Happy Monday! This is the comment where I ask you to like & subscribe and direct you to links, that about 2% of you will click on. discord.gg/ZMyxAZR Instagram.com/epicnate315

Bane: No one cared who I was before I put on the mask. The Grey Fox: No one cared who I was after I put on the mask.

I always laugh when we get the option to ask Rune where he got his "unusual name", because Rune is like the most ordinary name ever here in Denmark.

I remember being like 12 and hearing rune's story from him. So...me knowing "hey bethesda likes little mysteries, ima solve this" so i went to the sea of ghosts and found every shipwreck and was enfuriated to not find the damn answer.

Nate: "It could be possible his mother died in childbirth" Gray fox: *absolutely breaking it down in the back*

Hearing "hey how's it going, Nate here," combined with the Skyrim theme is nice after a entire day stuck at home.

When you realize that about 3/4ths of Skyrim was cut and just wish they had a few more years to finish it

"The generous fisherman took him in and decided to name him after the rock." So... his name is actually Dwayne Johnson?

my theory: the stone is in an akaviri language, and Rune is a descendent of Uriel Septim V, making him the rightful heir to the emperor's throne post dark brotherhood

In Oblivion, the Guild steals an Elder Scroll and removes Nocturnal’s curse from the cowl, so the Cowl doesn’t make people “not exist” anymore

When your Wife traps you in a love triangle so you trap her in a soul gem: *You just got Vectored*

plot twist: he's from a different continent and it explains why the rock he carries around can't be translated

"I have never seen anyone with skills like yours" My amazing skill of getting into brutal combat and killing everyone before i steal an item? Neat.

I find it weird that nobody ever talks about children of Dragon Breaks. When time splits there are events that happen one way, and happen a different way, and when time repairs itself, they both become simultaneously true. But everybody keeps referring to these Dragon Breaks when discussing MAJOR events. But what about the little events? What if in one broken timeline a couple got together and had a child, and in the other timeline they never even met. When time is repaired, you may be left with a child born to parents who've never even met. Seriously, why does nobody ever talk about this? We should give these people a title. Something like, Dragon Orphans.

"Rune will get a full dialogue tree." In-game: One option appears.

I would ask the Loremaster the one question that has haunted me for years...."If your housecarl is a female elvish housekeeper...does that make her a mermaid?"

If the cowl makes everyone else forget you then how could you run the thieves' guild???? "Hey, do this." "Who the hell are you?"

the sneaky sneaky people have another secret **insert lighting magica** SHOCKER

"The cowl could have found its way to someone other than the player character..." yeah, I was a bit sloppy with my possessions in Oblivion. May have traded it in for a sword or some damned hammers to fix the sword...my bad.

The Grey Cowl didn't erase your memories, it simply erased other people's memories of your identity, including their ability to be able to recall your name even as you state it to them.

There’s a major problem with the greyfox theory, that being that in oblivion you LITERALLY REMOVE THE CURSE ON THE COWL ABOUT BEING FORGOTTEN!!!!!,

if you use bend will on a dragon, and don't ride it in time, the dragon will taunt you for being slow.

I searched so dang long for the boat and a sign of Rune’s parents. That was so annoying to not be given at least a tiny piece of information somewhere on that coastline.

14:55 no it does not. In oblivion the curse is lifted when the Gray Fox uses the elder scroll that you stole on it, and actually tells you afterwards that the curse has been lifted. The cowl also just erases other people's memories of you, not your own memories. You know it does not do that because all of the quest line in oblivion climaxes in the gray fox using the elder scroll to get rid of the curse because he wants his wife to remember him, meaning that he remembers everything about his life. He also explains to his wife how he has been shouting at her to notice him but for her he was just a stranger.

Me: A strange smooth stone with unknown runes on it? Where have I heard that before? Also Me at 5:30 AM: THE EYE OF MAGNUS!!! IT'S GOTTA BE RELATED TO THE EYE!!!

If the rune, Rune, had in his pocket was indeed a rune-stone, shouldn't he had found information on them ? They seem way too common for a private investigator or the College of Winterhold to not know.

“Hey how’s it going it’s Nate here” is what I need to hear during lockdown

I'm intrigued by the idea that Rune could be descended from Uriel V's colony in Akavir, or even a Septim heir himself. Supposing that Uriel V was able to make peace with the Tsaesci, by demonstrating his Voice before all the survivors of Ionith were wiped out, it fits the available facts well enough: Imperial race, arrived by sea, rune stone that is indecipherable by available scholars on Tamriel. And the idea of an orphan with nothing but a single cryptic token of his heritage is a classic trope for lost royalty (or nobility at least, see Brand-Shei). Supposing that Rune's stone is written in Akaviri, it's an amusing piece of irony that he ended up living so close to Esbern as long as he did, since Esbern might have been the only person in Tamriel who could read it.

