Excerpts from Illegal Texts kept within the library of the Aerie.
It is important to note that this is the only remaining manuscript of this book. The author, Eldrich Reichtland did not publish any further books on the subject. - Compiler's note
A Theory on Souls
- Eldrich Reichtland
What is a soul?
A soul is the history of a Mann. It is their dark and light, their hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares. It is their memories over lifetimes, everything that they are.
What is the soul’s purpose?
Many scholors have debated but we must admit we simply do not know. The Akkashic Records exist but as an ethereal realm between the lives of Mann. Some have theorized souls are remnants from Haven, the world before Elyria; before The Burning. However, this scholar disagrees. That none of the Onceborn have memories of Haven, that Elyria is our sole known history leads this scholar to believe that the Onceborn are a new creation.
It is a known fact that some Mann are OnceBorn, they have souls, they can return from grievous wounds and remember lives ages past. The majority of Mann however, do not have souls. They succumb to death and live but once in Elyria.
We are both of Mann, but they are set apart. What soulless Mann can compare to those that return to life even after death. Where they are Onceborn, clearly we are the Never-to-be-reborn; the Neverborn.
Perhaps this spark or seed of life exists in all Mann merely waiting to flourish. A Neverborn whom demonstrates power and will could surpass their limitation and return. Perhaps this part of Luna’s plan for Mann. Banished but given the chance to grow on their own merit.
However, the fact that a Onceborn comes into being after the child has grown into adolescence leads to a different theory. A child whom, until that fateful day would enjoy the ignorance of youth. Then in one night look upon their parents as strangers.
What memories of childhood remain? Did the Onceborn slumber within the child, awakening later? Or, as I fear, did the Onceborn take over and extinguish the Mann they now were. The fact that many of Onceborn have memories of the Akkashic Records, reading the world, choosing their family leads me to believe that they may be more monster than Mann. Taking the lives of those they deem fit inorder to live again.
It is known that Onceborn’s lives are simply greater than those of the Neverborn. Not just in that they relive lives. The lives they live are more influential, changing Elyria and our culture. Sciences and industry have flourished since the first Onceborn. If the Prophecies of Starsong are to believed then we, all of Mann, will face a trial so great as to threaten Elyria herself. This one does believe that we Onceborn are key to preparing and fighting this looming threat.
Excerpt from research notes attached to Manuscript an interview by the author.
“What can you tell me of your lives so far?”
“My first life? I was a Whitesmith I believe, it’s a bit hazy now. My wife was plain, but she was mine and I loved her none the less. That was my first life. I died surrounded by my children and their children.” Marreen gave me a soft warming smile across the table.
“After that I was borne to a different town, a different city. They spoke a different language but I understood them all the same. I was a ward, an orphan of war. I got by. It was not a good life. I begged, I stole, I was yet another street rat in an overcrowded city.”
“A plague struck some time into my youth. It burned through the poor districts; and me.”
“I was in an alley, limbs leaden and oozing, struggling open my eyes as a let out my last ragged breath. I died there. But I was young. I was strong. I remember waking up surrounded by a beautiful forest and a silver cord stretching out ahead of me, beckoning me forward. I followed it. And I awoke again in that same city, in that same alley. With that same plague. Each time the cord became weaker and weaker until I finally was unable to follow it back and the Akkashic Records took me again.” Marreen’s voice was soft but mechanical as though she was describing an event she read in a book.
“Took you?” I asked, pressing for more details on this elusive Akkashic Record.
“Maybe that is not the right phrase. It is where a soul rests before returning again. Fighting to stay alive tires us and eventually we cannot ignore Sanguine’s debt. I do not know how long I remained in in the Akkashic Records before I finally drew the courage to return once more.”
“Sanguine’s debt?”
“Death and rebirth. It is a belief held by some that the Onceborn are favored by Sanguine, or perhaps this is his rejection of us for Ao and Luna creating Mann. We die, but do not end. If we can follow the cord back then we return to life. The longer we are alive the weaker the cord, just as a Mann treading water tires and eventually drowns so do we return to the records.”
“So you returned and that is this life correct?”
“Correct.”
“What was your first memories here?”
“That is a difficult answer.” Marreen pursed her lips in thought. “I was fifteen, it was my name day. That is when I chose the name Marreen over Gwendalyne.”
“So the name day ceremony?”
“Not as such, I awoke, to a servant opening the large draped curtains in my chamber. She washed me and dressed me. She had assumed I was ill due to me not acting like the Gwen she knew. Gwen who fought against the maid’s attempts at brushing and the ribbons she tied in my hair. I met Lord Whitelake in the hall as I was to break my fast with him. He was jovial, eyes shinning with mirth as he welcomed his only daughter on her fifteenth name day. He enthused about the festivities to come but froze as I looked at him as I would a stranger not a father. I will never forget the look in his eye that day.”
“You weren’t Gwendalyn?”
“In truth I do not know. My father and I’s relationship grew distant for a time. But we grew together once again after. He named me his heir after all. I have memories, of me in his lap as he told me stories of war and knights and dragons. I remember being chided for climbing and exploring the castle instead of attending my studies. Perhaps I am remembering those memories that were simply forgotten in the rush of awakening or merely remembering what the maids told to me. It matters not for I am Mareen Whitelake, Countess of the Aerie, heir to my father’s legacy and carry his bloodline in my veins.”
"Do you believe you are a Mann or something else?"
The research notes end abruptly, it appears the page was stained with ink and was unrecoverable. Records show that Eldrich was unable to gather the funding necessary to publish his treatise.
