Skip navigation
Library

Mysticism

3 replies [Last post]
Offline
Joined: 07/28/2010

How do you guys think Beth is going to go about damage control for the removal of Mysticism, lore wise?

Lady N's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/26/2010

There is no need to. The schools of magic are largely arbitrary divisions, its not like the spells simply dissapeared. Could be that the successors to the Mages Guild decided to rework the organization, or that the elven conotation of Mysticism makes it unpopular label in Skyrim. 

Proweler's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/14/2010

If you look at the origin of the schools you'll find that Galerion instituted them to make it easier to learn. Before that everything was just mystical mysticism. How he divided them can be called rather arbitrary and this is reflected in the world. Take for example Response to Bero's Speech. It's not that clear cut which school does what.

 

Now this can't explain why schools are added, changed, or removed between games. But it doesn't need to. The different schools of magic are mostly gameplay. Like skills they qauntify an ability and make sure no class can have too much of it. So I'd prefer if the issue was left unadressed*. Adressing it would just make it more jarring because suddenly the gameplay gets involved in the lore.

 

*Adressed directly, mind you. More history is always nice.

Pilaf The Defiler's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/27/2010

I could come up with three or four semi respectable retcons for this, involving similar hypotheses as the speech Bero the Battlemage was replying to, but I'd say we should consult Occam's Razor here and go for something simple.

 

Mysticism was a school of the Mage's Guild. There is no Mage's Guild any more. Not in Skyrim, not in Cyrodill, not anywhere. We can assume that as an institution of the Septim Empire, it dissolved and was replaced with something new. We're told of a "College of Whispers" and a "Synod" in Infernal City, and we're told of a "College of Winterhold" in Skyrim. In this College, there simply is no class or school called Mysticism, and similar spells fall under different classes. I'm guessing they're split evenly between Illusion and Alteration, with perhaps one or two being considered Restoration.