Simple question.

What is the eye of Magnus?

I theorised that it was another tower (perhaps one created by the Falmer?). I based this on nothing but a comment made by a Thalmor agent during a quest in Skyrim.

So, what is it exactly?

General opinion:

Random musing: perhaps it is a "star-orphan".

What is a "star orphan"?

I should add, another reason I think its a Falmer tower is because of the runes inscribed on it. That and the events surrounding Sarthaarl.

It could also be a stone... Or have nothing to do with that theory at all, we don't know.

Well, maybe we should consolidate the facts surrounding the artifact?

Was under Sarthaarl. (excuse spelling)
Sarthaarl was sacked by the Falmer during the Night of Tears. But the eye was left under the city for what ever reason, guarded by an undead mage.

The eye is inscribed with ancient runes - possibly Falmer? (easy enough to compare them I guess?)
The Eye could be manipulated/repaired by the Staff of Magnus.

The Thalmor attempted to destroy it, after which it was taken by the Psyjic order into safe keeping.

That's all I can remember off hand.

Olaf's lost eye.

The Thalmor never attempted to destory the Eye. On contrary they tried their very best to tap its energy until the Psijics succeeded interfering and stopping them. The Psijics took the Eye away from the Thalmor so that they could never use it again.

Towers are the fundations of Mundus, each of which is the symbol of a certain aspect of the mortal world, and by this they stablize it. Mugnus fleed from Mundus before its stablization, so I doubt anything directly linking to Magnus is a "Tower", or a "Stone", because magic fundamentally belongs to Aetherius, not Mundus.

And considering the reputation of those Magne-Ge, IMO more likely these Magnus items are loopholes in stablized Mundus, powerful and beneficial sometimes, yet always leave one way or another to unstable the Wheel if manuplated correctly, just like what Ancano tried to do.

And who says the Architect had never installed some backdoor scripts in the System while he used at least one of them to escape?

I bet those runes were Ehnlofex or Magne-gese (the Anuic counterpart to Daedric). Falmeri looks nothing like what's on the Eye of Magnus. Looks more like the writing in the Master Illusion Text, Shalidor's Insights and the Oghma Infinium.

It looked allot like Ancano was trying to destroy it. That was the only reason why I stated what I did.


That's a very good point.

tolfdir clearly states not even falmer are a match for the runes

i dont think ancano was trying to destroy it, he was just power drunk by draining its energy

Ahh, fair enough then. I can't recall that statement.

What was the eye doing when it was opening?
I assumed it was falling apart of becoming unstable.

It was only opening with its energy leaking, and the leaking magic formed/triggered the magic anomoly. The shell kept the unstable magic energy inside or kept this tiny channel to the Aetherius close.
Ancano found a way to open the shell, but his result was, at least in our eyes, disastrous.

My favorite theory is that it's http://www.imperial-library.info/content/kinmune. Doesn't really match up chronologically though. Not that it really needs to.

I still think it's the stone of Snow-Throat. The Magnus connection doesn't overrule it being a pillar of reality, in this case designed to protect Mundus from Aetherius. That's what the magic anomalies were, essentially Oblivion gates with magic radiation coming through instead of Daedra.

This is now true.

Aetherius Gates with the minor servitors (equivalent of scamps) of the Magne'Ge coming through?

KINMUNE It got send back in time somehow. read the link Velorien posted.

I'd adore it being Kinmune, and 'kuhlikainian Cyrod' might just refer to the current enantiomorphic situation, but I doubt it is.

I'll join the KINMUNE bandwagon and throw my support for that 9th era mining bot. What had me confused was all the references to past events as if they were happening again at the same time. Can someone reassure my injured mind that the 9th era has no linear time?

^ This

It had time, but the war between the Hist and the Jillians kind of broke it (at least temporarily).

Prof. Numinatus discovered geometric time in the cubic half of the 6th era.

its a disco ball from aetherius

seriously, you seen those lights?

Essentially. Whatever else the Eye may or may not be, I think that's the best explanation for the anomalies.

If so, then the Eye of Magnust might best be considered in two fashions:

~The core, which is in essence a fallen star, as stars are holes/gateways into Aetherius torn by the Magne-Ge in their flight. It may even be the hole torn by Meridia, as she is potentially a fallen Magne-Ge; if the being associated with the breach is cast down, why not the breach as well?

~ The Shell, which is a containment unit designed by (who knows?) which is comprised of several free-floating plates covered in what we assume (for lack of a better suggestion) are Aedric or otherwise Magne-ge(ic?) runes. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of material you'd need to contain a font of unlimited-and-uncontrollable magic, but I doubt it's anything rosier than transmuted souls, or the Magne-Ge equivalent of daedric soul-forged ebony.

Pure speculation on my part, but I can seem them justifying that more easily than KINMUNE. (Disclaimer: I am otherwise wholly in the Kinmune camp.)

Addendum: It could also be Magnus' failsafe/back-door.