Warning: ahead is a topic that is a personal speculation; if some truth to it could be found, great, if not, oh well.

something that i though about recently, about the heroes of Nirn.
Eternal Champion, hero of Daggerfall(title-nickname i don't know ), Nerevarine and Champion of Cyrodiil(along with his/her KoTN and SI titles implied as a part of the package ). four champions, four mortals and or more than mortals soon after their foretold missions come to pass. in any case, each accomplishing what no other mortal can. guided and helped by some god or another. but that's just stating the obvious, i know. in any case, the point... one size fits all.

or should i say, one blank soul fits all, one formula fits all.

as i understand it, in general, when a mortal dies, body rots and mortal's soul goes to Dreamsleeve for recycling. stripped of everything that had to do with that mortal, it is then used for another mortal. i hope i understand that right. now imagine a blank USB drive and the data erased off it and reprogrammed onto it when it changes the computers. each of the said USB holding different amount of data about the mortal. i assume it to be so because there are various enchant values to the souls of summoned Daedra and even man gods(Tribunal, specifically). it does not seem like too far a stretch to conclude that each soul has its own degree of capacity.

need i go on or did you pick up my point yet ?

all four aforementioned champions accomplish task that, as i see it, similar in their cores: kill a man god or a god and save the world. pending previous paragraph has truth to some of its, should i say, speculations, pending that, a soul of specific capacity is required when programming the said champions. preferably, one that holds enough data required for such a mortal. meaning, for a peasant, a 256MB flash drive might suffice. for the human who is supposed to undertake a quest lines that might make one insane(CoC, ? ), 256MB will just not cut it. i am thinking, 512? maybe even more. considering there is not that much use for a 512 flash drive for mortal realm flooded with 256 users, its safe to assume that only a limited, perhaps severely limited, supply of 512s exists in the Dreamsleeve? i am guessing very few. but wait, for the sake of the thought i am trying to sell to you( ), for the sake of that thought, push for a moment if you will, the boundaries of recycling regulations and factor in finite supply of [whatever] required for creating a soul... and maybe only 5 of the 512 exist? i assume finite supply of [whatever] required for creating a soul largely because a)the need for recycling, and B) how many things or beings in TES are infinite? to my knowledge, few? few, each a custom made, maybe, big enough for all the data that will have to be used for the champion. with a need for a new champion, 5 will grow to 6, 6 to 7, etc.

now, pending reasonable evidence for all of the above, a new notion yet: 1. a unique USB, custom made to hold ridiculously large amounts of data(just in case more needs to be programmed in for the next champion), one size fit all champions. one where Bob is not completely stripped off the USB when Larry is programmed into it. Nor is Bob and Larry are not completely stripped off the USB when Joe is programmed into it. and so on. certainly would save time on reprogramming if Bob had the characteristics that Larry needs for accomplishing his 6 in 1 feat. and Joe would need for his volcano diving. and John would need to face a potentially suicidal lines of tasks required of him in fighting swarms of Daedra and safeguarding crown jewels and immortal priests ( ), taking Sheo's place, and again Oblivion diving to kill old time warrior come back to life with pink glasses vengeance.

hm, yes, i do have active imagination and i do like to consider possibilities .
now i hope there is some truth to at least some of all that was said.

There is one thingthat, in my mind, disprove you theory. It is possible that the Nerevarine was a reincarnation of Nerevar. Yet Nerevar's deeds aren't nearly as grand as those of the COC, Eternal Champion etc, so it unlikely they are the same "USB-drive".

But given that the Nerevarine was a reincarnation, maybe the soul, or at least the souls information was held by Azura and 'granted' to other suitable souls, untill the right combination produced the Nerevarine.

Sorry to throw another wrinkle into your theory but the daggerfall and arena characters where born 5 years apart according to the official daggerfall chronicles timeline.

The COC is sheo so wouldn't that remove his program from being able to be reused or combined.

