I was just wondering why Sigil Stones, found in a tower in the plains of Oblivion, had magical properties... What is a Sigil Stone? I know they are the difference between an existing plain and a destroyed one, but why? Why do they posses magical properties?

Also, since Im on the topic, what is the towers name that occupies the plain? why only one?

why are there multiple plains with single towers?

why arent they all connected? or are they?

Who controls each plane? are they dedicated to a single prince?

They're dedicated to Mehrunes Dagon.

The Sigil Stones are what makes them possible to keep them open on Nirn I believe not 100% sure about it thou. They're probably magical due to the reason that they have great power since (if I'm correct of the above) they can open a gate to Oblivion on Nirn.

There is probably only one Plain but different locations of it, or it's One plain but it changes depending on the situation.

The workings and creation of a sigil stone are described in the book http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/liminal_bridges.shtml.

Oblivion (the realm) is not a homogenous landmass, or at least not necessarily. The single realms are crafted and under the dominion of the respective Daedric Prince, which also would mean that they are formed by the need of said Prince. They don't have to be necessarily connected, imho. The tower in which the Sigil Stone is kept is the counterpart to its respective mundial Oblivion Gate and Sigil Stone maintains the connection between those two. Judging from the book I mentioned above: when the Sigil Stone is removed, the connection between the Oblivion Gate and the tower in Oblivion is severed and everything non-Daedric is instantly returned to Nirn (see "instant retromission").

From what I understand, Sigil Stones power the Sigil Towers, they seem to stabilize and hold open a gate between Nirn and Oblivion. The gates themselves are opened by the Mythic Dawn (at least until the end when the barriers were completely shattered).

I think it's something like that. Removing them probably doesn't so much destroy the plain as simply destroy the gate, because their power is needed to open it and keep it open (After all, having a dimension whose very existence depends on one item remaining in the same location seems like a pretty bad design, and it never is even said that the plains of Oblivion are all separate realms of existence, I always just assumed they were in fact Mehruns Dagon's plain of Oblivion.)

As to their magical properties, it's probably just that the power in them that allows them to perform their intended function also happens to be able to be transfered to items, giving them powerful enchantments. Mostly, it's probably just that Bethesda wanted there to be some kind of special reward for closing Oblivion gates, but since this is the lore forum, we can at least pretend there's a reason for things beyond game design.

ok, so Mehrunes Dagon controls the plains and each plain has the ability to open a gate leading from the Oblivion realm into the mortal realm... Cyrodill in our case. the ability to open a gate comes from the sigil stone which has magical properties and ultimately allows for a portal to exist. daedra occupy the plain and can then use the portal to take them to Cyrodill or where ever a portal exists.

each plane is seperate yet related... im guessing they are all in the same realm yet are separated considering there were multiple gates active at one point. therefore there must be multiple plains. whether all the portals lead to the same realm or not, i dont know, but i would guess that they do.

NOW! some further questions...

1. is iti possible that the realm of Oblivion is much like mortal land? i mean since gates are opened accross Cyrodill, does this mean that the location of each gate is relevant to the location of the plain itself?

I do not believe the position has anything to do with it, but it is obvious the Sigil Stones are powerful, they are essentially the connection between Oblivion and Nirn.

I'm also wondering whether it would also be possible for Oblivion gates to be opened to other planes of Oblivion. Since in a sense, Mundus is a plane of Oblivion, albeit a very different one.

Got a question here on this topic. Does Sheogorath (be it the old sheo or the new sheo) also have some kind of sigil stone to open hiw own gate? I know that he says that the gate is a kind of "invitation", but does that mean that he doesnt have some kind of sigil stone to stabilize the gate?

We actually dont here what connects the Realm of Madness to the realm of Nirn

Oblivion is NOT associated with multiple princes.
Sheo etc do not have a plane of Oblivion, the planes of Oblivion belong to Mehrunes Dagon, and only Dagon.

I do not think a stone is needed because the gate is much smaller and is designed to only transport people from outside the realm into it (or back out if they chose) instead of an army of daedra. Or the barriers between the relms may only be designed to keep out daedra while mortals may easily pass through when given the oprotunity.

and to the question above me. Sheo does have his own plane of oblivion, eatch daedric prince has a plane. Dagon only controlls a portion of it.

No, Sheo has his own DAEDRIC plane IIRC.

Actually, Dagon's realm is called Deadlands and I believe "plane of Oblivion" is another way to say "daedric realm", so Oblivion is associated with multiple princes, and in fact with all of them.

No, you don't recall correctly.

