Forums » Elder Scrolls

Long live the Dragonborn?

    • 32 posts
    September 12, 2014 1:34 PM EDT

    (This question is directed at a Dragonborn that would be a Nord/Imperial)

    Hello all,

    Recently a thought popped into my head - Since the dovahkiin has the soul of a dragon, does that mean a longer life span? Something along the lines of an Altmer/Dunmer's life span maybe?

    But if that's true, would the physical body of the Dragonborn be affected, if its only the soul that is that of a dragons? 

    • 149 posts
    September 12, 2014 1:53 PM EDT

    I think we would only have to look at Dragonborns of the past to answer this question. People like Tiber Septim and Reman Cyrodiil didn't live any longer than normal men. So I don't think that being Dragonborn affects life span.

    • 32 posts
    September 12, 2014 2:02 PM EDT

    You're obviously right, but I find it strange that a person with the soul of a dragon wouldn't have a much longer life span. Like come on, its the soul of a DRAGON. Surely they should have a decade longer than the average death rate. Five minimum. 

    • 149 posts
    September 12, 2014 2:19 PM EDT

    I don't think we could really prove that. It all depends upon what sort of physical connection a body and soul actually share.

  • September 12, 2014 2:50 PM EDT

    That's pretty much the idea I followed when writing the Seventh Path. The Dragonborn absorbs dragon's souls, s/he should become ridiculously stronger than mere humans with all that power and live for much, much longer.

    • 32 posts
    September 12, 2014 2:55 PM EDT

    That's what I thought. Each dragon soul you absorb would give you maybe +10 years of life.  

    • 149 posts
    September 12, 2014 3:12 PM EDT

    Absorbing a dragon's soul imbues the Dragonborn with the slain dragon's life force and knowledge. 

    There's no real way to prove whether or not the souls actually lengthen the Dragonborn's life, but I can see how one could make that case. 

    • 32 posts
    September 12, 2014 3:16 PM EDT

    You know your stuff. 

    But would a life force not equate to life span? Or would it boost up your resistance to damage, and how quickly your body repairs itself when injured?

  • September 12, 2014 3:38 PM EDT

    Well, gaining dragon souls doesn't increase your Health, Magicka, or Stamina in-game, nor does it boots their regeneration rates. The mechanics of the Elder Scrolls games tend to mirror the lore surrounding them (for example, the removal of Mysticism from Skyrim mirrors how the school of magic was, between Oblivion and Skyrim, consolidated into several other schools of magic).

    As for lifespans, aging isn't really a mechanic in TES games and indeed the particular effects of aging on many races (the mer in particular) are ambiguous, so it's unknown if being a Dragonborn would have some effect on that. I think that without proof one way or the other it's safer to assume that Dragonborn are no more long-lived than any other member of their particular race.

    Of course, that doesn't stop you from roleplaying something different, or writing fanfiction that says otherwise (as Armathyx has done, for example).

    • 32 posts
    September 12, 2014 3:45 PM EDT

    Well said, Christopher.

    Though the all powerful, mighty, hero that is the Dovahkiin, ageing like everybody else doesn't seem very exciting, nor storybook. But I suppose if I was the Dragonborn, and all my companions aged while I didn't, it would be a bit depressing. I can't imagine what the Altmer have to go through in their lifetime.

    • 75 posts
    September 12, 2014 8:56 PM EDT

    I have to agree with Okan here, there's no real way of knowing whether absorbing a dragon's soul affects the lifespan of the DB, and, as he pointed out, the previous DBs didn't live past their average lifetimes. So really I'd say it's a matter of opinion.

    • 47 posts
    September 13, 2014 1:07 AM EDT

    Your forgetting a certain Dragonborn who was Nord and has lived for thousands of years: Miraak. Though I'm not really sure if him living super long has anything to do with Herma Mora. As far as I know it is said that Herma saved Miraak when he was about to die but it has never once been stated that Herma had been keeping him alive. Although Herma's Realm may have possibly effected Miraak's aging process but truth be told I really dont know.

