Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-25047024-20131230185926

So, anyone who did Dragonborns main quest knows that Miraak apparently needed the Last Dragonborn's soul to escape from Apocrypha. The problem is that he never explains why he really needs the LDBs soul and can't just absorb another Dragon's soul and escape. I have a theory about this, and I'd like to know what you think about it.

Let's begin with Clavicus Vile's daedric quest in vanilla Skyrim. He and Barbas, his other half, are seperated because Clavicus sent him away. If you ask him if he can give you (the player) power, he'll say "As much as I hate to say it, you're almost as powerful as I am right now. But that's just because half of my power resides in that mutt, Barbas" 

Let's say that Clavicus Vile's power (with Barbas included) equals 1. Because he and Barbas, his other half, are seperated, his power is less than usual, which would equal 0.5.

Clavicus said that the LDB is almost as powerful as he is "right now", when his other half is missing. This means that the LDBs power would also equal 0.5 (or 0.49 if you take the 'almost' in).

Now, let's say that Miraak's soul is as powerful as the LDBs ''soul. ''I'm talking about their souls because their souls are the source of their power (and their Thu'um). This would mean that the LDBs and Miraaks soul are equally powerful (0.5).

Hermaeus Mora is a daedric prince, like Clavicus Vile. I'm not sure if one of them is more powerful than the other one, but for now Herma Mora's power equals 1, like Clavicus's power if he and Barbas aren't seperated.

Miraak is stuck in Apocrypha. He wants to get out and he somehow realizes (through a book or some other way) that he has to absorb the soul of another Dragonborn to escape from Apocrypha. But... Why?

Because he needs to be as powerful as a daedric prince to escape another daedric princes realm. He knows that his power equals 0.5 and that Mora's power equals 1. He needs to add another Dragonborn's soul to his soul to become as powerful as Mora.

This is the main part of my theory, but we still don't know why he needs a Dragonborns soul, and not just a normal Dragon soul.

The soul of a Dragonborn is something special. Dragons can't understand mortality because they are immortal. But a Dragons soul in a mortal body can understand it. That's what makes them special and different. That also explains why Dragonrend has no effect on Miraak. He understands mortality, like every mortal does, but his soul is immortal. His body is mortal. A Dragon's body can be resurrected even if it's since 5000 years 'dead'. A mortal body could be resurrected through necromancy, but it would only be a mindless, walking corpse. It wouldn't contain the soul that was once in this body. 