Ok. I looked up the word vault on Dictionary.com and here's what I found that fits the theory:

9. something likened to an arched roof: the vault of heaven.!!!

The Vault of Souls means THE SKY!!! Eragon is supposed to shout his name into THE SKY!!! That makes so much sense I can't believe it took me this long to come up with it!!!

What do you guys think?

But that means he doesn't have to go anywhere to open it, he can just shout out his name anywhere. I think there is a certain place he has to go and then maybe there is a door in the sky and he has to shout out his name to do it maybe?

nah. he still has to go to the place and shout up into the sky. That or he will need the power while he is there.

at the rock of kuthian wherever that is (shrugs) but its a good idea, no-ones ever thot of it before as far as i know, good thinking!! could be, if ur right i will declare u a genius.

ty very much! I'm not sure that would be good for my ego, but go right ahead!

but that doesn't matter. all that matters is that I FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT THE VAULT OF SOULS IS!!!

and editors, and first time reader review ppl, and stuff, and u have to admit, its a good theory, and its one that even with all the brainstorming thats happened in he last few years, hasn't been thot of. i'm not entirely convinced, but part of that is that its still a forien idea to me. were the rock is we can't really figure out, or wat the vault is, but good guesses are worth storming up, and gives the brain exercise, especially in the summer, were we do none at all

but that is again, IRRELEVANT TO THE TOPIC!!!

heh. i know one person who might know....hehehe.

Problem is that Eragon can't shout his name everywhere he wants to. Think what will happen if Galby went for a short trip with his dragon and suddently heard Eragon's true name

don't question Solembum!!!

ya, but he has to speak it, and if i'mnotcrazy is right he coud just say it not shout it, and since when has galby actually left his nasty little corner for very long?

hmmmmm.... that's a good theory. so, Eragon will go to the rock of Kuthian on Vroengard and say his name to the sky. that would make sense. where else would souls go?

According to Gleadr, they die with the body..... Maybe he is wrong, though.

cp would'nt have had glaedr say that for nothing, but maybe the souls somehow got trapped somewhere? i dunno

no, no, no. souls is simply symbolic.

so it's just a hint to what it means. CP's just being cryptic.

no clue what it is, many good ideas, no ones sure.

ryempas, did you just make a blank post?

No, the color I used was just very dark........ Look closer.

you have to highlight it to read it
i think that you are right abuot the sky being the vault of souls. thats awesome (but if you're wrong i never agreed w/you)

well, of corse he has 2 go somewhere! it said go 2 the rock of kuthien (dont no how to spell it) and speak his name 2 open the vault of souls!

wow. that's rather sad. you say I'm right, but if I'm wrong, ur saying that you said I'm wrong. PICK ONE!!! You have to put your money somewhere! and btw, putting it with me is always a good plan.

its a good idea, but i'm not sure enough to commit either way, its to hard to know what it really is.

Some people thinks that there is place called heaven. Place UP. Same people thinks there is a place called hell. Place DOWN. So Eragon can choose if he will go up or down. If he will go down Paolini can spare some time and just copy old book Trip in to the middle of Earth and he will send Eragon to vault of souls-hardcore level

wow great discovery and i just made 1...rock of kuthain...its a mountain...see i bet cp will make eragon go to sum mountain and shout his name to the sky(if imnc is right) so the rock is probably a mountain

but,as imnc knows,i made a point like 5 months ago about how cp said souls die with the body...therefor there is no vault of souls....and then saphiresoul asked cp and he gave me this answer:You overanalyze my books, don't you. The "soul" may not be the kind of soul you think it is.

sum1 figure it out and we know what teh whole rock/vault thing is about

I hate to burst your bubble IMNC but I looked up vault and this is what I got:

Vault (n)
1. arch, dome
2. strongroom, treasury
3. crypt, cellar, burial chamber, tomb, catacomb

Courtesy of:
Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Apparently a vault doesn't have to mean the sky, it could, but there are other possiblities.

lol. Microsoft... NEVER TRUST MICROSOFT!!! I got mine off of another dictionary with more definitions. Usually, the more definitions, the better the dictionary.

there are other possibilities, but mine is probably the most unique and the most probable. Vault of Souls. If you define vault as a strongroom or even a crypt, then it doesn't make sense. There are no "souls" in the world of Alagaesia. Since your dictionary source only gives more concrete definitions and not idiomatic ones, you can not extrapolate the meaning of vault of souls.

