>>45862073
It’s been several days since your confusing meeting with Naja left you with more questions than answers. Well, you have one answer at least. It’s a very big answer. Sort of the answer to everything really. So how can you keep getting out of bed when you know that all life is pointless?

It’s actually pretty easy. You just do your best not to think about it too hard. Ultimate cosmic futility has little bearings on your plans here, after all. The hypothetical meaning to life might have been lost forever but you’re still here, Hiss is still here and Teleran is still here for the former to sink her teeth into. Nothing’s changed.
That isn’t to say what Naja revealed to you wasn’t shocking. It was huge. But it was practically TOO huge. The grand design of Creation has next to zero relevance to the plans and schemes of mortals.
You don’t tell Hiss anyway. You don’t think she wants to know.

But aside from contemplating the ultimate lack of divine purpose what else have you been keeping yourself occupied? The days have slipped by fast but not so fast that you haven’t gotten work done.

>Brewing and experimenting.

>Reading and studying.

>Teaching Hom how to brew.

>Making a new homunculi.

>You seek another audience with Naja.

>Delving into the mysteries of soul theory.

>Assisting a companion in their own task.

>Other

>>45862086
>Brewing and experimenting.
>Reading and studying.

Working on Naja's body.
Sup Ouro you're early

>>45862086
>Delving into the mysteries of soul theory.
With Hom if possible

Last thread some of you raised concerns about being only able to spend the timeskip doing one thing. Don't worry, this is going to go on for a while.

>>45862086
>Delving into the mysteries of soul theory.
make some soul brews too

>>45862086
>Reading and studying.
>Delving into the mysteries of soul theory.
These two can be related

>>45862086
>Delving into the mysteries of soul theory.
>You seek another audience with Naja.

Naja's body AND might work to get us some of that flame.

>>45862110
Why do you want to work on her body? She said last thread that she might destroy the world

>>45862234
Geas for it. We don't she can use it to fuck us up. Also if we know how the body is made up, we can kill her.

>>45862234
We made her a magically binding promise that we would make her one

>>45862234
Not that anon, but I have my reasons as well. One, getting her away from HIss' head for good. Two, she could prove to be beneficial for a fuckton of universal secrets to be made known.

Also, I'm pretty sure she's incapable of destroying the world if we give her an imperfect vessel. One that's good enough, but not really the best.

>>45862073
Hom to brew for hombrew.

For the memeschemeteam.

>Delving into the mysteries of soul theory.

Naja had dropped a lot of knowledge on you in your last meeting but that's only made you hungry for more. Now that you've confirmed the identity of the 'spiders' you can think more on the nature of their souls. Or rather, their lack thereof.
They had something. But it wasn't a soul in much the same way that a spirit is not a soul. But what's the difference between them? How do they relate to one another? And how are they connected your mastery?

Your first step was getting some light reading. You visited the Potions College first and spent nearly an hour in their libraries before realizing that of course they'd have nothing relevant. That made you feel a little stupid.
You wound up trawling through a series of small yet expensive academic bookstores instead, spending your signets freely in pursuit of treatises on the soul.

To your disappointment, they had little to say that Hiss could not have already told you. But they still gave you the ideas and background information you needed.

Just what is the soul anyway? It was you. The soul is mental energy, your personality and memory. And while it was not literally your mind, the mind was simply the interface created when the soul and the body met as one. It IS you. And it is not sacred. You had learned that lesson early when Hiss bit deeply into your memories and tore away your past. Hiss, who even now treated the souls of people with cavalier disregard. But you had not truly grasped the lesson until you took your first step along the path to mastery. The power of snake blood had let you touch and connect the soul and had taught you utterly and irrevocably that it was just a thing. Something to be altered, used, expended. Hiss' crimes ceased to be horrors and atrocities and became just a particularly advanced form of felony.

The soul cannot live well on its own, it is fragile. But with a proper body to protect it it can spin on forever.
1/2

>>45862428
The soul, you theorize, is energy positive. It constantly generates mental energy, fragments of what the spirits call Dream, and it makes more than enough to sustain itself. It creates more energy than what it consumes.

