On the Ethics of Creating and Powering a Soul Engine

As the title of this passage reads, I will be giving my thoughts on the ethical dilemma that is brought about by soul magic and indeed necromancy as a school when used to create a soul engine. Firstly, I must provide a proper description of Master Tolurus's work to indicate what precisely is happening before any moral quandaries are properly parsed over.

The endeavor of a soul engine is one filled with very high levels of necromantic and spiritual theory. Master Tolurus's library is filled with a diverse array of knowledge on the subject. Assuming you have the required foreknowledge, the idea is simple: collect numerous humanoid souls into a container and compress them until they create a loop of imploding evocative and necromantic mana. Apparently, collecting the souls themselves is not a difficult process; necromantic magic already includes soul magic as a required subdiscipline. The harder part, according to my coworker, Anxe, was the container. According to them, it is a sleek, morose box of incredibly cold and intensely dark Hells iron, fashioned and refined by a Dwarven blacksmith that Anxe "acquired" the skills of (poor chap probably doesn't even remember his name after they were done with him). The box is suspended in a forbidden location, placed over an a sinkhole that is, allegedly, bathed in "Death's foulest blessings" via an apparatus of Elven steel cords that is (and again, I am quoting here), "dipped in Life's loveliest curses".

The alchemical processes involved are mostly artisan trade secrets, but I do know that the end result is a paradoxical interaction of corruption and purification. The box exists in a superimposed state of both blessed and cursed and neither, unaffiliated with any Upper or Lower Plane, nor is it associated with any spectrum of Order versus Chaos (a trait I envy). It is essentially removed from the multiverse and undetectable by divination. Master Tolurus can survive the various traps and abjurative wards he instilled, as can I, thanks to his tutelage. I just wish he wouldn't put my quarters directly next to the box's antechamber. The nightmares are worsening, and as I write this, I anxiously await his return, so I may speak with him about it.

The overarching issue is the ethics surrounding the use and methodology of collecting humanoid souls. Historically, the common answer is that necromantic arts and sciences are foul practices and should be banned (however, these same critics would gladly support ripping a soul from its afterlife to be thrust into a mortal form once again via resurrection. The hypocrisy of it is lost on them.) Those who answer the opposite, to whom souls are as impartial as currency, are also frustratingly unemphatic. I am incredibly glad that Master Tolurus is not one of them.

I posit that soul magic is an ultimately neutral act and should not be outright banned by the various ignorant or corrupt authorities. Much like any magical discipline, it should be regulated and properly studied. Master Tolurus agrees, which is why the souls he uses are more... ethically sourced than the lich kings and witch queens of yore. Rather than the souls of innocent or the mere malcontent, the souls that Master Tolurus uses (and by culpability that Anxe, Lothar, and I use), are sources from recently executed criminals, deplorable warlords, and other choice tyrants. Rather than serve a life sentence until their mortality drains or to complete an eternal sentence in the Hells, Master Tolurus snatches their souls away before Death's servants can secure them.

I find this to be an excellent compromise that they may spend their various eternities redeeming themselves by furthering the research of necromancy and magic in general. The first project they will put to work on is simple:

Ascending Master Tolurus to true immortality so that he will become not just the Master of this tower, but a Master of Life and Death as well.

And I think that is a perfectly ethical and good use of an evil man's soul.

If we as mortals can determine who is deserving of punishment, indeed even taking it upon ourselves to mete out fatal justice, why can we not also assign an eternal destination for those same souls that we have hastened to damnation?

These musings may not reach beyond these somber walls, but I intend to continue to ponder this until the day my Master has completed his research.

From the records of Morlimet Halifax, First Apprentice of Tolurus the Silent