The Cycle of Mortality

The Cycle of Mortality is a natural phenomenon in which a soul is broken down and rebuilt by traveling through the energy planes. The cycle seperates the soul from the body in a manner which can convert immortal souls into mortal souls.   Once it is rendered mortal, a soul can then cycle endlessly in a process in which it is broken down and reconstituded. Under normal circumstances, this process would leave the spirit attached to a fragment of the soul and allow for the individual to continue indefinitely. However, the process did not consistently preserve the mind, which resulted in immortals who entered the cycle to become disoriented and distressed. This was exasperated by the fact that every time a corporeal creature would cycle, their body would be destroyed and an entirely new one would be built.

The Cycle & the Energy Planes

The cycle begins by drawing a soul, mortal or immortal, into the Void Plane. This would destroy any body the soul was bound to while leaving the soul intact—an immortal soul would at this point be converted into a mortal soul. The soul is then fragmented and rebuilt using the fragments of other souls in the same phase of the cycle. Any spirit would be left bound to a soul fragment unchanged, while the mind may be altered—presumably due to the destruction of the body, as the mind is rarely wholy bound to the spirit. The reconsituted soul would then emerge renewed from the Vitality Plane with a brand new body.   This is the natural process of the Cycle of Mortality and is sometimes refered to as reincarnation.

Modification During the Second Work

The Gods of the Second Work sought to solve the disorientation and distress caused by the Cycle of Mortality. They did this by constructed the Void Well and the Soul Forge, which together directly altered the way the cycle works.

The Void Well

The Void Well altered how the Void Plane stripped the soul from the body. It allowed for the complete seperate of mind from body, allowing the gods to preserve the mind in its entirely. By its nature, it also allows the manipulation of the mind, allowing thoughts, ideas, and memories to be removed from or inserted into the mind that would be attached to the soul.

The Soul Forge

The Soul Forge allowed for the precision assembly of souls and control of the aseembly of new bodies. This allowed the Gods of the Second Work to create their chosen mortals as they saw fit, including physical appearance, abilities, and lifespan. Once they had seeded new life on the Mortal Realm, they halted the production of bodies form the Soul Forge and opted instead to for a biological process of mortal reproduction. The Soul Forge facilitates the assignment of souls to these bodies.

Modification During the Third Work

When the Third Work began, the Gods of the Second Work made the decision to supress the minds of an individual's past lives, as they feared allowing mortals to recall all their past lives would allow grudges and resentment to fester eternally.   Mortals have since discovered magic that allows them to unsurpress the memories of their past lives, but most who have done so have gone on record as regretting ever doing so and have since re-supressed them.

Creation of the Afterlife

During the Age of the Great Fall, when the Gods of the Second Work decided to retreat from their dealings with mortals, a deal was struck with the Gods of the First Work. A new system was developed which would allow mortal spirits to live eternally rather than reincarnating.   This was accomplished by retooling the Void Well to take the fragment of the soul which the mortal spirit and mind is bound to and set it aside rather than recycling it with the rest of the soul. This fragment is then taken by servents of Limbo, the Arbiter of Souls to the Realm of Limbo. Limbo considers the actions of the mortal during their life and determines to what afterlife—if any—they should go to.   If the mortal should go to an afterlife, their soul fragment is then bound to the appropriate deity and they are sent to that deity's realm to live eternally. If the mortal has lead a life underserving of an afterlife, or has expliciotly chosen reincarnation, then they are returned to the Void Well where they undergo the normal process of the Cycle of Mortality.

The Cycle of Immortality

This new process has the effect of making deities who provide an afterlife stronger as they collect more soul fragments. Since this process means that soul fragments are taken from the Inner Realms, the Cycle of Mortality would eventaully cease to funciton as not enough soul fragments would remain to create new mortals.   Limbo, the Arbiter of Souls, ensures that the Cycle of Mortality continues by collecting soul fragments from the Outer Realms and depositing them in the Void Well. These soul fragments come primarily from the servitors of deities who are slain for one reason or another. The servitors themselves are converted from mortals who serve their deity in even their afterlife; and it is through this process that a balance of souls is maintained between the Inner and Outer Realms. This overarching cycle is sometimes called the Cycle of Immortality.