Enchanter Practicum
Bardus,
I think have finally discovered the issue. Your lack of advancement has nothing to do with your mind being too addled to string together two coherent thoughts, nor is it that you just stubbornly refuse to better yourself in anything other than the torture of small animals. It is because you have no more long-term memory than a gnat.
I think I know how to solve this issue. If you take any advice from me, hearken to this. Write down every thought, discovery and notion as quick as they come to you. I am not telling you to write tomes. I mean just scribble a simple one sentence note about your discovery, and then keep those notes with you at all times.
Let us try this on the enchantment practicum. I want three different glyphs each in a specific setting. When you discover the missing additive, write it down. I expect the notes and examples of your work by day's end.
Enchanter Practicum
To make a Stamina Glyph, you start with a Defensive Glyph in a wooden setting. Add Flawed Hrotanda, Dirty Turpen, and what other additive?
To make a Magicka Glyph, start with a Defensive Glyph in a wooden setting. Add Flawed Moranda, Dirty Mastic, and what other additive?
To make a Lightning Glyph, start with an Offensive Glyph in a metal setting. Add Corroded Dwarven Scrap and what two other additives?
Armorer Practicum
Bardus,
The blades you made had no edge, and the shaft of the hammer was rotten, but you did manage to enchant the weapons that I asked for—and only three days late. I assume your time was taken up with discovering how deep that cask of Heather Ale was.
I hope you remember what additives you used since in some cases the same additives are used when crafting armor. It's the interactions between the three additives and the ingredients that grant the effect. Just using one or two additives, while improving the overall quality, does not give an effect.
Something to remember: a triangle is the strongest structure found in nature. And so it is in crafting. Three additives make for a better result than one or two.
Below is a new Practicum for you to complete by month's end:
Armorer Practicum
To make an Iron Cuirass of Health you add Corroded Brimstone, Dirty Bone Oil, and what other additive to the heated metal?
To make a Homespun Robe of Magicka you combine Dirty Petals, Dirty Pods, and what other additive to the sizing?
To make a Halfhide Jack of Stamina treat the rawhide with Corroded Quicksilver and what other two additives?
Now, how about you start sooner this time, and aim for only two days late?
Enchanting Made Easy
- Anyone can become an enchanter—it doesn't matter who you are, or who you were. I spent twenty years pulling fish from the waters of Black Marsh before stumbling into the world of enchanting. If a former Argonian fisher-slave can figure it out, so can you!
Step One: Find Runes
- Years ago I noticed glowing runes when I fished in Black Marsh. At first I thought they were wisps! You're most likely to find them in dangerous places, so be careful. Look for the angular stones where the runes sit.
-
—Red Aspect runes remind me of fish: the minnows are plentiful but don't have much flesh on their bones, while the old grandfathers are the rarest but the richest catch.
—Blue Potency runes make me think of a fish's flavor. The good ones can improve your day, while the bad ones are best fed to your enemies.
—Green Essence runes are like the type of fish. Frost fish, armor fish, poison fish ... you get the idea.
- Some people ask me why there are runes scattered throughout Tamriel, but that's a question for the Mages Guild. I've never asked where fish come from, just where I can find more of them.
- (I should mention—I can't actually see colors. If you're like me, you want to look for the brightness of the rune. Aspect runes are quite dim, potency runes are bright, and essence runes glow very bright.)
Step Two: Create Enchantment
- Once you have one rune each of aspect (fish age), potency (fish flavor), and essence (fish type), bring them to an enchanting station. Now, put the runes together and craft your first enchantment!
- The best way you learn to fish is by fishing, and the same applies to enchanting. The act of creating an enchantment will reveal the meaning and function of unknown runes. Some will say "You must comprehend how the rune resonates with your soul to truly understand it," but that's Mages Guild talk.
Step Three: Enchanting Items
- You have your first enchantment. Now you're ready to enchant your first item! Find the item you want to enchant and apply the enchantment. Easy, no? But of course, it's never that easy.
- Enchantments are very particular. Some are best for weapons, others for armor, and still more bind only to jewelry. Some may require higher quality items than what you have on hand. Oh, and no item that is already enchanted can take a new enchantment. "Serve the right fish for the right occasion," as my egg-sister says.
