Lore:Adamantine Tower

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Adamantine Tower
Type Tower
Continent Tamriel
Province High Rock
Region Isle of Balfiera
Appears in Daggerfall, ESO
Adamantine Tower (ESO)
The Adamantine Tower (Daggerfall)

The Adamantine Tower, also known as the Balfiera Tower, Direnni Tower,[1] Ada-mantia,[2] Adamant Tower,[3] Ur-Tower,[4]:Part 3, Ch. 7 Ur-Dir,[UOL 1] and Tower Zero,[5] is a tall, circular, and ancient tower at the highest point of the Isle of Balfiera in the Iliac Bay. The Tower was used as a fortress, prison, and palace by the Direnni Hegemony, but its true purpose has remained a mystery. The latest magical divination of its age places its construction around ME 2500, making it the oldest known structure in Tamriel. The tower has been modified several times over the years, but the cylindrical core of metal has not been touched and is rumored to extend as far into the ground as it does protrude above it, and its depths have never been thoroughly explored.[1] As with all Towers, the Adamantine Tower is said to exist beyond the physical and in some sense apart, or detached, from ordinary space and time.[6]

After the Direnni gained power on Balfiera around 1E 461,[7] they built a keep around the Tower's base. However, there are even older catacombs beneath said keep, which the Direnni didn't build.[5] In reference to their claim over the Adamantine Tower, the traditional ruler of the Balfiera region is known as the Castellan.[1] The White-Gold Tower in Cyrodiil was built in homage to the Adamantine Tower by the Ayleids[2] and is sometimes described as an "echo of the ur-tower".[4]:Part 3, Ch. 7 At maturity, every Direnni of high blood is brought into the Adamantine Tower, conducted to the Foundation Vault, and shown the Zero Stone. During the ceremony, they are allowed to touch it once so they can feel the transcendent mystical power that courses through it.[8]

According to historical lore of the Dawn and Merethic Eras, the Adamantine Tower was created by the Aedra as a place for discussing the creation of Mundus.[9] The tower was then used by the Gods for discussing the punishment of Lorkhan for his trickery of conceptualizing Mundus, the decision being to cast Lorkhan's heart from the tower and into the mortal world below.[10] When Magnus departed from the near-formed Mundus, the Gods that followed him abandoned the tower, leaving behind the secrets associated with it.[10]

Mythology[edit]

The Flight of Magnus[edit]

According to legend, when Magnus, the architect of the plans for the mortal world, decided to terminate the project, the gods decided to convene at the Adamantine Tower to decide on what to do.[10] Most of the spirits departed with Magnus, becoming the Magna Ge. But some Aedric spirits chose to stay on Nirn after Magnus and the Magna Ge departed in order to keep working on the new world so it'd remain viable. Among those spirits, some, typically referred to from that point on as "Earthbones", are thought to have followed the example of Y'ffre, giving themselves to the Mundus fully to stabilize it and form the foundation of its natural law as the "bones of the earth", eternal laws of nature. While others, typically referred to from that point on as "Ehlnofey", are thought to have chosen not to give themselves fully but to populate Nirn instead, thus becoming the progenitors to mortal life, which arose from their lines and took on its current form due to a phenomenon of gradual diminishment, of each consecutive generation becoming weaker and more removed than its progenitors in stature and might. [10][11][12][13][UOL 2]

The Convention[edit]

The Heart of Lorkhan
Auriel's Bow (Dawnguard)

Auri-El-that-is-Akatosh is said to have returned to Nirn from his Dominion Planet, signaling all Aedra to convene at a static meeting that would last outside of Aurbic time. The Time God's "sleek and silver verssel" became a spike, attached to the changing earth at one of the joint-points where the Earthbones on which the physical flesh on Nirn was hung met, and radiated a "palpable reality",[14] the "glimmerwinds of its impact" warning that any spirit that entered aura with it would become recorded. That by consent of their presence, their actions here would last a period of time unassailable, and would remain so whatever might come later to these spirits, even if they rejoined the aether or succumbed willingly or by treachery to a sithite erasure.[10][UOL 3]

The outcome of the Convention was twofold.

