Soul Returner

Biodata

Power Progression

Soul Returners advance individually; the examples below do not represent a shared level.

Origins and Identity

Official Lore

The game introduces Soul Returners as undying wandering souls from ancient times. Ed’s Soul Summoning allows them to attach to bodies and interact with the world again. Within this explanation, death damages the vessel rather than destroying its occupant; repairing the body and reestablishing the contract permits the soul to return 13 41.

Ed later gives Gray and Xilǐ'er a religious version of this account: the Soul Returners were exceptional people whose souls became heroic spirits and leaves of the World Tree. This is an explanation he presents to outsiders, not an independently established account of the players’ origins 297.

Actual Summoning

• Otherworldly connection: Ed’s Soul Webway uses an otherworldly network to summon souls into soulless bodies 231 699.
• Initial arrival restriction: Each individual’s first summoning must occur within Ed’s territory 231 699.
• Growing capacity: The listed maximum rises from (2^{11}) souls to (2^{41}); a later panel treats the capacity as no longer important 231 699 871.
• Soul development: Ed discovers that prolonged activity strengthens both the players’ bodies and their souls. Effective combat requires the two to remain synchronized, preventing him from simply placing a beginner in an overwhelmingly powerful vessel 350.

Genuine Soul Returners

[A Huan] is explicitly distinguished from ordinary players. He accepts his new existence as a form of reincarnation and settles into the world as a professional military instructor. Players mistake his constant presence for that of an unusually dedicated player 754.

Unlike ordinary players, [A Huan] has not been granted access to the otherworldly network through his account. His unusual identity is also largely unknown to the world’s inhabitants apart from Ed 755.

Abilities & Skills

Resurrection

The innate [Soul Returner] ability permits indefinite revival through suitable vessels. Its description lists no governing attribute 131.

• Vessel-dependent strength: Combat power depends on the body rather than simply on the soul 131.
• Summoner dependency: A summoner must mediate the connection between soul and body. If the summoner dies, the Soul Returner is forcibly reduced to soul form 131.
• Resurrection points: Resurrection Trees can produce reconstructed bodies, including at Valhalla’s central resurrection point 1193.
• Forward deployment: Temporary Resurrection Trees allow fallen players to rejoin nearby battles rather than travel back from distant settlements 1225.
• Equipment is not restored: Revival replaces the body, not its carried possessions. Lost equipment may require retrieval from the death site 322 1021.

Body Reconstruction and Escape

Players can sometimes abandon compromised vessels and reconstruct their bodies. When [Clear Soup Master] loses bodily control, Ed offers him this option through a system prompt 635.

• Suicide function: Ed designs voluntary death as an “unstuck” mechanism that severs major nerves, releases the soul, and permits reconstruction elsewhere 930.
• Capture remains dangerous: Severe interference with the nervous system can prevent voluntary death. Logging out then returns the player to the same living, trapped body upon reconnection 930.
• Body switching: Soul Returners working through the night later switch bodies, enabling continued activity that impresses Nuowa 1115.

Attributes and Compatibility

• Linked checks: Basic and special attributes interact rather than operating independently. Poison effects, for example, involve compatibility, Constitution, and Will 247.
• Starting guidance: Character creation recommends keeping each basic attribute between 2 and 10 to avoid compromising normal play 247.

Directed Alienation and Plant Control

Soul Returners can learn Directed Alienation, transforming body parts into plant-based tools and weapons 181.

• Weapon formation: Examples include blades, enlarged wooden fists, and iron birch javelins 181 1122 1191.
• Practice requirement: Beginners may produce weak forms or transform too slowly for combat; [Howling Pothos] considerably outperforms newer learners 181.
• Plant commands: [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] gives simple instructions to cultivated Strangler Figs, using them to monitor Bennett and operate his wheelchair’s shock controller 410.
• Complex structures: Some players combine plant and mechanical forms to fire hardened seeds or wooden arrows rapidly 1369.

Transformation Builds

Body alterations provide specialized abilities but can impose substantial compatibility and control penalties 634.

• Tree Transformation: Improves Constitution, Strength, and certain compatibilities, but reduces Will and restricts plant use to the last aberrant plant employed 634.
• Blood Corpse Transformation: Raises physical attributes and Psionic Energy Compatibility while reducing Will and suppressing other compatibilities. Additional abilities depend on the infecting lineage 634.
• Composite treant: Multiple players can combine into a large temporary body with enough strength to overpower ordinary Middle Tier opponents, despite limited specialized techniques 923.

Endurance and Metabolism

Soul Returner vessels look human but differ internally, particularly in energy storage and consumption 1125.

• Food recovery: Eating rapidly restores strength 1125.
• Energy reserves: Vessels can accumulate body fat and burn it quickly during sustained exertion 1091 1125.
• Extended marching: [Kunjinkao Tangtangtang] maintains a steady pace for twelve hours without stopping, leading Xilǐ'er to judge Soul Returners superior to ordinary soldiers in marching stamina 1023.
• Will-driven exertion: Exhausted players can continue temporarily through willpower 1125.

Player Interface

• Navigation and recording: Players receive an adjustable map, resource markers, photography, and low-stamina alerts 41.
• Pain settings: Pain sensitivity is adjustable; players can operate without feeling the pain their opponents expect them to experience 469 635.
• Functions under possession: Photography, video recording, and pain settings remain available even when a hostile power controls the body 635.
• Communication: Players can exchange messages, screenshots, and friend requests through their interfaces 1179 1187 1188.
• Pixel Blue Dragon assistance: The assistant can identify suspicious individuals, provide route guidance, and search religious texts 913 1193 1245.