I was under the impression that all of the Champions were Shezzarines of some sort, or champions of the gods that were chosen by divine powers to accomplish the impossible. I don't think they all had the same soul, due to the problems of their respective ages, but I suppose it is possible that their souls were in some way augmented by the dreamsleeve. If Nerevar can reincarnate, I would expect the other various heros of Tes to be able to come back as well, so long as they don't go off and achieve godhood (Talos, Vivec, etc.). I'm a little fuzzy on all the emantiomorph stuff and whatnot, but I know there are several similar ideas out there.

could be. would make one smart god out of Azura; why let all of Nerevar be erased only to have to program the same things again into another blank soul. or Azura waited until the soul of Daggerfall's hero founds its way back to the recycling center, got stripped of its data and Azura, seeing how it was already once a hero material soul, decided "oh, what the heck, might as well" and infused Nerevar's remaining data into it .

ooohhhkk... well, how does that make sense? i mean, two champions doing their deeds at the same time? i guess this is how Bethesda separates itself from other RPG stories which usually have hero do the deed, die, some time passes, and only then a new hero comes in. eh, better do it 5 year apart than running another piece of cheese story line .

not so much a theory. how do i put this... speculation, guess. even wishful thinking, maybe .

oh, and let me get something straight. i guess the Arena Emperor is the same Emperor as in Daggerfall?
like, first, he gets kidnapped, and then rescued by one hero, then later, has to deal with another hero and Mantella and Numidium and all that? a bit much for one mortal king, i think; first the horrors of being kidnapped and imprisoned and then later, dealing with Numidium and all that?

yes, yes it would, i guess. still, why erase data like size of muscles and intelligence level and such when the next hero will just have to likely be in a good physical shape and of impressive statute, intelligent enough to deal with things most mortal won't have to and so on? all data related to the said abilities can stay on, again, to save time on re-programming.

hm, so, is the supply limited or do we have an endless supply of whatever it is that the souls are made of?
again, this is a assumption(guess?) based on the mere fact of recycling; after all, if the raw materials for the souls are infinite, recycling makes little sense, almost pointless.

for that matter, what is a soul in TES and what is it made of?

are there different capacity values for some souls?
like i said before, i assume(guess?) there are because each soul of the summoned minions has own enchant value and so do the souls of the Tribunal.

Shezzarine?

oh, and i have to admit, a USB flash drive anology does make less sense when considering the possibility that souls are energies. that of course, is a assumption(guess?) based on a fact that the soul can be enchanted onto something or into something, a weapon for example. i am guessing it be not so much a USB drive as much as a well, that's actually the hard part, finding the suitable anology .

It's the same empeorer for Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion (where ol' Uriel finally kicks the bucket)

His appearance has changed quite a bit over time, though. In Arena, he looks like a generic king from a "medieval" setting and he speaks with generic, "medieval" words.

Then in DF, we got this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niU1bRqxrIU, followed by this feller here http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061229082446/oblivion/images/d/d0/UrielSeptim.jpg

what?!

*checks TES time line*

:o all three games take place in less than half a century!?
wow. ooohhhkkk... i was under the impression that the events of each game was separated by centuries... like, Arena taking place some time in 2E, like, maybe midway thorough, and TES 2 sometime after close to like the end of 2E and the begining of 3E or something with TES 3 taking place close to the end of 3E(that one i did know the right time for, i studied Tamriel history and the event of Morrowind somewhat while and after playing the game). ouch, major fail... history was never my best subject in school

*shared USB theory crumbles*
ouch

hm, my ignorance of time line is justified, though. only somewhat, actually. and its because of, of all things, because of The Real Barenziah... how, you aks? see, i misinterpreted some things . i knew some Dunmer lived for thousands of years. and reading The Real The Real Barenziah, which i did not really get right away, i was under the impression she lived through all 3 (Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind) and was at least hundreds if not thousands of years old and died some time after TES 3. kind of dumb, considering i just looked over it again and realized just when she died. i don't know, what threw me off was Nightingale and the Staff and and talks of how she had seen a number of Septim Emperor come and go and take the throne. i was under the impression that those were the Septims that came AFTER Arena events... lol kids, careful when reading books, don't assume things .
hm, please don't try to explain to me the history of Tamriel or The Real Barenziah... i'll, hm, look into it again myself anew with a fresh mindset.

ok, well, ouch. anyways, any answers or guesses as to other question?

Ocato has changed a fair bit from his daggerfall appearance too. No badassery in oblivion.

His bald, robust, and goatee look from DF is definitely more BA than some skinny, whiny, and graying altmer who doesn't even deserve to be within a distance of half of Cyrodiil from me.

^
And that goatee was just pure win

Though to be fair, the High elves were more badass in general in Daggerfall, I can't bring myself to play as one in Morrowind or Oblivion.

Wow, didn't know that. His life must be one big facepalm.

"oh look, I'm about to be murdered again... :rolleyes:"

Must be why he's so underdramatic in the begining of Oblivion.

Assassin's are going to kill me. Goodbye. Do you think he actually EXPECTED to be saved? Must be like morning brunch to him.