Keening

Base Damage	8
Speed	1.3
Weight	4
Value	5
Level	1+
Category	Dagger
Class	Daedric Artifact
Variants	None
Skill	One-Handed
Unique	Yes
Item ID	0006A13C
Game/DLC	Skyrim

Keening is a Dwemer dagger of legend, one of the three tools Lord Kagrenac made to tap the power of the Heart of Lorkhan. Arniel Gane of the College of Winterhold has it shipped from Morrowind for an experiment on the vanished Dwemer. It turns up in the last part of Arniel's Endeavor, which opens only after The Eye of Magnus, so it belongs to the late game of the College questline.

In Skyrim, the famous blade is a shadow of its old self. Its base damage is low, it cannot be tempered, and its enchantment holds a single charge. Keening is a collector's prize and a piece of lore far more than a working weapon.

Weapon Enchantment

Keening's Sting takes 10 points each of Health, Magicka and Stamina from the target on a hit. The enchantment holds so little charge that it is spent almost at once. Fortify Destruction gear that cuts the cost by 100% in total keeps it working. Before the quest is done, a Mortal Wound effect lowers maximum Health by 5 while it is equipped.

The Enchantment Effects page lists every weapon enchantment.

Enchantment
Chance to absorb 10 points of health, magicka and stamina on hit

How to Get Keening Guide

Keening Map Location and Quest Guide

Keening map location:

Keening is recovered from a dungeon chosen at random in the last part of Arniel's Endeavor. Arniel Gane gives the quest at the College of Winterhold.

Talk to Arniel Gane at the College of Winterhold.
Bring him ten Dwemer cogs.
Recover the Staff of Tandil that Enthir sold.
Heat the warped soul gem in Dwemer convectors with Arniel's Convection.
Talk to Enthir, then retrieve Keening from the marked dungeon.
Bring Keening to Arniel and watch his experiment.

Map credit by Map Genie.

Smithing Guide

Crafting Materials	Upgrade Materials	Smithing Level	Smithing Perk
Cannot be crafted	Cannot be upgraded	-	None

Weapon Levels

Some weapons in Skyrim are Levelled. The power of a levelled weapon is based on your charcters level when you get them. Some get stronger in both physical and magical aspects, while others only improve their enchantments. These items don't get better as your character levels up.

Keening has the same damage at every character level.

Level	Damage	Weight	Value	Enchantment	Level ID
1+	8	4	5	Chance to absorb 10 points of health, magicka and stamina on hit	0006A13C

How It Plays

Keening's Sting absorbs health, magicka and stamina at once. That makes it stronger on paper than most absorb weapons, which drain only one pool. In practice, the enchantment fires once and then goes quiet. It cannot be refilled with a soul gem, so the dagger is left with plain damage.

The Fortify Destruction trick keeps the sting alive, but it suits only a mage who already wears such a set for spell casting. A mage of that kind gets the absorb effect on every hit at no extra cost. For most other characters the setup costs too much for a small dagger.

Without the sting, Keening is a weak dagger. It cannot be improved at a grindstone, so it falls further behind as other weapons are tempered. A thief or assassin will get more use from a crafted dagger or from the Blade of Woe.

Compared with Other Daggers

Mehrunes' Razor and the Blade of Woe are the strong unique daggers of the base game. The Razor can kill any target in one lucky hit, and the Blade of Woe hits harder and steals health. Both work at full strength in any hands. Keening only matches them when its sting is kept alive.

Keening is still worth carrying for its story. Its fame comes from Morrowind, where it was one of the tools used to defeat Dagoth Ur, rather than from its strength in Skyrim.

Quest Background

Arniel Gane is a scholar at the College of Winterhold, obsessed with how the Dwemer disappeared. "The Dwemer, they were uhh, masters of magic in a way we can't even begin to conceive of." To him, their vanishing is both their greatest achievement and their greatest mystery. He hopes to learn how they disappeared by recreating the event himself. His project starts small. He wants ten Dwemer cogs, then a warped soul gem that Enthir holds. Later the gem must be charged in Dwemer convectors scattered across Skyrim, using a spell Arniel teaches called Arniel's Convection.

For the last step, Arniel needs Keening itself. Enthir arranged to bring it from Morrowind, but the courier never arrived. The courier's body lies in a dungeon in the east of Skyrim, with Keening still on him.

Arniel is horrified at how it was shipped. "By Akatosh, they didn't even wrap it correctly?" He asks whether the finder tried to wield it, and is amazed that they are still alive. He then explains the tools of Lord Kagrenac.

The experiment follows at once. Arniel strikes the warped soul gem with Keening, and nothing happens. He strikes it again with the same result. On the third angry blow, he vanishes in a flash of light and is never seen again. His end echoes the fate of the Dwemer, who vanished when Kagrenac turned his tools on the Heart of Lorkhan. Keening drops to the floor, and the spell Summon Arniel's Shade is added to the spell list.

