Staff of Magnus

[Disagreer]

I found the staff and am a bit confused over its power. The in-game description says it will restore my health and "mystical energy" when used. The health regen is great and lasts almost through an entire dungeon, but I assume the latter part refers to Spell Points, which would be useless to my knight. The wiki, on the other hand, tells me the second effect is "Spell Shield" which protects against magic. I read something like that somewhere before and it's partially why I went after the staff in the first place, since magic is a weak spot for my character.

Is the in-game description simply wrong, or does Spell Shield work like Spell Absorption does in the later games? Not that it matters for a non-spellcaster but it would be fun to know.

[AddictedtoMorrowind]

The description is probably wrong, when I look at "Spell Breaker" which also has Spell Shield, it says "dispelling magicks". So I believe the in-game thing is incorrect.

[Disagreer]

The spell shield isn't very effective. Hell hounds keep frying me. =(

[jimmyjack]

I've noticed in a lot of the pages it is mentioned nobody is sure what he wanted when he imitated the throne. I've been thinking and I've come up with an idea. He has clear associations to mehrunes dagon right? How much easier would it have been to conquer tamriel as he tried to do in oblivion if the empire was in complete civil war as jagar let it be and if the emperor was secretly on mehrunes side?

[Disagreer]

Um... We were talking about the Staff of Magnus here, not Jagar Tharn. You must be thinking of the Staff of Chaos?

Anyway, yes, Tharn had some connection to Mehrunes Dagon. I think it's made clear in the spin-off game Battlespire. I watched a playthrough of it once but I didn't pay that much attention to the story. I'm sure it's explained thoroughly somewhere on the wiki.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

On the lore question, not a terrible lot is known about Jagar Tharn. His ancestors worshiped Molag Bal but he seems to be allied with Mehrunes Dagon. Blegh. He's just a generic evil sorcerer in the end.

Staff of Magnus is a weird artifact. It has different powers in every game, and it's inconsistent. Never gotten it in Arena yet, but I believe I'd go with what the wiki says.