How are items enchanted? (Lore wise)

[Papi]

How are items enchated? Do they just write down a few daedric words on swords and helms? Do they speak incantations or cast spells on them???

[DrNewcenstein]

Not sure. I'm sure there's some sort of specific method to get the soul out of the gem and into the item. According to Pratus at Mzulft, it's possible to spend months enchanting something, so it has to be either a spell or incantation, maybe both? Clearly one has to know a spell before it can be enchanted, so I'd say casting is highly likely.

Daedric items come that way.

[Papi]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Not sure. I'm sure there's some sort of specific method to get the soul out of the gem and into the item. According to Pratus at Mzulft, it's possible to spend months enchanting something, so it has to be either a spell or incantation, maybe both? Clearly one has to know a spell before it can be enchanted, so I'd say casting is highly likely.

Daedric items come that way.

Thanks, Glad to know im not the only one curious about it <3

[Alliecienti]

In the Skyrim world:
The enchanting table is basically a conduit used to channel the magic in and out of items. You can only disenchant and enchant items while using one.
You find items already enchanted and disenchant them to learn the proper incantations to imbue that magic into another item.
You are basically dissecting the item and that is why it is destroyed.
Filled soul gems "power" the imbuing (kinda like being a battery to supply electricity if you will) and the stronger the soul gem used, the stronger the imbuing process will be.
Your skill level and perks will also increse the effect just as it does in any other skill.
You don't HAVE to know any other field of magic to do this and it IS a seperate school of magic that is very time and resource consuming to master.

[Sgt.Random♿]

The dragonborn farts on the weapon.

[DrNewcenstein]

Originally posted by Alliecienti:

In the Skyrim world:
The enchanting table is basically a conduit used to channel the magic in and out of items. You can only disenchant and enchant items while using one.
You find items already enchanted and disenchant them to learn the proper incantations to imbue that magic into another item.
You are basically dissecting the item and that is why it is destroyed.
Filled soul gems "power" the imbuing (kinda like being a battery to supply electricity if you will) and the stronger the soul gem used, the stronger the imbuing process will be.
Your skill level and perks will also increse the effect just as it does in any other skill.
You don't HAVE to know any other field of magic to do this and it IS a seperate school of magic that is very time and resource consuming to master.

He's asking more about the method from a Lore standpoint - do they etch runes on it, do they hit it with a spell, do they recite an incantation, fart on it, etc. How does the soul in the gem transfer to the weapon? Is this part of the Ideal Masters thing? Are soul gems a means to communicate with them, where you say "I'll give you this tasty soul if you'll put a flame enchantment on this sword" and they say "ok, but it's a rabbit's soul, so you're only getting like 2 points of fire damage" and you're like "well, as long as it's enough to cut butter, because the blade is so dull" and they're like "no probs".

[fauxpas]

I've always viewed it as casting the enchantment and using the power of a captured soul to burn said magic permanently into the item, with runes, ect being solely for decorations.

[Alliecienti]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Originally posted by Alliecienti:

In the Skyrim world:
The enchanting table is basically a conduit used to channel the magic in and out of items. You can only disenchant and enchant items while using one.
You find items already enchanted and disenchant them to learn the proper incantations to imbue that magic into another item.
You are basically dissecting the item and that is why it is destroyed.
Filled soul gems "power" the imbuing (kinda like being a battery to supply electricity if you will) and the stronger the soul gem used, the stronger the imbuing process will be.
Your skill level and perks will also increse the effect just as it does in any other skill.
You don't HAVE to know any other field of magic to do this and it IS a seperate school of magic that is very time and resource consuming to master.

He's asking more about the method from a Lore standpoint - do they etch runes on it, do they hit it with a spell, do they recite an incantation, fart on it, etc. How does the soul in the gem transfer to the weapon? Is this part of the Ideal Masters thing? Are soul gems a means to communicate with them, where you say "I'll give you this tasty soul if you'll put a flame enchantment on this sword" and they say "ok, but it's a rabbit's soul, so you're only getting like 2 points of fire damage" and you're like "well, as long as it's enough to cut butter, because the blade is so dull" and they're like "no probs".

I guess I wasn't entirely clear in my description.
The enchanting table provides the platform to dis enchant items. When you do so you learn the incantations as in knowledge of how it was put there. You then use this knowledge, fueled by the power of a filled soul gem to pass the enchantment onto the next item. That is why you are placing your hands on those specific spots of the table to tranfer that knowledge/magic of the enchantment into the item resting on the table between your hands. The soul gem is merely the catalyst or power and the greater it's power, the greater the enchantment is magnified.

