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In the Dawnguard questline, Serana offers to do a partial soul trap on the Dragonborn. But being a dragonborn, he/she has the soul of a dragon. Can a dragon soul be fully contained in a soul gem? Serana managed to trap a portion of the Dragonborn’s soul, but I’m not aware of anyone trying to trap an entire dragon soul.

I assume that dragons have 100% soul-trap resistance, so that casting Soul Trap on one would have no effect. If that’s all it took to trap a dragon soul, someone might have done it when the dragons returned to Skyrim. (Enough city guards could kill a weak dragon, even if you don’t help them.) Still, the Dragonborn apparently does not have soul-trap resistance, since Serana was able to cast a partial soul trap on him.

What happens if someone casts Soul Trap on a dragonborn? Did anyone ever try to soul-trap someone in Tiber Septim’s line, for example?

(From browsing UESP, it seems that enchanting was first practiced in the First Era, while the Dragon War was earlier, in the Merethic Era. So probably no one tried to soul-trap a dragon during the Dragon War, but the resurrected dragons ought to be fair game for soul-trapping, if it’s possible to accomplish.)

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  • When you kill a dragon and take the soul you use for shouts, isn't that the same one that would normally go into a soul gem? Once get all the words, the souls just pile up. Would think to get a dragon soul into a gem, would have to absorb it, then convert it. Would be a great mod.
    – Dan Shaffer
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 15:26
  • @DanShaffer That does seem like a good idea for a mod. I imagine a dragon soul would make an amazing enchantment.
    – Molag Bal
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 15:29
  • Wish I knew how to make mods or had time to learn. Even take it one step further, a quest line to get a DragonGem to hold the soul. Or use a Greybeard heart somehow.
    – Dan Shaffer
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 15:49

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[Azura's Star] is also the most powerful soul gem in the game, being able to hold Vivec and Almalexia souls. –elderscrolls.wikia; Morrowind

If (yes) you could trap gods in Morrowind, I don't see why you couldn't trap dragons in Skyrim. However to truly kill a dragon in order to release its soul, one must either be a dragon or Dragonborn.

The Firstborn of Akatosh, who had been transported through time by the ancient Nords, was able to resurrect many of his fallen brethren, as only the dragons and Dragonborn have the power to permanently kill a dragon by absorbing its soul. –uesp.net, Lore: Dragons

So, there may be capable soul gems but that's not how it works with dragons or their kin. If you are capable of vanquishing a dragon, you will absorb its soul.

Even if the town guards had the presence of mind to try and soul trap a dragon, it would fail simply because the soul wouldn't be released and (I would assume that) attempting to on a Dragonborn would fail for the same reason.

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    I would just expand this slightly by explaining that in-universe, the more powerful the creature, the higher level the soul gem required to capture it is. Azura's Star was unique and the most powerful soul gem in the games.
    – Broklynite
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 11:02
  • Oh, the answer is different now. Well, the souls of Nords go to Sovergarde (at least sometimes), so surely a Nord dragonborn's soul won't remain with his body when he dies. I suspect that the dragonborns are not resurrectable the way that dragons are, so it may be possible to soul-trap a dragonborn. Or what if I, as a dragonborn, try to pass one of my extra dragon souls into a soul gem? I guess only a dragon or dragonborn can take the soul of a dragon, but a powerful enough soul gem could theoretically hold a dragon's soul, if you were able to separate it from the dragon.
    – Molag Bal
    Commented Apr 2, 2016 at 16:21
  • I suppose that getting ahold of a loose dragon soul and figuring out how to transfer it into a soul gem is merely a practical difficulty, and that there is no reason in principle why a sufficiently powerful soul gem wouldn't be able to contain the soul.
    – Molag Bal
    Commented Apr 2, 2016 at 16:29
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    @MolagBal to my knowledge, serana does soul-trap you if you go to the soul cairn without being/becoming a vampire
    – Termatinator
    Commented Feb 5, 2018 at 22:53
  • @Termatinator Yeah, but only steals a bit of the soul. Still, it's a bit weird it worked...
    – Mithoron
    Commented Feb 27, 2021 at 20:51

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