Questions... Where do our Souls come from.. Soulstream i know i know Defiant side

[Unloved]

so this soulstream is?

if we tried to access can we get souls from a different timeline? future? past? present?

are our souls actually in our bodies, or is it still in this soulstream and we are mirroring or a copy of what it is?

if they do pluck it out why do i faithfully follow them? do they have a failsafe to keep us in check? would if being reborn is not what the soul wanted and it turned on them?

its a lot to contemplate, if i had my say i would run with the idea that the soulstream is like an ocean of souls flowing through every aspect of time. you can reach in and pull out a soul of someone in the present but there body doesnt just slump and die what you pulled was more of a copy of it. so your soul never really leaves the stream, its just copied and updated instantly in the stream, like being on facebook all day long yet never seeing a computer. what do you say?

so when the defiant actually pulled the souls out and mashed them up inside of there newly created bodies, these copies created a new identity inside the soulstream. just my view...

We ascended are a mix of souls, so how does that affect us? Does one soul take lead and thats what you are? or are a jumbled mess, a skitzo as many would say one sec a wavy ocean next second a fuming volcano next second a placid lake?

to the rp community, with defiants how can you have a background when you have multiple souls? do you elaborate on each soul or are you just one soul? how does your character act or react due to it? do you remember anythin before the ascension?


ug i love you rift...

[Sinndel]

Due to snippets of Lore I've read that descirbe the process of reviving a defiant player and "plucking them from the soulstream", I have to imagine there is only one soul and it is physically removed from the soul stream when it is ressurected.

As for the three soul deal, only one soul has control of the vessel (or body) and that body would appear as that souls body did in it's previous life. The other souls simply grant that soul new abilities, but cannot speak or act through the vessel. However, nothing in the lore says that it is impossible for a second or third soul to vie for control of the vessel, so in short...

If you wanted to play a defiant with multiple personality disorder who is partially made of a soul that was happier in death than in life and has a self-destructive attitude. By all means, that sounds fascinating.

Just keep in mind all souls in the soul stream are subjects of Regulos' domain, and can be corrupted or enslaved or both as the dragon of extinction wills.

[NeverKnowsBest]

The way the game itself sets it up is that you are resurrected, and there's a time where you're just wandering around without any skills until you choose your first soul when you talk to Sylver. So based on that, when you're resurrected you're just you, and all of your abilities are provided by the souls you assume unto yourself. Can't say I understand the nature of the soulstream, but when you do the quests to get your extra souls, every character seems to be tapping into the same people. So it would seem that your abilities are coming from copies of certain class members, but your personality is you.

Now, if you want to play it that the personalities of the souls are seeping into your personality, I don't think there's anything stopping you, but I don't know that we know that to be possible or likely either. But it seems like you're not dealing with three souls, but four: yours and the three heroes you're tapping into.

[Sebiale]

so this soulstream is?

Where the dead of Telara go, although I vaguely remember that it may be a new phenomenon.

if we tried to access can we get souls from a different timeline? future? past? present?

Nothing indicates that the Soulstream is trans-dimensional.

are our souls actually in our bodies, or is it still in this soulstream and we are mirroring or a copy of what it is?

The souls are pulled out of the Soulstream. Otherwise Regulos wouldn't have issues finding powerful servants.

if they do pluck it out why do i faithfully follow them? do they have a failsafe to keep us in check? would if being reborn is not what the soul wanted and it turned on them?

For both Guardians and Defiant it's a simple matter of survival, regardless of what you feel, none of the Blood Storm have goals in mind that would be beneficial for you. No failsafe as known, but it wouldn't surprise me. Both Defiant and the Vigil seem to be able to peruse the Soulstream for the soul they wish, although even Ascended can turn to Regulos, as seen with Alsbeth.

its a lot to contemplate, if i had my say i would run with the idea that the soulstream is like an ocean of souls flowing through every aspect of time. you can reach in and pull out a soul of someone in the present but there body doesnt just slump and die what you pulled was more of a copy of it. so your soul never really leaves the stream, its just copied and updated instantly in the stream, like being on facebook all day long yet never seeing a computer. what do you say?

