Essence Vessels
In the
ages before Necronias, spirit and soul were united, they were simply essence.
The dead of the essence did not “live” out elaborate afterlives like modern-day
spirits or separate into spirit and soul they remained fused. A person’s essence
was the sum of his or her thoughts, emotions, experiences, drives and true
nature, and in water-children, it is the well-source of their bloodline’s power.
Usually, essence was the spiritual lifeblood of the living and transitory state
for the dead, for after death a person’s essence would move on to the next life.
It was believed that the essence was cleansed and then reborn into a new being,
be it human, animal, or plant. The exceptions to this rule were the
Water-Children, before the Water Clan Wars, water children learned how to
voluntarily draw off a small portion of their own essence and seal it within an
opaline gem-like vessel.
The gift of a person’s essence was the most treasured of all possible gifts for
it was literally an elemental part of oneself. If a person created too many
essence-vessels, drawing out to much essence, he or she would leave himself or
herself addle-brained and sloth-like so usually only the wisest,
spiritually-strong, and potent ever created a single essence-vessel. Forging
more than one essence-vessel was almost unheard of. The temptation to craft an
essence-vessel was that in endowed a form of immortality, for as long as a
person’s essence remains untainted and unconsumed; a portion of them lives on ad
infinitum. Casting Detect Soul on a vessel allows its bearer to commune and
glean the life and times of the essence sealed within it.