The Unearthing of Kardala Content . It is a source of no small irony to me that the discovery for which I am most likely to be remembered is the so - called Ruins of Kardala , which I found purely by accident when I was still an apprentice . I spent that year ( the hundred and first of the Second Era ) in the company of a small guild sequestered in the foothills of the Dragontail Mountains . I call the group a guild for lack of a better term . They lived much like priests in a religious order , sharing everything and spending many hours of each day buried in books . But to call them priests would seem to suggest that they were in some way reverent , which they were not . Late into most nights , we stayed awake drinking and telling bawdy tales — even the oldest members of the order joined in . Yet guild is not quite an accurate term , either . It suggests uniformity , and these men and women from across Tamriel were a motley bunch , a patchwork of young and old , educated and dullards . They argued constantly , in the most friendly fashion , calling each other names one moment and then laughing the next . They could not even agree on what the order was called . The older members insisted on the elaborate and archaic " Esteemed Order of the Observers of the Celestial Motions and Portents , " while younger members preferred the simple and evocative name " Star - Gazers . " A singular concern united the group . They shared a complete devotion to the study of the stars and the meaning of their motions , and that was the reason I had come among their number in that year of my apprenticeship . I , too , had a fascination with the heavens , and I hoped to benefit as much as I could from the breadth of their knowledge in order to further my own inquiries into the relationship of the stars to the properties of magic . Here , I must confess , that my time spent with the Star - Gazers did much to open my young eyes . After the first few months I sank into a deep depression , realizing that my interest in the relationship of the constellations to magic had already been thoroughly explored in a manner that seemed to be utterly complete . An apprentice such as myself could spend a lifetime reading what had already been written and in the end have not a single word of my own to contribute . However , as I spent more time in my study and among the Star - Gazers , I learned that there were many questions yet to be answered about the stars themselves . For all we understand about the workings of magic , we know very little about the workings of the heavens themselves . In fact , the more prosaic the question appears at first glance , the more likely it is that the answer yet eludes us . Just as I thought that all questions had been answered and there was no hope , I became energized once more by a flood of questions , each more startling than the last . Indeed , for all the knowledge that the great scholars had brought to their theories of magic , they could not answer how it is that the Mundus Stone came to be , or by what trickery the Serpent slips across the sky , knowing no season . In fact , I soon realized that not one of the three great scholars of magic had ever set foot in Craglorn . How they could ignore the place where the Nedes once worshiped the stars and set the Mundus Stones in their foundations , I would never understand . It was through this realization that Kardala was discovered . Energized by the thought of reaching new conclusions through first - hand observation , I entreated my very willing hosts to guide me into the desert . I hoped to study the Mundus Stones of the Lord , the Lady , and the Steed and find something new . Several books on the subject of Kardala have flattered me by embellishing history . They claim that by examining these Mundus Stones of the Warrior ' s charges , I surmised from their configuration that there must be another Mundus Stone connected to the Warrior within sight of the three stones . This could not be further from the truth . While we were on our journey through the desert , I had consumed a great deal of water to fortify my health . As is known to happen , that water had to go somewhere . I excused myself , stepping just a little off the road , and let nature run its course . On my way back to my colleagues I became disoriented , and as I struggled to find the road a loose stone slipped beneath my foot . I fell back and avoided falling into the crack that broke open beneath me , revealing the entrance to Kardala . Naturally , my companions were excited beyond words . I credit them with some of the misinformation that has spread about Kardala ' s discovery . In fact , I never would have made the discovery without their willingness to guide me into the desert that day .