Oh, yes that's it.

Where do you put the power in the word? gOblinesque or goblinEsque? i hope you understand. i need to know, its for school i read this book for an assignment and we're supposed to read one or two pages from the book and i like that part haha!

GOB-lin-ESK. At least that's how I say it.

The Synodd and College of Whispers aren't really replacements. They're like regimes which grew in Traven's absence. I think the Mages Guild will go on being called the Mages Guild. That's my interpretation, and I'd still like to know what they're about. Probably some conundrum like: 'do we proliferate knowledge of the arcane, or do we shield the magic arts from use by the uninitiated?'

Well, they mention in passing the mage's Guild just sort of fading away, and the old halls being used by "rogue" mages. It seems like the consensus is that the Synod is a religious magic organization and the College of Whispers is the secular, because Titus Mede is smart, and he knows that two competing magic guilds will produce faster and better, more powerful magic to gain more favor than it's rival.

On the cover of the book we see the floating island with huge tree roots poking out from below the edge of it. Could this be another hist tree? Lets say that it is, now could the "rogue" hist tree, in some way, be inn-contact with the hist tree on the island even though they arnt connected by the roots?

Pg. 53
"Alot of people say this one grew from a single fragment of the root that survived the elder's killing, more then three hundred years ago."
"but i think it must be talking to this thing coming from the sea"


Also, does anyone understand the vision Mere-Glim see's upon touching the tree? i had to re-read it to understand if it was a vision from Mere-Glims past as a baby Argonian, say, his naming ritual or a vision the hist was having on the future. Though i do believe its the hists vision of the future, still... dont really get it and what the hist cut off? the vision?.

Also, the An-Xileel keeping the ancient pyramid from flooding, as if they wanted to go back and not forward, is interesting.

The tree thing, just keep reading. It is brought up, but I think if it gets explained in full it will be in book two.

The Hist cut off the vision of the distant past, seems to my best guess to be in the times before the wars of the Ehlonfey when Black Marsh was flooded and was significantly reduced in size to what it is now. So it's a vision of the past that actually was and the future that at the minimum the Lilmoth tree (if not all the Hist) and the An-Xileel want.

Ah ok, thank you.
I've read it before, thought I'd re-read it again though i don't remember anything more said about the hist in the book

One of the Glim chapters has him musing about the Fringe Gyre trees being "like" the Hist, but not quite them. If it's explained why then I missed it completely, so I'm assuming it'll be in book two if not a later game.

I have a question. Why didn't Mere-Glim and Anaaig just use Mark and Recall potions/scrolls? I mean, buying potions is almost as easy as buying drinks. There pretty much readily available at every General Store or Alchemist or pawnshop. And why didn't they just buy levitating potions/scrolls instead of making one?

Sure, it would ruin the story and the book would probably only be 26 pages long and......... well, hmm I guess that kinda answers the question. I suppose every story has a hole in it that makes the person go "if they just did this, then that would solve everything".

Don't you guys agree though?

Because they couldn't.

levitation was lost so i guess it can be assumed that mark and recall was lost also. It seems to happen quiet a lot in the elder scrolls universe. passwall was widely available in arena and not even 20 years later it had been lost.

any news on book 2?

It is mentioned levitation was rediscovered by a guy from the Synod. But, as the old redguard alchemist said, in order to learn that kind of knowledge, you need to be part of the Synod and pay a few years worth of dues before you'll get the chance.

Though 200 years after, I can see levitation making its way to be a more widespread spell.

Not yet, unfortunately.

You got me, what's religious magic?

omg, that would soooooo not happen. There are so many mages/wizards/spellcasters from every province that know levitation. It'd be impossible for everyone to forget it. That's like saying suddenly everyone in America forgot how to ride a bicycle. I mean, I understand why they got rid of levitation; because cells wouldn't load in Oblivion, and so the employees had to make a witty and clever idea of why it wasn't in there. Flat out saying "because we couldn't get the cells to load" sounds kinda stilted and dull.


@Redmer the Wise, yes, "Passwall" was gone from the other games but probably only because it worked in Arena. I hadn't had a chance to use that spell in Arena but according to http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Arena:The_Known_Spellbook, it could destroy 3 walls. Now I don't know how Arena was built but I'm guessing it worked well enough to implement that. But try doing that in Daggerfall, Morrowind or Oblivion where walls are part of the entire building in most cases. Stuff like that goes away from games because the developers can't figure out how to get it to work in new releases of games. I mean, really, Telekinesis should be able to "move" walls out of the way. But ya know, it's just a video game. Can't expect it to have real world physics.


@Hellmouth
I liked your first response...... "because they couldn't". Hahaha. Reminds me of when a kid asks why and the mom says "because I said so". I'm betting your answer is probably the same answer the author would have; "because that's how I wrote the story. That's why." lol

The Mages Guild did ban it, so take it as a tongue and cheek jab at themselves.

As for M&R, it seemed as though she didn't even know of mark and recall, or that they were quite expensive. There seemed to be plenty of ingredients should could have used, but I guess it's not something widely brewed, unless you are quite the traveler or a talented mage. Could also have been quite expensive, but from the lack of M&R being mentioned, either the author didn't want to use such thing for it'd greatly cheapen the book, the characters didn't know of it, it was too expensive anyway, or a combination thereof.

Mages Guild banned it? Was that in Oblivion that they actually said that?

It's in a conversation:


As to why you could levitate in early games? There's the cheap way of saying it's because the other areas are less restricting. Plus, whose going to tell a bunch of Telvanni mages they can't levitate; they'll blow you to bits at best.

Tribunal got away with it in that there's a law stating no one can be higher than Alamenxia, so levitation was banned from Mournhold. Guess it could be said the same in Cyrodiil.

I thought it was because all the external cells MW didn't have to load via a door like they do in Oblivion?

If you want to focus completely on game mechanics, yes, it is because of that, and that players could very easily bypass the daedric towers (which I find to be a BS reason if that is one)

What, the daedric towers in Morrowind? Or Oblivion?

Oblivion.

He means "mages who are members of the Imperial Cult" versus "mages who are secular or unaffiliated". It's not the magic that's religious, it's the mages.