Soul Trap (Oblivion)

Soul Trap is a spell effect in Oblivion and Skyrim. Though originally of the Mysticism school in Oblivion it is now included in the Conjuration school in Skyrim due to the removal of the Mysticism skill. It has to be cast on a creature before it dies in combat and requires an available Soul Gem large enough to contain the creature's soul. The spell is obtained from vendors who sell spells (e.g. from Selena Orania in the Bruma Mages Guild).

Using Soul Trap
To capture a soul, you must have at least one empty soul gem (of the appropriate level) in your inventory. Cast the 'Soul Trap' spell on the target, and slay it before the duration of the spell runs out. If done correctly, the soul will be trapped in the first appropriate Soul Gem available in your inventory.

When you have successfully killed a creature or NPC before the spell has expired, you will receive a message on the screen:
 * If you have the appropriate Soul Gem the message will be "You have successfully captured a soul!"
 * If you do not have an empty gem, or you do not have a gem of a high enough level, the message will inform you of that fact, and the spell has failed.

If the spell expires before the creature dies, or fails in some other way, you will receive no message.

Be warned that if you do not have a Soul Gem of the appropriate level (there is no small enough stone available) a larger stone will be used instead, effectively wasting the larger gem as the majority of Soul Gems are not reusable. (The exceptions that are reusable are discussed on the Soul Gem page.)

For more information on how to obtain and utilize captured souls, see Soul Gem.

Soul Trap in Oblivion
For those of you who do not have the requisite skill level to use the soul trap spell worry not, as following is one explanation on how to raise your Mysticism level to 'apprentice' quickly, thereby allowing you to utilize the Soul Trap spell.


 * Firstly, go and purchase the 'Minor Life Detection' spell from Edgar's Discount Spells in the Imperial City Market District.


 * Secondly, ensure you possess plenty of 'Potions of Sorcery' (weak or strong), in order to replenish your magicka (for those of you whose magicka replenishes automatically, keep hold of your coin). Or you can cast all of your magicka out and just wait 1 hour as it replenishes by itself.


 * Finally, equip the 'Minor Life Detection' spell from your inventory and start casting it like it was going out of fashion.

After approx. 5 minutes of casting this spell and replenishing your magicka then repeating, a message informing you of your rise to apprentice of Mysticism should appear right before your eyes and, hey presto! you are now able to cast the 'Soul Trap' spell (very useful for creating Black Soul Gems...etc.).

Soul Trap in Skyrim

 * Because of the removal of Mysticism for Skyrim, Soul Trap has been moved to Conjuration as an Apprentice level spell. It still has the same effect as previous versions.
 * The Soul Stealer perk allows all Bound Weapons to automatically cast Soul Trap on enemies upon contact. Target still needs to be killed within 60 seconds for soul to be bound, and only one target may be afflicted at a time.
 * Soul Trap Spell Tomes are purchasable from Farengar Secret-Fire at Dragonsreach, Phinis Gestor at the College of Winterhold, and Sybille Stentor at Solitude as well as from [Falion] at [Morthal]

Videos
A video showing the spell being cast in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim can be found here.