Souls
Souls are essential for living things, acting as a “battery” to charge people and even flora and fauna. Animals and plants have a spiritual essence formed of mana, but more complex beings have souls that were forged by the gods from mana and other energies. All forms of souls and spiritual essences reincarnate, the energy is best recycled life after life. In the case of the least complex beings, plants and insects, the mana that exists in them returns to the earth and is sent forth in their seeds to fuel the next generation. For animals, their spiritual essences can condense into true, though simplistic, souls which are reincarnated directly into the next generation after death. When it comes to the sentient races, however, their souls are tended to by the gods in cycles of rebirth.
Human Souls
The souls that incarnate into humans and other races such as Kiar, Iengi, Kuzo, Samiss, some Eain’Idayn, Ery’Idayn, Oir’Idayn, and Ur’Idayn are all the same souls. They have a varying spiritual capacity, some are weaker while others are stronger. Kuzo and Iengi usually fall at the weaker end of the spectrum for reincarnations, while Idayn sub-races have the potential for the highest spiritual capacity. Kiar and Samiss are in the middle of this range, but humans range from weak to strong. This capacity is determined by the genetic predisposition of the mortal individual and allows for greater potential in magic and higher spiritual awareness in general, and souls suiting that disposition incarnate into them.
Upon incarnation, the memories of souls are sealed to reduce influence on the new life, but over time they may be weakened allowing memories to filter through. Even through seals, sometimes subtle influences of the soul filter through, such as cases of “soul mates” where individuals who were especially close in previous lives gravitate towards each other and feel a close bond upon meeting in their current lives. Souls can retain memories of up to six or seven lifetimes. Souls may also influence an individual’s perception of their gender; though souls are genderless, they sometimes develop a predisposition to one gender or another over the course of their lives, and being incarnated into the gender opposite of which they prefer may lead to their incarnation feeling out of place.
Mortal souls undergo a thousand year process between reincarnations, designed to cleanse them from Karmic debt so that the debt will not impact their next life. After death, a soul’s Karma is measured, and if it is negative, they will be sent to work off their debt in Malbolge. OEnce the debt is cleared, they will be allowed to move to Zephaer to await reincarnation.
Elemental Souls
When the seven elemental gods created their races to populate Aserra, they were incarnated with the souls of spirits native to those elements. These souls allowed them to manipulate their aligned element as a form of magic, and secured their loyalty to their patron god. Most elemental spirits are of a similar nature and temperament, which is passed down into their mortal incarnations. For most of the races, this was a process which involved taking a willing spirit from their elemental plane and binding it with a small portion of the normal mortal souls which humans possessed. This is the process used for the Zaedyn, bound with Sylph souls; the Mariel with Undine souls; the Brech’mar with Gnome souls; the Asath with Salamander souls; the Idayn with light spirit souls; and the Danaij with Shade souls. The only one who had a different process was the goddess Entra, who chose to incarnate her people, the Nafod with the souls of Nymphs, which were a more complex creature than the elemental spirits. Instead of being bound to a mortal soul, they Nafod were the reincarnations of Nymphs who originally chose to abandon their fae bodies to be reborn as mortals. Since, many of these Nymphs have continually been reborn as Nafod rather than Nymphs in the Maze of Dreams.
In the time since their creation, these races have changed, and new ones have been born. The Zaedyn, Mariel, Brech’mar, and Asath are the same as ever, but the Idayn broke into several different sub-races from the original. The Eain’Idayn, Aeul’Idayn, Fayl’Idayn, Ery’Idayn, Oir’Idayn, and Ur’Idayn now live spread across the world. The Eain’Idayn have two distinct cultures, one which still lives alongside the Idayn in the Eldir and Itray Forests, and far-flung herds that have spread across the world. Only those who live alongside the Idayn still reincarnate with the souls of light spirits, while the others have human souls. The Aeul’Idayn found favor with the Goddess of Winter, Fria, and were incarnated with the souls of her spirits, Lycia, the Ice Spirit. Fayl’Idayn fell into Entra’s domain and were incarnated with the souls of faeries. The Danaij broke into a sub-race, the Danaij’vai, who are also incarnated with shades. The Nafod now exist as three different races; the Ochae’nafod with Nymph souls, the Dra’nafod with Dryad souls, and the Marfod with Nereid souls.
While individuals of the elemental races are usually rather loyal to the characteristics of their element, they can stray from these characteristics by mentally distancing themselves from their soul, which would be achieved by not using their elementalism or performing any sort of self-communion with the elemental spirit within them. In these cases, especially if the individual does something that their god disapproves of, may risk losing their elemental spirit as punishment. The elemental spirit can be removed from the blend of the soul, leaving the individual with a small portion of a soul. This will leave the individual feeling drained of energy until what remains of their soul regenerates enough to work as a full soul, but it will always remain weak. The individual will no longer be able to use elemental magic, and using other forms of magic that require spiritual energy could prove to be risky as they could risk burning out what is left of their soul.
Interracial children born between the elemental races or other races can only be incarnated with an elemental spirit that is the same as their mother. Regardless of the genetic material provided by the father, it is the womb in which the child is conceived that determines its soul.
Elemental souls are not bound to the same reincarnation cycle as other races, and their karma is usually moderate. Negative Karma on the soul can be dealt with in successive reincarnations and throughout life.
Ascended Beings
All sentient beings have the potential for divinity. To ascend, usually one must obtain enlightenment, but it may be granted to lucky individuals as a boon, if they are judged worthy. Ascension is the way through which an individual spiritually evolves to a higher state, and can be achieved in life. However, an ascended being will not fully realize their potential until they leave their mortal body. When an individual ascends as a mortal, their bio-physiology is subtly and slightly altered to accommodate greater spiritual strength (these changes can also be passed down to offspring conceived after the parent’s ascension). They often sprout ethereal wings to act as cells of spiritual power—though these wings can only been seen on higher planes, they are felt by the individual. The seals that separate their soul’s memory from their mortal memories is broken, and they will begin to remember past lives—up to seven lives prior.
Ascension gained through enlightenment often takes a lifetime of devotion to deep introspection and knowledge. Those who wish to chase this dream often cut themselves off from society in monasteries to focus on their spiritual growth. They lead a simple life, dedicated to higher knowledge, cut off from the desires of the flesh, until their goal is obtained. This path is completely optional, and there is no drive but one’s own desire to achieve ascension. To be granted ascension is a rare gift, bestowed by the higher gods. This most often occurs to prophets and individuals of extreme devotion who please their patron god greatly.
After the death of an ascended mortal, their soul will go to the afterlife, but take a place amongst the gods. Since many ascended individuals are about equal to angels in power, they often fall into the ranks of the angels. Enlightened ascendants may often continue their spiritual growth and evolve to higher levels of power. It is possible for a former mortal ascendant to ascend to the level of Orran’sulani and even higher, but it could take an immeasurable amount of time to achieve.
The Fates, Niariss and Uvesa, are ascended Idayn Oracles.
Avatars
Avatars are fragments of the gods, sent to live amongst mortals. To create an avatar, a god will take a small portion of their soul, blend it with a new mortal soul, then chose a newly conceived child with whom to incarnate with this new soul. Avatars will not know of their true identity unless their seals are tampered with by the gods. They serve as a means for gods to experience mortal life, or spread a message amongst their followers. Upon an avatar’s death, they will be reabsorbed into the parent god who will receive all the memories of their avatar.