Accroding to lore, ebony is a rare volcanic glass, and is commonly found in Vvardenfell due to the volcanic Red Mountain; the entire island was created in a huge eruption.

How then, can there be a huge ebony deposit in Solstheim? Unless tectonic theories apply in Tamriel, in which case Solstheim could have once been part of Vvardenfell?

The complete text from which you mention only a part is the following (quoted here from http://www.imperial-library.info/zeph/tes_tre_3/e.shtml). Emphasis mine.

(1) (Raw Ebony) Raw ebony is one of the most precious substances in the Empire, and most of the continent's deposits are here on Vvardenfell. Raw ebony itself is an extremely hard, durable, black glass-like substance, said to be the crystalized blood of the gods. Raw ebony is protected by Imperial Law, and may not be mined or exported without an Imperial charter. Ebony smuggling is a profitable but dangerous source of illegal wealth on Vvardenfell.
(2) (Ebony weapons) Ebony weapons are made from a rare form of volcanic glass found almost exclusively in the buried deposits and surface lava flows of Vvardenfell's Red Mountain. 'Ebony' refers to the lustrous, black, glassy surface of ebony weapons.

And, from the http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/monomyth.shtml#Altmeri
"But when Trinimac and Auriel tried to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan it laughed at them. It said, "This Heart is the heart of the world, for one was made to satisfy the other." So Auriel fastened the thing to an arrow and let it fly long into the sea, where no aspect of the new world may ever find it."

We know that the place where the heart landed later became Red Mountain. A heart, godsblood and an arrow's flight path...

red mountain errupted a few times in the past, it could've deposited a considerable chunk in solsthiem.

So, what you are saying is, the blood dripping from the heart impaled by the arrow would have dribbled all over the land that the arrow flew over...?

So, given this information, could one say that Morrowind is the sole producer of ebony?

I think there's some in Hammerfell.

Think of Solstheim like Iceland. It probably shares a fault line with Red Mountain, and was originally thrust up from the sea floor by volcanic activity. Since it was the same process that produced Ebony on Vvardenfell, it would be logical to find some there as well.

Or, you know, a god's blood.

Tectonic theories don't apply to a infinite finite ball of infinite magic. Solstheim just got a little splatter on it

How do you know they don't apply? No where is it said in the lore that they don't, as far as I know.

Even if it doesn't work on the same basis, it's possible that something which results in a similar effect occurs on Nirn, after all, that same finite ball of infinite magic displays many other properties that, to the observer, suspiciously resemble properties of our own finite ball of rock.

In any case, Solstheim has ebony, that much is clear, it is said that ebony is most common on Vvardenfell, but it doesn't seem to be the only place with it.



The former theory seems to make much more sense, so I'd lean towards it.

Yep

It doesn't apply because of what Brian said: Nirn is a ball of magic. I'd assume balls of magic have different rules than our planets.

And just because it resembles our planet doesn't mean it has the same rules. I'd assume that a universe where the sun is techincally a hole, a constellation with no stars can exist, and immortal vampire snakemen can literally eat your memes is different from our own.

except all of that is mostly speculation even for lore which the devs will change on a whim probably in the next series.

tectonics and natural laws are just a viable on a ball of infinite magic, just as it isn't too.

i still think the eruptions of red mountain have a factor too.

You have it backwards. Tectonic theories do apply to finite infinite squares of finite infinity.

Nirn is only as complicated as is necessitated. And it's magic. It's a mythical representation of gradient-spirits and every aspect of it is an aspect of an aspect. It's only physical because that's how it's perceived in the minds of mortals. If nothing supports any sort of tectonic thing liek we have on Earth, which is a real, physical sphere of dirt and water and air, then it probably doesn't exist on Nirn, a mythomagical infinite sphere.

I don't understand the impulse to apply real world theories to TES just because it's based off real life (because the fun thing is, everything is). Myth IN THE GAMES supports these answers, yet people seem to want to apply real-world ideas because...why?

also batw. peace out.

