On Latasine

Note: This was an old text I wrote and never completed. Since the weekly theme is architecture, I decided to dust this off, and accidentally got into a writing spree that resulted in a whole buttload of Altmeri works. Enjoy.

Summerset Isle can be said to be the only place in Tamriel where the art of enchantment is commonplace. While enchantments in other provinces tend to be exclusively used by nobles or warriors, the common Altmer city-dweller sees using magical lights that turn on or off at his command and cooks with an oven that relies on no fuel. While the other races rely on soul gems for enchantments, the Altmer have come to use an even more remarkable crystal that they know as Latasine, "light-breaker" in the Altmeris.

Latasine is commonly believed to be an artificial material, although its origins are jealously guarded by the Altmeri artisan caste, to the point that it is said those who share such secrets are punished by having their tongues cut off (some claim this secrecy has resulted in Latasine-craft becoming a dying art, though the artisans bitterly deny such claims). It has the remarkable property of filtering magicka from sun and star light, dividing the light into its component colors in the process. Legend claims the substance was first created to build the tower of Crystal-Like-Law, and to this day its primary application is in construction of the radiant prism-towers that form the cities of the Summersets. Filtered magicka is stored within their buildings, and used to power magical appliances. Any excess energy is redirected through the network of magicka channels known as Varlines, which are used to provide power to rural villages that lack such arcanoarchitecture. This of course has the result of many Altmeri magical goods being worthless outside the Isles, as they are utterly dependent on a connection to Latasine to function and cannot be fueled by soul gems. The Altmer, in their typical elitism, pay this little mind, reasoning that outsiders do not deserve such luxuries in the first place.

Latasine buildings supply not only luxuries, but defence. The magics within them can be harnessed by battlemages to cast spells of great destruction. This power has been vital in the countless times the Summersets have been invaded by the Sload and Maormer. Indeed, some say that the reputation of High Elven defenses was such that Tiber Septim sought to use the Numidium because he thought he had no other way of besting them.