Post by Lyss on Sept 23, 2015 3:56:53 GMT
Ping wanted more info on these guys, and since they're a pretty important organization I thought it would be a good idea to go a bit more in-depth with them than I did in the Factions thread.
To reiterate, they're the self-proclaimed protectors of the souls of every living thing in Varatia. Their agents, the Soul Guardians, are in charge of capturing souls that are trapped on the surface world so their superiors can decide whether they belong in heaven or the underworld. (They're totally never biased or anything, nooo.) They're based on the eastern side of Heaven's Gate, and you can see Dyad Bay from their mountain.
Each Soul Guardian is equipped with two things: a spirit crystal and a vessel. Their spirit crystal quite literally holds the Guardian's soul. People born into the faction have their souls bound to a crystal at the age of five so they're easier tocontrol keep track of - meaning if a Guardian breaks their rules and/or tries to run away, their whereabouts can be tracked. Unfortunately, there's nothing they can do about that. If their crystal breaks, their soul is released from it, and their physical body becomes inanimate. Their leaders take full advantage of this, going far enough as to confiscate Guardians' crystals if they're disobedient, or even if they do an unsatisfactory job. The souls of the living are their top priority, as they say, so failure is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, being stuck in a spirit crystal for too long does nasty things to the mind. Symptoms range from sudden irritability or depression, mania, amnesia, and even entire personality changes. There are Guardians who have been stuck inside their crystals for so long they want to die more than anything. The other Guardians are conveniently unaware of this, however. They don't dare question their leaders' motives, and it's all for the greater good... right?
Backtracking a bit, a Guardian's vessel is what they use to capture souls, hence the name. It takes the form of a weapon, be it a sword or bow - the choice is up to the Guardian about to enter training, because they have to train with their vessel for ten years before they can do any actual work. The payoff is good, because it allows them to do their job effectively while also providing a powerful means of defense. The catch is that it's linked to their spirit crystal. If their vessel breaks, all the souls inside are let loose, and it sets off a chain reaction that shatters their spirit crystal. (Luckily vessels are near-indestructible, so they don't worry about that much.) If a vessel has too many souls inside of it, it won't absorb any more, and it becomes virtually useless, even as a simple weapon. Your sword vessel is too full and you're getting attacked by an Aberrant? Too bad. You may as well be hitting it with a pillow - it won't do anything.
Vessels are capable of taking the souls out of living creatures (not counting demons or angels), but doing so is strictly forbidden and will result in a Guardian losing their spirit crystal for an indeterminate amount of time (probably for so long they end up forgotten in some vault somewhere). Some of the more deviant Guardians have gotten away with this before, though, and have somehow evaded capture. It's possible they're so far from their base that they can no longer be tracked.
In terms of the Guardians themselves, most of them are either totally unaware of how corrupt this whole system is, or they're too afraid of what would happen if they were to rebel. A lot of them have trouble relating to "normal" people because they've been trained to prioritize their work over all else, so they're usually pretty terrible at reading social cues and making friends and such. Kari, for instance, doesn't even fully understand the concept of friendship, let alone love.
I haven't decided exactly how all of this is structured. The Guardians have their teachers, who stick with them for all ten years while they train, and there's a council that votes on where to send souls, but I'm not 100% clear on just who is in charge yet. I might make it so they don't have a single leader, and that the council keeps an eye on everything that happens.
Finally, they don't get along with the Reapers. They think they're just a band of thugs who kill people whose souls need to be "rescued" or some corny reason like that, while the Reapers know that the Soul Legion is extremely hypocritical and probably does more harm than good.
I hope this is enough info! If you guys have any questions, let me know and I'll try to clear things up 'u'
To reiterate, they're the self-proclaimed protectors of the souls of every living thing in Varatia. Their agents, the Soul Guardians, are in charge of capturing souls that are trapped on the surface world so their superiors can decide whether they belong in heaven or the underworld. (They're totally never biased or anything, nooo.) They're based on the eastern side of Heaven's Gate, and you can see Dyad Bay from their mountain.
Each Soul Guardian is equipped with two things: a spirit crystal and a vessel. Their spirit crystal quite literally holds the Guardian's soul. People born into the faction have their souls bound to a crystal at the age of five so they're easier to
Unfortunately, being stuck in a spirit crystal for too long does nasty things to the mind. Symptoms range from sudden irritability or depression, mania, amnesia, and even entire personality changes. There are Guardians who have been stuck inside their crystals for so long they want to die more than anything. The other Guardians are conveniently unaware of this, however. They don't dare question their leaders' motives, and it's all for the greater good... right?
Backtracking a bit, a Guardian's vessel is what they use to capture souls, hence the name. It takes the form of a weapon, be it a sword or bow - the choice is up to the Guardian about to enter training, because they have to train with their vessel for ten years before they can do any actual work. The payoff is good, because it allows them to do their job effectively while also providing a powerful means of defense. The catch is that it's linked to their spirit crystal. If their vessel breaks, all the souls inside are let loose, and it sets off a chain reaction that shatters their spirit crystal. (Luckily vessels are near-indestructible, so they don't worry about that much.) If a vessel has too many souls inside of it, it won't absorb any more, and it becomes virtually useless, even as a simple weapon. Your sword vessel is too full and you're getting attacked by an Aberrant? Too bad. You may as well be hitting it with a pillow - it won't do anything.
Vessels are capable of taking the souls out of living creatures (not counting demons or angels), but doing so is strictly forbidden and will result in a Guardian losing their spirit crystal for an indeterminate amount of time (probably for so long they end up forgotten in some vault somewhere). Some of the more deviant Guardians have gotten away with this before, though, and have somehow evaded capture. It's possible they're so far from their base that they can no longer be tracked.
In terms of the Guardians themselves, most of them are either totally unaware of how corrupt this whole system is, or they're too afraid of what would happen if they were to rebel. A lot of them have trouble relating to "normal" people because they've been trained to prioritize their work over all else, so they're usually pretty terrible at reading social cues and making friends and such. Kari, for instance, doesn't even fully understand the concept of friendship, let alone love.
I haven't decided exactly how all of this is structured. The Guardians have their teachers, who stick with them for all ten years while they train, and there's a council that votes on where to send souls, but I'm not 100% clear on just who is in charge yet. I might make it so they don't have a single leader, and that the council keeps an eye on everything that happens.
Finally, they don't get along with the Reapers. They think they're just a band of thugs who kill people whose souls need to be "rescued" or some corny reason like that, while the Reapers know that the Soul Legion is extremely hypocritical and probably does more harm than good.
I hope this is enough info! If you guys have any questions, let me know and I'll try to clear things up 'u'