General:ESO Live Summerset Story and Lore

ESO Live held an interview from Gina Bruno (Community Manager), Jessica Folsom (Senior Community Manager), Lawrence Schick (Loremaster) and Bill Slavicsek (Senior Writer). It discussed the lore of The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset chapter. The stream is viewable here. The Elder Scrolls Online – Summerfall Event Special Livestream is essentially an extension of it
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Shimmerene
Gina: So we're gonna be starting in Shimmerene, and in this area is where you essentially start Summerset after you're finished with the tutorial. 

Bill: Yes, Shimmerene is the the port city, the gateway to Summerset after the Queen's decree opens the island to visitors and new immigrants they start here. 

Gina: And architecture is so much different here than it is anywhere else

Lawrence: Well we got the architecture in Summerset, the High Elves have been refining it for many thousands of years, and though they tend to look into the past for their inspiration, they're always taking what they're doing, and everything they're building, and adding new layers of refinement, and more detail, and more elegance to it, so that they dedicate their long lives to taking certain aspects of their culture, that finding something that they're really get into and making that better. So that's the key to a lot of what the individual High Elves are about. 

Jessica: Everything's very tall.

Lawrence: This has to do with the fact that you know, the High Elves deem themselves to be the descendants of the gods, they have divine spark in them, they're the direct descendants of the Aedra, and so they aspire to reaching up to the heavens, which is why they build their architecture so high. They're always looking up. 

Bill: And a big part of their culture is the striving for perfection, that's it's built into everything they do, whether they're a merchant, or an artisan, or can magic, they're always trying to be perfect at it. 

Lawrence: So here we are you can see Brad has taken us down to the docks on Shimmerene. Shimmerene is the mercantile port for Summerset, it's where most of the trade from overseas comes to, as opposed to the navy which is we'll get to later on, but this is where this is where you would find even before Queen Ayreen opens the opens the prohibitions, where you would find the most non-High Elves, and so it's the area that is the natural starting point for you as the player when you first enter Summerset.

Jessica: So how do the High Elves in general feel about Queen Ayreen's decree and the influx of newcomers and non high elves to their long closed off island.

Lawrence: Well, the thing we try to do with the with the stories, Bill and company we're telling, is to show that you don't necessarily want to talk about the High Elves in general, because in fact they're not as homogeneous as they're made out to be, and they react in lots of different ways to people coming to Summerset for the first time. It's unexpected for them as it is for you, they in most cases have never met a non-High Elf, and so they're curious, they're weary,

Bill: They’re fascinated 

Lawrence: yeah intrigued, and of course because it's a game, which means there's gonna be problems, they've all got difficulties that need some help with, and so you know the nature of their problems helps to explicate a lot about their society and culture.

Jessica: So they don't travel much, huh?

Lawrence: They don't travel much, no. They mostly stick to what they're trying to improve, and you know spend their long lives on perfecting it.

Bill: And to them, Summerset is the green and pleasant island, it's the best place in the world, 

Jessica: so why go anywhere else?

Bill: The great thing about working with the ESO model, is we have so many characters and actors, that we do have the ability to give that broad range of reaction, so everybody you meet in that in this town for example is gonna have a different opinion about the Queen's decree, And it will change depending on whether you are a high off or not.

Jessica: So where is Shimmerene in relation to say Alinor in the map.

Gina: I think clear on the other side of the map, right?

Lawrence: Yeah, pop up the map. There we go. Shimmerine is on the on the east coast, there. You can see Auridon just across the strait, and Alinor is exactly – on the west side over there, so they're on opposite sides of the main island. 

Jessica: Okay hey you know what while we have the map up there have been some there's been some discussion about the size of Summerset versus Morrowind and I know you you had some insight into that.

Lawrence: Yeah there's been some there was some talk in the forums that the playable area of Morrowind Chapter was in fact larger than the playable area of the Summerset chapter, based upon people's eyeballing the maps, and in fact that's it's an illusion, because all of Vvardenfell is pretty much one big chunk, but what we do with Summerset was we broke it up a lot more, there's certain of the areas that you can see the roads and places, those are obviously all places you can visit then there's a bunch of areas you can see that look more mountainous and wild, but those are not necessarily impassable, those are often areas that that have their own world spaces, for example down on the southern coast there, light up Sunhold if you would. that's a big city, which doesn't necessarily show on the main map unless you're in it, but we have Sun hold, we have Artaeum which is off the map, and we have a bunch of smaller areas that are that are not shown on the main map, and if you add it all together, the playable space in the Summerset chapter is actually about 20% bigger than in the Morrowind Chapter. So we just made it more interesting by breaking it up into smaller places yes.

