COMMUNITY - FORUMS - SOULS, TALENTS, & REINCARNATION
"Ah! It Burns!": Soul Scars

There are a lot of theories going around the forums about what talents and achievements will and won't be in Chronicles of Elyria. I would like to propose (if not already proposed in some other medium) Soul Scars as a means of making talents a meaningful experience after death. This also synthesizes nicely with achievements. In essence, if you are lucky enough to have awakened a talent during a previous life, your soul is forever marked by that experience with a small passive benefit related to the talent (essentially a talent specific achievement).

These benefits could range from being able to hold your breath longer than normal (water breathing talent) to a chance for reduced spirit loss upon death (planes walking talent) to a chance to reduce the spirit loss of nearby allies/family members upon their death (medium talent) to bonuses with disguises (shapeshifting talent) to bonuses with mundane healing (healing talent). Essentially, for every talent in the game, develop a Soul Scar the soul receives during its next life. This way a soul could have the chance to collect numerous Soul Scars (if the soul is lucky enough to be reborn into a talent-user's body) and, at least, has something to remember their time as a talent-user by.

What are your thoughts about "Soul Scars"? Are there already proposed mechanics like this in the game (links are always helpful)?


11/19/2016 11:44:25 PM #1

I like this idea. As long as the Scar isn't as good as the talent (Which you never suggested, just saying). This gives people the chance to enjoy some benefit of having had a life with a talent, while simultaneously giving new players a chance to unlock talents.


11/19/2016 11:46:42 PM #2

Honestly, this is a good idea


You may have erased my signature, but you can't corner the dorner

11/20/2016 12:45:12 AM #3

I bet that people having talents isn't going to be as rare as they've been making out. Now having the necessary knowledge, experiences, skills, and encounters necessary to recognize you have a talent, realising what the talent is, let alone actually unlocking it and putting it to use, now that I bet will be extremely rare.

For example: You have this brand shiny new character and you decide to make him a blacksmith, not knowing he has a talent. You spend the characters life making him a grandmaster blacksmith, making him one of the most famous blacksmiths in the kingdom if not all of Elyria. This gets you elevated from just a regular commoner all the way to say baron or count. Now as you no longer need to work all day in your smithy (unless you want to) as you have enough money and rank to suit your needs, you decide to start learning another profession in your waning years, cartography. It's when you advance your skillsets in cartography enough to become a journeyman cartography you discover to your surprise that you have a talent, an unknown talent. It's as you become an elder in life you finally atain the rank of master as a cartographer only to discover the conditions for unlocking your talent, you must become a grandmaster cartographer, and create an absolutely perfectly detailed map of the kingdom that you are a part of. To make a long story short, you wind up on your deathbed as a grandmaster cartographer, but as you are making one last attempt to create that perfect map, your character's life.......ends. I bet we will see more than a few stories about talents where characters died before they could unlock them. Whether or not my predictions about the number of talents and the requirements to discover them will be true or not well we won't find that out till alpha/beta at the earliest.

As far as the idea of soul scars, that is a good idea I think. I would say make the scars only about 10-20% as effective as a talent, but if a future life has the same or a related talent having the soul scar might make it easier to train in the use of the talent ONCE it is discover and unlocked.


Count Ruthgar Rugharin, County of Bragen Veld, Duchy - Conclave of Aritaur, Kingdom of Vornair.

11/21/2016 11:24:47 PM #4

Posted By OrangeBoy at 5:46 PM - Sat Nov 19 2016

Honestly, this is a good idea

Agreed. I've always felt just plain losing a talent to be kind of a major letdown. A little consolation prize would be nice.


11/22/2016 8:10:50 PM #5

Part of the reason I put this idea forward was due to the pain of discovering a talent late in life and not feeling like you were able to get any benefit (read: enjoyment) from it. With a Soul Scar, you gain a small passive benefit that you can work into your future characters. Perhaps this focus will lead to your character being in the right place and right time to unlock the same talent again. If the Soulbound Engine is looking for people to fill a certain role when giving out talents, this would be a good way to make that happen.

I don't think the Soul Scar should be a watered down version of the talent in most cases. Rather, I think it should be a bonus to the skills that revolve around or support the talent. For example, if you had the Healing talent, your Soul Scar might increase the amount of health someone recovers when you treat their injuries. This means you are more likely to train and invest in whatever skills govern healing because that is how you get the most out of your Soul Scar. Likewise, if the Soulbound Engine is looking for someone to fulfill a "healer" role in the story and plans to give out the Healer talent to someone likely to make use of it, guess what skills the engine is probably going to be looking at when determining who receives the talent? That's right, the person with some ranks in healing skills. On top of that, guess who is most likely to unlock their new Healing talent by practicing healing skills on people? Yep, you guessed it, the person with some ranks in healing skills.

Yeah, it would take some time and effort to figure out what skills might be associated with what talents and there isn't always going to be an associated skill with every talent (hey, Water Breathing, I am looking at you). So, this is at least something that could be helpful for some talents and certainly all players fortunate enough to unlock one.


11/22/2016 8:15:00 PM #6

The only problem with that approach (Soulbound Engine seeking out players with Soul Scars due to the Scar giving them an edge in the associated skills), is that new players may be at a disadvantage to receive the completely RNG talents (As I understand them).

