The Story Corner » Discussions

Resurrection Research

• Andrew Shepherd

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  Hi all! I have a question about resurrection/reanimation in TES. How does it work? Does a necromancer tie a piece of his/her soul to the body in order to reanimate it or is it another spirit, say from Oblivion? There are certain philosophical ideas that I want to get my head around for a story. There must be some kind of energy that infuses the corpse, but where does it come from? Any ideas?

  Hi all! I have a question about resurrection/reanimation in TES. How does it work? Does a necromancer tie a piece of his/her soul to the body in order to reanimate it or is it another spirit, say from Oblivion? There are certain philosophical ideas that I want to get my head around for a story. There must be some kind of energy that infuses the corpse, but where does it come from? Any ideas?
• Exuro

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  I've wondered this as well. Since the reanimated are always doing the zombie moan or vacantly staring at walls, I would say they are soulless and not possessed. So they would be powered either by the casters soul or magicka. Another question is: do the spells reactivate part of their brain so they act on instinct or do they act like running an AI programming script?

  For story telling purposes, I think it would be possible to bind a daedra or a trapped soul to a new body, in which case the reanimated would act like the spirit bound/possessing it. 

  I've wondered this as well. Since the reanimated are always doing the zombie moan or vacantly staring at walls, I would say they are soulless and not possessed. So they would be powered either by the casters soul or magicka. Another question is: do the spells reactivate part of their brain so they act on instinct or do they act like running an AI programming script?

  For story telling purposes, I think it would be possible to bind a daedra or a trapped soul to a new body, in which case the reanimated would act like the spirit bound/possessing it. 

• ShyGuyWolf

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  Sounds cool.

  Sounds cool.
• Naeg Runs-Into-Walls

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  Well based on my thousands of hours using necromancy in Skyrim this is how I think it works.

  When a body dies it's dead, the soul stops being part of the body, it left to Sovengarde or the Hunting Grounds or wherever it was supposed to go, UNLESS it was captured inside a Soul Gem. In which case it goes to the Soul Cairn (there are cows in the Soul Cairn so I guess animals go there too). So the corpse is just a corpse.

  But when a necromancer revives it using his own magicka (just the magicka, it's a spell life Fireball and the mage doesn't throw a piece of his soul into each fireball) the soul is pulled back from the Afterlife and forcefully placed back in it's broken body. The person is conscious but it has no control over it's actions, all he/she can do is follow the necromancers orders. They personality is there but they have no way to express it until they are released from their service.  When you kill a ressurected corpse they sometimes say "thank you" at this point they're allowed to go back to their afterlife. 

  It pains me to say this but to me it works just like the Edo-Tensei jutsu from Naruto Shippuden. The person is brought back, has all its memories and skills but because he's in an extremely submissive state it can't do as it wants and talk. Unless the necromancer commands it to speak, but we never see something like that. 

  Also there are some dead thralls that keep their dialogue but it's been proven to be a glitch and theres no deeper meaning behind it. The most common are resurrected vampires.

  Well based on my thousands of hours using necromancy in Skyrim this is how I think it works.

  When a body dies it's dead, the soul stops being part of the body, it left to Sovengarde or the Hunting Grounds or wherever it was supposed to go, UNLESS it was captured inside a Soul Gem. In which case it goes to the Soul Cairn (there are cows in the Soul Cairn so I guess animals go there too). So the corpse is just a corpse.

  But when a necromancer revives it using his own magicka (just the magicka, it's a spell life Fireball and the mage doesn't throw a piece of his soul into each fireball) the soul is pulled back from the Afterlife and forcefully placed back in it's broken body. The person is conscious but it has no control over it's actions, all he/she can do is follow the necromancers orders. They personality is there but they have no way to express it until they are released from their service.  When you kill a ressurected corpse they sometimes say "thank you" at this point they're allowed to go back to their afterlife. 

