Excerpt from 'The Nature of Souls: A Liches musings' by Redacted
----------------------------------------
The Soul is the very heart of all magic. It is what connects the mind to the more abstract meta-physical parts of reality and allows it to harness spiritual matter to create magic and enforce changes upon reality itself. This is why, at the very least, a basic understanding of how it works is essential for any mage to properly cast spells.
----------------------------------------
Properties
The soul is a type of spiritual matter that is – like all spiritual matter – made up of aetherions. It is responsible for the creation of willpower and allows awakened individuals to manipulate manacules and other spiritual matter to create magic.
To think of the soul as being like the body is a fundamental misunderstanding, as the soul exists not only on the physical level but also on the meta-physical level.
The soul does not have a set shape; it can change and grow in accordance with the individual’s body.
Yet, at the same time, the soul undeniably does have a shape made of multiple layers and parts. The soul is the exact shape of the body, yet it also is not. It is a perfect sphere nestled within the body yet also a diffuse presence that fills the surroundings of an individual.
----------------------------------------
Structure
The soul can vary wildly based on a number of factors, from race to species, which makes describing them rather difficult. For simplicity’s sake, this document will only discuss the generalities of the soul.
There are roughly three layers to the soul: the Mantle, the Shape, and the Core.
The Mantle is the outermost part of the soul, which suffuses the surroundings of an individual. This part of the soul is responsible for interaction and protection, interfacing with the surrounding world to defend the soul and facilitate magic.
Through a Soul Shield – which is a naturally occurring meta-physical soul construct – the mantle is able to defend the soul from incoming magical attacks that could affect it. The mantle is also responsible for arcanoception, as it interfaces with the surrounding mana to sense the world. It also plays vital roles in all thaumic senses, such as Soul Vision or Empathy.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The mantle also serves as a transmitter of willpower.
Notably, the mantle is the only part of the soul that can be freely controlled by the individual. With time and practice, or through the aid of Soul Vision, an individual can learn to manipulate their mantle, granting them greater mastery over their magical abilities.
The Shape is the middle layer of the soul and is composed of the Akash and the Mens.
The Mens is what connects the soul to the mind and holds a record of the individual’s memories and experiences. It also directly interfaces with the brain and aids in cognitive processes.
The Akash is the part of the soul that corresponds to the body and essentially tethers the soul to it. It interfaces with the life force to create a kind of record of the body, which can be used in advanced medical magics to grow back limbs and such. Over time, the Akash shifts and changes in accordance with the body. It plays a vital role for shifters and other creatures capable of shapeshifting, such as dragons and vampires, who tend to have a more mutable Akash that allows them to shift their body. However, the degree to which they are able to shapeshift depends on the creature or individual.
The Core is the innermost layer of the soul and is where the True Soul and Anima reside. This part of the soul is said to be eternal and completely indestructible, though both claims have yet to be proven. The core is the very essence of a being and is very difficult to observe, study, or interact with, as it does not interact at all with any matter besides the other layers of the soul. This makes it by far the least well-understood part of the soul.
The Anima is the part of the soul responsible for the creation of willpower. How exactly this happens has been an ongoing debate among scholars for decades, given how closely it is tied to the origin of magic and the nature of consciousness. Suffice it to say, all major theories on the subject have their own explanation for the mechanism behind the creation of willpower, from it being bestowed by a god to other such theories. However, these remain theories nonetheless.
The True Soul is by far the least well-understood part of the soul and one of the biggest mysteries in the study of thaumaturgy. All that is known is that the True Soul contains the very essence of a being and nothing more.