OK..so..the Warp. Humans have 'souls' (energy/emotional force/whatever) but they have a presence in the Warp right? Some stronger than others (like psykers) but all humans exist both in Realspace and the Warp.

So.

What happens to that soul when a person dies?

Does it get released into the terror of the Warp? If so, how is that covered in the fluff on the Ministorum and faith? In mean the central tenet of Catholicism is about getting your soul into Heaven isn't it? Yet there's nothing like that in 40k as far as i can see. Nothing about 'be faithful and you will dine with the Emperor for Eternity; the faithless will be cast to the un-mercy of the Warp Gods'...

Does it just end? the warp energy/soul simply 'dying' along with the physical body? Perhaps it becomes consciousless and simply returns to its constituent Warp elements like the body decays into the physical elements?

What happens to it?

If you could support your responses with sources, that'd help me greatly (but its not neccessary - i'm just as interested in what you all think or feel about this topic too!)

Eldar if they die without their soul stones trapping their souls go into the warp where Slannish tears them to bits or something.

Some books refer to people dying and going into the warp to the Emperor. If you are aligned to a chaos power you go to that power in the warp when you die. What they all do there collected together???

I haven't seen anything really more specific than that to be honest. Most likely nobody "really" knows till they die, and then they aren't telling those who are still living, kind of like real life.

The official dogma of the Imperial Cult is that those who serve the Emperor faithfully during their life will be rewarded with a place at his side upon death. There are hints in the fluff that this is just wishful thinking, however, and that upon death everyone's soul, faithful or heretic, is consumed by the Warp...

Adeptus-B said:

Do you have a source for that? where is it expressly stated?

In any case, this would represent faith and belief wouldn't it?

Adeptus-B said:

Really?

What does that mean?

Does the consciousness go into the Warp and suffer eternal damnation? Or is simply a return to chaotic Warp energy?

Adeptus-B said:

"The official dogma of the Imperial Cult is that those who serve the Emperor faithfully during their life will be rewarded with a place at his side upon death."

then Ludite said:

"Do you have a source for that? where is it expressly stated?

In any case, this would represent faith and belief wouldn't it?"

I remember something similar being mentioned and alluded to in many different places and somehow absorbed it into my view of 40k some time ago. As specific sources go, the only one I can definitely say is the one I'm reading right now, Blood of Martyrs naturally. On pg 19, second to the last paragraph:

"Many Ecclesearchy teachings mention some form of afterlife in which the faithful will take their place at the side of the Emperor for all eternity. As with so many elements of the Imperial Creed, the synods have debated the specifics of this afterlife for millennia..."

This is just faith/belief. The objective truth, as is often the case, is never addressed anywhere that I know of.

Adeptus-B said:

"There are hints in the fluff that this is just wishful thinking, however, and that upon death everyone's soul, faithful or heretic, is consumed by the Warp..."

Then Ludite said:

"Really?

What does that mean?

Does the consciousness go into the Warp and suffer eternal damnation? Or is simply a return to chaotic Warp energy?"

This is what I've gotten from the general flavor and bent of a lot of the 40k writing. It seems that, objectively (though I couldn't say where/if such is expressly stated), souls which are particularly attuned to a particular power within the warp will draw it's attention on death and be devoured / subsumed / or possibly molded into something else by it. This tends to be the case for the 4 big chaos powers more then anything else though I kind of like to think that the same would exist with the Emperor as well. Those of true and powerful faith get eaten by him... er, join with the light on death ;-)

Most, though, I think, are simply destroyed by the Warp, eroded away and dissipated back into the primordial soul-stuff that the warp is. Sometimes it can take a bit longer or leave some residue left over, and thus, you get things like astral specters.

It seems the Warp is like a giant ocean of soul-stuff. When a souled creature is born, it traps a small of this ocean within it self. Once the body dies, however, that bit of soul-stuff is right back in the ocean with nothing to keep it from dissipating back into the greater whole with no hint left of the shape that it had once taken. Sometimes, though, that drop can gain other things, dyes, colors, or flecks of emotional memory-mud in it. When it rejoins the greater ocean, these bits of dye or particulates hang around for a moment or two, an echo of the form they had once been. This would be the basis for astral specters and other forms of revenants which seem to based of creatures who had once been alive. I guess if enough soul-drops get the same colored bits of memory-mud in them before dieing, they can change the color of the warp, or a portion of it for a bit... or as the Eldar did that one time, change the color of the whole damned warp for the foreseeable future with the stuff they drop into it...

