Elder Scrolls Theories

[Shog]

Before we really get into this, I want to make a few things perfectly clear.  Firstly, I am by no means an Elder Scolls expert (at least compared to others).  My main focous is on Argonian lore and magical theory.  Most importantly, this is just a thread designed for people to discuss their theories on subjects that arn't made clear from the games.  These theories do not have to be correct in the least.  I guess what I'm trying to get at is this is just for fun and if you're a huge Elder Scrolls nerd, please just let this still be fun for others even if someone says something that you know is completly wrong.  By all means give you'r input, but please try to be tactful when correcting people.


Now, onto what spurred me towards making this thread.  I was thinking about what would happen to my Dragonborn after death (Disclaimer #2: I have only played Skyrim of the main games (and some ESO if you count that)).  I've sold my soul to more Daedra than anyone should and many of them want my soul after death.  I started watching a few videos on the subject and reading the comments and one got me thinking.  This particular theory states that you have Shor's sould in you, which explains his absense from Sovngarde and you being able to sit in his thrown.  I personally dissagree with this theory for several reasons, but I don't want to dig too deep into that right now.  When trying to justify that theory not working, I realized a property of souls that made me rethink what it is to be Dragonborn alltogether.  Whenever you see a soul (on Nirn, in the Soul Cairn, or in Sovngarde) they are an exact replica of their mortal body (though atherial in most places).  This means that it is highly unlikely for Shor's soul to inhabit my Argonian body.  What that also means is that I now find it doubtful that a Dragonborn has the body of a mortal and the soul of a dragon.  Firstly, we can see that soul size is important.  You can put the soul of a mudcrab in a black soul gem, but not a mortal sould in a petty one.  Thsi leads me to believe that a mudcrab's soul could exist in a mortal body, but not the other way around.  Clearly a dragon's soul is larger than a mortal, so how could you (having a mortal body) hold the dragon's soul?  Let's assume for a moment that the gods made your body capable of doing so.  Fine, gods in the Elder Scrolls could probably do that.  But then there are times when you are in soul form and don't have the soul of a dragon walking around.  The best example of this is when you enter Azura's Star.  The mage grabs your soul and you are dumped into the Star.  Here you are fighing as your soul.  Now, you can also summon Dramora and take everything with you so this only has so much credibility.  I don't have a propper explanation for what a Dragonborn would be otherwise.  Perhaps Akatosh just blessed you with the ability to take understanding from the dragon language.  Maybe your soul is some mortal-dragon hybrid and your body is therefor enhansed to take the extra strain (explaining why you can act as a one man army).  I really don't know and I'm looking way too deep into this.


Well, what do you think?  I'm sure there are several glaring flaws speckling that last paragraph and please point them out.  I am also very interested to hear what theories you may have.

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

It is said multiple times in the game that dragon blood runs through your veins. You don't have a dragon soul, but you have some dragon tied to the essence of your being. Throughout the game you absorb dragon souls, that alone should tell the Dovahkiin have some very special properties when it comes to souls and the like. Think of yourself as a dragon soul transformed into human form, if you want the canon version.






I have a theory that the Dragonborn is actually the Nerevarine as well. I will have to go back and gather all the info this one again. It's more something I started entertaining when using my Morrowind character for my very first Skyrim run, but I found some things that made me start to consider the possibility more seriously.


One I remember off-hand, which is M'aiq The Liar, a Khajiit traveler you encounter on the roadside. He has been in Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. He says to you, "Hello my friend. I knew we would meet again."


That took me by surprise. Now he goes on to tell you his father was M'iaq, and his father before him, but it's odd how he just says something like that, "I knew we would meet again." None of the other travelers say that.


Another is an obscure passage from a book I can't recall, that mentions the Nerevarine and Dragonborn by name, in the same sentence. It describes them as being one and the same.


I need to hunt down said book again. Luckily that's something I'm good at, as I collect books above everything else.

 

[Shog]

It is said multiple times in the game that dragon blood runs through your veins. You don't have a dragon soul, but you have some dragon tied to the essence of your being. Throughout the game you absorb dragon souls, that alone should tell the Dovahkiin have some very special properties when it comes to souls and the like. Think of yourself as a dragon soul transformed into human form, if you want the canon version.






I have a theory that the Dragonborn is actually the Nerevarine as well. I will have to go back and gather all the info this one again. It's more something I started entertaining when using my Morrowind character for my very first Skyrim run, but I found some things that made me start to consider the possibility more seriously.


One I remember off-hand, which is M'aiq The Liar, a Khajiit traveler you encounter on the roadside. He has been in Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. He says to you, "Hello my friend. I knew we would meet again."


That took me by surprise. Now he goes on to tell you his father was M'iaq, and his father before him, but it's odd how he just says something like that, "I knew we would meet again." None of the other travelers say that.


Another is an obscure passage from a book I can't recall, that mentions the Nerevarine and Dragonborn by name, in the same sentence. It describes them as being one and the same.


I need to hunt down said book again. Luckily that's something I'm good at, as I collect books above everything else.

Actualy it has been stated several times in the game and in external lore that the dragonborn has the soul of a dragon and body of a mortal (and as I just caught in some additional research for this reply the blood as well).  I also want to make one thing perfectly clear: I am not doubting the strange properties a dragonborn possesses.  I entertain myself by coming up with theories that have no real impact on the game or the world as a whole.  I also try to use science to explain what is going on.  In this mindset, how do we know anything someone says about the dragonborn's physiology is true?  Assuming they have been altered to live with dragon blood and a dragon's soul in them, what evidence has been put forth to support this claim?  I doubt someone took a sample of dragon blood and blood from a dragonborn to compare them.  On the other hand, dragonborn blood was the key to opening the Blade's temple with Alduin's Wall, so there is something special about it.  Unless your soul is directly tied to your blood in which case there could have been something searching for that energy to open the temple.





My responses to this section will be limited at best seeing as Skyrim in the only main game I have played and all I will be able to say about Nerevarine will be from research I am doing right now.  What I will say is I advise against taking anything M'aiq The Liar says too seriously.  He says some rather odd things, including "M'aiq does not remember his childhood, perhaps he never had one." and "How does one know there was a city of Winterhold? M'aiq did not see it with his eyes, did you?"  Perhaps it's just my distrustful nature, but he never really says anything useful (in my experience) and he is literally called a liar in his name.  Really, I can't see the connection myself, but I never claimed to know everything.