Are Soulless Soulless

What an absurd question, you must be thinking. Just look at their name. They are the soulless. Born with black eyes, powered by the souls of those who have lived before them. They can be possessed by the shadows readily when separated from their soul gem, and become terrible beasts. The evidence seems quite damning.

But I present a countering opinion. What if the 'crime' of the soulless is entirely different? What if it is not a lack of soul that vexes them, but an overabundance? A being that can feel every whisper of the ephemeral around them, echoing through their immature spirit.

As evidence, when a normal man wears a soul gem, the sensation that builds is like a terrific pressure in the skull that escalates until it is removed. What if this pressure was like white noise? Simple background murmurings that, for a soulless, drowns out the noise of a world full of life? Its sheer volume is a refuge for them, allowing them to function with just themselves, instead of sharing of the entire Promise.

It is their sensitivity that allows them to draw knowledge from the soul gems. They can hear the soft whispers of wisdom where a normal man only feels discomfort. What blessed beings, not cursed. They are our angels of deliverance, as written in the Creator's own holy texts. Their discomfort and pain are their martyr's brands, carried for our benefit.

What then, of their dramatic transformation on possession by the shade? Easily explained. Being sensitive creatures, the awful emanations of our foul enemies strike them just as more intricately as the whispers of the ancients in the soul gems. Instead of miraculous benedictions, they are laid low with fell power. There is balance in all things. The pressure of a present soul gem tunes them out along with the soft whispering of their neighbor's soul, granting them peace and immunity to the shadow's influence.

Written in 460 SA, Mione, Royal Scholar of Sweetwater