To Consider the Soul, Vol. I
Volume One of a series of interviews conducted throughout AR 170-171 about the soul and the responses to those discussions.
Interviews 1-4 of 12 are covered within.
Written by Lilian Williams
5 Hammer 172
Introduction
About a year ago, I was asked a question about the soul by the First Keeper of the Erudite Arcanum, Schezalle Sfayi Beltaulur. This query was not put forward with the intention of getting some absolute, correct answer, but was posed as a thought experiment. The goal of this book has been to explore this guiding question that was asked of me. Several other questions were formulated for interviews to provide context as well as get more insight into how those around me view the soul.
The questions utilized varied from interview to interview. Some interviews were much longer than others. A couple interviews were held in a public environment. Some were one on one while others were done in small groups. Suffice to say, this is far from a perfect study, but I found the results to be incredibly insightful even still.
I will preface the text below as I prefaced each and every interview contained within:
I'm not looking for any particular answer. No right or wrong. It doesn't have to be spiritual or analytical - just whatever you feel like speaking on. Any and all thoughts you care to share.
I'm hardly looking for expertise so much as I am lived experiences and abstract thoughts.
I had initially planned not to include interview transcripts and to simply write what I took away from each, but I decided they were far too interesting to leave out as a whole. The records below are not one to one representations of the meetings. Much of the fluff and small talk has been trimmed down or cut out so that the key points of the conversations can take center stage. Throughout the interview transcripts, the author, Lilian Williams, will be referred to as LW.
The subjects interviewed have been left anonymous beyond their gender and race. I wholeheartedly encourage others to use the questions below to inquire with races and cultures not represented within this book about their views on the topic (or even just ask your friends!).
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Questions
The questions listed below were used several times throughout interviews. Main questions and related sub questions have been grouped together. These questions made up the foundation of every interview. Question X is the guiding question, referenced above, for the study as a whole.
Question A: "What is a soul to you?"
Question B: "Where do souls come from?"
B1: And... when do they come into play? As in - at what stage is a soul first formed?
B2: And what of the /when/? Is a soul formed at the moment of conception? Is a child's soul siphoned from the mother and father? Something thrust into the vessel of the child after birth?
B3: The gods? One's parents? Some other plane?
Question C: "Does it have inherent qualities?"
C1: Are there particular qualities that you attribute to the soul? Attributes that differentiate it from the "self."
Question D: "Would you say the soul has a capacity to store information?"
Question E: "Do you think one's blood and soul are related?"
Question X: "If the body, mind, and memories of someone were replaced, but the soul remained the same, would the soul's quality change, as well, due to the differences made?"
X1: Do you imagine the soul would be molded to fit the new form then? Whether that be some peaceful acceptance or it being beaten into submission?
X2: What of a theoretical situation in which the soul of a serial murderer replaces the soul of a woman who is unrealistically pure and innocent? The murderer's soul now in the presence of this pure body, mind, and its memories.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Female Tiefling + Female Moon Elf
LW: What is a soul to you?
Moon Elf (FME): Well, elves have very particular attitudes regarding souls, life, and death. We...experience our past lives in varying ways. The notion of a self that exists independent of form or memory is central to our conception of the soul, as a given soul could experience drastically different individual incarnations. As children, we recall a sense of unity with the Seldarine. As mature adults, we experience our current life's past during reverie. And as aging elders, we experience memories of our past lives. A soul for us is something that extends beyond a single life but is affected by those individual incarnations strongly. Each incarnation is unique and precious and our hope is that we, by way of this cycle, rejoin The Seldarine some day.
Female Tiefling [Infernal Blood] (FTI): I am not an elf, in truth I do not know what will happen to mine, will it spend an eternity in Baator, or just reborn into another devil? In the monastery we often contemplated our souls. Strengthen it to resist the influences of magic. I have not once been to the Fugue.
LW: Strengthening the soul is an interesting thing to consider. It's not exactly the same as lifting weights or reading a book. What did you do to achieve this?
FTI: A few things involving Ki, some also involved lifting weights.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Female Tiefling + Female Moon Elf pt. 2
LW: Where do souls come from? And when do they come into play? As in - at what stage is a soul first formed?
