Perpetual Chained Soul

"What do you mean that most of their army isn't human?" Kaylee asked, even as Rachel wiped the oily fluids off of her fan blades. Julian shook his head, seeing that it was too late for Talon Sean - the man being bisected down the middle by their assailant's speed, while Jason ripped out the engine from their assailant's chest.
"Watani Engines are used to bind even common folk into amalgamations of flesh and machinery," Jason responded. "The ritual and spell used transfer the soul and bind it into the engine - either a sort of heaven, or a hell of someone else's making," he responded, before throwing the engine down and stabbing it through with his court sword, piercing its wards and cracking the engine's casing. A maddening howl echoed throughout the tunnel as the engine's "occupant" was released into the Ether, even as the gears and pumps within slowly stopped turning.

The Perpetual Chained Soul is the invocation that is utilized by magi and sorcerers as part of the Clockwork Amalgamation. It is a highly technical working - requiring nearly a dozen ingredients, reagents, and artifacts in order to safely perform, and is critical upon timing and positioning to achieve its desired effects.

Developed by Wakazian magi prior to the rise of the Juzu Dynasty, the Perpetual Chained Soul is considered an illegal working throughout the majority of Vinesia, primarily due to the consequences of a successful invocation. Despite the strict legal limits placed on it, it is still practiced - primarily by underground groups who seek to fill their ranks with dependable footsoldiers who are no longer capable of practicing disobedience or disloyalty. The Kingdom of Mithambe also utilizes this working in a controlled and highly experimental fashion, though it is limited to experimental use on the terminally ill or injured, and it is still not without severe criticism.

Primary and Secondary Effects

Primary Effects

"So long as they do not get destroyed in war, they are immortal. Though, who would want to spend immortality as a slave?"

— Commander Wilson Tyb, Sherland 7th Mechanized Battalion

Upon successful completion of the invocation, a selected sapient sacrifice will have their soul ethereally bound to a Watani engine, perpetually powering it. The soul will be able to power a selected construct that the Watani engine is installed in, thus utilizing that construct as readily as its original body, though the Watani engine is warded in such a way that the engine is slaved to a specific controller.

Secondary Effects

"The stench of the invocation fills this place, my Lady. It's worse than the maggot-filled corpses we just passed."

— Caitlyn Therrien, upon discovering a Broken Dusk workshop

As the amount of ether required to bind the soul to a physical object is substantial, notable secondary effects are expected upon performing this invocation. Common secondary effects include:

• Noxious odors that can inflict nausea and dizziness upon any unprotected person who passes through the area;
• Scorch marks near the pedestal of the target engine;
• Reduced ethereal efficiency due to ether depletion in the immediate area.

Premature halting of the invocation, or invocation failure, results in spectacular damage to the area, often resulting in the death of the invoker and nearby witnesses:

• Severe hyperetheria in all nearby persons within 1 meter of the invocation's epicenter;
• Substantial shockwave that is capable of blowing out interior masonry walls;
• Intense flames, reaching temperatures of nearly 3,000 degrees Celsius;
• Toxic ether residue, capable of inflicting ether poisoning or moderate hyperetheria on anyone who makes contact.

The side effects of a botched invocation are significant enough that authorities do not attempt to stop an invocation that is underway. Practitioners will do their absolute best to ensure that all reagents, artifacts, and consumables are in position prior to initiation of the invocation, including the evacuation of witnesses to reduce collateral if the invocation fails.

Effect Duration

Permanent

Range

1m

Level

Parisian 9

Material Components

The Perpetual Chained Soul requires significant amounts of common and rare materials. Acquistion of these materials tend to be controlled through legal channels, particularly since at least two ingredients serve no purpose other than being used for illegal invocations.

Artifacts

• 1x Watani Engine
• 13x purified Copper Pedestals
• 4x purified glass bottles
• 1x Talisman of the Soul
• 1x Talisman of Death
• 1x Talisman of Servitude

Consumed Materials

• 4x Atxian Nightsteel chain links
• 3x Marile pearls
• 2x spider lily blossoms
• 1x sapient being, marked for sacrifice

Alchemical Reagents and Catalysts

• 50mL whole blood of sacrifice
• 200mL ethereal binding solution
• 200mL distilled death essence
• 100ml purified distilled essence of alcohol
• 20g Satari sand, split into four 5g portions

Restrictions

Ethereal Requirements

Due to the intense nature of the working, the invocation can only be cast in an area that is specifically purified to counter potential stray ether waves that could fatally disrupt the working. The ambient ether must also be abundant, which limits areas where this working can be naturally set up without drawing attention.

Legality

The Perpetual Chained Soul is inherently illegal, as it constitutes not only physically killing a sapient, but enslaving their soul so that they are trapped in a state of undeath, so long as the Watani engine that they are bound to is not breached. Practitioners who are caught and prosecuted are often sentenced to death in the jurisdictions that capture them.

Research into the mechanics of the Perpetual Chained Soul is limited, due to the legality of the invocation itself. Tight restrictions are permitted on a case by case basis for study into the invocation, and only the Wakazi Kingdom and the Kingdom of Mithambe are known to have granted this permission to their scholars and archmagi.