Edited because, Emperor's Balls, I forgot how much I hated these board's quoting system... do one thing slightly wrong, or not wrong, or something, and it all just falls apart.

As stated it is a fact that Eldar is consumed by Slaanesh if they die without their Soulstones (non-Dark Eldar at least).

what happens to a human soul is a little harder to pin as there is a couple of things to considder.

1. It is certain that if a person die while in the warp (example aboard a ship while its gellar field collapses) their soul is forfeit to be consumed by the daemons that live there.

2. Human souls (except psykers') burn far weaker in the warp than Eldar souls and as such might even be beneath the attention of the daemons that would take their souls in the warp.

3. It is stated somewhere in the Blood of Martyrs that "The Faithful" goes to the Emperor's side in death and it is one of the central things in the Imperial Creed, I cannot however find the page in the book for now.

4. It is stated (on page 100 "The Power of Faith" in Blood of Martyrs) that in 40k faith is a real physical force, that while for most it is "just" belief and well fatih for others it is a tangible force that can achieve miracles. And if it can actually create miracles either through will alone or because the Emperor's attention on these faithful individuals perform these wonders then why should it not be powerful enough to bring your soul "to a better place"?.

5. On the other hand the universe of the 41 millenium is a dark place and happy endings are few and far between.

6. there are numerous sources stating that when a person die their sould is consumed by the daemons of chaos, at the very least it is a fact that there are ways to die that guarantee that your soul is consumed by chaos, the most "common" of these are death by chaos plagues, permanent possession, daemon weapons, perhaps even simple being killed by daemons.

7. while slightly beside the point some beings (like Dark Eldar) can actively steal a persons soul, both through technological means and via "natural" dark abilities.

8. there are some "people" for which this is even more complicated. The souls of psykers burn far more strongly in the warp that that of normal humans and as such are far more likely to attract the attentions of warp predators and then there are Untouchables who does not even have a soul and as such can obviously not have it consumed or join the Emperor, what happens to them then they die?

9. some daemons clam that the soul is consumed by "their kin" when a person die, but then again the first rule of the Ordo Malleus "Above all things the Daemon is a liar".... except when it would gain more by telling the truth.

as such I do not think that is as clear cut as one might like and like in real life we just don't really know, perhaps it varies in some case one thing holds true in other the other thing etc. for some it is simply "the Faithful goes to the Emperor's side and all others by they unbelievers, xenos or what-not perishes" and for other it is simply all life is consumed by Chaos when it dies, and for others again it is either something in-between or something else entirely.

.... that was a long way of saying, we really do not know.

Luddite said:

[Crew oft he Voidtrader "Ariadne"]
The God-Emperor on Terra is the protector and the safe way. It is His Light that leads through the madness of the warp, without him we would be lost forever. Only with his guidance does the ship find out of the warp. Without His Guiding Light, our way would end in the jaws of damnation. All guidance and wisdom comes from Him on Terra.

The souls of the faithful will see His Guiding Light after and will make their way to him, but those who sinned against Him will be burned by his Light and they will be damned to flee into the darkness and to be devoured by the warp.

[Clans of the feralworld Medido II]
The mighty Emprator is the great one and only god of the sky. He is the most mighty of all warriors, forger of the most powerful of all weapons. He is deathless and wages eternal war against those who would want to take his place. His armies never rest and fight day after day in thousands of battles and never pause in killing his enemies. All those who follow him
are gifted the strongest of weapons and the strongest and most capable warriors are allowed to travel to him through the Otherworld after death to join his army. The journey through the Otherworld is perilous and a final test. Once the soul of the warrior stand before the Emprator, he will be judged. If he is found worthy, he will sit at his table as part of his army. If he does not, he will be send back into the Otherworld so the Otherbeasts will devour the soul or the soul will proof itself. So, praise your fallen with your songs so the Emprator might hear about their deeds and burn them with the finest of spears and axe so the weapons will be with them on their journey

The Immaterium is a reflection "As above, so below" comes to mind, where there are echos of the materium- emotions, thoughts and to some extent, belief are mirrored. Just as the daemon is drawn by extreme emotions and thoughts, belief will also have some effect on its nature as well.