[Omitted filler content]
Lillandril
Gina: So why is the background?

Bill: so the Lillandril is the home of the College of the Sapiarchs. The Sapiarchs are the preeminent scholars and sages of the High Elves, every Sapiarch has a specialty so there's the Sapiarchs of archaeology, the Sapiarch of food and wine, the various other any scholarly topic you can think of, there's a Sapiarchs who is devoted to it.

Lawrence: Artuudawen Thousand-Shoes, the Sapiarch of the cultural clothing for example. yes there's a you know there's a several score Sapiarchs, and they each hold their position for as long you know, usually for life 

Bill: And although they do have apprentices that are waiting diligently for them to die so they can take their place.

Lawrence: Yeah patiently yeah. You can see here the college is actually across through that portal it's over on the other side of the it's on a little island of its own.

Jessica: What kind of magic is that?

Lawrence: It's elven magic.

Bill: You need permission to get to the College.

Gina: I guess Brad doesn't have permission.

Lawrence: Well it's all about it's all about rules with the elves really, with the high elves, so that guy there he goes. Brad, you know Brad's got to earn it yeah are you good mm-hmm let's we can hop over there but yes Lillandril is is sort of the center of magical study on the main island with the college of Sapiarchs there there's the the Illumination Academy nearby and the Mages Guild is also the newcomers the upstarts the Mages Guild are also located and in that city 

Jessica: How do they Sapiarchs feel about the mage guild?

Lawrence: They, if they acknowledge them at all you know they're certainly they're there they're like they're like cute little puppies really though they're their understanding of magic is limited and you know eventually they'll come along if they if they listen to the safety arts they'll learn.

Bill: the Sapiarchs basically are probably more tolerant to the Mages Guild than the Psijiic Order is, but marginally so. So that's the island with colleges off the map there off the coast.
 
[Omitted filler content]

Gina: So I think we had actually talked about this a while back when we announced Summerset, but a lot of players are saying the way they pictured Alinor or in the way that it was written in the past a lot of the buildings look like glass and insect wings and literally shimmers. What made us decide to go with this design where the buildings don't necessarily sparkle.

Lawrence: Well the you know a lot of the are the early lore discussions about how Alinor looked where were written really poetically from the standpoint of outsiders who were who were to some extent - 

Bill: Trying to explain what they saw.

Lawrence: Right, but in fact we had already established to a certain extent the aesthetics of the High Elves with Auridon and it made sense to to extend that and to do something that was in line with what we had already seen but to make it more refined and taller and brighter and all of those things.

Gina: So it's definitely taller.'

Alinor
Lawrence: Yeah could we jump to Alinor, which is where we got the most towers.

Bill: But the foundations are insect wings though, they are just underneath.

Lawrence: You know it's important there's certain areas like Clockwork City and Morrowind that have very distinctive, otherworldly aesthetics and the areas of the High Elves are otherworldly and fantastic in a different way and the the nature of their their history and culture led us to look at extending their architecture in this direction you know rather than in the direction of of things made from giant insect wings which I mean to a certain extent you've already got bug houses in in Morrowind how many more bug houses do you need so we've so we've got things that are fantastical but look like they are actually made of masonry and stone. So it's important for immersion and verisimilitude to feel like we are in a real place, even though it's fantastic.

Bill: This is Alinor, this is the seat of the government. If Queen Ayreen was in town she would be here in the Royal Palace, but she's not so her cousin the Proxy Queen is in charge while she's away.

Jessica: What's she doing, is she on vacation?

Bill: She's fighting the Three Banners War.

Lawrence: Yeah she's often off in the continent, waging war to try to to end all the troubles of Tamriel.

Gina: Is that all?

Bill: But have no fear, she sent her most trusted servant and agent Razum-dar, who will be on board to to meet you, greet you and help you in your quests.

