Lore: reading the elder scrolls

Turkeysammich

Reading them makes a person go blind, but what if there were some sort of beastmaster that could use magic to see through the eyes of an animal or someone else to read the scrolls? would they still go blind?

Totalitarian

Something we have to remember is that the Elder Scrolls are these really enigmatic and mysterious objects.

They have mysterious powers, for example, in the Three Banners War, the alliances collect them for their powers. The Elder Scrolls can tell the past, and possible futures.

What I am trying to get at is that they aren't simple, and bypassing the consequences of reading them isn't straightforward. I would think that trying to circumnavigate the consequences would ensue harsh punishment, more harsh than actually reading them.

With that said, it is possible to read an Elder Scroll with no consequence whatsoever. What they do is have someone read it when they have no idea what is it. That way, they circumnavigate blindness, but no knowledge is gained.

Lunarhound

Didn't the Dwemer develop some sort of technological solution for reading the scrolls without consequences, or with reduced consequences, or something? I can't remember where I read/heard that, and I'm no lore expert, so I could be wrong.

Van_0S

At that era, they didn't know how to make sunglasses. Hence, the blindness!

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Lunarhound wrote: »

Didn't the Dwemer develop some sort of technological solution for reading the scrolls without consequences, or with reduced consequences, or something? I can't remember where I read/heard that, and I'm no lore expert, so I could be wrong.

Correct, that was in Skyrim. *digs* Here you go, it was the quest Septimus gives you to get the Elder Scroll to read on top of the Throat of the World.

Lunarhound

Thanks, @WhiteCoatSyndrome ! I haven't played Skyrim in ages. I'm at work on a spotty internet connection so it's hard to do my own research, and figuring out where I'd seen that was starting to drive me nuts.

Rohamad_Ali

Hand me the scrolls . Let's find out ...

knifeintheribs

Reading an Elder Scroll has consequences. Always. Blindness ensues occasionally when they are read, but other effects can occur. The Scrolls contain living knowledge, and like the living world of Nirn, they are always changing. The words in the Scrolls bleed and change, morphing into something new. Beings born into the world can alter the course of the future, but the Scrolls also possess power of the past.

The Scrolls have been hypothesized to have a consciousness of their own. For example, in the events of Skyrim, a group of people, presumably moth priests, use and Elder Scroll to send Alduin, The World Eater, from their time to the future. What does this prove? Well, at that time in history, Alduin was supposed to consume Nirn to make room for a new one. When humans decided to use the ultimate power in Nirn, an Elder Scroll, to defeat Alduin, they inadvertently sent him into the future. In reality, there was no way for the priests to know that doing so would facilitate his defeat. In fact, they couldn't have known what would happen. This is evidence, perhaps, that the Scrolls have some ulterior motive to their functionality.

Any attempt at circumventing the consequences of reading an Elder Scroll will almost certainly result in another consequence. Blindness might be the least of its punishments. There have been those who have had their minds completely destroyed by watching history "breathe" on a page. Total truth, absent any interference, can have fantastical consequences to an unprepared mind.

-Rustuth

Aideian

Using the Lexicon which is a dwemer device allows you to read any elder scroll without consequences and only dragon born or someone with divine powers can read it without the the lexicon only suffering a little blurriness for a small amount of time.

Eporem

How many Elder Scrolls are in existence?

Totalitarian

Eporem wrote: »

How many Elder Scrolls are in existence?

Attempting to count the number of Elder Scrolls changes how many there are. That is to say that they are unquantifiable.

Chiba_Emi

Eporem wrote: »

How many Elder Scrolls are in existence?

Well the ''known'' Elder Scrolls or the one mentioned/used ones in all of the Elder Scrolls games is 12, but overall amount is unkown. Since we should go all the way back to the First Era or way further to the times of the creation of the Nirn.

dodgehopper_ESO

I always assumed the scrolls had something to do with Magnus' architecture. I don't have anything to go on other than conjecture however.

Shunravi

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

I always assumed the scrolls had something to do with Magnus' architecture. I don't have anything to go on other than conjecture however.

That's what I've always thought too... Their nature makes them seem somewhat like 'pillars of creation' or like the warp thread in a loom. Kinda like the framework of the Mundus.

Eporem

Chiba_Emi wrote: »

Eporem wrote: »

How many Elder Scrolls are in existence?

Well the ''known'' Elder Scrolls or the one mentioned/used ones in all of the Elder Scrolls games is 12, but overall amount is unkown. Since we should go all the way back to the First Era or way further to the times of the creation of the Nirn.

These would be the twelve?

Elder Scroll (Blood)
Elder Scroll (Dragon)
Elder Scroll (Nocturnal's Curse)
Elder Scroll (Planemeld Obverse)
Elder Scroll (Sun)
Elder Scroll of Alma Ruma
Elder Scroll of Altadoon
Elder Scroll of Chim
Elder Scroll of Ghartok
Elder Scroll of Mnem
Elder Scroll of Ni-Mohk
Elder Scroll of Rhunen

Chiba_Emi

Eporem wrote: »

Chiba_Emi wrote: »

Eporem wrote: »

How many Elder Scrolls are in existence?

Well the ''known'' Elder Scrolls or the one mentioned/used ones in all of the Elder Scrolls games is 12, but overall amount is unkown. Since we should go all the way back to the First Era or way further to the times of the creation of the Nirn.

These would be the twelve?

Elder Scroll (Blood)
Elder Scroll (Dragon)
Elder Scroll (Nocturnal's Curse)
Elder Scroll (Planemeld Obverse)
Elder Scroll (Sun)
Elder Scroll of Alma Ruma
Elder Scroll of Altadoon
Elder Scroll of Chim
Elder Scroll of Ghartok
Elder Scroll of Mnem
Elder Scroll of Ni-Mohk
Elder Scroll of Rhunen

yup, those are the ''known'' twelve elder scrolls so far, i think others are being mentioned in the games but they're just called ''The Elder Scrolls''