Brief World Idea

A number of large islands stretch from one end to the other breaking the seas up. Large mountains dot the landscape and forests cover the world. A few cultures exist both on land and under the sea, trade exists and alliances, the world is young and metal is uncommon. Lands are mostly ruled by kings and others who can take power by force, but magic is also strong with mages using trinkets to channel the powerful energies. In the shadows lurks the Watcher, a being of unknown origin and goals who works to sow corruption throughout the land.

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 12

The Butcher

Nightly pondering outside of Windhelm

Back in the Candlehearth Hall I was shocked to hear that Susanna was dead. The folks told me that she was murdered by a stranger just moments ago – and to make it worse: this murder wasn't the first! Several young women were already killed by “the butcher”, as they call the murderer, in the very same fashion. Everyone in the city I met was shocked. Most of course the young women, who were all afraid they might be next. I went to the scene of the crime and talked with the guard what they were going to do about this series of murders. The guard was just as clueless as I was. He actually seemed pretty embarrassed they weren't able to stop the butcher yet. But he explained me that the war with the imperials drained their numbers heavily, so they just didn't had the men to investigate. What a sad confession of inability.

I offered the guard my help in investigating the murders. Even though I had absolutely no idea what to do to find the butcher, I thought my help could at least do no harm.

I did ask the spectators which had gathered around the body if anyone has seen something. A guy called Calixto, who runs a little museum, said he saw a stranger running away. A beggar who was around too didn't see anything – how frustrating: I bet she must have been in earshot when it happened. If she were just a little bit closer, she might have seen all – or even alarm the guards to prevent the murder.

It started to snow and I aimlessly wandered through the city, looking suspiciously at everyone passing by. One of them could have been the butcher. Yet he was in total safety in his anonymity. How could I catch him if he just could have walked past me without me even knowing!

I wondered if the priest who was preparing Susanna's body for her burial has observed anything which could help. So I went to the Hall of Dead to talk with her. She was in the middle of her preparations already and told me she discovered very unusual wounds on the dead. It seems they were made with and old nordic enbalming tool – something she didn't expect anyone in the city to own or even know about.

Deep in thought I left the hall. When I returned to the place where they found Susanna, the guard pointed me at the traces of blood leading away. As if something was dragged from there. I followed the traces – I had the impression they were leading through half of the city! - until I came to an abandoned manor called Hjerim where they ended.

My next move was to head over to the Palace of Kings and ask steward Jorleif for access there. The key to the murders must be inside these walls.

Jorleif told me that the house in question is owned by Tova Shatter-Shield and is empty since her daughter was murdered. I found Tova at the marketplace. She was still devastated by the loss or her daughter, but I could convince her investigating Hjerim could solve the mystery.

I admit how surprised I was about myself finding me in the role of an investigator and when I entered the manor I was ready to kill the murderer on sight. It was empty though, expect a bit of furniture from its previous owner. When inspecting a closet though I noticed something special: its back wall could be moved to the side and suddenly I stood in blood and gore. Before me was a stone table soaked in blood, with body parts laying all over the place. How sick I felt seeing this horror! I barely didn't dared to inspect the scene, but in hindsight I'm glad I did. I found the butcher's journal and a kind of amulet between its pages. I don't want to get into details here, but it seemed that the murderer was attempting to perform a necromancy ritual in order to bring his sister back to life. It wasn't signed though, so I could only guess who might be that.

Shock and full of disgust I packed the book away and cleansed it with as many fireballs I could cast before I was exhausted. Its a wonder that not the whole building caught fire. Then I headed outside. I just needed some fresh air now.

Soon after I left Hjerim I ran into Viola Giordano who I showed the journal, hoping she would know anyone who might be able to perform such ritual. She immediately pointed me at Wuuferth.

I decided to go and question him about the murders on my own, despite her telling me that I should talk to the Steward first. I needed some kind of proof at least.

On the look-out for the butcher.

Against my concerns Wuufherth didn't start to send zombies after me or tried to shock me to death. To the contrary: he was appalled but my findings just as I was. I also showed him the amulet which he identified as a necromancer's talisman. Since necromancy was involved, he told me, he could determine when the next murder was due to happen. It was tonight!

Part of me was wondering if he just sent me on a false track as I snug myself into a dark corner in the Stone Quarter and waited for the nightfall.

