Aurbical Symposia, Lecture One: The Soulburst

Composed By Ijs Feuer Weardian, Drifter-Mage, Circa 2E 263

I am surprised that none of your professors have given you seminars on this topic before today. Maybe that is because it is still a mysterious but dark day that still affects all of Tamriel. On that day four years ago, something happened that affected all spirits of the Starry Heart and casted our souls asunder for the briefest of moments.

No, I can see it on your faces. This was not the unique event known as a Dragon Break. Time did not shatter into thousands of pieces and rejoined in every possible angle all at once. No, this was something far different; we haven’t experienced one of those since the First Era. Where the Dragon Break deals with time and is associated with Akatosh, and the hypothesized Serpent Break deals with space and is associated with Lorkhan, this event deals with magicka and has come to be associated with Magnus.

Overtime the scholarly elite have referred to it as a Chameleon Break. However, the general populace know it by another name – the Soulburst.

It happened in the year 579. Although no one knows the exact reason why it had happened, something occurred within the Imperial City that resulted in an arcane explosion that echoed throughout Tamriel. Rumors abound about its true cause. Some say that a group of sorcerers attempted to force the relighting of the Dragonfires. Others say that the covenant Alessia made with either Akatosh or Shezzar was broken, destabilizing the very nature of Nirn.

Whatever the cause, it certainly had an effect. The Soulburst spread throughout all corners of Tamriel and even into the seas. Every arcanic device in Cyrodiil exploded, and Ayleid ruins glowed with renewed power for the first time in centuries. Red Mountain in my native Morrowind trembled with fury, threatening to spew lava on Vvardenfell. Skyrim was host to wild earthquakes and violent blizzards. Monsoons ravaged their way through Black Marsh, flooding it. Both Valenwood and Elsweyr were besieged by tsunamis from the sea. Sandstorms buried entire towns in Hammerfell, some now lost to the ages along with the people that dwelled within. High Rock reported that the Direnni Tower seemed to shake violently, and the images of the past and future could be seen inside. And poor Summerset Isles experienced two risings of the sun for ninety-nine days, which has been recorded in Crystal-Like-Law.

But all could see – from any province – the stars diminished in size as the Serpent, the constellation made up of un-stars, grew in size and appeared to swallowed the other constellations whole. And from this, comes the worst of what the Soulburst caused.

Unlike the stars the Magna-Ge created when they followed Magnus from Mundus, these un-stars do not emit magicka. They consume it. But the stars were always able to negate them. Until the Soulburst. When the Soulburst occurred, it caused these un-stars to become even larger than the stars, and they began to absorb all of the magicka on Nirn. That is why we connect the Soulburst to Magnus. During a Dragon Break, Akatosh supposedly loses control over time. During a Serpent Break, Lorkhan supposedly loses control over space. This Soulburst appeared to be Magnus losing control over magicka itself. And like a chameleon Magnus can choose whether to be seen or not be seen, and so we sometimes refer to the Soulburst as a Chameleon Break.

The un-stars greedily began to absorb as much magicka as they could, and this resulted in Tamriel’s most powerful mages dying. As large sources of raw magicka energy, they were easy targets. Some of them were capable of protecting themselves from the Soulburst, but this resulted in their power drastically being reduced. The lesser-powerful mages were driven insane when their power was taken from them; the poor souls. Those with very little magicka talent were unaffected at all.

All of that happened in one, single day. If only we knew the cause of it, we could make better calculations, wonder exactly how Magnus lost control over his sphere of power. If we can’t, I fear that this might pass onwards into the pages of obscurity.

Well, I think our time is up class. I will be staying in the Professor accommodations during my stay here, so if you want to ask–

What was that? You ask how I am still alive, why I didn’t die during the Soulburst? Well, I may not look it but this Drifter-Mage is in fact very powerful pupils. The nature of my survival? That involves things that I can't indulge you about, at least right now.