Our second degree cousins of the third type harnessed this power from their favorite and only true divinity: the night sky, which they called Niraearubis in their strange religion of violation, but I contend that they did not know the whole of it, for indeed, they focused only on the smallest and weakest of the stars, wholly ignoring the greatest of them all. Magnus.
Magnus. Father of light. Father of magic. His supposed half-death and the associated trans-mundane tether to the eternal has been discussed more than enough, but many aspects of his story are more obscured. One such aspect? What happens to all of his light?
It is a well known fact that the light of day originates in Aetherius, and thus should have all the classic Aetherial virtues: goodness, glory, love of the Aldmer, and eternality. It is also well known that light shines forth continually during the day. And yet, things do not grow continually brighter during the day, nor does the world remain filled with eternal light after sundown. Somehow, something appears to be stealing light from us.
Some, such as Lord Seer Wanyail, propose that this is a manifestation of Lorkhan’s taint, and that through their shared Padomic blood, Nirn and certain daedra share a special relationship in which these daedra, the “light-thieves” of childhood nightmares, prevent Nirn from being destroyed by the cleansing light of Aetherius, and in return fat themselves on the essence of forever. This is, of course ridiculous.
More likely, when light enters the ultra-perhaps of the mundane sphere, it become myriad in more ways than previously known. It is a major and unshakable tennent of our knowledge that crystals can scatter the pure white light of day into a multitude of colors (and this is then conventionally turned into a great many metaphors). It is also accepted that living things can absorb some of this light and transform it into the magicka of our spells, but even in the absence of life, places grow darker without light. What then is become of all the spare light?
Magnustism. It must be being stored somewhere, in some form, that we can unlock. As Varliance was stored in the varla stones - crystalized blood of the magna-ge - Magnustism must be stored in the remnants of Magnus upon Nirn. But what of Magnus remains on Nirn? Three things.
First, and most critically, there is the design. Magnus contributed the most to the mundane plan. Unfortunately, as is well known, the strongest barriers in all of the Mundus are those around the design of the thing. It would be foolish to advise what has already been attempted and repeatedly failed, so I will move on.
Second, there is the legendary Staff of Magnus. Unfortunately, as is well known, the staff has an unfortunate elusive capacity hardwired into the design. It will only be exploitable once the mundus has already fallen.
Third and finally, we have the only likely useful source of Magnustism - The Eye of Magnus. Reports from our third degree cousins of the second type described it as a genuine part of Magnus hastily left behind after he fled to Aetherius. It should be attuned to his spectra, and, more importantly, weakly warded. If we can find it and unlock it, we should have access to a store of varliance greater than any other. A store that has been building up for millennia, untapped since the second age*, fueled by the greatest of the fully-living spirits. It alone might be able to fuel the spells that would win us the war.
Sincerely yours,
Scholar 3rd class, second division, Untaro.
*By which he means that period of time called the merethic era by mannish calendars.
I'm also thinking that, while these sort of things (by which I mean discussion of the lore through creation) do have their place in this forum, the complaints about it getting out of hand are valid, so maybe we can try to keep stuff like this mostly constrained to one thread?