Spirits, Souls; Life and Death

What is a spirit or soul?

• The term spirit in Zin is tied to emotion, drive, passion, identity, memory, personality. While those creatures devoid of it typically have no soul and are considered dead.
• Soul is synonymous with the word spirit in Zin nomenclature.
• For instance, Zombies have no soul, but their bodies live on, commanded by another spirit or soul. Most undead are like this too.
• Sometimes the soul lingers in the material plane through magic, or other means, like a ghost, which now has no body.
• All things in the void are tied together by a common thread or system of magic.
• All living things have spirits, or souls.
• Animals have souls, so do people, so does a blade of grass.
• Some souls are stronger than others. The more powerful the soul is, the more powerful its connection to its body in the material planes. Metagame: The higher the HP of a creature, the stronger its soul.
• The body is the material representation of the unique soul. If someone were to look at a soul, it would look like the physical representation of the person. The "body" of the spirit or ghost can change based on the emotion of the spirit. The image of the ghost is technically called: residual self-image. It is the mental projection of the self.
• The soul exists together with the body on the material plane. They are tied together through magic.
• Powerful undead (liches, vampires, etc) that often make pacts with dark gods, demons, or Spirits, have their soul "held" by the demon or deity. They still retain their emotion, drive, passion, identity, personality, but their spirit is "held" away from the material plane, in another plane, often by the demon or entity. The spirit is able to interact through its body, "held" together by powerful magic bending the void via interconnecting planes.
• Spirits can be destroyed by bending (magic).
• Spirits can interact with the material world, as some can phase between the material planes, and the Shadowfell.

“Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep, perchance to dream—For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause, there's the respect, That makes calamity of so long life." -Hamlet, Scene 3 Act 1

Life: How a spirit is made:

• Spirits are created by Adon, God of Spirits
• She uses powerful bendings, drawing life from the void
• These spirits are made in the Ethereal Plane (or Shadowfell), she allows them to cross over to the Material Planes where they bind to a body
• Creating a spirit, even for a God, is not easy, requiring great force and bending of the void
• It is a creative process, drawing on the residual energy of the primordial Titans from the Great Affix (the greatest creation event in history). Some benders believe eventually this energy will be drawn out, ending this process of creating spirits.
• A soul is placed at conception, where it is "immature"
• Immature souls are ones that cannot be Judged, as they have not acted with good or evil
• A body that dies too soon, to be remembered, or is immature (miscarriages for example), sometimes this premature soul is transferred from one body to another, as the soul has not been able to seek Judgement from Comes, God of the Heavens and Tyr, God of Justice when arriving to Limbo. This is one of the Godtasks Tyr, God of Justice does; if a soul has no "record" to be judged, it is sent back to Adon, God of Spirits via Edysus, God of Travel
• Adon, God of Spirits and Edysus, God of Travel often work together, either personally or via proxy of their minions, moving and creating souls
• Once a soul is created Adon, God of Spirits holds no power over it. Adon, God of Spirits was created because the Gods wanted to give mortals Souls, as they themselves (Gods) have souls derivied from the Great Affix. This is a Godtask of Adon.
• When Gods or Titans mate or join, their beings are powerful enough to create their own Spirits.
• Adon only places immature souls into a new body.
• Reincarnation does not exist for mature souls.
• Animals which do not possess right and wrong, can be judged as immature, and sent back.
• When a soul is sent back to be reincarnated, sometimes there might be a distant echo of the past spirits life, reflected on by a now mature spirit. Maturity is another way to perceive consciousness (as we know of the term in our own philosophy), and is somewhat subjective. This is for the Gods to decide on. For example: A spirit could have been an eagle, now the farmer dreams of him flying through the mountain skies. Is he dreaming it? Or was he once an eagle, remembering an echo of it. Or perhaps the Gods are telling him to be more free?

Death: What happens when the body dies?

• When the body dies, either by natural or unnatural means, the spirit lives on
• The spirit is emotion, drive, passion, identity, memory, personality of that person.
• Death happens and the link between the material body, and the ethereal soul breaks.
• Very shortly after death, the spirit can linger nearby, hearing and seeing the material plane where their body was, then their senses fade slowly from the material plane. People on the material plane rarely see this, but benders can sometimes see the spirits as they leave bodies, or even see the echo of these spirits.
• Edysus, God of Travel or his minion then takes the Spirit to Limbo, to receive Judgement.
• The soul is then sent to its plane of afterlife either in the Seven Heavens or Abyss
• New Spirits are easily commanded by creatures, such as Arch Demons or Solars, and especially Gods.  For example: Any saving throw by a new spirit has a -30 modifier when reacting to a God, such as being commanded to go to the Abyss.

Death: what happens when a spirit or soul is destroyed?

• Souls are not typically destroyed, and when the physical body dies, the soul lives on, being sent to another plane depending on how it lived in the Material plane
• However, one could incur the wraith of a God, or a bender, and a the soul could be bent out of existence itself.
• It is possible for a spirit to be destroyed, and destroying a spirit is a difficult task
• Souls are "valuable" and are often not sought to be destroyed, but moved, or held, as that can offer great power to a bender
• Gods needs worshipers to gain power within the Pantheon; destroying those souls is counterproductive to their cause.
• When a soul is destroyed a ripple if felt throughout the void, and a great deal of energy is released on its destruction. This can be even felt by a Deity, knowing that some of the remnants of the Great Affix are being tampered with.

Type

Metaphysical, Divine