How can the vestige still exist if he/she doesn't have their soul?

oimichaelio · July 2015

I really like this game, but one thing i am confused about is when it comes to souls. Now in the story you have your soul stolen and you have to get it back.

So if you don't have a soul, how can you still physically exist?

How could the vestige be exploring tamriel and be able to escape coldharbour if molag bal has his soul?

The vestige has their soul taken and molag bal has it, and the story is to get it back and defeat him, but if molag bal has the vestige's soul couldn't he just destroy the soul and then the vestige is dead? I'm guessing the vestige is linked to the soul, so that's how they can exist, but i am just confused about all of this.

So could someone explain to me about this because i am so confused.

I know that it's definitely not a plot error or anything, i know there's an explanation, it's just i don't know what the explanation is.

I thought if the vestige's soul was taken then he would have absolutely no chance of defeating molag bal because he already the soul.

CONFUUUUUUUUSEEEEED

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · July 2015

Following The Elder Scrolls tradition, the Soul Shriven is a special snowflake. Just like the Dragonborn in Skyrim and the Nerevarine in Morrowind, he/she is not like others, and can break even the seemingly most fundamental rules of Mundus.

There is even a lore book in the game that tries to explain how you can revive at wayshrines and use them for travel, while ordinary people can only use them for worship.

An unclosed plot loophole with ESO is that you retain your special powers even after your soul is restored, but that can be explained away. What remains is that the MMO nature of the game creates the huge problem of everyone around you also being a special snowflake, but the story trying to pretend that you are the one and only hero.

theroyalestpythonnub18_ESO · July 2015

A bit of conjecture ahead in regards to the nature of the soul:

It seems that sapient beings in the Elder Scrolls are comprised of two parts: the soul and the identity (which I believe is referred to as the AE). A person's identity, what makes them who they are, forms around their soul and is sustained by it.

When a person's soul is taken and they're sent to Coldharbour, they're reformed and sustained through Oblivion's creatia, in the same vein as Daedra. It's commonly said that Daedra cannot die, as when they are killed their bodies reform in Oblivion. This is more of a crude substitue for natives of Nirn however. Since mortals are sustained by an anuic soul, the padomaic creatia is largely incompatible.

As a result, individuals rapidly start to decay, and lose their identity. The vestige, however is described as having some other "intrinsic anuic aspect" which I'm assuming compensates for a lack of soul and allows them to form wholly in Coldharbour.

The skyshard in the beginning of the game is what anchors the vestige to Nirn. As opposed to most Daedroth who reform in their respective Daedric plane after death, the vestige will now reform on Nirn.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · July 2015

theroyalestpythonnub18_ESO wrote: »

...
As opposed to most Daedroth who reform in their respective Daedric plane after death, the vestige will now reform on Nirn.

And optionally, when the game plot so requires, in Coldharbour. At wayshrines that seem to have been copied there along with various other imitations of Nirn. Not a great weft of lies for us to buy, more like a compromise that was deemed "good enough" by the lore master.

theroyalestpythonnub18_ESO · July 2015

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

theroyalestpythonnub18_ESO wrote: »

...
As opposed to most Daedroth who reform in their respective Daedric plane after death, the vestige will now reform on Nirn.

And optionally, when the game plot so requires, in Coldharbour. At wayshrines that seem to have been copied there along with various other imitations of Nirn. Not a great weft of lies for us to buy, more like a compromise that was deemed "good enough" by the lore master.

Eh, I don't really have a problem with it. The vestige uses the shyshard to re-attune themselves to the Mundus, but that doesn't cancel out their connection to Oblivion. Since the vestige usually reforms at the nearest wayshrine, reforming in Coldharbour isn't really a stretch.

Ranique · July 2015

Soul Shriven are the remnants of individuals who have been enslaved by the God of Schemes, Molag Bal. They are eternally doomed to toil in torment for the glory and amusement of the Daedric Lord.[1][2][3]
Molag Bal's lust for the enslavement of mortal souls is such that at the moment of their death, he employs various methods to divert a mortal's soul from its journey to the afterlife to imprisonment and slavery in Coldharbour, his realm of Oblivion.[4][1] Once the soul arrives in Coldharbour, it is exchanged for an essence commonly known as the vestige. The vestige attracts to itself a shapeless but energetic material called the "creatia" of Oblivion. In Coldharbour, this creatia takes the form of a substance known as the Azure Plasm - ubiquitous pools of blue slime.[1][4] The Azure Plasm coalesces around a vestige and forms a corporeal body with the semblance of the shape it wore in life. The process is similar to how lesser Daedra reform on their respective planes of Oblivion, after they're banished or slain.[4]
However, since these "soulless ones" are not native to Oblivion, their bodies are mere imitations of their form in life. As such, these facsimiles suffer rapid wear and decay. Scholars have theorized that the reason these bodies are flawed is because they have lost the focusing principle of their Anuic souls, so their vestiges are imperfect patterns.[4] Where their souls are kept is unknown, but some believe they are contained within soul gems, and that the soul shriven can feel themselves being jostled around as their respective gems are moved from one place to another.[5]

I think this explains it a lil bit.

Also the quest "Vanus Unleashed" gives a bit of answers.

The main point is that the world of Nirn and the real world is very different.
Nirn is part of the mundus. This is also known as the plain of mortals. If you look closely to the story of origins, it is very simular to how the plains of oblivion are created. That means that the mortals on nirn exist in a very simular way, and eventhough they are born on nirn, they are created from the same protoplasm as daedra are, just as Aedra and Daedra have the same origin, but just picked a different path in their existence.

A being consist of several layers. One is the sould. as seen in Vanus unleashed, another is the body, his health, his magicka and his stamina.

Once someone dies, his body, his health, stamina and magicka dissapears (body's overtime) cause the soul past on. When a soul is stolen, the body is gone, but the health, magicka and stamina will not stop existing. It forms the vestige, also known as the soulless.

Enodoc · July 2015

For the full page that Ranique quoted, see UESP: Lore - Soul Shriven.
See also the Lorebooks On the Nature of Coldharbour and Chaotic Creatia: The Azure Plasm, as well as the main Lore page on Souls.

gilbegger · August 2015

Vestige = Politician