic but instead a simple connection to the earth bones you see the world with different eyes outsider magic is a word used by cowards who fear its power or fools who think they can control it we are connected to the land nothing more nothing less which for us here and now trying to solve a pretty serious mystery makes it damn hard to define for example a fireball is quite easy to categorize as a destruction spell but when a hag raven turns into a murder of crows what kind of magic is that is it alteration is it conjuration illusion formiturgi transportation magic beast forming like what is that how does one define that type of magic when it has not been studied at all well with that thought in your mind if the augur of dunlain was equipped with these informal reachment magics and abilities then came to the college of winterhold and performed them his fellow students of the college would have witnessed him casting these unfamiliar spells rendering the other students unable to define exactly what he was doing as they're dealing with ancient and primal sorcery but all they have to look at it through is their lens of modern day magical definitions in tamriel so to his fellow students the augur of dunlain's richmond magics could very well have been seen and described as he delved into magic in a way that none had seen before or he mastered spells that others could barely comprehend because yeah no one at the college had seen that magic before or tried to comprehend it this is a very interesting path of thought and one i believe to be the direct course of truth so what do we know about the reachmen and their magic well while like any culture in tamriel there are naturally magically inclined people within their populations the reachmen are especially unique as a culture as their primary source of the rather esoteric nature magics that the reachmens shamans orgas which men and grave singers possess is actually gifted to them by witches hags and of course the hag ravens in the same way an academic sacrifices time and thought to gain knowledge and power the reachmen also sacrifice for knowledge and power their sacrifices and rituals are just much more tangible the classic things like animal sacrifices dancing chanting erecting effigies totems and fetishes applying word war paint tattoos and then shambling into the darker side of their culture flagellation tribal scarring blood bathing dismemberment burning at the stake live sacrifices cannibalistic feats with some clans even being known to sacrifice children by cutting out their still beating hearts these rituals are performed in exchange for power to and from who well that's a good question we do know that raw power arcs through the reachmen shamans witchmen and grave singers these shamans converse with hated hagravens through ecstatic ceremonial heresy sacrifices are made and flesh is the feast this communion allows the witchman to acquire nature magic from or at least through the hagravens now hagravens play an interesting part in all of this as richmond clans and tribes are sometimes found to be matriarchal with their leader their matriarch often being a hagraven interestingly though hagravens aren't necessarily part of the reachmen's ranks as there are witch covens and lone hagravens that have no relation to the reachmen at all but for the most parts they are often found leading a clan or tribe of reachment now hagravens were once witches or hags usually of breton descent as they appear to only exist in high rock and skyrim although their numbers are much greater in western skyrim towards the reach compared to the rest of the snowy province now while they were once human they have undergone a ritual an exchange trading in their humanity for access to powerful magics this transformation they undergo infuses their entire beings with elements of that power quite literally as we see in skyrim hagraven feathers fortify conjuration and hagraven claws fortify enchanting the magical bolstering effects of consuming physical parts of a hagraven is noted in the herbalist's guide to skyrim and i quote i found myself capable of comprehending enchantments that i had believed mystifying after ingesting the mixture and have passed this knowledge onto several court wizards who were grateful for the knowledge so hargravens themselves their very being their very bodies are imbued with this power this is very important for a theory later on sadly we truly do not know where this power comes from but we can make some very clear educated guesses as there are examples of richmond tribes worshiping a variety of deities more esoterically they have religious roots with an unknown pantheon simply known as the old gods and carry effigies and totems in the image of unknown higher powers but primarily and more familiarly they seem to worship the daedric princes or at least a select few of the darker more primal and chaotic ones the daedric princes are likely the host of this old gods pantheon as the reachmen don't refer to the daedric princes as daedric princes but instead call them the great spirits or old spirits daedra oh the spirits the old ones yes i've heard them called that the world is full of whispers for those with the patience to hear most them bloods are just too busy begging pardons from dead gods to pay attention petey daedra spirits crows it's all the same where you see evil gods we see teachers cruel ones for certain but thus the world right a stone will kill you if it strikes your head but left in the same stone makes us strong rivier may be too strong worth our relationship with the spirits relies on negotiation on giving and receiving what is expected we look to the great spirit nocturnal for guidance but our wards honor her scene more like ball and namira as well the spirits we revere follow their own whims we have an understanding however as long as we make our offerings in good faith the spirits provide their blessings richmond clans worship these spirits or daedric princes as we know them but only a handful of them namely namira malagbal malacath mehrunes dagon hirschine and vermeena inside crowswood a pocket of nocturnal's realm of oblivion the evergloam we can also find the crow's spell of binding left by a hagraven known as crow mother who names and channels several princes for their blessing in this binding and i quote by the snare of her scene and the trail of namira's slime i bind this place three times seven times by malacath's curse and the skull of amina i bind thee to this summoning arena by the razor of dagon and by the chains of malaga bal when the time is at hand you will answer to my call so we can observe that the hagravens and in turn the reachmen worship at the very least these named princes but there is a grand prince of worship among all the reachmen percy the daedric prince of the hunts as the father of man beasts master of beasts and master of the hunt he possesses the most naturalistic and primal roots within nature when compared to the other daedric princes making him and his aspects a clear choice for worship when it comes to a primitive and tribal people such as the reachmen and their matrons the hagravens even if we look at the reachmen clothing it appears to be an attempt to mimic the image of her scene with ragged leathers and furs and of course the signature elk skull crown of her scenes which is actually the skull of the affairs champion the grat elk it is not known how this relationship between the rich folk and the daedric princes begun namely that with hircine but it is said that the reachmen believe the rocks rushing water towering peaks and stunted thickets of juniper are a gift from her scene and are to be fiercely defended her scene also created lycanthropes werewolves where bears wear boars and the like which interestingly being a werewolf amongst the reachmen is considered a blessing and not a curse so clearly the reachmen have a powerful connection to hursing and given her scene merged man with beast and created all manner of lycanthropes it would appear that he is most likely the architect of the venerated commingling of hagg and raven so all in all it seems without a dart hagravens are the doing of her scene and in turn would make her seem responsible for the mysterious and primal nature magics that hagravens possess and pass onto their reachmen followers now these unidentified magics equip hag ravens with a range of primeval and naturalistic abilities they can cast destruction spells such as fireballs and frost bolts seeming to be their favorite amongst their arsenal also possessing the ability to conjure pools of flames on the ground beneath their enemies feet hagravens can summon murders of crows by the way a murder is the plural of crow so a bunch of crows is called a murder of crows in case you were getting confused there anyway hagravens can summon murders of crows to swarm their enemies and even summon flaming crows to create a feathered firestorm they can also teleport short distances in a plume of feathers a most annoying ability they can curse one with diseases they have the ability to poison their foes on the flip side they possess an array of restoration spells to heal themselves and allies of course oh and most famously they possess the ability to remove the beating heart of a reachmen and replace his or her heart with an enchanted briar fruit which is known as a briar heart the same name that dons the now revived richmond brier hearts who always seem to be crowned with an elk antler headpiece again mimicking the image of her scene the daedric prince who is seemingly responsible for these great powers the hag ravens possess now just between you and i there is one other very unique ability the hagravens possess but we'll get on to that a little later on as it is the keystone to bridging a few vital components of this theory so what's in oblivion does any of this have to do with the augur of dunlain well his substantial magical powers must have come from somewhere while sure there are extraordinarily talented wizards and witches through tamriel's history they are quite rare and the augur of dunlain just so happens to come from a place where the local tribes and their matrons sacrifice for great and powerful primal magics the kind of great power that the augur of dunlain seemed to have exercised while at the college of winterhold mastering magics others couldn't comprehend delving into magic in a way that none had seen before the hallmarks of something special suspicious and unfamiliar to the modern academic magical institution of the college of winterhold so did the augur of dunlain make sacrifices to her scene to gain his power were these powers bestowed upon him by a tribe matron a hagraven well in one way or another yes i do think so and you'll learn why in the coming minutes he certainly seemed to have the power and mastery of unknown magics to suggest this but his lack of barbarism and the fact he attended and studied at a civilized school of magic the college of winterhold makes me think that he wasn't bound to the richmond tribes in his adult life maybe he was maybe he wasn't maybe he was sent to learn all he could to bring it back to the richmond uprising to be used in their wars to come it was said that he was obsessed with power which led to his ultimate demise maybe he was trying to amass an arcane payload and bless his people with it or use it as a weapon maybe he was birthed into a reachman clan but broke away and brought with him aspects of his reachman culture to winterholds it's a feasting hall of options so take your pick and fill your platter but i have conjured a rather unique theory that you are going to enjoy and it's also the most viable one and of course i have amassed a whole kgt caravan worth of evidence and clues so firstly in the elder scrolls online in northern bankera at the southern tip of the western reach an area overrun by reachmen we can find a law book called a life barbaric and brutal which is a recount written by anthony bellock of her eight years as a slave to the richmond tribe the crow wife clan it recalls the various barbaric acts and traditions of the crow wife clan that she witnessed but it also sheds light on some very previously undocumented possibilities the crow wife clan was led by a hagraven matron called clow avdrow who was a vile and twisted beast as most hagravens are her hag husband was a man's called cointhak who was a grave singer and feared by all within the tribe but this text reveals something incredible on the last page and i quote it was during my sixth summer as a slave of the crow wives i'd crossed the hated karth 11 times but during this sixth summer it was then i began to attract the unwanted attention of eknewell the loutish son of khloevra and coinfact there's more to the story but that's all the bits we need to know so closedra the hagraven and her hag husband cointhak a reachman had a child together this reveals that hagravens can in fact have children with human men producing a child that given its lack of description is likely physically human looking although we cannot be sure as this child's physical appearance is never described if it was some kind of strange raven child abomination surely the writer would mention that but the child being more human in appearance or at least being more human in appearance than hagraven does make sense considering the hagravens were human before undergoing their beast deal transformation furthering this evidence of hagraven offspring during the second era in the south eastern corner of the rift in skyrim there was an arena called the blessed crucible around it we can find plaques that detail the champions of this arena over the years the first champion was aleris