The Soulbound
The deeply beloved
Overview
First attempts were not particularly elegant or nuanced. In fact, the first Soulbound didn't really do much at all. Without pieces of the Motherlight giving them consciousness, they were catatonic dolls made of stardust and magic. There was much breaking down and restarting, but it was only when Thought and Emotion devised an elaborate magical system of self-awareness and personality to apply to all new Soulbound that they began to do things under their own power. They weren't very impressive things, but they appeared to be alive, and that was a start.
What followed was a cacophony of events, where several Gods developed systems of their own to manage and shape the Soulbound to be as varied and distinct as their parents. It was a free-for-all, with numerous systems of questionable usefulness coming and going without much oversight. Death found himself stretched as thin as he could go and then some trying to clean up a thousand messes at once. Something had to be done.
It was during this period that Time introduced the Timeline, which fundamentally changed how events occurred throughout the Universe. Suddenly, everything slowed way down, events bottlenecked to happen one at a time per God with a strict cause-and-effect relationship. Second only to Death in power, Time forced the rest of the Gods to adhere to the Timeline's ordered nature, in part to ease the load on Death, and in part because Time was an incurable control freak. Death continues to operate in and out of its constraints at will, which drove Time straight up the wall when he was alive and was probably a deciding factor in why Death kept right on doing it. Regardless of the poor reception of the new stranglehold of a system and the host of new rules Death brought down on the Gods' heads through a little coaxing and many threats, the Soulbound flourished under it, and most subsequent systems and rulesets developed after rely heavily on the Timeline and Death's rules to function.
As it stands, the Gods are still out there, creating huge swathes of Soulbound while fighting the ever-present influence of the Deepdark, Entropy's bleak domain.
Social
Like Gods, humanoid Soulbound are seen as the beauty ideal across the Universe. Physical features beyond that basic shape, however, are largely ignored by the Gods, though other Soulbound surely have plenty to say about it.
Gender is an entirely social construct inflicted by the Soulbound upon each other, though genders often fall down the lines of reproductive groups. The Gods don't really understand Soulbound who are wrapped up in it, but then again, the Soulbound do many, many things the Gods don't understand.
Soulbound designs have massively improved over time, though there's still a wide variance in how successful some populations are versus others. At the very least, the overarching systems developed by the more influential and powerful Gods have drastically improved the quality of life and the richness of Soulbound experiences, even in the hands of the notoriously awful builders. Overall, the number of Soulbound in the Universe is growing despite Entropy's best efforts, giving the Gods an upper hand over the dangerous, insistent Eldest.
Relationships with the Gods are varied, but most Gods are seen as, well, godlike figures by their Soulbound populations based on sheer power and knowledge differences. Some Gods interact with their Soulbound a lot more casually, presumably for their own amusement, but it's not necessarily common.
Biology
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Humanoid designs reign supreme in the Soulbound, as it's the undisputed champion of physical forms in terms of magic potential. Various Gods occasionally try to create a new paradigm by "improving" humanoid designs, but none have yet to be successful in topping out those closer to many of the Gods in shape. Despite that, there are plenty of Soulbound mimicking non-humanoid Gods who create them and appear to survive just fine with the proper environmental requirements. Arguably, these Soulbound tend to have more stable environments because of the care gone into building them for a form's specific needs, making non-humanoid Gods better builders across the board, but you won't catch any humanoid God dead admitting that.
For most Soulbound, pre-defined genetics are usually passed down from multiple parents to offspring to prevent genetic bottlenecks and physically frail Soulbound. There are a few novelty Soulbound out there who don't follow this pattern, but they require precision, care, and time that most Gods don't have the knowledge, skill, or patience to put into their builds.
For humanoid Soulbound, some kind of way to differentiate bodies who carry life and bodies that don't is common, often with other distinctions to separate out reproductive groups. The methods used to actually create the new life are a kaleidoscope of options, both magical and non-magical, and heavily dependent on the builder's preferences and ideas of how to best expand their planetary populations in a stable, sustainable fashion. It's harder than it looks, but the best builders have planets who survive with no God interference. It's big bragging rights if a Soulbound population advances far enough to achieve functional interplanetary travel, which causes much resentment and passive aggressive commentary among the sloppier builders.
For Soulbound who aren't humanoid, reproductive means are a free-for-all, with as many ways to reproduce as there are Gods and requiring much building finesse to create lasting lifeforms. It's not uncommon for Gods with something to prove to attempt novelty forms to flex their building prowess, which matters to more Gods than they might care to admit.
All Soulbound age in some way, most growing more frail as they move along the Timeline save for those Soulbound that are magically enhanced not to do so. Though lives can be lengthened by various means, with longer lifetimes skewing hard in the direction of more magical Soulbound, all lives do eventually end so souls can cycle through the Elyr and move on to other lives throughout the Universe.
