The Well of Souls

[cyl]

Hi everyone,


I just discovered (after 4 years of GMing... shame on me) that there was something called the Well of Souls described in the first pages of the Autochtonians, where the 8 heroes got the souls of all the autochtonians through the Ewer of Souls...


My point is... I was actually working on introducing the bleach shinigami concept in an "exalted" apropriate way, and this discovery has raised many questions in me...


As we know that reincarnation is just another "program" in the big matrixes that are Creation and the Loom of Fate, but discovering there is such a soul storage place (on top of the Imperial Mountain said the Auto) is kinda disturbing:


- so there is a place IN CREATION where the souls go when they left their human hosts


- so Lethe is another function in the big Creation matrix like "wind blows East today on Nexus" and there must be a celestial division (probably in the bureau of humanity) working on that function (hence the proper introduction of the shinigami concept in Exalted : regulators that were made to make souls that stayed in the Underworld come back to the Well of Souls)


- so the Well of Souls exists... what are the deathlord plans about it ?! I mean, I'd be a deathlord, I'd know this Well existed, taking control of it or destroying it would be the greatest plan ever built to defeat Life in Creation: picture a controlled/broken Well of Souls, no reincarnation, every mortal that die join instantly the Underworld, or even better Oblivion, all the raw material for soulsteel you can ever dream of... Creation is now doomed to fall ! (what a dark alternate setting  :twisted: )


Did you figured that Well existed (I read every book I could, and barely looked at the Auto, so I missed that - thanks to you Cynis Filthist and your thread about Usurpations, I realized that thing existed) ? How did you manage it ? Did you ever made something out of it ?


I'm thinking big time here, mainly on my attempts to build the shinigamis & soul society concepts in the Exalted setting... Any ideas/comments would be just GREAT  


Thanks ^^

 

[Cynis Filthist]

your welcome for pointing you towards the Autochthonians book with my previous thread, i am unfamiliar with Bleach - but so afr your assumptions that there would probably be a division in charge of the Well of Humanity - or perhaps they made it automated (like the Loom of Fate) to prevent 'god error' on something so important?


your talk about Bleach Shinigami is making me want to add a Death Note artifact for an arc though

 

[cyl]

Well the loom of Fate itself has some Death Note functions, but yeah, some death god must exist ^^

 

[Jukashi]

You've already got some info from me, of course. Something I was thinking of, though, was the possibility that there's a (very short) afterlife inside the Well of Souls itself. We already know humans have a tendancy to retain stuff after they die - so what if the effect in Lethe wasn't instantaneous? Maybe there's this big swirling vortex of energy - or a literal River of Forgetfulness, from which we get the name Lethe from - where souls hung around a bit before being reassigned, as it were?


Then maybe you could have your shinigami be certain souls who were selected out of that waiting area by the gods to fill up some shortfall in their staff. Their stay would work some changes, take a few memories, charge them with... ahem... "Lethality"... and they get a power-up that gives them more powers before being sent out to hunt down ghosts and drag them back to the Well. If there was enough of them, they might even get their own little district in Yu-Shan.


This would also work as a possible inspiration for the old story of certain ghosts being allowed to serve the gods in Heaven... I believe that was mentioned somewhere once, wasn't it?

 

[Haku1]

This would also work as a possible inspiration for the old story of certain ghosts being allowed to serve the gods in Heaven... I believe that was mentioned somewhere once, wasn't it?

That's in the Abyssal book, I believe, when they talk about the utter west with the 3 gates/pillars of light.

 

[Cynis Filthist]

Kind of interesting to play a Siddie game where Bronze Faction agents are attempting to stop a "Kira" like killer taking down Dynasts in an attempt to destabilize the realm.  The siddie's would be playing the roles of "L" so to speak trying to hunt down the killer with the "Death Note."


As to Jukashi's comment, I kind of like the idea of the Shinigami being souls picked from the stream/well of souls.

 

[Moonsilver]

Where is Safim so all this stuff can be discredited in the strongest possible terms?

 

[cyl]

You've already got some info from me, of course.

Yes I have, thank you for your great work on the Submission, it helped me a lot to focus on how Shinigamis could interact with Exalted, and your storyline was great.
But as I told you, I'd like to introduce Shinigamis as a "natural" force of Creation, just like they are in Bleach: regulators against lost Huns wandering in the underworld and rampaging Pos.

Something I was thinking of, though, was the possibility that there's a (very short) afterlife inside the Well of Souls itself. We already know humans have a tendancy to retain stuff after they die - so what if the effect in Lethe wasn't instantaneous? Maybe there's this big swirling vortex of energy - or a literal River of Forgetfulness, from which we get the name Lethe from - where souls hung around a bit before being reassigned, as it were?

You know, I revisited the first episodes of Bleach, when we learn about the function of the Soul Society (mainly based on the Quincy Issues), and it's EXACTLY what it's all about: temporary phase between reincarnations in fact.
There could be some kind of "heaven" or "Soul Society" in which the mortals go when they die, and here they wait to be reincarnated when the Loom states so. This society clearly needs guardians, and as they are both guardians and regulators... they must be Shinigamis


If I were to define what I would do about Shinigamis now, I'd clearly make them as they are in the manga: spirits of strong willed and powerful individuals. Needless to say the AIs that the exalted created for several purposes could give birth to mod souls, just like Kon in Bleach... but I am going, if Jukashi's okay with it, to open another topics, in which I'll give you my visions of the "alternate setting" introducing Shinigamis and write a story about it and some plot ideas... if you're okay Jukashi with this... I will not disrespect your earlier work.

That's in the Abyssal book, I believe, when they talk about the utter west with the 3 gates/pillars of light.

I GOT IT !!! page 18, dammit I search the whole book to find it !
Err... right, well that clearly could be used as a legend built to drive ghosts seeking "redemption" or looking forward to be reincarnated to seek this place... which should be heavily guarded ^^

Kind of interesting to play a Siddie game where Bronze Faction agents are attempting to stop a "Kira" like killer taking down Dynasts in an attempt to destabilize the realm.  The siddie's would be playing the roles of "L" so to speak trying to hunt down the killer with the "Death Note."

If you can read French, I can give you the adress of a french forum in which we had that specific discussion about a Death Note. But as I said, not meaning in anyway to sound rude, I'm really looking forward to have your thoughts about the Well itself and its uses (I reaaaaaaally want to talk about Shinigamis too, but I'd rather open another thread to do that). But if you want to talk about some deathnote arcs, you'd want to open a thread (if that hasn't been done before) and I could gather some ideas we debated with the french community and translate it for ya !

Where is Safim so all this stuff can be discredited in the strongest possible terms? Smile

Well when you start talking about alternate settings, you must expect some measure of stubborness (not sure if that word even exists ) and resistance. But that's just great, because it forces you to reshape your ideas and writings... well actually, I work like that... as long as criticism stays constructive... bring it on !  8)

 

[Jukashi]

You'll see no objections from me! I've no right interfering with other people trying to do that same thing I did.

 

[Arthur]

Where is Safim so all this stuff can be discredited in the strongest possible terms?

No one knows.