The Imperial Library

I think it was obviously an artifact of immense magical power. Most likely some of that "Dawn Magic" that gets talked about now and then, like whatever obscure magic the Thalmor used to return the moons (and possibly make them disappear in the first place), or the obscure rituals and powers associated with White Gold Tower. Not just the Dragonfires, but whatever Hierem was planning to do in Lord of Souls, and whatever Umaril was planning to do in Knights of the Nine.

We're not given enough information about it to know for certain if it was actually an artifact associated with Magnus in any way, let alone one of his actual eyes. It certainly didn't look much like an eye. The Falmer seemed to believe they could actually accomplish something grand with it. We don't know how their culture differed from mainstream Aldmeri culture so any guess would be conjecture. They could have plotted to dissolve the Mundus or perhaps something more mundane such as drive humans from Tamriel.

If the Eye of Magnus could end mankind, the Thalmor would have sent A LOT more than just two mediocre mages.

Ancano should have reported his finding to Alinor, so that ships carrying a few hundred thousand Altmer could set off so as to handle things affectively. Trying to tackle the entire college by himself as a stupid thing to do.

Really now, they could have shortened thousands of years of work if Ancano had just sent word back to the isles that he found a freaking universe ender. I mean, he even knew the Psijiics were involved? what did he think we going to happen, the Psijiics would let him merely prance up to the Eye and let him end the shameful enslavement?

Maybe it's not a universe ender in and of itself. Perhaps it's simply a key component or power source for one. In that case, discretion would have been favored. If you march or teleport in an entire army of battlemages that tends to look a little suspicious, especially if your organization is trying to superficially come across as being peace ambassadors to Skyrim.

There's always another possibility - the Eye in and of itself isn't really what the Thalmor ambassador wanted. Perhaps all it really did was summon spirits and make a powerful magical wall around a certain area. It seemed like he was trying to rope off the College for himself. Perhaps his real goal was hidden somewhere within. Knowledge from the library perhaps, or ancient artifacts. The Atronach Forge, or something else that could aid the Thalmor.

This is contradicted by the Psijics' dialogue, though. They seem to imply the Eye could do something tremendous on its own. I never really understood what, though. Perhaps Ancano became blinded by a lust for power and felt he could use the Eye for his own reasons without contacting the Thalmor. Maybe he was using this thing to make himself stronger so he could challenge the authority of the rulership of the Thalmor and gain rulership for himself. In either event he failed and the thing's gone, so it can't be studied. Seems like a big convenient plot device, but an interesting one.

I'm still confused as to why the Psyics didn't just teleport it away to begin with. I guess they wanted to see if we could handle it first? Then Ancano ruined everything? But then they couldn't teleport it away until he was defeated?

I think they're like the old Chinese shopkeeper from Gremlins. They know you're not ready for Mogwai yet, but you're being tested in some sort of Confucian sort of spirit journey that could possibly kill you and a large number of people, but it's okay because of mysticism and the moral message. So yeah, they'e irresponsible and senile.

 The College questline seemed a bit contrived to me. I feel that it could have been made interesting and complicated, maybe given some insight into Magnus himself, the nature of magic and the recent history of the Psijic Order. But...it just stops...right when things seemed to be getting interesting.

Well, when they do finally show up to take it in the end; everyone who had a position of leadership is dead - So no one is there to contest the Psjics taking it. You're left standing there, kind of dumbfounded, they even throw the whole Arch-Mage thing in your face. Maybe they were just biding their time?

I just finished this questline last night and I was really let down with it - In the sense that I was really enjoying it, then it just ended. Abrupt would be an understatement. I was only about level 25 and I hadn't even 'mastered' any particular school of magick yet. That said, I did enjoy Labyrinthian. Morokei was fucking hard at level 25, lucky I had a companion with me - Great boss fight.

Yea, the College questline would have been much more fulfilling if they'd taken all the quests possible at the location and strung them into a story arch, rather than having a handful of little nifty yet ultimately unfulfilling quests (especially had they tied Septimus in, what with him being in such close proximity.