And that path of thought takes you to consider the spirit. The nature of spirits was quite well known to the authors of your treatises and it was plainly stated that spirits lacked a soul. A spirit was similar to a soul but was ultimately hollow. Broken off fragments of a larger being. Spirits do not produce mental energy like souls do and indeed, must continually siphon aforesaid energy from the Creator's Dreaming if they wish to live outside of it. And you know from experience that a spirit can 'ride' a person and latch onto their soul like a parasite. They can feed off souls in the same way they do the Dreaming.
The conclusion reached by the scholars who wrote the books was that spirits were mechanically the antithesis to the soul. Something very similar, a different branch of the same tree, but was negative to the soul's positive. Just as the soul constantly provides, the spirit constantly drains. They found the idea of such a balance to be aesthetically pleasing.

You think they're wrong. You don't hold it against them, they were just missing an important piece of information. That the tree had more than two branches. There was a third sibling in this metaphorical family and as you did your best to explain this to Hom, you were looking at one.
The homunculi and the wizard-spiders in the Heart. You have no idea how they worked and you have no conventional wisdom to fall back on. But you do know that they have no substance. They are not presences like souls or spirits but instead simply moving holes drilling back into the heart of the world. They are tangled in Art and, particularly in the case of Wizards, are constantly siphoning more and more of it.
2/3

>>45862624
Does our spiritbane still allow our soul to generate excess energy?

>>45862624
Could we harness the excess energy made by souls for our own uses?

>>45862624
They are the true antithesis to the soul and spirits were just the void in between of them. The zero to separate proper numbers and the reverse numbers you use when you get into debt.

You talk this over with Hom and while he cannot answer, he seems to understand. But how do they all relate to each other? They all share the same source. They were all made by the Creator. And furthermore, the Creator had aspects of all three. Their Dreaming had properties like that of a soul but made entirely out of spirits. So can the three different kinds of spiritual substance meld and relate to one another? Your soul brews can affect spirits after all.

You draw a triangle in the dust and try to get Hom to look at it. The three points of the triangle are the soul, the spirit and the...spider. You don't really have a good name for it.
You then point to the line connecting the soul dot and the spider dot.
"That's a wizard," you tell Hom. "A soul with a spider melded into it. And if that part of the triangle is possible then the other two must be as well."

You grunt as you peer at the side of the triangle connecting soul and spirit. You try to imagine such a thing for a time before squinting and scribbling the image of a curled up snake next to it.
"That's Naja...I think. She was Hiss when she ascended to be as a spirit but she still had a soul so she became something more. But does that mean the Creator is also just soul and spirit then? She and him are supposed to be the same thing."

Hom shakes his head and bends over by your messy diagram before tracing a shape in the dust with his finger. A perfect circle sitting inside the triangle at equal distance from all three points.

"Right, right. That's the Creator. Thanks Hom, that solves fucking nothing. Naja and the Creator are supposed to be the same thing!"

Hom shakes his head and erases the sign of the coiled snake you made at the line connecting soul and spirit.
3/4

Guys. Our next project should be to make an artificial spirit. One that can survive on nothing but excess soul energy.

Naja thinks she can only destroy right? I think she's wrong. The ouroboros symbol is a serpent eating its own tail implies simultaneous creation and destruction.

>>45862826
Circle outside the triangle connecting the dots?

>>45862928
probably, but remember she's based of Hiss.

>>45862826
You watch as Hom redraws the spiral inside the circle. Naja was there with the Creator, the union of all three.

"Hold on there, Hom. I think I'd know if Hiss had ever melded with an Art spider. And if a souled snake that ascended to be like a spirit isn't the line between soul and spirit, what is?"

Hom shakes his head again. He then points at you and then at the triangle.
"I don't get what you mean, sorry."

Hom kneels again and grits his teeth as if he was drawing some great masterpiece in the dust. But all he was doing was writing a short four-letter word along that side.
B A N E.

"Hold on. So that's me, I'm over there?"