the shroud eliris the first champion of the blessed crucible held that title for four decades she was renowned for her skill with illusion magic and her deft swordplay few were able to match her skill in the arena or her favor with the crowd and we can see at the bottom that she was defeated by someone known simply as crow bringer who has their own plaque which notes some suspiciously familiar abilities crowbringer was said to possess the powers of the hagravens allowing him to transform into a murder of crows and attack his foes from a hundred directions at once it was perhaps inevitable that his reign as champion would be cut short by one who utilized the powers of light when crow bringer used his transformation powers against hagruff the righteous a blinding light incinerated the crow forms leaving nothing in their place but the brimstone crown itself now this is very interesting indeed as there are no examples anywhere within the law of a man undergoing a hagraven transformation yet there is an example of a hagraven giving birth to a son with eknuel khloe avdra and cointhak's son that we read about just a few minutes ago so the fact that crowbringer had these powers that have only ever been observed being used by hagravens to me heavily suggests that he is in fact the offspring of a hagraven having his mother's hagraven abilities passed on to him while maintaining the form of a man please cast your mind back a minute or two when i made the point about hagraven claws and hagraven feathers bolstering a consumer's magical capabilities and understanding of magic well imagine the powers that you would inherit if you were birthed by a hagraven they'd be immense you would have these fortifications to your magical abilities permanently in your very dna much like powers possessed and displayed by crowbringer or perhaps the auger of dunlain too with his unmatched comprehension of magic and mastering of magic that none had seen before so where's this theory going well i'll ask the question was the orger of dunlain the son of a hagraven well he came from the right area geographically he now has the title orgo a title which has only previously been observed within the reachmen's culture there are richmond totems and fetishes in the midden where the orga clearly spent some time in his mortal life given that this is where he can now be found he had unmatched magical powers and an understanding of magic foreign to the academically trained majors of the college of winterholds not only was he said to be masterful beyond comprehension but it's specifically noted that he was especially gifted in the school of restoration this is important because remember that one other unique ability that hagravens have that i said we'd get onto well let's get onto it and it is quite substantial hagg ravens in rothgar again rothgar is the north eastern corner of high rock the same place where dunlane is located well hag ravens from this exact same area have been observed performing something very special when one of their fellow reachmen dies in combat the hagravens bring them back to life now we've seen something very similar with necromancers but this is different as the resurrected reachmen are not bound to the caster the hagravens in this case so if the hagraven is killed the revived reachmen still continues to live they are not a reanimated corpse at the mercy of the hagraven they are simply alive again this has been observed and documented by npcs as a strange form of necromancy but i believe this conclusion to be incorrect it's not necromancy the resurrected are not bound to the caster which would not make it the puppeteering of the dead so to me it doesn't fall into the facet of necromancy it's resurrection permanent resurrection surely if anything this would be classed as restoration the revival of the dead not reanimation but revival to freely and independently live and breathe again of course please correct me if i am wrong but surely if anything this would be the highest and most powerful form of restoration magic restoring a dead person back to life independence of the resurrector and don't forget my fellows restoration is the school of magic the augur of dunlain excelled at beyond all other magics it seems like he and the hagravens share this almost divine grasp on the school of restoration once more connecting the two as if they were related oh and there is one other major piece of evidence that to me completely concrete the fact that the auger of dunlain is the child of a hag raven for this i had to dig deep and it can be found within the creation kit so if we open skyrim's creation kit and load skyrim's game files then search for auger we can find the augur of dunlain's character profile in here we will discover an array of very interesting and telling things while the augur of dunlain is an orb of light when we encounter him in game he actually has a uniquely assigned and designed human character in the game files as we can see all of the character customization sliders and such have been manually set by a developer specifically creating a unique looking human as the auger of dan lane and guess what he looks like well he looks like this an absolute mess to be sure one of the ugliest characters that i've ever seen at first i thought what the hell is this this is the goofiest looking dude i've seen since since i looked in the mirror this morning but then it clicked as i was getting footage of a hagraven oh my god he looks like a hagraven man the orga of dunlain has a specifically designed human character in the game files that has been made to look almost too perfectly like a hagraven's spawn he has the gaunt face the huge nose the witch's chin the thinning straggly hair the bulbous bare brow the dead crone eyes he could not look more exactly like what i would imagine the son of a hagraven to look like and a detail that is probably easily missed is on this page in the creation kit his eyes are set to male eyes human demon and his eyebrows are set to browse male humanoid 12 no brow the names of those settings aside he has completely blacked out eyes and no eyebrows which to be honest were two options i didn't even know were available but these two features are exactly what hagravens have they have no eyebrows and they have completely black dead crown eyes which just so happens to be the exact settings on the augur of dunlain's human form while at the same time the rest of his face has clearly been muddled off of his mother too to me this is beyond suspicious this is just tangible and observable evidence that the orger of dunlain is in fact the son of a hagraven in this window here we can see that his race is up again his race fits the bill perfectly interestingly his height is set to maximum and his weight is set to minimum so he is thin and gangly again a physicality that you would associate with a hagraven now this little viewing window can be hard to appreciate so i have recreated his character in game by perfectly matching all of the settings that we see here in the creation kits and looky here the auger of dunlain the most hagraven looking male breton in all of tamriel at least that i have seen so i'll ask the question again was his mother a hag raven i definitely think so and i would confidently take this evidence to court or to the elder council or whoever would like to see it he is breton he is from dunlain in rothgar the western reach where the reachmen come from he has the title of orgo which has only previously been observed being used as a title enrichment tribes he delved into magic in a way that none had seen before he could master spells others could barely comprehend almost as if his magical understandings were permanently bolstered by effects the same effects that we have observed that are present in alchemy when consuming parts of a hagraven the midden where he resides is filled with totems and effigies floating with or even matching those found in force-worn culture who are again a tribe of reachment we've seen that hagravens have had husbands who are men and together they can produce children we also have seen that their children who are men can possess their hagraven abilities as observed with crowbringer we have seen hagraven's performing permanent resurrection a divine ability that just so happens to lie exactly in the same school that the organ mastered above all others that being restoration magic and to bring all of the ingredients together his character looks like an actual hagraven or more fittingly and relevantly like a man and a hagraven mixed together to me it is clear as day the augur of dunlain is in fact the son of a hagraven he is a hag prince now this revelation about the augur of dunlain's origins are very interesting and could play some parts in the coming questions so now we've found the most likely roots about who the augur of dunlain was in his mortal life the next mystery to address is what happened to the augur of dunlain how did he go from birdman to a glowing ball of light well toltier sheds the most light on this ball of light he was a brilliant student an accomplished wizard delved into magic in a way none had seen before but i think he became too focused on just how much power he could acquire that's what led to the accident what accident do you remember what i first told you about how not being able to control magic could destroy you i didn't simply mean it could kill you the august accident is another very real type of a life destroyed well it's been described as an accident i can't imagine it was intentional something must have gone wrong and he ended up in the state he's in now fused to the energies that flow through the college he thinks that the augur was driven to his own demise trying to acquire as much power as possible but there is no other evidence of this claim other than tolfdir just thinks that's what happened but tolfdir might be holding his cards closer to his chest than we suspect which we'll get onto a little later teaser i think he knows a lot more than he reveals anyway toltec clarifies that whatever happened to the augur of dunlain is described as an accident as he couldn't imagine that it would have been intentional this is important to note as it could have very well been intentional telftier also mentions that the augur is somehow now fused with the magics that flow through the college this is a very strange occurrence and i cannot find any examples of this happening elsewhere a conscious being fusing with magicka in a particular location or at all for that matter while also remaining a cognitive entity that's very strange indeed of course we'll get onto what he is or very well could be later but because we don't really have any examples of the outcome it's hard to define or specify the process so it seems when trying to define exactly what happened to the augur of dunlain we're going to have a very hard time given he is apparently fused to the magics that surround the college we can assume that he was performing a spell a ritual perhaps that involved these very magics some speculate that his obsession with power led him to trying to absorb that very magic that flows through the college which in turn led to his physical form overloading like putting too much air into a balloon his body the vessel could not contain the quantity of magicka flowing into it and he went kapoof exploded and in one way or another his soul fused with the magics that surround the college of winterhold something like this is a basic educated guess and has no grounding in evidence apart from the observable outcome now if what happened to the augur of dunlain was an accident i would consider it a happy accident as we can see plenty of characters all throughout skyrim who have performed magical experiments which have ended in failure and often death even at the college of winterhold alone we have many examples whether it be berliner making the player's vision green or turning the dragonborn into various animals or the four now ex-students whose remains we can find scattered throughout the whole of winterholds who died while experimenting in various magical arts you can see them in full in the curating curious curiosities video that i have done for the hold of winterhold if such things interest you but even the senior member of the college arniel gain appears to zero-sum when he uses kaggrenak's tool keying on the warped soul gem possibly the exact same thing that happened to the dwemer point being it probably wasn't intentional on arnie gaines part we also of course have the four students that tried to bind the pirate dramora of the obesian velexane uh and again i have a full video on his story if you want to check it out it's actually really cool and i'd highly recommend it you'd enjoy it anyway four students in some kind of ritualistic experiment bound velexane to the gauntlet and therefore rings but in the process exploded as we can see with the parts and gore splattered and scattered around the room and their souls were sent to oblivion we'll get back to this a little later as it might play a part in the august story anyway the point of all of that is that we have plenty of examples of magical experiments going wrong all of them resulted in failure in some sense and most of them just ended in death like plain old boring you're gone kind of death but with the auger he is something else he went from human to a far-seeing omnipresent non-corporeal entity these are the kind of traits associated with the daedra and the aedra or other hiring ascended entities not to say that he is one but his current being is something divine divine in a literary sense not an aedric one so surely something like this master wizards well some at