Soul

A **soul** is an incorporeal essence of a living being. This concept is shared by all known Morgaean cultures. It is sometimes referred to as "spirit" (unlike a Dreaming spirit) or "essence".

## Origin and Nature

According to the Holy Tome, the Dreaming began as an "ocean of dreams" and was reduced to a well when the Watcher used its "violet waters", lucenium. He "took from the Dreaming a measure of its living flesh" and created men. The Watcher gifted them with the spark of the divine, a soul made of "dream and idea, hope and fear, endless possibilities."

While purpose and relevance are paramount to a spirit, experiences and memories thereof define a soul. Unable to taste life themselves, demons seek out the dreamers in the Dreaming and draw sustenance from their memories. They copy, and thus preserve, frozen moments that form vast oceans in the Dreaming. Powerful demons can outright steal memories of dreamers, making the person forget certain events.

Dwarves keep their Memories in lucenium.

## Body and Soul

In life, the soul is tied to a mortal body and thus restricted to a specific form; a notable exception of this are shapeshifter mages, who can turn into animals.

## Dreaming

When a person dreams, their soul temporarily leaves the body and passes into the Dreaming, where it is free to assume any form. Dwarves do not dream, so their souls are normally not to be found in that realm. If the souls of dreamers are harmed or "killed", they return to their sleeping bodies and awaken before the moment of death.

It is possible to enter the Dreaming through one's mind with magic and remain lucid. Several mages may be required to perform the ritual, with their powers bolstered by lucenium or blood. A single dreamer mage or even an ordinary mage using dreamer techniques can perform the same feat. A soul of any individual can be sent into the Dreaming this way, including dwarves. However the magic that keeps conscious minds in the Dreaming also prevents them from returning to their bodies, meaning that they may die in both realms.

## Death and Afterlife

The bond between spirit and physical body is generally broken upon death. Most cultures agree that souls of the dead pass through the Veil and enter the Dreaming. Even Dreaming spirits do not know what happens afterwards. They believe there is a place for those souls beyond, but the details are obscured from them.

The Ministry teaches that the faithful rest at the Watcher's side. Until the Golden City was tainted, the spirits of the dead gathered in it. Since then, they journey to a realm beyond the Dreaming to join the Watcher instead.

Anderans presume that when a soul crosses the Dreaming after death, it displaces a Dreaming spirit.

The Cleve and Welserine believe in an afterlife governed by Thora of the Skies, called Twilight, where the dead are reunited with their kin. The Welserine also hold the belief that some souls are destined to be reborn in a new body, with no memories of their past selves; shapeshifters specifically are believed to be former Wilders reborn.

The Orcimar call the Dreaming "the Land of the Dead". Entering this realm while still alive is forbidden by the Orc. Its tenets emphasize that existence is a choice, and one can refuse it.

Unlike all other races, dwarves believe that, in death, the spirits of the worthy return to and rest in the Stone-Mother after the words of a ritual are said. They become the Progenitors who guide and care for their descendants for eternity as well as make the Stone-Mother stronger.

## Lost Souls

Some cultures maintain that not all dead are worthy of the afterlife.

The Ministry teaches that the souls of sinners are left to wander in the Void, hopeless and forever lost. They return to the aether from which they were formed when they enter the Dreaming. Folk beliefs in Nordain and Maudet elaborate that a dead man can become lost on his way to the Watcher's side and turn into a ghost, forever adrift in a land of shadow.

Dwarves believe that in death, the Stone-Mother rejects the unworthy souls of their kin. They are said to become rock wraiths, beasts of stone that wander the Deep without rest and feed upon lucenium veins. "Gangue" shades bound into the rock were once dwarves as well.