Hom nods and you suppose it makes sense. You don't just have a soul, you have one frozen and overlaid with a spirit's essence. Does your soul even produce enough energy beyond what sustains itself?
"Then what's the line between spirit and spider? Can that even exist?"

Hom shrugs.

"Is that you? Is that what I've been making."

Hom shakes his head vehemently. He points at himself and at the spider dot.

"Okay. I guess I can't expect you to know everything. I'm pretty sure Naja never came in contact with a spider though let alone adopted its nature."

Hom begins to write again and his forehead beads with sweat.
Y O U A R E A L W A Y S I N C O N T A C T

"Huh. Care to elaborate? Why do you know more about this than Eva anyway?"

Hom starts to look a little sullen and refuses to answer the question.

"Alright, neat. But all three of it are just parts, right? Parts grown off from something which is constructed from all three. The Creator. So it should all be alchemically viable through snake blood."

Hom shrugs.

"I wonder if you can...induce these bonds between the three kinds. I don't suppose you'll tell me how wizards are made?"

Hom doesn't answer and you're pretty sure he legitimately doesn't know.

4/5

>>45863063
Hiss doesn't want to destroy everything. She just doesn't care about humans and has an awful temper.

>Find a wizard to ask.

>Maybe visiting the spiders again can help?

>Ask Naja.

>Visit the church you went to with Aashenpreet and ask if you can speak with their guardian spirit.

>Start trying to modify the Soulbrew to mimic other substances.

>Enlist Hiss' aid. She doesn't just eat souls, she practically tosses the things around.

>You should probably go back to more practical endeavours.

>>45863098
We should examine Barts soul to figure it out. The Art spider has left him but we could figure something out from inspecting the remainder of his soul. Maybe with the soulsight+dream oil mixture brew.

>>45863098
Soul + art = wizard
Soul + spirit = bane
Spirit + art = snake
All 3= creator
>>45863147
>Find a wizard to ask.

hi bart

>>45863147
>>45863168
This.

>>45863168
this.
yo ouro does shapestealer replicate souls too? I want to let hom steal our shape so we can study our bane a bit too.

>>45863253
Shapestealer just makes a link between souls. For example, it wouldn't work on Rock.

>>45863186
But snakes also have souls. Could it be they replicated or assimilated the human souls they consummed as dragons?
Aash would loose it

>>45863147
>Maybe visiting the spiders again can help?
Use the speech elixir on Hom first so we can communicate with the spiders

>>45863147
>Enlist Hiss' aid. She doesn't just eat souls, she practically tosses the things around.
Let's examine hiss' soul as she absorbs one of her held souls. Snake souls are partially energy negative like spirits.

>>45863289
It'd explain why they hunger for souls so much. Their corporeal fleshy body keeps their loss to a minimum, but they constantly need more energy in order to function.

>>45863330
Snakes don't need human souls though. They just like eating them a lot. The question is what do they use all that energy gained from souls for.

>>45863322
Spiders are negative, spirits are zero

>>45863285
Is there any way to examine ur own soul then? Maybe get someone to use soulsight on us and tell us about it?

>>45863358
Spirits are zero when inactive but rely on soul energy to do anything so they're negative in a sense.

>>45863352
They probably don't need them, since their fleshy body keeps any loss to nearly zero, but they instinctively crave them to balance themselves out.

>all these smart anons theorizing
I love you guys.

>>45863285
I thought it also kinda disguised the soul to be similar to the soul of the shape that they're stealing

>>45863168
We might even be able to ask Bart about it. I doubt spiders have a fail safe for memory deletion for when a wizard loses its body but doesn't die in the sense that his soul is still on earth.

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Calling it for wizard, specifically Bart. Sorry about the slow update speed by the way guys, I scheduled this thing early for a reason and I am feeling pretty bushed.

On the other hand, have a visual glimpse at Cennen and Hom's masterpiece.

