I really enjoy the stories like Gate(the anime) and Mages are too OP(the webnovel). Where there is a mutual crossover between the two Realms and people from our universe go to the fantasy universe and vise versa. One thing that I feel is kind of muddy, is the concept of souls. In fantasy worlds, souls are usually a part of a system, or they are taken care of in the afterlife by the god they followed or a general catchall god of the afterlife. This brings the question of what of our universes people. In this cumulative world of fiction, did we always have souls, do we have gods that we don't hear, or DID we have gods and were abandoned? I am partial to a design where humans are in fact just a species of chance, unlike species in fantasy worlds who were made by the gods, we earned our sentience through evolution and chance. One where we know our origin is fiery explosion that continues until entropy springs us back to the beginning to start again. But then, does everything have a soul? if not, WHEN did we start getting a soul if we have one.

One of the defining features of sentience is our ability to form abstract thoughts. Our ability to come up with a concept that does not exist. My conceptualization of a soul for a world that is designed in some part to be easily translated to a game is thus. (The following is a copy paste of my notes, not really fleshed out mostly)

Quote

 

Image/Soul

Souls are more or less copies of ourselves. Along with that, without a body it is harder to grow stronger.

Image -> Echoes

Fading Image/Soul Echo

Strong Echo’s can affect memory interpretation/perception.

Using mana consumes will. Overexertion of Will makes one susceptible to mental attacks.

When one attempts to affect another’s mind they must use their will to fight their targets will. Will can be affected slowly overtime if exposed long enough.

You can use pulses of Will to attract echos to the center

More powerful enemies cannot enter lower fragments. If a higher tier enemy enters a lower fragment, it will rapidly start to decay based on the tier difference. If the difference is too high, the cultivator and potentially the fragment will explode.

Sources/Focus: Energy mages use to process Essence, or like a wand.

Attacks consume energy, higher energy allows for more combos.

Focus is required to utilize Essence

Usage of magic consumes Mana

Bodies naturally absorb pure essence, refine to life essence for cell longevity and generate decay/corrupt essence as a byproduct. Plants catch decay essence which gets cleaned to pure essence by the fragments will.

Creatures can coalesce mana into focuses that can be used to cast magic. It is often a focus will develop it’s own will with use, and can help with research.

Focus:

Mind:

Grit: Pain tolerance

Restraint: Pleasure tolerance

Resolve

Aura/Ki

Image: can be interpreted as a soul.

Soul binding:

It is possible to bind things to ones image through Soul Binding. This involves

Instinct

Intuition Technique Potential→ Talent → Spirit → Mantle/Resolve → Shell/Will→ Aura/Focus

Talent:

Starting point for ones cultivation journey. Talent can be grown through potential by getting experience. Talent allows for innate understanding of a skill they are compatible with.

Potential:

As one goes through life, they gather potential. This is a broad term that encompasses all the experience one gains through life. Going through extreme situations grants more potential. Potential

Spirit:

The area around the core that one can reveal fading Images(echoes). Revealing echoes consumes Will, as you expend the will to be able to perceive the echoes. One can then expand their aura using their Focus. You can either expand the radius, which can expand up to your focus limit, without exhaustion. You can then use finer control of your aura to destroy, repel, or grab echoes.

Mantle:

Ones Resolve, not easily changed, nor replenished. Resolve determines how quickly your willpower can recover.

Will

Willpower is ones mental strength. Willpower is affected

Aura:

Aura is the culmination of all ones image. Aura cannot be depleted, but using Aura uses Focus

Revive

A soul network can be created by aligning with a realm, this allows for the ability to revive some of those lost. This process requires either restoring part of a body, or building a whole new one. Reviving costs Spirit essence, which is usually paid by the one being revived, or if their spirit is not enough to account for the missing mass, then some spirit can be donated.

Soul Capture

Ones Image can be trapped into a crystal through an expensive trap. The size of ones Spirit determines the strength of the Image.

 

I think interpreting a soul as something that is created due to our sentience, and allows for our existences to continue after the organic death of our body is a good way of allowing for progression, along with the familiar concepts of reviving, soul trap, soul bound, etc. One thing I want is to ensure that stuff like reviving and soul trap are known to be hard and resource intensive.

My thought is, we have very 'weak' souls as souls require mana, and mana is scattered in our universe. We have to use large groups of people who share a uniform concept to meditate and gather mana using Will. I'll write more on mana with a post dedicated to mana.