Artificial souls? How to?

[Humnhapymeal]

So i am playing in a campaign as a necromancer, and i have always stated that my necromancer does not mess with souls. She simply reanimates the organic tissue with magic. We use ALOT of homebrew and i have been able to spar my DM the horror of 999999999 zombies on the field, by simply creating bone golems that my undead familiar (creeping claw) can pilot.

That being said i have run into an issue as i have a party member, who has a very tribal/ spiritual viewpoint, and i have recently decided that i need to use souls to start creating sentient undead (Creating a kingdom and i need citizens).

Now me and this other PC have been arguing about this rather heatedly (in character) over the moral ethics of this choice.

But, i had an idea. What if i can make a soul, or a facsimile of one at least. Essentially creating a race of undead warforged.

Problem is, i have no idea where to start. So i turn to the hive mind. Any ideas?

[C-Dude]

But, i had an idea. What if i can make a soul, or a facsimile of one at least. Essentially creating a race of undead warforged.

Problem is, i have no idea where to start. So i turn to the hive mind. Any ideas?

What about taking fragments of your own soul as 'soul nuclei' and then encouraging them to grow into full beings? It gives your team-mate the ability to nurture the undead into fully realized sentient beings (as they'd essentially start as mindless shamblers, only growing their souls with experience and tutoring), and also has the interesting consequence that at their core they are all YOU - they share your base motivations and alignment and their personalities are all fun-house mirrored off yours.

[Humnhapymeal]

What about taking fragments of your own soul as 'soul nuclei' and then encouraging them to grow into full beings? It gives your team-mate the ability to nurture the undead into fully realized sentient beings (as they'd essentially start as mindless shamblers, only growing their souls with experience and tutoring), and also has the interesting consequence that at their core they are all YOU - they share your base motivations and alignment and their personalities are all fun-house mirrored off yours.

That is an awesome idea, but it has a problem with scaling. I just asked my Dm about it and he said that the soul would not regenerate from the splitting.

Not to mention i need hundreds of these artificial souls, maybe even thousands, i dont think i can break my soul down that much.

Still though Awesome idea.

[Lunali]

What about taking fragments of your own soul as 'soul nuclei' and then encouraging them to grow into full beings? It gives your team-mate the ability to nurture the undead into fully realized sentient beings (as they'd essentially start as mindless shamblers, only growing their souls with experience and tutoring), and also has the interesting consequence that at their core they are all YOU - they share your base motivations and alignment and their personalities are all fun-house mirrored off yours.

There's also the inevitable problem of that, they all share your desire/expectation to be the one in charge of the operation.

[Spriteless]

In some D&D cosmologies, souls come from the positive energy plane. Whether that means a trek through the astral to the elemental chaos, or the deep ether to the inner planes, or a manifest zone to Irian depends on setting and DM preference.

A less exotic source, that doesn't cause undead to explode, might be to find natural sources of life that can withstand undeath. Some of the blights in the Monster Manual are born from undead. You might be able to experiment to grow twig blights into the hearts of a race similar to the Warforged. Boneforged. Blightfolk.

Lots of fungus live on rotting flesh. Maybe you could hire Myoconoids to help find or breed just the right kind to make your zombies nice. Like Ophiocordyceps sinensis, but for zombies instead of ants.

The hard SF novel Ringworld Engineers has a race of zombies in it! Actually, they are ghouls who eat the dead of all hominids. But all the other races use them to dispose of their dead, without risk of disease. This is a valuable service, and a way to make your race filled with helpful contributors to the community, who are obviously not evil at all.

[C-Dude]

There's also the inevitable problem of that, they all share your desire/expectation to be the one in charge of the operation.
That's the best part of the plan, the way that it backfires!


That is an awesome idea, but it has a problem with scaling. I just asked my Dm about it and he said that the soul would not regenerate from the splitting.
Bummer. I'm generally of the opinion that a damaged or diminished soul would eventually grow back (to fill the space of the mind to which it is attached), but I suppose it's fair if your dungeon master doesn't share that opinion.

Spriteless's idea of pilots is a good alternative, and builds on what you've already established with your familiar. Maybe you could enlist small outsiders (like Modrons) or elementals to operate your undead?

[MrStabby]

Maybe it can be a bit of a plotline to find out what might work?

So I can see some willing volunteers for having their soul tied to animated remains, such as the terminally ill. Maybe those with horrific injuries might be prepared to willingly inhabit another body to be able to walk again.

Maybe you can harvest souls from other species? Do trees have souls? Do awakened trees? Is there a difference and if so, where does the spell get that soul from? Can that be a source of souls? At what point does a soul come into being? Conception? Birth? The age of criminal responsibility?

Can you take the soul of every acorn that falls on stony ground and grow it in a new host? Every soul lost in a miscarriage be rehomed in one of your undead?

[Wizard_Lizard]

I mean creation forges in eberron created warforged souls.