Behavior and Reputation

Soul Returners’ ability to revive encourages aggressive experimentation. Duma distinguishes their willingness to die for an advantage from the Wild Hunt’s despair: players accept death because they expect another attempt, not because they have abandoned hope 694.

Ed considers their independence poorly suited to conventional soldiering but valuable in warriors. Even scattered groups retain substantial fighting strength and enthusiasm, while their difficult behavior becomes an asset when directed at enemies 504.

• Reward-oriented: Players respond strongly to individual rewards, profitable assignments, and compensation for dangerous reconnaissance 469 748.
• Resistant to punishment: Direct penalties provoke rebellion more readily than obedience. Duma instead emphasizes the harm mission failure could cause to villagers and the Second Holy See 748.
• Participation matters: Ed advises allowing even weak players to contribute and enjoy an operation; Nuowa concludes that entertainment can motivate them as effectively as money 1227.
• Socially unconventional: Duma appreciates their lack of hierarchy and assures half-treants that people who accept a red-skinned demon will not reject talking trees 703 707.
• Unpredictable to outsiders: Motley finds their reactions impossible to anticipate and likens them to minions of the Demonic Tide 648.
• Not uniformly benevolent: Players also exploit battles and divided loyalties for profit, including selling intelligence and using one death to benefit participants on opposing sides 1328 1385.

Organization and Affiliation

Military and Civilian Roles

• Early scale: Ten players divide into teams for beginner quests, monster hunting, land reclamation, and village repairs 81.
• Population growth: Player numbers later exceed two hundred thousand and approach three hundred thousand 1034.
• Citizen-soldiers: During quieter periods, Duma’s troops farm and pour concrete, taking patrol assignments for additional income rather than serving as a permanent standing army 748.
• Professional training: Xilǐ'er teaches individual campaigning-knight skills, while [A Huan] teaches coordinated action against stronger enemies 926.
• Adrian Imperial Guard: A named player formation publicly proclaims loyalty to Ed during the assembly for the Holy City campaign 1220.
• Administration: Players can handle public order, disputes, medical services, and regional administration. Popular approval can unlock greater authority 445.
• Occupation duties: In submitted towns, experienced players convey decrees, collect taxes, recruit troops, and appoint clerics 1218.

Secondary Factions

The secondary-faction system formalizes service outside the Theocracy without changing a player’s primary allegiance 1283.

• Empire: Players pose as locals and enter recruitment channels 1284.
• Skeleton Alliance: Small groups offer mercenary services at sand fortresses 1284.
• Fang Soldiers: [Ginseng Rooster] proposes this name for Colin’s Soul Returner mercenaries to downplay the temporary nature of their employment 1330.
• Opposing service: Soul Returners eventually fight on both sides of Empire–Alliance engagements 1342 1347.

Fabricated “Adrian” Account

The account separating “Ed” from a mysterious Soul Returner leader named “Adrian” originates in confessions scripted by [Ginseng Rooster], not in a reliable description of their leadership 1187 1188 1189.

• Invented hierarchy: The confessions portray Adrian as a hidden master who controls resurrection eligibility and treats Ed as a dependent employer 1189.
• Invented mortality risk: They claim insufficiently valuable Soul Returners may permanently lose resurrection privileges 1189.
• Strategic effect: The Essence Knight concludes that the Second Holy See may need an outside employer for its costly army 1190.
• Incomplete observations: Alliance reports interpret logging out as involuntary sleep and classify it as a resurrection aftereffect 1197.

Equipment and Support

• Cocoon: A single-use green-rarity item that grows a protective shell when buried in soil. It shelters an unattended vessel outside safe zones and withstands several attacks of level 4 or below 65.
• Resurrection Trees: Infrastructure for reconstruction and deployment; temporary versions support repeated battlefield returns 1193 1225.
• Vine Dog resurrection plugin: A portable, single-use tree that takes two days to mature and permits one person to teleport or resurrect 1183.
• Fluorescent Velvet Grass: A visible signal of willingness to cooperate with other parties during the Fir City event 600.
• Insurance: Seraphina’s Soul Returner insurance business considers higher premiums for frequent deaths; Ed negotiates half its profits 322.
• Corpse-retrieval service: Ed proposes using Seraphina’s Dragonborn to recover fallen players and equipment for flexible fees 322.

Major Operations

Key Relationships

• Ed Adrian — Summoner, faction leader, and designer of their vessels and player-facing systems. Their bodily existence depends on his mediation 131 132 930.
• Duma / Nige Ganhuo — Military commander who adapts rewards and mission consequences to player behavior, eventually expressing deep admiration for their coordination 748 894.
• Duolin — Early instructor in Directed Alienation and a benchmark for the leading players’ rapid growth 181 811.
• [A Huan] — Genuine Soul Returner and professional instructor who teaches players military teamwork 754 926.
• Xilǐ'er — Combat instructor and traveling companion whose experiences reveal the players’ endurance, resurrection costs, and unfamiliar worldview 926 1021 1023.
• Gray — Merchant and ally who sells mechanical arms, rents Bennett to players, and receives their support in his Grand Foundry Master campaign 758 759 1115 1122.
• Seraphina — Provider of insurance-related services whose business expands around the risks and costs of player deaths 322.
• Colin — Skeleton Alliance commander who recruits Soul Returner mercenaries and increasingly depends on them for military advancement 1297 1330 1347 1472.