Soul trap. Evil? : V - Skyrim

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:03 am

Trap only "evil" souls. Be chaotic good.

» Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:21 pm

Trap only "evil" souls. Be chaotic good.

I don't think I can trap a bandits soul for ever and morally defend it, lol.

If you use a soul gem for an enchantment, does it let the soul free?

» Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:06 pm

By the way, someone once mentioned that it might be incredibly painful to be trapped in a soulgem. I disagree with this notion - at one point in Skyrim (don't worry, I won't go into the details) you enter a soulgem and your character experiences nothing of the sort. He's simply trapped.

I don't think that's the case.
The soul(s) in the gem at that point did not enter via the "soul trap" spell, and in fact the gem is not capable of being used to power anything at the point where it is "filled" with those souls.

Spoiler

Maly Varen hacked the process.
It's strongly implied that he in fact is having his followers use "soul trap" to feed souls into the gem which he then uses to power his "immortality" (perhaps even consuming them utterly). So he's inside the gem, but is not trapped. Even when you defeat him, his soul just goes away, its not available for use.
He initially suspects you are another such soul, but then remarks you "feel different". I'd say the player is likely in a similar situation as Varen at that point - its just instead of being a hacker, you are working for the sysadmin. :wink:

» Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:58 am

Trap only "evil" souls. Be chaotic good.

Soul trap is not legally frowned on, but is potentially immoral. That's lawful evil, not chaotic good.

Indeed, enslaving people (if legal) is the exact opposite of chaotic good.

I've decided to not use black soul gems of any kind, but am OK with white souls. I worship Hirscene and would expect to be hunting them after I die anyhow, so "using every part of the kill" is just good sense.

Serving Hirscene is neither good nor evil, its just an acknowledgement of the power of violence and death.

Guess that' puts my character pretty much in the "true neutral" camp. Which makes sense, its the alignment given to predatory animals in D&D, and is also a good alignment for a mercenary warrior. (I'd started with a tendency towards lawful neutral, but I think I'll be splitting with the blades soon, and I'm unhappy with how Tulious handled Ulfric.)

» Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:13 pm

Honestly, they need to develop the lore on Soul Gems more. I mean, how can a mere bandit's soul be used to create a flame enchantment for instance? Does the power for the enchantment come from the mage or the soul? If from the mage, why do we need souls? If from souls, why is it that any soul can create any enchantment? If both, shouldn't the power of the mage be like to the power of the soul used, such that the mage would need the proper spell to unlock the inherent power of the soul?

Perhaps souls should have different categories which correspond to the different schools of magic and skills. For instance, if the person is really good at one handed weaponry, than their soul would be useful for one-handed skill enchantments. If the soul is that of a mage skilled in destruction magic, than their soul could be used for flame enchants and such. To top that off, any prospective mage would need a corresponding spell to unlock a souls power. The system could be fleshed out even more by having certain enchantments correspond to certain gear. Like, one-handed weaponry enchants get a bonus when attached to one-handed weapons. That would add a lot of depth to capturing souls and enchanting.

Oh, and it would be great if they'd bring back souls escaping and attacking.

The kind of enchantment comes from an inscription and having a knowledge of that enchantment in your head, as said in the book 'Twin Secrets', an enchanting skill book.

Anyway, I don't think it's confirmed one which way if souls carry the consciousness or 'essence' of the animal/person. It could just be the 'spark of life' and the Dreamsleave is like the conservation of energy but with life.