If Dovakiin had biological kids...

[Nekomancer]

so its 11pm, im playing skyrim and it dawns on me that if the dragonborn had sexually reproduced and created offspring, would his kids have the power of the thu,um. the descendents of tiber septim all had the dragon's blood in them so it would make sense that the dragonborn's children would have the power to use thu,um like him as well, right?

[Nekomancer]

@raptor
wouldnt they be able to learn how to shout like thier father? just go to the greybeards and ask them for free lesson's, lol.

[Streamed Hams]

since they are dragonborn offsprings they learn dragon shout/thuum naturally I suppose

[Cavellana]

It's not the blood, it's the soul. Anyone can learn Thu'um (Greybeards) but only Dragonborn can learn them so quickly.

[Amycus]

As long as there are dragons about, yes.

[Mofuji]

The Dragonborn is, by definition, one who has the soul of a dragon but the body of a mortal. One cannot pass their soul on to children; so no, if the Dragonborn had a kid, they would not be able to learn the Thu'um like their parent, nor could they absorb dragon souls.

The only reason this can be confusing is because they call it "dragon blood", but it's the soul. The only way one can get the dragon blood is through the divine (most likely Akatosh) or being deemed worthy to be able to wear the Amulet of Kings (which housed the souls of many Dragonborn) which no longer exists.

[lanlyn]

Interesting question. So, if being dovahkiin WERE genetic, then you would also have to ask, "What about Dragonborn's parents?" But since, as others are saying, the power comes from the soul, the parents and all other relatives would probably be normal.

So what kind of backstories do people give their Dragonborn? Did he/she show any early signs of being dovahkiin as a child? Was Dragonborn like Superman and the Kents? Or was he/she more like Spiderman becoming powerful through a mysterious encounter? HA!

I haven't finished the main quest yet, so I'm not sure if we do find out exactly how Dragonborn came to be. Do we?

[gggg336]

I am quite sure its not genetic, since the royal family in the Imperial city were wiped out entirely. Besides, if there were a survivor, we would only be able to choose between imperial or nord, since the family were one of those races. Just speculating though.

[Mofuji]

Dragonborns have no genetic connection. Considering Miraak's situation, he has no connection to Saint Alessia, who only technically became Dragonborn upon entering into a covenant with Akatosh (and this creating the Amulet of Kings). Remen Cyrodiil supposedly has no genetic connection to Alessia, and Tiber Septim has no known genetic connection to the others. The current Dragonborn has no known genetic connection to the Septim line, or any other dynasty.

The Amulet of Kings, by the way, could deem ANYBODY worthy of wearing it. It doesn't matter if they're related to a Dragonborn; since it housed the souls of many former rulers (being an oversoul, which is what Talos technically is), it could in essence imbue its wearer with dragon blood. But if this means they become Dragonborn in the sense that they can absorb souls and use the Thu'um naturally isn't known.

it would have been awesome to see Uriel Septim VII let loose a Shout on the Mythic Dawn... but well, never happened.

[Shin Dan]

No.
The dragonblood isn't genetic, the only reason the septims had it for so long was because it was part of their contract with akatosh.
The last dragonborn is called the last dragonborn for a reason.

[Nekomancer]

ok, so if the dragonborn dies of old age and dragons are still flying about, will this make the dragons unkillable since there souls cant be taken? i think i remember that dragons are like deity's, you can slay thier phisical form but not thier magical form and they would eventually revive to once again, wreak havoc on tamriel.

[Mofuji]

Dragons can absorb the souls of their own. Besides, if it ever got really bad, Akatosh would send another Dragonborn.

[Nekomancer]

yeah but as i recall, someone said that the dragonborn would be the last dragonborn in existance meaning that his ultimante objective and purpose was to defeat alduin. the other dragons would be colateral dammage.

[Mofuji]

The gods can do what they want.

[{NOC}JURY]

If you read the in game book "Racial Genealogy" it appears that genetics, breeding and inherited traits the elder scrolls universe do not work as they do in our own. So one cannot say what abilities (if any) the spawn of a dragonborn will have.

Conversely, the in game description of the line of empires descending from Tiber Septim, implies that they were all dragonborn… so that could well be an inherited trait.

However Tiber Septim himself became the god Talos so he may have had a direct hand in making dargonborn appear in his own bloodline.

There is also the whole issue of the dragonborn in skyrim being the last to, which most likely rules out the possibility of anyone inheriting the dragon power.

One possible loophole for this is that others with the powers of a dragonborn may occur after skyrim that do not receive the title of dragonborn.

In short the game isn’t really clear enough to really say one way or another, but I know that having to wake up in the middle of night to stop a baby with the thuum from crying would be one hell of a difficult task.

[Mofuji]

Everybody in the Septim line had dragon blood because they could wear the Amulet of Kings. The same with the Remen line. And if it deemed anybody worthy of wearing it, they would also gain dragon blood.

But the Amulet of Kings was destroyed, so the only way to gain dragon blood is literally through the gods.