Role play idea with the lore?

[Galibier]

Okay I never played Guardian back when you had to quest for extra souls but I was wondering about this as an idea for a Defiant.

The Defiant start with "your soul", then later in the noobie area u use a device to absorb the soul of another being (i usually assumed that of a defeated Guardian.) Later when you wanted more souls you had to use a closed death Rift to bring forth the soul of a fallen <insert soul type here> and defeat them.

The RP idea is this. What if it was not just the other persons power we absorbed. Obviously you have to absorb knowledge in how to use the powers but what if you absorbed portions of their essence, their memories, their personalities? The idea is basically an ascended dealing with the different souls now contained within him and trying to reconcile them so that rather than being a split personality they can instead become a gestalt and say rather "We were created by you bigger and brighter and more alive than any mortal could aspire to be! I am we and we are me."

(10 plat to anyone on Faeblight who get the reference in the quote )

[Krunkatron]

Actually, I've thought a lot about that question as well. I remember reading a short story on Trion's main site that talked a little about this very question, so I looked it up and here is the link!

http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/fic...ar-spear-6.php

It's from Part 6 of the Boar Spear, and while it deals with a guardian, I think the same could be applied to a defiant. During this part of the story, the hero absorbs the soul of an expert marksman to gain her skill with a bow. In doing so, he gains her memories, but it never explicitly goes into any details such as having her personality inside of him.

It seems to me that no matter how a soul is absorbed, you gain its knowledge, skills, and memories, but you don't have these different personalities living inside you. Though I think it would be a very interesting role-play scenario if you gained some of their personality quirks. Let's say that the Sabotuer soul you absorbed had been a heavy drinker in life, and now you find it a little hard to stop at just 10 flaggons of ale.

This is just my take on the "absorbed soul" concept. Whatever you end up doing, I hope it turns out to be fun for you and those you RP with!

[Talila]

I've always found the soul-lore somewhat confusing and difficult to properly implement in roleplay. To some extend I feel that it takes away from the sense of individualism over the ascended, and whilst a few people playing out something with having other souls memories and such could be a bottle of fun, if everyone was doing it I feel that it'd lose it's charm really fast.
It brings me back to my question in the lore Q/A, are we all really this strong, does every ascended come with the knowledge of how to absorb skills from souls, and if they do, can everyone adjust to it immediately? If the answers are yes, then it really limits diversity. Character archetypes becomes less, because in the matter of an absorbsion everyone could be a ranger.
Being powerful can be fun, but as a roleplayer we do need some kinds of limitations to stick to. My own bunch have been pretty good at setting limitations for themselves (one of the better I've seen was a defardian (defiant working with us sneakingly) where when they ascended him, the machine forgot to give him a tongue. So he couldn't speak, he wrote everything on a little chalkboard he had hanging from his neck).

[Morvick]

What about introducing some guidance and definitive Lore through the use of Calling Epic Saga Quests?
I had an idea here...
A guy can dream!

[Ropeadope]

As long as the quest involved lots of sword fighting, decapitation, and gratuitous lightning bolts a la Highlander. Absorb power - receive knowledge - stay immortal. Rinse and repeat

EDIT: i think you would have more trouble why people felt the need to just randomly stop at 7 essences when they could keep doing the above and be super awesome. they could potentially have the power to be some sort of soul sucking chupacabra

[Questoften]

Reminds me of the highlanders, there can be only one!

[Annalea]

I think the vague, open-ended manner in which souls in Ascended are addresses is a conscious decision. As it is, there is a large number of ways you can roleplay the soul portion of Ascension. I've seen some go full-blown multiple-personalities in which several full entities share one body; I've seen some Ascended play out having no souls other than their own. And, naturally, I've seen lots and lots of examples in between the extremes.

I think, ultimately, it comes down to what you want to do with your character and what you have fun. It doesn't strike me as a topic in which there is a right or wrong way of approaching -- it's simply a choice of whether or not you wish to explore what it means to be Ascended with your character.

[Galibier]

Well thanks for the link Krunk...

Since no one got the reference if you dig a Neil Gaimanesque world (kinda reminds me of Neverwhere) and want a series so that after one book you are not drying for more, my reference was from the Urban Magic books by Kate Griffin... http://www.kategriffin.net/

Here is the real quote

We are the blue electric angels! We were born from the leftover breaths of humanity, by the fears and the thoughts and the ideas and the truths and the lies you poured into the telephone lines. We were created by you bigger and brighter and more alive than any mortal could aspire to be! Do not think to tell us what we can or cannot do.