Shog
The Infinite Being
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.
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.