FME: That's a complicated question for elves. Elves have concerning views on this, in my view. Ones that I really don't like. They see elven souls as having been forged by The Seldarine. And all such souls are destined to, one day, rejoin with The Seldarine but where does this put half elves? This kind of thing has led to half elves being abused or treated as second-class citizens in the past. As implicit in all of this is that there are souls of /The People/ and then all others which are outside our sacred cycle. It seems to me that things must be more complicated than that. I struggle to believe that elves are a people just wholly apart from the rest of the world as some of the more arrogant among my kind like to insist. I have to think souls originate, broadly from the same place. Some even achieve apotheosis. I think maybe the gods don't like that theory much. But I think souls are outside of the gods as we understand them. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Their creation is, at least. Why wouldn't The Seldarine just make lots and lots of elven souls otherwise? Flood the world with their kind.
LW: And what of the when? Is a soul formed at the moment of conception? Is a child's soul siphoned from the mother and father? Something thrust into the vessel of the child after birth?
FME: Mhm. Exactly. It's too easy to think of the gods as forging souls. I think there are those who prefer that theory for various self-serving reasons. Maybe even some of the gods do. It makes mortals seem small and weak. Just sort of bandied about by fate and the like.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Female Tiefling + Female Moon Elf pt. 3
LW: Are there particular qualities that you attribute to the soul? Attributes that differentiate it from the "self."
FTI: My innate resistance to magic.
FME: Of elven culture, a lot of emphasis is placed on this link we have to our past lives. Which is very real, and certainly a unique attribute of being elven. We experience reverie, we experience visions of the distant past. Hard to deny all of that, so that must be in some manner connected with our souls, I think. These memories don't reside in our bodies, clearly, as they persist across lifetimes.
FTI: I have my dreams and knowledge I cannot explain, if this is part of my soul or my blood, I do not know.
FME: Mentioning "resistance" got me thinking, a lot of our willingness to endure and remain ourselves in the face of coercion is related to the soul.
LW: Would you mind expanding on that?
FME: That is a thing I can't explain, sadly. Just an intuition or feeling. But it stems, perhaps, from this accumulation of experience that I have had and will have access to as I age. Also something I was told regarding [a female elf]. If you ever knew her, she suffered - and still suffers - from a lingering memory problem. I was told this can happen if an elf becomes disconnected from reverie, perhaps due to trauma in another life. So the vulnerability of a person in this manner seems to be affected by things that have occured to the soul in prior incarnations.
LW: Would you say the soul has a capacity to store information?
FTI: Can blood? If not, then the soul. [The infernal tongue] came naturally to me before I learned how to speak Common, and my dreams of the hells are detailed.
FME: I think some sort of information is somehow inscribed in the soul, yes.
LW: If the body, mind, and memories of someone were replaced, but the soul remained the same, would the soul's quality change, as well, due to the differences made?
FTI: I imagine I would be quite different in another body, for more than one reason.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Female Tiefling + Female Moon Elf pt. 4
LW: Do you imagine the soul would be molded to fit the new form then? Whether that be some peaceful acceptance or it being beaten into submission?
FME: I think it is.undeniable that the physical affects us. My life would be drastically different if I looked different. I don't think that can be argued with. I think the contributions here are different and compatible. My life and experiences would change with a different body, but I think some essential attributes would be constants. They'd just find different expressions.
FTI: Would I have the same urges in an untainted body?
FME: I think it's hard to determine what comes from where precisely, but that it's all in our blood is obviously not true, so we can put that theory to the side, I think. And that nothing comes from the blood also seems very unlikely, so we can safely set that aside as well. It must be a combination in some way. How precisely is maybe the tricky part to determine.
FTI: Convergence of both soul and blood?
LW: I admittedly have few answers myself. The things I've read, and some of what we've discussed, might suggest that soul and blood are essentially one. One's blood manifesting in the form of these memories passed down through the soul.
FME: Per that line of thinking, can this be altered at all? Could I be reborn as, say, a firbolg?
LW: I don't see it being out of the question personally. If a soul is all that persists after death, and it is a form of energy, it does not simply disappear. It is held somewhere and eventually reshaped.
