It was an odd sensation...as if he was standing next to himself, hearing his own words reverberate between his mind and his mouth as if he were in an echo chamber. He was conversing with his friends, trying to gather themselves and plan their escape from this bizarre and ethereal realm they found themselves trapped in. He tried to understand what the cleric had explained, something about being stuck in a realm in between ours and the next, created in a moment of great disturbance. Whatever that meant.
They had been here for hours already, encountered a few strange beasts, and had handily defeated them all. Except one, that is. One fight didn't go quite as smoothly. He hadn't told them yet...what had happened during their fight with that demonic succubus. The details of the fight were fuzzy at best, but he remembered one thing clear as day. That one moment where he hadn't been quick enough. Where her poison-tipped claws sunk into his flesh somehow finding their way in between the seams of his armour. He had suffered from stab wounds before, not pleasant of course but nothing he couldn't suffer through. But nothing could have prepared him for the burn of her poison that quickly coursed through his veins. It seeped into his body like a cascading wave of fire and soot surging through his entire body and destroying everything in his path.
And while they had been victories in slaying the creature, the effects of the poison didn't abate. It continued wreaking havoc inside him until he could handle no more and he passed out from the pain. His companions did their best, patched his wounds with clerical magics and ointments, allowed him to rest despite the dangerous circumstance they still found themselves in. And while he did awake, to the relieved sighs of his friends, he knew something was still horribly wrong. He knew at that moment, that he should've been dead.
His skin felt numb, his mind hazy and confused, and his entire body was inexplicably exhausted as if being drained of all its energy. Looking down at his fingers they seemed to quiver, blurry as if two copies of the same image had been lain over top of one another, but slightly misaligned. Even more concerning were the voices, difficult to discern what they were saying but he heard them nonetheless. Moaning and pleading with him as they swirled around his head, desperately attempting to communicate with him. Desperately trying to pull him somewhere. Somewhere he knew he wasn't quite ready for, he had much to do still.
He knew not what the coming consequences of this sickness would bring, though he had an inkling, and he knew he should've perished from that poison. He knew that deep in his soul, that this strange affliction was the cost of survival, for now. They had much to do still, an important task to complete. He would suffer through this illness, and deal with the repercussions once they had accomplished what they had set out to do. If he could make it that far.
The Case of Dieter Gerwolf
Very little research has been conducted regarding this malady, since it is quite rare and seemingly magical in nature not many researchers have the knowledge to truly delve into its intricacies. As far as anyone can tell, this strange occurrence only occurs under intense magical or spiritual circumstances. The most recent case emerged in
The Empire of Aldelgis where a knight of the Empirical Army named Dieter Gerwolf suffered from Soul Separation, unfortunately passing away only a few short weeks after the initial event that caused his soul to misalign. Due to the circumstances that followed the incident a full first-hand account from Dieter's perspective was never collected. However, his brother, Rath Gerwolf who witnessed the majority of the incident and was with Dieter the majority of the time afterwards did eventually submit a report to the clerical staff working at Ayer College. While Rath's recollection and knowledge of the event are limited, the information should be useful for research purposes and may lead to potential treatments or preventative measures.
According to Rath's report, while on a mission past the northern borders of the Gilded Mountains, Dieter, Rath, and the rest of their troupe discovered an abandoned village with a crumbling church at its centre. Information on the exact whereabouts of this location and the details surrounding why they were have been redacted from the research notes, unfortunately. What has been noted, however, was that the group somehow found themselves within a temporal anomaly within the church, almost like a pocket dimension that mimicked their real-world surroundings. Within this space the company found themselves battling a demonic shapeshifter, though the kind of demon was also redacted those that have been able to read the report believe it may likely have been a succubus. A blood-thirsty demon that lures in unsuspecting victims using its charismatic wiles, then lunging upon them with poison-tipped claws hoping to kill their victims before they can collect themselves.
During this encounter, Rath describes a moment in which Dieter suffered from a rather serious looking clawed attack from the demon. Dieter continued to fight on and would eventually slay the demon himself, but shortly after the fight, Dieter would pass out from his wounds. The group's assigned cleric, the future Arch Bishop of Elric Torben Behr quickly applied magical healing to Dieter. Rath recalled that Behr told the group that the wound was severely infected with a poisonous substance but that his healing had cleared it from his system before it had become fatal. Though Behr also apparently commented that Dieter had in fact ceased breathing for a few moments during the initial treatment. Regardless of this, Dieter woke sometime later, and though he felt unwell he was able to continue on and eventually escape the dimension alongside the rest of his party.
