Skyrim - Dragon Shouts @ GameInformer

The latest Skyrim piece at GameInformer discusses Dragon Shouts in a three page article that covers the background lore, in-game use and how Emil Pagliarulo developed the language:

Tiber Septim would use the dragon shouts to lead his troops into battle and unite Tamriel under one empire. Hundreds of years later, the Septim line has died out, and no other dragonborn have been seen for many years. That is, until the hero of Skyrim arrives on the scene. “There are other people in the world who can use the dragon shouts, but it’s very rare. It’s like arcane knowledge. It used to be done more in the past,” Howard explains. “The Greybeards know it. But your ability to absorb the dragon souls and do the shouts on the level that you can is beyond them.”

In the game, players will guide their hero to learn ever more powerful dragon shouts, and then use these arcane powers to supplement other combat and magic skills. Upon defeating a dragon, Skyrim’s hero absorbs the soul of the fallen creature, which fuels his ability to learn a new shout. Later, players can search out long lost walls covered in dragon script. Upon these walls, individual runes stand out to the hero because he or she is dragonborn. “There are these words of power, and if you learn how to say them right, they have a powerful effect,” Howard says.

A new concept art and screenshot accompany the piece and you can also get two desktop wallpapers.
More information.

erm…"dragon shouts"!? What a naff term :-o Did Septim emperors really do this, or is this some new piece of 'lore' they've retrofitted? And …absorbing souls of fallen boss enemies to learn more powers? Oi vey….

Minor issue, but I have to agree that the term "Dragon Shouts" sounds weak and like something a sixth grader would use when writing something for school.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Minor issue, but I have to agree that the term "Dragon Shouts" sounds weak and like something a sixth grader would use when writing something for school.

I undestand that original name for it is Thu'um (also translated as the Voice). Dragon Shout is just a translation from the dragon language

No this actually harkens back to established Lore. Cool by me.

Originally Posted by booboo
erm…"dragon shouts"!? What a naff term :-o Did Septim emperors really do this, or is this some new piece of 'lore' they've retrofitted? And …absorbing souls of fallen boss enemies to learn more powers? Oi vey….

It's in the lore, including the part where villagers are leaving when he was climbing the Throat of the World to see the Greybeards.

"Dragon Shouts" sounds cheesy as hell.

Actually, it reminds me of the way magic was used in Dungeon Master (for the atari ST and Amiga). Kind of a throwback to old school RPGs…

Originally Posted by zakhal
"Dragon Shouts" sounds cheesy as hell.

Read up on the lore, youngling.

http://www.imperial-library.info/con…edition-skyrim
(Especiall the Box on "The tongues")
It's actually one of the more unique aspects of Elder Scrolls Lore.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
Read up on the lore, youngling.

http://www.imperial-library.info/con…edition-skyrim
(Especiall the Box on "The tongues")
It's actually one of the more unique aspects of Elder Scrolls Lore.

Excluding the interesting morrowind and som ingame books I have never played ES for its lore.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
Read up on the lore, youngling.

http://www.imperial-library.info/con…edition-skyrim
(Especiall the Box on "The tongues")
It's actually one of the more unique aspects of Elder Scrolls Lore.

Thank you sir for introducing this site to me. It looks like a lot of interesting reading for my night shifts.

Originally Posted by zakhal
Excluding the interesting morrowind and som ingame books I have never played ES for its lore.

Go stand in the corner!

Originally Posted by zakhal
Excluding the interesting morrowind and som ingame books I have never played ES for its lore.

The lore and exploration are really the only reasons to play ES imo.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
Read up on the lore, youngling.

http://www.imperial-library.info/con…edition-skyrim
(Especiall the Box on "The tongues")
It's actually one of the more unique aspects of Elder Scrolls Lore.

Where in the lore was Thu'um tied to dragons and 'dragonborn'? What about 'absorbing the souls of dragons'?

Might you be accepting a kludging of sales-friendly dragon stuff into TES lore simply because Todd says 'It's in the lore!!1'?

Originally Posted by JDR13
The lore and exploration are really the only reasons to play ES imo.

For me lore is somthing that if its not written good enough it comes in from one ear and out the other. From first two ES games I remember there was a staff, king who was a ghost and som lich I did gigs for. Thats all I can remember and I have played through both of them. From morrowind I can remember way more allthough much of it only vaguely.

So you would say the lore in ES isn't well wrtten? I'm curious as to what other game series you think are superior in that aspect. I'm hard pressed to think of any, and there's not many I haven't played.

@GhanBuriGhan: I had a look at the link - they def mention "shouts" as being a (rare) Nord ability,but nothing about Dragon Shouts (that I could see). The intro page for those lore pages also says collecting info on lore "from 1998 to present" meaning that they are adding new "lore" as they go along. I was simply wondering whether this bit (about dragon shouts and soul absorbing of enemies) had been made specifically to add 'cool' to ES:V and was not part of the established lore of ES universe (wherever that may previously have been archived)?

Originally Posted by JDR13
So you would say the lore in ES isn't well wrtten? I'm curious as to what other game series you think are superior in that aspect. I'm hard pressed to think of any, and there's not many I haven't played.

I remember studing it a bit when playing arena but I didnt think it as that special so I guess I just forgot most of it (my mind is very efficient in discarding information that is not important). But if you want examples my favorite is Runequest's Glorantha but they made only one game out of it.

Originally Posted by booboo
I was simply wondering whether this bit (about dragon shouts and soul absorbing of enemies) had been made specifically to add 'cool' to ES:V and was not part of the established lore of ES universe (wherever that may previously have been archived)?

Thats what came to my mind too with dragons been so popular lately.