Sneaking through the Stone-Quarter

A long time nothing at all did happen. Guards were passing by, the occasional local, but no-one was even getting close to Hjerim. After waiting a few hours I started to wonder if I'm really at the right place. I left my hideout to warm up my stiff muscles, stretched myself and began to walk around towards the marketplace. Suddenly I heard the scream of a woman and then saw that guy Calixto running away from her. I followed him and hit him with an ice-spike in order to slow him down. He eventually turned around and tried to attack me with his dagger but I nailed him to the ground with my ice-magic. It was over – the butcher was dead. I found the key to his house in his pockets, went there and indeed uncovered another part of his journal. That was my proof.

The next morning I headed to Jorleif and explained him the case.

After this was solved I stayed in Windhelm a little longer, but I felt I needed to see something new. At least I needed to get my thoughts away from these gruesome murders. I bought a magic amulet which was both very useful but also very expensive, so I had a good excuse to get out into the wild again and collect some herbs and perhaps discover a few caves too.

I left the city to the south into the warmer and geologically active south of the Eastmarch. I was wandering between sulphur ponds and overgrown rocks before the search for creep clusters lead me to a mammoth cadaver covered with spider webs laying before the entrance of a cave. I think even without my fresh experience as crime investigator I would been able to guess that frost spiders lived there.

I entered carefully, ready to burn everything which dared to move. The fireballs turned out to be very effective against these critters. I detonated them right between them and the blast threw them in all directions like eight-legged torches.

Just the mother-spider – as I called her – proved to be a more difficult challenge, but I was able to defeat her too eventually. I was almost outside again, as I spotted a button next to a stone-panel. I examined it and after I convinced myself that no rocks would fall on my head when triggering it, I pushed the button. The stone panel slid aside and revealed a secret chamber. A campfire was burning there and at a raised platform I could also spot a small house – what a strange sight: a house inside a cave. Before I finished wondering though, a group of vampires attacked me. I gained distance and defeated them with my fire magic. Now I was even more careful. I send a number of Fireballs into the house, to poke the rest of the vampires to show themselves. A house simply was too large for just two of them. The blast of their explosions echoed from the cave's walls like thunder and indeed: two more vampires, partially burning, ran outside the house. I hit them with more precise shots and could take them out.

The inside of the house was like a reflection of the butcher's hideout. Blood and bones everywhere! I picked up some useful items and set the rest of the place on fire.

Outside again I set path back home. I got a good number of items together and collected enough ingredients to keep me going for a while and pay my training sessions at the college.

When reaching the White River though I found a remote shack on the shore, with the remnants of its former inhabitant. Again it wasn't hard to guess who its murderer was: it was still there. A massive cave-bear leaped towards me and gave me quite the tough fight! I have to say I like my bears roasted from a nice distance. These close-range fights are just nasty.

The rest of my journey back to Windhelm was rather uneventful and I was really happy to back in its safe walls again, even though they were cold and dark and oppressive. How much a near-death-experiences can change your perception!

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 11

Out In The Wilderness II

The next day saw me exploring the area around the college. On my practise-sessions on the rooftops I saw a Nordic burial mount just to the north. It actually seemed pretty close. Close enough to do some target practise on the creatures wandering around it. I wondered if I hit anything.

I climbed down the cliffs it is resting upon and eventually stood on the shore in inhospitable wilderness, many meters beyond the college's safe grounds. I gathered some barnacles and spiky grass and walked through some ruins from the time of the the great collapse.

I made my way carefully along the shore and over ice-sheets. A quite peaceful scenery if there weren't the wild beasts. One of them, a giant snow-bear attacked me after I reached a small island not far from the beach. The bear was a tough opponent. I ran for my life, zigzagged and used up quite an amount of healing and stamina potions before I was eventually able to kill it.

I was more than a bit proud of my victory. First the bandit-chief, now a snow-bear. You really have to use the environment to you favour. Open space is great when you are faster or at least more agile than you enemy. You can always dodge the attacks then. I also understood that my defeats at the fort north of Riften and at Bleak Falls Barrow were due to the confined space they happened at. I simply couldn't avoid getting hit! I had to be careful at such places. Its nice to have an advantage outdoors, but I also needed protection for indoor fights.

Wandering further north I finally found the burial mound and indeed it was populated: two Skeletons attacked me, but I could take them out pretty easily. A further investigation of the area told me that I really did hit something firing down from the college: burned bones from at least two more skeletons where scattered all over the place – not bad shooting!

The tomb itself proved to be more dangerous. A pretty tough draugr did raise from its grave as soon I entered it. As soon it fell burning into the snow I searched the place and made a really nice find: a amulet of waterbreathing! This might be handy some day.