Based on what evidence?

so when the defiant actually pulled the souls out and mashed them up inside of there newly created bodies, these copies created a new identity inside the soulstream. just my view...

We ascended are a mix of souls, so how does that affect us? Does one soul take lead and thats what you are? or are a jumbled mess, a skitzo as many would say one sec a wavy ocean next second a fuming volcano next second a placid lake?

Based on...?

to the rp community, with defiants how can you have a background when you have multiple souls? do you elaborate on each soul or are you just one soul? how does your character act or react due to it? do you remember anythin before the ascension?

The Guardians would face the same issues. There are currently no answers to these sort of questions.

Just keep in mind all souls in the soul stream are subjects of Regulos' domain, and can be corrupted or enslaved or both as the dragon of extinction wills.

That point is iffy. The plane of Death and the Soulstream seem to be connected to an extent, but it seemed to take awhile for the Endless Court and Alsbeth to get set up in there, so I don't think it's completely malleable to Regulos' will.

[Sinndel]

That point is iffy. The plane of Death and the Soulstream seem to be connected to an extent, but it seemed to take awhile for the Endless Court and Alsbeth to get set up in there, so I don't think it's completely malleable to Regulos' will.

Sorry I misrepresented my thoughts with that statement. Of course the souls can still resist corruption by regulos, but as seen by Asha Catari's adventure into death, Regulos can basically single out a soul and tempt/torture it until it succumbs. So basically what I was trying to say with that, is that there probably isn't a soul in the entire soul stream that doesn't yearn to be given new life. You'd be hardpressed to find an uncorrupted soul that would want to return to death (in response to the OP's question regarding that subject).

[coderodent]

When you start as a Defiant you can see where the ascendents get their first soul; there's a spooky process where captured guardians are 'rendered' down for their souls.

Pretty dire stuff.

[Telynia]

When you start as a Defiant you can see where the ascendents get their first soul; there's a spooky process where captured guardians are 'rendered' down for their souls.

Pretty dire stuff.

True. But if theyre anything like the other Guardians you meet in terminus, its likely the only other fate they would have met is death either via regulos or killing the remaining defiants in some crazed idea the Vigil would save them as soon as the unbelievers were crushed.

Besides, in the Guardian intro, its implied the defiants in Ardenburgh are half-crazed with taint from Regulos exploding into the world and arent exactly fully willing servants of Regulos, yet you slaughter them with no mercy.

[Sebiale]

I remember that event being discussed awhile back, those Guardian souls are just being experimented with. The Defiant don't require Guardian Ascended to make Defiant Ascended. Even in the present timeline Orphiel already has the technology to locate souls in the Soulstream and pull them out. Defiant then acquire their other souls through the beginning quests and class quests.

[Adebar]

I always thought that the Defiant were dead soldiers, brought to life with Sylver's forges. They were empowered by the sourcestone the engines used, and could use three souls to fight. Whereas normal people could only use one soul in combat, such as pyromancers and druids, ascended were exmpowered by the Vigil/sourcestone to be a conduit for dead heroes to fight Regulos.

So you absorb souls into yourself. I'm not sure whether they fight beside you, or your main soul leads. The soul quests tend to show that they're powers are simply absorbed and used by the ascended after they're freed from Regulos.

However, the Guardians may have a different possibility. They were dead heroes, just empowered with revival to hold more than one soul. Talking to the souls in the building you start in, they say that if you were {insert soul name} you were {insert soul's role}, and you {insert the soul's methods}.

For example: The sentinel soul says that you were a beacon of light, using the Vigil's holy energy to banish your foes, but also to heal your allies.

So, the Defiants are dead soldiers/mages/clerics, empowered by sourcestone to hold the souls of Guardian ascended or powerful heroes in the Soulstream. Guardians are risen heroes empowered by the vigil to add other souls to their previous abilities, which were also empowered by Ascension.

