Skyrim:The Eye of Magnus

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Reclaim the College and contain the Eye. Prerequisite Quest: The Staff of Magnus Next Quest: Aftershock Reward: Position of Arch-Mage in the College of Winterhold, Archmage's Robes, key to the Arch-Mage's Quarters. ID: MG08

Inside Hall of the Elements with The Eye of Magnus at the center

Quick Walkthrough

1. Breach the barrier around the college with the Staff of Magnus.
2. Confront Ancano in the Hall of the Elements.
3. Defeat Ancano with the help of the Staff of Magnus.

Detailed Walkthrough

Use the Staff of Magnus to Destroy the Barrier

Once you have returned to Winterhold, you will find the College surrounded by a magical barrier created by the Eye of Magnus. Tolfdir, Arniel Gane, and Nirya will be standing near it. Tolfdir will explain that Mirabelle died helping them escape. Use the Staff of Magnus on the barrier to destroy it.

Reach the Hall of the Elements

Lead Tolfdir and the others into the Hall of the Elements.

Confront Ancano

Tolfdir tries to stop Ancano from activating the Eye of Magnus.

When you enter, Ancano will proclaim that he has the power to destroy the world at his fingertips, and that he can not be stopped. He will have become connected to the Eye at this point and absorbs more and more power from it. Tolfdir will cast a fire spell at Ancano, but it will not faze him.

The Eye will begin to open up, then emit a blinding light. Wait until it's fully opened then use the staff until you see the motion of the eye shift, it will then start to close and seal. Ancano will lose his connection with they Eye at this point and become vulnerable to attack, he will then try to activate the eye after it has fully sealed. When the Eye begins to open again, Magic Anomalies may appear. Wait until the eye is fully opened to use the staff again until you see the motion shift, it will start closing again. Repeat this until Ancano is dead.

The Staff of Magnus will quickly run out of charge. You can recharge it with charged soul gems that the magic anomalies drop if you don't have any with you. This can take time, as the anomalies will drop various-sized soul gems and the staff requires almost two grand soul gems to fully recharge. You may need to fully charge the staff several times.

Once the Eye is closed again, you may leave Ancano and Tolfdir to destroy the magic anomalies.

The Eye of Magnus at full power

Speak to Tolfdir

When Ancano is defeated, ask Tolfdir what you should do now. While he explains that he does not know how to contain the Eye, Quaranir and two more members of the Psijic Order will appear. Speak with them.

Speak with Quaranir

Quaranir will congratulate you, saying that you met their expectations. He will assure you that the Psijic Order will safeguard the Eye, which might otherwise destroy the college along with the rest of the world. He will observe that the world is not ready for the Eye, declare you the new Arch-Mage of the college, and then vanish in a glow of light, along with the Eye and the two other Psijic members.

Tolfdir will then affirm that you should be the new Arch-Mage, and give you the key to the Arch-Mage's Quarters and the Archmage's Robes.

Achievements

One achievement is unlocked when you complete this quest and finish the questline:

• The Eye of Magnus (30 points/Silver)

Bugs

Note: This workaround may resolve some of the following bugs: Exit the college and fast travel to another city. Tolfdir should follow you there and you should get a quest update stating that you have defeated Ancano. Fast travel back to the college and speak with Tolfdir to complete the quest. If he doesn't arrive with you, simply wait (up to a day or two) for him to return.

• You may get to the Hall of Elements only to have Tolfdir run in and bypass the cutscene, making the staff useless. If this happens, you cannot harm Ancano in any way. This may be a scripting error caused by obtaining 2 staves from the quest before. Tolfdir may also fail to follow you into the Hall of Elements, which prevents the completion of the cutscene and the start of the fight. If this happens go through one of the side doors near the entrance, then come back in. ^?
  • You can get rid of the additional staff by typing player.removeitem 00035369 1 in the console.
• You may also enter to find a member of the Psijic Order already present in the hall, skipping over the cutscene between Ancano and Tolfdir, preventing Tolfdir from finishing his cutscene. This makes the quest impossible to finish. You must reload a previous save before entering the college to continue. ^?
• You may defeat Ancano and then speak to Tolfdir. After Tofldir's scripted speech, Quaranir should appear in the scene. It is bugged and he won't appear on rare occasions, console command on PC will not jump past this bug, making the conclusion of this quest impossible. ^?
  • To fix this, use player.placeatme 0002ba3c in the console to make Quaranir appear. This will cause the rest of the quest to proceed as normal.
• Tolfdir may run into a corner of the entryway to the hall and will not attack Ancano. Entering the Arcanaeum and waiting for a few hours before reentering the Hall may fix this. ^?
• It is possible for the player to kill Ancano without having to use the staff to make him vulnerable. It requires the player sprinting ahead of Tolfdir and waiting until a half second after the speeches end. At this point Ancano is vulnerable, although very briefly, and can be killed with a high-damage or critical attack. ^?
• It is possible for Arniel to enter after killing Ancano and reanimate him to fight any remaining Magical Anomalies, causing him to stand up and immediately begin fighting you again, including the fight dialogue.
• Ancano may remain invulnerable after you close the Eye. If you have the Eye closed and cannot hurt him, you may need to reload an earlier save. ^?
• While trying equip the staff of Magnus you may get the message "You cannot equip this item". This means you cannot enter the College and the quest becomes unfinishable. ^?
• After defeating Ancano and receiving the objective Talk to Tolfdir, Tolfdir may no longer be in the Hall of Elements. He can usually be found walking along the road on the other side of the mountains South of Winterhold, but will not have the dialogue option required to complete the objective, making the quest unfinishable. Reloading a previous save from before entering the Hall of Elements for the final battle may resolve this problem. ^?

Quest Stages

The Eye of Magnus (MG08)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
0
1
10		The Staff of Magnus has been recovered, and so it's time to assault the College of Winterhold and strike down Ancano. (Objective is assigned): Use the Staff of Magnus to enter the College of Winterhold
20		(Objective is assigned): Reach the Hall of the Elements
30		(Objective is assigned): Defeat Ancano
40		Ancano has been defeated, but there's still a tremendous amount of energy coming out of the Eye of Magnus. I need to talk to Tolfdir about what to do next. (Objective is assigned): Talk to Tolfdir
50		(Objective is assigned): Speak with Quaranir
200		Ancano has been defeated. The Psijic Monks have removed the Eye of Magnus from the College, saying that the world is not ready for such a thing. With the crisis over, I have been named the new Arch-Mage of the College.

 

Notes

• Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
• Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
• Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
• If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage MG08 stage, where stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest MG08.

Prev: The Staff of Magnus

Up: College of Winterhold

Next: Aftershock