There are multiple dragon skeletons scattered throughout the Soul Cairn.
(Skyrim Prima, page 536)An upper chamber in the tower is home to a group of carved gargoyles, one of which hasn't been completed. The other three are fully embued with magic, however, so expect combat with the three of them as you advance into the room.
Researching further, ESO reveals that gargoyles are a kind of golem.Dovahkiin: Did your mother keep gargoyles here?
Serana: Not that I ever saw. My mother had a bit of a thing for magical constructs. Not... not what you're thinking. She just found them fascinating.
Norianwe refers to the gargoyle as a stone guardian.Vestige: What kind of golem did you see near the skyshard?
Norianwe: It's a monstrous sentinel called a gargoyle.
I've never seen one fight, but by all accounts they are far more powerful than the golems we've faced thus far.
As such, not only do gargoyles form a stone skin which shatters when they wake, but they themselves are made of stone (as the treasures that you can find from killing one should also make evident).Norianwe: There's the skyshard! We'll have to bring down that stone guardian if we want to reach it!
The 36 Lessons of Vivec said:Then Vivec left the Litany Hall of the False Thinking Temple, where he had brooded for so long creating the scripture of the pounding light, and went back to the space that was not a space. From the Provisional House he looked into the middle world to find the seventh monster, called Lie Rock.
Lie Rock was born of Vivec's Second Aperture and was thrown out of the Pomegranate Banquet by a member of the Sweeps, another forgotten guild. The Sweep did not take it for the monster that it was and so he did not expect it to fly from his hand and into the heavens.
As in Sermon 12, Vivec had these children after, um, you know, fucking Molag Bal.The 36 Lessons of Vivec said:Lie Rock, however, used the confusion to launch his own attack on the city-god, Vivec. He was hastened by all three of the black guardians, who wanted him swiftly gone, though they meant no hostility to the lord of the middle air.
The citizenry of Vivec screamed as they saw a shooting star come down out of the sky hole like a toll-road of hell. But Vivec merely raised his hand and froze Lie Rock just above the city and then he pierced the monster with Muatra.
(The practice of piercing the Second Aperture is now forbidden.)
When Nerevar returned, he saw the frozen comet above his lord's city. He asked whether or not Vivec wanted it removed.
'I would have done so myself if I wanted, silly Hortator. I shall keep it there with its last intention intact, so that if the love of the people of this city for me ever disappear, so shall the power that holds back their destruction.'
Nerevar said, 'Love is under your will only.'
Vivec smiled and told the Hortator that he had become a Minister of Truth.
The 36 Lessons of Vivec said:Molag Bal rose up and extended six arms to show his worth. They were decorated in runes of seduction and its reverse. They were decorated in the annotated calendars of longer worlds. When he spoke, mating monsters fell out.
From Exile to Exodus said:Azura shouted a spell of her own, though to the followers who truly listened it sounded like a beautiful song: UR DRA AMATHRA! FU ROZ ISA MAL AKHA!
Dawnguard said:Valerica: Yes. I've kept it safely secured here ever since I was imprisoned. Fortunately, you're in a position to breach the barrier that surrounds these ruins.
Dovahkiin: What do we need to do?
Valerica: You need to locate the tallest of the rocky spires that surround these ruins. At their bases, the barrier's energy is being drawn from unfortunate souls that have been exiled here. Destroy the Keepers that are tending them, and it should bring the barrier down.
Dovahkiin: We'll return soon.
Valerica: One more word of warning. There's a dragon that calls itself Durnehviir roaming the Cairn. Be wary of him. The Ideal Masters have charged him with overseeing the Keepers, and will undoubtedly intervene if you're perceived as a threat.
Right above this, on the very same page, we are told about Coldharbour, the plane of Molag Bal, which is arguably even more unpleasant than the Soul Cairn. This is quite interesting, because even though the Volkihar Vampires got their powers directly from Molag Bal, and the blood of a Daughter of Coldharbour plays a pivotal role in the prophecy of the Tyranny of the Sun, neither Molag Bal nor Coldharbour appear in this story, but the Prima still tells you this lore.Skyrim Prima - Page 539 said:The Ideal Masters are mystic entities that lord over the Soul Cairn, controlling every aspect from fabric to its appearance. Necromancers believe they are the crystalline structures dotting the Soul Cairn, but Valerica believes they've transcended their physical forms. Seek out Valerica for more information.
