Recently, I bought a new gaming PC and a laptop so I could enjoy Skyrim without the immense amounts of lag I used to get. For Christmas, I received the Elder Scrolls Anthology, which really has had me playing Skyrim's legendary edition a lot since. That being said, I was playing around with the College of Winterhold questline, where I went looking around the area where the original city collapsed.
It had me thinking, "Is there possibly a connection between the Augur of Dunlain and the Collapse?". I know Savos Aren mentions the possibility of Red Mountain's eruption causing the Collapse, but it seems kind of odd that it would collapse 117 years later if it were related to Red Mountain. What if the experiment that caused the Augur of Dunlain to lose his corporeal form also caused the collapse? It would somewhat make sense why the College was spared.
On the Augur of Dunlain himself, does anyone have a clue what or where "Dunlain" is? I can't imagine he'd just make up a random name to be part of his title, but I suppose I could be wrong. Also, does his current form last forever, or is it still mortal? Another question I have, is this- would he be considered to be some sort of god now?
And finally, I noticed that Red Mountain is still spewing loads of ash and smoke into the sky, even 196 years after the Red Year. Wouldn't you think if it spewed that much smoke and ash into the sky, that we wouldn't have regular weather patterns, and the whole of Tamriel would be plagued by wild weather and natural disasters? I don't think that if it was still bellowing that much smoke out of it for almost 200 years after the eruption, that we'd still see the clear skies and beauty of Skyrim, especially not, considering Skyrim isn't as far from Red Mountain, as say, Summerset Isle.
In the Dragonborn addon, I noticed a few people mentioning they'd like to return to Vvardenfell. I was under the impression that Vvardenfell was rendered absolutely uninhabitable, especially since the southern part of the island (primarily Vivec) was destroyed by Baar Dau, and the majority of the north is mainly ashlands that would have easily been destroyed by the eruption. I don't know about areas like Sadrith Mora, as it's on islands a reasonable distance from both Vivec and Red Mountain. If most of Vvardenfell would be rather uninhabitable in 4E 201, then why on earth would anyone want to return?
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That's all for now, but I may come back with more questions, as I'm returning to the TES series a lot these days, it seems.