Soul

Within each creature is a divine well-spark of power, gifted to them by the titans. It is an individual's life essence, and with it they are able to perform a great many actions that those without souls cannot.

## Characteristics

When the titans Ordered the universe, they bestowed every living thing that has existed, currently existed, and will exist with a soul. This soul granted them a number of benefits, chief among them is the ability of the self to persist beyond body death. The souls of mortal beings who perish leave the body, which are then shepherded by reapers to their afterlives in Aemidium.

A soul is also a key component to the self and without it, a person or creature is little more than a 'blank slate'. If a creature's soul is taken from them, they operate on little more than primal instinct. They breathe, sleep, eat, and procreate but beyond that they are empty of higher functions. Emotions, mortality, complex reasoning all evaporate when one loses their soul.

Souls are, by themselves, extremely powerful and used for a wide variety of rituals, deals, and weaponry. Demonic souls in particular are a chief currency among demons and inhabitants of the Prismatic Dark, as souls make up the very building blocks of the realm. Mortal souls, typically of races hand crafted by the titans, are extremely powerful and highly sought after by the more darker elements of the cosmos.

Souls do not enjoy being torn from what ever paradise they go to, and are reluctant to return to the cosmos. Nevertheless resurrection and reincarnation can happen, difficult as it is. Because souls linger in the body a short time ─ anywhere from a few hours to several days ─ it is easier to resurrect or reincarnate shortly after death. Once the soul leaves the body it becomes very difficult to get it back, exponentially so as time moves forward. It is also during this time that soul harvesting occurs, as the soul is captured before it has the chance to move on. From there it can be used for any number of nefarious (and not so nefarious) means.

## Enchantment & Crafting

Souls can be used to enchant items, weapons, armors, and anything in between. If the soul is strong enough, an aspect (or multiple aspects) of the creature's personality will begin to manifest within the item. A weapon may begin to speak to its wielder, or refuse to swing. Armor may become suddenly heavy as the creature's soul fights back against its wearer. As a result, the most common (and safest) method of soul enchanting is done by using soul shards. While the effects are weaker, it prevents the creature's soul from taking over the item or manifesting in any discernible way, while still maintaining the benefits of soul enchanting.

Crafting items from souls is a complex process requiring specialized knowledge, tools, and locales. Unlike enchanting, soul-forging destroys the soul in question, and thus does not require the use of soul shards to prevent manifestations.

The most common soul-forged items come from daegoth smiths in the Prismatic Dark. Weapons, armor, amulets, runes, constructs, even buildings can get made from souls. Though this practice is typically reserved for the more wealthy and higher ranking demons of the Dark.

## Deals

Souls are power, and as a result are often used in bargaining. Mortals can bargain or sell pieces of their soul to other creatures (typically daegoth) in exchange for material gain. Power, money, affection, success, and so on. Of course, bartering with entities who wish to steal pieces of your soul can be a tricky prospect in the best of situations. Nevertheless it has not stopped individuals from selling a chunk of their soul in exchange for vast wealth.

Attempting to fight your way out of a deal is often a death sentence. When demonic tax collectors come to collect their dues, any found attempting to squeeze their way out of paying up often ends up dead. In which case, the person's entire soul is forfeit for collection, rather than whatever piece originally bargained for.

Because souls make up one's identity, usually aspects of an individual's personality are torn from them along with the soul. While some may view this as a positive (giving up negative traits), soul tearing is not an exact science. Things may get torn away or become lost to the individual that they otherwise may have wanted to keep. Memories, thoughts, emotions (both good and bad), habits can all disappear due to the haphazard nature of soul bargaining.

## Necromancy

Necromancy involves the shunting of mana into a corpse, and thus requires the body to be devoid of any soul. However, the use of souls in reanimating undead can produce useful servants. These creatures possess some (or all if the necromancer is twisted enough) of their former memories and knowledge, overridden only by the innate desire to serve their necromantic master. A zombie that can follow complex orders involving more than a few words can be very useful to any necromancer.

## Reprogramming

As previously mentioned, when a soul is stripped from a still-living sentient, they lose all sense of self. They are little more than an animal acting on whatever instincts necessary to survive day-to-day. Different souls can be shoved back into these "husks", effectively creating a new person with the same face.

However, enterprising soul-forgers have taken to "reprogramming" souls, by tinkering with them in such a way that they can remove unwanted aspects of or completely rewrite an individual. This knowledge is extremely rare, known only to a handful of titans, daegoth, and demons.