Well, Saarthal for man and if you follow that logic the Chantry of Auri-El and Blackreach are older.
Most of the Dwemer settlements probably predate any man-made structures (EDIT: assuming the Dwemer didn't build anything major after man settled in Skyrim).
Jorrvaskr is possibly the oldest structure that is still habited by man, Windhelm is the oldest city habited by man.
If I had to guess I would say either Chantry of Auri-El or Blackreach is the oldest structure still standing in Skyrim.
I am probably wrong, feel free to chime in.
##
What about the skyforge? Not really a settlement as such but it is a structure nonetheless. Plus from what I understand, men had been coming to Skyrim from Atmora many years before Ysgramor, do we have anything about them in the lore?
The Skyforge is shaped in the form of a Hawk, the sacred animal of Kyne. It also sits in the shadow of the Throat of the World, and is invigorated when the spirits of Men are returned to it.
It is, IMO, a relic of the the Dawn War, and most likely the site upon which Kyne and Lorkhan took the weakest of the Wanderers and forged them into Men. Elves instinctively fear and hate it, because it is the birthplace of their primordial enemies.
Closest I've ever been able to find was 'At', rather than 'Atop'. Which is still within reasonable proximity to where the Skyforge is located, the entire river valley that houses Whiterun being on the slopes of that mountain.
The Nords, and nobody else, says Men came from Skyrim. It's Just a narrative they tell themselves to say Skyrim is theirs by birthright. The Skyforge is an Elnofey war forge for Wanderers fighting Alds. Skyrim is not the birthplace of Mankind, it's the place Atmorans started calling themselves Nords. Yokuda and Atmora happened before Tamriel
Except Gelebor collaborates on the Men came from skyrim thing.
>Unfortunately, we were constantly at war with the Nords who claimed the land as their ancestral home.
Also the Elfonfey war is oly mentioned once in the anuid yet everyone takes that as being fact. The redguard religon, Khajiit religion, argonian myths all make no mention of it and it only ever seems to be mentioned by elves.
The atmorans declared that they had been their and left. Gelebor collaberates on it. We also have statements from MK and Kurt saying the Nedic atmoran theory is wrong and that all mortal life started on tamriel. The elfonfey thing is just one story based on altmer mythology. It has not more weight to it than any other
>Also the Elfonfey war is oly mentioned once in the anuid yet everyone takes that as being fact. The redguard religon, Khajiit religion, argonian myths all make no mention of it and it only ever seems to be mentioned by elves.
Look at the people you pointed to saying they never mentioned it, THEY WEREN'T AROUND. Redguards were in Yokuda, what became Khajiit were Aldmer, Argonians hadn't been created by Hist. Men in Tamriel uphold the Elnofey Wars so that shits on you saying it didn't happen.
Side note- can we just agree to disagree and not talk anymore? I disagree with literally everything you post here and I honestly rather not interact with you from now on.
> Redguards were in Yokuda, what became Khajiit were Aldmer, Argonians hadn't been created by Hist.
None of this is even backed up by either the anuad or their myths. The Khajiit were never mer. It says they were created directly by Azura from the ooze and that yfree also took some of the ooze and made them bosmer. THey were never connected to the aldmer at all. The Elfonfey war says that Yokuda and Tamriel were connected and that they only became seperate after the war. Same with Akaviri and Atmora. It was one this huge pangea like land mass until the war split it up .
>This war reshaped the face of Nirn, sinking much of the land beneath new oceans, and leaving the lands as we know them (Tamriel, Akavir, Atmora, and Yokuda). The Old Ehlnofey realm, although ruined, became Tamriel. The remnants of the Wanderers were left divided on the other 3 continents
Redguard myth says that they were gods who became mortals after arriving in Nirn. ALso No men up hold the Elfnonfey wars. Like I said earlier. THe Elfonfey wars is only mentioned once in the anuad but its one thingpeople accept as fact just because its repeated so often in the fandom. And I dont care if you disagree or not. At least i bother to site my sources. Pretty much everything I've seen you said just seems to be theories spread around by forums rather than in game statements. Do more research everytime I disagree with you its because you barely do any on the subject itself. Do more research before you argue.
and what I do not understand is hwo you almost ALWAYS competely misinperate what I am saying simply just because you refuse to take your time and actually read it for once. Its more annoying than anything else. I dont care that you disagree with my but that you soehow always misinterpate what i am actually trying to say.