>snakes and spiders are integral to the function of reality itself
Only in an Aussies setting

>>45863472
Spiders, snakes and a really slow-burning Bane shitpost that's been going on all Quest. The aussie trifecta

>>45863462
A true masterpiece
>>45863472
kek

>>45863330
The theory of endosmbiosys states that mitochondria and other organelles were originally independent cells that were consumed by larger cells for nourishment, but instead where conserved and incorporated into the larger cell to fulfill metabolic functions.

What if that's what happened with dragons: human souls consumed for their mental energy were asimilated into the spirits, making them able to produce their own energy and become self-sustaining. With the side effect of making them differentiated individuals able to exist outside the dreaming.

>>45863472
Snakes are abos and souls are petrol

>>45863462
No worries, I'm sure sleep deprivation slows you down but it's probably good inspiration for all this metaphysical stuff

>>45863462
What i'm getting from this is that SNakes are ideally suited to creator dom because of their link to Souls, art and their former spiritdom. Thus Cennen who has art(alchemy) spirit coating his soul (bane) and a soul (human) could do the same thing.

>Find a wizard to ask.

You'll only get so far muddling along your own so it just makes sense to ask someone with practical experience in the matter, right? Asking a proper live wizard is probably a bad idea but you just happen to have a former wizard stuffed somewhere in your backpack.

You grab the bottle holding Bart's soul and hold it up to the light as if you could somehow catch a glimpse of the invisible soul within. You hope he's in good shape, he's had time to start rotting. Not to mention whatever parting with his better half might have done to him.

But how are you going to talk to him? He lacks a mouth. And a mind. And more or less everything else really.

>Implant him into a Soulshape brew like you did with Hom.

>Ask Hiss to eat him and then regurgitate him into a new body.

>Feed him to a different snake and then use Dream Oil to seek him out within them.

>Brew something experimental.

>Other

>>45863680
>Brew something experimental.
Soulsight+snake oil
Or modify bloodkin to work on disembodied souls using concepts from a soulgrasp brew

>>45863680
>Brew something experimental.

>>45863680
>Feed him to a different snake and then use Dream Oil to seek him out within them.
Elle

>>45863680
>Brew something experimental.
Have Hom make his own brew copying us and see if there's a difference due to the alchemical magic already inside him

>>45863472
Not to mention a world apparently filled with deserts and wastelands on every landmass.

>>45863680
>Implant him into a Soulshape brew like you did with Hom.

It might be useful to try the dethaw brew and then examine our soul, the have someone watch as the bane reforms once it wears off.

>>45863966
Shit dude I just realized that all spirits feel cold to humans because they're energy neutral instead of positive. Souls are heat, spirits are an absence of heat (cold) and spiders have less than zero heat which is impossible in our world. They're like below absolute zero.

>Brew something experimental.

There is no problem that cannot be solved through proper use of alchemy! No barrier that cannot be breached! There's no need to ask for anybody's help when you can simply brew!
You spend the better part of the day experimenting until you eventually return with a hybrid elixir containing key elements of Bloodkin, Soulgrasp and Soulshape. This Communion Brew should let you establish a connection with a soul suspended within its fluids. Should. You've used Identification Potions but its sort of hard to test.

You drink a Soul Guise first before pouring the Communion Brew into Bart's soul bottle, mixing them for a moment and then drinking the whole thing down. You can't actually drink his soul of course but you are partaking in the same medium that he is currently leaking into. Ample grounds for a link.

You close your eyes and concentrate.
"Anyone there? Bart? I have some ques-"

"Never heard of it."
The voice is faint and weary. There's a sickness there.

"I haven't even asked yet, come on."

"No...Bart. Never heard of him."

Shit. Do you have the wrong soul? That's impossible.
"You know, the wizard. Water wizard? You?"

"nNnnnnn..."

"Who are you?"

"nnnnnnnn"

"What's your name then?"

"P...Pellimal."

"Uh, hi? I'm Cennen. Name ring a bell?"

"No."
They sound very tired.

"What happened to you, Pell? What do you remember?"

"I...can't. I was fishing for something. I was lost in the water...where am I? Have I drowned?"

You're really not sure how to handle this.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. You drowned a while ago."

