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It sometimes happens in the Amber universe, and in particular in the Courts of Chaos, that a person with the potential to be a Shapeshifter is abandoned or abused at a young age, as a child, a baby, or even a foetus. A non-Shapeshifter child would probably die under these circumstances, but a Shapeshifter will instead unconsciously shift into Primal Form for their own survival. If their continued survival appears to need it, it is possible that they may remain in Primal Form for a long time. If circumstances force them to remain in Primal Form for sufficiently long - years of subjective time - then the Primal Form will continue to adapt and evolve to cope with the world around it. And sometimes these adaptations lead to the Primal Form becoming a sentient entity in its own right. Because they are a sentient Primal Form, they tend to be highly skilled and often very fast instinctive Shapeshifters, and are entirely capable of learning other powers beyond that. The normal mind and spirit of the Shapeshifter remain locked in the undeveloped state they had when the permanent Primal Form was taken on, present as a potential but not affecting the behaviour of the Primal Form. Instead, the Primal Form adopts its own mind and personality based on its experiences. Because of their origins as purely survival-driven entities, these sentient Primal Forms tend to be very self-centred, amoral, impulsive and physical, often very animalistic, with few of the 'higher human qualities'. Because of this, they are known as 'Soulless Ones'. As a place where most beings are Shapeshifters of one kind or another, Soulless ones are most common in the Courts of Chaos, and it is from there that their name derives. Even in the Courts of Chaos they are very rare. Soulless Ones are considered to be abominations by those of Chaos. This is partly because their origin requires that a child, baby, or even foetus has been subjected to an highly neglectful or abusive regime, which reflects very badly on their family or House. Additionally, their animalistic and amoral personalities, lacking the higher qualities of humanity, make them something abhorrent to those of Chaos. As such, when a Soulless One is discovered, those of Chaos do their best to capture it as a danger to Chaos as a whole, and failing that to kill it. Where possible this is done within a House, so that those outside do not know of this shame on their name. If captured, it is then considered a moral duty to cure the Soulless One. After all, within each one is a potential Lord of Chaos, and as an abomination, the Soulless One itself is not considered to have any right to live. Cures are ideally achieved by erasing or expelling the personality of the Soulless One and bringing the original human mind back into control of the body, in what is effectively a kind of exorcism. This can be a very difficult task if the Soulless One has existed for a long time, and developed a powerful mind and spirit of its own. Even if a Soulless One is cured, the result is normally an infant mind in an adult body, with all of the problems that that can entail. However, given the long life-span of those of Chaos, this is not usually a serious problem. The Soulless Ones were inspired by my character Belsalem, from Bob Corrigan's Revolve game. Or go to the Pattern, Logrus, Alternatives to Logrus, Shapeshifting, Trump, or Magic Pages. |