The Greybeards mention that Tiber Septim was a Dragonborn from many years ago, and only a person of "Dragon Blood" can wear the Amulet of Kings. So why are all Septim offspring allowed to wear the amulet? Do Dragonborn and Dragonblood mean different things? Or does the Soul of a dragon pass down from generation to generation? If not does that mean if the Dragonborn of Skyrim can wear the Amulet of Kings? (If it hadn't been smashed)

Off-Topic: Can someone explain to me what 'Kalpa' is? My guess is the previous "Life-Time"

Kalpa, in the sense of TES, is the beginning of one time and its end. Then another starts up and ends.

Difficult to say. We know for a fact that not all people that wore the amulet of Kings were related to previous wearers of the Amulet of Kings... It would seem incredibly unlikely that every warlord out there that ever managed conquer Cyrodiil and be proclaimed Emperor who could thus wear the amulet of Kings was also a dragonborn, I mean what are the odds?

So perhaps, being able to wear the amulet has to do with some kind of divine right, perhaps really wishing to wear it automatically makes you a dragonborn, even if you weren't before (which would really screw up the whole born part). It's really impossible to say at this point

^ What he said.
I took the whole promise behind the Amulet's power (how only her decendents could wear it) as meaning more spiritual offspring then physical. The leaders of the Empire (in all it's iterations) had to be of the same spirit as her. Though the fact that Camoran wears it kinda throws that out the window (unless he could force it in himself through magic).
As for the term Dragonblood, I think that is just a fancy way of saying the royal family. The Septims are not all necessarily Dragonborn, Talos seems to be the only confirmed one, though Martin makes a pretty good case. Either it's all Imperial propaganda that all the Septims were Dragonborn, or Talos messed with the whole system when he became a god.

I believe it's the Dragonborn book, that you find in the torture chamber in the opening sequence, that raises the question: Is it the blessing of Akatosh that allowed the line of emperors to light the Dragon Fires or did the lighting of the Dragon Fires confer the blessings of Akatosh? I tend to lean towards the latter, or at least toward the theory that the Dragon Blood / Born is not just hereditary, but that Akatosh is actively maintaining it (your character in Skyrim lends a lot of weight to this).

I do believe that the Dragonborn in Skyrim is the same status as the previous emperors pre-Oblivion Crisis. It's just that there were no dragons to absorb and most emperors didn't bother to try to learn the old fashion way... or maybe they did and it just never was made a central point in-game. Uriel VII was a very old man in the beginning of Oblivion. He may not have had it in him to use it, even if he knew it, though that is pure speculation.

As for Mancar Camoran, I'm pretty sure that his wearing of the Amulet was through false means, as it was part of a ritual that mocks the the Amulet's true purpose.

Lighting the fires could not give the blessings of Akatosh because you can't wear the amulet if you're not Dragonborn... Meaning the blessing has to come (atleast a few minutes) earlier. That doesn't mean you are born with it, but it does exclude the possibility of only getting the power when you are actually wearing the amulet.

The greybeads are also old man who still master the voice, more likely is that they simply didn't have the time to learn shouts and without dragons about it would be even harder.

Only the CoC couldn't wear the amulet. Couldn't work the clasp.

His fingers were swollen from an infection he got before the start of the game. The swelling didn't go down for quite some time.

Doesn't Jauffre say he can't wear the amulet either at some time? though I don't know if this because he literally couldn't after trying or because he believes he couldn't and therefor hasn't even tried...

Regardless it isn't just the CoC that can't wear the amulet... If that was the case then the blades would have given it out to a random person that seemed fit to rule Tamriel.

Maybe the Ritual is a mini-Tribunal moment? Where you "come into power", having had that power since the very beginning of the universe in the first place? It does have a rather unique "heart-stone", after all...

Or maybe they traditionally didn't don it until after the fires were a' roarin'. Nothing points to the ascendant emperors having to wear the AoK in order to the light dragonfires.

Hmm...How in the world did Camoran manage to wear the amulet?
I never really thought about it.

Mankar was dragonborn.

http://imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-mythic-dawn-commentaries-1

Yes, but again, so was the Champion of Cyrodiil, and (s)he couldn't wear it. I don't think Mankar being a Dragonborn could explain how he got to wear the Amulet. I was under the impression that only the moral (or strongest) guy related to Talos at one time could wear it. That is, not any Dragonborn, only the most fitting at a time. Then the next one after that one's died or dethroned, etc.



I actually checked and there seems to be no Emperors not related to Talos at all; everyone's his/her predecessor's half-brother or distant cousin at the very least, even to the point where races change every now and then... But The Third Era Timeline only becomes vague somewhere around Camoran Usurper's time (who didn't actually reign as an Emperor nor use the Amulet himself, I bet. And the fires were lit all the time according to Oblivion, so there must've been an Emperor, I thinkm Cephorus II).

The Timeline doesn't tell how Cephorus II and Uriel V are related, but it's obvious they are since the later Uriels all could wear the Amulet. Every other relation is explicit.



Well Martin at least couldn't light the fires without the Amulet; the flames couldn't be "a-roarin'" without the Amulet. Or do you state that Martin actually could have lit them without AoK, but he just presumed he couldn't? If that's true, the irony!

No, no, I meant that the emperors didn't have to wear it, as in, around their neck.

They were? I'd say the fact that you couldn't wear it is a good sign that you were not dragonborn.

Dragonborn means you are born with the soul of a dragon, Dragonblood is what Uriel Septim and Martin were, it basically means you have the blessing of Akatosh and St.Alessia.

i heard a weird theory one time that the emperor weren't born dragon born, that the peoples belief that they were made them, thus they all died dragonborn, but very few were born dragonborn

This is a little off-topic, but for the OP's benefit, if you're really interested in getting a better feel for the system of Kalpas, I highly recommend reading The Parade of Ants. The text primarily deals with the reincarnations of the gods, and the term isn't used specifically, but it touches on the greater cycles of existence as well. Hindus and Buddhists were questioning reality in ways, 2000 years ago, that would have made what was left of Terence McKenna's brain dribble out his ears. :spotted owl: