Disclaimer: Before reading this, understand that I have not been on much during the discord debates, and am solely replying to the OOC. By some stretch you could consider this an academic review of our cosmology as we build it, and can be completely disregarded as apples to oranges, since I am arguing mostly from real life citation and example, in a debate that does not directly relate to our reality. If anything, this is an example of how complicated employing physical definitions to a soul can be. Enjoy it, for I did.
SECOND DISCLAIMER: This may be obsolete by time it is posted, as things seem to be changing fast
Three observations must be made to start: first that there are gods, second that there are souls, and third that there is a greater power, known as the architect. The architect had, while in a weakened state, decided that he needed help finishing his creation and so he ripped open a schism that summoned beings from many different universes. We call these beings gods, they do not have souls as proposed by BB; however, they can.
Souls remain undefined by the parameters of the game and so that’s where we will start. The soul takes many different forms across many different ideologies but for the sake of our western influences, the soul can be safely described as not inherently physical, and indeed it seems to be treated as purely metaphysical in our game as well as in classical literature (Thomism thought comes to mind). Other than their state of being, we wonder, what their purpose is in this setting, or what they even do… we can speculate later. With our metaphysical souls we have approached several key conflicts, do they decay, are they finite, do the gods under the Architect have souls, is there a soul hierarchy, and onwards. Unfortunately, every question answered will not relieve the issue, but only add more speculation, but what is scholasticism without a never ending conversation?
What is the purpose of the soul? Without a clear start, function and end, it is hard to say. It has been mentioned that the gods themselves are without souls by default, and if one is to assume the gods are free from the binds of a soul, then so is the Architect. Nonetheless, some gods possess souls by choice, and a plethora of souls were summoned along with the god-like beings to populate Galbar, so we can assume they have a necessary function. In fact, much like Aquinas had to do to define God itself, we can only define souls and their function by what they don’t do (in such an open ended game I must add: exclusively). As it stands to reason, a soul cannot do what the soul or essence of a god can do, not on its own, or a god would require a soul. A god has divine powers, therefore the soul cannot grant divine powers, a god is free thinking and intelligent, therefore a soul alone does not grant sentience, a god can reproduce, therefore a soul does not grant reproduction, a god is creative, has morals and plans with time, therefore a soul does not grant self-actualization, morality or imagination. It is commonly accepted in Christianity that a soul is a piece of a dualistic puzzle between the holy and the body, and when the body dies, the essence of that body, the soul, remains indefinitely as that was the true being behind the corrupted body and mind; however, this is not the case clearly in Galbar. So it goes to wonder, what can the soul do?
It can do what a immortal soul, the soul of a God can’t do: it can age and die. Each soul is given an expiration date, and at the end of that cycle it is required to be recycled. Overtime the soul frays, reducing its effectiveness at whatever its undefined function is (beyond age, in which if that was the sole function, fraying would cause an inverse effect in which the soul ages backwards). At such time the soul can no longer withstand its fraying it is recycled, but what if it isn’t, and what of the body, if any, it possesses? Is age restricted to those holding souls? Furthermore, why does it fray? I can only assume that since the soul is recycled 1:1 and no souls are lost this way, fraying is not the metaphysical decay of a soul (which would leave us with negative souls over time), meaning that it does so by creation and not by existing (which would make recycling moot, and useless). Unanswered questions aside, it is important to delve into the meaning of a soul unraveling itself simply because of its nature.
The gods brought into the universe may hold souls, and souls from other universes were pooled into Galbar by the Architect. These souls unravel by their very nature, and the gods as they are are unable to create new souls, or create immortal souls. This all has a very big connotation. Every one of these souls follow the law of soul fraying, which implies that in all universes created there is a singular law of souls, a una rule, an eternal law to which all soul creation is made under. We cannot find function in the soul, but we now have evidence of multiversal singular creation, paired with the principle of of the existence of necessity (in which while there are unnecessary, there must be necessary, or from nothing there is nothing, ala Thomas Aquinas) we are starting to paint a picture beyond Galbar and the Architect, let alone beings we called “gods”.