Even among all the countless planes of Oblivion, the Soul Cairn has a grim reputation. This plane is ruled by the Ideal Masters and protected by their endless legions of undead Soul Guards. It's here that Valerica's mother, a powerful vampire, has been trapped.Skyrim Prima - Page 539 said:The plane of Coldharbour is Molag Bal's dominion within Oblivion. Great slave pens are said to lie in the oozing mud of this domain, while the skies burn in a continuous belch of fire, and a persistent chill envelops the air: This place is arguably more unpleasant than the Soul Cairn you're standing in!
The nature of the Ideal Masters is explained more in the Battlespire Athenaeum; the Ideal Masters are revenant spirits who live in a distant Platonic Idea, with the magical gems found throughout the Soul Cairn being their connection and a channel for communication for those bound in this plane.Skyrim Prima - Page 987 said:Among the countless planes of Oblivion, the Soul Cairn has a particularly grim reputation. The plane of undeath is filled with lost, trapped, or accursed souls, bound to wander this place of despair and anguish for all eternity. The plane is ruled by mysterious beings known only as the ldeaI Masters and is protected by their endless legions of undead Soul Guards. It is here that a powerful vampire named Valerica - Serana's mother and the wife of Lord Harkon - has dwelt tor centuries in the colossal coliseum-like structure known as the Boneyard.
The Soul Cairn, like the other realms visited in Battlespire, is a pocket universe (this quote is refering to the Havoc Wellhead, but it would also apply to the Soul Cairn).Battlespire Atheneaum - Page 115 said:In the Soul Cairn the old retainers of an ancient Daedric-human alliance serve their necromancer Masters for eternity. The Masters are disembodied entities living in a distant Platonic Ideal; their only connections with the Soul Cairn are small magical gems which provide a channel of communication and sensation with those bound in form to the Soul Cairn. The retainers have long ago undergone a ritual to separate their spirits from their bodies, and to strengthen and organize their spirits to produce a form of persistent eternal consciousness. In short, the retainers and their Masters are revenant spirits.
Battlespire Athenaeum - Page 156 said:This level is one Dagon's many provincial governmental centers in the pocket universes, and the home of some of the legions of Mehrunes Dagons Daedra.
They then push a bunch of floating coins up through the ceiling, where they'll be reforged to be just a bit heavier (the coins that are too heavy will be gathered up later)."Hey," I said, "what were they doing with those red gems?"
"Diamonds," Carsomus said. "Red Diamonds. Do you not know your history? Of course not. No one does anymore. Let me start over. Do you ever wonder why septims are so light? They are practically weightless, and yet they are made with mostly gold."
"Well, no," I said, "I thought they might be enchanted with levitation, or like, spongewood with gold foil, or—"
"SPONGEWOOD!" screamed Carsomus. "SPONGEWOOD! FOIL! You never tried to shave or clip a septim?"
"Do what?" I was confused. "I don't even try to shave myself."
"Perhaps you are an honest man, after all. Before the Mint, before the Sureties of the Mint, before Proper Currency," he said, with great emphasis on 'proper.' "Before that time, all the coins were debased. Untrustworthy. An unscrupulous person, a thief, a liar, could use a file and shave a little gold off each coin they had. Or they could use a chisel or other tool to chip small pieces of gold off each coin. They'd do this to hundreds of coins. HUNDREDS! Innocent coins, adulterated by thieving hands! And for what? To make new, false coins, children whose fathers are not clean molds and presses, but lies! LIES!"
"I never really thought about it. But what does that have to do with—"
"Have you ever wondered why the Red Diamond is the symbol of the royal family? Of the Empire itself?"
"Is it not the Amulet of Kings? A small drop of Lorkhan’s—"
"No! No, no, no. Never trust a bard. Well yes, in a roundabout way," he said, "but the Chim-el-Adabal is bound to Nirn now, no risk of that one floating off. These are from the hearts of the dead. Each wishes to return to their origin. The Law of Attraction, you know. But the remains are so much further away, the attraction is quite strong. A tiny Red Diamond perfectly offsets the weight of the coin. And if someone clips a septim now? The poor coin is whisked up into the sky, where, shepherded by the tides of the moons, they gather. Serves them right. The thieves, that is, not the poor metal. Our ships work the same way, of course."
