Dragon Soul



A  is the soul of a Dragon in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. They are used to unlock and upgrade various types of Thu'um (called Shouts in the mortal tongue). Although words of the Dragon language can be learned from Word Walls without Dragon Souls, Dragon Souls are required to unlock and then upgrade those new Thu'um.

Dragon Souls are absorbed by a Dragonborn immediately upon slaying a Dragon.

Use
The number of Dragon Souls you have can be found in the Magic tab of the Character Menu. They are kept until they are spent unlocking or upgrading a Thu'um. All new Shouts other than the ones given to you need to be unlocked before they can be used. To do so, acquire a Dragon Soul, then select the Shout the Magic tab after acquiring a Thu'um. This same method is used to upgrade the strength of a Thu'um.

Bugs

 * Prior to Patch 1.2, sometimes the dragons would not burn away after dying, thus allowing no Dragon Souls to be absorbed.
 * Could not collect soul from Blood Dragon after patch 1.2 on Steam.
 * Could not collect soul from Blood Dragon after patch 1.3 on Steam.
 * Could not collect soul from Dragon twice, after patch 1.3.10.0 on Steam
 * Could not collect soul from 'Blood Dragon' after patch 1.5.24.0 on Steam
 * Could not collect soul from Blood Dragon.
 * Cannot collect dragon soul from Blood Dragons on PS3
 * Cannot unlock thu'ums even though dragon souls are absorbed and able to be spent
 * Could not collect soul from blood dragon and 3 other types on 360
 * Cannot collect soul from dragon on Mount Anthor on PS3