Can the Dragonborn deliberately not absorb a dead dragon's soul?

[TheLemmaLlama]

As in, lore-wise. I have this "good" character who won't use black soul gems, so I figured it'll also make sense not to absorb dragon souls :D

[Awakened Gamer]

Thats funny I watched gophers video on mod organizer and he did this buy a conflicting mod, anyways absorbring dragon souls isnt really taking there souls I see it more like your taking there physical power and helping them move on.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Ah, so their consciousness would move on somewhere else? Do you know if there are any official info on what happens to dragons' souls when they're absorbed or is all we can do speculate at this point? ^^;

[Awakened Gamer]

Originally posted by crapshoot:

Ah, so their consciousness would move on somewhere else? Do you know if there are any official info on what happens to dragons' souls when they're absorbed or is all we can do speculate at this point? ^^;

I think dawnguard explains this some but im not sure on that, I didnt play it much on my console and mostly watched my wife, now I own it on pc and modding the crap out of it so I cant wait.

What goes google pop up with?

[TheLemmaLlama]

I ... couldn't really find anything from DG D: According to Google, the majority consensus seems to be that dragon souls fuse with the Dragonborn's soul upon absorption ... kinda makes sense, I guess since that's how you understand words for the shouts ...

Regardless of that, I'm really wondering how absorbing dragon souls work; is it a deliberate action or is it just automatic? I can't seem to find anything about that anywhere :c

[beans]

I believe it's automatic, like a magnet.

I don't have a damn clue about the lore, so I'm going to be going off of a lot of speculation and things I've picked up over the years, but here goes:

A dragon has a soul so powerful that it can't be destroyed by killing its physical counterpart. When you kill a dragon, its flesh stays and the dragon continues "living" (I believe it can be revived by another dragon?), but if you absorb the soul, then the dragon either dies or shares its knowledge of the words of power with the dragonborn who absorbed it.

I think you'd just be putting it out of its misery by absorbing its soul, because otherwise it's sitting there, as a lifeless hunk of flesh, waiting to be revived unwillingly. Additionally, it could have its soul taken by another dragonborn with a darker purpose, like Miraak. If you can kill a dragon, you might as well take its soul.

[mpd1958]

I don't know if you mod your game, but the mod "Skyrim Unbound" allows you to choose not to be the Dragonborn. No soul absorbtion so no shouts, but you can still kill them and get the bones and scales.

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by mpd1958:

I don't know if you mod your game, but the mod "Skyrim Unbound" allows you to choose not to be the Dragonborn. No soul absorbtion so no shouts, but you can still kill them and get the bones and scales.

That mod seems interesting. Also? would that mean it removes the main quest about you being the dragonborn? Like you will be treated like a normal person going on getting quests without thinking about "saving the world" from alduin or how does it work? need to check it out. I wanted to make a normal guy once.

[whitecrow]

So you're too good to absorb its soul, but not too good to kill it?

Well what happens is that the main quest won't activate until you get a dragon soul by toggling on or off dragonborn. It also completely skips the helgen and whiterun part of the main quest and you spawn at a random part of the world. You can also toggle on or off dragon spawning so If you don't want dragons in your game you can do that. When you absorb your first soul the quest where you go to the greybeards activates.

[Hammer Of Evil]

Originally posted by crapshoot:

Ah, so their consciousness would move on somewhere else? Do you know if there are any official info on what happens to dragons' souls when they're absorbed or is all we can do speculate at this point? ^^;

well the dragons are generally vain, proud and evil in the sense that they view humans as cattle or pests and seek to torment and enslave them and dominate the planet. A good character would seek to protect the innocent by defending against dragon attacks.

soul-wise, their souls are immortal. the dragonborn simply drains enough power from them so that it takes them forever to reincarnate, or an obscenely powerful magic to recharge its soul and allow it to return to life again. (Imo this is what irritates a bit - if alduin can bring dragons to life, he'd be able to pretty much incinerate you on the spot. but no, you can kill him with a dagger. dem logics.)

