ALL NOVEL The Soul
Every sentient living being within a universe has three core components that make up their very being. The mind, body and soul. Whilst the first two are somewhat self explanatory, the latter can be rather complex.
Souls exist as a separate entity to a body and exist within an entirely different plain, but are anchored to you and form a deep connection with your mind and body to create a whole unit. At its very most basic, a soul is like a well of energy and aside from anomalous circumstances, the soul is the only entity that is capable of generating energy from nothing. They can be thought of as little generators and batteries, producing and storing raw soul energy within themselves. Most people will never see nor access this pool of regenerating power but there are those that are able to tap into it and can siphon from their personal well to produce “Psyonic” powers, very much akin to our conception of “Magic spells”.
These incarnations/spells/Psyonics will temporarily drain the persons reserve of soul energy until they regenerate it back. Draining a soul down to no energy will instantly kill it, although its very difficult for a person to do this as it has a very potent effect on their physical standing once a person drains to below 20% of their pool, often making them collapse or faint from exhaustion. In the event that a soul is drained fully or killed, the effect is irreversible and will usually result in the instant death of that person, from which no traditional medical intervention will be able to prevent. Typically, a Psyonic user will quickly learn their boundaries and what they can/cannot do and death by soul exhaustion is practically non-existent.
Psyonics can take a massive number of forms and are only really limited by the users imagination and capabilities, they rely on the perfect unity of mind, body and soul to project. The soul acts as the engine to provide the energy required, the mind focuses and allows connection of body and soul, the body acts as a physical conduit to pull the soul energy into existence in what form the mind allows. People able to connect this deeply with their innermost selves will often show signs as a child, but will require rigorous training to unlock their potential.
In the event a person dies, their soul will return back to the Ether Realm, a formless, endless ebony ocean that contains every soul is existence and constantly generates them. This Realm exists separately from the physical world and generally is never interacted with. When a new life is born/created, a soul from the Ether Realm will be called and anchored to its new body, its entirely possible for a single soul to have “powered” multiple creatures through-out its existence.
Souls themselves can vary in a number of ways, although most peoples total energy storage capacity and regeneration rate is very similar it can certainly vary, there are however types of souls that can greatly influence the way a persons life plays out. Although often times, the soul is more a passive passenger that simply allows life to happen, but some of the upcoming examples can drastically alter the way a life plays out.
Normal Soul
Impact on life: None
“Salt of the earth, perfect and plentiful.”
Most people have this soul type, there is nothing remarkable about it but nor is it damaged or volatile, just your average, standard soul.
Chronolog Soul
Impact on life: Mild to High
“Remembering what was lost.”
Chronolog Soul's are usually a normal Soul that has been severely damaged in one of its lifetimes. Usually when a soul departs, it does not take anything with it, its wiped clean to inhabit the next vessel, Chronolog Soul's however are exempt from this, they drag previous memories with them which cause the next person they become part of to have vivid dreams and memories of lives that weren't theirs. For some, this is a mild inconvenience or maybe even an interest, or others, it becomes their goal to learn about what happened to them in past lives.
Conduit Soul
Impact on life: High
“Most have a path, these have a highway.”
These Soul's have a very powerful connection with their mind and body, causing the person to exhibit powerful psyonic potential. Its entirely possible for a person with a Conduit Soul to never learn Psyonics, but those who do will outshine their peers, providing they don't accidentally kill themselves first, their ability to rapidly channel soul energy can be very dangerous when they're inexperienced.
Fractured Soul
Impact on life: Massive
“Broken on arrival.”
Severed Soul's are essentially heavily damaged and never managed to fully connect with their body and mind. People with Severed Soul's usually suffer with extreme depression and concentration problems that will never be solved. Nothing nice or fun about this one, you just lose sometimes.
Harmoniser Soul
Impact on life: Low to mild
“Let me help you.”
Harmonisers are able to directly connect with other Soul's to empower them and strengthen their bond, as a result, those with Harmoniser Soul's usually make exceptional parents and teachers. Ever met someone who just made you feel calm and happy just by their mere presence? You may have met someone with a Harmoniser soul. Due to their naturally calming presence, should someone of an evil or abusive nature end up with a harmoniser soul, it can be quite the horrifically effective combination...
Helix Souls
Impact on life: Massive
“Entwined and opposite.”
Helix Soul's are an odd pair, they always result in twins being born of opposite potential. Usually, one twin will end up with psyonic mastery of one element or unique power and the other will end up with the exact opposite of that. They are a powerful pair of Soul's that will always manifest psyonic capabilities, this opposite mechanism is a retroactive and on-going process, if the one twin learns something new or picks up something, the other will immediately follow suit. For example, one brother ends up learning powerful fire psyonics, his twin sister instinctively knows cryo psyonics as a result. As you can imagine, a lot of Helix twins end up bitter enemies but there are some instances of them becoming extremely formidable allies, Helix twins can easily end up outclassing everyone around them as they literally learn twice as quickly as other souls, with one severe weakness however, should one of them die, both Helix twins will die, their lives are interlinked fully and so are their deaths.
