Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-89.243.7.241-20130820154309/@comment-67.133.144.21-20170226062801

If it were a mage trying to take revenge or purposefully destroy the college, they would not stay in or near the college while triggering/during the events. That rules out the Augur almost instantly, not to mention the timing of events. In general, the only group strong enough to pull something like that off and escape before anyone noticed would be the psijic monks, but that seems highly unlikely. Because of the location of Red Mountain, that seems even less likely, especially considering the aftereffects of volcanic eruptions. It's not impossible that there was magic residue from Ysgramor even after all that time, and that wouldn't necesarrily have to be triggered by someone/something. If it were purposeful, because of location it would have had to come from Atmora, Roscrea, or Solstheim. Miraak is a semi-logical conclusion (said to be powerful enough and old enough having been involved in the Dragon War) except for the fact that he was imprisoned until the Dragonborn defeated him, though it is possible Hermaeus Mora allowed him a moment of freedom for some reason. Personally, I think the most likely theory is that the Ghosts from the sea just happened to pop in to say hello and destroy almost all of Winterhold.