Every universe follows the same law, in which every soul by nature graduates to a certain existence in which they are no longer functional in whatever function they do. Evidence of graduation is evidence of a divine nature in some classical literature, in which all things graduate to a certain point, this point is God. We have evidence of singular law, evidence of necessity, and evidence of graduation. To make matters even more dense, souls have a hierarchy. It has been stated that a soul can be “big” and a soul can be “small” and even that souls can be stretched “thin”... we have now added physical traits to a metaphysical body, creating a strange paradox where graduation is now mathematically visible. There are small souls, which are lesser to bigger souls, there are immortal souls that do not follow the law of souls, which are potentially lesser to the Architect, there is the Architect which is lesser to the singular laws of the multiversal nature, and the laws themselves are lesser to the prima causation, or the factor that began the finite chain of causation. While this causation chain may be finite, the implications are not, this prima causation is now immutable, a divine characteristic, whatever its function may be. In short, the existence of these souls, while they are ill defined beyond what they cannot do, quickly bring to light a Monotheistic God which heads the many universes in which Galbar is situated. So if nothing else, what do souls do besides age and fray? Souls are the signature of this Supreme God above all, and that could be their necessity.
Now that we have defined souls, let’s move onto other issues presented to us, starting with finite souls. Is finite souls reasonable, doable, and what is the cause and purpose? Reasonable, yes considering the cause of souls existing is the Architect pulling them from the entire universe and then sealing Galbar back up, and it has been explicitly stated that gods nor the Architect can create further souls, nor would they be able to since we have defined souls as the signature of the Supreme God above all.
But is it doable? Here we reach a simple math problem of 1=1, this is true, one does equal one and so long as it remains 1=1 OR becomes 1=∞>1 it is a viable system. This can easily be exploited and destroyed if the fraying of souls is no longer self imposed by the nature of their creation but by external forces. For example, should souls actually decay or be forced apart by external forces then it begs to reason that they are being metaphysically manipulated and are actually losing metaphysical matter (a direct contradiction to the Christian view of souls, in which a soul is regardless of all matter). The loss may be slight, but overtime it will be noticed as the “thinning” of souls began to accumulate despite recycling. Of course this can be easily combated by claiming the following: souls that are frayed by external forces retain their abundance, but lose their form, and such the fraying is the obstruction of its functional form and not the decay or loss of abundance; we can call this soul disruption. But what external force could impact the form of a soul, especially one without a defined function beyond finite lifespan and to pose as a signature.
Now what is the cause or purpose of the recycling? Well without recycling there would be frayed souls everywhere, no longer doing whatever they are suppose to be doing. So what about the recycling process actually “cures” a frayed soul? If the soul is frayed by nature, that is beyond me, perhaps the Supreme God had somehow instilled a way to cure a frayed soul and sewed it among his better souls such as the “gods”. This is where the theory of soul disruption comes in handy. If the soul is disrupted by external forces, than the recycling is merely a cleaning process in which the external forces are removed (thus making the external forces a permanent force, powerful enough to stain) and this is reasonable, until you take into the account of the abundance of the external forces, in which they must continue to exist despite the cleaning process or otherwise be able to be created at a similar rate to which it is destroyed to keep souls fraying right on que. This also raises the question to if this disruption device is also set into hierarchical state of small to large as are the fraying souls, or if they even have higher counterparts, which does seem unlikely since only the fraying souls seem affected. So whatever this disruption essence is, it exists exclusively for the frayed souls, and is potentially beyond the power of the Architect or the gods influence.
What is the point of all this, what is the purpose. Well, Theology provides many reasons for the reuse of a soul, but it would appear in this multiverse, that recycling exists merely to recycle. The non immortal souls were made fallible and able to be frayed on purpose, so they could be recycled, this is evident in their metaphysical make up and logical deduction of their function and existence. Some examples of reincarnation and reused souls without the purpose of recycling include the escape of Samsara in Buddhism, or the advancement to Nirvana in which is cannot be achieved in a singular life. These are moral based theories, whereas we already have achieved the understanding that Galbar souls are separated from morals by their very nature, unless of course they are made of the same process as the immortal souls of the gods, and are simply made purposely faulty as evident in the hierarchical system. In the end the issue not lay with the mathematics of a finite soul, but rather the implications of a finite soul and its recycling system.
What implications does the nature of fraying or the theory of disruption have on beings without souls, and ergo, can there be beings without souls? Yes, there can be. It has been said explicitly that living beings can exist without souls and function normally, adding to the confusion of the function of a soul, but it stands to be said: life exists beyond souls, and viably. This means that souls are optional, a strange addition to the idea of a signature of Supreme Godhood. Being beings without souls, the gods as well as the Architect are given a choice, to end the cycle of our own Galbarish Samsara and create life with unfettered life forces, or forego the need for a living essence entirely, and create life strictly in the material. This is a choice of both morality and of consequence, which cannot be answered here, but can be explored.
