Eternity, Peace, and Love: Lore-Mining the Soul Cairn

So, the Soul Cairn is awesome, and I love it. Seeing it in Dawnguard peaked my interest, so I started up a game of Battlespire just to explore the Cairn further. (Off Topic, but Battlespire is the BEST Elder Scrolls game for dialog, only it allows you to sass your way through hordes of daedra). I pretty much built my character for speed and stealth, and ran around evading and talking to/with the denizens that call the Soul Cairn home. I wrote down everything any of the undead said to me, and I wrote down any inscription I could find. And piecing it together has been awesome.

The Soul Cairn is, I believe, the most unique perspective on Necromancy that I’ve seen in fantasy literature. I’ve seen plenty of the cliche necromancers, rogue wizards seeking power at any price, and I’ve seen dark warlords trying to spread death and dominion to the world. I’ve even seen some pretty unorthodox necromancers, the virtuous ones that try to improve the lives of the living through necromancy. But ONLY in the Soul Cairn of the Elder Scrolls series can you find the Necro-Hippies that are the Ideal Masters!!

Dawnguard’s version of the Cairn does it a cruel disservice. Most of the dialog is limited to grouchy, pessimistic souls, and gone is the far more interesting dialogs with the more “enlightened” denizens, the Bonemen, Mistmen, Wrathmen, and the Ideal Masters.

Unlike your standard or cliche necromancers, the Ideal Masters of the Soul Cairn don’t want power or dominion so much as they want Peace, Love, and Eternity. They, and many of their servants, see the Soul Cairn as a place that offers all of this. This is pretty soundly supported by their own dialog, the dialog of the Mistmen, and the various inscriptions carved all throughout the Cairn.

The thing I find most interesting is the fact that service to the Ideal Masters is not FORCED but always FREELY GIVEN (at least at first, as the Wrathmen are quite unhappy about their service). In Battlespire the Masters ask you to enter their service, and their servants are quite hostile to you as a mortal interloper, but they never seek to carry you off themselves to press you into service. Additionally in Dawnguard we see many, MANY souls hanging around the Cairn which are NOT among “the Ranks of the Blessed”, which are the Bonemen, Mistmen, and Wrathmen. So it seems that souls are roughly “free” to wander about the Cairn without service. The only ones seen as hostile interlopers are those who are neither Soul nor Blessed.

One thing of note is that Serana is either mistaken or a liar. In Dawnguard she claims only soul-less beings can enter the Cairn, but this seems to be blatantly false. In Battlespire you enter the Cairn, soul intact. Other battlemages from the ‘spire are brought in still living as well. Not to mention the entire army of Daedra using the Cairn as a waystation, also with souls intact. There’s also the fact that the Soul Cairn has a device called the “Twin Fingers of Life” within the “Chapel of Love”, which bears two purposes: Interdimensional transportation, and stripping away the flesh of a mortal to “free” their soul and spirit. If the Cairn DID resist entry to those with both body and soul, why on earth would there be a device only relevant TO beings of both body and soul?? Additionally, there is plenty of evidence that the Twin Fingers are, in fact, used by mortals who come to the Soul Cairn and willingly undergo the process of servitude, evidence I will go over further down in this post. It seems POSSIBLE, as a result of a Daedra army running through their realm during the events of Battlespire, that somewhere between Battlespire and Skyrim the Ideal Masters instituted a “No Souls Only” policy, though in the events of Battlespire the Ideal Masters, except for ONE, don’t seem to care about the Daedra being there, and closing off their realm to the flesh-wearers would strip them of new servants, so I think this is unlikely and Serana either has other motives for soul-trapping you, or she is misinformed.

Also of note on the topic of Cairn misinformation, I’ve seen a lot of posts online that seem to indicate that the Soul Cairn is where ALL souls go when they are soul-trapped. I believe this, like the assumption only the soulless can enter the Soul Cairn, is false. I can’t find a single shred of lore that backs this claim up, and it flies in the face of what we’ve seen throughout the series about the nature of souls. Like, as one example, in the Soul Cairn in Battlespire you can actually soul-trap one of the Wrathmen there, an ex-battlemage who wants to be turned into an instrument of vengeance for what has been done to him. If one can soul trap beings WITHIN the soul cairn, as one can clearly do, then the Soul Cairn is not the destiny of all souls that are trapped. Additionally, there’s major plot points around trapped souls in the Umbriel books, and we see N’Gasta in Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard trapping souls and selling them directly to Clavicus Vile. Rather than this being the place all trapped souls go, I’d propose that the Ideal Masters are just one of many factions willing to buy souls throughout Oblivion and Aetherius, like Clavicus Vile. From what I can tell about how the Ideal Masters seem to honestly view their realm as an eternal paradise, I think that they at least think what they are doing is akin to buying and freeing slaves, as the trapped souls in the Soul Cairn are distinct from the Ideal Masters’ servants.

