Lore:Time Wound

Time Wounds, also known as Tiid-Ahraan in the Dragon Language, are tears created in the fabric of space when time is shattered within a localized area. These distortions of time and space have some similarities to Dragon Breaks. In appearance they can resemble a slight shimmering in the air, or a vortex of golden and purple light.

Time Wounds

Throat of the World

The first Time Wound in known history was created in Skyrim during the Merethic Era, and served to bring about the end of the Dragon War. Near the end of the war, the ancient Nords confronted Alduin at the summit of the Throat of the World. With no conventional means to defeat the wyrm, Felldir the Old used an Elder Scroll to perform an incantation that ejected Alduin from their time, propelling him into the future and leaving behind a Time Wound. In 4E 201, Alduin emerged from the Time Wound and began the process of resurrecting his Dragon allies all across Skyrim. The Last Dragonborn later used the same Elder Scroll to exploit this Time Wound and gaze into the past, thereby gaining lost knowledge of the Thu'um.

Sunspire

A Time Wound also appeared at the peak of the Sunspire temple in the First Era, when Alkosh's battle cry put an end to Pelinal Whitestrake's slaughter of the Khajiit and cast him out of Elsweyr. Circa 2E 582, the Dragons Nahviintaas, Lokkestiiz, and Yolnahkriin returned to the affairs of mortals, posing as gods. The Khajiit devotees of Sunspire Temple believed Nahviintaas to be Alkosh, and gathered pilgrims from across Anequina to serve him. However, Nahviintaas' true goal was to tear the Time Wound wider in order to "correct the mortal mistake" and restore the "natural order". This threat was ended when all three Dragons were slain by the Undaunted.

Beldaburo

Circa 3E 433, a lich named Corelian attempted to use an Elder Scroll to travel back in time to prevent their past self from ever obtaining a state of lichdom. Corelian feared the gradual and incurable descent into madness brought about by their unnatural existence, and stole the Elder Scroll from the Order of the Hour in a misguided attempt to avoid the ultimate fate of most liches. However, Corelian's meddling disrupted the flow of Time, resulting in the creation of a Time Wound deep within the ruins of Beldaburo in Cyrodiil. The Order of the Hour discovered the existence of this Time Wound, and tasked the Hero of Kvatch with recovering the Elder Scroll before the Wound could be fully opened. With the Order's blessing, the Hero was able to penetrate the magical barrier created by the Wound within Beldaburo, and slay Corelian. This destroyed the Time Wound, allowing Time to flow in accordance with Akatosh's rules once more and thereby saving reality from collapsing. With the threat ended, the Hero was made a Paladin of the Hour by the grateful priest, who could sense time had indeed been healed.

Gallery

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  The banishment of Alduin (Skyrim)

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  The Time Wound atop the Throat of the World (Skyrim)

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  The Time Wound at Sunspire Summit (ESO)

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  Nahviintaas tearing at the Sunspire Time Wound (ESO)

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  A Time Wound being opened within Beldaburo (Oblivion Remastered)

Notes

• The Vestige was described as a "wound in time" by Varen Aquilarios.