You have helped me fall asleep for the entirety of 2025, not bc it’s monotonous or boring - it’s comforting. From the bottom of my skooma infested heart, thank you.

I had to join the College because Urag was the target of the Companions'  Hired Muscle quest. Too bad, when Faralda asked for my reason for joining the College, beating Urag's ass wasn't a dialogue option.  😂

There is a College of Winterhold quest that is quest adjacent, where Tolfdir will send you to locations to repair fissures and destroy anomalies. Unforeseen consequences for what happened with the Eye.

Edit: There is also some back-of-house shennanigans with Ancano's NPC faction that indicate there may have been more planned for Ancano. Though I can't find evidence of it in the CK (I use the unofficial patch which may remove this), Ancano and Estormo were originally labeled as "Thalmor Splinter Faction", alongside an npc that never made it into the final cut. So it's possible he wasn't there on orders from the Thalmor, but a group that had split off and were up to their own variety of foolishness.

Michael Kirkbride: "Oh yeah... My ancient future robot Aldmeri queen eye box thing!"

I find this questline fits nicely into the main quest if you mix them together correctly - come to the college for the first time just after you've defeated Saloknir with delphine at kynesgrove (let's imagine this is while she's figuring out that you're going to infiltrate the thalmor embassy). You have good reason to, as developing your magical abilities and particularly the wards you learn from tolfdir will surely come in handy against those dragons you've just began fighting.

At this stage, get the questline started and progress up until you return the books to the arcaneum, but don't rush these early quests, do plenty of research into spells and work on becoming a better mage all the while, perhaps do some of the miscellaneous quests for members of the college. What's important is you conclude this half of the questline once you've returned the stolen books, so that the college gets the time to thoroughly examine the orb with it brought to the hall of elements.

Later on, you want to pick up this questline once again, meeting tolfdir and learning what the college has so far found out about the eye (and meeting the psijic in person with ancano) when you're sent by the main quest to ask in the arcaneum about the elder scroll. Once you're given the main objective to seek out septimus signus (signis?) out on the sea of ghosts, leave that until you've completed the college questline.

I say this because some of the important dialogue (the psijic warning about events set in motion and your future destiny, as well as the augur's comments about you seeking knowledge possibly foreshadowing the elder scroll or even hermaeus mora etc.) perfectly ties together the college questline and your main story as the dragonborn, and if you're the die-hard roleplayer I am who likes to forge a cohesive story for your character this will work a charm.

Skyrim is such a comforting and cozy game, I understand why everyone and myself included use lore and analysis videos such as yours to escape and drift into sleep. Heck to use your videos as catalyst To drift into our own Godhead space ruled by the parameters of our own imaginations. Sir, your videos are excellent, your voice soothing, and dedication to your audience inspiring. Thank you for all hard work.
I am not a bot.

The graphic and asset mod for the college is amazing! My biggest complaint with the college is that, once inside, it doesnt FEEL very.....magical. the mod changes that in fantastic ways

we're getting a good nap with this one yall🔥🔥🔥🔥

I love how I can both be entertained by your videos and can fall asleep to them when I need to 😂

I quite enjoy how the questline starts but I do agree with other commenters saying that it gets a bit rushed. About the "look at all these coffins" comment from Tolfdir if you look up and down in the middle of that room you can see that there is indeed quite an large amount of coffins both above and below you. I didn't think much about it the first few times I did it, but on chance as I was looting one of the draugr that somehow had ended up on the bridge I saw what he meant, there are soo many coffins it's a bit dizzying even if you've gone through quite a few other nordic tombs previously.

Now I have another full-length story to listen to while I work. Amazing.

I've never been the biggest fan of the college questline largely because I never play magic based characters, but when I went through it again recently the rushed ending really does stand out. I'd argue all of the faction quests have some degree of 'rush' to them, but with something like the thieves guild the abruptness has an explanation baked into the questline. Whether players think that's successful or not is subjective, but I do think it works better than the mages college ending does. I honestly expected Tolfdir to become the arch mage, at least at first, while maybe the player helps begin restoring the reputation of the college and does some other odd jobs involving getting the college back on its feet after which we can take the role.

Personally, I feel the College has issues mainly with pacing. If you focus on the main quest, things just escalate so fast without giving you enough time to settle into the College itself. If I could change things up, I'd require the player to do side quests within the college before progressing the main plot. Really, the Companions have the same issue.

This is my favorite questline. I love mage characters in any video game, and I wish TES5 had added more quests before becoming the Arch-Mage.

I found that for a mage build in close quarters, the Unrelenting Force shout is vital to keep a healthy distance, especially when facing a group of enemies up close.

a thing to note with magicka as u seemed confused: magickas regen rate is tied to your overall magicka pool(3% out of combat 1% in) so upgrading magicka pool is also a way to increase your regen rate in a sense, i personally opt for dumping into magicka for the most part with equipment, some people do full sets of make x spell cost less which makes those spells free but those always felt super cheesy to me so i never touched that

These are by far my favorite videos to play when at work or when I'm doing tasks, even sleeping. hell yeah

Hello Bard you were my most watched channel this year thank u

Keep up the good work, sometimes your videos are the only things that get me through the workday. Love the hole story line videos

hell yeah! I watch every video u post, and i truly appreciate each one!!!! keep doing what u do bard🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