i was reading a book in the mages guilds mystic archive it was called children of the sky or something anyway it said that nords in skyrim have the ability to break gates with there voices and even knock down enemies, it even said that they could shout messages for miles.
is this just made up or is their some truth to it and if so how come none of the nords we see in morrowing and cryodil posess this ability

Only the strongest, oldest, and wisest Nords get such abilities. It is a gift from the goddess Kyne - and it has to be earned. Nords we meet in Morrowind and Oblivion are regular people.

It's called Thu'um or Way of The Voice.

Definition A long practiced spiritual form of Nordic magic, also known as the Tongues, that is based on their worship of the Wind as a personification of Kynareth. Through the use of the Voice the power of a Nord can be formed into a thu'um, or shout - which has a large variety of applications (anything from sharpening blades to a long range weapon). Master Voices (known simply as Tongues) have legendary, and often unbelievable powers, including talking to people of hundreds of miles away or teleportation. The most powerful masters must even be careful whenever they speak, as their voice can cause great destruction and they are commonly gagged.

During the Conquest of Morrowind, the Nordic war chiefs were also Tongues (Derek the Tall, Jorg Helmborg, Hoag Merkiller). They needed no typical siege weapons when attacking a city as they merely used the Voice to break down the city gate and allow their armies to storm in. The future of the Tongues was forever changed by the most powerful Tongue, Jurgen Windcaller, also better known as the Calm. Jurgen converted to a pacifist and refused to use the Voice for any martial purposes. In a confrontation with 17 other tongues he reportedly swallowed the Shouts of the 17 for three days until they lay exhausted, later to become his followers.

Today, all Tongues live secluded lives on the highest peaks of Skyrim in tough conditions and contemplation, and have only spoken to announce the destiny of the great Tiber Septim (who later created an Imperial College of the Voice in Markarth, returning the Voice to the art of warfare).
Straight from http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tamriel:Dictionary_W#Way_of_the_Voice

Muthsera,

The power of the Nords is most accurately described as follows:

""The Tongues"
The Nords have long practiced a spiritual form of magic known as "The Way of the Voice", based largely on their veneration of the Wind as the personification of Kynareth. Nords consider themselves to be the children of the sky, and the breath and the voice of a Nord is his vital essence. Through the use of the Voice, the vital power of a Nord can be articulated into a thu'um, or shout. Shouts can be used to sharpen blades or to strike enemies at a distance. Masters of the Voice are known as Tongues, and their power is legendary. They can call to specific people over hundreds of miles, and can move by casting a shout, appearing where it lands. The most powerful Tongues cannot speak without causing destruction. They must go gagged, and communicate through a sign language and through scribing runes.

In the days of the Conquest of Morrowind and the founding of the First Empire, the great Nord war chiefs - Derek the Tall, Jorg Helmbolg, Hoag Merkiller - were all Tongues. When they attacked a city, they needed no siege engines; the Tongues would form up in a wedge in front of the gatehouse, and draw in breath. When the leader let it out in a thu'um, the doors were blown in, and the axemen rushed into the city. Such were the men that forged the First Empire. But, alas for the Nords, one of the mightiest of all the Tongues, Jurgen Windcaller (or The Calm, as he is better known today), became converted to a pacifist creed that denounced use of the Voice for martial exploits. His philosophy prevailed, largely due to his unshakable mastery of the Voice -- his victory was sealed in a legendary confrontation, where The Calm is said to have "swallowed the Shouts" of seventeen Tongues of the militant school for three days until his opponents all lay exhausted (and then became his disciples). Today, the most ancient and powerful of the Tongues live secluded on the highest peaks in contemplation, and have spoken once only in living memory, to announce the destiny of the young Tiber Septim (as recounted in Cyrodiil). In gratitude, the Emperor has recently endowed a new Imperial College of the Voice in Markarth, dedicated to returning the Way of the Voice to the ancient and honorable art of war. So it may be that the mighty deeds of the Nord heroes of old will soon be equaled or surpassed on the battlefields of the present day." (http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/skyrim.shtml)


Yours in the Scrolls,


___The Word Merchant of Julianos

EDIT: oblivionisbetter beat me to it. Quick typing, my friend. :goodjob:

im not sure in the book it said that the best of there warriors couklld do this not the oldest and anyway theres still no reason for the lack of any of these special nords in cryodil and morrowind it is my understanding that many nords hate skyrim and try to get away from it and considering cyrodil is the center of the empire and is directly south of skyrim it makes no sense


edit

what so every single tounge after being humiliated decided to follow this guy calms lead BS

Many martial based societies have an "honor bound" social structure, either led by the "strong man" archetype, or through religious riggor, or some other foundational principle.

