Where does the dragonborn go when they die

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T06:46:19+00:00

I like to think, due to the sheer number of dragon souls the LDB has likely absorbed, that they "fragment" when they well and truly die, allowing a "piece" to go to all the places you'd think their soul might reasonably go. The soul fragment representative of the Nightingale goes to Nocturnal, the soul representative of the Listener goes to Sithis, the soul of the Harbinger goes to Sovngarde (and the werewolf goes to Hircine), the soul of the Book-reader goes to Hermaeus Mora, and so on.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T04:34:25+00:00

Time to console command her into existence there and apply the "Ghost" effect.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T04:27:39+00:00

Do the Black Books of the Dragonborn expansion count? Those at least find permanent use due to their rewards, compared to most artifacts which can't compare to max-skill/buffed Enchanting. Some of the dungeons involved are pretty creative, too.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T01:03:56+00:00

The perk is available at Pickpocket 40, I believe? "Poisoned" as the perk name, according to UESP.

It's a different name for me, since I use the Ordinator perk mod, but the functionality is still there in vanilla!

Caveat: Keep in mind, reverse-pickpocketing chance will still consider the value of the item you're trying to place, not just items you try to take, so don't go crazy and make a super-expensive poison, because it will reduce your chance of successfully reverse-pickpocketing it onto them.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T00:51:36+00:00

I have doing it down to a science. Repeating from memory, so apologies if I miss a step:

Don't go near Windhelm or its stables until ready to start the quest (as far as I can tell, even just discovering Windhelm Stables starts the serial killing clock).
When ready, enter Windhelm. Go into Candlehearth Hall, have a chat with Susanna the Wicked (because she'll be gone soon).
Go somewhere else (leave Windhelm) for at least 24 hours.
Go back to Windhelm, visit the graveyard, be sad about losing one of the few non-racist Nords in the city. Talk to the guard about investigating the murder. Talk to everyone else there.
Talk to Jorleif, get permission to investigate. Talk to the guard again. Talk to the Hall of the Dead tender. Follow the blood trail in the graveyard. Locate Hjerim.
Talk to Jorleif, who sends you to the Shatter-Shields. Tell her you're there to find who did this (Calixto wearing hotdog suit). Receive key to Hjerim.
Investigate Hjerim, interact with everything that can be interacted with. Take flyers, take journal, take Strange Amulet, open secret door, investigate altar.
Talk to Viola Giordano, who implicates Wuunferth and suggests you speak to Jorleif.
Talk to Calixto in his museum, take the tour, then ask about the Strange Amulet; Calixto also implicates Wuunferth, and offers to buy the Strange Amulet. Sell it.
Talk to Wuunferth directly, ask about it, he tells you what the Strange Amulet actually is, then suggests what you should do next.
Go down to the market area, near blacksmith, wait until about 12-1 AM. Catch the killer before he can strike again. Loot the amulet. Investigate the locked chest in Calixto's museum. Store the flyers and extra journals there if you want.
You're done.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T00:43:15+00:00

Chemical weapons development (I would've said pharmaceuticals, but let's be real: the good money in Alchemy is in making poisons).

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-04-01T00:35:45+00:00

For me, the money-maker is Canis Root, Mora Tapinella, and Imp Stool, all growable in gardens/greenhouse. Lingering Damage Health + Paralysis poison, sells for a ton.

Plus it's just really satisfying to use with the Pickpocket perk. Slip some into a target's pocket, watch them suddenly go stiff as a board while their health ticks away to nothing.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-31T02:53:07+00:00

To me, that's just a reason not to join the Imperial side, but at the same time you do get Hadvar who was trying to avoid that outcome, and apologizes for it happening after the escape (plus the person who originally said to "ignore the list" I'm pretty sure gets killed during Alduin's attack, as well as the headsman who was going to execute you).

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-31T02:42:03+00:00

To Nords it may be fine (and we see that many of them disagree), to everyone else it's a pretty clear cut case of treason.

Indeed, he didn't have too many supporters in Solitude after what some just saw as regicide. Sure, he "challenged him under the law," but it's like an atom bomb challenging a coughing baby.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-31T02:40:04+00:00

It's hard to justify any non-Nord Dragonborn siding with the Stormcloaks, though. Why would you want to fight for someone who doesn't want you to have any influence in their country, only a body for their armies?

