Necromancy is not illegal in Skyrim. Just looked down upon.

Interesting topic. I guess soul gems basically do turn your foes into batteries. Better them than me!

Yes, I was just surmising that Bethesda made murder an ilegal act in their game world as a reflection on the morals of the real world. Which is a necessity in order to relate to any form of art. Similar to the way that they will not even discuss child killing even though it is just a fantasy video game. It is because of real-life morals.

Not sure what you mean about "scientific standpoint" or "theory", though because science obviously has none regarding 'souls'.

There are a lot of people on this earth who believe in the existence of an immortal soul. I'm not a theologian, but I believe this is the case for christians, muslims, hindus and jews, perhaps others. I'm not a specialist in demographics either, but I'll go out on a limb and say that the believers in an immortal soul far outnumber those that don't.

Personally, I'm agnostic on the matter. But it's very well possible that for those religions trapping or destroying a soul could be sonsidered an evil thing, as the OP correctly suggests.

Of course, I have to admit that I have no idea what "trapping a soul" would actually mean. But it is obvious that, in their universe, we could be abusing something important for our own interests.

I see what you mean.

As to the second part of your post, theoretically to science a 'soul' is the spark that starts life, the spark that turns a pile of ash into a living being under the right conditions. Not necessarily in a spiritual sense though. I think they use the term 'soul' because it's the closest thing to represent an explanation that could carry on for hours to explain a single theory.

Edit : I think I should add, I haven't gotten much sleep so I may have worded that in a confusing way and not be able to notice, so forgive me if I sound confusing in any of my posts.

Souls do not per definition stay in Aetherius. Many enter the so-called Dreamsleeve to be recycled, while many others become servants to the Daedra in Oblivion.

Hypothetically Aetherius may be considered the ultimate soul gem, where souls are kept in realms which serve different purposes, all the realms being "of everlasting perfection". Whatever that means, and whatever is the determination whether a particular soul is kept in Aetherius, recycled or enslaved in Oblivion.

But back to non-sentient creatures: hypothetically the creature won't have to notice. And it's still much to unclear what the substance and the importance of those souls is to stick a moral (pro and con) label on capturing those souls.

Anything but black soulgems is "OK", reason is it's just a animal's soul.
To use black soulgems or azuras black star on someone is a terrible fate.

I actually just made a Paladin character and am now wondering if I can go with enchanting or not...damn you op!

The essence of the soul is trapped in the soul gem. The soul is allowed to continue on his journey to one of the places for the afterlife like Sovngarde, Aetherius or Oblivion when the mortal has been claimed by a Daedric Prince (every werewolf goes to the realm of Hircine). They are very weak when in this state: without their essence, they are nothing but weak ethereal beings in the realm with no real
Souls used in weapon are kinda lucky: Their essence returns to them way faster than the souls used in armor (depends on the game you play. In Morrowind, armor could be enchanted with use enchantments as well, same with weapons, so you have: on strike, on use and constant. The lucky souls are used with a use enchantment, as it doesn't matter what material gets enchanted. The worst off are the souls used in constant effect enchantments, as there is only a slight decrease in essence. It takes years for such an item to crumble, or the enchantment of the item. The enchantmant can be reimbursed using another soulgem after years of decay and less effectiveness.
At last, the soul is free.

My suit of ebony armor (because dragon and daedric don't have the looks for my imperial) is enchanted using souls of powerful people, like Ulfric. (the others are spoilers)

Not if you belong to the Black Brotherhood.

Only Black soul gems and Azura's Star can trap human souls.

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Or, "Yo - You got soultrapped too? 'sup?"

Hmm, not all enchanted items cost lives because of sigil stones.

Soul trapping captures the energy. The soul is recycled. And unless I'm mistaken, I believe I read a book about souls in Oblivion about how the soul of that mudcrab you soul trapped could once have been the soul of a person. I paraphrase of course. I remember thinking about how that seemed counterintuitive at the time, then I remembered that it isn't the soul you trap, it's the energy.

Apparently, http://www.imperial-library.info/content/azuras-star has a description on Azura's Star (from Daggerfall): "Using Azura s Star empties it, freeing the trapped soul to make its journey to Oblivion." I assume it's the same with other soul gems.

Excellent!

So we're off the hook.

Yes, if you can deal with the fact that you're tormenting the poor soul for as long as you keep the gem unused...

According to the lore, it is a extremely evil act to use Soul trap on a Human/Mer/Beast race (anythings that fit on black soul).

Btw, when you recharge a weapon the soul is released, so you are freeing it.

Since you are dead when inside a soul gem, you can't feel anythings, so it should not be that bad (in my point of view).


I don't think so, in one of the TES, a quest involve looking for someone inside a soulstone, and he is well conscious, so he is inside, it is not some lifeless energy that is stored inside, it is a real form of existence.

To me the soul gem concept is a plot hole in the TES lore since it is never touched upon as an immoral thing.

"Damn my sword is out of juice ... Hey Lydia, just come over here for a sec." "Thanks Lydia"

Yep, it can be gruesome if you want it to be.

you miss-spelled "awesome"

I think that soulgems are kind of silly, actually. Basically, it's like saying my magic sword needs batteries. Makes it seem a whole lot less epic that you have to tote around a bunch or crystals if you don't want the 'not enough charge' message every time a fight breaks out.

Perhaps if there were a spell that let you imbue some of your magicka into a weapon or staff as an alternative, and could recall it back to you if you were disarmed as an added bonus (I Imagine the imbuement cost would be based on the power of the enchantment and (maybe) weapon material and quality).

Yes actually...there are many objects that have permanent magicks, such as a helm that boosts a stat. The idea of soulgems being needed was aan interesting spilt from the common fantasy idea of magical weapons when the idea debuted however. I personally feel a soulgem is needed (or somthing like a soulgem) to create a magic item, but after that, the effect should be permanent. I'm on PC so no worries after the mod comes out, but still, I don;t feel a mod should even be needed

If you played Morrowind enough you'd know that the soul that's been trapped can still feel and hear everything, but since they're trapped there's nothing they can do about it. [there was a guy who talked about soul gems]


So that makes it even more effed up... Enchant a pair of undies or boots with a person's soul and you've got eternal torture.

I do that since it is much easier to come by humanoid souls than animal ones. It certainly is evil and gruesome but I am not rping a good character so it doesn't matter.