Fallen
Where life continues without a soul, sometimes it refuses to lie down. The Fallen are what remains of a mortal who is denied his return to the Pool. They stand remembering, and that memory is the whole of their torment.
A Fallen looks, at a distance, like any other mortal left standing long after his soul departed: fading eyes, a deep hatred for demons, and a banner rotted to threads. It is only up close that their torture shows.
It rises remembering, and that memory is the whole of its torment.
The Fallen are not undead, nor should they be confused with the fallen angels who turned from Harmony. They are mortals whose souls have been torn away through demonic harvest, Soulbinding or necromancy while their bodies somehow continue to live. This severance is among the cruellest wounds that can be inflicted upon a mortal, for it breaks the inner Spire that joins body, identity and the soul’s eventual return to the Pool. The body endures, but diminished: colder, stiffer, increasingly detached from emotion and purpose, while the imprisoned soul remains elsewhere, often bound within a crystal.
Their condition does not immediately make them servants of Mortigian. They remain thinking, choosing beings, capable of loyalty, hatred, reason and even honour, though emotion gradually fades and memory loses much of its meaning. Yet all Fallen eventually sense Mortigian, Lord of Undeath, whose own existence began with the theft of Faios’s soul. His call grows stronger as their bodies decline, and many willingly seek Atoles, drawn by the hope that he may recover or preserve their soul crystal. Mortigian offers service rather than immediate slavery, centuries of war and obedience in exchange for the eventual return or release of the soul.
“This is the tragedy of the Fallen. They are still people, but people living after the central part of the self has been stolen. Some endure for centuries, some perish, and others eventually cross fully into undeath, where Mortigian’s dominion becomes absolute. Until that moment, however, I cannot accept the common judgement that they are already monsters. The undead obey their new nature, forever searching for what was taken away.”
Eolon of Oemon · Loremaster · Master of Scarabs“It did not attack us. An Unliving that waited for orders. I have never been so afraid of something so patient.”
Recovered field journal · Author unknown