A Nordic burial mount, covered in snow.

Leaving the tomb I could see a boat laying on the shore of and island north of it. I went there, prepared to run into anything from a pack of bandits to some insane necromancer. It turned out I was wrong. Well mostly. I found cave not far from the boat and as I climbed down it, I saw the strangest thing I ever did in my life. It was a large cube made of golden metal like the Dwemer used, with several crystals or gems stuck in some kind of panel. It must have been some kind of mechanism, so much I could tell. But nothing alike anything I've seen before.

Before the strange apparatus was a mage, inspecting this, tinkering there. He was perfectly peaceful, but also perfectly nuts as it soon turned out.

It wasn't an easy task to detect any coherence in his words, but so much I gathered: His name was Septimus Signus and he was studying the secrets of the Dwemer. Obviously for far too long already... Anyway he told me about the technology of the Dwemer and that they were even able to read an Elder Scroll with their machines – without getting insane or blind that is. Usually every mortal who tries to read them, inevitably loses either their mind or their sight. Septimus told me he had a short glance once too. His eyes still work perfectly.

Even though we just met he seemed to have great trust in me. He told me where I could can find the entrance to the legendary “Blackreach”, an underground dwemer city. In order to open the strange mechanism he needs the knowledge of one of these Elder Scrolls and he suspected I could find one there.

He gave me two mechanisms he was able to uncover: a cube the Dwemer used to store their knowledge in and an orb he called “Attunement Sphere”, which acts as a kind of key to unlock various dwemer mechanisms. The cube, which he called “Lexicon”, was to store the information of the scroll.

Still overwhelmed from his story I wondered: If only half of the things he told me were true, this might be an incredible discovery! If that was just the ramblings of a madman and the Dwemer artefacts he gave me weren't working – or not in the way he promised me they would – I would likely die a death somewhere where noone would find my bones for a long time...

I found it wasn't a bad idea to postpone my decision whether I should trust the old man's words and search for the Elder Scroll or not. I was honing my skills and began to gain confidence, but that wasn't a reason to become careless or too bold.

It was already dusk when I left the cave. I headed west and after a while discovered the silhouette of a man standing on top of a cliff looking out to the sea. As I came closer I realized it was a shrine of Talos and had a rest there, enjoying a gorgeous starlit night.

Heading further west I had a few close calls with snow-bears. They could still get pretty dangerous to me if I made a mistake, but I handled myself pretty well. I even finally got a hang on the fireball spell. That made it much easier for me to attack them at longer distances already. While a firebolt only causes damage at a very limited spot, a fireball sets a whole area on fire. Usually enough to hurt a group if they are standing close enough togeher. Very handy!

I also found a nordic ruin with the statue of a warrior inside. His empty hands were looking like holding a weapon. A greatsword or an axe perhaps. I wondered what happened to it. I also found three alcoves which may been blocked passages further down the tomb. I wasn't able to find any mechanism though which could open them. Later I found out that this was the tomb of the legendary warrior Ysgramor, founder of a group of warrior called the Companions, which is still active. Small world!

Travelling further inland.

I felt pretty confident and headed further away from the college and the shoreline, went past the statue of Azura, crossed some mountains and found an abandoned fort on their foothold, just near a road. At least I thought it was abandoned but I could spot several skeletons and people with robes. I must have found a fort full of renegade necromancers!

I pondered my chances. I was standing on a narrow ridge high up on a rock wall. The fort down below me. So height was to my advantage: I had a clear line of fire while they would perhaps only see a part of me – if they could spot me at all. I took out the skeletons pretty quickly, but the two mages turned out to be significantly tougher. It was in fact the longest and most difficult fight I had yet: Both were able to absorb a lot of the damage I inflicted to them. And after they did spot me, they did land some very precise hits on me. I was able to cure myself and restore my magical powers – but so did they! I knew I couldn't relay on potions to win this fight. I had only a limited number of them and used them up pretty quickly. I ran zigzag on the ridge and dodged quite a lot of their attacks while returning fire as much as my magical reserves allowed. Finally I took out one of them, but the other hid himself in the blind spot just below me on the foot of the rock wall. I knew where he was, but as soon I came closer to the edge he sent his ice-spikes against me. With terrible effectiveness. One time he almost got me, and I collapsed to the ground for a moment. I was lucky though that I was out of his line of sight or he could have ended the fight pretty easily. I waited till my reserves were filled again and then carefully I sneaked to the edge of my ridge again and sent a hailstorm of fireballs at him. I knew I did hurt him, but not enough. He returned with lightning bolts and I had to retreat again. I was stuck. There was no way back: the rocks above me were way too steep to climb and if I tried to somehow get down the rock-wall, the mage would have an easy target.

