Apologies in advance if this has been already discussed at length somewhere else...

I just recently finished, for the first time, the main quest in Skyrim. I thought Sovngarde and the Hall of Valor were awesome places, but they also got me thinking... there aren't that many heroes populating it, especially given the long history of Tamriel. Where do all the dead Nords go to?

- My boyfriend suggested that most deceased Nords turned into draugr... except that all draugr and dragon priests have white souls, so they cannot possibly be the same souls as those of people these bodies belonged to when they were still alive - especially since you meet Olaf One-Eye in the Hall of Valor, and from what I understand, he's there regardless of whether you've completed Tending the Flames, i.e. it's possible fo someone to exist both as a draugr and as a spirit in Sovngarde - so what happens to the souls of the original owners of the now undead bodies?

- Due to the events taking place in Skyrim, namely the return of dragons and the civil war, quite a few souls must have been devoured by Alduin. But that only accounts for souls missing over a relatively short time period.

- Some warriors are certainly claimed by Hircine and other Deadric Princes. Quite a few must have been unlucky to get soul-trapped and ended up in the Soul Cairn. But it can't be that many - most nords still worship the nine and it's not like everyone's massively using soul trap. Black soul gems are also relatively rare in the game.

- What happens to warriors who don't get past Tsun? Do they get another chance later? Perish? Get sent somewhere else?

- And finally, what happens to Nords who do not die valiantly in battle? Do they have a separate plane in Aetherius? Or do they get recycled and are reborn in different bodies on Nirn?

I'll appreciate any answers, hypotheses or links to sources

Their souls will likely get recycled in the Dreamsleeve and re-incarnate on Tamriel.
Souls are fragments of Aedra, who made Creation. These souls constantly get born, live their lives and are recycled in the Dreamsleeve where they are stripped of their memories so that in their next life they can attempt to achieve enlightenment and escape the Arena (Tamriel) once more. The point of Creation is to achieve heights that no Aedra could alone, for the souls to raise themselves higher than was possible before.

1. Tamriel (and everything outside of it) is scaled down for gameplay purposes. Solitude should be a bustling capital jam packed with citizens, but in TES V we only see a handful of people populating it. I always imagined the games as a stort being read, and the characters that don't have an impact on the PC's life are disregarded.


2. I think Nord heroes only spend a certain amount of time in Sovngarde before they move on to the Dreansleeve, some lingering longer than others (Olaf One-Eye, Jurgen Windcaller etc.)

1. Tamriel (and everything outside of it) is scaled down for gameplay purposes. Solitude should be a bustling capital jam packed with citizens, but in TES V we only see a handful of people populating it. I always imagined the games as a story being read, and the characters that don't have an impact on the PC's life are disregarded.


2. I think Nord heroes only spend a certain amount of time in Sovngarde before they move on to the Dreansleeve, some lingering longer than others (Olaf One-Eye, Jurgen Windcaller etc.)

Christ I messed that up. Never post from your phone, children.

I disagree with that, I see no reason why anyone would be recycled once they are in the hall of valor. Shor would want to keep them there in case he might need them someday, we also have quite a few ancient hero's there, so I can think of no reason to assume they would get thrown back into the garbage after an x amount of time.

Something I also wondered for a while; No matter what race the PC is, there gonna go to Sovngarde, thanks to the priest at the begging that commends your soul to Aetherius, therefore, why are there only nords in Sovngarde? The PC cant possibly be the first person to have this happen to them.

And we should also take in acount that the PC (Dragonborn) has a Dragon Soul, and that this will almost surely affect there afterlife.

Our character didnt enter sovngard by dying. we entered via a portal

The priestess is probably an imperial.

If Sovngarde is like Valhalla, it's meant as a recruitment center and staging area for an army to fight in the ragnar?k. I don't know how that translates into Tamrielic lore but I suppose you could think of it as a Lorkhanic posse kept in reserve to fight Alduin and whoever else needs a beating.

On this forum I've seen people speculate that Nords might go to Sovngarde and just not be admitted to the Hall of Valor if they aren't warriors who can defeat Tsun.

@ OP: About draugr, read http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Amongst_the_Draugr. The dragon cult had different ideas about death than other Nords. The draugr were servants of the dragon priests who were possibly ritually killed (you notice that there are poison bottles on a lot of the embalming tables) but kept in an undead state so as to serve their masters even in death. I think the bodies we see that don't wake were normal Nords who didn't have this "privilege."

