The Mortal Coil

The force that bonds a soul to a vessel, and disjoins them upon death.

The Mortal Coil is a primal force that exists in Zol, it is what causes things to live and die. Some think it is an effect of the way The First Tongue bound the Sea of Monsters, making it part of The Trinity. Others think it is a force of its own.

The Mortal Coil is maintained by The Coilwalker. Some think that he is its reason for its existence, others think him to be an avatar of its greater will. Regardless of what controls The Mortal Coil, its power effects every being in Zol, living or dead.

The Mortal Coil is bound to a specific set of rules that determine the function of life and death across all Planes of Zol.

• Beforelife
  • little is known of the Beforelife, but it is thought that souls grow freely from Nodes in The Ethos. These souls are selected at random by The Mortal Coil to be bound to vessels. This binding begins Life.
  • Souls in this state are thought to be non-sentient, and only become true beings when they are bound to a vessel at the moment of birth.
    • This is not the case for souls that are sent for rebirth after death. In this scenario, the souls-to-be-reborn are considered comatose beings in a state of pseudo-life.
• Life
  • Life begins when a vessel is fully created and a soul is bound to it. This can manifest in a number of ways
    • Successfully completed reproduction
      • A soul is only attached when a reproductive creature fully forms a child that successfully hatches, or is birthed
    • Homunculum
      • The creation of an artificial vessel fit enough for a soul to enter it
      • This can manifest in many ways
        • A clone of a being is made via magic
        • elemental forces are bent to house a soul
        • Mechanicum Immaculatum
          • A newly discovered method of creating life where a complex enough creation of Iron Light is made and it becomes sentient.
            • This is how beings like Warforged come to life
    • Divine Creation
      • When one of the Gods directly uses their power to create a vessel and injects a soul into it
    • Natural Spawn
      • When the natural world of Zol produces a being on its own
  • Life cannot begin on a plane where The Mortal Coil is not present, except for the case of Divine Creation where a powerful enough god manually seeks out a soul for the vessel.
• Death
  • Death occurs when enough damage afflicts the system that maintains life. This can appear as
    • Damage to the vessel so great it cannot sustain a soul
    • Damage to the bond between a vessel and soul so great it causes them to separate
    • Damage to the soul so great it destroys the soul
      • This is the rarest death, as the soul is nigh indestructible. If this occurs there is no way to bring the being back to life.
  • If Death does occur, there are cases where magic can be used to restore life, given that the circumstances are correct.
    • If one does successfully restore life, the being will return with a scar from The Mortal Coil called a Mortality Rune. A single instance of this creates one, but multiple restorations chain these markings in a line.
      
  • Death cannot occur on a plane where The Mortal Coil is not present, save for the case of a soul being destroyed. A death off the mortal coils usually results in banishment to The Ethos, The Void, the Prime Material Plane, or the plane from which they originated. They arrive on the brink of death. This is not always the case as some planes like Absurdia have their own rules about death off of The Mortal Coil.
  • Something that is defined as Immortal is not killed by old age, and can withstand colossal amounts of trauma to their vessel, soul, and the bond between them without succumbing to death.
    • Any living thing can die so long as it is under the full effect of The Mortal Coil
    • This principal is why the Gods spend most of their time outside of The Mortal Coil, as it gives them much security from other powerful beings who would see them dead.
    • There is also a theory that the mortal coil weakens extremely powerful beings like Gods. Some think this is why the Zolaen Gods do not grace The Prime.
• Afterlife
  • When death occurs, the soul (if intact) leaves the vessel. It is then guided by The Coilwalker to a new phase of existence based on the way the soul acted in its lifetime.
  • The paths a soul can take are:
    • Rest
      • If one of the Gods takes a liking to a given soul, the may be brought to stay with them outside The Mortal Coil. A peaceful eternity amongst kindred spirits.
      • If no god claims it, and the soul is unfit for rebirth or punishment. It is sent to Apolyatum.
    • Rebirth
      • Beings who undergo rebirth are sent back into The Ethos for their soul to be randomly selected for life again. If this occurs they are reborn with small slivers of their past lives interwoven into their being.
      • Slivers of past lives stay with souls, but are largely born without an sense of past life.
        • Powerful Magic investigation can expose truths about past lives.
      • Many things can spark rebirth. Magical influence, the will of a god, or even if the soul itself truly seeks it.
      • Beings who undergo rebirth many times often go on to do great things.
    • Limbo
      • If The Coilwalker is not able to determine the fate of a soul, they are sent to limbo to undergo some trial.
        • Each trial varies for each soul
        • Some trials involve that of moral dilemma, combat, challenge of wit, or constitution
        • The result of a trial determines what the soul is worthy of in death
    • Punishment
      • If a soul has led a dark life, The Coilwalker brings it to Damnation upon death.
      • It is thought that The Coilwalker struck an accord with Aldem, King of all Hells. This deal allows for Aldem, King of all Hells to claim some form of power from the deaths of Zol. In exchange he is to carry out the punishment for souls marked by The Coilwalker.
      • Punishment varies in severity. Sometimes it is a lesser and/or temporary punishment. After which the damned are allowed to reside in Apolyatum, the highest layer of Damnation, the city of the dead.
        • Other times it is a more severe, and eternal punishment
    • Obliteration
      • If a soul is deemed too dangerous for Zol, The Coilwalker will send a soul to the lowest layer of Damnation. A small, dark, and horrible place called Obliteration. Here, giant beings made from obsidian destroy the souls sent to them with mighty hammers forged by Aldem himself.
    • Misc
      • Sometimes strange things can happen to souls.
        • Some arcanists have claimed to have trapped souls using magic.
        • Others believe that some souls go on to become other things like Sylfs.

Occasionally a powerful vessel or soul will exist without its bonded counterpart, and will somehow continue to function in a strange manner akin to Life. There are likely many things that can cause this, but few are known:

• Magical Backfire
• The will of one of the Gods
• Necromancy

The result is a physical being who acts in one of two ways

• Echoes
  • This occurs when a being survives having its soul severed, and no further will is imposed on it beyond the initial severing
  • The resulting being will attempt to continue their “life”, but they do so without all of their emotions or memories in tact, resulting in strange behavior. Sometimes the physical body of this creature will also become monstrous in appearance.
  • Anti-life is reversible for Echoes if a soul can be rebound to its vessel, returning the being to normal Life again.
• Undead
  • Vessels who have fully died, then given an artificial soul, or have their soul reattached via Necromancy.
    • When a vessel is not under the influence of a soul, it opens the body up to being magically enhanced in ways that would be otherwise impossible.
  • This usually creates a being subservient to the will of its souls creator.
  • The strength of the resulting being is dependent on the state of the vessel, and the skill of the souls creator.
  • These beings are typically more susceptible to further deaths as the bond between vessel and soul is not perfect.
    • But the severed artificial soul can be easily reattached and sometimes will do so on its own.

Beings who experience Anti-Life are immortal by the rules of The Mortal Coil as they do not age and have greatly increased fortitude in many cases. A Lich is a being who does this to themselves intentionally, usually to gain immortality to further pursue the dark side of Arcana.

Zol has many Planes of existence that are all anchored to the Prime Material Plane. The Mortal Coil’s influence does not exist in all Planes. This has an interesting effect on the behavior of life, death, and gods on any plane.

The Planes that contain The Mortal Coil are known as The Mortal Realms:

• The Prime Material Plane
• The Fey
• The Fell
• The Ethos
• The Elemental Planes

Due to this fact, most Gods rarely enter these Planes themselves. When they do, they put their life at great risk.