Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions


Ask your lore questions here

Back to Topics
This topic has been closed.
  • Member
    June 9, 2016
    What happens to Draugr and Vampires when they die?
    Are they dead? Can they be 'killed'? Would it be in a way of taking their life, or rather some sort of 'releasing their spirit'?
    Most importantly, what does it mean for a character that doesn't kill?

    Thanks in advance :).
  • Member
    June 9, 2016

    Vel, I cannot bear to see that image. Ugh. Frightful. The seal could be a scarab. Lorkhan? Off the top of my head I cannot think of any, will hit up those sources and maybe even see if Legion wants to tackle that project. Part one you read, part two contains a lot of other handy sources.

    Cammona Tong I have no clue. But I support monkey truth and whatever you want to share.

  • Member
    June 9, 2016

    Hi Relycs, how are you 

    The draugr thing is hard to answer. In fact both are. For the draugr, this comes from Runamoke's On Magicka, The Soul, Draugr and Their Relation. It is a nice succinct summary, followed by a thought experiment I proposed:

    This will most likely be the shortest portion of this discussion. Amongst the Draugr tells the tale of a woman of the College who apparently found a way to convince a barrow-full of draugr that she was no threat to them or their over lord. She writes that, while not defending their home, the draugr occupy themselves by religiously cleaning the chambers of their priest and worshipping said priest. The mage notes that an amount of magicka flows from the draugr to their priest in this act, apparently staving off the death of the priest. Whether or not these draugr act out of blind obedience to a command, or if they are consciously deciding to do this is difficult to tell, as the draugr likely performed similar tasks in life as a part of the Dragon Cult. Perhaps the draugr are acting as undead soul gems which the priest may feed off of to sustain his own undeath. It is also unknown how these draugr/soul gems do not run out of charge over time, or perhaps they do and we are only seeing the shreds of their former glory, which would explain why the barrows all seem full and untouched; it is only now that the draugr within have weakened enough to be defeated.

    On the subject of draugr, in-game they have white souls. A thought experiment would then be:

    A) Do draugr have white souls because one of the two parts of the soul has already gone to the bank of Lunar Currency?

    Or...

    B) The draugr have white souls because that is what they are believed to possess? (This last also includes giants and Falmer - theory is that only those beings recognised by Arkay as being sentient are possessed of black souls. Who determines what Arkay believes? Mortal point of view, mythopoeia.)

    If A) chimes a chord then two parts of a soul make a whole.

    If B) tickles your fancy then shit is about to get even more complicated. It could imply that the immortality as envisioned by the Dragon Cult was actually a real thing. That those draugr way back when were possessed of black souls because society and culture believed them to have them. AE and Energy in a living, preserved corpse. Only as the cult lost relevance over time and situation did society change to view the draugr as not immortal. The AE possibly then flew off, leaving just enough energy to power the reciprocal process of energy transfer.

    Yet if that is the case it tends to disprove the single part soul idea. For if a soul is only composed of one part, why aren't their souls black? However, as many can speak, taunt and drop snark that could indicate that their AE, there identify, remains inside the corpse bringing us full circle to the one part soul theory.

    So I guess it comes down to what you wish to interpret. Is the only thing giving life to these rotters the whisper of energy, or is it their actual soul? Remember, it need not be accurate. If your character believes it and you can justify that belief with the help of lore, who cares what is really going on? 

    And Vampires? I sort of want to say their soul goes to Cold Harbour. The ritual Falion carries out to cure vampirism sort of implies a trade off. One soul for another. So it could be that Molly B already has the soul, that the soul inhabiting the body is daedric...? Vamp lore is weak. Sorry bloke. 

  • Member
    June 9, 2016
    I'm pretty sure the seal is a spider, based off of the connection to mephala aka the webspinner, whos servants are the spiderkith
  • Member
    June 9, 2016

    An excellent point. Mephala is heavily attributed with spider-like qualities, as well, so it makes even more sense.

  • Member
    June 9, 2016

    Ok, quick question I haven't been able to find anywhere: What do the Bosmer, or Wood Elves, believe about the afterlife? If I recall, there's a mythical "Ooze" where the Bosmer that don't follow the Green Pact go to, yet I find nothing about the general belief they have on their afterlife. Any thoughts?

  • Member
    June 9, 2016

    For the record, I know the Ooze isn't actually a myth, seeing as how it appears in ESO, but that doesn't answer my question.

  • June 9, 2016

    As far as I know when a Bosmer dies it's soul joins with Y'ffre

  • June 10, 2016

    Hm, this is really good question and I have to admit that while we were doing really detailed article on Bosmer, this is something I wasn´t able to find. 

    We know that Redguards have Far Shores, Nords Sovngarde, Orcs Ashpit (Ashen Forge), Altmer Aetherius, Argonians have Void, Imperials have Heaven. So, that leaves Bosmer, Dunmer, Bretons and Khajiit where I can´t say it for certain.

    So Bosmer...Y´ffre or Jephre is the most important deity in their pantheon, he is the Green. So Bosmer might believe that after their death they would become one with the Green, or join Jephre as Veloth suggests. It is just theory.

  • Member
    June 10, 2016

    I really enjoy Morang Tong lore and there is no definitive answer for this. I think it would probably have to do with there patron.


Back to Topics
This topic has been closed.