Lost Knowledge is a repeatable Dragonborn side quest from Neloth, the eccentric Telvanni wizard of Tel Mithryn on Solstheim. Having studied the Black Books himself, he keeps hunting for more, and he would much rather you did the dangerous part. You fetch the book, he makes a copy, and everyone is happy, apart from whatever was guarding it.
How to start
- Finish the main quest The Gardener of Men.
- Ask Neloth whether he has found any other Black Books. He admits it is only a rumor of a whisper of a conjecture, but names a dungeon where one should be.
Walkthrough
Retrieve the Black Book
Travel to the dungeon Neloth points out and recover the Black Book from it. Which book and which location you get depends on what you have not yet found; the quest can be given again for each remaining Black Book. For example, Filament and Filigree lies in Kolbjorn Barrow.
Talk to Neloth
Bring the book back to Tel Mithryn. Neloth does not take it from you: he only makes a copy for himself, explaining that carrying the original around is far too dangerous (for him, anyway). He then pays you and calls the matter closed.
Because you keep the original, you can still read it yourself, enter Apocrypha and complete its own Black Book quest, and later return to change the Secret you chose.
Rewards
- 1,000 gold from Neloth each time.
- You keep the Black Book and whatever reward its own quest grants.
Tips and notes
- The quest repeats for as many Black Books as remain unfound, which makes it a tidy source of gold while you collect them anyway.
- Neloth hopes each new book might hold the final secrets of Xarxes.
- Related Neloth quests include Wind and Sand and Experimental Subject.
- Black Book quests: The Sallow Regent, The Winds of Change, Untold Legends, The Hidden Twilight.
