Alduins role and purpose

[Relativelybest]

Alduin is a bad-ass evil Dragon, hell bent on ruleing the land-mass known as Tamriel.

 

I gathered that he is regarded as the most powerful Dragon and also first born of Akatosh.

 

But does this mean that Alduin and the rest of the Dov are Demi-Aedric in origin? They live immensly long lives e.g. Parthunaax is proof of this as having been living through the 4 ages, the 1st Age I hear is over 2 thousand years and the second about 800 years...

 

The dragons are described as being immortal in a conceptual way due to their connection with the god of time - conventual mortality actually doesn't apply to them, to the point that they can't even grasp the concept.

 

That said, they don't seem to be godlike or even especially magical beings by Elder Scrolls standards.

 

Anyhoo... what is Alduin exactly?

 

He's the head honcho dragon, pretty much - a unique and very powerful dragon with a lot of legends and folklore surrounding him.

 

Some of that is confirmed by the other dragons (they do seem to believe he has a part to play as the "World Eater", whatever that may mean in actuality) but they also seem to follow him simply because he's the most alpha dragon, not because he's supposed to be some sort of god of destruction. (The moment it's made clear he might actually be defeated, the other dragons emidiately turn less loyal.)

 

I suppose he's kinda the King Arthur of the dragons - supposedly a very big deal, but still just a dude when it comes down to it.

 

He has the means to go to Soverngard, a realm of Atherius for the Nordic afterlife... does this enforce the fact that he and Dragons are Aedric beings of some sort despite thier seemly mortality witnessed ingame..

 

Seeing as he needed a stationary portal controlled by a magical staff carried by a servant, I'm doubtful. It's not like he could just open portals wherever he felt like, like Dagon did back in Oblivion.

 

Put it like this: If dragons are Aedra, they are Aedra in the same sense the Dremora are Daedra. Probably not a good comparisson, but still.

 

You cant kill Alduin as you would a normal dragon

 

Yes you can. He has the same weaknesses that all other dragons have. Hit him with a sword enough and down he goes.

 

and have to resort to ancient and effective magic and also you only get to "kill" him in Soverngard.

 

Honestly, I'm pretty sure you could have killed him on Nirn as well.

 

The way I enterpreted it, he got scared after Dovahkiin and Parthuurnax double teamed him and fled to Sovengaard to gather strenght and feed on souls for a while, and you essentially chase after him. If he had stayed and stood his ground, I but you could have killed him and ended the game early.

 

Even the soul-eating thing is described as "a privilege he guards jealously", implying it's actually something regular dragons could do as well, except he won't let them.

 

How, if anyone knows, would Alduin stand up to a Daedric Prince?

 

I'm thinking not very well, seeing as Daedric princes tend to be game mechanically invincible whenever you do run into them, whereas Alduin can be defeated by a high-end adventurer with access to an esoteric type of magic.

 

...By the way, why the heck is this thread not on the Spoilers board? He's the final boss. It's impossible to discuss him without spoiling the game. o_O

[kingdark]

...By the way, why the heck is this thread not on the Spoilers board? He's the final boss. It's impossible to discuss him without spoiling the game.

 

I agree. This should be moved asap. I don't have much to say except that though.

[DaedalusMachina]

Alduin declares himself (and take that for what it is) that he simply cannot be destroyed on Nirn.

 

Also, they designed Dragonrend to kill dragons. That doesn't mean that Dragonrend ITSELF kills dragons, they used it to remove their one great advantage - flight, which in turn made them much easier to kill.

 

All shouts are "burst effects" so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.