Life, Death, and The Soul.
"The body is a mask. The soul is the actor. And the stage? That changes, sometimes into a field, sometimes into fire."
The soul is not faith, it is structure. The soul is the binding force between The Arcane and all the known worlds, our realm of The Folklands and beyond, an invisible conduit of magickal current, the root of all life and identity. Every living being bears one, though its strength, shape, and purity vary wildly. Some burn clean and bright, others seethe with inherited sin or memory, refusing the silence of death. The soul endures where the body fails, but never unscarred. It mutates under pressure, faith, geography, and trauma twist its form until no two are alike. For some, death is passage, for others, it is fragmentation or tortuous damnation. The Arcane Coalition, the wards of magick, born from centuries of fear and ruin, calls the soul a volatile instrument, sacred but unstable, and far too valuable to leave unregulated. Their License to Practice Magick forbids work on souls without heavy sanction, yet their own prisons drink from the essence of those confined. Hexsteel blades cut the tether clean, leaving not even ghosts. Mire-Iron chains hum with quiet malice, eroding the will until the prisoner’s spark gutters out. It is said that beneath their main base, Fort Sunless., where the air tastes of rust and rainless storms, something ancient feeds on the silence of extinguished spirits. The Coalition denies it, of course, but the condemned vanish without echo.
To study the soul is to trespass in the machinery of creation. It channels, like blood carries heat, shaping reality within their bodies through every act of will or worship. Some call it divine inheritance; Others, the residue of an old catastrophe when magick first bled into matter to give purpose to our world. In Everwealth, belief shapes where a soul travels, faiths, curses, and even professions determine the map of eternity. The Hallowed Path teaches that worthy souls become stars. Worshippers of the god Xaethra imagine a mirrored judgment where one’s reflection becomes both jury and executioner. The mountain tribes say each life is a knot in a god’s hair, untied only by dishonor. None are wrong, for the Arcane answers all conviction equally. Reincarnation is no mercy, it is repetition. Necromancers thread splinters of identity into corpses, Alchemists bottle memory like perfume, Warlocks fuse their spirits to infernal patrons for borrowed power. Some bastardize the sanctity of one's soul to ascend as Liches, intellects housed in rotting vessels, their souls bound tight beyond it to keep from dissolving. Yet even they pay a price. For every life prolonged, a hundred are consumed to feed it. The soul, though infinite in theory, burns down like oil in a lamp. When its light fades, gods, ghosts, and mortals alike stoop to drink what remains.
The Breath Behind the Flesh:
The soul is not the origin of magick, but the key that unlocks it. A mortal soul channels it from the well in-which it flows, The Arcane, pouring into our world from the stars; Rivers of celestial energy threading through the void, determining what is hot or cold, solid or liquid by what magick touches as it flows into our otherwise lifeless plane of rock and metal. Yet the soul is the only known vessel capable of not just withstanding the arcane currents of raw, formless energy, but redirecting it, through their soul and out through the body to meet their desires. It is the conduit through which magick expresses itself, the filter that shapes miracles from chaos. Every living creature possesses a soul, and that soul reflects, magnifies, or impedes the flow of The Arcane in unique ways. Stronger souls bend reality with ease, brittle ones snap under strain. This variance determines one's potential as a caster, the success of enchantments laid upon their body, and most importantly here, their fate after death. When the body fails, the soul, unknowable conduit of the infinite as it is, persists, but where it goes, and what shape it takes, is not a certainty. It is a mystery dictated by belief, action, and often, the god who whispers loudest in the moment of death. Continuance After Death:
Death in Everwealth is not an end, but a forked road. The afterlife is not a singular place but a lattice of overlapping realms, some ruled by gods, others haunted by memory, rage, or unfinished purpose. Some gods judge. Others simply house. The trick is knowing which kind you serve. A devout worshipper of Ny'yala may find themselves reborn through celestial judgment, while a heretic of her ways may instead awaken in an endless labyrinth demonstrative of her mastery of the cycles of time. Those who die in agony or fear, especially near cursed sites, may never leave at all. Their souls rot within their corpses, grief too strong to release them, mutating into revenants, specters, or worse. Mages, alchemists, and even scholars have tried to categorize these pathways. Most agree on four major post-mortal states:
Flesh and Star:
