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It always used to confuse me when I would watch the light fade from the eyes of a dieing creature. It has never been a secret that most things have a soul, and so it wasn't a great leap of logic to determine that "light" was the soul of the creature leaving the body, but for the life of me I could never understand the how...or the why.
What triggers that point where the soul discards the flesh and trancends to....the afterlife perhaps? The destination, however, has never been my concern, only the soul itself and how it interacts with the flesh. It has always seemed such a waste that the body remain unused and left to rot when the soul decided to discard it.
To that means, I had crafted a simple, but delicate spell, and it was this spell that I relied upon as I watched that ever-elusive light fade from the eyes of the goblin as my magic coursed through its body. A moment went by...then another...and then my spell stirred as unseen energy passed through it. The soul. As it passed, my spell molded, changed, and took on aspects of that which traversed it. And there was the first stage; a replica of that which had once occupied the shell that had been left.
I had slain the goblin with magic for a reason. I was unsure of the extent to which a physical body might be damaged and still function, so my surprise was great when, after implanting the simalcrium of a soul into the body absolutely nothing happened....not a thing. Frustration was among the first things I felt, as I was sure I had somehow contaminated the spell with residual effects from the slaying of the goblin. A cursory examination of the magic within the body, however, revealed no such contamination. I subsequently examined the body, though my eye for anatomical damage was not especially trained, I could find nothing that would prevent the body from functioning normally. Odd.
A rustling sound interrupted my train of thought and I cast a furtive glance around the cave I was in. My position would not be classified as "stratigically sound" by anyone with common sense and I was fairly sure that kneeling beside the recently deceased body of one of their comrads would not likely be seen as an act of peace, but that was not the thought that dominated my mind. Instead of the logical action of self-preservation, I found myself readying the delicate spell-net that would mimic the departing soul of a dieing creature. After all, if at first you don't succeed...try, try again.
The scout behaved like many creatures of lesser intelligence and instead of raising an alarm instantly at the sight of his fallen comrad, he went to examine the body. The first spell (the net) landed without so much as a whisper of wind, so delicate and light it was. The second was nearly as light, but the subtle strands of the weave closed in and its effect was one of exhaustion, slumber....sleep. The scout simply folded down into a nice little pile and succumbed to the force of the spell. Simple enough...finishing him soundlessly wasn't a problem, as I slipped the garrot from my pocket and cinced it tight around the neck of the sleeper. Again the light faded...again the spell caught it, replicated it, became a mirror of the fading soul.
A thought came to me then...what is a soul without purpose? What is a living thing without drive? Perhaps the spark of life was no more than a need...a desire. I had replicated the energy that composed the soul, but I had not given it a reason to exist...a reason to be. To this end I imparted a small portion of my Will into the spell, careful to not contaminate the existing structure and suffuse it with a basic need; to serve. Once done, I completed the spell and implanted it into the body. The effect was almost instant. The goblin stirred, sat up, and looked around until its eyes rested upon me. There was no light in those eyes though, only a need, an expectation....it waited.
After several tests it became apparent that more than a basic desire would be required for anything of prolonged use to be developed. And a control system of some sort. It took only minutes for the base and singular desire of my animation to go berserk without any sort of reinforcing reward or punishment to keep it on track. All of this information went dutifully into my journal and after destroying the animated shell, I started out of the cave to digest what I had learned. In the realm of death, it was a huge breakthrough and barely any progress at all...all at the same time. The question that lingered in my head was how I would put this information to the best use...
What triggers that point where the soul discards the flesh and trancends to....the afterlife perhaps? The destination, however, has never been my concern, only the soul itself and how it interacts with the flesh. It has always seemed such a waste that the body remain unused and left to rot when the soul decided to discard it.
To that means, I had crafted a simple, but delicate spell, and it was this spell that I relied upon as I watched that ever-elusive light fade from the eyes of the goblin as my magic coursed through its body. A moment went by...then another...and then my spell stirred as unseen energy passed through it. The soul. As it passed, my spell molded, changed, and took on aspects of that which traversed it. And there was the first stage; a replica of that which had once occupied the shell that had been left.
I had slain the goblin with magic for a reason. I was unsure of the extent to which a physical body might be damaged and still function, so my surprise was great when, after implanting the simalcrium of a soul into the body absolutely nothing happened....not a thing. Frustration was among the first things I felt, as I was sure I had somehow contaminated the spell with residual effects from the slaying of the goblin. A cursory examination of the magic within the body, however, revealed no such contamination. I subsequently examined the body, though my eye for anatomical damage was not especially trained, I could find nothing that would prevent the body from functioning normally. Odd.
A rustling sound interrupted my train of thought and I cast a furtive glance around the cave I was in. My position would not be classified as "stratigically sound" by anyone with common sense and I was fairly sure that kneeling beside the recently deceased body of one of their comrads would not likely be seen as an act of peace, but that was not the thought that dominated my mind. Instead of the logical action of self-preservation, I found myself readying the delicate spell-net that would mimic the departing soul of a dieing creature. After all, if at first you don't succeed...try, try again.
The scout behaved like many creatures of lesser intelligence and instead of raising an alarm instantly at the sight of his fallen comrad, he went to examine the body. The first spell (the net) landed without so much as a whisper of wind, so delicate and light it was. The second was nearly as light, but the subtle strands of the weave closed in and its effect was one of exhaustion, slumber....sleep. The scout simply folded down into a nice little pile and succumbed to the force of the spell. Simple enough...finishing him soundlessly wasn't a problem, as I slipped the garrot from my pocket and cinced it tight around the neck of the sleeper. Again the light faded...again the spell caught it, replicated it, became a mirror of the fading soul.
A thought came to me then...what is a soul without purpose? What is a living thing without drive? Perhaps the spark of life was no more than a need...a desire. I had replicated the energy that composed the soul, but I had not given it a reason to exist...a reason to be. To this end I imparted a small portion of my Will into the spell, careful to not contaminate the existing structure and suffuse it with a basic need; to serve. Once done, I completed the spell and implanted it into the body. The effect was almost instant. The goblin stirred, sat up, and looked around until its eyes rested upon me. There was no light in those eyes though, only a need, an expectation....it waited.
After several tests it became apparent that more than a basic desire would be required for anything of prolonged use to be developed. And a control system of some sort. It took only minutes for the base and singular desire of my animation to go berserk without any sort of reinforcing reward or punishment to keep it on track. All of this information went dutifully into my journal and after destroying the animated shell, I started out of the cave to digest what I had learned. In the realm of death, it was a huge breakthrough and barely any progress at all...all at the same time. The question that lingered in my head was how I would put this information to the best use...
