Dragon Shouts

Dragon Shouts (called Dovahzaan in the Dragon language) are an arcane form of magic prominently used in Tamriel, but it has gradually become obscure; in Skyrim there are few who retain the ability to perform these Shouts. The Dragonborn (Dovahkiin) is able to use the language of the dragons to great effect due to his/her ability to absorb the souls of Dragons. A minority of non-player characters also have the ability to use dragon shouts. There is a small group of mages, known as the Greybeards, who reside in the fortress of High Hrothgar, at the Throat of the World, the highest mountain in Skyrim and second highest in Tamriel. These mages are able to use Dragon shouts as well but they had to learn and teach themselves unlike the dragonborn who has a natural ability for it.

There are twenty Shouts in the game. Each shout is performed by the vocalization of specific words of power. Shouts are learned on the Word Walls of old ruins, and are unlocked with Dragon Souls. Dragon Souls are gained by slaying dragons and absorbing their souls. Each Shout consists of three words of power, and each word of power requires one Dragon Soul to be unlocked. Hence, each shout requires three words of power and 3 Dragon Souls to be used at full power.

These shouts have powerful effects and provide the user with a variety of abilities. For instance, one shout sends foes hurling away from you, another shout instantly teleports you from one spot to another, and yet another shout lets you conjure forth spells of ice or fire doing heavy damage. A player with only a partly unlocked shout (only one or two words unlocked) can use it, but the shout grows stronger by every word. The second and third words will also usually increase the recharge time of the shout, limiting the use of the shout.

History of the Dragon Shouts

 * Talos was known to have the ability to use shouts.
 * The Greybeards study shouts and can be a good source of information.
 * Kynareth was the one that granted the power to use the Thu'um to the mortals. This was facilitated by Akatosh granting the Alessian bloodline the power of the Dragons (i.e. use their language, steal their power by absorbing their souls).
 * Ulfric Stormcloak used the power of Shouts (Thu'um) to disable the previous High King of Skyrim in order to kill him. This was part of Ulfric's effort to show that the empire was unfit to rule, supporting the cause of The Stormcloaks, the Nordic rebel force named after him.

Learning Dragon Shouts
Once a new shout has been discovered, a Dragon soul is required to unlock it, which allows it to be used.

Access the Shouts sub-menu from the magic menu. Locked shouts are grayed out. In the bottom right corner of the menu is the number of Dragon Souls available to use. These accumulate as you kill dragons.

According to the Greybeards, a Dragonborn absorbs the knowledge of the words from the dragon's soul. Unlocking a shout consumes three dragon souls. In order to learn new shouts, the Dragonborn must slay dragons and absorb more souls.

To unlock the shout press the X/Square/R button while hovering over it.

On the PC, use the "R" key, ("Ready/Sheath Weapon" by default). If you have remapped this key, use the newly bound key. (for some reason "R" still works when transfering items to storage/companion, but the customised key must be used to drop items from the inventory, crafting items, and unlocking shouts)

Dragon Shouts
Arngeir can be asked where to find a Shout by asking "Have you located any Words of Power?" The location will be added to your map and a misc objective will be added to your journal.

The first word of the shout is always the first to learn, so traveling to the default location of a shout's second word, will only learn the first word, and the locations will differ. All three locations will hold all three words, but it isn't always precisely that word if one is already known.