Soulblight

The soulblight is a weapon developed in the later centuries of the Godswar, first utilised by Celestials and mortal warriors associated with the Gods of Brisard. It visually resembles a dusky red smoke. In the immediate aftermath of the release, and for some time afterwards dependant on the amount released, it remains highly mobile, blowing with the winds and flowing as a normal gas. As time passes the smoke becomes incorporeal. It will stagnate and become immobile, also displaying some ability to disrupt the steady flow of time within areas of high concentration. In this state, it does not react to physical forces – wind, the passing of a material through the same space. It cannot be contained – a container lowered into the fog will simply see the soulblight intangibly pass through the material.

Due to this static property, pockets of the Soulblight can be safely approached so long as one is able to clearly see the edge of the affected area. Given the tendency for the Soulblight to be cohesive, this is easily done in well-lit conditions.

The Soulblight destroys the soul of a creature. It does not kill – i.e. dispatch the soul to the afterlife – but destroys the soul. There is no known way to reverse such an event. A creature without a soul is vulnerable to an Insurge event."A living being without a soul is a doomed entity. Into the void of the soul pours raw magical power, resulting in terrible and horrific mutations. Such entities to not exist naturally, though within the soulblight fogs of the Agony such terrible creatures exist in unimaginable and perpetual suffering. The soulblight weapon – a dread tool of the godswars – is perhaps one of the most awful legacies of that time, and is a demonstration of what can occur in the worst case of a biomancy side effect. The victims of that terrible weapon have their soul destroyed – not killed, destroyed – leaving their physical forms alive and retaining thought. Yet as the magical forces flow into their bodies in the absence of the soul, an event called an ‘insurge,’ the uncontrolled mutations debase and distort their biology into unimaginable forms. The body is then stuck in a perpetual state of mutation and change, sustained by the energy, in perpetuity. – Quote ‘Biomancy: The Healing magic of the future?’"