[Sebiale]

So, the Defiants are dead soldiers/mages/clerics, empowered by sourcestone to hold the souls of Guardian ascended or powerful heroes in the Soulstream. Guardians are risen heroes empowered by the vigil to add other souls to their previous abilities, which were also empowered by Ascension.

How would whether or not a Guardian being a "hero" change their abilities from any other person? Kira was an Assassin in her first life, she's still an Assassin now. Defiant do not hold Guardian souls, that would be a horribly inefficient and difficult process in order to create Ascended.
Also, remember the Cyril's words, "Chosen not for our virtue but for our might." I know not every person that died in the Mathosia Shade event was considered a "hero" before their death, the Boar Spear story makes that quite clear. The Vigil just picked out the ones that showed the most potential.
So the idea of Guardians being heroes in life just plain isn't true, and so their differences from the Defiant are only ideological and aesthetic.

[Adebar]

How would whether or not a Guardian being a "hero" change their abilities from any other person? Kira was an Assassin in her first life, she's still an Assassin now. Defiant do not hold Guardian souls, that would be a horribly inefficient and difficult process in order to create Ascended.
Also, remember the Cyril's words, "Chosen not for our virtue but for our might." I know not every person that died in the Mathosia Shade event was considered a "hero" before their death, the Boar Spear story makes that quite clear. The Vigil just picked out the ones that showed the most potential.
So the idea of Guardians being heroes in life just plain isn't true, and so their differences from the Defiant are only ideological and aesthetic.

I meant to use hero as a term for a great fighter. They were already powerful, so the Vigil just made them stronger, and let them have two more souls to fight with. So Kira is stronger then before, and now has two other souls.

I suppose the Guardians could be Ascended based entirely on what the Vigil thinks or knows they will become, so somebody who wasn't even a fighter could be brought back and empowered with three souls, because in 25 years they would do something important.

[Xerokine]

I meant to use hero as a term for a great fighter. They were already powerful, so the Vigil just made them stronger, and let them have two more souls to fight with. So Kira is stronger then before, and now has two other souls.

I expect someone like Kira, who was skilled before she died, would still have the normal three souls of an Ascended. While it might seem a bit redundant for a skilled Assassin to have an Assassin soul, it really can only help her by giving her a different perspective on her abilities, or even giving her skills she never had time to learn during her life.

I suppose the Guardians could be Ascended based entirely on what the Vigil thinks or knows they will become, so somebody who wasn't even a fighter could be brought back and empowered with three souls, because in 25 years they would do something important.

Just basing it off the Guardian preview movie, this doesn't seem to be the general case. Obviously, any Ascended would have come from that battle, which means they're all presumably strong enough in whatever field to be taken and useful in such a battle to begin with. You don't bring Squad Newbie along to fight the evil Prince, you bring Squad Elite.

Of course, we're talking about gods, with all the fickle and ineffable implications of the word, so the Vigil Ascending some random medic who showed true courage or what have you is perfectly reasonable. On the whole, they seem to have been pretty desperate about Ascending people - the very fact that "not our virtue, but our might" comes into play means that the Vigil was more worried about the Guardians being strong enough to win, nevermind their morals. If you're turning "bandits, marauders, and nightmares" into immortal super-soldiers, you're in a fairly desperate place.

[Sebiale]

Kira Thanos is a Defiant and was resurrected before the Defiant PC's return to the present, so she's not an Ascended and was resurrected like Asha. Doesn't make her any less dangerous though.

[Xerokine]

Kira Thanos is a Defiant and was resurrected before the Defiant PC's return to the present, so she's not an Ascended and was resurrected like Asha. Doesn't make her any less dangerous though.

Mmm. Are you sure? Just looking at Telarapedia, it calls her an Ascended. The main page doesn't have her character description, though.

[Sebiale]

Telarapedia is not exactly a first-rate source on Rift lore, sad to say...

I'm not sure if it stays as you level, but if you visit Kira in Orphiel's Spire in the early levels, she asserts that you shouldn't feel special. As I remember this is because she was also resurrected, but I don't believe she says she's an Ascended.