least would thrive to achieve an ascendance in a sense so was this an accident it very well could have been an accident but if it was it was a very very happy accident considering all of the other accidents we can find ended with predictable certain death whereas the augur of dunlain is now a conscious astral being so given we have almost nothing to go off i think asking what happened to the augur of dunlain might be the wrong question maybe we should ask under what circumstances did this transformation take place under well i believe that it may very well have been related to the great collapse so did the augur of dunlain cause the great collapse or was he involved with it at all for the uninitiated the great collapse was a disaster that took place 79 years before the time the game of the elder scrolls 5 skyrim takes place in which a rather aptly named great collapse occurred where the majority of the city of winterhold crumbled and plummeted into the sea of ghosts but the college of winterhold remained standing while all the land between its and the city of winterhold shattered into the ocean below this naturally aroused suspicion amongst the locals and their suspicions might just be well placed now the two prevailing theories as to the cause of the great collapse are weak at best the first is that the eruption of red mountain caused quakes throughout tamriel and weakens the natural foundations below the city a few things to note here is that red mountain and the college of winterholds aren't exactly close they are about a quarter of a continent away from each other and like winterhold there are plenty of similar cliffy areas between the college of winterhold and red mountain that did not suffer the same fate and remain standing most importantly though the eruption of red mountain happens 117 years before the great collapse happens so blaming a seismic event that occurred six generations beforehand and took place a province away is limp at best now the second accepted theory is what was passed off by the college as the cause which was natural disaster due to storm erosion now this may be true but as we'll see the patrons of winterhold did not trust mages nor their college and they still don't and they do not accept this theory of the eroding storms at all there are a number of reasons for this and we'll learn about them all shortly it's important to understand fully this friction between the college of winterhold and the city of winterhold as it plays a part in my theory about the augur of dunlain being the cause of the great collapse so firstly 79 years ago at the time of the great collapse the then archmage wrote a letter to the yale of winterhold this letter can be found in a book aptly named on the great collapse so let's have a read firstly please allow me to offer my sincere condolences i understand that you like many others have lost family and you have my deepest sympathies i also understand that some of your counsel have placed the blame for this horrible disaster on my colleagues at the college while i can certainly appreciate the shock and the scope of recent events and the desire to comprehend what has happened i must strongly urge you to consider the full situation you know as well as any the college's history and reputation in winterhold it has long been a source of pride for your city a unique fixture in skyrim some of the greatest wizards have studied here and the college has always promoted positive relations with the other provinces of tamriel it is well known that those relations have been shall we say strained over the last few decades after the oblivion crisis it was only natural that the people of skyrim showed a distrust for mages even though the vast majority of us actively worked to counter the actions of the mythic dawn cults the college expected such a reaction and hoped that distrust would fade over time and then the red year no one foresaw the explosion of red mountain or the devastating effect it would have on the dunma culture your predecessor was kind enough to welcome many of the refugees particularly those who could contribute to the college's studies we were quite grateful when solstein was generously offered to the dunmer as a new home i was surprised as any i did not however share the apparent expectation that all dark elves would leave skyrim it did not go unnoticed that many in winterhold were unhappy at how many majors chose to stay at the college rather than relocate and now the storms that have racked the coast of skyrim for close to a year have finally broken but at great cost to us all this great collapse that has devastated winterhold was unexpected i assure you that the college has remained unaffected is only a testament to the protective magics placed around it so long ago it in no way implies that we were somehow prepared specifically for this event and is certainly no indication that the college was somehow responsible i certainly would never hold you accountable for the gossip spread amongst the people of winterhold i would urge you though to not allow that gossip to take root and become a commonly held belief i do not wish to see our relationship crumble like winterhold has i assure you the college will remain here a very very long time now this almost threatening letter reveals the tension between the college and the city in which the then archmage blames the great collapse on the recent storms that apparently eroded the coastline and assures that then y'all of winterhold that the mages of the college had nothing to do with it despite the college remaining unharmed due to protective wards which we'll get onto later but these tensions and distrust have all but dissipated in modern day skyrim as we'll see just by talking with the people of the college and the populace of winterholds so onmens why do nords have a problem with the college well look at the evidence nords generally don't trust magic so it's not off to a good start throw in the oblivion crisis which was caused by magic users and the troubles now are the old mary dominion who are elves and magic users and finally take the fact that the college is the only thing left standing after most of winterhold was destroyed it's all fairly damning now despite this chain of reasons the local nords don't like mages there are still some within the city who don't blame the college such as kraldar who will give us some very interesting and relevant history excuse me do you find the college dangerous goodness no they're simply scholars they mean no one harm i've had several conversations with archmage iron over the years oh he's perfectly polite if a bit guarded hmm bit friendly with the archmage are you where's he putting his wand please tell me about the history of winterhold i'm afraid the winterhold you see before you is somewhat underwhelming i can assure you though that it was quite something in its prime an early capital of skyrim you know sadly the oblivion crisis took its toll on winterhold in more ways than one then the great collapse swallowed most of our beloved city clarify for me how did the oblivion crisis impact winterhold you may have noticed the college just to the north there very prestigious place mages from all over tamriel traveled here to seek knowledge after the oblivion crisis was over many felt that magic users were to blame elves to be specific it created a great deal of tension a good many dark elves were driven from the city and people became uncomfortable with the presence of the college please explain the great collapse to me just about eight years ago there was a terrible disaster the cliffs overlooking the sea of ghosts collapsed taking most of winterhold with them in the middle of it all the college was practically untouched many of the survivors were suspicious some believed the mages were behind the whole thing and others felt they could have at least prevented it archmage aaron assures me that his people had nothing to do with it and i believe him but winterhold never recovered now while kraldar provides some brilliant insight into the situation he doesn't share winterhold's general spite towards the college we should visit with the yao korit of winterholds for the town's consensus and before we even get to talk to him we'll get an earful about those damned mages at the college that wizard is still at the end i can't believe dagger allows him to stay there this is what it's come to no one seems to care what they've done to our home it's clear that memories are far too short and it's clear money matters more to tiger than honor ours is the only family left that truly cares what happens to winterhold corrier will be the first to tell you that if it weren't for that college we'd all be better off i agree with him what's your business here in winterhold i'm here for the college have known not that it matters anymore no one bothers coming to winterhold for any other reason please tell me about winterhold's history what's there to tell it's mostly gone now thanks to those damned mages in the college someday there'll be proof they caused the great collapse most of the city just dropping off into the sea that doesn't just happen i'm getting the vibe that you have a problem with the college i do and if you count yourself among their numbers then you've blood on your hands as well there's nothing left of winterhold nothing everyone knows it's the college's fault that the sea swallowed our city still they deny it but we all know the truth the college is the worst thing that's ever happened to winterhold maybe to skyrim those cursive mages it's their fault winterhold is gone few will admit it but we know the truth about the great collapse i don't care how many colleges they build or how much the sea swallows up i'll outlast them all so as we can see the yal and a number of winter holds patrons do not trust the college of winterhold's one bit and hold them accountable for the great collapse and they are right if some of my theories about the augur of dunlain hold true of course finally we'll hear from the archmage himself to get his side of the story archmage what caused the great collapse no one is sure of the cause some believe the eruption of red mountain had far-reaching consequences that were only felt years later i know there are some who have blamed the college said that we were responsible i assure you this is not the case go on i want to hear more the sea of ghosts practically came alive no one was expecting it monstrous waves battered the shore for weeks on end winterhold was ancient and weathered but it couldn't withstand the seas fury entire districts of the city were lost overnight the waves receded in time but the damage was irreversible most residents of winterhold abandoned what was left of the city the college survived and so here we remain so now we understand how everyone around winterhold feels about the great collapse let's get to my deep theories about the augur of dunlain being involved here but to ponder so we have to assume that the augur of darlene was in fact alive at the time of the great collapse which i believe to be very likely as we know the great collapse took place 79 years ago but we don't really have a clear gauge on when the augur of dunlain was alive and kicking but when we speak to colette marantz about our dear lambent friend the augur of dunlain she drops this little line perhaps i'll ask tolfd here what really happened i understand he was here at the time she seems to be under the impression that tolfdir was here at the college of winterhold when whatever happened to the augur happened however when we speak to tolfdir about the augur of dunlain he says this well i suppose he wouldn't mind it was all before my time you understand i've heard the stories the same as anyone else um now that's strange as his information conflicts with colette's why would she think that tulfdy was around well i have a suspicion to believe that tolfdir is intentionally distancing himself from the augur of dunlain as is the college's wish because of course if the auger of dunlain's accident date and the date of the great collapse align and word gets out about it well case closed we would have the evidence that winterhold and the other nords need to prove that the college was responsible for the great collapse or at least one of their members was which could lead to the college's demise which obviously the college doesn't want to happen so if the college did know what caused the great collapse they would keep it under wraps and they sure seemed to keep the order of dunlain under some very tight wraps so we'll get back to this point a little later but with that idea in mind it makes sense that tolfdir if he was here at the college when the august accident happens when asked about it he would weave a different web to disconnect the two events those being the great collapse and the augur of dunlain's accident importantly toltier is also the only character that talks about the auger of dunlain with a human approach as in he talks about the auger as if he is a person almost like he knew him in life meanwhile everyone else avoids the subject entirely or briefly mentions him and tells you to talk to someone else and discusses the orger like some kind of object rather than a person but tolfdir says things like are you going to see him do tell him hello for me won't you like their old pals giving the orga consideration human attributes and courtesies he then explains in a sympathetic manner how the auger's life was destroyed do you remember what i first told you about how not being able to control magic could destroy you i didn't simply mean it could kill you the august accident is another very real type of a life destroyed well