Mages of Winterhold
By Davoid123
After two days of travelling, I finally reached the city of Winterhold. And it was pathetic.
Well, compared to Windhelm, it was not a city, but a village. A village without much people in it.
While Windhelm had stone walls, a majestic castle and an actual community, Winterhold was nothing more than a bunch of wooden huts in a stone road, connecting the wild snowy mountain and the great castle in the sky.
I was not impressed, but alas, I was not there for getting impressed, without talking to the people of the 'city', I took the road to the end of it, where a bridge connected the city to a reverse pyramid floating in the sky, on the ice fields of the sea of ghosts.
I took a step forward, and then another, until I reached the summit of a bridge.
"HALT!" I heard. And stopped immediately, an elf was standing in front of me, an elf in strange grey robes of an expert mage. She said "the way is dangerous, the path tricky, and the gate will not open. You shall not gain entry" said the female elf in front of me in a stiff voice, as if she'd said that a thousand times and was really tired of saying it again.
I shrugged, "who are you?"
"I am here to assist those seeking the wisdom of the college" she said in a softer voice, and continued "and if in the process, my presence helps to deter those who might seek to do harm, so be it"
Then her voice got hard again, "the more important question is, why are you here?"
Why was I there? Was an important question, I could answer with 'I wanna learn magic', but I doubt the woman would appreciate it. I know I wouldn't.
But what was I looking for in the college? What was I looking for in magic?
After an internal debate of two minutes, I replied "I am to learn to bend the elements themselves to my will"
She smiled, "an honest answer, and a worthy one. That power certainly exists, and there are those in the college who can help you find it, or hone it"
"it would seem the college has what you seek" she said, "the question now is what you can offer the college. Not just everyone is allowed inside, those wishing to enter need to show some degree of skill with magic. A small test, if you will"
a small test? I thought, she'd probably ask me to cast a spell for her, or maybe answer a few questions of arcane practice. I knew she wouldn't do that, the city was cold, and while I, a cold blooded argonian could stand the cold, no elf could, even in the wool robes of a mage.
She said "by most accounts, the opposite of a destruction mage is a restoration mage, or a healer. So if you want to learn how to destroy, you'll need to heal as well." She smiled "the first spell any restoration mage learn is to heal a scrape. More accurately, it's called Healing Hands. Do you know it?"
Well, the only spells I knew were flames and self-healing, none of which possible to use on others for healing.
I shook my head, "I'm here to learn. I don't know it yet."
She nodded, "not surprising, most apprentices who enter are not better than that. I can teach that to you, for a small fee."
I paid her from my pouch, and she handed me a tome. Tome on healing hands was written on it, I read it, and ten minutes later, I was pretty sure I knew how to cast the spell.
"this is my first time, so please don't laugh if it doesn't work" I said, and she, in the most serious voice she could, say "no one laughs at a mage who's about to learn. You should learn not to as well"
With that, I was a bit more confident, I used the symbol of restoration, and the warm, yellow aura of restoration magic surrounded my hand. I pointed the hand at the elf, and willed my Magicka to move towards her, using it to heal. Soon enough, a ray of yellow light moved from my hand towards her, and the yellow light of restoration magic twirled around her, her paleness from the cold slowly leaving.
Until, you know, I ran out of Magicka.
She nodded at me, "well done indeed, I think you'll make a superb addition to the college."
And after she scribed something on a piece of paper, she reached to shake my hand, "welcome, apprentice"
Well, actually I wasn't an apprentice yet. I knew two, well now three, spells, and all of them were in novice degree. But I didn't correct her.
She started walking to the bridge, and said "I'll lead you across the bridge, once you're inside, speak with Mirabelle Ervine, our master wizard. She'll want to see you."
Then she set off across the bridge, with me trailing along behind. The bridge took us across the chasm, and let me tell you, it was not in good condition. Several pieces of it had fallen away, and it wasn't really surprising, nothing was supporting it but the old magic of some Nordic Mage back in the second Era.
We finally made it to the end of the bridge, in front of the gate, connecting the bridge to the courtyard of the college. We walked around the statue of a mage, who the female altmer leading me explained to be Shalidor, the founder of College, and pretty much the entire Winterhold.
