Essences of Death: Soul Manipulation
A little back tracking is in order for explaining this study. After carefully speaking with many of the residential people of the town of Nexus. It was determine that in the process of dying and going to hell that in going a person’s soul would acquire what is now known as Death Essence. If of course a person where to visit hell repeatively then the essence of death would bond to the spirit enough that one could not return to the land of the living. To which I (WillowBark Whisper) and my Late Apprentice Drianna took it upon ourselves to find a way to correct this condition. These are the notes and conclusions we have found.
After spending weeks with my now late apprentice Drianna in finding a way to reverse the Essence of Death, it came to the both of us in our fevered research that a minor Breakthrough comes about. Ars Thanatos, the branch of the medicinal arts most relating to Death, would be the most useful for "dealing" with Death Essence. As a soul returns from the afterlife, it is altered. It is not that a soul takes on something additional. Rather, the soul itself is changed through the process of dying, becoming closer to the afterworld itself. This affinity acts like gravity on the soul, drawing it ever closer to the realm beyond the Gatekeeper’s abode. Removing this affinity would be intensely difficult probably entailing the deliberate-and invasive-alteration of the Soul itself. What form of such a technique would take is anyone’s guess, but more research is still needed.
After the second market gather in which my late apprentice Drianna passed on I (Willowbark) continued my research in dicovering what could be done with Death Essence. After a few days I(Willowbark) made quite abit of progress of progress into my studies into the process of death, and I(Willowbark) find out unequivocally that "Death Essence" is a misnomer; according to all the research I(Willowbark) can find, the more precise term"Death Aspect," for it refers to the inevitable result of a soul’s separation from its body. Death Aspect accrued as a result of a "Reembodiment" is NOT a "Corruption" any more than it can be said to be a "corruption" when someone truly dies. A soul that passes on and is not ressurected can be said to have embraced their Death Aspect fully; some who IS brought back, however, only touches on this aspect partially. If anything, it is ressurection itself that is closest to being a corruptive act, for it is obviously an unnatural process. Becuase of all of this information, I(Willowbark) then realize that it is a bit incoherent to speak of "removing" Death Aspect. I(Willowbark) found some incomplete Ounish records that speak of "Natal Essences" and "Essence Berths," which seem to indicate that Souls can be manipulated and changed somehow, but nothing tha references the subject of research directly. Still, I do think that further research will be fruitful.
~Willowbark