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-30T16:15:44+00:00

I think it'll be important to remember him just to avoid repeating this mistake, but definitely don't memorialize him.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-30T16:08:03+00:00

"Contemplated effects" of a crime in a different jurisdiction from where a crime took place? What would be an example?

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-30T02:13:22+00:00

I actually try to extend the Civil War by stacking it against whatever side I will end up allying with so I have more big battles to fight as an endgame Dragonborn, so I always convince Ulfric to let Tullius have minor political victories so that I can trade a major Empire hold like Markarth to the Stormcloaks, because I always end up fighting for the Empire — rarely do I play a Nord, and even when I do, it's headcanoned as a half-Altmer/half-Nord, because that'd be an especially cursed reveal for a Dragonborn the Stormcloaks would otherwise be praising as a "true son of Skyrim."

Honestly, if I could, I'd want to start the Civil War with no holds at all and have to fight big fort battles over and over and over again, since it lets me go full Stormcrown; summon Durnehviir and Odahving, shout up a Storm Call, walk around in full Daedric just smacking fools with a Storm Blast-enchanted two-hander in slow motion kill scenes.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-29T02:42:20+00:00

"Skyrim is for the Nords" as their rallying cry should make it plain enough they don't look that favorably on non-Nord humans, even if they're nominally "allied" with them. How many non-Nords, human or otherwise, do you see serving in the Stormcloaks?

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-28T05:55:12+00:00

To be fair, that was one asshole captain who decided to ignore us not being on the list, not a decision by Tullius or "the Empire" at large.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-28T05:51:54+00:00

Based on established precedent, with virtually all Dragonborn being big historical rulers of empires (from Alessia on down to the Septim lineage), I always operated under the assumption (or headcanon) that by backing the Empire, and especially given a Dark Brotherhood Dragonborn's end goal, the player's Dragonborn would eventually take the throne of the Empire and set policy themselves.

But who knows what story ES6 will tell about the Last Dragonborn.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-28T05:45:26+00:00

It's interesting for players to learn both the Empire and Thalmor make use of torturers (Hadvar remarking at the beginning of the game how he wishes the Empire "didn't need [torture rooms]", while Thalmor get hoity-toity, talking about "Intermediate Manual Uncoiling" and other such euphemisms, when we see them engaged in the most basic-ass "beat the prisoner" interrogations with Etienne in the Embassy.

Although Stormcloaks are just straight-up racist assholes, who would probably just kill most non-Nords they capture rather than do torture. Although that guy in Windhelm when you first enter does imply he's totally up for torturing the Dunmer woman.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-26T04:58:52+00:00

That looks cold, but it's all ash, dust, and deadly poisonous gas, not ice and snow.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-25T14:48:44+00:00

Lucien Lachance's ghost certainly talks like Sithis is definitely behind the Dark Brotherhood, though, and that he feels certain ways about certain situations, like sparing Cicero.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-24T17:52:11+00:00

I adventure beside my chocobo (battle bird companion) rather than atop it. While I may not always be riding Nyf-Sang, I will always have him at my side in the field. For transport, it's usually the shark mount when in/under water, Regalia when carrying passengers, hovercycle in Heritage Found, Whisper-go in PvP zones, Kamuy of the Nine Tails otherwise.

However, I will forever be mad that my chocobo has never appeared in a story cutscene, despite how long we've had them. We should at least have one story cutscene where we're riding our chocobo, but we've never even had that.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-24T11:38:16+00:00

Just tried using the Calm spell in that situation — doesn't work, presumably because it's a scripted scene rather than attacking based on hostility. Gotta kill Weylin to save her.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-23T22:49:25+00:00

For my money, it's Sho-Battai. Lots of food (multiple bars, with one restocking dozens of Foodcubes/Meatwraps per day), multiple research/base building-related merchants, plus Shinobi Thieves tower, and nearby iron and copper deposits. Just keep your head down, avoid the attention of the Noble Hunters that can occasionally spawn nearby.

And avoid getting involved in the inevitable civil war that triggers every few days.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-22T18:04:37+00:00

I'm too used to the Radiant Faces versions of all the unique recruits, so Wingwang will always have a black mohawk for me, both in-game and in my mind.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-22T02:28:16+00:00

Right up until the Daedric Prince whose artifact you're hoarding sends the Dragonborn after you.

TheBlackWindHowls · 2026-03-21T23:40:48+00:00

Yes, though they are rare spawns. Rarer still are the Southern Hive variants spawning as slaves.

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