I'm not some new age hippy by the way, this is just the bits and pieces I've gleened from a subject over the years where the writers of 40k have more or less done a half-arse job of describing the warp, which is a glaring omission really when you factor in the whole overly accentuated "Death & Belief" aspects of the setting, that no seems to actually give a f**k about writing anything succinct about what happens after you die

But make no mistake, you do end up in the warp... somewhere!

Eisenhorn trilogy, xenos. The Inquisition interrogate an archeoxenologist alligned with heretics. It is stated that unless Eisenhorn and Voke aid in his death, the mans soul would be consumed by the entities he had made a pact with. It would follow that a similar system worked for those of a devoutly imperial outlook. Although, purge the unclean does mention warp ghosts, in the adventure shades on twilight. It says something about their psychic energy, and denial of their true nature, preventing from joining the souls of the departed; although it specifically states that there is no definitve answer as to where they go, as there are too many "interpretations" of the faith to know for sure

Luddite said:

Keep in mind such knowledge is really really REALLY not known throughout the Imperium. Warp travel largely seems to be known as a quick and dangerous way to travel around, but dangerous just because strange things can happen and there's always a chance of something going wrong. Think about it in terms of ancient naval traveling - there is talk of horrors in the depths of the warp that grab the ships that never make it, but its not something emphatically believed by the entire population. People get shot if they know damned near anything about the nature of the warp and daemons, and the Imperium very much enforces a blissful ignorance by law thing. Ie: Survived a daemonic incursion? Fantastic! Maybe you'll get recruited to the Inquisition for such faith and experience, but those that don't will get blammed since they simply know too much about such matters now.

There is no universal faith or creed beyond acknowledging the God-Emperor himself, so it becomes extremely distorted. Some may believe they go with their ancestors as part of the wild hunt, some may believe they join the Emperor, some may believe whatever the hell the world really believes. However there is a general acknowledgement that you do good in the Emperor's service and you will be rewarded with a place beside him forever after. The concept of a "soul" comes up more so in the idea that consorting with unclean forces, mutants, xenos.etc.etc.etc tarnish and taint it. This is actually often true for when you muck about with Chaos you become a delicious morsel. Does this mean people know this? No, its just "you don't do that because you don't do that. And blammed."

The warp is a reflection of the emotions and faith of "real space", an artificial dimension that we are reflected in via our thoughts/feelings.etc.etc (therefore: our soul). When an Imperial citizen dies they are almost guaranteed to go there, and while they may or may not actually be eaten by daemons, keep in mind there is ***** tons* of spirits in there, anything from furies to unclean spirits to .. Anything really. Daemons are simply the more powerful ones well known because they are called and manifested directly, and serve the most powerful entities. I would venture that most of spirits just get caught up in the warp with whatever, and are either torn apart by it, formed into a minor entity of some sort, or consumed/become part of another entity.

Honestly there is no singular universal thing, its not something really dealt with often.

Anyways for other stuff:

Dark Eldar are consumed by Slaneesh. They just try really hard not to die, and since she/he is constantly nibbling away at their soul (which is kind of important) they consume and extract souls from other creatures to prolong themselves. And because its awesome, apparently.

It is questions like this that really should have categorically been answered in Blood of Martyrs, a book i was personally a little dissapointed in. They hid behind the every planet interprets their faith differently excuse but their still must be a core imperial faith that is doctrine on Terra and all imperial worlds. Life after death is the cornerstone of nearly every faith going.

Rakiel said:

Rakiel said:

Do you have a source for those statements?

Rakiel said:

Um. Except the Adeptus Ministorum of course, that is the Imperial church that governs and espouses the Imperial Creed of Emperor worship.

Sure we don't have explicitely stated details of what that creed actually is, but its still a 'universal faith'.

Rakiel said:

Again, it'd be great if you could give me a reference where that is stated.

Rakiel said:

So the 'soul' has nothing to do inherently with the Warp but is some sort of nebulous 'morsel' of energy that daemons like? So why is the Warp also known as the Sea of Souls?

Rakiel said:

Is this right? Where is there a reference i could check this with? I understand that human emotions interact with the Warp and resonate energy into the Warp that is attractive to one of the Chaos Gods, but this isn't just a 'reflection' into the Warp is it?

