The myriad ways in which you are *supposed* to be able to start this quest have me somewhat confused, especially since it seems so buggy and problematic. So here's my question: if you try to initiate Lost to the Ages by entering Arkngthamz without ever picking up a shard, reading The Aetherium Wars, visiting any of the other quest sites, etc., at what point during your exploration there should you get something in your journal telling you that you've started the quest and what your next objective is?

Because on my last playthrough (the first with Dawnguard installed) I found one of the shards early on and took it, not knowing what it was - I'd very purposely avoided spoilers and info about the new DLC content. I also had a copy of the book I picked up somewhere, and I'm assuming I read it as well. Neither of those things gave me any objective to pursue regarding this quest. When I stumbled on Arkngthamz by chance later on, I investigated and met Katria's ghost and her body but her journal was not on her corpse (not sure about The Aetherium Wars). And I never got an objective or any journal update indicating I'd started the quest then either. That's when I started looking into bugs with this quest, and found one possible problem was that I'd already started the Dawnguard questline.

So this time around I made sure I went to Arkngthamz to investigate before starting the DG stuff - I'd already gotten to the point where I'd heard rumors about the DG reforming and been stopped by their recruiter, but I tabbed out of that conversation without agreeing or refusing to join. I went to Arkngthamz and got as far as finding Katria's body, which this time had the journal and the other book, but meeting her and stating I was going to try to get through the ruin didn't cause any journal entries to appear, and neither did taking both books from her corpse and reading them. If the quest is starting properly, should I have an objective pop up at some point while doing those things, or does nothing appear until you get further into the ruin? I don't want to proceed through the entire place only to find out that the quest isn't going to start at any point along the way.

I backed out of all that and reloaded a save from before I'd discovered the place, just to be sure I hadn't screwed things up again somehow. I've since found a shard and picked it up, and found a copy of The Aetherium Wars and read it, and neither of those things initiated any objectives related to the quest. (I backed out of both those actions as well by reloading previous saves.)

As far as I can tell I've NOT done any of the things that I've read can cause a problem, or I've done them and then reverted to a previous save when they didn't cause the quest to start. None of the ways it's SUPPOSED to start seem to be working, unless it starts farther along in the exploration of Arkngthamz than I'm expecting it to.

Picking up a shard should cause a journal entry in miscellanious about "identify the crystal shard"

Reading the book should cause a journal enytry to "investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz"

Are You using the Unofficial Patches, and are they in the correct order.

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp

Dawngaurd.esm

Unofficial Dawngaurd Patch.esp

Hearthfires.esm

Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp

Dragonborn.esm

Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esm

I know that finding the shards after helping Katria will not have Map Markers for the last two shards, but Her Journal does have the locations.

Yep, I'm using the unofficial patches and they are all in the correct order. They may have released some updated versions though since I last checked, although it wasn't that long ago. If there's an updated DG one I may try to switch it in for the version I've got, if it doesn't seem to bork up anything else in my game maybe it will fix this one quest.

I get no journal entries when I read the book, or pick up a shard, and nothing when I talk to Katria and take/read the two books that I find on her body. Same as last time. Which is why I was trying to avoid doing those things until I actually went to Arkngthamz, to see if I could start the quest by entering the ruin and meeting Katria's ghost - which I did, and which is why I'm asking if you DO start the quest that way, should it show up in your journal at or before the point where you find Katria's body and take/read her journal and The Aetherium Wars then. If so, then even doing those things won't start the quest when I have done nothing else related to it at all. If not, then the quest may not be broken and I just didn't go far enough into the ruin to trigger the journal entry.

Edit: well, there is a newer version, but I'd have to update the Unofficial Skyrim Patch as well and I'm not going to do that in the middle of this game with umpteen quests already active because I just don't know what would happen. Maybe nothing bad but I'm not risking having to scrap another character over one quest that won't start. I'm just not sure why it won't seem to start even when I'm being so careful not to do any of the things that supposedly prevent it. It should be as simple as "read the book, quest starts" or "enter Arkngthamz, quest starts" but apparently not.