FME: I wonder how well that confirms with the elven theory. But then, maybe the elven sages are wrong.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Female Tiefling + Female Moon Elf pt. 5
LW: Where does the soul go? One might consider that there is some kind of internal tally kept by the soul. A bank of deeds and sins. Is it influenced by blood? Can this bank be 'robbed' if the memories, body, and mind of a person are removed - an opportunity for a clean slate?
FTI: I have a good idea of where mine will go, already.
FME: I wonder if there has been any exploration of the fates of people who have been subjected to some or all of what you described, Lily. This blank-slating of a person. There is a strange phenomenon among elves that is maybe relevant here. It's rare. And something that is only requested in very extreme cases due to the gravity of what is done. Two persons, usually people profoundly in love, can, with permission from magic workers, bind themselves together somehow. I don't know a tremendous amount about the practice beyond the fact that it is done. This binding extends across all subsequent lives. The two souls will forever incarnate and seek each other out. No matter what. They will feel a powerful pull toward each other. It sort of authors some additional destiny for the souls.
LW: Like having some internal urge that could never be sated - one that likely only presents itself subconsciously.
FME: That is how I'd heard it explained, yes. A deep-seated feeling of incompleteness if not for this person to whom you are bound being present in your life. A way for the soul to always remember. Even if the specific memories themselves are inaccessible.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Thoughts and Further Questions
"A soul for us is something that extends beyond a single life but is affected by those individual incarnations strongly."
The idea that a soul extends beyond a single life is far from an uncommon thought. I am uncertain how pervasive the notion of reincarnation or any other form of "soul recycling" is across various cultures and faiths, but what interests me more is the amount of the soul that finds its way from life to life and what impact an individual incarnation has on it.
"I do not know what will happen to mine, will it spend an eternity in Baator, or just reborn into another devil?"
This question brought about a couple points to consider. Firstly, those that are often referred to as "outsiders" are thought to not be the same when it comes to the essence of their being. Should they die, it is said their souls do not leave the body, but instead their essence merges with the plane they are bound to. Does that mean an eternity in Baator or rebirth as a devil? Probably. Secondly, it brings one to wonder what decides where a soul will go. Some research would suggest there is some kind of tally kept of deeds done and sin accumulated. Other information would point to it greatly depending on a multitude of factors from patron deity to race. While I can give no certain answer, I am incredibly curious as to whether or not the destination could be altered if the reason was determined.
"Strengthen it to resist the influences of magic."
How many ways can the soul be strengthened? And just how much value is there in the process? The interview mentioned it can aid in resisting the influences of magic, and the fact that some souls are coveted more than others would suggest that the strength of them does hold value, but just how much?
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Thoughts and Further Questions pt. 2
"I struggle to believe that elves are a people just wholly apart from the rest of the world as some of the more arrogant among my kind like to insist."
I agree with this statement. The concept of the soul is prevalent in so many different societies, and, while there are most certainly factors that might differentiate one from the next, to assume that one form of being is wholly separate from the rest of the world seems highly unlikely given how universal the "soul" is.
"Souls are outside of the gods as we understand them."
I will admit that I am far from having an encyclopedic knowledge of each individual pantheon let alone the deities that compose them, but this above notion doesn't seem too far off the mark to me. Many gods are said to collect souls through a variety of means, and, as earlier noted, if it were something so simply done, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason as to why the gods would not just flood the world with souls crafted in their preferred image that were tethered to their collection.
"These memories don't reside in our bodies."
Instincts from birth, dreams of a distant past, a familiarity with something that hasn't actually been experienced before in your life. Those are but a few examples of these "memories" that are not actually our memories. The question becomes what to attribute them to. Are they hidden in the depths of the soul? Ingrained into the fabric of the mind or the blood? Possibly something completely different all together? As touched on in the interview, I believe it's likely there is some type of convergence between the soul and blood that allow us to have these experiences.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview One - Thoughts and Further Questions pt. 3
"A lot of our willingness to endure and remain ourselves in the face of coercion is related to the soul."
I see this as a direct tie to the previous thought. If there are ancestral memories passed down to us through our soul (or some combination of the soul, blood, body, etc.) from generation to generation, it would make sense that those are in large part responsible for making a person immutable in the presence of mutilation.