Making you level up to a certain standard would have been nice too. I was still casting Novice spells at that point, now I'm the Archmage? The only thing I've done is scour a ruin. I know in Morrowind, and possibly Oblivion, that was a line you got all the time - "go away and come back when you're stronger."

I had the opposite problem with Marokei. I'm not sure why but his attacks had absolutley no effect on me, I just stood there taking it and filling him with arrows. I don't even recall having any great enchanted items at the time to provide such protection.

When comes to Dragon Priests, Krosis has been the most difficult for me - to date. I think I found him at a pretty low level (10?) and when i went back at probably 25-30 he was still a challenge. Tossing exploding fireballs and back peddling like no one's business.

Maybe the Eye of Magnus will pop up somewhere else and be more important? Or maybe we'll never see it again.. =(

Gonna be Indiana Jones'd to some giant warehouse...

He killed me a dozen times at least, haha. This character is a pure mage-type though, so no weapons at all to deal damage, just Destruction spells. I only had a health state of 100 too; I had been pooling all my increases into magicka but have stopped now that it's at 300 base without enchantments.

It was really quite cinematic though, my companion actually killed Morokei. I was flat out of magicka, out of potions and he was honing in for the kill - Then my companion Jenassa (The Dunmer hireling from Whiterun) came running up behind him out of nowhere and performed a back stab kill sequence. It was awesome.

I think the Dragon Priest at Forelhost was the hardest one for me though. Krosis was pretty tough too.

Jenassa was my favorite companion for quite a while. She saved my ass loads of times, and as I'm playing a Dunmer it was great traveling around Skyrim with a fellow Dark Elf. Gave a pleasant sense of cultural solidarity.

I ended up needing a mage more though, and I fell in love with Marcurio's snarky comments and lightning bolts, so I married him and haven't looked back.

ahem, on topic:
I agree that the College MQ was way too brief and insubstantial. It was a big disappointment, especially after how pumped up I got by the early quests. "Delving into legendary Saarthal, the eye of freaking MAGNUS, PSIJICS, Labrynthian! Holy Crap this is going to be awesome!" and then... nothing. Two proper dungeon dives after joining as a noob that can't cast a ward, and suddenly I'm arch-mage and everything is somehow resolved. The Eye is relegated to the role of a magic macguffin, and there are no answers, explanations, or even vague attempts at such to be found for any of the allegedly world-shakingly profound events that took place.

Just from the way that Psijic spoke in Saarthal, I was expecting this questline to be the most epic thing in the history of TES, and instead nothing happened.

Arniel's Endeavor was infinitely more interesting and rewarding. Not to mention it lasted longer.

Yeah, and after his quest is done you get Keening, which is less than stellar, and Arniel's shade, which is absolutely one of the best summons in the game.

Objection, Keening is absolutely stellar. Maybe not as a weapon (although its certainly decent at that, with its profuse absorb enchantments), but just for Cool factor.

Speaking of which, am I correct in interpreting Arniel's disappearance and subsequent appearance in the form of a summon as meaning that we're like a mini-Numidium?! Because how cool is that?

The last image entering Magus' Eye (the eye on Mundus) was the rim of the Sun. I think that should have been embedded in the Eye, so anyone activating the Eye would see what he did.

 Magnus was the god who drew up the plans for the creation of Mundas during Lorkhans deception. He was the first of many to abandon ship close to the completion of Mundas and with him,  most of the magic essence was taken as well. if i remember correctly he ( being the first ) when leaving the plane of mundas ripped a hole ( now the sun ) through oblivon to aetherius ( the plan where everything arcane comes from ). In leaving i believe he left his staff and some of his power. Perhaps some of that power  became the eye... 

FYI, it's spelt Mundus

(I'm only pointing this out so Lady N doesn't shout at you...)

If I had to guess I would say that we will never hear of it again, and if we do it will be an off hand mention in a book in the next game.

I'm not particularly fond of the implication that the Eye was why the elves invaded Sarthaal, I think that takes away from some of the mythic significance of that event and replaces it with "big artifact of power."

