The Chantry of Auri-El is a vast, isolated network of Snow Elf temples scattered across the Forgotten Vale (Dawnguard). It was once the centre of the Snow Elf faith, devoted to the Aldmeri god Auri-El. You do not visit it as a single dungeon so much as walk through what is left of it, wayshrine by wayshrine, on your way to the Inner Sanctum.
What you’ll find
- A chain of wayshrines across the Vale, each a step on an Initiate’s road to enlightenment, built with magic thought to be older than the First Era.
- Spectral Prelates, Snow Elf priests restored as ghosts by Auri-El so they can keep tending their shrines.
- Knight-Paladin Gelebor, one of the few survivors, still guarding the first wayshrine in Darkfall Cave.
- The Inner Sanctum, where the pilgrimage was meant to end with an audience with the Arch-Curate.
Quests
During Touching the Sky you find Gelebor beside his wayshrine in Darkfall Cave. He hands you an Initiate’s Ewer and uses Snow Elf magic to open the first shrine, sending you on into Darkfall Passage and eventually the Vale itself.
Tips
Think of the Chantry as a long pilgrimage rather than a single room: each wayshrine you reach adds another stop to your route through the Vale. Keep the ewer Gelebor gives you, because the whole ritual revolves around it. Talking to the Prelates along the way is worth it for flavour alone; not many ghosts are this polite.
Good to know
The rite went like this: an Initiate recited a mantra at a wayshrine, then filled the ewer from its central basin. Once fully enlightened, they carried the ewer to the Inner Sanctum and poured it into the sacred basin to earn an audience with the Arch-Curate. Other Snow Elf temples honoured gods such as Trinimac, Syrabane, Jephre and Phynaster, but none matched this one. Because it was hidden away from Nords and Snow Elves alike, the Chantry survived the war with the Atmorans and the decline of the Snow Elves into the Falmer, until the Falmer eventually found it and slaughtered the survivors.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim/Dawnguard game files, summarised in our own words.