It would be more like the same people getting them.

I think having the Soul Scar and its associated boons is plenty. Talents shouldn't be retaken by the same players over and over again.


11/22/2016 9:18:58 PM #7

I usually dislike most of the dumb ideas people come out with on here, but this is genuinely an idea that could add another layer to the game and actually make it better.

It's so good, I'm not even looking to troll.


You may have erased my signature, but you can't corner the dorner

11/22/2016 9:32:28 PM #8

Not sure how I feel about this.

The premise of talents is that they're character bound and everyone has an equal chance to get and benefit from them, whether you're brand new or you've been playing for years. Then your character dies and its someone elses turn to be in that 5%.

This would disproportionately (over time, and in aggregate) give tangible benefits to people that played the longest.

The biggest problem this suggestion creates is that now we can no longer completely say that new players in new characters are on equal footing as old players in new characters because of the life and death system.

In the future, people will complain about the advantages that "vets" have from having accumulated soul scar buffs over their lives. Kingdoms and associations will be compared by how many soul-scar vets they have.

CoE is not aiming to be a competitive e-sport or a moba, but it will still be judged harshly by min-maxers, where every additional percentage point and every measurable edge is considered.

11/22/2016 10:14:46 PM #9

@devs get on this, this is a good idea for the game.


11/22/2016 10:24:37 PM #10

I still really like this idea, and think it has a lot of potential, if done properly. There needs to be some balance, but hey, this is a rough idea! I'm sure if the Devs use this idea, they will change it to suit their vision better!


11/22/2016 10:35:39 PM #11

I feel like it would also be interesting if there was a physical aspect of this. Some kind of marking somewhere on the body of the soul scar user that indicated them as such.


The Adventurer's Guild of Vornair

11/22/2016 10:38:52 PM #12

Posted By Vucar at 4:32 PM - Tue Nov 22 2016

The biggest problem this suggestion creates is that now we can no longer completely say that new players in new characters are on equal footing as old players in new characters because of the life and death system.

Take a look at any MMO type game in existence and you'll immediately notice that new player are and always will be at a distinct disadvantage to players who have played since the beginning or near the beginning of a game. It is a good point just thought I would bring up the other side of it.

In the end Soul Scars would just act as a lesser benefit of an old talent rewarding experienced players for their dedication.


The Adventurer's Guild of Vornair

11/23/2016 12:05:19 AM #13

One possible solution that may or may not rub people the wrong way is, once a soul has gained a soul scar, that soul can no longer gain a talent other than the original talent that gave their soul the scar. Likewise, someone with a soul scar has the same chance as anyone else to gain a talent.

This prevents people from trying to collect soul scars like merit badges, but it locks a soul into a single talent. This could potentially annoy people who don't want their soul locked to a single talent. Of course, this probably won't come up very much because of the whole rarity of talents thing.


11/23/2016 12:11:31 AM #14

Posted By Vucar at 4:32 PM - Tue Nov 22 2016

Not sure how I feel about this.

The premise of talents is that they're character bound and everyone has an equal chance to get and benefit from them, whether you're brand new or you've been playing for years. Then your character dies and its someone elses turn to be in that 5%.

This would disproportionately (over time, and in aggregate) give tangible benefits to people that played the longest.

The biggest problem this suggestion creates is that now we can no longer completely say that new players in new characters are on equal footing as old players in new characters because of the life and death system.

In the future, people will complain about the advantages that "vets" have from having accumulated soul scar buffs over their lives. Kingdoms and associations will be compared by how many soul-scar vets they have.

CoE is not aiming to be a competitive e-sport or a moba, but it will still be judged harshly by min-maxers, where every additional percentage point and every measurable edge is considered.

Aren't skill ramps the skill equivalent to soul scars? Except with soul scars you can't get back up to where your talent was or ever would be so tbh soul scars are even more fair than skill ramps if your issue is new vs old player.


I don't know anymore.

11/23/2016 2:17:59 AM #15

Posted By Wicked FlamezZ at 4:11 PM - Tue Nov 22 2016

Posted By Vucar at 4:32 PM - Tue Nov 22 2016

Not sure how I feel about this.

The premise of talents is that they're character bound and everyone has an equal chance to get and benefit from them, whether you're brand new or you've been playing for years. Then your character dies and its someone elses turn to be in that 5%.

This would disproportionately (over time, and in aggregate) give tangible benefits to people that played the longest.

The biggest problem this suggestion creates is that now we can no longer completely say that new players in new characters are on equal footing as old players in new characters because of the life and death system.

In the future, people will complain about the advantages that "vets" have from having accumulated soul scar buffs over their lives. Kingdoms and associations will be compared by how many soul-scar vets they have.

CoE is not aiming to be a competitive e-sport or a moba, but it will still be judged harshly by min-maxers, where every additional percentage point and every measurable edge is considered.

Aren't skill ramps the skill equivalent to soul scars? Except with soul scars you can't get back up to where your talent was or ever would be so tbh soul scars are even more fair than skill ramps if your issue is new vs old player.

Yes that's true. As the game progresses into its years, its been said that new players starting late into the game will have better chances at getting "old souls" with comparable skill ramps to the "many-lived" souls of vet players, so this cancels out.