Sublimation of the Soul

The children of the False Gods of antiquity wear their souls on their skin. For this, they are exalted. Even in the Enlightened Age, this is true.
Those with the blood of Earth have skin of sand and stone, or geode formations growing from their flesh like gemstone tattoos. The fire-touched have hair like smoke and cinders, fingers of flame and eyes like burning suns. The Moonborn, water-woven, sparkle like forgotten oceans in the light, and cool the desert air in their passing. And the people of the Stars glide across the Sea of Dreams like sandstorms, or cyclones from a different age.
To be born of the gods is to open yourself up to the world, and to allow the world inside you. But time takes its toll. Bones turn to stone, eyes harden into glass. Flaming hair turns to ash and skin burns and peels. Water boils. Sandstorms sputter, and fall silent.
The many children of the Sultan, who is himself born of the Moon, know this fate all too well. In the centre of the Palace of All-Waters, there exists a room, and inside that room exists the Well of Returning – a quiet, serene pool of water that glows, gently, in the moonlight. Beside it, there is a book of names, and dates, and only a few words besides.
Even as the room remains open, and even as the list of names begin to grow, nobody has ever been seen to leave.

Affected Groups

The Sublimation of the Soul is a natural part of the life-cycle for many of the god-touched, though the symptoms vary wildly in how, and to what degree, they may manifest. The Earth-born, for example, sometimes simply shed their skin like a crackling shell of dry clay, while others are frozen entirely into statues on their deathbed.
Surprisingly, the phenomenon has been witnessed, albeit extremely rarely, amongst those that share the blood of angels – supposedly, a bishop of the Sun gave his last, exultant sermon before a crowd of awestruck onlookers, seconds before he vanished in a thunderclap of divine light.

Prevention

The Sublimation is the symptom of the soul seeking escape from its dying vessel. To prevent it would be to stave off the end of one's natural life. To prevent it would be to seek immortality.
To prevent Sublimation of the Soul, then, would be to sell the soul away entirely.

History

In the Worldvault – the vast underground museum curated by the monks of the Earth – there exists an exhibit consisting of seventy-two distinct statues of ancient soldiers. There was a very shocking discovery one night when a nobleman knocked one of the statues over, and screamed when he saw it crack, and begin to bleed two-thousand year old blood.

Type

Supernatural

Origin

Divine

Cycle

Chronic, Congenital

Rarity

Uncommon