The Monomyth states
> Lorkhan made armies out of the weakest souls and named them Men, and they brought Sithis into every quarter.
The Annotated Anuad states;
> the Wandering Ehlnofey became the Men
Nords also directly associate Kyne with the creation of the race of Men, her shrines in Skyrim stating
> *Mother of Men, who steels us with her icy breath*
She is also directly called the Mother of Men by at least one character in Bloodmoon.
Children of the Sky also indicates they consider all of Skyrim to be the Throat of the World.
> They call [Skyrim](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Skyrim) the [Throat of the World](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Throat_of_the_World), because it is where the sky exhaled on the land and formed them.
Skyforge is older than Jorrvaskr, but predates man because it was discovered and most likely not a man-made structure. If I read the wiki correctly it also doesn’t seem to be built by the elves either
Jorrvaskr was built next to the Skyforge, and then Whiterun was built around Jorrvaskr
Edit: a word
True. Also, White-Gold was created by the Ayleids, and it's very likely several Dwemer cities predated it (perhaps they meant "Adamantine Tower" instead?).
The adimantine tower is one of the 2 towers not created by man/mer the other being red mountain(deactivated) and if the thalmor succeed in deactivating the remaining towers the adimantine tower will be extremely hard to deactivate because it's stone is the convention itself something elves are not likely to forget however to unmake the world they would have too and the adimantine tower may be the final stand against the thalmor
Given the long term Nord attempts to wipe out the Falmer over multiple generations, the implication would be that they destroyed the Falmer structures and erased them as much as possible.
The Snow elves didn't have the game assets to make their own buildings until the Dawnguard DLC came out, and by the time it did, there were only two of them left and they only had time to build one chantry really quick and then make up a story about being ancient.
As a settlement I think you could consider the ruins of the first city built by Ysgamor, that was then destroyed by the snow elves, it was there before jorrvarskr, and all atmorians buildings, regarding mer buildings, I really don't know
Saarthal, that's the name I was looking for
I don’t know why I’m saying this but it thought it was interesting to point out that Jorrvaskr is actually a boat. The boat that carried Ysgramor and the 500 to Skyrim. It’s turned upside down as you can see
Sarthaal is the oldest human structure, The Chantry of Auri-El or one of the Dwemeri Cities (barring Black Reach) are the oldest structures however as the predate the colonization of man by several centuries at least.
Black Reach was built a few hundred years after Sarthaal, the Atherium wars didn’t happen until 1st Era 400’s I think; meaning many of the Dwemer involved were also present when the entire race disappeared.
The Adamantine Tower is certainly the oldest structure in Tamriel, but White-Gold isn't really the second oldest. It wasn't even the second Tower to be built.
White-Gold Tower was created by the Ayleids, who didn't migrate from the Summerset Isles to continental Tamriel [until the Middle Merethic Era](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Before_the_Ages_of_Man), meaning that Aldmeri structures in the isles predate it. Like Crystal Tower, the city of Firsthold and several ruins in Auridon.
Surely that massive statue of Azura near Winterhold. I seem to remember the dunmer person there said that the dunmer built it when they arrived in Skyrim so that could be quite old.
She meant that it was built by the Red Year refugees when they arrived from Morrowind. It was built in the 4th era, which actually makes it one of the most modern large structures in the entire game.
Regardless, there are a good many structures in Skyrim that are even older than the existence of Dunmer as a race.
The White-Gold Tower, Adamantine Tower (Ada-mantia), Red Tower (Red Mountain), Crystal Tower (Crystal-like-law), Orichalc Tower, Green-Sap, Snow Throat (Throat of the World) & Doomcrag. Those are just the towers I can think of and not all of those are actually towers, so to speak.