it's been described as an accident i can't imagine it was intentional something must have gone wrong and he ended up in the state he's in now fused to the energies that flow through the college i've never felt it appropriate to ask him about it about how that must feel or i suppose if he can feel it all again it's like he knew him as a person he's sorrowful mournful like he has personally lost someone close to him whereas again all the other mages at the college reference the orga like some kind of divining artifact what the auger oh no i'm quite sure that's he's nothing i'm involved in no no whereas toltier seems to have much more emotion in his musings about the orgo something else very obscure is when tolfdir says it was all before my time you understand he inflects a tone that makes him sound much older than he normally sounds it is very subtle but once you notice it it is very strange listen to this well i suppose he wouldn't mind it was all before my time you understand i've heard the stories the same as anyone else notice how his voice changes and it sounds like he suddenly ages 100 years to be sure to say hello to him for me it was all before my time you see like tolfd what happened to you are you going to see him do tell him hello for me won't you it was all before my time you understand i don't know if this is intentional but it is odd that his voice change takes place right as he's explaining how the august accident was all before his time like he's trying to make himself seem really old and therefore the augur of dunlain's accident even older again trying to put as much time between the orga's accident and the great collapse a clever allusion to anyone unaware of his motives now tolfdir is an old man and he would have to be around 100 years old at least in current day skyrim to have had been a member of the college during the great collapse 79 years ago which again i believe to be the results of the august accident and while tolfty does look like an old man he doesn't quite look 100 or older but as we know magic can sustain a masterful wizard or witch's life well beyond their natural lifespan all we need to do is look at someone like devayth fear a dunmer wizard who is thousands of years old purely through his mastery of magic he is so old in fact that he was once a kaima before azira cursed their race with ashen skin and red eyes turning them into the dunma which took place in the year 700 of the first era around 4 000 years ago so the concept of a masterful wizard such as tulthea being over 100 years old is laughably achievable the archmage also has this classic passing line of dialogue what you learn here will last you a lifetime several if you're talented now tolfdir is also the master of alteration magic at the college so naturally if anyone had altered their lifespan it would be him interestingly he also has heterochromia irritates the coloured part of the eye the iris is different colours in his two eyes one is hazel and one is green and while this does occur in nature in real life when it comes to video games well nothing happens naturally everything's done on purpose by a developer so a developer had to consciously take the effort to make tolstia's eyes like this which to me is a key clue in showing his ability to alter himself physically whether it be intentional unintentional or just a side effect of a long life of alteration magic so taking into account that he's an alteration master wizard and altering one's lifespan is a known ability of magic users tulfty is likely even older than he looks and he looks quite old so was tolthier around 79 years ago at the college during the time of the great collapse it's entirely plausible and i think it is more likely than not and if the orgas accident was at this same time then tulti was here and would have known the augur of dunlain in life which would explain his empathy and sense of loss in regards to the augur of dunlain and his and i quote life destroyed now this concept of toften knowing the augur of dunlain and the orga causing the great collapse doesn't stop here when we ask the archmage about the augur of dunlain he says this has toftia been telling stories again i thought i made it quite clear that this was a subject inappropriate for conversation please don't allow him to continue to discuss the subject suggesting that 12 previously has talked about him quite a bit a little too much and that the archmage has had words with tolfdir about how spreading knowledge of the augur is not a topic for discussion and why would he be against it well to me it's clear the augur is connected to something dangerous something bad a secret that must be kept hidden and forgotten i mean all we need to do is observe how some of the other college members react when the augur is merely mentioned like enthea for example he will locate and deal with outlawed objects like black soul gems in danger hearts he also locates and purchases keening kagrenax tool which played a part in the disappearance of the dwemer and was used by the nerevarine to destroy the heart of a god the heart of lorkhan at the core of red mountain which led to the death of dagoth ur another living god so this guide deals with the most dangerous and profane tools artifacts and trinkets yet when we mention the augraft on lane he is shaking in his boots and there you sell date your hearts you surely can tell me about the orga of dunlain oh no no that won't do it all not my problem not even a little take it to tolf dear he's supposed to be looking after you lot he can hook you up with an artifact that has killed two gods and an entire race but the augur no no no not a chance terrified of the mere utterance of his name so he knows something he knows the potential ramifications of spreading awareness and knowledge of the augur of dunlain all of the higher wizards are beyond cautious of talking about him save for a few once pressured mirabelle irvine will say this that's nothing you need to concern yourself with mirabelle i'm not asking tell me where the orga is very well it's not something often discussed as it might be misunderstood by the locals which is a fair enough explanation but i think it is one design so you stop asking questions in reality if the locals found out about the augur of dunlain they would have the glove that fits they'd have their evidence and they'd have their perpetrator the proof needed to blame the college on the great collapse which would have no positive outcomes for the college of winterholds only bad things would come from that knowledge escaping the tight lock and key of the master wizards at the college of winterholds so the concept that the augur of dunlain played some part in the great collapse does make sense given all of the evasive and secretive approaches to the orga of dunlain when brought up as a topic okay so if he was here or could have been here 79 years ago how did he cause the great collapse well there are a few quite plausible ways this could have happened firstly the great collapse was in fact a natural disaster the endless lament of the clawing waves of the ghastly brine that crashed and gnawed away at the coastal cliffs eroded enough of the foundations below the city to have it crumble into the sea of ghosts beneath leaving the city of winterhold mostly destroyed lying in ruin as drowned rubble but of course the college of winterhold miraculously remains standing this is explained away as the doings of magical wards that were placed around the college long ago well that's fine but what wards we don't have any evidence of these wards terrible things happen in the college terrible things leave the college and terrible things enter the college i mean vampires can get into the college and try and kill us cultists can enter and try and kill us dragons can swoop down and murder everyone magical anomalies aren't stopped from entering or exiting the eye of magnus isn't stopped from entering and is not contained when it pops off so you know there is a very long list of events and occurrences that highlight the facts that there are no magical barriers around the college of winterhold as none of their effects are perceivable or perceptible but i do believe a ward was placed around the college at the time of the great collapse to prevent the college from collapsing obviously this makes more sense as again all of the evidence that we have in the elder scrolls 5 skyrim highlights that there is in fact not a ward to be seen currently protecting the college well okay someone activated a very large and magnificent ward but who would be powerful enough to place a ward around a whole citadel such as the college of winterhold someone who has an unmatched grasp of magic specifically the tree in which wards belong and which school of magic do words come from that's right restoration the school of magic the augur of dunlain mastered and still masters above all others i think we have found our ward warden now as tolftier muses the augur of dunlain appears to be fused with the magics that surrounds the college suggesting that the auger was dabbling with them to some extent at the time of his transformation it's entirely possible that the augur of dunlain tapped into these magics using himself as a conduit to absorb as much magicka as he could channelling a huge orbric source to be able to cast a monolithic protective ward around the college of winterhold to stop it from collapsing performing such a spell would be quite a feat especially for someone who hadn't attempted such a ritual before the requirements and after effects would be unknowable and unpredictable such as the augur of dunlain ascending in some sense from a mere mortal to a non-corporeal entity as we find him now interestingly in the reachman culture some tribes perform totemic offering rituals in order to place protective wards around their settlements so the concept of warding one's dwelling with magic would have been a familiar idea to a reachman like the orga of dunlain however the execution of this mass scale protective spell holding up the college the midden and the stone foundations is a huge task and one that was apparently so demanding that the orgo was shed of his physical form stripped of flesh fused with the magics that surround the college and now he exists as an immortal non-corporeal and omnipresent entity this is the most noble theory as he sacrificed himself in a sense to save his college and while it is totally plausible it's not as deep or dark as some of the places we're going to creep into so let us visit the other end of the spectrum but before we go there we need to get some ground rules and law laid out that will be necessary and needed to appreciate fully the scope of my ultimate theory about the augur of dunlain causing the great collapse so it is said that the first era archmage shalador founded the college of winterhold and built the city of winterhold with a single whispered spell whether this is a literal retelling of events or hyperbole of shalador's great power is unknown however what is important is that shalador a legendary master wizard came to this very location and in one way or another founded the college and the city now why would he choose to build an earn wide revered magical institution the college of winterhold all the way out here he could have built this anywhere but he chose well at face value a terrible spot well with evidence of course i believe there to be a rich magical vein of energy or powerful source of something below the college of winterhold and this is what we see as the magic that flows through the college the very magics that the augur of dunlain has supposedly fused with in the pocket guide to the empire 3rd edition we can find an interesting section about skyrim and i quote looking at virtually any vista in skyrim one is looking at the remains of a battlefield the great aedric cataclysm that brought tamriel into existence in primeval times seems to have spent most of their fury in this northern lands so if the aedra did spend more time creating skyrim than any other of the provinces if there were to be a location with residual pockets of aedric energy deposits of power stores of magicka whatever it may be it would not be surprising if we found that right here in skyrim we also have blackreach a massive cavern that spans all the way from the reach in the west to winterhold in the east and while we do get to explore an area of black reach within the elder scrolls 5 skyrim in the elder scrolls online we get to explore even more sections of the cavern where strange and wonderful magics artifacts machines and excessively undefinable magical occurrences lie in weight one of which is something known as the dark hearts of skyrim which we'll get onto in a minute as it might just be the keystone to the orgas story including the great collapse so i believe that underneath the college of winterhold is access to a great font of power lurking underground whatever it may be you know these things are hard to define especially when we don't actually know that it's there but with this concept in mind this would explain why shalador chose to build the college of winterhold here because of the magics that were already present at the location the same magics that now flow through the college of winterhold which are the very magics that the orga of dunlain has fused with another reason i believe this ambient magic to be from a deeper more ancient source than the college itself is a little something that the orga of dunlain says when we talk to him it is a good path one untraveled by many it is a path that can save your college when he references saving the college of winterhold his wording is strange and distanced he is