The Works of Cedrus Biencel - Volume I, Section I: On Theories and Schools

Preface

Cedrus Biencel was an esteemed scholar of Alteration that attended and later taught at the College of Winterhold before apparently perishing during a house fire. His home in Winterhold was burned to the ground, and he was presumed dead after the events following the discovery and subsequent disappearance of the Eye and Staff of Magnus. However, reports followed for long years afterwards that a person matching his description and exceptional magickal talents was sighted in the Thieves' Guild of Riften's ranks, and later near a small cave in Whiterun Hold.

I found this small cave after following several false trails, and gained access to Cedrus' former abode after he fled Winterhold. He left a long series of journals and essays, along with a vast treasure trove of powerful magickal artifacts, which have been returned to the College. Among these treasures was, astonishingly enough, an Elder Scroll, which vanished from the College's vaults shortly after its recovery and has not been located to this day.

Cedrus was considered the leading authority on Alteration magicks and the history of ancient legends such as Shalidor the First Arch-Mage, Vanus Galerion, and several other major figures. He was quite famous for debunking the various myths surrounding the works of Galerion, who wrote under the pseudonym "Trechtus" in the works concerned, and providing the scholarly community with several valuable works concerning Galerion's and his own research.

After I discovered his secret sanctum and verified that it was indeed Biencel who had lived there, I brought it to the attention of Arch-Mage Tolfdir, the direct successor of Former Arch-Mage Savos Aren, who commissioned a translation of Biencel's works from the varying Aldmeris, Daedric, Draconic, and Ancient Falmeris scripts into the Cyrod-Nordic tongue spoken in northwestern Skyrim. Biencel's essays are considered the foremost scholarly papers on the school of Alteration to date, and are used in advanced studies at the College of Winterhold concerning Alteration.

Upon speaking with associates of the Thieves' Guild after Biencel's second disappearance, this time from the Guild, they quite bluntly stated that he was secretive, and never deigned to show his face unless he was quite sure that only trustworthy Guild members were present. It was not until the betrayal of Mercer Frey (which took me a great deal of time to uncover and is discussed at length in "The Return to Glory") that Biencel demonstrated any measure of power to his associates, although the senior members of the Guild suspected that he had much more skill with the magical arts than he let on.

"He would always take a job that should have easily had him two weeks in transit, then return within days," an anonymous source said. "He'd take the contract from me, and be back in the blink of an eye. It was uncanny."

Some of Cedrus' research concerned branches of Alteration that the College couldn't and wouldn't sanction, and as such, he was forced to pursue these avenues in the utmost secrecy to avoid expulsion and arrest. When they were translated and given to Urag gro-Shub, the College's librarian and loremaster, the subjects were deigned to have more academic value than moral weight, and they were allowed to be taught, albeit in advanced classes only.

Cedrus did not divide his works into separate volumes, as they are presented here; instead, he wrote his notes in paragraphs, often switching from one experiment to the next with breakneck speed. He also alternated between Falmeris, Aldmersi, Daedric, and Draconic scripts, effectively encoding his notes to the point where even he had trouble reading them. For your reading convenience, I have organized his seventy-two tomes of research into seven separate volumes. They are as follows, and works whose bans were repealed are marked with asterisks:

> Volume I: On The Nature of Alteration

> Volume II: On The Nature of Magicka And Its Application

> Volume III: On The Nature of Space and Time

> Volume IV: On The Nature of Oblivion and Other Otherworldly Realms*

> Volume V: On The Nature of Deities

> Volume VI: On The Nature of Teleportation And Its Consequences*

> Volume VII: On The Nature of Souls*

The following works were not approved for general usage inside the College, and are kept out of students' hands for their own safety. The works that can be checked out upon request by a professor or alumni are marked with asterisks:

> Volume VIII: On The Nature of Daedra*

> Volume IX: On The Nature of Soul Transferrance And Unbodied Existence

> Volume X: On The Nature of Undeath And Death

> Volume XI: On The Nature of The Dragons*

> Volume XII: On The Nature of Arcane Alchemy

> Volume XIII: On The Nature of Blood And Its Properties

> Volume IXV: On The Nature of (the word is unclear, as it is a blend of Aldmeris and Daedric; the closest translation is 'Traits Passed Down Through Reproduction.')

Cedrus's last resting place was very nearly impossible to find, and even more difficult to gain access to. He performed a feat of magick that blended Alteration and Conjuration, as he was quite fond of doing, and that feat is suspected to have been partially enabled by the Elder Scroll he possessed. Cedrus carved out a piece of Oblivion for himself, and fortified it against all outward influence. From his last journals, it was clear that he had contracted some manner of disease which he was unable to cure, even with his mastery of the alchemical arts, and wished to present a test to those wishing to learn from him posthumously, as well as protect his remains from enterprising necromancers.

