HAA: Second Era Reconstruction, Sunbirds, Ada-Mantia

This is the second part of the History of Altmeri Architecture extracts, which will be titled more like this one from now on. This it the first part.

[You open the book to a chapter on the numerous repairs and partial reconstructions to Alinor’s Crystal Tower.]

… Resulting in a huge gash on the eastern side, which left nearly a third of the Tower’s base missing and parts of the mid-section damaged beyond repair. From the consequent imbalance, the upper half leaned eastwards, threatening to come crashing down at any moment. This meant that huge sections of Crystal Tower needed to be demolished and rebuilt. The sack of Alinor brought the greatest destruction to the Crystal Tower in history, short of the sheer demolition that occurred at the hands of the Daedra over a thousand years later.

In fact, the War of Uvichil left the Tower in such a state that several scholars have pushed the idea of a formal distinction between pre-Uvichil and post-Uvichil Crystal-Like-Law. The most popular contradiction to this proposal is that post-Uvichil efforts intended solely to restore the Tower to its exact state before the war, and thus should not prompt a distinction. While integrity to the original form was the foremost aim of reconstruction (as noted by comparing the design documents in Figures B and C), and changes were scarce, changes there were nonetheless. These even went beyond advancements to the purely functional, hidden internal structure. Some nuanced features of the Tower were more than mere memories of old. The discerning eye will find subtle remnants of the early Second Era in the post-Uvichil facades. Particularly the leaning upper half, demolished entirely and rebuilt without any remaining structure to mimic, exhibits aesthetic adjustments (Fig. D).

ON THE SUNBIRD

There is a paradox in analysing the architectural influences of Crystal Tower’s Second Era reconstruction. This is because the main influence, the Altmeri Sunbird, can be considered both contemporary and ancient; both local and foreign.

Sunbirds of the Second Era had changed little since the First. In the First Era, Clan Direnni played a cardinal role in the construction of Altmeri Sunbirds. Some of the largest and most intact launching pads of the First and Second Eras are located in High Rock, many in the Bankorai region and Dragontail Mountains (albeit largely underground after several earthquakes and avalanches). Certain historical Sunbirds too, such as ACAD-SMIS Wing, are reported to be submerged in the mountainous landscape. While Sunbirds are known in the Third Dominion primarily as a Summerset affair, the most famous examples were created and launched from Direnni territory.

Naturally, Direnni origins bring to mind the greatest primordial structure in existence: Ada-Mantia. Ada-Mantia, the Adamantine Tower, the Ur-Tower … It is reflected in all towers and all voidships, which equally represent the frustration of Tamrielic engineers in their endeavors to replicate the impossible geometry of Convention. Direnni-made Sunbirds were modeled after Ada-Mantia, and aspects of the revived Crystal Tower were modeled after Sunbirds.

Naming Ada-Mantia a primary factor in the Second Era reconstruction would imply that it was not so in the original Merethic, and this is far from the case. Ada-Mantia can be taken for granted as the precedent for all tower-like structures. Rather, one distinguishes Merethic Towers and Direnni Sunbirds as two branches of the Ur-Tower’s influence. In the case of Crystal Tower, instead of the branch of architecture deviating further and further from shipbuilding, it borrowed aesthetic details from it. In a way that the original had not, post-Uvichil Crystal-Like-Law displayed both the Second Era and the Zero, both possibility and impossibility, both contemporary Sunbirds and Ada-Mantia. The result was something unequivocally Altmeri.

ON THE WING MOTIF

One of the most enduring examples of contemporary influence, lasting until the Oblivion Crisis, was the use of insect wings on the mid and upper-tier reliefs, as well as the stained glass windows (Figures E and F). This feature represented a uniquely Altmeri addition to Sunbirds, as the Adamantine Tower lacked any kind of animal motifs. The apex of the wing is most often seen pointing downwards, connoting an action of upward flight. It should be noted that the new Reconstruction is planned to include avian wings rather than insectoid, representing …

[The book continues to describe the influences of voidships on the Second Era reconstruction.]

I'm not an architect by the way, so if anybody thinks some of the information here is dubious then I'd like to hear.