Lore:Valaste

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Valaste
Valaste circa 2E 582
Race	Altmer	Gender	Female
Born		2nd Era
Resided in		Mages Guild Eyevea
Appears in		ESO

Valaste was the Master of Incunabula of the Mages Guild during the Second Era, responsible for maintaining the guild's libraries, arcanaea, and seeking out new and interesting works to add to the collection. Born in the Summerset Isles, she spent the majority of her juvenile years studying the arcane arts and lore of the Aurbis vehemently. Throughout these years, she would earn a reputation for being reclusive and unable to stand other people. It is presumed that her father passed away around this time.

During her period of formal candidacy for entry into the Mages Guild, Valaste caught the attention of the guild's founder, Archmagister Vanus Galerion, who noted that she possessed a fine and rare mind, mentioning that "Not once in a century is a Mer with your talent born." She would later note her entry into the, at this time relatively newly-formed, Mages Guild as being the "Proudest day of [her] life." Her negative reputation would continue well into her time at the Mages Guild, with the other students and mages harassing her reclusive and studious behavior with insults. It was about this time that Valaste was beset with the death of her mother, her only source of comfort and inspiration to continue her scholarly vocation. Left without family, she nonetheless continued her studies in the Mages Guild. She rose to the position of Master of Incunabula, a position that was second only to the Guildmaster, allowing her to finally win over the admiration of her fellow guild members as an accomplished loremaster.

In 2E 582, she employed the help of the a new adept to retrieve four ancient tomes from a local dungeon. One of the tomes contained the title 'Summoning Rituals of the Arch-Mage', of which the contents appeared blank at first. Valaste then explained that mages in the First Era used a special ink that would only be revealed by arcane fire. Placing the tome in fire revealed a spell that could summon the Arch-Mage Shalidor himself. Once summoned, the Arch-Mage explained that he required help in reclaiming a sanctuary for the Mages Guild that was lost to a bet with the Daedric Prince of madness, known as Eyevea. Sheogorath agreed to give Shalidor the means of reclaiming the island, if his adept agreed to complete four trials for the Prince's amusement. The adept agreed to undertake the Trial of Eyevea, and was then subjected to various inane tests. At the end of each trial, the guild was given a tome containing clues to returning Eyevea to Mundus. Valaste took on the burden of decrypting these books, as Shalidor himself was forbidden to read them. The guild was eventually successful in restoring the island to Shalidor's ownership, but the efforts of translating the tomes had deteriorated the condition of Valaste's sanity. Sheogorath had effectively driven her to the point of complete madness but planned one last bargain for the adept to decide her fate. Two options were put forward for the adept to choose, one being to let Sheogorath take ownership of Valaste and take her to the Shivering Isles, with the reward of the powerful Folium Discognitum. On the other hand, the adept could have chosen to release Valaste from her bonds of insanity and return her to Mundus, to the admiration of Shalidor. However, it is ultimately unknown which decision the adept made in the end.

Gallery

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  Valaste as she appears in ESO

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the ESO article.

Books

• Kinlord Rilis and the Mages Guild by High Incunabulist Valaste of the Mages Guild — Essay dispelling common misconceptions surroundings the formation of the Mages Guild