    • 1217 posts
    September 13, 2014 1:40 AM EDT
    That was their opportunity to confirm or deny the idea, and it wasn't broached at all. It seems both more likely and plausible that Mora kept Miraak alive. Then again, Miraak restores his own health with dragon souls. Maybe he knows things about the gifts of the Dragonborn that the PC doesn't.
    • 32 posts
    September 13, 2014 6:07 AM EDT

    That's a good theory. I remember fighting him on the Summit of Apocrypha, feeling frustrated that Miraak was using Dragon souls to rejuvenate himself, bringing him back from the brink of death. I wouldn't be surprised if Miraak knew some secrets of the Dragon souls, or how to harness them to slow down the ageing process. Possibly, Mora even gave away the information.

    • 13 posts
    September 13, 2014 7:16 AM EDT

    Even if the Dragonborn would have a longer lifespan he is a fighter and should die in battle.

    • 32 posts
    September 13, 2014 9:21 AM EDT

    True that.

  • September 13, 2014 2:07 PM EDT

    To be honest, the only special thing the dragonborn can do is absorb dragon's souls. Anyone can kill a dragon. The dragonborn doesn't really have an advantage against anything everybody already has an advantage over. The dragonborn only has a few advantages against normal things besides dragons, like his shouts.

    • 75 posts
    September 13, 2014 2:13 PM EDT

    Also he/she is an overachiever that is a great mage, warrior and assassin at the same time

  • September 16, 2014 2:27 AM EDT

    Well that's just the game making you seem more powerful, if the TES universe actually existed then anyone (just about anyways) can become master thief/listener/archmage/harbinger.

    • 1595 posts
    September 16, 2014 9:39 AM EDT

    I'm trying to find the source  for you but I'm pretty sure it's stated that time passes differently in Oblivion, the specific rates are probably up to the Deadric Prince of that realm.

    I'm certain that in 4E201Sheogorath mentions npc's you encounter in the Shivering Isles which you meet as the CoC in 3E 433.

    • 1217 posts
    September 16, 2014 11:51 AM EDT

    I don't know that Sheogorath is any kind of example. He's immortal; all he has to do is remember those people.

    • 32 posts
    September 16, 2014 11:52 AM EDT

    Daedric Princes being able to control time in their realm reminds me of a movie... but I can't remember what. Dammit, that's going to annoy me all day now.

    Thanking you for the research Phil. 

    • 1595 posts
    September 16, 2014 1:23 PM EDT

    In truth I wasn't researching just remembering. Badly.  The npc I was thinking Sheo was talking about wasn't in fact in SI. I was thinking of Shelden who definitely is not Stanley the Talking Grapefruit.

    However, now I'm researching.

    Sheogorath in SI says Time. Time is an artificial construct. An arbitrary system based on the i:dea that events occur in a linear direction at all times. Always forward, never back. Is the concept of time correct? Is time relevant? It matters not.

    Dyus in SI says: Time and place are nothing. Constructs of a feeble mortal mind attempting to categorize and understand the world around it.

    It's worth noting that we're never entirely sure if Dyus' immortality comes from being a daedric being or if he was once a mortal man. Further dialogue seems to suggest the latter which implies the Prince has full control of everything in his realm. Instead, he has confined me to this place and forbidden me to die.

    The future, it seems, is beyond the predictions of a even a Prince seeing as how the CoC's success was never guaranteed by anybody in SI.

    • 47 posts
    September 17, 2014 2:06 AM EDT

    Phil, If what you said about the the Oblivion realm's time being different, which in turn slowed Miraak's aging... wouldn't hundreds or even thousands of years pass while you were in Herma's realm? I mean if his realm is why Miraak has lived so long, wouldn't the time change effect the PC? According to your theory if I went to Herma's realm for a "Minute" for all I know 30 years could have passed in Nirn.

    • 1217 posts
    September 17, 2014 2:14 AM EDT
    That's a possibility, but only really applies to a given scale of time difference. The idea put forward here is simply that Mora and/or other Daedra control time in their realm.