Now to actually become a servant, to enter the ranks of “the Blessed”, as stated above, the process involves heading to a location called the “Chapel of Love”, taking off your “soiled garment” by bathing in manabeams, and ascending into spirit form. The “soiled garment” being, as stated by the Ideal Masters themselves, a metaphor for one’s fleshy body. Although the meaning also appears to be literal, as the Soul Cairn is littered with boxes of discarded clothing, evidence that mortals have been here before and willingly underwent the process.

One of the first things you see in Battlespire’s Soul Cairn is a stained glass window and an inscription describing this process:

“[[A stained glass window depicts, to one side, many people laboring hard, burdened with great loads, and suffering the agonies of war and death. On the other side the people put down their burdens and are transfigured by a blazing green light which strips them of their tattered soiled garments and leaves them in a perfect splendor of body and spirit. Beneath the window is a simple inscription:]]

THE SOUL CAIRN

Once they struggled, hammered, cried

Fought for justice, honor, pride.

Now from time and tide released

They guard and serve in silent peace”

The Ideal Masters also say that a person’s nature determines the form they take as a servant, which brings me to what I believe the ideals behind the Soul Cairn are about: detachment.

In real-world religions, the concept of detachment is often used to explain a way to bring about the end of suffering, as by not attaching yourself to worldly affairs you can become untouched by them. In Buddhism this is the concept of Anatta, or “Not-Self”, selflessness. In Taoism this is the Wei Wu Wei, or “Action without Action”, a way to free oneself from joy and sorrow alike. An aspirant seeking to serve the Ideal Masters attempts to attain such a state of detachment, enters the manabeams of the Twin Fingers of Life, casts off their mortal garments, and ascends in spirit.

This brings me to the variants of the different Ranks amongst the “Ranks of the Blessed”.

First there are the Bonemen. The Bonemen are the biggest link to the concept of Anatta, for the scriptures of the Soul Cairn read “Blessed are the Bonemen, for they serve without self in spirit forever.” The Bonemen have attained unto them a state of selflessness, and thus they embody the Ideal of Peace, as selflessly they suffer not, and can rest eternally. Back in Battlespire, when the Bonemen actually had a voice, they repeated a mantra: “We die. We pray. To live. We serve.” This mantra explains the philosophy of the Bonemen, through selfless service they attain immortal existence. You can also use an incantation to get the Bonemen to think you are an Ideal Master, by saying “You swore. To Serve. Your Lord”, the Bonemen then obeying you and responding “I serve His Will. I walk His Way.”

Second are the Mistmen. The Mistmen are essentially ghosts, and the Soul Cairn scriptures about them read “Blessed are the Mistmen, for they blend in the glory of the transcendent spirit.” The Mistmen are talkative, but are terrible conversationalists. They say a lot of things, but they don’t listen or react to anything you say. Talking to them reveals that they, essentially, see beauty in the Soul Cairn. They view it as an eternal Paradise where death can never hold sway, and they can be in eternal bliss. Because of their outlook on their realm, I think they embody the Ideal of Love that is enshrined in the Soul Cairn’s philosophy.

Third are the Wrathmen. Uniquely, the Wrathmen are the only ones of the Blessed who hate this world, they see it not as eternal life, but as eternal death, they think they were promised paradise, but they don’t see the Soul Cairn as paradise. Thus, they are really pissed off about their entire existence. “Blessed are the Wrathmen, for they render their rage unto the ages.”