An explanation that might be more irritating than satisfactory: The Thieves Guild is filled with people with backstories that can't be confirmed anywhere. Sapphire grew up on a pig farm. Where are pigs in Skyrim? Every single member has no outside connection beyond Delvin Mallory. The Thieves Guild is firmly in the domain of Nocturnal, The Daedric Prince of Mystery and the Unknowable. It is no surprise at all that here you will find questions aplenty with no answers at all.

the "rune stone" Rune has could possibly just be his fathers name, but because he is the gray fox (and he was erased from history) his name in written form might have been reduced to unintelligible runes and his father might have just died or passed on the cowl on to another person during Rune's life

If you guys get a chance to play ESO’s Solitude expansion, talk to Bjorskir standing outside the gates to the Blue Palace. He mentions he’s running from family members trying to kill him for destroying a cursed family heirloom that could have “erased him from existence.” I’d bet it’s related to this

Rune and Sapphire were two characters that I lost sleep over trying to find things out about

The more I learn about The Elder Scrolls, the more I love the franchise, and the more I love the franchise the more I learn about it. It's a wholesome cycle.

The rune could also have been dwarven like the attunement sphere. "The Ancient tales of the dwemer" (book although i forgot which part) suggests carved stones used to open doors inside dwemer runes were some of them were carved in a way that is unique acting like a "key". Should his parents make the trip to skyrim that could mean they could have been researchers and that the rune was something they left with him hoping he will carry on their will finding out the secrets of dwemer runes.

Long time lurker here. I just have to say that I absolutely love how it is 2020 and you still find new things in Skyrim to talk about. Keep up the good work.

Silly idea, but I always thought it was a reference to the movie Space Balls, where the main character also had a strange rune and could not translate it even after taking it to “every wise man in the galaxy” but then Yogurt translated it for him at the end and it basically said he was a prince of a royal lineage. I thought this fit perfectly with Rune’s story because both he and Lonestar end up becoming thieves/smugglers.

Given that the Grey Cowl was supposedly "cured" of the curse part of the enchantment and no longer removes you from history whenever you don it at the end of the Oblivion quest, I'm gonna theorize that baby Rune was actually from ~the time of ESO and was sent forward in some kind of magic accident. It would explain him having a rune stone and no one being able to find any sign of his parents. The line "erased themselves from history" was to evoke the Grey Fox and throw veteran fans off.

When I came across Rune, I thought it was just a spaceballs easter egg with the medallion that no wise man could read.

I can only think of Spaceballs, and Lonestar's necklace. So clearly, Rune is a prince.

I love the mod "Quest for the Grey Cowl", it is HUGE and totally worth doing.

I've really broken into tears over this mystery. I've spent hours trying to solve it in-game no luck what so ever. I love watching your videos I also love you bringing Lawrence in on the content. He's brilliant when it comes to lore. Thanks for the video.

Wasn't the "removed from history" things a curse placed on the cowl that you broke with an elder scroll in Ovlivion?

I think that Gray Fox theory makes sense somehow. But I'm not sure of what the truth really is. Honestly, I never gave too much to Rune's story. That's why I like Nate's channel, despite english is not my native language, but he always comes with a history, mistery or fact that I never gave it too much attention in the game. So, thank you Nate for these videos that you make us think about TES Lore.

I love how you go so in depth to different theories and stuff. It’s very entertaining and interesting.

Actually, the Gray Fox in Oblivion wasn't struggling to balance his identities. His whole quest line is about going to great lengths to break Nocturnal's curse and restore his identity. All of the other artifacts were for that heist for an Elder Scroll.

These lore videos might be my favorite

Ok, I like some of those theories, but I still firmly believe that his history is tied to a "cut" quest. EXCEPT that, to be specific, my belief is that this quest was not "cut", but "undeveloped" (as Nate said, if it were cut, there would be *something* behind). In this case, the lack of evidence of its existence may be evidence itself. Maybe there was a quest planned on paper that Bethesda never found the time to actually start developing. I mean, the all the narrative elements are there, is almost obvious that *should* be some kind of quest there! But it never panned out, and so all that setting was arranged like that, leaving an unanswered mystery. That's my headcanon, at least.