I began to wonder how long I could endure this fight before I made a mistake or just collapse in exhaustion as I suddenly saw lightning bolts flashing below me. But not heading to my direction! Something must have distracted him. I took this chance and mobilized all energy I had against him. And indeed: he eventually fell into the snow and never got up again.

I climbed down the rockwall and looked what have might have distracted him. An argonian woman was running off the scene. She looked more or less unharmed but certainly scared to death. I think she had no idea she just saved my life. And I most likely hers too.

Next I searched the bodies. The mage had an impressive staff of Lightning bolts. A weapon which could became very useful. Then I had a look over the fort. There were buildings on its far side, but I decided not to test my luck too much. The fight was difficult enough and I likely wont have survived it if it that Argonian didn't came by.

I did consulte my map and identified the fort as fort Kastav, not far from Windhelm. Since I was closer to Winhelm than to Winterhold already I decided to visit Ulfric's stronghold again.

East of the city I discovered a large circle of stones. Perhaps the ruins of another burial mound? It sometimes seems that half is Skyrim is graves! I was already on my way back to the safetly of Winterholds walls as two Spriggans suddenly appeared. Within moments they drained the life out of me. I ran as fast as I could – and I think that saved me. I had the advantage on long range and killed them both with fireballs before they could get close again.

Hello Skynet – Will AI take over the World?

Recently, a number of scientists, including Stephen Hawking, warned about the possibility that an artificially created super-intelligence could bring the end to human civilization.

Is this just panicking or is Skynet already waiting behind the next door?

Biological and Technological Evolution

First of all let us have a short look at intelligence. So far the most advanced intelligence on earth (and as far we can tell today in the known universe) is the human brain. Its also the most complex structure, or machine (biochemical machine, if you insist), we know of.

The evolution of intelligence did come a long way since the origins of life. It literally took billions of years to eventually develop the human brain – and it was the game-changer for life on this planet. We haven't understood yet what triggered the evolution from rather smart apes to the Homo sapiens and why no species before us developed such high intelligence, but obviously it happened – and here we are, having changed the face of this planet thoroughly.

Technological progress is quite different though and if we look at the “evolution” of AI, its just a few decades old, but despite the short time-span humans are developing artificial intelligence, the results are quite remarkable already. AIs have proven to be able to beat even the best chess-players in the world (and Jeopardy-player too), form swarms of robots, creating a basic, collective intelligence and are slowly developing the ability to learn from their own mistakes.

All in all this might not sounds terribly spectacular – we are like in the Stone Age of the evolution of AI still – but the fundamental trends: analyzing of syntax, abstraction, swarm intelligence and learning from mistakes are there. Its just a matter of time till this pack of skills will get more refined and AI behavior will be much more sophisticated.

And there is a demand for AI: The military is developing autonomic drones which will make their decisions to attack a target or not after a defined set of rules, without a human intelligence to remote control them. Also the algorithms of Facebook, Google and others to analyze us and make predictions on our future behavior are also getting more and more powerful. Stock-trading is also highly dependent in automatic processes already, with AIs making trading decisions in fractures of seconds, leaving every possibility of human control far behind them.

So – in a nutshell – AI is progressing rapidly and even in its current, still pretty rudimentary state, it is already able to outperform human intelligence in certain (even if limited) areas and is already used in decision-finding in crucial fields. I think it will be only a matter of time till we see AI much more sophisticated than we do imagine today.

What is Super-Intelligence?

Science-Fiction is using the term for several decades now – usually with skeptic undertones, which is quite understandable. A super-intelligence, by definition, would be vastly superior to human intelligence. Perhaps as superior as human intelligence is over the intelligence other vertebra have developed. The dangers of an encounter with something so superior are obvious. Just look how nice we treat all species on earth inferior to our own.

It is however uncertain if super-intelligences really do can exist. So far the most advanced intelligence is, as I said already, the human mind. If there is really more intelligence possible can't be answered with certainty. At least human intelligence seems to have an upper limit. Perhaps a limitation by design? Or a kind of law-of-nature limiting the maximum intelligence possible? Perhaps this just our human chauvinism speaking, making us think there can't be someone smarter than us.

