Souls

Souls are an incorporeal aspect of life in this universe. Almost all living things contain a soul (insects are a notable exception - they are sustained by Parvus' influence from the Hive). A soul carries a living thing's memories and personality. Souls form naturally from soul ash when a new living thing is born, and souls persist after the body dies.
It is generally believed that the souls of Galbar form a closed cycle. In the beginning, the Architect brought in a vast multitude of souls from beyond the Barrier. A small number of these souls became the gods. The rest were allocated for mortal life. The old souls of the dead are burned in the Sky of Pyres, reduced to soul ash. This soul ash is then used to create new souls for newborn life. Experiments by Azura have demonstrated that it is possible to create soul ash ab nihilio, but it is extremely difficult.
== Some facts about souls ==
Diffused around the universe is soul ash. This is the raw substance of souls. There's more of it closer to the Sky of Pyres but it's present throughout every sphere unless otherwise specified. It's imperceptible to most mortals. It even escapes gods at times, the individual motes mysteriously disappearing at times only to reappear somewhere else in the universe.
When living beings are created, soul ash coalesces naturally into a soul within them. This natural coalescence is the only known way to create a soul. Souls come in all different shapes and sizes, generally dictated by intelligence and personality. If a creature loses its soul, it loses the intelligence and personality that caused the soul to coalesce in the first place.
Souls degrade (or fray) over time without some kind of treatment. The exact amount of time and rate of fraying varies from soul to soul. The effects of fraying can take the form of some mix of mental and physical degradation, although the exact symptoms can vary. The only constant is that this continual degradation generally results in souls losing their will to resist Katharsos' vortex.
The degradation can be prevented in a great number of ways. It doesn't have to be restricted to god stuff, but heroes, demigods, and gods don't suffer this degradation because of divine essence or Might holding them together.
Souls do not have to be coupled with divine essence and vice versa. Gods are just discreet amounts of divine essence. If they exhibit the intelligence and personality of a being with a soul, they more than likely have a soul themselves. That said, there could be a divine essence without a soul. It probably wouldn't be intelligent like the gods we know are.
Instances of divine essences without souls mostly occur when a god 'dies': The divine essence scatters and the soul of the 'dead' god goes on its way, probably to the Vortex of Souls. The essence, however, reforms after a while. It reforms into a living being, into which a soul inhabits, forming a new character. This is generally how we can justify dropped players being replaced with new players gunning for similar portfolios.
Category:Meta
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Category:Materials
Category:Souls