Souls and Soul Gems are a vital part of enchanting in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but some players might not realize where those souls go after they've been captured. The Dawnguard DLC provided Skyrim players with the answer to this mystery during the quest "Chasing Echoes." This quest transported the Dragonborn to a terrifying new realm and raised even more horrifying questions.
Ever since its first introduction in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, players have been using enchantments to better their weapons, armor, and jewelry with Soul Gems without a second thought. However, it wasn't until Dawnguard, which was Skyrim's first DLC, that Elder Scrolls players fully understood the implications of their casual enchantments. Dawnguard showed players that the souls of people, when used for enchanting, meet a bleak fate.
The Horrible Fate Of Souls In Skyrim
The in-game mechanics of trapping souls in Skyrim is pretty straightforward. First, the player needs to either have the conjuration spell Soul Trap or a weapon enchanted with that ability. Then all they need to do is go out and find a creature to kill.
Different creatures possess different "sized" souls, so a low-level creature such as a wolf or a Falmer will fill a Lesser, Petty, or Common Soul Gem. Higher-level creatures such as mammoths and giants have larger souls and require Greater or Grand Soul Gems. Sentient beings such as humanoids, except for Falmer, draugr, and Rieklings, can only be trapped in Skyrim's Grand Black Soul Gems.
But what happens to the bandits, cultists, and Nazeem once they've been killed and their soul has been used to create a new armor set? The answer is far darker than any Skyrim player might realize and can pose some interesting moral dilemmas. This is because rather than on to a pleasant afterlife, they are sent to wander the Soul Cairn for eternity.
The Soul Cairn is a realm of Oblivion ruled over by mysterious entities known only as the Ideal Masters. When a soul is sent to the Soul Cairn, it can do nothing but roam aimlessly as it waits to be devoured by the Ideal Masters. It's no wonder, then, that Soul Trapping any of the humanoid races is considered one of the major crimes a person can commit in Skyrim.
The Soul Cairn is a desolate place utterly devoid of any life. There are few animals in the Soul Cairn (a couple of cows and the horse Arvak), and this could be because, typically, only souls used in Black Soul Gems get siphoned into this dark plane of Oblivion. As players travel through this grim location, they will come across many souls of the trapped, some of which are callbacks to older Elder Scrolls games such as Battlespire, Morrowind, and Oblivion.
So is it right to use any humanoid soul for enchanting in Skyrim, knowing the fate that will befall them? That is a great question and one that is down to the individual and what Dragonborn they are roleplaying. Elder Scrolls 6 could use quests to address the moral quandary raised by the existence of the Soul Cairn, but whatever the answer, there is no doubt that Skyrim players will continue crafting those enchantments.
