Pathfinder 2E Paizo drops use of the word phylactery

[darjr]

Paizo has discontinued the use of the word "phylactery" in its Pathfinder publications due to the word's origins as an item used in real-world religious customs.

I wish there was a better name than “soul cage”

Pathfinder Drops Phylactery From In-Game Terminology

Paizo has discontinued the use of the word 'phylactery' in its Pathfinder publications due to the [...]

comicbook.com

 

[Morrus]

We used 'soul vessel' in Level Up.

 

[darjr]

We used 'soul vessel' in Level Up.

Nice! But I’m just not digging either term. I think the old one needs dropping from this use but dang I wish there was another that is usable.

 

[prabe]

Seems as though there's a tension between "wanting to use a real--preferably obscure--word" and "not wanting to use a word from a real culture." Good luck squaring that particular circle--I mean that genuinely: managing that while making it memorable for use in-game seems difficult.

 

[Retreater]

Wonder if they could've just made some fantasy jargon from random letters, explaining "this is how the liches themselves say it in their Necril language." That would be more evocative than putting together two common words that don't sound mysterious when used together. In fact, "Soul Cages" is the name of a Sting solo album.
This just feels like bland, generic stuff. Which I guess is what happens when design is made by committee.
My liches will create their own name.

 

[billd91]

They should just call it a reliquary since that what it holds - bit or relic of the lich.

 

[payn]

Wonder if they could've just made some fantasy jargon from random letters, explaining "this is how the liches themselves say it in their Necril language." That would be more evocative than putting together two common words that don't sound mysterious when used together. In fact, "Soul Cages" is the name of a Sting solo album.
This just feels like bland, generic stuff. Which I guess is what happens when design is made by committee.
My liches will create their own name.

My new lich soundtrack!

 

[prabe]

They should just call it a reliquary since that what it holds - bit or relic of the lich.

Presuming the dictionary definition of that as holding "sacred" relics doesn't bother someone else.

 

[billd91]

Not fond of soul cage either. Are they imprisoning their own soul? I suppose they're kind of keeping it from escaping to the afterlife. Soul vessel or even soul jar work better for me than soul cage.

 

[billd91]

Presuming the dictionary definition of that as holding "sacred" relics doesn't bother someone else.

It's a soul. Seems that if you believe in that kind of stuff, a soul is about as sacred as you can get.

 

[darjr]

This has a long list of possibilities.

A Visual Glossary of Greek Pottery

[image:1205] Alabastron (pl. alabastra) - a small jar for storing perfumes, named after the material (alabaster) the first examples were made from. They were often carried by a string looped around...

www.worldhistory.org

What about amphora?

 

[darjr]

Pneuma Amphora?

 

[darjr]

Pnuamphora?

 

[Ry]

It's a gosh-darned horcrux in the original fake latin

 

[darjr]

It's a god-damned horcrux

It is but that term is someone’s recent invention.

isn’t it?

 

[J.Quondam]

"Soul bowl"
It's a bowl for your soul!

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Soul Link. It's not a container, it just draws a lich's soul to it and holds on to it.

 

[James Jacobs]

The idea is that they're imprisoning their own soul in a cage, so "soulcage" is a great word for it (and it has the advantage of immediately evoking the right idea in the reader as to what sort of thing it does). To a lich, a soul is not something to be valued. It's a liability. It's the key to their destruction. And it's the thing that binds them to the cycle of life and death. By putting their soul in a cage and locking it a way, they're not only protecting their weakness from enemies, but they're shedding the part of their own existence that lets them transition from life to death.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I second Bill91's suggestion, reliquary. It's got some heft but is a neutral word in that it doesn't refer to any particular culture/religion.


Edit: that or a little birdhouse in your soul.

 

[James Jacobs]

Reliquary was considered, but we use that word too often for its real-world usage in adventures, and also it suggest ties to relics (a type of magic item we introduced in the Gamemastery Guide) that aren't appropriate, so we went with soul cage instead.