Because of the soul’s function as a magickal conduit, it too can be manipulated. This is the foundation of many arcane traditions in Everwealth. Necromancy tampers with the soul’s anchor, raising the dead by imitating its presence or forcing a fragmented spirit back into its shell. Enchanting embeds echoes of the caster’s soul into objects or people, allowing for magickal permanence. Alchemical augments often tap into the soul’s structure directly, strengthening or altering its “channels” using tinctures, ichors, or soul-reactive materials like Wraith Salts. The soul can be branded, leashed, fractured, even stolen. Some cults harvest soul fragments in glass reliquaries to fuel long-lost rituals. Others chase the Starborn Ideal, a state wherein one’s soul becomes so attuned to the Arcane flow from the stars that they cease to age, becoming perfect arcane conduits in mortal form. But such a state has never been achieved, even though many of the best mages today believe such a state is entirely possible. The Arcane Coalition has long sought to regulate soul magicks, but they themselves engage in it, their Hexsteel weapons for-instance sever a soul’s tether on contact, likewise Mire-Iron cells lining their dungeons erode the will to live from constantly irritating the soul itself. These practices are not condemned… because they are not public, or because when they are the Coalition itself is often their only oversight, and obviously is not opposed to such methods to begin with. Common Theories:
What all traditions agree upon is this, the soul is not of this world. It flows from the stars, drawn into flesh through birth for reasons unknown where it shaped by experience, and tested by magick. Those few who have touched the raw, unknowable Arcane without completely succumbing to madness, describe it not as simple power, but, memory. The stars, it seems, remember everything… and through them, so do we. Some believe this is how reincarnation occurs; The stars, acting as the memory-keepers of all the realms, allowing fragmented souls to re-form if the conditions echo what came before. Others believe this is simply the Arcane reshaping patterns, soul as echo, not continuity. Regardless, many seek to “burn brighter,” to leave an imprint the stars cannot forget. Whether that is a blessing or a curse depends on the soul.
The soul is not faith, it is structure. The soul is the binding force between The Arcane and all the known worlds, our realm of The Folklands and beyond, an invisible conduit of magickal current, the root of all life and identity. Every living being bears one, though its strength, shape, and purity vary wildly. Some burn clean and bright, others seethe with inherited sin or memory, refusing the silence of death. The soul endures where the body fails, but never unscarred. It mutates under pressure, faith, geography, and trauma twist its form until no two are alike. For some, death is passage, for others, it is fragmentation or tortuous damnation. The Arcane Coalition, the wards of magick, born from centuries of fear and ruin, calls the soul a volatile instrument, sacred but unstable, and far too valuable to leave unregulated. Their License to Practice Magick forbids work on souls without heavy sanction, yet their own prisons drink from the essence of those confined. Hexsteel blades cut the tether clean, leaving not even ghosts. Mire-Iron chains hum with quiet malice, eroding the will until the prisoner’s spark gutters out. It is said that beneath their main base, Fort Sunless., where the air tastes of rust and rainless storms, something ancient feeds on the silence of extinguished spirits. The Coalition denies it, of course, but the condemned vanish without echo.
To study the soul is to trespass in the machinery of creation. It channels, like blood carries heat, shaping reality within their bodies through every act of will or worship. Some call it divine inheritance; Others, the residue of an old catastrophe when magick first bled into matter to give purpose to our world. In Everwealth, belief shapes where a soul travels, faiths, curses, and even professions determine the map of eternity. The Hallowed Path teaches that worthy souls become stars. Worshippers of the god Xaethra imagine a mirrored judgment where one’s reflection becomes both jury and executioner. The mountain tribes say each life is a knot in a god’s hair, untied only by dishonor. None are wrong, for the Arcane answers all conviction equally. Reincarnation is no mercy, it is repetition. Necromancers thread splinters of identity into corpses, Alchemists bottle memory like perfume, Warlocks fuse their spirits to infernal patrons for borrowed power. Some bastardize the sanctity of one's soul to ascend as Liches, intellects housed in rotting vessels, their souls bound tight beyond it to keep from dissolving. Yet even they pay a price. For every life prolonged, a hundred are consumed to feed it. The soul, though infinite in theory, burns down like oil in a lamp. When its light fades, gods, ghosts, and mortals alike stoop to drink what remains.