Gina: We've had some cool little video snippets with Razum-dar too and you've been seeing them on Twitter and other social channels.

Jessica: Yes, there is a couple of them. So Alwinarwe, is something missing, right?

Lawrence: Yes, Alwinarwe, the Proxy queen. 

Jessica: Is she younger or older?

Lawrence: Well pretty much everybody in government is older than Queen Ayreen actually. She's a real youngster, she's under 50 by quite a bit, whereas, you know most elves age slowly and live long so it's difficult from the point of mere human mortals like us to look at a High Elf and kind of guess at their age especially given, you know, magical cosmetics and such like.

Bill: Although there's a letter in the in the area, that you can find where…. Actually no, we did it for the introduction to the characters that we wrote for the website that she calls Alwinarwe her beloved cousin, so I'm imagining that Alwinarwe is not too much older than Ayreen.

Jessica: I kind of figured after reading that letter. I imagined them playing together as kids or hmm.

Bill: Before Ayreen left and went to go adventuring.

Lawrence: And given Ayreen's character she's probably not going to appoint somebody as Proxy Queen who  was actually going to emerge as competition for running things.

Jessica: Especially after her previous experiences.

Lawrence: Yes, she has definite ideas about how she wants things to go and she she you know much as she has the representatives speaking the various Canonreeves and Woodthanes and and such like from the  the Dominion. She has her own ideas and she's pretty much determined to make sure that they are put into action.

Bill: And this is the palace that we're looking at now.

Lawrence: The Royal Palace of Alinor. Leading up to the the throne of the ancient monarchs. The Proxy Queen is not in residence right at the moment, just got some guards.

Bill: And one of her counselors.

Lawrence: Not one of the friendlier conselors.

Bill: We had to make some of the High Elves match what everybody expects.

Jessica: So what else will people find in Alinor?

Lawrence: Well Alinor, as the capital has all of the the usual services and things that you'd expect to find in the capital city the high-end things. It also got the underworld such as it is, even the High Elves, you know in any place where you've got lots of rules you've got people who break those rules, so you'll find the The Outlaws refuge, if you're looking for it you'll find it in in Alinor.

Bill: And to counter that we've got the Divine Prosecution which is a Alinor's secular and religious law enforcement unit.

Lawrence: Yes they're the national law enforcement. They're beyond the watch of the individual cities and they are in charge of enforcing for example the the laws against the Daedra worship, which are taken pretty seriously in Summerset.

Jessica: Is that prevalent here or not so much is in other places of Tamriel?

Bill: It wasn't prevalent.

Lawrence: There's some stuff going on.

Bill: But I can't say any more. 

Lawrence: Typically the High Elves are the least tolerant of all Tamriel toward Daedra worship and and nothing that happens in this particular chapter is going to change that.

Gina: So we know the Queen Ayreen we've said that she's she's opened up opened up the borders but why has she done that?

Bill: She's much more progressive than the past rulers of Summerset and we see that even in the Aurodon content that we've done in the past. For her the whole idea of the Alliance of the three nations that have come together to form the the Dominion. She just sees that there's power in unity and the idea to learn from others and she's trying to bring that to her people.

Lawrence: But it's also self-serving as far as the as the High Elves are concerned because the war on the continent has drawn off a lot of the defenses that keep the traditional enemies of the High Elves at bay and and there are problems springing up as a result because you know the Army and the Navy are off fighting the Three Banners War and as a result, and so, you know out is a lot of the wealth of the High Elves, so it it makes sense, as far as the queen is concerned to open the doors to further trade so that there's more gold flowing through through the island but also to bring in some new blood to to invigorate things and to make up for the fact that the the soldiers and sailors are over the horizon and there's troubles coming from both traditional and non-traditional enemies of the High Elves.

Bill: And yeah the Sea Elves for example notice that the navy is away so now it's a great time to attack.

Gina: I saw this is kind of unrelated somebody was asking in chat if there's gonna be new houses available when Summerset launches and there is it's. It is a townhouse right?