Reaper Soul
Impact on life: Massive
“Cull and consume.”
More like Anti-Souls, Reapers manifest extreme psyonics potential and can directly consume other Soul's, destroying them and adding their energy pools to their own. They are also capable of directly traversing in the Ether Plane, marking Soul's in them and finding them in the physical world as a result. If a Soul gets too big and strong, there's a good chance a Reaper will take interest. Thankfully, each reality has a limited number of Reaper's but each is destine to become an extraordinarily powerful creature.
Quiver Soul
Impact on life: Low
“What to do, what to do?”
Quiver Soul's flutter around impatiently and cause the person to change interests on a dime. Ever be really interested in something for a while then have 0 interest suddenly? Happen often? You might have a Quiver Soul. In the grand scheme of things, they don't really do very much or cause any massive impact, but Flux Soul's are difficult to keep invested in one thing, they do generally cause the person to be smarter than average however, the constant changes cause an increase in brain activity and mental resilience and as a result, Quiver Souls are able to recover from higher levels of brain damage than your average person.
Vengeful Soul
Impact on life: Mild to High
“Everything must suffer!”
These souls are embittered with past sins, turning their mind and body into angry vessels of rage. They will torment their body with an all consuming anger that drives the person to do hideous things to all those around them. For some, this otherworldly anger sits in the back of their head and comes forth when roused, for others, its at the forefront of their mind at all times. Vengeful Souls cannot be reasoned with or sated, only the presence of a Harmoniser Soul will sooth their constant rage and as a result of this, they instinctively hunt for them and its not unusual to find Vengeful/Harmoniser couples.
Unstable Soul
Impact on life: Massive
“Here one minute, gone the next.”
Sometimes, the process that forms Soul's within the Ether Realm produces a faulty product and the output is an Unstable Soul. Unfortunately, these Soul's are always on the cusp of death and are at constant risk of bursting, they're on a timer and each day could be their last. Most tragically, those with Unstable Soul's tend to be some of the nicest, loving and caring people in the universe, but rarely do they make it past early adulthood, treasure them whilst they're around as they could be gone any minute.
Amalgamation Soul
Impact on life: Mild to Massive
“Many into one.”
This is what happens when multiple Soul's anchor to a single body at the same time, if that person never unlocks Psyonic potential, at worst they will feel drawn to many different paths in life and might find it difficult to choose what to do with themselves, but if they unlock their psyonic potential, they will be able to draw from multiple Soul pools at the same time, effectively multiplying their psyonic power. Psyonically gifted Amalgamation Soul's are often tremendously powerful individuals but they can lack drive and will be happy to drift the cosmos, minding their own business.
Gemini Souls
Impact on life: Mild
“Tip the scales.”
Another pair of linked Souls, unfortunately however, one twin leeches off the other, feeding on its soul energy constantly, resulting in one decidedly weaker soul and one stronger one. The effect is one “Gifted” twin who seems to always do rather well and one misfortuned, downtrodden twin that always appears to get the worst of it. Most Gemini Souls will be completely unaware of their own nature and will live their entire lives with the above dynamic firmly driving their lives. Should one Gemini die, the other can still carry on but it will no longer benefit/suffer from its twin.
Kin Soul
Impact on life: Low
“We are connected.”
Kin Souls are distinctly linked with someone else or sometimes multiple people but the connection is purely communicative, they are able to feel or understand those they are linked to with great clarity. Unlike the other Soul types, Normal Souls can turn into Kin Souls by becoming parents, sometimes linking with their offspring on an ethereal level. Kin Souls will often experience their connected Souls feelings at the same time and share in their emotions, they can be worlds away from one another and still feel like they're right next to each-other.
Dire Soul
Impact on life: High to Massive
“A step above the rest.”
Dire Souls are powerful, high quality Souls that instil great strength within their vessels, with very high energy capacity and potent regeneration rates, Dire Souls almost always end up developing extremely significant psyonic potential within their vessels and these people usually end up being important figures in whatever avenue they choose to pursue. Unfortunately for them though, they often become the targets of Reaper Souls.
Siphoner Soul
Impact on life: Varies from Low to Extreme
“Melting away at ones very core.”
These are dangerous, intense Souls that will slowly drain the energy of anyone nearly them. This drain rate varies massively from hardly noticeable to lethal within a week of prolonged contact, rather than adding it to their total strength however, Siphoners only gain the stolen energy temporarily and the more they exceed their limit, the faster it drains. Sometimes villainous, often tragic, a Siphoner born into a family will often cause havoc without even knowing it. Typically however, the range of this drain is low and you'd need to be in the same room to be effected by it.