Fourth is the Ideal Masters themselves. Their spirits have no forms but dwell inside gems. They are, largely, completely dismissive of mortals, but they will buy souls from those who are selling or will offer “service” to any mortal that wishes it. They, through this realm, which they view as a sanctuary of peace and love, exist eternally, “Blessed are the Masters, for they bridge the past and span the future.” The Ideal Masters seem to both embody Peace and Love alike. In Peace they eternally rest and generally ignore and are detached from mortal concerns. In Love they are willing to trade power in exchange for trapped souls, to allow the soul to live eternally in what they perceive as an eternal paradise. The Ideal Masters are the Makers of the Soul Cairn, by their own claims, and based on the writing around the Cairn it seems like they want immortality and stasis. The Soul Cairn is, perhaps, like the Redguard Far Shores or is at least built for a similar purpose, to escape death and the neverending cycle of destruction and creation.

Of note, some Ideal Masters are, well, less than Ideal, and “remember wearing flesh” more than the other more detached Masters. These are the only ones of the Ideal Masters who seem to have a level of concern greater than “mild annoyance” for mortals traipsing about the Soul Cairn.

I believe the form a Blessed takes is determined by the mortal’s nature in the following way. Those who embody Peace take the form of the Boneman. Those who embody Love take the form of the Mistman. Those who are too attached to the world to embody either Peace or Love take the form of the Wrathman. It’s also interesting to note that despite the emphasis on selflessness, each person who enters into the service of the Ideal Masters is given a engraving in one of the halls of the Soul Cairn, reading a lengthy description of who the person was and what they did in life.

Then there are the souls outside the ranks of the Blessed. Most of them don’t see this world as good or peaceful, more akin to the Wrathmen than the other Ranks. There are notable exceptions, like Saint Jiub, who seems content to live and work and write in this world (pretty akin to a Mistman mentality) or Morven Stroud who seems content enough to vicariously relive his merchant life. Saint Jiub actually seems to be coming around to the place and seeing it as a peaceful place of rest, perhaps the state of mind he’s in after getting help from the Dragonborn is the state between the endless suffering of the souls and the peace of the Blessed.

The architecture of the Soul Cairn seems, to me at least, a deliberate attempt at mockery. From what can I can tell, the choice to make everything look like tombs and coffins, the choice to have grave markers and ruined buildings everywhere, was all deliberate choice on the Ideal Masters for the sole purpose of mocking death itself. The Ideal Masters view undeath and their realm as a state of Eternal Life, thus having a realm with the outward appearance of death and ruin while it is filled with “life” and all the apparent ruins are functional buildings is probably amusing to them in some way (or, at least, was amusing back when amusement was possible for them). Also consider the mysterious Reaper, a being of death, dressed as an executioner, the symbol of death, daedric in origin. The Reaper is trapped into a soul gem which is then shattered, the pieces concealed around the Soul Cairn. Perhaps a symbolic gesture of the Ideal Masters’ defeat of death itself??

Next, my notes from exploring the Cairn. Of most relevance to this realm and its philosophy, the words of the Mistmen and engravings I discovered on gravestones in one of the courtyards of the Soul Cairn. Here they are below with my thoughts on them:

“Death is the Mother of Beauty.”

This piece of Mistman dialog seems to indicate that death gives birth to beauty, because death gives birth to undeath, and as we all know by this point in time, being undead is a state of constant bliss and serenity.

“The seasons turn to winter. In the frozen whiteness, time stands still.”

This verse in particular makes me think that the Ideal Masters are after the same thing as the Redguards in the Far Shores are. It describes poetically the cessation of change in favor of stasis, and speaks of defeating time. Any being in the Elder Scrolls seeking TRUE immortality must at some point confront the kalpa cycle, so maybe this talk about bringing time to a standstill and the existence of the Cairn as an otherworldly realm outside of Nirn is a method of surviving the kalpas, like the Far Shores.

“We came this far for beauty. We came this far for love. From this place we can see forever.”

Again here we get reinforcement that the Ideal Masters and Mistmen believe this place both full of beauty and love. We also get reinforcing themes of eternity, “From this place we can see forever”, as if in defiance of not just death but of Akatosh and time as well.

“There will be no sad farewells, no tears goodbye. No death stalks this distant shore of peace and love.”

Here we have WHY a Mistman believes the Soul Cairn is paradise. There is never any separation from his loved ones here. All the ghosts here can live together eternally. Also of note this is the first instance of the Soul Cairn being called a “distant shore”, which may be important.

“Judge no man, mortal, born to die, happy before his death. In death, all is peace and joy, serene, eternal.”

