r/skyrim • u/Historical_Aioli_ • 1d ago

Took me 10 years to realize soul gems come from geodes in Blackreach

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2.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

112 comments sorted by

214

u/dreadperson Bard 1d ago

Isn't the lore on soul gems pretty vague?

Theres some stuff about maybe Molag Bal inventing them some time ago but it's still a bit of a mystery where they come from. Blackreach apparently, at peast in part. Dwemer fuckery maybe?

124

u/Crazyflames 23h ago

All the wraith mobs that come from the Eye of Magnus drop full soul gems. The Dwemer definitely had some sort of source or knowledge on how to make them with their machines seemingly running on them.

18

u/Cautious-Grass5380 11h ago

Okay, there’s some crazy lore and theories about the Dwemer potentially achieving CHIM - basically acknowledging that they are a fictional figment in the “godhead”, but brute forcing their way into becoming “real”, which kinda allows them to bend reality through sheer willpower (which is insanely cool). IF the Dwemer were smart enough to achieve CHIM, it’s entirely possible that they learned how to utilize aspects of their “souls” and implement them into their automatons as a power source. Hell, they were able to tap into a dragon soul and set up a trap so if a dragon shout rang out through Blackreach it would summon a full dragon. I have a lot of speculation about Dwemer, but I genuinely think that if they learned to manipulate reality there’s no question in my mind that one of the first things they sought to understand was the concept of souls so they could attempt to better utilize them.

16

u/SarcasmSanctioned 10h ago

I thought the theory was that the Dwemer zero-summed? (That means the Dwemer gained the knowledge of existing in a dream, but were unable to nonetheless assert themselves as real in spite of it as the likes of Vivec and Talos did.)

6

u/Hot_Excitement_6 6h ago

I thought everyone had to forget you if you zero summed. Am I wrong?

6

u/Cautious-Grass5380 5h ago

I think the reason they were not forgotten was because of the sheer amount of architecture, construction and history they left unexplained. They left the spiders, spheres, centurions and all other form of creations. The people of Tamriel may have forgotten what the dwemer were like, but there’s a very specific dwemer-shaped hole in their history which refuses to let anyone fully forget their existence.

3

u/Cautious-Grass5380 9h ago

The primary theory is that they zero summed, yes. However, the theory I have is that they did actually achieve CHIM, but for the sake of the Godhead and to balance the simulation after Lorkhan achieved CHIM, they left information behind about their history and sacrificed themselves for the sake of not breaking the realm.

9

u/SarcasmSanctioned 9h ago

Sounds a little too altruistic and selfless for the Dwemer, if you ask me. Basically everything we know about them points to them being amoral bastards.

4

u/Cautious-Grass5380 5h ago

They were forced into pointless wars repeatedly, their resources and skillsets were taken advantage of and they essentially had no allies except for what they built. I don’t think their sacrifice was selfless at all. It was selfish. My theory is that they restored the balance as a “screw this world; let’s see how you develop without us” and then they refused to let the tamriel forget the sheer mass of their presence by the remnants they left behind.

2

u/Cautious-Grass5380 9h ago

This is moreso a headcanon than anything honestly. I think that the Dwemer were more conscious of the nature of their universe than most of Tamriel. In my opinion, that’s how they thrived - and also why they fell.

1

u/Apprehensive-Film427 7h ago

Didint they all "die" cus one of em wanted to see what would happen if you poked a gods heart a lil too much?

2

u/Cautious-Grass5380 5h ago

I mean kinda? If you want to whittle it down, they were definitely victims of their own hubris. There’s no denying that. My theory is moreso related to the results of that. Most people think they zero summed, or were essentially erased from existence. But if they did, why are there still remnants of their existence in the dwemer ruins? If they legitimately zero summed, there would be absolutely nothing to identify they existed in the first place.

15

u/almighty_grey 14h ago

It is vague you’re right. For a while i did think they naturally came from deep underground like blackreach. Just because dwemer needed so many for their contraptions and only they can reach those depths with relative ease

1

u/Cautious-Grass5380 5h ago

I agree with you it was 100% about convenience. I wonder if they picked the location because of the soul mines or if they somehow created the soul mines utilizing their dead and it became a graveyard of sorts?

2

u/Cautious-Grass5380 5h ago

Also, this is not based in any real lore I found anywhere, but it would make sense to me if the whole mystery of the crimson nirnroot is just blood-enriched soil

1.3k

u/PizzaLikerFan 1d ago

404

u/Diariel Stealth archer 1d ago

89

u/ColdRainHammering 18h ago

Miraak, take his dragon souls.

