So I've always thought that the games depict the capabilities of mages and magic very poorly. It's always just a few spell effects and animations... quite bad really. But I know that's just the game and that in lore mages have performed extraordinary feats with magic.

I'd like everyone to rattle off some of the spells/feats of magic that they believe were some of the most impressive we've heard or seen yet in TES. For this topic "magic" is not only limited to the more traditional Merish magic that we see in use but also includes other forms like Thu'um.

Just a small selection of things that come to mind:

*Bosmeri Wild Hunt that killed King Borgas and plunged Nordic Empire into civil war.

*Thalmor instigation of void nights and return of Masser/Secunda. Surely some pretty potent stuff at works there.

*Shalidor's got quite a few exploits that would fit this category. If you believe what they say.

*Tiber changing environment of Cyrodiil, Vivec flooding Morrowind.. don't get much greater than CHIM feats I suppose.

Just about every description of the Thu'um outside of what we were given in Skyrim is pretty nifty. And I've also always thought Shadow Magic was pretty neat. Part magic, part quantum theory.

Wulfarth shook the years out of Alduin for one. The Last Dragonborn was capable of bringing Alduin to his knees with Dragonrend. Forcing Alduin to do anything seems to be a pretty big feat. Then there is Miraak's Bend Will shout, with implications that were never fully realized.

I have to wonder why the Thu'um is so powerful as far as magic goes. It's linked to Aka and Lorkhan, so I suspect that the Thu'um is some kind of outward expression of the "divinity shard" within the people of Nirn. Just like how sufficient belief can shape the Earthbones, using the Thu'um can shape the world to a lesser degree.

Here is what comes to mind for me:

*The Dragon Break is the greatest I know of in my opinion. Messing around with the nature of the gods themselves and unraveling the fabric of time? Hard to top that.

*Azra Nightwielder from Shadowkey fusing with all other possible Azras. However, he ended up losing control of this vast power and blew himself up.

*The Sload creating the Thrassian Plague and wiping out most of Tamriel.

*The Psijic Order creating a storm powerful enough to destroy the Maormer fleet.

*The Hiradirge sinking Yokuda with the Pankratosword.

Mundus.

Numidium.

Clockwork City.

It's the Language of Creation.

For me, it'd have to Numidium and the fate of the Dwemer.

What ever Magick the Daedra used to change the very principality of their Brother.

Wehn Zurin Arcturus reclaimed the Mantella and created an anti magic zone. An effect of the the Dragon Break and the Mantella that is powerful enough to power Numidium.

This came up in a different thread, but I'll put it here because it's relevant. MK says that the Aurbis is music, or something along those lines (I sadly have only seen the quote second-hand, and even then briefly). Most of the more impressive magics involve tones in some way or another. The two I can think of off the top of my head are Thu'um and Tonal Architecture, but I know there's more that I'm forgetting right now.

Divayth Fyr cloning himself.

The Dwemer building/becoming a God.

Vivec stopping the falling moon.

Vivec raising the oceans to drown the invading Akavir.

The fight between Galerion and Mannimarco (sounded impressive.)

Just off the top of my head.

Jyggalags transformation into Sheogorath would be what I'd say is most impressive.

The selectives dancing on the tower, working their dawn magicks to purge all merish aspects from Akatosh/Auri-el, literally 'breaking the dragon'.

Al-Esh didn't cast any fancy spells or that, it's only mentioned as a historical fact, and all she wanted to do was make a compromise between the Nords and her people's Ayleid-informed beliefs, but she effectively created the Eight as everyone knew them afterwards. Not bad.

Creation of Aurbis.

http://aurbis.c0da.es/prophet/p/4.png

Pelinal traveling back in time. (I assume it was magical in some way)

Where's the darn "Like" button on this forum?

Before clicking on the link, the first thought that ran through my head was Ayem with Nerevar's feet in her arms. I'm honestly more impressed with that, to be honest. Numidium can do more than just stomp on people; if he were just a giant robot, he wouldn't be nearly as feared as he is.

It's always been one of my problems with magic in the game mehcanics that no matter how powerful you get, its all pretty unimpressivle and... basic really. Even Divayth himself, in Morrowind, will do little more than throw some painful spells at you, and his 'power' is represented by his Daedric armor and 999 health. Skyrim, despite (and perhaps because) of no spell creation, makes the best show of making it look powerful, and adds Wards and Traps and the like, but even then Neloth and other mages really don't seem all that intimidating. Only the Psiijic taking us out of time/freezing time to talk to us, as they do again to take the eye, strikes me as a true feat of magic. Certainly the best we can see first hand.

It might be why i've never played a mage properly in RP, and play someone more down to earth, especially if playing someone long-lived. I just can't rationalise the idea of a lifespan of centuries (or limitless, with corprus) and remaining as limited as a mage is in the games. Hell, after reading about Talos (Tiber, Wulf, Acturus and all), the Dwemer, Vivec's works, the commentaries, and so forth, a vampire character who starts in Morrowind and is still studying my Skyrim has no excuse to to have CHIM'd, short of just not being interested in doing so, or being a more martial/grounded being.

What can the Numidium do outside of being a giant robot that echoes through time?

What can the sun do besides bringing light, life, and heat to the entire solar system?

I find this ironic, because I found it more difficult to play a mage character in Skyrim than I did in Oblivion and Morrowind. The spells all looked impressive when being flung around by NPCs, but I could never make them work for me.

It's the "echoes through time" bit that elevates Numidium to its lore position as 'metaphysical monster.' Stomping on things is very mundane in comparison.

It's just that the "echoes through time" bit seems more informed than demonstrated.

I had great fun playing a mage in Skyrim. He was a lover of all knowledge, so the Dragonborn DLC fit well with him because you could see his character develop from "Imperial mage wannabe" to "Archmage of the College of Winterhold" to "Champion of Hermaeus Mora". I inadvertently made a deconstruction of the "Daedra are here to put you through hell" stories, because my character loved knowledge so much that he didn't mind everything else about Apocrypha. He didn't see it as "evil".

Numidium has only appeared once in TES outside of in-game books, and as far as I know it was nothing but a giant golem at that time. It became something more than that specifically because the series needed an excuse for a continued timeline after giving you six different ending possibilities (and even as "just a golem," one of those endings sent it on a rampage that destroyed half of Tamriel, IIRC). So yes, its lore capabilities are entirely informed, but if you think about it, so are the more important powers of every other Tower.