The prowess of Ancient Nord mages? : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:50 pm

According to the book 'The Art of War Magic';

In the wars between the Nords and the Chimer. The Nord shamans invariably used their mastery of the winds to call down storms before battle to confuse and dismay the Chimer warriors. One day, a clever Chimer sorcerer conjured up an ice demon and commanded him to hide in the rocks near the rear of the Chimer army. When the Nords called down the storms as usual, the Chimer warriors began to waver. But the ice demon rose up as the storm struck, and the Chimer turned in fear from what they believed was a Nord demon and charged into the enemy line, less afraid of the storm than of the demon. The Nords, expecting the Chimer to flee as usual, were caught off guard when the Chimer attacked out of the midst of the storm. The Chimer were victorious that day.

How would you rate them compared to other races in the 4th era? Are there other notable [non-biased] documentations of how talented the other races are in the school of destruction magic?

» Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:58 am

Think of Shalidor, he was an extremely powerful mage that pretty much invented the "Reflect" spell.

Its strange, we dont really here about many other big magical wars. Maybe when the Thalmor attacked some dissidents in Sentinel. They attacked each other with magic making a massive explosion killing each other.

» Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:40 pm

Think of Shalidor, he was an extremely powerful mage that pretty much invented the "Reflect" spell.

It was really the Dwemer (Rourken specifically) that invented the principles though via their sorcery according to the Spellbreaker legends. I suppose that's actually a good circular comparison considering how powerful the Dwemer were when it came to magic etc (Shalidor ~ Rourken>Modern day Altmer?).

» Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:18 am

as powerful as the best of any other race. Especially in magic, where no matter the race practitioners can live forever, racial differences are seemingly useless. a slight magika advantage becomes trivial at age 1000

» Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:04 pm

When magical wars are brought up in the "modern" eras, the usual tactic (always of the enemy, according to Imperial sources) is almost invariably necromancy. Both Queen Potema and the Camoran Usurper, to use two more well-known examples, were said to have raised entire armies of undead in order to bolster their power. And considering the continued operation of skeletons, ghosts, and draugr as guardians of ancient tombs, I would have to say that the same tactic would have been well known to ancient mages as well. No idea if earlier or later mages would have been better at it, though.