The World of Souls

The World of Souls

The World of Souls is an "existence" of some sorts separate from and yet also linked to our own. Speculated by some to be a separate universe innately linked to our own, it seems to consist of several dimensions of its own.

The History of the World of Souls

The World of Souls, as it is known (By few) in Johorne, is an existence as old as the universe itself, thus it stands to reason that it was discovered countless times by earlier beings before possibly being lost as time passed. As far as concerns Humanity, it was first discovered by them by humans from Earth in the 22nd century A.D. It was at first believed to be a separate dimension through which ships could move relatively faster than in ours. Although this was true, and was how the World of Souls was initially used, the humans at the time had barely scratched the surface.
It was around the time of Human-Turunz war that much more was discovered about the World of Souls. The defense of Humanity was aided, albeit somewhat self-destructively by the usage of the Great Walls. Their usage required application of energies from the World of Souls, and they produced effects beyond the wildest dreams of anyone. Although such realizations came too late in the war for the balance of power to be turned decisively, siphoning off the great energies of the World of Souls enable Humanity to stand their ground against their superior foe. At this point, however, not much else was known about this dimension except that it provided energy and safe travel. After some time, however, it had become apparent that the firing of the Great Walls, an event also known as Ragokagdon, had had severe side effects.
The massive explosion had cut the ties with the World of Souls in the regions that the Walls had run through. This severely hampered the ability to connect to, and learn about, the World of Souls. It was not until after the war that humanity, under Lucy, would continue to develop their understanding of the World of Souls.
Meanwhile on Johorne, a planet which had become completely cut off from the rest of human space due to anomalies resulting from the explosion, the new world which was developing had, too, started peering into the World of Souls.

What is it Really?

The World of Souls is not a misleading name. It is, essentially, where the consciousness (Or "Souls") of intelligent beings lay. It isn't exactly clear how it is determined when a being is intelligent enough to have a "soul" and perhaps it may be only thought to work this way, when in actuality all beings are represented in this world. Contrary to initial expectations, souls don't disappear when an individual dies. Instead the soul shrinks, showing as a permanent record the existence of the individual.
Probing and experiments have revealed that souls are grouped together under certain criteria. There are thought to exist different blocks for nations and other constructed groups. By this logic, all Ethain souls lay together in a group, both current Ethains and those who have since passed from the "real world." Yet, as curious as the case of human identification and culture affecting how souls are grouped is, it does not end there. Nations are less so separated from each other as they are themselves, seemingly, artificial groupings of random souls. And they are not ultimate. Humans from different nations reside next to each other even while no other members of either nations do.
Perhaps the best way to imagine the way that nations are grouped is as such: If the World of Souls were a cup, then the souls would be marbles dumped into it, perhaps at random, and perhaps constantly shifting. A nation, then, would be if a plastic bag could wrap around each pertinent marble, ceasing to exist where there might be an unrelated marble. This way, all of the Ethain marbles are within their own bag, yet remain also in a position of their own independent from their fellows.
If this were not confusing enough, then it must be said that nations seem not to be the only blocks, and that position seems to be dictated by relationship and ancestry. Furthermore, all human souls are thought to exist within a higher grouping among other species, with even more hypothetical plastic bags, so to speak.
Moving on from the hard to imagine reality of the world itself, the ties of living souls are important in another sense: Magic . It is believed that the old stories of sorcerers and witches may have had some truth to them. It has been demonstrated that humans, via their soul's connection with the World of Souls, are able to access the vast amounts of energy with the World of Souls. There is, apparently, a limit to what they can do by themselves before seriously injuring themselves or perhaps causing their souls to close up (Which would appear as death in our world). Though what they can do by themselves is still quite fantastic. By their will, raw energies from the World of Souls are transfigured into what they envisioned as they expel it into our world.
Another pertinent piece about the soul is its eternitude. It is conceived as possible to resurrect individuals by reopening their souls.That said, the only cases of such resurrection were unique and the cost for doing so in other circumstances is unknown but presumably high.
Greater Entities.
As said before, nations exist within the World of Souls. It is unknown how strong of a bond these have and if they exist in any truly meaningful way. However, what is clear is the importance of Humanity as an entity. Not much is known about its nature, but the grouping structure of Humanity is considered much more meaningful than those below it under one simple reason: Her emanation.
Following the Human defeat to the Turunz, or perhaps a bit before it, it is believed that some force of the "collective will of Humanity" emanated (Or more accurately "possessed" someone). Being styled as Lucy , this being was determined by Turunz seers (A special caste within Turunz society with a particularly strong attachment to the World of Souls) as the most fit to rule and was made into the king of Earth.