Veshentsoul

Written by SoleilArya

Veshentsouls, also called Lightbringers, are beings made of light and pure Arcanic energy. Born of the Immaterial Eternity at the creation of the Cosmic Reality, they are the expression of Ovor's desire for light, colors, and souls. Although they are not fundamentally evil, it is not uncommon that they hurt humans by flying through their souls, giving them a whiplash that is both extremely painful and usually make them forget part of their memories. Considering that humans are by far the most common species in the Cosmic Reality, they have over time adopted their appearance, copying it in a bit of an eerie and uncanny way, and tend to look like children, in a failed attempt to appear less scary. They generally live in small communities in the Astral In-Between, led by the oldest souls, and those communities answer to a "queen" of sort, the Veshentra, a being as old and powerful as most of the Major Gods of Emrelnnen themselves. Despite frequent interactions between Divines, Demons and Veshentsoul, the Lightbringers tend to stay neutral in all matter, and are simply content with floating around. Some communities, however, more influenced by monsters, primordials or particularly violent Demons, have degenerated into more destructive existence, traversing people's souls on purpose, emptying them of their memories and stealing them as energy. Those are frowned upon by the larger community, but their non-interventionist stance prevents them from doing anything about it, leaving their destructive sibling to leave a trail of husks and suffering, only interrupted when someone powerful enough decides to slay them.

A Veshentsoul floating in the In-Between

Making their home of the cracks between realities, Veshentsouls are particularly adept at traveling it, and if they so desire, they can visit any plane of existence, although they tend to stay with each other, only interacting with travelers and explorers that traverse their dimension to access another.

A distorted and cruel Veshentsoul

Even if they aren't biologically or evolutionnary different from their siblings, their mentality is completely distorted by the violent and brutal entities they touched soul with, and lead them to a path of cruelty and violence, people usually calling them Ghosts, or Memory-stealers.

There is very little documentation on those evil Veshentsoul, and fortunately part of the reason why is their rarity, the other being that by consuming their memories, they prevent their prey from warning others, leading to most of humanity thinking they are nothing else than myths and legends. Archmage Laster Garbanis, leader of the Global Academy of Sorcery has investigated their existence himself, and wrote his process in the only serious documentation about them, of the Reality behind Myths and Legends, but even the legendary adventurer couldn't find conclusive existence to confirm or infirm their existence. Since then, realizing there was humans capable of erasing them from existence, they hunt in silence, undetected, and pay great attention to erasing all memories of them from their victims and witnesses. Bouts of amnesia are always easier to explain than a terrifying, otherwordly creature eating parts of your soul, after all.

Although my research didn't allow me to statute on the reality behind the myth of the Memory-stealers, I found way too many instances of unexplained amnesia to really deny it is a possibility. I recommend any monitoring institute to investigate those events, and pay great attention. If they do exist, they could cause way more damage than any Demon...
Laster Garbanis, of the Reality between Myths and Legends

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