"My life and experiences would change with a different body, but I think some essential attributes would be constants. They'd just find different expressions."
This holds consistent with much of the previous logic presented in Interview One, and, if the above thoughts on soul-tied memories are to be believed, I find it difficult to imagine that a soul swapping bodies wouldn't find a way to show its memories in one form or another. One with violent tendencies might see that translated into aggressive competitiveness if transplanted into a merchant. A member of the clergy swapped with one of little faith might find the latter experiencing a moment of divine clarity. It is interesting to consider how these varied traits might express themselves in a new form.
"The two souls will forever incarnate and seek each other out. No matter what. They will feel a powerful pull toward each other. It sort of authors some additional destiny for the souls."
This phenomenon sounds like a literal form of the concept of "soulmates" to me, but the implications of it are vast. Is one's destiny, assuming you believe in the notion, found within their soul? If so, what happens in the case that one doesn't fulfill their soul's obligations? Does it merely manifest as the feeling of emptiness, or is there greater significance to not achieving what a soul has been labeled "destined" for?
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Two - Female Vampire
LW: What is a soul to you?
Female Vampire (FV): I suppose it depends on how you look at it. To the person a soul is a thing of great value and worth. To be protected and offered in faith. To a devil for example it is a thing to trade and use.
LW: Indeed it is, but to you?
FV: A price paid.
LW: So for you it has proven itself a currency.
FV: I did not know what it was at the time, but I learned it after. So yes I suppose so.
LW: Where do souls come from? The gods? One's parents? Some other plane?
FV: As the Gods fight over souls and crave them they clearly do not create them, less they would simply make us bound to their wills. Each life has one, though in the beginning they are worth little. As a creature grows and takes in the experience of life so too does the soul.
LW: Would you say the soul has a capacity to store information?
FV: Much like a book yes. The better the story the greater the worth to those that seek such things.
LW: What do you suspect might happen if a new soul was transplanted into you?
FV: I do not know.
LW: What's your gut reaction?
FV: Fear. I do not know if I would enjoy feeling again and doing what I must do.
LW: So to you, the soul is home of most emotion? Feelings?
FV: I think so, yes. I value things. Desire them. Crave them, but I do not [truly feel emotion]. I will one day miss your company, but I will not feel its loss. To have a soul again, would break me I think. If not now, then later.
LW: If the body, mind, and memories of someone were replaced, but the soul remained the same, would the soul's quality change, as well, due to the differences made?
FV: I think the two would destroy each other. As a demon invading the body of a mortal, one would reject the other.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Two - Thoughts and Further Questions
"To the person a soul is a thing of great value and worth. To be protected and offered in faith."
This links up some with thoughts from the first interview, but I am intrigued by what really dictates the value of the soul. Considering the soul as something meant to be protected and eventually offered "in faith" intrigues me as well. When put like that, it almost makes religion sound like some kind of masterful scheme from the gods to have mortals cultivate their essence then pass it off.
"As a creature grows and takes in the experience of life so too does the soul."
It is interesting to think about the form this might take. Do the experiences imprint on the soul in a substantial way in such that the soul could be sifted through and the memories could get extracted, or is it more simplistic? Like some kind of encrypted notch etched into the soul with each experience whose value is nearly impossible to determine. This also leads me to wonder what matters more: quality or quantity? Does someone who lived a full, but short, life have a soul of more value than someone who lived hundreds of years but did very little?
"Much like a book, yes. The better the story the greater the worth to those that seek such things."
This is similar to the above thought, but I find it important to contemplate the notion that the value of the soul, like a story, might be entirely subjective. There are books that can be agreed upon as classics, but there will always be a handful of individuals who want nothing to do with them. It is strange to think about the soul that way, but it could make plenty of sense. It would explain why certain deities might have an affinity for the souls of particular beings. They are simply indulging in their favorite genre of soul. This could aid in finding an answer to the above query as well. After all, some enjoy short, action-packed texts while others might desire something a bit more drawn out.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Two - Thoughts and Further Questions
"To the person a soul is a thing of great value and worth. To be protected and offered in faith."
