The Enchanter, The Cursed Monk, and the Squire

Skyrim

Character background:

Umidia is a master-enchanter born in High-Rock. He fled High-Rock when it was discovered that he used black soul-gems to fuel his enchantments. Using his own technique, described in the Umidian method, Court investigators entered some of the confiscated soul gems to determine who these individuals were. They were all young mages, believing that Umidia was going to teach them some form of magic that would give them an edge over their rivals. The bodies of these individuals were found, after a search of Umidia's former home, in a subterranean room wehre the bodies were being kept trapped in time or in a coma-like state by soul-gems. They also found a tome of Umidia's that detailed the extraction of a soul from a soul gem, either returning the soul to a living body or an artificial one, or as a familiar - like the conjuration spells summoning ghosts or spirits the dunmer people used.

The Umidian technique, dangerous to the untrained, allows the enchantment of objects without the use of an arcane enchanter or anything but a soul gem and the object being enchanted. There's a note in the technique where a soul gem is even optional, so long as the caster has enough magicka to do without.

With the use of his powerful enchantments he evaded the Court magisters and fled into his own plane of oblivion - described in his unpublished autobiography as being a place of "peace and quiet by which I can escape the noise of everyday life."