Rath states that Dieter did not tell them of the immediate symptoms he began to feel in the moments after awakening and that they only found out about what he was experiencing a few days later after they had already escaped the pocket dimension. According to the report, the initial symptoms that Dieter experienced were feelings of confusion, loss of balance, and double vision. Over the following weeks, his symptoms would gradually worsen, the report lists that he felt an increased weakening of strength, loss of mental clarity, hearing strange voices where others did not, and sudden audio and visual hallucinations.
Unfortunately due to his weakened state during the final battle between the Gerwolf brothers and
Arch Bishop Grigory Alstaf, betrayer of the
Aldelgian Ildyr Diocese and leader of a cult of fanatic Ig'darmus followers, Dieter's soul would fully separate from his body. During his last moments, he somehow gathered enough strength to defeat Alstaf, in one final tandem strike alongside his brother Rath. Dieter would pass away mere moments after the final battle, only his brother and Torben Behr were privy to his last words before his passing. Though it is likely his soul ended up in the hands of
Keldrin - Lord of the Unfallen in the underworld, many believe his soul instead entered the good graces of Ildyr's flock due to his bravery and selfless acts of heroism in the weeks that lead up to his eventual demise.
As a final note, the report states that the Soul Separation likely would've killed Dieter much faster if it were not for the intervention of his companion Torben Behr, who was able to coax his spirit from detaching fully sooner than it did via magical healing and prayer.
Cause
It is hypothesized that Soul Separation may occur when the body undergoes immense shock in a location of strong magical presence. Areas that have thinning walls between our realm of existence and others like the Cacophony are likely candidates. In the circumstance of Dieter Gerwolf, it is likely the case that receiving a normally fatal blow while stuck in a pocket dimension was the cause of his misalignment and subsequent death.
The Grand Archon of Aldelgis, Ziffaris Furold Bodo, has recently taken an interest in this case. He has hypothesized that in this very specific occurrence, in which Dieter should in fact have died from his wounds almost immediately, did not due to his corporeal and spiritual forms being in two places at once. Our regular dimension, and the strange mirrored one that he and his party were experiencing. Because of this anomaly, Dieter's soul and body became confused, the body believing it was still alive due to its lingering presence on our plane of existence, and the soul believing it was time to pass on because of the wound sustained in the pocket dimension. This in turn caused the misalignment of his soul and eventually the fatal separation despite Dieter being healed physically shortly after his battle with the demon.
Symptoms
Effects of Soul Separation vary in each case but typically a sufferer of Soul Separation often includes waning energy, loss of mental acuity, and audio and visual hallucinations. With each symptom worsening as the soul pulls farther and farther away from the body.
In rare cases victims, before they have passed, have said that they began hearing the voices of the dead nearby. With some going even further stating they had seen visions play out in front of their eyes of past events, showcasing scenes of immense emotional distress, often the scene of someone's death. As if the soul of the deceased wanted to show them their last moments. Though much of this is chalked up to the aforementioned hallucinations.
When the symptoms reach their zenith and the body is sufficiently weakened the soul will finally break loose from its corporeal bonds. This can happen mere hours after the initial misalignment, or it could take days or weeks. The separation is not visible to the naked eye, but if one has the ability to see magical energies they may notice wisps of coloured energy leaving the body before quickly disapating. When the spirit finally departs the victim, who has endured much by this point, simply drops dead. This event is typically, and mercifully, quiet and uneventful. There is, however, a small chance that after the soul departs, the body may continue to function, though it quickly devolves into a mindless shamble of rotting flesh similar to that of a zombie.
Treatment
Unfortunately, effective treatment for Soul Separation is practically non-existence, and no treatment or cure has been found to stop the ultimate death of its victims. This is in part due to the limited amount of research that has been conducted on Soul Separation. Though researchers that have spent time studying Soul Separation have said it is unlikely that even the most effective treatment could stop the inevitable conclusion of death.
Sadly, these comments are backed up by the fact that no one has ever survived this ordeal. Not even the strongest of knights like Dieter Gerwolf. Though the clerics of
Aldelgian Ildyr Diocese have stated that regular magical healing has been shown to repair the soul's connection to the body, but only temporarily, thus only delaying the victim's death. Though even this healing has diminishing returns and soon begins to lose its effects. Some clerics of the same faith swear by the power of guided prayer work as well, believing that it helps lessen the severity of symptoms for a time. Though this has never been proven.
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