How Nords Invented Staves

Now when I say staves I don't mean any ordinary piece of wood I mean the magic ones. Magic Staves, powerful tools of wizards and warlocks all over Tamriel and one of the many great inventions made by Nords.

Magic Staves are essentially sticks that have a magical spell imbued within them. This allows those without much magical appititude to be able to use spells which they would normally be unable to cast. The High Elves claim that they invented these staves in the made up land of Aldmeris, but why would Elves need staves , staves help those who lack magical ability and if there is one thing High Elves have then that's magical ability. Us Nords however rarely use magic and so aren't as well attuned to the ways of Jhunal. If a Nord wants to cast a spell they will most likely need something to help with that. Saying Elves need help with magic is like saying Nords need help with killing Elves. For any of you unfamiliar with Nords, Killing Elves has been our speciality for thousands of years.

It was the legendary Atmoran woodworker Wulfdis Wood-Whisperer who made the first magical staff. Even when we lived in Atmora we fought with Elves and it was during this conflict that the discovery was made. During the war Elven cowards would often kill spriggans in order to insult Kyne. Despite the tree-daughters of Kyne' s powerful nature magic many spriggans died to the foul flames of the Elves. Dismayed at this slaughter Wulfdis prayed to Kyne and begged her for aid in the struggle to save the spriggans. Hearing his pleas, Kyne gave him a great Taproot, like those found in spriggans. She instructed him to bury the Taproot in good soil and that soon he would have the tools to end the massacre being committed against the daughters of Kyne.

Two days later Wulfdis returned to the spot where he had planted the Taproot and to his surprise be found a fully grown tree. The trees branches had grown unnaturally straight and when Wulfdis investigated this, he found the branches fell from the tree with the lightest of touches. As he stood, pondering the power of this tool, a lone elf assassin slowly approached from behind. Wulfdis turned to a face the coward but was without his axe and so he wildly swung the branch at the encroaching elf. A barrage of flame leapt from the branch and immolted the Elf where he stood. Staring at the pile if ash before him , Wulfdis now understood the power of Kyne's gift. Taking as many branches as he could carry he brought them to the clever men of Jhunal who studied the workings of the staves. Soon the Clever Men presented the armies of Shor with a great many staves with all manner of spells imbued within them. These staves were used to drive the Elves away from Kyne s precious woods and earned Wulfdis his legendary reputation. Wulfdis would go on to master the art of crafting these staves and along with the Clever Men designed more powerful varieties that no longer needed wood from the Taproot Tree. Powerful runes and symbols carved in the wood focussed the powers of the magicka stored within and gave the Nords a powerful new weapon in the War against the children of Auriel. Unfortunately many of the original Taproot staves were lost in the various wars of the past few thousand years, though they are occasionally found in ancient Nordic Barrows. A number of these staves are located in the College Of Winterhold, and some particularly old clans claim to still be in possession of staves presented to their ancestors in Atmora.

The rest, as they say is history, and now all of Tamriel reaps the benefits of Nordic Ingenuity. Unfortunately some dark wizards have corrupted staves which can be used to animate the dead, such foul objects were most likely created by the Reachmen. Such barbaric practices are below us Nords and are likely tools of cowards like those who hide in the mountains of the Reach.

So there you have it. Staves are a blessing from Kyne, which us Nords have used for centuries. It is unfortunate that us Nords rarely get credit for the great discoveries of our ancestors and are only seen as drunks. I hope to have rectified that belief with this book.

Eorlund Quick-Arrow

Riften