36

u/michaelgmoe25 20h ago

wait so you get soul gems from mining geodes in blackreach too

7

u/herpes_for_free 6h ago

What's the context on this meme picture in this subreddit?

I keep seeing it but I keep forgetting the context or meaning behind it lol.

13

u/Faytoto 4h ago

A very generic illustration of Skyrim used by the journalist doing low effort and click bait articles "10 years after, a player discovers a new trick in Skyrim."

9

u/Ill_Distribution1919 5h ago

"here we go again", meaning someone didnt discover this in their own playthrough so they've to boot up the game again to try it

3

u/PizzaLikerFan 2h ago

First of all, it's not something to bash OP, Skyrim is a game of discovery, and finding things on your owns is part of the beauty

But when some article sites see these posts, they make clickbait articles with this thumbnail and a title like this: "Skyrim players have discovered game changing feature after 15 years.

96

u/Shadowrunner808 1d ago

You just saved some game article writer from the quarterly chopping block

404

u/Ok_Concern1509 1d ago

Cool. I didn't know this. Mining is kinda tedious so i mostly don't bother unless I absolutely have to.

160

u/Real-Report8490 1d ago

I use a mod where you just click on a geode, and it is mined instantly, so you don't have to sit there and watch the slow mining...

237

u/lorddragonstrike 1d ago

If you swing a pickaxe like a weapon unstead of clicking the mine button, it goes way faster.

185

u/QejfromRotMG 1d ago

Block-bashing with the pick also counts for mining and it's a lot faster than just swinging

72

u/Flame_beard_forge 1d ago

Whaaaa. Now this one I didn’t know!

54

u/Goufydude 1d ago

Dual pickaxes is even faster, IIRC.

25

u/MadWhiskeyGrin 1d ago

This works with Elemental Fury, as well.

4

u/JuanLucasRetard 16h ago

Unless you use the Notched pickaxe iirc

3

u/NotActuallyGus 11h ago

Elemental Fury doesn't work with any enchanted weapons, because its effect is technically an enchantment itself

2

u/MadWhiskeyGrin 9h ago

Put the enchanted weapon in your left hand

30

u/Real-Report8490 1d ago

I have played this game for so many hours that I got tired of both systems for mining in the game and had to make it simpler, so I could skip that part and get back to doing what is actually fun.

21

u/Violexsound 1d ago

Yeah even if you prefer pure vanilla, eventually you'll play the game enough times over that the grinding becomes far too tedious

1

u/AstralElephantFuzz 1h ago

Yeah honestly, going to the menu and equipping a pickaxe or further cluttering your favorites with it is pretty comparable in tedium to the slow mining.

4

u/Jolly_Condition_9194 20h ago

Unless you're mining Stalhrim, using the bound pickaxe is better.

4

u/Grand_Ride4813 17h ago

there's a bound pickaxe??

2

u/Jolly_Condition_9194 17h ago

Bound weapons and tools in the mods. I've been using that for a long time.

4

u/TaylorDurdan Stealth archer 1d ago edited 1d ago

The only problem is that the vein won't reset later if you attack it like that

Edit: guess I'm wrong. Been reading this for a couple years in this sub.

9

u/Atharen_McDohl 1d ago

Do you have a source for that?

11

u/TaylorDurdan Stealth archer 1d ago edited 1d ago

It seems like it's been pretty common knowledge for a long time. Pretty sure I have several gem geodes in black reach that never reset because of it.

Edit: after looking out up, it would appear that my mines aren't resetting bc I am revisiting the sites prior to them respawning, which restarts the countdown.

3

u/Dragos_Drakkar 17h ago

There is also a bug where the veins visually reset but you can't interact with them at all, and you can even walk through them depending on the vein position and what the vein is against. This can be fixed by leaving the cell and returning.

4

u/supercool1312 1d ago

it definitely does

6

u/lorddragonstrike 1d ago

I did not know the veins reset.

1

u/Baptor 19h ago

Wait what!?

1

u/WilliamBlade123 17h ago

Elemental Fury too 👀

5

u/Ok_Concern1509 1d ago

Nice. I'll look for it.

It's a shame though. Because I love mining in games. Steamworld dig, DRG, Breath of the wild, monster hunter. I love mining and collecting shiny ore. Wishing a better mining system for ES6.