I think Rune is from Akavir, but his family was originally from Tamriel...a long time ago. They attempted to return, but were subjected to rough seas. Rune was the only member to wash up. He is the LAST SEPTIM!

Rune's backstory has a couple things in common with Garrett's from the Thief series. Probably just a reference, if it's not nothing. Mercer Frey has the same voice actor as Garrett. But so do half the people in Skyrim. Still, getting caught pickpocketing someone and them being impressed enough to invite the person to join their secret society is exactly how Garrett ended up with the Keepers. Heh, maybe the stone is covered in Keeper Glyphs XD

I've always thought Rune's story was really similar to the misc. quest we can do for Brand-Shei. If memory serves, both of them were found in shipwrecks, and had 1 identifying object on them (Rune's stone and Brand-Shei's blanket with a symbol on it). I always thought maybe Bethesda accidentally wrote up two characters with too-similar stories (especially since they're both somehow attached to the Thieves' Guild) and decided to only attach a quest to one of them. Why in Oblivion they'd choose the guy we have to send to jail, I'll never know. As for the language on the stone, maybe Falmer? I remember it being implied that Calcelmo is the only person who can translate Falmer writing, and he's VERY protective of his research. Rune might not have even considered asking him, or asked and was turned away. Maybe he asked but it was before Calcelmo's research got to the point that he could've translated it. Idk

Possible theory: Rune is originally from another continent. So far in The Elder Scrolls, while maps of the entirety of Nern do exist, we've only heard of three continents, and only been on one. It is entirely possible that no one can identify who or where Rune is from, simply because he's a first generation immigrant from another continent of Nern. EDIT: I have to admit, I'm surprised that this comment has already gotten 23 replies and 125 likes, it's been only 24 hours and even my most popular fanfics haven't seen this much activity in their first 24 hours. An alternate theory is he could have ended up there as a result of the time shinnanigans from Online, possibly from the future? Hard to track someone's past if they're from the future.

The red eagle sword has some very special runes on it, clearly visible due to their glow. The forsworn might have some connections to Mr.Rune

Shick was a TSR creator for D&D back in the day. Quite happy to see his name again. I like the approach he takes to discussing lore.

Without further a do, let's do further -TheEpicNate315

Lmao, Lawrence, The LoreMaster. " Loreance " he was born to do that job.

Just wanted to thank you for the slower viedos where you show some of the beautiful and various buildings and people you are talking about. This allows me to actually watch your viedos. I'm one of the few who get motion sickness watching people race through towns and dungeons, and are not able to watch those viedos. I can play skyrim at a slow pace, but can't race through it. Your viedos are well informed, keep up the good work.

I love these in depth looks at Skyrim and it's lore, storyline. Always something new to discover! Please keep these videos coming!

I'd always assumed that Rune's story was an homage to Lone Starr from Spaceballs.

I've never been able to buy into the "Grey Fox is Rune's predecessor" theory, mostly because the cowl's curse that caused the wearer to be "erased from history" was broken in the Thieves' Guild questline in Oblivion. It masked your identity when you wore it but unlike the Count, no one forgot who you were when you took it off.

So glad I found your channel, currently bingewatching! It's like a documentary!!

is it bad that seeing literally the first picture in this video makes me want to replay skyrim for the 1785th time?

The effect of the cowl was a curse from the 1st grandmaster of the thieves guild stealing the cowl from nocturnal. Nocturnal than placed the curse on any wearer of the grey cowl. We the player helped the grey fox in Oblivion partily remove tht curse using the elder scroll we retrieve. Plz correct me if I'm wrong.

Ok but you didn’t have to expose all our secrets like that lass

“Maybe you aren’t meant to know.”

Thieves Guild will always be hands down my most favourite questline in Skyrim. Money problems become a thing of the past in that organization.

I’m loving this new type of video!

Got to admit? Rune’s story had me looking around the broken ship, trying to solve this mystery? I was looking for a smaller item, which I gave up on.

oh thank gods. ever since i joined the thieves guild years ago i always wanted to learn rune’s story and this was very entertaining for me!

"I'll keep an eye out for anything" that end to his dialog tree tells me it is almost certainly cut content. The really annoying type of cut content where it didn't even get as far as planning what the content would be. There are a few approaches to developing quest content in RPGs, but I am pretty sure Bethesda uses some variant on: * for every entity, make a list of possible quest hooks for different types of quests * separately outline a bunch of quests, * then associate quests with hooks and use that context to polish the details. One side effect of this is that some of those hooks will get included without getting linked to an actual quest.

