Souls
(Yes, I know it isn’t what a few of you were expecting. Live with it. That one’s in drafts and I can’t seem to get it done, so I’m doing other things for the purpose of doing things.)
Souls are the culmination of a sentient being’s life. Every living thing has a soul, but no two sentient beings will ever have completely identical souls. Some things, like trees, have very simple souls. Others, like animals, have more complex ones. Human souls in particular are fairly complex, having five main aspects: Shape, Core, Aura, Rune, and Mana. The souls of gods are believed to be even more complex, though no mortal has ever had a chance to find proof.
Each and every aspect of one’s soul affects them in some way, some being more prominent than others, though nobody truly knows what is affected by a soul’s aspect. In addition, while there are a set number of aspects to a human soul, it may be impossible to discover every possible combination of these, as the vast majority of humans are unaware of their own traits, let alone those of others. There are four known Shapes, six known Cores, a seemingly infinite number of Auras, as many Rune possibilities as the number of Runes in the Nailigab language, and ten known Mana ranks.
The four Shapes align with the four primary Elements of the world: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Water is typically a calm soul, with three steady tails, Earth is even more grounded, with only one tail. Fire is the most chaotic of the three, with no set form or tail count. Air is less intense, with two ever-shifting tails. Soul Shapes can be split into either Order or Chaos archetypes, with that archetype being a blanket descriptor of that soul’s expected path in life. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that path will be followed, so few people pay that aspect of a Shape any mind at all.
All Cores have a unique tint, and their shapes can be either Stable (S) or Unstable (U), appearing as either Solid (S), Faded (F), or Luminous (L). It is unknown what this affects of the person.
The different Auras all adhere to a soul’s Shape, but have fully unique appearances and colors. It is unknown what this affects of the person.
Every Rune in the Nailigab language, as previously stated, can be a soul’s Rune. This directly correlates with what Rune appears on a person affected by magic. Additionally, this is said to affect the person’s personality greatly.
Mana refers to a soul’s magical abilities, ranging from None to Immense, with the tenth rank, Infinite (O), being astronomically rare to see. The full order of ranks is None (N), Very Low (VL), Low (L), Below Average (BA), Medium (M), Above Average (AA), High (H), Very High (VH), Immense (I), Infinite (O). Depending on their Mana rank, human souls can survive with no host for any length of time between one week and several thousand years.
A human’s soul is always very briefly visible at birth, with all but the Rune clearly visible to any that look, assuming they have the Arcane Vision trait. (More on that later.) After that point, a person must call their own soul forth for it to be seen, unless an onlooker has the power of the Rune of Soul, in which case they can always see other souls of their own kind (example, a human sees human souls).
It is possible, though incredibly difficult, to alter another soul with magic. This is highly taboo, however, and very rare as a result. Alterations to a soul will typically have a direct effect on the person within a day of the changes being made. The person can end up seeming completely different from their previous self with even a minor change, due to the nature of souls.