The Elder Scrolls Onlineis known for its many deviations from the mainline installments of the franchise. One of the bigger deviations was how the game approached enchanting, using runes found in runestones, and this deviation might be hording a plethora of lore all on its own.
Runestones are quite mysterious from all angles, as not even the in-universe denizens ofThe Elder Scrolls Onlineknow where they came from. There are many suggestions about their power and origins, but they ultimately remain mysterious. However, it is possible they come from another world entirely.
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The Possible Origins of ESO’s Runestones
InThe Elder Scrolls Online, players can gather runestones to create glyphs to enchant their gear with. These runestones come in three different types: potency, aspect, and essence. By assembling each of the three types together, the player can create different kinds of enchantments. Each rune contains a phrase, which seemingly brings out a power dormant within the runes. An in-game book called “Words and Power” by Telenger the Artificer describes this by writing, “The full form, the complete expression, conveys magic.” Thisidea is explored in variousThe Elder Scrollsgames, with shouts fromThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimbeing a notable example.
This also brings up the question of where exactly these runestones are in games that take place later in the timeline fromESOlikeSkyrim. After all, runestones are noted by certain NPCs to be a much cheaper and easier method of producing enchantments than traditional methods. While it’s never explained where they went, it’s likely that runestones are an artificial relic of the past and therefore a finite resource. By the time of the laterTESinstallments, they were likely all used up, leading to a return to traditional enchanting methods. ButThe Elder Scrollsmay be hiding an interesting secretfor the unknown origins of these seemingly mundane objects.
Another in-game book by Telenger the Artificer gives players some hints on where exactly runestones came from. He notes two possibilities, with one being that they were created by an “Ayleid wizard’s experiment gone awry.” The other is more mysterious, noting that there are passages in a journal fromThe Elder Scrolls' Merethic erathat suggest runestones existed in Tamriel before the original Aldmer arrived there. The latter is likely the more believable, as it would be difficult to explain how exactly an experiment spawned the existence of runestones all over the continent, and even outside of it. It’s likely their history goes further back than that.
InThe Elder Scrolls, it is believed that the world exists in cycles. Once an iteration of the world has lived throughout its course, Alduin comes and consumes the world to reset it. This concept is referred to aKalpa inThe Elder Scrolls. With that said, sometimes things and people manage to survive through these Kalpas. The Redguard’s ancestors, the Yokudans, were said to have fled to a realm of Aetherius to escape the destruction of an ending Kalpa. It’s just as possible that runestones are a product of a civilization that came in a previous Kalpa, hence their existence in the Merethic era. Runestones even have an inscription of a dragon on them, which may very likely represent Alduin himself.
Though very little is confirmed outside of theories, runestones coming from a previous iteration of Nirn would explain many of their mysteries. This would be just one of the manysecrets thatThe Elder Scrollshides in the shadows.
The Elder Scrolls Onlineis available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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