And this is off topic but other people brought it up. I too was disappointed with the College quest line. With the early mention of Shalador, and the quest(s) to find his writings, and then going to Labyrinthian I was really hoping to find our more about him. Though the Undead dragon and Marokei fights were two of my favs.The Eye to me seemed like nothing more than a mcguffin, that got taken care of by deus ex machina in the end.

Agreed

 For answering things, the College was just there for the most part. For raising questions, though, it's good. Ancalmo was already at the College before it was found, so what was he after? He might have known that there was something in Sarthaal, or maybe he just intended to do something to the place itself, as many Nords seem uncomfortable with anyone poking around in there. Or maybe he wanted to access the Arcanaeum, since while it did lose things it is probably more complete than any of the Synod or College of Whispers libraries since it never schismed. 

The Eye itself is powerful enough to create a massive barrier and create wisp creatures at a distance but, it seems, unstable. I myself wondered if the Psijics want it, not even for themselves, but simply to keep it away from the Thalmor and are using the Dragonborn as a front to get it somewhere that they will not drag themselves into a contest of ownership that would require them to return Artaeum from whetrever they put it. Ancalmo struck me as too big for his britches to begin with, so I wasn't surprised that he decided to take it for himself, either to wrest rulership of the Thalmor or even simply to be "that guy" who returns from what they think is some backwater nowhere with what amounts to the Nuclear Option.

All in all, I like that we have some New Stuff, but I kind of wish it had been, while not explained entirely, explained in a bit more detail.

 I just read KINMUNE again. Could it be that that particular document refers to the Ninth Era of the last Kalpa, and that the Eye of Magnus has something to do with the relevant 'thot-box?' The reference to Sarthaal and a 'prismatic network of misunderstood dwemer-craft' got me thinking.

I think he was there for the reasons he said he was, as an 'advisor' - A spy for the Thalmor really. Just think he got a little crazy when the Eye of Magnus arrived at the College.

The Thalmor remind me of SEELE from NGE.

Haven't really been keeping up with the thread for fear of (more) spoilers, but I did notice something as I was playing through the quest just now: the Psijic says that the mages have come to call it the Eye of Magnus, rather than saying "it is the eye of Magnus." Either this gets clarified later in the quest, or it may not actually be his eye at all.

It's been mentioned on the official forums. Just goes to further the ambiguity of the object.

On another note, I'm surprised we haven't seen any attempt at deciphering the glyphs yet.

Now that you mention it, that does seem surprising. I took a quick look, and it looks like Tolfeir was right and it doesn't match any known language. It looks sort of like the Elder Scroll font, but I don't think any of the characters match. Given that it was hand painted rather than made as a font, I am inclined to think that it has no translation. 

I can hope beyond hope. Maybe it could make up for the general lack of information on all things College-related. I have to say if it were translatable it would boost the College up in my book from biggest-brick-wall-ever.

You know what it reminds me of? The Lost Spires script. http://www.lostspires.com/

Gods, I dislike that mod strongly. Not because it's a bad mod, but because it's a decent mod that gets praised like the second coming of god. 

The font does look similar, though. That style seems to be the default for magical things, since the mage script in Skyrim is also alike. 

I actually have never played it. Its been sitting in my load order forever but I haven't played Oblivion steady enough to get a character up to the proper level for it.

And what do you mean by mage script?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I remember, there never was a real evidence that proved that the 'Eye' is really the Eye of Magnus, nor that it is related to Magnus by any means. The mages at the College just started calling it the 'Eye of Magnus', because they did not know what it really was, but sensed it's intense magical power. And of course Ancalmo's plan with the Eye is also a mistery, he only ensures us, that he has the power to destroy the world at his fingertips, but then of course the soon-to-be Arch Mage puts an end to his rampage.

That's correct, the College doesn't really give us any information about anything (save for Labyrinthian). We have little idea how the Augur got that way, no clue what the Eye is, the Psijic give us next to no information and no real clue what Ancalmo was doing. It's almost like an experiment in seeing how little information they can give and yet still have a quest.