This links up some with thoughts from the first interview, but I am intrigued by what really dictates the value of the soul. Considering the soul as something meant to be protected and eventually offered "in faith" intrigues me as well. When put like that, it almost makes religion sound like some kind of masterful scheme from the gods to have mortals cultivate their essence then pass it off.
"As a creature grows and takes in the experience of life so too does the soul."
It is interesting to think about the form this might take. Do the experiences imprint on the soul in a substantial way in such that the soul could be sifted through and the memories could get extracted, or is it more simplistic? Like some kind of encrypted notch etched into the soul with each experience whose value is nearly impossible to determine. This also leads me to wonder what matters more: quality or quantity? Does someone who lived a full, but short, life have a soul of more value than someone who lived hundreds of years but did very little?
"Much like a book, yes. The better the story the greater the worth to those that seek such things."
This is similar to the above thought, but I find it important to contemplate the notion that the value of the soul, like a story, might be entirely subjective. There are books that can be agreed upon as classics, but there will always be a handful of individuals who want nothing to do with them. It is strange to think about the soul that way, but it could make plenty of sense. It would explain why certain deities might have an affinity for the souls of particular beings. They are simply indulging in their favorite genre of soul. This could aid in finding an answer to the above query as well. After all, some enjoy short, action-packed texts while others might desire something a bit more drawn out.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Two - Thoughts and Further Questions pt. 2
"The soul is home of most emotion."
This is something I have seen firsthand. People who have lost their souls or fragments of it who are emotionless husks in some capacity. With how tangible that experience is, I find it hard to argue that there isn't a connection between one's soul and their emotions. The question I have is how much of what drives emotion is housed in the soul? Is it possible that the soul is simply an energy force that provides some part of the body the ability to react to stimuli which results in feeling?
"I think the two would destroy each other. As a demon invading the body of a mortal, one would reject the other."
This is a potent answer, and one I see as fully plausible. Forcing complete opposites to mingle could have a destructive result. It is worth pondering what this might look like. Would the result leave two inert vessels with souls now aimlessly wandering, or would the essences be wholly obliterated?
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Three - Female Svirfneblin
LW: What is a soul to you?
Female Svirfneblin (FSN): The fuel that keeps your body chugging along. Take away the soul and the body crumbles. It's also the persistence of souls that keeps the idiots of this place alive for far longer than Jergal would like.
LW: So in terms of inherent qualities, youd say its full of energy?
FSN: Life, energy, whatever you want to call it. Something intangible we mortals aren't really meant to comprehend. It's the essence of the will to live itself.
LW: Would you say the soul has a capacity to store information?
FSN: Information? Funny way of putting it. Yes, I'd think so. Our most defining characteristics. Whatever made us who we are today should be there somewhere, encoded away. Which is why if you take someone's soul, it matters past just denying them eternal rest. Vestiges of memories, some inconceivable, incorporeal thing that is definitively 'you.' Not something I can claim to understand well. I just tear souls out and make them suffer.
LW: Where do souls come from? The gods? One's parents? Some other plane?
FSN: I figure everything even vaguely alive has a soul. The longer you live, the more defined the soul becomes. I can feel the ebb and flow of souls, sometimes. Mine is an unpleasant, twisted thing indeed, I'm sure of it.
LW: I think you can easily prove that first point. A simple spell or two would quickly show you just how many things have souls to be torn.
FSN: Exactly, hence why you can't tear the souls out of undead- they don't have one, so there's nothing to steal. Some things are just innately resistant, or even immune to necromancy. Of course, this magic is most effective against weak, innocent mortals. A reflection of how abhorrent it truly is.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Three - Female Svirfneblin pt. 2
LW: You mentioned the souls becoming more 'defined' as one experiences life. Outsiders - devils, demons, that like - often covet the souls of mortals, but not often animals, for example. Do you think the soul of a mortal is simply of higher quality?
FSN: Right. What does an animal do? Just wanders about eating things, leading some pointless existence. Humans, svirfneblin, whatever else- our souls carry a great deal more weight. Our burdens, our accomplishments. I'm sure there's also a simple element of sadism to it, where those devils and demons you mentioned enjoy the fact they've the soul of something intelligent.