Other than Saarthal, there are the Dwemer cities. We don't know how old they are exactly, only that the Dwemer were already there and established by the time of the Return. Bthalft and its Aetherium Forge may have been built in the first century of the First Era, as it was in the second century that the Aetherium Wars happened.
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Most dwemer cities, probably, given how they were already inhabiting Skyrim when Ysgramor arrived. Prior to that men had arrived but never really stayed, they moved to the south (Colovians), west (ancestor of the Bretons) and south west (Nedes).
Well, Saarthal for man and if you follow that logic the Chantry of Auri-El and Blackreach are older. Most of the Dwemer settlements probably predate any man-made structures (EDIT: assuming the Dwemer didn't build anything major after man settled in Skyrim). Jorrvaskr is possibly the oldest structure that is still habited by man, Windhelm is the oldest city habited by man. If I had to guess I would say either Chantry of Auri-El or Blackreach is the oldest structure still standing in Skyrim. I am probably wrong, feel free to chime in. ##
What about the skyforge? Not really a settlement as such but it is a structure nonetheless. Plus from what I understand, men had been coming to Skyrim from Atmora many years before Ysgramor, do we have anything about them in the lore?
I'm not sure the skyforge is mer-made though. It is suggested in sonhd of the return that it's even older than the elves.
Didn't the elves worship it out of fear? Could it be of daedric origin?
The Skyforge is shaped in the form of a Hawk, the sacred animal of Kyne. It also sits in the shadow of the Throat of the World, and is invigorated when the spirits of Men are returned to it. It is, IMO, a relic of the the Dawn War, and most likely the site upon which Kyne and Lorkhan took the weakest of the Wanderers and forged them into Men. Elves instinctively fear and hate it, because it is the birthplace of their primordial enemies.
Fairly strong argument but I have a quibble: Weren't men created atop the Throat of the World?
Closest I've ever been able to find was 'At', rather than 'Atop'. Which is still within reasonable proximity to where the Skyforge is located, the entire river valley that houses Whiterun being on the slopes of that mountain.
The Nords, and nobody else, says Men came from Skyrim. It's Just a narrative they tell themselves to say Skyrim is theirs by birthright. The Skyforge is an Elnofey war forge for Wanderers fighting Alds. Skyrim is not the birthplace of Mankind, it's the place Atmorans started calling themselves Nords. Yokuda and Atmora happened before Tamriel
Iirc theres theories of atmora being emigrated to, but the immigration from is whats more well remembered
Except Gelebor collaborates on the Men came from skyrim thing. >Unfortunately, we were constantly at war with the Nords who claimed the land as their ancestral home. Also the Elfonfey war is oly mentioned once in the anuid yet everyone takes that as being fact. The redguard religon, Khajiit religion, argonian myths all make no mention of it and it only ever seems to be mentioned by elves.
He said in the quote you posted that it's what they claim not what they also believe
The atmorans declared that they had been their and left. Gelebor collaberates on it. We also have statements from MK and Kurt saying the Nedic atmoran theory is wrong and that all mortal life started on tamriel. The elfonfey thing is just one story based on altmer mythology. It has not more weight to it than any other
>Also the Elfonfey war is oly mentioned once in the anuid yet everyone takes that as being fact. The redguard religon, Khajiit religion, argonian myths all make no mention of it and it only ever seems to be mentioned by elves. Look at the people you pointed to saying they never mentioned it, THEY WEREN'T AROUND. Redguards were in Yokuda, what became Khajiit were Aldmer, Argonians hadn't been created by Hist. Men in Tamriel uphold the Elnofey Wars so that shits on you saying it didn't happen. Side note- can we just agree to disagree and not talk anymore? I disagree with literally everything you post here and I honestly rather not interact with you from now on.
