Souls & Related Matters

[Roman]

A thread about a soulless (no pun intended) character has reminded me of a similar character I once played and inspired me to ask about souls and related matters. So... how do you deal with souls and related matters in your campaign?

 

[Roman]

No takers? How to define souls in your campaign world? Do animals have them? How about constructs or other 'creatures'?

 

[Telperion]

The Scarred Land campaign setting I use has fairly good details on how to deal with souls, if you can read between the lines abit and have a good head for details. It isn't all spelled out in big letters or in a single place, but this is how it goes:

While the titans were still ruling the world there was this thing called the Wheel of Life, or something like it. Don't recall the exact name right now. Anyway, everything and everyone had their own special place on this Wheel and every now and then they would leave this place to join the Mortal Coil. Once they died they went back to their designated place in the great Wheel of Life and the Wheel kept turning until it was time for that particular something or someone to leave the Wheel again and join the Mortal Coil.

However, since the Divine War the Wheel has stopped and things aren't going so great anymore. The gods are happy with those who worship them and they take their followers souls and bring them to the god's personal Outer Plane after the follower dies. The trip is made in the company of a specifically designated Soul Guardian, which is basically an Outsider designated to see to it that every soul that leaves the Mortal Coil gets to its designated afterlife. So, what about all the other living things that don't worship the gods? Good question. The great Wheel of Life isn't turning anymore, so souls going that way are basically stuck in oblivion for all eternity (or until the gods decide to restart the great Wheel, which isn't going to happening anytime soon, since it was an artifact of the titans: the gods enemies). It really sucks not to be worshipping gods right now in the Scarred Lands, and that's the way the gods want it .

 

[Turanil]

No takers? How to define souls in your campaign world? Do animals have them? How about constructs or other 'creatures'?

This is an interesting subject for many D&D campaigns. I have no idea how to treat it, but I have begun a thread in the Houserule forum, to have (hopefully) a community work to bring about a good houserul concerning the "soul" in a d20 fantasy rpg.

Anyone is welcome to add their suggestions and comments on this thread.

Thanks.

 

[Aeric]

I've always considered the soul to be a person's consciousness. A body without a soul is a corpse, and a soul without a body is a ghost. I found the aforementioned thread an interesting take on the nature of a soul. I never considered the possibility that someone could live without a soul; I never really took into consideration the idea that animals are soulless creatures, either.

 

[ARandomGod]

I've always considered the soul to be a person's consciousness. A body without a soul is a corpse, and a soul without a body is a ghost. I found the aforementioned thread an interesting take on the nature of a soul. I never considered the possibility that someone could live without a soul; I never really took into consideration the idea that animals are soulless creatures, either.

This is pretty much how I view things as well. If you want a little more typing and theorizing by me about potentials, and not my own view, see the thread I first responded to here: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1861938#post1861938

 

[Roman]

Hmm, so if animals are not soulless creatures in your campaign are their souls the same as human (humanoid souls)? Are all souls equally valuable for cosmic purposes (for demons, Gods, etc.) or do their values differ?

 

[Telperion]

Hmm, so if animals are not soulless creatures in your campaign are their souls the same as human (humanoid souls)? Are all souls equally valuable for cosmic purposes (for demons, Gods, etc.) or do their values differ?

On the Great Wheel everything was equal, since the titans didn't really care one way or another about intelligent or non-intelligent beings. Intelligent beings were toys to be played with and then discarded when the titans grew bored with them. Common animals, magical beasts and even unique creatures were another type of toys, and treated pretty much the same way as those with intelligence.

The gods however give separate value to such things, since intelligent beings are more likely to worship them and therefore make them more powerful . However some non-intelligent creatures are considered to worship certain deities by "default" and therefore considered that deity's favorites, blessed or something like that.

I would have to browse a few books and think about it if you want more specific examples.

 

[WayneLigon]

Depends on the campaign setting. In the desert world I did, I used a variant on the Egyptian idea of the soul being multiple parts - people could lose parts of their soul and those parts sometimes corresponded to either mental function or emotional function. Someone could lose the part of their soul that governed compassion and become a heartless monster. Aother might lose the part that governed rational thought and become insane. Undead were created by taking at least the 'spark of life part' and sometimes others; more sophisticated spells took less and left more 'person' there, which is why the higher ranked undead (vampires, ghouls, etc) had more intelligence and personality than say, zombies.

Animals had some parts but not others; it's why they were not self-aware. Awakening an animal was done by creating that part of the soul and putting it in the animal. Animated objects and such were done the same way. Mages and priests could make entire souls if they needed to and were willing to risk it, so they could create life.

There were no 'real' gods in the setting; the gods were just very, very powerful beings that had once lived much the same lives as the PCs, but had managed to instill an 'extra part' of the soul in themselves, making them immensely powerful and able to work directly with soul material. Worship basically was a gifting of part of a persons soul to the gods (it was a part that regenerated itself normally). That was also the part that demons, devils, crazy cultists, etc wanted since it was the 'magic part' that let people work magic. (Wizards did magic by hoarding that part. Clerics did magic by emptying it totally and being filled with much more power by the being they served).

In the Greatwood game, pretty much everything has a soul. Some have small souls barely even there (most individual rocks) while some have very powerful souls that burn with power (dragons).

 

[fredramsey]

When it comes to soles, I'm sure I could cobble something together...

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a heel, or string anyone along, but, if the shoe fits...

Man, I'm liable to get booted if I keep going, all this sneakering around. Hope I didn't step on anyone's toes.

Man, this socks. Let's talk about feets instead.