Eis & Aōs

## Overview

### Summary:

Eis function as both the heart and mind of a conscious being and are the only essential component to what makes one. Eis are what provides beings with consciousness and memory that persists beyond a single plain / realm. There are four parts which make up a soul; The Coal, the Hearth, the Inner Wall, and the Outer Walls. There are also 44 universal runes which align with 44 unique sounds and are used for the souls.

All things which are their own individual object have at least one Eis inhabiting it. This goes from what is expected, people and animals, but also extends to absolutely anything fitting the criteria, including plants, insects, microbes, and even inanimate things like stones, or things more conceptual, like a river. Bodies of water or air will typically be considered a single object even though they are not firmly attached together at the molecular level due to being in close enough proximity.

Aōs function as the way in which the Eis receive information and perform actions. Aōs are what allow beings to perceive and interact with the world outside of themselves. Aōs, unlike Eis, are constructed from a single type of matter can only interact with the single plain / realm which it is a part of. There is no universal consistency between different Aōs, having them range between many senses to only one, or many appendages, to none, etc.

## Life Cycle:

Eis start out as a tiny tetrahedrons attached to inanimate objects. They then grow over time, changing its polyhedral shape as necessary and acquiring more and more runes upon it's surface. If / when the current Aōs of an Eis dies, that Eis will be tested for sapience. If it fails the test it will be put into the reincarnation loop, and every subsequent time it fails, it goes back to the loop again.

Most Eis stay within the loop of reincarnation for millions of years. When a soul needs to reincarnate, it's Aōs is chosen based upon its current progress to sapience. So Eis start out within inanimate objects, which can take a very long time to be destroyed, and which do not usually have much opportunity to grow. Then the cycle goes to microbes, to things like plants etc., then insects, and then going up the animal hierarchy of size and intelligence until it finally reaches truly intelligent beings like most humanoids at the top. Typically an Eis requires no more than 2 lives as a humanoid before it reaches sapience, with only a single life as a humanoid being very common as well.

The final step once this state has been reached is to serve as an accompanying Eis to one which still has a mortal Aōs. During this, this Eis will act as guardian and companion to the other Eis. When the other Eis's Aōs has died, the guardian Eis will be given 4 choices. They can either be reincarnated with a mortal Aōs, reincarnated with constructed Aōs, further evolve within an immortal Aōs, or voluntarily face annihilation and return to the void from before their original inception. Any time when the Aōs of an Eis is destroyed, it will be presented with the 3 choices again.

The growth and progress towards sapience happens in a sort of exponential way, in which the growth is the very slowest at the beginning, and it slowly speeds up until at the end it is very fast, finally having an abrupt halt upon completion.

## Appearance:

An Eis, from the outside, looks like an orb or sphere that is semi-transparent and glowing. Around this central orb is an aura of magical energy that manifests itself as varied auras. This aura directly around the Eis is highly painful to touch, due to the high concentration, whether the person touching is physical or spiritual. Different types of Eis glow different colors, with a similar color of flame around it.

### Standard Soul Stats:

* Diameter: Roughly 2.00 inches
* Mass: Roughly 0.33 kilograms
* Information Capacity:
	+ Experience Memory: ~ 1,000 yun
	+ Inherited Memory: ~ 1,000,000 yun
	+ Factual Information: ~ 2.861 Petabyte

## Memory

Experience Memory is memory from an Eis's current Aōs, how much memory could be stored if it was being recorded nonstop throughout all waking hours. Naturally most memories fade, and some are prioritized over others, so certain memories can be kept well past the 1,000 yun mark and many other will take a fair bit longer than 1,000 yun before fading from conscious memory completely.

Inherited Memory is separated between past incarnations and the familial line. During the stage where the Aōs is in the womb, or egg, etc, before birth, it is unconsciously deciding which compressed subconscious memories, experiences, skills, from its own past incarnations to keep and which from its close family to copy over to itself. If it is full up on inherited memory already, then the Eis will have to discard lower priority information that it already has to take in the new inherited memory.

Factual information can be summarized as stuff like numbers, dates, places, names, and any other information that is no longer sensory memory specifically. Memory can be likened to video files while 'factual information' is essentially just notes / documents / spreadsheets of the soul.