In the time before time, before the Gods walked upon Tal'Vorn, two of the Gods worked in divine unison together, the two twin Gods, Hevar and Ievar. These two Gods were unified in purpose and joint in their desires for all the long millennia before they came to Tal'Vorn, Gods of Lies and Evil, of Truth and Justice, the great opposition, each circling the other, balancing the other out in eternal peace. Yet, though they strove always for balance, the two Gods had not been born equal, had not been given totally equal powers. Hevar, the elder of the twins, was also the God of Darkness.

Though it took many millennia, many thousands of generations, Ievar eventually grew jealous of His brother and began, slowly, to resent the balance that the two had to maintain, desiring power for Himself to exceed His brother. The exact tale of Ievar's final downfall and of His last betrayal is told elsewhere. For now suffice it to say that Ievar was no longer what He had once been, at once less and more, no longer a true God yet immortal and more powerful then he had ever been before. Ievar could not leave Tal'Vorn and thus, in His fury and fuelled by His desire for vengeance, Ievar, the Dark God, the Corrupter crafted the Mist Devils, creatures that devoured the souls of the living.

Though Hevar was sorrowful over His brothers fall, the God knew that the Mist Devils where a threat that could not go unanswered. Thus Hevar created the last Race, the final creation of the Gods upon Tal'Vorn and the single most bizarre, a Race crafted with no other real purpose then the absolute destruction of the Mist Devils. They were the Soulless. Whilst every other Race was granted a portion of their Gods essence, a 'soul', this was exactly what the Mist Devils fed upon. And thus Hevar knew that His creations could not be so blessed, for such a blessing would be a weakness. Indeed the Soulless had been crafted so long after the coming of the Gods to Tal'Vorn, that the Great War against the usurper Humanity had already come and gone.

He made the breeds and he made them from three different things. From the ground he made the First, the Behemoth, granting them the strength of the rocks so that they would be unstoppable. From the Mani in the air He made the Gangly, with all the powers of magic at their command so that they could not be destroyed from afar. And from the flesh of men, from the flesh of the invaders, Hevar made the Soulless Born, the Binders, the ones who would ensure that his will was done and that all the other Soulless would not betray each other.

The Soulless have no soul, as their name implies, and, having been solely crafted to fight against the Mist Devils, have no other purpose in existence. Hevar intended to craft a Race of fighters and of mages that would be able to destroy the Mist Devils and thus preserve the other Races from the Dark Gods assault. Yet Hevar had not accounted for the self-awareness of His creations. Though they had no soul, the Soulless where well aware of just who and what their were and, worse, they were also fully aware of what Hevar would do with them once they had completed the task they had been born for. They would be destroyed.

The Soulless are a mixed group, some of them eight foot behemoths, mountains of muscle and brutality, crafted with sheer destruction for most in mind, resilience and toughness highly important, with intelligence coming further down the list. They tend to be heavily built, long armed and short legged, their muscles bulging from their flesh, piggy eyes glaring around them. And yet others are short, gangly creatures, highly intelligent and well suited for controlling the flow of Mani, the very energy sparking from their finger tips as they move and talk. Yet there is a third group, the most unique and rare, that combine both elements, strength and skill, intelligence and brutality, into a being that looks so much like humanity that the only way to tell the Race and the Invader Humans apart is the bloody red or pitch black orbs of the Soulless. Indeed, they are so similar that it is possible to cross breed between Humanity and this third breed of Soulless, though the male children are always human, the female are invariably marked with the pitch eyes or bloody orbs of the Soulless.

Indeed, this third breed of Soulless are so rare that the Research Sect is torn between calling them a mutation of the Soulless or being the true form that Hevar had intended, the creation that the God of Justice had truly wanted. Ultimately, however, their choice is pointless and vain as it will not alter the reality of the situation, that the Order has accepted these Soulless as looking human enough for them not to be persecuted in the same manner that their behemoth or gangly brothers are. Indeed most Order members are of the opinion that the majority of the Soulless are no better then the Anvar or even the Mist Devils that they were created to destroy.

Of course there are success stories to be told about the other Soulless breeds too, of Behemoths joining the Warrior's Guild, of Ganglies becoming powerful members of the various Sects or of third breed Soulless, the so called Soulless Born, becoming influential within the Order itself. How much of this is responsible for the altering of the Magus Council's attitude towards the Soulless is unknown and is probably irrelevant as well.

However, hovering over this otherwise successful Race, is the curse of the few Soulless that refuse their destiny, that refuse to allow themselves to be destroyed once the Mist Devils are gone. These Soulless are highly dangerous and can be a very real threat to the lives of all those around them, for the skills that Hevar granted His creations to destroy the Mist Devils were just as useful in tearing the limbs from a human, or splitting the helm of an Anvar or tearing the wings from a Fairy or Elf.



Fortunately these Soulless are few and far between, much outweighed by their more benevolent cousins. Yet these twisted Soulless often turn to Hevar's nemesis, the Dark God, for more power, a turn that, though it gives them great power, ultimately seals their doom, for the God of Darkness, Hevar the NightBringer, refuses to permit any of his children that fall to live, and will send a dream vision to others of the Soulless Race. These dreams are vivid and control all the Soulless' senses and most commonly afflict the third breed of Soulless, the Soulless Born as these are the most powerful of all this powerful Race and thus most able to destroy a rogue Soulless.

However such things have a price and more often then not it is the life of both Soulless, a sacrifice for the greater good, for justice that is not lost upon Hevar or the other Gods. It is for this reason that a questing Soulless Born will never have much difficulty in finding allies, be they intense DragonLords following a dream vision of their own, the fanatical Anvar following the very words of their God, or even the mysterious Ether Walkers, seeking the destruction of the rogue Soulless for their own unfathomable reasons.

This is the epitome of how life should be on Tal'Vorn and indeed by examining the way in which different Races work together you can see how their Gods would have worked together in the Old Times, when only Gods walked on Tal'Vorn. However this is not always to be. Unfortunately sometimes it is the Soulless Born who dies, alone and overpowered, his allies slaughtered or held at bay, unable to aid him, as the rogue Soulless desecrates the Soulless Born's body, the only thing he has, for without a Soul only the Soulless existence now matters, for even if they die they cannot live again, they cannot ascend to their God and they cannot ever live in paradise.

This is the paradox of the Soulless. Obey their God and die a final death, disobey and die a final death. There is no incentive, no drive other then faith, other then a sense of thanks for having life in the first place, for being given the chance to draw breath and walk upon Tal'Vorn. And for all too many of the Soulless, for too many of Hevar's children, this is simply not enough. They desire more, more power, more life, more existence, and yet they cannot have it. And so some of these Soulless, some of these children, betray their father and scream their hatred for the living, for the souled, into the night.


Hevar is my God and Ievar is our enemy! Death to the Deathless! Kill the Mist Devils!
Anon

Fools! You would come here and try to stop me? You could not even comprehend the strength I have, the power that fills my limbs! Hevar is a false God! A liar and cheat who would not even grant His children souls! Well now I have a Soul! I am a Soulless no longer! I serve Ievar and I will crush you all in the Corrupters name!
Last words a rogue Soulless before he was destroyed by an Order taskforce.