Lawrence: Yeah yes there's a townhouse in Alinor, a really magnificent house that was originally built as an embassy for for the Camoran Wood Elves, but since the Aldmeri Dominion the Camorans are in the Elden Root, the capital of the of the Alliance and so that's it's available for you. There's also there's a room in one of the Alinor taverns and then on the southern coast over to the east of Sunhold there's this colossal Aldmeri grotto, that is is pretty darn awesome. It has a giant sea cave with with ships and houses an ancient Aldmeri architecture in it.

Gina: We actually showed off a lot of both of those houses in the last show so if you want to look at our previous videos you can check it out.

Jessica: We actually dit it at the beginning of the show.

Sunhold
Gina: So you mentioned Sunhold?

Lawrence: Yes.

Gina: Do you want to take a look at that and talk about sort of that the whole background and what's going on there?

[Omitted filler content]

Lawrence: Okay, yeah Sunhold is on the the southern coast of Summerset and as far as its footprint and size is concerned because it is the naval port for the for the High Elves it's actually in simple not in grandeur but in in in size and and area its larger than any of the other cities on on the island.

Jessica: Really? Even larger than Alinor?

Lawrence: It is even even somewhat larger than Alinor and that extensiveness to some extent makes it vulnerable to the Sea Elves who have come in and are raiding it and attempting to, I mean the High Elf Navy is the major thorn in their side so if they have an opportunity to go and and and cause trouble for the Altmeri Navy that then they're going to do which is what we, what we see here.

Bill: Yes, Sunhold is under siege for most of the zone.

[Omitted filler content]

Lawrence: So yeah there's plenty of Maormer enemies, a bunch of a bunch of new ones that you hadn't seen before.

Jessica: So have they effectively taken over?

Lawrence: They are in the process of attempting to occupy it, okay so you're gonna help throw them out.

Jessica: So where did these Maormer come from? 

Bill: They come from a water.

Lawrence: Yeah, well they come from an archipelago of swampy islands to the south of Tamriel called Pyandonea and they're actually, you know one of the things that gives them a chip on their shoulder is that the High Elves got Summerset, this wonderful glorious idyllic paradisiac island and they got stuck with these swampy little archipelago off to the south of Tamriel and they just never got over it.

Jessica: So they want a piece of Summerset?

Lawrence: So yeah. They always want a piece of Summerset and so they never leave them alone so that's why they keep coming back. There you see some reef vipers, some ….

Bill: One of the new monsters.

Jesscia: Yes. This is a big quest area or? 

Lawrence: Public dungeon, so it's open for for individuals and groups to go in and oppose the invaders. Yes, well there's lots to do there. It's probably our biggest and most interesting and most varying public dungeon yet. We put everything that we've learned about how to build public dungeons into Sunhold, so I think the players really gonna like it.

Bill: And I think the encounter designers were complaining that it was too big.

Jessica: I imagine there's a whole storyline you go through here.

Bill: Yes and it's related to the assault by the Sea Elves.

Jessica: Is that a new creature?

Lawrence: Yeah that's an Alinor ringtail, one of the cute critters that the hang out.

Jessica: Don't kill it.

Lawrence: Yeah.

Gina: So there are a few new creatures and monsters in Summerset.

Lawrence: There are. We saw some of the reef vipers, we have of course, there's the magnificent griffin's which have been very prominent in all of our our materials.

Gina: You really get to see them up close and personal in the new trailer too.

Cloudrest
Lawrence: Why don't we jump up to Cloudrest?

Gina: Yeah, we can. 

Lawrence: Take a look there. The Cloudrest on top of the that that mountain in the background there and that picture yes, that's the tallest mountain on Summerset it's called Eton Nir and it's got a city right built up on that's up on its upper slopes called Cloudrest that is really amazingly beautiful they just the artist knocked it out of the park and we have set the chapter's trial there.

Bill: It's where the Welkynars the Gryphon riders are located and you'll get to help them in the quest.

Gina: We actually just had an article go up earlier today about this trial, so if you want to learn more about it head to our website www.elderscrollsonline.com

Lawrence: And here is the griffin now. Look at that big guy. We are really pleased with the griffins. So they obviously are not just magnigicent but they partake somewhat of that magical essence of the Isle of Summerset or they wouldn't even exist. Right, so thats how cool they are.

Jessica: :I love the armor and tail.

