Shivering:Obelisk of Order

An active Obelisk

Obelisks of Order are activated by Priests of Order, and spawn Knights of Order when active. Placing three Hearts of Order, taken from the knights, in the obelisk will deactivate it. The obelisks are found throughout the Shivering Isles during the Main Quest. While the obelisks are not active at the beginning, they activate as you progress through the Main Quest. They are all active once you start Retaking the Fringe, only to all be deactivated at the end of that quest. They are then reactivated once you talk to Sheogorath about Rebuilding the Gatekeeper, and remain active until the completion of The End of Order.

Each obelisk is linked to a Crystal Chest and once deactivated they can be used to access that chest, revealing a large quantity of loot (full details on the chest page).

How to Deal With Them

Haskill will tell you that "They can be overloaded and rendered inert by placing the crystalline hearts of the Knights into the obelisk itself... Each heart will increase the power of the obelisk until it eventually overloads and shuts down", which doesn't tell the whole story.

Near every Obelisk will be a Priest of Order, who has a magical connection to the obelisk: until the obelisk is shut down, the priest cannot be killed, but the priest will keep reactivating the obelisk unless killed.

The only way to break the cycle is to knock the priest unconscious and then deactivate the obelisk. Only then can the priest be finished.

Tips

Put two Hearts into the Obelisk before dealing with either the Priest or the Knights. Then kill the Priest and put the third Heart into the Obelisk. This will stop the Priest reviving before the Obelisk has been shut down. After it is, finish off the rest of the Knights.

If you lack the Hearts necessary to shut down the Obelisk, you can simply kill the Knights of Order as they spawn for their hearts. Kill the priest and use your recently acquired Hearts to shut down the Obelisk. You can also paralyze the Priest and steal the many Hearts each priest carries.

Another method is to cast a Command spell at several Knights. They will attack the Priest and the other Knights, and will continue to fight even after the spell wears off. This gives you time to deactivate the Obelisk and mop up survivors. Alternatively, use the Command spell on the Priests themselves, which should prevent them from reactivating the Obelisks, as they will be busy fighting their former allies.

It is also possible to kill the Priests and then resurrect them using the Staff of Worms, before they are resurrected by the Obelisk they guard. After the reanimate effect wears off they no longer attack you, and actually start attacking the Knights of Order. After overloading the Obelisk, kill the now passive Priest, as they will still reactivate the Obelisk.

Locations

There are 23 obelisks in all. Three are only encountered at specific stages of the main quest, while the other twenty are located throughout Shivering Isles. They can all be viewed on the SI map, or each individual one's location can be seen by clicking on its map link.

The first 20 can be accessed on the PC by using the console code coc SEObeliskXXExterior where XX is replaced by the number of the obelisk.

1. In Mania, W of Split (map)
2. In Mania, N/NE of Dreamwalk Camp (map)
3. In Mania, N of Dire Warren (map)
4. In Dementia, immediately NW of Puddlejump Camp (map)
5. In Mania, N of Cann (map)
6. In Dementia, E of Xirethard (map)
7. In Dementia, N of Blood Island Camp and W of The Howling Halls (map)
8. In Dementia, W/NW of Inlet Camp, on the large island N of Madgod's Boot (map)
9. In Dementia, W of Lost Time Camp (map)
10. In Dementia, S of the Hill of Suicides, along The Low Road (map)
11. In Mania, E of Fetid Grove (map)
12. In Dementia, S/SE of Vitharn, on the eastern of the two islands S of Shallow Grave (map)
13. In Mania, E of Dunroot Burrow (map)
14. In Dementia, W/SW of Corpserot Passage (map)
15. In Mania, immediately SW of Cylarne (map)
16. In Mania, E/NE of Hale (map)
17. In Mania, W of Brellach, on the island off the tip of Saints Watch (map)
18. In Dementia, NW of Flooded Camp (map)
19. In Dementia, NE of Xavara, SE of a bridge on The Low Road (map)
20. In Dementia, S of Xedilian (map)
21. Inside Xeddefen, Great Chamber, during Retaking The Fringe (interior location, therefore not shown on map)
22. Sheogorath's Palace Courtyards, during The End of Order (map)
23. Sheogorath's Palace Courtyards, during The End of Order (map)

Activation Order

This is the activation order as determined in the Construction Set

1. In Dementia, S of the Hill of Suicides, along The Low Road
2. In Mania, E of Fetid Grove
3. In Dementia, S/SE of Vitharn, on the eastern of the two islands S of Shallow Grave
4. In Mania, W of Split
5. In Mania, N/NE of Dreamwalk Camp
6. In Mania, N of Dire Warren
7. In Dementia, immediately NW of Puddlejump Camp
8. In Mania, N of Cann
9. In Dementia, W/SW of Corpserot Passage
10. In Dementia, NW of Flooded Camp
11. In Mania, E of Dunroot Burrow
12. In Dementia, E of Xirethard
13. In Dementia, NE of Xavara, SE of a bridge on The Low Road
14. In Dementia, N of Blood Island Camp and W of The Howling Halls
15. In Mania, E/NE of Hale
16. In Mania, immediately SW of Cylarne
17. In Dementia, W/NW of Inlet Camp, on the large island N of Madgod's Boot
18. In Dementia, S of Xedilian
19. In Dementia, W of Lost Time Camp
20. In Mania, W of Brellach, on the island off the tip of Saints Watch

Bugs

• A previously deactivated Obelisk may activate itself again. Trying to put more Hearts of Order in it will have no result, since the script will tell you the Obelisk is already deactivated.
  • The Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch, version 1.5.0, fixes this bug.
  • To fix this with the console you can target the faulty Obelisk and type set deactivated to 2 and it will make it go through the deactivation sequence again.