Despite the concept of physical consumption being rather abhorrent to the Gods due to it being developed by Entropy, Energy was quick to latch onto it as a primary method of restoring physical energies to prevent Soulbound from burning through their life forces quite so fast, along with some kind of rest period. Just because it's used by your mortal enemy doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea, though Energy made few friends by incorporating it into his incredibly efficient system.
Most planets are situated in a magic vein to enable magic manipulation, but there are plenty spread in other parts of the Universe as well, and those are generally safer from corruption than their magical counterparts.
For most Soulbound, pre-defined genetics are usually passed down from multiple parents to offspring to prevent genetic bottlenecks and physically frail Soulbound. There are a few novelty Soulbound out there who don't follow this pattern, but they require precision, care, and time that most Gods don't have the knowledge, skill, or patience to put into their builds.
For humanoid Soulbound, some kind of way to differentiate bodies who carry life and bodies that don't is common, often with other distinctions to separate out reproductive groups. The methods used to actually create the new life are a kaleidoscope of options, both magical and non-magical, and heavily dependent on the builder's preferences and ideas of how to best expand their planetary populations in a stable, sustainable fashion. It's harder than it looks, but the best builders have planets who survive with no God interference. It's big bragging rights if a Soulbound population advances far enough to achieve functional interplanetary travel, which causes much resentment and passive aggressive commentary among the sloppier builders.
For Soulbound who aren't humanoid, reproductive means are a free-for-all, with as many ways to reproduce as there are Gods and requiring much building finesse to create lasting lifeforms. It's not uncommon for Gods with something to prove to attempt novelty forms to flex their building prowess, which matters to more Gods than they might care to admit.
All Soulbound age in some way, most growing more frail as they move along the Timeline save for those Soulbound that are magically enhanced not to do so. Though lives can be lengthened by various means, with longer lifetimes skewing hard in the direction of more magical Soulbound, all lives do eventually end so souls can cycle through the Elyr and move on to other lives throughout the Universe.
Despite the concept of physical consumption being rather abhorrent to the Gods due to it being developed by Entropy, Energy was quick to latch onto it as a primary method of restoring physical energies to prevent Soulbound from burning through their life forces quite so fast, along with some kind of rest period. Just because it's used by your mortal enemy doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea, though Energy made few friends by incorporating it into his incredibly efficient system.
Most planets are situated in a magic vein to enable magic manipulation, but there are plenty spread in other parts of the Universe as well, and those are generally safer from corruption than their magical counterparts.
As in all things with the Soulbound, social structures vary, but there's a notable difference between those directly influenced by the Gods and those left to their own devices, with those needing a more hands-on approach being frailer overall. Most Gods strive to make their planets entirely self-sufficient without needing their intervention outside of Deepdark incidents.
All Soulbound have the potential to manipulate magic, but without pieces of the Motherlight to give them innate control, the Gods must create dumbed down magic systems that the Soulbound can interact with in order to do it naturally. Some of these systems work better than others, depending on the skill of the builder, but neglecting to do so entirely on planets nested in a magic vein leads to a very short-lived planet. Some Gods remove magic from their planets entirely, which is generally seen as eccentric and unnecessary, but those who do it boast planets that are almost immune to Deepdark corruption due to the difficulty the Nameless have surviving in environments without magic to stabilize their impossible anatomy and the inability to open portals directly to the Deepdark.
Though intelligence levels vary, experience and age generally improve it. Since all experiences are lost in the Elyr, the cumulative intelligence of the Soulbound stays fairly low. Still, many of the longer-lived Soulbound can hold a reasonable conversation with a God, so extending life forces as much as possible has the added benefit of more entertaining Soulbound.
Successful interplanetary travel is the standard to shoot for in terms of a planet’s technological advancement. Gods who achieve it often are usually insufferably smug about it and quick to bring it up to their less skilled siblings.
All Soulbound have the potential to manipulate magic, but without pieces of the Motherlight to give them innate control, the Gods must create dumbed down magic systems that the Soulbound can interact with in order to do it naturally. Some of these systems work better than others, depending on the skill of the builder, but neglecting to do so entirely on planets nested in a magic vein leads to a very short-lived planet. Some Gods remove magic from their planets entirely, which is generally seen as eccentric and unnecessary, but those who do it boast planets that are almost immune to Deepdark corruption due to the difficulty the Nameless have surviving in environments without magic to stabilize their impossible anatomy and the inability to open portals directly to the Deepdark.
Though intelligence levels vary, experience and age generally improve it. Since all experiences are lost in the Elyr, the cumulative intelligence of the Soulbound stays fairly low. Still, many of the longer-lived Soulbound can hold a reasonable conversation with a God, so extending life forces as much as possible has the added benefit of more entertaining Soulbound.
Successful interplanetary travel is the standard to shoot for in terms of a planet’s technological advancement. Gods who achieve it often are usually insufferably smug about it and quick to bring it up to their less skilled siblings.
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