Void of the Soul
Within each individual of the sapient races is the void of the soul. It is an empty pit where the Frithlings cannot enter and merely border. Each person has a unique shape to their void, which dictates what their ambitions are, how they express themselves, and what they will defend; as such, the shape of a void may change over a the course of one’s life; it can become filled as ambitions are satisfied. But too often, the void of the soul drives egos, causes passions to spiral into obsessions, and warps the perception of the self—we become outsiders to ourselves in our own bodies. This is corruption, and it makes monsters of man.
The Ahamkar in the Void
According to alchemists who study the Primordial Geometries, the void of the soul is caused by the presence of ahamkar. Ahamkar is, in brief, the natural world’s penchant to consume, take, and withdraw. This is reflected in all natural things around us—fire needs fuel, plants soak up water, and humanity craves. While one might try to temper or reject these tendencies, they are a very real and very natural phenomenon. This is our ahamkar, what manifests the void of the soul. Interestingly enough, this space inside ourselves is malleable—it is not set into one shape, but changes with us as we grow and mature. For example, a youthful dislike for licorice changes into an adult palate that can appreciate it. It is thought that this void is what allows the sapient races to channel magic.
Magic Lurking in the Void
The path of a mage is not always a just one. Magic comes from the void in each of us, what we hunger for in our short lives. It is why the shape of our void mirrors the magic we receive. To welcome in the dread moon into our soul, then, is to accept our hunger and channel it. We do not become monsters outright, but we can make ourselves monstrous by obeying the hunger instead. For some, being the monster is a just path. For others, taming it. And for others still, subduing and starving it until it is no more.
By ritualistically meditating under the Dread Moon, Pelagia, one can awaken in themselves their magical talents beyond that of sympathetic magics. This allows the individual to begin to summon magic from inside them, from the planes, and so on. It is thought that one can begin to channel magic due to the introduction of Charagma in the soul. While this has not yet been proved, it would explain how one could summon the elements and other planar effects from elsewhere, with charagma. Therein lies some of the danger, however, for if this hypothesis is correct, it also explains how somethings can enter into the voids of others, possessing them.
Dangers of the Void
What gives us personality and individuality is also what allows some creatures to affect us. Spells that overpower by sheer force of personality, ghosts that can enter in and stretch out our voids to pilot us—all of these are the dangers of our own voids. The void itself, however, due to its inherent ahamkar may be the biggest danger.
When a passion devolves into an obsession, when stress pushes someone to the brink, what gives us our oneness can be stretched to an extreme. When this occurs and we become puppets of our void—mere vessels to enact our desires, we engage in a form of corruption. Corruption is a mortal phenomenon that only affects those with a void. Corruption is, quite frankly, the corruption of the self by way of us ignoring the self outside of our desires; so, we simply become our desires. This harm, whether inflicted by the self through circumstance or through magical means, eventually tears apart the soul and reforms the physical body into that of a monster.
Not all monsters are inherently evil, but all monsters are selfish; some might simply want to amass all the knowledge of the world; others might always be hungry and ravenously eat anything and everything available. Whatever the case, no humanity—no soul—remains in a monster. Only a void.
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