Vital Essence (Lethurèa)
Vital Essence is the divine energy that binds spirit to body, matter to will, and memory to self. It is a metaphysical tether formed by the Mother, Father, and Lethurèa to allow spirits to inhabit mortality within Yedistren.
Ontology
Vital Essence is not synonymous with the spirit or soul, but is instead the force that **anchors** the soul to the mortal frame. It functions like a divine filament of conscious fire—flowing through flesh, blood, and bone—enabling sensation, thought, and spiritual growth during mortality. It is part of every Free Species, though its expression and potency vary.
Cycle of Return
In accordance with Divine Law, when a being dies of **natural causes**, their Vital Essence gently detaches and returns to the Cosmic Flow, where it is reintegrated into the divine harmony of the multiverse.
However, when death occurs **violently or unnaturally**—through war, murder, or desecration—the Vital Essence is **ripped**, its threads frayed and scattered. In this exposed state, the Essence does not return to the Flow immediately, and instead lingers, becoming vulnerable to spiritual manipulation and theft.
Malis and the Corruption of Essence
The imprisoned god Malis seeks Vital Essence as a means to shatter the shackles placed upon him by Lethurèa in Gozog’nok. He cannot extract this essence himself, so he orchestrates **conflict**, **betrayal**, and **mass death** to generate it.
Malisik Prophets and warlords gather Vital Essence on battlefields using dark vessels and soul-bleeding blades. These collections are stored within cursed reliquaries or fed directly into profane rituals to empower Malis and raise new Malisik.
Characteristics
- **Visible Manifestation:** To those attuned to the ethereal, Vital Essence appears as shimmering light, golden or blue, lifting from corpses like steam. Corrupted essence may appear black, red, or flickering.
- **Audible Phenomenon:** Seers and empaths often report hearing a faint harmonic wail or resonance as essence is released or consumed.
- **Scent:** Some Zekarin healers claim they can smell freshly severed essence as “ozone touched by sorrow.”
Philosophical Implications
Some scholars of the Hall of Infinite Knowledge postulate that Vital Essence is **the memory of love**, granted form. Others call it the price of mortality, the flame that can only exist when bound to suffering and joy alike.
Even those who deny religion acknowledge the **unexplainable consistency** of this force. Across cultures, planets, and even galaxies, the idea of a vital life-force pervades myth, prayer, and ritual.
In Popular Cults
- The Cult of the Shattered Flame attempts to collect and **hoard** Vital Essence from historic battlefields, believing they can forge their own god.
- Tèran fringe scientists have attempted to **synthesize** artificial essence—called “quasi-animus”—though all test subjects have gone mad.
In War
Vital Essence harvesters are often followed by Malisik shock troops who wage long, drawn-out battles simply to prolong the moment of spiritual rupture in each kill. The longer the agony, the more essence is extracted.
Trivia
- The Vurgorô blade known as a Gurga Blade can **cauterize the essence** in a wound, preventing healing and tainting the soul.
- Essence-contamination can sometimes be cured by exposure to the Light of It’slémwé, though only within a Sacred Circle.