The spike of Ada-Mantia and its Zero Stone are said to have dictated the structure of reality within their Aurbic vicinity, defining for the Earth Bones their story or nature within the unfolding of the "Dragon's (timebound) Tale", and so setting in place the laws that govern the mortal world.[15] Thus also imposing certain limits on the "architect-gods" who, prior to that point, were "young", much like the world they'd crafted, and so held "every power at every time amendment at every ordering", making them mighty but also unable to ever fully manifest themselves within the world.[UOL 3]

Lorkhan was judged, his Heart torn out by Trinimac,[10][11] or per some sources spat out by Lorkhan himself,[UOL 4] and fastened to an arrow fired from Auriel's Bow, to land where no aspect of the new world could ever find it, after it became clear its link to the new world made it impossible to destroy.[10][11] In the removal and landing of the Heart, the second Tower, the Red Tower, is said to have been created, with the Heart itself as the First Stone. This allowed Mundus to exist without the full presence of the divine and granted it a special kind of divinity, which is called "NIRN", the "consequence of variable fate".[UOL 3]

Finally, the Aedra elected to make their exit from mortal affairs, "leaving the terrestrial sphere in their excess, for its own good", due to the danger their continued presence posed to the mortal world, which was rendered highly unstable, and even to the timeless continuity of existence. With the departure of magic in the mythic sense, linear history could finally begin, and the Dawn Era ended.[UOL 3][10] Even after the Aedra departed, Ada-Mantia continued to dictate reality in its vicinity, bringing unrelenting order to the chaos of the Dawn.[15]

A different view of the events of Convention is present in the beliefs of the Mythic Dawn. According to them, the mortal world was actually the Oblivion plane of Lorkhan, who was actually a Daedric Prince. Per this belief, the Aedra, the gods mortals generally worship, were actually Lorkhan's betrayers, who stole the realm from its true deity and intentionally split Lorkhan's progeny from their divine sparks, so that they themselves would be viewed as the sole exit from the current world. Mankar Camoran names this the "First Tower Dictate", which he describes as "render the mutant bound where he may do no more harm. As God of the Mundus, alike shall be his progeny, split from their divine sparks. We are Eight time eight Exarchs. Let the home of Padomay see us as sole exit".[16][17][18]

Numancia[edit]

The Daedric Prince Ithelia

The Ayleid religious text The Nine Coruscations claims that, when the Magna Ge, and later Daedric Prince, Ithelia was shown the Infinite Abyss and the Indeterminate Sea (Mora Obscura), she discovered the Indefinite Limits of Lorkh-Apeiron. Thus she realized not only the harmony within duality that exists beyond the simple dichotomy of Anui-El and Sithis, but that this unity of opposites contained starlight and endless possibility beyond cosmic interplay. Ithelia was thus named "the Colors of Light", who saw the "madness of the Time God" and the "first challenge of his shadow", who in nothingness saw those endless possibilities first. Ithelia saw that linear time was layered upon endless possibility by the afixing of Ada-Mantia and its Zero Stone, a stable spire afixed by a stone of nothing possible,[UOL 3][10][15] and thus did Aka disappear in the South and learn why his insanity is all that is and could be. From this lesson, the Prime Archon endeavored to cleave a path through the everything to reach Numancia. The goal of her Ayleid followers was to use violence against Man to bring forth a Numinous Paravant, whose metaphysical nature would give them unbound hands and the ability to achieve Ithelia's goal, to break the shackles of fate and give every being the world and history they desired.[19][20]

The Keywright's Gallery[edit]