I guess we will never know until we have found one, or one found us – or we have created one. Then, of course, the world might experience just another game-changing event.

Are Super-Intelligences a threat?

The nature of super-intelligences means that we cannot fully understand them. They would just be so superior to our own that their complexity would be beyond our grasp, and so would be their thinking be well out of our reach.

However we can do predictions based simply on the laws of physics - which apply to everything, disregarding how dumb or smart something is.

One is that any system, including AI, will need an energy-source to work, and likely other resources too. So it would be in competition to every other system it encounters, which would be first of all us. Judging from human history, such competitive-situations usually don't end so well. Just think of the European discovery of America. Expecting that a Super-Intelligence will act differently than humans, would mean giving them quite some niceness-credit, doesn't it?

I won't rely on moral or even a sense of mercy towards humans. Actually, if you think it a bit further, humans represent a serious threat. Their vast arsenal of nuclear-weapons is capable of wiping the earth clear from everything that is higher developed than insects several times. For a Super-intelligence it would be simply a matter of self-preservation to eliminate that danger.

Or perhaps the super-intelligence will be totally self-sufficient and indifferent to humans. Perhaps even to life in general – including its own? We simply can't know.

So what to do?

Thats a good question (ok, I ask this myself, so I may be a bit biased). If I wouldn't know better, I would suggest that we establish concrete limits on the development and use of AI to ensure that humans will always have the final decision. But as I said: I don't think this is realistic. Somebody will somewhere avoiding this law. It's just human nature to explore limits and avoid bans without self-restraining or self-censorship. Technological progress since the second half of the 20th century clearly shows that. Even if a technology has the potential to exterminate the whole human race, it gets developed and stacked up into gigantic arsenals. What is possible, will be done.

So far mankind was quite lucky and did survive any threat, if self-made or not, it ever faced. We cannot be sure however that it will stay like this in future. I do think the dangers of self-destruction are quite real anyway, and perhaps the rule of the AI is a development which has already started since the first was programmed. Once a new technology is in the world, you can't really stop it from being proliferated.

The inevitable may come or not. Perhaps there will be ways in the future to combine AI and biological intelligence, perhaps nothing at all will happen and super-intelligences are just a concept of science-fiction and AI will stay a nicely clever (but not too clever!) and helpful tool helping humans to solve their problems – again, we simply can't know.

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 10

Out In The Wilderness

The next day I spent at the College talking a bit with my peers and practising some magic. I worked out a very handy training routine: I go up on the college's roof (a great place if you want to be alone), summon a flame atronarch and then hit it with my frost-spells. This way I train both my conjuration skills and hone my skills in destruction too. I also find time to improve my abilities in restoration-magic with - curing my burns.

Later Onmund showed up and asked me to get a family heirloom back from Enthir. It seems he got somehow in debt and had to sell it to him. Really annoying that he asked me to solve this issue! So I went to Enthir and tried to persuade him, but he wasn't too cooperative. Perhaps I try again when he is in better mood.

Quite a different view: The college as seen from the shore.

Having worked on my magical skills (and spent a fortune on conjuration-lessons) I found it a good idea to have a walk out of the college and test what I have learned.

I followed the steep cliff just east of Winterhold – with carefully watching for clefts – until I found a safe passage leading further down to the shore. I came past some iron ore veins until I spotted something strange in all of this nowhere: an altar!

Carefully I sneaked closer. Not careful enough though: An ice-run went off and hurt me pretty badly. After I recovered, I send a fireball to the ground in case I could trigger another one which might be hidden under the snow. Then I inspected the altar. It looked pretty freshly used, with flowers and alchemy ingredients arranged around a book called “Mannimarco, King of Worms”. Quite a peculiar, lengthy poem.

Just when I was about to head on, I stepped into another rune-trap! Really great.

As I continued my exploration I ran into a number of wolves and bears. Their northern variant is significantly tougher and more dangerous. Also I learned – on the hard way – that I can't use fireballs yet efficiently enough. Several times I ran out of magical energy when fighting with these beasts. Its a tedious thing: you put so much effort and concentration into a spell, and then it gets miss and just burns a hole in the ground. And your target is totally unimpressed and goes on trying to kill you!

While practising spells up at the college, a shipwreck I saw far out on rocky island woke my curiosity. A storm must have ran it against the shore and smashed against the rocks. Now I saw it again in the distance, somewhere north-east of me and decided to pay it a visit. It looked strangely graceful, despite being torn in halves.

