What happened to the other dragonborns? (Spoilers)

[Snow]

I actually just thought of this.
A dragonborn is basically someone with the body of a mortal but the soul of a dragon.

So what happened to the other dragonborn(s)?

Since dragons can only be permanatly killed by a dragon born: absorbing their soul.
Since the dragonborn has the soul of a dragon, shouldn't the same apply for him/her?

As in, If you die, you just come back. As long as you aren't killed by another dragonborn (which to my understanding, only one can exist at a time), the dragonborn should techinically be immortal.

I only know of two dragonborn, The PC and Miraak. Miraak was enslaved by Hermeus Mora, And kept in Apocrypha (Hermeus Mora's own personal plane of oblivion). Miraak is attempting to regain power and souls to return, but is killed by the dragon born (technically hermeus mora deals the killing blow).

But then his soul (and all the souls hes absorbed), is absorbed by the PC, so miraak is forever dead. His soul has been destroyed.

But doesn't it say somewhere that theres several dragonborn (I think it says so on Alduin's wall)?
What happened to them? They should technically be alive (or atleast enslaved to another daedric prince), since their souls are immortal (assuming another dragonborn didn't kill them).


Im sorry if it answers this somewhere in game, I was thinking about TES's lore and thought of this.

PC = Player Character.


And things like old age shouldn't apply. As they die from old age they will simply "reform" I guess.
The only thing that can TRULY kill a dragon (and thus its soul), is to have it absorbed.


Taken from wiki:
"Skyrim legend tells of a hero known as the Dragonborn, a warrior with the body of a mortal and soul of a dragon...

Dragonborn scarcely exist, and it is rare for more than one to appear at the same time...


Their mortal bodies also subject them to mortal vulnerabilities; old age, death, and disease all affect Dragonborn as they do common mortals..."

It states their mortal bodies ARE affected.
The only way I can see this happening is either

A: Another dragonborn kills the PC.
B: A daedric entity claims the dragonborn's soul.
Theres a third one involving akatosh, but since he was foretold in an elder scroll (Which is FAR outside of both time and space), maybe he does and maybe he doesn't.

[Sinsling]

While the game says the player is the first (known) dragonborn in at least a couple of centuries, I don't recall it ever stating there had to be one at a time.

[Aleksi134]

There has been plenty of babyborns, such as MIGHTY PELINAL WHITESTRAKE,Wulfharth,tiber septim,Alessia and whatever. Spoiler:DRAGONBORNS ARENT IMMORTAL.

[Snow]

Originally posted by Aleksi134:

There has been plenty of babyborns, such as MIGHTY PELINAL WHITESTRAKE,Wulfharth,tiber septim,Alessia and whatever. Spoiler:DRAGONBORNS ARENT IMMORTAL.

I understand there have been a bunch of dragonborn, but did bethesda (if its not bethesda that made the ES lore I apolagise this is my first TES game) simply not think it through.

Dragons will always come back unless their soul is destroyed.

The dragonborn has a dragons soul.

So doesn't that mean by defnition he will always be reborn. Maybe not as himself, but his soul is impossible to be destroyed by standard means.

[Snow]

Honestly, Akatosh probably has his own realm where the dragonborn's souls are claimed.

He is after all the creator of the dragons. And so including the dragonborn.

[Sinsling]

I'd have to double check, but the dragonborn where blessed with dragon's BLOOD, not soul.

[Snow]

"Skyrim legend tells of a hero known as the Dragonborn, a warrior with the body of a mortal and soul of a dragon.."

Taken from ingame.

[Sinsling]

Ah, my bad then.

[Aleksi134]

Dragonborns are half (usually man) and half dragon that doesnt make them immortal. If you played skyrim didnt you hear everyone telling you about 100x times about you going to sovngarde after you will die eventually like any man. Dragonborns dont have any type of special soul in a sense or another, their soul only allows them to capture other dragons souls but doesnt in the end make them immortal.

Dragonborns are basicly demi gods in the end, so they can technically choose where they want to go or like talos just ascend to godhood but that would require some special measures. And in general bethesda lore is bad and they dont explain anything properly anyway in the end, only few basic details.

Where LDB would go is unknown as bethesda just left it in a cliff hanger basicly. Unless LDB himself decides where he wants to go anyway. But again its impossible to say what is lore at this point...thats why you just make your own head lore and believe what u will but dont deny facts, or more or less facts are the base for your head canon.

