Soul Harvesting

There are many different ways to capture souls. The most infamously known methods used are spells like soul bind, trap the soul, magic jar, and similar spells that use soul gems which can imprison the soul of a newly dead creature or even trap the soul of someone still alive. Some undead and outsiders which feed on life and soul energy have their own innate methods of trapping souls.

These mortal methods, however, pale in the face of the lower planes’ almost industrialized harvesting of souls. Demons, devils, and other fiends use virtually all known methods of collecting and storing souls, many of which are unique to themselves. These harvested souls are stored for later consumption or, more likely, bound and sold on the planar markets where they are used as food, entertainment, or as materials for crafting powerful magic items.

Most methods of using souls extinguish them completely, consigning them to oblivion. In these cases, only the direct intervention of a deity can return them to life—and sometimes not even then. Other methods bleed a fraction of a soul’s energies away, causing horrific agony as the soul is milked for power for spans of months, years, or centuries before it is fully consumed or its tattered fragments dissipate into the void.

Despite most of the universe considering the practice of harvesting and using trapped souls as a resource or commodity to be heinous, the unconscionable soul trade thrives. Most of it takes place in reprehensible marketplaces of the lower planes, though black markets and buyers can be found hidden away in all but the highest planes, as evil spellcasters and item crafters can make great use of powerful souls in their dark rites.

Trapping Souls

Trapping a soul requires using a specially prepared soul gem of sufficient value. A soul gem must have a value of at least 1,000 gp for every Hit Die possessed by the creature to be trapped. If the soul gem is not valuable enough, it shatters when the entrapment is attempted. Soul gems are crafted using the create soul gem spell on a sufficiently valuable gem.

The soul, once trapped in a soul gem, is considered dead but cannot be returned through clone, raise dead, reincarnate, resurrection, true resurrection, or similar magics which require the soul to be free to return to the living body. A miracle or a wish can free a soul from a soul gem and restore it to life; however, some powerful magics which traps souls (such as the soul bind spell) may prevent this. Only by destroying the gem or dispelling the spell on the gem can one free the soul (which is then still dead).

The soul gem used as the focus for this spell must be worth at least 1,000 gp value for every Hit Die possessed by the creature to be trapped. If the gem is not valuable enough, it shatters when the entrapment is attempted. (While creatures have no concept of level or Hit Dice as such, the value of the gem needed to trap an individual can be researched. Remember that this value can change over time as creatures gain more Hit Dice.)

There are a number of spells and rituals capable of trapping souls in a prepared soul gem, though most require the creature to be slain before or while casting the spell to function.

The market price of a trapped soul is determined as described below (see The Soul Trade). Each soul gem also contains an amount of consumable experience equal to the XP granted by an encounter of the creature’s CR for a 4-person party. (See the “4-5” column of Table: Experience Point Awards).

The Soul Trade

The soul economy is complex, with prices determined not only by the strength and power inherent in a given soul, but also according to each soul’s manner of death, alignment in life, strength of personality, and will to live. Collectors may value certain traits above others—aesthetic factors inherent to the nature of a soul granting it a unique flavor—but such traits rarely influence their use in magical experiments unless a soul was particularly noteworthy. Souls generally have a standard pricing that is widely accepted across the planes.

While the value of souls is as relative as any other commodity, and pricing can fluctuate wildly based on an endless parade of factors, presented here are some basic categories. With each of these, it’s important to note that these are guidelines only, and individual spirits may fall lower (such as a dragon slain young, or a king whose general lack of ambition kept him from great deeds) or higher (a commoner of exceptional piety, or one who never had the chance to fully explore her exceptional abilities) than one might expect.

These prices are based upon the supply and demand commonly faced by traders upon the planes where such commodities prove far less outlandish than on the Material Plane, where prices might increase by 10 times or more (though such has no effect on their value when put to use). As with anything else, the exact value of a soul is ultimately up to GM discretion. It’s also worth noting that, while trading spirits may prove lucrative, the practice is undeniably evil and an affront to the natural order, and thus carries great consequences in the afterlife.

In general, souls have a base price of 1,000 gp × the creature’s CR. This is further modified by the type and quality of the soul.

Types of Souls

All souls have a base price determined by the type of soul it is. This is loosely tied to creature type, but there are creatures capable of crossing these lines.

Mindless Spirits

The weakest type of “soul” is harvested from the vital essences of mindless creatures, such as vermin, oozes, and other living creatures which lack the capacity for thought. The thin, watery life energy of such paltry souls is likened to eating gruel, making them worth very little.

