[quote=@Dervish]
[@Fetzen] I really like the character! I do think it's worth mentioning that Dwemer were never in any of the Aldmeri Dominion lands, so the Thalmor claiming ownership of them seems a tad off, and arresting people for exploring them would be well outside of their authority to enforce. There are a bunch of Aleyid ruins in Valenwood, though! Maybe Ercanoriel got interested in ancient elven civilizations and magic and technology first through the Alyeids before personally discovering the Dwemer ruins on his own after he got out of jail?
[/quote]

Thanks for pointing this out! I did a lot of research for this character, but this must be something that slipped past my attention unnoticed.

Him going after Dwemer ruins completely on his own however would throw up the question of where and when he did get the skills he currently has. At the point he was arrested he was rather close to ground zero so I'd need a very good explanation of how he achieved the change/boost in his self-esteem, where he got the equipment if it wasn't for a bunch of other adventurers willing to lend him a helping, looting hand and who trained him. Strolling into dwemer ruins as a completely novice-level one-man-show and doing it the very hard way would be a very, very daredevil move that would well suit his personality, but I'm not entirely confident if this wouldn't be [i]too[/i] much.

Therefore I'd like to propose another solution: A transition of his location from Valenvald to Skyrim briefly before or during his arrest. Dunno, but it might just have been an act of bureaucracy and resource management on side of the Thalmor and they could have decided to dispose of him there because pretty much everyone's a tad more pale there, rendering his condition a bit less embarrassing for Altmer standards. The ragtag adventurer's group he encountered in prison there might have been put into arrest for another thing they did together instead of any Dwemer-related affair.

It seems much simpler to me and doesn't throw up a significant bunch of other questions that would require answering.