Outside of the town border, the crazed being shouts of what might be insults at the crowd. Though this is only a guess as no one physically present can understand them. They do however notice that even if the being isn’t fading anymore; they have started to change. The being got quieter and quieter as their limbs and head fold into their torso.

Not in a body horror way, oddly enough. Rather, it is more like a shadow puppet when the hand it is cast from is balled up into a fist. Just a blob of shadow, or in this case light, that is shifting around. Then, with one final shriek the blob of light seems to lose its anger and begin to wander off into the forest.

Ace is the first to react and shares around the system message he just received. While there were a few details in there that he might have wanted to keep secret. This act was much more important than a few secrets as it showed the people the true cost of worshiping a god without knowing all the details.

Back in the dungeon Ally shakes her head, ‘You always get this kind of thing on a new world.’

Doyle tilts his core forward, ‘And what might this kind of thing be? The message they’re showing around mentions this being the result of the deity they. They. They. Hmm, I can’t even think the beings’ previous gender. Anyway, this was caused by what deity they followed. Which seems odd as I doubt said deity would care about anything they had just done.’

Ally nods, ‘At this point no one and no records, even in other dimensions will be able to hold their name or details. They’ve been reduced to a fae will o the wisp and have lost that privilege. As for who they worshiped? They don’t care a single red cent about anything the person did.

‘Rather, this is the result of being banished while inside the town borders and the god they worshiped. Though god isn’t the correct term. They worshiped fae royalty like my mom. While not a god in the traditional sense, they can get benefits from being worshipped. Or more correctly, by stealing worship.

‘If I had to guess the being was likely a part of a splinter sect, I’m sure your world had enough of them there at the end. Not all of them will be puppeted by fae royalty or some other similar level being but that is a common reason for it. Anyway, the specific splinter they belonged to had changed their beliefs enough so as to be worshiping that fae instead of the original god.

‘This, in theory, should only matter when they die. At that point, instead of the soul taking a detour to whatever heaven the god maintained, it would instead get caught in the fae wilds. But since Ace out there managed to make the beings’ exile close enough to an actual ritual of sorts, things went differently.’

Doyle sighs, ‘Let me guess. The whole three strikes you're out and mention of things like room and board was close to how you get rid of some fae?’

Ally smiles, ‘Right on the money! If you catch a minor fae three times and each time you ask them to leave, the third time you can banish them by denying them room and board. And by banish I mean that literally. They get sent to the fae wilds and aren’t allowed back to someplace near you.

‘The problem for that cultist is they weren’t a true fae and rather just worshiped one. However, by worshiping one they did put themselves under the same rules. If they had stuck around in town until they fully faded it would have been a one-way trip to the fae wilds. Instead, by escaping, they have only lost their humanity, mind, and soul.’

Doyle’s core dims, ‘That does make a demented sort of sense. And becoming a will o the wisp is good ol poetic justice as their form now matches their function. That of leading people off course. But why would they lose their soul? I thought fae was more soul based than anything else.’

Ally shrugs, ‘A squirrel is more body based, is it a human body? It is actually kind of sad they didn’t try to run into the dungeon. The moment they changed into a will o the wisp you would have absorbed them. Though this really comes back to the matter of what is a soul? You’ve been out in the void and observed them so you might have realized some truths about them.’

Doyle’s core stays dim and rolls to the side, ‘I didn’t really notice too much, though I wasn’t there for subjectively long. All I really picked up was that souls in the void lose themselves with time.’

Ally smiles, ‘That is a basic level understanding of it. Let me tell you a deeper point. The true soul can not be destroyed permanently. If the soul was what remembered your past life, then no one would ever forget their past lives. Instead, we have to look towards what you eat, the cruft. I should have mentioned at some point how dungeons are about the only thing capable of breaking it back down into energy?

‘That is completely true. Dungeons are about the only thing out there that can break it down and return it to basic power types. But, and this is a big but, this does not mean dungeons are the only things capable of making use of it. You know all those stories about devils bargaining for your soul?

‘Well, we know souls are near impossible to hurt so how could this be? This comes back to what the cruft is. It is power changed by a person’s soul. If it was just that simple, though, why does the body hold on to such a large amount of the stuff? The permanent cruft is what most mortals mean when they talk about the soul. It contains the various snippets of a person that has been burned so deep that even death doesn’t erase it right away. You just turn it into clean power while all others corrupt it.’

Doyle nods, ‘Going by that this soul cruft must be what everything wants.’