i think the rock of kuthian is on vroengard. it is probably some sort of ancient landmark. he will have to go there and speak his name to something. most probably the sky.

what i think the vault of souls is:

the vault of souls contains, u guessed it, souls. where is it? if the vault were to contain some untold power, where better place to have it than Uru' bean. thts where galby gets his unlimited power from. beacuse more and more people die each year, he gets stronger every year. this is also y he lets the Ra'zac live there. they act as his mercenaries, and add to his growing power when they kill. this would also be something tht oromis would not tell eragon. for the reason tht he does not think eragon ready for tht stage of magic, beacuse he doesnt know ,or maybe it is just a forbidden magic. im not sure.

but as for where this rock is, no one said how big it is. the rock could be in the kings palace, as big as a pebble or it could just veery well be the whole thing. i personally think tht it is in tht temple thingy helgrind. once again, y not have it there. arent all those wierd preists cuuting off thier legs and killing them selves there?

oh well those r just my thots on it...

PART 2:

also, if vault meaning sky were it and the sould died with ur body then im guessing eragon would go to a mountain, and look to Heaven and say his name not shout it. kind of like a prayer. i looked up soul and one of the related words was God, so im thinking maybe its heaven also. tht would also tie in to the fact in book two when eragon asked oromis what he believed. and eragon said something like "i dont care what he thinks, there must be a God" or " someone in charge" or something like tht.

idk just what i think.

well that makes sence cp would love to make things complicated.[color=#00FFFF]

[it's not important but the point of "bunny" escapes me.][/color]


[well he is cute right right well your opinion dosen't count at the moment



my dragon set fire to my sister's room.[color=#BF0000]good for her!!

well i am unsure. wouldnt it be hystarical if all of us over analyze this all and its pretty much nothing??

just saying.

I'll say it again: souls don't exist in the world of Eragon, just "spirits", which are different. If souls don't exist, then the 'Souls' in 'Vault of Souls' is figurative, and thus, my theory stands.

it's possible maybe there's a particularly high place he has to go to be heard e.g. helgrind

not the helgrind, unless it had a more ancient name, which it might. But why would CP make the prophecy if it was going to be fulfilled so soon? I thought it would be later in the book when he actually needs power to beat Galby. Well, it's possible. Damn. If that's right and he DOES have to use it at the Helgrind, maybe it will have some power over the enchantment and it will reveal the location of the 3rd egg.

I would like to point a few things out, the sky ... nah to easy. Plus its Fantasy! FANTASY! Christopher doesnt seam like the kind of guy to add a bunch of science into his books. Plus its far to easy.

there wasn't any science...what are you talking about? and how is the sky too easy? no one else has thought of that!

The sky is far to easy! He just has to walk up a mountain and say his name, whether his true name, or Eragon still its to easy. THere is got to at least be something else. Of course its a good Idea, Im not doubting that. But the dictionary part, its not really science, but still. The sky, to easy. It will have to be something else! And I dont think its in Helgrind. But Im not sure.

you mean too easy to do? no way! he still has to find it! that and he doesn't even know what it is. My point is that CP is cryptic, and with there being no "souls" in the Eragon world, it had to be something besides a vault. Arya said she had heard of the Rock of Kuthian but never of a Vault of Souls.

Considering that yelling your name to the sky is still to easy! There has to be something else involved or it has to be something else entirely. Of course Oromis and Glaedr know where it is being ancient riders, so getting there and getting to the top and shouting his name just seams to easy. Paolini doesnt seam like the kind of person to make anything easy.

oh come on. it's hard enough to figure out, and going into some cave isn't exactly hard either. It's not easy if he doesn't know what to do.

true. and who says glaedr and oromis know where or what it is. it could be something so old, it has faded from all memory.

i've sometimes pictured the rock of kuthian as a rock sticking out over a cliff or a high, elevated rock that eragon would stand on, and the vault of souls wouldn't be solid or visible until he spoke his name. something like that.

In my state we refer to rocks as mountains. But the only way oromis and gladear wouldnt know about it is if it exists out side of Alagaseia. Nce guess and all, I just dont think its the right one.

Hm... In Eragon saphira flew so high up into the Beor mts Eragon fell unconsious. For a human to black out because of mere heights it has to be a really great one.

