The Falmer's souls are not protected by Arkay - A black soulgem overrides Arkay's protection of souls that ensure they go to the Aetherius.

Arkay even protects the souls of those who are deadbeat to him, for some reason. However, the Falmer probably screwed too many goblins to be considered "human" or "elf" enough to warrant protection.

Dremora aren't protected by Arkay, but they have a similar "soul Shield" extended to them by their princes.

Black Soul Gems are not called Black Soul Gems because they can only capture the soul of an evil creature.

They are called Black Soul Gems because they can capture the soul of a living humanoid.

And having your soul captured = eternal damnation, and so it's very, very, very evil, hence the evil name on the gem.

The Souls of humanoids, on the other hand, will always be of 'grand' status, even if you kill a weak, old grandma and trap her soul in your Black Soul Gem.


Black soul gems works like any other soul gem, except they can also capture the soul of a humanoid race, and those souls will always be Grand status.

Not arguing one way or the other but did notice this...

My character is melee specialized & rarely uses any spells besides restoration. I found myself in a situation where I only had a couple of health potions left so I decided to use the basic conjuration (raise dead, I think) spell on a dead Falmer in hopes it would soak up a little damage/tank for a few moments. The spell would not work on the Falmer & I received a message basically stating that the soul was too high or something like that. My character is in the mid-30's & I can raise a dead bandit despite my extremely low conjuration/magic skills.

My point is that the Falmer soul is not high enough to fill a Black Soul Gem but is too high to use a "raise dead" spell.

Just throwing it out there.

That's the one.

Think of the Falmer as Gollems