By disobeying the eternal law of souls, trashing the nature of fraying and disregarding the theory of disruption, all parties involved are subject to absolutely no consequence, since the function of souls are moot and serve solely as a signature and process of negativity at this point. The only downside is the chance at angering the Signatory: the Supreme God; however, this is where it gets interesting. Should violating this eternal law of this Supreme God be possible, and be upsetting to the point of wrath, than we have proved that the Supreme God is not the top source of creation or the prima causation, and that their eternal law was merely a personal law capable of being trespassed, meaning the superior creator is NOT the God of the multiverse but the next rung on the ladder. The Supreme God in this instance has forgoed the divine trait of both grace, all power, and infinity (as penned by Thomism, not mathematically), which begs the question of where the ladder ends, where is the Prima Causation, this being above the creator of creation. That can be answered simply, the Prima Causation presence is ever visible, and the disruption of the Supreme God merely shakes the attributes I assigned to it ot prove it’s Godhood off and applies it to this higher being immediately. In terms of a creation game, we have now exited the roleplay all together and are talking about a cosmology that engulfs us all. I’ll stop here. At least in regards to the Prima Causation.
There is much more to discuss, and so let’s touch upon the disruption theory once more. The disruption essence must be able to metaphysically disrupt the fraying souls, of course, but at the same time the disruption essence must not be able to disrupt the immortal soul or that of the Architect, meaning that the disruption essence must be exclusive to the fraying soul, and the experiences of a body that houses a fraying soul. So let us try and find the disruption essence… at first glance we can go back to our definition of a fraying soul and quickly discern that the only thing a soul possesses that a immortal soul does not, is involuntary aging. At first this sounds perfect, age causes fraying, but we must remember that fraying may cause age and causation cannot be infinite and must have a starting point. By claiming the age disruption causing the soul disruption was started by the debunked Supreme Being, we have exited disruption theory and are paying into the nature of a fraying soul theory, so that cannot be it, as they are contradictory. We know the disruption essence must be external, and it must be constantly recreated or indestructible, and we know that the immortal soul cannot behold it or be taken captive by it, at least not by choice. So what is it, it is an external metaphysical force completely independent of the process of both fraying and immortal souls, and in respects to the game, to be declared. What it cannot be is simpler, it cannot be thinking, it cannot be age, it cannot be morality, it cannot be creating, and it cannot be living, as all these qualities are found outside of the frayed soul, and belong to both immortal souls and the soulless alike.
Since the frayed soul is graduating, we have to wonder what else is graduating towards a supposed eternal equilibrium that is God itself, and perhaps if we found the common factor, we could discern what the disrupting essence is. Minerals graduate towards a decayed state, soulless plants graduate towards minerals, and etcetera, while the frayed soul similarly graduates towards a more stable state of being. In classic thought, this final destination is God itself, and in regards to Galbar’s cosmology, it could be said that this still holds true. We have debunked a Supreme God, who created the frayed souls, and we have debunked the Godhood of the “gods” as well as the functionality of the frayed soul itself. It stands to reason that the great disruption is God itself, where like minerals, the frayed souls are required to return to the state of oneness with God. This begs the question, if the frayed souls wish to return to God, and if the disruption is God itself, then what is the significance of the immortal soul and of recycling?
I suppose this is up to interpretation, but it also shows the true eternal law, that all things must return to God, the Prima Causation. In the case of Galbar, we have immortal souls made by an unknown creator and frayed souls made by a false Supreme. The frayed souls have since tried to return to God itself, while the immortal souls remain stagnant and furiously recycling the flawed material and pull it away from God. This has several explanations: could the immortal souls be parts of the True God itself, working against itself? In other words is the True God both recycling and pulling back the frayed creation? Does this take away the free will of the immortal souls, and did they ever actually have free will? The answer is simple, no.
The true God is both the creator of the disruption and the recycling. The immortal souls are a part of God itself, and thus do not graduate but are immutable. All the figures and personalities embedded in each individual immortal soul is simply a fraction of the true personality of the entire puzzle, and their actions are for reasons beyond our comprehension but simply because God itself wills it. It is possible the Supreme God imposter was also an immortal soul, a player in this grand machination. In the end, classical literature has proved this about Galbar, that the immortal souls are not of their own free will but are apart of some greater creation, and all their actions are controlled by the True God, and in this case, that would be the players. Using Thomism thought, and scholastics I have done nothing but proved that the players and the GM’s are present in a roleplay, I’m done.
(I could have kept going)
Unlucky0013,
Lord Zee,
DracoLunaris,
Frettzo,
Vec,
Eviledd1984,
Kalmar,
POOPHEAD189,
Monkeypants