fused with the magics that flow through the college which initially led me to think that he had become one with the college of winterholds but no he says save your college it is a path that could save your college he doesn't say save me save my college save our college save the college but save your college despite him being one with the magics that flow through the college of winterhold that run through the foundations into every room of the institution the augur of dunlain completely disconnects himself from the college itself which makes me think that these flowing magics and the college of winterhold are two completely separate things and again the college was just built here by shalador because of these already existing magics now the olga of dunlain may have also said save your college because he knows what is going to happen as in we will become the archmage after all he is an orga he can see into the future he was referencing the college as if we were already in charge not to take away from my earlier very suspicious point about his complete disconnection to the college but it is a curious addition to the mix now just while we are here and talking about shalador and the nearby underground magics and obscure things of this ilk that populate winterhold's sub-terrain let me present some very strange findings that i have made archmage shalador a nord arch magus who lived in the first era and had an understanding of magic that few have ever known well he once lived in a place called the fortress of ice which was said to be an ancient ruin located within the ice fields of the hold of winterhold we actually get to visit this location in the elder scrolls one arena thousands of years after shalador lived there the exact time difference is unknown as shalador is only known to have lived in the first era and ward with the dwemer in the 400th year though the first era spans for 2920 years so nailing down exactly when shalador was in the fortress of ice is seemingly impossible point being between shalador living there and us visiting the ruin in the elder scrolls one arena was at least at least 1200 years and possibly over three thousand years depending on when chalidor was there so shalador's fortress of ice hung around for a few thousand years then we got to explore it in the elder scrolls one arena but then 235 years after the elder scrolls one arena in the elder scrolls 5 skyrim when we come to the same location the ice fields of winterhold no such fortress of ice can be found i find it very strange that this location just seems to have poof vanished in the last 200 years after having remained for thousands of years in fact there is only one location that can be found in the ice fields of winterhold in the elder scrolls five skyrim one location that just so happens to perfectly lie exactly where the fortress of ice once lay and that ruin is called sarthal yes sarthal where the eye of magnus is found if we take a look at the map from the elder scrolls one arena we can see that winterhold is this castle here and just to the south west in the ice fields of winterhold is the fortress of ice and if we have a look at this map from the elder scrolls five skyrim here is winterhold and just to the southwest in the ice fields of winterhold is southall a location that stands alone surrounded by no other strangely and extremely suspiciously sarthal is in exactly the same spot as the fortress of ice should be which has also strangely and extremely suspiciously gone missing in the last 200 years after staying put for the last few thousand years could it be that this fortress of ice and sarthal are one and the same the fortress of ice is described as a ruin which sarfal is and would have been when shalador was there as sarfal was functioning during the mythic era before shalador came to be in the first era also sarthal is where the eye of magnus lies when we first find it the eye of magnus the god and source of magicka sits in a ruin the just so happens to be in the exact same location as the fortress of ice which was a ruin inhabited by archmage shalador who somehow gained an understanding of magicka that few others have ever achieved could it be that he had the eye of magnus he certainly seemed to revere the damn thing as we've learned shalador created the college of winterholds even his statue stands at the heart of the courtyard too this day and all around the institution that shalador founded we can find eye of magnus motifs such as the stained glass windows the paving patterns on the floor and of course the gates to enter the college of winterhold you literally have to open the eye of madness foreshadowing it would seem there is something else very suspicious well actually it surpasses suspicious and it's almost just so odd and beyond normal evidence to make a point in a video like this that i don't even know what to do with it but i must tell you about it once again this involves shalador great power and winterhold and it gets pretty weird and is comprised of a handful of odd things all mixing together and through each other so to the north of the college of winterholds is an ice hovel called septimus sicknesses outpost it is quite close to the college in here we will find a man called septimus cygnus who has spent his life studying and trying to understand the more obscure components of the elder scrolls universe just like the elder scrolls themselves the result is a seemingly mad old wizard not dangerous but quite odd and nonchalant in his language and ruminations now along with septimus sickness inside this ice dwelling is a large dwemer lockbox septimus will give us a quest at the end of which the dwemer lockbox will be unlocked he sought to do this as he believed that the heart of lorkhan was lurking within it but nay in here rests a daedric artifact known as the ogma infinium a relic of the daedric prince of forbidden knowledge hermaeus mora also known by many many other names including the demon of knowledge the prince of fate the lord of secrets the golden eye er daedra the abyssal sephalyak the old antecedent scrier inevitable noah the woodland man and the gardener of men among surprisingly many many more which i shall not bear down upon you now so this artifact of his the ogma infinium has some very special powers as the knowledge within the term grants the reader access to the artifact's energy which can be manipulated to achieve near demi-god abilities powers and knowledge we'll get back to this in a second now as we learned earlier archmage shalador existed during the first era the only recorded and dated events of his shenanigans are during the early quarter of the era around the 400 year so i'd imagine that he was active during the first thousand years or so of the first era during this time he wrote a book called shalador's insights which is filled with odd scribblings and diagrams which appear unreadable strangely there are actually a number of missing pages which thanks to the elder scrolls community have been painstakingly deciphered as they are written in a number of fictional languages and jotted down in harsh fonts but this one page here bears something very strange indeed keep in mind this was written by shalador so it was written literally thousands of years before the events of the elder scrolls 5 skyrim bear that in mind as it's very important for what you are about to hear oh and while there may be a few mistranslated words here and there the form of the hole shines through and will bend your brain so on this page of shalador's insights it says this and i quote the current home of septimus cygnus answers the question it's a looming iceberg that happens to have a hutch in it in the center of the iceberg though is a large dwemer lockbox septimus had carved a cave into the iceberg so that one side of the lockbox essentially makes up a wall of the cave the iceberg was created around the lockbox by some unknown person within the last few hundred years this person came across the ogma infinium recognized it as an item of evil and sealed it away in the iceberg so that the world would be safe from its influence it does not need to be a large space but there should be a space between septimus's living area and the area which has the lock box and the exit where one can be out of sight hermaeus mora will appear there end quotes hmm so shalador's insights a book written thousands of years before the events of the elder scrolls 5 skyrim reference very specifically septimus cygnus in an iceberg with a dwemer lockbox that contains the augma infinium and where hermeasmora will appear all of which are present right here in modern day skyrim that's pretty weird right shalador wrote about events that would take place thousands of years in the future well you want to know something even weirder inside the ogma infinium hermaeus morris artefact of forbidden knowledge there is this a diagram and if we take this image and then compare it to a bird's eye view of the college of winterhold it looks fairly similar to the foundations of the institution which charlotte founded and built that is pretty damn odd like i said all of these things are connected and so obscure and strange that i really don't know what to do with this information other than be highly suspicious of all things involving the college of winterhold and the areas close by which brings us back to my point about there being something a source of power below the college of winterhold which as i theorize was the reason shalador built the college here in the first place perhaps charlotte used the augma infinium's knowledge to bolster his arcane understandings or even build the college of winterholds after all the foundations match with a diagram found within the ogma infinium perhaps this is the power the augur of dunlain used to ascend his mortal form shalador did seem to have some kind of power of farsight referencing septimus sickness in his book an event which would come thousands of years later this far sight seeing into the future is also an ability that the augur of dunlain possesses perhaps they both got this ability from the same source the ogma infinium after all its owner hermaeus mora among his many other names is known as the scryer a scryer being someone who can predict the future just the same as shalador and the augur of dunlain both in close proximity to the ogma infinium and sharing these scrying powers ugh it's all strange to think about huh so and now that we have those pillars set let's explore the darkest and deepest theory i have for the augur of dunlain causing the great collapse i believe that he intentionally collapsed the majority of the city of winterhold to cause a mass death which would provide a payload of souls in order for him to ascend his current form there are many ways that we can apply this theory to make it make sense within the elder scrolls universe whether it be through a personal ritual divine sacrifice daedric payment or some other infernal method often do we see souls being used to power just about everything in the elder scrolls so destroying half a city to fuel some kind of apotheosis via the harvested souls is 100 plausible and quite frankly probably the most sound theory for the great collapse being intentional now as we know leading up to the great collapse there were maelstrom's storms of an unseen ferocity that racked the coastline and supposedly eroded the sea cliffs to a point in which they crumbled away causing the city of winterhold to crash into ruin these storms could have been intentional and cast as a device to cause the great collapse via erosion it would be a clever way to mask it and make it seem like natural disaster storm magic is not unheard of within the elder scrolls the mayama the sea elves of the south use it all the time hell there is even a class of magic called weather magic which is talked about more in depth in a book called war weather if you wish to read about the topic more in depth check that book out but back to weather magic even things like the way of the voice is a type of magic that can control the weather whether it be calling a storm or clearing the skies even the sigic order summoned a storm to completely annihilate the pyandonean fleet which is ironic as the pyandranians are the mayama they come from the continent of pyantonia and the mayama are the ones who use storm magic most commonly funny they should be destroyed by the very same forces point being that summoning a storm through magic is something that the augur of dunlain could have done in order to cause the great collapse it may have also been the side effect of his ritual as we do see storm-like weather occurring as the result of another magic such as the skull on salsteim while meditating their warding ritual against hermeasmura and mirak a violent storm like weather is created around their settlements where the magic is also said to be connected to the old ways of magic and is not properly understood in an academic sense in modern-day tamriel just like reach magic which is interesting because in the elder scrolls online during the greymore and marcath chapter all of the incredibly destructive harrow storms were created by harnessing the power of reach witch magic the very same magic that the auger of dunlain would be very well versed in and would have been raised to use so in one way or another the storms that ate the coastline could have very well been intentional or at the very least a result of the augur and his apotheosis ritual now what exactly would the augur of dunlain be doing with all of these souls well as i said we can apply it in many ways but here is one plausible course of action for you in reachman mythology there is an ancient prophecy