So I tried striking the warped soul gem like Arniel to see that nothing happens. So I'm guessing Arniel filled the gem and died? It seems kind of cruel that I can just summon him now, and no one cares he's gone, I can't even tell any of the other mages that their colleague is dead..

You are talking about a faction that has had an entire group of apprentices go missing for a month, and only ONE person shows a slight amount of concern.

It kind of svcks I thought his spirit would talk and explain what he saw. Kind of a waste of time imo.

Yea, there was some wasted potential there.

it could have been far worse. He was trying to recreate what the Dwemer had done; he could have wiped out his entire race.

Well, his ghost gets to groan and wail when you summon it. Really cheap summoning, too.

Try him out as a conjured ally in a fight.
He is not bad in this role.
One fella in IRC described his attacks on your enemys as awesome.

That's cool I will try him out.

There's a rather persistant rumor floating around that there's more to this quest. Odd unexplained things like Keening's "Mortal Wound" effect and unrechargability make people go "hrm".

I was never able to finish the quest, but yes consider that things could have been worse.

Oh well. SCIENCE.