GameBanshee Forums

While playing morrowind (I was on a quest to soultrap some slaughterfishes) a strange tought crossed my mind: what are soulgems? They seem to be commonly accepted in the world of morrowind, everybody knows that they exist, but I want to know where they come from. Are they some sort of chrystal that can be found in mines? Have they just been there without anyone ever questioning there existence? Are they created en masse in 'soulgem factories'? After all they are quite powerful and expensive, and if things are expensive, at least someone earns lots of money in the 'soulgem trade'.
Any theories about this?

Well when you explore certan caves you see crystals growing around the place, my guess is that they come from crystaline fromations in caves and then get sculpted into a shape by some form of artisan or mage. The crystal should obviously have to either be naturaly magic, which i think they are considering the rock formations in caves usualy are glowing, or have to be enchated by someone to accept soul energy.

Thats what ive always thaught.

It's probably something to do with the telvanni, like volk said it could be somthing to do with the crystals in the caves, but who lives and necromances in those caves hmmmmm? So I belive that when the telvanni say the don't care for politics or money, it's probably because they have all the money they need from the large soulgem industry and no one suspects a thing, except me obviously. It's all a big conspirasy (probably).

Hmm, never actually thought about that one. But my theory would be, that they were somehow created around the same time as the Triumverate and the disappearance of the dwarfs. Please note that I don't actually have any in-game factual evidence to back this up. It's just my thoughts on this.

Well when you kill bone lords they have it on their corpse so maybe it is a part of them like a heart or something.

On the subject of Soul Gems, does anyone know where to find some more Grand Soul gems? I've only found six of them so far, but I want to trap some more Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers.......

[QUOTE=ArchMage]On the subject of Soul Gems, does anyone know where to find some more Grand Soul gems? I've only found six of them so far, but I want to trap some more Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers.......[/QUOTE]

If you are at a high enough level, you will find them routinely in smuggler's caves. I recently found no less than 10 in a smuggler's cave.. though I am level 47, and the loot you find is dependant, to some degree, on level.

You can also, however... go to Azura's Shrine on the Southeast part of Vardenfell (if you have the paper map it is just east of the letters "Azura's Coast.")... Once you go into the shrine.. speak with the statue there.... you will receive a quest... and the rest I'll leave to you

On topic, I think that the association with crystals makes sense...certainly for those in the white, blue and purple shades.. But, I have to wonder about the source of the grand soul gems. They are a gold colour, and I have yet to see gold-coloured crystal. Then again.. this is the same game that has sapphire amulets, but as far as I can tell, no sapphires....

Thanks for the heads up, I will keep watch. Actually, I came back to post a reply to my own thread, because I just found a smuggler's cave just East of Khuul........and it had 7 Grand Soul gems......wow, Jackpot! Know of any more of them thar smuggler's caves???

Thanks for the heads up on the "quest"; I will check it out right now... ;-)

As far as I can recall, that mage guy in the craftsmans hall in Mournhold sells five at a time, and his stock regenerates, so you can technically buy unlimited grand soul gems from him, although he does charge about 250 each, but then again that's a lot better than searching them out, isn't it??

As for soul gem's origins, i think that I agree with volk and mccool. I mean, the Telvanni can't exactly raise enough money to be a political party with just the profits from Therana's egg farm, now can they?

Under the influence (again),
Alien_Newborn

kewl, thanks Alien. I will find him and make him rich

Hey Dragon Wench, I finally got the chance to do Azura's quest as you suggested, thanks; what exactly is her little "gift" for though, is it intended for someone/something in particular? I mean, it's obvious what it "is", and I don't want to waste the uniqueness of it trying to figure out the best way to use it, or who/what I should uh "deal with" to use it's abilities to their fullest capacity......any good ideas on who/what I shoud go after, or how best to use the "gift"?

thanks in advance

oh, and uh, where's "mournhold"........ Haven't been there yet, and having a bit of difficulty finding it on the interactive map I am using.......

Archmage, please start a new thread for a question that has nothing to do with this one. Thanks. (You might also want to check GameBanshee's walkthrough for further information on topics like this.)

fable, you will find that every question I have asked or remarked on, is, in fact, related to this thread. I was told to find Soul Gems in Mournhold, that was the reason for my question......

Azura's gift is a Soul Gem, also related to this forum.

and thank you for the suggestion on the walkthrough, however, I chose to ask my question here for a reason......because that's the purpose of the forum in the first place

This is in fact a thread on the background of soulgems. You can easily get 500 results on google by just typing in 'Azuras Star'.

Archmage, as Moltovir pointed out, his was begun to find out what soulgems are. That's all. If you want to find out where Mournhold is located, start a new thread. It's a totally different subject that will require more than brief directions. Additional questions, related or otherwise, belong in new threads.

If you want to discuss this any further, please PM me by clicking on my name, and sending a personal message. But this really is a longstanding tradition of courtesy on GameBanshee, and following it is required. Any future posts that are off-topic will be deleted.

The theory of Volk is acceptable, but I wonder why Bethesda didn't include anything regarding this subject in the game. You can find Glass mines, Ebony mines, Diamond mines, ... (another strange thing: there is Bonemold and Chitin armor in the game, but you can't find any Chitin or whatever Bonemold is made of), but no Soulgem mines. If the Telvanni controlled the soulgem trade, I don't think you would find so much soulgems on outlanders and not-Telvanni. After all, the single purpose of the Telvanni is to find as many powerful magical secrets and artifacts as possible, and hide them from the rest of the world. Perhaps Soulgems are connected to Azura, as she has the power to create unique reuseable ones.

bONEMOLD AND CHITIN ARE MADE FROM BUG HIDES..

So yes we do ahve those things... shalk.. scribsattsa and other bugs if there is others?

Soul gems could be made on mainland.. perhaps becuse that could be only place in tamriel where is materials to create soul gems..

Yes Chitin is made from insect shells, but when you kill a scrib, you don't find any chitin...

Mainland... farmlands.. ever though that.. perhaps they have their own money source on mainland.. but i seriusly doubt that telvanni would create those soul gems...

More likely those are just some ''artifacts'' from older ages..