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With an Arcane Enchanter, items are both ruined and reborn as new and more powerful objects.

Arcane Enchanting: An Overview

Enchanting requires you to make short-term sacrifices for long-term rewards.

The important (and sometimes difficult) choices you make throughout this process determine what items you can create, and how powerful they will be.

In short: Enchanting is the art of imbuing an item with magical enchantments powered by soul energy. However, this is done at the expense of other enchanted items.

To enchant an item, you need:

An Enchantment. Before you can imbue an item with an enchantment, you must first learn that enchantment by disenchanting an item with the same base effect.

A filled Soul Gem. While you can find filled Soul Gems in the world, you can also create them by using an empty Soul Gem and the Soul Trap spell (Conjuration) or a weapon enchanted with the Soul Trap enchantment.

An unenchanted item. These are easy to find, though you may wish to Smith your own in order to have a ready supply of items to enchant.

The Arcane Enchanter: To enchant an item, you will also need to use an Arcane Enchanter.

If you plan to focus on Enchanting, locate an Arcane Enchanter you can return to quickly and easily, and make a point of visiting it often.

Two locations close to your starting point of Helgen are Anise’s Cabin across the river from Riverwood, and Farengar’s study in Whiterun’s palace of Dragonsreach. Later on, you may want to purchase a house with an Arcane Enchanter...