Is there any explanation in the game how and why Ulfric gained the power to use the Voice? Since apparently you cannot ask anyone about it.

Some are born with it as a gift from Akatosh and some learn to use it & master it as Kynareath taught common men to speak the dragon language. As for Ulfric, I'm sure he is the later.

Any nord can use the thu'um, you only just have to go to the greybeards and dedicate yourself to learning them. As a dragon born you need very little training as it is a natural ability, and you just need to learn how to control and refine it.

So if Ulfric taught himself the Voice, and he doesn't look a hundred years old or even close, why aren't there more power-hungry Nords who know it?

He was taught by the Greybeards. You should come across some where in game that he had spent some time at High Hrothgar. I'm not sure whether it was after or before he joined the legion and was captured by the Thalmors.

The greybeards taught him, and he had to dedicate himself to studying it. Its like someone who speaks english as a first language and one who has to learn it as a second language. I suppose most nords are just trying to make ends meet and not everyone is into the greybeards, they are relatively isolated and aren't a huge part of nord culture. Most people when they speak of Ulfric in the game are a bit amazed he killed the king by shouting, and it shows how little they know of their culture and the old ways.

O.P don't forget It was the ancient Nords who started the Dragon Cult. They are akin to the dragons for some reason. Take a look at the GB. They've been protecting that dragon for mileniums.

I won't go as far to say that Talos may have been of a nordic background, but I reckon the nords secretly believe he is.

Yes, he was taught by the Greybeards.

Except, he's not a model student imo.

"Use the Voice in true need", say the Greybeards.

I don't think ripping apart Torryg was a true need.


Talos was from Atmora, like Ysgramor. Which is proto-Nord, at the very least.

Ripping apart? I don't recall that at all.

But if the empire's allowing the thalmor to take over everything and once they succeed they'll eliminate mankind, but your high king isn't doing anything about it. A true need has arisen.

It was a true need to be a kick ass king killer an free Skyrim

Still not a need to do it that way. Killing your own brothers - brothers who are willing to listen to you and might even side with you - isn't really necessary. He might want to free Skyrim, but his motives there are something else entirely different. He was always vying for the position of high king apparently.

That's something that various rumors from Guards say. That Ulfric tore him apart with the Voice. Sounds like overkill. Torryg doesn't even seem that tough.

If you side with the stormcloaks, and win them the civil war, Ulfric is 'called' the high king, but, refuses to assume the crown until the Moot meets. I think his motives are ok, his method leaves a bit to be desired though.

He mentions studying with the Greybeards if you go talk to him after finding out you can Shout.

Though yeah, his supposed timeline for backstory is prettymuch impossible without time compression, unless he was some sort of super-prodigy as a both a general and a Th'uum user. Or Arngeir's really stretching how long it takes to learn simple shouts.

Yeah its like those fisherman that catch a 5lb fish and by the time they tell the story for the 10th time the fish is 50lbs lol

Yeah, but hasn't he replaced all the Jarls with his hounds. People still don't see how deceptive Ulfric can be. I guess he learnt something from the Thalmors after all.

People will say Ulfric shouted Torryg apart. If you ask Ulfric, he'll say it's a bit of an exaggeration (it was the sword that killed him), but he still used his thu'um for an unfair advantage.

The High King is said to have looked up to Ulfric. I've heard it suggested that Torryg would have done something against the Empire if Ulfric had asked, but instead Ulfric decided to kill him and usurp the throne. I would bet Ulfric didn't even need to use thu'um to overtake Torryg either, but did it anyway because he likes being extreme.

Heh. That might be the case.

Anyhow, I still don't think it's a true need. Torryg ends up in Sovngarde, where you meet him. The gods of Skyrim didn't judge him as badly as Ulfric did, apparently. Elisif says that Torryg respected Ulric.

Sovengarde isn't like heaven or hell. It's just where a Nord goes when they die in battle.

I've competed the war on both the Stormcloak and Empires side. In the end I feel that the Stormcloaks were the best choice, they do have a few bad apples like every organisation but Ulfric keeps them in check.

I think you have to at least be honorable or something. I mean, what's the point of the Hall of Valor, without any valor?

Both imperials and stormcloaks look kindly back on Torryg, so he didn't screw his reputation up in Skyrim at least. I think it's getting too washed up in passion to think he really needed to be killed like that. That's how extremists think. All or nothing. But the game itself considers the Civil War a tragedy. Not in extrees. Freeing Skyrim by killing your fellow Nords is pretty self-defeating. Even the trailer starts off like that.. "sons of Skyrim shedding each other's blood", etc.. That isn't cool.

According to Ulfric, this is what happened:

When he was a small boy, around 10 years old or so, he was summoned to go train with the Greybeards in order to become one of them. So he went up to High Hrothgar and for around 10 years trained in the way of the Voice. When he was an advlt, the Great War broke out, and he left the Greybeards against their will to go participate in it, etc.

So, from what I take from his story, it actually isn't just so easy to hop up to High Hrothgar and get your training on. Ulfric started as a child and spent a decade learning the Way of the Voice, not something just anyone can do.


Ulfric ends up in Sovngarde as well if you kill him before getting to that part of the main quest.

The time-line makes sense, as far as I can see, if Ulfric was about 10 when he began to learn to shout and around 20 when he left for the war. That would put him in his mid-40s right now.


To be fair to Ulfric, he actually goes out of his way to spare people who are fighting against him, especially his brothers and sisters in war. He didn't want to kill Legate Rikke even though she fought against him, and practically begged her to leave so he wouldn't have to do it. He went out of his way to make sure that Balgruuf was spared as well. Ulfric killed Torygg, which is definitely a mark against him character-wise, but other than that he is pretty lenient when it comes to killing others. General Tullius is MUCH more bloodthirsty.

Yeah, and from what you can tell from other Nord NPCs, some want to go in, but have never met the Greybeards. Baalgruf also has been the High Hrothgar, but he speaks of it more like a once in a lifetime honor, a pilgrimage. Ulfric sounds like a fullblown protege.

Yeah. And I'm not sure it's so easy to get the Greybeards to train you, either. From the way he spoke they actually summoned him up there to learn. How many people do they turn away?

On a sidenote.. I like that I sided with imperials at first. I don't really hate Ulfric, despite criticizing him here, but it makes for cool drama to have two greybeard students on different sides of that war. If this was a book, that's how I'd like to see it written. I kind of see my character as a male Rikke, in a way. Just with the thu'um.

The Graybeards aren't hundreds of years old either whats your point.
Because the graybeards don't have an open door policy