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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Turanil" data-source="post: 3191151" data-attributes="member: 9646">**This thread, of course, is not meant to be a discussion about real life's religions!** No, what I would like to know, is how you deal with the subject of souls in your rpg campaigns. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lets begin with a few D&D and typical fantasy assumptions about souls:-- Mortals are made up of body + soul. When one dies the body becomes useless, while the soul goes to an outer plane appropriate to how the mortal behaved during his/her life (e.g. virtuous characters go to Heaven, while evil ones go to Hell).-- AD&D 1e elves had no soul, so couldn't be resurrected.-- Souls can be sold to fiends, and Night Hags customarily trade in souls.-- Black magicians sacrifice the souls of others to demons, to summon them.-- Faust-like sorcerers can sell their soul to the Devil to gain power and wealth during their mortal life.-- Apparently souls can be used to power magical items (but I haven't read Magic of Incarnum).-- The "Trap the Soul" spell doesn't seem to trap the soul itself, but to abduct the target in its entirety.-- In some fantasy novels (like Conan), sorcerers can put their souls into amulets to protect them. Likewise, if they can capture one's soul and put it into a special container, they get power over that individual. In some Saberhagen novel, a major demon had its soul hidden into a slave's hair; in cutting and burning these hairs, a hero rendered the mighty demon powerless and killed it easily.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now here is my take on the soul in fantasy games. Discuss it, so I could improve the concept and change it if necessary:1) I prefer to think Body + Lifeforce + Soul, rather than just body + soul.2) As a matter of personnal taste I don't like the idea that others can sacrifice your soul and sell it to demons. IMC, souls are immortal, unalterable, and nobody (mortal or god) can affect or steal someone else's soul. Then, the soul is not something you can put in a container. It exists more than anything else, but it's at the same time totally immaterial. The soul is more like consciousness, with a quality that was forged during the life (or lives, if souls get reincarnated). This quality orients the soul onto the right outer plane (Heaven, Hell, etc.) after death.3) Sorcerers claim to sacrifice others' souls, and put theirs into amulets to protect them. Night Hags claim to sell souls that demons will feed upon. There are even people who think they use souls to power magical items. However, this is but ignorance or deliberate lie (to scare others), as in all of this, it is the lifeforce which is involved, never the soul. The lifeforce is made up of Positive Energy, while unlifeforce is made up of Negative Energy.4) Sorcerers who try to sacrifice others' souls to demons, while they only sacrifice others' lifeforce, truly forfeit their own soul to the lower planes. Only one's deliberate and chosen actions has an effect upon what will ultimately become of his/her own soul.4) There is another concept I would use IMC, vaguely inspired from the Christian faith. The idea is that God created everything perfectly, but that some of his creatures rebelled against Him and were banished (or fled to) the lower planes. Then, all souls are created by God, but are given the choice of eventually following him or not. Now, the monotheistic religions claim that one's should do all he/she can for the benefit of his/her soul so it goes with God in the Afterlife. Conversely, demons claim that no such thing as the soul exist, and that one should turn to undeath if he doesn't want to utterly disappear when he dies. It's a lie of course, but demons, are full of hate against God, and want to deny anything that has to do with Him, such as the soul, which is a spark of his divine being. Well, something like that, that still needs to be refined.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Of course, all these years I did play D&D, we never had any use for determining exactly what the soul is (in the game). And maybe it's even not necessary at all?</blockquote>

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