He left clues as to how perform the ritual to access his plane of Oblivion, nicknamed "Biencelvald" (Biencel's Tomb) by his former colleague, Onmund Gastovsson. After nearly a year of toil and errors, I succeeded in creating a portal to Biencelvald, and found the final resting place of the greatest scholar of the Fourth Era. His tomb had but a single poem of Draconic that translates thusly;

> Here lies a man who saw the world and laughed,

> And who loved nothing more than his craft.

> Here lies a scholar, a husband, a father,

> Who went through his life suffering no trivial bothers.

> He changed all that he saw to be to his liking,

> And tolerated no laws or edicts of kings.

> And when he met his final doom,

> He had made a rather unique tomb,

> Aptly making an epitaph for himself;

> Here lies a man; not an elf.

Please let the reader be aware that no records of Biencel having romantic relations with anybody exists, nor of having any heirs, although it is likely he destroyed any evidence for fear of what monstrosities the Daedric Lords would commit in their wrath at having a piece of their space-time stolen.

If any heirs of Cedrus Biencel still remain alive, then let it be known that the original works of your ancestor are by birthright yours, and all of his possessions (excluding the Staff of Magnus, which is needed for study by and protection of the College of Winterhold) as well. You simply must speak with the current Arch-Mage or loremaster and they will present you with all of your ancestor's items, as well as a stable gate to visit your ancestor's grave. Please bring proof of the veracity of your lineage.

Brelyna Maryon, Professor of Alteration at the College of Winterhold, 4E 265

Volume One - On The Nature of Alteration

On Theories and Schools

Alteration, as it is defined by The Mage's Almanac, is a school of magic in which the user must accept that reality is a falsehood, or at least a mutable thing. To use Alteration is to alter the very fabric of reality in ways that no other school of magic can. In a way, Alteration encompasses all other schools, for it seeks to do a little of what they all do.

Restoration magics seek to create more of some living matter and dissolve the powers of necromancy that hold the undead. In short, it takes living tissues and fuels the already-present but painstaking regeneration with magicka, granting the flesh energy it would not otherwise have to heal itself. In the case of the undead, they are fuelled by energies not unlike magicka, but which are separate nonetheless, and are disrupted greatly by it. Alteration does this as well; it can cause tissues to speed their regeneration by altering what fluids move throughout the body, and at what speeds, causing wounds to close much faster than they would ordinarily.

Destruction magics seek to rend that which already exists. They take raw magical energies and convert it into the raw forces of nature that are already present. One of the questions I presented to my students of Destruction was, "What are your flames burning?" I do not mean when they were in use, for that was hopefully the caster's target, but what they were burning when they were at rest in my students' hands. The answer is not the air, or the caster's palm. The answer is magicka. The energies spark flames, and those flames (which are not technically magical in and of themselves, but acquire magical traits from their fuel source) burn the magicka to remain in existence. When a Destruction mage sends a wave of fire towards his opponents, he is directing burning magicka towards them. This obviously requires great control to be exerted over your own powers, a trait not many can truly boast to possess. Alteration can spark flames, decrease air pressure in a localized area to produce bitter cold, or harness the peculiar phenomenon of static lightning to generate these effects, and many more besides, but this also requires immense mastery of your mind and body.

Illusion magics seek to change the outward, superficial appearance of something that already exists. While Alteration can also produce these powers, it can also do that which Illusion cannot; it can modify the basic traits of an object, or in the cases of the most venerated masters, create objects from nothing (or what appears to be nothing). One does not need to be invisible if he is a cloud of particles, and one does not need to charm or frighten his foes if he plays with the fabric of their memories.

Conjuration is perhaps the only other school of magic that can distinguish itself from Alteration without a protracted argument and analysis. Instead of producing an illusion of something, it bends the fabrics of space to bring one thing (or several) from another place. Alteration can do much of the same, but it cannot pierce the realms that lie outside our own without assistance from Conjuration. In many, many ways, the two schools are complimentary, and it is baffling why they are almost never taught in tandem. A master of Conjuration and Alteration could conceivably move between Mundus, Oblivion, and whatever other uncharted worlds lie beyond with relative ease. Alteration and Conjuration are twin brothers, and to use one, you must understand the other.

There are many theories presented on the concept of using Alteration, but my mantra is thus; "To become a mage of Alteration, one must not accept that reality is a falsehood, but accept that every rule that governs it is in question." Rules like gravity, light, and sound are changed in the school of Alteration, and the masters are said to transcend the limits of their mortal forms, having modified the very laws which govern life itself. I do not speak of lichdom or any other sort of undeath; rather, I speak of a consciousness that no longer needs a physical anchor to remain. The Augur of Dunlain, though he was not a willing participant, took a part in the unleashing of the mind from the body, and remains bodiless (and very much alive) to this day. When you are an Alterer, you and you alone are a god in your own right.