In the case of these nords, I'd say it is the strongman archetype. 17 of the most powerful tounges could not subdue him. He is clearly the strongest amongst them. Whatever humbled HIM, certainly warranted THEM looking into it too, don't you think?



Another way to look at it is: He defeated them in battle--- he OWNS them now.

Tuker, usually power is reserved for the oldest in TES.

The Greybeards played a part in the ascendancy of Tiber Septim, that speaks volumes of their importance. Don't forget they also blasted about Ysmir to ash, again.

Tuker, are you foreign?

is my spelling that bad

no, but your total lack of punctuation makes your post nearly incomprehensible. witness:

im not sure. in the book it said that the best of there warriors could do this, not the oldest. anyway theres still [is] no reason for the lack of any of these special nords in cryodil and morrowind. it is my understanding that many nords hate skyrim and try to get away from it and considering cyrodil is the center of the empire and is directly south of skyrim it makes no sense.

your last sentence makes no sense even if edited. where did you get that nords hate skyrim? why does cyrodiil being south of skyrim have to do with anything?

the best warriors are typically the wisest and oldest here, since we are not talking about literal bash-your-head-in-with-a-warhammer strength. this is more akin to magic then it is to conventional combat.

ye i haven't had to use punctuation for a while but i think that you putting an is after a theres was a mistake.
and the fact of nords hating skyrim was that some of the nords in oblivion complain about it, and the south bit was because i was looking at a comletely [censored] um map of tamriel so nvm that.

the is is there because you didnt use an apostaphie in there's.

and the book you were likely refering to is Children of the Sky

Well, it's no surprise if you find nords hating skyrim among those you meet out of the Province. They're out because they hated it. It don't means all nords in skyrim hate the province.

Demographics also play a part there : Skyrim is basicaly a cold place, with limited agriculture - which means demographic increase is quick to outpace the province's ability to keep it's peoples fed.
The nords have two traditional ways to cope with it : first grabbing land next to skyrim, otherwise killing each other. The Empire limits them, so they tend to get out. Many going to cyrdodill because the Legion is a good opportunity (nords being big, strong and though make good soldier material.)

It's not that cold. At least not all of it. For example, Sweden has pretty strong farming culture, even though being as "cold" as it is.

Compared to regions like Cyrodil, souther Elweyr or southern Morrowind, that's definitvely cold. combined wit the amount of moutain, Skyrim certainly less suited to agriculture than these areas (which seems to be the breadbaskets of Tamriel - minus the jungle areas of Cyrodil)

Our "strong" farming culture is pretty new though, and it's not that strong when you compare it to farming culture outside of Northern Europe. The Swedes have suffered since the day they first set foot in Scandinavia, because the weather is so bad that they couldn't do any real farming, and being a farmer in Sweden was extremely hard up untill recently. Most of the Swedes who moved to America in the 19th and 20th century where farmers.

And even today there are not many farmers in for example Norrbotten or Lappland, because it's to cold. Most farmers are down in Sk?ne or around that area of Sweden.

Really, most of "Norrland" didn't even belong to Sweden untill the 19th, 20th century! :meh:
Well, take or add a few hundred years. Mostly take.

Anyway, Sweden might not have had an as effective agriculture as warmer, southern lands, and as a consequence, we have always (and still have) a much lower population number, but the people that did live there have always relied heavily on farming to survive. For example, the belief that vikings (and others during that age) ate a lot of meat is myth - their diet consisted heavily on grains of different kinds. The heavy Swedish emigration also depended on the large population rise - the little land we had were not enough to support the new population, as well as "crop failure" and famine. And, of course, the usual religious conflicts.
But I really can't speak for Norrland, I have no knowledge about it.

Untill the Industrial Revolution everyone, everywhere relied heavily on farming to survive. It was only in the 19th century that large parts of the world (Europe and the United States) moved from an agricultural to an industrial society.

So, of course people in Sweden have always relied heavily on agriculture, since there wasn't much else to live from. That doesn't mean that their farming was actually effective. In fact, as some others have already stated, Scandinavia hardly had any usefull land for farming at all, which is the reason that it can't sustain a large population.

EDIT: I just noticed again that this topic was about Thu'um, and that I went completely off-topic, my apologies. I don't think I'm capable of adding anything usefull to that discussion anymore, everything I know about it has been mentioned already

You're right, of course. Sadly for me, I didn't think that far

Thus I end the off topic discussion.