and tale of an evil heart below skyrim as the reach which arana will tell us the dark heart you say there's a tale as old as the ridge with an evil heart at its center like most rich stories it ends bloody the story of the dark heart the ghost song clan knows it well my clan once need to speak with my sister nathari she studied the old secrets knows about prophecies both the allen fair traditions passed down from our foremothers like the story of the prophecy of the dark heart it deals with souls shadows endings now this dark heart is a piece of the primal void from the place between the places outside of mundus oblivion and aetherius simply known as the void this dark heart is said to grant access to eternal life and is considered to be a source of unlimited power the cost of course is souls many souls in the second era it was awoken by none other than the ghost song clan a tribe of reachmen and while this clan sacrifice got the dark heart to stir it was not quite enough to fully awaken it as arana clarifies a mass death is needed it can be awakened but i need to get the help of the reach witches to awaken the dark heart my coven must sacrifice that which they hold most dear their own kin many ghost stone clan members are about to die they gladly died to awaken the dark heart from its slumber we give our souls to the dark in return for eternal life i shall complete the ritual and awaken the dark heart the prophecy says it takes more than a handful of deaths to awaken the dark heart something as powerful as the dark heart that's been asleep for millennia may stir from the taste of a few souls but i suspect it needs a banquet to awaken fully now the dark heart was last known to dwell in black reach which as we've learned runs all the way from the reach in the west to winterhold in the east and again as we learn in the elder scrolls online there are many many unexplored and unseen caverns and extensions to black reach which are constantly being discovered and revealed so while we don't know it yet it could very well run right under the college of winterholds as with my earlier theory i definitely believe there to be a powerful source of something below the college this dark hearts could very well be it which brings us back to the augur of dunlain his reachman roots and of course the great collapse the orga of dunlain could have very well attempted to awaken the dark heart of skyrim in exchange for great power and eternal life two things the dark heart is said to be able to gift and two things the augur of dunlain seems to have acquired as he is a far-seeing non-corporeal entity he would also know of the old stories and prophecies of the richmond culture being aware of the tales of the dark hearts so he would be savvy to its existence and of its power while also being aware of what had to be done to harness such power from the dark arts which as we know something is required in exchange more than a handful of deaths a massive ritualistic slaughter a cities worth of people dying at once can you think of any events that would fit such a description hmm the great collapse of course the great collapse which i dare say may have been an intentional sacrifice forced upon the city by the augur of dunlain so he could harvest the required payload of soul energy to exchange void energy with the dark heart of skyrim or for some other means again souls being used to make things happen in the elder scrolls is commonplace all the way from something as basic as enchanting an iron dagger a soul is used for that then the other end of the spectrum to things like binding souls to daedra to the ideal masters achieving apotheosis immortality and incorporeality all traits the augur of dunlain has and they achieved this with nothing other than soul energy so the augur of dunlain intentionally causing the great collapse to farm a huge number of souls to empower himself to the purposes of apotheosis whether it be planned or accidental is totally feasible but it doesn't end there the concept that we explored earlier that being the augur of dunlain casting the warding spell to protect the college of winterhold from collapsing still applies here it just has an ulterior motive while if it is true at face value it seems noble he's you know saving the college with a twist of fate he was just saving the college for himself now why would he do that you ask firstly he was performing the ritual from within the college it wouldn't be much use if it collapsed down on him and he died in the process but more pressingly as we know he is the orga of dunlain an auger he can see into the future he knows what's going to happen he knows what is to come and what does he know is to come well the events that take place in the elder scrolls 5 skyrim the eye of magnus is going to be discovered in southall and brought to the college of winterhold the eye of magnus an ethereal relic beyond all magical comprehensions knowledge and power the auger he saw this he saw what was to come and wanted it to happen because when the eye of magnus is brought from southall to the college of winterhold where is it placed it is housed right in the magics that flow through the college the same magics that the augur of dunlain is fused with the eye of magnus is literally placed into the auger of dunlain which for someone who strove for power so vehemently he somehow achieved apotheosis and transcended death and flesh well having an artifact such as the eye of magnus resting upon you in you even would be an event worth waiting an eternity for although it would seem he didn't have to wait too long at all well not when viewed through the eyes of infinity you know 79 years ain't much at all so the august saved the college of winterhold so that in time these events could take place and he could have his fill of the eye of magnus but it goes deeper as when we speak to the augur of dunlain he reveals that the thalmor agent and kano came and spoke to him too the valmer saw the same thing and it shall lead to his end as it has so many others like others before you you blindly follow a path to your own destruction the thalmor cain seeking answers as well unaware they will be as undoing your path now follows his though you will arrive too late thou more what foul the one who calls himself huncano he seeks information about the eye but what he will find shall be quite different his path will cross yours in time but first you must find that which you need i'm not the first to come see you no though you may be the last the one who calls himself ankano has sought my knowledge as well through very different questions now while it is not disclosed as to what they spoke about one way or another and kano does end up activating the eye of magnus to a point where it appears to physically and magically unlock as we can see with our very own eyes it has opened up and along with this physical change magically all kinds of powerful wizardry and anomalies are spewing out and spawning about the college and i believe that the auger of dunlain gave ankano the knowledge to set him on course to be able to unlock the eye of magnus because this is what the auger wanted the auger of dunlain is the magic that the eye of magnus sits in and what better way to sap as much power from the eye as magnus as possible other than to get someone else to unlock the eye of madness for him the orger doesn't care for the college he cares that the college lasted long enough for him to gain access to the eye of magnus and the powers within it which he would know was going to happen because huge point he can see into the future he knows the motions have been set and soon he will have what he wants so it would seem that the augur of dunlain stuck around because he cares about gaining more power which is exactly what he's been handed as soon as ankano opens and activates the eye of magnus now i also believe that this is what the sidjik order wanted or at least some of their members the psijic order members never really see eye to eye and often have conflicting approaches to certain things such as what to do with the eye of magnus hell even in the elder scrolls online several of their members go rogue and take on paths of their own often leading to disaster and the quest for us to complete regardless i do believe that the sigic order to some extent knew that this would happen and they wanted it to happen so that the augur of dunlain may absorb power magic knowledge insight whatever it may be from an unlocked eye of magnus seriously sounds a bit tin foil hatty but just think about it for a moment before we even find the eye of magnus in sapphire the sigic automobinarian stops us and speaks to us he says the disaster is coming and cannot be stopped he doesn't say why he doesn't say why he can't stop it and even after telling us it can't be stopped he tells us to try and stop it anyway the psijic order uses augury magic they even have a pull for fasting called the augury and they have worked with orgas in the past as with the augur of the obscure which we'll touch on a little later when we discuss what the augur of dunlain now is anyway the city order in one way or another or one sense or another has seen the future they know roughly what's coming yet they don't stop it they don't even try to stop it they only say that they can't stop it almost as if they don't want to stop it the sigic order has every god damned chance to come to the college of winterhold and take the eye of magnus back with them to our tam to completely prevent disaster yet they don't hell they could even turn up at southall before we get there and take the eye of magnus with them to completely prevent disaster they don't even worse they wait for the eye of magnus to be unlocked by ankano which result in many deaths and destruction and destabilization of the magical fields then they rock up and take the eye away it was so simple they could have done this at any point why would they not do this in the first place it's like giving a toddler a gun and then waiting until they shoot someone before you take it off them the sigic order have the means to stop disaster they have the means to tame and take the eye of magnus because that's exactly what they do after it's too late they knew what was going to happen that's why narian warns us before we've even found the eye of magnus so why do they not intervene why do they allow this to happen because they want it to happen they want the augur of dunlain to be granted access to this artifact and its power at least that is the most feasible way to make their seemingly nonsensical approach to the whole eye of magnus ordeal make any actual sense also curiously when we speak to the augur of dunlain he says this i'm not the first to come see you no though you may be the last now why would we be the last to come and see him what's going to happen that would result in people not coming to see him anymore it stinks of the knowledge that he is going to soon get what he wants and then he will leave again if this theory is true the only reason he stuck around is him knowing what was coming the eye of magnus interestingly the first time we hear about the augur of dunlain is also from the mouth of a sidgic order monk i fear i have already overstepped the balance of my order but i will offer this seek out the augur of dunlain here in your college his perception may be more coherent than ours he was once a student here at the college now he is something different and the psijic order as i mentioned has worked with entities in the past that also bear the title of auger specifically the augur of the obscure another strange all-knowing being who takes the shape or is the shape of a blue crystalline skull with this in mind it would make sense that the sigic order would want to work with the orga of dunlain as they've employed another orga previously the orga of the obscure before you get confused as i mentioned towards the start of the video at the time of the elder scrolls 5 skyrim's release the only other mention of an orga was in the reachman culture in the book the legend of red eagle but then in the elder scrolls online many years later the augur of the obscure was introduced who is most certainly not a reachman instead he or it's even is something that at this point in time i cannot define but again plays the same role seeing the future knows all and is highly highly valued by this psijic order in the second era so the concept that the sigic order would not only want to work with but would empower the orger of dunlain makes complete sense interestingly during the events of the elder scrolls online we learned that a witch of high rock awareness known as the oracle marie can communicate with the sigic order through her use of old magic the same ancient realm of magic reach magic comes from the citric order is a monastic society that follows the old ways of magic i belonged to the order myself back in the day before a disagreement over another member led me to break ranks and form the mages guild we no longer see either eye marie not only sees into the hidden places she has a way to contact them it allows her to communicate with the sigic orders right master i assume that's one way the order keeps track of affairs on nirn from wherever it is they hid their island so if locating and communicating with the zijic order monks is possible for a witch to do using old magic then this same access would surely be easily within the auger of dunlain's array of abilities which would also explain how the psijic order knew of him in the first place again the first time we hear about the orga of dunlain is from the sedgic monks but beyond this they could have also been working together and plotting if you