It was already getting evening and the dusk comes pretty quickly in these latitudes. Still I could see a thin line of smoke rising near the wreck – a campfire!

As I got closer I saw that bandits have turned the remnants of the ship into their hideout. They haven't spotted me yet. Still my heart was beating up my throat. I counted two of them. Pretty well armed, but I had the advantage of mobility. You just can't move as fast when you wear armor.

I pondered my chances and sent a bolt of fire against one of them. They returned their fire, but I was pretty well covered behind some rocks. I sent them a hail of firebolts and after a short, but intense fight both were laying smoldering on the frozen sand.

I followed the improvised gangway up the ship's cabin and got greeted by a hefty-looking silhouette, drawing a two-handed sword, which was definitely too large for my linking.

This guy was much tougher than the two others. He must been their leader. I tried to stay in safe distance and sent my fire-magic against him, while he did his massive swings with his greatsword. It wasn't looking too good for me, to be honest. He knew how to use his weapon and could endure quite the beating, while I hectically tried to outrun him. I think what tipped the scales to my favor was summoning an atronarch, which kept him occupied, while I could catch some breath and take him into crossfire. He was able to smash the atronarch to pieces, but the following explosion (flame atronarchs don't die silently) weakened him, so I could finish with with my last bit I had in reserve. Triumphant I stood over my dead opponent and inspected him.

His sword was indeed impressive. A rugged, orcish greatsword with very lethal looking serrations on its blade.

When examining the shipwreck I found a strange, glowing crystal. As soon I picked it up a voice suddenly began to talk. It seemed to come from everywhere. It identified itself as the Daedric Prince Meridia and told me that I just picked an artefact of her which she me to use to restore the glory of her shrine. Its quite scary when a voice suddenly starts to talk to you and I don't know what I prefer. That this was a hallucination or that a Daedric Prince really talked to me...

I also found the diary of a Telvanni refugee. It seems the ship was “The Pride of Tell Vos”, which was full of Dark Elves trying to escape Morrowind after the Red Mountain broke out. I pity them for their faith that did await them on Skyrim's shores.

Somewhere at Skyrims coast: A shrine of Talos.

Having had enough adventures for now I headed back to the shore to return to Winterhold. While looking for the road I found however a vast Nordic ruin, half-buried in snow. I could later identify it as Snow Veil Sanctum. I tried to gain access to it, but I couldn't even figure out how the locks at the two entrances I found, work. While wandering through the ruins I ran in two ice-wraiths which were levitating over a sheer bottomless pit. They didn't stand a chance against my fire-magic. But I decided not to get too close to that pit, despite the massive iron grid covering it. It just looked too scary.

I found the road again and also spotted to my delight the tower of the Mage's College on the horizon: I couldn't been too far away from Winterhold!

The rest of my walk back - yes I almost wrote the word “home” already - I met a group of stormcloak Soldiers gathering near the road under a ancient looking stone-arch. They looked alert, as if waiting to ambush an imperial patrol. I didn't wanted to mess with their business really, so I greeted them friendly and gained distance.

Back in Winterhold, the local pawnbroker, Birna sold me an odd looking artifact: a sculpture in the shape of a claw. It must be something ancient. It is made of corals and has mysterious animal carvings on it. Very mysterious. I wonder what it was used for.

After this I went to the College and visited the Arcanaeum (as the library of the college is officially called) again. That suspicious note and the key were still on Urag's desk... I really wonder if that's some kind of bait to test novice students if they would cause trouble or not.

Then I also had a rather odd conversation with the college's enchanter Sergius Turrianus, about innovative ways to charge soulgems – or something. I got a bad feeling about it and quickly changed topic before he could get into details.

As I was coming down the stairs from the Arcanaeum, the college's “advisor”, Ancano stepped into my way and started to question me about Saarthal. Well, not actually question me. It was more that he told me that he knows that we discovered something special there. And that I shouldn't insult his intelligence, by denying that, because he knows that I know what his position here is and therefore also should know that he knows about the artefact we found – or something like that. The college can be a strange place sometimes.

Back in the Hall of Attainment, I was happy to see Brelyna again. She told me she did improve her spell and was sure it would work now. I had no idea what it was supposed to do, but agreed in trying anyway. She is just too cute to reject her!

The spell went... wrong. Utterly wrong actually. I don't want to get into details though. Just that much: it wasn't a pleasant experience.

She was just as embarrassed as I was and together we agreed that this never happened. So please excuse me for not getting into detail.