"Your...uh...what?" I said, thoughtfully.
The work is done by people. It used to be done by iron golems, as a soulless machine can only press the coins, but cannot imbue them with the truth, and goes on to say how 'Potema was inevitable.'Carsomus took me through to the PROOFS room, where thousands of coins lay on the floor, floated in mid-air, or were lying up against the ceiling. Carsomus pushed the coins aside as he strode through them. He walked up to part of the wall and picked up two broom-shovel-like implements and handed me one.
"See the slots in the ceiling?" he asked, and I nodded. "Push the floating coins into the slots. They will be reforged to be just a little heavier."
Carsomus and Rascien then meet a talking minotaur (whom Carsomus is familiar with), who references The Terminus being some kind of issue on the moon still.We went through another door and down a long stairway. I found out where the coins we shoveled into the slots in the wall ended up. There were slots high in the wall and piles of coin blanks beneath each one. Dozens of people were gathering the blanks, putting them in slots on large sheets. Once a sheet was full, two men would carry it to one of the presses in the middle of the room, place another sheet of metal on top of it, and then turn the wheels on the press to print the coins.
We had no work to do here, but Carsomus chatted with the workers, gave a few words of encouragement, and we began climbing up the stairs. "Can you believe Antiochus tried to use iron golems for this work?"
"Uh," I said, "I guess?"
"It tarnished the entire mythological basis of the Empire. The Elder Council took control of the mint after the war." Carsomus shook his head slowly. "A soulless machine can press the coins, but can it imbue them with truth? With purpose? With purity? Of course not. Potema was inevitable."
Carsomus and Rascien then use a spaceship (which in the true Ancient Aliens style, Rascien mistakes for a Sunbird of Alinor), which are either located underground or in some other space (like the dwemer lockbox)."Evening Carsomus," said a deep, grumbling voice. I stood up a little and almost spilled my tray. A minotaur, a huge example of his species, came into the room.
"Evening Hrahd," Carsomus said. "How's the moon?"
"All is well," the minotaur said, sitting down right next to me. "No trouble at the mines. I heard The Terminus might cause some trouble."
"They're still around?" asked Carsomus.
"Oh, yeah, they just went deeper underground. Well, enjoy your flight." The minotaur stood, patted me on the back hard enough to almost knock me off the bench, and left.
"M...m….mmino…" I stuttered.
"Never spoke with a minotaur before?"
"N...n...no."
Carsomus smiled. "Good! That's exactly the attitude that led to so many of them seeking employment with the Mint. They suit us perfectly. Well, time to go."
Using this rocketship, they take off into space (which takes off via the same method the coins float away into space). In space the stars look nothing like what they do from Nirn (they're constantly growing, shrinking and twirling).We went past the Vaults, which were enormous. They were far too large to fit in the building, unless we were somehow underground or...well, I wasn't sure what else. And then we came to another large room full of gold…things. They were squat and had what might be called wings and what might generously be called a tail.
"Are these the Sunbirds of Alinor?" I asked.
"What? Do these look like birds to you? Do they look of elven construction?"
"Well, no, but—"
Carsomus walked up to one, did something to it, and the "head" of it split open sideways, revealing steep steps and some very small chairs beyond.
"Hop in," he said.
The coins form into an asteroid near the moons (Carsomus wondering what the Khajiit would make of this).The bird vanished, and I could see the room all around us and all the other golden birds sitting there in neat little rows. I looked down at my hands, and found that I had vanished as well.
Then the bird shot straight up, and I was squashed down into my seat. This went on an unconscionably long time, until my legs and rear end were sore. My neck hurt, too, from the initial jerk. There wasn't much to see straight ahead. The world went white a few times, and the sky gradually went from blue to black. Then the black began to be filled with swirls and lines of color. I tried to look down, but it hurt my neck to move it even a little, so I tried to keep it pressed against the back of the chair.
