What does the Dragonborn *do* with all those dragon souls?

[Dark Spark]

If you get slain by a non-dovah, maybe your soul stays within the body until it is reclothed or otherwise put into action.

Maybe you automatically become undead.

[CBR JGWRR]

If you get slain by a non-dovah, maybe your soul stays within the body until it is reclothed or otherwise put into action.

Maybe you automatically become undead.

Not for a dragonborn, they are mortal. Once your dead that's it for our character. Potema only managed it because of her necromancy.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

If you visit the Dragon mounds in the game before that particular one is dug up by Alduin and Shout in close proximity to them, the Dragon corpse within will speak to you. It's not a mod or something I made up. Try it.

[philfredobob]

Not for a dragonborn, they are mortal. Once your dead that's it for our character. Potema only managed it because of her necromancy.

a Dragonborns soul is Immortal, because its a Dragon soul, and Dragons are Immortal

your body will die and wither away, however

[CBR JGWRR]

Not for a dragonborn, they are mortal. Once your dead that's it for our character. Potema only managed it because of her necromancy.

a Dragonborns soul is Immortal, because its a Dragon soul, and Dragons are Immortal

your body will die and wither away, however

That's what I said?

[Mattbott]

all souls are immortal surely? broadly speaking heroes go to sovngard, thieves go to nocturnal, companions go to hircine, etc.. in TES god IS real, so there's no faith involved (as in RL, where the soul is not 'observably real'), so in Tamreil your soul goes to the afterlife you have chosen/earned for yourself

the idea of TES immortality also seems (as far as daedra, dragons and men/mer are concerned) to be how easy it is for your soul to re-manifest itself in a body on the mundus after the body has been killed and how tough your body is resisting damage/disease/age

souls also seem to be a sort of magical/spiritual currency amongst gods, dovahkiin and mages with soul gems. SO the use of your soul to charge up a staff would be a serious disruption to your afterlife plans, but they all seem to move on once spent

does that make sense? It's kind of how i see it from the various TES games anyway.. tho there might be solid lore to counter this theory tho

[Leisure Pirate]

Spoiler:

When you defeat Miraak during the Dragonborn questline, do you absorb his soul as well as those of the Dragons he killed?

[CBR JGWRR]

Spoiler:

Yes.

[Br3admax]

all souls are immortal surely? broadly speaking heroes go to sovngard, thieves go to nocturnal, companions go to hircine, etc.. in TES god IS real, so there's no faith involved (as in RL, where the soul is not 'observably real'), so in Tamreil your soul goes to the afterlife you have chosen/earned for yourself

the idea of TES immortality also seems (as far as daedra, dragons and men/mer are concerned) to be how easy it is for your soul to re-manifest itself in a body on the mundus after the body has been killed and how tough your body is resisting damage/disease/age

souls also seem to be a sort of magical/spiritual currency amongst gods, dovahkiin and mages with soul gems. SO the use of your soul to charge up a staff would be a serious disruption to your afterlife plans, but they all seem to move on once spent

does that make sense? It's kind of how i see it from the various TES games anyway.. tho there might be solid lore to counter this theory tho

I would not bring up RL if I were you.

No, you do not just go to any afterlife you choose for yourself, outside of Daedric worship. There actually is faith involved, and contrary to belief, which I don't understand, All Mortals Do not Go to Heaven. Only Nords can go to Sovngarde, for example.
Being used in enchantments gives your soul to the Ideal Masters. You never move on. Also ghost do not just appear in places. It's actually really hard to do and involves magic of a kind.

[CBR JGWRR]

Yeah, it's what the Soul Cairn is for, storing soul trapped beings.

[philfredobob]

Not for a dragonborn, they are mortal. Once your dead that's it for our character. Potema only managed it because of her necromancy.

a Dragonborns soul is Immortal, because its a Dragon soul, and Dragons are Immortal

your body will die and wither away, however

That's what I said?

oh sorry, i thought that when you said ''Thats it for our character'' you meant he was done for, unable to return in any form, or go anywhere in his current form
nevermind, then

[Pilaf The Defiler]

all souls are immortal surely? broadly speaking heroes go to sovngard, thieves go to nocturnal, companions go to hircine, etc.. in TES god IS real, so there's no faith involved (as in RL, where the soul is not 'observably real'), so in Tamreil your soul goes to the afterlife you have chosen/earned for yourself

Most of the time that's true. Not all heroes go to Sovngarde, though. That's mostly reserved for Nords with only a few special exemptions. Supposedly most souls are simply recycled. The ones that worship the mainstream Divines or who are secular but not in a radical (Dwemer) way get reused over and over without really having any sort of permanent afterlife.

the idea of TES immortality also seems (as far as daedra, dragons and men/mer are concerned) to be how easy it is for your soul to re-manifest itself in a body on the mundus after the body has been killed and how tough your body is resisting damage/disease/age

Men and Elves don't even roughly compare to Dragons or Daedra. The latter two were designed specifically to be truly immortal. Daedra more so than Dragons, but in both cases really. Both need a special ritual to come back to life. The Daedra are drawn to the ringing of special bells in Oblivion that are tended to by their kin. We learn this in Shivering Isles. Dragons can be resurrected by Alduin, and maybe other Dragons too. (Unless the Dragonborn is present when they die.)

souls also seem to be a sort of magical/spiritual currency amongst gods, dovahkiin and mages with soul gems. SO the use of your soul to charge up a staff would be a serious disruption to your afterlife plans, but they all seem to move on once spent

Souls that are trapped specifically belong to the Ideal Masters, a concept explored in Battlespire and Dawnguard.

