SOUL FLAMES
Example of a soul flame. The bottom drawing is how I imagine soul flames would make out.
▸ Origins
A soul flame is a fragment of someone’s essence, extracted from a living or deceased individual through a ritual. The process is difficult, often performed by trained family members or institutions. While only a fraction of a soul can be harvested, what remains can carry an emotion, a skill, or a core piece of memory. Some are created to preserve legacies; others for more secretive purposes.
▸ Behavior & Personality
Once awakened, a soul flame can speak and interact with its surroundings. It carries traces of its source’s personality—whether that be wisdom, sarcasm, stubbornness, or even longing. Many are helpful and cooperative, but some are moody, temperamental, or overly attached to their vessels.
Soul flames are not spirits in the traditional sense. They are not born from the natural world, like shadow spirits. They are manifester in origin, and each one remembers—if not who they were, then at least how they were.
▸ Dormancy and AwakeninG
Soul flames can remain dormant for years—quiet, sealed, often forgotten. They may sleep within common objects like teapots, mirrors, tools, or jewelry. Only when awakened through specific triggers—rituals, spoken phrases, proximity to a related manifester—do they reveal themselves.
▸ Vessels and Bonding
Not every vessel is suitable. The best bonds happen when the object has emotional or symbolic meaning to the flame or its current holder. A mismatched vessel can lead to rejection, erratic behavior, or even spiritual backlash. Once a flame settles into an object, it can become deeply protective or possessive of it.
Some soul flames resist being moved at all—especially if they were once content or left in an unfinished state. Coaxing them into a new vessel often requires negotiation… or bribery.
▸ Storage in Flame Form
When not bound to an object, a soul flame appears as a small flickering fire—lightless but warm. In this raw form, they are often stored in specially crafted lanterns, marked with sigils to keep them dormant or calm. These lanterns are sometimes passed down, sold, or traded at black markets, depending on local laws.
▸ REGULATIONS AND TABOOS
Different kingdoms view the use of soul flames differently. Some prohibit extracting memories of loved ones (as you mentioned), while others have entire industries built around soul flame extraction, inheritance, or black-market trading.
