The Soul System

The Soul System is Thaelis-Y'Arda's alternative to the Alignment System found in other RPGs. It consists of two variables: Soul Colour and Soul Quality. Existence within Creation is a constant battle between Order and Chaos, good and evil, and the struggle begins within the souls of individuals.

## **Soul Colour**

At character creation, a single Soul Colour is chosen which determines the character's basic temperament - the subjective filter through which they see the world and define their own image. Once chosen, a character's Soul Colour does not change, although subject to their choices and other factors during their story, their Soul Quality can increase or decrease.

There are nine Soul Colours to choose from, each stemming from the spiritual imprint that different Primordials imbued the Over-soul with at the start of time, before its shattering. Once the Over-Soul was reduced to fragments, each soul by chance retained the quality of one Primordial over the others. At the GM's discretion, a second, adjacent Colour from the list below can be chosen as a secondary Soul Colour to add further depth to characters (eg. Darkness (Air or Earth), Stone (Fire or Water) etc.) Characters with two colours mainly display traits of their primary Colour and a few from their secondary Colour.

**IMPORTANT:** The Soul Colour mechanic is a role-paying tool based upon the mainstream psychological model of personality, the Enneagram. It is intended to lend a realistic and cohesive aspect to created characters, not to restrict action in-play or "hem players in". Soul Colour defines only the most broad and fundamental behavioural proclivities of a character, and does not determine more specific traits or qualities.

The nine Soul Colours are named after the divine Precepts:

* **Darkness -** The Touch of Oblivion: Principled, purposeful, self-controlled and perfectionist
* **Air -** The Touch of Urana: Demonstrative, generous, people-pleasing and possessive
* **Ice -** The Touch of Sif: Adaptive, driven, excelling and image-conscious
* **Dream -** The Touch of Dr'Oon: Expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed and temperamental
* **Water -** The Touch of Dagon: Perceptive, innovative, secretive and isolated
* **Stone -** The Touch of Nito: Engaging, responsible, anxious and suspicious
* **Fire -** The Touch of Ignis: Spontaneous, versatile, distracted and scattered
* **Light -** The Touch of Mithras: Confident, decisive, wilful and confrontational
* **Earth -** The Touch of Orboros: Receptive, reassuring, agreeable and complacent

## **Soul Quality**

Soul Quality tracks the amount of demon-taint that has corrupted a character's soul and turned them away from Creation. Almost all souls, even the most virtuous, contain some measure of demon infection, as Oblivion left its imprint upon the Over-Soul when it shattered it into fragments. For this reason, the temptation of the fall will always be something that mortals have to content with.

Inner demons seek to drive individuals to commit dark acts, which in turn invite more demons from the Outer Darkness. The descent into evil begins gradually, often beneath conscious notice, but rapidly accelerates as Chaos takes hold over the soul. The further one slips into darkness, the harder it is to redeem oneself. Likewise, the purer one's soul becomes through meaningful action, the easier it is to resist the call of the demons.

Each of the nine Soul Colours corresponds to a sliding, eleven-point scale that tracks the Purity or Corruption of a character's soul. The purer a soul becomes, the clearer its mind, the more hopeful its outlook and the greater its proclivity towards virtue (its "Shine") becomes. The more corrupt a soul becomes, the darker its psyche, the bleaker its outlook and the greater its temptation to commit atrocity (its "Shadow") grows.

**IMPORTANT:** Just because a soul is corrupt, does not necessarily mean that it is doomed to commit evil. The soul was granted free will, and while the temptation of Oblivion grows exponentially, there is always a choice to refuse its calling and work instead to cleanse oneself. The only exception to this rule is when Corruption reaches Level 5 - when a character fully commits themselves to Oblivion's will. At this point, their soul is inverted and bottomless violation of the Law pours forth.

The Shine/Shadow at each level of Soul Quality for every soul is shown below.

Quality (Purity/Corruption)
 P3 (Providence)
 P2 (Expression)
 P1 (Validation)
 C1 (Erosion)
 C2 (Betrayal)
 C3 (Predation)
 C4 (Destruction)
 C5 (Annihilation)