Being a pessimist, this sounds to me like some writer at Bethesda tried to make some deep, interesting character surrounded in mystery, but just failed in the execution, leaving us with a vague, forgettable character with nothing but dead ends. I'd say there's probably little to no actual lore behind Rune other than a half assed attempt at an interesting background character.

Plot twist: The real little secret is that Rune's actually an Argonian wearing the skin of the person that found him as a child

Plus, according to the quest line in Oblivion, you can be remembered after Corvus read from the Elder Scroll you filched for him. That's the only reason that Emer Dereloth was capable of even knowing the name Emer Dereloth. Once the cowl is donned, you basically don't exist. Even after you transfer it to a successor.

EpicNate: I totally love all your videos!! I love ESU and you provide a wonderful narrative on ESU and I wouldn't have asked for anything more than what you provide!! All be it you're many years younger than myself; I would totally love to hear your theories on Elder scrolls arena and the like!! Keep being great young man for I am indeed many years your elder but you have clearly aimed a stake in the ESU. Love you brother and keep up the good work!!!

The way I see it, with how old Skyrim is and with Skyrim special edition now a thing why didn't they add all the cut content into the remaster? Like that boggles my mind. They had so much time

Check out the mission “Good Intentions”. When the orb found underground is transported to the College of Winterhold, Tolfdir describes the markings on it of an unknown language and radiating with Magicka.

What Rune had could be a creation of the Ayleids. In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the Ayleids created many wonders around Cyrodiil, such as Welkynd, Varla, Doom, Cult, Birthsign, and possibly the Rune stones as well. These were powered by the enormous Ayleid ruins, with the Ayleid wells supplying magic to these powerful sites. It is possible, I say possible because I refuse to play ESO, that the rune stones are just smaller, weaker versions of the Doomstones. The Ayleids being a Pre-Dawn Era race with no full record of their written language, it could be a more archaic and obscure piece of runecraft, previously unrecorded. This would stump all but those who walked the planes of Oblivion, and as that tends to require intense meditation and years of preparation, and drives all but the most strong-willed of people insane, this is a very difficult proposition.

@TheEpicNate315 I thought it was just an obscure reference to Spaceball’s Lone Starr. The way he delivered his dialogue was almost exactly like Lone Starr talking about the “Strange Rock with runes no one was able to translate” that actually ended up saying he was a prince 😂

The dark elf guild member that appears later when building up the guild, later says you are good, but "no grey fox"

New theory: Rune's dad was a SILVER fox.

This one got me. I spent a lot of time scouring the ocean floor trying to find something that would help shed light on Rune. It is sad to hear that there is no answer.A thanks to you and your team for looking into it.

This reminds me! If you go to Glover Mallory in Solstheim and gain access to his basement, there is a note addressed to Sapphire. And if you return it to her it will unlock unique dialog and reveal that Sapphire is Glovers daughter. I'm not sure if you've covered that yet.

I played I spy with a Color blind person once , well ...... I lost.

I wonder if Rune’s rune has anything to do with the runes in with the bugs in jars.

Ok, I have a huge issue with the whole grey fox thing... They were indeed stricken from history, however the wearer retained their memories. Not only this, but if you follow the main thieves guild quest line, you use a elder scroll to remove that effect... Making it so people only see you as the grey fox while your wearing the mask... This changes the history for all previous and future grey foxes making it so they aren't removed from history.

There is also the issue that the curse of the cowl is broken, so one of Rune's parents couldn't be a Gray Fox to disappear because they would be remembered. Somehow they managed to disappear from history, but the cowl had nothing to do with it. I believe that this was meant to be more, I actually believe it is cut content that may have been cut so early it never made it to the game files but Bethesda wanted to put a cool mystery in here, or annoy us to Oblivion and back with something we can't solve, and decided to half develop the quest. Whoever Rune's parents were we can say a few things about them, they were intelligent, meticulous, thorough, and very good at what they did. Whatever Rune's story is, eh, I guess its up to us to give him his past.

Rune's parents were trying to use the rune stones to ascend to godhood and ended up zero summing, there by removing themselves from history and Rune's memory of his parents.

The thieves guild should hire you... they could pickpocket everyone while they’re listening to you speaking.

