Soulessness

Soulessness is a rare condition in which a person loses their soul, but still continues physically living.

Causes

Soulessness is most notably caused by contact with greystone. Greystone has a power to seek out the life-force of any living beings, and weapons of greyston can kill not just the body, but also the soul of their victim.

Soullessness olid also caused by other serious illnesses, that cause the soul to separate from the body.

Symptoms

Usually the patient continues their physical life signs, but the soul of the person is gone, and they are in non-responsive state of sleep. Sometimes both the body and the soul can continue living separately, the táldar usually continuing to hover around the sleeping body, unable to enter it again.
In the rarest case the person continues their physical activities seemingly normally, but are dull-minded and slow to response. Characteristicly they are unable to sense any táldar (including their own) or to use magical powers.

Prognosis

The souless who are unable to be woken up usually fade away in the matter of days or weeks being unable to eat. The active souless can still theoretically live a life of normal lenght, before a physical death.

Cultural Reception

The ones affected by the conditions are feared and shunned by most, and viewed as unnatural abominations. However, they they also fascinate the scholars, for whom they are a rare possibility of understanding how and why life exists.

Ulalte

Ulalte the Lord of the Underworld was enraged, when he heard of the soul-killing powers of the greystone. The souls are his posession and workforce, and the thought of someone or, something, stealing them from him was outrageous.
But the divines themselves where afraid too, because not even they, though immortal, were safe from the powers of the greystone. The stone giants managed to occupy the Gtes of Waumin for centuries, because none of the demons of the underworld were willing to fight them, while King Femur was in the possession of a blade of greystone.

Type

Magical