This is coming off a discussion we had regarding Miraak's servitude to Hermaeus Mora, as well as the Dovahkiin and his ties to Nocturnal (assuming the Thieves Guild questline was completed). Considering the available choices and known instances of actual forces servitude or willing loyalties to the different Daedric Princes, which daedric prince will truly lay claim to the Dragonborn's soul and to which realm is he destined upon death?


What I wanted to discuss first was the Dovahkiin taking Miraak's mantle as Hermaeus Mora's new servant. Now I know many have called this into question, but lets face it, HM is a daedric prince of "scrying of the tides of Fate, of the past and future as read in the stars and heavens" and therefore knows the choices the DB would make. Plus, he seems to work situations to ensnare unwitting servants (as evidenced in his Daedric Quest and in the DB DLC).

On top of this, my character is currently a Nord Werewolf Nightingale, which already poses a conflict between Hircine and his Hunting Grounds and servitude to Nocturnal and service in the Evergloam. My theory on this though, is that the werewolf gift/curse is not that difficult of a fix before death. However, if the Dovahkiin dies a werewolf nightingale, this raises some interesting questions of where the soul of the Dovahkiin will go. Ha, and Sovengarde, I guess that is a pipe dream?

Regarding Mehrunes Dagon, receiving the Razor required no forced servitude that I remember.

Anyway, please discuss!

That's what I've been wondering for a while as well.

Hermaeous Mora is the only one.

It truly makes great lore and mystery of where the Dovahkiin will hang his hat in the end. With Oblivion, we know what happened to the Hero of Oblivion in that he became the new Sheogorath, Prince of Madness. What of the DB though? I want to say that there would be some type of vie for his soul considering the situations with regarding Hircine if you chose to be a werewolf, perhaps Molag Bal if you are a vampire, Nocturnal if a Nightingale, and Hermaeus Mora if defeating Miraak.

Ah, but there is Nocturnal and servitude to her upon death in the Evergloam!

There have been some big debate threads. I forget what the consensus was...maybe that his soul is divided amongst those who have a claim to it?

That could make for an interesting quest in the next TES...do quests for each Daedric lord to free parts of the Dragonborn's soul so that you can summon him as a power or something.

I think that would be brilliant actually, considering his joint servitude between Nocturnal and Hermaeus Mora.

An answer I read elsewhere which sat well with me was, quite simply, 'None of the Above', As dovahkiin you are essentially bound to Akatosh and by divine right, all other claims are forfeit.

Im hoping Sanguine...

Exactly.

Despite being supposedly endebted, enslaved, "chosen", or championed by the entire Daedric "pantheon" (if you do all the quests/DLC)... You are not just another dragonborn but the Dragonborn, the profocised one who slays Alduin, saves Tamriel, and does a whole bunch of other crap... Because of htis you are bound to Akatosh first and foremost. Nocturnal and Hermaeous Mora specifically can go pout in a corner.

You're kinda a big deal in this game.

I don't think there will be a fixed destination in the game lore for the Dovahkiin, unless the future expansion packs prove me wrong, or the next game provides a book explaining what happened of the Dovahkiin. My character, for example, can be claimed by Hircine, Hermaeus Mora and Sovngarde. Time will tell ! We can only speculate

I still have to say that Nocturnal would disagree there, since I'm sure she knew he was the Dragonborn before and upon servitude as a Nightingale gladly added him to her ranks and revealed what his destination would be upon returning the Skeleton Key to the Ebonmere.

Actually with Akatosh, it seems to just create another problem of the DB laying claim to him.

It definitely makes sense that Akatosh's claim rivals those of any daedric prince. It still bugs me about Nocturnal and Mora, since they know how the pecking order and the role the Dragonborn has both in life and after in death.

It would be an awesome DLC, Nocturnal & Mora and yet another intervention from Akatosh to put them in their place!

While the Daedric Princess may be worthipped as dieties, they are not given the title of gods. Two similar yet different things, at least in the context in which they are given.

The whole "pecking order" doesn't really concern me to much... I mean as I understand it, the Dovahkiin in Skyrim is basically one of the most successful/powerful/Influential individuals in Tamriel since maybe Talos? Who wouldn't want to possibly utalize such an individual for potentially there own gain?

I mean if you are the Dragonborn, slay a Demi-god (Alduin), are the Archmage, Harbinger, Listener, Headmaster of the Theives guild, a commanding officer in the Imperial/Stormcloak army, one of the most powerful Vampires/Werewolves for a LONG time (should you choose to be one) AND you're championed by the entire lot of Daedric Princess... I mean... There have been some important people in Tamriel's history... But holy ****. At level 81 and with self-made equipment, the Dragonborn could probably fight an entire regiment of soldiers and come out on top.

