| Book Information On Soul Shriven, vol 1 |
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This book was never released, and has since been removed from the game files.
It is by the grace of my lord and master, Molag Bal, that I, Mannimarco, was gifted this meager knowledge regarding the process of creating the Soul Shriven. Those debased and pitiful entities that serve as fodder for the bestial Daedra and objects of torture for the dremora are more than just remnants — they are critical to Molag Bal's scheme to absorb Nirn into his own demesne.
I pored over the scriptures given unto me by the Master to determine the nature of the Soul Shriven, for their very existence seemed in defiance of the accepted theory that all stolen souls travel not to Coldharbour, but to Soul Cairn. Nevertheless, in the confluence of events that followed foolish Varen's bid for Divine investiture, it seemed that all souls taken from that moment forward went not to Soul Cairn, but to Molag Bal's own clutches.
And thus, the first of the Soul Shriven were formed in Coldharbour — wretched creatures bereft of soul, an accretion of Oblivion-matter in the form of an echo of what the creature was in life. Interrogation and vivisection followed the arrival of this first Soul Shriven. Between wild spasms of hysteria, followed by deep states of ennui, the Soul Shriven expressed feelings of emptiness, hunger, and desire that no sustenance provided to them could fill.
Of course, this means little given the state of sustenance supplied within Coldharbour, but the diagnosis was hardly difficult to determine. The lack of a soul caused these feelings, just as the trauma of their sacrifice and soul entrapment caused the fluctuating emotions.
Further, and to my surprise, the Soul Shriven showed extreme endurance. They could sustain injuries of all sorts to a far greater degree than a living creature might, and they could be set to work for long periods past the point where a living slave would collapse from exhaustion. However, the Soul Shriven were not invulnerable; the eventual death of the Soul Shriven subject resulted in its complete annihilation, so utterly final that not even a trace of its essence could escape to Aetherius.
I would later learn that this complete destruction had another, unforeseen effect — a soul destroyed in such a manner empowered Molag Bal himself.