The force pressing me down slowly let up and then we were falling. Or it felt as if we were falling. I swallowed and tried not to lose the strange lunch I'd eaten moments before. We were spinning among the stars. And yet they looked nothing like they did from the safety of Nirn. They grew, shrank, twirled, and all about between and among them were ribbons of faint color. Perhaps it was the goggles.
A protective bubble appears around Rascien's head, protecting him from space (however, it smells awful)."We collect the adulterated coins. Just as we swept them in the mint, the moons sweep them along out here and they gather. Behold!" He pointed ahead, and if I squinted a bit, I thought I could see a little glitter among the swirling ribbons.
"I often wonder what the Khajiit think of them," he said. "We collect them long before they become visible of course, but the cat folk are obsessed with the moons. It wouldn't surprise me if they've seen a glint of gold out here. I'd like to know what they think it is. There are no Khajiit at the Mint."
We were approaching far more rapidly than I thought. The distant bits of glitter approached at terrifying speed and became a huge mass of loose coins. We shot past just under the mass. Carsomus did something to the bird and, we spun around, and I felt a hand pressing me backwards. Then we came upon the coins again, must slower.
Moving in the void of space requires using a very weak levitation spell, one too weak to do anything on Nirn.The bird's face opened up. My ears popped, and I felt briefly terrible, and a bubble appeared around my head. It was not unlike a wizard's shield, but it was strange wearing it. I began to smell something like a cross between flowers and rotting fish.
As they return to the ship, they see a valuable space mineral (meteoric glass or a star tooth). Collecting them requires experience and knowledge Carsomus doesn't possess, as well as an even bigger spaceship."How do I move?" I asked.
"Oh, of course," he said. "Do you know the basic levitate spell?"
"Yes, should I—"
"No! Absolutely not! Make one that is hundreds of times weaker. The weakest possible one that can still be cast. One using the same forms, but that is too weak to do anything on Nirn."
"Make a spell? Without the grid and diagrams and everything at the Guild's spellmaker?"
"Of course. You don't—" He seemed to think a moment. "Nevermind. Just hold the sack. I will fill them both."
Soon he had both sacks full. There were still many loose coins, but they were floating around, spinning flickering, and no longer in a concentrated mass. "Again, we ignore the spares," he said. Carsomus tied both sacks shut and hooked them to the back of the golden bird.
"No need to reforge these," he said, "the trip back will do that for us."
They return to Nirn, and fell weights from 'strange angles.'He grabbed me on the way back into the bird. As he spun me around, I saw something else, a piece of white crystal. "What is that?" I asked, pointing to it.
"Not what we are here for. The ship can't handle it, anyway."
"But what is—"
"Meteoric glass. Or perhaps a tooth. Do not meddle with it. Valuable? Very. Collecting one requires experience and knowledge I lack. And a much larger ship."
The story ends with Rascien trying to escape a bit by chipping away at many coins to as to float away, but this fails and the coins and the chips just fall to the ground, leaving him wondering if he hallucinated or dreamed the entire thing.Soon I was shoved back in my seat, and the ground approached so fast I closed my eyes and lifted my arms up, preparing to crash. We were falling again, then another weight from a strange angle, then another, then there was a clanking noise and the bird came to a sudden halt.
The bird's head opened back up and Carsomus got out. I tried to follow him, but it took a few minutes. I was not very steady on my feet. When I managed to get the ring off my neck and wobble down the stairs, Carsomus handed me one of he sacks, now deflated, but still full of thousands of septims, and threatening to float up to the ceiling. "Just drag it behind you," he said.
Months later I was stuck in a pit with no mana. I thought back to my time at the Mint. I tried to clip a bunch of coins and catch them in a sack. I thought if I got enough of them, it might pull me up to the edge of the pit. Both the chips and the rest of the coins fell to the ground. I managed to get out another way, but it made me question what happened in the Mint, or whether some stranger handed me a sack of coins, and I dreamed the rest of it.
Looking on the UESP forum, two people weighed their septims which came with the Oblivion special edition; one person getting 10g, another getting 22g (with the person saying 10g saying that the second person saying 22g was likely more accurate as their own scales were messed up).Skyrim said:Golden Touch - Have 100,000 gold
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