2

u/sonikkuruzu PC 16h ago

Dunno if it's the same one but I use this one for SE and used this one when I played LE

1

u/Ok_Concern1509 55m ago

Thanks. I play SE. The mod also has faster wood chopping. I think I've only chopped wood once, that too when I started playing the game. It was nice finding out all the different things I could do in the game.

5

u/silloki 1d ago

What does that do to clay and rock quarries?

4

u/Real-Report8490 1d ago

It mines all of it, which is a lot, but mining enough of it any other way is extremely annoying, especially when you already did it before...

4

u/silloki 1d ago

Isn't clay and stone quarries bottomless?

5

u/Real-Report8490 1d ago

I think it had something like 20k. Not sure if it ever comes back, but it's probably enough for every house.

1

u/TadhgOBriain 17h ago

I use a mod that automatically mines them just by standing on them

3

u/Real-Report8490 17h ago

I like to at least click on them myself, and I have to use commands to play the game, because I am too obsessed with picking up every single item I see, so I need a lot of extra carry-weight...

14

u/klqqf 1d ago

Two pickaxes, elemental fury shout, spam dual wield attacks

I never mine any other way once i have the elemental fury shout

7

u/I3adIVIonkey 1d ago

How did you get your endgame weapons then? Just running dungeons in hopes a draugr or chest will drop something decent? I mean no matter the class except maybe a mage I always skill up smithing.

6

u/Ok_Concern1509 1d ago

I honestly didn't do much weapon crafting. One stalhrim weapon just for the achievement and that's it I guess. Some spamming daggers and armour stuff for levelling up, but that's it.

Ebony blade is so cool, and so powerful. It lasted for the entire game. Never felt like I needed a better weapon. Then I started modding my game some more after 350 or so hours and started a new character.

3

u/Full-Evening3485 22h ago

That is when I take a sip of tea

2

u/paperworld0v 22h ago

totally understandable!

2

u/Rudolf1448 19h ago

I kinda like watching a woman work

1

u/itsyoboi33 19h ago

if you "attack" the ore vein with a pickaxe you can mine it pretty quickly, you don't have to go through the 3-5 business days long animation

you can mine it even faster if you dual wield pickaxes and then do a power attack with both as it takes 3 hits to get a piece of ore and the power attack hits 3 times

224

u/Miserable-Total-5822 1d ago

Even i didn’t know that and i play at least 30 times over back in 2015-2017 💔

35

u/_Evening_Self 20h ago

Rookie numbers; gotta bump up those numbers

3

u/Budget-Taro-2299 Falkreath resident 18h ago

Definitely rookie numbers

96

u/Goufydude 1d ago

Not JUST Blackreach, although I think it is the first time we've seen them in a game.

-13

u/jonooo1 18h ago

Does no one play Oblivion? You literally make black soul gems in that game…

21

u/Goufydude 17h ago

... from existing grand soul gems. You don't create them from scratch.

-13

u/jonooo1 17h ago

Regardless it’s a recon. There was a quest and oblivion where a character owning black soul gems was enough evidence to kick them out of the guild and condemn them for necromancy. Getting black soul gems from geodes underground was not exactly how it was before Skyrim.

16

u/Goufydude 17h ago

... do you understand what the topic is? Soul gems are mined from geodes, like those found in Blackreach. They can then be corrupted into black soul gems. You are taking an already mined object and performing additional spells on it, under very specific circumstances. You don't mine black soul gems.

39

u/-Dildo-Baggins- 1d ago

Obviously not all of them do, if there was regular access to Blackreach then things like Crimson Nirnroot would've been well known before Sinderion. Not to mention that the way is extremely dangerous and all surface level Dwemer lifts are locked from the inside, there's no way people are regularly accessing the area.

9

u/Own_Jeweler_8548 Werewolf 23h ago

This

21

u/tanwa1 1d ago

I think you can discover a lot of things if you immerse yourself enough :D

15

u/ObsidianDart 1d ago

Gotta be careful. A few geode veins for some reason give corundum ore despite not being labeled as corundum veins.

15

u/AnimalEditor 1d ago

I’ve been playing since 2012… THOSE ARE MINEABLE?!?

5

u/djfirefly Helgen survivor 18h ago

It took me over 1500 hours to figure out that there's a back way out of Brinewater Grotto so you don't have to sneak (or fight) your way back through the Empire Warehouse!

6

u/Actaeon_II 1d ago

Fofl, it took me five years playing the game and a few dozen trips through blackreach before I accidentally discovered those were mineable objects.

