| Dialogue |
Dialogue Text |
|---|
| 0x0006a843 |
Why do the guards insist on letting you rabble inside University grounds? Take your pedestrian gawkery to the Arena! Begone! |
| 0x0006a829 |
Pardon me, noble Scholar, but... Could I speak with you a minute? |
| 0x0006a849 |
Magister! We must talk! Please... It's rather urgent. |
| 0x00069478 |
Very good, then. I'll get right on it. |
| 0x0006a84f |
We'll speak again later, Apprentice. Now go! Your studies await! |
| 0x0006a850 |
With your permission, I take my leave of you now, Scholar. |
| 0x0006a877 |
You're work never ceases to amaze me, noble Scholar. I... I can't tell you how much it means to me that you'd share your findings. |
| 0x00071959 |
Suppose that the runestones are divine, and that the secrets of their magics are revealed only by divine revelation. |
| 0x0007195a |
Suppose that the runestones existed, for whatever reason, and in whatever form, long before the coming of the Cyrodilic emperors. |
| 0x0007195b |
Suppose, however, that the power of these stones had been hidden, but was revealed to certain holy men or prophets in the First Era. |
| 0x0007195c |
Suppose that, under the guidance of the gods, these runestones were newly consecrated to a great purpose... the founding of the Cyrodilic Empire. |
| 0x0007195d |
Once these ancient monuments might have been powerful bulwarks of the Cyrodilic emperors, battlemages, and priests. |
| 0x0007195e |
But imagine, as the emperors grew weak, and as the power and glory of the Empire waned, and as the people fell away from their service to the gods... |
| 0x0007195f |
Imagine that the power of these runestones might have diminished -- weakened, then extinguished -- by the sins of the Potentates. |
| 0x00071960 |
Few records survive from the Dark Ages of the Potentates. Thus might the secrets of the runestones be lost... in wickedness, vainglory, and neglect. |
| 0x00071951 |
Ignore the controversy of whether the runestones are enchanted. Let me suggest one possible account for the placements of the runestones. |
| 0x00071952 |
Before Tiber Septim, Cyrodiil's roads varied greatly in quality, and were often impassible in bad weather and winter seasons. |
| 0x00071953 |
In the late First Era, Empress Hestra improved the roads, and the Reman Emperors continued her policies. |
| 0x00071954 |
The last period of First Era road-building was in the reign of the last strong Akaviri Potentate, Sidri-Ashak. |
| 0x00071955 |
Note that three classes of runestones are named, respectively, Hestra Stones, Reman Stones, and Sidri-Ashak Stones. |
| 0x00071956 |
Could these runestones have served as waypoints and landmarks for military patrols of the nascent Imperial Legion? |
| 0x00071957 |
Did battlemages activate runestones on arrival, thus lighting arcane beacons within the next runestone? |
| 0x00071958 |
The Mages Guild should fund further study of the early Imperial Legions, their battlemages, and their traditions of patrol and route-finding. |
| 0x00071949 |
There are six commonly recognized varieties of runestone. |
| 0x0007194a |
Birthstone Doomstones bear red runes, appear with stone circles, and are associated with the classic birthsigns like the Apprentice and the Atronach. |
| 0x0007194b |
Heavenly Doomstones bear red runes, appear with stone circles, and are associated with cosmic features of the heavens like the moons Jone and Jode. |
| 0x0007194c |
Hestra Runestones are marked with green runes, appear as solitary monuments, and are believed to be named for the late First Era Empress Hestra. |
| 0x0007194d |
Reman Runestones are solitary monuments marked with green runes, almost certainly named for Reman Cyrodiil, the First Era emperor. |
| 0x0007194e |
Sidri-Ashak Runestones are single standing stones marked with green runes, thought to be named for an obscure Akaviri potentate, Sidri-Ashak. |
| 0x0007194f |
Fort Runestones are stones with green runes, found singly or in pairs, in the ruins of some subterranean First Era forts. |
| 0x00071950 |
These names offer few hints to the origin or function of the stones, though they assist scholars in identifying each type of stone on maps |
| 0x00071923 |
Cyrodiil's runestones are thought to belong to one of three time periods: the Dawn Era, the Merethic Era, or the late First Era. |
| 0x00071924 |
Those who believe the runestones to be Dawn Era artifacts, created by the Aedra or Daedra, often describe them as Lorkhan's birthing gift to mortals. |
| 0x00071925 |
Others assign the runestones to the Merethic or Early First Era, primarily on the basis of their simple, even crude design and craft. |
| 0x00071928 |
The most common practice is to place the raising of the runestones within the High First Era Cyrodiil of Empress Hestra and the Reman Emperors. |
| 0x00071929 |
Runestones found in forts like Sancre Tor support a First Era date, though the stones could have been moved to the forts from earlier sites. |
| 0x0007192c |
The greatest objection to First Era dating is that the stones are completely unlike any other examples of First Era architecture. |
| 0x00071947 |
I believe the runestones date from the Dawn Era or Merethic Age, but they were moved to new sites by late First Era emperors. |
| 0x00071948 |
Since the runestones have lost their enchantments, however, we may never know why they were moved, or what function they served at First Era sites. |
| 0x00071940 |
First, all rune-marked ancient stones are called runestones, though there are, in fact, two very different classes of runestones. |
| 0x00071941 |
Doomstones have red runes, and are associated with stone circles. Runestones have blue runes, and appear as solitary monuments. |
| 0x00071942 |
The runes for which the stones are named glow in the dark; however, there is no evidence that the stones are magical. |
| 0x00071943 |
Various naturally occurring minerals and crystals, like glass and ebony, glow in the dark by their own light -- without being magical. |
| 0x00071944 |
However, the universal belief that runestones are magical, despite all evidence, is good reason to suspect that the runestones are indeed magical. |
| 0x00071945 |
One theory is that the stones were once magical, but they have lost their magic, either through age and disuse, or because of sin or neglect. |
| 0x00071946 |
It may also be that they are magical, but only for certain individuals or under certain circumstances, or that their magics are secret. |