TLDR:They are and they arent immortal, it depends on the person and their actions.

[Kondaru]

a) Dragons are not returning by themselves. They died, but are then resurrected by Alduin. Unless You convience Alduin to bring some dragonborns back, they are as good as dead. Well, all the other dragonborns (with a temporary exception of Miraak) *are* long dead...

b) There were dozens of dragonborns in the past, some of them quite famous, and some of them explicitly included in previous TES games. Skyrim's PC is but the "last" of them. Which is hardly surprising, taking into account what had happened during Oblivion Crisis. There is little left for them to do.

c) Being a dragonborn is simply a blessing from Akatosh. The blessing is not turning dragonborn into a dragon. As with all blessing, it gives exactly as much as deity wishes to give. In this case: ability to absorb *some* of the powers of slain dragons, aka "souls". Think of it as about a special type of Soul Trap effect, where dragonborn is an exceptional soul gem. It can fuel some "spells" - or Shouts - but that's it.

d) The fact that I am eating pheasant's meat does not mean that I will be able to fly. Tha fact that someone absorbs dragon's soul does not mean that he/she will become a dragon.

Your ideas are nice, but far from actual TES lore. There is no mistake on Bethesda's side in this respect.

[Aleksi134]

Originally posted by Kondaru:

a) Dragons are not returning by themselves. They died, but are then resurrected by Alduin. Unless You convience Alduin to bring some dragonborns back, they are as good as dead. Well, all the other dragonborns (with a temporary exception of Miraak) *are* long dead...

b) There were dozens of dragonborns in the past, some of them quite famous, and some of them explicitly included in previous TES games. Skyrim's PC is but the "last" of them. Which is hardly surprising, taking into account what had happened during Oblivion Crisis. There is little left for them to do.

c) Being a dragonborn is simply a blessing from Akatosh. The blessing is not turning dragonborn into a dragon. As with all blessing, it gives exactly as much as deity wishes to give. In this case: ability to absorb *some* of the powers of slain dragons, aka "souls". Think of it as about a special type of Soul Trap effect, where dragonborn is an exceptional soul gem. It can fuel some "spells" - or Shouts - but that's it.

d) The fact that I am eating pheasant's meat does not mean that I will be able to fly. Tha fact that someone absorbs dragon's soul does not mean that he/she will become a dragon.

Your ideas are nice, but far from actual TES lore. There is no mistake on Bethesda's side in this respect.

Well talking about your C), lorewise dragonborn absorbs dragons soul and their knowledge, not just ingame mechanics for unlocking shouts.

[Kondaru]

Originally posted by Aleksi134:

Well talking about your C), lorewise dragonborn absorbs dragons soul and their knowledge, not just ingame mechanics for unlocking shouts.

Please do not overestimate the word "knowledge" in this respect. The claim was that *some* dragonborns are blessed with intuitive understanding of Thu'um. They can learn Shouts in a matter of seconds rather than from years of hard study, absorbing the *knowledge* of how to do this from slain dragons.

As far as I can tell, the very claim comes from Arngeir. Some exact phrases are: "When you Shout, you speak in the language of dragons. Thus, your Dragon Blood gives you an inborn ability to learn Words of Power. (...) But learning a Word of Power is only the first step... you must unlock its meaning through constant practice in order to use it in a Shout. Well, that is how the rest of us learn Shouts. As Dragonborn, you can absorb a slain dragon's life force and knowledge directly. As part of your initiation, Master Einarth will allow you to tap into his understanding of Ro. (...) Approach Master Borri and he will gift you his knowledge of Wuld."

There is absolutely nothing that suggests that dragonborns can "learn" more or that there is any other insight they can gain. Please note that Alessia was not even able to *absorb* dragon souls in the first place...

[Aleksi134]

Originally posted by Kondaru:

Originally posted by Aleksi134:

Well talking about your C), lorewise dragonborn absorbs dragons soul and their knowledge, not just ingame mechanics for unlocking shouts.

Please do not overestimate the word "knowledge" in this respect. The claim was that *some* dragonborns are blessed with intuitive understanding of Thu'um. They can learn Shouts in a matter of seconds rather than from years of hard study, absorbing the *knowledge* of how to do this from slain dragons.

