Hello, I haven't posted here in ages, but I recently completed the College of Winterhold questline for the first time and this augur thing really jumped at me. I've noticed several things that make me think that the augur of Dunlain has some kind of relation with reachmen:

1: First of all, the word "dunlain" just sounds to me kind of celtic in the way several reachish toponyms and personal names of reachmen do.

2: The book The Legend of Red Eagle mentions augurs in the Reach, in what I believe is the only mention of such a thing in lore:

"Ten kings ruled the Reach in those days, and though men were free, the people were scattered and warred amongst themselves. The augurs foresaw the boy's destiny: a warrior without peer, first and foremost Lord of the Reach, chosen to unite all under his name."

3: When entering the Midden from the trapdoor in the Hall of Countenance, a short ways in you can see on the side of the corridor there is a "bone statue" identical to the ones commonly found in forsworn settlements.

4: Lastly, consider that the hidden NPC that voices the Augur of Dunlain is a breton. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Augur_of_Dunlain

I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Could the Augur of Dunlain be of Reachish origin? If so, what is the nature of these augurs?

I actually noted this connection on a TESwiki http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:537031 months ago.

"Ten kings ruled the Reach in those days, and though men were free, the people were scattered and warred amongst themselves. The augurs foresaw the boy's destiny: a warrior without peer, first and foremost Lord of the Reach, chosen to unite all under his name."

Good catch with this one, I never noticed that connection.

Ah, interesting. If Dunalin is a city in the Western Reach then that pretty much confirms the connection. Indeed, Dunlain must have appeared in Arena, where it is seen on this map: http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/gallery_files/minibigmaproadslore31gv.jpg

Reach augurs might not be fundamentally different from Orcish wisewomen or even oracles of the Nine. A questgiver in the Temple of Kynareth in Daggerfall mentions Kynareth communicating through auguries and they may well have been literal auguries using birds.

If any High Rock town we've heard of is a Reach city, it's Dunlain (Falls). Not that the Western Reach existed in TES lore before Redguard. The vaguely Gaelic sound of the name might have been deliberate though, what with Bretons being called Bretons and descendents of the "druids" of Galen. Sure they had mostly English names, but I think it really was supposed to be the magic British Isles.

I didn't know about the bone statue in the Midden; that's very interesting.

Augurs were probably just mystics equatable to Skyrim court wizards and wise women in Orc and Ashlander tribes.

Not that I can add any lore discussion to this conversation, but i've always found this name to be kind of out of character with Skyrim. It's not just the use of "Dunlain" either though, it's the title of "Augur." It sounds like something right out of the Witcher.