> [!infobox|right] > # Soulforging > ![[1a5faa60-2600-422b-a6b6-f76463bb91ed.png]] > **Also Called**: Soulbinding, The Forge Rite, Chaincraft, Spiritbreaking > > > > > > > > >
General Information
Practiced BySoulsmiths, Mentralian Orders, Spirit Engineers, Bordercraft Cells
RegionsWidespread, especially in the [[Mentralian Kingdoms]], [[The Reaches]], [[Annwyn]]
Spirit InteractionBinding, Subjugation, Splintering
Associated DominionsFire, Craft, War, Memory, Ruin
Moral PerceptionTolerated (Central Kingdoms), Feared (Spiritual Orders), Forbidden (Certain Temples)
Typical CostSoul degradation, spirit corruption, life force, sanity, haunting
## Overview Soulforging is a brutal and exacting tradition of binding spirits into objects—swords, armor, relics, and tools—wrenching slivers of their essence into forms usable by mortals. It is not a graceful art, but a craft of hammer and fire, where spirits are shackled, splintered, or shattered to fuel artifacts that imitate the long-lost wonders of the age before the Shattering. Practiced chiefly in the Mentralian Kingdoms, Soulforging arose from desperation: a need to preserve ancient relics whose power could no longer be recreated. Over time, it grew into a recognized tradition—part sacred engineering, part spiritual warfare. Soulsmiths, as its practitioners are known, pay dearly for their work. Every forged item exacts a cost: from the spirit, from the land, and often from the smith's own soul. Power flows through these creations only when fed—by gemstones, mortal lifeforce, or consumable lesser spirits. And always, within the metal and bone of soulforged tools, the bound spirits twist and stir, seeking escape. ## Origins & Philosophy ### Origins The tradition of Soulforging emerged in the centuries following the Shattering, when the noble houses of the Mentralian Kingdoms found themselves in possession of ancient relics whose inner workings had become obscure. These weapons and artifacts—known as _Ancestral Instruments_—still thrummed with dormant power, but their magic waned and cracked. In an age when true creation was thought lost, desperate artisans and spirit scholars began experimenting with brutal methods of spiritual binding to “reignite” these relics. The first soulforges were not built to create new wonders, but to _maintain_ the old. It is said that the first true Soulsmith, Taran Vellmir, was both a war blacksmith and a condemned alchemist, who fused shattered fragments of fire spirits into a broken blade to save his duke’s life. The sword burned with fury for three days before it consumed its wielder. The blade still exists, locked away beneath the Iron Cloister. ### Core Beliefs Soulforging holds no illusions of harmony. Spirits are not to be communed with or bargained with gently—they are forces to be _captured_, hammered, and shaped. To a Soulsmith, spirits are raw magical ore—temperamental, volatile, and essential. Their power is a legacy of a greater past, and to not use it is to waste what little of the divine remains. That said, most experienced practitioners respect spirits in the way one respects fire or storms. They are dangerous, unpredictable, and not without cunning. A good soulsmith learns to bind tightly—but never assumes total control. ### Moral Tenets Power has a price. To create something great, something must be broken. Soulforging is rooted in sacrifice: of the spirit’s will, of the creator’s purity, and sometimes of the user’s soul. Many orders teach restraint, but few enforce it. Most smiths know the temptation of pushing too far—of hammering a spirit one blow beyond what it can bear—and they carry the consequences in whispers, hauntings, and flesh that burns from within. A secondary tenet, more pragmatic than moral, is the idea that all things break in time—even the soulforged. Thus, maintenance is sacred. A good soulsmith returns to their works often, not just to preserve them, but to ensure that what lies inside has not changed. ![[4373843f-b475-4e8e-bc69-559341462df7.png]] ## Mechanics of Practice ### Rituals Soulforging is the brutal marriage of craftsmanship and domination—equal parts metallurgy, spiritual coercion, and metaphysical engineering. It follows a foundational triad: **the Binding, the Shaping, and the Sealing**. - **Binding** begins with sympathetic runes, laid in soul-ink, sacrificial ichor, or essence-dyed silver, forming a metaphysical trap. Some forges are built atop ancient faultlines in the Veil or over spiritual nexuses to weaken a spirit’s resistance. - **Shaping** occurs as the smith channels force—through hammer, forge, and breath—compressing the spirit’s will into the frame of the object. Sparks of raw essence often manifest as ghostly flames or shrieking echoes, and heatless fires may hover in the air. - **Sealing** fixes the