My Greatest Experiment (Skelebros' Origin Story)

Souls: Other Properties

Phasing:

Unlike a person's body, the soul is not strictly physical. It generally takes a physical form, but it can also display spectral properties. Because of this, it is possible for a soul to pass through solid matter and leave the body it inhabits—this is called "phasing." Souls phase out of their body for several different reasons, one of them being a strong attraction to another soul (love). The soul can also be forcibly phased out of the body using magic, or be controlled by the soul's owner (provided they have a high amount of self-awareness).

Glowing:

The glow of a soul can also change, depending on the situation that the person is experiencing. A soul's glow generally brightens when a monster is using magic, for example, and dulls when the soul is injured. A soul's glow can also flicker or pulsate—this happens in reaction to strong emotion (generally love, fear, or anger). If a person is especially sensitive to these changes in the souls of others, they may be able to sense a person's emotional state. (We generally identify this trait as empathy.)

Existence:

A soul contains everything that a person is. Their memoires, their personality, their hopes and aspirations... they are, in effect, the person themselves. So, therefore, the body is nothing but a vessel—it has no connection with a person except to serve as an agent of the soul. A monster soul can exist outside of its body. However, it can't stay that way for very long. After about ten minutes, the soul will begin to crack, until it shatters completely. The soul can't move too far away from the body, either. If the soul is more than thirty feet away from its body, in any direction... the body will die instantly.

This process is very different for humans. A human soul, due to the amount of DETERMINATION it contains, can sustain itself without the presence of its body. In fact, the human soul can continue to exist even after its body has died. While it's not sure how long they can remain this way (we collected the first soul over 200 years ago, and it's still around today), it is a very useful property for my research. Without the human souls, I wouldn't know nearly as much as I do.

Anyway, human souls also react differently to separation from their bodies. They still have a thirty foot range, like monster souls. However, when a human soul leaves this range, the soul's body doesn't die, like a monster's soul does. Instead, the human's body will go comatose, and will remain that way until its soul is either returned to it, or the body dies of natural causes (starvation, dehydration, etc.).

Absorption:

Not much is known about it, but it is possible for souls to be absorbed into one another. For example, it is well known that a monster can absorb a human soul, and merge it with their own. There has been only one case of this ever happening, though, so we don't have the necessary data to know the full consequences the merging has on either soul. However, it is believed that the monster will gain almost untold power, as well as lose their mental stability.

From my research, it seems that the first hypothesis is feasible—the combination of all of a monster's magic with the enhancing properties of the human soul's DETERMINATION would result in dramatic increase in Maiga output, to the point where it would be off the charts.

As for the loss of mental capacities... that may have something to do with the absorbed soul. I say this because if you take a step back and look at the process conceptionally... at its core, merging is basically putting two people into the same body. Who's to say which of the souls will be dominant, if either? This may result in several unforeseeable issues.

There are a few restrictions on absorption, though (well, at least theoretically). The presence of too much magic or DETERMINATION in a body would cause the body to fail and make the souls unstable, resulting in the both the host and the absorbed soul's immediate shattering. So, for that reason, it makes sense that a monster can't absorb another monster's soul, and a human can't absorb another human's soul. It is also theoretically possible for a human to absorb a monster's soul, but most monsters' souls are too fragile to survive the process. It would take an unusually strong soul to survive the encounter.

Boss Monsters:

This leads us right into boss monsters. Monsters with an unusually strong soul are known as "boss monsters." These souls contain trace amounts of determination, and so can persist longer outside of the body, and are more easily absorbed by humans. Boss monsters also have much more powerful magic, due to the amplification effects of DETERMINATION. Some boss monsters have ridiculously long life spans as well. This isn't a trait displayed in all boss monsters, though. In fact, the only recorded evidence of so-called "immortal" boss monsters are the Dreemur family themselves. I would try to isolate this trait in them to try and learn more, but I'm afraid the royal souls are off-limits to me in regards to my experimentation.

There is a good chance that my experiment may result in the creation of a boss monster. I am a boss monster myself, and as I plan to inject DETERMINATION into my creation's soul... well, I would be creating, by definition, a boss monster.