Imperial City

Online:Chief Archivist Sergianus

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Chief Archivist Sergianus
Location Arboretum, Ruined Archive
Race Imperial Gender Male
Health 39959
Reaction Friendly
Chief Archivist Sergianus

Chief Archivist Sergianus is an Imperial scholar trapped in the Arboretum of the Imperial City.

Related Quests[edit]

Dialogue[edit]

While he is chained up near the southern wall of the Arboretum, he can be heard yelling at the Daedra burning books.

Chief Archivist Sergianus: "Not the archives! There's centuries of history in those pages!"
Chief Archivist Sergianus: "Don't! Those are priceless! You don't know what you're destroying!"
Chief Archivist Sergianus: "You monsters! Why? They're books, there's no harm in books!"

When you free him, he'll tell you something about the book you retrieved:

Chief Archivist Sergianus: "Ugh … my thanks. You need to get that book to the Drake. I managed to mask its contents with a magical cipher."
Chief Archivist Sergianus: "Find the ciphers. There should be four of them. Bring them to me in the Archives east of here, and I will use them to translate the book. Hurry!"

Meet him in the Ruined Archive.

"Thank the Eight, you've made it. Barely got past the Daedra myself, but this place seems safe enough for now."
What is this book anyway?
"It's called "The Sublime Brazier," written by a Moth Priest just a few years after St. Alessia passed. Of course, this is just a copy of the original text, which was damaged during the Colovian secession in the twenty-fourth century …."
Why would the Daedra want it?
"Oh, right. I'm sorry.
Your guess is as good as mine. When they came to the library looking for it, it was all I could do to garble the text with a distortion spell before they got through the door. But now with the ciphers, I can undo the spell."
You mean you don't know what's in it?
"Here now! I'm an archivist, not a …. Look, all I know is it has something to do with the Dragonfires. I didn't have time to read more before I had to cast the spell.
Are you ready to help me translate it?"
I'm ready.

If you speak to him before casting the spell, he says:

"Raise the book into the light. The spell should weave the ciphers into a translated text. I think. Please hurry—this is difficult to maintain …."

When he's finished his spell:

Chief Archivist Sergianus: "There, it is done. Gods, how exhausting. Glad I never joined the Mages Guild—I just don't have the talent for this."

Speaking with him again:

"Bring that book back to the Drake, and give her my regards. She'll probably have a better idea of what to do with it than I do.
Don't worry about me, I can find my way out from here. I hope."