want to call it that for many years hatching their plan to unlock the eye of magnus so the auger can absorb its power before taking his leave from winterhold to artem to work with the sigic order of course all of these musings could be untrue and my theory could be wrong but the college of winterhold's questline reeks of a stunted and possibly unfinished tact together experience for the player and what i have presented is my best efforts to make any sense of it from the assuming perspective of the quest line was all planned and thought out after all what is in the games is canon so it's what we have to work with and what i've explained and pieced together is again my best efforts to make a deep and plausible explanation out of the weird jumbled and quite frankly limited information that we get in-game in regards to the augur of dunlain the great collapse the eye of magnus the psijic order and everything to do with the college of winterhold's questline so of course everything i've said could be completely false but if you can come up with a better more plausible theory that makes all of the uh scrambled questline make any sense please tell me what it is so now that we have deeply delved into what happened to the augur of dunlain some kind of apotheosis and explore the possible methods in which this took place and why let's talk about or more ponder what the augur of dunlain now is what is his state of existence well the augur of dunlain appears to be an omnipresent non-corporeal entity that can appear if he so wishes as a giant orb of light it's not known if he is limited to this shape or if this is just the shape he chooses to take it's important to note that he is not a ghost as we can see in the creation kit he is not tagged as a ghost and more interestingly if we use a detect life spell or the detect dead spell neither will register with the augur of dunlain so he seems to be something else some kind of undefinable entity or more his state is undefinable he is not alive nor is he dead he simply exists the closest example of something like this that i can think of that being a mortal becoming a non-corporeal entity that is neither alive nor dead and therefore some kind of limbo immortal would be the ideal masters the rulers of the plane of oblivion known as the soul can i do have a lore video exploring everything we know about the ideal masters and also have a full two hour plus curating curious curiosities video for the plane of oblivion the soul can which is ruled by the ideal masters both of which i would highly recommend you check out but for now back to the ideal masters and their parallels with the augur of dunlain in the elder scrolls online we can answer a pocket realm of oblivion called the maelstrom arena lauded by the demi prince phanuet hen who when questioned about pocket realms explains in detail how they come to be but more importantly he reveals some information on immortals which could very well be what we're dealing with here anyway the words of the demi prince himself and i quote so far as i know pocket realms can be created and maintained by mortals such as the great daedra though of course it's well known that mortals have the capacity to ascend to immortality such ascended mortals often become great pests as far as we daedra concerns so i don't think i'll go into the means of such ascension who wants more pests eh but i will give you an example the ideal masters who ruled the soul can pocket realm were once mortals like yourself if you get the chance to visit that's frankly rather unattractive little reality perhaps the ideal masters will tell you how they worked it i wouldn't count on it though they're notoriously short on empathy and that the first excuse will confine you inside a tight little crystal for all eternity whatever that means long ago as you reckon such things the ideal masters were an early order of sorcerers who practiced necromancy trafficking in souls great small and fragmentary they became very powerful and eventually found their physical forms to be unacceptably weak and limiting by means which i shall not articulate they transcended those forms and became beings of soul energy they entered oblivion as immortals selected an area of chaotic creature and crafted it into a pocket realm ideal for their purposes as soul merchants they dubbed this pocket the soul can and pleased with themselves they adopted the name ideal masters as a title and i end quote so while the demi prince fanue 10 sadly doesn't go into detail he does explain that mortals such as ourselves such as the augur of dunlain in his human life can ascend to a state of immortality and the given example the ideal masters are non-corporeal beings much like the augur of dunlain who exists in a state that isn't alive nor is it dead it's something else a different higher state of existence now this is not to say that i think the augur of dunlain is an ideal master but more this could very well be in the same ballpark as what happened to the orga of dunlain or more the ballpark of what the orga of dunlain has become whether it was unintentional or intentional the orga does seem to now be an immortal non-corporeal being i'd like to quickly clarify that within the elder scrolls universe immortality is a strange subject in that entities that would be considered immortal have died and can die also immortality isn't necessarily permanent and can wear off for example vampirism is considered a form of immortality despite it only making one immune to aging and disease vampires can still be killed by just about every other conventional way of dying and vampirism can also be cured and removed from the infected so as you'll begin to understand immortality is a loose term but there is a clear difference between a vampire an ideal master and a divine despite them all falling under the loose umbrella term of immortal with that said the augur of dunlain appears to be in a very unique position or class of his own and i wouldn't take his current state lightly or for granted i.e he's got some serious power and isn't going to be killed by any silver blades or sunlight i don't know how many tiers of immortality there are but he'd be up there with the ideal masters now some examples of the flexibility of the term immortality can be found in the law book fittingly titled on immortality and i quote among nobles the first era drinking the honey of the isgareth bee of auridon was said to grant limited immortality though one needed to continue to eat the honey in order to maintain the effect some say this led directly to the isgaleth bees extinction as indiscriminate men destroyed whole hives in order to more quickly harvest the precious golden substance and sell it at a high price to the foolish and fashionable though it is said that alt-mary kings and queens maintain a private hive so as we can see immortality within the elder scrolls universe is a strange concept and can be quite ephemeral from which we can coin such phrases as oh he was immortal until he died it's a funny thought but the word immortality generally gets the idea across now there is something else within this book but first let me show you something else curious that will be a good lead up to it now in the mid and dark the underhalls of the college of winterhold the same place where we find the augur of dunlain and all of his strange reachmen fetishes and totems we can enter a curious circular room around it there are the blasted remains of four college students the ones we spoke about earlier bloodied bones strewn about the place like chicken feed to a pecking patch at the center of the room is a cursed shrine a top witch sits an outstretched daedric gauntlet with the daedric rune ott blazin on the palm the remains of a grim ritual no doubt well inside the arcaneum at the college of winterhold there is in fact an evidence chest with a master lock if we pry it open inside we will find four rings katarina's ring treyoy's ring balwin's ring and pithikin's ring if we take these rings back down to the gauntlet we can place them into a certain order onto the fingers of the daedric gauntlet that order being katarina's ring on the index finger treyo's ring on the middle finger balwin's ring on the ring finger and finally pithigan's ring on the little finger this will reveal the truth who serves as one of moloch ball's generals also known as the pirate king of the obesian velaxane was bound to the gauntlets by the four students who appear to have died in this ritual if you do want his full story i do have a full video on velaxane for you but the reason i bring him up is this rather curious verse in the book that we were reading a few minutes ago titled on immortality and i quote another means of achieving immortality is said to exist but it has only been attempted by the most volatile and unstable it's also forbidden by governments across tamriel and by the mages guilds it's said to involve the binding of a daedra through blood sacrifice hmm so an immortal non-corporeal being who dwells and did dwell in the bitter dark the orga of dunlain is found in the same place as a ritual that involved the binding of a daedra the like sane and seemingly blood sacrifices as with the four college students who now lie scattered around the gauntlet like fallen petals from a wedding bell tower steeple now whether this was the doing of the augur of dunlain or not is up to one's own instincts but the fact it's found within his lair the mid and dark is very strange and makes one naturally suspicious of the whole scene so given that we don't really know what happened to the augur of don lane or what his apotheosis involved and the huge lack of information about the augur in game it seems impossible to hammer down exactly what he is now we know that he's not alive nor dead he can see into the future he is a non-corporeal entity and seemingly immortal well there aren't really any categories that he falls into except for once again everyone's favorite the ideal masters they seem to take all the same boxes as the auger and while i don't think the orga is one their journey beyond the flesh seems to have landed them in just about the same state although as far as i'm aware the ideal masters cannot farsi so this is a power that the augur of dunlain holds over them now as i have brought up a few times there is another orga in the elder scrolls online the orga of the obscure i'm guessing he is male as he has a male voice although where he comes from gender may not exist i don't believe that the augur of dunlain and the orga of the obscure are related at all as the auger of the obscure is a blue crystal skull who seems to know everything about elder scrolls law he is also known to lie constantly but even if he is lying he still brings up subjects that most other npcs wouldn't even be aware of it's like he's some kind of mouthpiece for an actual real-life lore master just put within the game the loremaster didn't tell you all right how to explain it the auger is a skull sort of it's really a crystalline entity that resembles a skull some think it's from the head of an ancient mage but i don't believe that for a minute i'm what you might call an aspect eh like an ideas shadow don't make a face i'm telling you the truth not my fault your language is so crude i'm not in the skull i am the skull at least here or none over in the adjacent place i'm shaped like a throw pillow imagine that you look confused it's just a trick of the light mate the skulls which you might call a manifestation everything has a name names give a thing it's shape birds snowflakes teakettles you get the idea i tell you mine but you'd need about six more tongues and a pair of symbols to pronounce it correctly so let's not bother one of the unfortunate quirks of the psijic binding ritual that brought me here i'm free to lie as much as i like unless you or anyone else for that matter ask me a direct question cheap trick if you ask me i don't blame them honestly if i was in their position bobbing along like a little lost acorn and an ocean of knowledge i'd want to trap me too yes in answer to your direct question i do know a lot and by a lot i mean basically everything watch a step around here mate this arena is what we in the dimension hopping community call a really bad idea door daedric mischief for sure you know i can see time in all directions i see you as you are now as you were before you were born does you'll be after you're dead all at once you're an adorable baby mate less charming as a corpse he also says that he's originally from a parallel place which could be in reference to league a kind of negative rorschach imprint of mundus into the universe the same place the drag came from originally but this is all got to be in a video for another day because as interesting as the orga of the obscure is he is entirely unrelated to the augur of dunlain and has no relevance in this video beyond explaining why another being with the title auger has no relevance being in this video important to note that the augur of the obscure is the auger that the sigic order worked closely with in the second era which is why i think that now in the fourth era the psijic order would want to work with the augur of dunlain because he can provide the same powers augury ah yes now there are several more astral concepts that i'm sure are buzzing about some of your heads in regards to the auger of dunlain's ascendance and they would be the six walking ways most famously among them is chim or kim or kaim depending on how you want to pronounce it but i did ask an actual elder scrolls law master who works for bethesda and he said chim is the canon way to pronounce chim with a che like cheese his words but anyway