Enchanting
Written by 'The Keeper'
Enchanting, it is a very powerful and helpful skill to the people of Tamriel. Enchanting is the ability to fuse a soul into an item; for example, soultrapping the soul of a rat, and then placing the soul gem into a shield. Before I continue, I suppose I should give you a crash course in soultrapping. Soultrapping is the act of trapping a creature's soul, and binding it into a crystal called a 'soul gem'. The 'trapper' must have an empty soul gem that is capable of containing the 'trapped'. For example: one cannot trap a Golden Saint with a Petty Soul Gem. One must use a Grand Soul Gem for the bigger beasts, such as Golden Saints and Winged Twilights. Which rarely come into Cyrodiil at all. While the 'trapped' is under the effects of the soultrap (Which is a simple spell that can be learned anywhere.) you must kill the subject and its soul will be fused into your soul gem. This only works on creatures, although there have been some futile attempts to trap humanoid souls. All these attempts have failed with disgusting, but interesting results. Now that you have been briefed about soultrapping let us continue on to the world of enchantments.
Enchanting is very interesting to say the least, the ability to turn ordinary items into invaluable tools and treasures. I once found myself lost and stranded in a dark Sixth House base when I used to adventure around Vvardenfell. I was surprised by a few ambushing Ash Zombies; they startled me a bit. I managed to kill the zombies and heal my wounds, but I had dropped the key to the door in the vast, dark, abyss. I was now drained of my magicka, and did not dare risk sleeping in that damnable hole they call a base. Luckily, I had enchanted an amulet with a Detect Key power that I used to find the key. I stopped exploring Sixth House bases for a while after that adventure, but the point is that enchanted items are probably one of the most valuable items to have on your person, whether you are exploring tombs, or simply to help you with day-to-day tasks.
One can enchant any magicka spell into an item. There are two different categories of enchant: Constant Effect and Cast When Strikes. Constant Effect is quite obvious. The power that is enchanted into the item will benefit the user at all times, as long as it is equipped. Cast When Strikes means that when you attack someone with a weapon that is enchanted, whatever magicka that is in the enchanted item will be activated.
Not much can be said about Enchanting, other than it's largely Mysticism based. The Enchant skill is obviously what you use, but for the soultrapping and such, it is definitely one of the most curious and controversial mysticisms, since soultrapping borders Necromancy; which is largely feared throughout Tamriel. Anyone caught with any evidence of necromancy is executed immediately without trial.
I hope these short notes have helped you in your quest to know more of enchantments, mind you, this is only a beginner's texts, I strongly suggest that you go throughout Cyrodiil searching for the fabled 'Precursor's Texts' that are rumored to be somewhere in Cyrodiil. These texts contain all the hidden information on the different schools of magicka. I have studied all there is to study about these texts, but all of that is useless. If only I could have those texts, then maybe, just maybe I could know what I wish to know…
Little is known about the 'Precursor's Texts' no one really even knows who the Precursors are. Perhaps it is only one being who used a pen name like myself. Perhaps it was a secret order, or perhaps it was an entire race. Some theories even suggest that the 'Precursor Texts' are Dwemer! Ha! Preposterous! No one has even seen the texts, and already people are saying they are nothing more than ancient Dwemer texts! I do not know of where the texts origins are, but if I find them, I should surely tell you.
Well, good luck to you with your enchanting, and good luck if you leave to find the 'Precursor's Texts', but be warned. There are strange powers that guard the texts…
