Dragon Shouts



"They say Ulfric Stormcloak murdered the High King... with his voice! Shouted him apart!"

- Hold Guard

Dragon Shouts, also referred to as Shouts or Thu'um in the Dragon language, are an ancient form of magic prominently used in Skyrim during the late Merethic and early First Era, but has gradually become obscured. Shouts use the vocalization of specific "words of power" to create powerful magical effects, usually for offensive purposes. Each Shout is made up of three words. However, one or two words of a given Shout may be used, but the effect is correspondingly less powerful compared to the full force of the whole shout.

Dragons are able to master and use their Thu'um at will, as this sacred language is their natural language, inborn into their souls from the moment of their creation, (when dragons shout, breathing fire or frost at each other with the Thu'um they are actually having a deadly verbal debate). Mortals are only able to learn and use the Thu'um through a long process of meditation and the practice of the words. There are exceptions to this, these rare individuals are known as Dragonborns, those who are born with the body of a mortal but the soul of a dragon. The Dragonborn is able to intuitively learn Shouts and use them after absorbing the Souls of dragons, and with it the dragon's understanding of the words. As shown during "The Way of the Voice," they can also absorb knowledge from other individuals who have mastered specific words.

The events of follow the Dragonborn as they learn to use the language of the dragons to great effect.

A minority of other characters also have the ability to use Dragon Shouts, such as a small group of monks known as the Greybeards, who live in seclusion inside of the fortress of High Hrothgar. This fortress is located near the top of the mountain known as the Throat of the World, which is said to be the highest peak in all of Tamriel. The Greybeards use their Thu'um to meditate, as well as praise and worship the Divines. However, their beliefs differ from the Blades, who believe that the Thu'um should be used as a weapon in the battle against dragons. There are twenty Shouts in, the expansion adds three new Shouts, and the  expansion adds four more. The Dragonborn learns the shouts which are inscribed on word walls found on ancient Nordic ruins, and are unlocked with dragon souls. There are a select few, however, that are given by the Greybeards as reward for completing quests for the Greybeards along the main quest. Dragon souls are gained by slaying dragons and absorbing their souls. Each word of power requires one dragon soul to be unlocked. Because each shout contains three words of power, it requires three Dragon Souls to be completely unlocked, thus enabling its full power.

These Shouts have powerful effects and provide the user with a variety of abilities. For instance, one shout sends foes hurling away, another shout allows for travelling a relatively long distance almost instantly. Others also project spells of fire or ice, inflicting heavy damage to opponents. The Dragonborn can use a partially unlocked Shout (only one or two words unlocked). The more words used in a shout, the longer it will take for the shout ability to recharge (the recharge time is displayed by the blinking outline of the compass).

Significant events involving Dragon Shouts

 * Kyne, the Nordic aspect of Kynareth, was the one who granted the power to use the Thu'um to the mortal races of men. Paarthurnax was then the first to teach mortals to use the Thu'um.
 * The ancient Nord heroes Felldir the Old, Gormlaith Golden-Hilt, and Hakon One-Eye contrived the Dragonrend shout and used it in conjunction with an Elder Scroll in an attempt to defeat Alduin. By this act, Alduin was cast adrift through time, which gave the winning edge to mankind in its battle against the dragons, and brought about the end of the Dragon War.
 * Skyrim Conquests. During Skyrim Conquests and the founding of the Nordic Empire, the great Nord war chiefs—Derek the Tall, Jorg Helmbolg, Hoag Merkiller—were all Tongues.
 * After the great Nord army's defeat against the Dunmeri Tribunal at Red Mountain, Jurgen Windcaller converted to pacifism and founded the Way of the Voice to be thereafter practiced and taught by the Greybeards.
 * The Greybeards study shouts and are the primary institution for studying the Thu'um among mortals.
 * General Tiber Septim was known to have been Dragonborn, possessing the natural ability to use shouts.
 * Ulfric Stormcloak studied and apparently used the 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. He also used shouts to retake Markarth from the Forsworn who had taken control during the Great War.
 * The Last Dragonborn defeated Alduin and was recognized by the other dragons as the dominant dovah in Mundus during the Fourth Era.