At a large set of doors, a Female Breton was talking to a Male altmer in robes of Black and gold. From what I heard, she wasn't really enjoying it.
"Might I remind you that it is by the will of the Aldmeri Dominion that this school is allowed to remain?" said the elf, though he was probably bluffing, everyone knew the College didn't meddle into the Politics, and was pretty much a province of tamriel for itself.
"and might I remind you, Ancano, that you are a guest here, and it is only by the will of the Arch-Mage that you are allowed to remain here in the college?" replied the female Breton. The female elf near me whispered "That's Mirabelle Ervine. She'll want to meet you, so give her the note as soon as you can. Crap, she's not in a good mood. I better get back. Good luck" and left before any of the others could notice her.
But she failed. the female Breton returned to us, and raised an eyebrow, "Ah, Faralda. Who's this with you? a new student?"
"Yes, master wizard. This is" Faralda turned to me, "oh, I never got your name. who are you again?"
I shrugged, "I'm Magnus Aurelius. Pleased to meet you."
The male Altmer, who I guess was part of the Aldmeri Dominion, looked at me with disdain. A look I'd only seen on the bastard nord who generally comes to give us our money after buying merchandice, and never does it anyway.
Bastard.
He said "what's this? You're coming to skyrim to learn magic?" he looked at me mockingly, before glaring at Mirabelle, "how can you even consider yourself an Altmer?"
Well, wasn't he pleasant.
Fortunately, none of the college staff answered him, and he left after shaking his head in contempt.
"well, sorry about that" said Mirabelle, "welcome to the college of Winterhold. Please, allow me to give you a quick tour of our facility"
"I'd be thankful"
"alright. We are in front of the Hall of Elements" she pointed at the door in front of us, "that's where we have the lessons and lectures, being present is mandatory until you reach the level of an adept mage of your chosen school" then she raised an eyebrow, "oh you never told me, what is your chosen school? Perhaps it is in the note in your hand?"
I looked at the piece of paper Faralda had handed me, and shrugged, before giving her the note. "hmm. Destruction school. Well, you'll have to work with Faralda. After you become an apprentice. Anyway, as I was saying, inside, on the second floor is the Arcanaeum. Our Library. On the Third floor is the Arch-Mage's Quarters. You'll meet him shortly. Now follow me."
I followed her across the courtyard to a tower on the southwest side of the courtyard, near to gates. "this is the Hall of Attainment, where the newer members of the college are quartered. Follow me inside, there may be other people working on projects"
We entered the hall, to find about ten small rooms around a well of magicka. She pointed at one of the rooms, "this is where you'll be staying while you're at the college. Please change to your robes, wearing them is mandatory while on college grounds, when you're done, meet me outside of the hall, I'll be waiting"
Inside the room, which had no door, was a closet, a desk with a few soul gems and ingredients on it, a chair, a bookshelf almost empty if not for two or three books, and a bed.
On the bed were the robes I had to wear. White wool robes with black trimmings, wool gloves, wool boots and a hood that I had to connect to the robes.
After finally wearing the clothes, I could feel that my Magicka was full again, and I could cast more spells before it ran out. The robes had enchantments.
I walked out of the hall of attainment, which was –unlike what Mirabelle had said- empty.
She noticed me, "oh, you're here. You took your sweet time." Pointing at a similar tower in front of me, she said "that is the hall of Countenance, where the master wizards rest. You can find most of them in the Hall of elements during the day, but you can find them in their own quarters there, if need be. Now, let us return to the Hall of elements, so you can join your peers. I believe that Master Phinis is teaching today"
We returned to the hall, and went inside, and after walking around a blue beam of Magicka, we came upon a group of people wearing similar robes to mine, obviously my peers, who were arguing with an old Breton master wizard
"join them, welcome aboard, apprentice."
As I got closer, I heard 'master Phinis' Talk, "Alright, people. This is your first conjuration lesson, isn't it?" he asked.
The three nodded, and he said "good. So I'm going to start with the obvious. Listen up- "he saw me, "well met. Are you new?" he asked, and the three apprentices looked at me.
