D&D 5E (2024) For a setting that emphasizes the five power sources

[Yaarel]

Another thought is cosmology. In at least one game, they did some fun stuff with souls. Souls where something you could interact with, and they had basically magical energy in them. The various power sources could intertact with this soul-energy differently.

I view the soul as comprising different levels, ranging from infinite transcendent to a particular animalistic body.

The infinite aspects are cosmic and selfless, beyond a sense of an individual self.

But there is a kind of higher self, an ideal best version of oneself, who is inherently altruistic and ethical, and can engage and adapt any situation. This relates to the eternal identity, being beyond spacetime but still cognitively conceivable. Mystical experiences of various sacred traditions involve it.

Between the higher self and the animal body is the level of personal identities. This is the psychological sense of self that can learn learn grow, explore, and evolve. It can tale on more responsibilities, in a sense becoming larger. Sometimes it is called the spirit of a person. It has influence and relates to the soul of an artist. Sometimes this psychological selfidentity identifies moreso as the altruistic higher self, sometimes moreso the selfpreservation animal body.

For D&D, the "soul" of a Humanoid comprises different parts to being a microcosm of the macrocosmic multiverse. There are roughly three levels of the soul: the Material aura of the animal body, the Ethereal influence of the spirit of a person, and an Astral ideal self at the threshold of spacetime. Each of these levels involve different aspects. It is as if a Humanoid has a different soul existing in each multiversal plane, and the person is a unity of all of them.


The bodily aura is the animal soul of the Material Plane. This Material soul is the ki, the lifeforce of a body. It is the foundation for an individual sense of self, a unique person of desires and selfpreservation, who is distinct from the rest of existence. This aura includes aspects of Shadow, Fey, and Elemental. The Shadow soul is clear relating to necromancy, the Fey soul relates to nature and the fates and related to druidry, and the Elemental soul to the magic of the Elemental Sorcerer.

One can talk about a "Shadow soul", an aspect of the bodily aura that relates to dying and death, but lingers on with the corpse after death, and hopefully rests in peace in the Shadowfell. Necromancy manipulates this Shadow soul while the other souls of the same person continue to do their activities elsewhere across other planes. A Celestial soul is aware if a Necromancer disturbs its Shadow soul, but the Celestial soul itself remains unharmed.

The Fey soul also relates to the underworld but is a more positive state, involving the healthy and healing aspects of the body, communion with all living lifeforms, as well as the magical capacity of shapeshifing. The Fey aspect tends to be thoughtless but ultimately fair. There is a sense of karma at work, the "fates", sometimes in a frightening way.

The Elemental soul is alchemically "scientific" but includes magical affinities with the matter and the personalities of the four elements.


The Astral soul is "angelic" and engages the realms of archetypes, symbols, cultural ideals, values, ethics, alignments. These conceptual structures allow the person to make decisions beyond the immediacy of reactions to the bodily senses. There is a timeless quality involving synchronicity. The reason a person can engage in this level of the soul is because of the capacity of speech.

The Astral level includes the Celestial soul of altruistism that achieves great ambition by ways that also benfit others. It makes sense to say every Humanoid also has a Fiend soul, being the consequences of dark side decisions and actions. This is the aspect that "passes thru fire" to enter the Celestial Planes whole. The main difference between Celestial and Fiend relates to the Material soul. This bodily aura has infinite desire: when one desire gains fulfillment, the aura desires something more. The Celestial soul uses the infinite desires of others as opportunities to do Good. When someone is hungry, one becomes able to offer food, teach how to prepare food, and encourage others to do Good feeding yet others. By contrast, the Fiend soul only fulfills ones own infinite desires, at the expense of others.


The Ethereal soul is the spirit of a person. It bridges the Astral soul and the Material bodily aura. A person is whatever the Ethereal soul pays attention to. It is the identity and actions of a person.

These Ethereal selfidentities can learn, adapt, and evolve. Ideally the person selfidentitifies with the Celestial soul while remaining in touch with the individualistic desires of the bodily soul. Loving ones bodily self is Good, while also loving the bodily selves of others. The Fey aspect is this benign animalistic self.

The Ethereal soul exerts influence, relating to the presence of works of art and the magical telepathic magic of the Bard and other shamanic figures.

