Why can't I start the quest "lost to the ages"?
I have finished the main part of the Dawnguard DLC but I can't start the Lost to the Ages quest. I've read the book "The Aetherium Wars" and nothing happened. I checked the misc section in my journal but there's nothing there to do with the quest. Am I missing something?
Best Answer
Reading the book 'The Aetherium Wars' will initially only trigger a miscellaneous quest in which you have to 'Investigate the ruins of Arkngthamz':
There you will meet Katria, and this will trigger the 'Lost to the Ages' quest.
As user Roddy of the Frozen Peas suggested, there are other methods to get the quest 'Lost to the Ages' started.
Apart from reading the book 'The Aetherium Wars', you can- travel to Arkngthamz, or;
- find any one of the four Aetherium shards (at that point called 'Glowing Crystal
Shards').
Arkngthamz can be found south-east of Markarth:
One of the four Aetherium shards can be found there as well, and the other three are in
- the Dwemer ruins of Mzulft (south-southeast of Windhelm), and;
- Raldbthar (just east of Irkngthand), and;
- on the ancient Dwemer bridge called Deep Folk Crossing.
Another possible explanation is that you encountered a bug that prevents you from properly starting the quest even if the requirements are met.
There are two bugs mentioned on the UESP quest page that your playthrough might have been affected by:Reading The Aetherium Wars may not add the miscellaneous objective "Investigate Arkngthamz" to your quest log. Upon investigating Arkngthamz, "Lost to the Ages" may not be added to quest log, either, meaning that you will be unable to complete the quest.
A way to fix [this] is to reload a save in which you have not started the Dawnguard questline, then drop The Aetherium Wars and any crystal shards if you have obtained any, and pick the book back up and read it. The quest should start, and then you can pick up the shards.This quest may not start if, after installing Dawnguard, you have visited Mzulft or Deep Folk Crossing prior to reading The Aetherium Wars and the corpses at these locations have been fully removed from the game.
This bug is fixed by version 2.0.1 of the Unofficial Dawnguard Patch [now part of the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch].
sources: UESP.net and Fandom.com
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How do I fix the lost to ages quest?
A way to fix [this] is to reload a save in which you have not started the Dawnguard questline, then drop The Aetherium Wars and any crystal shards if you have obtained any, and pick the book back up and read it. The quest should start, and then you can pick up the shards.How do I start the Aetherium Forge quest?
To start this quest you can do a few things one get a book called THE AETHERIUM WARS or you could just go straight to Arkngthamz which is located south of Dushnik Yal and thats southeast of Markarth. Upon completion of the quest you recieve the achievement of the same name.How do you activate the Ruins of Bthalft?
you need to go to the Rift Imperial Camp. The ruins will be right next to the camp. You placed all 4 shards in place and Katira is with you? The quest can be very buggy i'm afraid just look at the large bugs list here (click the show button to open it), going to some of the locations before the quest can screw it up.Where can I find the book The Aetherium Wars?
Locations- The Arcanaeum of the College of Winterhold.
- Bards College in Solitude, around the corner from the entrance, on a bookshelf.
- Castle Dour Dungeon.
- Castle Volkihar.
- Castle Volkihar Undercroft.
- Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, in Lis' pit.
- Darklight Tower.
- Dragonsreach, in Farengar Secret-Fire's library.
Liz Phair - Why Can't I? (Official Video)
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