Is it acceptable for a pure mage, who's goodhearted, to use Soul trap? It seems so useful and it's gonna save me a great deal of septims, but it just seem so evil.

if it seems evil then it's evil

the end

Best I can say is that it is a very grey area. Many would consider it evil, while others would not.

When you use a soulgem, you're tapping into the latent residual magicka of the soul within. You're not really making use of the soul itself. Besides, when the gem breaks the soul is freed to the afterlife, so it's really not that bad.

Some people believe it's wrong to soul trap another human being simply because you're doing so against their will, but whatever. I have no qualms against soul trapping people that initiate combat with me, like bandits.

Is it evil when you use evil souls for 'the greater good'?
Your characters mission to service the greater good for instance?

Necromancy is accepted inside the College walls, so I would say it's a valid spell to "study" at least.

It's an accepted part of the way things work for them. From the perspective of Earth morality, looks evil, but you have to look at the difference between black and white souls. Mortals and Daedra have souls in our sense of the word, and black gems are portrayed as more of an evil thing to use, but other creatures, seems they are what we would call soulless, and you are just using their life energy, not much of a difference from ending an animal's life for meat.

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.

It's evil. That's why there is the Black Soul Gem to trap humanoid targets. Black soul gems are used in dark rituals and such. Normal soul gems are acceptible.

I guess it's ok to use then. With caution and some discretion Thanks guys.

I think we've had several topics on the ethics of soul trapping before and even then the end result was inconclusive.

Skyrim society places less value on animals (probably doesn't believe in an afterlife for animals), so society doesn't view regular soul gems as evil. Using black soul gems is generally considered evil, you trap the persons soul so it can't move on to Svongarde, then you use the energy of the soul to power the enchant, essentially destroying the person's entire existence. It turns death into eradication. Some people (like the Silver Hand or Svendar) might justify using soul gems against vampires or werevolves, because they have lost their humanity. Using black soul gems againt normal humans, however, puts you on at least the same level as deadra worshipers.

If you weren't using the soul, then enchanting would drain magicka, but it doesn't.

You are not taking their soul, but their life energy.

Which you took anyway when you killed them. Kind of like the Fremen in Arrakis, they take the water from the body after it is dead, why waste it. Same with the life energy. It either dies out with the body, or it gets absorbed by the gem upon death. Why waste it.

That depends on your (un)ethics.

Are to fine with dooming creatures to suffer endlessly for a 1.000.000.000 years until Armaggeddon? Then use normal soul gems.


Are to fine with dooming humanoids to suffer endlessly for a 1.000.000.000 years until Armaggeddon? Then use black soul gems.

Soul trap on humans is considered evil. It's like murder, except on a spiritual level where they are wiped out of existence. In the civilized world we have a justice system that is against illegal torture of criminals just because they are criminals. So sure, some of them are murderers, but that doesn't mean you have the right to perform scientific experiments on them or kill them to harvest their organs.

Soul trap on animals and monsters is borderline. But they are uncivilized animals, and I would say it is no different to eating chicken, so it should be fine.

I can't believe a moderator has such a sadistic view of things! Aren't you supposed to be a role model?

There is a book about a teenager who summoned a daedra, to asked it to make a birthday gift for his mother or something.
Long story short, the teen made a mistake of accepting a gift from the daedra which broke the summoning, and the daedra murdered the teen.
Then the daedra mused to himself that he is not letting his soul get away because he used a black soul gem, and he has another to use on his mother.

So black soul gems do trap human souls that are supposed to go free, not just the life energy.

But why call it "Soul Trap", then? I'm not saying you're wrong, but rather the name of the spell should be different if this is the case.

"Soul trap" traps souls. Go figure.

In all seriousness though, I already pointed out that once the soulgem is used, the soul is freed to the afterlife. Aside from temporarily detaining them in a spiritual prison, you're doing nothing to harm them.

i onlly soul trap undead it's a favour i'm doing to them i will eventually use the gem and set theyr soul free while they would be traqed for ever on theyr undead faith other wise

I don't know, I feel like the soul is the one being used up, and once the soulgem is used, there is nothing left. You are dooming human souls to oblivion.

However, in Daggerfall when the weapon broke, the soul of that which you used to make it attacks you for trapping it. What you said is a made-up justification to make people feel better about imprisoning souls within items. It would appear that the soul is indeed trapped until the item is recharged or destroyed. (i.e. Umbra)

I am a moderator on a gaming board where you are expected to kill a bunch of things in a game to achieve your goals. What did you expect?

According to Daggerfall and morrowind evidence, the soul is released a little worse for wear when the item is recharged or destroyed.

Soul is just another word for Life Energy.

He also has an awesome avatar to go with it.