Note: this topic may contain MQ spoilers. Viewer discretion is advised. Also, I was playing on the Dawnguard's side.

Hey guys! There's something in the Dawnguard main quest that I don't quite understand: why do we need a Moth priest to read the elder scroll? I finished the original MQ (with Alduin) and I didn't need a Moth priest to read the scroll. Is there something missed or is it an error from Bethesda?

Actually you did need a moth priest for the MQ, but it was decided against it. You still suffered the effects from reading it, but as it was simple needed to be read a short time to teleport(I think I got that part of the quest right) you didn't go blind.

For the dawnguard quest, this scroll had to be read for a much longer period, requiring a moth priest, instead of yourself.

I mean, you can't save the world as the player, if you can't see.

Long story short...

Reading elder scrolls is like reading "pure knowledge"

A very high ammount of information is burning into your eye's and might blind you and/or drive you into madness.

The search for the moth priest (a man who is trained into reading this stuff) is like the search for a save methode.

To read the scroll without training or protection is a "gamble".

So the story line is more like "better search for a save way bevore we continue with a Blindborn."

Also the scroll that you read in the MQ is conected to the timewound... reading it outside the timewound result in brightscreen+annoying sound.

Read "The Effects of the Elder Scrolls" for more info on the deleterious effects the scrolls can cause.

The scroll used for the main quest was the same one that was used to send Alduin forward in time, and thus is linked to the time wound. This is why it can be read there and yet nowhere else.

Harkon may possibly have some knowledge of the scrolls, but of course, being the villain, he would never risk blinding himself or driving himself mad when he could have someone else risk it. Isran and his ilk are mere warriors and thus have no knowledge of how to properly glean knowledge from the scrolls.

Thank you all for your answers, it's been a while since I've done the MQ and I didn't remember the time wound the elder scroll created. I know understand

If you remember Septimus Signus, that's the reason why. Unless you want to be as enlightened as he is

The moth priests the only one who can interpreted the events properly, in the MQ you had parthumax's help