Find the Word of Power
After finishing The Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, Arngeir can be asked, "Have you located any Words of Power?" The location will be added to the map and a miscellaneous quest will be added to the journal. It is to be noted that if Paarthurnax is killed, then Arngeir will no longer give out the locations of the words of power.

Find the Source of Power
After shouting in a specific area, a courier may deliver a letter, which reveals the location of a nearby word wall, although it may be a location that has already been visited.


 * Note: While the locations of the three word walls for each shout are fixed, the words are not locked to a specific wall. Therefore, traveling to any of the walls related to one shout will always gain the Dragonborn the first, second, and third words in order.

Learning Shouts
Once a new shout has been discovered, a dragon soul is required to unlock it. 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 dragons are killed.

According to the Greybeards, a Dragonborn absorbs the knowledge of the words from the dragon's soul. Fully unlocking a shout requires the use of one dragon soul for each word of power learned, with each shout being composed of three words.

Unlocking shouts
To unlock a shout, select it and press the corresponding button.
 * Xbox 360 / Xbox One: Press Button x.png (x)
 * PlayStation 3 / PlayStation 4: Press PS3 Square.png (square)
 * PC: Press the "R" key.
 * Nintendo Switch: Press the Y button on the right joycon.

Trivia

 * Using a shout in a city may prompt a guard to run up to the Dragonborn and request that they stop, stating that it is making people nervous, although this will never create a bounty. A bounty will only occur if the shout harms someone.
 * Shouts are able to damage an enemy without the usage of Magicka or Stamina.
 * Storm Call will strike any NPC within range, regardless of if they are hostile/friendly characters; followers are also subject to being harmed by the Shout.
 * It is possible to learn the first word of Whirlwind Sprint before going to High Hrothgar. If learned before going to High Hrothgar, the Greybeards will teach the second word of Whirlwind Sprint.
 * All three words of the Throw Voice shout are learned at a single word wall.
 * The locations are shout specific not word specific, meaning they can be visited in any order and the words will be learned in the proper sequence.
 * Summon Spectral Clone has voice files (tested with all races) and is available through Console Commands. The ID for the words of power are for Fiik,  for Lo, and  for Sah.
 * With, Soul Cairn Summon is also available through console commands, with the IDs for the words of power being , , and.
 * When using this shout, however, the Dragonborn will not say the words (tested with Nord and Altmer) and it will only summon 1 creature from the Soul Cairn.
 * 44 Dragon Souls are needed to unlock every shout in the vanilla game. 13 Shouts require the full three souls to unlock, four Shouts (Call Dragon, Call of Valor, Clear Skies, Dragonrend) are learned automatically without needing to acquire any Dragon Souls, the first words of two Shouts (Fire Breath and Whirlwind Sprint) are learned automatically, but require two more souls each to fully unlock; and Unrelenting Force requires only one soul, which is used automatically when Mirmulnir dies, with the other two words being learned automatically through completion of the first act.
 * All Shouts can be "sheathed" by pressing Square (PS3) or X (360) right after the first Word.
 * With the  and  add-ons, 62 dragon souls are needed to unlock all dragon shouts. This does not include shouts learned from external sources (The Greybeards or Hermaeus Mora).

Bugs

 * Rarely, a dragon shout will not work, and the Dragonborn will sound as if something is caught in their throat before the first word can be spoken.
 * Sometimes, it is possible for a word wall to produce no word. The only fix for this is to reload a save.
 * There is a chance of, after shouting, it will not be possible to change said shout to another, and it will display something along the lines of, "you cannot switch shouts in the middle of one." To fix it, save and restart your PS3/Xbox. Another potential fix is to switch to a power rather than a shout, as this seems to "unlock" the shout menu, allowing a different shout to be selected.
 * Shouts, like 'Drain Vitality,' may duplicate more than once. Saving before approaching the Word Wall may fix the bug if reloaded.
 * While in combat, the Dragonborn will shout the words, but no effect will occur. In the following time after, they cannot use spells, shout, or interact, but can attack with a weapon.

Appearances


Drachenschrei Thu'um Cris Draconiques Ту'ум Smocze krzyki Dragon Shouts Urli dei Draghi Dragon Shouts Ту'ум Draken Schreeuw