Theory of the Soul

Taken from the writings of Divine War era scholar Khnumrekhi Menkaura
Translation from Proto-Common by Onomancer Curuni Epësse

There are, in essence, five components to the everlasting soul;
Your Name, which all things possess, that which defines you, that which immemorializes you, that which lives beyond you as long as it is spoken on the lips or written in the stone.¹
Your Life Essence, which all things possess, that which separates the inanimate and the animate, the force that brings life to the clay and stone and flesh. Those who bend life and death with their Gifts weave this to their will.
Your Heart, which all things possess, that which guides you on your path, that which colors your thread of fate,² that which seeks light or dark, chaos or order. That which is easily broken. That which is easily lost.
Your Ambition,³ that which pulls you forward, that which gives you determination to continue onwards, which separates the ones who move towards greatness from the ones who stagnate. That which holds the Gift, for those so blessed
Your Shadow, which all things possess, the shade which may remain, the depictions that linger beyond memory, that which anchors a soul to the realm of the material. The afterimage.
Of these, when the body is destroyed, the Shadow remains, the Name remains, the Life Essence is dispersed,⁴ and the Heart and Ambition are weighed by the gods.
These five essences should remain balanced, for letting them tip from the balanced scales can cause great grievances. If perhaps the Shadow is too represented, the soul may have difficulty passing onwards to the next life. If perhaps the Heart is diminished, the soul may feel no compassion towards others, and be unguided by the morals which guide most. In similar thought, if a person is lacking in Ambition they will become stagnant and indifferent to their circumstances- a fate I've seen common among many.

1. This is what we would refer to as the True Name. I find it interesting that the true name relates here to memory, and I do wonder if possessing one's true name would offer a vehicle to alter the memory of a person in the minds of those who knew them without the need for base enchantment spells. Memory manipulation on a mass scale could be a powerful weapon. 
2. This passage seems to refer to one's moral compass, as we would define it now. I do wonder whether the idea of coloring a thread of fate is literal or metaphorical, as I have not been witness to the threads of fate which we possess. If it is a literal meaning, how did Mekaura learn of this?
3. It is an interesting hypothesis that not all things possess Ambition. I have seen theories as well from other scholars who hypothesize that the essence of monsters, of beasts, of constructs, and of elemental creatures are lacking in something that fundamentally separates humanoids from those listed. Could ambition be linked to intellect? Certainly those I know of who are blessed with great intellect are those of great ambition, and excess of it can lead to grievances.
4. I would hypothesize that life essence gradually leeches from the body rather than the sudden scattering implied by the usage of the word "iaquo"- to scatter, throw away, disperse, or to cast off. This would account for the relative difficulty of raising a dead creature after lengths of time have passed- the more life essence that remains, the easier it is to thin that line between life and death. If it were a true "scattering" of the life essence, it would be the same amount of effort to raise a freshly dead creature as one from 1000 years ago.