Apparently, Oblivion is a place composed of many lands -- thus the many names for which Oblivion is synonymous: Coldharbour, Quagmire, Moonshadow, etc. It may be correctly supposed that each land of Oblivion is ruled over by one prince. The Daedra princes whose names appear over and over in ancient records (though this is not an infallible test of their authenticity or explicit existence, to be sure) are the afore-mentioned Sanguine, Boethiah, Molag Bal, and Sheogorath, and in addition, Azura, Mephala, Clavicus Vile, Vaernima, Malacath, Hoermius (or Hermaeus or Hormaius or Herma -- there seems to be no one accepted spelling) Mora, Namira, Jyggalag, Nocturnal, Mehrunes Dagon, and Peryite.

http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/onoblivion.shtml

Educate yourself.



Instantaneous retromission when you're trying to penetrate the Barrier directly.

Otherway around. Everything Daedric is returned. Hence the transpontine bit about opening the Gates (from the other side) in Mundus to bring Daedra in. Leaving Mundus is a "simple" as willing to be some where else.

No. That's incorrect. There are many, many realms of Oblivion. Most of Oblivion isn't even a sphere but a distant ocean of swarming ether between the bubble dimensions that comprise Principalities for the Daedra Lords. This is where the souls of Daedra go when banished either from their own Realm or from Nirn. They must swim back to a sort of homing beacon in their own Realm to be refracted. No Daedra, Lesser or Lord, can ever truely die.

The source seems that it can be interpreted in both ways. The place of the described altar is Mundus and from there, the sigil stone is transported to the place where the Daedra Lord has inscribed it, thus, forming a tunnel. So, and that's how interpret it, when the sigil stone is removed, the tunnel/gateway collapses. I think there's possibility for both Daedric and Mundial being instantaneously brought back to their respective realms. Fact is: when the sigil stone is removed, the humans who were in the part of Oblivion the Sigil Stone led to, are transported back to Mundus.

The difficulty in "simply willing to be somewhere else" lies in getting the knowledge of how that willing is done. Divayth Fyr used an exploit to do this and that is what he taught Morian Zenas.

Do all humans in the Oblivion get transported back or only the ones in the main tower, sigil room or near sigil stone? If I remember correctly, one prisoner in Kvatch gate (the one who told how to close the gate) was not transported back to Nirn (though it might be just a game's mistake)

He maybe died? Or wasn't released from his prison?

I cant really say more, it was ages ago I played Oblivion.

thats a good question... another example would be the Knights of the Thorn, when they breach a gate and you must destroy it. when i played through, one or two of the nights died. obviously the KotT would want to properly bury their kin. ( i know its just a game lol) but i dont recall them being transported back.

do you have to be touching the sigil stone when the gate is destroyed? because i actually dont recall ever being transported back with anyone but myself.

There were those knights of the Cheydinhall Count's son that were in the gates and if you manage to keep them alive, they come back with you, however, the guy in Kvatch was quite alive when I left him, just locked in a cage. Though, I don't think a simple cage could have stopped his transportation since the whole tower didn't stop mine.

oops?

Each Prince has his/her own Plane = plane(t) - if fact the Prince is the Plane(t) ...

a plain on which you found a tower is just a plain old plain - like a prairie ...


According to a text found in the game/Oblivion:
A sigil stone or morpholith is prepared/consecrated in an Arcane ritual in a specially constructed building during an equinox somewhere on Nirn.

Then whoever prepared/consecrated it - the mechanic - takes it to a Daedric Prince who then inscribes a Rune on stone empowering it.

to Open a Gate
The mechanic at any time thereafter must communicate with the Daedric Prince who inscribed the stone and together they invoke a charter/agreement/perform a conjuration together at which point the sigil stone then returns to the place where it was originally prepared/consecrated and a gate opens between that place and the location where the Prince and mechanic are conjuring from.
end of translation.

However this is interesting in that it appears that for Oblivion the process was different - there is no way that a building was constructed in Kvatch to prepare a sigil stone - so one may assume that either the writer only understood part of things and he was just a beginner and had a lot to learn or there are other books that talk of variations on ways to create Gates or maybe there was a lot more in that book that was not legible.

I doubt Dagon himself had to perform the other half of the spell. I mean there were a LOT of gates and I don't recall reading anywhere that the Daedric Princes, while true gods, were omniscient or omnipresent in a true sense.

His powerful Lieutenants probably were sufficient to perform the Oblivion side of the conjuration. And I doubt actual buildings/towers were required on the Nirn side. There don't appear to be the remains of buildings at any of the sites. Small altars or even mounds of dirt would probably be sufficient. Perhaps some sort of perverse blood sacrifice. But buildings? No evidence whatsoever in most cases there was ever a building anywhere around. Small stones and charred lumber, true, but these don't appear at ALL spawnpoints and were likely buildings that just happened to already be there.

During the Bruma fight, the gates seem to just pop up, there didn't seem to be anything prepared on that place

thats interesting but that would take alot of Daedric Princes and alot of time. dozens of portals all opened at once so how could that be?

and what of the Great Gates? whats the significance of these "Great" gates?