LW: If the body, mind, and memories of someone were replaced, but the soul remained the same, would the soul's quality change, as well, due to the differences made?
FSN: I'm not sure how realistic that hypothetical is, but I figure it'd stay the same, then slowly adapt to its new environment. That is if it isn't rejected entirely.
LW: Do you think a rejection of the soul would be violent?
FSN: Likely not violent. I figure it'd just refuse to inhabit the vessel it doesn't belong to, then dissipate. I'm sure you could force it with the right technique.
LW: What do you think its final destination might be? Take your self-proclaimed twisted soul, for example, and force it into a vessel with a pure mind, innocent memories is that soul to still be damned for those actions?
FSN: Some vestige of that soul's sins would surely remain. I presume the only afterlife awaiting such an amalgam would be Limbo.
LW: You're the first to mention Limbo. That does seem like a possibility.
FSN: Indeed, yes. Too complex a thing for the divines to 'process' really. Just send it to the wall, or something. If you're thinking you can trick your way into heaven or something- rather ingenious line of thought, I must admit- you may want to simply repent all your misdeeds.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Three - Thoughts and Further Questions
"The fuel that keeps your body chugging along. Take away the soul and the body crumbles."
These two statements go hand in hand. If the soul is seen as this energetic essence of life, to remove it would result in a loss of that life. If the soul is some form of fuel source, its fragmentation resulting in the inability to feel certain emotions might be explained by not having sufficient energy to exist and emote naturally. This does raise the question of how the subject of interview two functions without a soul. Does it have to do with their undead nature? Does it have to deal with their pact that resulted in the loss of their soul? Some combination? The mention of undead not needing souls in this interview would point to the prior as being the case.
"It's also the persistence of souls that keeps the idiots of this place alive for far longer than Jergal would like."
This seems a reasonable explanation as any to the seemingly unkillable people that flood every corner of this archipelago. My main question to this response would be: What happens when those people leave Arelith and die? I'm not sure I believe they would come back as easily. This would then point to the islands here having some bizarre property of preservation that keeps the souls of individuals bound for some reason. Does this make Arelith some kind of farmland of the gods where they cultivate souls and tailor their experiences until they are content with their final state? Possibly.
"Something intangible we mortals aren't really meant to comprehend."
Just because we aren't meant to comprehend it doesn't mean we can't. Answers are out there.
"Which is why if you take someone's soul, it matters past just denying them eternal rest."
This makes me curious what an individual experiences as afterlife if their soul is torn from them and denied eternal rest. I assume it is a case by case basis. I also assume it's unpleasant.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Three - Thoughts and Further Questions pt. 2
"Our souls carry a great deal more weight. Our burdens, our accomplishments. I'm sure there's also a simple element of sadism to it, where those devils and demons you mentioned enjoy the fact they've the soul of something intelligent."
I hadn't necessarily considered that burden side of it until this interview. Often when thinking about the value of a soul, I thought only of what the host had achieved, but it seems likely that many fiends and deities would derive just as much pleasure from burdens and loss.
"I figure it'd just refuse to inhabit the vessel it doesn't belong to, then dissipate."
In the case where the guiding question's response is the refusal to inhabit the new vessel, this is what I see as the most probable case. There would not be some explosion of mutually assured destruction, but a whimper and the thud of two lifeless corpses slamming to the ground and their souls abandon them.
"Too complex a thing for the divines to 'process' really."
Given the intrinsic value that souls seem to have, I struggle to believe that they might be abandoned entirely simply because they are a bit complex to process. If anything, I would think that such a contorted soul might hold more worth merely for how misshapen it is.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Four - Female Tiefling (Abyssal Blood)
LW: What is a soul to you?
Female Tiefling [Abyssal Blood] (FTA): Your very self- beyond physical form. I think.
LW: Where do souls come from? The gods? One's parents? Some other plane?
FTA: It's something the Gods are supposed to fight over- I think they might create them too. Or maybe they're just sparked into existence by something. I don't know. Why's anything alive? Do the Gods have souls too? Then we're kind of the same.
LW: Does it have inherent qualities?
FTA: You know of my blood. Do you think my soul is similarly painted? Or does it transcend race?