So i'd say lore-wise you're good to go to kill as many dragons as you wish. All you're doing is taking its infinite lifespan and reducing it to one hp. it'll revive again, in a few thousand years but its a punishment for being an evil freak who keeps killing my shopkeepers.

Does that mean if it was possible for your dragon born to live forever then the dragons and knowledge would eventually leave once it revives and make you need to kill them all over again?

[mpd1958]

When one dragon kills another it absorbs it's soul/power and knowledge and that dragon is dead forever. As the dragonborn you supposidly (?) do the same thing. Any dragon killed by a dragonborn remains dead forever.

[The Holy Chicken Overlord]

Originally posted by mpd1958:

When one dragon kills another it absorbs it's soul/power and knowledge and that dragon is dead forever. As the dragonborn you supposidly (?) do the same thing. Any dragon killed by a dragonborn remains dead forever.

Yeah, this is why you can find Dragon skeletons on Solsthiem. Since they were killed by Miirak (a Dragonborn) Alduin cant revive them.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Originally posted by PeggleFrank:

I believe it's automatic, like a magnet.

I don't have a damn clue about the lore, so I'm going to be going off of a lot of speculation and things I've picked up over the years, but here goes:

A dragon has a soul so powerful that it can't be destroyed by killing its physical counterpart. When you kill a dragon, its flesh stays and the dragon continues "living" (I believe it can be revived by another dragon?), but if you absorb the soul, then the dragon either dies or shares its knowledge of the words of power with the dragonborn who absorbed it.

I think you'd just be putting it out of its misery by absorbing its soul, because otherwise it's sitting there, as a lifeless hunk of flesh, waiting to be revived unwillingly. Additionally, it could have its soul taken by another dragonborn with a darker purpose, like Miraak. If you can kill a dragon, you might as well take its soul.

Ahhh alright ... I guess I'll assume it's automatic and uncontrollable until I find evidence suggesting otherwise :P Then again, what's it like for a dragon soul when it's sitting dormant in its dead body? Also, can all dragons revive other dragons or just Alduin? O_O

Originally posted by mpd1958:

I don't know if you mod your game, but the mod "Skyrim Unbound" allows you to choose not to be the Dragonborn. No soul absorbtion so no shouts, but you can still kill them and get the bones and scales.

Sounds interesting :D Do you also get to meet the real dragonborn in that mod now that it's not you? XD

Originally posted by marmaladecat:

So you're too good to absorb its soul, but not too good to kill it?

This particular character of mine just wants to leave everyone's souls intact and autonomous XD

Originally posted by Σ-рндȿɘ:

Originally posted by crapshoot:

Ah, so their consciousness would move on somewhere else? Do you know if there are any official info on what happens to dragons' souls when they're absorbed or is all we can do speculate at this point? ^^;

well the dragons are generally vain, proud and evil in the sense that they view humans as cattle or pests and seek to torment and enslave them and dominate the planet. A good character would seek to protect the innocent by defending against dragon attacks.

soul-wise, their souls are immortal. the dragonborn simply drains enough power from them so that it takes them forever to reincarnate, or an obscenely powerful magic to recharge its soul and allow it to return to life again. (Imo this is what irritates a bit - if alduin can bring dragons to life, he'd be able to pretty much incinerate you on the spot. but no, you can kill him with a dagger. dem logics.)

So i'd say lore-wise you're good to go to kill as many dragons as you wish. All you're doing is taking its infinite lifespan and reducing it to one hp. it'll revive again, in a few thousand years but its a punishment for being an evil freak who keeps killing my shopkeepers.

Hmmm I dunno, everyone else seems to say you kill them permanently when you do that D: I'm pretty sure they can only be revived if you don't absorb their soul ... My character's fine with killing dragons temporarily to save people, but not ending their existence permanently XD

[Trigger]

the only reason you are the Dragonborn is because you CAN absorb their souls.