My belief on rune is that the stone in his pocket was the scribbling of a mad man or the scribbling of someone on the ship trying to pass the time, and his parent(s) were either outlaws gone into hiding that got killed in the shipwreck or just lived out in the middle of nowhere or were nomadic

Preparing for my birthday. Cleaning the house and stuff. Thanks. You have made it so easy and fun with your Lore videos

The way Nate places emphasis on the word "cistern", Jesus christ it hurts

There are a few glaring and insurmountable flaws with your Runestone theory: It is hard to believe that no college and no academic was able to find or possesed any information on a resource that was heavily used in the past, especially given given how well documented other, more obscure parts of Tamriels history are. It is made even more unlikely by the fact that Runestones have distinct names that are derived from the shape of the runes themselves therefore clearly representing a script that is readable in some form. The third factor is that Runestones have specific shapes and colors. None of these features are mentioned by Rune. His dialogue suggests that he was indeed supposed to be part of a quest at some point and this is probably the end of the mystery. You have to remember, that there are two forms of cut content: Content that was cut during development and thus leaves behind a number of triggers and resources And content that was rejected and cut during storyboarding before it was ever more than an idea or developed any further and therefore never making it into the code. Therefore the writing necessary for Rune to be put into the game was likely left as is to populate the thieves guild but everything else was never implemented and would leave no trace to be found. *Added in edit upon further thinking* As for the Gray Fox theory, it doesn't work. The curse on the Cowl was broken by the end of the Storyline with the use of an Elder Scroll. This is an absolute action that essentially undoes the curse ever existing. Therefore it's simply not possible that the Cowl retains that power. This is further evidenced by the fact, that the Hero of Kvatch is still remembered and recognized when he didn't wear the Cowl and despite being the Gray Fox his memory lives on in history. Therefore, whatever magical effect the Cowl retains after being passed on to the Hero, it is not the same as the curse. I believe you are also misinterpreting the curse in the first place. It erases the perception of you from history and from peoples minds. It doesn't erase your existence. The Gray Fox encountered in Oblivion is a good example: while his personal identity is lost and disassociated from himself, his position, his marriage and his name are not. He is simply assumed to have gone missing and the memory of him has become hazy to those who knew him. But they do remember knowing him. They simply can't remember who he is. I refer back to the conclusion of my original post.

So I've got to mention it because I'm not too sure if anyone has. After discovering rune in the Thieves guild and hearing his story, I decided to embark on my own journey to try and find out. He mentioned shipwrecks off the coast of solitude. So I started looking for shipwrecks around that area and I'd also taken to searching as many as I could find around the entire map, Just in case. It was ages ago now so I can't remember exactly where or the details, but there was a shipwreck where the majority of it was under the sand but there were all these different pockets that you could swim into. In one of those underwater pockets I found a chest and inside that chest was a journal or letter, written by a lady who had said that she had given her son to her brother for safe keeping, to take across the waters. I kind of remember something about them having to run for their safety? And that she hoped for their safe journey. She was going to come on another boat later on and catch up with them. So obviously she was on this boat and that was her journal, And I can't help but wonder if her son, that she gave to her brother was rune? So she was in a shipwreck and died, while rune was in another shipwreck and survived. Has anyone else found this information? I'm tempted to go look for it again on a different player

Nothing like having a watch an ad every 5 freakin minutes.

I've always wanted to know more about Rune, oddly enough. Thanks for quenching my thirst for Rune content.

'The generous fisherman took him in, and decided to name him after the rock.' I literally thought of the Rock.

Admittingly, I stumbled onto this vid by chance. However, I've loved every vid made! Although I am nowhere near as informed as many who are on here, I wanted to suggest that maybe Rune's parent(s) were actually members of that mythic order that resides outside of time... They just choose to live apart and return millennia later on a whim. They are mages of old, which would lend merit to the ancient unknown rune. Perhaps a member fell for a Nord mortal, and they had Rune. The member stayed to live a normal life, but they had a catastrophic event which caused the shipwreck and could not teleport their child as it was not attuned to magics yet. Leaving a dead Nord under the ocean and a mystic member grieving on another plane, Rune was left with an uncertain past and struggling for answers in the present.

"Maybe his mother passed away at child birth" *Dude dances*

Since there's no mention of runestones in skyrim, and its something that's primarily in eso (which takes place 1000 years prior to skyrim), is it possible that the shenanigans causing things blackreach to travel through time sporadically also caused rune and his parents to travel to skyrim during the time of the shipwreck and then caused his parents to jump again in time without him? It would explain why his parents never existed--they were 1000 in the past and thus in a time period a private investigator wouldn't be looking for, a time period where runestones are more common.

Last time I was this early Arena was still in development

You my friend have become a master of suspenseful narration!