I've been trying to look some stuff up myself, but there seems to be very little information on these things, so I'm going to bid on me just failing to find it. I've got several questions on the things.

1) Would it be possible to build something like that in present-day Tamriel? Could a mage or a scholar who studied them extensively enough manage to figure out how to construct something like them and if so, would it be possible to build them in any province, because the one ingame book that I found on the subject mentions some theories about 'magick lines' or something like that on which they'd have to be built but also says there's no evidence of such a thing.

2) If it were possible to build them, would it be possible to use them not to store magick like they seem to do in Oblivion but also to feed that magick into a spell. For example, if one were to enchant a ring with a fireball spell and kept using it next to the well, could the magick in the well be directed to the ring rather than the person?

1) Atempts were made, in the first Empire. Archaeologists are certain the first emperors were dearly involved in Ayleid sorceries. You might say there was a 'revival.' The Emperors of the first era were consistant in the primacy of the title 'Prime Thaumaturge,' or the best miracle worker. These wells could supply them with mana for the miracles they workd. Loss of the wells could have contributed to the decline in fertility rates in the first Empire. It's a hypothesis which was studied. Possibly the end of the final 'Alessian,' dynasty. We know the doomstones maped a transit route through the spirit plane, which those Emperors used to project their person across the corners of the universe.

2) People are the strongest receptors of magic, so the magic always seeks them. An enchantment is really a bypass of casting barriers with in the person. You enchant the ring to 'hold' a spell, but it is essentially a key for the caster to open previous walls. The magic comes from the caster, always.

What if there was only the depleted ring near the well, would it be possible to direct the magick to it when there was no person involved?

Probably not. The ring would receive little surpluss from the well, as other creatures, plant or animal, are more accute conduits of magic. Enchantments will replenish with time, however.

Yes, but if Morrowind is any indication they do so very slowly, and the more powerful the enchantment the longer until you can use it again. There are always soulgems, but you need a new soul every time the enchantment needs recharging, whereas something like an Ayleid well would probably be a permanent solution as long as the enchanted object didn't move.

Considering what the wells do, would it be possible to, if you cracked the way the well works, make magick gather into an enchanted object? It seems to me that the Ayleids managed to figure out a way for magick to go to a specific spot, since you don't see anything quite like the wells anywhere else. Of course the thing that makes the wells work as they do is highly complex and the chances of regaining the knowledge to do it are probably very slim, but am I even getting this right?

Cool thread.
I too am intrigued by the history of the wells.
There aren't many works that deal indepth with the Ayleid, as, let say with the Dwemer.

Que? The beginning of that I followed but I lost you at about the fertility rates part. The runestones are independent of the wells. The wells are more concerned with earthly magicka while the runestones are concerned with the stars. Also, the first empire was intensely anti-elven as a reaction to their slavery. They wouldn't have studied and recreated a symbol of their oppressor.

On topic, though, considering that we don't know how to properly use Welkynd and Varla stones, seemingly commonplace objects in the Ayleid kingdoms, then I don't think that we would be able to recreate one of their longest-standing enchantments. Supposing that they did, given what limited knowledge we do know of the wells, that object would have to stay right where it was in order to be able to continue collecting Magicka. It is possible, nay likely, that the Ayleids charged said Welkynd and Varla stones via those wells, assuming that they needed charging in the first place.

Hmmm. I'm gonna continue pondering on this. I'll get back to you on it.

Anti elven dosn't mean squat. If the enemy's guns are better, use the enemy's guns. Besides that, there's nuance in the Alessian dynasties. It is absurd to think the Emperors of that long era were emphatically anti elven. The hardship of life killed millions. An Emperor's dynasty was secured through big miracles. One was the promise of lots of children and land yielding better crop.


As an example of the early Emperors interest in mysticism. Of course.

Ok, I'll grant that they weren't vehement about it, otherwise they would've leveled the Imperial City (sans White Gold as it was the seat of the Covenant btw Alessia and Akatosh) and replaced it with something human looking. But I've studied way too much RL history to believe that even a civilization that's culturally assimilated into another would, when overthrowing their assimilation, turn around after a while and start embracing icons of that old civilization. No, the elements that made that civilization still unique would be exaggerated in order to provide a rallying cry against the ideology of the parent civilization and once overthrown, the Allessian empire would've stripped or abandoned any old vestiges away that weren't already a part of their own. That antagonism would get passed to their immediate children and those children would live believing that Ayleids are evil for taking slaves and such. This momentum would propel policy and dictate relations far into the future. And it did. It didn't take much for the last of the Ayleid empire to go to war with the Alessian when it was starting to show weakness. Imperial interest would dictate a desire to improve relations with the Ayleids, as they would hold the most keys to understanding their ancestor's (for lack of a better term) technology.

If you want RL examples, just look and ask why common Germans and French playfully dislike each other. It traces back to a surprisingly mundane source, amplified by a couple hundred years of war. Or why the English and French. That goes back to the hundred years war.
If we assume the Doomstones were built in that time. They might have divine origin... although, okay, nevermind because those emperors would've used them regardless of whether they built them or not.

Can we get some sources for some of these claims please?

What about artificial Welkynd or Varla stones?

Only if you give me something first.

I'm just pulling your chain, MD. Don't eat me.

What if the wells are related to White Gold? The towers syphon energy from cretia... or something like it, idk.

Maybe the tower distributes magicka along the wells in Cyrodil, and thats why they are unique to this province, it's White Gold′s area of influence

PLANT.

Nevertheless:

*waters

Om nom nom, Subadim. Sorry if I come across aggressive. I kinda learned to argue my point aggressively after having to have gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Proweler and Luagar. You also stumbled across my specialty in Lore: fitting the tiny little pieces together in context to the culture in question.

Well, it can be better explained by the fact that it's Ayleid and nowhere we have visited (sans Arena) has historically had Ayleids. But lets follow this thinking anyways. The Ayleids used White-Gold to do pretty much two things. To assert their will and shape this corner of the Mundus according to it, and to subvert creation's influence over themselves and to eventually jump back to AE. They accomplished this by making White-Gold a model of the Aurbis. Now, there are no wells that we know of inside the city.

Nope. I'm not getting it. The reasons and wheedling gets too complicated.


Yeah, yeah, yeah. Waters of Oblivion. I already knew that.