Names

Come when I call you

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Overview

The core of who we are, everything we've been, and what we will ever be. Names are a Big Deal, serving as a record that holds a soul or, in the case of the Gods, their piece of the Motherlight, and to lose it is a fate much worse than death. Soulbound Names are almost always given by Death, who assigns all new souls Names upon their creation, but occasionally, a Nameless stumbles across one when they've eaten enough magic.

Though the Soulbound don't have pieces of the Motherlight that would automatically compel them to obey their creators, a God can force the issue by using a Soulbound's Name. Luckily, the Gods have forbidden this practice amongst themselves, and those who break the taboo are swiftly and severely punished by elder siblings. Unluckily, other Soulbound don't give half a damn about the ethics of Name compulsion and are quick to abuse it in every magic system developed that links Names to the magic vein the planet is built in. Many Gods have given up on Name-based magic systems to level the playing field, but those who still use them swear by them as the most natural and intuitive way for Soulbound to manipulate magic. It's a heated, ongoing debate. Death, for his part, has heard enough of both sides to last a thousand lifetimes and has expressly forbidden the subject from coming up within earshot of him for the rest of time.

You better not Name that soul before I've had a good look at it. Stars, I can't trust any of you.

--Death

History

As with most things in the Universe, the origin of Naming can be traced back to the Motherlight when she gave Names to the Eldest. Though Names themselves aren't quite enough to create life all on their own, they provide a container for everything a soul will ever do, will ever be. The Eldest and the Gods retain awareness and personality from the pieces of the Motherlight held by their Names, but the Gods decided that wasn't the greatest solution for people they intended to leave to their own devices, so Emotion and Thought devised an elegant awareness and personality system to give the Soulbound inner lives as rich and varied as their creators.

Soul Creation and Naming

Solely under Death's purview and only done when the Elyr is empty of souls. Souls created by other Gods usually come out a little...off, and Death has to repair them anyway before feeding them into the Elyr. He's long since told his siblings to stop being "helpful." After Death creates a soul, he gives it a Name and records it in his Book of Names before feeding it into the Elyr. Names listed in the Book of Names are fluid entries and will adjust to whatever a soul's new Name is when they're born into a new life onto a planet. This means that most Soulbound built in the current era aren't really true, living Soulbound right out of the gate, but vessels to carry already existing souls.

Occasionally, when a Nameless survives long enough to eat a truly massive amount of magic, they find Names of their own in the midst of all the hunger, detach completely from Entropy, and live free as Lords of the Deepdark to do as they please with the full awareness they possessed when they were originally Named. These found Names are not listed in the Book of Names and the corrupted souls are still locked out of the Elyr to stop the Deepdark's influence from spreading into the irreplacable artifact.

Further Reading

Notes

Both Gods and Soulbound can only have one Name at a time, but nicknames are best handled with care, because Names can shift to these placeholders if too much is invested in them.

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All Names of both the Gods and Soulbound are recorded in Death's Book of Names.