Infernal City Lore Notes: Oblivion

When Sul and Vuhon landed in Oblivion after the explosion of the ingenium “there was someone – or something – waiting for us. But it wasn’t Vile. It was shaped like a man, but dark, with eyes like holes into nothing. He had a sword, and as we lay there, it laughter and tossed it through the rift we’d come through. I [Sul] tried to follow, but it was too late…

“He called himself Umbra, and like Vile, he had a thing for souls. He’d been attracted to the rift by the ingenium and had even tried to enlarge it, with no success. So he’d cast a fortune and learned that a day was coming when it would briefly widen, and so there he was. […]

“Umbra took us captive – he was powerful, almost as powerful as a daedra prince. In fact, it was the power of a daedra prince – he’d somehow managed to cut a piece from Clavicus Vile himself. […]

“Not a physical piece… Daedra aren’t physical beings like you and me. But the effect was similar – Vile was, in a sense, injured. Badly so. And Umbra became stronger, though still not so strong as Vile. Not strong enough to escape his realm once Vile had circumscribed it against him. […]

“Changed the nature of the ‘walls’ of his realm, made them absolutely impermeable to Umbra and the power he had stolen. […]

“Umbra claimed to have once been captive in the weapon. He feared that if Vile got his hands on it, he would return him to it.” p.215

“Clavicus Vile was nursing his wounds and hunting for Umbra. Umbra used his stolen power to conceal himself in one of the cities at the fringe of Vile’s realm. But he still couldn’t escape. Vuhon promised him that if Umbra spared his life, he would build a new ingenium, capable of escaping even Vile’s circumscription. Umbra agrees, and I [ Sul] suppose that’s what they did.” p.216

The sensation of traveling to a daedric real is “like falling – not down, but in all directions at once. The moons were gone, and in their place a ceiling of smoke and ash. Stifling heat surrounded them and the air stank with sulfur and hot iron. They stood on black lava, and lakes of fire stretched off before them.” This is Mehrunes’ Dagon’s realm. p. 239

“They were in utter darkness – but not in silence, for all around them were chittering sounds and the staccato scurrying of hundreds of feet.” p.239

“They were in an infinite palace of colored glass.” p.239

‘They were on an icy plane with a burning sky.” p.239

“They were standing by a dark red river, and the smell of blood was nearly suffocating.” p.239

Hircine’s realm is “they deepest forest Attrebus had ever seen.” p.239

The Khajiit call Hircine the “Hungry Cat.” He is also called the “Hunter” and the “Father of Manbeasts.” p.240

Hircine’s driver “might have been a massive albino Nord with long, sinewy arms. He was bare to the waist and covered in blue tattoos. His mount was the largest bear Attrebus had ever seen, and four only slightly smaller bears ran along with him.” Turns out he is a wear-bear, too. p.241, 242

The driver has a spear “with a leaf-shaped blade bigger than some short swords…” p.242

“They burst into open sunlight and bounded over a stream as they left the forest behind and plunged downslope to a grassy savanna. A red sun was just touching the horizon, painting the bloody river that meandered across the flatland…. off to what he presumed was the south, he saw a heard of some large beasts…” p.243

There are also herds of “antelopes with twisting horns.” p.243

“They were parallel to the river now, which had dug itself a respectable ditch here, at least a hundred feet deep.” p. 243

“A tributary comes in up ahead… it makes a gentler slope going in, and we can get down into the canyon there. The door we’re looking for is up the canyon another mile or so.” p.244

Hircine hunts with a pack of werewolves and doesn’t show up until after dark. p.244

Attrebus and his companions nearly get trampled by a heard of “some sort of wild cattle, albeit cattle that probably stood six feet high at the shoulders and had horn-spans almost that wide.” p.244

One of the realms has a “bed of yellow wildflowers that smelled like skunk. He [Attrebus] and Sul were on a hillside covered in colorful blossoms and odd, twisting trees with caps like mushrooms.” p.256

“They were on a jagged island in a furious sea beneath a sky half-filled with a jade moon.” Based on Sul’s trajectory, this is likely Azura’s realm. p.256

After Sul’s escape, Vile tightened the walls of his circumscription so that Vuhon could not escape even if he “had the means. The only way to escape was to circumvent his restriction, to remain in his realm… I [Vuhon] built my ingenium, I powered by Umbra and the energies he had stolen from vile. I turned our city, wrapped those circumscribed walls around it.. twisted it until it broke loose, like a bubble. […]

“… We’ve drifted though many realms and places beyond even Oblivion. We cannot leave the city – Vile’s circumscription still surrounds it. […]” p.279

A summoned daedra is described as “a phantasmal mass of chitinoid limbs and wings that felt like scorpion and hornet and spider all together.” p.285