Guardian of the North: High Gate Ruins and Vokun
Imperial Scholar Lucius Flavius
After being granted access to the Ysmir Collective in the College of Winterhold, I have uncovered more evidence of yet another high ranking dragon priest located in the northern frozen fringes of the Pale. Our expedition determined that High Gate Ruins was the most likely location of this latest dragon priest. Vokun was the name associated with this ruin. I will offer translations later the report.
We have determined that High Gate Ruins is an elaborate tomb, one of size and grandeur befitting a dragon priest. Little evidence could be found to support the idea that this way anything more. While several areas of ruin had collapsed, limiting our access to the complete structure, we were struck by how this place was guarded and how far beneath the surface that the chambers reach. The first area we entered was a large chamber, and it seemingly served no other purpose than just being grandiose. Through some more passageways we had to be careful to avoid several spear traps, luckily one of our Nord guards spotted it before one of us could be skewed by it. We entered into an area that seemed to be a place of storage for alchemical supplies. From the look of some of the potions and ingredients it appeared that someone had been using this place as a hideout fairly recently. No potions or plants would have had any virtue left to them after all these centuries, if they hadn’t crumbled to dust already. Luckily no one had intruded further into the ruins. We encountered another puzzle trap that I have seen more and more of as my research into ancient Nordic locations continues. In this two level chamber, there were four pillars, two on the top level, and two on the bottom level. Now each pillar was had a level atop it, and each had the face of a different relief of an animal. In this ruin we found a whale, eagle, fox and a snake. In the middle of the floor was a covered passage, no doubt the way forward. We determined we’d have to pull these in the right order and it took us sometime to realize that on the wall above where we entered were more reliefs of animals in the order of eagle, whale, fox, snake. After pulling the levels in the correct order the passageway was uncovered.
After deceding deep into the ground we found another way forward, this time into a dimly lit section that we determined to be the catacombs. This area is what helped us determine that this place was simply a tomb, but a grand one at that. It seems as though these dragon priests were buried with their servants. Some have attributed this to be the height of pagan vanity to drag your servants to the grave with you, but it appears the priests were not without their reasons. It has been determined that this was another method of altering the priests life spans. Research on the draugr of Skyrim have determined that in several ruins these draugr act as a source of energy for the priest, as they continue to prostrate themselves before the coffin and continue to maintain the ruins. It seems like High Gate Ruin was built with this parasitic relationship in mind. In fact after winding our way through the tunnels and corridors of the catacombs we finally came to a large set of double doors that could not be mistakened as anything else but the entrance to a throne room.
Vokun’s throne room itself must reflect the one he held in life. Small sets of stairs lead up to the his sarcophagus on display in the middle of the room, surrounded by a myriad of candles and braziers. Again it appeared as if the lid had been thrown off by a terrific force and inside lay a set of armor, ash and Vokun’s eponymous mask. It had the exact same neutral appearance of all dragon priest masks but this one seemed to be made out of steel possessing almost a blue hue. Those of us who were adept in the magical arts determined that it would increase the wearer's natural talent in the schools of alteration, conjuration, and illusion. However none of us dared to don the mask itself. In the final chamber behind the throne room, we found another word wall, and I have done my best to translate.
And lo did mighty Heimverlund come from the brutal north, like a storm of unbridled vengeance from Sovngarde itself.
Along with commemorating fallen friends, it seems like these walls also commemorated events, those of good or ill. I have also determined the Tamrielic name of Vokun, “Shadow.” This seems appropriate given that his masks seems to benefit the more subtle magical arts. That as well as seeming to indicate the nature of the priest himself. It takes on a malevolent feeling, and that is much in line with what we know of the dragon priests of Tamriel. Vokun also seems to have carried out his burial in the fashion we are familiar with most dragon priests undertaking. Not to call him an average priest, but High Gate Ruins seems built for the sole purpose of warding off intruders and allowing his draugr minions to replenish his life energy. It seems to be a trend of all dragon priests and the inner circle to alter their lifespans and to plan their resurrection after death quite obsessively. We can conclude that Vokun was a successful dragon priest, rising to the ranks of the most powerful and was either rewarded with this elaborate tomb or had it constructed for himself. Either option shows that Vokun possessed much wealth and prestige.
Note: After we had completed our expedition of High Gate Ruins, we were approached by a woman named Anska who said she had explored the ruins with another explorer to find a scroll that detailed her family history all the way back to Ysgramor himself. For my fellow scholars it raised some interesting questions. We know now that the Return of the Companions predated the Dragon War but it is still unclear on how much time passed between the two events. Was Vokun related in some way to Ysgramor? Perhaps Vokun was one of the original number of the Five Hundred Companions? We will continue to investigate this and offer what answers we can.
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