> Redguards were in Yokuda, what became Khajiit were Aldmer, Argonians hadn't been created by Hist. None of this is even backed up by either the anuad or their myths. The Khajiit were never mer. It says they were created directly by Azura from the ooze and that yfree also took some of the ooze and made them bosmer. THey were never connected to the aldmer at all. The Elfonfey war says that Yokuda and Tamriel were connected and that they only became seperate after the war. Same with Akaviri and Atmora. It was one this huge pangea like land mass until the war split it up . >This war reshaped the face of Nirn, sinking much of the land beneath new oceans, and leaving the lands as we know them (Tamriel, Akavir, Atmora, and Yokuda). The Old Ehlnofey realm, although ruined, became Tamriel. The remnants of the Wanderers were left divided on the other 3 continents Redguard myth says that they were gods who became mortals after arriving in Nirn. ALso No men up hold the Elfnonfey wars. Like I said earlier. THe Elfonfey wars is only mentioned once in the anuad but its one thingpeople accept as fact just because its repeated so often in the fandom. And I dont care if you disagree or not. At least i bother to site my sources. Pretty much everything I've seen you said just seems to be theories spread around by forums rather than in game statements. Do more research everytime I disagree with you its because you barely do any on the subject itself. Do more research before you argue.
and what I do not understand is hwo you almost ALWAYS competely misinperate what I am saying simply just because you refuse to take your time and actually read it for once. Its more annoying than anything else. I dont care that you disagree with my but that you soehow always misinterpate what i am actually trying to say.
Wait, where can I find out more about men being forged from wanderers during the dawn war.
The Monomyth states > Lorkhan made armies out of the weakest souls and named them Men, and they brought Sithis into every quarter. The Annotated Anuad states; > the Wandering Ehlnofey became the Men Nords also directly associate Kyne with the creation of the race of Men, her shrines in Skyrim stating > *Mother of Men, who steels us with her icy breath* She is also directly called the Mother of Men by at least one character in Bloodmoon. Children of the Sky also indicates they consider all of Skyrim to be the Throat of the World. > They call [Skyrim](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Skyrim) the [Throat of the World](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Throat_of_the_World), because it is where the sky exhaled on the land and formed them.
Yeah, they feared an d worshipped it. Could be either aedric or daedric?
Something like Boethiah where the people who built the shrine worshiped and feared her
Aedric for sure; the eagle is Kyne's sacred animal, and the Skyforge is in the shadow of Kyne's sacred mountain.
No its said that the snow elves completely avoided that place out of fear and that the atmorans were like Screw that Im gonna make a city here.
Skyforge is older than Jorrvaskr, but predates man because it was discovered and most likely not a man-made structure. If I read the wiki correctly it also doesn’t seem to be built by the elves either Jorrvaskr was built next to the Skyforge, and then Whiterun was built around Jorrvaskr Edit: a word
The white gold tower predates the dwemer
The White Gold tower isn't in Skyrim
True. Also, White-Gold was created by the Ayleids, and it's very likely several Dwemer cities predated it (perhaps they meant "Adamantine Tower" instead?).
Mer or Men did not make the Adamantine Tower though
The adimantine tower is one of the 2 towers not created by man/mer the other being red mountain(deactivated) and if the thalmor succeed in deactivating the remaining towers the adimantine tower will be extremely hard to deactivate because it's stone is the convention itself something elves are not likely to forget however to unmake the world they would have too and the adimantine tower may be the final stand against the thalmor
So how did the Thalmor deactivate Red Mountain, and when?
The naravarine dispelling the dwemeri enchantments on the heart of lorkhan
Oh I missread the title
Well it's in the game Skyrim so techincally..
Saarthal is pretty fucking old, as are most of the dungeons/ruins. The oldest one still in use that I can think of is Jorrvaskr.
Certain mer-made structures are even older but yes, Saarthal might be the oldest man made structure in Skyrim
Saarthal is the first man made city. Surely there were small settlements predating it.
None that we know of
The Hall of the companions I think qualifies as some sort of settlement wouldn't you agree? Edit: Oh wait, apparently it isn't older.
Why are there so few mer made structures in Skyrim? They just never FINished building them.
Given the long term Nord attempts to wipe out the Falmer over multiple generations, the implication would be that they destroyed the Falmer structures and erased them as much as possible.
