Today, I want to continue the discussion I was having about the amüli and their transformation from large avian creatures to bipedal humanoids. We've already covered the why of the Transition, what it is, and what amüli looked like before they changed. If you don't recall, here's a before and after image:
Remember the denrana? I briefly mentioned how they changed forms as well, and this was their own attempt at evading the life debt owed to the gods (also known commonly as the blood price). By trying to avoid repaying the gods, the denrana instead ended up cursing themselves into eternally hungering for the souls of other creatures. But I'll talk about that more in another post. The reason I bring up the denrana is their importance in the amüli's decision to change their physical forms. Had the dnerana not first tried--and failed--to lengthen their lifespans and sever their connection with the three deities, the amüli might never have wanted to do the same. They may not even have realized they could do such a thing. Draemyn Pex, the amüli responsible for the Transition, used what little notes the denrana left behind in founding his research and experiments, and ultimately, that information is what led to the Transition's success.
In the last post, I mentioned Soullessness. Let me give you some background on how it came about and what it means. When the amüli first underwent the Transition, they believed their new physical form was the only drawback to immortality, and so went about their merry lives for a long time, convinced they had outwitted the gods. It wasn't long before the extent of their change began to show. The Transition revealed to amüli that once their first human host, or Soulbound, was on the brink of death, the amüli's soul could be changed to a new host. This process soon became widely known as Rebirth. After Rebirth, an amüli's age would regress slowly until they were around the same physical age of their new Soulbound, and then they would age naturally after that, soul still intact.
Rebirth could be done over and over and over again, and in the earliest years of the afterglow of the Transition, many believed Rebirth was a never-ending cycle. At least, until amüli who underwent Rebirth fifteen times or more began to show signs of madness. More on that in another post; the point I want to make here is that amüli learned quickly that their immortality wasn't quite perfected, and that they still eventually had to end their own lives. Death, however, was no longer an option.
Once an amüli's soul was destroyed, that amüli didn't die. Instead, they faded into a comatose-like state, their body decaying, but at a far slower rate than those of deceased mortal creatures. At first, amüli merely burned the bodies of those who had gone Soulless, but as more research around Soullessness and what it meant was conducted, the amüli learned that those who went Soulless were still alive. Well, at least in a sense.
Soulless amüli still hear, see, think, and feel their surroundings, but they cannot speak, blink or interact with the outside world. They become trapped within their bodies, but unlike comatose humans, don't require any sort of life support systems. They don't need food or water, and though their bodies do eventually decay over time (as in a study conducted by a number of amüli theorists), death never truly occurs. Even after decay, signs of life still exist upon the bones. The ekra term this an imprint of the previous owner of the bones, and have to weave spells to keep the previous owner's consciousness from overtaking that of the new ekrim.
As Soullessness became a more widespread phenomenon, the amüli began to realize that their fate, much like that the denrana, could not be undone. In exchange for living hundreds of years, an amüli would eventually be forced to succumb to a Soulless hell--if madness didn't take them first.
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