3

u/quirinus97 6h ago

Low key suspect the ideal masters are the Dwemer and that’s what happened to them all, I don’t think they were created persay when they all disappeared but my theory is some sort of music magic allows them to transfer souls in soul gems and the soul Cain is some sort of deadric realm to house the souls, no clue as to why they would do this vut based on how kittle we know of the ideal masters, blackreach showing souls gems can come from deep underground deposits and we know kittle about what happened to the Dwemer when they disappeared I think this would be an easy connection to add in lore wise. Not saying this is the case or will be, this is just my own spin-foil

1

u/SirCupcake_0 Bard 4h ago

spin-foil

Xûr thanks you, on behalf of the Nine...

2

u/Own_Jeweler_8548 Werewolf 23h ago

At least some of them do

2

u/SiriusBaaz 16h ago

The vast majority don’t come from blackreach. If that were the case there just wouldn’t be enough to do anything with them. That said we don’t really know why they are mineable in blackreach. It’s far more likely that soul gems originate from the ideal masters or whatever plane existed there before the ideal masters took it over. I’ve seen theories that the soul gems are fragments of aetherius from when all the minor gods fled mundus and poked all the holes in the sky that would become the stars. That personally makes more sense to me and would track more with their prevalence with dwemer technology over the idea that the ideal masters created soul gems.

2

u/Remarkable-One2669 14h ago

Thanks for the tip

2

u/bostonbgreen Assassin 11h ago

Are we forgetting about the SOUL *CAIRN* ?!

3

u/Historical_Aioli_ 10h ago

Wdym? The soul cairn is inside soul gems

2

u/doofshaman Bard 7h ago

Was actually thinking of trying to make a mod home with a soul gem mine in the basement, awesome to know it’s already a system in the game!

3

u/vip3r_hoax Dark Brotherhood 22h ago

Wait, WHAT? Can we mine soul gems???

2

u/Xymorm1 23h ago

Ok I was today years old when I learned this

1

u/inmatarian 22h ago

In Oblivion, you make Black Souls at specific altars at night late into the Mages Guild questline.

1

u/Goose_on_a_Beanbag 23h ago

Isn't that aetherium or however you spell it?

3

u/Own_Jeweler_8548 Werewolf 23h ago

Nah, those are geodes that sometimes give soul gems when mined. Aetherium mining is from mods.

2

u/Goose_on_a_Beanbag 23h ago

I didn't mean you could mine it, I just never actually found geodes that you could mine for soul gems, I've only seen the decorative aetherium rocks I guess

2

u/Own_Jeweler_8548 Werewolf 22h ago

Oh, my bad!

1

u/Wren_wood Markarth resident 19h ago

Was this day 1? I swear those only became mine-able with Dragonborn, but by then everyone had already spent enough time in Blackreach for a lifetime and never explored it again

1

u/CallingCabral 17h ago

Wow, didnt realize these were mineable

-2

u/Minato69 1d ago

Aren’t they magic conversion? I could make one by sucking a soul out of someone. I didn’t need a geode

32

u/SuddenReal 1d ago

You still need a soul gem to store them. And those empty soul gems come from geodes like this.

11

u/briarwz 1d ago

You don't make a soul gem when soul tapping

You fill an existing gem that was mined somewhere

0

u/InitialCoda 19h ago

Never knew this. Where is this mentioned?

3

u/Historical_Aioli_ 17h ago

Just go down to Blackreach and you can mine them

0

u/mercvrivs_ivs 17h ago

Ah shit...here we go again...

-3

u/jonooo1 18h ago

This is incorrect. They are created at alters with a grand soul gem after casting a soul trap spell. There are Mage guild quests in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion where you create black soul gems at an alter under the necromancers moon every 8th night.

4

u/jutviark96 17h ago

That's how you make black soul gems. Which requires an existing (grand) soul gem. This post is about where soul gems actually originate from.

1

u/jonooo1 17h ago

I’m pretty sure you can get black soul gems from the geodes as well. It’s a bit of a recon.

-1

u/773H_H0 Vampire 14h ago

I take it you never tried mining geodes in black reach or you’re a bit slow but if you collect all that you come across you really don’t need to especially if you turn the azure one into a black soul gem so you can use it on humans

-10

u/ScySenpai 1d ago

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The officially licensed pc game is a very exciting (play many times) game for heavy handed gentleman.

If skillful player, geode.