before we open this cosmic door i'd like to highlight that the six walking ways are primarily discussed within the 36 lessons of vivec which if you've ever read them are written in such a strange way that their content is basically entirely up to the poetic license of the reader so the rules and workings of the six walking ways aren't clearly stated so anything i do say could very well be interpreted by someone else in a completely different manner and meaning despite us both reading the same in-game text so don't take my explanations as canon merely my best understanding of the obscure and abstract in-game texts the 36 lessons of vivec now some of these concepts are also elaborated on by unofficial texts the workings of michael kirkbride the same guy that came up with the ideas in the first place then left bethesda game studios but then went on to explain them further while no longer working for the company so while it is unofficial these concepts have been explained further by the very same man that invented them in the first place so there's a lot of salt to be taken with everything we're about to talk about i mean even the order of the six walking ways like which methods fall under which number isn't truly known either so my explanations may not be canon my list order may not be canon just my best effort to interpret what we have with that said let's take a look firstly the prolix towers the devices built by the myrrh the elves to mimic the gods the use of the towers have known the morethically built ones to achieve godhood as far as i know there are no examples of this and while we're on the topic of towers there was a recent theory that the orga of dunlain became a stone to a new tower the tower of magnus the tower itself being the college of winterhold but the more i looked into this theory the more it was evident that there was in fact no evidence at all behind the theory only a cool idea so please brush that away from your minds secondly the sigic endeavour the path of the prophet of veloth despite the name sigic the sigic endeavor isn't related to the sigic order at all it is said to be a method to ascend mortal boundaries to reach a state of existence known as chim which funnily is its own walking way as well again i don't have any in-game examples of this unless you want to interpret stuff very differently than i have thirdly the numidium the dwemer's anti-creation using the machine god to achieve one's own god hood possibly what mana marco did during the events of the elder scrolls ii daggerfall the mentality is hurled from aetherius and although drawn to the empty test of great dominion the will of the king of worms commands us to his side with his power the king of worms leaves his portal frame and joins the ranks of the gods of oblivion [Music] fourthly the enantiomorph also known as mantling this is where one walks like them until they walk like you reenacting a god's history so thoroughly that you become that god an example of this is to play a character in the elder scrolls for oblivion's dlc the shivering isles where the player character the champion of cyrodiil becomes shio gorath they mantle shio gorath it's not replacing shia groth it's literally becoming shio gorath you aren't now you in shiograth's position you are just now literally shiogorath one of my earlier theories was that the orga of dunlain mantled the magics of the college of winterhold but it would appear mantling can only be done to a god whether that be daedra or aedra and also you have to become that whereas the augur of dunlain isn't just a pool of magic he is a conscious being separate to the magics even though he's fused with the magics fifthly though is chim the path of vivec attainable only through pure love of everything understanding that the elder scrolls universe is a dream kind of like lucid dreaming being aware it's a dream and being able to move freely and act freely like a god within this dream and sixthly the scarab that transforms into the new man this is someone who becomes something called the amaranth who replaces the godhead now the godhead is the dreamer the elder scrolls universe is the godhead's dream however unlike us and our dreams the dream does not exist without the dreamer but in the elder scrolls the dreamer does not exist without the dream either and this whole dream is being had by the dreamer and that dreamer is something called the godhead so the scarab that transforms into the new man is someone who becomes the amaranth and the amaranth is someone who becomes the godhead the dreamer now the six walking ways are quite vague and sickeningly astral and i do not believe are related to the augur of dunlain as they all appear to involve an ascendance to divinity whereas we have no reason at all to believe the augur of dunlain is in fact a god simply a higher being when compared to your average mortal although there is this fact when we speak to the augur of dunlain we cannot leave conversation with him our character is locked into conversation and none of his dialogue can be skipped this mechanically within the game is only seen in skyrim when talking to daedric princes and i would imagine it would be the same with divines if they were to talk to us in game at any point but they don't but do you not see that this is very strange that the augur of dunlain has been gifted this unskipable dialogue by a developer when again it's only used for daedric princes does this mean he is considered so worthy that the player character literally can't ignore his speech maybe this mechanic is intentionally placed to fit into the law and is a testament to the being's power as in that they are so powerful within the game that they hold your character's attention whether you like it or not they force you to focus on them while they talk it's a detail easily missed but does have huge implications and may be in reference and a slight little clue to the orga's true power i will say this however and again i don't quite know what to do with this information other than bolster out already heavy suspicion that something really weird is going on around the college of winterhold so in the elder scrolls legends bethesda's recently defunct elder scrolls based strategy card game in the heroes of skyrim expansion a card called the college of winterhold was introduced seems just fine but when you play the card something very strange is said now it's hard to make out so i'll play the extracted audio file again and again a direct translation of that well we'll get to that in a minute but it does mention chim and the verse as a whole is a direct excerpt from the 15th sermon of the 36 lessons of vivec texts which as we spoke of a few minutes ago primarily discuss the six walking ways among other things it is also said in a voice that seems beyond mortal capabilities and is edited in a way that seems to be reserved for ascended entities so of all cards in the entire game of the elder scrolls legends the college of winterhold card says in an unearthly voice for no apparent reason coming directly from a text that references the ways needed to ascend to godhood that is very very strange i mean there are so many other cards that could say this line vivec almalexia [Music] you know characters that actually have relation to the 36 lessons of vivec but out of everything the college of winterhold quotes the 15th sermon of the 36 lessons of vivec about chim and spoken in elnefx an ancient language entirely unrelated to the college of winterhold it is all making me look over my shoulder with great unease as to some very odd and astral goings-ons however together we can attempt to translate this phrase hey god took a bad homa chim i al tardoon but sadly it is as interpretable as the book that it comes from the problem with el nerfex particularly when it is in all capital letters is that it is more a language of symbolism and association rather than just having a 100 percent definable meaning the same way a piece of art is subjective to the viewer's interpretation so is all caps l effects but each stroke each word has a meaning or meanings ah means is or i am but more specifically the state of being so is or i am as in what something's state is god took means hands specifically though hands as weapons not just any old hands pad horm is another name for parame one of the two original deities the other being anu padme represents chaos and change the opposite of stasis in the divine sense chim as a word means royalty starlight high splendor representing the concept that god is love and al tadun means weapon so a direct translation is something along the lines of i am or is hands as weapons chaos change royalty starlight splendor is or i am weapon so as you can see a direct translation is not really possible but the words and meanings themselves can be molded into a number of bigger pictures you know chim is padme's weapon in my hands to bring a state of splendor or in my hands is padme chaos which is royalty which is my weapon i am a state of splendor and starlight jim is my weapon in my hands and i will bring chaos you know there's a million ways to kind of string these phrases together to assemble some kind of digestible piece of language but overall you know the phrase is a bit too astral for my taste but does it have any relation to the augur of dunlain i'll let you decide that it is sickeningly out of place for the college winterhold an institution in skyrim founded by a nord to be found quoting the 36 lessons of evec talking about chimp and patton may and hans's weapons in ellen effects speaking in an unearthly voice what does that mean it means our already huge pile of oddities and strangenesses that have littered our journey through the deeper veracities of the college of winterhold and of course their subterranean overlord the augur of dunlain just got a little bigger so what do we know the augur of dunlain a once mortal breton likely son of a hag raven came to the college of winterhold and underwent some form of apotheosis ascending to this being we fight here in skyrim likely through the means of absorbing the souls of winterhold after intentionally causing the great collapse and lying in weight after plotting with the sigic order to absorb power from the eye of magnus to some unknown and unspecified means it's all so dizzying but i sure do hope that we see the augur of dunlain in a future elder scrolls game for now though i do hope that you have enjoyed the journey and my best efforts to piece together and make sense of the convoluted college of winterhold questline and of course the most elusive and mysterious character involved in it all the augur of dunlain i am so genuinely very interested to hear your thoughts on the augur of dunlain and all of the obscure facets that we dug through in our quest was the augur of dunlaina reachman is the augur a hagraven prince does he hold the powers of his mother a hagraven did he intentionally cause the great collapse did he use the souls to awaken the dark heart of skyrim what is his odd connection to shalador and the college did he equip and karna with the knowledge to unlock the eye of madness did he work with the psijic order to absorb power from the eye what has the augur of dunlain become did he achieve one of the six walking ways ah such questions are all in a day's work well three months work when it comes to investigating the elder scrolls series and its many many strange stories so i do hope that you have learnt something new about the beautifully mad universe that these wonderful games take place in the elder scrolls if you have any information facts evidence speculation theories or anything in regards to what we investigated be sure to comment down below i'd love to hear what you have to say if you do have any ideas for something that should be covered in an elder scrolls detective series video be sure to let me know i'll look into whatever strange and wonderful topics you present if you did enjoy this video please do me a kindness and leave a like leave a comment with your elder scrolls detective video ideas and your thoughts on our astral friend the orga of dunlain and of course if you enjoyed this video and want to see more videos similar to this one please subscribe it helps me know that people enjoy this kind of content and will result in more of it in the long run be sure to click the little bell icon next to the subscribe button right here on youtube so that you are notified when new elder scrolls detective videos are uploaded my other elder scrolls detective videos can be found down via the playlist link in the description and down there you can also find all of my social media links be sure to follow me on instagram and twitter along with joining a brand new discord server i look forward to seeing you there and discussing theories surrounding this video its content and your conclusions now if you would like to support my channel in a more 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Channel: Camelworks

Views: 923,295

Rating: 4.902431 out of 5

Keywords: elder, scrolls, scrolls V, three, four, five, six, arena, daggerfall, morrowind, oblivion, skyrim, bethesda, studios, softworks, secrets, mysteries, detective, hidden, legends, stories, theories, top, 10, list, most, interesting, facts, best, weapons, easter, eggs, unique, camel, works, camelworks, mackenzie, rowles, eso, tes, online, lore, canon, tales, locations, dragonborn, who, truth, quest, curiosities, kill, mysterious, mystery, character, exposed, explained, hagraven, reachman, reach, god, magnus, eye, of, shalidor, chim, augur, dunlain, psijic, theory

Id: N_PDFxViJB4

Length: 182min 29sec (10949 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020