Arniel's Shade

The real reward of the quest is the spell, not the dagger. Summon Arniel's Shade calls up the ghost of the vanished scholar to fight for a minute. The spell costs no magicka at all. The shade is nearly impossible to harm, so it stays in the fight for the full duration.

Arniel fights with Destruction magic. That makes the shade a useful helper for any character, even one with no skill in Conjuration. A warrior can cast it at the start of a fight and let the ghost of Arniel take some of the pressure.

Lore

Beneath Red Mountain, Dwemer miners found a great magical stone, the Heart of Lorkhan. Lord Kagrenac, the Tonal Architect of the Dwemer, forged three tools to use its power. Wraithguard is a gauntlet that protects its wearer. Sunder is a hammer that strikes the heart to draw out power. Keening is a blade that flays and focuses the power that rises from it.

Keening and Sunder were later lost, and the Nerevarine recovered them in the Third Era. With the tools, the Nerevarine defeated Dagoth Ur at the heart of Red Mountain. The Sunder & Wraithguard Creation adds the other two tools to Skyrim, and with them the full set of Kagrenac's Tools can be gathered. Its quest, Legends Lost, starts with a note in the New Gnisis Cornerclub in Windhelm.

The tools still work together. Wraithguard is a heavy gauntlet that empowers the other two. Worn with Keening in hand, it raises health, stamina and magicka. Worn with Sunder, it raises one-handed damage and stamina regeneration. For a Keening collector, Wraithguard is the natural partner, and it gives the weak dagger a real reason to be carried.

Bugs

The enchantment's charge is the main bug. It is set to almost nothing, so the sting is spent at once and cannot be refilled. Only the Fortify Destruction trick keeps it working in the base game.

Keening may fall through the floor when Arniel vanishes. It can usually be found on the floor below. The dagger also tends to fall off weapon racks and out of display cases, and it can be lost for good that way.

Notes

Keening also appeared in Morrowind, where the Nerevarine used it against Dagoth Ur.

One-Handed Weapon Categories

All Unique Daggers

Name	Damage	Speed	Weight	Value	Enchantment	Item ID	Level	Upgrade Material	Crafting Perk	Skill	DLC
Alessandra's Dagger	5	1.3	1	10	Cannot be enchanted	00043E1E	1+	Cannot be upgraded	None	One-Handed	Skyrim
Blade of Sacrifice	10	1.3	4	144	Cannot be enchanted	00079B1D	1+	Ebony Ingot	None	One-Handed	Skyrim
Blade of Woe	12	1	7	880	Absorb 10 points of health	0009CCDC	1+	Cannot be upgraded	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Skyrim
Bloodthorn	5	1.3	2.5	183	If the target dies within 3 seconds, it fills a soul gem	000A4DCE	1+	Steel Ingot	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Skyrim
Borvir's Dagger	8	1.3	4	18	Enchantable	000ECD54	1+	Refined Moonstone	Elven Smithing	One-Handed	Skyrim
Kahvozein's Fang	6	1.3	5	9	Yields Dragon Hearthscales	000D0758	1+	Cannot be upgraded	None	One-Handed	Skyrim
Keening	8	1.3	4	5	Chance to absorb 10 points of health, magicka and stamina on hit	0006A13C	1+	Cannot be upgraded	None	One-Handed	Skyrim
Mehrunes' Razor	11	1.3	3	860	Hits have a small chance to instantly kill	000240D2	1+	Ebony Ingot	None	One-Handed	Skyrim
Nettlebane	6	1.3	10	5	Cannot be enchanted	0001C492	1+	Ebony Ingot	None	One-Handed	Skyrim
Rundi's Dagger	5	1.3	2.5	18	Cannot be enchanted	000ECD53	1+	Steel Ingot	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Skyrim
Valdr's Lucky Dagger	5	1.3	2.5	15	25% chance of a critical hit	000B994E	1+	Steel Ingot	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Skyrim
Ancient Nord Dagger	5	1.3	3.5	5	Enchantable	XX000E44	1+	Steel Ingot	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Creation Club
Honed Ancient Nord Dagger	8	1.3	9	8	Enchantable	XX08A1ED	1+	Steel Ingot	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Creation Club
Nord Hero Dagger	8	1.3	2	55	Enchantable	XX08A1E4	1+	Steel Ingot	Steel Smithing	One-Handed	Creation Club
Rulnik's Dagger	8	1.3	3.5	115	10 points of extra damage to Spriggans	FEXXXECE	1+	Cannot be Upgraded	None	One-Handed	Creation Club
Fang of Haynekhtnamet	13	1.3	6.5	1446	Target takes 25 points of shock damage, and half as much Magicka damage	XX000ED3		Dragon Bone	Dragon Smithing	One-Handed	Creation Club