If and when a Kalpa ends Shor(Lorkhan) repeats everything at least then the heros would be recycled.


The way you go into sovngarde is exactly the same as Alduins way,It is unique..You enter in your physical body and not just soul.

So the "recycling" applies both to souls that did not die in battle and those who did but failed to get past Tsun? Also, what does it really mean to escape the arena - does being in Sovngarde count already or is there something that's still "beyond" it?

Thanks, that was a really interesting read Draugr giving their life essence to Dragon Priests may explain why they have white souls - they constantly "feed" their masters and probably gradually become less and less sentient. But why do Dragon Priests also have white souls, then? Maybe because of being fed by "deteriorating" life force for a long time?
However, this still fails to explain the presence of draugr in tombs where there are no Dragon Priests and cases like Olaf One-Eye.

I believe that what Arechisimo842 meant is that the Dragonborn can go to Sovngarde regardless of race after his/her death. My character is a Dunmer and at the end of the main quest, Tsun, just before sending me back to Mundus, said something along the lines of "I may welcome you in Sovngarde again". I assume the "may" means that Tsun cannot know whether the Dragonborn will die in battle, become soul trapped or whether by that time his or her soul will have been promised to one Deadric Prince or another. But certainly the chance for the Dragonborn to enter Sovngarde is there, regardless of race, which does raise the question of whether it's possible that this is the first case in all history for a non-Nord to get this opportunity.

As for the Dragonborn's dragon soul, it says http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dragonborn that "Before its destruction, the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Amulet_of_Kings held the souls of past Dragonborn emperors." And if you follow the Amulet of Kings link, you'll find out that "After fighting his way to the Temple of the One, Martin was forced to smash the amulet, this being the only way to defeat Mehrunes Dagon. The power of the intermingled blood of the Covenant summoned a rare http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Aedra avatar in the form of Akatosh, a fiery dragon. Dagon was defeated, but the nearly four thousand year history of the Amulet of Kings was ended."
Which altogether is interesting since (1) we don't know where the souls of Dragonborn who were not emperors went (unless they also went to the amulet); (2) we don't know what happened to the souls of past Dragonborn held in the amulet after Mehrunes Dagon was defeated and (3) our Dragonborn is possibly the first one to live after the destruction of the amulet.

There are the spirits of other dragonborn that you can meet in Sovngarde.

Which ones? As far as I know, none of the heroes you meet there are Dragonborn (although quite a few are Thu'um users).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StmbrLfGC-8

No, no. That's a portal to the Ministry of Magic.

I have a head canon that the Dragonborn's have two halves the Mortal one and the Dragon one,This mortal half goes on to Sovngarde or where ever it is their people go and the dragon half,stays back in the Dragonborn's body.
As for the Amulet of Kings...It ended with the covenant.

There's a book by a member of the College of Winterhold who lived in one of the tombs for some time and observed that different draugr were active each night, which may actually explain why some of them are inactive when you visit the tomb and others are active. And why when you go back a different time there are draugr waiting to fight you again.

They did say that that was a small part Svongarde. Plus there are more tests in the way there after you die. It is very possible that most souls could not meet the requirement for the final journey. Also the Svongarde that you saw in the game was not the actual version, it was one in which your physical presence could exist. As to what happens to the other souls it is not explained so far. It is theorized that those that do not end in a plane of Oblivion end up in the void. Or perhaps some other part of Aetherious. Did anyone notice that Aether is very similar to Ether? As in the ether zone/current?
Anyway the easiest way to explain the lack of souls is the fact that the would not be able to fit them all in and still have the Epic battle against Alduin. Sometimes we have to remember that it is a game and it has parameters. Lets just say the took a vacation to another hall, the Vegas Hall. Can't say what happens there because it stays there.

That's the link I posted.

I don't even know what I was thinking, then.

I guess my point is just that maybe the inactive draugr are the ones who wake up on a different schedule.

I'll also point out that if you've done the Companions' quests, you meet the former Harbinger there, and he says the reason you can only see him is because he was the only one you knew. Presumably, Sovngarde is full of spirits that are similarly invisible.

There are several souls in Sovngarde we don't know.