Souls, Spirits, and Demons

"It was a curious family photo that appeared in front of my eyes, featuring a translucent woman whom I did not recognise sitting in a chair I at the time thought to be empty."

- Mixal Setangya

In the world of AoT, the soul, spirits, and demons have much in common, moreso than anyone in-universe actually knows or understands.

The Soul
A soul has, for thousands upon thousands of years, been an integral part in folklore and faith throughout the entire world. The concept of a soul appears in every (known) culture and society, although the exact nature of it differs. In actuality, the soul does exist. Its true nature is not known fully, but it is assumed that much of what makes a person - their personality - is a product of the persons soul. What actually happens to a soul when a person dies is up to debate, and opinions differ widely across the world. It is mostly assumed that it passes on to some kind of afterlife: wether this afterlife is a paradise or a realm of torment was unknown. In actuality souls end up in the Arcane after death, and could possibly be reincarnated. Souls that remain in the Arcane for too long may end up as Demons.

The soul in itself does not interact much with anything except whoever has it, and thus, the most interesting stuff can be found in the sections about spirits and demons below.

Spirits
A spirit is a soul that has failed to "cross over" to the afterlife when a person dies, and thus, remain in the mortal world. Spirits are sometimes also known as ghosts, poltergeists, phantoms, spectres, and/or wraiths, depending much upon the location and nature of the spirit. Depending on how a person dies, their soul may fail to cross over to the supposed afterlife. Usually, this is due to the death being particularly violent and/or traumatic; historical examples include being tortured to death, being killed due to betrayal, loss of loved one, and suicide. It is theorized that the nature of their death traumatizes the dying in a way which prevents the soul to act as it normally should.

A spirit that remains in the world of the living may manifest in different ways. Previously mentioned names for spirits are sometimes used to describe the manifestation: A poltergeist is a violent and active spirit that causes mayhem and sometimes even physical damage, whereas a spectre or shade is a spirit who appears intangible and distant. In general, a spirit appears as how the person was while alive, is transparent to some degree, and cannot be touched physically. Certain spirits may be able to vocalize sound, mostly speech, or manipulate objects, like the aformentioned poltergeist.

A spirit may be manipulated with the use of magic, and is also how you get rid of a ghost. By manually creating a connection to the Arcane, a mage can funnel a spirit through, finally putting it to rest. This ability to manipulate spirits can be taken to its logical extreme: there are a few, mostly legendary cases of mages binding a soul to a new body, effectively reviving the dead person. This is done to Svein by Caroline, who binds his soul to a large Arcano steel puppet.

Wanderers
Contrary to what some mages may claim, Nulls do actually possess a soul. However, because they are completely cut off from the Arcane, their souls are unable to cross over when they die. Unless they die a traumatic death that would create a regular spirit, a natural or otherwise "normal" death creates a spirit known as a wanderer. They differ from normal spirits in that they don't usually make their presence known, and are thus difficult to detect even by the most sensitive mage. Wanderers also, as the name suggest, "wander" about their area of death, and can sometimes be found a kilometre away from where they died.

Wanderers are by their Null nature invisible (due to the fact that they have no connection the the Arcane and thus no magic energy "powering" them), but may become visible to the naked eye during certain "high energy" events such as lightning storms, large fires, when a mage overexerts themselves enough to become possessed by a demon (see below), and interestingly enough, photography. Also, when Caroline makes a pact with her demon, their combined power in the field was enough to manifest over 20 wanderers, 14 of which were Nulls who had fallen in battle that day.

Because of their elusive nature, wanderers rarely make themselves known to be present, but if a wanderer is present in events such as described above, they may become visible. But since wanderers are not "fueled" by the Arcane, they almost always appear incomplete and "flickering" in and out of existance.

While wanderers are always harmless and do not act upon the material world, they could still be a jarring thing to witness for the uninitiated. They can however be put to rest like any other spirit, if a mage open up a new connection to the arcane for them. Curiously, wanderers appear to enter the Arcane by themselves when possible, rather than having to be funneled in there with the help of magic.

Demons
Demons are, just like spirits, another form of the soul. Most knowledge that is known about Demons were gathered by the self sacrifice of a mage named "Edelward the Old" during the 13th century. By intentionally getting himself possessed by a High Demon, he was able to extract information from it and write it down for future generations.

Feral Demons
The natural state of a soul is to inhabit some kind of host - a human. When a person dies, their soul will more often than not go to the Arcane, where it will float around until it is reborn in a new body. A soul that, for some reason, is left in the Arcane for too long will begin to deteriorate and fall apart. The last stage of this process, which can take a hundred years, is a Feral demon.

Feral demons have completely lost all knowledge of what it means to be human. They are no longer sapient, and will operate according to instinct and not logic. The most powerful instinct that drives a feral demon is its self-preservation drive, making them hostile to any other entity. This is not a problem in the Arcane, but if a feral demon finds itself possessing a human (which is, in the case of a feral demon, always by accident) it may pose a real danger to the mage. Such a possession has mostly gone under the name "Mage lunacy" in Druthenia, and can be "cured" with the correct method.

Feral demons are, in a sense, a "baseline" for the soul. The human soul is a development from this baseline, having gathered knowledge and wisdom so that it can operate on intelligence and logic. A Feral Demon is thus a regression of the human soul, which happens because the soul has been away from a body for too long.

A feral demon that exists for long enough may eventually become a high demon.

High Demon
A high demon is the next step in the evolution of a demon. As feral demons are basically blank slates, something is eventually bound to fill it up. A high demon is a feral demon that has, over the span of hundreds or even thousands of years, created its own "humanity" which has been independent of the guiding existance of the physical realm. In short, a high demon is a sort of corrupted mimicry of a human soul, that works much differently.

Being once again sapient and intelligent, high demons pose a much larger danger than any feral demon. They will actively seek out mages to possess, and when inside their mind, will slowly but surely break them down psychologically until the high demon completely takes control of the mage. While feral demons work on instinct, high demons are their own individuals, and will have different motives for gaining control of a host body; however, in the beginning it is usually about returning to the natural state of a soul.

A mage may find themselves possessed when they've been using magic that you'd normally find exceeds what is considered healthy. The great use of magic opens up the mages' connection to the arcane, and to the demons inside, basically makes them stand out like a lighthouse in the dark. High demons can take this opportunity to possess the mage, whereas feral demons can by mistake be "swept away" by the current of magic energy, accidentally ending up possessing a mage.

Posession
The process of possession is a long and complicated process, and will not be the same for every case. However, there are certain parameters that are consistent across the board.

What is shared between all cases is however a battle of the minds: the (high) demon will begin to psychologically attack its host in an attempt to break down their will and mind. People with a strong and healthy mind will find it easier to resist such attacks, which usually has symptoms like hallucinations and horrible nightmares, but someone with a weak mind and will become easy prey for the demon. Even worse for a host is if they are dealing with strong trauma - the demon will use this to their advantage, often to great effect.

A mage that is completely possessed by a high demon will no longer be reachable. Their soul still exists inside their bodies, but it lays dormant and silent, and lacks any control. A hostile high demon may also prove to be extra dangerous, as they can utilise not only their host's magic powers, but also their own: high demons are known to be incredibly powerful magic users. Thus, possessed mages are known to be the strongest and most dangerous mages known to the world.

Daema
A Daema is the name of a mage that has managed to curtail and take control of their demonic possession. Tales of such feats are rare and treated mostly as myths, until Quicksilver became a Daema during the end of the Northern war, when she realised that she could look back into the demon and read its mind herself.