spirit within a core—typically a gem, fragment of bone, or shard of old relic. Without proper sealing, the bound entity may twist the item’s nature or break free in time. ### Crafted Vessels Soulforged items must be crafted **with spiritual architecture in mind**. The vessel must be shaped to hold not only power, but _will_—to contain and shape a bound consciousness. Materials are key: - **Veil-touched metals** (e.g. mythsteel, duskbrass, ash-iron) resist spiritual decay. - **Spiritglass** or **soulquartz** focuses and contains essence flows. - **Bonewood**, drawn from trees grown in spirit-haunted groves, offers organic receptivity. Some older relics are built with **pre-Shattering alloys** or components of unknown origin—materials that modern soulsmiths revere but cannot replicate. These items often serve as templates or objects of pilgrimage. A poorly chosen material may _reject_ the spirit, causing item failure, spiritual lashback, or recursive hauntings. Forges often keep detailed tomes of successful material-spirit pairings, passed down through generations. ### Initiation Soulforging is not taught lightly. Apprentices begin by learning metalsmithing, rune-inscription, and spirit theory. It may take years before an initiate is permitted to bind even a fragment of a spirit. The final test, called the **Trial of Flame and Voice**, requires the forging of a minor soulbound relic from start to finish. If the item works and the spirit obeys, the apprentice is considered a novice soulsmith. If not, failure may result in death, corruption, or permanent spiritual affliction. Some extremist cells—especially in border provinces—practice **internal splintering**, embedding shard-spirits directly into their bodies to serve as living conduits. Though powerful, these "living forges" often burn out or go mad. ### Spirit Interaction Unlike traditions that honor or appease spirits, soulforging **subjugates** them. - **Spirit Binders** capture and trade spirits to soulsmiths, especially in the Mentralian Kingdoms, where a quiet economy exists between the two disciplines. - **Dominance** is enforced through runic command chains, essence pain, and spiritual compression. Some spirits eventually break. Others _pretend to obey_. - **Splintering** is often used on stronger spirits—shattering them into shards and binding the fragments to different parts of a weapon or armor. These shards can resonate, whisper, or even regrow dangerously. Over time, spirits may twist the relic that binds them, growing more willful or erratic. Most items degrade spiritually after decades—or faster if used heavily. ### Fuel & Functionality Soulforged items are **not self-sustaining**. Bound spirits require **a source of power** to activate their effects. Common fuels include: - **Vitality of the user**: Some items draw life force with each use, weakening or aging their wielder. - **Charged gems**: Crystals suffused with spiritual essence act as batteries, slotted into the item. - **Lesser spirits**: Hungry relics can consume captured minor spirits to recharge. - **Environmental triggers**: Some relics only activate in moonlight, blood-soaked soil, holy sites, or under certain celestial alignments. - **Emotional resonance**: Rare soulforged items awaken through pain, fury, grief, or devotion. An item without fuel becomes inert—but a starving spirit may seek fuel on its own, leading to cursed behavior or autonomous violence. ### Costs & Limits - **Essence Leeching**: Frequent use weakens the soul of the user or forger, eventually leading to spiritual fragmentation or parasitism. - **Corruption**: The violent act of forcing spirits into servitude leaves a mark. The smith becomes spiritually frayed—open to haunting, influence, or madness. - **Binding Decay**: Seals weaken over time. Spirits rebel, mutate the item, or communicate with others. Relics can become self-aware—or homicidal. - **Recoil Effects**: Poorly forged relics may rupture violently or emit spiritual toxins, corrupting those nearby. Soulforging is a defiance of natural order—a tradition born of desperation, sustained by discipline, and destined for entropy. ## Style & Manifestation ### Visuals & Sensory Cues Soulforged items **thrum with presence**, often detectable even by the uninitiated. - **Auditory Signs**: Subtle whispering, the ringing of distant anvils, or faint cries of the bound spirit may be heard when items are active or agitated. - **Visual Effects**: A soft, unnatural glow may radiate from seams, runes, or the spirit-core; ethereal flame, trailing embers, or shadow-haze often accompany use. - **Tactile Feedback**: Users report sensations of heat, pressure, or bone-deep chill when wielding an active soulforged relic. Some items shift slightly in weight or balance depending on the spirit’s mood or