  It pains me to say this but to me it works just like the Edo-Tensei jutsu from Naruto Shippuden. The person is brought back, has all its memories and skills but because he's in an extremely submissive state it can't do as it wants and talk. Unless the necromancer commands it to speak, but we never see something like that. 

  Also there are some dead thralls that keep their dialogue but it's been proven to be a glitch and theres no deeper meaning behind it. The most common are resurrected vampires.

• Andrew Shepherd

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  Ah that's fantastic thank you Naeg. That all makes total sense considering the undead frequently moan "release me" when you have reanimated them. So presumably as the game suggests therefore the ability of the necromancer to rip a targets soul out of sovngarde then depends on the strength of the spirit vs the strength of the necromancer. E.g it would take Manninarco to resurrect Ysgramor, provided his body was preserved well enough ?

  Ah that's fantastic thank you Naeg. That all makes total sense considering the undead frequently moan "release me" when you have reanimated them. So presumably as the game suggests therefore the ability of the necromancer to rip a targets soul out of sovngarde then depends on the strength of the spirit vs the strength of the necromancer. E.g it would take Manninarco to resurrect Ysgramor, provided his body was preserved well enough ?
• Naeg Runs-Into-Walls

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  Damn... probably. I mean the Dragonborn can only ressurect targets up to level 40 (I like to think as the level as the amount of power of the body but I guess the power could come from the Spirit. Someone like Ysgramor is probably way waaaaay over level 40 so definitely the only one who could pull that off was someone like Mannimarco. Most necromancers and vampires in game only go up to Revenant and can't resurrect anything stronger than that. The exception being some people like Lu'ah Al Skaven and the ritual was a lot more complicated than just casting Dead Thrall. 

  A neat little detail some builds and people I know use, including myself for Dead Thralls is to make sure to capture the persons soul in a Black Soul gem and place the filled black soul gem in their body before using Dead Thrall.  By people I mean followers like Eola, Vorstaag and people like that. Not random bandits, that'd be a pain in the ass xD 

  Damn... probably. I mean the Dragonborn can only ressurect targets up to level 40 (I like to think as the level as the amount of power of the body but I guess the power could come from the Spirit. Someone like Ysgramor is probably way waaaaay over level 40 so definitely the only one who could pull that off was someone like Mannimarco. Most necromancers and vampires in game only go up to Revenant and can't resurrect anything stronger than that. The exception being some people like Lu'ah Al Skaven and the ritual was a lot more complicated than just casting Dead Thrall. 

  A neat little detail some builds and people I know use, including myself for Dead Thralls is to make sure to capture the persons soul in a Black Soul gem and place the filled black soul gem in their body before using Dead Thrall.  By people I mean followers like Eola, Vorstaag and people like that. Not random bandits, that'd be a pain in the ass xD 

• Andrew Shepherd

  

  Member
   

  July 20, 2015

  That's an awesome idea with the black soul gems which fits in with another idea I have for a story. Thanks a lot Naeg!

  That's an awesome idea with the black soul gems which fits in with another idea I have for a story. Thanks a lot Naeg!
• Vazgen

  

  Member
   

  July 21, 2015

  I suggest reading through this article: Two Parts of a Whole Make a Soul

  Should give you some ideas 

  I suggest reading through this article: Two Parts of a Whole Make a Soul

  Should give you some ideas 

• Sotek

  

  Member
   

  July 21, 2015

  Hello Andrew

  This should be placed in the Help Thread where all the members resources can easily be located.

  I'm afraid I am going to have to ask you to relocate it to there.

  Sotek.

  Hello Andrew

  This should be placed in the Help Thread where all the members resources can easily be located.

  I'm afraid I am going to have to ask you to relocate it to there.

  Sotek.

• Andrew Shepherd

  

  Member
   

  July 21, 2015

  sorry Sotek, still getting used to navigating the site and knowing what goes where. A little help again please?

  sorry Sotek, still getting used to navigating the site and knowing what goes where. A little help again please?