Animal Spirits

Creatures with animal-like intelligence (that is an Intelligence of 2 or less), have some value and energy, though it is rarely worth saving for later use. While they do possess actual spirits and are useful in some sacrificial rituals, animal spirits are rarely traded, as they lack the energy of true souls.

Mortal Souls

The most commonly traded souls are Mortal Souls. A mortal is any living creature with Intelligence 3 or higher that is not a construct, elemental, outsider, or undead. This is the lowest category of souls which interests most who trade souls.

Immortal Souls

Immortal souls are more difficult to capture and can be either less or more valuable than an equivalent mortal soul. Such beings typically lack a dual nature—its soul and body form one unit. Trapping the soul of such a creature necessarily requires it to be captured alive and traps its entire form, leaving no body behind.

Undead Souls

The soul of an undead is a rare and unusual object indeed. Their souls are composed of chthonic akasha and powered by negative energy while being harmed by positive energy, the exact inverse of living beings. Using such souls is often harmful or damaging, making them less useful for most purposes. Mindless undead lack souls entirely, but the rarity of intelligent undead make their souls more valuable to collectors while their uselessness for practical purposes devalues them in general trade.

Soul Quality

The quality of a soul has a direct and tangible impact on its value. Soul quality is somewhat subjective, with different soul merchants valuing souls differently. While one may consider a 6th-level Fighter as Notable, another with higher standards may consider it to be Basic at best.

Worthless Soul

The lowest tier of soul. Such souls had no potential to achieve anything in life and did not even attempt to do more than meet their most basic needs. While worthless souls do have standard pricing, most soul merchants are unwilling to buy or sell them.

Worthless quality souls typically have 1 Hit Die or less and have exceptionally low CR. Due to their sheer numbers, the lowest ranks of demons, devils, angels, and other outsiders are almost always considered worthless.

Basic Soul

This is the soul of a standard creature—a commoner, a low-level adventurer, a monster of low CR, or any of the other hordes of weak or mundane folk who live out their lives with a normal amount of pomp and excitement.

Notable Soul

The souls of mid-level characters, rulers, famous or influential people, and other powerful, accomplished, and otherwise important people draw greater attention than basic souls, and drive price higher accordingly.

Grand Soul

High-level characters, great heroes, powerful dragons, and other such spirits of fabulous power and forceful personalities offer equally significant rewards to those who manage to contain their essences.

Unique Soul

For the truly unique souls—those of legendary figures, epic heroes, and other massive presences—there can be no going price. The unique sparks that live within these creatures are valuable beyond compare, and the frantic bidding (and backstabbing) that arises when one of these trapped spirits comes up for sale is the sort of thing fiends and undead wait thousands of years for, paying nigh-unimaginable prices for the right to consume or display such an artifact.

Unique souls aren’t listed on the table, as there can be no standard pricing for them. They are always among the most valuable souls possible to harvest.

Using Souls

In addition to consuming them for the sheer joy of destruction, fiends use souls to empower themselves, conduct strange experiments, construct their hideous domains, and more—and mortal spellcasters have followed their lead.

Of these varied uses, the most common is using the life force contained in soul gems and other such vessels to replace otherwise necessary spell components or as materials in crafting magic items. The following uses of trapped souls are commonly available to anyone possessing one, all of which are inherently evil.

• Ritual or Spell Components: Some rituals or spells require the use of souls to complete them. These can be paid in the form of trapped souls or fresh sacrifices.
• Replace Spell Components: Normal material and experience components of spellcasting can be replaced with a sufficiently valuable soul. This requires the spellcaster to possess the Soul-Powered Magic feat.
• Soulcrafting: The experience point cost associated with crafting magic items can be paid partially or in full by incorporating a soul gem into the item. The amount of consumable experience trapped in the gem is subtracted from the total experience necessary to complete the item. Any items created with soulcrafting are tainted with an evil aura.
• Create Intelligent Item or Construct: The creation of intelligent items almost invariably uses a trapped soul in the process, as does the creation of many types of construct. This is not an evil act if the soul is genuinely willing, such as a particularly devout paladin wishing to be bound to a magic sword so that he may continue to slay evil even in death.
• Siphon Essence: A creature with a stolen essence pool can drain a trapped soul for its essence. Each point of essence stolen  applies a permanent negative level to the trapped soul. If the trapped soul’s negative levels equal or exceed its total Hit Dice, the soul gem shatters and the soul is damaged beyond the ability to be raised by any means unless the negative levels are somehow removed (such as by a properly worded wish spell). The process takes 1 hour per point of essence drained.

Other uses for souls exist from the mundane use as a convenient form of currency, as collectable works of art, or, for some fiends, as a tasty snack. Certain creatures or prestige classes, such as the Blasphemer and Corrupter, also have special uses for soul.