hi is enchanting with black gems better than normal grand ones/

They are the same thing but the black gems will only take grand souls while grand gems will take any soul.

They are equivalent in power. It's just much easier to fill a black gem than a grand gem.
Black gem only needs a person (bandit, necromancer, witch, vampire, any person).
Grand gem needs something big, like a draugr deathlord or something.

At level 41 I seem to encounter few creatures who end up grand souls. I think the only things I've captured that were grand were Mammoths.

just buy them dude

I wish there were a way to destroy the things. I'm playing a warrior that doesn't approve of all that Daedra/necromancer/black soul gem stuff, so when I find a filled one I use it and free the soul energy, but when I find an unfilled one I stick it in a drawer to keep it out of the hands of people who might use it. If there were some way to destroy them, I would.

Now my next character, on the other hand...

When you use the filled ones you're really just trapping the souls inside another object. Forever if it's armor.

Hmmm...that's an interesting question. Is the actual soul, the self of the person in question, actually trapped within the gem? Or is it just energy that all souls release upon death that is trapped in the gem? Is there a thinking person stuck within, or just residual energy released at death? Because that would affect things.

They are the same the black souls contain human souls those are equal to a grand soul gem.

@ the comment above I think the soul is transferred to the armor. This is what I think happens as I have not seen anything in the lore that says otherwise.

True, although it's a bit vague. I've never seen any reference to literal souls - meaning, the identity or self or consciousness of the person in question - being trapped within a soul gem. As far as I can tell, it could be that, or "souls" could be taken to simply mean the energy of the soul leaving the body is tapped and stored within a gem.

This could also apply to dragon souls and the dragonborn. Does the dragonborn actually steal and consume the actual selves or consciousnesses of the dragons he kills, or is he simply absorbing the energy released when the dragon-soul leaves the body?

I suppose I should finish the main quest to see if this is answered, but let's avoid potential spoilers with this.

If he don't got a soul, how can he go to sovngarde?

Maiq has a line where he says "I've been a victim of soul tap... it's not pleasant."

How do you feel about a mod where you submit black soul gems to Arkay, free the souls. turn it into a normal soul gem and get some kind of Bonus from Arkay, with increasing rewards the more you bring in?


As for Dragons, you're absorbing everything they are into yourself erasing them as an individual. but game mechanics restrict it to it being a point to spend lol

That would really make sense, although perhaps the gem should be destroyed in the process, so the choice has a cost, even though you get a reward in some form. If it were possible to mod in entirely new blessings, I would say that would be the way to go - have a somewhat powerful and longer-lasting blessing be your reward.

But yeah, that's a great idea - have the priests of Arkay be able to really destroy the things, free the soul (if there's one there) and then you get some blessing that would be useful for people regardless of their skills. Perhaps increased health or health regeneration, or something like that. Excellent idea dude.

Pffft I'm brimming with Idea's and its causing an itch I can't scratch because the CK isn't out.

From Soul gem Conjuration magick (TES pokemon ftw) RS missions for Stormcloaks/Imperials intercepting Couriers and taking over camps etc etc...yeah..

black is better because every human/humanoid is a grand soul regardless of level

Also I would think it would be good if the Vigilants of Stendarr were prone to shadowing people known to traffic in black soul gems. Vendors should refuse to stock the things...with the only way to get them being to find them in Necromancer dungeons or have a method of converting empty grand soul gems like in Oblivion, or some similar shady practice.

Well, if you ever get it done I might well use that mod, even though I don't normally use mods.

Azuras quest in the game answers that one I think.

who said a warrior should not use black gems ? just use them on something like flamers then its legit .

can u make black gems like in ob? or is that gone too?!

nope they are just "easier" to fill with grand souls

Capture a human soul with a black gem, enchant shoes with it, throw the shoes away from a mountain. Here's Sovngarde for you!

I would imagine that since the soul is made up of the building blocks of literally everything else, it just acts as a pure source of magic energy and charges the item rather than being trapped in it, with the gem being the necessary tool to harness the power

what is Sovngarde