Alicornutopia

Let's talk about DEATH!

Something happens to a soul artifact when its bearer dies. I don't think the thing that happens is instant dissipation. I actually think that if you have the right kind of magic available, you can use a soul artifact to resurrect the bearer.

The length of time it takes for the artifact to fade out completely might have something to do with power level at time of death. I'm not sure of the scale. It's probably also affected by how much you are the sort of person who would prefer not to die. Let's say that the soul of an ordinary person with an ordinary power level and an ordinary amount of vaguely preferring to be alive takes about two weeks to dissipate, and a shining beacon of virtue who really doesn't want to die might take a few years. (If you're actively suicidal as an endorsed long-term preference, your power level actually contributes to making you dissipate faster. If you're confused about what you want, it defaults to preserving you, but will do it less energetically than if you were sure you wanted to live.)

Esarkan's trick is that his artifact is self-resurrecting: if he dies, he un-dies immediately afterward. You would have to get really creative to take him out permanently.

If you somehow manage to destroy a soul artifact while its bearer is still living, the bearer dies. But destroying a soul artifact is really hard. You pretty much can't do it unless you have powerful destruction-related magic. Of course, some people do have powerful destruction-related magic in this setting. And if one of those people gets their hands on your soul, you are in more than the usual amount of trouble.

For things besides destruction, your soul artifact also generally functions as a major point of vulnerability. If someone has magic that does things to people, and they have your soul, they can do those things to you, unless the things are really specifically body-focused and can't make the jump through the soul connection.

Looking for Sunlight may have a typo in its description string ("Tailor meets Shard").

That's definitely a typo, which I definitely can't do anything about because I'm not Erin.

Looks like Erin's got it.

Having been reading and enjoying Taliar threads, I now have Questions about soul artifacts!

- You mentioned that children with soul artifacts is considered generally unwise/possibly taboo. How taboo are we talking? Like, do people meeting a teenager/preteen with a soul artifact go "oookay, that's a bit odd" or "wtf is wrong with them [backs away slowly]"? Are their parents going to get local-equivalent-CPS looking in on them? Are other parents going to forbid their children from hanging out with Bad Example Soul Artifact Kid? Also, on the rare occasions that kids make soul artifacts, are they notably different from adults' (e.g., because their Best Self isn't very settled yet, or maybe they're limited in max power)?

- So soul artifacts vary in appearance. Do they tend more to the "pretty jewelry" types we've seen, or is there more variation? (Could you end up with, e.g., a die, or a little model animal, or a scarf?) Could you get something with mundane functionality (a spoon, a shoe, a pocketknife)? What about something that would normally be altered in the course of use? (The example I'm thinking of is a blank book that you could write in.)

- Do you have a few hypothetical soul-artifact powers handy? I'm trying to get a sense of the typical power level/scope.

Soul artifacts come in many different shapes and aesthetic themes, but they are never made of mundane materials, and soul artifact material is not soft or flexible - so no scarves and no books, although you could have one shaped like a book. Similarly, you could have one shaped like a spoon or knife or die, but mundane functionality is never a primary consideration in the design of the artifact.

It is customary to wear your soul artifact as jewelry - pendants are the most common, but some people go for more of a pocketwatch type thing - because that way you don't risk dropping it. Dropping your soul would be bad. (The chain or string of the necklace or pocketwatch is not part of the soul artifact.)

The first reaction most people would have if they saw a preteen with a soul artifact would be to worry about whether they're okay, what could have driven them to do that, if they might have something terrible going on in their life that pushed them to take such a drastic step, that general line of thinking. Equivalent-of-CPS looking in on them would be fairly likely. Parents who think their kid might be tempted to follow this example would be likely to discourage them from hanging out with Soul Artifact Kid.

Also, recall that touching someone's soul artifact is like touching their daemon, but most people don't have soul artifacts, so while it's common knowledge that you Should Not Touch (and Should Not Allow Touch), it's less of an ironclad habit in the populace at large. People who see a preteen with a soul artifact aren't just going to be worried about what caused them to do that; they're also going to worry about what could happen to them now that they have - whether they or one of their friends might slip up, or maybe some horrible person might try to get the kid alone and deliberately grab their soul.

There's enough variance between soul artifacts, and teens/preteens with soul artifacts are rare enough, that you couldn't conclusively say anything about the differences between a young person's artifact and an adult's. They might tend to be more flexible in terms of aesthetic and powerset, but only as a result of the person themselves being more flexible in terms of identity. A sixteen-year-old Matilda (a template with an extremely settled identity that's established very early) would have a very static artifact, while a Joker of any age would probably have a very mutable one.

I have a vague aesthetic for what sorts of things soul artifacts can do, but not having established powersets for all my soulbearers is one of the major remaining holes in my worldbuilding for this universe. I've got a pretty good idea of Taliar's set by now (except the problem-solving subset, which shifts as he encounters new problems), and I know Nezhefena has a strong shadow aesthetic and can control movement, probably do some spying and communication stuff, and bend her powerset fairly trivially in the direction of lie detection even though I don't think that's a default ability of hers. But they're the only two powersets I've really explored. I know Dekha-fanshel Esarkan's soul is self-resurrecting, but soul artifacts do multiple things and I don't know what else he's got.

It has come to my attention that I did not build in enough discouragement for getting your soul artifact early. I am pondering ways to correct this error.

Some thoughts:

- Trying to get your soul artifact too young might be counterproductive - you end up having to wait longer if you try and fail than if you just wait until you know it'll work.

- Trying to get your soul artifact too young might be unusually difficult, unpleasant, and dangerous - I might have to pin down a process for soul extraction in order to describe what I mean by this one... Someone please remind me tomorrow that I intended to do that.

Incidentally, I'm still dissatisfied with the "soul extraction"/"getting your soul artifact" terminology. Coming up with terms for things is hard.

'Forging your soul', maybe?

And maybe rapid change to your soul's identity can hurt a lot. That would discourage people from forging it before they've settled somewhat (and not discourage a Joker in the least).

"Baring your soul"?

Really, whatever verb ought to be in good company with the other things you can do with a soul (exalting, debasing).

One obvious option for too early is a risk of permanent damage, but that might be too extreme.

Maybe if you try to reify your soul before you're done Discovering Yourself, you could end up stuck with an incomplete or skewed representation of your true self, which you therefore cannot fully exalt.