Ally nods back, ‘Correct, but missing some nuance. What they want is called the soul’s shell. The cruft put off by people using power is like hair and skin coming off them to make dust. Even when a person dies, you don’t take all of their soul shell. It is more like a hunter taking down a deer and only carving out the meat. What is left goes with the soul into the void. A useful side effect of this is that the soul is ready to reincarnate a lot sooner as it has less to wear away in the void.

‘What the heavens and hells does is more along the lines of a snake swallowing its prey whole, leaving behind barely anything, which in this case is only the soul. Those soul shells they take are, in turn used to make beings without free will. So most angels, demons, devils, fae, and other similar outsiders.

‘Souls are purely the realm of beings with free will. So no matter how smart a low-class devil might be in making a deal, they can’t actually make a decision. If you take the same type of devil and give it the same choice, they will always make the same deal. Same for low-class angels, fae, and so on.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘And what does this have to do with the being losing their soul?’

Ally pauses, ‘Ah, right. So for that it has to do with the difference between fae royalty and every other fae. Royalty like me and my mother are born with souls. Every other fae, however, needs to earn a soul. This doesn’t mean levels but that can help. That being turned wisp? If they had earned enough merits for their fae royal, they would have kept their soul and likely have become a more humanoid type of fae.

Doyle tilts back and hums, ‘Yes, I can see it. Going to assume most of the other beings you mentioned work in the same way?’

Ally shrugs, ‘A mix, really. Archdevils are like fae royalty while Demon Lords all come up through the ranks. The only real rule of thumb you can follow is that those on the top will have souls so they can actually make decisions. But even that has exceptions, like some of the natural pure lawful construct races where even their god-like beings lack a soul.’

After that, Doyle and Ally go back and forth talking about the various examples. All the while back in the town Ace has to deal with the crowd being quite a bit jumpy. Even though the system message showed it wasn’t his fault, the fact it happened was a shock.

It took a while but eventually Kelly figured it out and yelled for everyone to be quiet before telling them. “Okay everyone! After analyzing the energy signatures, that person was a cultist. He wasn’t worshiping a true god, but rather a fae royal. On the upside, we now know how to kick any low-class fae out. Catch them and tell them to get out, then on the third time also deny them room and board.

“Anyway, be careful of the forest for a bit. We now have a will o the wisp out there. So if you see any odd lights off the path, it’s just that idiot trying to kill you. But the worse news is we will likely have to vouch for every religion being worshiped here. Some of the religions must have been corrupted by various outsiders.”

Ace interrupts at this point. “And before any of you panic, this does not mean we will stop you from worshiping whoever you want! However, it does mean we won’t let you misrepresent who you worship. God good and evil, Archdevils, Fae Royalty, or what have you. Worship who you want. About the only thing we might have to squash is any mythos beings but that is less of a worship thing and more of insanity forcing a person’s hand.

“And I see some of you religious types out there being angry at us for being okay with worshiping ‘the Devil’ or what have you. Need I remind you that we just found out what one of you thought was a god was actually a fae. Any of you that were a part of his sect are worshiping fae royalty! So shut up and wait until we confirm who you are worshiping before you start throwing shade.

“Yes, I understand that a person who worships an Archdevil or evil God will not be a nice person. But I am very much of the opinion that I would rather see five snakes in my yard than have one snake hidden. So worship who you will but we aren’t going to have religious exemptions to the laws. Worship a god of slaughter? We have a dungeon for that. Worship a devil of theft? We will treat you the same as any other thief when you get caught.

“That doesn’t mean you can hang around here and we will protect you when you go all bandit lord just down the road. If someone comes here claiming you’ve done wrong elsewhere, they can totally use the law to get at you. It just means that we won’t personally be coming down on you because of who you worship. We’ll even put some restrictions in place so not everyone can just go to town hall and check who you worship.

“That is a personal choice, after all. But, and this is a big but, we will not have landmines sitting around our town without knowing where they are. Enough governments pre-system required reporting your religion and we are actually going to looser than that. We will only require you to tell us who you worship if you get a blessing from them.

“And yes, I admit that is entirely because that is about all we can monitor. If you have a blessing from a greater being, it will show up when our guards check you at the gates. If you’re a citizen, we require you to report it as soon as possible. If you’re a visitor, report it at the gate and it will only be kept as long as you are within the town. Of course, if you would prefer not to have to report it every visit you can tell the guard that and they will keep the record like a citizen. But it is entirely opt-in.”