Lore:Wing of the Crow

Wing of the Crow
Type	Plane
Realm	Aurbis
Appears in	ESO

Wing of the Crow

The Wing of the Crow is a pocket realm belonging to the Luminary Crow. It was shaped and hewn into being in the same way she chose her form. The reason for the realm's formation was unknown, though the Luminary Indrik theorized that the realms of the Luminaries had formed due to the wisdom of Aetherius, which did not wish for the Luminaries to be both alone and wandering.

The realm resembles a copy of Shalidor's ancient maze, Labyrinthian, it was shaped by the Crow to be the perfect trial space. As with the realms of all Luminaries, it had a warded door and a key which one had to use to enter it.

History

Creation

The Scholarium beneath Eyevea

The door to the Wing of the Crow

The realm is as old as the Crow, created at the time of her birth.

Circa 1E 2150, the Scholarium was lost along with Eyevea, which it was located under, transported to the Shivering Isles due to a bargain Shalidor made with the Daedric Prince Sheogorath in exchange for the Folium Discognitum.

Knowing that nothing she or the Luminaries could do would outpace the greed of a Daedric Prince, Ulfsild first froze the Luminary Gryphon in a tempest of ice, the magic of which she tied to a ward she left behind. This prevented the enraged Luminary from confronting Sheogorath, a being against whom even he was no match, while also preventing the Prince from discovering the Scholarium and Luminaries, which would've been disastrous.

Ulfsild quickly enacted a final plan meant to assure that Scribing would not become lost to the world. She used part of her own soul in a ritual that combined her spirit and a copy of her mind from that moment in time, flashing them upon the great wellspring of arcane power she'd gathered in the Scholarium's Scribing Altar, to create a new Luminary of Magic through a ritual described as the ultimate act of Scribing. Thus the Luminary Crow was born. She chose the shape of her physical form, and her personal realm, the Wing of the Crow, was shaped and hewn into existence in the same manner. It became connected to the Scholarium via its own door.

With the doors closed, the altar became dormant. Without that beating heart, the mastery of Scribing was believed to stagnate. The Scholarium itself was not discovered, however, for it had been warded against mages, Princes, and powers long ago, and those defenses held strong even in the Shivering Isles. The Crow did not have much time to speak with Ulfsild, her other self, before the doors were sealed.

Rediscovery of Scribing

The unstable Scribing Altar

In 2E 582, around the time Eyevea was returned to Tamriel by Shalidor and the Mages Guild, the Scholarium was rediscovered by a group of knights from the Order of the Lamp. During their arrival, complications arose, necessitating the sealing of the doors to prevent a catastrophe, as the once dormant altar became unstable, threatening the lives of everyone present. The disaster was prevented due to the intervention of the Vestige, who replaced the unstable focusing crystal. This potentially also prevented the catastrophic discovery of the Scholarium by Sheogorath.

After the magic was calmed, the Scholarium's caretaker, the Luminary Crow, directed the Vestige to seek out the other Luminaries and gain their support in order to return their strength to the altar. An act equated to inheriting Ulfsild's legacy and leaving a mark on spellcraft itself.

The Inheritor of the Scholarium was guided by Ulfsild's echoes and the True Sight Lens, which she'd created to allow others to see magicka and Ley Lines, as she could. Retracing her footsteps, the Inheritor discovered fables and keys, broke the wards, and entered the Wings of the Indrik, the Dragon, the Gryphon, and the Netch to reconnect the Scholarium with them. The Luminaries proffered a series of challenges for the Inheritor to prove themself. Once completed, the Luminaries agreed to lend their power.

Aut'arioth, the Inheritor's Bane

The Luminaries of Magic

With their trials completed, the Luminaries granted their Sigils to the Inheritor. Placed at the altar, the Sigils restored the connection between the realms of the Luminaries and the Scholarium, and their strength flowed into the altar once more. With their strength fueling it, the altar could once more "shape the very heart of magic itself" and translate its very essence into mortal hands, rewriting both the magic and the mortal as the practitioner scrawled their soul upon the page with the Luminary as intermediary. Reconnecting the great power of the Luminaries caused new Ley Line activity, thus making Affix Scripts, Signature Scripts and Luminous Ink appear across the land.

With the support of the other Luminaries secured, the Crow revealed the truth: she was the final Luminary, created by Ulfsild herself, and the last who could lend her power to the Scribing Altar. The chaotic magic that had originally led to the rediscovery of the Scholarium was a result of the Crow's own presence, as Ulfsild's ritual had never been fully refined due to the urgency of the situation.

In the Wing of the Crow, the Vestige underwent the final trial to be declared the Inheritor. Within the Luminary Crow's replica of Labyrinthian, the Inheritor navigated the invisible path through the maze with the aid of the Fox, who had been tasked to help by Ulfsild herself. Once the wards were broken and the Chimera Aut'arioth bested, the Crow's final challenge was complete. The Dragon and the other Luminaries then appeared and acknowledged the victorious Inheritor. The Crow guided the Inheritor to retrieve her own Sigil, which Ulfsild had taken with her when she departed, so it too could be added to the Scribing Altar, amplifying its power further. Thus Scribing returned to Tamriel. Knowing the Inheritor had other matters to address, the Crow chose Knight of the Lamp Votary Nahlia as the Scholarium's new caretaker.

Gallery

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  The Crow's Labyrinthian

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  The Crow within its copy of Labyrinthian

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  Aut'arioth, the Inheritor's Bane, within the copy of Labyrinthian

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the Elder Scrolls Online article.