Soul type for player character

[yuq]

Since the world of PE basically runs around the idea of souls and their usage, it seems logical to me, that we should be able to choose a soul type for our character during creation, hopefully resulting in some gameplay effects. I'll go into greater detail about it, so please be patient with me.

 

From update #5 we learned this:

Far from being a flawless process, souls are subject to "fracturing" over generations, transforming in myriad ways, and not quite... working right. Some cultures and individuals place a high value on "strong" souls, souls with a "pure" lineage, "awakened" souls that remember past lives, "traveled" souls that have drifted through the divine realms, or those that co-exist with other souls in one body. However, the opposite is also true, resulting in negative discrimination and sometimes outright violence.

 

Given the repeated importance of souls, it seems wasteful not to use them for our character. The question is, how to use them in-game? One way would be in the treatment of our character by NPCs, if they know what our soul is like. It's more like a cosmetic change and would likely require some additional writing to reference, probably in a similar scope as gender or race. It's something that would be good to have at least in certain places, but nothing that's really needed.

 

Much more interesting would be, if soul types would behave in a manner similar to traits or perks. They would give some bonuses and/or penalties to skills, attributes or soul resource (the equivalent to mana / energy / force) or additional abilities. They could be permanent or only available / active under certain conditions. Nothing gamebreaking, just something to spice things up. There should be souls of various types: strong ones, fractured ones, and of course normal ones, since our character is just an unlucky witness who was at wrong time in wrong place. There is no reason for only strong and advantageous ones.

 

Lastly, there should be some description as to what are characters with certain soul type like, what is their general or the most usual personality. I imagine it similar to horoscopes or blood type. This would be useful for people who actually role-play and their character isn't just a portrait with some numbers.

 

To give an example of mine (that I would like to see):

"The One of Many Broken":

• Desciprion: A soul composed of many heavily fractured ones. The individual souls would likely not be able to exist on their own, so they bond together with similar ones, creating a unique entity.
  
• Personality: Characters with this soul are best described as unpredictable and unstable. They are often unable to form their own identity. They have many faces, yet none of their own, always strugling to find their true self. They usually find a way to act in most situations but they can just as easily do the complete opposite out of nowhere. In extreme cases they can one day excel in something and be clueless about it another day. Some people pity them, but most are wary of them. You never know what they might do next.
  
• Gameplay effect: Each day receive random bonus or penalty to any of your attributes or skills.
  

 

So what do you think about this? And if you like the idea, what kind of soul would you like to see?

[Gyor]

As far as I can tell, this soul pheneoma is related to class. It looks like I was right about that.

[Sugarjaye]

It's an interesting idea