After playing through the latest installement of TES (Oblivion) I came across a certain quest*, and I went to pay that no-good mage a visit. After talking to him for a while he mentions something called ?Vanto's Third Law?. I wonder what it means and who ?Vanto? may be, so after doing some investigating I come across a book** which may hold the awnsers, but don't. It does mention however someone far more famous: Galerion the Mystic and his ?ninth law?. So I now pose to you these questions: Are there any records at all about someone called ?Vanto?? What does it mean to be a mystic? Are the ?laws? of magic anything like the laws of physics or something similiar? The book mentions another ?magickal encycopedia?: ?Empedocles. What is that?


*http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Zero_Visibility
**http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Ancotar's_Journal
(And one more question: How do I post links in the post itself? )

From the quest, I made the stab in the dark that Vanto's third law relates to how all spells must eventually dissipate. He explains it does not break this law when you act horrified that a permanent invsibility spell seems to have been made.

But probably it was just made up for that quest.

Wasn't Vanto the original name of Galerion before he became a Psyjic? Or am I completely wrong? Just a stab in the dark. The name Vanto sounds very familiar to me.

No his name was Vanus, but it's highly possible that it was a "hint" towards Galerion.

Vanto's third law doesn't prevent spells from lasting forever, it prevents objects from becoming completely invisible. So it's not the magical equivalent of the Third law of thermodynamics.

Ah crap, I've read that as well. But how does something not have full invisibility? Its possible in-game. Does it refer to impossibility of immunity to detect life?

Ever see an Npc casting invisableity? You can still see them, there presence seems to shimmer as thet move.

Given the nature of Mundus, I expect a perfectly invisible object wouldn't exist. Just like [numinit] whose sphere is [numinit]

That's just partial chameleon, with invisibility spells you are completely non existant. I expect its just down to game mechanics.