I get this reasoning from how things have been created in magic realms ever since the paper, pencil and dice of table top D&D. It's not runes being inscribed in Skyrim, since you don't see them on most of the magical items out there.

[DrNewcenstein]

I can see the point about the enchanting table, but we didn't have one in Oblivion, you just needed to know the spell, and you needed the magetallow candles in an enchanting altar.
However, it was a locked 1st person screen, so you could very well have been casting the spell through the enchanting altar which acted as the conduit, as you say. Since we didn't get an idle marker for it then, there's no way to be sure, but what you say does make sense.


As for the runes being decoration, the only ones that have runes are Daedric items (disregarding Immersive Weapons' additions), even those without enchantments, so they would have either been etched into it during the forging ritual to bind the Daedra Heart to the Ebony, or they formed as a result of said ritual.

[Papi]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

I can see the point about the enchanting table, but we didn't have one in Oblivion, you just needed to know the spell, and you needed the magetallow candles in an enchanting altar.
However, it was a locked 1st person screen, so you could very well have been casting the spell through the enchanting altar which acted as the conduit, as you say. Since we didn't get an idle marker for it then, there's no way to be sure, but what you say does make sense.


As for the runes being decoration, the only ones that have runes are Daedric items (disregarding Immersive Weapons' additions), even those without enchantments, so they would have either been etched into it during the forging ritual to bind the Daedra Heart to the Ebony, or they formed as a result of said ritual.

But we have seen other magical runes, like Ayleid inscriptions, Dwemmer language and "Magic Script Alphabet"

[DrNewcenstein]

I've not noted any runes on any vanilla weapons other than "special" items. Then again, it has been a few years since I played Oblivion.

I recall light-up pedestals in Ayleid ruins, and of course doors with glowing trees etched into them.
Can't say I've seen any Dwarven weapons with runes or "magic script alphabet" markings on them in Skyrim, at least.
Certainly they have decorative scrollwork, but nothing I could point to and call "writing".

And now that I look through with Nifskope, I can't find any vanilla weapons with any sort of markings that one could clearly identify as "writing", even on Daedric. Lots of decorative scrollwork, but no lettering or runes.
Guess I musta been thinking of Immersive Weapons after all.

[Rez Elwin]

The way enchanting works in this game is simple. You use a soul gem which is sacrificed to the Ideal Masters which in turn grant you power, a dwindling power so you keep feeding them more and more souls. The more skilled you are the more power you can tap into but it all comes from the Ideal masters value of a soul. They like strong souls so Black and grand souls are the best but they want power more than anything so they will accept any souls offered, even partial ones.

Not quite sure how disenchanting works but I do have a theory. When you find an enchanted weapon you can sacrifice it, and in turn return all the power back to the ideal master and in doing so they impart knowledge unto you hoping that you will then use it to give them more souls. They basically use everyone they can to get all the souls they can.

Daedric Artifacts are different though, each artifact is created and powered by its respective prince. Like the Princes the Ideal Masters have their own realm they control completely but they are not dearda, they would never give somebody something for a one time deal. Also Daedric Artifacts always seem to find their way back to their creators, enchanted weapons can be lost in cave for hundreds of years.

[DrNewcenstein]

Seems legit.

[Alliecienti]

Runic Magick does exist in other Realms but not in Skyrim per se. It would another entriely different school of magic to study as the runes could in essence be inscribed on anything such as mentioned, a door or doorway.

Magical scripts appear in Skyrim in the form of the Elder Scrolls and spell scrolls. You the player character Dragonborn....do not get to posess the skill to create those types of things. There is one exception in the device that creates the varied magical spider scrolls (flame, frost and shock) that comes with the Dragonborn DLC.

Following the notion that the enchanting power comes from the Ideal Masters still reguards the enchnting table as the conduit used to access them since it is always required to either enchant or disenchant items in Skyrim.

In other games since the dawn of D&D onward, there have been a number of different senarios for making magical items including ritualistic labs required more like a cross between enchnting and conjuration since those games didn't require soul gems. Old fashioned D&D required a mage of sufficient level to actually be with the smith forging say a sword, and casting the incantations as the sword is created. A long lengthy process that wasn't always successful. Skyrim actually simplified those earlier methods and cut the space requirement down to a small table instead of a whole room.