User:Vordur Steel-Hammer/Fiction/The Aetherial Mirror/The Aetherial Mirror, Chapter I: Discovery
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There are many legendary artifacts whose names are immediately recognized by scholars and commoners alike. Some of these are of Daedric origin, like Volendrung or Wabbajack; others are Aedric relics, like the Amulet of Kings or Auriel's Bow. Yet another group is of uncertain or purely magical origin, like the Chrysamere or the Staff of Towers.
However, there are also artifacts which are mostly unknown, yet their potency and historical significance might be also quite high. An example of such an artifact is the Aetherial Mirror, an ancient relic recently retrieved by the Wayrest Mages Guild after years of searching throughout the whole continent. This series, written in the year 2E 587, documents the lengthy story of its retrieval.
The quest began when Magister Salagar Feynn, while looking for something in the Wayrest chapter library, accidentally found a journal written by a High Elf mage Nelathendil the Arcanist sometime in the First Era. The journal described the author's attempts to create the artifact with the use of Malondo and Culanda stones, as well as a small amout of an unknown material infused with Aetherial magic. However, the journal did not reveal what kind of power the finished artifact would have.
During his work on the Mirror, Nelathendil was also preparing for his wedding with a woman called Elanirya. However, Prophet Veloth and his movement was active at the time in Summerset, and its ideology attracted Elanirya, who considered the Aedric faith boring and decadent. Just as Nelathendil finished work on the Mirror, Veloth and his cult decided to lead his people out of the Isles, and Elanirya decided to go with them.
Nelathendil would not abandon his faith in the Divines, so he refused to go with Elanirya. Heartbroken at the loss of his beloved, Nelathendil decided to give her the Aetherial Mirror as a parting gift, feeling that there was no reason for him to live anymore.
The journal did not describe further events, but Magister Feynn also found some loose pages tucked inside it. These were hundreds of years younger than the journal and turned out to be research notes of an Imperial archaeologist, who had tried to locate the Mirror in 1E 2864. He had learned that Elanirya had settled in Vvardenfell and her family tomb was located in a ruin called Assarnatamat. However, he had not been able to find the Mirror in the tomb, and had concluded it had been stolen by a Dwemer raiding party. He had tracked the Mirror to the ruin of Kagrenzel in Skyrim, and from there, to Mzindyne in High Rock. Unfortunately, he had been killed by Orcs in Skyrim while he was on his way to the ruin.
Magister Feynn shared his discovery - the journal and the research notes - with the other mages, and the Guild decided to organize an expedition to Mzindyne.