The College of Winterhold

Skyrim is a land renowned for its frozen peaks and harsh storms, but one cannot truly appreciate what it means to be of this land until they have weathered the jagged shores battered by the Sea of Ghosts. Glaciers drift in the frozen fog as massive ice sheets pretend at being land — until they crack upon and plunge the unwary wanderer into a fathomless frozen sea. It is upon these shores that myth and memory are preserved, almost drawing out from the Ghosts what memories they retain of ancient Atmora, and are safeguarded at the College of Winterhold.

The College traces its history to the Cleverfolk, the shamans and spellsingers of the ancient Nords, and the worship of the Nordic Owl Totem. Though now mistrusted by the denizens of Skyrim, a great many Nords still hone their Craft under the watchful gaze of Jhunal, and are more than willing to impart their history and knowledge upon the stranger and foreigner alike. Many former Mage’s Guild neophytes have been drawn to Winterhold out of curiosity, as the philosophies of spellwork found within — the perception of magicka as a force of nature — are vastly different from the more manufactured and Aetheric teachings of Vanus Galerion.

However, the true depth of this ancient land’s mystical history cannot be contained within the walls of a reliquary; the history lives on in the wilds of Skyrim, continued in its living praxis by hedgewitches and Ternion monks and everything in between. Nords of today still live in the long shadows of their ancestors, and while few may wish to give it the respect it deserves, the Clever Craft dies in name alone, for its lessons are evergreen.