The Breath Behind the Flesh:
The soul is not the origin of magick, but the key that unlocks it. A mortal soul channels it from the well in-which it flows, The Arcane, pouring into our world from the stars; Rivers of celestial energy threading through the void, determining what is hot or cold, solid or liquid by what magick touches as it flows into our otherwise lifeless plane of rock and metal. Yet the soul is the only known vessel capable of not just withstanding the arcane currents of raw, formless energy, but redirecting it, through their soul and out through the body to meet their desires. It is the conduit through which magick expresses itself, the filter that shapes miracles from chaos. Every living creature possesses a soul, and that soul reflects, magnifies, or impedes the flow of The Arcane in unique ways. Stronger souls bend reality with ease, brittle ones snap under strain. This variance determines one's potential as a caster, the success of enchantments laid upon their body, and most importantly here, their fate after death. When the body fails, the soul, unknowable conduit of the infinite as it is, persists, but where it goes, and what shape it takes, is not a certainty. It is a mystery dictated by belief, action, and often, the god who whispers loudest in the moment of death. Continuance After Death:
Death in Everwealth is not an end, but a forked road. The afterlife is not a singular place but a lattice of overlapping realms, some ruled by gods, others haunted by memory, rage, or unfinished purpose. Some gods judge. Others simply house. The trick is knowing which kind you serve. A devout worshipper of Ny'yala may find themselves reborn through celestial judgment, while a heretic of her ways may instead awaken in an endless labyrinth demonstrative of her mastery of the cycles of time. Those who die in agony or fear, especially near cursed sites, may never leave at all. Their souls rot within their corpses, grief too strong to release them, mutating into revenants, specters, or worse. Mages, alchemists, and even scholars have tried to categorize these pathways. Most agree on four major post-mortal states:
- Dissolution - the soul fades, lost to the Arcane flow.
- Judged Passage - the soul is taken by a god to their realm.
- Wandering - the soul lingers in the mortal plane, often tied to a person, object, or oath.
- Corruption - the soul is warped by magick, possession, or necromantic failure.
Flesh and Star:
Because of the soul’s function as a magickal conduit, it too can be manipulated. This is the foundation of many arcane traditions in Everwealth. Necromancy tampers with the soul’s anchor, raising the dead by imitating its presence or forcing a fragmented spirit back into its shell. Enchanting embeds echoes of the caster’s soul into objects or people, allowing for magickal permanence. Alchemical augments often tap into the soul’s structure directly, strengthening or altering its “channels” using tinctures, ichors, or soul-reactive materials like Wraith Salts. The soul can be branded, leashed, fractured, even stolen. Some cults harvest soul fragments in glass reliquaries to fuel long-lost rituals. Others chase the Starborn Ideal, a state wherein one’s soul becomes so attuned to the Arcane flow from the stars that they cease to age, becoming perfect arcane conduits in mortal form. But such a state has never been achieved, even though many of the best mages today believe such a state is entirely possible. The Arcane Coalition has long sought to regulate soul magicks, but they themselves engage in it, their Hexsteel weapons for-instance sever a soul’s tether on contact, likewise Mire-Iron cells lining their dungeons erode the will to live from constantly irritating the soul itself. These practices are not condemned… because they are not public, or because when they are the Coalition itself is often their only oversight, and obviously is not opposed to such methods to begin with. Common Theories:
What all traditions agree upon is this, the soul is not of this world. It flows from the stars, drawn into flesh through birth for reasons unknown where it shaped by experience, and tested by magick. Those few who have touched the raw, unknowable Arcane without completely succumbing to madness, describe it not as simple power, but, memory. The stars, it seems, remember everything… and through them, so do we. Some believe this is how reincarnation occurs; The stars, acting as the memory-keepers of all the realms, allowing fragmented souls to re-form if the conditions echo what came before. Others believe this is simply the Arcane reshaping patterns, soul as echo, not continuity. Regardless, many seek to “burn brighter,” to leave an imprint the stars cannot forget. Whether that is a blessing or a curse depends on the soul.
Manifestation
Souls manifest subtly, only visible to the trained, the holy, or the damned; But always different, in sight, in sound and in sensation. Clerics describe souls as threads of silver fire, while Necromancers see them as coiled smoke bound by will. Mages attuned to the soul describe a pressure in the air, like standing near a thunderstorm. Upon death, most souls emit a brief shimmer or echo, sometimes whispering a final thought. In areas of concentrated belief or trauma, souls may become visible, suspended in momentary stasis, dancing lights above a battlefield, shadows pacing a ruined house, or reflections in still water that blink back. More advanced soulwork sees the soul as a composite, layers of emotion, memory, instinct, and Arcane weight, each capable of being influenced or torn. A skilled practitioner can touch these layers, altering behavior or breaking resistance entirely. Soul-trackers, often employed by the Knights of All-Faith, specialize in detecting soultraces, identifying cursed beings or vanished spirits across vast distances. Soul-assassins are rarer still, trained to rupture a soul before the body dies, rendering resurrection impossible.
