Beyond Death: Soul Gems Revisited

Not long after I first wrote about the moral vagaries surrounding the use of soul gems, a reader pointed out that Dawnguard sheds some light on the issue.  At the time, I had not yet done the Dawnguard questline, and so I looked forward to finally getting some firm ideas about the ultimate fate of the entrapped souls.  Now that I have explored the Soul Cairn, I have more questions than answers.

What I know:

• Upon death, a Soul Trapped being’s soul is absorbed into a soul gem.
• Said gems may be used to enchant or recharge weapons and other items.
• The Soul Cairn is populated by entrapped souls.
• The Soul Cairn is vast and depressing -- more Limbo than Hell.
• Some souls deal better with the Soul Cairn than others (Jiub, Morven Stroud)
• Not all of the entities within the Soul Cairn are entrapped souls.
• Soul Gems can be filled by activating Soul Fissures inside the Cairn.
• During The Black Star, when Malyn Varen dies inside a soul gem, his soul is utterly destroyed (Nelacar refers to it as non-existence).
• As demonstrated by the encounter during The Black Star, the space inside a soul gem is not the same as the Soul Cairn.

What I still don't know:

• Soul husks are plant-like objects, but the name suggests that they are something left behind.  Are they the residue of a soul being used in an enchantment?
• Are the souls in the Soul Cairn currently trapped in gems and awaiting annihilation, or are they here because their souls were already used up in an enchantment?
• Is the Soul Cairn only for the souls of man and mer?  On the one hand, aside from Arvak, I only encountered sentient souls. On the other, the fissures filled up my petty, lesser, common, and greater gems.

Therefore, there seem to be two viable ways of understanding the Soul Cairn:

1. The Soul Cairn is a way station for entrapped souls.  A soul is trapped and transported to the Soul Cairn, where it waits until the soul gem to which it is tethered is consumed.  When the corresponding gem is used in an enchantment, the soul is obliterated.
2. The Soul Cairn is the ultimate destination for souls used in soul gems.  The soul remains trapped in the gem until the item is used for enchanting, at which point the soul is cast into the Soul Cairn.  It is not annihilation per se, but rather an eternal nowhere.

Without further information, I'm just counting angels on the head of a pin, but in a way, the metaphysical details don't really matter.  Soul Trap still stands as an awful thing to do to a sentient enemy, and should be used only on the worst of the worst, if at all.  I, for example, refuse to use it on Stormcloaks, Forsworn, random thieves in Riften, or the Afflicted, but I'm comfortable using it on Thalmor agents and bandits.

For another view, I suggest this thread from The Escapist.

A Note About Soul Gems

Soul gems are the "batteries" that power enchanted objects in The Elder Scrolls universe.  In order to enchant or recharge an item, one must use a soul gem in much the same way as one might empty a gas can into one's car.  In fact, the PC can fill an empty soul gem by killing a creature or NPC while a Soul Trap is in effect (either through a spell or a weapon enchantment).  Given the prevalence of magic items in TES games, the filling and expending of soul gems in an integral part of gameplay in Skyrim.

The potential moral issue arises from the lack of clarity regarding the in-game definition of "soul."  While the game tends toward a Western paradigm regarding the soul -- that is, the soul as the immaterial essence of an individual's identity, connected to yet distinct from both body and mind because it exists after both are gone -- the composition of the purplish energy that emanates from a slain, Soul-Trapped enemy is a bit of a mystery.

Some TES sources claim that the personal, conscious soul is trapped in the gem as potential energy, only to be released when the charge is depleted.  If so, then the trapping of a soul within the gem would seem a bit like torture, and would be very hard fate for me to justify, even for an enemy.  After all, when I am killing opponents, it is usually only because my opponents are trying to kill me or someone else, not because I wish them to suffer some kind of existential torment.

Others claim that the "souls" are not souls in the Western sense, but rather a kind of "life force" that powers the body.  This non-personal model regards the soul as similar to other substances associated with life, such as blood or hair or breath.  As such, the soul can be harvested under the same kinds of guidelines that one might use when taking anything else from a dead body, without worrying that the consciousness of the person is somehow enslaved by the process.

Although I routinely collect and use enemies souls, I am still not entirely certain which view is more accurate.  Obviously, I am prejudiced toward the latter view because I would hate to think that I am entrapping the immortal essence of sentient beings for my own personal use.  Even so, I would argue that the second model makes more sense:

1. Man, Mer, and Beast races of humanoids have souls, but so do Mudcrabs and Charuses (albeit "smaller" souls that require smaller gems).  I therefore doubt that the word "soul" here is equivalent to "transcendent personhood."
2. In the quest entitled The Black Star, a mage perverts a soul gem so that he could enter it while still alive.  When I went inside this gem myself to expel him, I was also conscious.  Because this act was so extraordinary, I would assume that normally, souls are not conscious entities with the gem.
3. But for the exception above, soul gems are never associated with particular people, nor is anyone's personality brought back by enchanting an item with a soul gem.

 

I am therefore going to continue to play under the assumption that soul gems contain an impersonal life force rather than a personality.  If I have no moral trouble looting from a dead opponent, I should have no problem harvesting its "soul."