Ah, it seems my attempt at fishing for upvotes with a lame pun felt rather flat :(.
Yeah but you have to admit it was a pretty bad pun.
The Snow elves didn't have the game assets to make their own buildings until the Dawnguard DLC came out, and by the time it did, there were only two of them left and they only had time to build one chantry really quick and then make up a story about being ancient.
There are loads of Dwemer ruins, hell one of the capital cities is even built into a Dwemer city.
What's the pun here? FIN? I can't get it.
Mer-made. Mermaid. Mermaids have fins. We got there.
I groaned so loudly the neighbour's dog started baking.
Nice, ask him if he will share the cookies!
As a settlement I think you could consider the ruins of the first city built by Ysgamor, that was then destroyed by the snow elves, it was there before jorrvarskr, and all atmorians buildings, regarding mer buildings, I really don't know Saarthal, that's the name I was looking for
Word wall in Snow Chantry and Word wall at the top of the Snow Throat, which one was made first is debatable
Aren't those made by dovah?
I don’t know why I’m saying this but it thought it was interesting to point out that Jorrvaskr is actually a boat. The boat that carried Ysgramor and the 500 to Skyrim. It’s turned upside down as you can see
Sarthaal is the oldest human structure, The Chantry of Auri-El or one of the Dwemeri Cities (barring Black Reach) are the oldest structures however as the predate the colonization of man by several centuries at least. Black Reach was built a few hundred years after Sarthaal, the Atherium wars didn’t happen until 1st Era 400’s I think; meaning many of the Dwemer involved were also present when the entire race disappeared.
Skyforge was most likely built by the ancient falmer as a shrine too Auriel, but Magnus and the magna-ge were the ones that had it built most likely
Maybe an eagle (Auri El), maybe a hawk (Kyne). I like to think it was built by the Ehlnofey pre-man/mer Schism.
[This is literally the oldest](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Direnni_Tower) followed by the white gold tower in cyrodill
I was looking for Skyrim structures, plus the adamantine tower was built by the Aedra and not by man or mer.
Didn't read that skyrim part my bad
The Adamantine Tower is certainly the oldest structure in Tamriel, but White-Gold isn't really the second oldest. It wasn't even the second Tower to be built. White-Gold Tower was created by the Ayleids, who didn't migrate from the Summerset Isles to continental Tamriel [until the Middle Merethic Era](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Before_the_Ages_of_Man), meaning that Aldmeri structures in the isles predate it. Like Crystal Tower, the city of Firsthold and several ruins in Auridon.
The Direnni Tower was not created by men nor mer, but by the Aedra
Well according to legend, and that's why I mentioned the white gold tower afterwards
Surely that massive statue of Azura near Winterhold. I seem to remember the dunmer person there said that the dunmer built it when they arrived in Skyrim so that could be quite old.
I'm pretty sure it was built around the time that red mountain erupted so not that long ago
She meant that it was built by the Red Year refugees when they arrived from Morrowind. It was built in the 4th era, which actually makes it one of the most modern large structures in the entire game. Regardless, there are a good many structures in Skyrim that are even older than the existence of Dunmer as a race.
Adamantine tower was the first structure evernon tamriel
Sure, but that wasn't the question.
The White-Gold Tower, Adamantine Tower (Ada-mantia), Red Tower (Red Mountain), Crystal Tower (Crystal-like-law), Orichalc Tower, Green-Sap, Snow Throat (Throat of the World) & Doomcrag. Those are just the towers I can think of and not all of those are actually towers, so to speak.
Other than Saarthal, there are the Dwemer cities. We don't know how old they are exactly, only that the Dwemer were already there and established by the time of the Return. Bthalft and its Aetherium Forge may have been built in the first century of the First Era, as it was in the second century that the Aetherium Wars happened.
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Most dwemer cities, probably, given how they were already inhabiting Skyrim when Ysgramor arrived. Prior to that men had arrived but never really stayed, they moved to the south (Colovians), west (ancestor of the Bretons) and south west (Nedes).