Soul Merger

Monsterpedia Supplemental

Monster Taming

Monster taming frequently confuses laypeople. How can someone turn a only partially souled creature designed to murder humans into a loyal companion? The secret is mages can take advantage of the monster's partial soul to replace the dangerous beast with a staunch ally.

The differences between a complete and composite soul are complex, but the key difference in this part is a complete soul is firmly connected to the body. If a human or dragon takes soul damage, that damage can be repaired to the original state so long as they survive (with a lot of work). If a being with a complete soul has their soul removed or destroyed completely, they die. When a monster with a composite soul has their soul damaged or even removed, the body remains alive and intact! If the soul is totally destroyed the body will atrophy and die after, but that's a mechanical process not a metaphysical one.

As such monster tamers defeat and 'kill' the old monster by knocking out the 'anti-human' parts of their soul. They then replace those parts with emotions positive to humans.

How much of the original monster's personality remains after the taming process? It seems weird to say you killed someone if you just made them not irrationally hate humans.

Isn't that a good question. We simply don't know. How much damage do we do to a monster's personality? How much do we replace with what we think the monster should act like? And how much is just naturally there? Monster tamers have decided to treat it the same killing the original monster. Anything else would be unfair to the original.

Monster Training

Training a monster is the next step of the process. A monster needs to have the skills to work with the tamer, and to fit into human society. They also need a constant supply of magic energy and a stabilizing element to their souls. A tamer fulfills those needs via direct life force transfer, unconscious visualization, and of course direct training. Life force transfer is covered by increased food intake as explained in the discussion on magic. However the other two elements are quite important.

Unconscious Visualization is how a trainer keeps the monster's soul stable. The trainer's subconscious views towards what the monster 'should' be constantly refines the creature's soul. This prevents the monster's composite soul from feeling incomplete, and keeps it from reverting to wanting to hurt humans (for magical reasons). This process is stronger the more the monster and their trainer agree on how the monster's soul 'should' be, giving the monster greater control over their powers. Possibly even better control than they would have normally. This understanding comes from conversation and living together.

Direct Training seems obvious but there's an important trick to it. Monsters learn skills and tactics like humans, but they learn proper emotions based on mimicry. If a tamer abuses a dog the dog will break and cower when commanded. If a tamer abuses a monster that monster will become violent and abusive. It's vital to treat your monsters will compassion and respect. Otherwise they'll be more dangerous than if they were left as generic monsters.

This whole thing about what a monster 'should be' is confusing. How does that change their soul? And what about their innate personality? I know your primary monster argues with you all the time.

I don't know. Maybe I have a thing for tsunderes? But more seriously, if you have a cat or fox you expect them to cause trouble, even if you don't particularly want them to. Similarly I'd imagine a minotaur would be violent, so if I ever tamed one they'd be aggressive no matter how annoying that would be.

Living with a Monster

Monster tamers have developed several unique ways of handling their charges. One of the most common is the binding ritual. This allows them to transfer life to a monster, or to drain it away. The first ability is used by competent tamers to keep their companions in the fray. The latter is a failsafe for incompetent ones to keep their monsters from causing carnage.

Wealthy or well connected tamers can also access soul jars. These items use complex spell matrices and mithril engravings to 'store' a monster in a small object. This allows them to keep monsters close if other's dislike their companion's presence, or to hide their ally away for a quick surprise attack. Stored monsters also don't need life energy or soul stabilization, saving the tamer lots of trouble.

And the question most people were asking all this time, what happens when a trainer dies? Doesn't that mean the monster's soul will revert to an evil human murder machine? Well yes, but the time it takes for that to happen is in the range of months. Without a massive dose of magic, they'll die in a week like all monsters. Besides monsters tamed by proper tamers would usually prefer to offer their life to save their master rather than let their soul degrade back to an incomplete state.

Ooh! Those soul jars are what lets people pass down monsters one generation to another aren't they!

They aren't required, but they do help. It's far more important for the tamer to already know the monster very well. If they haven't talked with the monster and trained with them, the monster will lose a lot of power as their soul gets pulled in another direction.