Anyway I'm glad the spell was reversible. What a day again! I really need a strong drink now...

Lets do a Review - of The Lord of the Rings (Part 3)

In the last part of my review I will deal with the things I found simply unacceptable and appaling. I know there might be quite the dissent with my critizism, but I review the book as it presented it to me. Including the nice and the not so nice sides. What annoys me most about the bad things is that they are quite often simply overlooked by the readers. I admit, I didn't remembered it that explicit and drastic either. But views change and so does perception, so I simply might have become more sensitive towards certain things - but best look for yourself:

The bad things:

While the points above were about some weak spots in Tolkien's writing and the way he treats the story, they were all rather petty really. Some made the Lord of the Rings a bit difficult to read at times, but nothing really was terrible. It is still a well-written book, with its quality above its contemporaries. Sadly there are also aspects in his book I can't let pass as petty flaws so easily.

Sexism

A very obvious aspect of his books is, when women appear - which isn't terribly often, I should add - they are pretty one-dimensional. They is the otherworldly being of ethereal beauty, Galadriel, a number of good housewifes. like the wifes of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Maggot (I'm not even sure if Tolkien even gave them names!), the shield-maiden Eowyn who just in time before the story ends gets the turn and marries and become a healer – or were simply wiped from earth, like the Ent-Women.

One might argue that this just reflect Tolkien's conservative traditionalism, which might not been that uncommon for it's time. But I rather get the impression he didn't even try to show women as developed characters. They are way too extreme and one-dimensional for this: They are either divine creatures, adored like a sacred statue or good housewifes, and the few who didn't fit in like Eowyn or the Ent-Women either give in to their weakness or disappear. In Tolkien's world, women have their clearly defined, limited role and purpose. Its a world looking backwards towards the sexism of former centuries, and no-one can tell me that gender-equality would have broken his fantasy-world. There are enough examples of modern fantasy which proof the opposite.

Racism and Xenophobia

Another big point of criticism, which I admit got totally lost at me when first reading, is the blunt xenophobia in the books. I showed earlier that the Shire is Tolkien's ideal world – or at least something very close to that. It's the place of all the good things in life: Good food and drink, friends, love, family, parties, good weather, rich harvests – the list goes on and on. But the further away from home Tolkien goes, the less nice things become.

Yes, there are humans living outside the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan, but in opposition to these proud and pretty Nordic “races”, the humans living further in the East or in the South are just vaguely described and pretty one-dimensional: They are by default the enemy and allies of Sauron's army of monsters (the Orcs as Tolkien describes them aren't anything else really). They are all dirty and aggressive, were never on good terms with the “civilized” kingdoms and simply appear as brutal primitives, which have nothing else to do but wage war, raid and enslave their western opponents.

This is not only stereoptypical and unnecessary (enemies with a certain depth are arguably the more fascinating ones), the way Tolkien elevates “noble” Nordic humans into something so much better than the other “races” opposing them, gives the whole story - yet his whole universe - a pretty blunt, racist smell.

So What to do with it? Bin or Pedestal?

Let's not underrate the significance of the Lord of the Rings or Tolkiens efforts in world-making. He shaped almost single-handed modern fantasy and helped it establishing a place in today's public conscience. It is a well-written book, which still entertains, even if the story good vs. evil has been told a few times before.

On the other hand the book does have its issues and the world he created, as well-made and rich it is, is flawed.

Ironically the films by Peter Jackson made a lot right what Tolkien did wrong. So I like to see them as a conclusion of the Lord of the Rings-Universe in general: It's indeed been time to move on. And many authors did. I am pleased to see more variety and innovations in fantasy than Tolkien could ever imagine. Countless new fantasy-universes have been created since. More diverse, more vivid, some picked up ideas from him, some invented something completely new – a great development. Fantasy doesn't means only Tolkien-style-fantasy after all.

Lets do a Review - of The Lord of the Rings (Part 2)

Was the first part of the review quite praising (no wonder: it was called "The Good Things" after all!), this part will deal with the things I have mixed feelings about - still nothing terrible. I don't think there are much pieces of literature without their weak spots. The last part of my review though is something die-hard-Tolkien-fans perhaps shouldn't read!

The Not-So-Good Things:

The Ring's big shadow

Ok, this is not quite a flaw of the book itself, but the huge, overwhelming influence it had on the fantasy-genre, and popular culture in general, is quite problematic.