He has to climb to the top of the highest mt in the Beors and just when hes about to black out he says his name and the vault appears. Some 'Mystical' happens and the air becomes thicker with each passing second. I dunno... But I like IMNC's theory, suits CP rather well...

i think you've given oromis and glaedr more knowledge and power than they actually have. they're wise, but not all knowing. for all they know, it could be in du weldenvarden, which is so huge, it could hold any number of secrets. and even if oromis did know, he might have sworn not to tell. so it might be outside of the known alagaesia, but doesn't have to be

We dont know exactly where the vault is, part of helgrind, du weldenvarden, the beors, that itself is a problem, but if you think of how old Oromis and Glaedr are. They would know the names of all the mountains around all those areas, plus I bet Oromis knew as much as he could about Du Weldenvarden before he would recomend moving the elves there in the fall of the riders, Im pretty sure that he would know of any sources of power there, not to mention all the elves that have lived there for hundreds out years. So Oromis and Glaedr would know if it was in Alagaesia, after all the hundreds of years of exploring before he bacame an elder.

Uh Oromis is about 200 years older than Galby. That may sound like a long time but think about it. Galby is about 100 years old so that would make Oromis 300 (20 years to become a rider, 130 to become an Elder, 50 years as an Elder, 100 years since Galby gained power/ fall of the dragon riders). Now from A.D.1000-1300 humans (except possibly some indigenous people) didn't know Australia, North America, South America, Antartica and most of Africa existed. So don't say that Oromis and Glaedr know everything.

First off Galby is older then 100. The riders fell 100 years ago, so he would have defeated the riders at 0. That would make no sense. Oromis was probably an elder before Galbatorix came to power. And were cats can only give knowledge of things they already know about acordding to CP so that means that it is knowladge amoungst were cats, or just solembubm, so it makes sense a dragon would know the location. Yet Saphira didnt so that doesnt work, but still if Solembum knows it, then I m guessing Oromis knows it.

maybe, but does it say that werecats can only give knowledge of things they already know, cause i don't remember that.

No it doesnt. Thats knowledge given to the Skullblaka pay to learn fan site, by CP himself.

its ovbious that the vault of sould is in helgrind. WHY would galbatorixs place an illusion on the cavern IF NOT TO HIDE SOMETHING. and that sky theory, its farfetch but not unheard of.he gains power every year because of the vault, the vault most likly is of wild magic properties, and whats under the roots of the menoa tree is pry a weapon against galbatorixs, oromiss may give eragon his sword and maybe eragon changes the color to match saphiras
Faolin23

its ovbious that the vault of sould is in helgrind. WHY would galbatorixs place an illusion on the cavern IF NOT TO HIDE SOMETHING. and that sky theory, its farfetch but not unheard of.he gains power every year because of the vault, the vault most likly is of wild magic properties, and whats under the roots of the menoa tree is pry a weapon against galbatorixs, oromiss may give eragon his sword and maybe eragon changes the color to match saphiras
Faolin23

hmmm thats a pretty good theory, ive never thought of that, and now that i think about it, arya said she heard the name but didnt know where, she could have heard it while captive! great theory

i think it was just a thing she had heard when she was little. it's probably just an old legend. that's my guess. Also, he doesn't NEED power now. And he can't use it or shout his name because HE'S OUT COLD!!! Besides, the order was weapon first, rock second. And the reason there is an illusion is so that the egg could be kept safe probably. I'm in with the "egg is in the Helgrind" boat. Now the sword is a different story. Either someone else post a summary of the theory or go look in a sword thread.

maybe its both, maybe the egg and the vos is in helgrind OR maybe he shoust his name into helgrind and gets the egg.

agree with you on the egg in helgrind theory, and also, the illusion was also to protect the razac, too. i doubt galby would keep that many valuable things in once place, you know?

Okay I'm new but I've got a better idea...

Whats one of the races that uses stone to secure its souls? The Dwarves they must be intombed in a stone room if someone doesn't give them a proper burial they won't be spoken of until their death.

The first being Korgan *theres a dwarfs name that starts with k* and if you look at the other names its easy to see that "when all seems lost and Eragon's power is insufficient, to go to the rock of Kuthian and say his name to open the Vault of Souls."

The vault of souls is where the dwarfs bury their dead, this is why even the great elves with all their knowledge and blah didn't know what it was cause they keep no stock in religion *though it sounded familer with Arya cause she had been with the varden for 70 years*

So anyways youre wrong I figured out what the vault of souls really is... Burn

that COULD make sense, but again, SOULS seems to be the key part. There ARE no souls in the world of Alagaesia. Vault of Souls, therefore, MUST be metaphorical, which goes right into my theory.