Localization
The soul behaves differently depending on region and belief. Whogi tribes amid The Hungering Marsh believe souls are said to return to the trees, joining the fungal network that connects every root and branch. In old Tarmahc, though corrupted by Schism fallout and godless cults, the soul often fragments or mutates, birthing warped spirits and revenants unable to rest. Sacred zones, such as the Shrine of the Bleeding Light, amplify soul presence, resurrections are easier there, and hauntings more frequent. Fort Sunless is said to dull the soul entirely. Prisoners describe a growing silence inside themselves, as though their thoughts echo less with each day. Those executed with Hexsteel blades simply vanish, no soultrace left. Some say Fort Sunless has become a spiritual vacuum, drawing in wayward souls and feeding something buried beneath its foundations. In short, the soul’s journey is never guaranteed, and in Everwealth, the laws of death shift with every border crossed, god invoked, or spell miscast.
Nature of the Soul:
The soul is not the source of magick, but a natural conduit, drawing in The Arcane from stellar sources and allowing its expression through will, gesture, and flesh. It is reactive to emotion, identity, trauma, and belief. Major Outcomes After Death:
All major beliefs have their own truth reflected in the soul’s fate. No dogma is universally wrong, gods shape their own domains, and the Arcane responds differently to each. Forbidden Acts:
The soul is not the source of magick, but a natural conduit, drawing in The Arcane from stellar sources and allowing its expression through will, gesture, and flesh. It is reactive to emotion, identity, trauma, and belief. Major Outcomes After Death:
- Peaceful Dissolution (cease to exist, absorbed into Arcane flow).
- Religious Claim (taken by a god or spiritual patron).
- Wandering Ghost-State (unfinished business, oathbinding, violent death).
- Corruption or Mutation (by magick, necromancy, or soul-theft).
- Enchanting: Imprinting part of one’s soul to objects.
- Necromancy: Rebinding soul fragments to corpses.
- Alchemical Augments: Enhancing or restructuring soul pathways.
- Soul Tethering: Binding a soul to prevent it from passing or fleeing.
- Possession: Replacing one’s soul with another, willingly or not.
All major beliefs have their own truth reflected in the soul’s fate. No dogma is universally wrong, gods shape their own domains, and the Arcane responds differently to each. Forbidden Acts:
- Soul Harvesting (extracting and bottling soul matter).
- Reincarnation Forcing (implanting a soul into a new vessel).
- Divine Leeching (using souls to fuel deity-like powers artificially).
- Starlink Severance (cutting a soul from the Arcane entirely, utter obliteration).
Beautiful. I've only touched upon the world you've created here, so forgive my ignorance - I assume that given the strong connection between magic and gods that this would be a major incentive for most people to be religious in Everwealth. Thus, my question would be - what happens to those who are not? Is there fate always going to be dissolution, being dissolved in the dream bogs or simply up for grabs by those with nefarious motives?
WIP - The Chaos Bringer: A Dark Fantasy BG3 FF
"Thou dost not meddle in the affairs of dragons, lest thou be chewed in self-defense..."
Will give a more-thorough reply soon my apologies my earlier response felt a little open-ended.
Yes absolutely, most folk here believe it best to believe in something; Those without strong ties to an ideology or concept upon death typically too spiritually 'mundane' to see the way to any afterlife, doomed to walk Gaiatia as listless spirits. Gods on that note are essentially avatars of broad-concepts, strengthened or weakened by how much of their domain is present across the realms; They are also eldritch in-nature, without conventional bodies or 'true forms' folk can witness without going mad or being obliterated, as-such their 'realms' are also their bodies which they have essentially total control over (think a less-tangible Ego), but those without faith in the conventional sense are not entirely doomed because of this, these folk could still intrinsically feel or see the way to a God's afterlife upon death if they in-life embodied a particular deity's embodying concept(s) strongly enough like sadism or greed, the mark of their domain attuning to these folk whether they know it or not until a strange hand welcomes their ghostly visage into a land of milk and honey after falling from the Battlement Cliffs.
Ah, I see - so a sort of magical beacon or magnetism regardless of whether you were aware of it or not. Thanks
WIP - The Chaos Bringer: A Dark Fantasy BG3 FF
"Thou dost not meddle in the affairs of dragons, lest thou be chewed in self-defense..."