strength. - **Smell**: The air around active relics often carries a scent of hot metal, old blood, or ozone. More powerful relics may warp their surroundings subtly—candles gutter near them, reflections ripple, or nearby spirits flee. ### Common Effects The exact powers of a soulforged item depend on the nature of the bound spirit and the object’s craftsmanship, but some general categories of effect include: - **Enhancement**: Weapons that strike truer, armor that deflects with preternatural awareness, tools that seem to move with willful intent. - **Channeling**: The user may draw on the spirit’s domain—flames erupting from a blade, shadows coalescing around armor, lightning guided through a spear. - **Utility**: Unlocking doors, detecting lies, revealing hidden spirits, or altering nearby Veil-energies. - **Defensive Wards**: Creating zones of protection, absorbing hostile spiritcraft, or blinding incorporeal foes. Most relics possess **a primary function**, but their behavior can shift depending on the spirit’s state—obedient, agitated, or rebellious. ### Rare / Forbidden Techniques Some soulforging practices toe the edge of heresy or madness: - **Spirit Grafting**: Binding a relic not to a crafted object, but to a living being. The result is a _symbiotic relic_—flesh-bound, fused to the user’s nervous system or soul. These creations often feed on their host and may attempt to usurp control. - **Soul Splitting**: Dividing a practitioner’s own soul and binding the fragment into multiple creations for unmatched synchronicity—at the cost of identity and sanity. - **Echoforging**: Binding the lingering echo of a _dead soul_—especially those of heroes, traitors, or martyrs—into items. These relics may retain memories, personalities, or curses. - **Compound Binding**: Forcing multiple spirits into the same item, creating _spiritweave relics_. Often unstable, they are prized by warlords and feared by wisefolk. The Magisters of the Black Citadel are said to pursue these techniques openly, while others—especially authorities of the [[Creed of the Veil]]—consider them monstrous perversions. ### Known Side Effects Wielding or crafting soulforged relics comes at a cost beyond fuel and fatigue: - **Spiritual Parasitism**: The bound spirit may grow stronger through use, subtly leeching will, emotion, or memory from the wielder. - **Hauntings**: Spirits may linger in dreams, manifest as phantoms, or possess moments of lucidity during rest. - **Personality Drift**: Long-term users often begin to take on traits of the bound spirit—warriors becoming colder, weaponsmiths developing alien mannerisms. - **Resonance Accidents**: Nearby soulforged items can interact unpredictably, harmonizing or violently rejecting one another, especially if forged from rival spirits. Most experienced soulsmiths keep **warded workshops**, **veil-chains**, and **spirit-hollows** to store dangerous relics safely between uses. ## Traditions, Orders & Subdisciplines |Order / Sect|Focus|Philosophy|Region| |---|---|---|---| |**The Emberwrights**|Maintenance of relic arms and armor|"The spirit must be kept in tension—neither tamed nor free."|Calvarien & Bellerand| |**College of the Bound Flame**|Experimental soulforging & weapon innovation|"We must shape the spirit as fire shapes steel—pain is necessary."|Velthane (Mariner's Forge)| |**Circle of Eight Seals**|Containment and stabilization of ancient relics|"Do not forge. Do not bind. Guard what is already chained."|Dorthane & the Black Citadel| |**Guild of Hammered Echoes**|Urban craft tradition focused on minor relics|"Let the will of the old age sing again through our hands."|Marendor & Avenhar| |**Ashbraid Covenant**|Mobile smith-guardians & wandering relic-tenders|"No item lasts forever—our duty is to ease their passing."|The borderlands & mountain roads| |**The Hollow Chain**|Dark practitioners who bind human souls|"A soul is a soul—living or not. Power wasted is power denied."|Forbidden, once active in Pharos| ### Notes on Notable Orders: - **The Emberwrights** are highly respected in Mentralian noble courts. Their secrets are often passed down through bloodlines or bonded apprenticeships, and they are charged with maintaining the relic-weapons of the Old War. - The **College of the Bound Flame** is sometimes accused of overreach. Its experiments have resulted in volatile spiritweapons, such as the infamous _Howling Pike of Velthane_, which killed four bearers before it was sealed. - The **Circle of Eight Seals** sees itself more as a containment order than a creative one. They safeguard relics too dangerous or unstable to use, many of which date to before the Shattering. - The **Guild of Hammered Echoes** focuses on practical applications—tools, heirlooms, minor armaments—intended for merchant lords and city militias. Their