| Generally speaking, the typical Demon, no matter its rank so long as it originated in the demonic planes, bears an immortal soul like every other being. When killed, the soul of a demon cycles through the planes and is eventually reincarnated into the same persona as before, with all the same memories and experiences, though trapped once again in the plane of its creation until brought into the mortal regions. Though still retaining a demonic essence as all demons do, a Soulless lacks a soul entirely, and this is what separates it.The lack of soul prevents him from cycling through in the same fashion at his death. It may be likened to sifting sand. The sand, or in this analogy the soul-bearing entities, passes through the filter; but Cyn represents a pebble, unable to pass. Though in context it is not any issue of size that prevents him from passing, the general idea is there. Consequently, his recycling is different. When killed, Cyn's body would rejoin its creator's, one of the rulers of the nether planes whose name Cyn does not share, body; and at said creator's will and with his input and time, Cyn could be created once more. In essence, Cyn is a partial ethereal clone, fueled only by life without soul and taking on whichever physical form his father might choose, and at his whim casting Cyn into the higher-frequency dimensions to do whatever bidding. This gives Cyn an inherent and altogether unique rank among his kind.. Cyn's form varies with each incarnation, as stated, according to his master's will. However, since there is no soul binding that form, theoretically Cyn has the potential to develop into the most talented and diverse shape-shifter in history. After three centuries of time spent in his current manifestation, though, it is clear he isn't very focused on such a task or even aware of the possibility. Similarly his creator could alter Cyn's form by proxy with relative ease, but no need for such a task will likely ever arrise and the process would be lengthy. To the best of his knowledge, Cyn is the only Soulless. Creating such a creature is not the most pleasant task, even for a demonic lord, and most don't feel any need to do so. Similar creatures governed by other lords have been seen in the past, however they are exceedingly rare. Each lord generally does not maintain more than one Soulless entity at a time. Only the most powerful rulers of Hell have both the will and means to create these creatures; their counterparts, the gods, view them as abominations. Soulless creatures serve a greater purpose in general, still. Apart from being able to play representative for their respective creators, their existence, though not bound to a soul, requires the consumption of pre-existing souls to maintain, especially in higher-frequency dimensions. To back-track a bit, some creatures are born into Mortality (the dimension of mortal realms, from which souls proceed to either Hell or Heaven at the body's death) with reincarnated souls, but not all of them. Fresh souls are created at a fairly regular rate in both alterdimensions. To counter-balance the constantly growing population of souls scattered throughout the universes, the Soulless dispose of the oldest souls that are the most heavily damaged after however many reincarnations they have been through. Though it is not a conscious task of theirs, in the trans-substantial planes of both Hell and Heaven, where souls may travel for whatever reason, these certain souls become the coal in the furnace of the Soulless lifelines. The fewer of such souls are available at any given time and the greater number of Soulless entities in operation, the weaker the entities become. The more abundant the fuel and fewer the entities, the stronger the entities become. In times of weakness, the Soulless typically seek blood more agressively than they already might, and resort to stealthier and sometimes "cheaper" methods to win kills. Most kills performed by Soulless creatures are noted by their creators, who will subconsciously syphon these souls out of the inbound soulstream and deposite them directly into the metaphorical furnace belonging to their specific Soulless, offering no chance of reincarnation. Consequently, each subsequent kill seems to breathe a bit of life into the killer, akin to when a vampire feeds. The less damaged the soul, the more potent its fuel; since without these kills Soulless thrive entirely from the burning of heavily tarnished souls, killing directly proves to be highly beneficial for them. |
| Soulless Demon? |