You can. Thu'um can be spoken without causing the effect. It's the projection of your lifeforce into the shout that gives it its form and effect.


Also 100% chameleon as stated above is a bad move, Voice masters have life aura, remember? 100% reflect damage/magic/etc would be the better move.



So. Probably a stalemate. Neither of them can hurt the other.

I'm not making myself clear enough.
I know you can speak dragonic without the power behind the words. I meant that you can't give everything you imagine a word, because it would need newly created words. A mage isn't limited by that problem.

If you can conceive it, you can name it. If you can't conceive it, you can name it.

In my opinion there are still things you can't name but you can imagine them.

I'll always think language is limited more than imagination and there it ends for me. I'll agree to a draw.

fluff wise... umm did you all forget a little spell called silence or paralyze??? try breathing fire with your mouth magicked shut.

Lorewise, magic has done some pretty crazy stuff. There are army destroying spells, epic mage duels (Mannimarco vs Galerion) and crazy hax like Restoration masters causing spontaneous existence failure on their enemies by abusing Fortify Intelligence.

Become etheral?

master of the voice hands down... a master of the voice can bring city walls down with just a whisper. imagine what they can do when reali loosing it. game over

Anyone can learn and master the voice, no? It just takes a lot of time to do so. Years upon years of study and practice. Even a normal Nord can still use his Battlecry which is a primitive form of the Thu'um.

A mage can never truly master the schools of magic. It would take one thousands of years, multiple liftetimes, and you would still not have learned everything that has to do with magic. Now anyone can learn magic, paltry spells like healing, or flames. But to take it farther than that you have to have it born in you. You can't become a master of restoration lorewise by constantly casting the heal spell. Also, casting with your hands is just a game mechanic.


Granted the Thu'um itself is also a form of magic, so a True Master Mage would also know it right?

Nope.

The master of magic would win. A master of magic can do anything a master of voice can do including calling a storm. It would be a great battle as they both are formidable.

Also going back to call storm and ground shaking and all that. The master of magic would simply use a lightning shield and levitate off the shaking ground.

I 2nd this. One shout per battle is all I can usualy get in because the recharch limits are so damn high. For "being the dragonborn of dest.", my shouts are very underpowerd compared to what Im suposed to be able to do.

OT, this is hard to say.The mage, if fast enough, could calm the thum master, summon two dramora lords, paralyse him, and then lightningstorm him while the dramora lords beat the poop out of him.

If the thum master acts first however, the mage has no hope(in this situation at least.In game,w/ real mechanichs like the recharge times, I think the mage would win with ease).

You should've made this a poll.

Th'uum is the way for me tho.

I think this is more about which one is more popular rather then an actual battle. Because it just doesn't seem plausible to believe that the th'uum is stronger then magic.

Not a big studier of language, are we? Not all languages have words as finite as English.

New words are created all the time.

look at these lyrics from the main theme:
Huzrah nu
Kol do od,
Wah aan bok lingrah vod
Ahrk fin tey
Boziik fun
Do fin gein!

Wo lost fron wah ney dov ahrk fin reyliik do jul
Voth, aan suylek wah ronit faal krein!


which translates to:

Hearken now,
Crag of Snow,
To an age long ago
And the tale,
Boldly told,
About the one

Who was kin both wyrm, and the races of man
With the power to rival the sun!

the lyrics talking about the dragonborn, who apparantly "has the power to rival the sun". yet the shouts are a bit UP. i use an amulet of talos, so that helps with the recharge, but meh. fire breath takes forever to recharge

To be honest, it really depends on what the Masters use and when. They both have pretty much the same abilities just in different forms. EX: Ice Form and paralyse, fire breath and fire storm, aura whisper and detect life, etc. The Mage has some special abilitys that the Master of the Voice does not have and vice versa. I think if your in the middle of a battle your not going to try to be thinking of new words or ways to balance the arcane arts. Instead, you're going to use what you know. Even if you were thinking of new forms of defence or offence you would be to distracted thinking and overall just lose focus of the battle or your train of thought. In my opinion, the Master of the Voice would win due to Become Ethereal. He would be able to stay immortal for how ever long he could because he would just repeat the word before it expired. He'd also be able to wait for the perfect time to strike and/or catch the Mage off guard even if he was waiting for BE to wear off. There is also a special ability that nobody (I think) has though of yet. If you have unlimited recharge why not just rap? <-- You can rap alot faster than spam wards

No cooldown on shouts? Become ethereal+Storm call = Fried mage.

If the rules of ethereal form still applies then he cant do any harm or be harmed, which doesnt matter anyway because the mage can be immune to magic for as long as he wants as well and shouts are magic.

nope still has lightning shield or magic absorb

i use the vanilla mechanics and thru clever trickery, i have both infinite magic and no recharge meter for shouts and im on xbox...also have a master ring which grants my master mage infinite magic ha

the mage would win easily...you cant shout when paralyzed

not that anyone can really know. Not enough lore to back up both sides and besides it just comes down to opinion at this point...........

I just imagine the Voice Master chanting non stop as the world around him falls apart, twisting and roiling into an unrecognizable hellscape.

Mana is bound to run out tho...

Considering that the unlimited mana thing is somewhat of an exploit..