Rakiel said:

What do you mean by 'almost guaranteed to go there'? IS the human sentient when they go into the Warp on death? Is i like going to Hell to suffer in eternity? If so, why is the Ministorum not preaching what a citizen needs to do to avoid this fate? If not sentient then what does 'going into the Warp' mean?

Rakiel said:

Really?

So what is the Ministorum actually doing then?

The section "Religion and Superstition" in the Inquisitor's Handbook mentions that the Ecclesiarchy generally teaches that if you are faithful you will join the Emperor after death. It then hints that what an Acolyte has learned may contradict this.

Luddite said:

The first part of the question kind of reminds me of the old question when is a person a person? At what point is a baby sentient? Should the lore give us a definite answer to this as well?

While I don't have any exact books or passages to back up this up, I don't think there's any kind of "suffering for eternity" going on in the warp unless you pissed of the wrong power there. Given everything we've been told of the warp, it's reasonable to assume that most souls would be destroyed/dissolved/consumed/subsumed/what-ever by it. Anything else seems to make an individual more then the nothing cipher they are. Besides, the torturous hellish suffering day in and day out is what life in the Imperium is for ;-)

As for the second part, the Minstorum dose tell people what they can and need to do to avoid eternal damnation and what-not. Do what the Emperor says (through his chosen adepta) and die for him and all humanity and no damnation for you. They preach this day in and day out. Granted, a lot of them have differing views of the specifics, but on the whole, b e a cipher for the Imperium and you'll be fine.

If you wondering why the Minstorium doesn't preach about the Truths of the universe and how to avoid/use such Truths they don't because a) they, as a whole, don't know much of anything and b) those that do and open their mouth tend to get dead real quick.

EDIT: Barring multiple posts popping up, its being irritating and not letting me properly quote. So just cutting the quote text blocks out for the moment, annoyingly enough. If its such an irritation to read I will repost it properly later on when I am actually home.

Argh. I do loathe how FFG's quoting functions work. For generic things:

-A quote specifically saying that the population by large is ignorant of such things and they kill people for knowing of them? No. Why not? Because its central to the *entire setting*. Its part of the reason the Inquisition exists, to keep people completely ignorant of such things.

-Sure we don't have explicitely stated details of what that creed actually is, but its still a 'universal faith'.

There is a central faith only in so far that the Emperor is the only God and you are to worship him. If that alone is singularly enough to count as a universal faith than I spoke in err, personally I don't quantify it as such because its not quite that simply. There are many worlds that will point at the sun and say "that is the God-Emperor", or they may call him the God-King, or they may call him whatever. Its so infinitely varied that its pretty bloody hard for me to say "this is a centralized religion and this is what they believe." The Adeptus Ministorium keeps everyone worshiping the Emperor in some form, and not betraying extremely key tenants (which would be things like worshiping other gods, consorting with xenos, dealing with chaos). It would be more standardized (largely) if you deal with worlds that are directly ecclesiarchical (ie: shrine worlds, imperial worlds to a lesser extent, hive worlds to a lesser extent), but the further you go away from the higher civilization the more varied it is... And even the higher civilization is varied.

-...Eh? When you deal with daemons or the gods you specifically are tied to them. They become aware of YOUR soul and they get YOUR soul. That is what I am referring to. What I was getting at is your soul is a warp reflection of the person, I never said it has nothing to do with the warp that just tends to be where you start to hear reference OF a soul, and how you **** it by straying into such forbidden territories. Daemons eat souls. Warp exists outside of where there are souls/people.

-The warp is an artifical dimension created by the Old Ones. No-one knows this fluffwise, except maybe the necrons. Beings tied to the warp influence the warp, and emotions are generally the most influential of that. Emotions are reflected in the warp and this is what gives it the turbulence, as well as what creates warp entities often. This can be very very very bad, ie: eldar have a strong warp presence and are very emotional - emotional excess gave birth to Slaneesh. The whole reflection thing is fairly central to the setting.