As far as I can tell, the very claim comes from Arngeir. Some exact phrases are: "When you Shout, you speak in the language of dragons. Thus, your Dragon Blood gives you an inborn ability to learn Words of Power. (...) But learning a Word of Power is only the first step... you must unlock its meaning through constant practice in order to use it in a Shout. Well, that is how the rest of us learn Shouts. As Dragonborn, you can absorb a slain dragon's life force and knowledge directly. As part of your initiation, Master Einarth will allow you to tap into his understanding of Ro. (...) Approach Master Borri and he will gift you his knowledge of Wuld."

There is absolutely nothing that suggests that dragonborns can "learn" more or that there is any other insight they can gain. Please note that Alessia was not even able to *absorb* dragon souls in the first place...

Thats ingame logic again, neither do these greyburds know everything about dragonborns at all, they arent dragonborn they only know some things and a fair bit of their information conflict with other information. As greybeards gift you knowledge its really the same principle, they could all and all teach you every shout they know, but they dont because ingame logic and you have to find them all instead and make it hard. Its purely ingame logic that you unlock shouts with dragon souls.

[Snow]

Originally posted by Aleksi134:

Originally posted by Kondaru:

Please do not overestimate the word "knowledge" in this respect. The claim was that *some* dragonborns are blessed with intuitive understanding of Thu'um. They can learn Shouts in a matter of seconds rather than from years of hard study, absorbing the *knowledge* of how to do this from slain dragons.

As far as I can tell, the very claim comes from Arngeir. Some exact phrases are: "When you Shout, you speak in the language of dragons. Thus, your Dragon Blood gives you an inborn ability to learn Words of Power. (...) But learning a Word of Power is only the first step... you must unlock its meaning through constant practice in order to use it in a Shout. Well, that is how the rest of us learn Shouts. As Dragonborn, you can absorb a slain dragon's life force and knowledge directly. As part of your initiation, Master Einarth will allow you to tap into his understanding of Ro. (...) Approach Master Borri and he will gift you his knowledge of Wuld."

There is absolutely nothing that suggests that dragonborns can "learn" more or that there is any other insight they can gain. Please note that Alessia was not even able to *absorb* dragon souls in the first place...

Thats ingame logic again, neither do these greyburds know everything about dragonborns at all, they arent dragonborn they only know some things and a fair bit of their information conflict with other information. As greybeards gift you knowledge its really the same principle, they could all and all teach you every shout they know, but they dont because ingame logic and you have to find them all instead and make it hard. Its purely ingame logic that you unlock shouts with dragon souls.

I mean, it wouldnt be much fun if you got to high Hrothgar, walked in the door

"Hello dragonborn, you have answered our summons, heres every word of power in existence and all the knowledge for it" *Arngnier slams the door*

[MysticMalevolence]

It's important to note that, until Skyrim, "dragonborn" wasn't a well defined concept--it was mentioned here and there, but it didn't really mean anything.
That said, one assumes the Shezzarines are all "dragonborn", as well as any emperor or empress up until Martin Septim. We also assume that Jurgen Windcaller was one, as you can get a dragon soul from his tomb if you return later, and of course Miraak.
As there aren't millions walking around, I imagine nobody bothered using the resurrection shout on them, which is what Alduin uses to revive dragons.

As for the LDB, probably joins the immortal Nerevarine on that expedition to Akavir.

[Kondaru]

Originally posted by Aleksi134:

Thats ingame logic again, neither do these greyburds know everything about dragonborns at all, they arent dragonborn they only know some things and a fair bit of their information conflict with other information. As greybeards gift you knowledge its really the same principle, they could all and all teach you every shout they know, but they dont because ingame logic and you have to find them all instead and make it hard. Its purely ingame logic that you unlock shouts with dragon souls.

Sure. But other than this Arngeir speech, there is absolutely *no* lore about dragonborns absorbing dragons' knowledge. At least none that I am aware of. So please provide me some other source, or we must accept that the whole "knowledge" concepts comes from Arngeir. Which is strictly related to knowledge *about Shouting*. And since You disregard Arngeir due to his ingame logic issues then there is truly nothing to imply that there is any insight gained from killing dragons and/or absorbing their souls. One could say that drinking dragons blood makes animals speak and turns common NPCs into spriggans. Why? Because.