Death will probably happen in the Sunless Sea. It's an unforgiving world where you have to be incredibly skilled or very lucky to survive. Fortunately, since the tribes have descended to the Sunless Sea, death has become far less permanent and much, much stranger. Souls: Souls are an essential component of every living thing. When a creature dies, its soul detaches from the body and disperses into the environment. Normally, it's completely incorporeal, but with a properly prepared container and a little help from someone well-versed in the Correspondence, it can be compressed into a fluid form and stored in said container. The longer a soul remains detached from a body, however, the more complex a resurrection spell must be for it to work, and thus, the harder it is to retrieve a soul. Properties of souls: Compressed souls resemble a faintly glowing, opaque liquid. Said liquid can be literally any color under the sun, but it typically matches the color of the scales of its original body. Souls are usually one color, and constantly swirl in their bottle; sometimes a dragon's face forms in the liquid for a moment, its expression matching that of the original owner at their moment of death. Compressed souls are viscous, like honey, but they never stick to anything and are quite slippery. Pour a soul onto a surface, and it will slide off of it easily, without leaving even trace amounts of itself, let alone a stain. Souls are completely non-flammable but evaporate incredibly rapidly when exposed to air (you did make sure the container was airtight, right?). No matter the external temperature, a soul is always 98 degrees farenhight. Uses of souls: Once you have a bottled soul, assuming you have access to the corpse associated with the soul, you can force-feed the corpse its associated soul and cause the body to come back to life: this practice is surprisingly common, so much so that some who know the Correspondence even specialize in recovering souls and will resurrect a dragon for you for a rather hefty fee. However, inserting a soul into a body that isn't its original body will result in a dragon with the personality of the Soul and the body of the Corpse, and making a live dragon drink a soul will leave that dragon with two souls battling for control of the body. Putting a soul into a body different than the original is considered to be a crime on par with murder, even when done with willing participants. Soul Flaws: Sometimes, souls can develop flaws. The exact circumstances of how these flaws develop are unclear, but souls that have been disconnected from their original bodies for extended periods are especially vulnerable. These flaws are most visible in the soul itself, but the body it's occupying will develop abnormalities that will gradually grow more and more pronounced. The most common flaws are outlined below; Clear: As a soul ages, it begins to become more and more transparent. This can happen to anyone over the age of 100, but dragons that try to extend their lifespan using magic are particularly vulnerable to this flaw. Dragons with this flaw begin to forget their past. It starts with relatively simple things, like a friend's name or the fact that they own a book, but it quickly progresses to more significant memories. By the time an affected dragon reaches age 200, their soul is completely transparent, and they remember nothing of their past. Cold: Extreme trauma can affect the soul as well as the body and mind. A soul that has developed this flaw becomes much colder and begins to lose its color. Dragons who have this flaw have usually experienced a horrible trauma that has left deep emotional scarring, and begin to lose all emotion. Those heavily affected by this flaw are completely emotionless, and their souls are a glassy white. Fragmented: Souls with this flaw are what you get when you keep a soul in a body that's not it's own for too long or mix souls together. Fragmented souls have two or more colors swirling around together, and dragons who are affected by this flaw have multiple personalities struggling for control of the body. At its extreme, a soul can have a thousand swirling colors, each color representing one of a thousand personalities struggling for control. Stained: This soul flaw is yet another problem dragons well-versed in the correspondence have to worry about. This soul flaw can develop in anyone who has cast a spell or used a magic item, though spellcasters are particularly vulnerable to it. Souls with this flaw gain an innate understanding of the Correspondence beyond the understanding of most, at the cost of a physical and mental toll on the body the soul inhabits. Those who've been deeply affected by this stain are left frail and weak but possess incredible power.