-Its conjecture because there is no where else really for them to go. There is literally no confirmation or sign that the Emperor has a special place reserved for anyone, nor any reason to believe such. Maybe he eats the souls or they join to him, but either way *souls go to the warp*. Why? Because.. Where the hell else would they go, really? And no, the human sentiment is not "they go to the warp on death" because thats similar to saying "you go to the sea on death". Its a means of transportation, but the general population doesn't understand what it really is. There is no sign that you *can* avoid your "soul matter" going into the warp. The way its portrayed may be exceptionally varied on the world, it could well be a world where "you be good and you go to the Emperor, you be bad and you go to daemons", except naturally it would be more figurative than literal daemons, because that knowledge is proscribed. I would venture its more "do your duty and be a good citizen and you go to the Emperor's side, fail to do so and simply die/some random torment".

-Making sure that everyone, in whatever way, is giving praise to the Emperor and following the basic core tenants (do not deal with xenos/unclean beings, do not worship another, give your psykers to the black ships.etc.etc). One of the reasons the faith is never explicitly detailed is because its so varied. You are told specific things everyone must do (see above), and things they look for and stamp out (DoDTG, the various cults for example).

Graver said:

Actually this reminds me of really old retconned fluff. Originally the idea was the Emperor was born from the shamans of Earth - they kept reincarnating eternally throughout history, overall helping man. The warp was calm and easy at this point, and their soul went into it, than came back out. However as man advanced and the population increased, their turbulent emotions and atrocities began to reflect in the warp it became more turbulent and daemons began to form. The Shamans began to face an eternal death, for as they died and their soul went to the warp, it was consumed/lost. So they banded together and all committed mutual suicide, all their soul/soul mass coming together at once and forming the Big E.

That line of fluff and the sensei have been completely ignored for, what, like 2 editions now? So its no longer pertinent, but there's no reason to really think that suffering for eternity is automatic. Likely they would become food/disperse in the warp/whatever, as you said. Total agreement on that. It becomes modified I'd guess by the soul-presence of a person - eldar are at great risk because they have such a strong warp presence and are somewhat tied to slaneesh, and psykers would likely be immediately set upon when their soul entered the warp due to the strength of it. Tau? Not so much, average human similarly (though naturally they have stronger warp presence).

@Luddite

Firstly, the Imperial Creed is pretty fractured. About as fractured as the Abrahamic religions on our world - they all revere a single deity and have a few other points in common, but they wildly diverge in specifics. It's partially because the Ministorum likes subsuming heathen planets by pointing out that, hey! those heathens had it right all along, except that their head honcho deity happens to actually sit on a Golden Throne on a far-away place called Terra! Compare a Redemptionist with a politicking Malfian house cleric and those two with a shaman on a feral world and see what common ground they find.

Secondly, the "place at the Emperor's side" seems to be at least a common fixture. It's mentioned in several novels (among them the companion novels to the game series) as well as the Blood of Martyrs as noted above.

Rakiel said:

Incorrect, since GW have stated that unless specifically stated, all published stuff, no matter the edition, is canon. Plus, in the Inquisitor game, there were mentions of the Sensei and the "Star Child", which suggests that part of the lore still applies.

MILLANDSON said:

It has mentions of it? Hm. Interesting, I wasn't aware of that; I never did play it nor look into it so I'm largely unaware of what they've put through that.. But I am quite sure that they've largely paved over the sensei and star child stuff. Dunno. Will do some digging around; I know Inquisitor is roughly 10+ years old (its 2000 or so isn't it?) so it may just be published at a time that was pertinent.

I shall do digging though.

Rakiel said:

Heck, BoM tips it's hat at that particular tidbit of old lore on pg 18 when discussing the divergant theories and belifes of the birth of the Emperor:

"Almost every world has its ledgends regaurding the birth of the Emperor and his early life. Amongst the oldest of sources claim the Emperor was some manner of shaman born on ancient Terra long before the rise of civilization, who watched and guided mankind's development through countless aeons..."

That bolded part's got to have some kind of double meaning ;-)

As the stories of the Emperor's heritage goes, I think it might not have been rock solid even when mentioned. A lot in 40k is presented through the lens of subjective interpretation by characters and societies within the Imperium and I think that might have been one of them. I seem to recall the old chaos books being written by a scholar who had visions of all that (though it's been over 15 years since I've seen them, so who knows what I'm remembering). I want to think it was, but I might be mistaken. It's that way with a lot of things, though. We're given what people in the setting might know or think now and again without knowing the underlying ultimate truth of the matter because that truth isn't really as important as what the people acting on it do. The Minstoriums varied viewpoints on Life After Death would definitely fall under that category. We definitely don't need to know any objective and unchanging truth about what happens after death because it would change nothing and perhaps weaken the setting a notch... especially if we learned that it was all just a dream and when you died you woke back up and got to have ice cream with your family who were worried after you hit your head, yay! That would definitely be a little weak.