The phrase mind over matter relates to the Ethereal soul of an individual person. This level is made out of ether, the fifth element also called quintessence. The ether is force, being physical but immaterial. Gravity is also a form of ether. The Border Ethereal is all of these Ethereal forces that are part of and inseparable from the Material Plane.

This soul ether exerts physical force, as a telekinetic field of influence. When alchemical formulas require the fifth element as an ingredient, one can supply it by paying attention to the alchemicsl process. One makes the phases of the alchemical reactions symbols of ones own selfidentity, thus entangling the process with ones own Ethereal soul. The magic of the Arcane power source often involved the physics of the five Elements: ether, fire, air, water, and earth. But it especially involves the properties of ether as an immaterial substance, for telekinetic manipulation and real manifestations of illusory visualizations.


In sum, the Humanoid soul entangles every plane of existence. It is as if a separate soul exists in each plane, and a Humanoid is the unity of all of them. The Material soul includes aspects of Elemental, Fey, and Shadow. The Astral soul includes aspects of Celestial and Fiend. The Ethereal soul tries to pay attention and make sense of all the aspects of an integrated person. Being whole is powerful to influence every level of the multiverse.

 

[Yaarel]

Fuel vs Method? Like, maybe Fey/Shadow/Elemental are fuel?

My understanding is, the "fuel" is either ones own personal soul (psionic and primal), or the impersonal planar weave (arcane and divine). Albeit, this fuel doesnt get exhausted.

Then each power source is a "method". Each source is a different "Theory of Magic".

Psionic would harness, strengthen, consume and focus your own soul energy. How do we distinguish this from Martial? I guess the big difference is if you project your soul energy outside your body? Or maybe it is if you learn how to move your soul energy around. A Martial "simply" strengthens their soul-body connection to make themselves superhuman; a Psionic learns how to manipulate their own soul energy through direct practice focusing on it. Like, Psionic disciplines involve projecting your soul into the Ethereal, forming the will, then imposing it on reality; Martial techniques keep the soul and body moving as one.

Ultimately what defines the martial power source is reallife. If it can happen in reallife, then martial can do it in an impossibly exaggerated way. The thematic pair is the exaggeration of Body and Tools. The various superheroes whether athletic or technological can inspire character concepts. This magic of martial utilizes the Material soul, namely the ki lifeforce bodily aura, and the weave of Material Plane.

An example of an effect that is on the threshold and might be martial: a sword can be polished so its blade is mirrorlike and gleams; so martial can polish it so well it literally shines in the dark ss a lightsource. This effect relates to the Tool theme and tech flavor.

There is overlap between martial and the primal themes of Fey body shape shifting and Elemental alchemical technology. What distinguishes martial is reallife phenomena anchors it even if there is an impossible exaggeration.

Primal would interact with free spirits and make bargains with them. These spirits are everywhere.

Yes, for primal magic, the features of nature are persons. Each river has unique personality and dramatic psychological presence. Some of the rivers are skilled at magic. While a river is native to the Material Plane, it is a watery Elemental soul. This soul is aware. It can taste the things that are in its riverwaters. If this soul knows how to do magic, it can exert Ethereal influence -- especially telepathic -- by projecting a remote presence via the Border Ethereal that can manifest magical effects beyond the river. Importantly, the river soul is nonhuman, and might typically manifest as weird watery events. But some rivers know shapeshift magic and can take the form of a human or other animal. If it takes the form of a human, it also adopts a human mind, thoughts and emotions, albeit this humanlike overlay feels alien to the nonhuman river itself. A river is the Elemental soul of the Elemental creature type. However the form that this Elemental chooses to take is the river itself. It rarely animates, and the Water Elemental monster statblock almost never applies. More typically the soul of the river is encountered in ghostlike paranormal activities, including dreams, apparitions, and weird watery occurrences. The same is analogous for earthy mountains, and so on with any feature of the landscapes, plantscapes, seascapes, and skyscapes.

Primal magic is about forming a social community, where Humanoids and these natural Elementals exist civilly and constructively, with mutual respect. A role of a shamanic is to identify any conflicts between any members of this community and to negotiate reconciliations - whether human-versus-human, human-versus-elemental, or elemental-versus-elemental. In this animism, it is the neighborliness that is the sacred.