LW: I spoke with one of similar blood. We came to the conclusion that the two may very well converge somewhere.
FTA: So you think my fate is sealed? Am I a demon? Is that my fate? I do not know. It's something I've long struggled with.
LW: I don't have an answer. That is part of what I am looking to consider with these questions. Would you say the soul has a capacity to store information?
FTA: I suppose you could say that. I think it'd be less like a book and more like a mind. Memories can be warped, taken, bought and sold. I don't think souls'd be different. My life below came about from a similar question regarding it- but I think if my soul is painted such, then the only thing left to do is embrace it.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Four - Female Tiefling (Abyssal Blood) pt. 2
LW: If the body, mind, and memories of someone were replaced, but the soul remained the same, would the soul's quality change, as well, due to the differences made?
FTA: I don't know. That seems like a question to ask a wizard- or a necromancer or something. I think it's a thing in stories that the Self always remains, even if the 'extra bits' don't. You know? The same as if all my memories were taken but everything else was left behind. Or when you grip a sword that has seen prior battles unsung. It's still the same sword.
LW: So you think the soul might course correct the other parts a bit?
FTA: Like influence getting your memories back or something if you lost them?
LW: Possibly! Or perhaps something subsconscious. Having no memories of eating a food, but recalling how much you love it just by smelling it.
FTA: I don't know. I want to say 'no' and that it's just humanity that wants us to value our memories and feelings and whatnot. But maybe our souls are what make humanity. It's all wibbly wobbly. And ultimately kind of a waste of time to think about. But I think there is a reason why faith is so important. And why you should care about where you end up.
LW: Do you think there are not ways past faith to manipulate the fate of a soul?
FTA: I'd like to think that fate can be altered, but I truly do not think it is. Only Gods have that power.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Four - Thoughts and Further Questions
"Your very self- beyond physical form."
I find this idea interesting to consider. As if the soul might simply be a reflection of energy that mirrors the physical form. It leads me to questions of how minute changes of one form might affect the other. Most that I've studied and talked about would suggest that the soul, even if it is just a reflection, is a more concentrated and defined version of the self, so changes to the soul would affect the physical self more than the opposite.
"Do the Gods have souls too?"
This is a question I had never considered before this point, but I imagine they do. As far as I know, all intelligent forms of life (minor exceptions to this?) possess a soul. I see the gods as falling into that category. This could be a shortsighted, mortal way of thinking to assume the composition of the gods is similar to our own selves, but I have no real reason to think they wouldn't share this trait with us.
"Does it transcend race?"
There are many ways to approach this question, but, as for the context of how it was asked in this interview, I'd say that it doesn't necessarily transcend race as much as it seems to define it. This isn't something that seems easily proved, but much of the anecdotal evidence in earlier interviews seems to corroborate it. Simply considering that gods of certain races seem to prioritize souls of that race would imply to me that key racial differences are defined within the soul. Also worth noting that, as far as I know, one cannot withdraw their own blood and then parse it for information about their distant past or their natural instincts, so those must come from somewhere else.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams
Interview Four - Thoughts and Further Questions pt. 2
"I think if my soul is painted such, then the only thing left to do is embrace it."
As thought provoking as it is to consider ways to alter the end destination of the soul, simply accepting where one is destined to end up is likely healthier than obsessing over ways to mutilate your own essence and obfuscate certain information from the gods. Once you fully accept where your soul is slated to go, you can return to the aforementioned obsessing and do it as more of a hobby with potential upside as opposed to worrying about how terrible your afterlife may be if you fail.
"The Self always remains."
This is something I struggle to fully believe, but perhaps it depends on what a person defines as the self. If someones being, both physical and spiritual, was sliced into a thousand fragments each and distributed all across the land, does their "self" really remain? How recognizable is someone that shattered? What if those thousand fragments were each split a thousand more times? If the self always remains, it would imply that each particle of energy that makes up the soul contains everything necessary to define a person. Perhaps this is plausible. After all, a skilled fleshcrafter hardly needs much blood or tissue to grow a clone of an individual, but I personally think there comes a point where the "self" becomes utterly indistinguishable.
Day 5, Month 1 (Hammer (Deepwinter)), 172 AR
Lilian Williams