The Mirror Shield of the Great Sea is a large unique shield. It is equal in strength to an Ebony shield, with the weight of a Dwarven shield. The Mirror Shield of the Great Sea is heavy armor by default, but can be converted to light armor at an Alteration Table.
Location
The shield is found at the bottom of the Pale Secret Grotto, near Dwemer ingots and clutter. The Pale Secret Grotto is south of Bronze Water Cave in Lake Yorgrim.
A route to Lake Yorgrim from Windhelm
Lore
The Mirror Shield of the Great Sea was found by the Dwarves who built what became the Pale Secret Grotto. It was kept in storage and forgotten when the site was hastily abandoned.
Background and Inspiration
The Mirror Shield of the Great Sea is the Mirror Shield from the Wind Waker, albeit with a slight redesign to serve as a large, heavy shield. This was kept to make the shield unique from other versions of the shield, as well as from other mirror shields. The model for the shield was made by Chief-01 and was converted to use in Skyrim by DMagnus.
The shield was part of a standalone mod before being included in Relics of Hyrule. The lore of the standalone mod was not carried over to Relics of Hyrule. A version of the mod was also made that allowed players to craft the shield, a decision JKalenad regretted, given the unique and antique nature of the shield.
The Mirror Shield of the Great Sea was the first mirror shield JKalenad designed a mod for, and is therefore the first mirror shield in Relics of Hyrule. The mirror effect of the shield's enchantment is inspired by an enchantment from the Elaborate Enchantments mod by J3X The enchantment is very basic, and merely casts a ward spell while the player blocks. The ward is set to reflect magic and remains invisible except when it first starts, or if it reflects magic.
Players were originally able to learn the enchantment from an expendable iron mirror shield and apply it to other shields, but it was unreliable, so this function was removed from the mod.
Video
The shield is included in the Mirror Shields video, and is the first shield featured:
Relics of Hyrule Video Guide - Mirror Shields