forges are said to hum with the breath of sleeping spirits. - The **Ashbraid Covenant** operates in remote places, especially war-torn or spiritually unstable regions. They do not forge new relics but tend to dying ones—sometimes dismantling them before they become corrupt. - The **Hollow Chain** is reviled. It is whispered that they began soulforging by binding captured spirits of the dead, especially during times of plague or war. Although outlawed, a few rogue smiths in the slums of Bellerand or the shadow-markets of Pharos still claim descent. ## Notable Practitioners - **Ardelyn "The Chainbreaker" Vorthan** — _Relic Warden of Bellerand_ A former Emberwright who famously shattered the _Soulcage of Ylluthan_, a relic sword that had driven five noble heirs to madness. Ardelyn declared that not all relics are meant to be preserved—some must be destroyed. Her actions broke with centuries of tradition, and she now lives in self-imposed exile, taking on cursed artifacts others fear to touch. - **Master Ferrow Il-Korr** — _Founder of the College of the Bound Flame_ Once a royal smith in Velthane, Ferrow was obsessed with replicating the weapons of the Old Age. He is credited with forging the _Ashglass Halberd_ and the _Twin Fangs of Serenthal_, each bound with lesser storm spirits. Ferrow eventually vanished during a forging ritual meant to bind a dream-spirit into a staff—his students claim he merged with the tool itself. - **Eiria Nemeir** — _Wandering Ashbraid & Forgebinder_ Known for her hair threaded with pale silver cords, said to be drawn from the unravelling relics she dismantles. Eiria moves from battlefield to battlefield, easing the passing of ancient weapons before they become threats. Some whisper she can “speak” with bound spirits without uttering words, and has never once used a weapon herself. - **The Nameless Binder** — _Legendary figure of the Hollow Chain_ A figure half myth, half warning. It is said this soulsmith bound their own soul into a crown forged from shattered relics, gaining the ability to command any soulforged item they touched. Though long dead (or so it's believed), no one dares wear the _Crown of Nine Chains_, which remains locked in the vaults beneath the Black Citadel. - **Lord Vaelric Durnholde** — _Patron of the Guild of Hammered Echoes_ Though not a smith himself, Durnholde’s funding and collection of soulforged tools has kept the tradition alive in Marendor. He is known to employ spiritbinders on his expeditions, returning with captured spirits for commissioned relics. Critics call him a profiteer; his allies say he preserves the past for the good of the realm. ## Renowned Soulforged Relics - **The Whispering Anvil** Said to be the last surviving tool from the forges of the Old Age, this blackened anvil rings with distant voices when struck. It is believed to hold the fragmented essences of a council of spirits, shattered and bound into the metal to preserve their wisdom. Only the most practiced soulsmiths can interpret its "song," and even then, some claim to go mad listening too long. - **The Blade of Mournfall** Forged in the final years before the Shattering, this longsword contains a vengeful war-spirit that remembers every battle it’s drawn in. When unsheathed, it murmurs the names of those it has slain. Its wielder grows increasingly belligerent over time, consumed by the blade’s desire to "complete old wars." - **The Lantern of Ninefold Flame** This brass-and-obsidian lantern burns without fuel, lit by nine lesser fire-spirits bound into its core. Each flame represents a different aspect of fire—warmth, hunger, cleansing, rage, and more. Overuse or imbalance can cause the spirits to erupt into open conflict, resulting in unpredictable magical surges or destructive backlash. - **Veyr's Hollow Arm** A soulforged prosthetic worn by the infamous duelist Veyr Haldren, who lost his arm in a cursed duel. The replacement is crafted from voidsteel and living bone, and must be fed a drop of blood each day to function. Some say Veyr's soul was slowly drawn into it, and that it still moves of its own accord in the vault where it's sealed. - **The Crown of Nine Chains** Bound with the splintered wills of nine noble spirits and linked to the legendary Nameless Binder, this crown grants control over soulforged objects within its bearer’s presence. It has never been worn without incident. Any who attempt to don it report being spoken to in dreams—and sometimes awaken to find soulforged items moving on their own. - **The Censer of Y'Rahl** A ceremonial incense burner used by Mentralian kings during coronations. The spirit within it is unknown, but its smoke causes all who breathe it to speak only the truth for a brief time. The soul inside is said to hunger for secrets, and can influence dreams