Guide to Enhiarg

1.7 Body

Body is a vessel for the soul, a capsule that enables communication with the surrounding reality, a tool of sorts for the soul to express and actualize itself in the world.

Body and Soul

Body and soul enjoy a symbiotic relationship. The brain serves as the contact between them, and also controls a number of bodily processes. The body influences the soul, expanding (or constricting, if chosen poorly) its abilities.

The soul likewise influences the body, both directly (the creature can raise its hand or sew an extra finger to it) and via spiritual bonds. One vivid example of the latter is the Merciful's priests' ability to reconstruct their skins to the needs of the moment, healing wounds and growing back lost appendages.

The degree of bonding between soul and body may vary. In most cases it is extremely high, essentially stripping the soul of all autonomy.

"You don't only think with your brain, you know," Aniallu scratched the top of Anar's head for him. "Your soul has got its own 'thinker,' which also stores your memory, by the way. As for the brain, its primary function is to ensure the connection between body and soul, and to manage the various processes taking place in the body. Furthermore, the brain naturally exerts influence on the soul, and expands its abilities."

"I wanted to ask about that, actually. Why is it that, if you whack me on the head, I lose consciousness? That is, I disconnect from reality, rather than simply lose control of my body?"

"Because your soul has become too fused with your body. It is not used to thinking separately from the body. The soul is... like a mage who relies on magic always and in all things, and is powerless without it. Being able to think separately from the body takes practice."

The Cat Who Knew How to Cry

Certain practices make it possible for the soul to recover the ability to think autonomously, access its inner memory, distinguish lasting changes in its mentality from those caused by, say, hormonal fluctuations, etc. However, nullifying the body's influence completely is extremely difficult (besides, if the body is picked correctly, few would want to).

Bodies can be either suitable or unsuitable to certain souls in structure (temperament, set of innate reactions, needs, behavioral models, etc.) Another important indicator is the skin's life duration. Because souls divide into aging and ageless categories (those which grow weary of life and need to be periodically reincarnated versus those which can remain in a single incarnation indefinitely), they require bodies with the corresponding "expiration dates" to match.

In the Infinite, it is the Merciful's priests' responsibility that each creature acquires an appropriate skin. Veindor picks incarnations for the departed creatures that are harmonious with the nature of their soul (and not as a reward or punishment!)—the fitting race, gender, bodily attributes, life span, and so forth.

He and his servants fight against the gods, rulers and mages that force souls of creatures into so-called correctional bodies—skins whose very structure coerces creatures into certain behavior (for example, feeling pain or disgust when making a certain action).

It is important to note that placing souls in correctional bodies, as with clumsy magical attempts to change the structure of souls, may lead to formation of reactive spiritual structures that alter the body beyond recognition, transforming the subject into a monster lusting for the blood of his tormentors (and being more than capable of following through on such impulses).

Body Manufacturing

In Enhiarg, masters who specialize in flesh are called body manufacturers or simply carcassers.

The most popular service asked of carcassers is the manufacturing of exact copies of the client's original body—spare bodies into which the soul may settle in the event the current body gets damaged or destroyed.

Anybody can order a spare skin with the exception of unresurrectable creatures—those which, due to reasons not always known to the uninitiated, cannot be restored to life. This category often includes necromancers, mages caught performing ruthless experiments on souls, and other parties that have been restricted from resurrection by Veindor's priests (e.g. ultimate assassins).

"Irson had heard of ultimate assassins—those who could allegedly kill a creature in a way that would make it impossible for anyone to ever resurrect it. Storytellers disagree on how the killers managed it. Perhaps the most interesting version was voiced by a tipsy architect from the Abyss, who asserted that the secret of an ultimate assassin lay not in the killing method but in what preceded the kill. He regarded the assassins as experts in foreign souls and the greatest of manipulators, capable of coercing their victim into committing a "crime against Death," for which Veindor himself would forbid anybody from resurrecting the transgressor".

The Cat Who Knew How to Cry

Modification of bodies is another popular practice in Enhiarg. Its most ardent followers are valley dwellers and Mercurion's dragons. Modifications may range from making facial features more harmonious, to implanting fiery glands, to sewing on additional appendages.

Body Types

Enhiargeans classify bodies according to the material used.

-- Organic Skins

Organic (or, more often, protein) bodies are those made of "flesh and blood," featuring cellular texture, metabolic function, etc. Bodies of this type are considered most suitable for the majority of souls. With an appropriately structured brain, they can fuse with souls without any additional magical or spiritual influences. Such bodies are employed by the Adorae, the Alae, the Tanae, humans and most other races.

-- Mag-stony, mag-metallic, mag-wooden, etc. and original magical skins

Bodies of this type constitute constructions of varying degrees of complexity, either animated by magic or fully comprising of it. Such bodies may be relatively convenient to the soul or downright harmful; much depends on the body's structure, its measure of refinement, and how well it matches the soul.

Enhiargeans use skins of this type mostly out of necessity—for instance, when traveling to worlds featuring extreme life conditions. Even then, creatures  prefer to operate them remotely, telepathically, while remaining in their own bodies.

-- Glass Skins

These are not made of glass, but are formed out of creatures' spiritual energy. Used by phantoms, among others.

"Precisely. What were we talking about... Ah yes, phantoms. Generally speaking, Veindor opposes this form of existence. Sometimes, however, if the creature wishes to remain in it for one reason or another, the Merciful may make an exception."

"If the soul is without flesh, how can we see it with the naked eye?" asked Anar, continuing to massage the secret door.

"It is not entirely without flesh. The... skin that we see is called a 'glass body.' Using its spiritual forces, its longing to carry out what it had set out to do here, and its belief in the necessity thereof, the soul may 'sprout' such a structure around itself."

"That is why phantoms are sometimes called 'spirits,'" Anar added grandly.

"Well done! Now go hunt some mink!" Aniallu snickered.

The Cat Who Knew How to Cry

Only an extreme minority of souls find this kind of existence natural. Among them are High Lierae, Daoreans and Harnianites.

-- A separate note on animated objects.

The term is used to refer to various objects—from a royal crown to a fly swapper—that have become vessels for souls. Veindor's priests detest this phenomenon, deeming it a torture of souls and a mockery of the natural cycle of life and death. To them, it matters not how or why any given soul ended up in any given object, whether voluntarily or due to somebody's wicked will—it must be liberated, even if against its own desire. However, their opinion is not shared by all (see Amendments to the Animated Objects Act).