Ward-Souls and Souljewels

By Vondris, Leader of the Grand Council of Ald Sotha

Many years before the Wedding, when Nirn was just destroyed, people realized that there was no safe way of delivering something. No matter what it was, it could be intercepted. However, around the middle of the 5th era, a Khajiiti Dwemerologist recreated the fabled ability of the Dwemeri, the Calling. Soon, however, after much use of this method for communication, it was clear that the problem was that the transmitters of the messages could be bribed or threatened, or even had their thoughts pulled out by Shadow Magic. So a new method was introduced about 50 years later, the Soul-Jewels. The true nature of soul-jewels is known to only a few. The way that soul-jewels are created is a delicate and horrible process. Criminals are taken from prison, and their souls are trapped within the soul-jewels. This is very similar to souljems, however while in the soul-jewel, the soul is completely self-aware. What souljewels are is hard to describe. They are pieces of the Aetherius, fractured by means even I have no understanding of. The people trapped inside souljewels are souls that were about to enter Aetherius, so for a moment, they felt the greatest bliss known, but then were sucked back into the rigid, linear Aurbis. They feel pain every second of their existence, until they either expire or are destroyed. However the souls within the souljewels do not go into Aetherius, they stop existing within the realms of time and space. They enter the Dreamsleeve.

Soon, about 100 years after the creating of the Soul-Jewel, a Dunmer created ward-souls. These were souls very similar to soul-jewels, however instead of binding them to a jewel, the soul is bound to an object. This makes the object indestructible and invisible to people that are not meant to see the object. This makes it hard to take to the correct location, however most of the time the object is wrapped inside some kind of container. After the object gets in physical contact with the correct person, the soul inside is sent into the Dreamsleeve and the object becomes ordinary.

This was found to be the most secure way of delivering items by everyone that is aware how the ward-souls and souljewels work, and as horrific as it is, it is the only way to be completely sure that the object or message is not intercepted.