A spillover od divine from the Hearth of Lorkhan's landing is an explanation that totally make sense in the TES universe. Wether it was spilled on landing or during the eruption that immediately followed.

Something as squishy and juicy as a freshly ripped-out hearth tends to be a messy proposition when it's thrown upon a hard surface.

Or maybe Nirn is a planet orbiting a sun like all planets do and all that talk about holes and being surrounded by oblivion is a baseless myth. Or maybe the truth is a mix of both fantasy and reality.

*Conjures up a constitution.* WHAT!?!?!

This is an outrage. B'Vhek, I'm going to see my Argonian lawyer and we're going to discuss a civil suit at the Starbucks between the Market District and the Arena District in the United States capitol city of The Imperial city. I'll see you in court, good sir! Be sure to wear your best attire of The Deceiver's Refinery, you pompous pig!

Or maybe the myth can speak for itself.

Nirn was created by almighty Shor to give his people space to fight. There is ebony on Solstheim because the Nords there wanted to use ebony weapons and Shor obliged. There you go, all's settled.

I'll bring Sheogorath as my lawyer. But let's not involve Vivec on this. Last time he was on a trial... it wasn't beautiful.

I don't understand the impulse to blindly accept the lore as 100% historically accurate, even in terms of the game world. Yes, there is "magic" on Nirn, but I assume that it has certain properties, such as gravity and magnetism, both forces that exist in our world.

There's a lot of mythology about how OUR universe was created, which some people do or have accepted as fact, and there's also scientific theories (proven or unproven) that people have accepted as fact.

So I'm just saying...while you prolly have some Dark Elves who blindly believe the Mundus was created ex nihlio by the Gods, I'm sure there are some philosophical Imperials or Bretons who speculate more natural causes.

Hmmm

Because the developer gods in their infinite wisdom decided to put some there?

Personally I think thats why there's ebony on Solstheim

Although myths are indeed important in Nirn, they only shape so much. Given that the inhabitants of the Deadlands use an ebony, or ebony-like substance, I personally feel that the "blood of Lorkhan" is more than anything else simply an attempt by mortals to explain how the veins of ebony and glass extend out from Red Mountain, where at the center exists the heart, rather than the actual answer.

Usually it's easier to understand the lore if you can understand the perspective it was made from. In this case the nature of the world itself is myth. This could be argued through the uncanny resemblances in the Monomyth, the very excistence of Tonal Architecture, manteling and other myth making tools.

Now to the point:

1. The http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/monomyth.shtmlis a collection of myths that are all roughly the same, yet they come from people that have never been in contact at such before at such an early period in time. This gives the appearance that rather then being coincidently thought up all the same, they are based on the same historical event. Events that can be corroborated by the excistence of the Adamantine Tower and the Heart of Lorkhan.

2. The http://dwemerstudies.wiwiland.net/planets.html shows the planets in their orbits. Now the Dwemer were Tamriels most advanced race and they even developed telescopes to look at the sky. The planets in the Orrery however don't follow any trajectory that is physically plausible. So physics are not involved or rather, physics as we know them are enforced on Mundus by the earthbones but don't extend beyond.

3. Magic shouldn't be seen as opposed to 'science'. It's occasionally cast as such to create a conflict but it doesn't have to be. When magic is part of the natural world it is something that can be researched and experimented with as if it were any other force of nature.

People in Tamriel are doing this, it might come in the form of listing to Ancestor Moths, creating battle-spire as a space station in Oblivion, or sending Mananauts into Oblivion. It's all a bit odd and hazy but that's okay.

If you're looking for 'philosophical' people Hasphat occasionally provides such explanation. Though he's also considered a bit of a hack by the other academics. Though frankly said, his refutations are the more interesting refutations as they're not simply rejections based on the assumption that because it's a myth, it can't be true.

4. Try to suspend your disbelieve.

No, they shape pretty much everything, when one takes myth to be just one part of collective aurbic self gradiation. The whole Aurbis is one big mind perceiving itself.