[Apocrypha] Ayleids And Colour Theory

Note: part one of two - second part will be a little more obviously lore related

It has long been my contention that there is great wisdom to be harvested from dreams, if we only have the wit to seize it.

I my case, I have awoken from a particularly striking dream. It involved cards bearing symbols of apparent occult significance. Od the symbols themselves i can recall little, but I do recall attempting to adapt one to a new purpose, creating a new version based around a carmine hue rather than the somewhat glacial blue of the original. In my dream, I sent my revised design to many of my associates. Almost al of them were returned with criticism. Some complained that I had not adequately amended the symbology to reflect the colour (in my dream I acknowledged this lack) but far more were concerned with the shade I had chosen. Apparently it was not enough to tint a design with red - it seems the precise shade is also significant

At this I awoke in the night, greatly struck by this notion. That colours have magical significance is not greatly controversial. Even the meanest commoner on the streets of Balmora will recognise some basic correspondences: red for conflict, green for nurture, white for purity, and so forth. Among the wise, other, more sophisticated schemes are used, with correspondences tied to the plane(t)s and to other arcana. But nowhere had I seen any system encompassing the precision of my dream

And then I remembered an episode from my youth. To explain fully, I fear must digress into autobiography.

I was born in the slums of Bravil and, were it not for Uriel Septim's curious policy of resettling Vvardenfel with bastards sharing a common birthday, I would most certainly have died there. In between times I did most of the usual things that might be expected of someone born into my social class; I learned to sneak, steal, spy and commit murder. And in-between times I developed a certain fascination with Ayleid ruins.

Ayleid ruins fall into three broad categories. Some have been looted and scoured until all trace of the original owners has been expunged. These places are generally infested with outlaws. During my misspent youth I gained a degree of familiarity with these.

The second sort are those cases where the ayleid influence has been weakened, but where the ruin itself still acts as a focus for magical energies. In those cases the ruins attract nature spirits and their allies. Imps primarily, but the full range from rats and mudcrabs to trolls and spriggans have been recorded. The nearest ruin to Bravil, Anutwyll, is one of those. As children we would dare one another to tease the imps that invariably guarded the door to the crypt, vying to see how close we could get before running and dodging the fire and lightning. Later when my interests turned to more arcane matters I would use those same skills to draw mana from the Ayleid well.

In the third sort of Ayleid ruin, the original inhabitants are still very much in evidence, and the stones are haunted, both by Ayleid ghosts and by those who thought to plunder the city of welkyn stones. These places are also of interest to necromancers who desire to learn from the spirits of the lost "wild elves" of Cyrodiil. It was in that capacity that I came to Bawn.

Now at this point, I can surmise what some of my readers are thinking. "Oh! A necromancer! We should not suffer such to live!" These are valid points, so let me address them now so that I may proceed with my account. Firstly, necromancy was not in fact illegal in Cyrodiil at the time of my account. Secondly, I have refrained from such activities in Morrowind where they are illegal. Thirdly, any magical acts that may in fact have been contravened the law are covered by Uriel's pardon granted on my forcible relocation to Vvardenfel. All this notwithstanding, there are probably those among you who feel that justice has not been done and who are tempted to to take matters into your own hands. To you, I say only this: you are welcome to try. And with that out of the way, I shall return to my narrative.

So then, I came to Bawn as a fledgling necromancer. I had imagined a city filled with spirits any one of which would yield to my compulsions and lay bare the secrets of Ayleid magic. Of course what I found was a ruin filled with skeletons and zombies; the reanimated remains of those who had come before me. Even the ghosts I encountered were too far gone for meaningful discourse. Still I persisted and after much effort I succeeded in compelling an actual Ayleid spirit to converse with me.

So: after all that effort you can imagine my frustration when this demented spirit would only babble on about colour! The colours of rulers! The colours of advisors! The every court function had its own shade and every feather in every cloak had to be correct as a point of protocol! Imagine my misfortune: only one articulate spirit in the entire ruin and he turns out to be an interior designer!

And so it is only now, many decades later and prodded to realisation by disturbing dreams that I begin to wonder if there was a deeper message that the spirit sought to convey...

-- Misery, Telvanni