Function Type: Forbidden Class / Soul Engineer
Grade Classification: B–A (Localized Corruption Risk)
Origin Type: Defiant / Native Aberrant
Affiliation: Unaligned (often linked to Under Markets, cult remnants, or lone practitioners)
Threat Level: Moderate to Severe (Zone Destabilizer)
Overview
In the layered plane of Genesis—where all souls are meant to reset and begin again—Soulbinders are heresy made flesh. These rare individuals or entities defy the natural order of reincarnation through forbidden soulcraft, capturing, reshaping, and embedding souls into vessels or objects. Where others forget, they force remembrance.
Soulbinders aren’t feared for direct combat ability—they’re feared for what lingers. Their rituals corrode Safe Zones, fracture reality anchors, and disturb the fragile order that Genesis tries to maintain.
They don't always arrive hostile. But when entrenched, a single Soulbinder can turn a stable district into a haunted ruin in days.
“They don’t kill you. They make you forget how to die properly.”
Soulless Shells
Most Soulbinders animate Soulless Shells—hollow vessels that act without will or memory. These constructs come from two primary sources:
- Dead Bodies – Claimed legally or stolen from Echo-wrecked zones.
- Live Vessels – Living beings whose souls were extracted, leaving behind a breathing, empty puppet.
Shells appear zombie-like: glazed eyes, twitchy motion, and delayed responses. They obey only simple orders—guard, follow, kill—but they often unnerve even experienced Divers.
Upper Soulless
Advanced Soulbinders embed Attuned Soul Shards into vessels, creating Upper Soulless—beings with partial minds, memories, and personalities.
- Retain limited autonomy, emotion, and tactical reasoning
- Display echoes of their original soul’s behavior—sometimes loyalty, sometimes rage
- Risk rebellion, trauma resonance, or memory bleed into nearby souls
Rowan, bound to Beatrice the Unnamed, is one such case—functioning as a guardian with both loyalty and trauma lingering in his gaze.
Core Mechanics
| Feature | Function |
|---|---|
| Soul Pool | Represents stored energy—half Soul Magic level + Will (Charisma mod). Fuels rituals, animation, and manipulation. |
| Soul Shards | Crystallized fragments of trapped souls. Used for Upper Soulless, enchantments, or memory-spike traps. |
| Soulless Creation | Animates base-tier shells from corpses or emptied vessels. |
| Soul Shaping | Alters memory, emotion, or alignment. High-level binders can rewrite entire identities. |
| Ritual of Reincarnation | Restores a soul to a new body without memory erasure—a direct violation of Genesis law. |
| Soul Communion | Speaks to, manipulates, or tortures stored souls. Some “negotiate”; others extract secrets or torment essence. |
Zone-Level Impact
When a Soulbinder sets up a workshop and remains undisturbed:
- Safe Zones begin to glitch, destabilize, or become haunted
- Regeneration weakens—healing fails, and death may become irreversible
- Anomalies ripple inward, attracted to the soul manipulation
- Entities nearby desync, experience personality bleed, or fall into aggression spirals
Some Archive agents rank a Soulbinder nest on par with a mid-tier Echo anomaly breach if left unchecked for a full lunar cycle.
Notable Soulbinders
- Beatrice the Unnamed
Soul merchant operating in Under Markets. Her companion Rowan is an Upper Soulless with fractured memories and lethal loyalty.
Common Traits
- Greed-Driven – Most begin with noble intentions—healing, love, or remembrance—but fall into obsession
- Reclusive – Rarely tolerated, often hunted. They hide in collapsing zones, fractured safe zones, or corpse-walled labs
- Distorting Aura – Their presence causes psychic bleed, emotional echoes, or déjà vu in those nearby
