Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26492438-20150613104655/@comment-5989209-20150627125720

Not true. You can learn words just like everyone else. But given that you don't exactly have time to do that, with the apocolypse being right around the corner, you needed to absorb that knoweldge directly. And technically, not only would each dragon killed make your Thu'um more powerful, it would also give you all of that dragon's knoweldge. Unlocking shouts is a game mechanic for obvious balance reasonings. Dragonrend being the obvious exception, as you clearly are already mortal and don't have to actually become it.

As to the topic of this thread: No. You are right that the Dragonborn isn't from Skyrim, just like every other ES Hero they are from Cyrodiil, the perfect place for a blankslate with less bias and Empire motivations. But no, the Last Dragonborn was always Dragonborn. Akatosh is the Aedric God of Time. He knew who you were the second he knew who he was. He knew where Alduin would re-enter Mundas. He knew that a certain prisoner we all know and love would not only escape execution, but also be prepelled towards Mirmunlnir, and thus would kill a dragon, your dragon soul didn't exactly help there and in game it's stated you're the one that actually kills it. Why not stuff a little piece of himself inside this one person, who will no longer exist, so they can absorbe that soul, be sent to the Greybeards to do this whoe crazy sequence of coincidences. Because it's not a coincidence. Akatosh knew it would happen, and planed accordingly. It's also nice when your plan to kill the other you falls right in line with an Elder Scroll, this one showing a future you'd really like to happen. Unfortunately, Elder Scrolls don't work that way. A "hero"(which most people call Shezarrine, a literal incarnation of Shor(Lorkhan) to keep it simple) needs to act it out to set the Scroll in stone. ''"Each event is preceded by prophecy. But, without the hero, there is no event." ''Literally. So this can't just be any Dragonborn. This needs to be a special Dragonborn. A Dragonborn like Tiber Septim, a dragon and an aspect of Lorkhan as one. Akatosh isn't going to make his last ditch effort to keep this world going on a fluke. Not when he's an omniscient duel personalitied god.

Of course, you also asked about Miraak that's simple really, in the grand scheme. Miraak can't actually defeat Alduin, all the mantlings and wacky lore reasons that push this cycle of the world forward won't actually happen if Miraak just defeats Alduin, Alduin needs to die in the Fourth Era for a ton of other prophecies to happen one that probably also involves our Last Dragonborn eating the first. Miraak had to be Dragonborn for these events to happen.