The Soul Logic

It is a law of nature in Vaskeer that souls are physical. When one dies, their soul rises up in The Burn naturally, or if they are killed, it is absorbed by the killer. The Killing seems to have some rules though. The soul is absorbed if they die while you are touching them, or a weapon/tool you are holding is touching them (it does not require the intent to kill). Many cultures have attempted to work around this by focusing on ranged combat, throwing spears, slings, and bows are common. They also isolate the elderly and sick to make sure you aren’t accidentally touching them when they pass. To absorb a soul is a curse on your own. Most who do so become mad within days and often kill themselves. Iron stands in stark contrast in regard to warfare because they developed heavy suits of plate armor and long blades for their Knights to fight with. Making them immune to ranged attacks and designed to get more powerful as they kill more and more.
WHAT HAPPENS IF MORE THAN ONE PERSON IS KILLING SOMEONE? The one who struck the killing blow, or is still touching when life leaves body.
In regards to The Iron Creed, the Hallowed Writ explains that the Soul Logic is Ethos' will manifest. When one dies, their soul rises toward the Burn to join in His Holy purpose, but if they were slain by bloody hands they are absorbed into the killer, to torture them from within.
Souls appear like dark green humanoid forms materializing from the waist up. The arms are spindly and clawed, the form translucent and smoky. The hazy faces are open in an eternal scream, though they possess no eyes, teeth or tongue. Holding a soul within you starts to spread a web-like pattern of veins across your body pulsing with dark green energy. The more souls you hold at one time, the more thick the veins get and the more of them appear. The green tendrils start wherever on your body you absorbed the soul, leaving most with the taint having prominently Darker hands and feet that progress inwards. Some warriors have their skin completely black and green, holding so many souls that they must have an amazing mental capacity. Titans however, somehow crack through this effect and hold souls within that do not appear under the skin, lending more to their mystery. They can hold an uncapped amount of souls and benefit more from each one, and they do not have to struggle to hold them or have it revealed on their skin. When a Soulomancer expels a soul, the energy leaves them, draining out of them like a liquid and leaving the skin as it was before. Some who hold so many souls for so long and then expel them are left with white marks across their skin in the souls place, like old burns faded into scars.

• The obvious existence of souls is what makes everyone consider themselves as human by. A soul is who they are truly, the body just growing around it.
• This makes the worst thing someone can do be – murder. Is considered a true injustice because of how it marks the killer by staining their skin.
• Makes everyone question what happens when they die. What is it like to be in the Burn, attached to the floating river of light filled with souls that seem to be screaming. Is it painful to be a soul out in the world?
• Good magic in history is always unrelated to souls. Anyone powerful or idealized is often associated with not absorbing souls. Evil people are always associated with gaining power by killing many.
• If there is some sort of an object connecting you to the killed subject, then the soul transfers to you. This happens most with a wooden object, but with any item, iron or not. Usually a weapon of some kind. This feels man-made to the people of Vaskeer, which is why it is incorporated into many cultures (the Iron Creed in particular) that there is a God that created these rules, since they don’t seem entirely natural. Other cultures like the Soleri believe that the souls have a mind of their own since they are human. That the soul knows when it was killed so crawls into the body of their killer. But they cannot reach if you are too far away.

Wood is conductive of souls, allowing plants and trees to hold and store souls within naturally. Godsmiths have found ways of morphing souls into shapes capable of being imbued in iron. A Godsmithuses the fundamental practice of Soulomancy, to expel souls out of themself and change it with various materials, to create Iron that is capable of storing souls within.

Type

Metaphysical, Demonic