[CBR JGWRR]

....(Unless the Dragonborn is present when they die.)....

Not strictly true, a dragon could absorb the soul, but it's more common with mortal Dovahkiins.

[Br3admax]

What Pilaf is trying to tell you, which is absolutely in every way is:For the Dragonborn, absorbing a soul happens automatically. It is not the same for other dragons.

[Noah_The_Warlock]

Would casting a soul trap spell work for none dragonborn? I mean, it works in basically everything else.

[CBR JGWRR]

For all we know automatic absorption was a game mechanic, most likely because Bethesda assumed the player would always want to absorb the soul.

Which most of the time is true.

Does it mean that the dovahkiin always absorbs the soul outside of the game? No. Yes Maybe, it could be ay of those.


If you actually look back over what Pilaf wrote, what he actually meant is that dragons can choose whether to absorb the soul, and the player/dovahkiin can't. Which is what I pointed out.

[Br3admax]

For all we know automatic absorption was a game mechanic, most likely because Bethesda assumed the player would always want to absorb the soul.

Which most of the time is true.

Does it mean that the dovahkiin always absorbs the soul outside of the game? No. Yes Maybe, it could be ay of those.


If you actually look back over what Pilaf wrote, what he actually meant is that dragons can choose whether to absorb the soul, and the player/dovahkiin can't. Which is what I pointed out.

Except for the fact that every pc in game tells you it just happens. That and the fact that that is how most Dragonborn are found. It is not a game mechanic.

[CBR JGWRR]

For all we know automatic absorption was a game mechanic, most likely because Bethesda assumed the player would always want to absorb the soul.

Which most of the time is true.

Does it mean that the dovahkiin always absorbs the soul outside of the game? No. Yes Maybe, it could be ay of those.


If you actually look back over what Pilaf wrote, what he actually meant is that dragons can choose whether to absorb the soul, and the player/dovahkiin can't. Which is what I pointed out.

Except for the fact that every pc in game tells you it just happens. That and the fact that that is how most Dragonborn are found. It is not a game mechanic.

They tell you it can just happen.

Actually, most are found because they could light the dragonfires in the temple of the One, not because they won a fight with a big flying reptile.

Only Miraak and any others like him lost to the abyss of history that is the Merethic era, Reman, possibly Tiber Septim, and our Dovahkiin are probably the exceptions, although quite frankly that says more about how many emperors/empresses there were than anything about the dragonborn...

Also, how would they go about refusing the first soul to get found? They wouldn't. Whereas somebody at the stage of our Dovahkiin, with Alduin gone, Miraak defeated and anything up to 40 odd dragons would be able to control it. Bu which time, it's already to late for the legends of the dragonborn to start not absorbing them to have any impact on how the dragonborn in the future are viewed. Which goes back to Miraak and those like him anyway...

Good thing this is still on topic...

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Would casting a soul trap spell work for none dragonborn? I mean, it works in basically everything else.

It's been implied to work before. You'd need a very large soul gem and a very capable mage, though. Further evidence of this would be the dragon skeletons that litter the Soul Cairn. The Ideal Masters have apparently received Dovah as sacrifice before. I'd say soul trapping a Dragon for a non-Dragonborn would be an extremely difficult ordeal. The Tsaesci may or may not have performed such rituals. We don't know much about how they "consumed" Dragons after all.

[GodsBePraised]

Plus.. all those Dragon Souls in that Ayleid soul gem

[Pilaf The Defiler]

To be fair, that gem may have been crafted by Akatosh/Auriel himself. He'd certainly have more control over Dovah souls than Elves would.

[The SheoDovah]

It is possible that the Dovahkiin can be ressurected but seeing as he kicked Alduin out of Nirn and Alduin is the only Dragon who possesses that power, i don't think Alduin would want to bring back the bloke who sent him back to Akatosh. This is assuming that the Dovahkiin's soul is not reclaimed by Akatosh when he dies and is left on Nirn for an unexplained reason by Akatosh.

A very powerful mage would be able to barely soul trap a dragon due to the nature of their souls and how powerful they are. They would require a soul gem that is capable of holding a dovah soul as i would imagine the soul is bigger then everything else and soul gems that are required to hold a dovah's soul are very rare or have to be crafted. And that's if the dragon doesn't eat the mage for breakfast. You could say that the Dovahkiin is one massive soul gem and instead of using soul trap, absorbs the soul.

[Noah_The_Warlock]

What about a dovahkiin? They have the same soul don't they?

[Br3admax]

When the enemy soul traps you, have you ever seen your soul leave your body? No.

[baratron]

I seem to have got several of my questions answered by Riothamus' posts here, which is annoying because I seriously did search before posting this thread! Also Thelastdovah's idea of the Dragonborn as a giant soul gem is epic, and fits rather well with the story I'm trying to write. I think I have my head round it now, anyway.

Feel free to continue to argue in this thread though .