One was a feline looking fellow, a Khajiit, another a female Dunmer and the last a nord. Well, isn't that surprising.
"yes, Master Phinis. I joined just about ten minutes ago"
"interesting, but no matter, you're right in time for the first lesson of the day. listen up." He said, and when I joined the other apprentices, he said "What you'll learn from me is one of the five schools of Magic. Conjuration is a bit…different…than the other schools. You see, in most others, you either do something to others, or you try to do something to yourself, all of them people from our world, Nirn. In a bigger scale, Mundus. in Conjuration, However, you have to control a being from another realm."
We looked at him, and even though one of us was looking a bit too enthusiastic, all of us were paying attention.
"yes, folks. With Conjurtion, you either control a soul from the soul Cairn, or a daedra from a realm of Oblivion. You can see why that would be dangerous, can't you?" he asked, but that was rhetorical, he continued "yes. It can be dangerous, your summoned creature might turn on you, it might forget its mission, it might even ripple in the universal threads of life. And we don't want that. So the first thing you learn is to not trust a bound creature completely. Most of them aren't sentient, and those that are see all mortals as mud under their boots. But alas, all this won't be proven to you until you see why it can be dangerous, and I assure you, if you're not careful enough, you'll see it, and might not live to regret it."
With that happy note, he said "Conjuration has two branches: Summoning, and reviving. One controls creature from oblivion, the other bounds a soul to a lifeless body, making it sentient for a definite amount of time. be warned Reviving is not the same as Necromancy. That is another branch, and one that is usually frowned upon my non-mage societies. Our first lesson is the Novice spell of Summoning, Summon Familiar"
Then, he handed us each a Tome, Tome on Summoning Familiars, and said "now, study these books, and return to me when you learn to summon a familiar." He stopped, "in case you haven't seen a familiar, this is what it should look like"
And he raised a hand, glowing with the bluish hue that I later learned belongs to the school of conjuration, and gestured at the floor in front of us. A blue sphere appeared in the place he'd gestured. "that is a small portal to Oblivion, where most of what you conjure get to Nirn from" and from the portal to oblivion, came out a prowling wolf.
Except it was huger, and quite blue in color. The wolf looked at us, sniffed the air, and then turned to Phinis, who waved his hand dismissively, "that is a wolf familiar. The most common form of a Familiar, from the hunting fields of Hircine. Now, carry on. Class is dismissed, return two days from now, on this time, and I expect to see all of you knowing how to cast the spell"
And with that, he left us and went to the Arcanaeum.
End of C1
A.N: hello there, dear readers.
this is my second TES fanfiction, and right now it's about, as you might've guessed by now, The College of Winterhold.
You see, there are a few things in TES games I don't really like, one is that the protagonist (Nerevarine, HoC, Dragonborn) can join the important factions in the province you're playing in, and they will, inevitably, become the leader of the said faction.
The Nerevarine, if he chooses to join them, becomes Arch mage of the mages guild, master of Fighter's guild, and Guildmaster of Morag tong.
The HoC (or as I like to call him, the gate walker), if he chooses to join them, becomes the Listener, the Grey Fox, the Arch-Mage and Guildmaster, as well as grand champion of the arena
The Dragonborn becomes the Arch-mage, Listener, Nightingale and Guildmaster, and the Harbinger.
That is, in my opinion, STUPID. One guy, no matter how powerful, doesn't become the leader of that many factions, and they sure as hell can't be a Legate and kill the Emperor at the same time. I don't care, if I'd read it in a story, I'd thought it was one of those 'harry becomes head of potter-black-gryffindor-slytherin-ravenclaw-hufflepuff-perverell-blahblahblah and the master of death and blah', which is the most moronic thing that ever happened in a story.
Therefore, in my head canon, in Tamriel's history, there sure as hell has been a listener, a nightingale guild master and an Arch-mage at the same time as the Dovahkiin, but they weren't the same guy.
Another one is that how the fuck can you just learn a master spell by opening a book? So in my head canon, that actually takes some time. Same goes for the skill-books that you open and boom, skill increased.
Please review. F&F are appreciated as well.
Davoid, signing off
