My question is regarding the reincarnation process on Nirn (going through the dreamsleeve and whatnot). Does this process apply to both human and animals souls, or just humans? If it applies only to humans, then what happens to animal souls? If it doesn't apply only to humans, then why are animal souls weaker than human ones? Also, if it doesn't only apply to humans, then could an animals soul when recycled come back as a human? Or does the recycling process essentially make new souls, mixing and mashing both types in the process?

Thanks in advance.

I'd imagine all souls go through this process. I don't recall seeing any differentiation in the relevant texts.

No reason why souls would be favored any more over one another, but I doubt that will be in any document of that kind. As far as their strength in soulgems, make sure you don't judge anything by in-game stuff because everything but the books and dialogue seem to be pretty off lore, especially the user friendly magic.
You're Welcome in Advance.

In-game logic doesn't translate to Lore Explanations. Why can the Arena Grand Champion be a level 2 snot? Exactly. I'd imagine all souls go through the Dreamsleeve, Animal or Human.

As time progresses, most ghosts become less and less intelligible. So it seems they're being mashed.

I don't see why there would be a difference between humans and animals.

Aha, now we discover the real reason why it took so long for the re-incarnation of Nerevar: the Dreamsleeve kept putting his soul into guar and scrib.

Do plants have souls? I mean, they are living organisms... then again, that would imply that bacteria have souls... :wacko:

Nerevar's different because his soul went to Azura and she kept it in a jar on a shelf until she thought it was ready.

By jar, do you mean special ring that takes a smelly trader and allows them to befriend kings?

They probably do. The Hist are Sentient trees, and the myth about Y'ffre involves people turning into plants and animals either at whim or at random until he put a stop to that.

Na, we know it was in circulation, hence all the "failed incarnates" (note that they weren't 'false', just 'failed')...

One difference we do know of is that the souls of humans, elves and beastfolk can't be soultrapped (except with Black Soul Gems, as in Oblivion). This is actually a major plot point in the Oblivion Mages' Guild quest, so I don't think it can be dismissed as just a game mechanic. I'm not sure whether this implies any other differences between human and animal souls, but I don't recall seeing animal ghosts in any of the games, for example.

They are all worshipers of Arkay, whose contract protects souls.

From "Arkay the Enemy"


So the not-insurmountable Arkay's Blessing is what stands between the souls of humanoids and those who would trap them. The Black Soul Gems of the Cyrodilic necromancers and the Soul Snare of N'Gasta the Sload are two known evasions of Arkay's Blessing, so no, it's not a game mechanic.

Attributing Arkay's Blessing to Dremora, as Oblivion did, is a game mechanic, though.

What about the book http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/souls_black_white.shtml?

Does this rule out the idea that plants have souls? Or maybe they are, um, even lesser than white souls?

I concur with Lugar2. Azura wasn't holding on to Nerevar's soul, merely keeping the right information in circulation in the Mundus to prod the vessel carrying his soul in the right direction. To pull off prophecy of that magnitude, you need the right soul, in the right place, at the right time, with the right information. Azura worked on the information part of it. I suspect Uriel Septim had something to do with the place and time part.



Arkay's protection of humanoid souls, and the efforts of necromancers to bypass that protection, was also a major plot point in Redguard, where a sload necromancer erected a "soul net" making it so the only place Arkay could do his work was at one of his temples. Anyone who died outside of it was caught in the net and sold on the soul market.

The absence of animal ghosts could be for a number of reasons. First off, while I do take the things that occur in the games at face value (not the specific game mechanics that have no real-world application, but the basic events themselves), the range of possible phenomena far outstrips that which occurs in games or is described in the lore (the sum of human knowledge is finite). Secondly, it could be that the only thing that holds souls back from continuing on is a sense of purpose no animal is capable of achieving.



Not necessarily. It could be that they're just so different that the very limited knowledge available about the souls of animals, lower and higher, is simply not applicable to plant souls. I suspect this question would only be addressed in a game (and surrounding lore) that finally took us to Black Marsh in a big way.

The disappearance reminds me of http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/sporedream.shtml, where upon realisation of the true nature of the Aurbis the moth priest vanishes.

But other then that, I wouldn't take much from the book. It's description of black and white souls is cursory at best and doesn't go into detail. Rather then explaining how exactly does one measure the size of a soul and the capacity of a soulgem so that exposure can be limited or even prevented, the book just claims it to be dangerous.

It lacks a certain scholarly quality.

I had the same thought, which its understandable that they would be related...