The Path of Transcendence Content . Entry 1 : . My initial findings may have been inconclusive , but they set me on the path I will pursue until I achieve my goal or lie rotting in this cave . Either outcome will be a welcome respite from the days and nights I ' ve spent toiling without food , water , or any kind of companionship . A lesser mage would have fallen prey to madness by now , I ' m sure of it . But I am not a lesser mage ! Though they try in earnest , though their hearts and minds are true to the teachings of our great Sovereign , my fellow Necromancers lack the complete dedication required to achieve that ultimate of goals - - the state of lichdom . Not even Falcar himself can match my sheer tenacity , my unwillingness to accept failure on any level . That is why I , Celedaen , will soon join the ranks of the Worm Eremites , those servants favored by our sovereign above all others . I will sit with honor and obedience at his right hand while those fools in the Mages Guild grovel at my maggot - ridden feet ! Entry 2 : . Even the most pedestrian peasant fairy tale has long held that a lich must somehow remain bound to his soul , and that connection most commonly manifests itself as a transference of the spirit into an actual physical object . An urn , a sarcophagus , a crystal phial . . . One Khajiit fairy tale even tells of a lich who preserved his spirit in the severed head of a Wood Elf infant ! And these same peasants long comforted themselves with the belief that if they ever had the grave misfortune of facing a lich , they would need only find the vessel containing his spirit form and then destroy it , thus destroying the lich himself . Fools and their folklore ! True liches possess no such weakness ! Can one of the Sovereign ' s Worm Eremites be bested by shattering a glass vase ? The very notion is so absurd as to be comical . Yes , a Necromancer must transfer his soul into a physical vessel , but once that transference is complete , once the Necromancer has fully metamorphosed into his lich form , the vessel is inconsequential . But it ' s the process of this transference itself that has eluded me for so long . My soul remains bound to my earthly body , and nothing I have attempted has allowed me to free myself of this mortal coil and transcend to the state of lichdom I so dearly desire . Entry 3 : . Every tome I ' ve acquired , the volumes upon volumes of Necromantic discourse , all useless ! I have grown disgusted by the years of wasted life that have been poured into these so - called " essential " writings . Who in their right mind would ever wish to animate a month - dead Cyrodilic butterfly , or bring life to the rotting husk of a rare albino mud crab ? How many months have I wasted away in this cave ? And for what reason ? Ah , yes , I know ! I will resurrect an army of deformed goblin younglings and march on the White - Gold Tower itself ! That at least is in my reach ! My mind has become a cesspool of Necromantic waste , where reject spells and rituals compete for the honor of finally driving me completely insane . And still I am no closer to achieving my goal than I was when I first began this process . Am I losing faith in myself , in my discipline ? Perhaps I have been studying too hard . Many a night I have sacrificed my prayers to our Sovereign for one more experiment , one more incantation . What I need now is rest . Rest , and a state of tranquility , so that I may commune with our Sovereign and re - pledge my loyalty and devotion . For what answer will I find in some crumbling codex that could not be supplied by our great Sovereign himself ? Entry 4 : . The secret is mine ! So long I searched , so hard I toiled , but I was a fool ! I was right to forgo my studies for a more ardent devotion to prayer . Last night , as I sit in the throes of meditation , our great Sovereign did come to me ! He passed to me the knowledge I have sought for so long ! The secrets of transcendence were even more complex and arcane than even I could have imagined , and I will never transcribe them into any written work . Indeed , they have never been recorded ! All my months of solitude were for naught , as the secret I so desperately sought could only be obtained through direct communication with our great Sovereign himself . Soon I will walk the earth as a Worm Eremite , serving the Sovereign in a state of endless undeath ! Entry 5 : . Through the sacrifice of many innocents , the resurrection of many servants to aid me in my tasks , and the tireless performance of a nearly week - long ritual , I have completed construction of the Sands Of Resolve . The transcendence to full lichdom will not be immediate , however . The vessel has been crafted , but my energy force , my soul , must be fully transferred into it . Not even our Sovereign was quite certain how long this process would take , as it varies from one Necromancer to the next , based on many factors both physical and spiritual . One thing , however , is certain . This hourglass must never leave my possession until the transference is complete ! I grow more powerful every day , but in truth am more vulnerable than I ' ve ever been . If something were to happen to the Sands of Resolve , if the hourglass should somehow leave my person , the connection between soul and vessel would be severed . To think that my work , my life , could be eradicated so easily after I ' ve come so close to success is almost more than I can bear .