The arcane helix within the Keywright's Gallery
The gallery of portals

Attached to the Adamantine Tower was the Keywright's Gallery, an ancient substructure of Balfiera Island, present long before the Clan Direnni arrived. The Gallery was filled with ancient gates, portals connecting to places in Tamriel and beyond that were powered by an arcane helix. The portals remained sealed and the helix hidden, despite the efforts of the Direnni to understand the Gallery's workings. Until 2E 582 when, with a great surge of magical energy, the Gallery portals opened, and the Vestige and a powerful Harvester named Shyazzel fell through. With the aid of Norianwe of the Sinderill, the Direnni Clan's intelligence guild which monitored threats to Tamriel, the Vestige vanquished Shyazzel. Norianwe theorized that the Gallery portals had opened because of the arrival of the Vestige, who had been chosen by the Adamantine Tower itself to be Tamriel's savior, and that Shyazzel had followed the Vestige in an attempt to stop them from realizing their destiny. Indeed, the portals opened to various places in Tamriel where various crises were developing. The Vestige was than given the option to walk through a portal of their choice, leaving the Sinderill free to study the now active Gallery.[21][22]

Emulation[edit]

White-Gold Tower

The Ayleids are said to have built their Tower, the White-Gold Tower, in "open emulation of Ada-Mantia" itself, thus granting it even greater power than the rest when it came to altering reality. The White-Gold Tower was meant to counteract the spiritual bleeding from Mundus caused by the Convention by serving as a focus point to reconnect the mortal realm with the divine.[UOL 3][15]

Notes[edit]

  • The Adamantine Tower is also known as the House of We by its creators, the Aedra.[UOL 4]
  • Wandering Spirits recounts the tale of Akha, who vanished in the South, with Alkosh ,who has himself been described as both weaver and embodiment of time's all-encompassing tapestry,[23] appearing in his place, and bearing his crown and rule of his kingdoms across the Many Paths. This event might be the same as the disappearance of Aka linked to the afixing of Ada-Mantia that Ithelia is said to have witnessed, from a different cultural perspective.[24]

See Also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st Edition: High Rock — Imperial Geographical Society, 2E 864
  2. ^ a b Aurbic Enigma 4: The Elden Tree — Beredalmo the Signifier
  3. ^ The Rise of Queen Ayrenn — Nuulehtel of Skywatch
  4. ^ a b Lord of Souls — Greg Keyes
  5. ^ a b Tower of Adamant — Hrerm House-builder, Bards College, Solitude
  6. ^ Loremaster Celarus' dialogue in ESO: Summerset
  7. ^ Rislav The Righteous — Sinjin
  8. ^ Once — Beredalmo the Signifier
  9. ^ Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition: All the Eras of Man, A Comprehensive History of our History — Imperial Geographical Society, 3E 432
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Before the Ages of Man — Aicantar of Shimerene
  11. ^ a b c The Monomyth
  12. ^ The Mystery of Artaeum — Penewen, Advisor to the Court
  13. ^ The Annotated Anuad
  14. ^ Subtropical Cyrodiil: A Speculation — Lady Cinnabar of Taneth
  15. ^ a b c d Aurbic Enigma 4: The Elden Tree — Beredalmo the Signifier
  16. ^ Mankar Camoran's dialogue in Oblivion
  17. ^ Mythic Dawn Commentaries — Mankar Camoran
  18. ^ Mythic Dawn Commentaries 3 — Mankar Camoran
  19. ^ The Nine Coruscations — Star-Queen Varalias
  20. ^ Ithelia's dialogue in ESO
  21. ^ Norianwe's dialogue in ESO
  22. ^ Events of The Gates of Adamant in ESO
  23. ^ Ja'darri's dialogue in ESO: Dragonhold
  24. ^ The Wandering Spirits — Amun-dro, the Silent Priest

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.

  1. ^ How Beautiful You Are That You Do Not Join Us
  2. ^ Michael Kirkbride's Posts
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nu-Mantia Intercept — Nu-Hatta, The Imperial Library
  4. ^ a b Shor son of Shor
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