Appendix: Extracting Runes From Enchantments
- If you have an enchantment you can't use, don't despair! Sell, trade, or gift them to friends who can use them.
- Of course, you can also extract runes from enchantments at any enchanting station. I call this "gutting the fish." This destroys the enchantment in the process, but you'll get one of the runes back that you could use in another enchantment.
Words and Power
Are languages in Tamriel more than a convenient means of communication? Throughout my studies, particularly in my ongoing research of the mysterious runestones, a theme of language explicitly interconnected with magic has surfaced with frequency that cannot be ignored. Is the very act of casting ideas into words an invocation? I present here evidence that may just support this admittedly radical position, which I hope the sapiarchs of the Crystal Tower will be enticed to expound upon or refute.
Let us begin with the runestones of Enchanting. Each is marked with a symbol consisting of syllables arranged together. Alone, a rune is inert, but magical potential is unleashed when combined with others in the appropriate syntax. The full form, the complete expression, conveys magic. One does not even need to fully understand the language to unlock the power it contains—not enough words exist or are known to truly speak it, but by studying glyphs and combining runestones, it is possible to grasp enough of the raw concepts to utilize it. The language itself is undeniably connected in a fundamental way to magical energies, though its origin remains a mystery.
As an aside for prospective students of Enchanting, do not become discouraged when you encounter a rune you are unable to decipher. Only through repetition of words and phrases you have learned and the extraction of runes from glyphs will you obtain the knowledge you need to master more difficult runes. Be patient and work with other students to create and deconstruct glyphs to gain more insight into their interplay and true meaning.
Language, specifically the written word, is also of critical importance to the Altmer. Not only does it preserve our history, but it captures and defines our auspicious lineage and ensures that every Mer knows his or her place in the hierarchy. It is no accident that Altmeri society is the most orderly and structured in Tamriel—it is the will of Xarxes himself. The scholar-priests of the divine scribe, secretive though they are, are said to preserve an ancient tongue long forgotten to any but their order. In Helaameril’s “Conversations with the Etymon-Binders,” an anonymous scribe hints at tomes capable of producing tastes, smells, and dancing images, and texts that can be read by any gazing upon them—even the unlettered. Another form of word-magic, if Helaameril is to be believed.
Consider even what may seem mundane: the speech of a great general upon the morn of battle that rouses his troops to perform incredible deeds, the songs of a master bard that inspire emotion, the calming tone of a mother to her child. Are there traces of magic in everyday exertions of will through speech or writing? It seems possible that some remnant of ancient pre-Dawn power lingers on here, though it has grown faint. There is even more evidence to support this throughout the history of Tamriel—far too much to detail here—and I look forward to debating this theory among my peers.
A Request for Relief
My dear Exchequer,
I once again implore you to revisit the levy that has been placed upon myself for this year. I admit that I am a licensed enchanter residing inside the Imperial City. But circumstances have changed, and the business that was once profitable, is now just a drain on my income.
A few years ago, enchanters would take the physical object to be enchanted and, using various ingredients and tools, imbue the object with the necessary mystical powers. Because of this, enchanters only competed with other enchanters who resided in the same city, since most people did not want to carry a sword hundreds of leagues to another enchanter just to save a few gold drakes. Prices for the city could be set at a friendly meeting of three or four enchanters, and a fine profit could be made. As the right of the crown, a hefty levy for allowing us to operate in the city could be assessed.
But now this has all changed. Enchanters now just make a glyph with the desired effect trapped within it. A glyph is just a simple gem that anyone can attach to the pommel of a sword or on a piece of armor. Once attached the magic in the glyph then flows into the item.
Seems simple, doesn't it? Well, this has caused a collapse of the market. Instead of the price for an enchantment being set on a city-by-city basis, all of the enchanters of Tamriel have to compete with each other. A hedge enchanter in Daggerfall can make ten fire glyphs and sell them to a traveling merchant, who brings them to the Imperial City and sells them in the marketplace, at a price much below the price set by the Cyrodilic enchanters.
All this competition means that I now make just a few gold over the cost my materials. And this profit does not cover the levy your office places on me.
Unless your office stops the importation of foreign manufactured glyphs, you must reduce the levy to allow me to stay in business. I will be forced to sell my home of twenty years and take up another profession, perhaps tutoring some merchant's son.
Eagerly waiting your response,
Defessus Magister