for days afterward. ## In-World Examples of Use ### Everyday Use - **Runebound Tools of Artisans**: In wealthier Mentralian towns, soulsmiths craft minor implements imbued with cooperative spirits—chisels that seek the grain of the wood, quills that correct clumsy script, or hearth-stones that hold steady warmth through winter. These are rarely powerful, but deeply cherished. - **Wards in Noble Estates**: Decorative statuettes or fixtures with bound watch-spirits are placed in estates to passively observe for spiritual disturbances or hostile intent. Many such spirits grow bored and capricious, requiring rituals of appeasement to keep from playing tricks. ### Martial Use - **The Knight-Relic Orders**: Elite knights in service to Mentralian lords carry ancient relic weapons—many soulforged during the Age of Crowns or even earlier. These arms, like the _Howling Halberd_ or _Veilsting Blade_, are bonded with wrathful spirits of war, granting unnatural speed, unbreakable edge, or even the ability to resist magic. - **Bound Shields of Dorthane**: In the mountain fortresses, great pavises are embedded with elemental guardian spirits, able to bloom into protective barriers of frost or stone in moments of crisis. Overuse can provoke the spirit’s ire, causing it to abandon its shell mid-battle. - **Siege-hex Engines**: Massive devices resembling catapults or cannons, but powered by combustive soulforged cores, hurl incendiary or cursed payloads against enemy lines. Rarely seen due to their spiritual instability and great cost to maintain. ### Political Use - **Binding Oaths**: Ornate soulforged rings are sometimes worn during the signing of major treaties, each holding a minor truth-spirit or contract-bound entity. When worn, the bearer is prevented from knowingly violating the spirit of the oath—or suffers spiritual backlash, madness, or decay. - **Crownwright Regalia**: The Regalia of Kings in Calvarien includes soulforged pieces believed to house ancestral spirits of the royal line. In theory, these spirits advise the ruler through dreams; in practice, the crown prince must undergo rigorous training to avoid being overwhelmed by conflicting ancestral voices. ### Forbidden Use - **Black Bargains in the Borderlands**: Desperate soulsmiths in outlying territories sometimes use condemned spirits—those of murderers, heretics, or failed sorcerers—to forge tools of revenge. These items often develop minds of their own. - **The Flesh-Rings of Elarien**: Illegal and blasphemous, these living rings are grown from bonded spirit-flesh and attached to the body like parasites. Once worn, they extend tendrils into the bloodstream and whisper arcane secrets, but slowly alter the bearer’s body and soul. - **Pharosian Spirit Mines**: In Pharos, soulforged lanterns and extractors are used in dangerous rituals to illuminate hidden soul-veins beneath the earth. These devices are barely stable, as the spirits bound into them loathe their imprisonment and lash out when overtaxed. ## Regional Variants ### **Mentralian Kingdoms** The heartland and origin of soulforging, Mentralia's version is both refined and rigid. - **Relic Maintenance**: Most soulsmiths here are part of noble households or knightly orders tasked with maintaining pre-Shattering relics. - **Guildcraft and Law**: Soulforging is tightly regulated, with formal guilds and royal mandates restricting who may bind spirits. - **Spirit Economy**: A semi-formal market exists between spirit binders and soulsmiths, allowing for the trade of captured spirits through coded contracts and Veil-sanctioned rites. ### **Annwyn** The island-kingdom practices a more _conversational_ soulforging—one shaped by respect for spirits and bound through mutual agreement. - **Green Binding**: Practitioners embed spirits into wooden carvings, stones, and bone, often using lullabies and riddles rather than coercive rites. - **Awakened Relics**: Items are believed to gain "personality" and names over time, and are treated almost like companions. Some whisper back, others sleep for decades. - **Spiritual Consent**: Coercive soulforging is taboo here; items created by force are considered cursed and are ritually buried or cast into the sea. ### **Kyourin Shogunate** Here, soulforging is a brutal practice tied to the region’s void-influenced spirit traditions. - **Void-Anchored Smithing**: Some soulsmiths hammer not just spirits, but fragments of void-entities into weapons—creating devastating tools that radiate spiritual corruption. - **Blood-Binding**: Spirit essence is often fused with the user’s own soul at the moment of creation, resulting in deep, irreversible bonds. - **Living Blades**: A class of cursed katana and war fans exists, forged with the agony of dying spirits. These often feed on blood or emotion to remain active.