Tolkien's elaborated world became literally a bible of fantasy. A blueprint for countless variants of sword-and-sorcery-fantasy, as it soon was called. The Lord of the Rings has defined stereotypes of characters, races and creatures in such a predominant way that even the slightest deviation is pretty notable in the genre.

Of course there are other fantasy-authors who created and still create their very own worlds, far away from the Tolkien-style fantasy, but they are in the vast minority really. Since the 1950s the mainstream is strongly influenced by the Lord of the Rings and its derivative, the Dungeon-and-Dragons-universe. Both are in the end simply one interpretation of English, German and Scandinavian mythology, but not the only. Nevertheless they dominate the fantasy-genre throughout all sorts of media: From books, to games, films and music.

The result of this development is quite appaling: While the original meaning of the term “fantasy” has something to do with imagination, the domination of Tolkien-style fantasy is actually the opposite of that: it became a quite restrictive mental corset, which makes it hard for creativity to breathe.

Good vs. evil stereotypy

The factions in the Lord of the Rings are more than clearly divided into good and evil. Though there have been historical tensions between the “good” factions, they all seem rather petty in the context of the story and all races are eventually united in fighting the evil Sauron.

Even the more ambivalent characters, like Saruman (who is basically a fallen minor angel) and Boromir, who eventually fails to resist the ring's temptations, are pretty clear-cut. Saruman's plotting is revealed early in the story and there were plenty of hints on Boromir becoming a threat for the main protagonist too. The only Character, who really stands out as balancing on the edge of good and evil is Gollum/Smeagol, who – at least briefly – was about to tip from a pure, degenerated villain to becoming an ally of Frodo and Sam.

On the side of the villains the good/evil duality is even more clear. Evil beings in Tolkien's Middle-Earth are evil to the bone. And ugly. And usually not too bright. There is no remorse, no mercy and no beauty in the realms of Tolkien's evil. Actually the villains are that evil that they more than once start fighting and killing each other, involuntarily giving the good guys a chance to escape.

It wasn't until recent that this decade-old written-in-stone duality has been broken up in fantasy-mainstream. Games like Skyrim don't offer the player a clearly good or bad side to join. They all have their light and dark sides. And the TV-series Game of Thrones, based on the Song of Ice and Fire series of books take this approach to the extreme: everyone may die, no-one is innocent.

By his approach of creating so clear-cut sides Tolkien did seriously limit the possibilities of developing characters or races further. For example fairy creatures, like Elves, are depicted rather ambivalent in folk-tales. Sometimes nice and helpful, but also malicious and cruel. In sword-and-sorcery-fantasy this lack of development potential has been compensated by dividing them into a growing range of sub-races with various characteristics, but such divisions (and subdivisions of divisions) appear pretty artificial to me really.

Eating, Drinking, Singing – and way too much Talking!

There was a lot where Tolkien was good at, but there are also things which didn't went so well, or at least made the story at times unnecessarily difficult to read. One thing are the often long and cumbersome dialogues. Especially higher-ranking characters use a – actually quite rambling - courtly language. I can't help but think that you could understand them just as well if simply you shorten their dialogues to a fifth of their length. It may reflect the customs of medieval courts, but that doesn't helps the neither courtly, not medieval reader. A more straight-to-the-point-approach would have done very well there.

Oh, and the eating! Especially the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, seems to consist of equal parts of walking, eating and talking about eating! I assume it was Tolkien's way to show us how nicely quirky the Hobbits were, and to create a contrast to the more harsh conditions they face as the story continues, but turns out to be more of a culinary traveller's guide through Middle-Earth.

Another thing is the amount of songs and poems in the story. You get the impression that, as soon somebody sits down and takes a rest, he starts singing or reciting a poem (if he doesn't starts eating, that is!). That's surely a nice thing for the characters, who don't have radio or TV, nor an internet to get some entertainment, but I don't believe that many readers actually read them. I think giving a short summary of their content in the story and print the whole lyrics as appendix would make the book more readable really. The way the lyrics appear in the text just disturbs the reading flow.

Speaking of reading flow, Tolkien's dramaturgy and timing could also really be better. In some cases – like when the Ents are attacking Saruman's tower – he seems to deliberately take tempo and tension out of the narration by messing up the timing and the causality of events: Its never a good idea to have the action being told by a protagonist, instead of simply showing it.

Also the parallel stories of Frodo and Sam trying to destroy the ring and the rest of the fellowship distracting Sauron by fighting his armies could use more shifts of perspective. Tolkien simply stays with one storyline for too long, which disturbs the sense of synchronicity of events.