Practicing magic takes a lot of time and effort, and every mage needs a comfy place to work on their craft.
Admittedly, you could practice magic in Breezehome or Honeyside, but creating the right environment can help take your studies to the next level.
The best place to shop for fabulous mage real estate in Skyrim isn’t the classified ads in the College of Winterhold’s weekly newsletter. Instead, let’s look at what the modding community has in store.
10. Mirele Bismath – The Comfy & Compact Wizard Tower
Mirele Bismath is a gorgeous tower overlooking Lake Illinata from its Eastern coast.
Having been constructed by a Cyrodiilic Dunmer before the Fourth Era, its architecture is like nothing you’ve seen in Skyrim – but the chosen colors and materials blend nicely with its surroundings.
Inside, you’ll find everything you need to flourish as a master of the magical arts. It’s equipped with every crafting and cooking station, storage with auto-sorting, a greenhouse, and a trophy room.
Perhaps its most unique feature is the custom teleportation system constructed by the previous owner. It’s an immersive alternative to fast-traveling that’s perfect for the busy wizard.
Fans of Howl’s Moving Castle will love Aki’s Tower – the player home that lifted itself from the ground.
Such unusual behavior from real estate can only be the work of a wizard. One look inside the tower at the top of the breakaway island will confirm your suspicions.
Every room in Aki’s Tower speaks of an intellectual mage working day and night to improve his art. The decoration makes the home feel lived-in, and there’s plenty of space to lay out your alchemy ingredients and magic treatises.
Make sure you use the ladder to get down to ground level. Jumping from that height would mean death for the average person.
The wizard’s domain extends far and wide within their mind.
For this reason, most wizards prefer small, comfy abodes that don’t draw too much attention and are easier to keep tidy. That way, they can focus more on their studies and less on dusting shelves.
But how small is too small?
Size is relative when you’re a mage. If you don’t believe me, check out this comfy wizard’s home situated within the top ornament of a magic staff.
Everything about this player home defies logical explanation, but that shouldn’t be a problem for a wizard. Now, you’ll never be too far away from home.
Creator Boric123 took CD Projekt Red’s 2015 fantasy hit as inspiration for a beautiful seaside dwelling for a well-rounded adventurer interested in the arcane.
The décor, colors, and textures are all exquisite. They exhibit a degree of good taste and refinement uncommon in the Skyrim province.
The custom background music, hand-picked from the Witcher 3 soundtrack, further distances it from the average Skyrim home.
There’s space for the arts, both mundane and arcane, and plenty of storage space for your important magical items. You won’t regret moving into this home!
Mages love privacy – and nothing is more private than a home floating around in the Aetherium.
Gleamblossom Hollow is accessible through a portal found on the way to Saarthal from Windhelm. Cross it, and you’ll find yourself in a pocket reality containing a cozy home with everything you need to live a life of magical studies.
There are rooms dedicated to practicing every magic art – from Enchanting to Alchemy. You can also cook up a storm and grow vegetables in the internal garden.
This inter-dimensional home is perfect for when you need to lay low.
Oh, the gates to Oblivion are open, and chaos reigns all around the continent? No prob! I’ll quarantine myself in Gleamblossom Hollow.
Working in the service industry will teach you one important thing: once people are fed and have a roof over their heads, their #1 priority becomes convenience.
No Silicon Valley start-ups are tripping over themselves to make your life easier in Skyrim, but you can always make a deal with a Daedra for state-of-the-art magical artifacts.
Land yourself in Sheogorath’s good graces, and he might bestow upon you a Dimensional Rift Home, accessible from anywhere on the map through a simple teleport spell.
This gives you constant access to any crafting station you need, massive storage space for your gear and favorite artifacts, and seemingly infinite stores of [potions (and liquor).
With a name straight out of the Lord of the Rings comes Tel Aschan, a wonderful mage tower hiding in the mountains outside of Winterhold.
Whether you’re a college dropout planning your revenge or maybe an Arch-Mage who needs a place to work in private, Tel Aschan is the perfect base of operations.
Every inch of this home’s three levels is covered in items of magical significance, whether it’s equipment, books, or rare plants sourced from the deepest parts of Blackreach.
Once you’ve accumulated enough legendary artifacts, you can start filling up the inter-dimensional Hall of Legends – accessible via the Ancient Crown on the enchanting table.
Father Comstock from Bioshock: Infinite and Ningguang from Genshin Impact know it all too well:
If you want to make an impact, there’s nothing like an ominous floating base of operations.
Terra Umbra can be just that for the magically-inclined Dragonborn.
Your journey toward home ownership starts at the Dwemer ruins of Alftand, where a mysterious spell found on a corpse allows you to raise the earth below one of the nearby towers.
Once it becomes stable, you’ll be able to move your new home anywhere on the map. You can keep it floating or lower it to ground level again. There’s nothing else quite like it!
For the magically-oriented minds of the Nords, science and technology are no different from spells and sorcery.
The Laboratorium explores this idea by providing the perfect home for a scientifically-oriented mage to lock themself away for years while working on their experiments.
Besides the incredible concept and exquisite decoration, the Laboratorium shines for its technology.
Gadgets include a telescope, an elevator, and a cableway to carry you up from ground level to the entrance – all powered by a beautiful watermill.
Necromancers are some of the most hardcore magic practitioners in Tamriel.
They’re some of the only ones willing to take magic to its limits – and they deserve a worthy temple to carry out their grim work.
Elianora’s Tirashan is a gorgeously macabre necromancer home in a pocket dimension. It features every crafting station, plenty of display space, and even your own Dremora merchant, ready to buy all your junk after a night of adventuring.
Moody lighting and glowing magical artifacts make Tirashan feel like it’s brimming with power, while the Gothic architecture and thick fog remind us this is a place of dark magic.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