Lawernce: That is because those are griffins of the Welkynar. Bill mentioned, that the knightly order of the Welkynar ride them into battle in the defence. Here is the Welkynar with her winged back banners and so, yeah the whole trial is about them and dealing with what's going on up in Cloudrest.

Bill: You mentioned magical creatures, another magical creature we introduced in the zone is the Indrik.

Lawrence: They are the creatures of wild nature to a certain extent, so they're off in the in the the corners of Summerset that have not been manicured and civilized by the garden loving High Elves who also, you know they love their wilderness too, so they they like to leave the wild areas - wild to an extent - and so there's there's creatures in there that are beautiful, but dangerous.

Ebon Stadmont
Bill: In fact there's one Sapiarch who is trying to bring back the natural creatures of the of the island that had been eradicated in the past, so he's made it his effort to bring all the wamasu that he can back to the island. 

Lawrence: Welwas.

Bill: Oh, welwas, yes.

Lawrence: So, the welwas, which we introduced in Craglorn. They were originally found way back in the Dawn Era here on Summerset when the when the Elves first arrived.

Jessica: Oh so they're originally from here.

Lawrence: They're originally from here and then they were deemed to be too - ferocious for the the tamed island that the High Elves wanted to have and but this this Sapiarch wants to bring them back and so.

[Omitted filler content]

Bill: Of course not everybody agrees with this Sapiarch, but you know.

Lawrence: Oh well, when it eats some of your livestock you kind of wonder if it was a good idea to repopulate the island with them. Yep, the the Indrik are are extremely magical, they are creatures in tune with the natural elements of Summerset.

Jessica: Kind of like wisps?

Lawrence: Yeah and they  do some interesting magical dances and stuff. 

[Omitted filler content] 

There are a number of other creatures around, of course Summerset is an island with with a very elaborate coast and so there's a lot of new coastal creatures. We mentioned the reef vipers.

Bill: The cute coral crabs.

Lawrence: The coral crabs, yep and then there are really hideous creatures that come in from the depths of the sea that won't go too much into.

Bill: The Yaghra.

Lawrence: The Yaghra. Because they, why they are assaulting Summerset is all part of the main quest and so you don't get too spoilery but you see a lot of them.

Jesscia: You see them as a part of the Abyssal Geysers?

Lawrence: Yes.

Jessica: Yeah that's a new group activity. They're kind of like Dark Anchors, but they're exclusive to Summerset.

Bill: Yeah guys, they will spring up on the island and unleash these sea creatures to attack you.

Jessica: I expect groups running around doing those at launch too.

Lawrence: Because there's a good payoff to shutting those things down, just as there is with the with the dolmens. 

Jessica: Indeed.

Bill: Now you're on an island, you don't want it to spring too many leaks.

Lawrence: Yeah. 

Artaeum
Gina: All right, well we also have Artaeum. 

Lawrence: Speaking of islands.

Gina: Speaking of islands.

Lawrence: Normally, it would be right off the south edge of that that map there, but it's gone.

Bill: Artaeum is the island that vanished.

Lawrence: It went to another place and and the Pjijiic Order, who took it there are real cagey about where it is nowadays and because you are such a fascinating character you get invited to go and visit Artaeum. But even when you're there, as you as you'll see you can see from this this concept art and from the the actual skies when you arrive there it looks kind of like you're in Tamriel, only obviously you aren't.

Bill: You're someplace else.

Lawrence: You're someplace else.

Jessica: You're someplace else, 'officialy'.

Lawrence: That's right. Capital S and a capital P, some place else. So yeah and so and they don't really go into the reasons for why they did that either, but yes the Psijiic Order is still, you know even though they have separated themselves from Tamriel and the rest of Nirn they're still looking out for the interests of the mortal races and they detect that there is a threat that they think they need to look into and they enlist your aid in in doing so and you in fact take the lead in looking into it.

Bill: This is Ceporah Tower, which is the headquarters of the Psijiic Order and beneath it is the legendary Dreaming Cave.

Gina: Now this is where you go to pick up the Psijiic Order skill line, right? Kind of start your process?

Bill: Yes. After you've completed the first of the main quests that opens up to you. Once they know who you are and you've shown your worth you can join.

