The Soul Shepherds

The Soul Shepherds Excerpt: Chapter 1

In the beginning, there were three beings: Minnoculous, Zigonium and Theos. They each possessed their own unique soul. Minnoculous had the Heart Soul that consisted of the soul fused together with the body, emitting special powers. Zigonium, on the other hand, possessed the God Soul, that needed no body to host it and could transform into any form he wishes with enough Soul Energy. Finally, Theos contained the Human Soul, that contained the ability to have the soul and the body separated, but not for too long, otherwise that what makes one unique will die and leave the soul to enter the next reincarnation cycle. The three beings lived alone in an empty realm. Nothing existed, not even time Legends call this period “The Age Before Creation”.

Zigonium and Theos were always closer to each other than to Minnoculous, which led to Minnoculous feeling jealous and a desire of friendship grew within him.

Zigonium, the most selfish of the three beings expressed his boredom living in this vast nothingness. He desired change, chaos, unpredictability. A great wealth of chaos and life to fill the empty void. Theos assured Zigonium his wishes would come true and seemingly sacrificed himself for his friend with an explosion of energy to create life. Color filled this previously empty space, expanding outwards infinitely. At it’s center was a small star, with a planet filled with life orbiting it. The explosion fought against Zigonium and Minnoculous, seemingly unable to bring them into this new reality. Before long the two disappeared, only to find themselves alone in two mirror realities to that of the reality filled with chaos. Minnoculous found himself in a land filled with endless black sand, while Zigonium found himself in a see of never ending clouds.

The three realities had been created: The Above, the realm of white, The Void, the realm of gray, and the Middle, the realm of Chaos.

This creation came at a cost: Theos’ Self, that which gives personality to the soul, was split from his Soul Base, that which gives life to the Self. He had 30019 years to reconnect with his Soul base again; otherwise, he would die.

His Self found its way to his friend Zigonium in the Above, while his Soul Base appeared in The Void, where Minnoculous found it, and, fueled by jealousy and resentment for Zigonium and Theos’ friendship, took Theos’ Soul Base and imprisoned it within The Void.

Thousands of years past. Both Zigonium and Minnoculous discovered ways to interact and observe things within the Middle, however they were bound to their own dimensions.

Zigonium and Theos had been working to no avail to find a way to reunite Theos with his Soul Base.

Minnoculous, alone and lonely, had been experimenting on Theos’ Soul base to try and create a new being: one with free will.

Eventually, he would succeed: by allowing a Soul base he had replicated to travel through the Dimensional Gap to the Middle, it found a host: a human by the name of Sasha. However, Sasha did not age. She was immortal like Theos once was. Due to this, she was stranded in the Middle, unable to return to the Void where Minnoculous resided.

More time passed, Minnoculous eventually found that if he took immortality out of the Soul, once the body dies the Soul will return to the Void, whereupon the Self splits from the Base, and lives forever in The Void. Unlike the other dimensions, The Void allows the Self to exist without a body or Soul Base.

So the Cycle of Souls was created: a new Soul Base is born within the Void, whereupon it traverses the Dimensional Gap to inhabit a newborn human. Throughout their lives this human gains its identity: its personality. This manifests in the Soul as the Self. Once the human dies, their soul traverses back to the Void, where the Self and Base split. The Self lives out the rest of eternity in The Void, while the Base returns to the Middle, to a newly born human to continue the cycle.

Zigonium and Theos noticed that these humans had similar souls to Theos’, and found that Theos could inhabit another Soul base to prolong his life. He could even take control of the host’s body, albeit for a short time. As Human souls were not designed to house the Self of a God. Theos used this power to spread the word of Zigonium, and eventually began a religion.

Thousands of years passed, and two religions dominated the world: The Soul Seekers, led by Sasha, the first human with a soul, and was a religion of tranquility: respecting and worshiping the natural Cycle of Souls. And the Church of Zi, led by descendants of Theos’ first host, worshiping the God of Light Zigonium, on a quest to indoctrinate all into their religion.

Zigonium and Theos had always wondered how Minnoculous had achieved the creation of humanity and their souls. One day, in the year 3000, Zigonium and Theos discovered that Minnoculous had Theos’ soul seed and had used Theos’ left-over soul from the sacrifice to create humanity. This explained why the humans had similar soul structure to Theos: the self that contained individual personality and the soul seed that contained life. In retaliation and in an attempt to retrieve the soul base, Zigonium and Theos expelled an immense shockwave of Soul energy to move The Above into The Middle in an attempt to break the Dimensional Barrier between The Middle and The Void. This caused what would be known as the Great Quake and resulted in the partial merging of all three Dimensions. Cracks in the very fabric of reality appeared all over the Middle, where other realities seeped through. The impact was devastating with millions of people losing their lives due to other-dimensional elements seeping through the cracks, corrupting the souls of any who came into contact with it. The biggest crack lay in a region called the Sloping Sands Crater, which would go on to be known as the Empty Lake where it was impossible for any life to exist inside of it.

The heroes of this tale were also corrupted by this Black Mist. Their souls still human, but tied to the void and their body. The Black Mist’s Counterpart, Holy Fog, caused some individuals to gain partial God Souls, tying their existence to The Above. However, the majority that came into contact with the other-worldly substances turned into amalgamations, their souls twister their bodies into hideous, monstrous forms. These were known as soul eaters, beings with souls corrupted beyond recognition, ever searching to devour souls.

After the failure of the Great Quake, Zigonium contacted the leader of the Zi Church, a religion devoted to teachings of Zi, who thought of Zigonium as the true God, and told her to form the Order of Zi, a military faction of the Zi Church, to destroy anyone who followed the teachings of Minnoculous and to find the perfect Soul Base for Theos. The Order of Zi ruled over parts of the Middle with oppression and spread their cultural rituals. In the Void, Minnoclous aimed to carry on his belief of bringing balance to the dimensions through mortal humans dying and having their souls go through the reincarnation cycle;

when a human body dies their soul returns to the void, where their Self separates from the Soul Base. The Self remains in the Void to live out eternity with the other Selves, while the Soul Base returns to the Middle to give a newborn human a Soul. He recruited Soul Shepherds to fight against the Order of Zi and Zigonium.

After countless failed abductions spanning over thousands of years, in the year 3018, Zigonium finally found the perfect temporary soul base for Theos: a human in the Middle who had been touched by the holy fog.