It's actually suppose to be iron, but Bethesta screwed up and put in ebony ore.
Ah, thanks for explaining
Ebony ore is rare enough and somebody thought it would be a good idea for there to be less, BS.
just go to northwind mine,there are 3 veins of ebony
I think that (Shor)'s Stone, (Red) Belly, and (Ebony) Ore are connected. this may relate to Lorkhan of some sort. Shor's blood is Ebony and his heart's energy is Red colored after all.
I'm curious about this. I've noticed that if I enter the mine before taking the Elgrim's Elixers quest to pick up an ore sample all the nodes are ebony, but after taking that quest they are all iron. And of course, the ore you take back to Elgrim's Elixers is quicksilver. I assume one or more of these points is a bug, and wouldn't be suprised if the unofficial patch fixed it.