So I was thinking About the Thu'um And how it changes reallity, and, I Have a lot of questions:
First Thing that I'd like to adress is how a Dragonborn learn shouts. It's said that he just need to hear the word, and then unlock it's meaning with a dragon soul. But I don't see this working outside a gaming scenario. It's seems to be a game mechanics that adds some work into learning new shouts
How would that work in a more realistic scenario?
I personally believe that a dragonborn Just need to hear the word to unlock it's power. because the meaning of the word is already incribed in his soul. That way a dragonborn is like a sorcerer from a common D&D RPG who casts spells by only feeling it, not really uderstanding it. A dohvakiin Shout's without understanding what he does exactly, he just feel it, and do it.
That way I can't see how absorbing a dragon soul plays a part on learning a shout. A can understant how it powers it up (next discussion), but I can't see why would he need one to unlock it in first Place
I personally see more sense in the dovahkiin learning more shouts that he never heard of by absorbing a dargon soul (by consequence, he would have learned every shout that was known to that dragon). But I don't see why he would need to first hear the word, then Absorb a dragon soul to unlock. also, having that need contraticts what angneir says in skyrim "For a Dragonborn, Shouting is as Natural as breathing" In other words, You just do it, you don't need to think about it, having the word and, puff, it happens.
That leads to my second question: How does a Dragon Soul Powers up a dragonborn? It increase the strengh of the shouts? it just gives him more knownlege and more understanding of the word itself, making it more efficient/powerfull? It increases the dragonborn life force so he can shout more without getting tired?
I personally think it's a bit of everything, Not only the dragon soul would give him more understanting, making him, who knows, add new effects to his shouts, but also would boost it's power and the overall dohvakiin stamina in to shouting.
That, itself leads to my last two questions:
What is the detrimental effect/limitations of shouting?
It has no real detrimental/limitation effect on the user, at least no explicitly. Not like Magick uses mana, that deteriorates and tires the body, and has to have hand movements, enchants preparation (that becomes the casting time)
Games usually Limit this feature by adding a Cooldown. a time between each shout so you just wouldn't shout your way through the game. But that seems something that only makes sense inside a game as a mechanics limitation. On a realistic scenario i don't see why You couldn't do shout's in sequence
So, what Would be the limitations? It's said that the thu'm uses life force instead of mana to power, so, would a dragonborn feel tired if He shouts too much? Would it have long term deterioration effects on it's body? That seems to make sense, but also abusing of it wouldn't most likely reduce the user life-time?
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How DOES shouts would work exactly?
I mean, In game, each shout has tree words, It word powers up the next but:
In the Description it's said the "the power of the thu'um is to give meaning to the words that are pronunciated" that being said, I don't see why the thu'um need to follow that specific rule
For me, it makes sense that conbining words should give new effects (Like Yol - To create Fire) (Toor - To intensify the flames) (Shul - Explode/Create a fireball) That seems to me more on point with the description
The three words rule seems to be also Just a gaming mechs, that makes no sense another scenario (also, Miraak uses a 4 word shout to absorb dragons)
That being said How would It affect really reality? I mean if a Dragonborn say "GOL KREN" (Earth Divide) Would the earth just split in two by his command? or it depends on the dovakiins intentions? What About Words with multiple meanings?
What are your thoughts about it?
Edited by xAarionx on May 15, 2021 4:58PM