Agreed, we have seen this before too with Mehrunes Dagon going beyond his place to invade Tamriel and we saw the intervention of Akatosh. Still doesn't stop the daedric princes from pushing to get what they want.

What they were saying, was that anyone else can claim or say what they want. The Daedric Princes can pout and throw a fit, and threaten with this or that. But Akatosh is the big guy and his word is law. If he says he gets the Dragonborn's soul, he gets it. His power alone is absolute, but he's also got the entire Pantheon of the Nine Divines on his side if something actually DOES happen (which it wouldn't, unless they made it the basis for the next game... which I doubt. that'd kinda feel ucky, just creating a whole game who's soul purpose is to provide an ending for TES V.) So, in other words... Nocturnal can disagree all she wants. Herma-Mora can rub his tentacles all over a Shrine of Akatosh all he wants. Shor can.. do whatever he does.

Personally, I think the Dragonborn will ascend to become the Tenth Divine; they'll give him a new name as they did with Talos, and maybe say that he lost his gender/race/etc when he became a Divine, and chooses to show himself as male or female, if he shows up in later games at all in anything but lore (like the Daedric Princes and possibly the Divines do). Then, as the Tenth Divine, he'll be either on par with, stronger than, or second strongest compared to Akatosh.
Kinda just makes sense to me. At the very least, I could see the Gods granting him a place as an immortal/omnipotent entity in the Divines (not quite one of them, but a member of their little honorary group) for all he's done for the people of Tamriel. i.e. killing Alduin the World-Eater, mainly.

id imagine the daedra would fight over his soul, after all you would think they would notice him becoming all of there champions. hopefully he wont get killed getting soul trapped, cos we all know were thoes poor souls end up

Very true, I do agree that Akatosh has dominance over any daedra and it makes sense in keeping with continuity of the Dragonborn and his ultimate purpose. No new story should be trying to fix the previous. I do still think that it would make for good continuation in DLC, since it seems apporpriate regarding the way things were left off with Mora and possibly how that conflicts with Nocturnal's demands.


That is actually a pretty awesome idea. I would even be fine with Alduin playing a role since he is the World Eater and is not truly destroyed, yet... Though, I would imagine wherever the next Elder Scrolls will take place, will try and include the lore of the province or land (or maybe not).

I could see him just up and walking out if he got soul trapped. He'd just dust himself off, say "Well... that felt weird." and walk up the steps and out of the Cairn. Considering... he may or may not appear as a dragon inside the Soul Cairn if he got Soul Trapped. Since his soul is a dragon and all.

Precisely. Also, like I said, look at Mehrunes Dagon and the ambitions and actions he took. The daedric princes know what the Dovahkiin is and nothing is stopping them from fighting over his soul, except fear from intervention from above. This is proof in the current situation with Mora upon Miraak's demise and claim he makes over the DB. The princes do have powers above them, but that doesn't prevent them from throwing fast ones on Tamriel.

I'd imagine there would be a war over the DB's soul in reality, especially if AltairdeFiren's vision of the DB becoming the Tenth Divine comes to lore in the next ES.

If he became the Tenth Divine, no one would have claim to his soul. It'd be his own. If anyone tried to take it, it'd be a Daedric Prince ( as the Divines would have no reason to, since he'd be one of them), and they'd sorely regret trying to do so immediately afterward.
I would like the last piece of DLC to be the Dragonborn sort of finishing up what he's left behind; settling all his accounts, saying goodbye to his children and wife, etc etc, along with a decent questline explaining his rise to Divination (I have no idea how that would pan out, but I imagine the only reason why it'd take a whole questline is if the Princes all tried to throw a wrench in it and the Dovahkiin had to once again jump to action to stop them from destroying Tamriel before taking his place among the Divines.)

No Daedric Prince will be claiming Hjalti Storm-blade's soul, thank you very much.

None of the Prince's will get Sorin Markov's soul.

Regardless of how many Princes he becomes "Champion" of, Sithis will always have first claim over his Soul.




All hail the Dread Father!

I could see it now. All of the guys fighting over his soul, and in the end Sithis gets it, even though he didn't fight for it. He was just sorta sitting there in his Void and it happened.

Ha! Sithis gets his soul and then just utterly destroys it, cause of chaos n'stuff.