I was reading through the forums and didn't find the answer to my question. I'm 36, I have a Black Star and numerous Black Soul Gems. Does level effect the availability of black souls? According to the lore only people have black souls, according to Nelcar the Black Star can only store black souls not white souls. My problem is the highest souls I have are grand, and I've been cutting down people left and right. I use the Soul Stealer perk in Conjugation to trap souls easier. Also are we not able to match or surpass the Necromancy Robe enchants? Highest I can do, at 86 enchanting with 5/5 Enchanter and Insightful/Corpus Enchanter perks, is 58% with a grand soul. The difference between the grand and greater souls is 25% so I imagine I could get up to 75-80% with a black soul. All this is on Armor and I checked it with the Fortify Magicka as I use the bound weapons spell when needed.

I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. Killing any person with a black soul gem and soul trap will give you a Black Soul Gem (Grand). Azura's Star (black version) can never trap the souls of creatures, only people. The white version can never trap the souls of People, only creatures.

I've tried it the Black Star will trap any soul if it's the only one in your inventory regardless of what the lore in game states and the guides I've read say. Black Soul gems can hold all types of souls in them as well. I just want to know when we start seeing Black Souls. I've two more levels since this post and still haven't seen any Black Soul gems filled with anything above Grand.

This is the ranking I understand it from in game.

White Souls:
Azure Star-Grand-Petty
Grand Soul Gem-highest
Greater Soul Gem
Common Soul Gem
Lesser Soul Gem
Petty Soul Gem-Lowest

Black Souls:
Black Soul Gem-Store all
Black Star-Store all

People, according to the game, are suppose to give Black Souls if you trap it and kill them, yet all I've received are Grand Souls from them leading me to believe that it's based on the skill or progression of a story arc to see the black souls.

black soul = grand soul ;]

Can't go any higher than grand my friend.

A grand soul in a black gem is a black soul. It's not going to say (black).

If the gem says it has a "grand" soul stored, that the highest it goes.

"Black" souls are the same level as grand souls. they list the level of the soul its filled with, not the type.

A "Black Soul" isn't a "rank" of soul that's "bigger" than "Grand Souls", so far as I know - a Black Soul just means it's a human soul (I'm not sure if this is the same in Skyrim as it was in Oblivion, but in Oblivion, the humanoid Daedra (like Dremora, Golden Saints and Dark Seducers) were considered "human/black souls", which I never understood).

Anyhow, so far as I know, all human souls are considered "Grand" souls for their "size", Black is just their "type", so to speak. Honestly, I wish soul gems would never store a soul smaller than the size of the gem - always svcks to find out you accidentally stored a lesser or petty soul in a BSG.

The distinction is basically that, in general, you can't soul trap a human soul (in Lore, Arkay protects human souls), but necromancers have been able to figure out how to create Black Soul Gems to defeat Arkay's protection on the human soul.

Alright thank you for that I was confused cause there's a grand and black gem and didn't make since to me if they were the same size.