Comparing The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Oblivion's Mages Guild
Sean Clark compares the Mages Guild questlines in Oblivion and Skyrim.
Several weeks after completing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s Thieves Guild questline, I made my way to the Mages Guild, completing the respective questline. After doing so, I thought about how it compares to the College of Winterhold’s questline in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Spoiler warning for both games as I go in depth about both questlines.
To establish an overview, let’s start with the College of Winterhold. The Dragonborn can simply enter the college by proving you have magic capabilities, which the Dragonborn can simply use a shout to prove their worth. Afterward, you do a short lesson on blocking spells before being summoned to the excavation in the ruins of Saarthal.
In Saarthal, the Dragonborn finds a secret passage that leads him and the main instructor, Tolfdir, to a mysterious magical object, the Eye of Magnus. The teachers bring it back to the college for display in the main lobby. This catches the attention of the High Elf Ancano, who is a Thalmor representative at the college. We are warned by multiple parties that the Eye of Magnus is dangerous and we must acquire the Staff of Magnus to mitigate the threat.
Eventually, we find out that the Staff of Magnus is located deep within Labyrinthian. Before the Dragonborn goes on a quest to recover it, Ancano seizes the eye and attempts to draw power from it. This causes an attack on the city of Winterhold, killing Arch-Mage Savos Aren in the process. With the staff, the Dragonborn defeats Ancano and assumes the role of the new Arch-Mage.
As for Oblivion, it is much more streamlined like the Thieves Guild questline was. To start, the Hero must acquire recommendations from the seven guild halls across Cyrodiil before being admitted to the Arcane University in the Imperial City. The Hero of Kvatch accomplishes this by completing various tasks in helping out the guilds. Once admitted to the Arcane University, the Hero can advance in ranks while completing tasks for Raminus Polus and Arch-Mage Hannibal Traven.
The story boils down to the University trying to stop the growing threat of necromancers across Cyrodiil. Throughout the quest, the Hero wipes out necromancer bases, works with the Count of Skingrad, Janus Hassildor (secretly a vampire) and tracks down important artifacts. Eventually, Traven learns that the King of Worms, Mannimarco, has returned with the intention of destroying the Mages Guild.
Once preparations are complete, Traven sacrifices himself to put his own soul in a black soul gem, allowing the Hero to break free of Mannimarco’s paralysis spell and defeat him once and for all. Once the battle is over, the Hero returns to the Arcane University and is crowned the Arch-Mage, allowing the Hero unlimited access to the enchanting altar.
Like the Thieves Guild, I find the Mages Guild much better in Oblivion than Skyrim. The Winterhold questline is full of stupidity and idiocy from other characters. I cannot get over how stupid the college was to bring back a mysterious magic source through a city and display it for everyone in the college to see. Of course the shady and power-hungry Thalmor agent wanted to use it for more power, who could have seen that coming?
Savos Aren does nothing as an Arch-Mage. He lets Ancano do as he pleases in the college, completely unaware of the political climate in Tamriel. His death was as result of his negligence. He did more as a ghost in flashbacks as the Dragonborn travels through the Labyrinthian (was on an expedition there back when he was a student) than as the Arch-Mage. In fact, if he participated in a disastrous expedition before, how on Tamriel did he become the Arch-Mage in the first place?
The Dragonborn becoming the Arch-Mage is completely stupid. Many professors are still alive and way more qualified and the questline can be competed by using one basic spell back in Saarthal and the Staff of Magnus for a few seconds. As a melee build, I couldn’t help but laugh as they crowned a guy with dual swords and dragonbone armor the Arch-Mage.
On the positive side, defending Winterhold during Ancano’s attack from magic anomalies was thrilling and Labyrinthian was easily one of my favorite dungeons in the game. That’s where the positives end. Half the quests are pointless as the conclusion becomes: the Eye of Magnus is dangerous when it is made very obvious from the beginning. Overall, the College of Winterhold is genuinely terrible and a black eye on a legendary game.
As for Oblivion, the simple story is executed really well. While the gripe of not needing to be a great mage persists, magic is more involved as there are several quests the Hero cannot complete without the use of magic spells. This is most notable in the Vahtacen Secret quest where the Hero must shoot spells at a pillar in the correct order. Also, several of the recommendation quests come into play in the main questline later. The best example is in Bruma, J’skar becomes invisible as a prank, only for that invisible spell to be the only reason he survives when the town’s guild is completely destroyed by Mannimarco later on.
I love that the main story involves killing necromancers, which are prominent in many dungeons in both games. There is a reasonable threat with necromancers instead of mages being dumb and unearthing an object that should have remained deep under Saarthal. Also, in Oblivion, the Hero gets to actually work with the Arch-Mage to uncover what is happening, making his death hit way harder and showing his competency. While the final battle was way too easy, becoming Arch-Mage feels more earned since Traven sacrificed himself for the Hero to defeat Mannimarco and save the guild, especially after the deaths of council members Irlav Jarol (killed by necromancers) and Caranya (she was revealed to be a necromancer herself).
To top it off, getting access to enchanting is an incredible award, which was done away with in Skyrim to make it more accessible for players. I enjoyed the threat of facing necromancers and the people in Cyrodiil were not plagued by stupidity, making Oblivion’s Mages Guild significantly better than the College of Winterhold.