Lawrence: So this is the Dreaming Cave that's that in the middle of it there that's the Psijiic's legendary portal to every place. If you know how to tune it properly you can get to anywhere in reality from from the portal and the dreaming dreaming cave.

Bill: And you may just visit a few of those places. 

Jessica: Anywhere and anytime?

Lawrence: You know, there may be some timey nonsense involved but we don't want to get too much into, but the Psijiic Orcer there they're masters of of space and you know time and scrying and information and  they're really all about knowledge and wisdom. They're not as active as necessarily some of the other magical types like like what the Mages Guild which is one of the reasons why Vanus Galerion, who founded the mages guild left the Psijiic Order to go and do so, because he wanted to go do something more active than Psijiics.

Bill: This is their Grand Hall inside the tower. You'll be in here a few times during the various quests.They like to do a lot of stuff with water. Water is kind of the basis of their Old Ways. You're gonna get to meet the Ritemster the leader of the Psijiic Order, as well as a number of its prominent members, monks, they consider themselves monks.

Lawrence: Weirdly enough they have they have a person named Loremaster, he's the one who will give you the tasks that will enable you to become a member of the Psijiic Order. Loremaster Celarus.

Gina: So there are a couple questions, just about the Psijiic Order. In general there's a lot of questions: somebody on the forums was asking, he was saying the Psijiic Order is said to follow a magical doctrine called the Old Ways, can you talk a little bit about that? I know chat was also curious.

Lawrence: Well if you look into the ways, the different ways that that magic is talked about in Tamriel it's often broken down into different types of magic. There is alteration, there's destruction, there's restoration and one type that's talked about is in various different ways and different times is called mysticism and mysticism, knowledge, understanding the basics of how everything works that's what the Psijiic Order is all about.

Bill: Yeah there are concerned with the eleven forces that make up reality.

Lawrence: And they know what those are and they've got names for all.

Bill: Then they didn't tell me, so we….

Lawrence: But yeah, we reveal certain of their secrets but many of them are retained, because they only need to tell you what you need to know in order to go out and actively deal with the threats that they have detected.

Gina: So the, if you look on the Psijiic robes there's this really cool sort of eye talisman, on the robes.

Lawrence: Right often right in the sternum you know right here in the their chests yep.

Gina: Yep, what is that?

Bill: We will tell you in the adventures in the the quest that the Psijiics watch Tamriel through their scrying portals or pools, they are very much the master scriers of the world and they,  that's kind of 'we see everything'.

Gina: It's like Santa.

Lawrence: And yeah, you can get to earn the right.

Bill: They know that somebody's been bad which is why they come back to Tamriel in our storyline.

Gina: So you be good for goodness sake.

Lawrence: That's right.

Gina: Moving on. So we've heard a lot about the eleven forces of the Psijiic Order. Are you able to elaborate on what those eleven forces are?

Lawrence: Well, you can see some of them in action in the new Psijiic skill line, which you can earn access to and you can, you know there there are certain books in the game, lorebooks that will tell you the names of some of the forces and those will line up with some of the things in the skill line, so it's kind of a puzzle for you to figure out, you know what, which are the which forces are you entitled to gain access to  and what are they used for, but we don't really go into, you know just laying out here's how everything is Bing Bing Bing. 

[Omitted filler content]

Psijiics like to keep their secrets and we like to let you sort of tease them out of the of the content.

[Omitted filler content]

Gina: That sky was crazy, what you were just looking at, is it basically like you are in here and nothing is getting out. Is that what's happening?

Lawrence: More to the point nothing's getting in, until they do, which is part of the problems that you have to deal. Well you know, when something is right everything's gonna go wrong so otherwise there's no game. 

Gina: It is like Clockwork City.

Jessica: Yeah. So, what is this up here that we're going to.

Bill: This is the Old College, from when they were much more active in the world. That's the ruins of the College of the Psjiics. There are vaults in here that where they holds relics and artifacts from bygone times and you'll be going in there with the Ritemaster at some point for reasons.

[Omitted filler content]

Lawrence: The Psijiics have a lot things, a lot of stuff that is really dangerous or potentially dangerous. Those kinds of relics are the sorts of things that the Psijiics will squirrel away in their reliquariums.

Bill: And not just to protect them but also to study them and figure out how they work. Flying books.

