When they’re not destroying all of Nazeem’s furniture, dressing up as a spriggan or going ice skating, Skyrim’s Dragonborn can occasionally be found actually slaying dragons.
After all, when you’ve run out of side quests to complete, cities to explore and have had your fill of swimming with rabbits, there’s not much else to do but fulfil your destiny.
So, off you go to slay Alduin and his peers and absorb their power, or, if you’re one player on Reddit, steal their souls before you’ve even landed your first blow.
Have you ever managed to preemptively steal a dragon’s power in Skyrim?
The thread containing this strange feat on the Skyrim subreddit began with a post from the aforementioned player, user WeswePengu, who shared a clip a dragon surrendering its essence to them mid-battle, captioning it: “I absorbed the dragon's soul before I even killed (it)??”
The majority of their fellow players were equally blown away by the incident, with user Kingkush26 revealing: “Never have I ever seen this in my eleven years of service.” and eicere declaring: “This is the coolest glitch I’ve seen lately.”
Others tried to come up with lore-friendly explanations for why this might have happened, with user TheCanadianKnight suggesting: “We have all been playing as someone's dream. This player here is the true Dragonborn.” and shayanyde theorising: “You are Akatosh himself!”
User P9292 was more interested in the practicalities of whatever bug had led to the occurrence, asking: “Once (it was) killed, did you absorb the soul again?”, to which WeswePengu responded: “Sadly not, twas just a premature soul suck.”
Meanwhile, user zhy97 suggested that this might be the origin of Labyrinthian’s skeletal dragon, while Small-Cantaloupe6639 spared a thought for the poor lizard, musing: “That looks absolutely terrifying from the dragon's perspective.”
Regardless of how often you find yourself feeling sympathy for Skyrim’s winged beasts, make sure to follow us for more updates on The Elder Scrolls 6 and the wacky world of Skyrim modding.