WOW. That's the second best theory I've heard on that subject (besides mine. lol.). Kudos. But why would he want to go into some crypt?

Remember the stone he cut his hand on to be in Oriks clan?

Hes the only human who can... Thats gotta be something? Maybe he will be able to get energy from materials the elves know not. Like how the dwarven priest say they can. I'm just saying theres gotta be something in that.

that does make sense, but Vault has another meaning, like a large cavernous space filled with someting. it could be a large cave or anything else like that, but then again it could possibly be the sky. i still dont think it will be the sky tho... it doesnt add up right 2 me. But then again if im wrong i m wrong

But that's exactly what cp wants! He likes to make us think a theory is wrong, then prove it right in the book. So the sky theory (to me) is the correct theory.

first - DOUBLE POSTERS MUST DIE!!!
second - nobody will know what the vault of souls is until CP reveals it, but maybe its a metaphor. I mean, what if the vault is the actual planet itself, full of the souls of the animals. It would have a kind of sense to it as Eragon would have to draw on the energy of everything around him to defeat Galbatorix. As for opening it... maybe he means persuading all the life around him to give nearly all their energy, leaving only enough to survive, but enough to defeat his foes. It would also explain why he would have to leave Alagaesia forever, because he wouldn't be able to live with himself after hurting so many lives.

is it possible that the vault of souls could mean that its a vault belonging to someone called souls?
because the names of alegaesia r different to ours, so this could be as normal as name there as christopher is in australia

ok, every one is forgetting the most important thing that proves everything here wrong, the rock of kuthian. imnc, is the sky a rock?

no. it says go to the rock of kuthian and shout your name into the vault of souls. you can go somewhere, anywere, and shout your name into the sky. duh.

oh yeah.... forgot about that part... Well that disproves my theory. Or, maybe 'Kuthian' is part of the ancient language and it is the city where the grey folk lived. The 'rock' of Kuthian may actually be just that, a rock. Hidden somewhere in the city. The rock may be the key to unlock the power of the planet.

i'm still confused 'bout the whole thing and why does he have to go to a rock? why not a mountain or a skyscraper?

Going with IMNC's theory that the vault is the sky...he must go and shout out his name in the ancient language. But, like it's been said many times, it could be many different things. Though, I havent read the inheritance trilogy for a while know, i have a vague memory that the Gray Folk brought magic into the world. Maybe it summons them.

i don't think they created it, but defined it. not sure, but i think they made it so magic was controlled by the ancient language and so you could't lie. i think.

A rock can be defined as a mountain too you know...

But didn't Arya say that the 'Rock of Kuthian' sounded familiar to her? So if she remembered, she could take Eragon there.

no. she said rock(singular)

Oops, sry typing error. I'll change it. Rock, rocks, same thing really *waves hand airily*

I don't think he has to speak his name to the sky itself but to the rock Kutian witch could be somewhere high up like in the beors...not at the peak but close...then that would be close to the sky and also close on the ground mabey the rock of Kutian is the name of a specific mountain in the beors...it may not be the beors though but some other mountain range...and a door or something will open up and there will be the vault of souls... here is the exact words solembum said to eragon "Listen closely and i will tell you two things.When the time comes and you need a weapon, look under the roots of the Manoa Tree.Then, when all seems lost and your power seems insufficient, go to the rock Kutian and speak your name to open the Vault of Souls."

thats just my view on the subject...I am not saying yours isn't possible....

i like the gray folk theory. it sounds pretty good to me. they were the creators or definers of magic, so if eragon called them, couldnt they somehow manipulate galbys magic flow? i mean, couldnt they cut him off from his power, or something like that?


but then again, maybe were all just overanalyzing this, and there really is just a rock, and a vault.

I agree gray folk idea, but the rock, the weapon i believe to lie there is a dictionary containing the gray folk's laungauge so Eragon masters it and KILLS DIE GALBXYSBYS

that would be lame...a dictionary...

it's probably not the gray folk. They were said to have died off. Some things are just not meant to be questioned.

volixier, did you read my original theory on what it is that heads this thread?

that would be lame...a dictionary...

it's probably not the gray folk. They were said to have died off. Some things are just not meant to be questioned.

volixier, did you read my original theory on what it is that heads this thread?

You may be right,but I'm not sure

Galbatorix put an illusion on helgrind to hide the ra'zac from Eragon.

Well, actually, Eragon found the Raz'zac in the first book easily enough, so I don't think it was that. Maybe there's more to the Raz'zac than meets the eye, so maybe they have a secret or something.