"What have you done to me? I'm a unicorn. I'm a unicorn! I wish you had let the Red Bull take me. I wish you had left me to the harpy! I can feel this body dying all around me!...No, but I'm afraid of this human body. More than I was of the Red Bull. Afraid..."

"Cowardly mortals! What have you done? What twisted words have you created? Trecherous Paarthurnax! My teeth to his neck!"

So in the orgy of Skyrim I've watched quite a few fantasy movies in recent weeks. One of which was The Last Unicorn, an old favorite of mine that I hadn't watched since I was a young teen. Watching the movie again was a great experience, but one line in particular stood out to me, and it reminded me of the dragons of Skyrim and Dragonrend. The quote comes from the Last Unicorn herself, after being turned into a woman by Schmendrick, a magician.[indent]

"What have you done to me? I'm a unicorn. I'm a unicorn! I wish you had let the Red Bull take me. I wish you had left me to the harpy! I can feel this body dying all around me!...No, but I'm afraid of this human body. More than I was of the Red Bull. Afraid..."[/indent]
Throughout the rest of the movie, you have a theme running of Lady Amalthea, a cover used by the transformed unicorn, of slowing forgetting who she was, and succumbing to mortal life and mortal emotion. Unicorns in this setting are immortal creatures, and they cannot experience (apparently mortal) feelings like love and regret (although I believe it is mentioned that she can experience sorrow). In the movie, mortality is depicted as almost like a virus that slowly but steadily erodes the unicorn from the outside in. It is clear that the experience is both confusing and painful. It reminds me of when Alduin first succumbed to the Dragonrend:
[indent]
"Cowardly mortals! What have you done? What twisted words have you created? Trecherous Paarthurnax! My teeth to his neck!"[/indent]

Well, we know of Dragonrend from Paarthurnax as forcing a dragon to experience mortality. And because they do not understand mortality, its impossible for them to learn it. And although I know experience and understanding to be two different things, I'd like to think that a dragon who survives enough Dragonrend attacks might be able to comprehend mortality eventually. Though this is exactly what happened in The Last Unicorn, when the unicorn is transformed into a human being, she 'learns' mortality, and, upon her re-transformation, remembers it.

Anyway, not completely sure of where I was going with this. Whether it be a philosophical discussion about immortality and mortality as pertains to the Elder Scrolls, or how we view the concepts at large. If you want to take the discussion in either direction, I'm fine with it. Its a common theme in fantasy after all. In many settings, be Elder Scrolls, The Last Unicorn, Harry Potter, etc, Immortality is either depicted neutrally or negatively, and especially as inhuman. Mortality, on the other hand, is genuinely human and good. There's also a idea of strength behind it. Is mortality a weakness, like immortals like the Daedra, dragons, and Voldemort perceive it to be? Or is it a strength?

As a side note, I was thinking about unicorns and how they might be depicted in Skyrim. In Oblivion, the unicorn was depicted as a magical animal, more or less. But, lore-wise, I kind of consider them as the same "breed" as dragons. Immortal children of the Aedra. Maybe I've favoring the King Edward/The Last Unicorn idea of it as a mystical being of great power, but I'd like to hear what you'd prefer. Also, I found myself wondering what Skyrim's rendition of a unicorn might be like. I'm tired of the horse-with-a-horn thing that so many people love. I enjoy much more the traditional rendering of the unicorn (lion's tail, cloven hooves, etc) but also with the creatures from which it was said to be inspired by: http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/04/three-kinds-of-unicorns.html

What do you think? In keeping with its theme, should Skyrim's unicorn look like a Elasmotherium? Or a Tsaidamotherium? I'd like your imput.

Thanks for swallowing my long winded Thu'um. Cheers and Happy New Year!

Though, if I were a betting man, I'd gander to say only Shor/Shezarr/Lorkhan would be the only divine who actually comprehends it. The other aedra likely know about it, and have felt it, but is likely alien too. At best, a divine would just know that limit = bad.

Even daedra cannot comprehend mortality, and are very confused as to why mortals just do not simply give up entirely if life has an expiration date.

Even daedra cannot comprehend mortality, and are very confused as to why mortals just do not simply give up entirely if life has an expiration date.

Though, if I were a betting man, I'd gander to say only Shor/Shezarr/Lorkhan would be the only divine who actually comprehends it. The other aedra likely know about it, and have felt it, but is likely alien too. At best, a divine would just know that limit = bad.

they could eventually understand mortality, and thus be immune to the Shout's effects.

I'm starting to think though... was the Blight something like Dragonrend in reverse? Mortals experiencing immortality and suffering?

Understanding the shout doesn't prevent its effects from working. Being able to use a shout requires comprehending and understanding the concepts embodied by the words (the better your understanding, the stronger the effect), but being able to use a shout doesn't prevent that shout from working on you. So even if a dragon could understand mortality and non-infinity, the shout would still make them temporarily mortal.

That was a really interesting link, thanks.

I suddenly remember coming across an article just like that, except not unicorns. Dragons. The idea that ancient Man were scared of huge birds, predatory cats, and crocodiles-snakes. So they all fused into the Dragon. Four legged serpent with wings!

That seems contradictory, due to the nature of the shout though. The whole point of Dragonrend is to overwhelm the dragon by forcing him to understand/experience immortality. But if the Dragon has already come to understand/experience it, surely the shout is not nearly as traumatic.

Yes, Dragonrend was shout created by mortals. Paarth tells you this upfront, and admits he doesn't quite understand it, as the concept of mortality is alien to him.

Whether the shout is traumatic is a secondary, as the purpose is to make them physically mortal and vulnerable enough to kill them. Just like understanding fire's destructive nature doesn't prevent the fire from damaging you, understanding mortality doesn't prevent you from becoming vulnerable.

I ment the words specifically "Mortal Finite Temporary"; as if they didn't exist in the language before they were used in Dragonrend. In such a way that mortals can make up words in the dragon language?

Or maybe the words don't matter at all ? rather the experience you put behind a shout ?

Which makes me wonder if dragonrend could ever work on Daedra, unless dragonrend only works by hatred for dragons, If it does, you'd think that some Thu'um user could build up enough hate for all things immortal to make a particularly nasty shout.

The words themselves probably predates Dragonrend. The whole philosophy behind the Shout (making an immortal experience mortality) itself was made by the mortals. Like when you get one of the Shout upgrade thingies from Parth, he tells you the philosophy behind the word.