Soul Quill

In offering you my own feather to sign this, I offer my life to your will, for as long as we both shall live.

— Traditional kliastan wedding vow, translated into the Common Tongue

Background

Work with what you've got

Quills have been used as writing tools for centuries across Pfemba and Monyus. The kliastan cultures of Chezri are no different, but they have one huge advantage over the mammalian species in that they grow feathers instead of hair.

Thus: Soul Quills

My Precious

Normal quills from wildlife are still used across Chezri, but soul quills are incredibly personal, and are often reserved for important or sentimental use.

You wouldn't use your soul quill to write a shopping list, for example, but you might use it to sign a letter to a loved one.

Quill

Cultural Significance

The part represents the whole

Soul quills are considered to contain some element of the person that created it (hence the name), and this simple association has given rise to all manner of customs and superstitions.

The gift of a soul quill to another is an incredibly personal thing. They can be declarations of love, promises to return after journeys/wars, gifts to children on coming of age. To a kliasta, there is no singular gift more meaningful than someone else's soul quill.

Good juju

Signing a contract with a soul quill as opposed to a standard quill or other implement is considered more meaningful, although it technically carries no stronger legal binding.

Breaking a soul quill-signed contract is seen as far more dishonest.

Bad juju

As if signing deals with the devil in blood wasn't symbolic enough, tilken myths of the same ilk often have the user signing away their soul using a soul quill that has been plucked by the devil in question.

Talk about 'on the nose'.

Quill you marry me?

Kliastan marriages usually involve the couple signing the marriage certificate using each other's soul quill that has been specifically plucked and sharpened for this one use.

No touchy

Using the soul quill of another without their permission is so heinous that it is actually illegal in Chezri. It often carries a prison sentence, and the shame surrounding it follows the offending kliasta for their entire life.

Ain't nobody here but us tilkens

While some tilkens do sprout feathers naturally, the cultural associations with using soul quills didn't spread to them. Few bother to turn their feathers into quills, and those who do often sell them to featherless tilkens who wish to buy them.

Item type

Tool

Base Price

Priceless