>Keep talking to him.

>Set him free to go.

>Tell him what happened to him.

>Give him to a snake to dissect for any traces left behind.

>Seal the bottle again.

>Put him in the Soulshape.

>Other

>>45864072
>>Keep talking to him.
>You became a wizard, tried to kill me and my girlfriend, and well you're dead. What do you remember of that?

>>45864072
>Tell him what happened to him.
Ask him for any other memories he has immediately before or anytime after that
Can we look at his soul and see anything significant?

>>45864058
This is completely correct. The cold people feel is a reaction to them being void rather than actual physical cold.

>>45864072
>>Keep talking to him.
>>45864119
Ask this

>>45864072
>Tell him what happened to him.
Ask about the spiders and the giant ball of flame

>>45864151
So does that mean the bane coating around our soul is also void? And that it could be empowered by a soul's energy?

>>45864072
>Put him in the Soulshape.
Plantbro time?

>>45864189
It's worth investigating at the very least.

>>45864151
is this going to allow us to become an artificial wizard

>>45864314
Nah wizards are souls+spiders while a bane is soul+spirit

>>45864325
but if we capture the essence of spider or make one ourselves somehow... we could be a fucking wizard literally and figuratively

I wanna know what makes alchemists any different to normal humans. Are alchemists just connected to the art heart by chance?

>Keep talking
>Tell him what happened to him.

"Do you remember what happened to you just before that? You were fishing but you were also lost in the water?"

"No...yes. I was in my boat. And then I was drowning. But I wasn't underwater. I was still sitting in the boat. But my me, my other me, it was like I wasn't moving but some other part of me was. Being dragged down. My body...my body was in the boat. But I was in the water. And something was pulling me down. Dragging me down as it swam up."

"Do you remember anything about a spider? Or a web or a hole at the middle of it?"

"Spiders? No. I was sinking in the water. Being pulled down. It was very deep. Being pulled down by...by something like a shark. It went up as I went down and the last thing I remember was trying to find the bottom of the sea floor but there wasn't any. It went on down forever and ever like a hole and it was very cold. I didn't want to remember that."

Oh of course. They didn't appear to him as spiders and he didn't see a web because those descriptions were never anything more than a lie your brain told you. Pellimal had a different brain, a different lie.
"Did you see the shark?"

"No. I felt it. It pulled me down and it went up and it got in the boat. I don't understand. Am I dead?"

"Yes. But before you were dead you were also a wizard. Does that ring a bell?"

"No? I'm not a wizard. I'm Pellimal. I'm a fisherman. I've been out on the sea too long. I need to get back to the cove, Terri'll be waiting for me. She gets cross when I've been gone too long..."

"Pell? Hello?"

The soul trails off and doesn't speak again.It's still there as far as you can tell, just ...disordered.

>Give him to Hiss.

>Let it go.

>Dunk the soul in a Soulshape brew.

>Seal up the bottle and wait for a better time.

>Other

>>45864584
>>Let it go.

>>45864584
>Let it go.
So the spider steals the body and the switches places with the soul?

>>45864584
>Let it go.
Kinda disappointing. We got a little info though.

>>45864584
>Let it go.
I still don't see how he entered the art heart. Maybe a spider just chose him for some reason?

>>45864728
My theory is that the human soul enters the spider soul which is a void Andre positive soul balances with the negative spider soul to create something neutral. So they're similar to a spirit but they're connected to the art heart instead of the dreaming.

>>45864852
>Andre
Should be and the*
Fucking autocorrect.

Ugh, sorry guys. Feeling really tired and shitty from not really having slept at all. Might have to call this one a day and do 84.5 later.
Can't write like this.

>>45864995
No worries, I kind of expected this. Thanks for running

>>45864995
take care m8

>>45864995
Better than no thread. Get some sleep Ouro.

>>45864995
You gonna archive or should I?

>>45865079
>>45865088
>>45865132
Thanks and yeah, better to try and get some in then shut you guys out for another week of bad IRL decisions.

>>45865149
Go ahead.