Lawrence: Because if you could make your books fly you would.

Crystal Tower
Gina: I would. Somebody who was asking earlier in chat if you could explain a little bit the lore behind the Crystal Tower.

Lawrence: Well, the Crystal Tower is one of the the very earliest and most important architectural structures on Summerset.

Gina: And that's different from Ceporah Tower?

Lawrence: That's different from Ceporah Tower. It sits on Summerset.

Bill: It's in the northern region.

Lawrence: Yeah.

Bill: Not far from Lillandril for as a matter of fact.

Lawrence: Yes and it's…. The reason it's not far from Lillandril is because it's the it's the main area where the it's run by the Sapiarchs and it's where they have a lot of their their studies areas their laboratories, their libraries and they it's also like a lot of the great magical towers of Tamriel it's a mystical focus for magic of all sorts and so when they're doing their magical experiments and
investigations, they want to do it from from the Crystal Tower because it enables them to have more energy and focus in what they're doing.

Bill: There are all kinds of legends and stories associated with the Crystal Tower. Many believe that as long as the Crystal Tower stands Summerset and the High Elves will always be protected.

Lawrence: But that's, that really falls into the area of myth and legend and you will learn a bit about the, what what this Crystal Tower is really all about as you go through the main quest, but we can't 

Gina: Can you actually go into it?

Bill: You will go into the Crystal Tower near the end of the quests.

Gina: Okay.

Lawrence: So we're not gonna go into detail about it because you need to go and do that main quest yourself.

Rellenthil
Jessica: Yes, agreed. So I can't remember if it was in the Lliandril or Rellenthil but I there's a group called the House of Reveries. They are pretty different from the other groups.

Bill: The House of Reveries is an entertainment troupe: playwrights, actors, entertainers of all sorts, they just as with everything else the High Elves seek perfection so these are the the top line entertainers trying to be perfect. 

Lawrence: So that, yeah that the Elves are, you know not just about magic, they're also about all the arts and crafts and among the arts is drama and theater and so the the House of Reveries are the leading dramaturges of of all the Altmer, and of course when you're an Altmer you are a member of a family and that is really important to your person and your self definition so if you're gonna be an actor and you're gonna pretend to be something you're not, you then have to, you know you don't want the features of your family to be associated with the story that you're telling, so them so the actors in the House of Reveries all wear masks.

Jessica: Yeah I noticed that.

Bill: And they take on new names so you'll only meet characters such as Enigma, Alchemy, Grand Maestro Forte there's the leader of the troupe. 

Lawrence: And this is all because if they're going to enact the roles of people other than themselves then they need to be separate from who they are as High Elves.

Bill: Here's their theatre, where some of the best plays in all of Tamriel are performed, at least according to the House of Reveries.

Lawrence: And you'll run into you'll also run into it in various places around Summerset you'll run into artists and poets and brewers and vintners, people who make Elven wine, everyone gardener's, growers there all of them attempting to perfect their art or craft in whatever it is that they do and if they and then you also run into those who have who have failed to do what they were what they were hoping or intending to do and in some way are therefore socially outcast, because they.

Bill: So they can find their way back to perfection. 

Lawrence: Right.

Bill: It's a cycle.

Jessica: So is it because they've failed on their own measuers or on the society's?

Lawrence: Oh there are so many ways to fail if you're a High Elf.

Bill: And so it might be is as you know as easy as yes I know I fail to  as bad as the Divine Prosecution shows up and tells you you failed. And thats not something- 

Lawrence: Redeeming yourself could be a lot more work.

Bill: Yeah.

Lawrence: But you know one of the ways in which you redeem yourself if you become apraxic, outside of praxis is by making something perfect and figuring out how and what you need to make in order to redeem yourself.

Jessica: Who judges the perfection?

Lawrence: Well you know this is why we have these Sapiarchs in all the differnet in all the different professions and specialties because they are the arbiters at the end of the day for the culture of the High Elves for what is moving in the direction of perfection in all of these different areas.

Jessica: So you could say I bake these cookies are these perfect cookies?

Lawrence: Or are they more perfect than last year's cookies, you know, yeah.

Jessica: Oh that's pretty right there, is that a greenhouse?