We have a little bit about how mortals should not be judged (fitting the theme of detachment) paired with again another declaration about how being undead is awesome.

“We lift the veil, and enter into night, eternal night, glorious with stars.”

“Lifting the veil” can be a metaphor for revealing the truth, “entering into the night” being entering into undeath, “eternal night” meaning eternally, and “glorious with stars” again reinforcing that undeath is good.

“Love is stronger than death. He who serves death shall not die.”

A saying on the power of love and immortality through service.

“Beyond death, there is no fear, no shame. In death, the spirit arises, pure and proud.”

More in the theme of undeath is awesome.

“Deep be roots, sturdy be limbs, tough be fibers of bark and heartwood... But, mortal, before the winds of death, you cannot stand.”

A verse on the fragility of life and mortality, the superiority of death to life, and presumably an implication that undeath is superior to life for it is not destined to death.

“Be assured that death is evil, for were it good, the gods would ALL surely die.”

Here the Mistman is saying that eternal life must be good, because if death was preferable then wouldn’t the gods themselves choose to die?? Apparently this Mistman hasn’t read up on his lore because the gods ARE kinda dead. The Aedra are, at least.

“Neither prophet nor profit, we pass empty handed into the light.”

This is the start of what I found on tombstones. Most appear to have sayings of undeath/eternal life carved into what is usually a marker of death, fitting the theme of mocking death through architecture that I have witnessed throughout the Soul Cairn. This one specifically touches on the topic of detachment, rejecting profit and passing “empty handed” into a state of selfless eternity.

“I was, wasn’t, and was again forever”

Put simply: I lived. I died. Now I’m undead forever.

“Poor Alex… exported from this life.”

“Quadrillo Pig gave up the ghost.”

Both of the above seem like in-jokes by the developers, they don’t really seem to mesh much with what else is on the tombstones.

“In those worlds beyond the sun, no darkness hides this distant shore”

This one I find interesting. First, it calls the Soul Cairn “beyond the sun”, which, if true in a literal sense, would mean that the Soul Cairn is not in Oblivion as is commonly believed, but is in Aetherius. It also is the second time we see something calling the Soul Cairn a “distant shore”. A more tinfoil theory for another day, perhaps, is, given the similarity between the Soul Cairn and Far Shores, plus the fact that many residents OF the Soul Cairn seem to call it a “Distant Shore”, is it possible that the Soul Cairn is related to the Far Shores?? The stated purpose of both realms and the fact that “Distant Shore” has appeared twice now are enough to make me consider this possibility.

“We have done, and do, and will do. The gentle flower of the sun doth triumph o’er the grave.”

A verse about eternal existence and triumph over death.

“Genius and power passes. Peace and constance triumphs.”

We have themes of detachment here with the rejection of mortal things like genius and power in favor of peace and eternity.

“Shift my oars and wherry, for I shall pass over in the company of friends and lovers.”

Here we have a boat metaphor to passing over into this realm of love. Again the nautical themes are making me think there may be some connection with the Far Shores to all of this.

“The soul serves that Never Dies The Saint that Saved Us All.”

This one is interesting. First we have the service equals immortality theme we’ve seen before, and also reference to a “Saint that Saved Us All”. We know that the Soul Cairn was created by the Ideal Masters (or, at least, they say it was), but could this Saint have been the one to first lead them to the idea??

“Thus do I cheat the worms of their unjust plunder.”

Again, themes of overcoming death itself, and also fits the “mocking death” theme observed throughout the Cairn.

“Sacred Honor, Loyal Love, Eternal Service”

Honor, Love, Service. All aspects of the Soul Cairn.

Oh, and finally I'm noticing a big obsession with Dragons that the Ideal Masters seem to have. There are dragon motifs carved all around the Soul Cairn in Battlespire, there are dragonbones and dragonbone items in the Cairn in Dawnguard, not to mention the actual dragon necromancer that the Ideal Masters have tricked into service. There is something they are obsessed with when it comes to dragons, my guess would be interest in either the immortality of the dragons or, possibly, in their association with Time, which the Ideal Masters seem to view as an adversary. Perhaps the deceased/enslaved dragons that litter the realm are a testament to their victory over Time itself.

TL;DR: The Soul Cairn is Freaking Awesome, Hippie Necromancers Forever!!

Now I’m off to go play some ESO and examine the Far Shores a bit more closely.