I don't fault BoM for not having a definitive answer as to what happens according to the Minstorium as that would have been a touch weak as well. The minstorium has, for as long as I've really fallowed the setting, been portrayed as a loosely tied together collection of religious nut-jobs who's hobbies seem to be purging one another for heresy. It just wouldn't make much sense for them all to have one idea and no other (as pointed out above in several posts). Hell, just look at the a-fore-mentioned Abrahamic religions. They're incredibly varried on what (if anything) happens to you after death and what it takes to get the good stuff. That's just covering the Western civilization here, on one planet, with less then 10,000 years for those religions to have evolved. Scatter what we have to a million other planets, let it simmer for another 5,000 years with a bit just a bit of of guidance here and there and some fire to keep it from getting too far out of control, and see how much cohesion you can make from the mess that's left... and that';s not even introducing new converts from other completely different religions and cultures into the mix. Keeping the various faiths under the Creed to the few absolutes that the Minstorium dose is probably the best they can manage.Anything more woulod streatch belivability (even in this setting) a bit thin and, worse yet, reduce friction and causes to burn someone.

To take it even further keep in mind that the Age of Exploration occured around. What, M15 in 40k timeline? This is when humanity branched off and went out and conquered the majority of the universe - we have no idea what kind of religions existed at that time as even than its M13 years from now (if we use this time line as extending into 40k). Humanities cohesiveness fell apart, than the Emperor began the Crusade to tie humanity back together and destroy religion of man.. Only to fall and become the object of a new faith that venerated him, which spread among the places he conquered. The Imperium is still settling, resettling and finding "new" worlds, so you can very easily have a religion that dates back M25 years - never minding the M13 years since our own time.

And yeah you are right to it being written from the point of a scholar having dreams - assuming you mean Liber Chaotica. That's how I recall it being written - usually books will explicitly state or use reference to who's writing it, while I recall the older fluff mentioning that was just directly stated in a "this is not whats actually known by the major players in the game, but it is part of a belief." I could be wrong though, its late and its been a bloody long time since I read that fluff bits.

I can't quote a source since I don't remember where I read it, but I am fairly sure that some book somewhere gives the Eldar point of view on the human soul (or it might have been a comparison between Eldar an humans... anyways). In that text it said that unlike the Eldar, who leave a concious warp presence when they die (a soul), most humans simply lack the willpower and potential for such. Normal human souls are to weak to have sentience and just fade away. Now the souls of psychers, or those of Inquisitors or other people with significantly stronger will than an ordinary hiveworker, they might "survive" death.

And if they do, they had better hope that the Emperor finds them first.

Considering that the Eldar gods seem to have somehow taken up Eldar souls and protected them (you know, before the gods got themselves eaten during the fall), it is not unreasonable to think that the combined human Faith and the effect it has on the warp might be strong enough that the Emperor indead does protect. At least those worthy.

According to our good old core rulebook there is certainly a desire to be with the Emperor after death, hence your reward for serving (and eventually dying) in service of His Holy Inquisition - they grind up your bones to make ink, use the ink to write your name and deeds in a book, ship the book to Terra and put it in a vault near the Golden Throne. This symbolism certainly suggets that you get to hang out with teh Emprah for all eternity.

P.S. I think I'm a bit too fond of WH40k, because the thought of my bone-ink being near the Emperor forever actually makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I don't think there's a firm answer, simply because the writers go out of their way to avoid providing firm answers. Except for the Eldar, since the answer in their case is such a big part of their lore.

Just to make things more confusing: the C'Tan consume some sort of life energy, but cannot sense or interact with the warp.

Hodgepodge said:

A while back, someone addressed that odd bit for me explaining that the C'Tan devoured the actual energy that is a living organism, not the spiritual energy of Life (with the capital "L") that tends to make one think of souls and immortality and other such things. They, however, developed a particular fondness for the complexities of various energy patterns that are generated by sentient tho0ught and emotion... or something like that.

Or perhaps the Egyptians had it right and we have 9 or so different souls. The Warp eats one of them, the C'Tan get another, but we get to keep the other seven, yay!