Hofgrad Kjisorssen's "Master"

FilteredRiddle

Spoilers for the Elsweyr quest, "The Connoisseur"

In Elsweyr, you can find a note called, "Reward for Stolen Wine" near Talon Gulch and the Scar's End Wayshrine. The note asks you to collect three bottles of wine which all have strange properties (described in the note) before returning them to, "Hofgrad Kjisorssen, faithful servant to his master". The first two bottles are fairly uneventful and the third bottle is near a single dead body. When you return the bottles to Hofgrad, he discusses how he's surprised you haven't completely lost your mind. For example, when you tell him that you found the third bottle by a lone dead body, he states, "Just one? The last person who returned these bottles found them under a pile of corpses. He was so affected by the wine that he purportedly spent the rest of his existence atop that mass of bodies. Fortunately, you seem to be immune to the curse." Through the course of conversation, you find out that Hofgrad himself is cursed - after having attempted to steal something from his 'Master' - to stand in this exact position in The Stitches, gathering cursed items for his Master (who collects them) in perpetuity.

Hofgrad only ever refers to his 'Master' by this title, and when you ask who it is he simply exclaims, "Never say his name, stranger. His name is more horrible than any curse."

Who could it be? I thought maybe Sheogorath, but it seemed even a little odd to fit him. Any guesses?

ArchMikem

Someone who collects cursed relics sounds like Sheo.

BigBadVolk

maybe Sanguine guessing from the wine stuff :thinking:

RaddlemanNumber7

It certainly is a mystery, or at least the start of a mystery. I'm hoping we'll be seeing more of this.

Hofgrad Kjisorssen says he's cursed because he stole a book from his master (note lowercase "m" in dialogue). So, I think his master is someone who resides on Tamriel. The master may be a Wizard, in similar style to an eccentric Telvani Magister.

Maybe there'll be some more cursed items for us to bring to Hofgrad in Q3 and/or Q4 , and the mystery will deepen.

I also noticed that there's a distinct Nord flavour to this mystery. Nord quest giver, Nord corpse, Nord motif belt for a reward. Ice-cold wine. So, maybe this is something that will play forward to a Skyrim chapter next year. Perhaps the master is a crazy mage who lives in the midden beneath the College of Winterhold, or in the ice cave of Septimus Signus.

If there is ultimately a Daedric Prince behind this, I'd put my money on Hermeous Mora.

Benzux

I just did this quest yesterday, and thought that it was a nice easter egg "making fun" of NPC's that just stand in a single place for all of eternity, cursed to look at the same scene in front of them for years, just like Hofgrad.
As for his master, my thoughts immediately went to Sheogorath, obviously, but I can see his master being a mortal as well. As was pointed out, a powerful, more or less eccentric Wizard is a safe bet.

Aliyavana

When I think of wine, I think of sanguine, but with books, I think of hermaus mora.