Skyreach Pinnacle is the final district of the ancient Nedic city still accessible today. Outside its doorways I am approached by a scholarly fellow who tells me he believes this was once a prison of sorts, for creatures the Nede’s could neither control nor destroy. He requests my aid in restoring the prisons wards as Scaled Court cultists have somehow inadvertently managed to release the inmates, and now they roam the Pinnacle unbound.

After fighting my way down through a dark winding corridor I find myself in a vast chamber. Barren except for a few curious runic circles around its perimeter, and what appears to be a ceremonial circle engraved at chambers centre. A huge opening in one wall provides a view into the night sky, empty now of course apart from the two moons and the shadow of a huge flying beast seemingly paroling the Pinnacle.

As soon as the scholar undertakes his ritual the celestial creatures begin to materialise around the summoning circles. The beasts, both natural and daedric in nature, agitate with magical energy. The scholar claimed that the Nedes experimented in imbuing these creatures with incredible power, perhaps to defend themselves from the invading Yokudans, or perhaps just for experimentation sake. Spiders and Crocodile, Scamps and Clannfear. Ogrim, Lamia, Snakes, and Scorpions. Even a daedroth, harvester, watcher, and spider daedra, the Nedes were meticulous in their research it seems. But none so these were as formidable as the giant celestial titan that arrives through the aperture.

Mederic Vyger believes these imprisoned creatures may have been the Nede’s failed experiments, and suggests that their successes may have become the Celestials themselves. To most this extraordinary claim will sound like the former Scaled Court cultist is trying a little to hard to justify his prior misplaced allegiance. It is worth noting however that his supposition echoes the claim made by Exarch Arnoth in the Hold below, that the Celestials were once mortal creatures that were somehow transcended, or elevated to the heavens. And indeed the Lich ruling over the Skyreach Catacombs certainly ascended into something more then he was when he was mortal. And need I recall the Dark Elves Tribunal, and how they seem to have elevated themselves to be something… more. And finally some even speculate that the sudden disappearance of the Dwemer was also a transcendence of some kind.

Whilst Mederic’s speculation may just be adding deadwood to an overgrown thicket, more and more of the Serpent’s allies seem to be coming to the same conclusion, that these Celestials are not quite the divine beings of Aetherius they claim to be.

S.K