Lore talk:Levitation Act

"Continuity"

"Two NPC conversations that you can overhear in the Imperial City mention that Dovyn Aren has been discouraged by the passage of the "Levitation Act." This is presumably an effort to establish continuity with Morrowind."

Seriously? It's obviously a joke.

Plug in?

Has anyone developed a plugin to add this spell effect to Oblivion? I used to love flying in Morrowind .. I'm disappointed that Oblivion does not incorporate it.

Purpose?

Is there a purpose for this page? Nothing links to it. --GuildKnight 18:13, 27 February 2007 (EST)

Well certainly an explanation of why levitation was removed is handy, as it's an often asked question. I think it's more a matter of working out what should be linking here. Jadrax 18:22, 27 February 2007 (EST)

Citing Wikipedia

I think there's something iffy about using a quote from Wikipedia in this article. Can we find a similar quote from a stable site that won't change suddenly on us? Somercy 13:45, 11 December 2007 (EST)

That quote seems to have changed already. But it does provide a reference. I don't know how stable that is, though. --Mankar Camoran^{•T•C•E•} 14:00, 11 December 2007 (EST)

If somebody were to write an explanation we wouldn't need to cite anything! I've not played MW so I don't know how levitation worked there but I'm sure somebody can come up with something. --Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 15:18, 11 December 2007 (EST)

I tried something, but I'm not sure if it's...proper. Somercy 10:38, 12 December 2007 (EST)

It may be legal, but I think it is better to follow Rpeh's advice here. --Mankar Camoran^{•T•C•E•} 12:15, 12 December 2007 (EST)

Lore Worthy?

This page really ought to be in lorespace, but it's far too game-specific. Perhaps the page could be moved to Oblivion:Levitation, and a new Lore:Levitation Act article could be written and transcluded. —Legoless 16:12, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

I agree there should be a "Lore:Levitation Act" - most of this article can be moved there and rewritten from a lore perspective. We have an article on the Lore:Green Pact which itself is quite specific. I don't think this page should exist at all in the Oblivion namespace. --Jimeee (talk) 14:11, 3 May 2013 (GMT)

Dear God in Heaven, how have we not moved this yet?! Minor Edits^{Threats•Evidence} 02:05, 4 July 2013 (GMT)

Because no one saw it because it was in the oblivion namespace. Jeancey (talk) 02:08, 4 July 2013 (GMT)

Original article

Note: I felt it would be a shame to lose all the info that was in the original oblivion article before the move and rewrite to the lore namespace, so I have copied it below as it includes some interesting game-mechanic explanations that don't belong in a lore article. I realize this isn't really what a talk page is for, but there is nowhere else to mention this at the moment:

In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, players had access to (and at some places, such as Tel Branora and Tel Fyr, required) a "Levitation" spell.

In Oblivion, Levitation spells have been removed. The reason levitation was removed, according to the developers, is that, unlike in Morrowind, cities are located in separate cells from the rest of the world. Since the cities aren't fully rendered until you enter them, it wouldn't look right if you were to fly over the walls. Levitation also was sometimes used as an exploit in previous games of the series, so it was removed to preserve game balance. However, by climbing on roof tops one can exit towns and see the unrendered world.

Two NPC conversations that you can overhear in the Imperial City mention that Dovyn Aren has been discouraged by the passage of the "Levitation Act." This is presumably an effort to establish continuity with Morrowind. The specific quotes are:

"He still teaches, though he lost his passion for it after the Levitation Act was passed. Can't say I blame him."

"He's getting older, but he can still teach a bit about Alteration. He's been teaching it since before the Levitation Act of 421."

Also, one of M'aiq the Liar's quotes is about levitation:

"Levitation is for fools. Why would we want to levitate? Once you are up high, there is nowhere to go but down."

Several areas incorporate this limitation into their level design. The planes of Oblivion, including the tower, is one notable example. In many multi-level dungeons, there is also often a door at the end of the last level which leads back to a walkway above and near the entrance, which the player can jump down from for a quick exit. Having a levitation spell available would eliminate the need to traverse much of these areas.

While the date of 3E 421 actually predates Morrowind, which takes place in 3E 427, as evinced by the Release Identification note, Morrowind is not subject to Imperial laws due to joining by treaty rather than conquest, allowing otherwise illegal practices (such as slavery).

--Jimeee (talk) 11:00, 19 May 2014 (GMT)

The majority of this could be migrated to an 'Oblivion:Levitation' page like I suggested above a few years back. —Legoless (talk) 23:51, 20 May 2014 (GMT)

I've gone ahead and restored this. —⁠Legoless (talk) 14:15, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

6 years later aint too bad :P --Jimeee (talk) 17:10, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

Speculative content

I'd say this article claims a lot more than it really has ground to do, and some of its contents seem speculative or based on making assumptions as to how different lore relate to another.

Firstly there is no direct basis for claiming the Treaty of the Armistice has anything to do with the status of levitation in Morrowind. It's speculative, and it might be a reasonable explanation - but it's not something that should be stated as fact on a wiki. Neither do we really know the exact contents of the Act itself - does it forbid levitation outright, regulate its teaching or what? Further, there is no discussion as to the rarity of levitation in the novels, which the 4E 40 segment seems to refers to. It is even used to a significant degree by the Imperial Legion in its battle with Umbriel, and never is it mentioned to be particularly rare or even banned magic.

I suggest this article is revised and cleaned up, to remove information without actual citations. As it currently is, it is misleading. Stigwa (talk) 15:01, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

Heavily agree with you, I'm proposing that this article be deleted, and the act mentioned as a one-line thing somewhere else. Imperialbattlespire (talk) 22:29, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

I don't think it should be deleted as there is lore on this subject matter, and its actually Bethesdas way of saying why there isn't levitation magic. I also believe there might be an Uol that can be used for this article. So I wouldn't delete the article, the thing about Telvani Towers and Levitation, though isn't related to the act itself and can be moved to another page. I'd move it to the page that talks about Telvanni Towers. I'll look and see if we have some Uol stuff. Edit: I fixed most of the issue with the page itself. So I don't think it needs to be deleted at all.TheVampKnight (talk) 23:45, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

I am opposed to any suggestion that this article should be deleted. Playing devil's advocate over a lack of clarity as to what exactly the Levitation Act is is playing dumb; we know it refers to the removal of levitation magic, and that's not a bold inference to make. I wouldn't call the expanded info outright speculation, but the article could certainly be whittled down without deleting (as Vamp has done) if people object to the Telvanni info. —⁠Legoless (talk) 00:50, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

(←) I see the info on Telvanni levitation pads has been re-added by an anonymous editor. I have opted to restore the previous wording which pointed out that this form of levitation relies on pads and predates the Act. —⁠Legoless (talk) 15:47, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

I agree but I dunno why the part from Infernal City was removed. From the book: "Apparently, no one has heard of levitation is at least a lifetime. However, Lazarum of the Synod apparently figured out a spell to do it." p.39. Yes, the Legion used levitation in the book, but it doesn't discount this line so I'll add it back in. --Jimeee (talk) 16:09, 22 June 2022 (UTC)